A week of firsts

It's been an exciting week of firsts around here.

We'll start with Alyssa's new talents. About a week ago, Lisa was either changing her or just playing with them during floor time, but was doing her normal noises and games to keep her entertained. She was making the noise...how do I describe it? It's something like this...PFTPFTPFTPFTPFTPFTPFT...and involves the tongue somewhat outside of the mouth. You get the picture? Well suddenly Ms. Lyssa thought she would try and imitate that noise. She concentrated and put her lips together and her tongue out...and "pftpftpftpft". I missed the first time but she has done it a couple of times for me. It's very entertaining and is usually greeted with us cheering wildly.

A night later, Alyssa discovered that she could throw her toys off of her lap and onto the floor when she was in the swing. Lisa and I were sitting down for dinner which meant the girls were in their swings/bouncy chairs and Lisa was sitting on the floor in front of them. I know...it won't be that way forever...it's just the way we do it for now to keep everyone happy. Lisa put our favorite cube toy in Alyssa's lap and she immediately flung it off to the side. Lisa put it back in her lap and the comedy began, over and over. Every time Lisa put it back in her lap, she would use all four limbs until that thing was on the floor. It was cracking us up but not her, she was very serious.

Not to be outdone...Ms. Katy beat her sister to a very big first. The long story involves poopy diapers and a Christmas tree. The short version is...after Lisa changed Katy's diaper, she rolled over from her back to her front!!!! The best part of it was we were both there and both watching when she did it. We're lucky enough to have two girls so if we miss a first of anything, there's a chance we'll see the other one do it but it's still exciting, and kinda amazing, that both of us were watching her as she finally figured out how to roll from back to front. She's been close for 3 or 4 days now but could only get on her side. But this time, she grabbed her toes and started rolling and didn't stop until her head popped up and she was on her belly.

The physical therapist that comes has been working to get them interested in their toes. Once they start grabbing their toes, rolling will come very easily. Katy has been a lot more interested...bringing her feet up into the air and reaching out to play with them. Alyssa just isn't interested yet. So it was just a matter of time before it happened. Here is a picture of Katy about 2 minutes after she rolled over. Notice she still has the "what just happened and why are my parents yelling?" face.

Lots to share...

If the girls would give us more time, I could post more than once a week but it's been hard to find free moments lately. The girls are teething and night time has been getting worse. Going along with the theme of firsts, we are ready to commit to a new night time strategy, I mean, routine. It has been too difficult on everybody and we can't continue this any longer. Lisa and I have both been fighting bugs and sleepless nights are making us feel worse and probably not allowing our immune system to help us recover. So we have a game plan but are going to the doctor tomorrow to talk about everything...to get his input and suggestions.

To be honest, we're both a little frightened of the unknown. We've been debating the best way to get them to fall asleep on their own. The thought of possibly hearing them cry for hours on end is depressing. Not that we're going to allow them to do that but knowing that the first several nights of transition could be very difficult. Are they ready? Are we ready? When do you pick them up? How much do you let them cry? Is it fair to do this if they're teething? We've read and heard all different ways to get them to sleep on their own and the reasoning behind it. It doesn't make it any easier to make that commitment and stick with it. We're going to be asking ourselves questions like these and who knows what else as we go through it. Please pray for our little girls and for us. It's going to be a challenge, no doubt.

Now, on the bright side...we've been decorating for Christmas! It is taking us much longer than your average family but we don't care, it's getting done. On Sunday, we got our tree. The girls got all bundled up (pictured below) for what was supposed to be a fun afternoon of shopping and Christmas tree hunting.


Mother nature did not see it that way. It was relatively warm for early December in Alaska but when the winds picked up and starting blowing dust, we had to alter our plans. Instead of walking around and taking our time finding the perfect tree, we had to take turns running through the lot looking for a tree while the other parent stayed in the car with the girls.

Then, it was a comedy of,

"I thought you said 2nd row, 5th tree from the back...that one has too many bare spots in it".

"No, no...the 5th row, 2nd tree from the back".

"OH...ok, just a second".
"Well, that's one alright. But what about the 3rd row, 2nd tree?"

