Happy 9 Months C&C!

Well, this is a little late, but Cooper and Conley turned 9 months old last week! They are such sweet babies with the prettiest smiles! We have so enjoyed the last 9 months with them!!

Since Cooper is the oldest (by 17 minutes), I'll let her go first. At 9-months old, Cooper is now getting around wherever she wants to go pretty much! She (just like her twin) "army crawls" at the moment. She can move pretty quickly that way. She just pulls herself with her arms and pushes with her toes, but she never gets up on her knees. She has just recently gotten up on her knees to go from her tummy to sitting up on her own though, so it's only a matter of time before she figures out how to crawl on her knees probably. It really is probably easiest though to slide on her tummy on our tile and wood downstairs. She now has her bottom two teeth coming in where we can see them. She is usually pretty serious when she first meets new unfamiliar faces, but once she warms up, Cooper gives such a pretty smile with her big blue eyes. She is usually very content to sit in the floor and play with toys for quite a while. Although we used to joke that she is high maintenance, she seems to have gotten more laid back in recent months. Her hair is perfectly long enough to sport a pretty decent mohawk after bath time. It's pretty darn cute! I should take some mohawk pictures!! Cooper has also recently started to babble. She says it in her sweet and soft voice.....da da da da. I'll have to catch her on video soon! She weighed in at 15 lbs 4 oz this week, putting her in the 5th percentile for weight for her age. This surprises people, because they think Cooper and Conley look pretty big for twins. They are still pretty small for their age although their chubby cheeks can be deceiving!

Conley was the first one to "crawl" by a couple of weeks, so she is the more experienced and faster of the two army crawlers in our house. She seems to have no desire to attempt to get up on her knees at the moment, so she is still not able to sit up on her own from a laying down position. She also has her bottom two teeth. Conley's teeth came in just a couple days after Cooper's first tooth. Just like Cooper, she can be somewhat serious when she first meets a new face, but she quickly turns into her smiley self! She too has such pretty blue eyes and the cutest dimples! I've always thought Conley's eyes sparkle when she smiles. Although she is still a pretty laid back baby, I think she has become more high maintenance in recent months. Conley seems to want to be held more often than Cooper lately. She'll crawl up to your feet and reach up your leg for you to pick her up. Sometimes she'll start to cry as you go to set her down if she would prefer to be held. All in all though, she is still a very good baby and very easy going. Her hair is just slightly shorter than Cooper's, so her mohawk doesn't last as long usually. Conley is not doing much babbling, but she loves to perform her tricks. You'll catch her looking at you and clapping her hands hoping for you to praise her. Usually I'll start clapping and say "Yea Conley!!!" and then she smiles so big! She'll also move her hand over her mouth while making sounds like we have shown her to do. I need to get this on video too! Man, I have a lot to video this week!! I better get to it! She weighed in at 15 lbs 11 oz, still half a pound heavier than Cooper. The funny thing is that when I tell people that "she" is 1/2 pound heavier, they usually reply, "Cooper is, right?" I think it's funny that people think Cooper looks bigger. You can't tell too much until you pick one up right after the other.

They both seem to be doing great developmentally! They have been about one month behind where Campbell was all along...rolling over, sitting up on their own, and crawling. Campbell even started off army crawling. So, I think that they are right on track given that they were born 4 weeks earlier than Campbell. They are just now wearing most 6 month clothes, so they are still behind on some of their summer clothes!! We've got lots of outfits to get through and grow into by the end of the summer! They have been eating 3 meals a day of baby food since they turned 6 months. They are great eaters! They are eating Level 2 Gerber baby foods. They eat 3 tubs between the 2 of them for each meal, one green veggie, one yellow/orange veggie and one fruit. So far, they seem to like all foods just fine. They really enjoy Puffs and Mum Mums right now too. I think they enjoy them because they can play with them and get to feed themselves. I find that this is an excellent activity to keep them happy and busy while I'm in the kitchen....as long as I'm in the mood to clean up their mess when they are done, because they sure do make a mess!!! They are pretty good sleepers, but we still keep their swings in their room in case we have a hard time getting one back to sleep. It's been nice that they are still so small, because we've been able to use their swings still. I think in the next 3 months we'll probably starting phasing out some of the baby gear. We've already stopped using the high chairs since they take up so much room and get to be such a mess to clean. We now just use booster chairs that snap onto our kitchen table chairs. We are going to stop putting them into their bouncy seats for bottles, because they try to reach things on the ground and then get themselves in a sticky situation of hanging off the seat sideways where they can't sit back up. I think that's probably a sign that they are done with the bouncers! They still haven't started pulling themselves up to stand yet, so we still have their pretty mobiles in their cribs, although I think that's probably right around the corner for us. They have started taking "big girl baths" without the baby tubs. They really enjoy this, because they can both be in the bath together and they can play with all the toys too. We have also introduced them to floaties in the pool, which Cooper loved right away. Conley wasn't so sure at first, but this past weekend she really did have fun.

