The Boys

Evan Tyler - Dec 29 - 8:41 AM - 6 lbs 7 oz - 18 inches
Aidan James - Dec 29 - 8:42 AM - 5 lbs 11 oz - 18 inches

Thanks to JT...

2 Year Check Up

Katelynn had her two year check up today. Same old, same old: tall and skinny with a big head. :)

Weight: 23 lbs 4 oz, 9th percentile
Height: 34.25 inches, 62nd percentile
Head: 19.09 inches, 76th percentile

Three More Days

My c-section has been scheduled for Tuesday, December 29th. For sure this time! Check back later next week for pics of the boys.

Happy Birthday!

Katelynn is two years old today! Can you believe it??? She is amazing and growing up so fast. Her language skills continue to impress me, and I'm sure her vocabulary is several hundred words. She currently likes to give out orders like "Mommy do it" or "Go away uncle." She also has a good independent streak going: she wants to dress and undress herself, take herself to the bathroom, put away the dishes, etc. Now if only I could get her to want to clean up her toys!
Katelynn has learned all of her basic colors and has been working on counting. She is also interested in the alphabet, and she frequently says "ABCDLMNOP" when she sees letters. You can tell her attention span is growing too because she'll request and sit through much longer books. She still loves music and loves to sing. She is currently obsessed with Barney's "I Love You" song. She also likes Twinkle Twinkle, The Itsy Bitsy Spider, and Christmas music. It's super cute to listen to her serenade herself to sleep.
We have her 2-year check-up next Monday and we'll find out how much she weighs and how tall she is then. I'm sure she's met all of her developmental milestones, but she still is not a huge fan of eating. Pizza and mac & cheese seem to be the staples of her diet. Her top two canine teeth finally both popped through this month, so she now has 16 teeth! Four more molars and then we should be done with teething for a few years. Time for me to make her a dentist appointment.
Katelynn has been gearing up for the arrival of her brothers by playing with all of their toys. A couple of days ago, she got a baby doll and a stroller to push around. She proceeded to put the doll up her shirt so that she could be pregnant too! Thanks the delay in the twin's birth, we got to spend today with Katelynn instead of in the hospital. Tucker, JT, and I took her to Chuck-E-Cheese for lunch and she enjoyed it. We had a carrot cake after dinner to celebrate, but she was not a fan of the flavor!Katelynn, thank you for an awesome two years. I'm looking forward to watching you grow and change over the next twelve months!

Not Today

Um... change of plans... no babies today. My labs, non-stress test, etc, were looking good today so they want me to try to hang in there for a little while longer. We may not get those Christmas babies after all.

Pregnancy Update

For those of you who aren't on Facebook, it looks like we're having a c-section on Sunday December 20th! The pregnancy has gotten a little complicated with preeclampsia and severe hip pain. We'll be most 36 weeks by then (which is average for twins) and the boys are both estimated to be over 6 pounds already. So it's time to come out. Their birthday will be just one day off from Katelynn's! Family of five here we come.

Abbie's Birthday

Two weekends ago, Katelynn got her first experience at Chuck E Cheese. That place was a little overwhelming to me on a Sunday afternoon, but the kids sure had fun. Abbie (Katelynn's cousin) turned 7, and not only did we get to celebrate her birthday, but we got to see a bunch of Katelynn's other relatives too, including her birthmom Tonia, her sister Makayla, and her grandma Pam. The lighting wasn't the greatest, but here are some our best photos...

Grandma Pam, Katelynn, Tonia

Katelynn and ToniaSisters

Tonia, Makayla, and Katelynn

Miss Abbie - The Birthday Girl

Makayla and Katelynn climbing in the slide

Tonia helping Katelynn ride with Barney

Grandma and Grandpa

Back in the first weekend of November, Grandma Sue and Grandpa Ben came for a visit. Katelynn had a great time playing with them. She even got BOTH of them to give her a ride on their backs like a horse! Grandma and Grandpa also helped us get a van for our expanding family and Katelynn is very excited that it's green (her favorite color). We can't wait to see them again at Christmas.

