Renna & Reagan are Two!!

About a week and a half ago our little ladies turned two! Where has the time gone? Everything seems to be going turbo speed. It is hard to believe these babies were such tiny little miracles only two years ago. They are at such a fun age right now, I just want time to stop for a little while so we can enjoy this stage. They are our little chatterboxes, talking constantly, laughing at each other, and even making up silly songs to sing!! I love seeing them become such good friends with each other. I often catch them hugging each other and holding hands. So rewarding to see. Renna is still a little shy around new people but is getting more outgoing everyday. She takes after her daddy in almost every way. She is very in to details and immediately notices when something is out of place and wants to fix it. They can now say most of the alphabet and can easily count to ten sometimes higher! Reagan is my little snuggler and definitely a momma's girl. She loves singing and any type of music makes her dance...I wonder who she gets that from? She is our little night owl and will stay up until 11 o'clock just singing and laughing. Such a happy girl.
We had a zebra party this year. It was a lot of fun for me decorating and dressing them up. I am sure next year they will tell me what kind of party they want, so I enjoyed one last year of primping them like princesses. Here the guests are just starting to show up and the girls were feeling a little overwhelmed. They soon warmed up and had a great time.
Our family picture with the cakes. I made the girls' name signs in the background.
Aunt Lindsay made the girls birthday cakes again. We were really impressed!! They looked amazing and tasted wonderful too. Thanks so much for making them Lindsay.
The girls playing outside on their new grill while daddy cooked for everyone. Thanks for the grill Grammy and Papa, it is a real hit. Here they are with their best friend Natalie and our friend Molly. They really had fun with their friends this year at the party.
Daddy hard at work grilling the food. Uncle Dustin looks very hungry!
Enjoying the cookout from the highchairs.
Opening presents was really fun. They got a ton of gifts. We want to thank all of our friends and family for coming and celebrating with us. The girls had a fantastic time.
We got the girls their first tricycles!! It has really been a hit....especially the music and buttons to push on the trikes. They have figured out to put their feet on the pedals but haven't been able to make it go using the pedals yet. Mommy is getting a good back workout pushing them.
Grandma, Papa, and MeMe got them their first bouncy horse. They absolutely love it. This was one of my favorite toys as a child so I love seeing them enjoy one too! Thanks!
The girls actually blew out the candles on their cakes! It was so cute. I was surprised that they understood what to do. Here is Reagan doing hers.
Renna blowing out her candles.
The day after the party the girls got to eat their own piece of cake and since they weren't in their special outfits I let them enjoy it and get it everywhere. My silly Renna cheesin it up for the camera.
My sweet Reagan with her cake face. Don't those brown eyes just melt your heart? I have enjoyed these last two years more than I ever knew I could. I don't think we could have asked for such special double blessings! God has far exceeded my expectations of how rewarding it is to be a mother. To see them so healthy and happy is the best gift anyone could ever give me. I love every second I spend with these little girls. Looking forward to many more memories and adventures in the Life with the Laughlins.

First Fishing Trip

For my birthday we went out to my parent's house for the girls first fishing trip. This was actually the same day as the march of dimes walk, so we had some tired girls since they didn't even nap. They loved every minute of it. They got filthy dirty, played in the red dirt, fished, watched frogs and turtles, road four wheelers, and of course ate cupcakes and ice cream! What a great birthday I had. The girls seem to like the fishing but mostly loved playing in the dirt with their cousins. You can see how dirty and sweaty they are here. But can't you see how much fun they are having? It was catch and release since our niece and nephew enjoy feeding the fish daily, but we still had a great time. Hopefully it is the first of many fishing trips in our future.Aunt Amy and Renna were great fishing buddies. You can kind of tell in this picture how much Renna looks like my sister, they have the same profile for sure. Aren't they a cute pair?

Reagan holding the pole and pointing out at the bobber.
Daddy fishing

Renna was very serious about the fishing for the first 3 minutes anyways!
Reagan getting a closeup look at Papa's catfish.
Uncle Ray with his prize catfish.
Sara, Gage, and Renna touching Papa's catfish.
Mommy and Reagan...the serious fisherwomen! I actually caught the biggest fish but the line broke when we got him up on the bank and he flopped back in...that sounds like a fishing tail doesn't it? No pictures=No fish
Papa teaching Renna how to cast a line!
Of course Grandma brought snacks. The girls have never eaten so good! I guess everything tastes better out in the great outdoors. It was a wonderful birthday and I was constantly reminded how blessed I am to be the mom to these girls and have such an amazing family.

