Kelly Family Christmas

The Christmas festivities have begun! Last night we celebrated Christmas with my Mom's side of the family. We feasted on prime rib and all the other delicious holiday fixings! It was the first outing the twins and I had made out of the house since last Monday after getting home from the airport. I was getting some serious cabin fever. With all this crazy weather I figured it was safest just to stay home with them instead of trying to drive in the snow. It is not easy being in the house for almost a straight week all day alone with two infants. I love them to pieces but I was ready for some adult interaction so last night was a nice break. It started really snowing towards the end of the evening so we decided to drive the short distance to my Mom & Jerry's house to stay the night instead of driving home. So we all had a slumber party....well there was not a lot of 'slumbering'. The babies did not sleep much but Daddy was a trooper and let me try to get some sleep. Jerame went to the Seahawks game today so the babies and I are hanging out at my Mom's for the day. I am sick of the snow and ready for it to melt...I don't think I can take another week locked in my house!

Grandma & I

My cousin Angie, Grandma & I

Cousin Melissa & her BF Stephen

Grandma & my Cousin Nick (who is home on

break from Army Boot-Camp)

Grandma & little Chloe

My Brother, Matt & Chloe

Aunt Sandy & Carter...it was so nice to have

so many people around to hold babies!

Here are a few random pics from the past few weeks:

My beautiful tree!

big boy

Nana & Chloe putting up the garland outside my house

LOL

Trip to Denver

We took a trip to Denver this past weekend to visit Jerame's Uncle Brad. Sadly, Uncle Brad was diagnosed with ALS a little over 3 years ago. He wanted the whole family to get together... so us, along with Jerame's Mom & sisters made the trip to visit. Although there were some very sad aspects to our visit it was wonderful to see everyone and to have the entire family together. Everyone got to meet the babies which was very special for us. They did very good on the plane and were really just perfect little angles. We traveled with Jerame's Mom & sister so they were able to help us juggle babies, bags and everything else we brought with us. It was so nice to have help. They didn't make a peep on the airplane and both pretty much slept the entire time. It was awesome. Hopefully we will make it back to Denver sooner rather than later. It's always depressing when we get home from there as we always have such a great time. It's unfortunate for us all that we don't live closer together!
I am just watching it dump snow outside right now...it's SO PRETTY! I wish the babies were old enough to go outside and play in it. Think of how much fun they would have! Although I really needed to take today to Christmas shop...I have not done anything really. I have a feeling people might be getting some I-O-U's this year. Oh well! Carter is sitting on my lap right now blogging with me...he thinks the computer screen is very interesting. Chloe slept from 10:30 pm to 6:30 am last night...yippee. Carter got up once for a short snack and then he went back to bed until 6:30 also. I think we are close to them both sleeping through the night. Whaaahoo.

Happy snow day!

Jerame's cousin's wife, Amy

Babies hanging out in the pack & play at Jason &

Amy's House. I don't normally think the babies look

very much alike but I think they look very similar in the

pic. Check out Chloe's hair :-)

Uncle Brad & Arielle

Jerame , Carter and Grammy

Skyler & Lyra

All the girls & babies

It snowed while we were there...

one night it got down to 5 degree's Burr!

All bundled up for the car ride

The amazing Uncle Brad

Brooke & Chloe

Jerame's cousin Brett & his wife Julie

Uncle Bill & Chloe

I took this last week but had to

share because their butt's are just so cute.

You can really tell in this pic how much bigger

Carter is than Chloe.

Hooray for Sleep!

The babies have continued sleeping well for about a week now. It is really very exciting. They are taking less naps during the day now but sleeping longer at night. They are waking up between 4 and 5am to eat and then have consistently gone back to bed in their cribs until about 8 or 8:30 am. For a while there we almost certainly had one of the babies in our bed with us for at least part of the night. But they have both been in their cribs all night for a few nights now. Now that we are getting sleep at night I can look back and realize just how sleep deprived we actually were in the first couple of months. Sleep is so important and I am so happy to have it back in my life! We took Chloe to the Dr. last week with concerns about her eating and reflux suspicions. The Dr. diagnosed her with Reflux but really it's just a guessing game based on her symptoms. She seems to be doing better on the medicine so time will tell. She is gaining weight which is the most important thing, she weighs 11 lbs. 5oz. If she was not gaining weight the Dr. said we would be looking at more serious problems but since she is doing ok in that department we will start off with the reflux meds and see how she does. Poor thing it's just agonizing for anyone trying to watch her get some food in her tummy. Melissa came over to say with us last night and Jerame and I went to see the movie Four Christmas's. It was funny and nice to get out for a few hours together. I think we are doing really good getting out together considering we have twins, we have been on lots of dates. Both of us realize the importance of trying to maintain a relationship outside of babies. It's so easy to get lost in the parenting that you have to really remember to be married also. It helps that we have so much support...especially my amazing cousin Melissa. My Mom helped me decorate for Christmas yesterday it's making us feel much more festive. Without her help I might have just foregone decorations this year...too much work. Jerame walked in the house last night after a hard day at work and said "It smells like Christmas in here" it was a nice surprise for him. Thank goodness for Internet shopping I will be doing most of our shopping that way this year. Christmas is creeping up fast this year, I think because Thanksgiving was later than normal. The babies have started taking a real interest in toys and are really starting to self entertain. They are actually happy to sit in their bouncy seats and look at toys. Up until now the bouncers have just sort of been a safe place we can put them to feed or do whatever we need to while juggling two babies!

