Christmas has come & gone!

It's hard to believe Christmas has already come and gone! I am 3 days late in documenting the babies' first Christmas (as well as 6 month update!) but truth be told, I've been too busy! Well, I can't say I've been doing anything all that thrilling or productive (HAHA), but Jeff has been home since December 22 so aside from my normal daily "Mama Duties" I've been really enjoying his company, and putting off my blogging! Without further ado, I will now update with plenty of pictures!

The babies turned 6 months old on Christmas Eve. 6 MONTHS OLD!! How on earth has it already been half a year?! Time is flying by at warp speed now, and as I say in every post - I feel like I just wrote last months' update! Here is a pic I took of them on their '6 month birthday':

Christmas Eve we went to Mass at 4:30pm. Well, actually we arrived at 4:15pm thinking the service started at 4:30 but it didn't start until 5:30. Woops. Somehow 10 of our family members all trusted that we knew what time the service started and we in turn counted on them to save us seats since we figured we'd inevitably be late. My mom called me as we were rushing out the door, "We're the only ones in the Sanctuary and the pastor just came in and told us it doesn't start until 5:30." Oh for cripe's sake. I was so mad. I had even told myself to check the church's website earlier in the afternoon just to be sure of the time. Obviously I forgot to do that. I was completely flustered by the fact that we were running very late (LOL, or so I thought. I'd hoped to leave our house at 3:40, Jeff was just getting in the shower then...) I had already loaded up the car by myself with all the gifts, the diaper bag, the bottles and the babies, when the bomb was dropped. I started half-panicking and telling Jeff, "We can't stay for the 5:30 service! The babies are going to need a nap!! They need to be fed at 6pm!! My mom needs to get back home to put dinner in the oven, we have to open gifts at their house and be back at our house in time for baths and bedtime! Christmas Eve is RUINED!!!" Deep breaths. We decided to try our luck with the babies in the 5:30 service and even took some nice family photos before hand. Believe it or not, both Jozlynn and Jeffrey were absolute angels during the entire service!! Jozlynn entertained herself by pulling her pacifier out of her mouth and putting it back in. When that game got old we grabbed a toy from the diaper bag to keep her occupied for the remainder of the service. Jeffrey was perfectly content sitting on Grandma Lynn's lap, and when he started to fuss ever so slightly, she handed him to me and he settled down instantly (just as I was prepared to leave the Sanctuary!) Thanks babies, for the best Christmas Eve ever!

We headed to my parents' house and enjoyed dinner with them (and my brother and future sister-in-law!) and then exchanged gifts. Usually we exchange gifts Christmas Day but not until late so we decided we'd do it on Christmas Eve instead. Here's a pic from the evening!

Somehow Dad always forgets to open his eyes. Oh well!

The babies got lots of awesome gifts on Christmas Eve and even more on Christmas Day! Santa was so good to them! Christmas Morning, Jeff's parents came over around 11 and we exchanged gifts then headed over to his grandparents' house. Here's a few pics:

Jozlynn and her first Minnie Mouse!

I think this was the only nap he took all day :(

As I mentioned above, neither Jozlynn nor Jeffrey took a decent nap all day long. I think they got a cat nap on the car ride over, then both fell asleep briefly while we were there. They also got a little (longer) nap on the way to my aunt and uncle's house. Needless to say, by the time the day was over they were extremely overtired and overstimulated. While Jozlynn crashed as soon as we got her home and into bed at 9pm, Jeffrey could not settle and would wake up and have a screaming fit every 40 minutes or so until 1am. At that point I gave up attempting to soothe him and got him a bottle in hopes he'd fall asleep. He did (finally!) and crashed until 9am, when Jozlynn woke as well. She didn't make a single peep all.night.long!

I'd give an update on the babies' 6 month stats, but they haven't had their appointment with the pediatrician yet. Due to Jeff's wonky insurance plan, we had to wait to schedule it until after January 1. Can you believe his insurance only covered the equivalent of 4 months' worth of well-baby visits in a given calendar year? Are you kidding me? Do they know how often babies go to the doctor when they're less than a year old? Thank goodness they weren't born in January, or else we'd be paying out of pocket after they turned 4 months old! Completely ridiculous! And don't even get me started on their immunizations (which are covered...but ditto the well-baby visit stuff). Sigh, I guess it could be worse..

Ok that went off on a little tangent. I'll leave you with pics of the babies and their Christmas loot!!

Hope everyone had a great Christmas!

Jozlynn & Jeffrey's first visit with Santa!

Jeff had taken last Friday off and we had initially planned to take the babies to see Santa that afternoon. (I figured the mall would be less crowded, smaller line for Santa, etc..) Well, we never got around to it since the contractors were finishing up the work on the bathroom in our basement & then the plumbing inspector didn't show til about noon. Anyway, yesterday we got hit with a pretty substantial snow storm - the first one of the season! - and I decided that it would be a perfect opportunity to go see Santa. The roads were pretty slushy on the trip there but luckily the mall we decided to go to wasn't very far from our house. Just as I predicted, not many people were at the mall and we were able to walk right up to Santa!! Aside from Santa's "helper" thinking Jeffy was a girl (???) we all had a good time 'visiting' him!

