The Yellow Dresses

My sweet Babunya ("Grandmother" in Russian) was supposed to make a trip out here with my mom a few weeks ago. For the first time since our family started flying stand-by, they couldn't get a flight out of LA, despite hanging out at the airport all day, running from gate to gate, trying to get an available seat. What a sad day! Bunya had treats for us all (tea for me, JellyBellies for Chris, a Transformer for Ethan, and dresses for the girls). We received them a couple weeks ago by mail, and I want her to see how darling Audrey and Norah are in the little dresses she picked for them:

Super Mario Beatbox

In honor of the many hours of Super Mario Bros. Wii played in our home, I present to you this Japanese guy's Awesomeness:


And because Chris says beatboxing is the coolest party trick ever, he is going to invest in some Beatboxing for Dummies tutorials. He totally has the lips for it. Great for kissing, too ;) We'll throw a party for everyone to check out his skillz after he's practiced for awhile, but I'm the only one who gets to kiss him!

Happy Fourth of July!

So far...what a FUN 4th!!! Ethan had a buddy spend the night last night and they stayed up laaaaaate giggling in their room, so I thought for sure today's plans would be a bust. I was wrong!

The boys were up and ready by 9:00 this morning, but then Thatcher had to leave before 11:00. We usually attend our local Fourth of July celebration in the evening, but to fill in the day and to keep Ethan busy, I decided to go during the afternoon this year.

We were out the door by noon and I was so surprised at the low crowds at the city celebration. In years past, we have parked far away in a field and fought crowds to get through booths. This year, we parked up close in the parking lot and spent all day talking to different families, visiting booths, and playing in the KidZone with bounce houses and water slides. Today is overcast and cool, so the weather was PERFECT! No crowds, lots of free samples, free watermelon, pickles, water, plus a few other treats. I only expected to be out for about two hours, then home to put the babies down for a nap, but with the ideal conditions and happy kids, we ended up staying until 4:00.

We've just gotten home and the girls are down for naps. I'm trying to decide if it will be worth it to get everyone fed and bathed and head back out for the fireworks show at 9:15 tonight. I'm not sure I'm up to braving it alone, but we're hoping to meet our friends up there, too...so I'm up in the air...

A nice guy took a couple pictures of us on the bounce house and emailed them to Chris for me:

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