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Thursday, May 31, 2012

Race Day Cookout!


Cousin Megan, her girls, and Emma playing with the twins

Ugh, I'm getting behind again! It's already a week late posting this. We've got some changes coming up, and with the boys crawling and getting into everything, I guess I haven't felt like getting on the blog for a while. But anyway, my aunt has a cookout each race day at her house. I remember going last year when I was pregnant, and seeing my cousin's twin boys and seeing what I was in for! So I was pretty excited to bring my boys this year.

They got to meet several of my cousins/aunts/second cousins/etc (I think most of my "cousins" are actually my second cousins, since they're my cousins' kids...so what does that make my second cousin's kids to my kids? Ack! We can all just be cousins. OK now the word "cousins" looks really weird...) Anyway, we put the boys on a blanket in the yard since they were just starting to crawl. And all of the little girls came right over to sit and play with the boys! It was so CUTE. We also got to see Jenni's boys on their "motorcycles" and see how fast they love to race around! Jenni and Tommy had to jump in front of them before they raced into the street! :) And I love that whatever her kids have gives me great ideas for my boys' first birthday coming up.... (Wagon, motorcycles, etc. :)

How cute is this picture???
We just hung out all afternoon and enjoyed the yummy food. My mom brings macaroni, my aunt Sharon makes potato salad, there's always dirt pudding (my fave!) and Alex made a strawberry pie. (I didn't even get any, there was none left to bring home!) The boys did really well; they pretty much missed a nap by being there all afternoon. But they were pretty happy getting passed around to people. My cousins from Michigan were there, who I haven't seen since I was probably 12! I'm friends with them on facebook, but it was cool to see them for a bit "in real life". So that was pretty much it! I wish we got together more, but it's nice to always have race day to look forward to. It's fun to think that next year my boys will be running around and probably playing with all the other kids! I'm not sure if that'll be more or less work for me... :)

Stopping them before the street!



Aunt Sharon and Henry
Cousin Shannon and Holden
Michigan fam!
Me and cousin Lindsay
Best we got of Grandma and Grandpa
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Saturday, May 26, 2012

Play date host!

It was finally my turn to host the weekly playdate on Friday! Woo! At least it gave me a good excuse to clean and make some of my favorite foods. I made a chicken taco bar, with the really easy recipe here and of course my DELICIOUS recipe for salted caramel chocolate chip cookie bars here (a little complicated, maybe, but so worth it!) and just had chips, my famous chip dip, and other yummy stuff, like apples and apple dip. (Ok, a lot of dips, but who doesn't like that?) I should've taken some fancy pictures so I could pin them on pinterest or something. :) Maybe next time.

Recipe for apple dip: 2 bricks cream cheese, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup powdered sugar (or a little less, to your taste) and 1 tablespoon vanilla. Mix together. Sprinkle toffee chips on top! Serve with apples (Granny Smith are good) and put pineapple juice over apples to keep from browning. (Recipe credit to Ashley! Yum.)

Recipe for chip dip: (A long time Leah party fave...and occasionally a lazy dinner at the Amerman house...) one package chive and onion cream cheese, one can no-bean chili, and 1 to 1 1/2 cups shredded cheese layered in a pie pan. Bake for 20 minutes at 350 or until cheese is melty. Serve with tortilla or corn chips!


See? Tried to get Avery and Will in there, but they're on the move!!

I was so glad people could make it, since it's a holiday weekend. The boys and I had a great time! There are several babies who can crawl and are very mobile, so it was an eye-opener to see what stuff we'll need to make baby-proof. (Yeah, I know, everything!) It's so cute to see how fast they move, under the table, to the back door, through the kitchen...these kids are fast! :) They liked looking at Lanore, but I kept her outside or in the bedroom, since not everyone has an excitable dog at home. I tried to take a few pictures, but it's hard! I want to take better pictures but the babies are constantly in motion. Guess I need to just not be shy about keeping the camera out. (This last one is not great...but it was to show Alex that the babyproofing we've done is not quite finished yet! We bought some padding for the coffee table but hadn't actually taped/secured it down yet. So Findley and Will had no problem yanking it right off!!) Can't wait until it's our turn to host again! And the baby birthday party circuit has started....so we'll be seeing plenty of our friends over the summer!

