1st Day of Preschool

This week I was promoted to a Mom of Preschoolers with one toddler left in my nest. As this day approached, the more it pulled at my heartstrings. These milestones make me realize just how much this time is so fleeting and will be gone all too soon. Some days can feel never ending, but Preschool marks my numbered days with them. Realizing this, my ordinary days have just become my most treasured of time.

As much as I fight to overcome the tug in my heart, I'm also excited about this new adventure. It means 2 days a week, I get some Ty time. He being my youngest, we have never had that special one on one time. I can tell you he's all too happy to have all the toys & Mommy to himself.

I also get a taste of what it feels to have a Singleton on my hands. (This is going to be easy!) I'm looking forward to the chance of being refreshed. I feel I will be able to value and monopolize my time better when the twins are home with me, giving me better focus and quality time with them.

The first day went better than I expected. Although, not without tears. Anna cried and grabbed hold of me to stay. She was fine as soon as I made it out the door.

Usually, when one twin starts crying the other joins in too. They sense this in each other, but not today. Esther was cheerfully waiting to give me hugs bye as Anna's tears started flooding. Es has been excitedly counting down to this very moment. She was giving Anna a look as if to say, 'Don't ruin this for me! [I'm not crying with you this time.]'

1st Day of Preschool!!

The girls are in the same class together this year. We thought it would be best for them to have the security of each other in this transition time and split them up into different classes next year.

After orientation, I walked by to take a peek in their room before leaving home. The girls were happy sitting in Circle Time with all the other kids.

Since it was orientation day, Tyler went to stay with his Mimi, so I got to have a lunch date with my Hubs. I can't remember the last time we had one of those, so it made for a sweet morning.

At pick up, the girls were so excited to show me their papers from their day, but Anna hurriedly came over to tell me, "You took a LONG time." We're not used to being away from each other this long.

The school day included a story of the Gingerbread Man, a Gingerbread Man hunt, Gingerbread cookies for snack, and Gingerbread Man craft.
I was impressed with how well their craft turned out for the 1st day. There must be something to this Preschool thing. Esther told me her Gingerbread cookies ran away. Smiling, she continued to repeat, 'You can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man!'
I don't know about you, but Gingerbread makes me think of Christmas, not a 1st day of school theme.

Although, they were exhilarated the rest of the afternoon about their right of passage. The true sign came when we got in the car to run errands, they would ask if we were going to school
'No, not today.'
"Whyyy? I want to go to school."

This is all going to be okay. I have big girls now, little Preschoolers that is! ::sniffles::

Esther's Back to School Photo

Our Post 1st Day of School Photo

Anna's Back to School Photo

2 x 2 x 2 [Birthday Edition]

We had TWO celebrations for TWO very special girls who turned TWO years old!

We began this past week with a small family birthday party! And ended the week with a NICU reunion celebration at the hospital for Esther, which coincidentally was held a day after her release date just 2 years ago!

Pink & Purple Party!

The Decorations

The Fun 

The Party Guests!

NICU Reunion Celebration!

Celebrating our little NICU graduate, Esther, with a petting zoo and games at the hospital. We had fun riding a horse, brushing the llama, petting the bunnies, and feeding the goats. We also got to sit and eat our favorite snacks with Mommy and Daddy after taking our measurements and making hand prints in keepsake clay to see how much we have grown.

 Back from where we started...

(Above) Esther's release date to go home, Oct. 4, 2011 / (Below) NICU Reunion Oct. 5, 2013

Animal Fair

Happy 2nd Birthday, Anna & Esther!
We love you and the delight you bring to our lives!

What 18 Months Looks Like

We have twins and somehow, I think this makes us a little interesting. Everyone wants to know what's going on in our world. Not to mention, everyone has lots of questions. :) 

The girls just turned 18 months old and my heart grows bigger every day. Twins are a very special gift. A joy only few get to experience. I'm so thankful God blessed us with more than I knew to ask for. 

Anna and Esther love climbing everything, exploring everything, and dancing around the kitchen to music with Momma while spinning around in circles until they fall down.

