Dallas World Aquarium

On Sunday, we went to the Dallas World Aquarium with the Garrigues and Folks and had a blast. The stroller war, however, was a different story. Fighting your way through the narrow, crowded paths was not fun. Its easier to carry the little ones - especially since they don't want to be in the stroller anyway. Other than that, it was a great day.

Kiera has her first mohawk

Yes, we know the cap is too big, but Todd's a huge Dodger fan and he looked cute in the big boy cap.

Logan and Jason looking at the bird sitting in the path. The bird didn't seem bothered by people and even let some of us pet it.

Penguins - Maddy's favorite

Brian and Emma enjoying the sharks and sting rays - see below

Logan is a cutie
BTW: his shirt says "If you think I'm cute, you should see my mom"!!!

Baby Dedication Weekend

We had a baby dedication ceremony on Feb 10^th at The Heights. For the non-protestants out there, it basically means that we’re committing that we’re raising our kids according to God’s will. No snake charming, no danger of imminent death to the babies, etc., etc., etc.

Todd's parents came in town and stayed with us and other family members joined us at the church on Sunday. Below are a few picture of Saturday, the day before the dedication.

Grandmom and Kiera taking a nap

This is the last "bad bath" we've had in a while. There are sure to be some more bad ones, but it looks like they've made some progress and we're glad we have some pictures of this "momentous" occasion.

Even the cool lion towel didn't make Dylan happy about bath time

That's one mad duck!

Here we are at The Heights on Sunday. We're glad to have some pictures of the event and some pictures of all four of us at once (that's rare) and to have pictures of all four of us dressed up (that's extremely rare).

The Dedication Ceremony
See, no snakes!

Lookin' snazzy!

Todd's family
Look at Dylan scream!

Sleeping and Whatnot

I'm sure some of you thought we were taking a sabbatical again. This was written up a few weeks ago, but we're just now posting, sorry.

It is 4:30 in the morning both kids started to talk to me through the monitor at 3:15 but I didn’t quite figure it out until 3:30. They were both very polite with telling me that they were awake and would like some food but the politeness was beginning to fade. Of course Todd is snoring the whole time and has no clue what is going on. Now as I said before, it’s after 4:30 in the morning both kids have been fed, diaper changed and wrapped back up in their new blankets from Aunt Teah and they are both WIDE awake. Dylan is just looking around and Kiera is talking constantly to me, neither one with the slightest bit of interest in going back to sleep. See wide eyes below.


So we finally went out and bought a Bumbo and they love it, especially Dylan. Kiera likes it but only for a little bit. Dylan on the other hand just sits back and relaxes. He looks as if all he needs is something to drink and a newspaper or a really good novel.


Because of their size we can no longer lay them across the mattress (which gives more room on each side of them). They now lay normally along the mattress and they both still have to swaddled tight. Every night when we put them in the crib they start off at one end and somehow end up down at the other end. Now please remember from previous sentence that they are both wrapped tight with maybe just 1-2 arms free. Here is a picture of Kiera in the crib, Dylan is not feeling well and in the other crib, she started out at the other end and now her feet are about to be sticking out between the rails at the opposite end. Even crazier is that she has only been in the crib for 30 minutes and she’s not pushing herself up with her feet, she’s scooting down towards her feet. How does she do it and how do they do it together when they are both in the crib?

Todd’s Note: Okay, its about 6:30 in the morning and there’s a note to read the new blog entry. I’ve done as asked and decided to add a little note myself. Crying babies caused us to go to sleep late again. At 5:00 in the morning, I woke up to the kids talking through the monitor to let us know they’re awake. Maddy is…well…I’m not allowed to say she’s snoring, but…I’ll just say that she’s sleeping pretty hard. I walk in the nursery and the kids eyes are wide open. They see me and go crazy – laughing, screaming, kicking – they’re excited to see someone - probably doesn't matter that its me at all! So I’ve been up feeding and playing with them since 5 and I’m obviously not getting any more sleep. This is going to be a great day at work. :)

Shots, Growth and Rolling Over

We took the twins in for their 4 month shots on Friday (25th). We were warned they might feel bad afterwards and they did. Poor Dylan again got hit harder than Kiera. His fever got over 101. Fortunately, Kiera’s fever never broke 100. They only wanted to be held. Playing in bouncy seats wasn’t fun anymore. Below are some pathetic pictures of them with some cool, damp wash cloths on their head.

