Two Years

Happy Birthday Quinn and Riley!

I can't believe my babies are two years old today!  How time really does fly!  I wanted to look back at where we were two years ago, with babies born at 34 weeks, healthy but in the NICU to grow and get stronger.  What a blessing these last two year have been.

Here they are in their first picture together!

Getting to hold my tiny baby girl for the 1st time!

Can you believe this was Quinn?  Has has put on about 30 lbs in the 2 years since that day!

Holding my two babies for the first time!

Love their size difference :)  Not much has changed!

Precious baby girl!

Sweet baby boy!

Here they are about 6 months :)

Love the happiness!

1 year old!

A year and a half and two cute little patients!

Can I just say getting tubes has changed their lives, no more ear infections and weekly trips to the doctor:)

Here is the recent pictures from the past few weeks.  We celebrated Valentine's with them on the 13th because daddy had to be out of town on the 14th.  The loved getting cards, candy, bubble guns, and a big ball!

Quinn and his card.

Riley loved her card, they kept calling them books, and wanting to read them again:)

Eating M&M's! Yum!

They both so love their M&M's!

Quinn had been eyeing this big ball every time we were at the store. 

He would point and say "ball, ball" so he was very excited to get it!

Playing with their ball while daddy is making bubbles with the new guns!

Riley also got her toenails painted for the 1st time on Valentine's.

I painted my toes and hers at the same time.  She just loves them and wants to show everyone her toes!

Last night she said to Grammie and Pop's dog "Heidi, toes" as she put her foot out for the dog to see:)

Sweet girl! (Unless she's throwing a tantrum, but we'll save those pictures for another day!)

This is so funny.  I found that Riley had passed her bowl of applesauce to her brother and he was trying to feed her from another chair, and was too far away.  I offered to help her and she said "No, brother!" So I had Quinn come stand next to her and he fed her the applesauce!  These are some of the adorable things that twins come up with :)

Playing at Jace's house!

He comes to our house a few days a week so the kids loved going to see Jace at his house!

She was loving this ride and smiled and giggled the whole time!

Quinn thought it was pretty cool too!

Looking like such a big girl!

My little man!

Riley loves her Aunt Jana, and those two fingers!

Evan, my sister's youngest, turned 2 last weekend!

Happy Birthday Evan!

They loved jumping on the trampoline with daddy!

This past week I found them doing this. Quinn would push Riley up over the arm of the chair...

Then he would pull himself up and they would sit together.  For just a second as they would get down, go around and do it all over again!

Eventually they tried to reverse things, I'm not sure she was helping him much!

Making a mess!

I can tell they are growing up in lots of ways.  One of them is that they have been a little more adventuresome and willing to "leave" mommy to go play.  One day they went up the stairs and closed themselves in the nursery.  The room is safe so I just let them be for about 20 minutes.  They weren't making much noise so I got curious and went to see what they were up too.  They had gotten almost everything out of the dresser and had it all over the floor!  It was really pretty adorable and we all worked together to clean up the mess!

I can also tell they are growing up because we are dealing with more and more behaviors!  You know the not so pleasant ones, that's when having twins is hard for sure!  However, the joy they bring far outweighs the difficulties!  I am so excited to celebrate my precious children turning 2 today and praising the Lord for the gift of being their mommy!

Oh and if you ask them how old they are, they will tell you "two"!  But don't ask them to show you with their fingers because we don't quite have that down yet :)

I am posting this at 7:19 am, the time that Quinn was born 2 years ago, Riley was just after him at 7:20!

An Answered Prayer

Recently, we signed the kids up for a preschool program at a church for next year, well kinda.  It would just be one day a week, but it was the program that I wanted them in for their 3k and 4k classes in the future as well.  Before sign-ups even opened to the public we found out from the director that the day that we wanted only had 1 space open, and there was no days with 2 spaces.  Because I knew that if we got in in some way this year, we would get earlier sign up for the following years classes, I decided to go ahead and put one child in the class and the other would be the first one on the waiting list. 

I talked with the director about the possibility of sending Quinn one week and Riley the next so they would both get the experience.  I was praying that something would happen and we would get both children in (after all, this doesn't even start until September) but I wanted to have a plan in case that didn't happen.  I called the director to ask about how the waiting list works and ask a few other questions.  She did have a space on another day, if I wanted to send Quinn one day and Riley the other, but that day wouldn't work for our schedule. 

After our conversation the director was looking at the class list and realized that one little boy was signed up to go Tue. and Wed. (we were in for Tue.). The space she had was in the Thursday class. The director called that little boy's mom, explained the situation, and asked if she would consider sending her son on Wed. and Thurs. instead.  The sweet mother agreed and I got a phone call saying that both my children were in for the Tuesday class TOGETHER! 