Look at Jeffrey's face, is that priceless or what? He had that look on his face the ENTIRE time he sat there! We had a little harder time getting Jozlynn to smile, but I am completely happy with the way the picture turned out! Neither baby is looking at the camera, they were looking at Santa's "helper" because she was holding up toys and ringing the sleigh bells, but whatever...at least they're smiling. :)

I can't believe Christmas is less than 2 weeks away!

5 months old!

It seems like just yesterday I was writing the 4 month post! It's crazy how time flies. The babies turned 5 months old the day before Thanksgiving. Here are a couple pics I took of them on their special day!

I just love the look she's giving me (she was having a crazy-hair day!)

Jeffy looks so concerned! 

My little angels! I tamed Jozlynn's hair ala the "Mom" thing, licking my fingers and smoothing it down. Ha!

The babies are getting much more mobile, and love to roll around on the floor. When laying on their backs, they are both able to flip over to their stomachs. This doesn't usually last for long because they don't like to be on their stomachs! The past couple nights I've woken to the sound of Jozlynn fussing, I look at my video monitor only to find that she's flipped herself over in her crib and she's mad about it. It's too funny! I flip her back over, give her a pacifier and she goes back to sleep. Although, one night she flipped about 4 times - every 10-15 minutes or so. That was a little exhausting because I was constantly checking on her (and getting up to flip her back over!)

The past 3 nights we've made great strides in the sleep department. Knock on wood, both babies have been sleeping from 9pm to 7am. Last night they actually slept from 9pm to 7:45am! But I think it was because they were worn out from the Thanksgiving activities :)

Speaking of Thanksgiving, I was a little concerned about them getting cranky since we planned to be out almost all day. We went to Jeff's parents' house around noon, then onto my aunt and uncle's house around 4:30pm. Jozlynn took a mini nap at Jeff's parents' house and both babies slept in the car on the way to my aunt and uncle's (40 min drive). Much to my delight, both babies were absolutely perfect at both places! They didn't fuss at all!! Our family members kept commenting on how good they were being, and didn't believe me when I said they usually don't do so well without their scheduled naps! We got home around 9pm, just in time for baths, bottles and bed. :) Tomorrow we have plans to go to my friends' daughter's birthday party. I'm hoping the babies behave there as well, they seem to really like when there's a lot of commotion, people, and things to look at!

And now I'll leave you with our first holiday family photo, taken at Jeff's parents' house:

God Bless Jozlynn & Jeffrey!

The babies' baptism took place this past Sunday, which also happened to be my 26th birthday! It was a very memorable day. Since the babies have been born, we have only made it to church a handful of times (unfortunately). It seems like almost every single week we *try* but either feedings get in the way, the babies are napping and we don't want to wake them, we're beyond exhausted, etc. The times that we do make it we are usually at least 30 minutes late or feeding them during the service. In any event, the logistics of getting them to the service this past Sunday not only on time but 20 minutes early (as the church requested!) was quite the task. But I digress...

We arrived with plenty of time to spare, got them dressed in the outfits Grandma Lynn had made for them and got to relax a little before heading out to the sanctuary. Normally the babies nap between 9am and 11:30am, and here we are...they've been up since 9am, they only napped in the car (a 20 min drive) and the service started at 11. Jeff and I sat down in the pew and he whispered to me, "I hope they do the Baptisms first." I told him I thought they would, since we have seen them in the past... and sure enough they did. The church must know that babies don't last very long before getting cranky (or at least mine don't!)

The Baptisms went perfectly! Jozlynn & Jeffrey were the first ones to be baptized. I think they did them alphabetical by last name - ours starts with an A. They were angels the entire time we were on the altar. There were 8 additional babies being baptized and we all stood up there until the end of the baptisms. We sat back down in our pew for the remainder of the service and Jozlynn only lasted 5 more minutes before she started to fuss. I made it to the back of the church just in the nick of time as she prompty had a 10 minute screamfest and then fell asleep. Jeffrey stayed out in the sanctuary with Jeff for the entire service! Jeff later told me he could hear Jozlynn screaming from his seat in the front... at one point I had shut the door to the room I was in, but someone else opened it again before Jozlynn stopped crying. Oh well.

We had a little get-together at my parents' house after the service. Here are some pics we took!

Jeff & I with the babies

Love Jeffy's expression, "7 more months and I am totally devouring one of these things!"

Note the fact that they each had their own cake, these were the 2nd 'set' of cakes my mom got, the grocery store messed up on the first 2 cakes (font didn't match, they spelled Jozlynn's name wrong and fixed it with the wrong color frosting, the designs were completely different...despite the fact that my mom ordered them at the same time, apparently someone didn't get the note that these are for twins and the cakes would be sitting right next to each other...) Anyway, the store let my mom keep the 'messed up' cakes and she had also gotten me a birthday cake. 5 cakes total. Suffice it to say, there was plenty of cake to spare!!

