The Thankgiving Rainbow

We had a wonderful thanksgiving weekend at the beach with the whole family. We ate lots of great food, played games, laughed and enjoyed all the new babies in the family.    We celebrate thanksgiving on Friday every year and everyone makes their "signature" dish.  The traditions never disappoint!

This year though was different in an important way, it's something that each of you reading this probably know. It was our first holiday without someone we love very very much.  Our beautiful Katie passed into Heaven last year.  Losing her still hurts, and probably will for some time.  Her best friends who have shared the holiday with us for the past 20 years came this year too, even though they came without Katie. It was very bittersweet to see them, without her.  My sister, through her tears said... "I keep feeling like maybe she will just walk through the door soon. Maybe she's just late."  It was hard, and we were all sad.

Friday morning came, and the meal was being prepared.  The turkeys were roasted, and the potatoes were mashed- everyone was busy getting ready to eat.  We were all enjoying before dinner drinks and each other, despite not have her with us.  Our house overlooked the beach and we had a fantastic view of the ocean and rolling waves.  All day there had been some strange weather, some sun, some clouds, some showers in the distance.  It was breezy and it seemed like the weather was just not sure what it wanted to do.  We saw sideways rain from one side of the house and sun on the opposite side. It was such a strange phenomenon that we all rushed out to the deck to observe.  And to our surprise we had a huge, double rainbow directly over our house.  We could see it end to end. A complete arch. Every color. It took your breath away.  It was so perfect.  It looked like this.

Except in this form, but only maybe 100 yards away from us.

 

And it felt like in that very moment, Katie was with us. The rainbow was so close it felt like we could touch it. It felt like heaven. It was breathtaking, and we all cried. 

I was thinking about rainbows and realized that in Greek mythology the rainbow symbolizes a message from Heaven.  In the Bible, God used a rainbow to tell a probably desperate, frustrated and soggy Noah that God had not forgotten him. 

Maybe you are one of my family members reading this and feeling like our Katie was taken from us long before it was her time. Our thanksgiving rainbow reminded me that God has not forgotten us, or our hurt, and that He is merciful. He sent us a beautiful message of Katie at just the moment we needed it. 

Maybe you are reading that and are not related to me but you have lost someone to death or even distance for these holidays, and I just want you to know what God told me on Friday: He remembers you, and He loves you deeply in whatever circumstance you may find your life.

Flying Solo

This week Dan is traveling for his job. He is at a beach resort in Palm Beach, FL (tough life!) getting Yellow Dog's name out into the market in person. He is doing great so far, meeting lots of people and is current enjoying a cigar in the seaside cigar bar after a hard days work. He will then go to sleep in a huge fluffy hotel bed where no babies will awaken him in the middle of the night. I'm not bitter... really.

Anyway, I just wanted to comment about being along with my girls. It's honestly not bad. We were both worried about how it would go, but its turning out to be just fine.  My mom came to help with bedtime tonight which was AWESOME.  The day time has been fine too, just like normal- except Daddy does not walk in the door at 5:15 to cute babies with cereal all over their faces. It's actually a little empowering to be able to be independent with them.  I'm not saying I want to do it alone, but its really challenging with two infants and I'm getting it done!  Hopefully tomorrow is another good day, and one day closer to my love coming home.

Baby Baptism

Our beautiful girls were baptized this past weekend... Here is a sneak peak!

Fun pictures from the last few weeks

Month 4

 Month 4 was a blur of sleep training and feeding with the most exciting part being the beginning of feeding solids.  We started with rice cereal and then transitioned to oatmeal cereal.  They LOVE the oatmeal and took to solids really well!  They have pretty much slept through the night since the introduction of solids which is great for us.   I also made a huge supply of my own babyfood with my babyfood maker. The Babycook is an appliance that steams and purees all in the same appliance.  So handy!

365 days later...

This picture was our babies, exactly one year ago today. We were in the doctor's office when we learned the very exciting news that we would be having not one, but TWO babies!!! What an experience! Dan screamed, I almost fainted. We immediately called my mom who was driving at the time and she almost drove off the road! It was truly unbelievable.



