Happy 2nd Birthday to My Two Favorite Little Men!

On January 14 my two favorite little people turned 2!  (A little late I know, it took me much longer than I thought to gather all my pics together in one spot.  And time, I feel like I never have enough time in the day for everything.)  They were born early at 34 weeks and 5 days and weighed just 4lbs 7.8oz (Owynn) and 5lbs 2 oz (Oliver).  When we went to the Dr. last month Owynn was 26lbs and Oliver 28lbs.  They are finally catching up and are close to the size of your average 2 year old.

I really can't believe how fast the time has gone by and just how much they've changed.  Over the past 2 years we have moved 3 times, and driven to NY twice.  They have gone from tiny little fragile babies to rambunctious toddlers.  In the past year they have learned to talk, to walk and run; and have become crazy climbing monkeys with no fear.  Right now they love Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Owynn calls Goofy goosey.  Owynn is farther along with his speech, but Oliver is very smart with electronic-y things.  He has my phone all figured out and has almost got angry birds down.  They love to read, well more so look at books and have me read to them; but they really do love books.  I wish they would stay little longer, they are growing so fast.  When I was pregnant and people told me that the time would go by fast and that I would love them in a way I didn't know I could, I didn't believe them.  I do now though, they are the best things to ever happen to us.   

Let me show you how much my wonderful and adorable little boys have grown!  (I may be a bit biased though.)

The pictures are a bit out of order, I still haven't quite gotten the hang of moving pictures around on here. 

Owynn the day we brought him home.  I would have been 36 weeks pregnant.

Oliver the day we brought the boys home.  He is wearing 0-3 month jammies.

Owynn and Oliver 5 1/2 months

Owynn 5 1/2 months

Oliver 6 months

Oliver 5 1/2 months

Owynn 7 1/2 months

Oliver 7 1/2 months

Owynn 11 months

Oliver 18 months

Owynn 13 months

Oliver 15 months

Oliver, Daddy, Owynn 15 months

Owynn and Oliver's First Birthday Party

Owynn, Mommy, Oliver 4 months

Oliver and Owynn 9 months First Halloween

This is Owynn's angry face 10 months

Owynn and Oliver 11 months.  First Christmas Eve.

Oliver 21 months

Owynn 21 months

Oliver 23 months

all photos are property of doubleotwins.com

It's Time for Big Boy Beds!

John had to change the boys' cribs into toddler beds on Friday, much sooner than we expected to.  When I went to get the boys up in the morning Oliver was in Owynn's bed!  I asked John if he put Oliver there and he said "noooo..."  Uh-oh.  We have their cribs next to each other with about a 2 foot gap between them.  John watched Oliver at nap time Friday pull up on the edge of his crib and slide across into Owynn's.  We had been hoping to keep them in their cribs longer, but apparently they have other plans.  I suppose it's about time, they just turned 2.  Right now I am very very happy that when we bought their cribs we had the foresight to spend the extra money and buy two nice, convertible cribs.

The first two nights went pretty well.  Friday night we tucked them in like normal, and they were up and out of bed in just a few minutes.  We put up a gate in their door way to make sure they didn't get into anything if they got up in the middle of the night.  They played for about an hour before the novelty started to wear off and they went to bed.  They wound up in their own beds and tried to cover themselves up with their blankets.  They woke up nice and early, but they stayed in bed all night without a fuss.  Yay!  Yesterday we spent the day over at John's parents doing laundry so the boys didn't get a nap, so they were pretty worn out by the time bedtime came along.  Oliver fussed just a bit , and they wound up on the floor in front of the gate nodding off.  I tucked them back into bed and they slept just fine all night.

Nap time today has been a different story.  We put them down for a nap about an hour and a half ago and they have been playing pretty nicely in their room since.  So I guess I'm glad there hasn't been any fussing, but there definitively hasn't been any sleep yet.  I expect to have two grumpy toddlers tonight.

They were pretty darn cute the other night, here are some pics!

Owynn

 

Owynn, Mommy, Oliver

Oliver

Owynn and Oliver

    

all photos are property of doubleotwins.com

We're Back From Our Winter Hiatus!

I'm hoping my winter hiatus is over.  Like most of our tv shows!  We haven't been so much busy here as sick.  Thanksgiving was good.  Our weather was gorgeous, just days before we were having beautiful sunny days in the 70's.  It was a little weird listening to Christmas music while it was so unseasonably warm. 

Oliver and Owynn

Then we all caught super mega awful worst cold ever.  I wonder if it may have been the flu, it was horrendous.  I lost my voice for almost a week and I missed two days of work.  I finally dragged everyone to see the doctor.  Everyone else was fine, but I got antibiotics and man did they help.  Apparently my throat was still all nice and swollen and red.  And then immediately after we all caught the stomach bug.  Ugh!  Christmas was great though!