Friday, May 25, 2012

I think we can call it "official"

We have a crawler! :) Henry is on the move! And what does he crawl for/towards, you ask? Oh, an iPhone of course. Both boys were going for one yesterday when my friend Ashlyn was here, we just didn't get a good video. Holden doesn't seem to be as motivated to move as Henry. So we got a quick video tonight; luckily Aunt Lauren doesn't mind if her phone gets a little slobber on it! Go, Henry, go!



Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Eight Months Old


Henry look so little!

Time is flying...I didn't even realize it was May 18th, already! Can't believe the boys are 8 months. We celebrated with another trip to the doctor. This time it was mostly good news, Holden still does not have an ear infection, and Henry's was looking better. (Both boys are still very stuffy and snotty and Holden has a nasty sounding rasp/cough. But they're hopefully on the mend, they don't seem to be as fussy or miserable as last weekend.) So we were able to get "official" 8 month weights at the doctor's office. Henry is 15 pounds, 7 ounces, and Holden is 16 pounds 4 ounces. Holden is starting to feel pretty heavy when you pick him up!! :) After the doctor's office we headed to our Friday playdate to hang with friends for a while. The frustrating thing is that by the time I get them up, fed and dressed/changed and out the door, by the time we get to the playdate, it's practically nap time again! So I feel like I always have fussy babies that need a nap, and they end up sleeping instead of getting to play. Hopefully they'll be moving to a longer afternoon nap at some point? It would be awesome...


Holden hangin' in the high chair

So, what's happened in the last month. We switched them up to size 3 diapers, but they're still in 6-9 month clothes. Can't think of any other major milestones. They still babble and talk to us, they love to bounce in their jumperoo (they really get it and like to go crazy!) and they're still SO close to crawling. They can get from point A to point B to get what they want, but not official hands and knees crawling yet. Of course the things they want are always the non-toys, like the wipes container, the remote, or my ipod! They like to go for the same toy, or steal the one their brother has. It's sort of cute now, but I can sense the major rivalry coming in the future! They don't really play together yet, but I think they enjoy having someone else around. I enjoy it for sure, because I can leave the room for a second and they don't feel alone. If I take one of them out of the room to change a diaper or something, the left behind brother starts to cry!

They still enjoy eating solids. They've tried some new foods this month, and seem to be ok with all of them. I had more luck getting them to eat vegetables, including green beans and squash. (I cooked the green beans with apple juice, according to a recipe in our baby book, so I think that helped to have the sweet taste! Hey, whatever works.) Naps are still three hour long times a day, which like I said earlier, makes it really tough to leave the house or get things done. I will really enjoy when they can stay up longer without being cranky, and then sleep a longer stretch in the afternoon. Night time sleep has gone way backwards this month. Henry was waking up I think when he got his ear infection, and now they're both in the habit of waking 1-2 times a night. This has NOT been good for me and Alex. I'm not quite sure how to get us back on schedule besides letting them cry, which is hard on all of us. So I've been going in there to feed them most of the times they wake. Sigh. We're still doing a bath almost every day, along with lotion, etc, before bed. So we have quite the long evening ritual around here. But in general, they are both very sweet, loving babies! They usually have a very serious look, but they enjoy anyone holding them. We love to get them to laugh, and they're starting to understand little games like "peek a boo". They like walks and being outside, and I'm looking forward to summer stuff, like getting a baby pool and a swing for the backyard!