We have come so far, through a very difficult and uncomfortable pregnancy, and many many many (yawn) sleepless nights.

Now our sweet girls look like this and they couldn't be cuter or more fun (they are happily enjoying sweet potatoes for the first time)

Caroline Grace


Charlotte Anne

A few cute pics

Recently, our good friend and fantastic photographing friend Jess came over to shoot some pics of Caroline, Charlotte and Ella at four and half months old. Here are just a few of the pictures.


Caroline

All three girls have bracelets!


Caroline, Charlotte
Ella
Mommy and ?
Charlotte
Charlotte

Months 2, 3 and 4: Part 3

Month 4: August

coming soon!!!

Months 2, 3, and 4: Part 2

Month 3: July

July was hot, and I stayed inside. We all stayed inside actually. We went on vacation this month, WITH the babies of course. We went to the Outer Banks with our friends who also had new babies. Last year at the beach we were ragging in Alaina for not being able to drink because she was pregnant, hoping that Gina might be pregnant and having a great time being free and unattached. This year though was filled with BABIES, diapers, bouncy seats, sunscreen, 7 o clock bedtimes and rows of baby monitors!

We devised a system for getting to the beach using a big tailgating canopy and fully covering the babies. I nursed them on the beach under a beach towel. Mason, the oldest baby at 7 months was sitting up on his own, Jack 3 months was sleeping through the night. Caroline and Charlotte were developmentally much younger and just coming out of their sleepy stage and starting to notice the world. I was going crazy with no schedule for my girls and went on sleep mission to try and improve our quality of life. While at the beach, my bestest friends helped me get through the first very difficult first few days of crying- it- out. They helped so much, and since then, we've never looked back!

A few pics from the beach (more to come!)





Caroline, Charlotte and Jack





The girls moved out of our bedroom the week before we went to the beach. I had feared this day, wondering how I would sleep wondering whether they would breathe and be alive without me next to them! HA! It got to the point where I was just tired of creeping into my pitch black bedroom, trying to to make a sound and whispering to Dan in the dark about whatever we were talking about. I needed space. So, we took the plunge. They went into the same crib and the monitor was right next to them and the other end, my ear. It was so much better for everyone. After we got back from the beach I ended up putting them in separate cribs because they were kicking each other and waking each other up. grrrrr. can't a person get some sleep!!!???

We were still on a 3 hour feeding schedule, and I was thoroughly enjoying dressing them in cute matching clothes. They were beginning to really smile and interact and Dan and I just thought every thing they did was the best! (It still is the best!). I was trying to get rid of more baby weight and walked a couple of mornings a week with my friend. We were back in church, lugging a car seat with babe each and taking up a whole pew!!! I remember being VERY tired and once Dan and I, longing to go out to eat, loaded up the girls in the car and drive down Colley Avenue looking with jealously at all the people eating out. We just drove by slowly, staring out the windows and talked about how we wish our life was as good as the people who were out and free !!!! We quickly figured out where all the drive thru everythings were in our city. Drive thru banks, restaurants, stores... etc.= Good invention! I ventured out on my own with the girls and definitely felt a renewed sense of independence. I figured out that I could grocery shop by hanging reusable grocery bags on the handles of my stroller and loading them. Once they were full, I had to check out and go home. I learned how to time outings and feedings. I learned that it wouldn't "just be ok" to not use breast pads while going out to walmart where every screaming baby in the city seemed to be located.

Our dogs became highly annoyed with their lack of attention and started doing bad things, namely peeing in the house and stealing things out of my purse or diaper bag. We instituted farm-days, wherein our lovely labradors go on a mini-vacation to my parents house AKA, The Farm. They get tons of exercise, petting, dog treats, swimming and attention. They return on sunday evenings exhausted, sleep off their vaca on monday and then are happy tuesday-friday, when then return again. The dogs have been really great with the babies and are very gentle and loving. In the early days they pretty much just avoid the babies, but every so often during long periods of baby crying or middle of the night wakings they hide in their bed/crate and you can hear their groans and moans. It's like they are thinking "Are you KIDDING ME? Awake again???!?!??" Poor things.

