Happy Anniversary!

I can't believe its been 4 years already since that wonderful day in East Lansing!! Well we sure have done quite a bit over the last couple years from honeymooning in Hawaii, living in Puerto Rico, getting our puppy, finishing our MBAs, moving to Minnesota, and having two beautiful baby girls!

Wedding Day

Maui

Christmas Day in Puerto Rico

Surviving Bela's love of shredding paper as a puppy

Road Trip

It was such a beautiful weekend here so we decided to take a road trip on Sunday. We drove to Stillwater, MN – no particular reason for going there other than it was within a 2 hour radius of the house. It’s a little town on the St. Croix river, which makes up the Minnesota and Wisconsin border. We laid out a blanket in the shade along the river so we could feed the girls and watch the boats. It was a great way to spend the afternoon.

The girls are doing great. Last week they had a doctor appointment and were both over 10 lbs! They also had their first round of vaccinations and actually did very well – hardly any tears! Natalie’s hematocrit (iron levels) also checked out okay at this appointment . So I have two healthy little girls! I will say Kate was a little stinker this past weekend though… Lets just say I hit the trifecta of surprises (I was pee’d on, pooped on, and puked on).

Other than that, I’m just trying to get Bela (our golden retriever) back into shape. I took her to the vet a couple weeks ago and was embarrassed to find out that she was up to 95lbs!!! She gained 10 lbs just since April….an obvious sign of her neglect during my bedrest and the arrival of the twins. So I decided to take her running with me the other day and it was the most pathetic thing I have ever seen. After about 1 mile she was walking BEHIND me as I ran… I practically had to drag her the rest of the way home. I can’t believe how out of shape we’ve let her get!! It will be good for her once the girls are big enough to chase her around the house.

Here’s some updated photos of the girls. The first set of pics start with Natalie and Kate is the one with the ‘strawberry’ on her chest in the bath photos.

All Smiles

Kate

Natalie

Well quite a bit has happened since I last wrote! As you can see from the pictures – the girls are all smiles! About two weeks ago I got my first real smile from Kate while reading “Because a little bug went Ka-choo.” I had her on my lap and as soon as I said “ka-choo” her whole face lit up – too cute!! About two days later Natalie smiled for me while I was smothering her cheeks with kisses. Natalie even laughed for her daddy later that night!! What a great week that was! Another big milestone we hit last week was that Kate slept 7 hours in one night!! I was amazed and was afraid it was just a fluke – but the past two nights both girls have slept over 6 hours straight!!! Whew!! Its nice to see the 1am and 4am feedings going away!! The girls have also started to suck on their fists – which is a nice supplement to the pacifier!

The hubby and I have also had a few parenting milestones….. I went on my first trip to the grocery store alone with the girls. I knew I was taking a big risk – but needed to get out of the house. So I threw Nat in the Baby Bjorn and kept Kate in the car seat and set her in the cart and piled stuff up around her! Both girls slept the whole time. And last Saturday we were either very crazy or very brave - we invited a group of our friends over to grill out and didn’t realize until about 15 minutes before everybody showed up (while both girls were having a meltdown) that it might have been a bad idea. It ended up being a great day – but we realized that having two small babies added a new level of difficulty to having people over. Again the Baby Bjorn was put to good use – I was able to make spinach artichoke dip, drink a beer, and hold a baby at the same time!

While we had lots of great things happen theses past couple weeks, we were sad to see our good friends Chris & Suzanne leave for Austin, Texas last week. But we do look forward to having a warm place to getaway from the Minnesota winters though.

I've included a few recent pics below – I hope to post some video soon. I need the hubby to work his magic and get the files from the camcorder to the computer.

Catching up

I must say, I am not very good at keeping this updated! SORRY! Well the girls will be 7 weeks old tomorrow! Almost 2 MONTHS!!! I can’t believe it! I’ll update this soon with some new pics of the girls and hopefully some video in the next day or so but for now, here are a few little entries on what’s been happening around here…



Mom & Kate Snoozing
I sleep when they sleep!!!




Looking out the window
There is a window in our living room that the girls are fascinated by – I’m not sure what it is that catches their eye, but they love to look at it as you can see by the pic of Nat below.

Our first baby
Well I must say, I think the addition of our new little ones to the house has put our dog into a state of depression….. I think the picture below says it all. She has been great with the babies, but I can tell she misses being an only child.

Grandpa A’s visit
Grandpa A was here a couple weeks ago and did a fabulous job with the girls! I think he had one in his arms at all times……and sometimes he even had two!!!

