Christmas Memories

What a great Christmas we had this year!! We were blessed to be able to spend the holidays with both sides of our family this year. The babies got a LOT of attention!

Christmas Eve my mom, mother-in-law Diane, Carson, Avery, and I went to the Gaylord Texan resort to walk through the ice exhibit. It was a Grinch theme this year; it's amazing what these artists can do with ice. We bundled the babies up and they went in with us. I was hoping that no one would call CPS on me for taking my babies into a 9 degree freezer. Don't worry, they were plenty warm as you can see from the pictures below.

Here's Carson, ready to go see the Grinch Avery and Mimi
Us with the giant Grinch ice sculpture, we look like snowmen in the jackets they give you to wear.
Christmas Eve night we went to our church candlelight service. The music was beautiful and the sermon was great. I was so glad that we were able to take the babies. They were really good.
Family picture at church.

Then we went over to my parents and spent the rest of the evening with our family and good friends.

Here we are playing our traditional game of left, right, center with the Millers.

Group shot on Christmas Eve at my parents house.

Shane's grandparents flew in from Florida and luckily got here Christmas Eve before all the ice and snow.

Here's Carson and Avery with their great-grandparents

Who would have thought that we'd have a white Chirstmas. It was so fun to wake up to a beautiful blanket of snow Christmas morning.

We went back to my parents house Christmas morning to open presents with my family.

Carson and Avery in their Christmas jammies

It was so fun to watch my niece Kennedy get excited about Christmas. This year she asked Santa for a, "pink sewing machine, a pink pen, and a pink iPhone." So being the awesome aunt and uncle that we are, Shane dug out his old iPhone and I painted the clear case pink and put glitter on it and we gave it to her for Chirstmas. Every 2 year old needs an iPhone right?

After opening gifts and eating breakfast at my parents, we went back to our house to open gifts with Shane's family. We spent the day with Shane's mom, grandparents, uncle Jerry, cousin Catherine, uncle Travis, and aunt JJ.

Here I am with my little Christmas angels in front of our tree.

Carson and Avery made quiet a haul this year. Lots of toys to play with this next year.

Daddy and his sweet smiling girl

Carson and Avery turned 3 months old today. However, this post is long enough so I will write about all their 3 month stuff later this week.

We hope everyone had a blessed Chirstmas and a Happy New Year!

Busy month

Wow, I can't believe that it's two days away from Christmas. Where has this month gone? I finally have all the shopping, wrapping, and Christmas preparations complete. Carson and Avery have been troopers with all of our errand running and shopping we've done these past few weeks. It is getting easier to get out and about with them. They are good shoppers!!

I've had fun this year getting into the Christmas spirit with my little babies here! We've been playing Christmas music, watching Christmas movies, and tonight we are going to make some Christmas cookies.

We've been able to go to a couple of Christmas parties, with the help of our awesome baby sitters MiMi and PaPa!! This is a picture of all the girls at our Bible Study Chirstmas party. I'm so blessed to work with so many amazing Chirstian ladies! Love these girls!!

We also celebrated Shane's 28th birthday last week. We went to eat at Texas de Brazil with some of our good friends!! Happy belated birthday to my amazing husband. He is such a great husband, father, and friend. I can't imagine figuring out life with anyone else!!

Carson and Avery are finally able to sit in the Bumbos. Their heads still bob around a little, but they are getting more control.

This is our latest sleep aid, it's called a Woombie. It replaced the swaddle blankets when the babies started busting out multiple times a night. I got tired of swaddling and reswaddling all night long, so we thought we'd give these woombies a try. And the babies seem to really like them. They are really stretchy so they can move their arms around inside of it, but they can't get their arms free. They kinda look like they are in jail, but I really think it helps them sleep better.

Sweet faces! I love these babies so much!!

Hope everyone has a great holiday season, celebrating the birth of our savior!

Merry Chirstmas!

The stockings are hung

We finally have the house decorated for Christmas. What I can usually get done in one Saturday has taken me two weeks. I guess that's to be expected with two babies. We decided to get a real Christmas tree this year. Shane grew up cutting down his own Christmas tree with his family, so he wanted to start that traditon with our kids as well. So we packed up the babies and drove about an hour away to a tree farm to search for the perfect tree. It really is a fun experience, just a little difficult to do with twins.

