December Happenings

I don't know where the month of December went but it has come and gone and I have very few pictures to show for it. All our family left (Erik's mom and step-dad who live nearby even left for 2 wks) and Erik was back at work so I was on my own with 3 little ones and I didn't go anywhere. I actually did take the kids to our church Christmas party by myself, but only because I knew that I'd have tons of help (we have a good ward and AMAZING friends in it). Fortunately the boys slept through the whole thing and J's nursery leaders took her along with their own bunch to the activities (they did a "Polar Express" theme for the kids- and it would have been too hard to push the boys around for the whole thing) and I was able to sit and visit with some friends. Sometime during the month, I had both boys propped up next to each other in the Boppy pillow and W decided that he was hungry (that kid is always hungry) so he started sucking on C's head. Erik switched positions at work in the early part of the month. He's no longer on Patrol, he's in a division called IFR (don't ask me what that means) it's an investigative division. We like it, especially since he had a 4 day weekend over Christmas. On Christmas Even we went to a Hot Cocoa social at my dear friend Sarah's house, when that was done we went home for our own little Christmas Eve celebrations. We had a ham dinner, watched the Church's Nativity DVD and read the Christmas story from Luke and read a few other Christmas stories, then put the little ones to bed (at their usual hour I might add). And then it was time for Santa to get busy - wasn't able to do as much as he's wanted to because it was raining. On Christmas morning, J came and woke us up around 7. She played with her Santa gifts while I made breakfast. We ate and then made our way over to the tree. I didn't get too many pictures Christmas morning, blame it on lack of sleep or simply enjoying watching J and her excited. All J wanted for Christmas was a unicorn and a pony. Whenever anyone asked her that's what she would say. You'd ask her if she wanted anything else and she'd say no. Well, Santa came through, he found her a unicorn and a pony (thank goodness My Little Pony is coming back). Knowing J and her love to bounce, he also brought her a trampoline (which she loves, especially when she can get Daddy to jump on it with her). Unwrapping the gifts took us a while because we made J try to "read" the names on them, but it also made it more enjoyable to sit and watch each other open our gifts. Like I said, all J wanted was a unicorn and a pony, and likewise, all she thought her Daddy needed was a boy unicorn (no pony for him). We lucked out and found a boy unicorn (thank goodness for Toy Story 3 toys). J and I found it about a week before Christmas and she was able to keep it a secret for the entire week. she was SOOO excited for her Daddy to open her gift.

She was really good at tearing the paper this year, though she did have to make sure every scrap of paper was off the gift before she was done.

One of J's gifts was wrapped in a diaper box (we have plenty of those lying around so might as well take advantage and use them) when she got the paper off she was quite bothered, she said that the gift wasn't for her it was for her brothers. It took some convincing to get her to open the box. J was quite spoiled this year, along with her Santa gifts she got twin baby dolls with a double stroller, a clickstart computer, a little people house with a mini van and some games and puzzles. The boys had 2 gifts under the tree some Texans socks and then a couple of outfits. We later got them a jumperroo and bumbo seats with gift cards that they got. Erik and I had set a limit on how much we were going to spend on each other, I stuck to our budget, I framed his signed Craig Biggio jersey and got him a large bag of pistachios. Erik didn't listen. He got me a Ninja food processor and a Nook, and helped J pick out a watch for me. The boys weren't much into the excitement of Christmas this year. In fact, W was so out of it that j threw wrapping paper on his head and it didn't even phase him.

Christmas afternoon we went over to our friends the Goebel's house for a few hours to play games and visit before heading over to Erik's mom's for Christmas dinner. It was a very relaxed and enjoyable Christmas.

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Birth Announcement

Peeka Boo Blue Birth Announcement

Shutterfly has custom baby invitations and birth announcements.

View the entire collection of cards.

Chugging Along

Just wanted to say that we're still here, still surviving. Most days it feels like all I do is feed, burp and diaper babies. Poor J is left to her own devices most days. I've come to accept the fact that My Little Pony videos on youtube are a great baby sitter and that as long as my kids are clean and feed its ok that my house is a mess. I have my 6 week checkup on Monday and while I'm there I plan on asking the pediatric nurses if there is anything we can do for C's poor tummy [I think he has acid reflux]. That way he can sleep better and I can sleep better and we might actually get something done around here.

Christmas Cards

A friend of mine posted about this great deal on her blog and I thought that I'd pass along the details. Shutterfly is offering 50 free Christmas cards to anyone who blogs about them. That's the easy part, the hard part will be choosing which one to use! I quickly scanned over their selection of "flat stationary cards" (one of 3 styles of cards) and there were over 300 and all of them cute! Following are my favorite of that style, but I'm going to have to check out the rest before I make a final decision. Choices, choices, choices!!!

