18 Month Pictures

WARNING:  Major Picture Overload!!!

I had the twins' 18 month pictures made a couple of weeks ago.  The weather was perfect the day that we went, and I loved that we were able to get some pictures of them in the fall weather.  The fall here in Arkansas has been gorgeous and these pictures truly don't do it justice.  Brady wasn't in the best of moods the day that we took them, but we managed to get some decent ones of him.  These are my favorites out of all the ones that she took.

Hannah:  I tell you on a daily basis that you are a Hot Mess!!!  You are so full of life, and my little chatterbox.  It takes you a little bit to warm up to people, but once you do, you are the life of the party.  You love to dance and make people laugh.  Your baby is attached to you these days.  We don't go anywhere without her it seems.  You have the most fun little laugh, and we love hearing it.  You have definitely become a daddy's girl.  You and I are great friends until daddy walks in the door, and then it's all over.  You did great @ your check up and only cried for a few seconds when you got your shots.  You will eat just about anything we put is front of you these days, but your favorites right now are apple sauce, animal crackers, and yogurt. 

Brady:  You are my little lover boy, and I am eating it up as long as it will last.  You love your momma, and if I'm around, everyone else can just forget it.  You are not as loud as your sister, but you are just as much fun.  You are always on a mission, and you are such a curious little guy.  You have really gotten into cheering during football games.  Whether we are at a game, or watching one at home, you love to cheer and clap your hands.  You are such a ticklish little guy, and you LOVE to play "This Little Piggy".  Your 18 mo check up went good as well.  You aren't talking as much as they would like, but I think it's just b/c your sister doesn't stop talking long enough for you to have a chance to talk.  We have come to the conclusion in the last month that you are allergic to milk.  Hopefully you are on the road to recovery from that adventure.  You are a great eater as well, and right now you are really into peanut butter sandwiches, fruit snacks, and apples. 

I can't believe these two have gotten so big so fast.  They were just my tiny little peanuts yesterday it seems like. 

Divine Intervention

*Disclaimer...this post is NOT in any way a reflection of anything I have done, but merely an example of how God places people in our hearts and minds when they need our prayers the most.

The news of Julee's husband's death quickly brought to mind my sweet friend A.  A actually baby-sat me when I was a kid, and then I kept her kids and her sister's kids.  They were all in my wedding, and are still special kids to me.  My senior year in high school, A's husband was tragically killed in a roping accident on Halloween, just 10 days after their sweet baby G was born.  This time of year, my heart is always heavy for her.  That being said, anytime the Lord brings her to my mind, I try to be faithful to pray for her.  I text her today to tell both of her kids Happy Birthday (their birthdays were yesterday and today) and to let her know I had been thinking of them and praying for them the last two weeks and when she text me back she told me that her new husband's father passed away last Sunday from a heart attack.  I am so sad for their family b/c her kids loved their granddad and A was very close to his dad.  At the same time, I am thankful that God has burdened my heart for them these last two weeks and that I have been unknowingly praying for a grieving family. 

Since the twins were born, I have struggled with my walk with the Lord.  I struggle to find time for a quiet time, let alone time to truly dive deep into His word.  The sermon this morning and now this incident have both been great reminders/comforts to me, to know that even though my walk isn't where I want it to be/know it should be, God still blesses the lives of those who are faithful to him. 

15 Months

Nobody die of shock, but I am actually going to update the blog today!!!  We had the kids 15 mo. well check this morning.  It was bittersweet.  It was with a new pediatrician here in Conway.  I like him, but I MISS our pediatrician from Texas.  She was fabulous and set the bar very high. 

The kids checked out just fine.  No issues for either one of them.  Brady didn't even cry when he got his shot...Hannah more than made up for his lack of tears.  (can we say drama queen!!)  The pediatrician just kept commenting on how calm they were when he was messing with them.  (mind you, they were in my lap the entire time he assessed them...)

