Eye doctor appointments....

We took the girls to see Dr. Roberts at Midwest eye institute this morning for a follow up.  Unfortunately, since Dr. Roberts is a pediatric specialist he only sees infants one day a week, on Tuesdays and way TOO EARLY .  Dr. Roberts has been the girl's opthamologist since they were in the NICU.   He is a great guy and while the girls hate their eye exams, he is super great with them.  More on their appointment later in this post...

The girls were not happy about being woke up early this morning for their appointment.  Needless to say, Mom & Dad were also not happy about having to get up early.  The day began with me getting Alexis out of her crib.  Normally we leave a light on downstairs all night.  For some reason there were no lights on downstairs this morning?  This is still a mystery???  Due to daylight savings time, it was still dark when I brought Alexis downstairs at 6:00a.m. this morning.  I was walking through the living room to turn on the lamp so it wouldn't be as bright for Alexis since she was still waking up.  And then BAM!!!  I tripped over some random pink toy that was left in the middle of our living room floor and fell smack down onto my knees.  I now have a nice HUGE bruise already on my leg and a massive carpet burn on my entire left leg from my ankle to my knee.  The good news is that I managed to hang on to Alexis and not drop her.  I can deal with the skinned up leg as long as Lex is ok!! 

So the moral of the story is....PICK UP YOUR TOYS!!!   I spent many years listening to my parents tell me to pick up my toys and put them away.  I always thought this was stupid since I was going to be playing with them again tomorrow.  I now understand why this is important!  I have a feeling that I'm going to be reiterating more than one thing my parents said to me that I previously thought was stupid!!

The girl's appointments went very well this morning.  Luckily the doctor did not have to pry their eyes open like he did at their previous check ups.  I don't know if you have ever seen a preemie eye exam but it seems rather inhumane to me!  The doctor takes what resembles a binder clip and uses it to pry open their eye lids.  The girls scream their heads off for the following 15 minutes.  Since the girls are now bigger and more responsive Terry held them in the exam chair while the doctor shined the light into their eyes and made them follow the light on the wall.  They both did great and we ALL were excited that the "binder clip" exams are a thing of the past.  Unfortunately, they did still have to have their eyes dilated, but this way was much easier for everyone involved.  Dr. Roberts said that both girls eyes look great.  Alexis has to go back in 6 months just to follow up on a minor issue with some occasional crossing of her right eye.  He doesn't seem concerned about it at this time.  Addison got an A+ for her visit today and doesn't have to go back for one year. 

I will try post pictures soon that we took of the girls sitting in the big exam chair at their appointment today.

Halloween Pictures FINALLY!!

Halloween is a special time around our place, at least it is for me.  Last year on Halloween is when we found out for sure that I was pregnant.  So we decided that we needed to celebrate by dressing up our two little blessings.  Obviously this was more for my enjoyment than theirs but it was still fun regardless!!

As I mentioned before the girls have several different Halloween outfits.  Of course, I had to take pictures of them all.  Here are two pictures of the girls in their Halloween jammies & their Halloween bibs.

Above is Alexis. Who is paying more attention to her father, than to me.

Above is Addison.  She just wants this picture stuff to be over so she can have some food.  But how can you not love those sweet little lips?

The girls have been loving their Halloween pj's.  Here are just a couple of random pictures of their pj's.

Above is Addison.  We are seriously working on some teeth at our house.  It's getting harder and harder to get pictures without their hands in their mouths.

Above is Alexis.  Don't you just wanna squeeze those little cheeks?

The next few pictures require a little explanation....The back side of the Halloween jammies have a little pumpkin face on it.  Whenever the girls wear these particular jammies, Alexis is always fascinated by the pumpkin face on Addison's bottom.  I'm not quite sure what she thinks she is going to accomplish, but she always tries to attack the pumpkin on Addison.

Above:  My little punkin butts!  Alexis on left beginning to eye ball the pumpkin tushie on Addison (right)

Yep, she found the pumpkin.

This is the point where Alexis started attacking Addison's pumpkin tushie and we had to seperate them.  Addison was trying to figure out what the heck was going on.

Above:  The girls playing nicely.

Ok, here are the pictures that I know you have been waiting for.....the costumes.  Addison was totally into her halloween costume.  I'm pretty sure that she was only interested because her costume was sparkly.  Alexis wasn't enjoying being dressed up as much.  My pictures did not turn out great but here you go:

The above two pictures are of my beautiful butterfly Addison.  She was so mellow about everything and was just chillin' in her costume.  Isn't she a doll?

