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Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Thanksgiving 2011

I had a wonderful week off!!!  I easily got used to spending more time with the twins and Tim.  We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with a few minor hiccups.  We were all loaded up to head to my sister Jamie's and as we pulled out my car ran out of gas.  Yes, you are seeing a pattern here.  Tim drove my car to work the night before and underestimated how much gas we had left.  He quickly took the neighbor's truck and came back with gas.  We went to Jamie's and had a delicious lunch complete with fried turkey, all the sides, and yummy desserts.  The kids played with all of their cousins and were wiped out.  They both fell asleep in the car and as we were carefully carrying them in the house we realized that Titan had pottied all over the kitchen.  UGH!!!  The kids woke up and Tim spent over an hour cleaning up the mess.  On Saturday night we had Thanksgiving part II - just our little family.  I had made double of everything and it was all just as good the second time around.

November 24th is a very special day for us.  On that day five years ago Tim proposed.  On that day two years ago we had the sonogram to find out that we were having a boy and a girl.  I love that all of those anniversaries fall around Thanksgiving, because they are the reasons I celebrate.  I am so very blessed to serve a God of endless blessings, who forgives, protects, heals, and loves me unconditionally.  He brought me the greatest husband in the world who loves me exactly where I am, while encouraging me to reach for the stars.  He blessed Tim and I with two precious children and gave us the honor of being their earthly parents.  Many times I catch myself watching them play and I can't help but remember how they entered this world.  They were tiny, weak, and helpless.  God held them in His hands and made them mighty, healthy, independent little people.  I recently revisited my "bucket list," and realized that I could cross off many things - getting married, becoming a mom, and witnessing a miracle.  I was fortunate enough to witness two miracles in this life.  I am also blessed to have an amazing family.  I don't know what I would do without my mom.  She helps us so much and I love spending time with her.  My sisters and their families are so much fun and truly add so much to our lives.  I am lucky to have sisters that I also consider friends.  God also blessed me with a wonderful extended family.  My grandparents, aunt, uncles, and cousins have been so good to us and have helped so much with the twins.  I wish that they all lived closer!!!  I am also very fortunate to have great health and a wonderful job that allows me to work with great students and my awesome coworkers.  I could go on and on, but I will stop for now.

Brooklyn and Tayden have both mastered eating with a spoon and love it!!  They still try and tip the bowl over.  Yesterday I was giving them snack and Brooklyn fell asleep.  I went to lay her down and when I came back Tayden was touching his nose.  He sounded really stuffy and I started to think he had stuck a raisin up his nose.  As a child I had a passion for sticking things up my nose - peas, stickers, etc. I asked him over and over if he had a raisin in his nose and he kept telling me no.  I had almost given up, thinking that there was no way he would have done that, but I remembered we had a great nose picking tool that we acquired at one of our doctor's visits.  I ran to get it and my first time in yielded great results - a massive raisin.  Needless to say, Tayden will no longer be eating raisins unless someone is sitting right beside him.  Shortly after the retrieval he picked up some junk mail from the table and started to "read" it.  I caught it on film and have posted it below.  I have also posted a video of Brooklyn dancing - hilarious.  I think I have finally figured out how to post videos from my phone.  Brooklyn is talking and singing like crazy.  She loves to dance and take off her clothes - not at the same time!!!  It is getting harder and harder to keep a diaper on her.  She pulled one off yesterday and tinkled on the floor - YIKES!!  Her hair is getting so long and she loves to smile and say, "HI."  Tayden has started to say his name and I love you.  We watched Saturday Night Live and Lady Antebellum was performing.  We replayed it a few times and he grabbed a toy that vaguely resembled a microphone and stood in front of the tv singing at the top of his lungs.  X Factor here we come.  Both babies can scream on the same key at the same time.  It is pretty neat, but can definitely be pretty annoying if it continues longer than 30 seconds.  They make life exciting, hilarious, and precious every single day!! 



Drool monster


All of the cousins playing



Tayden and Mommy

 Tayden and Daddy


Video of Tayden reading - he even licks his finger to turn the page


Video of Brooklyn Dancing - please ignore my singing

Monday, November 21, 2011

Trip to Lake Granbury - 21 Months

I hope this post finds everyone doing very well!  Today is the first day of my week off and I am loving every minute of being home.  We got to sleep in today and have enjoyed being lazy on this cold, rainy day.  The twins are both doing very well.  They are both talking up a storm and extremely active.  They can say most of their ABCs, not always in order, and count to 10, most of the time in order.  Tayden has started counting beyond 10 and loves the number 18.  Brooklyn is still a hugger and loves on us often which is absolutely precious.  She still sneaks up into the window and pushed the lamp off the end table last week.  The lamp shattered into a zillion pieces!  She is very dramatic!  Tonight she tripped and said, "Whoa."  I told her to be careful so she didn't fall and then she fell on purpose and pretended to cry.  She loves to color and draw and has quite an attention span.  Tayden still loves to sing and has added the "Cleanup Song," to his favorites.  He helped me clean up the blocks tonight and sang with me and then said, "helper."  He loves to stack blocks and can't make a pretty tall tower before Brooklyn knocks it down.  He is still teething and can have some pretty miserable moments. 

ECI came on Thursday and worked with both babies.  They worked on puzzles and sorting colored rings onto sticks.  We haven't worked with colors yet, so I was amazed when Brooklyn sorted all of the rings.  They are both able to work puzzles, but don't always finish them.  Both the therapist and the coordinator praised the twins and their continued development.  They were blown away with how much Brooklyn is talking.  They want us to start working on them feeding themselves with a spoon, so this afternoon I gave them both a bowl of yogurt and spoons.  It got very messy, but they were able to get a lot in their mouths.  They both ended up trying to lick the bowl clean. 

This weekend we went to Lake Granbury and stayed in my best friend Lindsy's beautiful home right on the water.  Saturday was warm so we were able to spend time outside playing on the deck.  The twins loved having the extra space to roam and explore.  Lauri and Malley came to visit for awhile - it was great to see them!!  Sunday it got very chilly so our outside time was limited.  We spent a lot of time in the game room coloring, reading books, and SueSue even built a fort with the twins.  While the twins were napping we played SkipBo.  We were trying to remember the last time we played games and it was at least a year ago!  That is crazy considering we used to play games all of the time, but I guess we have been a little busy.  On our way out of town we stopped at Ultimate Cupcake in Hudson Oaks and got a variety of cupcakes to try.  Saturday night we had a "sampling session."  I wanted SueSue and Tim to act like we were on Cupcake Wars and they played along.  Our favorites were the black and white, egg nog, pumkin, and lemon poppyseed.  On Saturday night we went to Stumpy's - a delicious waterfront restaurant.  The twins were better than they have ever been and we discovered that the key is ketchup!!!  I had given it to them once before and they didn't seem interested, but that has all changed.  The LOVE it now and spent a great deal of time quietly dipping.  Tayden loves to lick the ketchup off of whatever the item is, but doesn't always eat the item.  It was such a treat to get out of town and spend some time just relaxing - a great way to kick-off my vacation week.  The view was wonderful and the company was great.  Thank you SueSue for coming with us and helping with the twins.  We love spending time with you - it is always such fun!!! 

We are looking forward to Thanksgiving and I am sure I will have more pictures to share.  Hope everyone has a great week!

new p.j.s



Brooklyn and the lamp

new p.j.s













I love this picture!







Chilin in the hammock



My precious blessings

Daddy




My sweet little man






Relaxing on vacation


Brooklyn's hair is getting longer

In Sambo's cage

The cupcake samples - YUMMY!!!

Eating with a spoon




Tayden found his way into the window!