March of Dimes Walk

Mother's Day after church
The Laughlin Family
My sister and her family
My friend Michelle and her son Atticus
Chandra, Me, Shelly (and baby on the way), Lilly, the girls, and Piper
Amanda, Ava, and Me
Stacey, Amber (and baby Gil on the way), and the girls
The fabulous Four
Reagan
Renna
Brittney, Adam, me, and the girls
Team Laughlin Twins!

As you can see our first March of Dimes walk was a huge success! We had a wonderful team of family and friends who came and walked with us in honor of Renna and Reagan. We had 24 adults, 11 kids, and two babies on the way!! Adam and I were very pleased with our numbers for our first year and even more excited about how much money we raised. Together we all raised $1950!! Yeah!! What a huge accomplishment. The kids all did really well in spite of the cool weather. They were all troopers. I couldn't have been given a better Mother's Day weekend. What a great gift for so many people who we love to come walk for healthy babies. Thanks so much to everyone who helped or donated. We are so blessed. We are all doing good here. The girls have been a little under the weather this week and Reagan is getting her first tooth!! So I guess we are in for a welcoming to the wonderful world of teething babies, I am sure Renna isn't far behind. I had to post the picture at the top of the girls in their sweet little dresses after church on Mother's Day. What more could a momma ask for?

Our busy life!

This past month has flown by. Since being out of quarantine we have been a busy family. Both girls are now crawling and constantly on the go. We have had several fun play dates and family outings. Here are a few pictures for a quick recap of what we've been doing.
We had our first official visit to a park where they actually got to swing like big girls instead of just ride in the stroller. Thanks for the beautiful bows Amanda!
We went on a trip to Sonic and the park with the girls' boyfriend, Owen! Isn't he so cute? I think he was a little overwhelmed by his high maintenance ladies crying in the car, but he never made a peep. We have such a good time walking with him and his mommy, Allison.
We made our first visit to a restaurant as a family of four! The girls did quite well. It is surprising how many people stopped to talk to the girls. They were a big hit.
Play date with our friends: Molly, Reagan, Lilly, Sophia, and Renna. It was so fun to get together with some girlfriends from college and let our daughters play. Lilly and Sophia belong to one of my best and oldest friends Chandra (high school and college friend) and Molly belongs to Amber who is a dear friend from college. Maybe all our daughters will go to college together one day.
Reagan started crawling! Here she is showing off. She is keeping me on my toes now.
Renna is now pulling up on the furniture and her favorite place to hang out is here on the fireplace. Can you tell by her face that she enjoys making her momma nervous about smacking her chin on the brick? We have officially fenced in our living room as a safe play area...it looks like a fortress. We will post some pictures of that soon.
My very best friend Sonya has a little girl, Natalie who is only three weeks younger than the girls (their gestational age anyways). We got together for a long awaited playdate. They had so much fun. We hope they become lifelong friends just like their mommas. The girls just love it when Natalie comes to play. We also took a fun trip to the zoo with Natalie as well.
Reagan, Natalie, and Renna
We went to the zoo with my friend Michelle and her two kids, Frannie and Atticus. This picture was at the end of our journey and they were all really tired.
And finally we went to our first birthday party. My neice Sara turned five so we had our first party experience! The girls loved playing with the balloons. We had a wonderful time. The three oldest kids on the left are actually triplets who are now seven! Wow! I pumped their mom for some good advice. Well, that is our quick update. As you can see we have been very busy but enjoying getting out. It is very exhausting for all of us involved but worth every minute.

March for Babies

Renna
Reagan

As most of you know our girls were born three months premature at only 28 weeks of gestation. Renna weighed 2lbs. 15 oz. and Reagan weighed 2lbs. 10 oz. They spent over two months in the neonatal ICU and endured many IVs, blood tests, ultrasounds, x-rays, blood transfusions, and surgeries just to name a few. This is something no parents should ever have to watch their children endure. They received wonderful, life saving care while they were in the NICU. The March of Dimes works to help fund research for premature babies like my girls, without some of this research and medical knowledge our story may have not had such a happy outcome. Adam and I are eternally grateful for the outstanding medical care that the girls received at such a critical time in their lives. Organizations like the March of Dimes support neonatal research for premature babies as well as those born with congenital defects. We feel so honored that God blessed us with these two little miracle babies and chose us to be their parents! What an amazing journey this last 10 months has been. Our journey as first time parents did not start as we had planned but we feel doubly blessed to have these little ladies. We feel moved to help support the March of Dimes cause so we have organized, Team Laughlin Twins to walk in the March of Dimes this year. We have many friends and family that have signed up to walk with us in honor of Renna and Reagan. We have a team website that you can visit to make a donation to the March of Dimes in honor of Renna and Reagan. Any financial help you give to the March of Dimes will be put to good use and will go to benefit premature babies. Our hope is that one day all babies will be born healthy. Thanks in advance for your support in this cause. Our team website is: http://www.marchforbabies.org/team/t1369221

I also want to say a quick thank you to everyone who has blogged about our walk, signed up to walk with us, and donated their money for this cause! What an amazing support system we have been blessed with. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. We are all doing great and will post pictures of some of our outings soon.