Get my point? It was pretty funny. In the end, we picked out the perfect tree and thoroughly worked the salesman. I probably should have tipped that guy, oh well.

Then, the next night (I told you we were taking our time) we began decorating the tree. This was kinda special because again, we turned on the webcam and let family spy in on us while we decorated. My parents and my sister happened to be online (which was kinda late for both of them). I pointed the camera toward the tree and put the lights up. Of course, we had to get a couple pictures of the girls during the process.


I thought this was a cute photo of Katy straining to see what I was doing behind her.

If you can't tell, the girls are laying down while the lights were being strung out to make sure they all worked. We haven't had a tree since 2003 so it was pretty exciting for everyone.

After a couple hours of work and the girls were taking their last feeding, I took a quick shot of the tree with the lights on. Still no ornaments...those will come in the next couple of days. Again...taking our time.

By the way...yes we have "If you give a moose a muffin" and the girls love it. Thank you!

A very, VERY happy Thanksgiving!

2 Great days and I have to share before I go to bed.

Thanksgiving Day was going to be a little bitter sweet for us. We were away from family and our Alaskan family had made other plans...so we were expecting a lonely day. It didn't turn out that way at all.

Lisa and I decided to make our traditional Thanksgiving breakfast...quiche. It was delicious. It is also the first time in 7 months that I allowed myself to really cheat on my diet so it tasted EXTRA delicious. We spent the morning snacking on the quiche and watching the Packers beat up on the Loins. Besides the nice breakfast, it was like any other day for us. We got on the floor and played with the girls. They took their morning (30 minute) nap and we just did our thing...waiting to hear from family.

Thursday afternoon, we set up a video conference with my family who was still gathered in Texas for my cousin's wedding. I was skeptical that it was going to work. I was thinking the connection would drop out and we would spend more time trying to keep it running than actually enjoying it. To my surprise, it worked nearly flawlessly...there were some audio hiccups early on. The video was great and everyone was able to see the girls in action. Alyssa even put on a nice audio display for everyone...we could hear her screeches echoing all the way down in Texas. I have to admit...we didn't DIScourage it!

We left the camera going for hours and hours...even during the feast. We really felt like we were there with everyone. In the evening, we finally figure out that you could expand the video to be fullscreen. Once we did that, the girls could really see everyone on the conference call and were reacting to their antics. I tried to take some pictures to show this...it was really amazing. It really was great! It was like they were here in our living room and I'm sure it must have felt like the girls were there with them. Here is my mom talking to the girls...notice how the girls were looking right at her as if she was there in the room. Amazing. I just noticed half of Aunt Jan is in this picture too.

Here's Aunt Christin getting some face time.

And my favorite moment...and I'm REALLY regretting not getting a tri-pod out to get a better picture...but the girls were getting fussy as it was near time for their afternoon/evening nap so Lisa started reading Brown Bear. My dad had slipped into the drivers seat in Texas and very quietly sat there and listened and watched Lisa read the girls their story. Even right now, I'm getting a little choked up about it because it was a very sweet moment. I love watching Lisa read to the girls and it was so special that Dad got to sit in on it...and from my view (which is why I took that picture), it captured how surreal and special that moment was. Thank you Tom and whoever else worked their magic to make that tele-conference work. It was wonderful!


Shortly after that picture, the girls went down for their nap and we were able to eat our meal. We took pictures of it but Lisa didn't think the pictures were very pretty so sorry...you don't get to see our meal. All you need to know was that it was DELICIOUS. We both overate and paid for it the rest of the night...I fell asleep on the couch at 8:30 while Lisa was feeding the girls. nice.

We also talked to Lisa's family on Thursday. Lisa's mom and grandparents got to see the girls briefly on the webcam. Now that we have that tele-conference thing down, hopefully we'll be able to share some great moments with everyone else.

So what was so great about Friday?!? We beat tu!!!!!!! As some of you know, Lisa and I are rabid A&M sports fanatics. Someone asked us when the girls were born, "you aren't going to be one of those parents that dress their kids up in their school colors and stuff, are you?" I laughed and said, "Well....YEEEAAHHHH!!!!"