I cried some happy tears, thanked the director, and sent that sweet mother a thank you as well.  I am amazed at how the Lord works and so very thankful for this answered prayer!

Less than a month until TWO (aka 23 months)

I can't believe that Quinn and Riley will be two later this month.  Of course, I am also a little late in posting their 23 month post but some things just don't seem to change :)  The kids have been up to a lot of changes lately as well as a lot of fun! 

Their first change is that they have moved out of their high chairs and into booster seats.  This change came the day after Quinn made himself fall in his highchair, that he was buckled into, that was buckled into the chair.  He took everything with him and caught his chin on the table, fortunately his chin kept him there until I could get to him and he didn't crash all the way to the ground.  Unfortunately, his teeth cut the inside of his mouth pretty bad, and we decided to get some booster seats...

Riley loves her big girl seat!

They also have learned to get in and out by themselves which makes them feel even bigger!

We also made an attempt at potty training.  The loved their big underwear and were really catching onto the idea...but our attempt was derailed by the fact that they started competing with each other for mommy's attention.  It just wasn't working for us so we put the diapers back on and will try again in a few months :) But they were really cute...

They got lots of new books for Christmas and Quinn is really loving his books :)

Riley decided she was tired of daddy going out of town without her,

so she found a way to stow away with him:)

Our 2nd snow storm of the winter!

Riley was happy as long as I didn't put her down!

Quinn just loved playing in the snow!

Quinn also loves playing with his daddy :)

We've been playing with new Christmas gifts :)

Quinn had to get in on the dress up too!

(we need a fireman outfit)

We started having a good friend come stay a few afternoons a week!

The kids love Jace and want to see him the second they get up from their nap.

It's cute, but not so much when Jace sleeps longer than they do and they cry wanting to go get him!

Our last big change is that the kids both moved to big beds!  They technically did this just after turning 23 months, and have been in them for about a week.  It has gone really good.  We've had a few night wakings, one night Quinn couldn't find froggy (he had fallen off the bed) and another night Riley fell on the floor (she actually slept there for awhile but woke up later, confused about why she was on the floor).  They have been so proud of their big beds and it's so cute! Riley is in a toddler bed that we borrowed from our neighbor.  Quinn is in the queen size bed we already had.  He's able to get on and off it by himself (Riley isn't quite tall enough).  They also love going and sitting on each other's bed.  Probably the cutest thing has been that we all go into Riley's room and she gets in bed and Quinn will lean over and give her a kiss good night before going to his bed.  It is adorable and she will often ask for brother if he hasn't come to kiss her good night!  I love their bond :)
 

Riley's big girl bed :) 

Quinn's big boy bed :)

I really am amazed at how the past 2 years have flown by.  I have been thinking back a lot to this time 2 years ago.  I had no idea that they were going to be February babies, my due date was April and I figured we would get to March at least.  I have been thinking about how much I already loved them as they grew inside me, but how I couldn't fully appreciate how much they would change my life!  I remember hearing them cry in the delivery room, Quinn first and then Riley, and tears streaming down my face!  Happy tears! 

They have brought me many happy tears since that day.  They are so cute and funny and make me laugh daily.  They have been saying so many new things lately and they continue to show us new things they are learning and understanding.  One of my favorite sounds is when the two of then are playing and they are really interacting with each other and giggling.  It is the sweetest sound. 

We are also quickly approaching 2 and lets just say that some days their behavior shows their age :)  I spend lots of time praying for wisdom, I think all first time parents have to figure this stage out, and since they outnumber me I pray for extra wisdom (and patience too, did I mention patience?)! 

I am so blessed to have Quinn and Riley!  I think often about how there was a time when I didn't know if I would get to be a mother, and I am so thankful that I get to be their mother !  Happy 23 months my sweet children, mommy loves you :)



New Year's Eve 2010

We spent New Year's Eve at a wedding.  Geoff's cousin, Karen, was getting married.  We traveled about an hour and a half away and had a great time celebrating with family and friends.  Karen was a very smart bride and lined up babysitting at the church for all the kids during the ceremony, and then they got to come with us to the reception.  I think outside of the bride and groom, Quinn and Riley had about the best time of anyone at that reception!  They loved staying up late, and running all around the place with so much family to visit with.  They also found where a huge bowl of m&m's were located and would lead anyone they could find to the bowl and ask "please" and "more".  They got a lot of m&m's that night!

Congratulations Karen & James!  Your wedding was beautiful & we had a wonderful time celebrating with you! We wish you a long and happy marriage filled with love and laughter!