Reading books have replaced almost all toy play in the house. They sure didn't get that from me! Ha! We read the same handful of favorite books over and over all day long. Some books I want to hide after reading 100x, but my favorite part of reading one of their favorite books is near the end when the Mama kisses the Baby, the girls each give me a kiss too. I melt. :) When Esther reads by herself, she has a distinct reading voice. It seems like she is trying to mimic how I read to them. Her little mumbles pitch up and down really fast. I can't help but think it's the cutest thing ever! 

And although they both look alike, dress alike, share the same schedules, play with the same toys, tend to be extremely shy, and have infectious smiles and laughs, these two girls couldn't be more different in personality. They are not much alike in character at all. It's so fun to watch as they are learning to express themselves more and more. 

Esther Autumn

Weighing in at 23 lbs

and 31 inches tall

with 11 Teeth

This little bundle of mischievousness has become a big Daddy's Girl. It is so adorably cute. She follows her Daddy all around the house, gets excited when he comes home from work, talks about him during the day when he's not home, and tries to wear his shoes whenever they are found laying around. She is in almost every way just like him. I can't seem to find any qualities of myself in her at all. She is all Daddy! She is serious and reflective, a tease, a daredevil, more independent and quiet, and is always soaking in her surroundings and trying to figure out how everything works or goes together more than the average toddler. We think she has Kyle's genius engineer brain. :)  Her qualities tend to get herself in more trouble than Anna since she is always exploring and observing everything around her. 

Favorites:

Food: Tomatoes

Toy: Corn Popper and Little People Disney Princess Castle

Song: Ring-Around-the-Rosie

Book: "Little Loon & Papa" by Toni Buzzeo

Cat: Flopsey 

Favorite Esther Stories:

I gave my husband a new watch for our anniversary that he started wearing every day. Obviously, Esther has taken notice in a very short time. One day my husband forgot to put it on, when he got home from work, Esther excitedly greeted him, then ran straight to our bedroom to grab the watch off the nightstand, bringing it promptly to put in his hands. We were astonished!

The girls have a pink toy 4-wheeler that they got for their 1st birthday. Anna has taken ownership of it completely. She rides around on it all throughout the day. She never gives Esther a chance to ride it. If Esther tries, Anna will quickly come and push her off and take over. Esther has discovered this to be to her advantage. If Anna has something that Esther wants but Anna won't share, Esther will run over to get on the 4-wheeler. The result: Anna will drop what she has, run over, and get on the wheeler...leaving Esther with the prize. Haha! :)

Anna Elizabeth

Weighing in at 23 lbs

at 31 inches tall

with 10 Teeth

Anna has become quite the little ham and coming into her own. She's starting to express her goofy little personality more and more. She is starting to put tiny baby size sentences together. "Where you?," "What do you?," and "Out my way" are some of her newest additions. "Oh uh" still being my favorite. :) She makes cute little faces as she jibber-jabbers all through the day especially as she tries to communicate with us.

Unlike Esther, she is more like her Mommy. :) She already loves to draw and color! She loves our afternoon sensory/creative play activities the most (i.e. flour or rice play, water play, painting, pebbles w/cups bin). She will stay completely focused for at least an hour, which is abnormal for this huff-n-puff all go girl. She is all play and all talk all day long. Some of my family will appreciate this one: she is starting to develop a slight "bag lady" tendency I had around age 2. We will have to watch to see if it progresses. ;)

Favorites:

Food: Chicken Nuggets

Toy: Shopping Cart and Pink 4-Wheeler

Song: Itsy Bitsy Spider

Book: "Llama Llama Red Pajama" by Anna Dewdney
and "My Farm Friends" by Wendell Minor 

Cat: Bebes

Recent Favorite Anna Stories:
When Anna is in full form of hamming it up in front of everyone, she has developed a "duck walk" where she bends her knees as she walks, sometimes bobbing her head a bit. It's my favorite!

My Dad and his wife both work for Frito-Lay and Lance, so we always get a huge box full of chips and goodies whenever we have a visit with them. Just last week, we had a new assortment, which "Nina" had included animal cookies. Anna dumped out the entire box onto the floor, recognizing and picking out the cookies, and brought them to me, begging for me to open it to eat some. Haha! Smarty pants!