Hannah-25 lb 3oz  31.5in tall
You wear as size 5 shoe and you are wearing 12-18 mo clothing. 
You say momma, daddy, bye bye, woof
You sign please, more, done, and are learning help
You know how to growl like a bear and you make a fish face on command these days.
You blow kisses and love to give hugs.
You started biting this month and have gotten your brother good several times.
You are definitely momma's social butterfly.  We went up to daddy's office today and you were talking to all the coaches and giving out high fives to the players and coaches left and right!!
We don't leave the house without Ella.
You LOVE water.  (both to drink and to play in)

Brady-24 lb 8oz  32.5in tall
You wear a size 5 1/2 or 6 shoe and you are wearing 12-18 mo clothing.
You say momma, daddy, and papa
You babble ALL the time. 
You love to play pat-a-cake and you know what to do with your arms when anybody says touchdown!
You sign please, more, done and are learning help
You are still my little snuggle bug. 
You are more reserved around other people, but once you get comfortable some where, you just make yourself to home!!
You have learned that your sister doesn't like to be locked in the closet, so you lock her in the closet at least once a day!
You still have your paci. 
You love to play in the water and you drink it okay, but you would much rather have milk to drink (or daddy's snowcone!!)

They are both so big and doing so much new stuff all the time these days.  I worry b/c they don't talk a lot and we don't know body parts yet, but then I have to remind myself that they are only 15 months old, and they catch on to stuff fast, so there's no reason to be in a tizzy about it just yet.  Our new nanny is great.  The kids love her and she is always doing all kinds of fun stuff with them.  They love the nursery @ our new church, and even did great the other night when I left them so that I could go to choir practice.  That's about all that's going on with us these days.  We've met our next door neighbors and they have a 9 month old and spent the evening out in their driveway playing tonight.  It was so nice to actually be able to enjoy being outside in the evening. 

MOMS: Bringing Them Home

Well, I'm a day late, but it's a little chaotic @ our house right now.  We are in the process of moving to Arkansas and I have been single mommying it up for awhile now. 

We were one of the fortunate couples who totally avoided NICU, so we got to bring our babies home with us when we left.  I had a c-section and so my OB kept me an extra day b/c my blood pressure decided to sky rocket AFTER the babies got here :).  I was huge swollen and my b/p when they discharged me was 160/93.  I was definitely nervous to be going home, but I had a b/p cuff @ home to check it and so they sent me on my merry way.  The twins were born on Monday and we went home Thursday morning.  It really was pretty uneventful coming home.  Billy's mom and stepdad were here and that was stressful for me, but they left on Friday and it was just my mom and I and the babies for the weekend.  We were able to get them well established on their schedules and that was our saving grace!!  It was a little rough @ first b/c it took awhile for my milk to come in, but once it did it was pretty smooth sailing.  I was tired those first couple of weeks, but I was also busy soaking up my babies b/c I knew that I was going to go back to work in 6 weeks.  Here's a few pictures of our last day in the hospital and the trip home.

HELP!!!

Okay fellow moms, I need some help.  I need suggestions on teething.  Hannah is in the process (for the last month or so) of cutting her molars.  About every 3rd or 4th night, she wakes up about 10:30 or 11:00 (hence the reason for a post @ 11:40 tonight...she's in my lap watching Doc McStuffins...) and she cries and cries and cries.  I've tried just letting her cry it out, but she sometimes cries for 2 hours, and when it goes on that long, she eventually wakes Brady up.  About the only solution I've found is to give her Tylenol with Codeine.  I HATE giving my kids medicine.  It is my absolute LAST resort.  I'm the mom that doesn't even give them Tylenol until their temp is greater than 101.5.  So I'm needing some suggestions as to what else to try to keep her from waking up...or to get her back to sleep faster.  I haven't tried teething tablets, but Oragel doesn't touch her normally.  Any favorite teething tablets, or home remedies???  I want my sleeps 12-13 hours straight every night little girl back!!!

For MOMs by MOMs: Baby Gear

There were a lot of things that we wondered if we needed when we found out we were pregnant, and then we found out we were having twins, our list of needs shrunk very quickly simply b/c of lack of space to put stuff!!!

