It's been too long

On her 2nd birthday~what a big girl!

being silly in the little girl's chair

Dad taking a swim too

new toy for her birthday

Leanna on Left, Kelly on Right

exploring a new toy, just Jojo's help

watching the rain fall

Leanna

Kelly

I feel bad for not posting more often. I just don't have the time...I know you understand. Life is pretty crazy around here, and we are lucky if at one time during the day, all three girls are sleeping. God has blessed us with these wonderful kiddos, and they aer growing intellectually, physically, and emotionally everyday.

 

 

Josie is an incredible two year old (going on 20). At the doctor's they ranked her as doing some 4 year old things. She knows 7 shapes, regularly sings her ABC's, memorized countless songs and books, counts to 20, jumps everywhere, stacks blocks 12 high, colors wonderfully (really, she holds her pencil perfectly and can color inside the lines), she draws faces, and she is sooooo helpful!! She is also an avid swimmer. Josie, with water wings, jumps into pools without fear. She is the only two year old I know that loves the diving board, and does not hesitate. This is not the end of this list, she is absolutely amazing. She is taller everyday and her beautiful blond locks are to die for.  Don't let her fool you though, is can be a monster, which she loves to say and show hand motions.

 

 

Dave and I often look at our twins and can't imagine them when they were so little and small. Weighing a little over 5 pounds when we left the hospital, 7 months later, Kelly is pushing 19 pounds, and Leanna is around 17 pounds.

 

 

Kelly is go cute and pudgy. Her legs have the thickest fat rolls. Poor thing though, this makes her a bit behind her sister. Leanna is crawling and already pulling up to anything around. At least Kelly has her bottom two teeth, and Leanna has none. Still the easiest way to tell them apart, is that Leanna has the longer hair. They both babble and talk all the time, saying nana, papa, baba, dada, mama consistently.

They eat incredible amounts of food. Putting us to the store VERY often, they take 20 or more ounces a day, with rice cereal twice, a jar of fruit in the morning, jar of veggie in the afternoon, and a jar of meat in the evening. Kelly only usually cries when food is involved.

Leanna on the other hand is a mama's girl, to a T. She crawls straight for me, and only wants to be picked up and held, all the time.

 

 

Dave watches the three girls three times a week now (and Cathy-Dave's mom-twice a week, thank you!!!), as I have started back to work. But not to teach this year, I found a part time position at our Church, St. David. Here they brought over a preschool, and from 7-12 I am in the front office. This is actually pretty nice. I have no stress of the classroom, the hours are shorter, and I don't have to take anything home with me. And the best part of all...I can be with my girls more often! Just what I wanted.

 

 

Easter

During this Easter season, we need to be thankful for many things. Not only did the resurrection of Jesus save us, which we are eternally thankful for...we are blessed with wonderful family. I cannot believe that I have such a fantastic husband, whom I love dearly, and three wonderful children. They consistently take our breath away. They are the sweetest, most beautiful gifts we could ever receive.

This is the best family picture to date. It is a great one. I cannot believe that Josie is smiling so big here.

All three gals had similar dresses on...they each had green, ivory, white, pink with rosettes on each. They looked incredible.

Easter this year was great fun just because Josie knows what is going on. She understands what an egg is, that she can pick it up, and put it in her basket. She absolutely loves it, and we love watching her hunt for the egg. She had 3 hunts this year. One at Fox football field, another at Holy Child School by our house, and a third at my family side get together. She made out pretty well with tons of loot, and now consistently asks for candy. What have we created?

With her daddy at egg hunt #1

Mommy & Josie at egg hunt #2 (it was raining so it moved indoors)

Egg hunt #3

And a celebration after

After the family time, we had some one-on-one time with Josie. Where else...at the Cardinals game!! She is a die hard fan, sitting in the front row of Big Mac Land, and making it onto ESPN Monday Night Baseball. John Cruk taping right next to us.

This was on the way to the park. We had a busy day and one tired little girl. As soon as we got to the stadium she perked right back up.

An Easter Bunny??? Who are you??

The twins have a path to heaven

Our little gals, Kelly and Leanna were recently baptized!! No matter how crazy the day was, the most important thing was for the girls. I pray that their faith is strong, and that we are able to be great examples of how to love our Lord. Thank you God for the blessings you have given us, especially our three precious girls, Josie, Kelly, and Leanna.

Thank you to the girls' grandparents, Leanna's is Lynne & Gray Lang and Kelly's is John & Jen Whitlock...we know we made the right choice. Thank you to all the family that came out, especailly from out of town. It meant the world to have you there. Also, to the many friends of ours. You light up our lives. Thanks for being our support system.

Kelly with Daddy

Leanna with Mommy

We lost a balloon while setting up. I liked this photo...it makes me laugh

Valentine Pics

So I know that we took these pictures a month late, but I have to scrapbook Valentine's Day of course...even if I faked it.

Kelly-We couldn't get a good smile, but she creates bubbles like crazy.
Josie-of course!

Josie going into kiss Kelly

Josie kissing Leanna
Leanna-able to capture her smile.

We had to bribe Josie with fruit snacks to get all the great smiles out of her. When she gets next to her sisters like this, she usually just wants to talk to them and not sit still. Who can blame her? Fruit snacks worked! I love this picture.

