Tagged

Well I have been tagged with this question: What three skills or hobbies would you learn if you had unlimited time, money, and tools?

1. Scrapbooking: ohhh unlimited time, money and tools?!?!? well there is no question, it would be to have an awesome laptop and printer and then learn and spend all day every day digital scrapbooking

2. cooking:I know how to cook but I can only cook with a recipe. I would love to spend several days with family and friends that are completely comfortable in the kitchen and then be that comfortable in my own kitchen.

3. sewing: I would love to really know how to sew with my sewing machine so that I can make curtains and clothing if I wanted to

I'm tagging Teah, Charis and Jessica J.

Swaddles and Pterodactyls

It has been exactly one week since we decided to stop swaddling the twins. Just to explain, because they were so small and had problems with temperature control we had to swaddle them tightly for the first month and after that it was a habit that the little guys demanded prior to falling asleep. About 3 months ago we began to swaddle them with their arms out, we then noticed that they were spending first 15 minutes after lying them down to get out of the swaddle so we took the plunge. The first night they kicked their legs like crazy as if wondering how they had so much movement but then went on to sleep. The first nap, when they would nap, was a little bit more of a fight but they are now sleeping day and night WITHOUT being swaddled!!!! Our little munchkins are growing up.

Dylan has been working on new sounds. Some are normal baby sounds: da da, ba ba, ga ga etc. There is one that Todd and I lovingly (imagine a lot of sarcasm here) call the pterodactyl. It is a HIGH piercing screech that I am sure is destroying all of our hearing especially pour Kiera. As I have told some of you Dylan never developed different cries like Kiera did. He has the same cry for hungry, tired and bored. Now add in screeching/pterodactyl cry. He screeches when he is happy or upset. You can’t tell what is going on unless you are looking at facial expression.

Another development, jealousy! Until 3 weeks ago each baby was so into their own little world where they didn’t notice when one was being held and the other was not, now they know. If they are both on the floor and Dylan is crying, when I pick up Dylan, Kiera looks up at me with this terrible hurt look and immediately starts crying and vice verse. They also do not like to share being held. They know how it is supposed to feel when only one is being held and they DO NOT like being held at the same time by one parent. They want only one baby per adult. I consider myself to be a pretty good mother of multiples but I’m not that good! I have not been able to grow another pair of arms or figure out how to hold them both so that they think only one is being held at a time.

Sitting, Rolling, Holding

Dylan and Kiera have been making a lot of progress. So besides being the cutest babies ever, they're also the most advanced.

Dylan's been on the verge of rolling over for quite some time, he just has to get past that bottom shoulder. He does a great job of holding his own milk bottle which is a big help to us. Dylan also loves to caress your face and have his face close to your face. He loves to play with toys, kicks up a storm and goes from being super serious to super silly. Dylan has this sly grin that's almost indescribable.

Kiera learned to sit up about a week ago and started rolling over today. She's also improving on holding her bottle and has started caressing faces, too. She gets so excited and has this wide open smile. She's also sleeping through the night much of the time!

When either of them is sick, the other is an absolutely perfect baby and doesn't cry, which really makes it easier for us to take care of the sick one. Along the same line, neither of them caresses each other in the face except when Kiera got sick a couple of weeks ago. Then when she'd cry, Dylan started caressing her face. It was the sweetest thing. He doesn't do it anymore, just when she was sick which seems to make it sweeter.

Cool Poses

Todd's cousin, Clint, has signed to play football at Montana State. We're thrilled for him and for the good excuse to take some vacations in the mountains over the next few years!

Clint with the Super Hero pose

Dylan's also looking cool

Surviving this Week

After a fun day at the Eggstravaganza and finally being able to watch my niece play soccer I fell and twisted my right ankle while holding Dylan. I have to brag because as I was falling I somehow twisted up even more (not good for the already bad ankle) so that he landed sitting on me and had no idea that anything had happened. I on the other hand was in extreme pain and then panic and guilt because I fell while carrying one of my babies. Just to explain this is probably the 7^th or 8^th time that I have done this to my right ankle and about 8 times on left ankle. I have REALLY BAD ankles.

