Sisters

Audrey and Norah, May 2010 (15 months)...Just because....

Tough 80's girl

"You wanna piece of me?"

Tough girl Ninja pony tail

(The leg warmers and pony tail were total add-ons after I put her headband on this morning and we realized she looked soooo 80's! The adults had a good laugh; Norah did not)

Then and Now

Our hospital hosted their First Annual NICU Reunion a couple weeks ago. Although we only saw two staff we knew (the rest were on duty or had days off) and no familiar families from the 5 weeks we were there, it was such a HUGE blessing to see so many healthy babies and children running around! We will definitely want to return next year, and hopefully Chris will be able to join us, too.

January 23, 2009, born at 33 weeks, 2 days
Audrey Elise, 2:25 a.m., 4 lbs, 2 oz
Norah Isabella, 2:33 a.m., 4 lbs, 1 oz

Audrey

Norah

Norah

Audrey

Norah

Audrey

Audrey

Norah

Audrey's special set-up at 4 weeks...with the wedge to help with her reflux

Norah with the same flower she wore to the NICU reunion

Now, 16 months old....

At 15 months, Audrey weighed 18.12 lbs and Norah weighed 19.5 lbs!Audrey was very determined to climb onto the chairs to read her brother's Spiderman book

These two cracked me up. I taught them to sit on the kitchen floor on a mat when they want to eat a snack. When I offered them a snack at the reunion, they both plopped themselves onto the ground and waited patiently for me to serve them their juice and gold fish :)

The flower's not so big now!

The Swagger Wagon

I painfully and ashamedly will admit that I might have some mini-van envy. (Did I really just say that? Oh dang. I'm so old.) I LOVE our Durango...it's big and comfy and works for our family....but we rented a van once...and let me tell you, I was highly impressed with the fact that Ethan could stand up and get dressed in the car. I can only imagine how a roomy vehicle like this would fare for us when our girls are potty training on the go. They could totally use a little potty chair in the car, saving me quite a bit of stress and mess.

The other thing about a mini-van that I would love is that when our family comes for a visit, each passenger would be able to climb in through a real door. In our current situation, our three car seats fill up the second row. The third row, where our guests take a seat, is only accessible through the back hatch. It's pretty ghetto when I have to open the back hatch and lift/shove Papi Frank's legs and backside over the seat, and sometimes I forget to re-open the back hatch to let him back out, leaving him trapped on the inside yelling, "Hey!! Let me out!" It's even worse when it's my poor mom having to get in and out!

We have no plans to make a trade on our Durango, but this video made me laugh out loud and kind of made me want to go van shopping. I can't believe I actually fit into this demographic. Hello Reality.

I added the links because the videos don't seem to play 100% of the time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql-N3F1FhW4


*Edited to add this one because it seems so relevant to our family. OMGosh, I am so laughing out loud.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXUMHNH0XVs&feature=channel

Zoo Members

So here's the thing. I truly loathe the fact that I am a blog slacker. The truth is, there's really not that much fun or interesting stuff going on right now. (That's not to say that funny stuff doesn't happen every day; I mean, c'mon, I've got three kids in tow; there's bound to be comedy). When it comes down to the blog, though, I get to the end of the day and just don't have the energy to jump on here and update.

That said, I am SO proud to present pictures of today's zoo trip...TODAY! They uploaded in reverse order, but my fellow blogger friends will understand what a pain it is to rearrange the pics.

After 5 years of zoo outings, we finally decided a zoo membership would be worth the money. If we make just two more trips in a year, we will recoup the membership fee, and most of the fee is tax deductible! Plus, we paid a tad extra to bring a guest, so I can bring a friend along and she is FREE :) :)

We LOVE this zoo. Today we spent most of the afternoon in the kiddie area, where they have a play area, discovery house, petting zoo, lunch tables, and this little stream for the kids to play in. A ZOO with SWIMMING! All three of my babies had so much fun and were tuckered out by the end of the day.

We took over this slide.

Played in the stream

I am crazy about these snack cups. They have a flexible lid that keeps the snacks from spilling out, and also slows the babies down so that a handful of Puffs lasts longer than 30 seconds.

Ethan took one look at this big elephant and declared he was going to climb to the top without any help. I didn't think it was possible, but in the 2 seconds I turned around to get the camera, he had used the tusks and trunk to whip himself up there. My monkey-man!

My baby girls look like such big girls sitting at the table for lunch.

