We are on the move...

A little baby wrestling
Daddy and Renna headed out for a walk. See how excited they are!
Getting ready to go out to play.
Cute winter outfits, some clients got these for us and we just love them.

Okay so no they are not crawling, but Renna goes wherever she wants by rolling around and arching her back to do a sort of a backwards crawl thing. It sounds really odd and it is. The developmental specialist said, not many babies do that!! That was her nice way of saying, that is so weird!! Anyways we think it is pretty cute except that she is rubbing all the hair off the back of her little head. And lets be honest my girls don't have much to spare. Renna is developing this pretty thick patch of beautiful blond hair right down the center of her head...just not growing much anywhere else. Reagan is doing great as well but hasn't quite mastered the rolling all over the living room yet. Adam baby proofed a lot of stuff in the living room and I can only imagine how it is going to go once both girls are really on the move. Reagan's hair is getting lighter and lighter as well. She has always been my little dark haired girl but it continues to get lighter. At least hers is growing all over her head just not as thick. The girls are also both sitting up on their own! What an accomplishment. Now I say that but of course they don't always hold it very long and I must always stay close to catch them before the inevitable crash to the floor. We are working on balancing and learning to catch themselves with their hands. This is much easier said than done. Everyday seems to have new moves and challenges and we are loving every minute of it. Renna is now officially saying "da da." It is very exciting but we are pretty sure she has no idea who da da is right now. She will rarely say it on command but we both just love it when she does say it. I am convinced that miss Reagan is going to save up her words and blurt out mama one day! You better believe we are working on that one. Reagan is our little growler. So adorable! They are eating solid foods usually three times a day and we are introducing fruits. Now all who know me well know that I hate any and all fruit. I know it is crazy...I can't help that I am a super taster (AKA picky eater)! Anyways we started bananas this week and so far Renna is hating them and making terrible grimaces and scrunching her face. I am powering through and continuing to give them to her but I must admit it is very hard. I want to tell her how much I sympathize with her...don't worry I am not. My children will eat fruit...I hope! They have never been great bottle drinkers but are really seeming to enjoy the solid foods. Yeah!! I am convinced it is because I am making the baby food myself. We got our last RSV shot this week and are very excited about that. I am continuing to long for spring and have really enjoyed a few days of nice weather recently. We have gone on a few short walks and rides in the golf cart to see the horses and we all seem to enjoy it. I can't wait to get them out to meet all of our friends and spend some time outdoors. I am sure it will be an adjustment for me and the girls. We have always been on a pretty strict schedule and it will be hard for us to become a little more flexible in order to get out and do a few things. I know it will be worth it though. The girls are sleeping a little better, last night they slept for nine hours straight which is a record for us. I am sure it won't happen often but I am pretty proud of them. I really enjoyed my sleep and of course had to wake up and go make sure they were still breathing! Crazy, I know!

Happy Valentines Day!

Hope everyone enjoys some time together with their little (or their big) lovebugs!

They are catching up...

Daddy's little Deer (thats what the outfit says) sweet big brown eyed Reagan
The girls working hard at pushing up!
Precious blue eyes Renna
Renna
Reagan
Reagan loving the green beans
Renna not loving the green beans

