( 5 Months )

So much as happened within the last couple of months! We're still taking it day by day and trying to get through this rough patch. It's definitely easier and more fun when you have two adorable girls by your side! Plus an amazing support system! Family, you know who you are!

MISS AVIE

*Has started to grab and play with her feet while laying down. She has even started to use her feet to grab or hit toys.* *She is in love with her jumper. She's got the bouncing part down! Which leads me to my next...* *Our squealer! When she gets really excited, you'll know. She'll discover a new toy and flip out! I've tried to get it on camera, but like always... they stop as soon as I get it out.* *She's been known to sound like a little man when laughing or talking. It's pretty cute though, we like it!*

MISS ELLA

*Squint nose smile. Don't know where it came from, but it's adorable. I'll get it on camera one of these days.* *Our Mover! In her crib or on the floor, she does not stay in one place.* *Difficult sleeper. And by this I just mean, it is so hard to get her to bed at night. She'll sleep through the night, it's getting her there that's the difficult part.* *Garbage GUT! Which is weird, because she is still the smaller of the two. But she loves to eat! She'll even finish off Avie's bottle if Avie doesn't finish!*

OUR BABY GIRLS

BOTH: *Everything goes in mouth. Blankets, sleeves, toys, necklaces!* *Both are starting to notice our pets. They like watching Kittie and laugh at her. They haven't really laughed at Rosie yet, I think they are just a little stunned.* *Still the biggest Daddy's girls ever! The especially love it when Daddy gives them whisker kisses with his goatee! It makes them giggle!* *Drool, drool, drool! It seems to be getting worse. I'm really wondering if we'll wake up one morning and a tooth with break through. Their clothes are always drenched, sleeves, chins...* *Been seen sucking thumbs pretty hardcore. Avie a little more so. We are still trying to get them to take binkis, but it's not working very well.* *Love to watch T.V. Especially Tom and Jerry! Why, we don't know. But they won't take their eyes off the screen.* *Sleeping through the night ever since about 4 months which is amazing. 8 PM bedtime to 8 AM wake-up! It's been nice, especially having the happiest babies in the morning. I love it!!

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The girls turned 5 months the weekend of Halloween and it was a hectic weekend. We had fun carving pumpkins with the family, trick or treating and just hanging out with the family! We spent Halloween with Dad and Nancy, had some Chinese takeout and had like 5 trick or treaters. The weather was a little crappy, but I was surprised that we didn't have more. I think the whole "trunk or treat" that the church does and other stuff is whats causing trick or treating to die. No matter, I'm determined to take my girls out next year, so have your candy ready!

My work does do a Trick or Treating for the kids and we brought the girls in with their Iron Man cousin Jesse! It was fun! However, the girls fell asleep while we were walking around. I guess it's really tiring when people just hold you and your in a toaster oven costume. They got really heavy to carry, all that dead weight. But Iron Man still had fun and got lots of candy! Jesse is a great cousin, I love how he is with the girls! He's always smothering them in hugs and kisses. He'll be such a fantastic big brother!

Our little butterflies! + Iron Man

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And how are WE with two 5 month old babies? We're still doing good. Since the girls have been sleeping through the night AND me going back to work, my milk supply has severely decreased. I'm trying my best to eliminate stress and drink plenty of water, but it turns out I'm not Super Woman! Producing enough for twins is hard and I applaud those who can do it! Because of the fact, we've introduced formula into the girls daily routine. I'm still pumping and nursing when I'm home, but if the girls need extra we'll had some formula to their bottle. They've gotten so used to it, that we can even just give them straight formula and they'll gobble it right up. The girls are also getting either rice or oatmeal added to their bottles everyday, which has made both of them more regular... really regular! We get a lot of poopy diapers now. The girls like to ruin white onsies/shirts especially!

I'm still working 4 days a week. It's been okay, except for work is extremely busy, which makes it even harder to go. Plus the 9 hour days just seem to drag on forever.

7 AM - Get up and ready by 8AM

8 AM - Wake up the girls, get them fed and dressed

9 AM - Leave for work

7:30 PM - Arrive home. Spend little time with girls

8 PM - Girls fed and put to bed

8:30 PM - Get lunch ready for next day, sometimes have dinner and spend little time with Kelly until it's time for bed.

I HATE work days! I hardly spend any time with Kelly or the girls. But it's slowly getting better. Having Wednesdays off helps break up the week!

Kelly goes back to next month and I'm having major anxiety about it. I know he's been fine, no seizures since the one. But I'm so afraid that they day he decides to get back behind the wheel, it will happen. I just have that mind set. It's like with me... I've never done anything illegal. Because I know when I do, I'll get caught. He, however, is excited to get back into work. He's loved being with the girls, but he's getting a little cabin fever.

