THREE Firecrackers on the 4th of July

We had many outfits to show-off for the 4th of July. I took pictures over the weekend of the many red, white and blue ensembles, but there were others in addition to these....lets just say that our girls are not lacking clothes, thank you Nannie and Gigi mainly! Grandma Barb also bought Campbell an adorable 4th of July dress this year. We had a great weekend with family and friends...Saturday we went to a pool party with friends in the afternoon followed by church and Kinkaid's Hamburgers for dinner. Sunday we went to church AGAIN, lunch at Red Brick Pizza and then poolside at Matt's Aunt Jody's house with lots of family. We then walked to the Bedford Boys Ranch for the awesome show that Bedford puts on year after year.

Ready for church on Sunday

Excited to see Toy Story 3....of course Woody gets to go along with us!

Ready to go swim at Aunt Jody's house before the fireworks!

Hanging out at Aunt Jody's house with the family

Ready to hit the pool!

Ready to go see some fireworks!

Cooper and Conley very excited and anxious to see the fireworks!!

Sweet Campbell watching the fireworks as we walk back to the car. She was such a good sport even though we had to leave early since sisters were sick.

We had a great day, and Cooper and Conley slept perfectly in their strollers while we waited for the 10:00 firework show to start. Right at 10:00, both girls wake up coughing. Conley throws up all over, so we decide to head back. Campbell was such a trooper. She didn't throw a fit when we had to leave, but she did enjoy still watching the show with Daddy while we walked away. Luckily we could see most of it all the way back to our car. On our way back to the car, Cooper threw up and Conley threw up a second time. Once in the car, Cooper threw up again. It was a messy end to our weekend. Poor babies! They slept in their swings in our room that night, because we were so afraid of them throwing up and choking. They both just had an awful cough that they kept getting choked up on. They slept great all night, no coughs. Then they woke up Monday coughing again. I took them to their pediatrician first thing Monday morning. Cooper threw up as I pulled into the parking lot. It turns out they both have bronchitis - ugh! Poor things! The craziest part is that it turned into bronchitis so fast, because they didn't really have any cold symptoms before Sunday. Oh well! Now they are just snotty messes as this is hopefully clearing up.

Really, we had a great weekend, and even though C&C are sick, they still stay their smiley selves. Monday we went with friends to see Toy Story 3 with Campbell. She loved it! She even took her Woody doll to see the movie with us. Nama and Papa were sweet to keep 2 sick babies while we snuck away to the movie. Then Tuesday it was back to work! We enjoyed our 3-day 4th of July weekend with our girls!

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!!!