Thrifty tip

I was reading a blog and came across this terrific site <-----click, that gives you cash back on your online purchases. You just go to the website see if your store (over 900) is there and click on it. 4 times per year they send you a check or direct pay into your Paypal account. I wish I would have found it before I checked out on some of my favorite online stores but hey being in Canada I am sure there will many more online purchases. Be sure to check it out it really is cool and couldn't we all use a few extra bucks!!!
Now back to my online Christmas shopping.

Happy Birthday to......................

ME! I am the big THREE 3 1 ONE today. Thank you to everyone who called and emailed to wish me a happy birthday.
I can't tell you how thankful I am that this year nothing major happened on my birthday. Last year at this time was was the worst birthday ever a day I don't want to remember but will never forget.

Giving thanks today

I am so thankful for lots of things not only today but every day of the year. I feel like I am the most blessed person in the whole world.

Here are a few things I am thankful for:
1. My family. I wish everyone had the family I have. We really are a tight knit group and I think that has helped me become the person I am today. I only hope my kids will turn out the same way.
2. My husband who never asks where's dinner or do I have any clean underwear (he knows to check the dryer)
3. My kids who brighten my each and every day.
4. Being able to give back.
5. Getting to spend another year with my grandparents.
6. My dad's strength that helps him recover from his heart surgery.
7. Modern technology that helps us stay in touch with friends and family.
8. The friends we have made in Newfoundland for opening their arms to us.
9. Ashley's great personality that helps her fit right in.
10. Baby Einstein and playrooms
11. My creativity that I get from my mom.
12. Hot tea, yes I said it HOT tea. It is something you get used to when it's cold outside.
13. Lily's laugh, she has a way of making you forget all about your moment of stress with just her laugh.
14. Preston's smile, anytime you look at him he just gives you a smile that lights up his whole face.
15. Ashley's sincerity, she is such a sweet and caring person
16. Mom and daughter (Ashley) moments
17. Airplanes to bring us home
18. My husbands ambition to do more in life
19. Cameras that capture every too cute moment
20. This wonderful life I have been given!

bye bye bottle

It's official the bottle is gone!!!!! By gone I mean in a box in the basement so not easy to access. I thought it would be difficult to get rid of the night time bottle but it was no problem at all. I give them their cup of milk in their play room or bed room while we read then to bed. I can feel the baby stage slowly drifting further away.

Also it's worth mentioning that I think they have started to speak where we can actually understand them. I have started teaching a new item each week or every few weeks. We started with duck, next we will do ball. It has worked because they both now know duck and can say it. We were at a store and Lily looked at some baby pajamas and said "duh" there was a duck on them, I got so excited!!

So far they have said: duck (du), daddy, momma (momomo), Ash (Ah)
Lily says: that (dat) and points
Preston says: thank you (day do)

I promise there will be more pictures. I have been slacking lately.

Here comes Santa Claus

We took the babies to see Santa this morning. I thought for sure Preston would be the one to freak out but it was Lily. She sat on his lap and cried and cried. The photographer had me sit on a stool and put her on my lap. She did ok after that. We tried to talk Ashley into getting in the picture so we could use this as our Christmas card but she did not want any part of it.

Getting ready to go see Santa

Aaron and I all dressed up for his Christmas party last night.

Milk issue again

I forgot to mention that when we went for the babies check up I was talking to the nurse about Preston's milk/tummy issues. She said that I should go to lactose free instead of soy. That more than likely he isn't having an issue with dairy since he tolerates cheese, yogurt, ice cream and other things with milk. She said that soy doesn't have as much calcium and that soy isn't milk at all. I knew that but figured since they were on soy formula than soy milk would be fine. So we are going to try lactose free until 18 months then try whole milk again. She said sometimes babies born early can have stomach issues when switching to whole milk. Eventually I am sure he will grow out of it.

rain rain go away bring the snow today

I know I am jinxing myself but I seriously thought we would have snow by now. We got nothing, just rain. As everyone around here says "just wait"
Aaron was in Halifax for a few days and he said there was lots of snow on the ground. Everytime I watch the weather for the U.S it talks about the snow storms in the east. I guess it just isn't ready to make this far east yet. We are ready though whenever the snow may come.
Here is a video of Lily laughing at Preston:

1 year check up

I took the babies for their one year check up this morning. They did a developmental check and said they were brilliant!! No really she said they both look like they are right on track. Preston had a mysterious rash that popped up out of no where so they didn't do his shots. We will have to go back to get them done. Lily did really well she only cried for a few seconds. I can't remember where they are on the growth charts but they are 50% for height/weight proportion so that's good to me.
Lily:
weight: 8.35 kg/18.40 lbs
height: 70 cm/27.55 in
head: 44 cm/17.32 in