Carson all ready to go cut down his first tree.

Avery, bundled up and ready to go! It was freezing!

I tried my hardest to put both the babies in the Moby wrap. I probably tried for 30 minutes to get both of them in there..... they just don't fit anymore. So after a lot of frustration, we decided to each carry a baby.
Which resulted in...............

...........Super daddy cutting down a tree with a baby strapped to him!

And the final result!!

One more cute Christmas picture of the babies at our ABF Christmas party!

I love this time of year so much. This Christmas is going to be so much fun. I can't wait to spend it with my new little family! What a blessing!

Rolling and Smiling

Carson and Avery turned 2 months old on Sunday. We are so proud of our babies, they had an eventful week this past week. They started smiling.... the staring right at your face, interactive kind of smile. So, so sweet! They are also rolling. They both rolled over from front to back on Friday 11/27. I couldn't believe that they both rolled over on the same day. So competitive.

They both got their first immunizations on Monday, it was really sad. I had never heard Carson scream so loud.

Sweet smiling girl!

Avery weighed 10lbs 14oz (50th%) at her 2 month appointment and was 22.5 in. long (25th%)

She is such a sweet girl, and still very spirited!

She still loves to nap in her swing, but is starting to have more "happy awake" time during the day. She loves to sleep next to mommy at night (I know... bad habit, but sometimes you just gotta do whatever will get her to sleep!)

Happy boy
Carson weighed 11lbs 4oz (50th%) and was 22.5in long (25th%). We were so surprised that he passed his sister in weight.

He is such a happy boy and loves to look at himself in the mirror. He is starting to focus more on what we are saying to him and will just stare and smile at us when we talk to him. He hates the hiccups and has to be held while he has them... so sweet!

2 month picture

Look how much we've grown since 1 month ago!!

They are both wearing 0-3month clothes now. They officially can't fit into newborn clothes anymore. They are also starting to have one 4-5 hour sleeping stretch at night between feeds. Yay!!

So Thankful

Two more reasons to be Thankful this year!!

We had a great Thanksgiving at my parents house. We spent the day with family, friends, food and......

......football!! Sad loss for the Aggies, but still a good game!

Oklahoma!

We took the babies to Broken Bow Oklahoma this past weekend for my family's annual fishing trip weekend. We have been going to Broken Bow for many many years. We used to camp there during the summers when I was growing up. We started making the "fishing trip weekend" an annual thing when I was in college. My dad, my brother, and Shane go fishing early friday morning at lake Texoma and all the girls meet them in Broken Bow Friday afternoon. We have a big fish fry Friday night and then spend the weekend sitting by the fire, hiking, eating, and just spending time together. We usually go the same weekend as the Broken Bow fall folk festival, but this year we missed it.

Let me just tell you, traveling with two 8 week old babies is quite challenging. I tried my hardest to time our driving so that we wouldn't have to stop and feed them on the road, but of course we had to stop both ways for them to eat. They did pretty good though. My mom road up there with me which was a lifesaver. She spent the first half of the trip bent over the seat trying to keep paci's in their mouths, and then she finally just got back there and sat in between them. They did much better on the way home. The drive is a little over 3 hours normally, so it's not too far away. I have decided that we will most likely be traveling by air if we have to go anywhere far. Nothing stesses me out more than a screaming baby in the back seat that I can't reach.

Carson and daddy sitting by the camp fire.

This is us trying to take a picture of all the kids with their winter hats on. As you can see, Avery doesn't like hats!

Aren't they so cute in their snow suits? Ok, there wasn't any snow, but it still gets pretty cold there at night.

We had such a fun family weekend!

Can't wait till next year's trip.

We survived!

Well the twins survived their first colds. Avery woke up last Monday with congestion and a runny nose. It was so sad. My mom called me later that day and told me that my neice Kennedy had the flu. The kids had all been together over the weekend so I immediately convinced myself that Avery's congestion was the flu. Then my ICU nurse-mind went crazy and all I could do was picture my sweet baby girl in the hospital on the ventilator. (I know, so dramatic) After some guilt, tears, and a lot of worrying I realized that she was fine and it was most likely just a little cold. By Wednesday Carson had caught it. No fever or yucky cough, just lots of saline and suctioning. I think they are just about tired of the big blue suction bulb coming at their faces all the time! They are just about back to normal thankfully! Next time they get sick I will hopefully be a little less of a drama-mama!

