Cute Video

Four 1 1/2 year old friends laughing.

Kiera and "Mama"

Kiera loves to call Todd, "Mama". She'll walk up to him and call him "Mama" and laugh. The more he corrects her, the more she laughs. If we randomly say "Dad", "Dadda", "Daddy" or any variation she might latch on to, she immediately says "Mama", so we know that she's relating the two and isn't just using "Mama" as a term for both parents. Also, if Madelyn tells her to take something to Dad, then she does. Again, she knows what she's doing. Then what's even funnier is that she'll walk up to him with a book, turn her head to the side in that oh-so-cute way, smile really big and say "Dadda" to get him to read to her. She's already using charm to get what she wants!!

Who is who?

Several months ago Dylan started smiling with what Todd and I could only describe as a 'flat grin'. It is so cute but we could never figure out where it came from. One night while we were putting Christmas decorations up, I discovered this picture and at first glimpse I thought it was Dylan and had to take a double look because something was not right. Well I figured out what wasn't right, the picture was of Todd when he was 2 1/2 years old. It is that same smile! We have never been able to get a good picture of Dylan's 'flat grin' but this is as good as we could get. You may not see it but to me these pictures look very similar. I love my boys!

Dylan August 2008

Todd August 1978

Christmas Travels

Here are some pictures of our Christmas trips to Livingston (Todd's hometown) and Bella Vista, AR (Madelyn's grandparents).

In Livingston to visit Todd's family

Dylan enjoyed opening the gifts

With Great Grandfather Derrel



A family White Elephant exchange that went wrong (Craig got a leopard print wallet)!

In Arkansas to visit Madelyn's grandparents

Great Grandpa Bud reading to the twins

Dylan would open the tin, take the paper out, replace the paper and the lid and clap for himself. However, he wouldn't clap for himself if he left the paper out!

Cuteness!

Dylan got comfortable watching television

We stopped at the "4 Star Diner" in Roland, Oklahoma. It presumably gained its name through some sort of an ironic twist, like a fat guy named, Slim. It looked pretty bad, but we didn't want any more fast food, so we stopped. Surprisingly, it was much cleaner on the inside than we expected. Once inside, we had a blast. We've seen the twins share things before, but this was a first. Kiera started feeding her food to Dylan. She'd stick her hand up there with food, and he'd lean in and take a bite. He was distracted and watching some other people at one point and she even tapped him on the shoulder to get him to turn around so she could give him more food!

The 4 Star Diner

Santa Picture

They both were scared, as you can see. But NO crying!

Fun at the King House

Halloween
Here's a picture of us from Halloween. The babies are dressed as little monsters (not a stretch) and Madelyn carved our annual jack o' lantern. Normally we carve 2-4 pumpkins, but with the babies and the trip, we only had time to get in the "Kings" pumpkin that we carve each year.



Push and Ride
These are some of our favorite pictures. We bought a toy that allows a baby to walk behind it to learn to walk or to sit down and ride. This gives us the option for both babies to play with the same toy without fighting. Usually, that only works in theory, but this one actually works out great (most of the time). Here are pictures from their adventure of chauffeuring each other around the house.





Car Seats
After we returned home from our 2,000 mile trip in a vehicle, the last thing we expected was for the kids to want to spend more time in the car seats. After Todd pulled the car seats out of the rental van, they sat in our Dining Room while we actually got to clean out our vehicle from all the milk that's been splattered everywhere. The kids loved playing in the car seats. They'd often drop their toys and go sit in the car seats. Todd walked in the house at one point, turned back to close the door behind him and got quite a shock when the car seat screamed at him. Kiera had been sitting in it and didn't like when her Dad didn't pick her up immediately.



Empty Bath Tub
Along with sitting in car seats that aren't in the car, they also like to be in a dry bathtub almost as much as one with water in it. That's saying something, especially for Dylan who LOVES to splash water.


Dylan Walking
While Kiera learned to walk first, Dylan has been the more verbal one. Both of these are the complete opposite of what we expected after watching their first year of life. Each time Dylan learns a word, Kiera catches on pretty quickly. And now its Dylan's turn to play catch up since Kiera's learned to walk. On Saturday, Dylan took his first step. Sunday, he took one step a couple more times. Today, he simply walked. No transition period, he simply walked. He took more steps in that moment than he had in his whole life (okay a little dramatic there, but humor us).

