Today in Birthdays!

Happy Birthday, Daddy! This is the only picture I can find that has almost all my dad's immediate family. The only person missing is my dad's oldest sister, Pam-Pam. I'm assuming that she was taking the picture; too bad the guy in the plaid shirt and jacket didn't take the picture (that was one of the brothers-in-law). My dad is the youngest of 6, so the little kids are his oldest niece and nephews. There was 21 years difference between Pam-Pam and my dad. Since I'm an only child, my parents used to tease me that they were going to give me a brother or sister when I turned 21. Can you imagine?!

These next two pictures are some of my favorites. That's me with Daddy on his tractor on the left, and that's JR with him on the four-wheeler. I have these two pictures side-by-side on my refrigerator, and we had lived in China for a year before our Ayi figured out that one of them was me. She thought both pictures were of JR!

Daddy would be fine with me telling how old he is, but since my mom and I don't tell our age, we wouldn't want anybody trying to figure out how old we are from how old he is! Happy Birthday, Daddy! I love you!

Happy 30th Birthday, Kristi! My cousin Kristi (who is also Caleb's mom) turns 30 today. I love this picture of her because this is how I remember her looking when we were growing up...Humm, that's strange, since I'm only 25 I wonder how I can remember what she looked like when she was little? ;-) Kristi and I have a running joke about birthdays because our immediate families all have the same birthdays. Kristi and my dad have the same birthday. Her youngest son, Cole, and I have the same birthday. Her mom's (my cousin Lu) birthday is one day after mine, and Kyle and Reed were born one day after Caleb's birthday. Needless to say, we have lots of festivities going on at the same time.

First Trip to Church

The NICU nurses told us not to put the boys in the church nursery until they were a year old. Our doctor told me to wait until they were about 4 months or when RSV season was over. We'll, Jason and I made the executive decision to try it out this morning. JR was super excited about the boys going to "Baby Church" as he called it, and was insistent that he help us drop them off at Baby Church so he could see what it looked like. He kept saying, "I think they are just going to sleep at Baby Church." And yes, I believe there was a lot of sleeping going on at Baby Church. I fact, Reed never even woke up. Kyle, on the other hand, must have sensed that he was in a room full of rocking chairs and ladies who like to hold babies. His eyes flew open so he could be held the whole time. I know he also got his diaper changed because when I changed him he had a sticker on the front of his diaper that said, "Changed with love by Second Baptist Church"...I forgot that they did that, so it was a bit of a surprise to find. So, if neither of the little boys get sick, then the day will have been a complete success. BTW, this is the second day in a row I have typed this blog one-handed. Yesterday I was holding Reed, today it's Kyle. Oh, AND they slept til 4:20AM this morning....I think I'm going to call 6AM "sleeping through the night". They're getting closer!!

Kyle's First Girlfriend

Allison came over yesterday to hang out with me. When she got here I was changing Reed's diaper, and Kyle was starting to fuss. Allison picked him up and he didn't let her put him down the rest of the day. We were laughing that Kyle was taking full advantage of Allison's husband, Geoff, being out of town. As you can see, Kyle was the picture of contentment all day. And don't worry that Reed was neglected...that just meant he got me all to himself. Allison, I wish you were here now...I'm typing this with Reed in my lap, and Kyle's letting me know he needs some attention too!

Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting...

JR is still enjoying his karate lessons. In fact, every morning while we are waiting for the bus he puts on a karate show for me. The show always includes some of the same elements...hitting the ferns, jumping off the porch steps while throwing punches and kicks, and a free style karate routine. His free style is pretty hilarious...As you can see from the video, it's pretty much a combination of Jennifer Beals' infamous Flashdance routine and a Jackie Chan movie. I guess he's trying to merge his inherited dance skills with his Chinese heritage. His karate teacher is really good with the kids(Can you imagine trying to teach a room full of 4 and 5 year old boys karate?!) and will occasionally show them moves that include a minimal amount of gymnastics. JR is now obsessed with me teaching him how to do a backward roll, a cartwheel, and a handstand. (He's got the forward roll down.) He was so excited yesterday as he's getting pretty good at his handstands. He's gone from just throwing one leg up in the air to actually doing a handstand (as long as his legs are propped up on me). I'm sure in helping him practice all these tricks, I'll be the one that somehow winds up injured....I'll be sure and keep you updated on the progress.

Yeah Little Boys!

Let me tell you how excited I am! The boys slept until 3:45 last night. Woo Hoo! That's their longest slept time ever. We feed them at 9:00 (I was asleep by 10:30) and I didn't hear a peep out of them til 3:45! I think they are getting the hang of it. I was telling Jason that I actually enjoy feeding them in the middle of the night more than any other time. I know you think I'm crazy, but....First, neither of them cries while I'm feeding the other. Reed always sleeps longer than Kyle, so he's snoozing while I'm feeding. Then when I'm feeding Reed, Kyle is full and has gone back to sleep. When I feed them during the day it always seems that one is mad that the other is going first...and then the one that was first gets mad that I didn't hold him long enough when he finishes. I think if they could talk they'd be saying, "But, Mama, I'm hungry too!" and "What about me?!" They are also REALLY hungry by the time their middle of the night feeding rolls around, so they always suck their bottle down really fast and never spill a drop. For some reason, both of them have a spitting problem if they aren't starving...I'm sure Jason is tired of seeing me with crusty milk in my hair. And finally, the phone doesn't ring with people trying to sell me stuff at 3:00 AM. Jason and I have learned that salespeople get off the phone fast when you tell them you have newborn twins. One actually had the nerve to ask Jason when would be a good time to call back. Jason said, "Well, I've got 3 kids under 5...how about in 4 years!" Well, there goes Kyle telling me he's ready to eat so I better run...

Baby Announcements

Okay, so I've done a really bad job in formally announcing the little boys' birth. Since I blog about them almost daily, I guess I feel like any more "announcing" would just be overkill. But, I have now officially announced them on the A&M website. (Sorry UT friends, I haven't paid my money to the Texas Exes in a couple of years now.) So, if you would like to check out the boys on Aggie Baby Central, just follow the links. https://www.aggienetwork.com/abc/babyinfo.aspx?bib=16555
https://www.aggienetwork.com/abc/babyinfo.aspx?bib=16554

Easter Bunny

The Easter Bunny visited our house last night. JR came downstairs crying, "Mommy, the Easter Bunny didn't come!" He did the same thing about Santa at Christmas. I guess he just expects the presents to be right in front of his eyes when he opens them. After we assured him the Easter Bunny HAD come, JR quickly went off in search of his basket. As you can see, the Easter Bunny was pretty good to JR. (Check out JR's bed head in the picture!)

The Easter Bunny knows the little boys are still too small to understand Easter, but he was nice enough to leave them some matching onesies in their baskets.

Happy Easter!