Otherwise, we had a great week! Carson and Avery are 7 weeks old today. They seem so big to me already. Sunday night was the first night they slept 4 hours between feeds. It didn't last, Monday night they were back to waking up every 3. Avery's night time fussiness is getting better. We've discovered that the girl loves her swing. We can swaddle her up and put her in the swing and she will take a great nap! Carson has been wanting to be held a lot this past week. He usually is pretty content hanging out in his Boppy, but lately he has been wanting to be cuddled a lot, so sweet. He may have just been feeling a little yucky. I'm going to miss these days when they just want to be held all day long.

Now it's picture time!!

Cute picture of the week!

I promise they held hands all on their own, I didn't stage it.

Avery is really good at holding up her head.

She just doesn't like being on her tummy for very long.

I love this picture.

Carson's head is still pretty wobbly, but he is starting to hold it up more.

Gotta love bath time!
My favorite pajamas on them. They are just about to outgrow them though. Also, we moved up to size 1 diapers this past week. Now when I look at the newborn diapers, they seem so tiny.

Great Birthday!

I had a great 28th Birthday! Shane kept the babies in the living room and let me sleep all night and then he washed all the bottles before he went to work Tuesday morning! Those are probably the 2 nicest things someone could do for me these days! He surprised me with a birthday cake he made the night before while I was at Bible study! So sweet! We ate dinner on the patio at Christina's, watched the Biggest Loser and spent the evening snuggling with our sweet babies!! I'm so blessed to be 28 and have such an amazing husband and two perfect little babies! Thank you Lord for another year!

First Halloween

We enjoyed our first Halloween with our twins. Even though they had no idea what was going on, it was still fun to get dressed up and enjoy the night! It's hard to believe that next Halloween they may be walking.... crazy!! We went trick-or-treating with my family. It was Kennedy's first time to actually trick-or-treat... she was so cute!!

Avery with PaPa
Kennedy Trick-or-treating with MiMi

Me with my little skeleton and my little ghost. (They don't really make costumes small enough for newborns, so this is all we could find that fit them this year)

Avery and Carson with their cousin Taylor

One month old!!

Where has this month gone?? I feel like we just brought our babies home from the hospital and here they are one month old. Time is just flying by. This past month has been the most wonderful month we've had!! Yes it has been tiring and time consuming but I wouldn't trade it for the world. Carson is still my easy going boy..... he just goes with the flow. He is starting to have a lot of awake time during the morning but still sleeps a lot in the afternoon and evening. He is such a sweet baby! He is already eating 4oz every 3 hours.... he's trying his hardest to catch up to his big sister's weight. Avery had found her voice!! She is a very spirited little girl and loves to be held and walked around with! She doesn't like to be still. She has been really fussy in the evening hours and wants us to keep her moving and bouncing till she finally gives out and falls asleep. She also has been much more awake and alert during the day and has the biggest, most beautiful eyes!! They are both growing so much. They have almost outgrown their "up to 7 pounds" clothes and are starting to fit into their newborn clothes. We are slowly making our way out of the house more. This past week I took the babies to Target by myself...... I was so proud of myself. I put them in the Moby wrap and did my shopping, they did great. I highly recommend the Moby wrap to anyone who wants to grocery shop with twins... they loved being all snuggly with each other up against me, and you have your hands free. Thanks Allison for letting me borrow it!! Here are some pictures from the past couple of weeks.

First time in the Moby wrap... at my friend Amber's baby shower!
Hanging with Daddy

Playing in their activity gym

One month picture (I've seen some of my friends do this on their blogs... take their picture every month next to the same stuffed animal so you can see how much they've grown month to month. So I'd like to introduce you all to "Bunny" this was one of the two stuffed animals Shane slept with when he was growing up, the other was a giant Panda bear named "Muffy"..... so funny)

Sweet boy

Avery wasn't very happy about getting her picture taken!