We are all doing well here. Just wanted to give an update on the baby food making. I am loving it. It has been really fun so far. Thanks for all of the encouragement and advice. I will let the pictures of the girls eating speak for them! The pictures are of them eating the green beans for the first time. Their faces were priceless. I am not sure they appreciate my cooking now but hopefully they begin to appreciate it. We have now tried green beans and peas. Yesterday my mom and grandma came to help and we cooked for like two hours and made more green beans, spinach and carrots. I can't wait for the girls to try them. I really love having my mom and grandma come help me, the girls really enjoy it too. We are so lucky to have family close. Thanks grandma and MeMe! We survived the ice storm and never lost our electricity...thank goodness. Adam luckily got to have four days off work due to the storm. It was so perfect. We stayed warm in the house with the girls and Adam kept a fire going while I cooked and we drank hot chocolate and played with the girls! It was really wonderful. I hated the ice for everyone but we loved the time it created for our family. The girls are pushing up on their arms a lot now and starting to get their little bottoms up in the air for a brief second. It is so cute! I thought since we dropped a bottle feeding I would have more free time but now we are feeding three meals of solid food so I actually have less time. Of course I am loving every second of it. They are starting to eat a little better and even seem to enjoy some of the food. Of course there is still more on the bib and face than probably in the mouth but that is okay. We do have great news that the developmental specialist came and the girls have successfully passed all of their six month milestones!! This is a huge step for us even though they are almost eight months old they have started making rapid progress to catch up to their actual age instead of their adjusted age. So they are catching up rapidly! Adam and I are so proud of them. It is weird to think about because they should just now be five months old if they had been born at their due date. God has blessed us so much with their progress and I continue to be amazed at what they do each day. Renna has been sleeping much better this week. I am not going to say anymore so as not to jinx us. I will let you know if it continues. Not much else exciting is going on right now. We have lots of doctors appointments this month but hopefully they all go smoothly. We are counting the days until spring when we can show our girls off! Adam and I escaped to the mall and a movie the other night (thanks for watching the girls Grammy and Papa Ron) and we were talking about how the girls will be in total culture shock when they go to a public place like the mall, church, or even a restaurant. They certainly won't know what to do with so many people to look at. I am sure there will be some scared tears but we will adjust. I can't wait!! We have so many things to show them.....come on Spring!!

We started solid foods!

Renna
Reagan

Daddy and the girls getting ready for a ride in little red
Renna, Daddy, and Fancy
Me, Reagan, and Fancy. Doesn't she look excited?

Well we finally broke down and started solid foods...if you consider mushy rice cereal solids!! We talked with our pediatrician and decided together that the girls weren't ready to try foods until they were 7 months. Well last week we started the rice cereal and they still can't decide if they like it very well. Reagan seems more eager to open her mouth than Renna. This surprised us because we are lucky to get Reagan to drink 3.5 oz in a bottle but maybe she just wants real food! Can you blame her? Her momma is a meat and potatoes girl so I can totally sympathize. Anyways they make some really funny faces when we start the feeding. I tried to capture some but that is easier said than done. We are starting slowly and will be increasing the frequency of the feedings this week. We are hoping to not compound the constipation issues with the addition of solid foods...the prune juice daily continues to help us out. One thing I was surprised about is how big and grown up they look in their little high chairs. They are getting so big and it just surprised me how they don't look like little tiny babies anymore! Makes me kind of sad but excited for the adventures that lay ahead. I am going to try and make my baby food with the help of my friend Chandra's advice. If anyone has any great tips for how you all make your baby food let me know! I plan on doing another week of rice and then starting a new food....I will let you know how it goes. We have been doing great. The girls have successfully had two days of only five bottles. This is a huge step for us so I hope we can keep it up. They are sleeping better at night. Reagan really sleeps for 7 hours which is awesome, Renna is another story and still tries to wake up every 3-4 hours. She is getting better though. At the advice of several friends we got a sound machine yesterday to try and drown out the noise of each other since they constantly wake each other up. I hope it helps. The girls are rolling over all the time and trying to push up on their arms. It is so cute. They have also both found their feet and love holding onto them. Reagan has even started sucking on her toe...gross! I will try to get a picture of that soon! We enjoyed a little outdoors time with the nice weather...short trips of course. Papa Ron recently gave us his old golf cart and we love it. Thanks so much Papa Ron! It is so fun to drive around the pasture and up and down our long driveway. I think the girls enjoy it as well. We got a few pictures of them with the horses yesterday. I think I hopefully have a couple of horse lovers. The horses were just as curious about them as the girls were. Hopefully we have a few more nice days...I am aching to get outside. Spring can't get here fast enough for me! My poor daughters have barely seen the actual sunlight due to the quarantine. Hopefully we can make up for it this summer.