Love Muffin Date

Today, Mommy and Daddy had a lunch and zoo date with our two love muffins. 

 Our Zoo Membership is ending this month and with this beautiful day, we thought we should take advantage of it since new baby brother is coming soon. One of those bittersweet days of just the four of us.

Anna and Esther are such well behaved little ladies at the lunch table. I wouldn't expect this from my little 17 month olds, but their sweet little manners make my heart melt for it. 

Everyone was taking a bite at the same time. Thought it was rather priceless. As you can see Mommy/Baby Boy's plate had more food on it than anyone else's. Ha!

Then it was off to the Zoo!!!

After visiting the lions and tigers, we decided to head over to the Farm Petting Zoo. Esther quickly discovered the ducks!

And then there were two. Haha! I think they both agreed that the swimming ducks were their favorite animals of the zoo. We had to pry them away after a bit of watching.

We even had an awesome Seal encounter while giving pregnant Mommy a sit down break and having a snack. Anna made sure not to miss out on the action.

Esther got a close up too! She was a little hesitant and kept a little more distance between her and the seal.

We had to check out the pretty water fountain before leaving especially since photo Mommy wanted a couple more pics. No toddler cooperation for one though. No loss of expectation there. Ha!
 Esther wanted to play a little too close to the edge. I thought sure we were going to take home a soaked baby. Thankfully, it's only a foot of water and Daddy stayed close to catch her little fearless self.

Sweet day! Sweet memories!

Babies Growth Update

It's week 2 of turning 1 years old and our little Anna and Esther think they need to leave all things baby behind to become toddlers. My little heart has been sad for the past couple weeks. Don't misunderstand, it's so exciting to watch them grow and learn, but it is going all too fast for me and my heart has not had time to catch up. ::tears:: Here's a little bit of feats and 'goings on' just in this past week:

Anna signed for the first time on Sunday. She signed, "All done" at lunch when she was teething and didn't want any more food since her gums were hurting, poor punkin'. Her 3rd tooth popped through the next day.

On Tuesday, I made mac & cheese for Esther and I to share since she has been picking up foods on her own, but she not only wanted to feed herself, but she also wanted to feed Mommy too! I think she made more of a mess trying to feed me than herself. Haha! It was super cute! 

Wednesday, we got our 2nd little set of pitter patters around the house. Esther officially started walking! Yay! She surprised us on this. I thought it might be a little longer for her as she hasn't seemed interested in walking at the sight of Anna walking at 11 months old. Anna was determined and kept trying over and over, but not Esther. Esther just wanted to get up and do it without all of the hard work. Walking seems to definitely be all in her mindset as she thinks out every step. I shouldn't have expected anything less. She is my little observer. She watches everything closely and tries to figure out how everything works. You may think she is sitting and doing nothing, but you're wrong. She is processing everything; another reason she can find her way out of almost anything.  She is currently trying to figure out how to undo the seat belt on her high chair. She watches us very carefully each time we unbuckle her and then she tries to investigate the belt and imitate.

We also had our 12 month checkup and vaccinations on Wednesday. This was the worst visit yet since they were so much more aware of what was going on compared to all the younger months. They did not like their shots one bit and definitely showed the nurse that they no longer liked her after each getting 4 shots and blood drawn. :( However, we have two super healthy babies! And the doctor did say that we could finish up our last can of formula and switch completely to whole milk. If you have seen Kyle's recent Facebook statuses, in which he has calculated out how much our babies drink a day plus the cost comparison since I quit nursing at 7 months, you know there is a bit of excitement in this for us!  

Anna at 3 Months / Esther at 12 Months getting weighed at the doctor

Thursday, we found Esther had a 2nd tooth that had come in on the bottom gums. Boy, I thought we were never going to get teeth and now they are popping up like crazy in both of the girls! Essie also ate her first lunch as all solid foods. We are super proud of her! Our babies have been very attached to the baby food so much so that I still can't get Anna to take any bites of table food and I try almost every day. Esther has been interested for a few weeks now by taking over my meals and snacks, but never in her chair until now! Yay! We are finally getting somewhere!

