Cousins: Little to Big!

Earlier this month we went to Macon in order to celebrate 3 family Birthdays Michael's, Mary Ellen's and Laura's. The twins had a blast as usual because they absolutely LOVE being around their cousins. They instantly have smiles on their faces when they see their big cousins and are entertained all day by their craziness at Grandma's house. Gracie and Bailey also will eat anything if it is fed to them by their cousins. Michael, Molly Kay, Addie Mae, Andy and Lauren are all such great helpers that I think I am going to put a bid on them for the summer months!

As much as I love seeing Gracie and Bailey interact with their cousins, I am SO excited to announce that they are going to be BIG COUSINS! Preston's brother, Parker and his wife Nicole are expecting a sweet baby girl around March 22. At the end of the month they hosted a "gender party" where they announced that the baby was going to be a girl and that she is going to be named Mary Elizabeth McFarland. We are looking forward to meeting Mary Elizabeth and introducing her to the craziness of cousins! I have been practicing with the twins in order to prepare for Mary Elizabeth's arrival. We "love" our baby doll and practice giving her hugs and kisses. So far we are still licking the baby's forward, giving it extra drooly kisses and carrying her around by her leg and so it looks like we have lots of practicing to do!

Enjoying Grandma's backyard in Macon

Grandma spoiling Bailey with some cake
Our big girl sitting on the steps

Our family anticipating if our new cousin will be a boy or girl

Family celebration after the announcement of Mary Elizabeth

Lil Dawgs

The Georgia Bulldogs haven't had much luck this season but we sure have enjoyed getting our little ones dressed up to enjoy the games. We started working a couple months ago on teaching Gracie and Bailey how to celebrate a touchdown and they seem to have learned it perfectly. Here are a few pics of us cheering on the dawgs this year.

Gracie loves sampling the tailgate food!No tailgate is complete without our friend Uga

Celebrating our first touchdown of the year!

Gracie is practicing her cheerleading moves with Uncle Parker

Time to get excited about the GA game

Practicing our touchdown celebration

Gracie enjoying the game from her favorite seat on Hershey!

All this celebrating makes us thirsty

Waves Crashing

We were blessed to be able to enjoy a wonderful trip to the beach earlier this month. I think it was the twins fourth trip to the beach house and they just turned one! It has been fun each trip to watch Gracie and Bailey enjoy the beach in different ways while they grow and develop. Last trip they were just able to sit up on their own and this trip they were both standing independently, crawling and Gracie is walking. They definitely seemed to have more fun while enjoying their independence. I also had more independence with not having to hold them as much and not having to pump to produce milk which was great to be able to spend my time outside enjoying the sun instead of inside. We spent most of our time on the deck in the pool but we did enjoy the beach a couple of days. Gracie had no fear and loved swimming in the ocean and jumping in the waves. Bailey seemed to remember his fear of the ocean and wanted nothing to do with it the first couple of days. I felt so bad as he would just cry and cling to me as he heard the waves crash. I was such a proud momma by the last day when my Bailey conquered his fear and he decided to get in the ocean and enjoy it. He spent nearly the entire day in the ocean and was giggling and jumping in the waves along side his sister. It was such an awesome experience to watch my little buddy trust his mommy and daddy and decide to join us in the fun. Preston had the chance to enjoy a couple of days golfing with his brothers and dad and I was able to read in the sun while the babies napped. Long walks on the beach always seem to do good for our souls as we are reminded of how God makes the most awesome creations.

Our Family on Gracie and Bailey's 13 month Birthday.

Gracie playing in the sand.
Bailey is my handsome little sailor.

Gracie and Bailey enjoyed the beach with Dixie.

Grammy with her two sweet grandbabies.

Bailey going for a walk on the beach with his puppy.

My sweet Gracie.

Family fun on the beach.

Enjoying the ocean together as a family of four!

13 Months!

Happy 13 Month Birthday to my sweet babies! Gracie and Bailey celebrated while enjoying the beautiful Beach in Fort Morgan, AL

Toes in the Creek

As I sat down to write this I glanced at the calendar to check the date and it made me think about last year at this time. My sweet babies were just up to about 4 pounds and they were still in the NICU breathing with the assistance of oxygen and being fed via a feeding tube, what a difference a year has made. I am in awe when I stop and think about last year compared to this year and I pause to give thanks to God and also the wonderful people who cared for our family. This past weekend we had a blast spending time together and enjoying the great outdoors. The weather was beautiful and so we visited some of our favorite local parks.

Gracie and Bailey with Dixie ready to start exploring.