On Saturday, we went to lunch and used the restaurant high chairs for the first time (instead of keeping them in their carseats). Holden did ok, Henry looked so tiny in his! He cried after a few minutes and Alex had to hold them. After lunch, we took our first family walk on the Monon! It was slightly crazy because it was so hot, but it was fun. I hope we keep it up, since both Alex and I want to be in better shape!!! Sunday we visited Grandma and Grandpa A and hung out at their house. We took another walk in the 90 degree heat...we are crazy people, I guess! :)

Oh, and special thanks to Aunt Lauren and Uncle Evan! They came for dinner Saturday night and helped get the boys smiling for their month photo shoot. :) It'll be so cute to look back on these...they're already so much bigger than the bears!! (And much more interested in destroying the sign each month...)
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Mother's Day

I had a good first Mother's Day. We were all sick, so it could have been better in some aspects, but I know I'm really lucky! (Two beautiful, healthy boys and a loving husband who's a great cook!) I love my little family. I got to stay in bed a little bit in the morning, Alex got the boys up and made breakfast (my favorite biscuits...although really I like any biscuits, and gravy). We hung out and got ready slowly, and took a few pictures outside. It was a pretty day!! The boys' shirts say My Mom is the Best. :)

Then we went to Chili's for a late lunch and wandered around Buy Buy Baby for a while. The boys did pretty good at the restaraunt, and it was cute how all the servers came over to look at them and tell us how cute they were! Everyone was really sweet and kept wishing me a Happy Mother's Day. We tried a shopping cart for the first time at Buy Buy Baby, and the boys weren't really a fan. We switched them back and forth a few times and just carried one of them; I'm sure they'll get used to carts as they get a little bigger. They still look so small in them! (Guess I should have bought a cart cover thing, since that would have made them fit better. But I think with there being two of them, they won't spend that much time in store carts! They'll either be in the stroller or at home with daddy!)

We just hung out at home the rest of the day. I think I took an afternoon nap when the boys did, since we were all still feeling yucky. We got the boys to bed and then Alex made our yummy dinner. If he's cooking something complicated, it's just easier to eat later and get them taken care of first. We had baked ziti, salad, garlic bread and some pink wine (my fave!) and chocolate pot du creme for dessert! And that was that! A good day with family, couldn't ask for more. (Although next year we will hopefully all be healthy...that would be nice.)

 
Holden is on the left this time...but you knew that, right? :)
 
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Monday, May 14, 2012

The Sickness/First Ear Infection

So my friends had been talking about the symptoms of their kids' ear infections, and I thought it sounded like what Henry was doing. (He'd started waking again in the night, and they both had been rubbing/pulling at their ears and both had started having runny noses.) I figured I was probably being a hypocondriach, but I scheduled a doctor's appointment. Of course, that night, Holden screamed for over an hour and we had to put him to sleep in the swing since he wouldn't calm down any other way. So at that point I was glad I had made the appointment!

The doctor checked them out and said that Henry did have an ear infection in his left ear. So we started him on the antibiotic, and kept both boys on Motrin for pain and to help with the cold symptoms. She said in her experience, if one twin has an ear infection, the other will get it. So she wouldn't prescribe the antibiotic for Holden, but basically said to bring him back if something changed. I asked her what caused the infection, and it sounds like there's really no way to know. (She said daycare or secondhand smoke can increase the ear infections, but the boys aren't around either!) Supposedly ear infections are not contagious...but it sounds strange to me! If Holden is going to get one too, isn't he "catching" it from Henry? Guess we'll see. She said to bring Henry back in 10 days when he finished the antibiotic, so when we go back, I'll have them check Holden again.

That was a Thursday, so I knew we had a long weekend ahead! They were both pretty miserable. I went to the weekly playdate, just because I really missed my friends and I had to get out of the house! But man, it almost wasn't worth it. Both boys were so clingy and couldn't be put down, they were just crying and fussy. Which is unusual for both of them; I'm lucky to have two boys who can play on their own pretty well. We wanted to get another group picture....Ha! The boys were screaming so much they were upsetting the other kids, so we decided to hold the babies for the picture. Luckily, you can't tell how much they're screaming. :) So it's still pretty cute! Anyway, thank you mommy friends for holding them and letting me eat lunch and chill out for a few minutes!

