happiest easter!

Happy Easter!  We had such a fun day celebrating Easter with our families.  The girls got to visit both Mimi & Duke's house and Nana's house for the first time ever, and Will had a blast playing with everyone, as always.  Will especially enjoyed his Easter baskets, starting with one from the Easter bunny that he found early this morning.  The Easter bunny knew that Will is loving puzzles right now, so his basket had lots of new puzzles, a new book, some of his favorite delicious applesauce, and cheddar and graham bunnies hidden in Easter eggs.  He quickly learned how to open the eggs to get to the treats, and we may be finding bunnies scattered around the house for weeks!  

goodies from the Easter bunny!

{Do you love Will's pajama combo?  He chose his attire last night, and of course it included his favorite "geen pants," which are size 12-18 months, and clearly too small.  Love this guy!}

Will has been SUCH a great big brother to the girls.  Any time he sees one, he says, "hey baby!" and he likes to pat their heads and hold their hands.  And he is always trying to help by bringing them blankets, clothes, and anything he thinks they need.  What a sweet boy!  This morning, he even helped me give Caroline a bath.

Here are a few Easter pictures we took this morning:

{I think Will was a bit skeptical of our sweet neighbor who offered to take our picture!}

Last week I showed Will how to make those little spinning leaf things spin. {you know...the leaf/seed things that spin when you drop them?}  He is so cute when he sees one now...always picks it up and drops it to make it spin!  {He even does it with regular leaves now...not always as exciting, but still cute.}

Our first stop of the afternoon was Mimi and Duke's house for lunch.  Will got an Easter basket there, and he was super excited about more snacks!

...and a red car!

Duke & Emily {love this picture!!}

Later in the afternoon, our little circus headed over to Nana's house for dinner.  {have I mentioned that getting three kids anywhere is a bit of a production?}  There were more Easter baskets and treats, plus Will got to dye some Easter eggs!  I was feeding the girls during the egg dying, so I didn't get any pictures, but I hear that it was a blast.

Nana and Caroline

Ryan and Emily

 Ryan, Emily, Jordan, and Caroline

I love how well Will's grandparents know him....he got new sunglasses in BOTH Easter baskets.  

He was in heaven!  :)

Happy Easter!

celebrating c&e

What a fun weekend we had!  After months of being afraid to get too excited about the girls' arrival {or buy anything!} because of the momo pregnancy, now that they are finally here and home, we finally got to celebrate!  My Aunt Christa and Uncle Steve came to town to meet them, plus I got together with some great friends to shower the girls with love {and girly stuff!}.  It was a blast.

The girls loved meeting Aunt Christa and Uncle Steve!

This one is just a random pic of Emily, but I just love how sweet she looks!  Had to share.

And here are a few pics from the shower...Megan made these awesome signs for their room.  

{totally made me cry when I walked in...I am a mess!}

everything was so cute and girly!

The girls were given so much adorable stuff, including this sign for their room, 

which is one of my favorites {and also made me cry}!

It says, "Even a miracle takes a little time.  --Cinderella"  

{Thanks Pam!!!}

the beautiful hostesses - LOVE these girls!

I also love snuggle time with all my babies!  

Not sure what I did to deserve these three blessings...love them so much!

one month

Caroline and Emily celebrated their one month birthday yesterday!  It feels so strange to me that they are already a month old, because I feel like time didn't REALLY start until they came home, which was just one week ago.  These girls have been busy!  From the NICU to the Special Care Nursery, and then home...we couldn't have asked for a better first month, considering the circumstances.  We are counting our blessings every day, and enjoying our new crazy, fun life as a family of FIVE!

I decided to take the girls monthly pictures with Mr. Bear, who was in every one of Will's monthly pics.  I wouldn't say that I was extremely successful in getting a great photo of the girls.  In our first set up, Emily was passed out and Caroline was awake and flailing around, and then we moved from the couch to a chair, and Caroline fell asleep while Emily was awake.  Here are our best shots...