Let the army crawling race begin!!

This was before Conley really started enjoying the water

Although Conley appears to be the "bully" in both of these pictures, they both actually grab each others bows any chance they get

Love bath time!

Overall, Cooper and Conley are doing great! We've had a great first 9 months with them!! Happy 9-month birthday girls!!! We love you soooooooooooooo much!!!

Trip to Glen Rose

We took our first trip as a family of 5 to Glen Rose Texas with a few families in our church Home Team. Granted, it was only 2 hours away, but it was a trip nonetheless. We wanted to make things as easy on ourselves as possible, so we insisted on bringing all of our "baby gear" with us. Our car was packed to the brim! I should have taken a picture actually. We took both baby swings, pack n play, inflatable baby pool, double stroller, Bumbo seats, ice chest and probably 8 bags. I swear we fit so much stuff in our car! It was hilarious! We stayed at this adorable ranch just outside of Glen Rose called Hideaway Ranch. We shared a cabin with our friends Brooke and DeWayne and their little boy Jackson that just turned one. Friday we all met up at our place for dinner. DeWayne smoked a beef tenderloin for dinner that was FABULOUS! Saturday morning, after breakfast tacos, we went with Chris and Carly and their twins Charis and Price to a drive-thru animal park called Fossil Rim. Campbell absolutely loved it, because they allowed her to sit in the front seat with us. The twins slept most of the way through the 2 hour car ride, and Campbell switched between me and Matt to feed the animals out the window. It was really cool! We then met up with everyone else at a park where you can view dinosaur tracks for lunch. That afternoon we hit the "water hole", and above ground pool that was conveniently right in front of our cabin. Then we had another dinner with everyone at our place. Matt went with Campbell and two other families on a hayride right there at the ranch. It was a great weekend! Here are some pictures of the great time that we had!

Campbell making herself at home

Cooper embracing the cowboy hat

Silly sisters

Campbell helping Daddy drive at Fossil Rim

Sweet Campbell with Mommy at Fossil Rim

Feeding "Comet" and "Cupid"

Daddy's new friend

The giraffe eating food from the Andrews' sunroof

A zebra a little too close for comfort to Mommy

Campbell trying to be tall like the dinosaurs

Campbell, Charis and Price

Mommy, Daddy and Campbell leaving Fossil Rim

Cooper and Conley enjoying a messy lunch at the park

The gang on the hayride

Pretty girls!

OK, so I'm not doing very good on my weekly updates already and I just started back!!! I'm so sorry! I do want to be better!!! Somehow, I have got to make the time for my blog each week!

Well, over Memorial Day weekend, I took the girls to get their pictures made Friday afternoon(total last minute decision that morning). I barely made it there on time running around like a chicken with my head cut-off since Matt was gone, and then after an hour at Portrait Innovations with VERY LITTLE COOPEARTION from #1, #2 and #3, I left without buying a single picture! It was so defeating! I felt like I would probably be better off to never attempt professional pictures again if this is how it would be! For those of you that done know, when we are speaking in code (usually around Campbell) we refer to the girls as #1, #2 and #3 ... Campbell being #1, Cooper #2 and Conley #3 - no favortism here people, simply the order they were born! #1 was actually very cooperative for her individual shots, but then decided she was not going to be a part of any pictures with her sisters - so sweet. Sadly, none of Campbell's individual shots turned out that cute anyways. #2 cried the entire time, but bless her heart she ended up to have a fever. Seriously, she has a terrible mommy that insisted on dragging her to get her pictures taken when she didn't feel good! #3 was just as content as could be but absolutely insisted on giving the serious stare down to the photographer with no hint of a smile. It was so frustrating! Conley and Cooper both have the biggest smiles usually, and this was just not going to happen that day. I must say that our photographer was as sweet as she could be. She agreed that we did not have enough luck that day and suggested I just come back another time. She didn't make me feel bad at all about leaving having purchased NOTHING. Ugh! I still can't believe that day. I rescheduled to come back Sunday of that same weekend...I'm a brave and determined woman, let me tell ya!