23 Months

Ugh, I am so behind in posting, but I'll have to back track later! Katelynn is 23 months old today. I can't believe she'll be two in a month. Katelynn continues to be very talkative and surprises us all the time with words and phrases she says. She is still obsessed with monsters, but she has started to learn about Christmas and Santa and is beginning to recognize those things when we are out. She is doing well with learning her colors, and we've started working on some counting. This weekend, she started singing the ABC song to us, which we've never tried to teach her. She must have picked it up from the daycare at the gym. She's also started watching some movies, and her favorite so far is Monsters Inc. The big news of the month is that we started potty training and she is doing so well. She hardly ever has accidents at home and we are about to start venturing out more in big kid underwear. (She picked out some horse, Dora, and Elmo ones.) Hopefully she'll have it all down before the boys come. We've enjoyed visits from Grandma Sue and Grandpa Ben this month, and we got to see a bunch of Katelynn's relatives at her cousin's birthday party, but those will come soon!

Pumpkin Patch

So this post is long over due, but the weekend before Halloween, we visited the pumpkin patch. Here's my cutie trying to find a good one.

Tickling Uncle JT

"Cheese"

There were lots of animals to see too. Apparently this horse was a little hungry because it bit Katelynn's hand. It was a little traumatizing and now she says "Neigh bite!" whenever we talk about a horse.

Aren't we cute.

I'm not sure their chart is measuring just right because she was almost three feet at the last doctor visit.

Last Year...

... was much better weather!

Halloween Party Yesterday

22 Months

Katelynn turned 22 months old on Wednesday. I forgot to take her picture and realized it 5 minutes after putting her to bed, so I got her back up and did a quick snap. Thus, Katelynn is in her "meow jamas" as she likes to call them, and the lighting is horrible. The picture at the bottom is from the next day. Much better. :)

Katelynn's bottom left canine is all the way in, and the right one is almost completely grown. I don’t think the top two have popped through yet, but she is not very cooperative when I try to check, so I’m not sure. I think Katelynn’s new favorite food is an ice cream cone. We get them sometimes when we go by McDonald’s, and now every time we drive by she asks for one!

Katelynn continues to be very verbal and uses lots of three words phrases. Right now she is obsessed with pumpkins and monsters, and she loves visiting Target to see the Halloween decorations. She is still working on her colors and has blue, green, and pink down; and sometimes she gets yellow, orange, and red correct. She also continues to be very active, and people always comment on how we have a gymnast or an athlete on our hands. She’s a bold climber, and loves to jump, do somersaults, and do the splits. She can climb in the pack-n-play without help, and I'm sure she'll be climbing out of her crib in no time.

22 months +1 day

The Boys

We had another ultrasound yesterday to check on the twins. Everything is going well.

Evan Tyler (Head is on the right)

Aidan James (His head is on the right,
with his hand coming up to his mouth)

Recent Photos

Curious and cute.

Katelynn's first experience with sidewalk chalk.

Always a daredevil. Her latest motor accomplishments have included somersaults, jumping, and doing the splits.

Katelynn has taken after me in her love of ice cream.

In other family news, the twins are doing good. They are moving a lot lately, and I'm expecting Evan to be the more active boy based on how much they kick. We have another ultrasound on the 16th to see how big they are getting, but judging by the size of my belly they are doing just fine. Katelynn has been pretty excited to see baby equipment (car seat, swing, bouncers, etc) return to the house. Hopefully she won't mind it in three months when she has to share them with her brothers!

21 Months

Little Miss Kate is 21 months old today (and as cute as ever)! She continues to talk up a storm and use lots of three word phrases. Some of her new big words are necklace, ambulance, and curtains. We've started to work on learning colors, and she's decided she loves the color green. She always wants the green spoon, the green straw, the green fruit loops, etc. Katelynn also loves vehicals of all sorts. She loves to point out airplanes, buses, tractors, etc, and she is especially eager for Tuesday mornings when the garbage trucks come through. Lately I've been amazed at her memory. Sometimes when I get home from work, she'll tell me about going on a walk with dada and uncle. She's even started remembering her friends' names and will say them when we drive by places we've hung out with them at. We're trying to get her to learn the twin's names, but whenever I bring it up, she just says "Max, Max" over and over. Aparently he is her favorite friend.

