Heading to MoTown

We will be on our way to Morgantown tomorrow morning for the Backyard Brawl against Pittsburgh! We are so excited especially because Dominic and I are going by ourselves without kids. Yeah! We are going to FREEZE at the game though. It doesn't start until 7:45 p.m. Yikes! I'm sure glad we have lots of WVU gear to keep us warm.

Sorry but I don't have time to post anything else. I'll post pictures of Lenny helping decorate the Christmas tree when we get back.

I hope we win!!

We Got Our Christmas Tree

I would like to start by saying that our thoughts and prayers go out to the family of Sean Taylor, Washington Redskins safety, who passed away this morning at age 24. And to his little girl who will grow up without him. I'm so sad to think about what the family is going through at a time like this. It's so tragic.

On a better note, we got our Christmas tree today. I love picking out the tree but it always takes us a long time. I don't understand why we are so picky because it always looks the same each year after we get all of our decorations on it.

I will always remember as a kid going to buy our tree at the high school from the FFA (Future Farmers of America for anyone who doesn't know). Mom always took forever to decide. We would be freezing in the snow and she was still deciding. I completely understand why now. I do the same thing except for not in the snow.

Here is a picture at the Christmas tree lot.

And a picture of the kids sitting on the tree in the yard when we got home.

We will hopefully get it decorated tomorrow night. I'm so excited!

Nathan walks all the time now. He will crawl once in a while but he pretty much walks everywhere. He is always doing something silly and you never know what it is going to be next. He used to put the kitchen towel on his head and crawl all over the place. Now he does the same thing when he is walking. It doesn't even have to be the kitchen towel, it can be clothes, a blanket, the towel, or anything. He picks it up and throws it on top of his head and starts walking. Most of the time he can't even see where he is going. It's hilarious to watch him. He doesn't even care if he bumps into the wall.

Today I got a baby blanket out to show Brooke how to wrap her doll in it. Well, Nathan found a better use for it.

It started to fall off so he had to reposition it. Silly boy!


It is so cute to watch Lenny entertain his brother and sister. He can ALWAYS make them laugh. He doesn't even have to do anything that funny. Below is a video of Brooke laughing at Lenny flipping around in circles on the kitchen floor. The loud laughing at the beginning is Lenny trying to get Brooke to laugh.




From the Mouth of a Three Year Old

Lenny is a little joker these days. This evening Lenny was taking a bath and I was standing at the door trying to keep the babies out of the bathroom. Lenny was playing with a Thomas toy in the tub and had it under the bubbles and water. Lenny said, "Thomas is under the sea." And then he made me look at Thomas. Then he said, "If Thomas doesn't get out, he'll turn into a fish." I said, "He will". And then Lenny said, "Look at Thomas." I turned to look and Lenny had a fish in his hand. He was smiling when I looked at it. He thinks he is funny.

Way To Go WVU!

Lots of updates for this post. First, I would like to say...Way to go WVU! I love our football team and it gives me great pride to say that I am a Mountaineer. Currently ranked number 2 (should be #1 but we'll prove that later) we are on our way to a national championship game providing we beat Pittsburgh next weekend. And Dominic and I will be at the game Saturday cheering on our team! We are going to the 100th Backyard Brawl! Thanks to my sister, Kristi, for scoring us some awesome seats. She's the one that can always get us tickets to the games. She also keeps Dominic stocked with WVU things for his office. Thanks sis! We'll see you next weekend! And, thanks to my mom for agreeing to watch all three of the kids at her house overnight while we go to the game and stay with Kristi. She's a brave woman, I tell you that!

Birthday Dinner

We decided to take the kids to dinner on Brooke and Nathan's birthday. We went to Outback and had a great time. They thought they were so cool sitting there with their sippy cups and entertaining people around us. Brooke worked one side of the room and had them smiling and laughing while Nathan did the same for the other side of the room. It was so cute! The wait staff even brought each of them out a big ice cream with a candle on it and sang happy birthday to them. Brooke and Nathan didn't know what to think. And Lenny loved it too.

Brooke and Nathan chowed down on some bread, green beans, garlic mashed potatoes, and of course some ice cream. They loved it. Lenny was being a picky eater that night and only ate some of our salads, some steak, and the ice cream. I can always guarantee that he will eat a salad, lettuce and all. He's loved them since before he turned two years old.

The pictures are very fuzzy because the lens had a fingerprint on it. I didn't realize what the problem was until we got home.


