Some More Firsts...

This has been a great week and one of a few more "Firsts"!

1.) Lilly has been able to stay standing up if you put her up against something for a while now, but until 3 days ago, she just had no desire for that "standing up, nonsense!" We really think she is physically able to do most of the stuff that her sister does, but her personality is more relaxed and chilled out. She just doesn't see the point sometimes.

The other day, she suddenly stood up and decided that she liked it a lot. Now she stands all the time. When I went into her room Saturday afternoon to get her up from her nap, she stood up in her crib for the first time ever. She was really proud of herself and it was so sweet! I took her picture...

The next two pictures are of Lilly standing by the coffee table. She stood there for about 10 minutes patting the table and looking around. I think she likes the new vantage point. :)

2.) Lexi stood without holding onto anything for a few seconds...she was leaning on Eric's leg and let go for around 2 seconds but didn't even notice. :) Also, her first tooth came completely through the gums last Sunday. Yea!!

3.) This one was pretty awesome and scary all at the same time....Eric and I went on our first date since August. His mom was here in August visiting from Kentucky and she let us sneek away one night, but this was the first time that we hired a babysitter and went out. I was fairly sad to leave the girls. I knew they were in great hands...thanks, Kelia!! But I was sad to leave my precious little ones. I have never let someone else come over and play with them and not been there too...I LOVE to play with them and we had been having such a fun day.

But, Eric and I went out and had a great time. I thought about the girls often (and so did Eric!!) but we went to the movies and then to DQ for ice cream. YUM, chocolate!! Things were perfect when we got home and Toby was in true form...barking and waking up the babies. I couldn't get mad at him though, cause I got to go give hugs and kisses!! The girls just smiled and went right back to sleep. Woohoo!! I am glad that they seemed to have a great time with Kelia! :) We will definitely be going out again soon!

And last but not least...

4.) We actually got to go back to church today. If you'll remember, the girls needed RSV shots since they were preemies and we could not afford them and our insurance wouldn't pay for them either. This meant keeping the girls away from lots of little kids, primarily sick ones, until April when RSV season was over.

Now I have worked in church nurseries all my life, and it seems there is always a sick kid in there. Since the girls were too loud for the church service and we needed to avoid the nursery, we haven't been able to go to church in months. Today, they got to go to the nursery for the FIRST time!! They did awesome, as I suspected they would!! Lilly was sleepy and wanted to be held and Lexi played with one of the workers. They both seemed to do great! Here are some pictures that I took after getting home this afternoon.

Lexi in her pretty red dress with Daddy and in her rocking chair....
Lilly trying to decide what to have for lunch...hmmmmm, peas or green beans? :)

This last picture was from Saturday afternoon. The girls stood up on opposite sides of the coffee table and Eric and I thought it looked an awful lot like they were playing air hockey. We thought it was such a cute picture!!

Spring/Early Summer Fun!

I love these girls so much!! I have all of these great fun things that I want to do with them, and just have to be patient until they are old enough for some of them. However, I am going to do everything I possibly can with them when I can...thus, the kiddie pool. Even inside, the girls were ALL about the pool. It was like a play pen...they kept climbing in and sitting down. It was nice since it meant that they were not crawling everywhere, well at least for a minute or two!!


It was 93 degrees here yesterday, so Eric and I got out this cute little kiddie pool for the girls. I wanted something little to keep at the house in case we weren't in the mood to go to the city pool this summer. Eric filled it up and we let the water warm up for about an hour so it wasn't quite so icy cold. It took a minute for them to decide they liked it, but then they were sold...

Now you all know that Lilly has to "taste" everything...

Lilly when Eric first sat her in the water...I melt every time she smiles at us!! I also found a picture of Eric as a little boy and his big grin was very similar to Lilly's smile in the picture!

I think I had just accidentally splashed Lilly! Lexi was fairly serious as she checked out the whole situation.

Then, she started to have a lot of fun!

