Twins 2nd Birthday Party

To celebrate the twins 2nd birthday we had a Curious George party at our house with just family.  We decided to go small and simple this year.  It was supposed to be an hour and half but we were having so much fun it lasted three hours!  We had seven kids here under the age of ten.  It was a blast to see them all playing and running around.  

Here are some pictures from all the fun!

Hannah and Henry in their George shirts

Big sister Cali in her party dress

Cake Time

Present Time

The Twins are Two!

Henry and Hannah are two years old today!  Praise the Lord we all survived this long!  There have been wonderful moments, hard moments, funny moments, tears, fits and that is just Nick and I:)  It is such a blessing to experience twins.  The bond they have is something so special!  They love each other fiercely.  They care about one another so much.  It is clear they are two totally different people though.  They have very different personalities, likes and dislikes.

Henry 2 years - This is his face when he says "cheese"

Hannah 2 years - She has a bow like her new doll

For birthday presents Cali made the twins animals at Build A Bear.  Henry got a dog named "Silly Dog" and Hannah got a Hello Kitty doll named "Kitty Kitty".  They both loved them.  Here they are feeding their dolls.  Hannah loves to play Tea Party. 

MONTHLY UPDATE:

Food -  They drink milk, water and juice.  They love to eat pancakes, pasta, cereal, crackers, chips and cookies. 

Sleep - The twins go down at 2pm for a 2-3 hour nap.  They go down for bed at 8pm and get up around 7am. 

Clothes - Hannah is in 18 month.  Henry is in 24 month clothes.  Hannah is in size 5 shoe and Henry is in size 6. 

Weight -  Hannah 24 lbs Henry 29.8 lbs  

Height - Hannah 32 inches Henry 34 inches  

Diapers - Size 3

Health - They struggle with teething and the occasional runny nose.  Other than that they are good. 

Fun Facts - Hannah has started to talk non-stop.  She is very animated when she talks.  However, we can't tell what she is saying.  Henry is all boy.  He goes 100 MPH, loves to wrestle, throw balls, and climb on things.

After dinner we celebrated with cupcakes.  After which they proceeded to run around the house on sugar highs.

The blur is Henry pushing Hannah through the house.  This was shortly followed by Henry running Hannah into the couch causing Henry to fall down.

We are having a small family birthday party for them this weekend.  The theme is Curious George!

Happy 4th Birthday Cali Maple

Today our oldest child turns 4!  How in the world we have a 4 year old, I don't know.  The time sure flies with little ones.  Cali from the beginning has been such a blessing to us!  God has shown us so much about Him through her.  We have had so many wonderful days with this joy of a girl!

There is so much I love about her!  She is so kind and tender hearted.  She loves well.  She is so smart! Just to brag for a moment - she can sound out words at 4!!  She is beautiful inside and out.  She makes us laugh everyday.  She loves her siblings.  And she loves God with such childlike innocence that I envy her.  She loves to play.

Today we had her Ariel Mermaid party with her friends and family.  She had so much fun!  She played with her friends, she shared her toys, she gave hugs and said thank you!  It was a huge success and I'm so proud of all 3 of our kids for doing so well!

Cali and her BFF playing the Mermaid game

All the kids lined up for a game

Opening her gifts

 Our wonderful family!

If you want to go down memory lane...
One Year Old Cali Post
Two Year Old Cali Post 
Three Year Old Cali Post 

Cali 2nd Birthday Party

Saturday was Cali's 2nd Birthday Party!  It was an Elmo themed party.  We had 25 family and friends join us to celebrate Cali.  It was a wonderful party!  Cali is so lucky to have so many people who love her and invest in her life!

The party invitation

The birthday girl was all over the place!  She loved having her cousins and friends there to play with.

Love her personalized Elmo dress!

We had different areas set up for the kids.  We had a play area with some of Cali's toys and a TV playing Elmo and we had a craft area with stickers, coloring books and crayons.  The kids had so much fun running around.  Having the different areas helped keep the kids engaged.

Cousins!

Time to color with Zander

We let the kids play for a while, then we had snacks, then more play time, present time, cupcake time and finally more play time!

Cali did great opening her presents.  She was throwing tissue paper everywhere to get to her goodies!  We are super excited to play with her new toys!

Cupcake Time!

The kids enjoying the cupcakes.

Thank you to everyone who helped make the day so special!  We love you very much!

One Year Old

Cali Maple is officially one year old today! WOW!! Praise the Lord we made it a year as parents!

It is crazy to think where we were a year ago today, so naive and rested! Parenting has been our biggest challenge and greatest joy as a married couple.

Birth Story

On Monday February 23, 2009 Nick and I went to work like normal. I was 38 weeks pregnant and had a c-section scheduled for Thursday of that week because Cali was breach. We had a 3pm Dr. appointment to go over everything before the c-section. During the day I noticed that Cali hadn't been moving a lot. During our Dr. appointment I mentioned the lack of activity. She sent us over to the hospital to get checked out. We already had our bags with us, so we headed over to Duke. Once I was on the monitors it was determined that I was having contractions and there were putting stress on the baby. The Dr. on call said there really wasn't any reason to wait until Thursday so if we were ready to be parents we could have her that night. We said yes and made phone calls to the family to let everyone know what was going on. At 9:01pm Cali Maple entered the world changing our lives forever!

It truly is amazing how much we loved her from the beginning. She was perfect and she was ours.

Our first family photo.

Our little angel.

12 months later we are blessed to have this...

I love this face!
12 Months Stats:

• 6 teeth, 2 on top and 4 on bottom
• Sleeps from 6:30 pm-6:00 am, waking up once
• Takes 1-2 naps, 1-2 hours each
• Crawls super fast anywhere we will let her
• Is "cruising" on furniture, so walking is coming soon
• Loves to feed herself!
• Favorite foods: cheerios, sweet potatoes, carrots, crackers, cheese, pancakes, and cake!
• Is almost weaned - only 3 feedings a day!
• Loves to play! Her favorite activity is putting things in and out of a container; like blocks
• She has the sweetest smile and laugh
• She is ticklish on her feet
• She is learning to feed herself with a spoon and fork
• She is babbling, no recognizable words yet
• Likes Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Handy Manny
• Loves to play with other kids
• She loves Jack and Harley and thinks they are hilarious

Happy 1st Birthday Cali!!

We love you more than you will ever know!