Preston:
weight: 9.42 kg/20.76 lbs
height: 74 cm/29.13 in
head: 44 cm/17.32 in

So proud

I am so proud of my husband and Ashley. Friday the babies slept great. Aaron knew how tired I have been since the 2 days prior the babies didn't sleep. He got them up on Saturday morning and changed their clothes and got them fed. When I came down stairs at 9 am they were playing and the kitchen was all clean. It was so nice and relaxing. Saturday we went to Ashley's first stunt competition. Their cheer leading squad is separated into 4 stunt teams. Their stunt team came in first place. It was so awesome and I am so proud of her for finding something she really enjoys!
Sunday Aaron woke up and got the babies up again! I could really get used to this. We were invited to some friends house to watch football and eat chili. They just moved here from Sugarland, Texas in August. They have 2 daughters, 1 and 4 so that works out great. Their daughter A is just a few weeks older than the babies. So anyway they have this toy, Elmo Live, it's the must have Christmas gift but A got hers for her birthday. We were all sitting around playing, Preston was already kind of nervous so he was pretty happy when the toy stopped making noise and moving around. About 2 mins later Elmo throws his arms up and makes noise totally catching Preston off guard. He jumped back catching himself on one hand and screaming hysterically. I have never seen him do that so of course we all started laughing. He was truly scared of Elmo....... I can't wait until he meets SANTA!!!
Aaron noticed this morning that Preston has his 3rd tooth coming in on top. He was behind for so long and now he is passing Lily, she still has 2 on the bottom.

Tis the season to be nice

Today while I was out I noticed people being more nice than usual. For example I was at Costco buying a new sofa table since the box is huge and I have 2 babies and a cart full of stuff I asked the manager if he would have someone get the table for me and take it to my car. He did no problem but the guy not only brought it to my car he folded down my seat, loaded the table, all my groceries and asked me if I needed any help with the babies. Then I headed over to Michael's everyone there is always so sweet of course having the babies helps when the shopper's are mostly women. Anyway while I was loading the babies into the car with 3 of my doors and the back open to my car I noticed a lady heading for the car next to me. I said oh hold on give me a sec. She said no problem take your time the weather is nice I don't mind. Then she asked me how I was going to get the stroller in the car. I explained it folded nice and neat and has a permanent spot in the back. She even asked if she could watch, I think she was truly amazed. After I picked Ashley up we pulled over on the side of the road to take this picture. I love how still the water is and how the trees reflect into the water.

It makes my day when people, total strangers, are so nice. Maybe it's the season, maybe it's a sign of the times. Whatever it is I like it.

Why so tired baby boy!

This poor boy fell asleep in about 2 seconds while I was giving Lily her bite at lunch. The past 2 days have been horrible as far as sleep goes. I am hoping it's a growth spurt, milestone or whatever. My sister in law told me that when babies are about to hit a milestone they will start eating or sleeping differently.
Let's start with Wednesday. We had a playgroup so the babies didn't go down at their usual 10 am time. I fed them lunch around 11:30 since they were both fading fast. After lunch they went to bed and napped for TWO HOURS!! They were fine the rest of the day and I thought for sure bed time would be normal since it was 5 hours in between sleeps. NOT!!! So we put them down at their regular 7 pm time. They cried and giggled and blabbed until 7:45. I stayed up until midnight working on Christmas cards, Aaron played guitar. Why oh why don't I go to bed earlier? Around 5 am Preston started crying, not a whimper, an all out cry fest. I rushed in before he woke the almighty princess Lily. After a bottle, orajel, teething tabs I thought for sure he would go back to sleep. No way Jose it was party time. I put him in bed with us which we never do and now I know why. He jumped around, laughed, patted daddy's head. Around 6 am I put him back in bed and he went out like a light.
Thursday was a normal morning. The babies did not want to go down at 10 so I held off and fed them lunch then put them to bed. Once again long nap only an hour and a half. Bedtime, same thing did not want to go to bed. It was Lily's turn this time, she woke up at 4 am and I did the same exact thing I did for Preston the night before. She fell back asleep around 5 am. First I would like to say I don't know why I thought putting them in bed with us would work. They partied like it was 1999 and I can't help but laugh when Lily is lunging towards Aaron and laughing then looking at me wondering why he doesn't respond, it's called sleep sweetheart.
So today I made sure we stuck to our schedule of 2 naps. They did wake up a little earlier than normal so that was a great start. When I put them down at 10 I put Preston in the pack and play in the guest room and Lily in her crib. They slept so much better. We were on the road at 2 but they slept for about 45 mins. Let me just tell you they were begging me to let them go to bed tonight at 7. Hopefully they will not wake up. If they do it will be ok though because.....

