Burnt Toast and a Coor's Light. Finally.

Mother's Day, 1986. My sisters and I decided that it would be a great idea to make our mom a Mother's Day breakfast. I was 7, Katie was 5, and Elizabeth was 2 1/2. To our mother's surprise, we walked into her bedroom with a plate of burnt toast...and a Coors Light.

"Oh my God...I can't drink this, girls!!! It's 6 am!"

Our eyes immediately turned to disappointment...welling up with tears because we thought we had let her down. We had worked so hard on her special breakfast and mom wouldn't drink the beer.

Mom saw the looks in our eyes and quickly cracked open the Coors Light, took a swig and said, "Mmmm...this is the best beer ever! Thank you so much girls!"

Lol. Sorrryyyy Moma.

Here are some pics of my beautiful Moma and I when I was a baby.

 

Happy Mother's Day, Moma! I love you more than you will ever know, and appreciate all you have done for us and the boys!

After seven incredibly long and painful years, this is what I woke up to on Mother's Day:

My three men staring at me:) I still can't believe this is my reality, but I'm so happy where I'm at. All of the years of depression have finally lifted, and I feel like my life is just beginning. I love motherhood, and it is by far the best job I've ever had! I will never forget all of those years of infertility, and I pray for all of my friends still waiting to be parents on a daily basis. It is SO hard and I know how difficult every Mother's Day can be. Been there and don't want to go back. Infertility permanently affected who I am as a person and put a definite strain on our marriage. I still feel the all to familiar sting when I hear a pregnancy announcement...probably because it comes so easily for most. And probably because we will still have to go through the same crap if we ever want more children. It's so unfair! Having children did not "cure" me. I will probably always have issues, but I'm doing my best to look forward from here on out.

Why did we have to endure years of heartache and disappointment? Why did we have to drain our bank accounts and rack up tens of thousands of dollars in debt? Why did we have to put ourselves through countless medical procedures that failed every. single. time. Why couldn't we just have sex like normal people, get knocked up, and live happily ever after??

This, my friends, is why. If everything would have gone as WE had planned, these two beautiful boys would never be. God knew what he was doing. As a matter of fact, the entire ordeal brought God into our relationship. We had no faith before. Downward spiral. It goes to show that everything is in His time...we have no control. The end result is MUCH better than we could have ever imagined! I don't know what I would do without my babies, and I thank God he made us wait for them!

My first Mother's Day was unbelievable...Andy and the boys made sure that it was a day that I'd never forget!

Breakfast in bed...cornflake crusted french toast and bacon. Yummo!

My little hams wearing their Mother's Day onesies just for mommy.

Mother's Day onesies

My little giggles!

Griswold gave me a bottle of toilet water. Thanks man.

Andy gave me a beautiful locket for their pictures that will be engraved with their initials:)

Anderson in his Mother's Day outfit. Little nugget.

Anderson and Baney gave me a "Mom" charm for my Pandora bracelet. Sigh. Love my little men.

My happy Baney!

Baney giving mommy some cuddles.

My life is complete!

Ahhh!

Love love love them!

Can't get enough of their toothless grins.

Handsome:)

My entire life is sitting on this bench, folks.

We even surprised Mmmie K with a visit,  and got to facetime with Aunt Ebeth!

So grateful. I can't wait until the day my little men bring me burnt toast and a Coor's Light at 6am. I will gladly crack it open to wash down the toast. And give them kisses all over their chunky cheeks.

To me, every day is a cause for celebration...for every day is Mother's Day now!

We're Two Months Old!

We are growing like weeeedsss! We both started smiling and cooing at 8 weeks, and even gave mom and dad a few giggles. Our new favorite trick is to mimic mommy while playing the face game...we love to stick out our tongues at her! We also like to follow her with our eyes as she walks around the room. She can't hide from us anymore.

At our two month checkup, Anderson weighed 11 lb 8 oz (49%) and was 23 1/2 inches long (75%). Baney weighed 13 lb 2 oz (85%) and was 23 1/4 inches long (55%).

Baney thinks his eyes are going to be blue, and Anderson's look dark blue/brown. They can change anytime within our first year so we'll see. Haha. We'll see. Get it?

Womp womp.