Things that we used all the time...bouncy seats, swing, jumperoo, exersaucer, and our space saver high chairs.  The only thing that we are still using @ this point is the high chairs and our exersaucer b/c it converted to a toddler toy.  I would say that those were definitely our can't live without things. 

The logistics of transportation were huge for me b/c most of the time I am getting the kids out by myself if we get out.  The hubby has a very demanding job and so I knew early on I had to find things that enabled me to get out of the house on my own.  As far as strollers, we lucked into a double snap n go from another twin mom and it worked great when they were tiny and enjoyed their car seats, however, that stage didn't last long and I needed something that I could take to football games, ie, something that I could push up a hill and not die!!!  We ended up trading in the snap n go @ Babies R Us trade in days and got a Combi side by side umbrella stroller which I love for shopping and dr. appointments.  And I searched high and low on Craigslist until I was finally able to get my hands on a BOB jogging stroller.  It is by far my favorite stroller of all that we have had, however, it's not practical for very many inside spaces so that was why we got the Combi also. 

As far as car seats, we had the Chicco Key Fit for infant carriers and I loved them.  They were easy to get in and out of the car and the kids really didn't seem to mind them all that much.  When we started shopping for convertible car seats, there was a lot for us to consider...the biggest thing being that we wanted something that we could fit in the back seat of our Jeep so that we wouldn't necessarily be limited to one vehicle for transportation.  We ended up getting the Diono Radian RXT convertible car seats.  They are on the pricey side, but they convert all the way up to a booster seat, so ideally, we won't have to buy the twins another car seat.  The one other negative about them is that they are HEAVY!!  They are made of a metal frame and so they weight about 30 lbs before adding a kid in.  For this reason, we got the Cosco convertible car seats to put in my mom's car b/c I didn't want her having to drag my heavy ones in and out of her car and end up hurting herself.  We love the Diono b/c they are narrow and they fit great in our suburban with plenty of room to put an infant car seat in the same row with them, however, I will say, if you don't have a car with a big backseat, this might not be the car seat for you.  Because they convert up to a booster seat, these car seats are TALL and so when they were rear facing, Hannah's seat was right behind the passenger seat and the passenger seat had to be pushed forward almost as far as it would go.  This made for not fun road trips when we were all 4 in the car, but since it's mostly just me and the kids it really wasn't that big of a deal.

And since the only reason anyone ever really reads blogs is to see the pictures of kids, here's a couple of pictures of my cuties enjoying all their fun gear!!

 We love this little piano b/c the seat comes out and they can then walk all over it and still play with it, and the songs it plays don't get on our nerves!!

For MOMs by MOMs: Pregnancy

I talked some about my pregnancy last week, so I won't bore you with the same details again.  I will say, that while I loved being pregnant and I loved feeling the babies move and watching my belly move, it was a lot more painful than I expected.  Hannah was high and in my ribs the whole time, and by 18 weeks or so, she had dislocated a rib.  Needless to say, I didn't do a lot of sitting from that point on.  The guys would laugh @ me in Sunday School b/c I would be sitting in the chair as straight as possible, pushing Hannah down out of my ribs the whole time!  I also struggled the whole time I was pregnant with the fear of pre-term labor.  b/c of my job, I have way more than the average exposure to premature infants, and I lived in fear of having preemies every day.  It got really hard the further along I got and when I could go over and look at babies that were the same size as my twins.  I'll never forget going over and seeing a 25 weeker when I was right @ 25 weeks.  It was crazy...in the same way that it created extra fear, it was also really cool to have a visual to see of just where my babies were at.  I went on "bed rest" @ 32 weeks.  Basically, I could do what ever I felt like, but I wasn't allowed to work anymore and I got to the point where I didn't feel like doing a whole lot.  Towards the end, my blood pressure started to get up there and I swelled up HUGE!!!  I went to get a pedicure the week before I had the twins and the little guy doing it was traumatized when he looked down and realized that he had left his finger prints in my foot while rubbing it!!  Definitely one of those funny pregnant moments I won't forget!