The above picture is my super cute caterpillar, Alexis.  This is the only decent picture I could get of her.  She was squirming around and wouldn't pose for me.  Regardless, she still looks cute.

The above two pictures are obviously the girls together.  Sadly these were the best pictures I could get.  It's difficult to get both of them to look at me at the same time. 

Birthday party & meeting the cousins!

Last weekend, our Nephew Oliver celebrated his birthday.  The girls got dressed up in their party clothes to celebrate with the family. 

Above is Oliver, who would NOT smile for anything!

Due to some previous illnesses, This was also the first time that they had met their cousins Greta & Amelia.  Greta & Amelia are Terry's sister's (Gretchen) twins that are three.  The twins were excited to meet Addison & Alexis.  They will make great Mommy's some day.  They were very helpful with the girls.

Above is Cousin Amelia and Alexis

Above is Amelia & Addison.

Above is Amelia (orange shirt), Greta (purple shirt) and Addison.

Ga Ga & Pop Pop (aka Terry's parents) are always a big help to us with the girls.  Addison loves her Pop and always listens to him so intently.  Alexis seems to favor Ga Ga more.  See below pics.

Above is Pop Pop (Greg) with Addison

Above is Ga Ga (Linda) with Alexis.  I just love the look on Alexis's face for some reason.

Ga Ga & Pop with the girls.  Addison in pink, Alexis in Green.

Both of are girls are now officially baby food eaters!  Last Saturday we started the girls with some green beans.  Neither girl really minded them, which is great!  They both made a strange face with the first couple of bites, but then they went to town.  They are now eating like this...

8:00AM---6 oz bottle

12:00PM---lunch  green beans and 6 oz bottle

4:00PM---6 oz bottle

8:00PM---rice cereal and a 6 oz bottle

This Saturday we will try the girls with some peas.  Our pediatrician advised that we keep them on the same vegetable for a week before introducing anything new.  This way we can make sure that their tummys can handle the food as well as that their are not allergy issues.  Below is a picture of Alexis with her green bean face.  For some reason I can never capture Addison with a messy face.  She is such a great eater. She's so delicate about eating and doesn't usually get that messy.

STAY TUNED IN THE NEXT FOLLOWING DAYS FOR THE BIG REVEAL OF THE GIRLS HALLOWEEN COSTUMES!  I HOPE TO POST PICTURES TOMORROW BUT I CAN'T GUARANTEE THAT WILL ACTUALLY HAPPEN!!

PLAY TIME!!

Terry and I are extremely grateful to everyone who continues to help us out.  To all of you who still bring over the occasional meal, or those who stop by and happen to have a package of diapers we can never thank you enough!!  Or those neighbors who pop over for 10 minutes to help us through bath time we will never be able to fully repay you.  We are also very grateful for Aunt Gretchen (Terry's sister) and Uncle Adam who also happen to have twin girls.  They continue to feed us all of their girls things when they are through with them.  Today's pictures happen to be our girls playing on the play mat given to us by Aunt Gretchen.  The girls really enjoy the bright colors and Addison really loves the different textures of the letters.  Addison loves to touch and feel everything.  Here are a few pictures:

Above:  Can you tell which munchkin this is??

Above:  HMM? Who is this picture of?  We had to get creative because the mat only has on "D".  We used the "U" and the "1" to create the second "D".

Above:  Addison in the brown flowered onesie, determined to pull out the letter "U".  And Alexis in the orange onesie.

Above:  Miss Addison, Is her hair going to be blond or red?  We don't know??  But I still love those little pouty lips!  You can't help but want to sqeeze her!!

Above:  Miss Alexis determined not to look directly at the camera.  She has the chubbiest little cheeks.  I just want to kiss them all the time!  She loves it when you kiss her and make loud kissing noises while doing it.  She definitely is just like her father, through and through!!!

Pumpkin Patch & A Ton of Pictures AGAIN....

We've been wanting to take the girls to the local pumpkin patch to get some fall pictures.  Due to the crazy mid-west weather, it has been too cold to take them out.  Yesterday we were blessed with a beautiful fall day with almost 70 degree temperatures.  We decided to put the girls in one of their many Halloween outfits and take them out for some pictures.  Both girls really couldn't have cared less about the pumpkins.  I think they were just happy to be out in the fresh air. 

Below is my favorite picture:  (Alexis left & Addison right)

All of the following pictures below are Addison.  I couldn't decide which picture I liked best so I decided to post them all.  Addison was once again more interested in chewing on her fingers than posing for pictures.  She kept leaning to one side or the other because she wouldn't take her hands out of her mouth for just a few seconds to snap a pic!  Silly girl!!!

All of the below pictures are of Alexis.  She did a little better sitting up for the pictures. 