Baney just graduated to size 2 diapers, and Anderson is still in size 1. We wolf down about 6-8 oz each of pumped breast milk every 3-4 hours. We know, we're out of control..but our pediatrician says it is fine as long as we are gaining weight appropriately and aren't spitting up. Mommy says that her juggies are huge nowadays. We have to agree. They will look like cans of tuna in tube socks when we are done with them.

We were able to sit up a little easier for our two month photo shoot! We love being silly for the camera, but we have a feeling that we are going to get sick of the camera because mommy won't put that thing down. She needs an intervention.

We made it to two months! Yay!

Silly Smiles

We love our ties, mommy. All grown up 'n stuff.

Anderson

Look out girls. My mommy already says I can't get married and have to live with her forever.

We love the tongue game!

Baney

I make chillaxin' look easy.

Gosh mom. Are you done yet?

Pimpin' out our hoodies from Aunt Ebeth!! We loooove them!

See ya next month!

Baby Avery's Bucket List

Update: Baby Avery suddenly passed away...nearly two hours after I posted this. Heartbreaking. Her story touched not only my heart, but many others around the world. In her honor, please continue to raise awareness about SMA. No family deserves to go through this.

I have been crying since six o'clock this morning after seeing this on the news while pumping. This sweet, sweet five month old little girl was recently diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder called Spinal Muscular Atrophy, or SMA for short. It is the #1 genetic killer of infants under the age of 2, yet most have never heard of it. There is no cure at this time, and is not included in pre-genetic screening...although most insurance plans allow for the OPTION of testing for it. It is physically debilitating and attacks the muscles eventually causing respiratory failure, leaving cognitive skills intact. She was given eighteen months to live and her awesome parents have chosen to create a bucket list of things for Avery to do before her time is up. Her list includes everything from her first kiss, to visiting a college campus. So sweet...and an unbelievable story!

Please go follow along on her short journey and help to spread the word about SMA! Most of us are so unbelievably lucky...I must go love on my sweet boys and savor every second with them. God bless this sweet baby and her family.

 http://averycan.blogspot.com/

Eight Weeks of Goodness

Our sweet munchkins will be EIGHT weeks on Monday...I can't believe it! They are growing way too fast and it's so hard to absorb it all. That's why they will probably hate cameras in a few years because we do a photo shoot almost every day! Ha!

I am still "breastfeeding" every three hours...however, I have started to pump it into bottles and feed them that way. Anderson never really caught on to latching very well, and I was sick of fighting him for an hour and then having to pump the rest out and give it to him that way. Besides, when I go back to work they will have to take it via bottle anyway! The boobs can't be everywhere at once! 

I'm surprised at how well my supply is keeping up. They are eating about 5-6 ounces each every three hours and I am putting just about that much out. It really is supply and demand if you stick with it. Yes, it can be stressful at times because breastfeeding consumes ALL of your time...especially for twins. It is such a huge commitment! We will probably be supplementing with a little formula when I go back to work, but as long as I'm off I'll be doing everything I can to be their cow. Moo.

They started sleeping through the night (somewhat) last week. We'll throw about 6 ounces in them around midnight and they will let us sleep until about 6 am. But there's a catch. They wake up around 3 am and want to get in the bed with us. All they need is a paci and they are good to go. Oh well. The extra cuddles are well worth it, so we'll worry about that later!

The only other drama around here has been our dog Griswold. He decided to swallow a pacifier and had to undergo emergency surgery a couple of weeks ago! He is fine now, but we had to take a nice chunk out of my maternity disability to cover the cost. Fawesomeballs!

Here are some recent pictures! Andy went back to work last week, so I have been busy busy busy! I am trying to return calls, update the blog, etc, but I really don't have time to do anything until midnight! Thank you all SO much for the sweet comments. I just don't understand how some people facebook and blog all day with children! I just hate missing even a second with them, so I will get back to you all in...18 years!

Family Photo Session!

I want to share the sweet video of our family photo session...turn the volume up and get the Kleenex ready! It's a little cropped to the side because the file is big, but if you double click it will open up into full screen mode. I own a photography business and was going to attempt their newborn pictures, but they wake up crying whenever they smell me! Fail! I ended up getting maybe twenty good pictures on my own. I ended up putting a few of those on their birth announcement. Then I realized...how am I going to take pictures of the four of us? Our friend Carla saved the day! She has taken all of my niece's photos since birth, and has always done a fantabulous job. Thank you Carla for capturing these beautiful photos...we will treasure them forever!

Annndd...here are some of the pictures that I was able to capture! I love my babies!