I made it to 39 weeks.  My goal from the day I found out I was pregnant was to make it to term, and make it I did.  I tried to convince my Dr. to do my c-section (both babies were breech) earlier, but he wouldn't budge.  Since the babies and I were stable, he said we had to wait...Those last two weeks, I tried SEVERAL times to put myself into labor just so I could be done :) My doctor was great though, and he promised me somewhere around the time I was about 35 weeks that if I made it that far, he would section me as soon as I got to 39 weeks, and he held true to his word.  Part of what made it so hard for me those last 2 weeks was that my best friend was also pregnant and she had her little boy 2 weeks to the day before the twins were born and so since Rylan was here, I felt like he play mates needed to be here to play with him!!!

Like I said before, I enjoyed being pregnant...even if I was stressed out the whole time...and I can't wait to have another one!!  I'll leave you with my last belly picture I took.  This was 5 days before I had the twins and I was DONE being pregnant at this point!!

My Job

I love my job!!  I truly do.  I am not necessarily a fan of working nights b/c of the challenges that presents as far as my family and social life, but I love my job.   A co-worker just text me a video of a patient that we took care of for several weeks walking in rehab.  I'm currently bawling like a baby.  This kid should not have survived, but God obviously has an amazing plan for this boy's life.  Every chip fell exactly as it should the day this kid got hurt and by the grace of God, he is alive and in rehab.  It's so rewarding to see him doing well and to know that I had just a tiny part in helping him get to that point. 

For MOMs by MOMs: My Story

My name is Jennifer and I have b/g twins who just turned 1.  They are precious and the absolute joy of my lives.  My husband coaches football and I am a nurse.  We live in the Texas panhandle and absolutely love it here!! (minus the wind of course)  I am involved in my MOMs group here and it is such a blessing.  I am so excited about what these girls have set up for us online...other MOMs are by and far some of the best resources around.

I sometimes feel weird sharing my story with other twin moms b/c I wasn't taking meds, we hadn't been trying forever, or anything like that.  It's those times that I feel almost guilty, but I have to remind myself that God blessed us with twins and it was his choice for us to be parents to twins.  I have ALWAYS thought it would be cool to have multiples.  When Billy and I got married, we agreed that we were going to wait a little while and get some debt paid off before we started trying for kids.  The summer of 2010 we decided that we were ready to start trying.  I was SUPER anxious about even trying to get pregnant just b/c I had read so many stories of people that it took years to have a baby, and I wanted so badly to be pregnant.  To top it off, we were working on a time crunch...Once we decided we were ready, we sat down and looked at a calendar and decided that we would start trying in August b/c that would give us a May baby.  You're probably thinking we were a little obsessed with timing, but in our defense, you have to be when you are involved in the world of college football.  My husband's busy season is from August 1 to April 30 and I wanted him around as much as possible when our kids were teeny tiny, so a due date in May, June or July was going to be our best choice.  I was nervous waiting until August to start trying b/c what if it didn't happen in that 3 month time window, then what were we going to do.  Little did I know...God had it all figured out.  We tried in August, and August 28th I had a positive pregnancy test.  I was super excited and called the next day to set up my first appointment with my OB...only to be VERY disappointed to find out it wouldn't be until OCTOBER!!!!  Are you kidding me...who makes a pregnant lady wait that long to confirm that a baby is okay...especially a nurse who works in NICU from time to time.  (I primarily work in the Pediatric ICU, but we occasionally float over to the NICU to help out.)  I had a fabulous pregnancy and really felt pretty great, however, I had to buy maternity pants @ 8 weeks and I lost 23 pounds the first trimester...now mind you, I was overweight to begin with and needed to lose weight, and in June of that same year, I had gone to a completely vegan diet and had been losing weight b/c of that.  I did call my doctor once and ask about the weight loss and the nurse told me that as long as I wasn't puking (which I never did...) not to worry about it.  We went in for my first OB appointment and when he put down the ultrasound wand, I immediately saw two little heart beats.  My most vivid memory from that day is sitting in our truck afterwards and just laughing.  I never cried about it, but boy did my husband and I spend lots of hours laughing about the fact that we were having twins.  I loved watching every one's faces when I told them we were having twins.  The looks of shock were the best! 

