What a difference a year makes!

One year ago today (the Tuesday after Labor Day) was the first time I started keeping the girls all day alone. They were 8 weeks old and I was determined to start caring for them all by myself. I look back and see how crazy I was. They were so TINY! Here are the pics of me practicing bottle feeding and burping by myself the week before. I was weaning them from breastmilk and things were getting much "easier". :)

I remember that first day so well, surprisingly! I rememeber being nervous but determined, like I said. I knew I could do it! About 2:00 in the afternoon, I was getting really tired. I found "Marley and Me" on HBO and it had just started. I had never seen it but it got me through that hard first afternoon. If you haven't seen it, it is a movie about a family and their dog. The main characters start out as a young married couple and you watch as they get a dog and start a family. Jennifer Aniston, who has no children in real life, nailed the Mom role. I was so emotional anyway and watching her struggle with being a new Mom in the movie was exactly what I needed that day. It does have a sad ending but it's a great movie about life.
I remember how long and lonley those first several months were, but how much I loved my babies and how perfect they were. Here are some sweet moments Kendra captured one visit that melted my heart then and still do.


Fast forward to a year later and they are 14 months old today!! It's so amazing how much they change in a year. They are doing something new everyday and just so much fun to watch! One thing Sloane has learned to do is open the doors so we had to get a lock for the pantry this weekend. She kept opening it for her and her sister and getting into all kinds of fun things.

I am so blessed to be Sloane and Stella's Mommy and I can't wait to see what the next year holds for us!

Airplane!

I have been wanting to post all week and finally have a chance tonight to let you know the latest on S&S's tricks. They learned how to sign airplane! Well kind of...It is supposed to be hand raised in the air with thumb, pointer and pinkie up and the middle two down (think the sign for I Love You but hand in the air) but that is way too hard for a 13 month old so for now it's just hand in the air. I will try to get some pics this weekend and post so you can see. They are just SO busy it's hard to get clear pics!
I can't remember if I said this already but they can sign and say Dog (we say dog, dog) bad habit but it's cute. I am working hard on teaching them "sorry" and "thank you" more intentionally. They can do the sign but don't know what it means yet.
Back to airplane though, they do understand this one, and raise their hand every time we hear one. We had some drama yesterday where choppers were flying over our house for several hours and they kept doing the sign and saying da-da. They pretty much say that for anything that they can't say yet but want to tell me something. Its the same sounds basically just a little different emphasis here and there for what they are trying to say. Toddler Talk, I'm sure most of you know it better than me!

New Tricks

As you can probably tell I am trying really hard to keep up with this blog. I know it's nothing pretty and I have a lot to learn about how to do things on here but I do want to at least try and keep it more up to date.
Our sweet, adorable and precious daughters are changing and learning so much every day!! I knew that ONE was going to be a fun age but I didn't know this fun!!
I have been trying to teach them sign language since they were about 6 months old. They liked it and would do a sign here and there when I prompted them but now they are finally really getting it. They can both sign "more" and "eat" and wave bye-bye. Stella can sign "thank you" and Sloane will do it sometimes. They both love to clap and will clap whenever they like something or get excited. They can both say da-da and ma-ma and snack (nack) for any kind of food. I know I am supposed to say it correctly to teach them properly but I just LOVE that they say "nack, nack, nack" when I ask them if they want to eat or they see me in the pantry or fridge. :)
Go figure my daughters first real word would revolve around food!!
They love to look outside for birds (Sloane calls them "da") and they love to go outside and swing or play in their play house. I hate that it has been so hot but I do try to take them out there at least once a day for about 15 minutes or so. That's enough time in this heat to make us all sweaty and red faced! If I say shoes, they go right to the shelf where we keep them and grunt to put them on. It I say bath time, they go right to our bedroom door (we bathe them in our tub) and usually when I say let's eat, they will head to their highchair. Its so amazing how much they really do understand now!
But the most precious thing they are doing is kisses! Stella has been doing it for a while when we would ask her, but now she will just lean in to kiss us on her own. She keeps her mouth kind of open and gently touches our cheek or forehead. (or where ever!) She likes to kiss Sloane on the head. I used to see wet spots on Sloane's hair and not know what it was then one day I saw Stella "kissing" her and figured it out. So funny! Sloane doesn't really kiss us but she does imitate the noise. You can tell she is thinking really hard about smacking her lips to imitate you then gets so proud of herself. I thought my mom was going to cry last night on Skype watching them "give kisses". I love that they are both so much alike and different too. People ask me all the time how I know the difference and how I tell them apart. Of course it's easy for me but really I think that anyone who is around them for a little while will see how sweet they both are but so unique as well. We are so blessed!

The Children's Museum of Houston

We took the girls to the Children's Museum on Friday for their first visit. I had been once before with my friends Sherry and Krista and their babies (they were babies then) Chloe and Owen. I was so excited to take them to the Tot Spot because I knew they would just love it. They did!! They immediately ran in different directions! Nick chased Sloane and I chased Stella. They were squealing with delight and moving everywhere. Sloane really liked the light sticks and Stella liked the balls. It was so fun to just let them explore and play. I hope we can go back again soon!

More Pics of Birthday

S & S Turn One!

Okay so this is about a month late but we have been busy!! I seriously don't know where July went! My blog really should be called "Our crazy life with twin one-year-olds!!"
The girls' turned one on July 6th. It was a Wednesday so Nick just met us a Chick-fil-A for lunch. We let the girls play in the play area for the first time and they had so much fun! We gave them their new chairs that day and sang to them a million times but all the rest of the celebrating (eating cake) we saved for Saturday.
I had been getting ready for this party for weeks! When you have 2 babies it's hard to get anything done during the day so every evening I was doing something for the party. It all came together really nicely and I couldn't have done it without my wonderful husband, mom, dad, mother-in-law and sister-in-law. We had tons of people here, probably a little too many for Stella, but I think everyone had fun. Sadly I didn't get any pictures during the party but Tamara took a few. I will now get to the fun stuff! Pictures!

Babies on the move!!

As some of you know our girls have started walking. Yes walking at nine months old! (They are 10 and a half months now) It was shocking to us too, but they are doing it and doing it well at this point. We have to watch them so carefully because they get going too fast and fall A LOT! They really are getting so much better but still we cringe everytime we hear a crash. Will there be tears or not?? Luckily we have only had blood a couple of times and Stella just one bad bruise on her face so far.
They are really starting to interact and play together now all the time. They will get started laughing at something and it's just the cutest thing ever to watch them. My sweet girls love that they are mobile now and pretty much run me ragged. But I wouldn't trade it and we are so blessed everyday by them.
I ordered their first birthday invitations tonight! Yikes!
Here are some pics of us lately...