The Twins at 11 Months

Holy cow!! My babies are going to be 1 year old in one month!? This is just so crazy considering they still wear 3-6 month clothes. A lot of big things have happened this month, reminding me yet again how blessed my little family is. 

The best change is we finally moved into our new house on December 17th. WAHOOO!! It's been a long time coming and we have worked our butts off to get here (thanks to the renovation), but we made it. Much MUCH thanks to Eric's parents for either working at the house or babysitting the kids every night so we could work at the house. There are still a million little projects to do here and there, but we've come a long way. Once it's a little more decorated I'll do a separate blog post. 

First morning in our first home.

Then we were able to spend Scarlett and Shayla's FIRST Christmas in our house (a separate post on that). Could my girls get any cuter?!

Christmas Sunday

We had a Christmas surprise--the first REAL snow of the season. Scarlett was able to play outside in the snow for the first time with her Daddy and Kinsey while Shayla was sick. It's probably for the best because I only have one snow suit for them. Haha. 

The day after Christmas.

And then the last biggest, and not so fun, thing to happen to us was getting struck with the cold and flu bug. Since Christmas we've been passing the two back and forth to each other. It's been sad watching all the kids sick and lethargic. They've been super clingy, obviously, making this the second hardest month since they've been born. Luckily, I was only down for one day so I've been able to take care of them. Kinsey was a trooper. She was her normal self until right before throwing up and then she'd be happy again.  

Poor babies would just lay there with no energy to move.

When the babies aren't sick, they are little busy bodies. Their curiosity grows more and more each day. Future basketball players? We shall see!!

Scarlett and Shayla tend to be more adventurous when Kinsey's around, otherwise they like to stick by me. They watch her play and sometimes follow her around and join in. Kinsey isn't always welcome to them taking her toys away, but the days when they all play together just melts my heart. Their differences are big now, but the 17 month age gap will only get smaller as they grow up.

I find myself comparing them to puppies A LOT. They'll follow us around, stay near our feet, and then pull themselves up onto our legs. And yes, they will beg at our feet when they see us eating. These girls are OBSESSED with food!

The babies could care less about TV, thankfully, but when a song comes on they are all eyes and ears!! Future musicians? It's so fun to guess what they will do when they get older. 

Teaching Kinsey how to play the Wii. 

They still enjoy looking at themselves in the mirror. It's adorable watching them smile at their reflection. 

I bathe all three girls at the same time which is a HUGE time saver. They just play with their toys and whoever gets fussy first is the first out (usually Scarlett). I bring their diapers and clothes into the bathroom with me so I can do it all myself. Shayla is in love with baths. When she hears the water running she will crawl right up to the tub with a huge grin on her face. Kinsey likes the bath until I start pouring water on her. 

The babies go through many phases, but their obsession with me is still going strong!! Kinsey's clinginess wore off a lot when she started walking, so I'm anxious for that to begin. Of course I love being their number 1, but they each love to be held and don't love being held at the same time. You can see where I'm going with this...

Whenever I sit down all three girls congregate to me.

The biggest change, besides Scarlett's adorable ponytail, is the girls starting to eat table food. Their absolute favorite is Club Crackers (just like when Kinsey was little). Scarlett shoves the whole cracker in her mouth at once while Shayla nibbles away on her cracker until it's gone. They are so dang funny. They also love bananas, pickles, and Kinsey's food she drops on the floor/hands to them. Who knows what's in their system with that stinker!?

SHAYLA

I really thought there would be more advancement in Shayla's walking, but she has shown zero interest this month. She'll still walk with her toys when she's in the mood, but whenever I stand her up to practice she'll just plop back down. Shayla can stand for however long she wants and is EXTREMELY controlled when she goes from standing to sitting. I'll just have to wait for her to be interested again. What she REALLY loves right now is climbing. It's not uncommon to find her in a drawer. Yes, inside the drawer. She will do a headstand to get out. 

SCARLETT

Scarlett enjoys walking practice, she's just not quite stable enough to walk on her own. She can't walk with her toys yet either, but she LOVES to stand. She is still a little angel and cuddle bug. I absolutely love when she wraps her tiny arms around me and gives me a hug. She's also my great sleeper. Scarlett won't wake up until 6:30 am every day. It's still too early for me, but it beats Shayla's 5:30 wake up call. 

Happy Christmas

With so many family members spread across the country, it's easy to spend too much time traveling and not really taking a moment to enjoy the Christmas season. We didn't want that. We've been there and done that. It was important for us to spend Christmas morning together, just the five of us, in our home. 

The kids woke up around 7, we started opening presents at 7:30, and we were eating breakfast by 8. It was the perfect amount of time for us. Kinsey took an extremely long time opening her stocking and examining each item. The babies ate puffs to keep them from crawling away from their stockings. 

Opening stockings

The first present the babies opened consisted of Scarlett and Shayla stealing the bow from each other. AND this is why they only got a couple presents from us this year!! 

