white shirt and flowered dress

Each year around their birthdays we take some special pictures of the kids. Ethan is always in one of Jim's shirts with a tie. Lizzie (and now Afton and Lilly) wear a dress that I wore to mine and Jim's wedding luncheon. I am really hoping the dress will last through three girls :) It is fun to watch them fill in the clothes a little bit more each year. They each have their own special book with a year by year look at how they have grown. Here are a few pictures from this year. For a full look at all the pictures you will have to look at their own books or our photo album :)

On a side note- April 25th was the 10 year anniversary of when Jim asked me to marry him. How lucky am I. He is such an amazing man and it has been a wonderful journey with him so far. Who would have thought 10 years later from proposing we would have a house, tons of medical and student loan debt, four wonderful kids (two of them twins!!) and of course a mini-van :)

*Ethan took the picture of us. I think he did prettty good

babies growing, birthdays and tulips

Babies Growing.....

(Afton is in the light pink with blue bow, Lilly is in the darker pink with pink bow)

Our cute little babies are already growing so much. I took them in today for a weight check.
Here is their weight timeline-
Lilly: March 25th (day born)- weighed 3 lbs 9 oz
April 9th (2 weeks old)- 4 lbs and 4 oz
April 21st (almost 4 weeks)- 5 lbs
I think it is hilarious that Lilly has basically gained a can of your favorite soft drink in about 12 days. Yahoo!

Afton: March 25th- 4 lbs 14 oz
April 9th- 5 lbs 3 oz.
April 21st- 6 lbs 7 oz.
Afton is our chunky baby. I know compared to most babies her age she is incredibly small but next to her sister she is the chubby one :)

They are doing great and we love having them home. Even though they have only been home for about 12 days it is hard to imagine we never had them. They still sleep a lot. When they open their eyes it is the cutest thing. Lilly has the funniest face expressions. Afton's eyes already melt our hearts.

(Lilly is in the green and Afton in the pink)

Ethan's 6th Birthday!

I cannot believe Ethan is already 6 years old. Time goes by much too fast. For his birthday we had a friend party at a neighbors house. Another neighbor boy also turned 6 on April 18th so we just had the party at his house and invited all the kindergarten neighborhood boys. For their party favor each boy got his own lightsaber. It was hilarious watching all the kids be star wars hereos. Even Lizzie who was the only girl at the party felt that she needed to be a jedi. Instead of a cake we did a chocolate fountain with different foods and fruits to dip into. The kids thought that was so fun. That night we had family over for a party which was really fun. He still got excited over receiving string cheese :)

Tulips

Right now Lizzie absolutely loves any kind of flower and loves to "sniff" them. On walks or car rides or whatever she will point out tulips, daffodils, etc. Then if she has the opportunity to smell them then life is good. On Saturday Jim, Ethan Lizzie and Grandma H. went to the tulip festival up at Thanksgiving Point. She was so excited about it for a few days before. She kept saying her "sniffer" was ready for the tulip festival.

Busy week

Well it has been one of those busy yet wonderful weeks. We now have both Afton and Lilly home which is so nice. Afton came home on April 7th and Lilly came home on April 9th. Life has become very busy but not in a bad way at all. They are too precious and beautiful to complain about anything. Right now Afton weighs 5 lbs 3 oz and Lilly weighs 4 lbs 4 oz. They are still so tiny. In these pictures Afton is in the pink stripes and Lilly has the hat on.

Now that both girls are home visitors are welcome. We just ask three things- 1) don't come if you are sick or even have a little bit of sickness. These are still little preemie babies. 2) be prepared to be bombarded with antibacterial soap. Ethan and Lizzie are in charge of making sure any guests get the "special soap" on. 3) If you come around the times of 2, 5, 8, or 11 you may be asked to give the babies a bottle of pumped milk :)

Lizzie went in for her "procedure" up at Primary Children's on April 10th. It was a different procedure than the one she had last July. She came home the same day and after about a five hour nap was back to her normal self. The doctor said everything looked good when they checked at the end if the reflux was gone but we go back in about 6 weeks to double check.

Here is Lizzie learning to be a big sister. As you can see she wasn't too excited :) She loves to touch their heads, fingers, grab diapers for me, etc. but she really does not like to hold either one of the babies yet :) And yes, she is wearing her swimsuit over her clothes. It is one of her latest fashion statements.

Afton is home!!!!

Today Afton got to come home!!!!!!

Ethan and Lizzie got to meet one of their little sisters. They have been very excited knowing Monday was the day Afton came home

Lizzie was very interested in Afton and wanted to show Afton most of her stuffed animals. She did not want to hold Afton yet though.