Then today, I put the girls in the sweetest and girliest dresses. They are soft cotton knit and the girls seemed to like wearing them. They really like to crawl into our bedroom right now and play with my bookshelf...I let them this morning but then plopped them into my reading chair for pictures.
I love the goofy look on Lexi's face...it was just the picture. She looks like she is confused! :)

Cute little Lexi...

Sweet little Lilly...

This last picture cracks me up! Lilly likes to crawl into the kitchen and get into several things that she is not supposed to...now, keep in mind that she knows this!

She gets the fish aerator from behind the aquarium cabinet and messes with it. Well this pulls the aerator out of the tank, so we can't let her do it. When this happened, I had my camera in my hand. I saw her go over there and had told her "No, no, Lilly" a couple of times.

In this picture, I had just told her no. So she held onto the tubing with a slightly pouty look on her face as she contemplated whether to obey or not. I had to go get her! :) He he he!! Anyways, it turned out an adorable picture!!

Wearing Orange Pics...

Here they are...remember to look at the girls' hairclips. Also, the last picture is Dad's dog, Tucker! Isn't that a sweet picture? Dad didn't have anything orange to wear, so Tucker offered to help out!

IMPORTANT: Stellan's Heart Surgery

Hey guys! For those of you who have not clicked on the link to the left, today is baby Stellan's heart surgery!! Reading his mother Jennifer's blog, has become a regular activity for me every day. I have been greatly touched by what this sweet family is going through and feel privileged to get to keep up with Stellan and his amazing story. 

Today is "Wear Orange for Stellan" Day and Eric and I are both wearing orange. Unfortunately, the girls don't have anything orange except for hair clips, but they have worn those today. :) If you have some quiet time, I encourage you to read Stellan's story as it is a remarkable one. Also, glance down through the cool photos people have sent in today of themselves, their kids, and their pets wearing orange for Stellan. 

It sure does make me thankful again to have healthy babies and it keeps me focused on the truly important things!! I will post pictures tonight of all of us wearing our orange duds! :)

Oh, That Crazy Weather!!

Oh, how the weather changes around here! This video was taken the other morning during a severe thunderstorm. It turns out that the girls LOVE thunderstorms...for now at least! Then this picture was from today. It was 75 degrees and beautiful outside. We took a nice walk around the block. I think I have gotten Eric interested in birds now. He spotted a Northern Flicker before me today...for you non-bird lovers, that is a type of woodpecker.

Lovin' My Babies

Not up to much around here...we're just lovin' our babies!! They crawl, roll, and charge in every direction possible. They are learning what the word "no" means...sort of. They look at you and stop, but then they continue on doing what they were doing.

Eric has 2.5 more weeks of school left...hooray!! Then he has a few weeks off before taking his summer classes. I know how busy he will be then...yikes!!

I am just being mommy! The last couple weeks, I have been feeling run down. So, every afternoon when the girls took a nap, so did I! Then Friday night, Eric and I were just EXHAUSTED, so lights were out and we were both snoring by 9:30 pm. :) It was awesome!! I am doing much better now and the girls are both back to sleeping through the night. I think being able to breathe and not having a tooth trying to cut through your gums helps considerably.

These are some of my favorite recent "sleepytime" photos. These were all taken during naptimes. Sometimes in the mornings, we get to playing and stay in our jammies until after the morning nap. Plus, I know some of you will say that they shouldn't sleep with stuff in their cribs...once again, that is only at naptimes. I let them snuggle with their favorite stuffed animals and a blankie while they nap since I can keep an eye on them.

Lexi...
Lilly....

This was last week when they had their little colds. The nurse told me to try and elevate their heads while they slept. They prefer to sleep on their tummies now, but I got them all cuddled up for their naps and they just lookd so grown up. Lilly is in the above photo...
Lexi...
Lilly was watching her daddy outside on the back patio...
Lexi was getting sleepy....
During all the thunderstorms we had Friday, Lilly wanted nothing more than to sit by the back window and watch the thunder and lightning. I liked the way her reflection showed up so clear in this picture.
And my favorite of Lexi from today...I was trying to capture her tooth and just got a sweet one of her little face!!