New Things

We had a nice weekend. Went out and let a new sitter watch B & K, bought new outdoor furniture and took Tabasco to the dog park again. Alex (the daughter of a someone I know from work) did an awesome job with Bennett & Kendyll Friday night and they had a ton of fun with her. We had a lot of fun, too, going out to dinner and meeting up with family & friends in the Arena District. Getting home that night was a pain in the rear (many events going on downtown, stuck in a parking garage trying to get out for over an hour. Ugh!).

The twins play date ended up getting cancelled . . . the mommy hosting it had two sick babies (and she was sick herself), so she wisely cancelled the event. We look forward to it next month. So instead we spent Saturday out shoping for a few new outdoor pieces for our deck and for a few new items for B & K. We bought them Bumbo seats, which they are still trying to master sitting in (they can only take it for a few minutes). See pics below.

Tonight we took Tabasco to the park again and B & K watched from their stroller. Oh what fun! We're all looking forward to the short week . . . yay!!

Thank you for inviting me!

I was able to attend a "Ladies Night Out" at the Melting Pot last night. My friend, Erin, coordinates a Ladies night quite frequently and I had yet to make one all year. So this month we planned ahead (and I coordinated with Tim's schedule) and I was finally able to attend with a few other friends. It was so fun and the food was awesome and the only bad thing was that I had to go to work today (the Martini #16 was AWESOME and I could have easily had several rounds!).

Things turned quite scary once I arrived home, though. My friend Jodi & I rode over to the restaurant together. On the way home (after 11p on a WORK NIGHT!! :-)) we noticed a ton of lightening, but it wasn't raining. The lightening intensified on my way home from her house and as I pulled into my driveway I could hear the tornado sirens going off. Perfect time for our stupid old garage door not to go up! So I leave my car in the driveway & run inside, so worried that Tim was asleep and had no idea what was going on. Turns out he was awake and starting to go down the hall to grab the kiddos. I asked what's going on (because I had not heard anything on the radio in the car) and his reply: "it is a tornado warning and it is heading right for us . .. we have 5, maybe 10 minutes". YIKES!! I grab the kids and he goes to try to get the effing garage door open to get my car out of the path of harm (we had a similar storm 2 years ago and had severe hail damage to his car, so we didn't want to go through that again!! He was able to get it in!). Of course B & K were WIDE awake as we moved to the basement and super excited to be hanging out with us at such a late hour. We stayed down there for about 30 minutes and watched the weather on TV as the storm passed over us. Thankfully we just had a ton of rain . . . no touchdowns, no hail damage (this time!) and no tree damage. My next worry was that B & K wouldn't go back down to bed -- mainly because the thunder & lightening lasted for several hours -- but we had only minor fussing from them and then they were out. Me & Tim, however, were wired from all of the excitement and it took a while for us to fall asleep. Needless to say, it felt like our "old days" today at work -- it is rough to go back to only getting 4 - 6 hours of sleep at night. :-)

We have an exciting weekend coming. We have our first experience with a real babysitter -- Alex will be watching B & K tomorrow night while Tim & I go out to dinner and a party for my cousin -- B & K's "Aunt" Julia. She is quitting her job & going back to school in Pittsburgh to get her MBA, so her co-workers are throwing her a big party in the Arena District. Woo-hoo! And then on Saturday, B & K & I are going to a twins playdate. I'm sure that will be an adventure!

For Uncle Mark

My brother, Mark, made the request yesterday to put up new pictures every day. Oh how I wish I had nothing but time to take pictures of B & K all day. I have, however, finally gotten around to showing Becca how to work the new camera, so maybe she has the time to snap pictures during the day. Sometimes B & K are just NOT in the mood for mommy photo time in the evening when I am home. :-)

But in the spirit of updating everyone with new pics (especially since the previous ones by Sarah Cea were almost a month old), I've included a few pictures I snapped tonight. The carseat pics are proof of how big they are getting . . . we finally took out their head supports and moved the straps to the "big" girl & boy position. Before we know it they will be in the next size carseat (these two are getting VERY heavy to carry around in these things, by the way). And thanks to Aunt Anna Maire & Jim for the outfits -- so cute!