Sunday was off to a better day, so I was very hopeful that we would have more luck. Matt was with me this time, so I was extra hopeful that the girls would cooperate as he doesn't have the same patience and determination as me to get good pictures! Don't get me wrong, the man has a lot of patience to even make the trip with his picture-crazed wife and THREE little girls, but he would certainly throw in the towel and give up much earlier than I would when it comes to a photo shoot! Although #2 and #3 were not nearly as smiley as we are used to seeing them, we still got some very precious pictures! I'd call our second attempt a success! Here you can see for yourself:

These are not the BEST pictures we've ever gotten of the three of them, but we were still very happy with them. It is so hard to get all three girls to put on their best smiles at the same time while sitting appropriately and looking at the camera - whew, I'm just tired thinking about it!!! Campbell has the hardest time trying to process all the many instructions (tilt your head, smile bigger, look at the camera, keep your hands down...), so usually she ends up looking elsewhere.

I love this one of the twins! They are so stinkin' cute if I do say so! It's hard to get a picture of them before they spot each others bows, because then they start ripping headbands off each other. It's so funny!

We got the best one of Cooper laying on her belly. We were lucky to get a shot of her without too much drool - my goodness the girl was drooly that day! She finally cut her first tooth this past weekend.

We got the best one of Conley sitting up. She would NOT give us her normal smile with her cute dimples, but she was still was very sweet and cooperative.

Campbell was very cooperative! This was probably the best picture that was the most natural pose and smile.

I do love this picture of Campbell too - gotta love her laugh!

These close-up profiles are my favorites!! They are so precious of all three girls! I especially love Conley's sassy pose! Campbell looks so genuinely happy and you can see her cute "frinkle" on her nose. This one shows off Cooper's pretty blue eyes so much too!

There's Conley's precious dimples finally!!!

Cooper cut her first tooth this weekend, but you still can't hardly see it. Conley is army crawling ALL over the place!!! Campbell is bravely getting right back to where she left off with swimming last year. The summer is off to a great start!

This past weekend we took a trip to Glen Rose with our Home Team. It was so fun! I will post pictures soon!!!

I'm back!!!!

OK, so I'm sure everyone has given up on my blog by now! This is by far the longest I've been out of commission....6 months!!! Sadly to say, Facebook has become my new "blog". I do miss blogging and checking on all my friends' blogs, so I'm ready to come back to the REAL blogging world! The longer it's been since the last time I blogged, the more overwhelming it feels to catch up. Well, here goes...

Our precious twins, Cooper and Conley, are now 7 months old!!! They are doing GREAT!! They have just recently started sitting up on their own and they have been rolling all over the place for months now. They are not crawling just yet, but we are in NO hurry for them to be mobile!! Here is a recap of their first 7 months...

Cooper has been given the cute nickname (by Mommy) Cooper-loops. I have no idea where it comes from, but I just started saying it one day and now I call her that all the time. I think it's really cute, and I think she likes it just fine :-) ! She has earned the reputation of being the "high maintenance" one. Cooper-loops just needs a little bit of extra attention than Conley Kate. Cooper is definitely the louder of the two. She squeals and screams even when she is not upset. She definitely wants to be held more often and does NOT like to go to sleep in her crib at night. We joke that she is going to make sister fat, because she seems to be the one that jumps the gun wanting to eat a little bit early, so we'll make their food or bottles, but then Conley eats all of hers while Cooper doesn't always finish. You see, the rule with twins at our house is that they both eat at the same time...ALWAYS! It makes our lives easier that way! Although we joke that she is high-maintenance, she is a very happy baby! She lights up when you look at her and talk to her, and she coos right back at you. She is very smiley. She loves to be held and has a precious giggle when you tickle her. She seemed to be the "first" to do things starting off...she rolled over first and she started her baby coos first, both between 3 and 4 months old. However, as soon as Cooper would do something, Conley would be doing it just days later. They really have stayed about the same developmentally.