Thanksgiving Day

We had a wonderful and busy Thanksgiving. Dominic and Lenny worked (and played) some outside on the yard since it was such a beautiful day. I made my dish for Thanksgiving dinner and made a small centerpiece for the dinner table. I used our leftover pumpkin shaped gourds, cleaned the inside out and added some fresh cut mums, Lenny helped with the flowers. He was so excited to give this to Nunny. He carried it in to her so proud.

On the way to Denny and Gloria's for Thanksgiving dinner, we stopped by the firehouse to visit our friend Dennis, who is a firefighter in northern Virginia and had to work that day. Dennis and Dominic have been friends their entire life. They lived down the street from each other. I was so excited for Lenny to see the firehouse and Dennis. Lenny fell asleep in the van on the way there so was still kind of sleepy. And to top it off, he was afraid of the firetrucks. I couldn't believe it. Brooke, our girl, was the first one brave enough to sit in the seat of the fire truck. Nathan eventually did too but Lenny wouldn't do it.

Don't the kids look real happy in the picture below? At least Dominic and I were. Thanks, Dennis, for showing us around the firehouse. Dominic and I enjoyed it.

We then headed to Denny and Gloria's for Thanksgiving dinner. We had a great time and lots of great food. Believe it or not, I didn't get any good pictures of us at the dinner table. I'm hoping that Gloria got some. Thanks for an awesome dinner!

Here's a good picture of Brooke and Uncle Chip. Brooke was just getting ready to grab his glasses. She had them shortly after the picture was snapped.

You can tell by the look on her face that she's getting ready to snag them. She's terrible about grabbing things. She's so quick about it that Dominic teases and says that he thinks she would be able to grab a fly in mid air.

One Year Well Baby Checkup

The babies had their one year check up today. I guess I can no longer call them babies now that they are one. They are still my babies though. Dominic stayed home with Lenny while I took Brooke and Nathan to their appointment. They did great today. I felt so bad for them though because they each got four shots (two in each leg) and they each got a finger prick. That's a lot of shots and finger pricks in one day. I wanted to cry myself when they started crying. It was so sad. I always hated that part with Lenny too.

Here are their measurements and the percentile:

Brooke:
Weight--19 pounds 2 ounces (23 %)
Height--27 3/4 (20%)
Head circumference--44 1/2 centimeters (40%)

Nathan:
Weight--23 pounds (60%)
Height--29 1/4 (40%)
Head circumference--46 1/2 (55%)

Brooke is still much farther behind than Nathan. But they have come a long way since the less than 5% that they received on everything at birth. And Brooke just jumped up to the 10th percentile on a few things at the 9 month checkup. Their doctor said that with premies, they usually catch up in their weight first and then they start catching up in their height.

I was curious about what Lenny was at this age so I looked it up:

Lenny weighed 22 pounds 6 ounces (49%), height was 30 inches (51%) and head circumference was 18 1/2 inches (75%)

Nathan weighs more than Lenny did at this age.

They missed their morning nap since we were at the doctor appointment and they were so tired. But by the time we got home, they were ready to play. At lunch time, I put them in their highchairs while I got lunch ready then I turned around to give it to them and Brooke was sound asleep and Nathan was almost asleep. They were really tired. Maybe they'll take a nice long afternoon nap.

From the Mouth of a Thirty Six Year Old?

Yes, this is a story about Dominic. It was very funny and I had to share it. When we eat lunch and dinner, we always lock Daisy out of the kitchen. We were finished with lunch yesterday and Daisy was reminding us to let her in but we were still cleaning the kitchen. She had barked several times when Dominic looked at her and said, "Daisy, that's enough barking. You are making us mad by barking. For each bark that's going to be five minutes." Sounds like a good concept but Daisy just ignored him.

My Babies Are One Today

Happy Birthday Brooke and Nathan! It's so hard to believe that they are one year old today.

This picture was taken yesterday.

I remember the day just like it was yesterday. I still had four weeks until my due date but I was already going for weekly ultrasounds at one hospital and weekly non stress tests at another hospital. There weren't any perinatologists at the hospital I was going to deliver the babies at and I needed to see a peri for the ultrasounds since they are specialized with high risk pregnancies. I was considered high risk because I was carrying twins.

On Monday I had an ultrasound and the babies did not pass one part of the biophysical profile. They weren't moving as much as the doctor would like to see at that stage. I already had an appointment with my OB/GYN for the next morning so the peri told me to discuss it with my doctor to see what they would like to do.

The next day, Tuesday, my doctor ordered another ultrasound for that afternoon. I already had a nonstress test scheduled for that afternoon so they set up an ultrasound at the same hospital immediately following the non stress test.