I could be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure Esther tried to say "Anna" when she was trying to get her partner in crime's attention in the tub that night too. "Mama" and "Dada" are obviously not the first, but I will let it slide. It's just so darn cute that it's her Sissy instead. 

We also went to the Library for "Wiggles & Tickles" Storytime. It's story time geared just for their age group. They absolutely love it! I can't help but love it too! Esther started squealing in the parking lot with anticipation! It was so funny! This week the interactive song had shakers, so of course, Anna and Esther were in their strong element of shaking along with the song. The librarian also pulled out the parachute for a couple songs, which they loved! Anna kept wanting to get on top of it as we were shaking it and making it go up and down. I could hardly get them out the door to go home. They were having so much fun!

What a week of accomplishments for my little punkin's! We are so proud of them! Now if I could just take in these last few baby moments a little longer! Mommy is not quite ready to watch them grow so fast! 

Just in case you were wondering facts.....

Anna and Esther each eat 18oz of baby food per day,

drink 25oz of milk each per day
(that's 3 gallons of milk together per week),

have approximately 7 diaper changes each per day
(that's approximately 14 diapers per day, 100 diapers per week),

and we go through a pack of wipes almost every other day. 

First jacket weather of the season this week!

Happy 1st Birthday, Anna & Esther!

This weekend was a special celebration in our new little family- 

Anna and Esther turned 1 years old!

This milestone was marked by a Giraffe themed 1st Birthday party celebration with friends and family and a day of playing in our living room filled full of all kinds of new toys. It was such a joy to share this special time with everyone and enjoy our two little blessings!

One year ago, we were two nervous newlyweds (our twins were honeymoon souvenirs) getting prepared to go into the operation room for a C-section. Looking back, we seemed like kids, scared, anxious, and with no ideas of what to expect and just scratching the surface of our relationship.

Now, we have two of the most beautiful good little babies we didn't even know to ask for (God definitely had immeasurable surprises in store for us). We have a year's experience of two different babies under our belt, feel a little older (I am sporting some gray hairs and Kyle losing more of his ::wink::), maybe a little wiser (maybe not), a little less selfish in some ways, and both filled with more joy and love to share together. It's so crazy to compare the then and now all within a year's time!

Party Photos Courtesy of Talei "Lei Lei" Akins Photography

Anna was our little ham during the party. She surprised us all by walking around and socializing with everyone and not being her shy little self that she usually is. She played with the other kids, let people interact with her, and pick her up. She totally took advantage of being one of the little stars of the party. She also took a few bites of cake, which surprised us more. She refuses, any other day and since the party, to take any food from our hand or off a plate. It must be pureed and sitting in her chair. Instead, she was licking every bit of icing off of her lips and coming back for a few more bites. So cute!

Our Little Ham, Anna!

Esther, on the other hand, wanted to observe everything and everyone within the arms of her Mommy. She was definitely taking everything in, but only in her safe space. She did venture out a couple times to play with the other kids and her new toys, but it didn't last for too long. She also refused to participate in the ritual cake eating and normally she eats off of my plate any chance she gets. We also realized she was teething, so she wasn't quite feeling herself either. My poor punkin'.

Essie staying close to Mommy

The girls were spoiled with lots of toys from everyone! We got to join in the fun of opening presents with them. It will probably be one of the last times too. 

And of course, there was cake!

Planning a giraffe party was a lot of fun and a little stressful since I more than procrastinated to the very last minute since I was in vacation mode from our Destin trip the week prior. There's not a lot of giraffe party themes out there, but thanks to Pinterest, I was able to create our own. 

Invitations set the tone:

Created by CutiesTieDyeBoutique

Think pink and giraffe....

The giraffe cake in the shape of a number one, I made with inspiration from Cake Believe. Giraffe cookies are Nutter Butters with Honey Nut Cherrios and Mini Reese's Pieces iced on. If you ever replicate, check to make sure the cookies in the pack aren't stale. I didn't find out till after the party, I had a bad pack. :( My Mother-in-law had previously made these cookies on tops of cupcakes at our babies' shower, which was a Noah's Ark theme, so the idea came from her. 

