Christmas with the family

Since we are living in NC for the first time in many years (about 11 years, actually), Christmas was a little different this year. Normally we are traveling and we come up for a few days before the 25th to see as much family as possible. This year=no travel. YAY!

Dan's brother, Jay, and his two sons came to town Wed to have Christmas with MauMaw, Paupaw and us. Jay and I took Jacob, Luke, and Olivia to Discovery Place Kids for the afternoon and then we hosted everyone that evening for dinner and presents. It was a nice, relaxed evening and all of the kids had fun opening their gifts and playing.

Christmas Eve it was time for my side of the family to get together. Oma and Opa came over for the afternoon to spend some time with us, Luke and Olivia and see them open their presents. They loved their sit and spin and pillow pets. Dan and I received a year pass to the Biltmore, which we are very much looking forward to using lots throughout the coming year. After Oma and Opa left, my sister came over with my niece and nephews. The kids enjoyed playing while us adults enjoyed some time just talking. Before we knew it, the day was almost over and it was time to get ready for Santa. More to come on that later...

Christmas Day we went to Dan's brother's Wyndal's house for a bit to exchange gifts and chat. It was supposed to start snowing that evening, so we didn't get to stay for very long.

Although it was very different this year, it was wonderful to be able to see so much family without having to travel almost 500 miles round trip. We look forward to many more memorable holidays here in our new home, and less miles on our car!

Link to 1 Year Pics

We just got the website up for Luke and Olivia's one year pics. There are A LOT of pics (almost 300), so feel free to look at any, all, or just a few when you get a chance. We had to take pics 2 times, and that is part of the reason there are so many pictures. She got some great photos of the babies and of our family.

We used a new photographer this time, and I'm really pleased with her work. Lauren was great to work with and very accomodating to our schedule. If you are in the NC area and need a photographer, check her out at www.laurencardwellphotography.com

1 Year Pics

Olivia's walking...and fast!

We knew it would only be a short matter of time before Olivia took off walking, and tonight, it happened!

Olivia has always had really good balance and pushes boxes and her walker so quickly she is practically running. She could stand for a long time unassisted but would just bend down and start crawling. Once she figured out how to bend her knee, we knew she wouldn't just take a step or two but she would take off. And take off she did!

We were getting them ready for their baths and I was bending her knees showing her how to move. For the first time, she bent her knee on her own. I told Dan to grab the video camera because she was about to walk. She balanced herself, and took about 10 steps towards me. Then I turned her around and she walked to Dan. Olive was so proud of herself, and of course we cheered and cheered!

Here is some video we took today of Olivia's newfound skills. Luke is taking 4-5 steps at a time, and once his balance gets just a little better, they will be chasing each other around in no time!

One year shots

We took Luke and Olivia for their 1 year well check and shots today. I thought they were only going to get 3 shots, but they each ended up getting 4 shots and a finger stick. Luke does not like to have his hands held against his will, and his poor little finger just wasn't giving too much blood, but nurse Jenn was able to get enough for their anemia test. Olivia did a little better, and thankfully the iron levels for both babies was great. They cried some during their shots, but quickly recovered after some hugs and a bottle.

We spoke with Dr. Colyer about Luke's constipation issues and she told us to mix a little Miralax with some liquid and see if that helps. We are also going to change baby shampoos because he is getting bad dry patches on his little body. She was glad to know they have already had both flu shots as well. Other than that, we are really lucky we didn't have any other major problems to discuss.

We are transitioning from bottles to sippy cups, and this has been a whole new challege for all of us. They have made the switch from formula to whole milk without much trouble, but they much prefer drinking their milk from a bottle, which comes as no surprise. Dr. Colyer said she thinks it's best to give up the bottles cold turkey, so we will see how that goes. She said it's not uncommon at all for babies to go on a temporary "milk strike" and she to just make up for the calcium, etc through yogurt, cottage cheese and cheese. I think what will work best for us will be sippy cups during the day and only a night bottle until they get more comfortable with the sippy. We hope over the next few weeks we'll eliminate the night bottle completely and begin a slightly different nighttime routine. The weird thing is they love to drink water or juice from a sippy, but as soon as they see it's milk, they throw it on the ground. We are also going to alter their meal schedule to 3 meals (finger food meals) and 2 snacks, which means no more pureeing baby food for me. Yay! And they will get their milk along with their food instead of at separate times.

Once we get them on sippys "full time", we'll then work on getting rid of their pacis, but we only want to tackle one major hurdle at a time. Luckily they only take them when they are really tired and sometimes as night, so hopefully it wont' be too tough to overcome. Lots of changes for Luke and Olivia, and for mommy and daddy as well!

Dr. Colyer said both babies are right on track and growing well. We can't turn the car seat around yet because Olivia isn't at the weight requirement and we don't want to turn one and not the other. We are actually ok with waiting because it's safer for them to be rear facing anyway. At her currrent growth rate, it'll probably be at least 18 mths before we turn them, so we'll decide that when the time comes.

Here are their latest measurements:

Luke
21.9 pounds; 27%
30.51" long; 51%
Head circumference: 47cm 65%

Olivia
17.13 pounds; 4%
28.5" long; 24%
Head circumference: 43cm 3%

Unless something comes up, we won't have to venture back to the doctor until their 15month check-up.