While I was at the nonstress test, the babies again weren't moving like they like to see. And I was also having some contractions. The nurses weren't able to complete the non stress test before my ultrasound appointment so they told me to come back after the ultrasound. Thank goodness this was all in the same place. I went to the ultrasound and we had the same results as the one the day before. While I was having the ultrasound, a nurse came in and told me that I should go straight to labor and delivery for the nonstress test since the office was closed and I would need to be monitored there.

As soon as the ultrasound was finished, I called Dominic and told him not to head home from work and asked if he could meet me at the hospital in case they would induce me then. At that point, I was thinking that they probably would. Dominic said that he was already on his way to the hospital. He had the same feeling that I did and luckily he works right down the street from the hospital.

Dominic and I arrived at labor and delivery at the same time. They hooked me up to all the machines and with two babies, that's a lot of wires. I remember not liking the nonstress tests because they were so difficult with two babies. We would get the heart rate on one baby and then would have problems getting the other one. We would find that one and then would lose the other. Whew.

I was still having contractions so they gave me something to stop them. The nurse called my doctor that was on call to let her know what was going on. The nurse came back and asked us what we thought about having the babies at about 9 p.m. We couldn't believe it, that was just an hour away. We were so excited and nervous. Luckily, Lenny was already spending the night with Nunny and Papoo. That worked out perfectly. Dominic called my mom and she left for the hospital. She's about an hour and a half away. Dominic's dad also left for the hospital right away.

I knew that I was going to have a c-section because Nathan was breech. He was causing me problems already. Dominic was getting ready to come in to the operating room but at the last minute wasn't able to because my epidural didn't work and they had to knock me out completely. I was able to feel everything they were doing until they knocked me out. Whatever they gave me was terrible, I was having hallucinations. I remember waking up crying because I was so scared. I couldn't watch the movie Madagascar for a while after that because I saw the same craziness that Alex the Lion saw when they knocked him out. The nurse later told us that it was acid. Why in the heck did they give me that. It was terrible.

Dominic met our little ones without me for the first time. He also found out about Brooke's cleft lip and palate without me. I was still half out of it and loopy from the morphine but I still remember Dominic telling me about our sweet little Brooke. But the minute I saw her, it didn't matter one bit. She was our precious little girl and she was so beautiful. Her skin color was just like mine when I was born. She looked like she had a tan. It's really noticeable in the pictures of her and Nathan together. And Nathan, looked just as ornery as I had imagined. From day one, I laughed when I looked at his sweet little face. There is something about him that just makes you laugh.

Brooke was born first and weighed 5 pounds 4 1/2 ounces and Nathan weighed 6 pounds 1 ounce.

We were so lucky that neither of them had to spend any time in the NICU. That's wonderful for being four weeks early and twins. The only thing holding us up from leaving the hospital was me. Imagine that. I was having problems with my blood pressure. I ended up having to take blood pressure medicine for about a month.

And now, Brooke and Nathan are one. It's just so amazing to me. I really didn't think I would make it through the first three months. After we made it past that, it got a little easier. Then at six months everything changed and life was easier again. I'm loving it now that they interact with each other and with Lenny. It is so sweet.

Here are some pictures of them together from the past year. I will post individual pictures later this week.

Just minutes after they were born. Luckily, we had a wonderful nurse that took some pictures of them for us in the operating room.

Just a few days old.

Almost one month old.

Two months old. Brooke is wearing her NAM appliance in this picture. She had to wear it 24/7 for almost three months. It had to be changed and cleaned several times a day. And the poor little thing had a blocked tear duct until she was six months old. It made her left eye look terrible.

Three months old. This picture was taken exactly one week after Brooke's lip (and nose) surgery. She still had to wear the arm restraints called "no no's" so that she wouldn't put anything in her mouth.

Four months old.

Six months old.

Seven months old with brother Lenny.

Eight months old.

Eight months old with Daddy in the hotel room at Nags Head.

Nine months old.

Ten months old swimming in the pool with Lenny and Mommy.

Ten months old.

Eleven months old at Meemaw's house. I think they are probably doing something they aren't supposed to and Nathan is telling me not to tell Meemaw.

This past year has really pushed us to our limit but we have survived! It's been wonderful to watch them grow and learn. I look at some of the pictures and it's hard for me to remember when they were that tiny. I'm so happy, lucky, and blessed to have three beautiful children.

Clowning Around

Brooke and Nathan had their first birthday party this weekend! It was a lot of fun. We had circus themed food with popcorn, nutter butter cookies for the peanuts, apples with caramel dip for the caramel apples, pretzels, and some other things that are not circus related but were more filling.