Todd is absolutely amazing at this time, running around taking care of all us. Sunday morning my ankle is still hurting and I am coming down with I later discover is yet another stomach bug (3^rd since January) what are the kids doing to my immune system?!?!? Again, I have an amazing husband; Todd took both kids to church on Sunday so that I could get some sleep to make up for a painful and sleepless night. Todd did this even though he had very little sleep due to getting ice for me throughout the night and getting up and bringing kids to me when they were hungry. God has given me a wonderful husband!

Monday comes and I am feeling sore, exhausted and weak. While Todd is off at work my mom AKA Nana invites herself over to help me with the kids. What a blessing! I love my mom! My mom and I notice that Dylan is coughing a lot, no fever and cough is clear, but we call the pediatrician and make an appointment for the next day. We then discover that Kiera has a mild fever so now she is going with Dylan to see the doctor. Day of appointment arrives, no fever for Kiera but Dylan’s cough is worse. The pediatrician says that Dylan is beginning to get a fever and they both have fluid on their ears and Dylan is congested. Well that night everything fell apart. Both kids had a fever with Dylan’s worse than Kiera’s. We were told to keep them cool due to fever, sleep with humidifier on and try to have them sleep upright for congestion. Well neither one of them would even consider sleeping upright at all. Kiera would only sleep if she was flat and on her left side and Dylan would only sleep if he was on Todd’s chest which didn’t help fever or flat which didn’t help congestion. So needless to say Todd and I only got 3 hours of sleep that night. Next morning we go back to the doctor, Dylan now has an ear infection and upper respiratory infection. Kiera is still infection free at this time. One bottle of infant’s Tylenol and one bottle of saline for infants later Kiera is feeling better but Dylan is on an antibiotic and feels horrible. I am still sore, exhausted and week but I don’t really have time to worry about that. Poor Todd is still dividing up all is spare time between me, Dylan and Kiera. I love my husband!!!!!

Sunglasses Mystery

Look at the pictures in our previous post, Eggstravaganza, and you might notice something odd. We started the day off with the kids in the yellow onesies that say, "Yes, we're twins". Those didn't last and we had to put sweaters on them when we got outside, anyway. Okay, so that's the timeline. Please look at the picture of the twins in the Bumbos and focus on Kiera's sunglasses. Then look at the picture of Maddy holding Kiera and again, focus on Kiera's sunglasses. Notice anything? The UV sticker was removed early in the morning and is not on her sunglasses in the first picture (taken at 8:45am according to the picture timestamp), but somehow returns in the picture taken at 11am. There does appear to be some residue from the sticker in the first one, but its obviously not there when you compare it to the second picture. How did that happen? We went back and looked and none of the pictures taken at home have the sticker and all of the pictures taken at the park have the sticker. Okay, this might only be interesting to us, but we don't get out much anymore, so it doesn't take much for us to get wrapped up in something.

Eggstravaganza

Saturday, we went to the Eggstravaganza that our church, The Heights, had at Breckinridge Park in Richardson. Obviously, our kids aren’t collecting eggs like most of the hundreds of other kids there, but we went to see friends and their kids. Todd said he was teaching Dylan and Kiera his “Egg Collecting Strategy”.

We dressed them in their matching “Yes, we’re twins!” outfits, but Kiera obliterated hers and ruined our fun.

The original outfits

With the Jonathon, Kendra and Carson Pike

We also swiped some pictures from the Pikes site and they're posted below.

This is Kenny Phelps (Kendra's father) holding Kiera. He performed our wedding ceremony.

Kendra's sister, Jessica, babysat for us that night so we could go out. We love her!!

Snow Day

Here are our pictures from March 4th - otherwise known as Snow Day. We had 3-4 inches of snow at our house.



We got the following cute & crazy outfits from Sam and Charis. We dress them in these outfits all the time now because it will be too warm to wear them soon.

Kiera makes some of the funniest faces

Crazy antennae ears are not going to wake Dylan up

Even the snow barely woke Dylan up. We had to get in the shade to keep everyone (mainly Todd) from squinting at the sun.

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"!!!