Reactive Airway Disease

I realized that I never blogged about this huge part of our lives. Well here is the story. Some of you may know that the kids were really struggling with getting sick. From January until September both of them seemed to be battling cough, congestion and ear infections. Every time we would take them to church nursery or to daycare they would come home and the next day they were coughing had a runny nose and running a fever. Todd and I were constantly missing work and seeing the pediatrician every week, and I mean every week. Dylan ended up with 5 ear infections and Kiera had 4. In August they both got tubes in their ears and things went well for 1 week and then everything started up again just this time without the ear infections. So in September, I took them to a pediatric pulmonologist, a lung doctor. We found out that the kids have Reactive Airway Disease, or pediatric asthma. The twins were immediately given a regimen of breathing treatments, mainly preventative, and decongestants (allright!). The biggest thing about that appointment was NO daycare or church nursery. The twins are not supposed to be around other children until springtime. We were told that with asthma, every time they were exposed to other germy kids their lungs went into overtime trying to get rid of the germs and that ended up creating even more mucus which increased coughing. So every week when both Todd and I go to work the kids go to my (Maddy) parent’s house. Now on Sundays Todd and I try to trade off and on. He stays home with the kids this Sunday and the next I stay home with the kids while he goes to Sunday school. It is a little bit annoying but the wonderful thing is that we haven’t been to the doctor for a sick visit in over two months.
We revisited the lung doctor 2 weeks ago and he said that since they are doing so well we can decrease the amount of medicine and they will hopefully both out grow this!!!!! So if you go to our church and are wondering why you haven’t seen us or the kids that is why. We are hoping that all four of us will be able to come back to church in the spring.

A Great Buy!

I discovered a wonderful product, well actually Todd did. He always seems to find such nifty things. Ok here it is, are you excited? It's Vicks Wearable Thermometers! They work from birth and up. There are 6 stickers total and you place one in baby's underarm. After 2-3 minutes you can check baby's temperature and then you can check the temperature all night. We have had these for a while but have not had a reason to use them yet. Tonight I decided to try it out. I placed one in Kiera's underarm after 3 minutes I checked her temperature with the wearable thermometer and with the thermometer that we normally use, and. . . they matched up!

If you already know about these:

1.Why didn't you share with me??????

2. Don't you just love them!?

I don't know about other kids out there, but Dylan HATES having his temperature taken. It is always atleast a 10 minute battle with him to get an accurate reading. Yes, I did say 10 minutes, that is because he fights the thermometer so much he won't keep his arm down or let me measure in his ear.

I don't remember where we bought these but as soon as I find them again I will buy as much as possible.

Vacation

The four of us went on a vacation with Todd's parents through Eureka Springs, Branson, St. Louis and Hot Springs. Yes, we realize that we are crazy.

We drove 1850 miles in a rented van with six people including a pair of one year olds who did really well considering they missed naps and were up late some nights. They were bored out of their minds all those hours in the van and needed out of the car every couple of hours. So you can imagine any estimated amount of time on the road was doubled if not tripled. Again we do realize that we are crazy for doing this. We stopped at restaurants, gas stations, rest areas and whatever else we could find to get them out of the car and walk them around.

In Branson we went to the 'Butterfly Palace'. A couple of butterflies landed on Kiera's arm and she kept flapping her arms trying to get rid of them, but they wouldn't leave. They both loved pointing at the butterflies and watching them fly all over the place.

In the car

Eureka Springs

Cabin in Eureka Springs

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Dylan and Kiera enjoyed the cabin's front porch

Inspiration Point
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. Madelyn and Kiera at the Passion Play

Dylan and Todd at the Passion Play

Bella Vista, Arkansas

The twins with Maddy's grandparents, Bud and MaryAnn

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They were looking around the paper towels to see each other. They were laughing and having a blast. We've never had so much fun at a Captain D's before!
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St. Louis, Missouri

Beautiful foliage next to the St. Louis Arch and the Mississippi River

The St. Louis Arch

The small pod where five adults and two babies rode to the top of the Arch

Dylan LOVED looking out the windows of the Arch

At the St. Louis Zoo

Why is there a goat above our heads?

Somewhere between a Hawk and Koala

Kiera's just a little Hippo snack

Is this exhibit really necessary? And who had a passion to write that book?

They enjoy sitting big in small chairs!
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Hot Springs, Arkansas

Yes, Pink Monkey was required for our trip!

The view from our hotel in Hot Springs