This one cracks me up....Emily is slowly getting angry and Caroline is totally pulling a Top Model pose.

And then the wheels came off...

{this pic reminded me of the triple threat photo shoot from when Will was a wee babe}

Although my pictures make it look impossible to take good photos of two babies at once, I have proof that it can, in fact, be done.  We had some newborn pictures taken this morning, and our fabulous photographer posted 2 sneak peeks....eek!  I am loving these and can't wait to see the rest!

{Emily}

love

Matt enjoyed his first "daddy duty" alone with all three kiddos for a few hours yesterday, and this is what I found when I came home.  Does this melt your heart, or what?!!

Definitely my new favorite pictures.  :)

home

7 months of a very scary and stressful pregnancy.

6 weeks living in Presbyterian Hospital away from my family.

116 "non-stress test" monitoring sessions for the girls.

4 steroid shots, 2 rhogam shots, 2 terbutaline shots, magnesium infusion, and who even knows how many blood draws.

9 days in the NICU.

17 days in the Special Care Nursery.

Lots of hospital bracelets and countless Presby parking cards.

SO. WORTH. IT.

We are all under one roof!!  The girls got to come home on Tuesday, and we have absolutely loved having everyone home...finally!  It has been a long and scary road for sure, but the less-than-fun parts are already becoming distant memories as we enjoy our sweet new additions to the family.  {Not to say that it's easy having a 2 year old and preemie twins, but we are figuring things out, and we are SO very lucky to have our family and friends supporting us.} 

 Here are a few pictures from the last two days at home.

Checking out their new crib, even though they're not sleeping there yet.

{although they might move there soon...they grunt SUPER loudly at night}

first dual bottles with daddy

And a few owl hat pics from today...almost 4 weeks old!

And I had to share this one, because it is probably the most accurate picture of our new, crazy life! :)

2 weeks!

Our sweet girls are 2 weeks old today!  After spending their first 9 days in the NICU, we were so happy that they got to move to the Special Care Nursery on Sunday.  It is a much more home-like environment, and we have our own room with space for us to stay overnight, 2 recliner chairs, and plenty of room.  

However, I will say that it has been MUCH harder on me to balance time at the hospital with the girls and time at home with Will than I expected.  I think that while I was on mandatory hospital arrest for my 6 weeks of monitoring and 4 days postpartum, I just knew that it was out of my control to be away from him, and somehow that made it easier.  But once I got to go home, it became almost unbearable for me to leave him every day!  {this may also be related to the crazy hormones of a new mom...let's be honest...}  It's a tough spot to be in, because when I'm home with Will, I miss the babies and feel guilty about not being at the hospital, and when I'm with them, I miss Will and feel guilty about leaving him.  {Anyone figured out a way to clone yourself yet?}   

After being up at the hospital working on nursing around the clock for the first few days the girls were in Special Care, we've settled into a more manageable schedule in the past couple of days.  I've been able to spend a couple of hours at home with Will in the morning, then the rest of the day up at the hospital...then back home for dinner, playtime, bath, and bedtime, and then back up to be with the girls for their late night feedings.  Add in lots of pumping time to store milk for these sweet babies and build up my milk supply while they are learning to nurse, and pretty much all the hours of the day are busy busy!  But as difficult as this time is, the girls are just doing SO well.  At this point, they are pretty much just working on feeding and growing, which is going well.  Both have surpassed their birth weights...Emily is now 4 lbs, 9 oz, and Caroline is 4 lbs. 7.5 oz.  We could not be more thankful and proud of their progress, and I know this will all quickly become a distant memory when they get to come home.  OK ok, enough babbling from me.  Here are some pictures from the last week. 

First time back together since birth!!  {Emily on left, Caroline on right}

Riding from the NICU to the Special Care Nursery in the same crib. 

Here are a few pictures of Caroline:

Caroline and Mimi

And here are some of Emily:

 Love these sweet baby girls!!!