Needy McNeedyson

No pictures today, sorry! To make up for it, here is a never-before-seen-on-this-blog-video of the first time we got to hold the kids!! This was taken at around 10:00 pm when I was finally able to go up to the NICU to see the kids. I can 't believe they were ever that small. Thank goodness for video- I don't even remember all those cute baby sounds!

The kids slept in until 6:00 am today and then went back to bed until 10:15 am (Anderson was up for a bit with daddy while he was getting ready for work, but then went right back to bed.)!! Mommy was laaaazyy! I kept waking up and looking at the clock- 8:00 am, then 9:00 am, then 10:00 am!! I contemplated getting up and starting my day- but why?! I decided to take advantage and it felt gooood.

When they finally did wake up I had just enough time to feed them breakfast and get them dressed and get downtown to meet Eric for lunch at our favorite little Japanese place. We've become friends with the owner there and really enjoy showing the kids off to her.

After lunch we went shopping for a bit and then came home. The kids were so sweet this afternoon. Now that they are becoming more mobile, they really make it known when they need snuggle time. Anderson was a bit grumpy and he was doing everything he could with his limited abilities to get into my lap. It was so adorable, and of course I obliged him!!

Tonight before bed we read the book "Guess How Much I love You." It is such an adorable book where a daddy rabbit and a baby rabbit are "competing" to describe how much they love each other. The baby says "I love you this much" and spreads his arms and then the daddy says "I love you this much," spreading his much bigger arms. The last line of the book the daddy rabbit says to his baby, "I love you all the way to the moon...and back." I LOVE THAT!! I always turn to the babies and say "and back and back and back!!"

God, I love these kids!

Emery Laughing!

I mentioned this in Emery's 8 month summary below, but she has the best laugh when you get her going! It is really easy to make Anderson chuckle (just say "boo" or make a funny noise) but Emery is a little bit harder. She doesn't really chuckle, but she'll laugh hard at the most random things! In this video I am playing with her new basketball hoop (thanks Tia Lucia and family!) and for some reason she was getting a huge kick out of it!

*** When I play this on my computer the sound doesn't match the image. Not sure what is going on there but at least you get to hear the beautiful sound of her laugh!

8 Months Old!

Anderson & Emery, you are 8 months old today! Your daddy and I are really loving this age! You are so interactive and fun and we can't imagine life with you getting any better!





Emery, at 8 months:
~ You are definitely a "sitter" now! You rarely fall over, unless you are trying to get horizontal so you can roll around.
~ Rolling is currently your only mode of independent transportation! No crawling for you yet, but you do, on occasion, scoot yourself backwards.
~ You have the BEST laugh! It isn't always easy to get you to laugh, but when you do there is so much joy in it! You make our hearts soar!
~ You still fit in size 6 month clothes, but they are definitely getting snug. You still wear a size 1 shoe- you are still our little Tinkerbell!
~ You are starting to hold your bottle more, but you still prefer if one of us holds it for you.
~ I have a sneaky suspicion you might try to cut out your afternoon nap- but I'm going to keep that to myself so you don't try to act on it!
~ Mommy has taken you out by yourself twice and you still get as much attention as when you are a "twin." It's your beautiful eyes and that wonderful smile of yours!
~ Your hair is just barely long enough for a bow, which of course your mommy is loving!
~ You have gotten very good at eating solids. Until recently (and still, on occasion) your tongue would get in the way but I think you are starting to phase that out.
~ You seem to like everything we have given you, except for yogurt and avocados.
~ You LOVE cherrios and are really good at getting them into your mouth.
~ You are an AWESOME sleeper (probably because you can finally put your pacifier back in your mouth without my help!!) If you didn't have a twin brother who wakes up at 5:30 I think you would let us sleep until 8! But alas, your brother wakes us all up before dawn! :)
~ You are a very squirmy girl and always wants to know what's going on over here, now over there, now back over here....etc. etc.!
~ We still swaddle you before bed, but your arms are always out in the morning.