Thunderstorm
This summer we’ve had some pretty bad storms come through our area and since our lot is jam packed full of trees, I get pretty nervous every time one goes through. Just last week I noticed that the weather was getting bad, so I took the girls downstairs just to be safe. After I finished a movie and the sun came back out, I went back upstairs to get something to drink and as I walked by our front window I saw that half of our tree was gone and was blocking the road!!! I was so glad I took the girls downstairs!! Although this sounds terrible to say, it would have been kinda nice if it would have fallen the other way and landed on the garage while we were in the basement. That would have given us justification to buy the Toyota Sequoia that we desperately need and would have expedited our plans to add a new master suite above the garage. Maybe the next storm that rolls through....

Well thats all for today, I'll try to get some updated pics posted over the weekend.

Folding Laundry

So it’s funny how something I absolutely hate doing could be so insightful. The mindless task of folding three baskets of laundry this morning gave me time to reflect on how absolutely perfect my life is. I’m married to my best friend and the love of my life. We have a comfortable home in a new city that we love. We’ve been doubly blessed with our beautiful twin daughters. Our families are healthy and happy and we’re surrounded with new and old friends that are always there for us no matter how many miles might separate us. I couldn’t ask for anything more. (Who would of thought I could get all of that while folding towels?)

Well the hubby is really enjoying his father’s day gift and is getting into his new photography hobby. I love that he is so into it, because I am so not a picture taker. If it were left to me, we’d probably only end up with a handful of out-of-focus pictures of the girls over the course of their lives. I’ve attached a few bath time pictures that he took during this past weekend.







So what’s new with us this week……..

The girls had a doctor apt yesterday and are weighing in at 7lbs 6 ozs and 7lbs 4 ozs. They are averaging a gain of 1.6oz per day (far above the recommended gain of 0.75oz per day)!!!

This morning “N” woke up just as daddy was leaving for work, and as he kissed her goodbye she flashed a quick smile at him. I know she probably doesn’t realize she’s smiling – but I like to think that she does. (I attached a picture below of a previous smile- sorry about the rotation)

Grandpa “A” will be here today to meet his new granddaughters - they can't wait to meet him!

Well that's all for this post - "K" is yelling at me because she's hungry. (And when "K" yells - I jump because she's got the most ear piercing cry I have ever heard!)

First weeks at home

This update is long overdue, however I no longer have any control over my daily schedule…. The girls run the show now – but as they snooze I figured I’d get some new pictures posted from our first couple weeks at home.

"K"

"N"

The girls are doing great and look more and more alike everyday! They each gained nearly a pound during their first week at home! It is hard to believe that the reason the girls spent so much time in the hospital was because we couldn’t get them to eat, but now it seems like they can’t get enough. And when they are hungry they will latch on to just about anything, whether it be a finger, the sleeve of a shirt, or even a nose!!! (I just love this picture!)

Grandma and Aunt Elizabeth were here last week which was a great help!!! It was really nice to spend time with them since it seems like we never have enough time to catch up during our trips home to Michigan. (I miss you guys already !)

So this week has actually been my first week alone with the girls….which hasn’t been as overwhelming as I thought it might be. Don’t get me wrong – two screaming babies at one time happens quite often but can usually be solved with getting them a little something to eat. I thought I was pretty good at multi-tasking before having twins, now I’m becoming a master at it!! The ability to feed or comfort two babies at once has become a necessity. When the girls aren’t eating they love taking walks in the stroller and LOVE bath time!!!

Daddy got a new DSLR camera for Father’s Day – so I’ll be sure to include some pics from his new toy on my next post!

Nine days old

Hello! Well I know many of you have been anxiously waiting for an update on the girls. Kate and Natalie are nine days old today and are doing great. I was discharged from the hospital Monday, but the girls are still in the special care nursery. They are doing very good; the doctors are just waiting for them to start eating more consistently before they will send them home. We’re hoping that will happen in the next couple days. Fortunately the hospital has parent overnight rooms, so we’ve been able to stay overnight with the girls over the past week. It’s also been a good way to ease into the many sleepless nights to come, since at home we won’t have the option of skipping a 2am feeding to just let the nurses do it.

Although the girls are identical, they have already begun to show their individual personalities and funny little quirks…… Natalie likes to sleep looking to the right, while Kate likes to sleep looking to the left. Natalie LOVES to go to the bathroom right in the middle of a diaper change…..she’s caught me, daddy, and even the nurses off guard multiple times. Kate loves to stick out her tongue and sleep with her mouth wide open. (I think she gets that from her daddy)

I have to keep this short as I need to get to their 5pm feeding, but here’s a few more pics….

Daddy & Natalie

Daddy & Kate

Natalie

Kate