The weekend was long...Alex and I were sick, too. I had a sore throat and cold that I'm still getting over. Holden hasn't seemed to "change" like the doctor said, so I'm hoping he just had a cold or was teething. He's not pulling at his ears or anything like that. Unfortunately, when the babies are sick, we just all seem to pass it around. I feel like we missed lots of fun stuff last weekend (my cousins and several friends were doing the March for Babies for March of Dimes) but hopefully we'll be on the mend by this weekend!

Saturday, May 12, 2012

Family weekend!

We had a busy, family weekend! Alex's sister Erica came in from California on Wednesday, and his sister Stephanie came in from Georgia on Thursday, with the boys' cousin Josh! On Saturday, his family ran the mini, including his dad, sister Lesley, Erica and Alex, and his mom and her sister. Alex ran/walked the mini with Erica, since he didn't have time to train beforehand. Stephanie and Josh met them all at the finish line, but I didn't really think I could manage the parking and crowds with the boys by myself. (We've got a cute picture of the family at the finish, but I need to find who took it before I can put it up here! :)


Aunt Erica and Henry

Sunday we got ready early and drove down to his mom's house. And FINALLY the boys got to meet Aunt Erica! She even got a chance to feed them their peaches for breakfast, and later avocado for dinner. (Feeding them in the Bumbo chair is quite a task...they like to try and turn around and wiggle out! Hasn't happened yet because of the tray, but it probably will at some point...) The boys got to hang with cousin Josh, who's a few months older. He is crawling and able to get into everything, but the boys didn't seem to take note of how to crawl. I can't wait to watch the three of them actually play together when they get a little older! We snapped a ton of cute pictures of the three of them, I tried to narrow it down to just the best few. But how lucky that they have a cousin their age to grow up with! (And another boy, too! We've got plenty of boy cousins, that's for sure!) We basically just hung out all day, and even got the boys to take a few decent naps.


Aunt Erica and Holden

The boys' cousins Abby, Emma, and Jack came for lunch, so we got a few pictures with them as well. And another first...I managed to get a picture of Uncle Neal holding the boys! (To be clear, he has held them a few times...just never managed to snap a picture!! :) So it was a pretty laid back day, but nice! We got to spend time with everyone and just talk and catch up. Erica is getting married here next March, so she's in the middle of planning. It was fun to talk wedding details, even though I know she's got a lot of decisions still ahead of her!

Monday, Alex's mom, dad and Erica came up to our house for a few minutes, and then we went to dinner at Puccini's. It was nice to have a little more time together, and that Erica got to see the boys' nursery! (Obviously, I'm partial to it...need to post a new picture soon since it's "finished".) The boys did pretty good at the restaurant, and we enjoyed our yummy pizza. We were sad to see Erica go, but I know she'll be back for a visit in the fall! Maybe around their first birthday party...hint, hint. :) I'm so glad the boys got to meet her! 
Cousins! (Holden was still sleeping)
 

Jack asked me to take a picture of him :)


Isn't Josh a cutie???

Finally, Uncle Neal makes a blog appearance
 
Grandma, Aunts and cousins!
Henry, Josh, Holden
These three will be trouble some day...
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Friday, May 11, 2012

Bath time pictures

I had wanted to frame a few cute pictures of the boys in the bathroom, since we had some empty space where we used to have a towel bar or something. Hopefully they won't kill me later for reposting them here...but there isn't anything inappropriate showing! :) And besides, they look SO CUTE in a towel. My mom had the cute red tub and the duckies and helped hold them up while I tried to get a few pictures to frame! I think they turned out pretty good.

 
 
 
 
 
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