The most fun I had was putting together the party favors. We got some of our babies' favorite things at the dollar store...tiny board books, baby maracas (those are not actually Easter eggs in the basket), animal crackers, a pack of giraffe crayons, plastic balls, and I sewed together stuffed Giraffe taggies. I made my own sewing pattern from viewing another blogger's (Fig and Ruby) stuffed giraffes.

We made giraffe headbands to wear during the party, put together a photobooth, and made chalkboards so that guests could write messages to Anna and Esther kind of like a memory guestbook since I wasn't sure if our girls would cooperate for photos with everyone. However, no one used the photobooth, so I think it served more as decor for the party instead. 

Now that the party is over, I'm thinking of all things giraffe I could have added to the party. Kind of like realizing we had giraffe balloon animals and forgot to put them out for the kids! :(  Oh well... Our babies only turn 1 once!

Thank you to all our friends and family who have shared in this precious time with us! 

You are so special to us!

Happy 1st Birthday, Anna & Esther!

We love you dearly!

Break for Vacation

We just got back from a week of full Adams Family Vacation in Destin, Florida!

In all honesty, I can say that I was just not looking forward to the trip this year. I'm sure you are shaking your head at such a remark, but we recently took a trip up to Indiana a few weeks prior to visit family. It was the babies first time to meet everyone and they were quite the little hand fulls even with all of the extra help. I wasn't sure how I was going to last through another trip without needing a vacation all to myself when we got back. 

However, the week ended up being a complete success even with all of it's small hiccups! God had plenty in store for the week. He knows how much I long for the romance of His creation, so He knew this was prime time to get my attention plus lots of favoring. :) 

Mrs. Adams Sr. picked out an awesome condo along the beach! We had gorgeous weather! No rain!  We had tummy tickling family laughter around the dinner table while all of the kiddos were asleep in their beds! Yummy food! We had our own personal heated pool. My husband was so wonderful; he got up with Anna and Esther every morning of our vacation. Ahhhh.... true blessings, for sure!  

Kyle and I even got a night out together. We love our romance!

First day of vacation, we learned 2 things: the babies have a sand phobia that will not be tolerated and that I have developed a severe allergy to bee stings. As a child, I was stung by all types of bees...honey bees, wasps, yellow jackets, or as you call them here, the carpenter bee. Then, at the age of 27, a small sweat bee comes along, at least, that's what our hypothesis has concluded, and I was one close trip to the E.R. I have never seen anything happen to my body quite like this in a matter of minutes. Craziness!! So, it was 2 Benedryl tablets for me, a steak dinner in bed with my honey, and off to sleep land. 

The sting was a little bit of a blessing in disguise. Despite it's discomforts, I think, everyone else should have got to have their dinner in bed that night as well. It was actually quite fun! And I got to catch up on all the sleep I haven't had since the girls were born. :)

First Moments on the Beach...

Turned into Unhappy 1st Moments on the Beach. No sand for Babies!

God taught me what it was to rest again and He sure put it on the menu for me for the week. It was incredible. I have never felt so recharged being back at home today. 

During the week, the girls enjoyed playing with their cousins, took record long naps, and enjoyed the beach, but only by lounging in their chairs with no sand! They had one day of severe teething, in which I think we got a whole 20 minutes of actual beach time that day, but Anna has now caught up to Esther so that they both each now have their first tooth poking through the gums. 

Day 2...buckets and shovels with NO SAND.

We all took turns cooking each night so that the week wasn't crazy scheduled with outings, which was super helpful for us especially since the twins are in bed so early. I made my newest recipe addiction from Pinterest one night, Colorado Smothered Burritos with Avocado Salsa. Yummy! We ate lunch out at The Crab Trap one day and ended the week off eating at the Old Bay Steamer. Double Yum. Those, of course, are our traditional places to get our eat on each year. 

Day 4 was certainly my favorite. Kyle and I unexpectedly found that we had a night out to ourselves. Mimi and Papa took the girls out for their first dinner together without Mommy and Daddy while The Brummer clan was out on a dolphin boat extravaganza. We went to The Crab Trap again since Kyle wanted to splurge for another round of raw oysters. It was then followed by a late night walk on the beach, a late night swim, and well, more romance, romance....

What a week of sweet memories! Until next year..... :)