Our membership also includes carousel rides, so of course, we had to throw Norah on there for giggles (are we mean, or what?!). Audrey laughed and laughed; she loved it. On our way out of the zoo, she pointed and ooh-ed and ahhh-ed over it again. Norah was still not a fan.

The longest post, EVER

There's so much to catch up on, so here's a random post of randomness :) I think this should get me off the hook with my family, who have been patiently waiting for pictures of the kiddos. I mean, hey, I even included VIDEO! I should get some kind of payback in the form of free coffee, though, because this has taken me into the wee hours of the morning and tomorrow I think I'll be a bear with the little ones!

Splash Day, May 2010

Ethan enjoyed the sand boxes with his buddies more than the slides, but he did show me how brave he was to go down the slides. Fear wasn't the issue; "getting cold" was the issue. What do you expect...the kid's got about 2% body fat to insulate him!

These two weren't all together sure about Splash Day. They stuck together until they felt comfortable enough to join in the sand boxes and enjoy a Popsicle.

Audrey even looks wild in her sleep. That hair cracks us up! She is a much heavier sleeper than Norah. Audrey holds "Kitty" while she goes to sleep. I pile different books and toys in their cribs to play with in the morning. Sometimes I can see Audrey quietly looking at books (I can't see Norah from the door without going into the room). Norah likes to throw all her toys out of the crib. When I go in, she laughs and points at her little game.

Norah sleeps with her Gigis every night (they are Angel Dear blankets). If you look closely, you can see bite marks on her precious chubby cheek. Audrey laid that one on her good while they were in Ethan's Jeep.

I make Ethan giggle when I pretend to eat all his chocolate freckles off his sweet little face.

Memorial Day, 2010.
We had the Tullis' and Bell's over for burgers and fun. Chris and Ethan even picked out this swimming pool and we've had so much fun so far.

The girls got to use their bathing suits for the first time this summer. I liked these because they were cute, modest, and provided upper body sun protection. However, I think they are too big (12 months and 18 months) because the shirts kept riding up and exposing those little bellies!

Pretty girls ready for church

Ready to escape!

Jedi training can't start too young.
The girls even make sound effects.

The E-man's last day of pre-school!
I can't believe it!
Of course, he picked out his most favorite shirt in all the world to wear on his last day. He calls it his "badge shirt" and we wash it several times a week.
He's had it for maybe a year (maybe even two?!), but it has only become his favorite and most worn shirt within the last couple months.
After school, we went out for frozen yogurt with the family to celebrate how proud we are of Ethan.

We also got to meet up with two of his best buddies, Jace and Thatcher.

The big kids sat alone

The reason I even got started on this long ol' post tonight....

Ethan's buddy is spending the night, Chris isn't home, and it seemed like the perfect night to crawl into bed with the computer to upload pictures.

We always do the same thing when Jace spends the night--tent, popcorn, hot chocolate, and a movie. The boys finished their movie early tonight (Space Buddies, by surprise...I was relieved it wasn't Star Wars, which always ends so late into the night). After they finished the movie, they played Flash Lights in the tent. I love listening to my boy play with his friends!

Chris turned thirty-stinkin'-FIVE this week!!

My friend Sarah said, "That's like half-way to 4o!" and I TOTALLY get that.

Apparently, my dreams of being a domestic goddess will never be fulfilled. How I managed to mess up a box cake and canned frosting...??? ... I embarrass myself.

Here is the cake we affectionately referred to as "The Diarrhea Cake", AKA the "Cow Pie Cake"

Despite its ugly names, it tasted OK.
I also made Chris a taco dinner. These aren't Tia Rosa's tacos...no rice and beans here! These are my family's fried tacos. We always call them Russian tacos because my mom's side of the family is Russian, but I honestly don't know if they're Russian or just my Bunya's recipe. I'll have to ask.

Anyway, they are delicious and you can't eat just one. You have to eat at least 7. They have hamburger with potato and onion, fried in a corn tortilla, which is held together with a toothpick. You take your fried taco and fill it with cabbage (seasoned with vinegar and salt), parmesan cheese, tomato, and El Pato sauce. I can't remember what our family record is, but I think it's 2o at one sitting. The eater keeps track of how many tacos they've eaten by keeping their toothpick on the side of their plate.

Ethan's card for his Daddy

Baseball tickets and peanuts from Chris' parents.
Ethan said, "Hey, now we don't have to buy peanuts at the baseball game! We can just take our own!"

