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Monday, November 28

Tis the Season

And it's begun! We are in full holiday swing here. It's non-stop talk about gifts, getting the decorations up, and wondering how the trek out to the babysitter will be once it snows. We all had a great time visiting family on Thanksgiving and I had a nice long holiday weekend. It was hard to get back to the grind today. And my brother and sister-in-law finally got their wedding pics back and they are all so beautiful! I'll post a couple.

I thought I had more to say but this is already SO random that I better just stop. Oh! The babies are 8 months old now and are slowly warming up to the new tastes of pureed meat - YUM:)





(photos courtesy of Flasch Photography)

Wednesday, November 23

Thankful

There are some people out there, especially via Facebook and Twitter, that are doing "30 Days of Thanks". And I thought about doing that here on the blog (because we have SO MUCH to be thankful for this year). But then I realized I struggle to find time some weeks to post a couple updates so I'm going to list our most important "thanks" in one post.

We are thankful for our family, who love us unconditionally, without question.

We are thankful for totally AWESOME friends, who understand that life gets busy. And have no problem/issues picking up right where we left off, even if it has been months since we last saw and talked to each other. We love.Love.LOVE. YOU!

We are thankful for our healthy, happy, miracle babies. Enough said!

We are thankful for our jobs; that we both picked careers we enjoy - maybe not every day, maybe its been more difficult over the years but the stability is worth its weight in gold for peace of mind.

We are thankful for our home, which we are excited to raise our family in and watch them grow.

We are thankful for our fabulous babysitters; because there is not enough money in the world or words of appreciation to give someone who loves your children *almost* as much as you! And coming home from work to smiling babies is priceless.

We hope everyone has a great holiday. We will be traveling around to visit my family tomorrow and heading to Manitowoc Saturday to see Craig's family. Pretty excited to eat Thanksgiving meals on TWO different days:) LOVE this holiday!


Wednesday, November 16

New Stuff

We had a BUSY weekend, all starting Saturday morning. My brother and sister-in-law came down early Saturday to help Craig build a mantle over the fireplace. Well, really Derek was going to help Craig and Cassandra was going to hang with me and the kids! The babies were up early Saturday so we were actually "cleaning" before the construction (if that even makes sense!). But then the girls and kids headed to the mall, thinking that we should stay out of the guys way and it gave a great excuse to go shopping - something I haven't done in a LONG time. I was able to get some Christmas gifts and find something for me to wear to Christmas. At one store, I walked around the corner and didn't even recognize Kelsey because Cassandra was dressing her up in cute fuzzy hats and faux fur booties! Poor Drew was sleeping so he didn't get to try anything on.

Sunday we ran around and did a TON of errands. By the time we got home, the kids had crashed and we were ready to just veg and watch football.

Craig took some before and after shots of where the TV wasn't and then where we put it. But we should have done full living room pics - it's unbelievable how much more room there is now that the TV/entertainment center isn't on the floor. We had plenty of room before and now that the mantle is in and the TV is up, the feeling of the room is different. We wish we would have done this sooner. Altho it gives Kelsey more room to explore. She isn't crawling but she started going up on her knees this weekend. For right now Drew just wants to hang out in one place and play; I'm sure that will change:)




That tongue is always hanging out these days - guess he likes the feeling of his gums pushing up his new teeth!


Of course it needs to be painted yet but we LOVE it:)

Saturday, November 12

Chomp, Chomp

On Tuesday Kelsey pushed thru her first tooth! She's growing up too fast:) Back in the day, I use to say that I would like "puppies", or more accurately dogs, better if they stayed little and cute but mentally grew up and were disciplined. I'm not comparing my kids to pets, but I just love how cute and little they are now and want them to stay like that FOREVER! Oh well, I guess I gotta let go and let them grow up.
Otherwise we are going to spend the weekend getting the house ready for crawling/moving babies. It was snowing Thursday (altho none of it stayed), and I can't wait to put the babies in a snow bank all bundled up. We are going to start feeding the kids pureed meat (I know, yum) this week and introducing sippy cups of water. And my favorite holiday is almost here: Thanksgiving!


Kelsey and Marty bonding.


Kelsey has a new fascination with holding and puting her mouth on ANY thing we are drinking. This night it happened to be my empty beer bottle.


No, no mom - I got this.


Sunday, November 6

That's How We Roll

I have a confession: it feels *weird* to me that I have babies, that I am a mom, that I am responsible to care for these lives. I know weird has turned into somewhat of a cliche word, but it's weird like letting jell-o squish through your fingers, or the feeling of mud, or when you're swinging and you tilt your head back - that feeling. Kinda like when you can't think of any other real words to describe the feeling, weird. I've said it to my sister a couple times, and every once in a while she'll say, "So does it feel real now?" And I suppose it feels MORE real every day, but there are times I am laying next to the kids on the floor, Kelsey's grabbing my face, giggling, and then it hits me that these are MINE.ALL MINE (well and Craig's, couldn't do it without you sweetie). But why is it such a shock to me or why does it hit me out of the blue? I was pregnant with them for almost 35 wks, sat in the hospital for 18 hrs before I saw them, visited them EVERY DAY in the NICU, brought them home, and have watched them grow for the last 7 months. Maybe I'm still adjusting to my new life. Or getting used to these new additions. I know I'll get over it; I think I just had to talk it out - thanks for listening:)

We tried a new snack today: advocado. It's pretty much the easiest baby food I've made - scoop it out into a plastic baggie, mush, and serve! I was ready for them to reject it, but I should have known they would love it since they are totally in to "odd" baby food. They are starting to dislike carrots. Tonight we are doing edmame and squash.

Today Kelsey also rolled herself over to the DVD player and turned on a Baby Einstein movie. I was in the kitchen baking apples and I heard the unmistakable intro music. She thought she was something cool when I walked in the living room to make sure the DVD player wasn't going to end up on her. That's also been her thing this week: rolling under the furniture.




This is Drew trying on winter hats. His head is so big that he doesn't fit into any of the age appropriate hand-me-downs we were given.


Kelsey is trying to get to the cat, so of course she had to knock over the floor gym to get there.


Wednesday, November 2

Ears!

I HAVE to show you all this cute outfit Kelsey was wearing last week. Oh.Em.Gee! It's a borrowed piece from Lydia, my cousin's little girl. You would think that it is just an adorable fleece GAP outfit, but then it ups its cuteness factor by 10 when you see the ears on the hood:)