Brooke was hanging out with Papoo for a while. She loves her Papoo.

Here is a picture of Brooke, Nathan, and Lenny with all of their cousins. In the back row from the left is Anthony-Glen, Aleah, Kiana, Anthony, Catherine. And in the front is Brooke, Lenny, and Nathan.

After the food, we had the cake. Brooke and Nathan each had their own cake with a clown and balloons on them. Nathan did not realize yet that he had his own cake. He was too interested in looking at Brooke's.

Brooke got her first swipe of icing. Nathan got his shortly after.

They both loved eating their cake. They sure were a mess when they were done.

After the cake, we had a special guest.

Brooke wasn't too sure about the clown. Here, Aunt Kristi is trying to get Brooke to touch the clown's nose.

Nathan was really afraid of the clown. Can you tell by his face in this picture. My mom likes this picture. She said it is hard to tell which one is the clown. Sorry Dominic.

After scaring the babies, squirting Lenny and Anthony-Glen with the big bow tie, and clowning around, it was time for the clown to go.

We then moved on to presents. Of course, Lenny had to show his brother and sister how it is done. Nathan was still recovering from seeing the clown. Brooke on the other hand loved opening the presents.

Here is Nathan with his Uncle Robbie.

Here I am with my babies that are no longer babies. I still can't believe they will be one year old on Wednesday.

When the presents were all opened, it was time for some animal balloons and favor bags. The bags included things such as silly string, silly putty, silly straws, slinky's and a few other things.

Kiana is showing us the giraffe balloon that Uncle Dominic made for her.

We had such a great time. It was so nice to get everyone together. We'll be doing it all again in February for Lenny's birthday.

Oh, and for anyone that is curious. Who do you think the clown was?


I'll give you a hint. She's in the picture above and it wasn't Brooke. Yes, my Mom. I'm starting to get a little worried about her and the costumes lately.

She was an awesome clown! I told her today that she's in the wrong profession. Thanks Mom for acting silly for your grandkids. I know you felt terrible that they were scared but you were still great.

Turkey Day Party

Lenny is a busy little party go-er. I took him to a Turkey Day party yesterday at the county parks and recreation center. They always do such a nice job at the rec center, I enjoy taking Lenny. He had a lot of fun this time. It was very rainy but we still went and we arrived at exactly 10 a.m. when the party was supposed to start. We were the first ones there and the staff were happy that they were still going to be able to have a party. Shortly after, more kids showed up and there were about ten kids there total.

They told stories, sang songs, made crafts, and played games.Lenny was supposed to be standing inside the hula hoop, not trying to play with it. He soon figured that out.

Lenny was always the first one in the circle for the stories and songs. This time we had to make five little turkeys to put on a stick for the song. He was done with the turkeys and in the circle ready to sing a song.

More fun games with prizes.

Thank you to Gloria for watching Brooke and Nathan for me so that Lenny could go by himself. I know they had fun with Nunny.

On Tuesday we had a pot luck Thanksgiving lunch to go to but we didn't make it there. Things were not working out for us that day. It started with my fall down the stairs. Yes, it finally happened. I've been wondering when that would happen when I was carrying one of the babies downstairs. It was at about 6:30 a.m., I was carrying Nathan down and Lenny was walking down beside me. My foot slipped and I went sliding down the stairs. I finally stopped half way down. Believe it or not, I hung on to Nathan and didn't wipe Lenny out on the way. I was thankful for that. My leg is sore and bruised but other than that, I'm ok.

Later that morning, I was getting ready to make my dish for the potluck and realized that we were out of eggs. I needed them but there was no way that I would have time to load up the kids, go to the store, buy the eggs, make the dish, and make it in time for the luncheon. So, at that point I decided that we were just going to stay home for the day.

I knew at 6:30 that morning that it probably wasn't going to be a good day. You know that saying, "when it rains, it pours".

We are getting ready for Brooke and Nathan's birthday party on Saturday and are looking forward to seeing the family. I probably won't post again until Monday.

Here's a picture of Lenny after he ate an airhead from his Halloween bucket. He loved that his tongue was blue. We are still working our way through the candy. I'll be glad when it is all gone.

Everybody Say Cheese

Today we had the kids pictures taken for our Christmas cards. This year we went to a different studio and I'm not as happy about them as I have been in the past. I think they try to fit too many people in and they don't leave enough time to really work with you. Dominic and I would have been able to get the babies to smile better than they did. Oh well. I do really like the individual pictures though so that's a plus. It's starting to feel more like Christmas is around the corner now that we had the pictures taken.