Conley doesn't have as creative of a nickname, but I seem to always call her Conley Kate. It just flows well. Conley is the laid back one. She is just such a sweet, content (most of the time), happy girl. Now, don't get me wrong, Conley has her moments where she needs attention as well, but between her and Cooper, she usually is more laid back. Conley doesn't squeal and scream nearly as much, she has more of a growl sound that she makes when she "talks". Usually we can tell from their sounds which one is which on the baby monitor. Her most recent new "trick" is to stick out her tongue and blow a spitting sound. She does it when she is very happy and excited. It's pretty cute....except when it's time to eat! Conley goes to bed so easily. She may cry when you first put her in her crib, but usually she can just play until she is tired and then falls asleep just fine on her own. Cooper fights it quite a bit more. Conley has recently started sleeping flat on her face. It scared us at first, but she positions her face so she can still breathe and that just seems to be how she likes to sleep. She is on her tummy, face-down most mornings. Conley has the cutest dimples. Her eyes sparkle when she smiles. Such a pretty girl!

Conley's eye looks amazingly better! We have been so happy to see her response with the medicine that she is on. Her hemangiomas have lightened and cleared up so much! The one on her head is about the same area still, but it's much flatter and softer, MUCH lighter in color and it's cleared up a LOT in the middle of it. It seems to be clearing up from the inside out. The hemangioma on her eye has shrunk quite a bit. It's very soft now and almost completely flat and MUCH lighter in color. She has been able to open her eye completely since starting on her medicine. She has never needed a patch or any assistance with her vision. I guess hemangiomas grow up to a baby's first 12 months, so I can't imagine what it would have looked like on her eye had she not been on the medicine. It was so aggressive with the growth that it made just in her first 3 weeks of life. We are so thankful for Dr. Hunt and his successful experiment of this treatment for hemangiomas in infants! We are keeping her on it until she is 12 months, but we will no longer increase the dosage with her weight. It will be a natural way to wean her off of it.

They both lost most of their hair in the first few months. They started off with quite a bit more than they have now. It's growing back on top already, but the back of their heads are very bald. Their hair looks much darker than Campbell's so I'm guessing they'll be brunettes. Their eyes are still VERY blue just like Campbell's! We can't believe that we have 3 blue-eyed girls! Matt and I both have brown eyes. Conley is about half a pound heavier than Cooper. At 6 months Conley was about 13 lbs 6 oz and Cooper was around 12 lbs 14 oz. I'm guessing they are around 14+ lbs by now. They are barely in the 5th percentile for their age, so they are still on the small side...although their chubby cheeks and thighs can be misleading! They both ended up with RSV around 3 months old, so we made a trip to the ER at Cook Children's in Fort Worth, but we were just sent home with breathing treatments to do. They were over it in about a week. Besides that, they have been very healthy. They are so fun to watch when we put them on the floor to play. They grab toys from each other or grab the other one's bow or headband. They roll around and end up kicking each other in the head. When we put one in her high chair, she'll lean forward and look over at the other high chair to see if sister is there and see what she is doing. It's so cute! I can tell that twins are going to be a lot of fun to watch them grow up together!

Campbell Kay has been a wonderful big sister!! She has always been SO sweet to Cooper and Conley! Although she has her jealous moments, she has never acted out towards them really. She is always proud to show them off to her friends and often calls them "my babies". If we ask Cooper or Conley a question like, "Well, are you already hungry?" Campbell will remind me, "Momma, my babies can't talk!" She is very helpful most of the time, but occasionally when I ask her to do something, she'll reply, "no, you can do it." I guess she doesn't always feel like helping! I can totally relate...LOL! She has been going to school on Tuesdays and Thursdays and has done great! Next year we are thinking about enrolling her at a different school that offers 3 days a week. This spring she also tried soccer for the first time. Although she was not exactly MVP, she had a lot of fun and really enjoyed it! She was definitely one of the youngest players and probably one of the least aggressive. She would always run up to the coach as soon as we'd get to practice or the game and make sure he knew she was there. "Coach Matt, Coach Matt, I'm here!!!" It was as if she thought he was waiting to start practice until she got there - too funny! He always got a kick out of her. I think we'll try again in the fall if she wants to. We're hoping to do swim lessons soon and then maybe try gymnastics this summer. She's finally taking after her Momma ... the girl is getting quite a few freckles on her face this year already! Well, as Campbell calls them, "frinkles". She is too cute with her "wild-woman" curly hair! It is crazy how curly her hair is. Everyone comments on it when they see her. It's precious right now, but I'm sure she'll hate it one day. We're hoping that it will get some weight on it soon, because we are NOT trying to set the record for the biggest fro on a 3-year-old. Oh my! Campbell surely keeps us laughing all the time with the funny things she says. She has quite the personality. We just love how fun she is!! I still call her "baby girl". I can't believe she will be 4 this year!!!