A&M football hasn't given us too many things to cheer about this year but today, we beat our rival and it feels so good. Lisa and I always get a little more worked up then we should during football games but I knew we would win today. I even had a bet with my Aggie boss and am really looking forward to him paying up...I'm thinking about asking for my winnings in monthly installments, you know, to make it last longer.

Anyway, as soon as the football game was over, we switched the channel and watched A&M basketball team play in the pre-season NIT tournament championship...and WIN!!!

The second the game was over, we headed over to our Alaska family's home (Ben and Lisa) to enjoy a belated Thanksgiving feast. It was AWESOME! It brought back a lot of great memories from last year. We have spent SO much time over at their place...sitting around, drinking, listening to Dave, playing poker...in the past but haven't been over but a few times since the girls were born. It was so nice to be back and relax and have a great meal with great friends. Dinner was incredible and again, I ate waaay too much.

So now it's getting late and work is just around the corner again. It has been a wonderful Thanksgiving and I hope everyone out there had as much fun as we did this year, even if we couldn't be with the ones that we love. We are looking forward to a quiet Christmas with the girls in Alaska this year. We will be getting out the decorations soon...we haven't decorated since 03 and are really looking forward to going overboard this year. As Lisa said tonight...it's going look like Christmas threw up on our house when we're done.

Happy babies

Baby steps

I thought I would throw together a quick post. We have lots of videos to download and only a few pictures to share. Better get started, eh?

First, I wanted to say congratulations to Josh and Bethany Smith, my cousin (and now uhhh...cousin-in-law) who was married today. My WHOLE family is in Conroe today and we want to be there so bad. It is sad to us to think everyone is together and we're not there. UGGH, it makes me want to cry. I love you all and wish we could be there. Congrats to the newlyweds! Can't wait to see pictures.

I mentioned our first big snow earlier. Here's Lisa enjoying the view from our bedroom.


In other news, we had a GREAT night last night. The two nights before last were not so good but at least par for the last month or so. One thing that helped was that there was no screaming...the girls just decided that they wanted to be awake and nothing could get them to sleep. We each had about 4.5 hours of sleep (no more than 2.5 hours at a time). Still, we were optimistic going into last night. We were pleased with how relatively easily they went to sleep. The real treat came in the middle of the night when someone would wake up, they were able to fight through the gas or whatever it was and get themselves back to sleep. I remember this happening twice where someone woke up crying and Lisa and I stayed in bed and listened...hoping but not expecting. Sure enough, the cries calmed down and snoring resumed. It was amazing. They finally woke up at 6:45 for a feeding!! What an awesome night!

Let's hope that was the start of something new.

And a picture of said angels.

GREAT NEWS!!!

The family just got bigger! Our girls are no longer the youngest. At 6:30am this morning, my brother called to tell us that his second son was born a very healthy 7 pounds, 6 ounces. Alison had a relatively quick labor and after 3 good pushes, Tyler David was born at 8:17am Texas time. Scott kept everyone updated with emails from the room right up until about 15 minutes before Tyler was born. We were sleeping so the first we heard of it was an hour later when he gave us a call. The rest of the morning was spent talking in bed about when our girls were born and how happy we are for them.

I have to admit when I looked back at the several emails he had sent...from them waiting up to the first pictures of my youngest nephew, I got all teary eyed. These girls really are making me soft. It's kind of cliche to say it but I really couldn't be happier for them. We love you Scott, Alison, Austin, and Tyler! CONGRATULATIONS!!! I can't wait to get these cousins together.

So here's the happy family.

Here's Austin reading Tyler everyone's favorite bedtime story, Goodnight Moon. Our girls love that one, too.

TD weighing in at 7 pounds, 6 ounces

wow. what a weekend.

I've started to post this a couple of times during the weekend but haven't been able to put it into words. Maybe this time will be different.

It is getting more difficult every day. We had our monthly appointment with our doctor on Monday and talked about the problems we've been having. He thinks it's the T-word...yep, TEETHING!!! We've been in denial for a couple weeks but it's hard to dismiss all the warning signs. What we have are two completely different babies than just a few short weeks ago.