Here are some pics from the last week or so...they are getting BIG!

Cater before his bath

Bumbo Chairs..they are almost ready I think.

Their heads are still a little wobbley

Tummy time

Chloe getting a bath

Grandpa Mark & Carter. My Dad drives from Tacoma

about once a week to see the babies...it's so nice.

He is pretty cute with the babies.

Thanksgiving Weekend

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. It felt so long! Jerame took the day off on Wednesday so our weekend started early it was nice. My cousin Melissa came over to take care of the babies on Wednesday evening and we got to go out with some friends for drinks. It was so much fun... I had a little too much fun though and had a bit of a hang over on Thanksgiving. It was worth every bit of pain though :-). I have to say it probably wasn't even that fun to your average person but considering I have not been in a bar having a drink in over a year anything would have been fun to me I think.
We spent Thanksgiving day with my family at my Mom & Jerry's house. It was a very relaxing day and the food was delicious. My Mom made a very traditional Thanksgiving meal which was just perfect. Saturday we celebrated the holiday with Jerame's family at our house. We made butternut squash soup, turkey sandwiches and salad. It was fun to have all the kids together. Then Saturday night Jerame and I got to have another date night! Jerame's Mom & Sister stayed at our house while we went down to Seattle to meet up with my Dad and Shelly to celebrate my Dad's B-Day. We went to Wild Ginger. Our entire weekend was centered around food which was just fantastic!
The babies are doing great. They are growing like little weeds. My Mom and I spent the entire morning Friday packing up all of their 0-3 month clothes. It was a huge job...it took us a good 2 hours! It is so sad to put away all of their sweet little outfits that they only got to wear a handful of times. They are now wearing 3-6 month. Carter still has a hearty appetite and will pretty much eat at any time. Chloe is still a fussy eater and feeding her has sort of become a process that can take a while. We are pretty sure she has reflux so we are going to start her on some medicine that hopefully will help. She is doing better nursing now than taking a bottle so I have decided to still nurse for a while longer. My goal was to give them breast milk for the first 3 months and we made it! I have to say nursing two babies is a lot of work. We have started giving them formula for a little less than 1/2 of their feedings throughout the day and it has really helped me feel a lot less stressed out about finding the time to pump. They are also sleeping much better at night. Last night both babies slept from 10pm to 5am. That was the longest stretch both of them have ever slept!!! So both Jerame & I felt like we got a good night sleep it was the first time in a long while for me. I finally ordered the babies birth announcements...yes almost 4 months after they were born...like I said twins Mom's deserve a break. They turned out really cute. Now my next challenge will be getting them mailed before Christmas. I think we are going to put up our tree this weekend. I can't believe Christmas is in just a few short weeks.

Our two nieces Skyler and Olivia

Jerame playing with the girls

Jerame sister Arielle and Carter

This look cracks me up...this is his classic look

"deer in the headlights"

Daddy and Daughter

My Mom and I on Thanksgiving

Cater hanging out in his bouncy chair on Thanksgiving

Mom, Jerry and Carter

Jerry carving the 20lbs turkey

Out to dinner at Wild Ginger

The miracle mobile

There have been several times along our 3 month and counting journey of parenting that I stop and think how thankful I am for our swings, bouncers and really anything that has helped the babies sleep or stay occupied! I thought I would share with you the most recent lifesaver we have discovered...the mobile. I don't know why we waited so long to get one of these because it is awesome. I can put the babies in the crib together and they will lay and look at this thing for sometimes 30-40mins. That might not sound like very long but in my world it is an eternity! Who knows how long it will be interesting to them but for now it works and it is allowing me to take a shower without listening to babies crying through the monitor.

who would have guessed I would ever be this

excited about a mobile.

Here they are completely memorized

The babies first play date. You can see they are

doing lots of playing :-). At least Mommy got

out of the house for a change.