March for Babies

This morning was the March of Dimes March for Babies walk.  Thank you so much to everyone that donated to such a great cause!  We did reach our goal set of $500, by raising $525.  There were SO many people at Easton for the walk.  It was a three mile walk.  There must have been some 50,000 people and pretty much everyone had a stroller, wagon, or some other child-carrying device.  There were posters and signs around everywhere with success stories of babies born prematurely.  It was so heart touching to see and read them.  Stories and photos of babies all the way from 23 weeks, weighing only 1lb or even less.  Seriously amazing.  I teared up a couple times, but held it together since we were with some friends of ours most of the time :)  Our girls are truly amazing and we are so incredibly blessed.  I realized that even more today! 

Walking for Hailee and Hannah!

The babies were in the stroller sitting behind Ella, you just can't see them :)

Ella was pretty excited about all the snacks they had for kids!  Oh, and she loved the balloons too!

H&H liked the snacks too!

Just an idea of all the crowds...

Hailee was ready to start walking already!

Everyone let their balloons go at once before the walk.  Well, not Ella.  She held on to hers for a while ;)

Push, stuck, crash, waaaahhh!!!!

That's pretty much how our days go around here lately.  Hannah and Hailee are constantly pushing around toys, getting stuck inside of things (and so is Ella at times!), crashing into each other (Ella also participates in this), and then crying for a minute or two before getting up and doing it all over again!  The photos below will explain...



Hannah pushing around her Little People bus

Hailee and her lion

The babies love pushing around the dining room chairs. 

They love crashing them in to one another too! 

Traffic jam!

On the go again!

Ella, climbing in the cupboard like she always used to when she was a baby..

and getting stuck in there!

Ella in the same cupboard at 16 months old.

Hailee's newest thing is crawling under the chairs and getting stuck.

Trying to get out..

and trying...

almost made it!

She's free!  On to playing again!

Pretty babies!

Walking Hailee

Well, I was wrong about who I thought would walk first.  I swore it would be Hannah, but Hailee has proved us wrong!  The sad, well kindof sad part is that I was not there for her first steps!  Last Thursday evening Uncle Ryan watched Hannah and Hailee while Paul took Ella to soccer and I went to my twin club meeting.  I just found out today that Hailee took eight, yes eight steps for Ryan that night!  He called Paul immediately to tell him and the first thing Paul said was, "Don't tell Kristen!"  I've said before "Watch they take their first steps for someone else when I am literally with my kids 95% of the time."  Anyways, Ryan came over for lunch after church today and let it slip that Hailee had walked for him.  He said it was in the basement on the carpet.  He tried to get a video but then she wouldn't do it again.  So tonight, you guessed it, I took her downstairs and let her go!  She took 4-8 steps a few different times.  The video is below.  It's not the best, but I was happy to get some footage of her new skill :)  I wonder how long it will take before she is walking everywhere!  And who knows, Hannah is known for catching up out of no where.  She'll probably be running around before we know it! 

Crib fun!

Here are some photos from earlier today that I thought were too cute not to post!  Sometimes, when I get H&H up from a nap and need to get things done upstairs (like put laundry away) the girls play around up there before we all come downstairs for lunch.

They love all being in the same crib together, jumping up and down!

FUN!

Smiley Hailee

Hannah and Ella

Cuties!

Ella, head-butting her sisters

Mom is funny!

Staring at big sis...who knows what she is doing!

Silly girl!

Notice the undies...Ella is all potty-trained now!  She has only had about one accident per week the past couple. 
I'm so proud of my big girl!

Really?!  How is this safe??

H&H love taking everything out of drawers!

"We're not doing anything wrong, mom!"

How do I teach them to put things back in the drawers?

Hailee is now a stander too.  Both girls will take a step or two and then get down and start crawling again.
They are SO close to walking!

Hannah still loves her monkey that we got her when she was in the hospital.  She sleeps with it every night and loves playing with it all the time too!

Fill-in babysitter

The fill-in babysitter.  Yep, that's me.  Ever since I have been a SAHM (stay at home mom) my friends have asked me at times to fill in when their regular sitter is off for a day or two or even for a week for vacation or whatever.  I love watching my friend's kids on occasion.  It gives my kids time with their little friends.  It's a change in pace to our normal every day routine.  Earlier this week, I watched my friend Kristen's Alexa.  We had such a fun day!  I knew Kristen would want photo updates all day.  I tried to take some cute pictures of the kids all playing!  (All taken on my phone, hence the quality.)

Hailee waited and waited and waited for Alexa to drop her some food while she was eating. 
Really Hailee, isn't that the dog's job??

Playing kitchen with the house. 

Just washing some veggies!!

Big girl!

Sharing a snack before daddy comes to pick Alexa up!  What a fun day!

Easter!

Well, Easter was yesterday.  But, by the end of the day I was so exhausted I couldn't even think about blogging.

We had a great day!  My family and grandparents came down to our house.  We went to brunch and then came back and hung out all day.  To say the kids were a bit spoiled this Easter would be an understatement.  Paul and I got them all more than we normally would.  We figured H&H missed their birthday party (and Valentine's Day:) from being in the hospital, so we got them a couple extra things.  Being spoiled by the grandparents is nothing new.  Anyways, they all had fun.  The only thing missing from our day was a church service.  We still haven't been to church since the sickness.  We plan to start going back in two weeks on a regular basis again.

Enjoy the photos from our day!

The Easter baskets before the kids destroyed them!

Hannah and Hailee got this rocking horse.  Hannah was the first to try it out and she LOVED it!

I think this photo is funny because of the little hand reaching for Ella's peep.  I think it was Hannah's :)

Ella the baker!

Hailee

Ella

I tried to get a good photo of all three girls.  As you can see, they had more important things to do!

Love this photo.  I still can't believe they kept these headbands on most of the day.

These cute white rocking chairs were H&H's birthday gift from great grandpa and grandma Denomme.  Grandpa made them for the girls.  They are so adorable!  H&H loved them!!

Gampa and Gammy got the girls one big gift...this house.  Ella was ecstatic, to say the least as she had been asking for one of these for a while now. 

Me and my love.

Ryan, me, Paul, and Leah

Just chatting :)

This was the best out of about 20 family photos of the 5 of us.  What does that tell you about how the rest turned out?

Chloe helped Ella with the Easter egg hunt.

Hannah's favorite gift was the yogurt melts!

And these binoculars were Ella's favorite.  Well, besides the house.

Hailee tried and tried to get through this plastic to eat the chocolate.  She did not succeed.

I opened up the yogurt melts and both babies attacked!

Best Aunt ever! (This has been pretty typical for Ella over the past two weeks.)