Ethan was very excited to meet Afton and to hold her and give her loves.

Today we were told that Lilly might be able to come home on Wednesday or Thursday. Well that is if everything goes smoothly in the next couple days.

So our life with two babies at home will begin soon. It will be hectic and awesome. I think these babies are so cute!!!

I will add some more pictures tomorrow. I am tired.

one week old

Well today our beautiful daughters are one week old. Incredible. They are both doing really well. They are now what the NICU calls "feeders and growers." They just need to learn to eat consistently and grow big. They are doing pretty good at taking a bottle and nursing so that is great. They are both still in isolettes right now as they also try to get their body temperature down. NG tubes have been taken out and they are also off of IV's.

Lilly still seems to be the feisty one. She is always moving her arms and legs and has her eyes open a lot. She pulled her NG tube out on three different occasions and yesterday the nurses told me she drank her whole bottle in like 5 minutes!! She weighs about 3 lbs 4 oz now. So far Lilly seems to look more like Jim.

Afton is totally comfortable just relaxing and being content with whatever is going on. I still can not believe the amount of hair she has. Right now she weighs about 4 lbs and 9 oz. Afton seems to look a lot like Ethan and Lizzie did as babies.

The nurses have told us that for a possible discharge date you take their due date (May 1st) and subtract a couple weeks and then you have a rough estimate. That puts us the middle of April or so.

*all of the pictures on this blog are of Lilly. Pictures of Afton will be coming soon.

Afton and Lilly

We would like to introduce the newest members of our family

Afton

March 25, 2008

4 lbs 14 oz.

18 inches long

7:23 P.M.

Lilly
March 25, 2008
3 lbs 9 oz
16 inches long
7:27 P.M.

We are so excited that they are here!!!

I am not sure if you can see in the handprint/ footprint picture but each of their hands is about the size of a AA battery. Their feet are about 3 quarters stacked on top of each other.

Here is the story of how they came into the world....... On Tuesday morning I had an ultrasound to check the growth of the babies. My doctor had told us that if the second baby was in the 10th percentile or less or would I be induced. Well the second baby was measuring less than 10%. I was sent down to labor and delivery being told that I am here to stay and my babies would be born today. I was just one day shy of making it to 35 weeks. Jim and I got to watch cable all day since my doctor was in surgery all day. We know a lot about Cash Cab, Dirtiest Jobs, How things are made, college basketball, etc. My doctor came about 5:30 P.M. and my water was broken for the first baby around 6:00. I was at a 10 by 7:00 and got wheeled to the operating room (just in case). I pushed through about 5 contractions for Afton and she was born and then about two pushes later Lilly was born. I know I am extremely lucky to have been able to deliver them both without a c-section

Babies are doing great. They are in NICU and will be there for a little while (Lilly will probably be there a little longer just because she is smaller). They are breathing on their own, are already trying to nurse, and are doing pretty good at keeping their body temperature. They do both have a NG tubes (nasal gastric) in their nose to help with their feeding. Afton has just a little bit of jaundice and today got to start tanning. Lilly is in a isolette thing just to help her body.
temperature. Afton has sandy brown hair that is actually kinda thick for my babies who are usually bald. Lilly has just a little bit of dark hair. Lilly is the fiesty one so far and kicks and moves around a lot more than her big sister. We will spending a lot of our time in the next few weeks up at the hospital.
Here is a picture of Afton with her eyes open.




Ethan and Lizzie can only look at pictures right now. Since it is RSV season still they won't allow kids in NICU. They seem excited and want to see the babies. I am doing well. I cannot express how amazing it is to be up and moving and walking around. Today I actually went to check the mail and when Lizzie wanted a hot dog, I was able to get it for her!!!! I will post more pictures later.

We are extremely humbled and grateful for how well everything has worked out. We still have a lot of stress and worry ahead of us but these babies are beautiful and amazing.

Happy Easter!

Ethan and Lizzie are at such cute ages right now. They woke up this morning to Easter baskets and thought it was the coolest thing. The Easter bunny kinda skimped on Easter this year due to other events on the Easter bunnies mind. Their baskets only had 3 things totalling like $3 but they just thought they were the coolest things in the world. They were so excited about some chalk they got. Lizzie was so amazed at the chocolate bunny that was left for her and just keeps talking about it. Ethan also got a chocolate bunny but was more interested in the egg filled with Nerds. He just keeps opening and shutting it smiling each time he sees the Nerds inside. It is hilarious to see them get so excited over such little things. They had to show Jim and I and each other their basket stuff at least a hundred times in a hour time period.