I couldn't get a great picture of both of the girls together, which I was kind of bummed about, but here they are anyway.  Addison on the left & Alexis on the right.

Long Blog with Picture OVERLOAD!!!

It seems like we have been really busy with the girls lately, but honestly we haven't really done much.  I think the fact that the girls are more awake and active during the day makes it seem like we have more going on than we really do.  Both girls are VERY active!!  Both girls have been rolling over from belly to back for awhile now, but on Saturday, October 17th out of the blue, Alexis rolled from back to belly.  She just did it and looked up at both Terry and I like she couldn't believe it, but she was so proud of herself.  Addison gets so frustrated watching her sister do things.  She has been so adamant to flip as well.  She's been trying so hard and then yesterday while lying on the exam table at the pediatrician's office she flipped as well... Right in front of the doctor!!  Our pediatrician was very impressed that both girls are doing things based on their actually age.  She expected them to be progressing more in line with their adjusted age of 3 months.

Both girls are getting big.  Alexis is weighing in at 11 pounds 7 ounces and is 23 1/4 inches long.  Addison is weighing in at 10 pounds 6 ounces and is also 23 1/4 inches long.  The doctor keeps telling us that the girls are going to be very tall.  All & all they had a great visit and the pediatrician is VERY happy with their progress, as are we!!

See some of the below pictures from our appointment yesterday.

Waiting for the doctor to come in.  Alexis (right) had fallen asleep in the 5 minute car ride to the office and Addison was so mesmerized by her duck that she wouldn't look at me to take the picture.

At first they were waiting patiently......

(Addison left, Alexis right)

(Above) The girls were waiting for Nurse Michelle to come in and get their height and weights.  I thought that this was cute at first that they were holding hands but then I realized what was actually going on....

Alexis was trying to get Addison's hand so that she could chew on her fingers.  I guess chewing on

her own fingers is not enough.  She wants to chew on her sisters as well!!

And then the hair pulling started. Addison decided that she was going to try and get a hold of Alexis's hair.  There isn't quite enough there to get a hold of yet, but that didn't stop her from trying!

So we finally had to separate them to mediate the fighting.  Addison is pleased with herself that she is the one who got to stay on the table and Daddy had to take Alexis.

 Daddy holding Lex after she saw the doctor.  She has no idea that the nurse is about to come in and give her shots. 

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So, to be fair I did warn you in the title of this posting that there would be a lot of pictures.  So here are some recent pictures of bath time.  Bath time is always a challenge around our house.  We've tried several different options but we are still trying to figure out that perfect system still.  We have been bathing the girls on different nights, which has been working well.  The girls know that after they get a bath that they get their bottles.  Neither one of them is very excited to wait for their bottle while their sister is getting a bath so bathing them on different nights seems to work best.

Above is Alexis the Froggy.  She's not happy about posing for this picture.  As I mentioned before, she wants her bottle, and is not happy that her feeding is being delayed by the taking of pictures.

Above is Addison the bunny.  I'm pretty sure that Addison wasn't enjoying having her picture taken as well.  I think she just wanted her pj's on.  She loves her jammies and loves to cuddle after her night time bottle.

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Both girls loved their piggy back rides from their Daddy this weekend.  I think they would actually technically be considered "shoulder rides" but regardless the girls loved it. 

Alexis was all smiles (below) during her ride.

Addison wasn't quite sure what to make of her ride at first.  In the beginning she was making funny faces (see below top picture) but then she just started playing with Terry's hat instead.  She thinks it's hilarious to reach for his hat.  Terry plays this little game with her that makes her think she is knocking his hat off his head.  She laughs hysterically when she thinks that she has actually knocked his hat off.  It's too cute.

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A posting wouldn't be complete without pictures of Daddy with his girls.

Below is Terry and Addison hanging out watching some kind of sporting event.  I'm guessing it was the baseball playoffs, but it may have been football?  Note the drool all over the girls faces in a lot of these pictures!  They are seriously working on some teeth!

Alexis has become fascinated with watching Wheel of Fortune.  It's pretty funny to watch her become mesmerized while watching the wheel spin.  One evening she was laying on her blanket in the living room and the show came on.  She just layed there staring at the tv.  Terry loves Wheel of Fortune too!  Below is a picture of Terry and Alexis hanging out on the couch watching "Wheel".

And the last picture, I can't help but post.  I think it's adorable, but I know Terry is going to kill me for posting it.  This weekend after I finished washing bottles I return to the living room to find Alexis asleep in her swing (not the one you can see in the picture) and Terry and Addison asleep on the floor.  So cute!!