I had a great pregnancy and made it to 39 weeks when I had a planned c-section.  My doctor is almost certain I would have made it to 40 weeks, but he told me since I had been such a good patient that he would let me have them @ 39 weeks...for that I was very thankful. 

I have loved most every minute of being a mom of twins.  There are times where I could pull my hair out, but then there are times that they are being so cute that make me forget about the crazy times.  I can't believe that my babies are a year old, but I so look forward to what the next year brings. 

Denial

My kids turned one yesterday and I'm totally in denial!!  I can't believe it.  Can't even blog about their first year or their birthday b/c it makes me so sad @ how fast it all went!!!

The Pushing Game

A friend I met on twitter posted a video the other day of her twins and in it, her little girl was pushing her little boy up the driveway.  I immediately died laughing b/c that is EXACTLY what happens at our house.  If Hannah can push it she will, and it doesn't matter whether her Bubba is on/in it or not.  Here's a video of them at my mom's house.  This is where it first started and has since become a constant favorite of theirs no matter where we are.

Baby Dedication

 
This past Sunday was Baby Dedication @ our church.  Last year it was Mother's Day weekend and the twins weren't even a week old yet, so needless to say, we didn't participate last year.  The kids did okay, but in hind sight, we should have done it during the 8:30 service where there weren't near as many babies.  I think there were 12 babies in all and by the time each family was announced and all of the life verses read, it took awhile, and our two were more than over having to be still for that long.  The kids life verses that we chose were Philippians 4:6-7 for Hannah and Isaiah 40:30-31 for Brady.  I pray that they will hide those words in their hearts as they grow up and hold fast to the promises they hold. 

 Our friends, the Bell family (the twins' friend Rylan)

\

Note the looks of pure exhaustion on their faces...they hadn't had a nap ALL morning...

 

 

Note the sweat pouring down the side of Billy's head...normally we FREEZE to death in big church, but Sunday it was SOOOOOO hot in the sanctuary.  Not sure if it's b/c we were wrestling our two rugrats, or if it truly was just that hot.  It took the whole service to cool down, so I think it was really just that hot in there. 

Sunshine Loving Babies!!!

My kids love to be outside....without a doubt, that is their favorite place to be playing.  They are not afraid to get dirty one bit.  Most nights we bring them in to put them in the bathtub, and they are almost black they are so dirty.  I'm so glad it's been so nice lately and that we have been able to spend so much time outside.  Here's a few pictures I've taken the last couple of weeks.

 

 These first two pictures are from their first ever time to swing @ the park and as you can tell, they both LOVED it from the get go.  

 We are going to be spending LOTS of hours in this little pool I can already tell!!

Pure joy on her face!! I love it :)

 Sporting mama's shades after a dip in the pool

The twins friend Rylan...

 

Hannah and Lauren are big buds!!  It really bothered Lauren that Hannah's arm was through the hole on the swing like that, but when she tried to move it, H came unglued!!  Silly girl :)

 

 They all 3 love the tunnel on the play set!  We had lots of fun talking to them through the holes on the tunnel this day.  They thought it was just hilarious and as you can see, made some of the funniest little faces at us.  Amy and I were cracking up.  

I took these last two today b/c as I was e-mailing the girl all of the information to make their birthday invite, I realized the pictures that I had planned on using were actually a read only file, and so I had to go to plan B.  I actually like these pictures better b/c these smiles are a true depiction of their little personalities these days.  Hannah is constantly giving us the scrunchy nose smile, and Brady is constantly growling @ us.  

Amy and I were laughing yesterday reminiscing about how miserable we were this time last year.  Rylan's birthday is the 18th and then the twins are 2 weeks to the day younger than him.  We were both done being pregnant and ready to hold our sweet babies and here we are a year later with babies who are babies no more!  We are having a blast with them though, and they have become great little play mates.  If you ever need your furniture rearranged, just let us know and we'll send the 3 of them over.  They LOVE to rearrange furniture and have even been known to team up to move the heavier pieces!!! :)