Our first stop was Windermere Park where we enjoyed watching Dixie swim in the creek. We decided to put our toes in and feel the cold water.
Daddy and Bailey love to watch Dixie fetch sticks in the creek.

Gracie decided to put a little more then just her toes in and was soaked from head to toe!

When we got home from the park we took extra long naps and then watched Daddy mow the grass. We love to wave to him from inside.

Sometimes we are able to flag him down for a ride.

Our second stop was Central Park where we met our friends Amy, Doug and Joshua. Double slides are so much fun because we can go down together.

We absolutely love fun family filled weekends.

Last year at this same time we were just able to take our first family picture. Couldn't imagine then that we would be all going down a slide together this year!

12 Month Checkup and new skills

Gracie and Bailey had their 12 month checkup this past Monday. Daddy accompanied us to our appointment as he does all of our appointments because he is a great daddy! We were excited to find out how much our sweet ones had grown. Our stats are as follows... Gracie: weight 19pds 0oz 20% and length 29 7/8 in 75% Bailey: weight 21pd 8oz 30% and length 30 5/8 in 75%. We are so proud that our babies have grown from their tiny little 3 pd start to happy and healthy babies. We have been so blessed over the past year that Gracie and Bailey have stayed healthy and haven't had any sickness "knock on wood." Our pediatrician reviewed that they are appropriately meeting all of their developmental tasks. He was particularly impressed that Gracie is walking, well really running! He also thought it was great that they have made the transition to being on 100% whole milk. I am thankful that God was able to bless me with enough milk to feed these hungry babies for the past year and I am glad to have a break from the exhaustion of producing double the blessing! Gracie and Bailey did have to get four shots but they cried for less then a minute due to a juice bottle being ready for them as soon as they finished. Before our next appointment at 15 months we will be working on switching to a sippy cup instead of the bottle. We have been working on so many new things this month...

With having two that can get around on their own so easily now I really have to be paying attention every second. When things get quiet, I know somebody is getting into trouble. Gracie and Bailey both have fascinations with jumping up and down in Dixie's water bowl and banging on my GLASS china cabinet.

We are enjoying our big girl and big boy car seats. I LOVE to turn around and watch Gracie and Bailey do the hand motions to their favorite Bible Songs dvd. They can do all of the hand motions to "If You are Happy and you Know It" and "This Little Light of Mine." It is truly the most precious thing in the whole world to see my babies clap and raise their arms to yell "Amen."

We are working on feeding ourselves and trying new foods.

We now have snack time sitting on our own and are practicing using our sippy cups and snack spill proof cups.

We still are learning which way to hold our sippy cups!

5 sets of 1 yr old twins !

Gracie and Bailey attended their first play group this past Friday. We joined the group through a club that I am in called North Fulton Mothers of Multiples. All of the toddlers in the group range from 11 months to 14 months and all are twins. I looked forward to the group but I was nervous most of all about how we were going to get to the group. The group was from 10-12ish which is our daily nap time. Gracie and Bailey usually get really fussy at about 9:45 so I couldn't imagine how they were going to make it through the group without simply loosing it. The next question I had was what do I do when I get there....do I bring the gigantic double stroller and wheel them in, do I carry them in one and at time and hand them off to a new person who they have never met. I was also worried about how they would do on the 20 min car ride in their new car and new car seats which they are still adjusting to.
Well...They ended up doing great! Gracie slept on the way and Bailey was entertained by his dvd. When we arrived I pulled out my "twin momma powers" and loaded them both up in either arm in addition to the diaper bag and knocked on the door. I was glad that once inside all the other moms were confessing the same fears. Gracie and Bailey took about two minutes to get adjusted and out of my lap and then they were off to play with their new friends. They really seemed to love the interactions with the other kids and enjoyed all the new toys. We ate lunch at the group and then had a quick juice bottle before leaving. I glanced back in the rear view mirror and Bailey was sleeping before we even pulled out of the neighborhood and Gracie ended up taking an hour and a half afternoon nap.
It was great for me to be able to socialize with other mommies. We found ourselves comparing feeding schedules, nap times and developmental tasks. Being a twin mommy is just different and it is great to have others who truly understand. I was relieved when I heard another mommy say "sometimes I am lucky just to be able to eat lunch during the day." We all love our sweet ones but we all also seemed to share the same unique feeling of exhaustion.
Our playgroup will meet twice a month but I am looking forward to having more daily play dates with each of the moms. I wish I would have been able to get a picture to share but with 5 sets of 1 year old twins running around we were all lucky just not to loose our minds!