But that's it, in a nutshell. We hope everyone is doing great! We're looking forward to spending the holidays with family and the girls first Thanksgiving and Christmas. We'll be celebrating Thanksgiving with my Mom this year, but will most likely going Black Friday shopping with Nancy. She really is the best at it! Don't really know what Christmas plans are yet and if we'll stay the night at Dad's like always since we now have the girls. I think we will though, I mean the girls aren't big enough to really understand it anyways.

Much love to the family! Congrats to all those expecting babies next year! I am SO looking forward to the Snow Reunion in our favorite place next year! Can't wait to see everyone!!

I'll get to it!

5 months old!

It's been a busy couple of weeks. I'll get to the post! Hopefully before 6 months! I've still got time!

I've done it.

I've applied. We'll see what happens, whether or not I get an interview.

I don't even know if it was the right thing to do. But then again, not applying didn't seem right either. Ugh!

**See previous post to understand!**

Torn

I have another opportunity to promote with my job.
And no, Erica... it isn't a BUT position.

In June of this year, Marriott started a new point based system allowing owners to travel to other Marriott Resorts that they don't own through us instead of an exchange company. Because of the new change, we now have Senior Advisors who deal with the enrolled owners. This is the position that I'm thinking about applying for. I mean, this is the direction the company is going. Might as well get on board now, right?

One big draw back.. scheduling! Because it is a new position/new program, it's 40 hours a week including weekends. They aren't offering any part time, job shares or 4 10 hour shifts. So, it's not as flexible as my position now. Especially because I will have to work weekends in order to get a day off during the week to watch the girls. They've mentioned that they may offer more flexible hours and job shares in the future, but I should apply now because they may not be hiring at that time. I guess it will be nice only working 8 hours instead of 9... Call me crazy, but I seem to miss out on so much just because of that extra hour.

I'm just so torn between applying or not. Right now, my team is very flexible and I'm allowed to only work 36 hours a week with a guaranteed day off during the week and also weekends off. Do I give that up? Do I sacrafice my weekends to earn more money? But I don't even know if I'll be making more money! Yes, it is a raise when I get it, but I no longer have the opportunity for unassigned bonuses quarterly.

I HATE THIS!!

But I better make a decision fast. Position closes end of business Monday. Might have to work on a resume and cover letter this weekend, just in case.

Video Post!

We introduced rice cereal a couple of weeks ago and it went over okay... I followed the directions on the box for "Babies First Feeding" and it ended up being very runny. We were able to get some in their mouths, but not too much! Here is a short video of how it went down.



Second we introduced the new motion activity jumpers!! Grandma Karla spoiled us and the girls and bought one for each of them! We put them both in for the first time this morning and shot the videos below. Ella really started to like it once she threw her body forward and found the toys but Avie just wanted to sit back and relax! I love how she refuses to look at the camera. I think she is telling me that she's upset I took her swing away! Poor Avie!

And yes, I say suck its in the first video. We are referring to their little blankies. I know, it's a terrible name... but that's all they do, suck on them. So it kinda stuck! Sorry! I think they call them tag blankets or something...



After filming the first video, Ella really started to bounce and enjoy herself! I caught that on camera, however Avie was done. She wanted out! She ended up falling asleep in Daddy's arms as soon as he took her out. Maybe we'll try again after her nap! They need to grow just a tiny bit more so both of their feet will touch the ground! It's so cute to watch though!

Ella's First Giggles!

Erica and I were playing with Ella and we started to hear some small giggles! So we ran for the camera and got this video!! Sorry about the noises I'm making, she seemed to like it!! I can't wait for Avie to join in, then this can be a regular thing!

{ 4 Month Stats }

Avie

13 lbs 9 oz - 51%

24 inches - 42%

Head 16.5 inches - 79%

Ella

13 lbs 3 oz - 42%

24.5 inches - 62%

Head 16.3 inches - 67%

More vaccinations today and even Kelly and I joined in! The pediatrician recommended, that since the girls are not allowed to get their flu shots because they are under 6 months, that Kelly and I get ours. Kelly wasn't too thrilled about it, never having got a flu shot before. Plus he's all "my body can heal itself" thing.. not taking any pills for anything. But he was willing to do it for the girls. So all 4 of us left with our dinosaur band aids!

Dr Lynch is very impressed with the girls size and strength! She has even given us the green light to start solid foods, rice cereal first! I'm always pleased to hear that the girls are great size! I get so nervous that I'm not producing and they aren't eating enough. But their pot bellies and thunder thighs prove otherwise! I think we'll test out rice cereal this weekend! Can't wait to see how that goes!