Ethan picked out two gifts for Chris. This one is a two-foot antenna with a magnet on the end.

This one is a clamp. Ethan was soooo excited and took several minutes to show Chris all about how it works.

Chris has never had need of a clamp ;)

He's such a good dad, I'm sure he'll make a point to find something to clamp just to make Ethan feel proud.

PJ Mix-Up

Each evening, Ethan lays his pj's in the bathroom and I lay the girls' pj's in the bathroom....simple enough....

Recently, I got Norah out of the tub and started going through the motions...towel, diaper cream, diaper, lotion, jammies. It wasn't until after her bottoms were on and I was buttoning her shirt that I realized I was so far into La-la-Land that I had put Ethan's jammies on her.

Oh, Ethan and I laughed and laughed and laughed! And then Norah laughed and laughed and laughed! And now, NOW, the girls bring me Ethan's pajamas and "ask" me to put them on because they think it's so cool to wear them!

Sandbox table and small clothes

We got a sandbox table...loads of fun...but I'm convinced my house will never, ever be sand-free again.

And these little outfits....This is the second summer we've gotten use out of these cute gifts from Josh and Kathleen! They are size 3-6 months, and my 16-month-old girls can still wear them perfectly! I love outfits like that. Talk about getting money's worth! Not all outfits work that way (they have a couple dresses that transitioned perfectly into tunics; skirts work well because their waists are still so teeny). Normally, they wear between 12 and 18 month clothing.

I thought Norah didn't want to share the Jeep with her sister. I couldn't understand why she was making a big deal of it.

Look at Audrey. She has the look of, "Man, what's her problem?"Turns out, Audrey had bitten Norah's thigh while she was climbing into the Jeep. Left a mark and everything. Stinker.

"Slumber Party"

Ethan almost always sleeps in my bed when Chris is away. I love the cuddle time and I'm in no hurry to kick him out of the bed. He'll be locking me out of his room soon enough!

This night, we decided to have an extra special slumber party. We busted out the tent, sleeping bags, popcorn, and Star Wars, Episode II. Sleeping on the floor wasn't my favorite, but I DID like that we got to sleep with Sadie Fair, too! She's not allowed in our bed and sleeps in her crate, but she would much rather snuggle.

It's ALWAYS worth the little bit of extra effort to make an ordinary night special :)

This month, the hospital is hosting a NICU reunion. I was going through pictures of the girls from the NICU and couldn't help but post some pictures and video of their early days. It's hard to even remember what it was like when they were about 4 lbs and preemie clothes were huge (have you seen how itty-bitty preemie clothes are?! I can't believe they were too big for Audrey and Norah for the first couple weeks!)

Here they are at two weeks and I think the first time they were reunited since birth.

And here they are a couple months ago. Amazing how quickly little ones change!
I can't see which videos are which here...and I can't even remember which ones I posted because I started this post over THREE HOURS ago! I've watched Friends, According to Jim, I Love Lucy, Pranked, and now CHEATERS is on...man, can you imagine if this post somehow gets deleted...I will so cry myself to sleep.

So, if I can remember...Norah doing skin-to-skin with Chris. I liked it because it shows how small she was and she still has the same screamy cry.

There's Norah on the Merry--Go-Round for the first time, sporting a face of pure terror. Audrey cried, too, but only because the ride stopped and we had to get off.

There's Chris doing his 35 birthday push-ups. Can't get outdone by his super fit wifey ;) Which reminds me, we are only about a week and a half from finishing P90X! We didn't get around to taking 60-day pictures, and thank GOODNESS...I don't want to see my man-back! I can't see it now, so I don't think about it, but I'm pretty scared to see it in pictures again!

There's kids playing in the pool.

Kids watching Baby Einstein, Neighborhood Animals. Audrey and Norah FREAK OUT over the animals. Pure entertainment. This one is a more subdued video, but it's shorter and they have clothes on. The other options feature diaper-clad girls banging the TV and screaming, and they're quite long.

I can't remember what the other one might be. Oh, it's Ethan on the ride home from the hospital with Norah. I liked it because I can't believe how much he's grown in the last year, either!

I am officially stressed out at the time...1:57 a.m....boooooo!!!! Life might hurt a little tomorrow :(

But, hooray!!!! I can now mark "Update Blog" off my checklist (which is imaginary), and I'm so glad the family can see the kids!