Let's see, what else is new??? We moved!! I tend to want to make our lives as crazy as possible, so we decided to move with 4 month old twins! We moved in with my parents for a few weeks while doing some remodel work at our new house. It was nuts and such a mess!! We are glad to be past most of the mess, but we still have a never-ending project list!

I came back to work at the beginning of January. I'm working a modified schedule that allows me to take Campbell to and from school with shorter work days twice a week, and a day to work from home every Friday. It's been nice, but I still end up to be very busy and often work from home at night to maintain my workload. I'm still learning to balance everything. My mom has been a lifesaver to us keeping the girls during the week. She has all three girls Mon and Wed and then just the twins on Tues and Thurs when Campbell is at school. Those are shorter days for her too since I get off early those days. Then Fridays she keeps just Campbell while my grandparents keep the twins. It gives my mom a day to do one-on-one stuff with Campbell and my grandparents really enjoy getting to know the twins better this way. We don't know what we would do without the help of our family!! We are so very blessed with supportive family!!!

Matt recently took on more responsibilities at his job with a promotion to Director in his IT department. He's doing really well at APH and seems to enjoy it a lot. He was able to hire a friend of his to work with him, who actually just started his first day today! I think they will really enjoy working together.

Matt and I have to laugh quite often about our crazy new lives with 3 kiddos. There are so many times that they are all screaming at once and it gets pretty overwhelming. We just handle it as best we can, and then we look back and laugh about it. What else can we do??? LOL! We both have had to step it up with responsibilities at home, so we don't keep up with many shows on DVR anymore. Our evenings are pretty full with dinner, baths, bottles and bedtime. We do love our girls and spending time with them in the evenings, but house projects have kept us very preoccupied. Now that our projects are slowing down, we hope to find a better balance of quality time during the week as a family.

All-in-all, we are doing great! Matt and I are trying to find an area to start volunteering at church again as we are adjusting to our new routine. We're ready to get back to our "pre-twin" activities again ... LOL! Honestly, we really have stayed very busy with our litter-in-tow just fine over 7 months. We pretty much have done all the same things we did before, now we just need a table for 5! I was eager to get back in shape after being on bed rest for so long, so I've run 2 half marathons (March and April) and a couple shorter races. It's been great stress relief, but the training takes a lot of time...time that I don't have! I'm going to take a break from the longer races, but I still hope to do a few every year. Matt and I are registered for a 6.4 mile Mud Run in November. That should be interesting!

OK, I think that gets us pretty much caught up! I guess I'm back on track now! Hopefully I'll keep up with at least weekly updates! Thanks for not giving up on me!!!

Good update for Conley!

Conley's MRI showed that the hemangioma on her head has no inter-cranial activity, which was great news! She did great during the MRI too! We fed her a bottle and then swaddled her up tight with her passy, and she stayed still the entire time. It lasted about 25 minutes, and was really loud. Matt and I were given earplugs so we could stay right by the machine to watch her. If she hadn't already had her hearing test, I would have been worried! She just kept sucking away on her pacifier. I think the constant noise was almost comforting to her. Granted, with Campbell around, the babies are used to constant noise! Also, she checked out fine at the cardiologist, so we were able to start her medicine this past Tuesday! We are excited to see the progress f the hemangioma reduction over the next couple weeks. Thank you for the continued prayers!

We also had a fun Halloween! Pictures to come!!!