Happy Halloween!

I hope you're not expecting the cutest Halloween costumes ever...cause we didn't get the girls any costumes. Sorry. We talked about different ideas but just never committed to doing anything special. We did get a couple small pumpkins for the girls. I started carving them last night. I'll finish today and post the pictures.

I wanted to say that I always have good intentions of posting more often but find that it's so difficult to find time. Lately, the girls have been getting up more and more in the middle of the night so when they finally do go to sleep, we find ourselves jumping in bed so we can get as much sleep as possible. That was always my blog time. We really appreciate everybody that checks in, looking for updates..photos...stories..and videos. I always say this but we will work hard at keeping this updated. We have so much to share...just not as much time to share it all.

The girls have been working hard. We are working to get those naps down and moving bedtime up to a more reasonable hour. It's not easy! Lisa is a trooper as always. She has infinite patience and it's really paying off. Last night was a tough night but the previous 2 or 3 nights in a row were really much better.

The girls are doing wonderfully on the floor. Alyssa is still rolling over with ease but it's not as frequent as it was. They both will tolerate being on their stomachs and holding their heads up for quite a long time now. Katy will flip over from front to back once every couple of days (usually by accident) and Alyssa will maybe once a day...but she knows how to do it so it's whenever she wants to really.

Laughs are still few and far between. They are VERY happy babies but just aren't laughing yet. TONS of smiles! Yesterday actually, I was sleeping and heard the girls struggling to go back down so I walked in to pick up Alyssa to try and calm her down. When she saw me, she gave me the BIGGEST smile! It was so funny to see her go from upset, fussy little baby to "HEY DAD!" It was hard not to smile back and encourage her since we were trying to get them back to sleep.

So that's going to have to be it for today. Sorry I don't have more pictures to share right now. I just got back from the gym and am pretty pooped. By the way, I've lost 49 pounds since the girls came home in May!! 49 POUNDS!!!

Okay, I lied. I found some photos from their half-year birthday party that some of Lisa's old co-workers through for the girls.


Sorry about the red eye on this last one. I haven't gone in and fixed them up yet.

Girls' First SNOW!!!

The girls woke up this morning at 5:30 to see their first snowfall!

Update...I just got to work and MAN, OH MAN were the roads bad. We only got an inch or less but now we're getting a little freezing drizzle on top. I stopped as I was leaving the neigborhood to lock my hubs and had a hard time walking around my truck. It was THAT bad! Shoulda put the studded tires on last week. Bummer!

laughing video

I've really been debating not posting this because I make such an idiot out of myself but what the heck?! You may want to turn down the volume. People may think you're watching a video of a turkey being chased down for Thanksgiving dinner. Enjoy.

Some more photos from this past week

I wanted to share some more photos from my M&D's trip. They were lucky enough to fly in on a gorgeous day...this was taken of College Fjord which is on the northern part of Prince William Sound.
A couple days later, a family of moose were spotted wondering around in our neighborhood. This one is a young male, we think about 2 years old.


The mom and 2 babies weren't far away. Here are the twins laying down after a nice snack.

Back to OUR twins. Here's Katy being viciously attacked by a mutant duck.

Mom (Honey) letting one of the girls take a nap in her arms.

We tell people a lot that there is a picture that would be very sweet if it wasn't so obscene...the girls will hold hands while they are both nursing. This picture was taken just after they finished nursing and had fallen asleep on Lisa.


And while I'm downloading a video, I'll give you a teaser for tomorrow's post. Lisa got some great photos on the girls' 6 month birthday.

We're still here!

...we've just had visitors for 3 weeks. Not complaining at all because we had a blast with everyone, we're just now getting settled back into a routine. And hopefully more blogging will be apart of that routine.

So let's play a little catch up. We've had 3 sets of visitors. The first week was Lisa's dad and step-mom, the second week was Lisa's mom, and then this past week was my parents. Honestly, we didn't get out much to see any of Alaska but they had all been here before and we know the real reason they came to visit us...the good cooking. Oh, and the girls!

On October 5th, the girls celebrated their 6 month birthday! We celebrated by going to the doctor and getting their shots. Again, it was heartbreaking to see them go from content little babies to screaming in an instant. It's almost as if they look at you with a face like, "why would you do that to me?!" But, they both calmed down within minutes and had no ill effects.

The pediatrician was completely impressed by their progress. He lights up every time we see him and this visit was no different. That reminds me...we had a followup visit a couple weeks ago with the physical therapists and it wasn't all good news like we had anticipated. I'll go into more detail on that another day but...the short version is Katy is lagging a little bit behind Alyssa, and Alyssa isn't even where they think she should be. The good news is they gave us lots of good advice that we are incorporating into our daily routine and we can see improvement already.

Milestones? They both are rolling over from front to back. Starting sometime last week, Alyssa figured out how to do this with relative ease so we can't keep her on her stomach for more than 30 seconds before she's flipped over. Katy has flipped over a few times (including once today) but still is trying to figure out how Alyssa does it so easily. She works at it every day though so I'm sure she's not far behind.

Laughing...our favorite. We heard our first laughs a day or so before Lisa's dad arrived. They are still few and far between but just last night and tonight, we had them both laughing pretty hard. I have a pretty funny video that I'll try to download.

At the doctor's office, we weighed them of course and here are their updated weights.

Alyssa.....13 pounds, 13.5 ounces
Kaitlyn....12 pounds, 9 ounces

Alyssa is noticeably bigger and has been for quite some time but I was actually surprised the difference is still over a pound. Katy's cheeks seem to be filling in, or I should say OUT. They are both perfectly healthy little babies. The doctor reassured us that they are both well within normal limits for their adjusted age. They are truly individuals and will grow and do things at their own pace.

And now for some pictures.

...just hanging out, doing some floor time.

Alyssa showing off her new found skills in rolling over.

This one...they look pretty identical to me. Just to show you the difference isn't that much.

They are doing this more and more...reaching out for each other and holding hands. Although yesterday, Katy reached out and found Alyssa's ear and gave it a good pull.

Alyssa showing off how well she can hold things up to her mouth. Katy isn't too far behind.

The whole family enjoying some floor time.

Alyssa working hard at rolling over.

Katy's very serious about her floor time.

Happy Alyssa.

Paw-Paw with Katy.

...and Alyssa.

We have SOOOO many more pictures to share. I was only going to post a few but wanted to include this one...and that one...and....you get the point. Thank you for continuing to check for updates. Now that we're back into a routine, we will be better about sharing pics, videos, and stories. We love you all. Enjoy!