First Visit with Santa

The girls went and saw Santa tonight. Every year, Santa visits this house and sits in his sleigh for two hours and kids can tell him what they want. We have visited him in the past with my niece and nephew and one of Wes's cousins. This year we were able to visit him with our own kids.

Fortunately, it was a great night. It was really warm and we were able to walk right up. There was another family leaving as we drove up. I walked up to him with Lizzie and Wes asked if he could handle two. He thought he could. The girls did really well. When we went to take the girls from Santa, both had grabbed Santa's beard. We had to untangle their hands and leave Santa. Of course, I was more excited than the girls.


Lizzie wasn't so sure in this one


It was only slightly better in this one.

We also had a special present under the tree the other day......

Random photos and video

Gracie is playing with her new friend Lauren with Daddy and Lauren's daddy Greg.


Gracie playing with her toys while Grandma and Papa visit.



Lizzie playing while Grandma and Papa visit.

And lastly....

Merry Christmas!

Six Months

Today is the girls six months birthday. They were born six months ago and are 1/2 a year old. It doesn't seem like it was that long ago. They have come a long way since the first time I saw them in the NICU. Even then, we knew that they weren't identical. I thought they looked nothing alike. It was fun seeing them for the first time. It was surreal to know that what I was looking at was in my belly only a few hours before.

The only thing that we weren't ready for was the NICU time. We spent four nights in the hospital to be close to the girls. We were there for almost every feeding. To get a change of scenery, Wes would take me in the wheel chair and take me on tours of the hospital. He wheeled me all over that place. We would go visit the night nurses in antepartum that treated me.

After I was discharged, I would go up in the morning right before lunch and then come home. Wes would get home from work at 3:00 (after he would go in at 6:00am) so we could go back up for the 5:00 and 8:00 feeding. I would pump in between in the "pump room" at the hospital. That was not fun either because I always worried that someone would walk in on me.

It was hard going to the hospital every day and seeing other mommies and daddies take their babies home while we had to leave ours there. We knew it was the best for the girls, but I would cry and pray every night that soon I would take them home. It was a very rough time for us. Those little girls kept us worried too. They were hooked up to monitors that would go off when the girls would forget to breathe. It was so scary. We spent one evening there just watching Gracie's monitor go off every couple of minutes. Wes refused to leave. He had blood shot eyes and would just watch. I finally told him I couldn't take it anymore and was hurting from my c-section and we went home. We did learn a lot about caring for the girls from the nurses. We knew what to look for as issues and how to deal with them.

Anyway, the best thing is that the girls are home and growing big. Every day is exciting and exhausting. Hopefully, tonight they will let us sleep and not wake up. They are still not feeling well from the ear infections, but are better.

Grandparents are Great!

Grandparents are great! My parents came to help with the girls because of the ear infections. It's been great. I've never known anyone who loves to change diapers! It really helful to have them.

Sick day

Today was the first time I stayed home with sick babies. It didn't go as bad as I thought. The girls did pretty well. Both girls were feeling better so they weren't as crabby. We went to the doctor which is always fun with two babies. Fortunately, they always help me and the girls weren't fussy. It did get lots of comments from the other parents.

Even though the girls are doing better, I can't keep Grandma away. She and Papa are on their way now to help with the girls. I really appreciate my parents and that they are close enough to help us. With two girls and working full time, it's good to have them close.

Sick babies

Well, this weekend the girls got their first ear infection. Poor Gracie has been screaming off and on all day because it hurts. Both girls have a fever. Gracie woke up yesterday with a fever. We called the doctor and gave her Tylenol and her fever went down. Then it went back up again. Wes had to take her to the kiddie urgent care while I stayed at home and cleaned for a Christmas party.

Today, Lizzie at around 1:00 got a fever. Wes went back to the kiddie urgent care and found out that Lizzie had an ear infection in the same ear as Gracie. She's doing better than Gracie because we caught her's quicker. So, Lizzie has been sleepy all day.

On top of the ear infection, both girls now have colds. So, tomorrow I get to take a day off of work to stay home with two cranky sick babies. I feel sorry for the girls because I know it must hurt. They look at us like we should fix it and we can't.

One year ago.....

Yesterday was the anniversary of finding out I was pregnant with the girls. It was one year ago that we got up early and went to have the blood test to find out if I was pregnant. I remember we were 3rd or 4th in line. The other woman who had a transfer the same day I did was there too. It was very nerve racking. We were told that we wouldn't have results until after 2:00pm. Wes and I went home, got in our separate cars and went to work.

On my way to work, I decided to rear-end someone and ended up totaling the car. I called Wes and he freaked. He turned around, came and got me. He told the police that he was taking me to the hospital and I was pregnant.

We got to the hospital and as I was being checked into the ER (my first trip ever), the cop came and gave Wes a lecture and told him to calm down. It was kind of funny. He told Wes that he couldn't imagine how he would react in the delivery room.

They took me back to a room and checked me out. They did a pregnancy test and told me it was positive. Wes and I didn't believe their test and asked to do a second blood test. They did it and it was positive again! We were so excited. While I was in the ER, I had called the doctors office and told them about the accident. Later that day, they called to check on me and said I was the third person they had that day (who did a blood test) to have a car accident. Anyway, I was able to tell the nurse that I was pregnant. It usually worked the other way around..... It was a crazy and exciting day!

There were two good things that day. I was pregnant and we were able to buy a new bigger car for the girls.....