4 generations

Jozlynn says, "I like to stand up!"

This was a couple seconds after Jeffy kicked his foot and got blue frosting all over his bootie!

What a great day we had!

Thanks to everyone who were part of the babies' (& my) special day! And a special thanks to my mom for hosting the party and making the babies' gorgeous outfits!!

Happy Birthday, Grandma Sandy!

Yesterday we celebrated Jeff's mom's birthday. As always, the babies were so excited to spend the day with the family, and Mama & Daddy were happy to have a few minutes to grab some food without any interruptions!

I dressed the babies in their pumpkin-butt PJs that my mom bought them. Here is a before-the-party shot:

Ok, sorry. This is just their butts. The front of the outfit is kinda boring and I thought this picture would be hilarious. Unfortunately you cannot see their faces - they didn't agree with me :(

Now for some party shots

Jozlynn 'riding' on Daddy's shoulders (with a little help from Grandpa)..

Ooh, candles! Jeffy's expression is priceless...

Man it's a good thing we had twins. One baby for each grandparent. :)

Apparently just being at home with Mama & Daddy is pretty boring, the babies will usually get fussy after about 2 hours of  'awake time' and need a nap. But when we visit other peoples' houses? Oh no, they're perfectly content...the entire time. They hardly ever fuss unless it's almost time to eat, and naps occur only because they can't possibly keep their eyes open any longer, as evidenced below:

"Wow, Grandpa - I don't know about you but singing is exhausting!"

I think she slept like this for about 45 minutes. Silly girl.

Luckily Jeffy was still wide awake, hamming it up.

"Don't worry Joz, I got this - you can take a nap!!"

He was awake almost the entire time we were there. He fell asleep briefly when Grandma Sandy was feeding him his bottle. "Yummy bottle...full tummy...happy Jeffy...zzzzzzz"

Today is the babies' first Halloween. My parents are going to come over later for pizza and to help with baths and bottles since it *might* interfere with passing out candy to the 300+ trick-or-treaters we usually get. We bought pumpkins but haven't had a chance to carve them yet... not sure if we even will. Oh well!

4 months old!

How is it possible that my babies are already 4 months old?! Time is absolutely flying. I cannot believe how big they've gotten in only 4 months. It will be interesting to see how much they change in the next 4!

Now for some pics:
The babies' first trip to the Franklin Cider Mill.

Sorry Mom, not feeling very photogenic today!

These orange things are strange..

Here is their 4-month picture. Taken Sunday morning:

Jeff and I went to the Baptism class at our church last night. The babies are all set to be baptized on my 26th birthday, which will be very memorable for me! My mom is making their christening outfits: Jozlynn will be wearing a gown, Jeffrey will be wearing a romper. They coordinate pretty well also! We are crossing our fingers they behave ;-) More on that later...

4 month stats:
Jozlynn - 13lb 4oz, 25.75 inches; 50th percentile for weight, 90th percentile for height
Jeffrey - 14lb 8oz, 25 inches; 50th percentile for both weight and height

The pediatrician said to keep them on formula only until they either a) start waking up earlier and being hungry, or b) are up to 30oz of formula per day. Jeffy is almost at 30oz so we may be starting him on rice cereal in a few weeks to see how he does. I have a feeling it will take Jozlynn another month or so before she's up to 30oz. I've gotten tandem bottle feeding down to a science, so I'm in no rush to have a try at tandem spoon-feeding. That ought to be interesting! We estimate that around 6 months, both babies should be right on track with their solids. They are now up-to-date on their shots, as heartbreaking as they always are for Jeff and I. :(

The babies currently have either 5 or 6 bottles per day, depending on what time they wake up. For the past month or so, bedtime has been around 8pm and they wake up anywhere from 3am-6am. They have given us a few 'uninterrupted' nights, but I usually am re-swaddling or re-pacifying halfway through the night. Jeffy can eat as much as 6oz in one feeding, but mainly sticks to 5oz. Jozlynn can eat 6oz as well, but only as her first bottle of the day. The rest of her bottles average between 3oz and 5oz. She is definitely the more finicky eater! They are still in size 1 diapers and 0-3 months clothes. I did just buy a whole bunch of long-sleeve onesies in 3-6 months, but they're still big on them.

Jeffy has rolled for us a couple times, but it's pretty inconsistent. Jozlynn isn't very tolerant of tummy time but has great head control. Both babies hold their heads up without any trouble when we carry them around and they just love it when we sit them upright on our laps. Their main interests while on our laps now are the TV, Melkom, Mama, Daddy, lights, and windows.

We are getting excited for the babies' first Halloween. We decided not to dress them up this year, but do have some cute footed PJs with pumpkin-butts as well as some "My 1st Halloween" onesies they'll be wearing this weekend. I'll be sure to post some pics :)

New to the blogging world!

Reading others' blogs about their experiences raising multiples has inspired me to create my very own blog. I hope to document most of the babies' first year (or next 2/3 of a year since they're already 4 months old!) I figure this will be a fun way to keep family up-to-date on our 'weekly happenings'.

Enjoy!