One year pics

If you would have told me it would be 18 degrees the morning we tried to take Luke and Olivia's 1 year pics, I would have thought you were crazy. I mean, we live in NC, not NY for goodness sakes. Unfortunately, though, that was the case the morning of December 7th. We were supposed to meet our photographer-someone we haven't used or met before but is super sweet-at 9am in downtown Huntersville. We got Luke and Olivia dressed, fed and out the door in time, and 20 minutes into taking pictures they both had a major, I'm freezing outside meltdown. So we decided to reschedule pictures for Thursday afternoon when it would be a little (fingers crossed) warmer. We tried and tried to find a place indoors and there really wasn't a good option. Dan and I joked we should turn our house into an indoor studio that looks like it's outside in the winter and we could make a forture!

We decided to meet in downtown Davidson this time because they have lots of little shops we could go into periodically to warm up. We had better luck this time, and Luke and Olivia were troopers for over an hour. At the end, we took them to a local bakery and let them have a mini cupcake for being so great and appeasing mommy =)

I'll post the link to the pictures once I get them (in about a week), and I'm hoping Lauren was able to get some good shots. I can't wait to see how they turned out.

Party Time

It seems like I've been planning for Luke and Olivia's first birthday party for months and now it's finally here. There was lots to be done, but I loved every minute.

My good friend Sabrina came over Friday to help me tackle making their cakes and smash cakes. What a lifesaver she turned out to be as it would have taken me ALL day to make the 4 cakes I needed to make. I'm not a cake maker nor cake decorator by any stretch of the imagination, and I never want to compete on a contest on The Food Network-I would lose for sure! Since the babies love to play with blocks, I decided to make the theme of their party a "block party." So we made their smash cakes to look like blocks, and made 2 larger sheet cakes for everyone else to eat. We made their names our of square rice krispy treats to go on top. It took a lot of time and patience, but we think they turned out well.

We decided to have their party at our house since this is where they are most comfortable, and had lots of family and some close friends celebrate their big day. My sister helped me make their shirts and had their names embroidered underneath an "I am 1" applique. They turned out great, and after lots of stain remover from the cake, they can wear them throughout the winter. The party started around 1pm, which worked out perfect because they were well rested from their morning nap, and full from lunch.

After chatting for a little bit with everyone, it was time to open presents. They had SO much fun pulling tissue paper out of bags and playing with the boxes. We questioned whether we even needed to assemble any toys =). Luke and Olivia got some great presents, and were very appreciative of everything. They played well into the evening with all of their new toys and they will be sure to keep them busy for many days and weeks to come.

We thought it would be best to to the cake and ice cream last, since we knew things would get pretty messy. We were so right! We sang happy birthday first to Luke and then to Olivia and let them dig into their block smash cakes. Luke dug into his cake, and made a massive mess. Olivia wasn't too clean, either. They really enjoyed themselves, and I think we definitely have 2 sweet eaters on our hands. Afterwards, we put them into the bathtub for a quick rinse and let them get back to playing.

They also got some great items for their time capsule, and we really appreciate everyone's thought and effort. I know Luke and Olivia will really enjoy opening them when they turn 18. It will be very interesting to see what has changed in all of those years.

All in all, it was a wonderful and memorable 1st birthday party celebration, and we hope Luke and Olivia will enjoy seeing all of their fun memories through pictures. Enjoy!

Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday!

One year ago, at 11:13am and 11:14am, Luke and Olivia were born and changed our lives for the better forever. We had the best day celebrating with them!

I am very sentimental, and document practically every minute of their life through pictures. I wanted to get a picture of each baby when they woke up, but Luke wasn't sleeping well and woke up on my shoulder in the rocking chair. Olivia woke up in her crib and smiled when all 3 of us went into her room. We spent the morning playing, and then they took a nap. Little did they know they had a big surprise waiting for them when they awoke...their very first cupcake. The babies haven't had sweets before, so this was an extra special treat. We sang Happy Birthday to each of them and gave them their cupcake. They LOVED them. They looked at us as if to say "where have these wonderful items of food been for the past year?" Olivia immediately dug in while Luke was a little more skeptical. Once he got a taste of the frosting, it was all over. They made a HUGE mess and went immediately into the bathtub once they were done with their birthday cupcake. Luke and Olivia laughed and ate and played and truly enjoyed themselves, and Dan and I haven't laughed that hard in a long time.

After baths, we got them dressed and let them open their gifts from us. We each got them a book and a silver block piggy bank (to go along with their "block party" theme, but more on that later.) They had so much fun pulling the tissue paper out of the bags and playing with their wooden "1's" I had painted for them.

That afternoon we took them to Discovery Place Kids, where we decided to get a 1 year membership. It's a great place for them to play, and I definitely see us getting a lot of use out of the year pass. We stayed for a couple of hours and left when they started getting tired. We came home briefly and then headed off to Steak and Shake for their birthday dinner. Now I know Steak and Shake seems a little unusual for dinner, but it has a little bit of sentiment for Dan and me. When I was pregnant while we were still living in Atlanta, we would go shopping at Babies R Us and then go to Steak and Shake for lunch. The food always seemed to make the babies dance in my belly (perhaps it was all the grease), and we thought it would be fun for them to have some birthday ice cream at a restaurant that always makes us smile. Let's just say Luke and Olivia LOVE ice cream-anything sweet for that matter. Luke was so upset when we took his ice cream away, but we didn't want them to get a tummy ache from their first sugar rush.

We came home and they passed out almost instantly, It was a full, fun, family day and I couldn't have asked for a better way to commemorate the day our family became complete. Luke and Olivia, when you read these posts one day, please know how much mommy and daddy love you. We couldn't ask for 2 happier, healthier, more beautiful, loving, wonderful little babies. Happy 1st Birthday, Luke! Happy 1st Birthday, Olivia! It's been the best year of our lives.