Happy 1st Birthday my sweet baby girls!!!

Well, the day is over.  The girls are all in bed.  Hannah and Hailee are now my one year old twins.  I only cried three times today, which I think was ok.  Once this morning while reading a couple FB posts on my wall, once this afternoon because my poor girls are sick with colds and I didn't think they were having a good day, and once this evening while feeding Hannah her bed time bottle.  Even with all the snot, sneezing, and stuffiness we have going on around here, I think we managed to have a good day. 

These are the shirts H&H's twin friends let them borrow for their birthday. 
I was happy they had some birthday attire for the day! :)

It's my birthday and I'll cry if I want to!

I blew up some balloons that I had left from Ella's birthday.  The girls loved them!

I promise, they were having fun even if it doesn't look like it!

The girls and I played all day.  Then when daddy got home the real fun started :)  We went to an early dinner at Red Robin.  Hannah and Hailee each had their first french fry.  It was cute.  Hailee LOVED them! These photos were taken with my phone, hence the poor quality.

Hailee at dinner. 

Hannah at dinner.  I'm pretty sure she was spitting food at me in this photo.

After dinner, we got the girl's coats on them.  They both leaned back in their high chairs and would not sit straight up for anything.  Both of them were doing this (see below).  Sometimes the things that both of them do at the same time for no particular reason is kind of creepy.  I know they are twins and all, but sheesh!

Now here comes the best part of the evening.  I went yesterday and got 6 cupcakes from this local bakery.  Of the photos below, Hannah is on the left hand side and Hailee on the right. 

Ella had some fun too..and then was not happy when her cupcake was gone!

We are having a birthday party for Hannah and Hailee, it's just not for a couple weeks yet.  The theme is Double Bubble (like Dubble Bubble gum:) and I am really excited about it!  I cannot wait to watch them destroy their little smash cakes!  Yay for 1st birthday parties!  I LOVE baby and kid birthday parties...especially when it's for my own!!!

Baby Miracles

As my babies will turn one year old TOMORROW (how did that happen??), I have been reflecting back on when they were born and where we were a year ago.  I really don't think about our time in the hospital very much at all.  I don't like to think about it...ever.  It gets me too upset to go back and look at photos of the girls when they were first born.  I feel like I have really blocked out that couple months of our lives.  It is pretty hazy, which is probably a good thing.  If you just started following my blog and would like to see how far the girls have come, take a look at this page. 

I used to frequent The Bump Preemie Board before I had my babies.  I wanted to be as prepared for what my babies would look like and what they would go through as I could.  I honestly have not been on this board in maybe 8 months.  I would look for specific questions shortly after the girls came, but that too faded once they got older.  I took a look this morning and found this awesome post.  It's a  Then and Now post.  Take a look at this and you will be honestly amazed.  These babies are all such miracles!  I had goose bumps looking at all of these photos.  What amazing, precious, little gifts from God all of these babies are!

Here is a Then and Now photo of each of my girls:

Hailee at four days old.  Born at 30 weeks gestation, weighing 3lbs 10oz.

Hailee at one year old, weighing 21lbs.

Hannah at two days old.  Born at 30 weeks gestation, weighing 3lbs. 

Hannah at one year old, weighing 19lbs.

Hannah and Hailee <3

Swimsuit Preview!

I know summer is still pretty far away (sigh), but I love when the baby swimsuits come out for the year! We had a little swimsuit modeling session yesterday. It was fun!

A forced smile from Miss Ella.

Laughing at Chloe walking by..

Showing off her new teenie weenie bikini :)

My little girl is growing up SO fast!

I knew at this point that there would be no getting all three of them in a photo together..

Cute babies!

"Can I have your cool new hat sissy?"

If you can't tell, Hannah was yelling at me in this photo.

I bought the babies these cute new hats too.  Good thing they have a chin-strap because they would not keep them on!

Poor Hannah was not having the swimsuit thing at all!

Just a little girl talk..

Love their little tushies :)

See you this summer!!

It's looking like a no-nap-day around here!

As I sat down here five minutes ago now to blog, I really couldn't think of much to blog about. This is the first time I have taken a seat all day, just got my kiddos all down for their afternoon nap.  I sat for a couple more minutes, took a couple breaths, a bite of my pesto and veggie wrap I made myself for lunch, and a sip of water.  Then...the babbling started.  H&H are at it again.  Sleeping?  No. Sleeping is for the birds, right?  I waited a couple more minutes and in between the "da da da da, na na na nas", I hear a big "thud" then a door jingle.  Yep, you guessed it.  Ella heard the babes having their little convo and now she's up too, standing at her door, waiting for me to come get her so she can play too.  Afternoon naps are becoming non existent more and more lately and I am NOT ready for it.  I am not ready for H&H to only go to one nap a day and I am not ready for Ella to stop taking naps completely.  So now I ponder, like most other afternoons, should I go up and try to put them all back down again, or should I just sit here and hope they get the point that I am not coming up to rescue them?

I have one hilarious comic-type photo that I have to share.  If you have ever co-slept with your baby, you too will get a kick out of this.  I co-slept with Ella more than I like to admit.  When you are exclusively breastfeeding how do you not co-sleep every once and a while?  The only time Paul and I co-slept with the twins is when we would each take one at about 5:30am just to try and get in another hour of sleep.  Co-sleeping with twins is impossible.  However, I would love to see a twin version of this:

Sadly, I think Booby Trap happened the most out of these with us.  Poor Paul.  Followed shortly by The Stalker and Snow Angels.  This is so funny, I cannot stop laughing right now.  And in case you are wondering, yes, my babes are still having their little party upstairs.

Ella's Hair

If you know Ella, you know that she has crazy hair!  I'm talking stick-up, ever messy, won't lay down, frizzy-type hair.  Everywhere I go with this girl people say "Oh, I love her hair", or "How did you get it to stick up like that?", or "Look at that hair!".  Poor Ella.  I wonder what is going through her mind when people say these things.  I constantly have a headband or clip in her hair so that it looks somewhat tamed.  I have tried lotioning it down, wetting it down, anything next to hairspray.  People have said "Why don't you gel it?"  Sorry people, I am not gelling down my two year old's hair.

Ella has this friend Adelynn.  You could say Adelynn has been blessed in the hair category a little more than our Ella has.  We had planned to go to Adelynn's yesterday for a play date.  Before we left Ella kept saying "Add hair, Add hair, Add hair."  I finally got it.  She wanted her hair to look like her BFF Adelynn's.  Oh Lord.  How was I ever going to pull this off??

Adelynn and Ella's "matching" hair styles.  They weren't enthused with the quick photo session.

I tried to bribe them with Minnie.  That didn't work.  They just continued to look around me to see the TV!

Ella was proud of her new hair do though, and that made me happy!

My sweet girl <3