July seems like a decade ago, but I know that Dan and I were really enjoying being with our girls and starting to get a hang of caring for our infants.

Months 2, 3, and 4 : part 1

If you follow this blog you have probably been sorely dissapointed in my LACK-OF-POSTING. I do apologize. Here is my best summary.

Month 2: June 2009... can't remember, too tired...

kidding, but month two was filled with a lot of the sleeping and eating. I was still recovering physically from my baby-removal surgery and we were working hard of establishing solid breastfeeding. I'd say that by we were successful at both tandem nursing and nursing pain diminished around week 9. They girls got really good at eating and gained tons of weight. We hit the magic 6 pound mark early on and our fears of serious illness for our peanuts was much less. We began venturing out into the world and encountered the "twin paparazzi" (i.e. people who love to look at, touch, ask questions, distract me from my task at hand...) for the first time. Sleeping was pretty rough and we were just getting to know our little peanuts. I asked Dan for any comments regarding June and he said "June? Did that even happen to us" That sums it up folks. It was truly the Days of Haze. I remember a lot of snuggling with our babies and crying when I packed up the newborn size clothing. They still slept in our room then and we would spend hours rocking them to sleep in the dark every night. That was fun (not).

Oh yeah! I almost forgot, I was also finishing up working. I went to work two days a week and Dan was home with them alone. He would bottle feed them pumped milk, and dress them and play with them all by himself. I lugged my breast pump to the state mental hospital and pumped every few hours in my dingy little office while I racked up the few remaining hours. We had our eye on the prize: finish internship! I was able to finish, and honestly consider it a MAJOR blessing to have had Dan home with our mini muffins during that time. wow. We were just beginning to fall totally in love with our girls.

Some pictures of the babies in June



Smiles while asleep
Dan with a baby in their first bathing suit. They didn't like the pool, they cried because it was too cold for them. Approximately 8 weeks old. What were we thinking putting them in a pool??? They are still SO TINY!
Here is a little video of Charlotte with the hiccups. Since she is an identical twin you can imagine what her sister looks like even though she isn't in the video, she is approximately 5 weeks old :)

alert

Dear fans,
I am very aware that my long absence has been ridiculous. Therefore I will be posting updates with lots of pictures over the next few days.

stay tuned.

One month old!

Charlotte

Caroline

The beautiful photographers, Jessica and Haley

Days of Haze

Hello friends!

Wow... it's been a long time since my last post. We have been endlessly running the marathon of newborns. I can honestly say I don't really even remember much of the last 2 months, except that we have survived moment to moment, with each day passing so quickly. The babies are two months old! They have more than doubled their both weights and are sleeping two 4-5 hour sets during the actual night! Days are decent and they take 3 naps a day for anywhere from 1-3 hours at a time and we feed them every 3-4 hours! wow! I'm exhausted just typing that. :)

Anyway, we are fully aware that its been much too long since we have updated the blog. We have made it a goal to update once a week so that you can watch our family grow. So a short recap from the last 8 weeks:

1. They babies currently weigh 8.5, and 10 lbs!!!!!
2. They sleep a lot, and don't yet care about playing with toys.
3. They have just started smiling at us, and are typically very smiley and SO cute in the morning when they wake up.
4. If you have babies in the summer time you don't need mobiles because they constantly just watch the ceiling fans.
5. Shot day at the pediatrician is not fun at all.
6. No one can prepare you for sleep deprivation.
7. We have changed approximately 800-900 diapers so far.
8. Having twins can cure a bad case of procrastination, and vastly improves time management!
9. Bonding with babies is so special, we are so in love!
10. Together Dan and I make a mean team, and we're enjoying co-parenting more than we can imagine!

Some pictures:

getting ready to come home!


we're home!


hanging out together
Twins holding hands, and eating each other.

visiting with best friends: Gina and new baby Jack!