 Scarlett was a little better at opening the paper, but of course they went too slow and lost interest before getting inside. 

Eric got some practical presents from the girls, but at least he had no idea what he was getting. I really need to improve on my present-giving skills.

The girls had as good a Christmas as can be expected for 10 month olds. They play with all their toys so I consider it a success!!

 

Kinsey had a blast!! She loves this table from Grammy and Papa. Shayla started loving it too by climbing on top of it. 

 After breakfast and morning naps, we headed off to Grandma and Papa Walker's house for lunch and more presents. 

 Christmas #3 took a lot longer because there were so many dang presents. The babies weren't too impressed because it was their nap time. Haha. 

 But we enjoyed spending time with the Walker side...

and the girls loved seeing their cousins, as usual!

We hope everyone had a relaxing and happy Christmas too!

Christmas Eve Celebration

We moved the week before Christmas so our decorations were very simple and we had pretty much zero furniture. BUT, we were super excited to spend our first Christmas as a family of five in our FIRST house! 

All dressed up for Christmas Sunday.

Kinsey and I got our decorating on after church. We figured four days of decorations was better than nothing to get us in the Christmas spirit. She was a great helper, and much to my relief, we escaped another year of our tree and ornaments being attacked by baby hands. 

My sister's family stayed the night on the 23rd so Kinsey, Amora, and I made Christmas cookies. They didn't really turn out (still getting used to my new oven) but I'm sure Santa didn't mind some crispy cookies.  

Christmas Eve was dedicated to my side of the family. Since it was the babies' first Christmas, we had to attempt a mini photo shoot like the ones I see on Pinterest. Scarlett and Shayla weren't very smiley, but I still love any picture with my babies in it!

Scarlett

Shayla being silly with her hat

This is my favorite one!! Does anyone else love Christmas jammies as much as I do!?

 Here is the closest we got to their adorable smiles. 

 My mom, stepdad, and little brother came over on Christmas Eve morning and we ate some yummy breakfast. 

Adam was clearly VERY excited. 

 Then we opened presents!!

 Kinsey asked Santa for a pony this year, and she lucked out! My mom got her two My Little Pony items. It was a good thing she got two because she only likes one of them. Haha. She's silly. 

 

I made Snow White aprons for my nieces (thank you Pinterest). I wasn't sure what they would think of them, but Amora seemed pretty happy about it. She put it on immediately. WIN for Aunt Cindy. 

 My sister, Wendy, made the girls pillows for their rooms. Kinsey opened up the pillow then ran straight to her room to test it out. I think that was another WIN. 

 The twins did pretty good with opening their first present ever. They tore at the paper and eventually saw what was inside. Of course, Kinsey was there to help whenever they were taking too long. She's so thoughtful. 

We had a great Christmas #1 and enjoyed spending time with my family! If the toddler is happy, everyone is happy. 

Have a MERRY Christmas!

This past year has given us a lot to be thankful for. We gave birth to two beautiful baby girls, moved to Utah, and bought and renovated our first home!

Scarlett Rosalie and Shayla Hazel were born one minute apart on February 7th. They spent two weeks in the NICU while they learned how to eat and maintain their body temperatures. Both girls adore their big sister and love to follow her around the house and giggle at her jokes. Shayla started crawling at six months old and now enjoys getting into any drawer she can open. Scarlett loves her food and spends her time finding tiny stickers to put in her mouth (thank you Kinsey). The twins are a lot of fun and hard work, but we wouldn’t have it any other way. 

Kinsey’s personality grows stronger by the day. She loves her independence and refuses to be helped with tasks like washing her hands, closing the baby gate, and turning on lights. She loves attention and is an absolute grandma’s girl. Ever since Kinsey turned two in August, she has been talking up a storm, although she still stays pretty quiet during Sunday school. Kinsey is the total package—sweet, loving, funny, sensitive, shy, moody, and bossy all rolled into one!

Cindy has perfected the art of multi-tasking, thanks to the three kiddos. Although many days are exhausting, she loves having the opportunity to stay at home with the girls. The last few months Cindy has spent a lot of time managing the renovation schedule and shopping for the new house. When Cindy has a spare moment and isn’t trying to catch up on her sleep, she enjoys blogging and reading.  

Eric has had a big year. The first half of the year was spent juggling being a dad, a husband, and a student. He passed all his chiropractic national board exams and moved the family to Utah in June where he began an externship. Eric graduated with his doctorate in August and started working as a full-fledged chiropractor in September. He continues to attend weekend seminars and will earn the status of certified chiropractic sports physician next year. He also managed to find time to do the demolition and some electrical work for our house! 

Although it has been a busy and stressful year, we have been blessed with lots of love, laughter, and helping hands as we raise our three little girls. We expect much chaos next year with three toddlers running around the house, but we are excited to finally be settled in a home of our own. May the next year bring love and happiness to you all! 

Merry Christmas!