For those who might be wondering, I decided not to get Nathan's hair cut for the pictures. I'm glad that I didn't get it cut. We'll do that sometime after his birthday.

Saturday was a day to work around the house. Dominic and Lenny cleaned the back yard. Here they are getting the trailer loaded with leaves, pine needles, and a tree from our yard to take to the dump. Lenny loves to ride to the dump with Daddy. Kids get a kick out of the silliest things.

Brooke noticed that Lenny and Daddy were outside and had to watch them from the family room. She kept banging on the door to try to get their attention.

She did get the attention of Nathan. He heard the banging and thought that was his calling. So he joined in. He is so much bigger than Brooke it's hard to believe they are twins.

Here he is walking to me. He gets so excited as he gets closer to me and then he starts to fall. He has worked on that over the weekend and he does a great job walking now. He can now walk all the way from one end of the kitchen to the other.

I just had to add this picture. Dominic will probably shoot me for this one. :-) He has had this hat for years. Before we had kids, Daisy was our kid and she got this for Dominic one year for Christmas so that his ears wouldn't get cold when he took her outside to pee. Lenny saw him with it on this weekend and said, "Mommy, look at Daddy's hat." He was laughing at it. Dominic did say recently that the hat is getting old and he will need a new one soon. I guess Daisy should get out there and do some shopping.

When Dominic and Lenny were finally done working and playing in the yard, I took a few hours to go shopping for the babies birthday party. I still can't believe they will be one soon. We are having a small party for them with a circus theme. It should be cute. I don't know but I think I've heard buzz that there may even be a clown present.

Sunday was an uneventful day for me. I was sick and feeling a little under the weather so the kids and I didn't do too much of anything. Dominic was at the Redskins game so I think he was feeling kind of sick himself by the end.

Hopefully we will all feel good next weekend.

From the Mouth of a Three Year Old

After the lady was finished taking the group pictures of the kids today, she started taking the individual pictures of Lenny. She had taken a few nice ones and then she said, "OK. Now I would like to get a head shot." Lenny immediately said, "No, I don't want a head shot." I thought he was going to cry. He hasn't forgotten that flu shot yet. Poor guy. He was OK after we explained to him that he wasn't getting a shot.

Having Fun With Our Big Brother

All three of the kids were wound up this evening, especially Lenny. Whew. I don't know what got in to them. Lenny and Brooke were jumping around all over Dominic while Nathan was climbing all over me. Then they started playing together and acting silly.

Lenny can always make Brooke laugh harder than anyone else. It's very funny to watch them. Here Lenny is rubbing his head back and forth on her belly to make her laugh. She loved it.
And of course he was also playing with Nathan. It doesn't look like much fun to me but Nathan was laughing the entire time. We often need to remind Lenny to be gentle.

This is how Brooke carries things from one place to another. She crawls away with it and then turns to sit on her bottom. I need to get a picture of her while she is crawling with it in her mouth. Nathan just carries things in his hand and bangs it on the floor. He thinks that is half the fun.

Nathan is walking a lot now. It's so much fun to watch his face as he is walking around. He looks so proud. He's doing great and tries to walk everywhere.

I will be sad when he stops crawling though. I love to watch both of them crawling because they are completely different. It's like night and day. Nathan puts his head down like he's ready to charge and then crawls super fast. While Brooke on the other hand, is so poised and graceful when she crawls. Her head is straight up in the air like she's modeling on a runway or something. It takes her a long time to get where she is going but if she does want to get somewhere fast, she can do that too.

We often joke about Brooke crawling so slow. When I have gotten something out of the pantry before, Dominic warns me that Brooke is on her way to the pantry but also says that I shouldn't worry because it will take her a long time to get there. And that's true. With Nathan, there isn't even time for a warning.

Yesterday was a fun day for all of us. Gloria came to visit and we all went to the mall. I've only ventured out to the mall with all three kids by myself a handful of times. If I had a triple stroller and could put Lenny in with the babies it would be much easier. But who wants to push a triple stroller around. Not me. And the mall is the last place that Dominic would want to go. It was nice to have someone to go with and between me and Gloria, it was much easier. We had a great time and Nunny bought some clothes for the kids too. That's always nice.

From the Mouth of a Three Year Old

Ahh, Christmas time. I love it. And now, Lenny loves it too. He really understands it this year and that is very exciting for us. But that also means that he now needs every toy on TV. At least that's what he says. I now know and understand what our parents went through. For every toy commercial I hear, "I need to get that. Maybe Santa Claus will get it for me." If it's a toy for girls, he says that Brooke needs that. And any toy for babies, Nathan needs. At least he is thinking of his brother and sister too.