Kaitlyn's transformation has been slower whereas Alyssa's...she's a different baby. That's all I can say. Nap time is a strain. Bed time are a nightmare. The girls are so fussy and can't stay asleep. We're having a difficult time now keeping them down for their naps more than 30 minutes. Last night was the worst night we've had to date. It took almost 4 hours of moaning, rocking, and crying before they finally stayed down. Actually, I can remember some pretty bad nights earlier so it's hard to compare. What made last night so bad was how far we've come and to have a good idea of what was wrong but not be able to do anything about it. At one point when I was holding Alyssa and she was SCREAMING...I actually started thinking about my happy place. I've joked about that before but I actually started envisioning myself on a secluded white beach listening to the waves gently lapping on the sand and the sound of my skin baking in the warm sunlight and the PSSHHH of a cold Corona being opened by my adoring wife (who may or may not be wearing a bikini). I know, not very original...but it helped for a few seconds.

Back to reality. We don't know what to do next. We're talking about making some drastic changes though. We have to do something.

I have so much more to say about all this but again, back to reality, the girls are actually down at a reasonable hour so we're going to bed.

Real quick...the girls weighed in on Monday.

Alyssa...14 pounds, 13 ounces
Katy...13 pounds, 6 ounces

So in one month, Alyssa gained almost exactly one pound and Katy gained 13 ounces.

And your local weather report. We received our first significant snowfall of the year. The last one melted a day or two later, now I don't think we'll see the grass again until April. We received 5 inches of the white stuff today!!

Sorry no pictures or videos tonight...too tired. Not to mention while I was writing this, Alyssa has gotten up twice crying and Katy once (Lisa's holding Katy right now).

Katy getting some camera time

We realized that Alyssa was getting a lot of the video time because she was the first one to be so vocal. We started taking some more videos of Katy to show off what she's been up to lately. This was a couple of days ago. Katy and I were laying on the floor so I grabbed the camera and let'er role.

You'll laugh. You'll cry.

No babies were harmed in the making of this video.

Halloween Pictures

We had a pretty uneventful evening...just lots of kids coming around getting candy. I worked my last night shift for a while so now I'm home, trying to help with the night shift at home. The first night was a tough one. Lisa said at some point in the middle of the night (4AMish), "I don't know why I think it's going to be so much easier when you're here. Like I have visions of them going down early and sleeping until 8." Needless to say, that's not exactly how it panned out. So we had a pretty lazy day or I should say, I had a lazy day trying to readjust to normal hours after a long frustrating night of holding crying babies.

I am learning something about myself, actually I'm learning a lot about myself...but I've learned that I'm not nearly as patient as I thought I was. I considered myself an extremely patient person and envisioned long nights with crying girls and me standing tall, with infinite amounts of patience. Again, it hasn't exactly panned out like that. It is hard to admit that but I can't put into words how frustrating it is to be so tired and not be allowed to sleep. This is easily the most challenging experience of my life. And I know it will be rewarding too, and it already is to some extent, but right now it is a daily grind. We jokingly say this to the girls, "it's a good thing God made you so cute".






Check out Alyssa eyeing that candy. Yeah, we know why she weighs a pound more than her sister!

Lately, the girls will look up at each other while they're doing tummy time and even reach out. Last night and tonight they've grabbed each other's hand like they were thumb wrestling.


See what I mean about God making them cute? How can I be frustrated at those big blue eyes?

Regarding my weight loss...it's been 90% diet and 10% exercise. I have been following weight watchers online which helps me keep track of how much and what I'm eating. It's something I've been struggling with for years and I'm not sure why the girls coming home motivated me so much but somehow it did and I've managed to stick to it. Actually, it was two things. I didn't like the way I looked in the pictures I kept putting on the blog and found myself avoiding the camera...I didn't want to be left out of the pictures. And second...I want to be around for a looooong long time. I want to be a healthy Daddy and be around to hold my girls' girls in 30...or 40 years. HA! Lately, I've started going to the gym to get these last 20 pounds off. It' getting much more difficult to shed the weight now so I'm trying to put in a little extra effort to keep the weight loss going.

Also, I'm downloading a video that Lisa took last night. We've taken some cute videos, some sad videos, and some funny videos...this one will top them all.
It. is. epic.

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!