Look What Daddy Made!

Late night spent working on crib #2
The begining load of wood for crib #2
My Beautiful cutting board
Renna's Crib
Window cornices
Sisterly love
Every cowgirl needs some pink John Deere clothes!

Those of you who know Adam know he likes doing woodworking. Before we even graduated from vet school he had started building a crib out of maple. It is a pretty involved project and the crib converts to a toddler bed and then a full bed. It was no small undertaking. He was almost done with the first crib when we found out we were pregnant....keep in mind it had been about a year and a half at least. After the shock of finding out we were having twins began to set in Adam immediately stated he of course had to make another crib. I said no don't worry we will just buy the other one. Of course Adam wouldn't have that. So he set to work on starting the second crib while he was commuting and completing his last year of vet school! Well as you can imagine I am very proud of him and his work. Both cribs came out so beautifully and I can't believe I haven't posted pictures sooner. Now since the girls have been born the woodworking has slowed down but Adam did manage to make me, my mom, and his mom beautiful cutting boards! I just love it! As you know he also made me some window cornices for the girls room. So this post is dedicated to all of daddy's hard work making all the beautiful things he made for me and the girls. He is such a wonderful daddy and husband. I am so blessed to have him. I must also of course say thank you to my mother -in-law for making the beautiful bedding and to Jennifer for making the curtains! Thanks I just love their room and know they will appreciate it one day too. We are doing well here. Can't believe the girls turned 7 months yesterday. They are growing up so fast. Renna now weighs 14 lbs. 4oz. and Reagan is a whopping 12lbs. 11oz!! We have just started wearing our 3-6 month clothing. Can't believe how big they are getting. It seems like their first birthday is now just around the corner...maybe they will start sleeping through the night before their birthday!! Lets hope! I am also including a few pictures of the girls. As you can see, Reagan is always moving in Renna's space trying to get attention.

A White Christmas

We had a wonderful first Christmas with the girls. Of course the blizzard conditions altered some of our plans to go visit my parents, but they ended up coming to us on the weekend so all was well. Adam enjoyed several days off from work and the girls and I loved having him home. We got to spend all day Christmas eve and most of Christmas day at home, just our family of four. We did venture out in the snow ten minutes down the road to visit Adam's parents on the evening of Christmas. His parents even bought "twin christmas trees" to now plant in their yard in honor of the girls' first Christmas. Then as I said my parents came to see us on the weekend. Although this years Christmas was unconventional due to the weather and the quarantine, we had a wonderful time with our parents. The girls received way to many gifts and now our house is covered with plastic toys that sing and have flashing lights! It is so fun to see the girls learning to play and watch some of their new toys. They are really starting to enjoy each other a lot more which is wonderful to see as well. We took the girls out in the snow for about 45 seconds to get a picture of their first snow. Of course they did not appreciate it but we at least got a picture for our baby book. Adam made me some window cornices (spelling?) and got some curtains made for the girls room for Christmas. I just love them! Thanks Jennifer for making the curtains, they are beautiful. I will post some pictures of them soon. Hope everyone enjoyed the holidays. We sure did and we realized every moment how blessed we were to be getting to spend our first Christmas with our little girls. I never knew Christmas could be so fun until I had little ones to get presents for and open gifts with. Can't wait until next year when maybe they will know a little bit more about what is going on. Hope everyone has a Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

We had to post a few pictures of Santa's Little Helpers. The girls are pretty excited about Christmas as you can see. I was sad about not being able to take them to see Santa without being exposed to other kids....so our friends Moose, Amber, and Dawn provided us with a germ free santa experience! Thanks guys we really appreciate it! The whole family really enjoyed it! We will be spending time with each of our parents for Christmas but without our sisters and nieces and nephews due to the quarantine. They will all be greatly missed. We hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and enjoys getting to spend some time with their families.