Josie lately

And the biggest news of all...Josie is in her big girl bed.
We are so proud of her. She has not fallen off and she stays in bed until I come get her. We think she thinks there is a forcefield around it. But hey, whatever keeps her in the bed longer is fine with me. We needed to change beds before the bedroom switch, so she wouldn't think that the babies were kicking her out of her crib. So then we decided no better time than the present, and before I went back to school. She was ready!! What a big girl!

Here is how she spends her mornings. This is the comfortable?? position that she takes to watch Sesame Street, of course in her Elmo slippers.

It is awefully early, and I won't hit it hard until school's out...but at times (not everyday) Josie tells me she has to poop. Here is her first time pooping on her potty. Only 19 months old...oh my. We have already started the terrible two's. This house is pretty eventful!

Hidden Valley

Here in St. Louis we have a ski complex called Hidden Valley. I have never been there before, maybe it is because I don't know how to ski, but my aunt made all the grandkids on my mom's side of the family go last weekend. I also did not know that they offered tubing in the snow, basically sledding but in a tube. What a surprise...it was a blast. There was a huge hill, and a conveyor helps you on your journey up. You pay for two hours and slide down as often as you like. On this date, the temperature was in the 60's and not too sunny, perfect for sledding. We didn't need winter coats, or gloves. What an experience.

Here are some pics.

Here are all my cousins, not including Jose. I am the oldest, then Dave, then Kevin (in the white hat). Jacob on the bottom left, then his sister Tori (green cap). Michael and Jamie are next, both next to me. And that leaves the great grandkiddo, Josie.


Here is the hill, and all of our tubes are connected in the middle.

At the end of our ride down.

A tired little girl, she played in the mud and snow the whole time!

baby drama

Right before the girls turned four weeks old, Roxie accidentally scratched Kelly's ear. She was excited when our neighbor came over, jumped off the couch and right onto Kelly. This gave her an inch gap on the back of her ear and caused us to make a trip to the hospital. 5 stitches later, and now a nicely healed scar, Kelly is much better.

Then...

At their 2 month appointment, we discovered both girls have thrust, Kelly more than Leanna. It is basically a yeast bacteria in the mouth. It is fairly common in breastfed infants, but requires some work to heal. They are on an antibiotic that has to be administered four times a day and anything that goes into their mouth has to be boiled. So, after every feeding we have to boil the nipples, pacifiers, anything. More medicine for the two ladies. Kelly had the antibiotic for the ear, Leanna is on Zantac, and now this oral medicine.

There was good news out of the doc's office though...

Both girls have gained 5 pounds since leaving the hospital YEAH!!
Kelly is now 10 pounds 7 oz. and Leanna 10 pounds 3 oz. Both are in the 45 % for weight but in the 10% for head circumference and length. Kelly is 21 1/2 inches and Leanna 21 1/4 inches.

They are strong little ones, they are pretty steady holding their heads up and are cooing like crazy. We finally have our first smiles!! What darlings.

Leanna

Kelly

life with twins

Josie and Leanna
Leanna on the top, Kelly on bottom

Leanna on left, Kelly in crease of couch

Kelly

Leanna

It is really funny when Dave and I walk around with two car seats, people have the craziest reactions. It is as though they have never seen a family with twins before. Some want to look at them...that is the Ahhh, How Cute group. Then, there are those who give us the strange eye without saying a thing group. And there are the Twins, Oh My?? group. They then proceed to say, I bet your busy. I always love throwing into the conversation, I have an 18 month old at home too. This just blows their minds. And I giggle on the inside. I know our life is hard, but we continue to feel so blessed. I just keep telling myself that it could be harder.

Here is a run down of our days.

4 AM-Let's start before dawn. I suppose you consider this their first feeding of the day. 5 ounces is the amount at every feeding. It is more than normal for nine week olds, but the doc said if they want it, give the milk to them. Dave and I hardly make eye contact this early in the morning...sleep? Who needs sleep? This is the best stretch in between feedings of the day though, 6 hours from the last feeding. However, it takes them an hour or more to settle down and go back to sleep.

8 AM-Every 4 hours now for a bit. Usually after this feeding, they go back to sleep. This is really beneficial for us, because Josie tends to wake up soon after. This also seems to be the calmest part of the day.

12 noon-Another feeding, and usually a bit of crying before hand. Leanna has a case of acid reflux, which is getting better, but still not the best. Somewhere before or after, I try and get lunch ready.

4 PM-Another feeding. Everyday, or most of the time, I am not alone. A grandma or Dave have been here to help. I keep saying I can handle two kids, but when the third is thrown into the mix, life gets crazy. So if I am by myself, the girls are kind to me (sometimes) and let me feed them one at a time. But, the majority of the time they are hungry together. This means two Boppies and bottle in each mouth. Burping seems to be the tricky part. How do I hold one bottle and burp the other child? I am mastering this skill.

7 PM-now every three hours. Right after this feeding is bath time for Josie and into bed for her by 8 PM.

10 PM-last feeding. We have been better about putting them right into bed after this feeding to try and create a schedule...slowly but surely. After each feeding I also pump, this is harder to do when I am by myself.

My mom and I tried to go to Kohl's with all three the other day, VERY STRESSFUL! Not again for a while. All errands are squeezed onto the day, or Dave does them on his way home from work at 11:30 at night. Thank goodness Schnucks is open 24 hours!! I don't know yet how I am going to go back to work, which is coming up quick. March 14th seems like tomorrow. I just have to trust in those around me.

I know no matter how crazy busy it is, I wouldn't change it for the world...but I can't wait until everyone eats finger foods. I hate bottles...