Love, Adam, Mendy, Renna, and Reagan

Happy Belated Easter!

Adam took these pictures of the girls in our front yard. I think he did a great job! Of course he had some very beautiful babies to work with. The girls were fascinated with the daffodils.


We spent Saturday at my parents house. It was a beautiful day for coloring Easter Eggs and some fun on the farm. This is their first time meeting their cousins (my sister's kids): Reagan, Sara, Renna, and Gage. The four of them had such a great time together. The girls were really fascinated by their first time seeing other little people who move and talk!
The girls got to sit on Tilly, the family guard donkey. We didn't really walk or move around but they seemed to like sitting there. I think this will be the first of many rides. It makes their momma proud!
We got to feed the chickens.The girls really enjoyed watching them. Sara even picked one up for them so they got an up close view! My grandma's sister was also down for a visit so we also got to enjoy some time with Aunt Florice.
The four cousins together at last with their Grandma and Great Grandma. Don't they look cute?
Our first family Easter was also our first trip to church. We really enjoyed seeing all our friends from church. The girls did really well sitting with us through Sunday school and then services. We were very proud of them. They didn't have any major stranger danger meltdowns so that was a huge success. Hopefully we weren't too distracting to everyone. Adam and I were more exhausted than the girls were once we got home.

After church Sunday we had lunch and spent some time with Adam's family. The girls got to meet their other cousins for the first time (Adam's sister's kids) Isaac, Renna, Avery, and Reagan.

So as you can see we broke out of quarantine in a big way. We had an exhausting weekend and realized we will soon have to become more flexible with our strict schedule if we want to enjoy more outings. We really enjoyed being together with our families for the first time since the girls had been born. We look forward to many more family get together. The girls have so much to learn from their older cousins. We have worried a lot about the girls getting sick once they got out and of course 24 hours later they were sick! So we have been struggling a little this week and trying to recover from a viral upper respiratory bug. I have gotten it as well and I am sure Adam is soon to follow. I guess we knew it was inevitable but had hoped to at least get a good week of fun in before the illness. We did get 48 hours of fun and we loved every minute. The doctor tested the girls for the dreaded RSV and it was negative. What an answered prayer. They seem to be feeling much better today and are no longer running fevers. Hopefully this doesn't slow us down for too long. The immune systems are now hard at work. You never know what we might be up to next. Renna is now doing the army crawl so she is keeping me on my toes. We will keep you posted.

One week to go!

A little indoor fun in the wagon
First time taking a bath together
Sippy cups make great toys
Watching mom and dad work outside
Renna and the backwards crawl
A little sisterly love

One more week to go and the quarantine (aka house arrest) will be done!! Yeah!! You cannot begin to imagine how excited Adam and I are. I am sure the girls would be excited if they new that there lies a whole big new world beyond these walls that doesn't involve shots at the doctor's office!! We have been on house arrest since they came home in August...8 months of house arrest!! It has actually flown by and we were just so thankful to have the girls home from the hospital and healthy that we haven't minded it too much. But I can honestly say I am now super excited about the future that lies ahead. I can only imagine the challenges that are going to present themselves but I know we will conquer. Lately we have been very busy with new stuff at home. Adam is working on tearing out our old deck and putting in a new one. This has presented many challenges but we know it will be great when it gets done. He is such a hard worker and I am so proud of him for undertaking this huge project. My friend Courtney (mom of triplet boys) said they have been using bath seats to speed up the bath process. What an ingenious idea! Thanks to my sister in law and mother in law and a consignment sale we now have two functioning bath seats. They work really well and have cut down our bathing time by half. It is so fun to have them in the bath at the same time and anything we can do to save time is a must. My parents and my grandma got the girls an early birthday present this week...a red wagon!! I am so excited about it and the girls seem to love it to. I have been wanting a way to be able to take the girls to the swings or out to feed the horses without having to get out the stroller every time. I must say that the bath seats also work great in the wagon to keep the girls from rolling all over one another. What a great invention. I am going to enjoy taking the girls around the yard by myself and being able to have my hands free. We also started trying sippy cups. This mostly resorts in a lot of throwing cups on the floor and wet laps but they really think it is fun. I think they may be starting to figure out that it provides a drink but we aren't there yet. Reagan has made a few new developments this week. She has started patty-caking by herself and said DaDa for the first time! We are so proud of her. Renna continues to crawl around on her back but is getting up on all fours a lot more now and rocking back and forth. She usually just gets frustrated and resorts to the backwards crawl that she knows can get her around. Reagan is also getting up on all fours a little bit. I have a feeling a lot of changes are soon in store for our family. The Laughlin Twins will soon be making their debut so you never know where you might find us.

9 months old

We had our nine month checkup this week....it seems so unbelievable that the girls are already so old. The doctor was very happy with their weight and their progress. Renna weighs 16lbs. 70z. which is amazing. I cannot believe she is that big. Reagan weighs 14lbs. 4oz, which is a lot of progress in the last month for her. I like to think the weight gain is due to my wonderful homemade baby food! Anyways our goal is to end the quarantine in April and to gradually start introducing the girls to the public world of germs. We will be counting the days.

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!