I will miss these days once they are gone.

What a difference a year makes!

These are some of my favorite pictures from the early days. They look so different.

Preston just a few hours old.

Lily just a few hours old.

Finally together in their bed at home.

Preston holding daddy's finger

Yup that's both of them in the swing. Just goes to show you how tiny they were. 2 weeks old

2 1/2 months old

3 months old

Update

These babies are all over the place. We invested in a gate for the play room I think I will order one off the internet for the stairs. Especially when they start walking, which we are one step closer to. Preston in now letting go alot and standing for longer periods. Lily has also stood but not as long as Preston. I think he will walk soon. Just my opinion though.
Our days are spent taking walks, playing, doing puzzles, reading books, mommy cleans while we watch baby Einstein or take naps. Speaking of naps...... what age do they go to one nap. They will take a fairly good morning nap around 10 but in the afternoon I find they just lay there and play I don't think they actually sleep. I however leave them in there if they aren't crying just to at least have quiet time. The bottle is still going well I tried one night to do away with it and it went well but the next night they were not happy and I just gave it to them. If they are happy I am happy.
Milk isn't going so well. As I increase the milk and decrease the formula amount Preston started getting really fussy like his stomach was hurting. Is this something milk related? They have been on soy formula but seem to do fine with the milk they have had. So give me some advice readers. What do you think? Should I just hold off on increasing the milk for Preston?

Christmas cards

OK so I have never entered a scrap book contest but I came across this contest on Bitten by the bug. I figured since I already have 10 cards made I could easily pick 2 of them to submit for the contest. Oh it was a hard choice but I decided to enter this card for now. You can enter up to 2 cards by 11-30 so I think I will hold off a little longer to submit the other one. I hope the judges love them as much as I do. I also hope my family who is receiving these cards love them as well.

Let me know if you think I have a shot at winning.

The white is glitter. I forgot to mention the card has to be non traditional colors.

Playground pictures

We went to the playground with some local moms and their kiddos today. We finally found some leaves to play in.

Shannon with the babies

Not too sure about this leaf thing.

Look at the tooth! It's about time, son.

Halloween happenings

We drove to a neighborhood to go trick or treating but when we got there it was so windy we decided to just come home and hang out in the garage to pass out candy. We only got about 5 trick or treater's. We put the babies to bed and relaxed. Ashley went trick or treating with her friends. Yea she is one of those teenagers you see and think "Aren't you too old" She was dressed up though.
Here are some pictures of the babies in their costumes:

Time for some sliding fun........Aaron loves playing with the babies. They love it too!

meal time

I have been asked about the babies meals so for the past few days I have been keeping track of their menu. I have discovered they eat alot. Seriously! A waffle per kid, plus, oranges and applesauce! The once a day bottle is going great again. They have only had a bottle at night all this week.

Tuesday:
Breakfast- 2 packs of single serving oatmeal, small thing of yogurt, individual container of applesauce, 6 oz milk/formula
Lunch- half a can of green beans, 3 vienna sausage, individual container mandarin oranges, 6 oz milk/formula
Snack- apple water (mostly water with a little juice), cheerios
Dinner- chicken, mashed potato's, back eyed peas, banana
Bedtime- 6 oz formula/milk

Wednesday:
Breakfast- 2 blueberry waffles, 1/2 banana, 6 oz formula/milk
Lunch- ravioli, apple grape sauce, 6 oz formula/milk
Snack- mango/peach fruit cup, apple water
Dinner- meat loaf, mashed potato's, green peas w/cheese
Bedtime- 6 oz formula/milk

Thursday:
Breakfast- oatmeal, applesauce, 6 oz formula/milk
Lunch- alphabet pasta, fruit cup, 6 oz formula/milk
Snack- 6 oz formula/milk (in a sippy cup at the store to hold them until dinner) cheerios
Dinner- vienna sausage, green beans, mandarin oranges, yogurt
Bedtime- 6 oz formula/milk

Friday:
Breakfast- waffles, banana, 6 oz formula/milk
Lunch- Spaghetti with meatballs, avocado, 6 oz formula/milk
Snack- toast, apple water
Dinner- meat loaf, green beans, 6 oz formula/milk
Bedtime- 6 oz formula/milk

Saturday:
Breakfast- oatmeal, biscuit, oranges, apple water
Lunch- hot dog, mashed potato's
Snack- puffs, apple water
Dinner- ham, butternut squash, sweet potato's, cheese bread
Bedtime- 6 oz formula/milk