Newborn photos

We recently had the twins newborn pictures taken by Christina McKinney Photography Here are a preview of the pictures we got. . . (she also took the picture of the boys together that's on the previous post)

W:

C:

*please do not download pictures without permission. Thanks!

Blessing Day

The boys were blessed on 11/28/10 by their wonderful Daddy. We were very fortunate to have my family in town for their blessings. I didn't get any pictures of the boys in their blessing outfits (have that on my to do list for tomorrow) because C had a blowout in his on the way home from church. However, we still got lots of photos with my family before they all headed home that afternoon. Here's J with her favorite Aunt Karen (who she says is her bestest friend).

Aunt Toni wanted a picture holding both boys but was a little nervous about doing it (W is on her right and C on her left).

Here's me with my kids, my 'lil sister Toni, my 'lil brother Colt and his wife Karen (W is on my right and C is on my left).

4 Generations: My Grandma Wahlquist, my Mom, Me, and my 3 kiddos (I have W and J has C).

4 Generations on my Dad's side: My Grandma & Grandpa Stratton, my Mom & Dad, me, and the boys (Grandpa has W and Grandma has C).

My Cute little family (C is on Erik's right and W is on the left).

3 Generations: Erik's Mom, Erik and the boys.

My Mom holding both boys (C is in the white and W is in the blue).

Grandma Stratton with Jordyn.

My Dad with the boys and J (he wasn't too thrilled to have to do this, he's not a baby person. He likes them better when they're J's age and can actually play with him).

Grandpa and Grandma Stratton with the boys.

Grandma Stratton holding both boys.

Grandma Wahlquist holding both boys (C is in the blue stripes and W in the white).

One Month

The boys are 1 month old today! It's crazy how fast this month has flown by. When I last wrote (11/9), the boys were still in the NICU. When we went to visit them on the 10th, C was ready to come home but W had been put back under the lights, his bilirubin was back up to 15 (it had to be under 10 for them to be able to release him from the hospital). By Thursday (11/11) it was down to 9.5 so they let both boys come home that afternoon but we had to take them both to the Dr's on Friday for a bilirubin check. Since we were at the Dr's anyway on Friday, they did their 2 wk check up a little early. W's stats were weight: 6 lbs 8.5 oz (8.24%) and height: 19.78" (29.32%). C's stats were weight: 5 lbs 13.5 oz (3.29%) and height: 18.78" (6.51%). The boys have done great at home, the only challenge we've really had is getting them adjusted to breastfeeding. They were getting expressed breast milk in bottles in the NICU so adjusting from bottle to breast took them a while, but they're getting the hang of it now. They're really good babies, and are rarely fussy. They do tend to have tummy issues, but those are usually resolved with gas drops and sleeping on an incline. We actually got a sleeping wedge today to help them sleep on an incline and hopefully that will help keep them from spitting up in their sleep after their nighttime feedings. J is adjusting fairly well. She loves to help change their diapers and hold them, though it seems like feeding time is always a struggle with her.

We had a crazy month, my Mom flew in on the 10th, my Grandma W. on the 17th and the rest of the crew (the rest of my fam minus my older sis and her fam) on the 23rd. We had Thanksgiving at our house and then Erik blessed the boys that Sunday (11/28) at church. Erik was nervous about the blessings but he did a great job.

Monday was my official due date so the boys are now full term. Preemies are given 2 ages their 'real age' (how long since birth) and their 'adjusted age (how long since due date) their adjusted age is used for developmental reasons since preemies tend to develop slower than their full-term counterparts.

*picture courtesy Christina McKinney Photography

November Activities

November was a crazy month for us. To start the month off, J had an open house at preschool. I missed it due to being in the hospital but since the boys were doing OK that night Erik was able to meet her there (Erik's mom was watching J for us and she took her to the open house). My mom flew into town right before the boys came home. Right after the boys came home we had a good friend come visit us. We LOVE Miss Yoconda and her sweet girls. (little shout out here: Miss Yoconda watched J for us a few times when we had Dr's appointments and for that we are VERY GRATEFUL).

Also this month, J got to pull out her paints for a project we had started in Oct. A dear friend of mine had this idea, and so I had cut out the leaves, but we never got around to painting them. J decided it would be a lot for fun to paint Grandma's hand - good thing they're washable paints. . .

J also played dress ups (don't you just love the ringlets? I sure do).

Then on the last day of preschool before Thanksgiving, they had a feast. J's class was the Indians and another class was the pilgrims. J came home wearing this. . .

That little grin quickly turned to this. . .

and this. . .

so goofy!

For Thanksgiving most of my family came to visit (only my older sister and her family were missing) - I'll post about that later. After everyone had left, J was invited to sleepover at Mimi's house (Erik's mom) she was so excited that the night before, she fell asleep with her sleepover bag on.

That's what J did this month. Here's what the boys did. First we have C

and then there's W

I only wish I had gotten that much sleep this month ;)