Our First Thanksgiving

We had a great first Thanksgiving....we were even able to have our first Thanksgiving bites and they were Yummy. Mom let us try turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes and dinner roll and we even had pumpkin puree w/ our yogurt for dessert. We cant wait until next year maybe mom will let us try some of that pumpkin cheesecake her and dad like so much.....sure does sound good :-)

Thanksgiving

I couldn't let Thanksgiving go by this year w/o sharing what I am thankful for as I am sure it is very obvious to everyone that I have so very much to be thankful for. Yet, with how I feel, "thankful" doesn't seem like a big enough word to express the amount of gratitude I feel. I am so grateful that God has blessed me so plentiful that I cry every time I think of my babies and my husband and our little family that He has given us....it is the most amazing gift ever!

I am Thankful for:
1. Having God in my life. There is so much in my life that I would not have made it through w/o my faith to hold on to. It was Him who picked me up in my weakest moments.
2. My husband....I love him dearly and spent much of the first years knowing him just marveling at the fact that God had brought such an amazing person into my life. I am thankful not only for the husband and father he is but for the man he is. He is more than I ever prayed for and I am so blessed to be his wife...and Evan and Taryn are so blessed to have him as their Daddy.
3. My Twins....I cant even think of them and how incredibly full my heart fills because of them w/o sobbing tears of joy, happiness, contentment. Now I know why our journey through infertility hurt so bad. This is what was missing in our lives and to now be able to experience all the joys and challenges of parenthood is a gift I will never take for granted. They are the most precious gift and again I am humbled at the fact that God would choose me to be not only a mother but "their" mother.
4. To be a family...to have a family of my own where we can start our 'family' traditions. This is something that Chad and I both treasure from our own childhood's. Those things that mom and dad always did that made the Holidays (whether it be Thanksgiving or Christmas) feel like the Holidays...I will forever remember my Dad waking early every Thanksgiving (and Christmas for that matter) and putting the Turkey in the oven. He always made sure we ate well...Love you Dad.
5. For my parents who taught me what it felt like to be loved and how I want to love my children (you know....the way only a mom or dad could love their child)
6. For the chance to be a mom...and to have the chance to experience these overwhelming feelings of love and joy that only a child could bring
7. For slobbery wet 'kisses' (from the twins) LOL.
8. For sweet baby hugs...Evan and Taryn both will decide in the middle of playing that they need love and will either turn towards us or cry for us if we are not in reach and then just snuggle into us for a minuet or two. It melts my heart.
9. For sleeping babies. Our angles sleep from 7pm-8am every night w/o waking...that is worth mentioning and being grateful for I consider this a huge gift :-). Thank YOU Evan and Taryn for learning to sleep well and so quickly Mommy and Daddy are so thankful for that :-)
10. For our Thanksgiving feast....yes, it is a ton of work and yes, it is a ton of food for just 2 people but it is worth it and I think it helps Chad and I feel a little closer to home when we are so far from those we truly long to be with.
11. For Football on Thanksgiving Day...what could be better than sharing a day w/ loved ones and stuffing your face w/ turkey and all the trimmings....well doing that while watching 3 football games :-)
12. For everything and everyone who has touched my life...and if you are reading this chances are I am talking about you...so know that I am thinking of you, I am grateful for you and I cant wait until I get to see you again!!!!!
13. There are 5 million other things I could list that I am thankful for but I think you get the idea LOL and really do you want to read about me being thankful for coconut chocolate chip ice cream :-)....I didnt think so.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!!!! MAY GOD BLESS YOU AS HE HAS BLESSED ME!!!!

With all my love
Gena

6 & 7 Months Update

I feel so delinquent in posting on our blog isn't not intentional...we just got really busy. Busy is good right :-). The babies will be 8 months in just 1 week. OMG where did the time go. I had been meaning to do a 6 month recap but since I never got it done I guess I can do a combine 6 & 7 month summary.