She continues to love cereal and mac & cheese, and she recently started liking blueberries a lot. Her bottom right canine tooth finally popped through. I'm not sure about the top ones because she just bites now when we try to feel her teeth. We're in the earliest stages of potty training as she is starting to express lots of interest in it. We put her on a few times a day and sometimes she goes. One of these days we're going to have to get serious about it so we can get her trained before the boys arrive.

Dinner

A couple of weeks ago, Katelynn's Aunt Stephanie, Aunt Jocelyn, and Cousin Abbie came over for dinner at our new house. We ate some good brats and hot dogs off the grill, and Katelynn had a good time showing off for her relatives!

The cousins...

Stephanie, Katelynn, Abbie, and Jocelyn

Similar photo from about a year ago.

Thanks for helping us break in our new place!

Photos

A is Evan. B is Aidan.

Evan Tyler

Aidan James

Can you believe they looked like this just 10 weeks ago?

The Names

So we've decided on names: Evan Tyler & Aidan James. Ultrasound pictures to come very soon. :)

20 Months (Mom, this timely post is for you!)

Katelynn is 20 months old today. We have a dr appointment for next Wednesday, so we'll see how big she's getting then. Her bottom right canine tooth is just about through the surface. I feel like these four canine teeth are taking forever to come in! Her current favorite foods are still cereal (especially fruit loops) and chicken nuggets, and she's really liked pears lately. She is a non-stop talker and has so many words, I'm sure way over 100 by now. Some of her big words are garbage, hammock, video, and cereal. She uses two-word phrases independently all the time now, and occasionally gets three words strung together, like "more cereal please" or "daddy up please". She loves swimming, playing with other kids, going to parks, petting animals, and driving by the giant blow-up gorilla at the car dealership by our house.

We are having TWO BOYS!

The boys were very active and not shy at all. They both appear healthy and are measuring right on target. Check back in a few days for photos and names!

Friday

Friday will be a big day around here. Not only does Katelynn turn 20 months, but we also have an ultrasound to find out the genders of the twins! Boy/Boy? Boy/Girl? Girl/Girl? Two stubborn children who won't cooperate with the ultrasound tech? Register your guesses now.

Summer in Montana

We spent the last 2.5 weeks traveling to Montana to see friends and family. When we got home, I had over 340 pictures to download! Here are some of the best that tell of our adventures.

We started off by driving to Coeur d'Alene for a Schmitt family reunion. It's a long drive for a 1.5-year-old, so of course we had to stop a couple times to play.

We had a good two days with the Schmitts, including spending some time at the lake.

After Coeur d'Alene, we continued to Helena.
Luckily we got some of this:

Is that my 6-month-old cousin Alivia who is almost as big as me?!?
Katelynn loves playing with 3-year-old cousin Tithen.
Grandma Gale was in town from CA and someone had the bright idea of trying to get 4 kids and 1 adult to smile and look at the camera at the same time.
The Helena carousel is full of animals native to MT. We took at least 3 trip there for a total of more than 10 rides. Katelynn loves it!

Matching outfits AND a photo shoot? We are out of control.
Ivey - 1 yr, Alivia - 6 mo, Katelynn 1.5 yrs, Tithen - 3 yrs.

The wives (our husbands are the brothers) and the girls.

After a trip to Glacier with the FitzGeralds, we got to stop in Sealy Lake and see our friend Ryan and his daughter Lana.
Plus Lisa, my college roommate and good friend, was in town so we got to hang with her and her boys a few times. (Nate, age 3, is below.)
And thanks to the Sheehys, Katelynn has discovered her love of sandboxes.
Grandma Sue, I appreciate all the toys you have for me, but this is even better!
Grandpa Ben and Uncle JT built Katelynn this swing set while we were there. Katelynn decided she was old enough to try out the big kid swing.
It was a busy trip seeing everyone. And our trips are bound to get crazier because next time we are in Montana we'll have three kids!