Dog Day of Summer

We had a pretty nice weekend . . . very busy, but nice. A LOT of running around and tonight we took Tabasco to the dog park by our house. We just realized last week on our very long walk for ice cream that the park by our house becomes a dog park after 8pm (we had always heard about this, but never really bothered to check it out. . . poor Tabasco!). So we finally made the night all about him and he was in heaven. Although we were hoping it would tire him out for the night, but it seems to have had the opposite effect. It may be a while before we check it out again. . .

B & K are doing well. Very smiley and chatty and drooling up a storm. Still sleeping through the night (9p - 8a). Bennett will occasionally still wake up to be re-swaddled, but he is learning to sleep with his arms out and only really wakes up when his legs break free.

Tim & I both have really busy weeks coming up (he actually has to be in the office for a meeting tomorrow morning at SIX AM -- yuck!). We're counting down the days until next week . . . we are both working a 3 day week for the holiday and can't wait!

Here are a few more pictures from our photo shoot with Sarah Cea. Enjoy!

Supermodel

Like the new header? Our friend, Sarah, came to our house a few weeks ago to photograph B & K and our family. She is almost finished with photography school and gave us a session as a gift. It was a little disastrous at the time (note to self -- and others: don't do a photo shoot with 3 month olds. Do it earlier -- i.e. newborn -- or wait until they are older). I felt so bad and as though Sarah had wasted a good part of a Sunday at our house -- both babies were SUPER cranky and as soon as we'd get them calmed down and the camera snapping the tears would reappear. But it turns out that the photos are FANTASTIC!! I'll try to post more soon, but my favorites are the one in the new header and the one of our whole family (including Tabasco) below. I can't believe this was taken in my HOUSE -- it looks awesome if I do say so myself. Of course, B & K look like they are dolls and are dead to the world, but I think it still turned out pretty good. And Tim was making fun of me for having us all wear the same color (I'll admit . . .I never thought I'd be one of "those people", but I think it makes for a cohesive photo). A HUGE thanks to Sarah!!!

Hope everyone is having a good weekend. I'll try to post an update on our weekend tomorrow.

It was a shotty day . . .

Bennett & Kendyll survived their 4 month shots this morning. They didn't like it very much, but they survived. It is hard, now, because they screamed like bloody murder and it took a little while longer for them to calm down. Plus, after the shots and subsequent parental calming, Tim put Bennett back down on the table to put his clothes on and he freaked out again . . . I think he associated the table with the shots. Ugh. The duo have been a little sleepy the rest of the day, but so far no other residual effects.

Now on to the big news . . . stats updates.

Bennett: 12 lbs 1 oz, 24 inches

Kendyll: 12 lbs 2 oz, 23 inches

Although Tim swears B's was going between 1oz & 2 while he was on the scale, so who knows. We get to start cereal in another month, which I'm sure will be an adventure. They look good, seem to be developing according to their actual age and don't have to go back again until their 6 month appointment.

Tim is on the road again . . . this time to Chicago. I'm so jealous . . . he is eating at one my favorite restaurants (from our CA days, actually) as I type this. Lucky guy . . . Meanwhile, our lives are ever more getting back to "normal". We have started going back to the gym (well, Tim never really stopped . . . just slowed down a bit. But after 10 weeks of puking every day, 9 weeks of laying on the couch and 4 months of taking care of two babies, I haven't seen the place in almost a year). Many of you may remember I spent a good deal of time, effort and $$ trying to get in shape last year -- before our lives were turned upside-down. Tim & I used to get up and go to the gym before work, but as I've already mention that practice stopped for me last summer. I was able to make my first trip back on Saturday. . . I NEVER thought I'd say this, but it was awesome! Although I can't really walk today . . . between the gym, working in the yard and walking almost 3 miles yesterday I am in a bit of pain. But I guess it is a good pain . . .

Happy Father's Day!!

Just a quick one . . . Happy Father's Day to Tim and our dads (Papa & Grandpa) and to all the other dad's out there. We spent the day doing yard work and we all took a LONG walk for ice cream tonight. We may not be able to walk tomorrow, but it was a very nice day. We love you Daddy!!

Bennett's shirt says "Cool like Daddy" and Kendyll's says "I *heart* Daddy". I'm pretty impressed that I almost got them to smile at the same time for a picture. :-)