We are all doing very well. The babies are growing so fast and they seem to learn something new everyday. We are working on our baby sign language but don't expect to see any results from that until they are closer to 1 year. I really just focus on milk, more, all done for right now. Once they start showing that they are picking it up we will add more.

The babies have been lagging a bit in the weight department that coupled w/ the fact that they were born small to begin with has me a little concerned so I have them on my own version of a high fat/high cal diet to help them gain weight. I am sure the fact that I am nursing doesn't help but it is best for them so we stick w/ it. Taryn has pretty much shown that she prefers solids over milk which is very frustrating to me since she is so small and her milk is so important so I have taken to adding scoops of dry formula to her oatmeal she doesn't really like it when I do that but she's got to get it one way or another and if she isn't going to drink it than she has to eat it :-). We have done other things too to help boost their calories like adding butter to their cereal 3 x a day....that they love. They are doing awesome w/ their solids we have added a bunch of new foods including cherries, butternut squash, melons, berries and yogurt. We are on round 3 of our batch cooking of homemade baby food. The first round yielded 300 oz the second round 400 oz and the third round toppled over at 500+ oz of baby food resting as frozen cubes in our freezer and ready for consumption. It is a ton of work to make their food but I have fun doing it and once it is made and in the freezer we are good to go for about a month or so. Our efforts to address the weight gain issues has seemed to pay off so far the babies have each gained over 2lbs. in about 6 weeks much better they are averaging about .75 oz a day vs. the .30 oz they were averaging before.

Evan has 2 teeth now....the second one appeared this past weekend. Taryn is still working on number 1...I am not sure when we will see it. Sometimes I think in the next week or so and then other times I think she is going to be 10 before she cuts her first tooth....oh and I mean 10 years not 10 months LOL.

Evan is "crawling", well almost anyway...he is pretty close and seems to get a little better at it every day. Taryn has crawled backwards a few times and has pulled herself forward a few inches but is nowhere near as close as Evan is. She did start getting up on her hands and knees and rocking about 2 weeks ago....so maybe we will see her make some progress as well in the next couple of weeks. Evan also started pulling himself to a standing position while holding on to me. I am not getting to the point where I realize I cant turn my back for a second because they reach for everything...and w/ their abilities to be mobile and pull up on things increasing every day who know what could come tumbling down. I guess that means it is time to child proof the house. With 2 of them and 1 of me you know they are already figuring out how they can play tricks on me.

Speaking of playing...they are playing so good these days and they are actually starting to play w/ each other...well I don't know if you can call it playing but they are really good at stealing toys from each other...so I guess that begins early :-).

Well I think that wraps up where everyone is right now. They are just awesome, wonderful, loving babies who are growing up so fast and amaze us each and every day :-)

And We Are on the MOVE

Just incase this doesnt work...I am trying to post a video of E-man's attempts at crawling...he is doing good...gets a little better everyday. Right now I think it is more of a lack of motivation than ability...it is easier for him to cry for momma than to do the work himself :-).

Breaking News................

.....and I say it again....we have BREAKING NEWS....we have a tooth....I repeat we have a tooth....oh and it belongs to Evan. FINALLY after 3 long months of teething one of those suckers finally decided to break through and I don't even want to think about how many more we have to go through x 2....but at least we have the first one :-)