On a fun note, both kids are growing like crazy. Dylan is now 14 lbs and Kiera is 13 lbs. The doctor told us that since they are growing so much they will be taken off the preemie growth chart and onto the full-term infant chart at the next check-up. After they were born we were told that this might not happen until they were two years old.

Dylan rolled over for the first time Monday (28th)! Unfortunately Maddy was not able to get camera or video footage of this.

Trip to Livingston

We went to Todd's hometown of Livingston this weekend for the first time with the babies. We got to spend time with the grandparents and show the babies off around town and at the church Todd grew up in. This was also our Christmas with his family.

The morning fog rising over the lake behind the house Todd grew up in. The picture was taken from the back door.

Dylan dancing on the couch

Kiera falling into Dylan. Fortunately for her she caught her balance on Dylan...

...but it knocked Dylan over. Kiera thinks its pretty funny.

A great picture because they're cute and because neither of them are falling over!

Grandad holding both twins

Dylan with his Great Aunt Oleta.
And yes, Grandad is wearing an A&M Santa hat.

Dylan and Kiera holding hands - HOW SWEET!?!?!

Wearing Santa suits for a late Christmas with Grandad and Grandmom

Dressed up for church on Sunday

Baby Steps

No, they're not walking at 3 1/2 months, but they've really started maturing and figuring out new things. Kiera has started rolling over. She rolled over six times this weekend, though sometimes it scares her when she does it and she starts crying. Kiera also tries to match your facial expressions, though if you do something too crazy for her, she just laughs at you. Dylan figured out early on that if you kick the hanging toys on his bouncy seat with his knees that the music plays and the cool blue lights turn on. Now, he's figured out how to pull the toys with this hands. Dylan and Kiera have also started staring at each other more. We thought they'd look at each other a lot, but they really haven't. They just seem to know the other one is there without the need to look - and that's good enough for them. Not only are they looking at each other, but they're starting to smile at each other, too. It won't be long before they're stealing each other's toys.

We also had real babysitters for the first time (not counting parents and our friends) which let us go out to eat. It was incredible to eat our food while it was still hot, not worry about disturbing our fellow diners and not change nasty diapers in the restroom. We got a pair of college sisters to help before they returned to school. Lyndsay and Alexis were great babysitting Todd's niece and nephew and seemed to have done a great job with Dylan and Kiera.

Getting fat and loving it

Practicing the Left Jab

Look at our tounges!

Matching birth marks

Its difficult to see in pictures even when outlined

Having Fun!

Wearing the cute matching clothes given by Suzanne

Dylan's getting even fatter

To each, his own

They have their own methods to calm themselves down, but they each have the outside arm identically placed behind their head.

Cuddling together

No, we did not pose them for this picture. This is how they were found at 3 in the morning (which is why the pic is so dark)

Dylan's trying to play, but Kiera's trying to cudle again while sucking her thumb. Must have been an emotionally draining day and she needs some comforting.

End of the Year Pictures

We don't have any big news, but we wanted to post some recent pictures.

The greatest gifts ever under a Christmas Tree!

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Cousin Preston holding Dylan

Why Preston holds Dylan before he eats chocolate. He's so mesmorized by Mickey's Christmas Carol that he won't look up for the picture.

Big Smiles

Fighting to be the only one in the picture, for once.

Dylan's pushing Kiera out of the way

Dylan won!

And Kiera's laughing as much as he is

Everyone gets their solo shots:

Kiera enjoying the spotlight

We love the look on his face.

Kiera getting excited!