Love, 

Eric, Cindy, Kinsey, Scarlett, and Shayla

The Reality of Having Twins - 10 Months and 2 1/4 Years Old

Is it hard having twins? I get this question quite a bit, and to answer: it's twice the work. Obviously. But for the most part having twins is pretty straight forward. The hardest part is when they wake up at the same time in the middle of the night (they sleep through the other's cries more than half the time). When this happens I pick them both up, walk around for awhile, and put them back in their beds. This never works. They want food. But they are at the age where I am supposed to sleep train them and wean them off night feedings. 

They steal toys and pacifiers back and forth. 

But when two babies are crying, the weaning goes out the window and I nurse them both. After nursing I can usually put them both in their beds and they'll go back to sleep. Since I'm holding two babies, the first one I put down is kind of awkwardly dropped into her crib.  Sometimes the baby doesn't like that and will not go to sleep. Or sometimes Shayla finishes nursing earlier, as always, so I try to rush Scarlett and just take the food away. Scarlett doesn't like when this happens.

After stopping the food flow, I put the babies in their cribs. Let's say Shayla goes down okay but Scarlett is mad that she didn't get to finish eating. I then tend to Scarlett so she can finish eating. Well Shayla does NOT like this (she must be the last one I go to before leaving the room) so she stands up and starts crying for me. I put Scarlett down (she starts crying because I interrupted her again) and I pick up Shayla since she is the much louder cryer. I calm Shayla down and put her back in her crib. Scarlett is still crying but I can't go to her because if Shayla sees me do that then she'll get mad again and start crying. I have to walk away and hope they both stop crying. Which they usually don't for a very long time. And this is the hardest part about having twins. 

This is their favorite drawer in the kitchen. They love taking everything out of it.

But they are so dang cute that every second is worth it. Would I have another set of twins? Maybe. It would be nice to be able to love on just one baby and not worry about juggling them. I wish there was more of me to go around. We'll see what the future holds. 

They love playing with the water bottles. 

SCARLETT

Scarlett has had a great month! She is getting stronger at pulling herself up and standing. She now stands up in bed when she's ready to get out. 

Scarlett has the cutest little face that consists of scrunching her nose and blinking. When you blink at her, she'll blink back and make the face. It is so freaking cute!! Of course I can never get her to do it on camera. It almost makes up for the phase she is going through of screaming at the top of her lungs during meal time. SOOOOO annoying and loud. 

This little girl has been sleeping a lot lately. I've definitely noticed her gaining weight and feeling more dense when I hold her instead of feeling like a feather. She still loves to eat paper and seeks out tiny pieces on the floor. Scarlett and Shayla are both addicted to Puffs. I'm pretty sure they only eat their food so they can get Puffs afterwards. She likes standing in front of the heater and feeling it blow in her hair. Scarlett said Mama for the first and only time on Thanksgiving!! I'm pretty sure she was saying Papa (Grandpa) the other day too.  

She looks like a little girl kneeling like this. 

SHAYLA

Shayla is reaching higher and higher these days and can hold on to the top of the dining table. She makes her desires known by crawling right up to you and lifting her arms to be held. One of the cutest things she does is standing with her walking toy and then start walking. Ahhh she's growing up so fast! She took two steps the day before turning 10 months old. 

Shayla started waving the other week. It consists of opening and closing her fist. It's pretty adorable. Both girls are in the copying stage so they dance to music. Shayla sometimes claps when she sees me clap. 

Shayla loves looking at herself in the mirror. She gets jealous when I give Scarlett too much attention. Recently Shayla won't relax and let me sing her to sleep. It makes me sad. My ex-cuddle bug just pushes away from me like "just put me in my bed." I hope this is just a phase. But hey, I have another baby to cuddle, so that's something!

KINSEY

Kinsey's big milestone is sleeping in her big girl bed!! We transitioned her about a week ago. After the excitement wore off, she started napping in the bed, but naps are pretty hit or miss now. We've only had one night where she played for hours before falling asleep. Watch her adorable reaction to the bed here. 

She is a little mini-me. If I brush my hair or teeth then she must do the same. If I put on make-up then so does Kinsey. She even used crayon to do her make-up a couple times. One time I got out of the shower to find Kinsey wearing my make-up. Let's just say if you see a black spot on Kinsey's face then it's most likely not a bruise. Speaking of bruises, Kinsey is ADDICTED to bandaids. Whenever she gets an "owie" then she needs a bandaid. She believes bandaids are instant healers.

Cousin Addie came to visit for Thanksgiving. You'd think with two baby sisters Kinsey would have enough babies in her life, but NOPE! She LOVED Addie and wanted to hold her all the time. 

She's also pretty obsessed with her cousin, Christian. These two are two peas in a pod. 

Kinsey loves her books and I love seeing moments like this when she reads on her own. We have been trying to see what she wants for Christmas and all she has said yes to so far are bubbles and an iPad. Great. 

We're super excited for Christmas around here, as you can see!! Our house is about done and we'll be spending Christmas in it. I can't wait!