TWumpkins '09

While we don't "celebrate" Halloween, we do pile up the pass-out candy and keep in the tradition of carving a pumpkin. The cool thing about this year was that it would be Evan and Taryn's first pumpkin! While we can't wait for the day when they are old enough to walk through the pumpkin patch under their own power and pick out THEIR pumpkin, we wouldn't let this first opportunity go by to get the tradition for them started. So after a trip to the local pumpkin "yard", we found a petite-medium and a chiseled-tall that we claimed as ours and brought home. Evan claimed the tall pumpkin, and decided on a "Boo" theme for his carving (which included a ghost that he named Nave...his name spelled backwards!). Taryn defaulted to the petite pumpkin, and wanted a "bat" (which she nicknamed Herby) theme for hers. After settling on their designs, I got to work. Between the sketching, carving, and detailing, it took about four hours to do both pumpkins. As is standard with every pumpkin we do, there's a design on the front and name on the back. Overall, I thought the pumpkins turned out great...and so did Evan and Taryn...they were each thrilled with their very first pumpkin! And as an added bonus, we got tons of pumpkin seeds, which Gena baked up in Spicy and Halloween flavors...totally yummy!
Well, there's no way we'd let all this fun go by without capturing some of the moments on film. So Evan and Taryn dressed up in onesies that their GMaw and GPaw in Helotes sent to them. Here's a few bookmarks of the fun time with pumpkins '09.



















Evan and Taryn with Herby (left) and Nave (right)



(Casper (Evan) holding hands with his "Friendly Ghost" (Taryn) :-) )

During his photo shoot, Evan was asked by a local news reporter what he thought of Avacados...to which he signaled:

Two E's for Two T's

Last weekend was an adventure-filled milestone for Evan and Taryn; with mom and dad both working the guard weekend for the first time, it marked the first time that TWANGELcare was needed. Having done an "orientation" of sorts with their care-team a week prior, we had as much of a comfort level that any first time parents could have when they have to leave their children under the care of someone else for the first time...which, yes, was VERY nerve-wracking :-) But they say that care, whether it be of the home or day variety, is harder on you than it is on your children...really, it's just an opinion because in our minds we want to be there for every second of every day!

All that being said, we were set up for Team Emily to watch Evan and Taryn. The Emily's are juniors at Warner Robins High School; I (Chad) work with one of their dads on the base and that's how we initially got things going. The two of them are extremely sweet and reassuringly responsible. They did great during their first trial visit, and Evan and Taryn had no problems taking all the extra holding, hugs, kisses, and attention that came with them being here.

Day 1 was Saturday, and the girls arrived early in the morning (7am)...that says a lot for two teenagers who are willing to get up at 6:15am on the weekend. Gena and I left the house while E-man and SweetPea were still sleeping; having left a list/schedule for the Emily's, we promised we were just a phone call away and to call if they needed anything. The first morning went great...Evan and Taryn ate well and played well...and minimally napped. Gena stopped by the house around lunch time for a bit, as we planned to bring some pizza to the girls for lunch. She arrived to find Evan and Taryn happy and recieving a great deal of attention from Team E.
It's kind of a double-edged/Catch-22/Good&bad scenario...you want Evan and Taryn to cry their heads off because they miss you and do the same when they see you come home because it makes you feel extra special and important to them....all the while wanting them to do great in the absence of the both of us because it means that they are getting good care and that they can rely on each other to make things good until mom and dad get back. So their lack of over-elation when Gena got back to the house was an admittable downer...but also reassuring in the necessary context...as if to say "we're good MOM...we love you and will keep playing until you and daddy are done working for the day."

Day 1 ended at about 3pm, and the rest of the evening was back to the 4 Tutts. Day 2 was a shorter of a day, being from 7:30am to 12:30pm. Once again, Evan and Taryn did great with the Emily's.

Overall, it was a good experience. Most of our apprehensions and fears were put at ease (don't know that you can ever get by ALL of those)...we both appreciated and felt extremely good about the care the Emily's were providing to Evan and Taryn. It's cute to see that they each have "their" baby...while it makes it easy for scheduling and duties, it's fun to watch them with their "favorites" and tales of "mine finished their food first!" Taryn still analyzes everthing for her Emily...and Evan flirts with his Emily every chance he gets...and he LOVES her long hair (we've "warned" her about his grabbing prowess and grip strength :-) ) We think we've got a good thing going here with the Emily's and are glad to have that in place for when we need it.
This time, it was a milestone both for Evan and Taryn and the two of us....and we made it without too much worry/stress :-). We found it extra comforting to see how much love our babies were getting in our absence and really that is all that matters.