We also were told something that we kinda already knew. Dr Lynch classifies Avie's behavior as an "intense baby." Meaning, she's very intense no matter what the emotion. Happy, sad, hungry.. all intense. She said that our parenting will have to be a little different with Avie. It's going to be hard to handle two different personalities and two different parenting, but we'll try our hardest! We mentioned to the doctor about the girls recent fussiness. She doesn't think it's colic, she's leaning more on my diet. She says that dairy, wheat and eggs can be bad for the babies. She's recommend that I stop one for 2 weeks and see if it makes a difference. If it has then we'll know what the problem was. If it hasn't, try eliminating something else. First, I'm going to eliminate wheat. Even though I love cereal, wheat has been what I eat most of lately. So starting today, no more wheat... for 2 weeks! Let's see what it does!

It's crazy to think about how big the girls are getting with every milestone they pass. Tonight will be the first night sleeping in their OWN cribs! I'm having a hard time with it, because I want them to stay together. But for the past couple of nights Ella has moved so much that they run into each other and wake up. We're also going to try a new swaddle blanket that my Dad and Nancy bought us. The girls haven't liked being swaddled in the past, but we tried it today for one of their naps and it worked beautifully! Hopefully being snug, warm and free to roll will allow them to sleep through the entire night!! Can't wait for those days! They were doing really good for awhile. Getting to bed around 9/9:30 and then waking me up at 6 AM. But for the past couple of nights, they've woken up at 3 AM and 6 AM. Not so much fun!

How are we doing? Well, Kelly's on disability until December or whenever his neurologist clears him to go back to work. So for right now, Kelly is on his maternity leave. He's staying home with the girls, cleaning house and cooking dinner and doing a great job! It's nice to come home from a 9 hour day to have dinner ready! Work for me has been okay. The first couple of weeks, I wasn't on the phone since I didn't have access. So the days kinda dragged. It's getting better though. I just hate being gone all day. I'm leave right when the girls are waking up and get home just an hour before bedtime. But, it's what has to happen for now. Once Kelly gets back into work, I'm going to look more for a job share and maybe shorten my work week if we can afford it.

I'm not going to lie. The last week or so has been really hard. I've wanted to just get up and leave so many times, just escape somewhere by myself! With having two babies, it seems like one of them is always crying. Thankfully, Kalie watched the girls for a bit last Saturday so Kelly and I were able to go have dinner together. It may have only been for a couple of hours, but it was nice. I had the 24 hour flu yesterday and it was hard to take care of myself, when the girls needed tending to. Definitely have to get used to that... no more time for me thing.

But things are going okay! We're managing to get through with the help of our family and friends. Everyone has been so amazing the last month, I can't thank them enough. We'll see how things go the next couple of months. We figure, as long as we have 2 healthy little girls, we can get through anything!

Hope all is well! Love to all!

I'M IN LOVE!!

- 4 Months Old -

Ella

-Definitely the talkative one! Lots of Ooh's and Aah's!

-Getting better at taking a bottle now that I'm back to work.

-She's even becoming more regular, which is a good thing.

-Fascinated with Avie. She loves staring at her.

-Loves to suck on her pointer and middle finger.

-She hardly ever performs for the camera, just like her Dad!

Avie

-Loves the camera!! Stares at it whenever it's in my hand.

-Loves to suck on her fists.

-Drama Queen!! She has this fake cry, I'll have to try and tape it. It's hilarious!

-One of the happiest babies in the morning!

-She's starting to get her voice, slowly.

They both:

-Drool and blow bubbles constantly!

-LOVE sucking on their clothes, blankets and hands. Their clothes are drenched!

-Both have a very firm grip. Be careful with earrings and long hair!

-Starting to notice each other more. They stare at each other and smile.

-Sleeping better at night! We've even had a few all nighters!

-Enjoy the outdoors! They love the sounds and looking at the trees.

-Wearing 3-6 months clothes. We still have a few 0-3 months, but they're tight!

It's been really hard to get back into work with the girls getting bigger! They are so much fun to be around whether they are cooing back at you or just sucking on their blankets! I love being with them! I can't wait to hear those giggles for the first time!! We're working on getting them stronger so they can be sitting by themselves soon! Ella has a flat spot on the right side of her head, so we're trying to work on that. Having more tummy time and moving her head while she's sleeping. Tummy time is getting better. The girls can last longer before getting frustrated and they are rolling over more! It's definitely been a rough couple of weeks, but seeing their smiles in the mornings make it all worth it!

LOVE the video below! We were able to tape Ella talking and smiling! Avie just stares at the camera the whole time and even leans in for some close ups!

Tummy Time - Video Post

Erica came up to say Hi to the girls last night and to see what we were up to! I had just got done feeding them, so Erica recommended some much needed tummy time and shot these short videos for us.

Video # 1: Avie does well on tummy time! She even rolls over!

Video # 2: Ella joins in the fun, but Avie starts to get frustrated. While we find Avie's cries of frustration funny, Ella rolls over.

Video # 3: Avie's really frustrated and Ella soon joins her! I'm sorry, but I find their little cries hilarious. But it's sad, because you can tell they are really frustrated.