Oliver, Mommy, and Owynn

  We were all healthy for the week between Christmas and New Year's, but by the time the boys' birthday rolled around we were all sick again.  I succumbed to the cold this past Friday and then on Sunday I managed to severely mess up my stomach.  I finally started feeling better Thursday night.
 The boys are doing much better now too.  I am sooooo ready for Spring and to be healthy again for some sort of extended period of time.   Between work, everything going on at home, and being sick, I just haven't had the time or energy for much of anything else.  I've barely been on the computer, never mind blogging.  On Tuesday I was able to take almost a 3 hour nap after work, it was amazing!

On a happier note John filed our taxes last week.  The company John used holds our filing until the IRS starts accepting them, which was supposed to be on the 30th.  But today John got a text saying that our filing was accepted by the IRS.  OMG! It is such a relief.  I'm really hoping we get our refund soon, we could really really use the money.  I'm thrilled though that they accepted them early.  Tomorrow is Friday and we earned jeans day again, I love jeans Fridays.  And it's Friday!  Yay for the weekend!  I am hoping to try and get some more posts together this weekend for next week. 

Enjoy your weekend!

Woohoo I added a widget! (At least I think that's what I did) and Holiday Wishes

Yay me, I figured out how to add a Facebook like button to my blog!  I am waaay excited now, this is totally a big deal to me!  I am not overly computer savvy and have pretty much been learning about this whole blogging thing as I go.  So please follow me on Facebook, help me feel even more proud of myself.  I would really appreciate it! =)  And it wasn't nearly as hard as I feared it would be.  And bonus, I didn't destroy my site by playing with the HTML!

I have been absent a bit because of the craziness that is the Holidays.  To be politically correct I want to wish everyone Happy Holidays, because I know I have readers of different faiths.  Also Merry Christmas, because this is what we celebrate in our household.  I hope this season has brought your families, happiness, peace, and joy. 

This year I am very thankful for answered prayers, lower levels of stress, the kindness of (near) strangers, our friends and family, and my husband (I don't know what I would do without him).

 I don't really talk about it much, but I have been praying more and attempting to find some sort of faith that works for me.  I'd like to think that my prayers have been heard; there have been several incidents to make me think so.  So thank You! 

To say that our budget has been tight the past 6 or so months would be an understatement.  Lately it's more like what bills can I put off or what can we do without so we have enough money to buy diapers and food.  (I can see our tax refund on the horizon now and I can't wait.)  After months and months of trying John got a job working from home, and his first paycheck literally came just in time.  The fact that he can work from home and choose his hours is pretty amazing.  I am very appreciative of what he has been trying to do for our family.  With his anxiety, I know how hard it can be for him to do this.  I feel like I don't thank him enough.

Even though work has been just ridiculously busy, my stress levels have dropped quite a bit.  I think it's because John is working and even though our budget is still really tight, we have some breathing room.  I am thankful that we can pay our bills and can actually afford to order a pizza every once in awhile now.  (I love you pizza and have missed you more than I realized.)  And our tax refund is so close I can taste it!

Because of our monetary problems we didn't have any money to buy the boys presents this year.  Although I did manage to spend a few dollars here and there on a few little things for them over the past month or two.  I want to thank again our friends, our family, and friends of our family, who helped to make Christmas very special for the boys.  I wish I could show you how their eyes just lit up Christmas morning.  And also thank you guys for helping us through this very rough patch.  Without everyone I don't know how we could have made it.       

How Do I Not Remember Buying That???

Today while cleaning I came across DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) for the 360 (XBox) sitting at the top of one of our closets.  Since it's almost Christmas my thought process went something like this.  "Am I supposed to see this?"
"Wait, we don't have any money, how would John have bought this for me?"
"If he didn't buy it for me for Christmas, just how long have we owned this?!"
"Why can't I remember buying this???"
"Has this really been sitting at the top of the closet since we moved in?" (Which by the way was a year ago. Have I mentioned I am also not the most observant person?) 
I then found the game portion of it open and on the video game shelf (the dance pad was in the closet).  "Huh, apparently we have had it for awhile."

I told John he could have wrapped it up for Christmas and I would have never known.  Really though, how do I not remember having this?!?  When John traded in his original XBox and everything that went along with it, including my beloved DDR game (ok maybe I didn't play it as much as I should have, but still) I made a BIG deal about making sure he replaced it for me on his new (at that point) 360.  Which makes it even more baffling to me that I can't remember him buying this for me.  Like I know my memory isn't always the greatest (I blame hereditary for that), but really, why can't I remember this???  I am very excited that I stumbled upon this, now I just need to find some time to play.  I would have today during nap time, but I caught a cold from the boys and I feel like total crap.