Team Laughin Twins March for Babies

We recently did our annual March for Babies and we had a beautiful day and a great turnout for our team. We had 22 adults, 15 kids in strollers, and two babies on the way in their mommies' tummies! Wow! We had an amazing group and we raised almost $1600! We want to thank all of our friends, family, and others who supported us by walking or by donating. Adam and I were very pleased with the results and feel like we are all working together to make a difference in the lives of many children who are born prematurely. This photo is of the girls playing right before the walk. They were so excited about the stickers and the pom poms being handed out. They were my little troopers and rode in their strollers the whole way without complaining.
I posted this one out of order but here are the girls at the end of the walk, exhausted and hot! My sweet little ladies are all tuckered out.
Quick family picture at the end of the walk.
Here is part of the team anyways. It was a little crazy at the beginning and we didn't end up getting a photo of the whole group this year. So if we missed getting you in the picture, sorry but we appreciate each and every one of you.
Amanda, Ava, Ally, Amy, Michelle, Frannie and Atticus walking.
Sonya, Darran, Natalie, Chandra, Sophia, Lilly, and my mom
The girls with their friend Paisley and her grandma, Dawn. Paisley's momma made a shirt that said Team Renna & Reagan for her to wear!! So cute. It gave me a great idea to make the girls some shirts to wear next year. We love that little girl...and her family too!
A group of us went to the park to each lunch after the walk. Here I am with my best friend Sonya, her daughter Natalie, little Sophia (my good friend Chandra's little girl), and my niece Sara.
I love this picture of the girls with their best friend Natalie. They have such a good time together...I look forward to many fun memories with them all playing together.
My friend, Michelle and her kids, Frannie and Atticus. Michelle and I have been through a lot together from high school to college and now babies! It is so fun to get to see our children play together now. I wish I could name everyone who walked with us and post pictures of everyone but we simply didn't get all the pictures I wanted. Just know we appreciated each and everyone of you and we cannot thank you enough for supporting Renna and Reagan and our cause! We are a very blessed family.

Happy Belated Easter!

Here are a few pre-Easter pictures daddy took! He did a great job with our little mini-photo session. I was really pleased with the results; however, it is becoming increasingly harder to get a good picture of both girls looking the same way and smiling at the same time. Adam took over 600 pictures and this is the best one we got of both of them...amazingly enough it was one of the first pictures he took. Anyways, don't they look precious and grown-up in their Easter best?
Love this picture of my sweet Reagan so excited about the tulips!
This is my favorite one of Renna using her oh my face looking at a passing car.
Just had to post this one because the girls were walking holding hands! It has become a fun thing they like to do when we are out walking somewhere. How precious is that? They are certainly starting to really show their love for one another and serious concern when the other sister is not around. I just love it!! Don't get me wrong, they fight a lot too but overall they love each other a ton. We feel like they are so lucky to grow up together as little built in play friends!
The day before Easter we colored Easter eggs with Grammy and Papa and celebrated Easter with them. Reagan is proudly displaying her blue egg and blue hand! They really enjoyed their first time coloring Easter eggs. Thanks Grammy for letting us make such a mess. It was lots of fun.
Renna and Grammy coloring her eggs.
We next hunted the Easter eggs and surprisingly enough the girls really caught onto it. It was so cute because they had two very different styles of hunting their eggs. Reagan so thoughtfully stopped to open each one and examine the contents before moving on with a little prodding. It was really sweet to see her take so much time with each one.
Here they are with their baskets, if you notice Renna's is full and all the eggs are still together. Reagan's has a lot less eggs and all of hers are open with the contents spilling out!
Renna's egg hunt strategy was to rapidly put as many in her basket as she could. She really did a great job and kept dropping ones back down out of the overflowing basket. This system worked great because Reagan came along and proudly opened the dropped eggs! They are a perfect team!
This is Easter morning before church. My parents and my grandma came to go to our church with us. This was their first time coming to go to our church and the girls really loved it and so did we. Thanks so much for coming and sharing Easter with us. Church went well and we got to come home and eat at our house a nice home cooked meal that my mom made. It was a great day to celebrate our Savior's Resurrection.
Quick family photo before we walked out the door. So glad we got this quick shot since we managed to get no pictures of the girls opening their baskets that the Easter bunny brought.
A little Easter chocolate aftermath! After naptime we let the girls open and eat their very first individual chocolate and peanut butter bunnies. They were super excited about it. I guess the girls know when they have something good because they both cried for more when they were all gone. Anyways we had a very blessed Easter and loved spending time with both of our families. I guess you could say that our cup runneth over.

The Laughlin Twins March for Babies

Here are the girls after a long day of playing outside. They love sitting on this ledge at the base of our house. It is the perfect size for their little bottoms. I love these milk and cookie outfits because they say "Can't have one...." "Without the other". That is pretty much how we feel about it too!

Most of you know our girls were born 3 months premature at only 28 weeks of gestation. Renna weighed 2lbs 15oz and Reagan weighed 2lbs. 10oz. They spent two and a half months in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and endured countless transfusions, IV's, bloodwork and surgeries just to name a few. They recieved wonderful and life-saving care. Adam and I feel so blessed to have them here with us and healthy little 22 month old toddlers. We are walking to support the March of Dimes again this year. The March of Dimes supports research for babies who are born prematurely or with congenital birth defects. This research likely helped save our daughters' lives. We want to give back as much as we can to help support such a wonderful cause. On May 7 Team Laughlin Twins will be marching for healthier babies. If you can help support us in anyway please visit our team website at: http://www.marchforbabies.org//team/t1496348. Any donation you can make is greatly appreciated and may help save some babies who are in similar situations that ours were in. We hope that someday all babies will be born healthy. We want to thank our family and friends who have supported us through this journey. We are so blessed beyond what we deserve. God has truly done amazing things in our lives and continues to do so everyday. We feel so blessed to be the parents of these two beautiful girls who continue to amaze us everyday.

Here are a few pictures of them when they were in the NICU.

Renna at about 2 weeks old
One of the girls at 2 days old.
Reagan several weeks old.