Anderson, at 8 months:
~ You are an AWESOME eater! You open your mouth wide and can take big spoonfuls without a problem!
~ You give the most disgusted face when eating anything thicker than pureed baby food! We think you currently despise the little gerber puffs we give you (which your sister loves!) but you seem to enjoy trying to get them to your mouth nonetheless.
~ You have a very strong internal clock, and will wake up at 5:30 a.m. no matter what time we put you to sleep. You can finally put your pacifier back in without help, though, so you rarely wake up in the middle of the night anymore.
~ We still swaddle you from the chest down- so I guess the swaddler is serving more as a blanket than anything else.
~ You have started to wave your arms like your sister! She is always moving something and loves to wave her arms like she's waving a flag. We wonder if you learned that from her or if all babies do that at some point?
~ You are doing a great job holding your own bottle, although you still prefer when we hold it.
~ No crawling yet- you seem content to be wherever we put you.
~ Your head is still a bit flat, so I am going to ask the doctor about that next month.
~ You are still our snuggle bear, and prefer to be in our arms vs. on the floor. You have even started to wrap your arms around my neck and give me the most heavenly hugs!
~ You have started to talk a lot! You aren't really saying "ba ba ba" or anything like that. You sound more like you are saying complete sentences, just in another language. Sometimes your dad and I will look at each other and say something like "did he just say 'running bob lunchbox?!'"
~ You are so handsome and have been compared to the gerber baby and the "e*trade" baby and have generally been characterized as a flirt!

Santa Letter and Hand Ornament

Before we get too far away from Christmas I wanted to post a couple really cool pictures!

First, on Christmas morning the kids woke up to find letters FROM Santa just for them!! They were so beautiful! Santa explained about being nice and not naughty, and then told each of them that they were very good this year (of course!). I hope Santa leaves them a letter every year!!

Secondly, we wanted to make ornaments with the kids- so we did their hand prints! We have footprints from the NICU, but the hand print has eluded us! It took us many tries- but we finally got it! It will be such a treasure to pull out each Christmas and see how much they have grown. :)










































~ We made an ornament for Reese the dog too!

Full

This morning we got the kids and ourselves all decked out in UT gear in anticipation of today's basketball game- and then we realized we didn't have tickets! Eric has a mini-pack of season tickets, but we got a little confused about the dates! So after sitting around for a while, throwing around ideas of things to do, we decided to "run errands just for fun." I put that in quotes because it is one of our inside jokes. Eric, like most men I'm guessing, really dislikes shopping and running errands, in general. After about 6 years together, one lazy Saturday he turned to me in all seriousness and said "let's run errands, just for fun." It was so hilarious!

Anyways, one of the places we went was Nordstroms. Last week I met a mom with twin girls at Costco and they were wearing the cutest bows in their hair- and they had even less hair than Emery! I had to get one so I asked where she got it because every other barrette I have tried just falls right out. Oh she looks SOOOOOO adorable!!

After running around town we ended up at Rudy's BBQ. Lately the kids have really mastered sitting up on their own, so we decided to take them in without their car seats. They looked so cute in the highchairs! We only had our iphone to take pictures, so sorry they are blurry! We fed them their dinner and by the end of our meal Anderson was lounging back in his high chair looking very satisfied and full (we even helped him out by unbuttoning his top button- a common occurrence after eating Rudy's!)! :)

Christmas Morning

The kids really surprised me on Christmas morning and actually helped open their presents! I thought they would be too young, but they actually seemed to enjoy opening the presents! It was so fun :)

Sorry the video is a bit jerky.

2010, you have a lot to live up to!

2009 was hands-down the happiest year of our lives! Some of the highlights included:

~ The birth of our children, of course!
~ Lots of visits from friends and family including Jami, Kelly, Great Aunt Jill, Cousin Julia, Auntie Sammy, Cousin Allison, Nami and Poppy Roper, Avos Falcao & the Great Avos Alves!
~ Auntie Jessica moved to Austin.
~ Eric started a new job and has an awesome team that he collaborates with.
~ We celebrated four years of marriage and nine years as a couple.
~ Amelia provided hours of entertainment with her hilarious 2-3 year old thoughts.
~ Some friends got married and some friends started families.
~ Went on a great pre-baby trip to New Orleans.
~ Made new friends with some incredible people, including the doctors and nurses that cared for the kids.
~ Felt love and prayers from all over the world when the kids were born.

Whew! Hopefully I haven't left anything out! Happy New Year to you all- here's to 2010!!