Stars and Stripes

Yesterday was extra exciting celebrating our great nation and the boys turning SEVEN months!!

Kaleb in stars, Aiden in stripes!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA AND HAPPY SEVEN MONTH BIRTHDAY K&A!

Our home scale is not working properly, so weights are a rough guesstimate at this point.  Mr. Kaleb weighs approximately 16 pounds 4 ounces and Mr. Aiden 17 pounds 6 ounces.

Milestones:
Kaleb consistently sleeps through the night, and a couple nights a week Aiden does the same.  Last night I was shocked they slept through every firework boom!

The boys are still slightly off balance, but are basically sitting on their own!

We are SO happy to be home after our vacation and have settled back into our wonderful routine.  Babies (and Mama) love routine!!  Geno clearly missed the boys and is all about head knocking them and laying close by.  Pretty cute.

This past week we transformed our upstairs living space to a fun-filled play area.  The boys are totally digging all the free space.  We have daily dance parties and wrestle with their water dragons, who also keep them safe!

Besides upgrading our play area, we've also upgraded to highchairs!  Finally something to help keep my guys still.  Aiden climbs the twinz pillow like it's great Mt. Texas and escapes in seconds....and Kaleb flips upside down like it's his job! 

K on Left, A on Right.

The boys love watermelon, bananas and seem undecided with carrots.  We'll see how they do on Monday with homemade sweet potato!  I'm in love with making baby food.  It's SO fun and I can't wait to experiment as their food palette grows.

In no time at all the boys will be able to giggle and enjoy the silliness of my "special" holiday meals, and enjoy all the baked goods I seem to have constantly sitting around the kitchen!

Red White and Blue Pancake Breakfast!

All the cupcakes disappeared SO quickly yesterday, and since I made a huge batch of buttercream icing, another cake is currently brewing in the oven :)  The house smells like birthday two days in a row!

Charleston Vacation

We had a serious blast on our first family beach vacation in Charleston, SC.  What a charming, historic and beautiful place to visit!

Loved our Southern Beach House!  Wrap around porches are my favorite!

The boys got to feel the ocean waves, smell the salty air,

Beach walk with the boys.  Aiden looking VERY stylish!

and put their toes in the sand for the first time!

AJ's sandy toes!

Kaleb is a totally cool dude!  Thanks Auntie Julia for lending us those super awesome goggle sunglasses!

We managed with a crazy messy schedule and did really well sharing a room with the boys for the week. Kaleb and Aiden had a ton of fun playing with their cousins.

Kaleb even got Teddy to suck on his fingers, haha.

Chloe and Sophie are the BEST, most HELPFUL big cousins EVER!  I don't think we would have survived the week without them!

Cousin totem!

Being with family is the best thing in the world and I seriously hate living so far away!  Some favorite memories of this trip include witnessing Will do a crazy awesome SILENT (don't wake the 4 sleeping babies) stomping happy dance when the Hawks won the Stanley Cup!  Watching the sunrise on the beach,

Swimming on the rooftop,

And ultimately lounging with family for an entire week.

Can't wait to do this again...when the babies are older.  Our adventures with the twin cousins will only become more humorous.  As long as Chloe and Sophie are around I think we'll all be just fine!

Thanks to everyone for a GREAT trip!  Love and Miss you all!!

Happy JULY!

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day!
Also, Happy Birthday to my MaMa!  The prettiest princess in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD!
And, Happy Birthday to my gorgeous niece numero uno Chloe Lyn!!

It's been a good weekend with lots to celebrate.  For the first time in 6 month's Keith and I went out solo to celebrate our 4 year anniversary.  I put the boys to bed and we left for a late dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.  The pediatrician recommended we introduce a "calming" object at bedtime....so the boys are now sleeping with their little owl and elephant.  Kaleb has been sleeping through the night, and holds onto a blanket, but he likes the owl too!  

Fathers Day was a happy day full of sunshine!  I skipped my morning nap to make french toast, bacon and fruit salad for breakfast.  Dinner was just as delicious with steak kabobs on the grill.

It's SO hot here, and the boys sweat too much in their car seats, so for the first time I buckled them into the stroller like big boys. I think they like the new view better anyways!

Speaking of big boys, I finally kicked the baby bath sling.  Not sure what the heck took me so long!  The boys splash and throw their arms and legs around in the tub now.  It's pretty fun!

Aiden is officially crawling backwards.  If he wants to go forward or sideways he rolls to his destination.  Both our guys are great at doing 360's.

Kaleb is superman.  Seriously, he FLYS as often as possible...which seems to be about every 3 seconds.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!
Countdown to family vaca.....6.more.days.

6 Month Milestones

K&A had a great checkup today with our FAVORITE pediatrician!  It's been a six month battle to get an appointment with him, but finally it worked out!  He was in shock and awe at how the boys have grown.  The last time he saw them was the day he bid us farewell standing in the NICU, when both boys were a teeny 4 pounds.

Today Kaleb weighs 15 pounds 8 ounces and measures 25 1/4 inches long!
Aiden weighs 16 pounds 2 ounces and measures 25.5 inches!

The boys are within the 20% percentile for a 6month baby, which is great considering they were born a month early.

Other milestones:  Aiden's first tooth is about to bust through!!!  We can see the start of it on the bottom right gum.  He is being such a trooper and getting familiar with sophie the giraffe.

The boys are also enjoying oatmeal and bananas twice a day!!  I'm going to start veggies in the next week or two.

Happy birthday to their Grandpa Rickel too!  Hope you've enjoyed your day today!
Hugs and Kisses

Half Birthday

HAPPY SIX MONTH BIRTHDAY BOYS!

Has half a year seriously passed by already?
I can't help but ponder....why am I surprised time has passed so quickly?
I was AWAKE for most of it!  Jeesh.

Aiden in the zip sweater, Kaboom in button shirt & vest

I've been SO excited to see the boys wear these outfits...gifted by wonderful friends currently living in Germany.  Thanks Rian and Stacey!


Sadly the boys couldn't strut their stuff for too long, since we're closing in on 100 degree days.  The clothes are still a little big (yay, room to grow) and on cooler days we'll dress up again.


We go for the 6-month health and wellness checkup (and dreaded shots) on the 10th and will add height and weight stats.

Aiden rocks on his hands and knees now....crawling will follow at any second, I swear.  If he isn't rocking he is working extra hard to sit up and look around!


AJ loving the sit-up view!  Twinz pillow makes an awesome support for this stage!

Kaleb is quite content tugging on his toes.

Below are some typical daily Kaleb shenanigans.

 Hope you enjoy the belly laugh....cause he thinks he's HILARIOUS.

Oh, and Cheers!!!  It's my 50th post :)