Happy Birthday and Retirement

Last Tuesday my Mom had a huge celebration. Not only was it her birthday, but she also had a retirement party at work. She is retiring May 1. Lucky her, now she gets to spend a lot of time with me, Lucas and the girls! Yahoo!
Her work threw her a huge party. We all went, except Ron, who was home watching the babies. They gave her a lot of presents, that included her very own Barry Manilow chair and a large cash present. Since my mom has had several eye surgeries in the last year, we all got to make fun of her and wear eye patches.

It was a wonderful day. After the party we went to lunch at Normandie. It is a yummy bakery/restaurant in Holladay. We then hung out for a while and topped off the evening with a birthday dinner at Italian Village.

I am so happy for you Mom. Here is to being retired and many happy years to come!

1st Bath at Home

Here are a few pictures of the girls first baths at home. Our bathroom sink is the perfect size for bathing a baby.
Eva - My little bird, trying to eat the sponge. She liked the bath, but hated getting out. It must have been too cold.
Emrie - This is her getting out of the bath. She really enjoyed it.

Our 2nd Welcome Home

What an absolutely wonderful day! Eva got to come home today. We are so happy to be a complete family that is living under the same roof. Ron made the comment that "Today is the 1st day of the rest of our lives." That is so true. We are so happy to have our little family of 5. We can't wait to raise our kids together and watch them grow.
Mommy and Eva's first cord free snuggle!
Eva in her carseat and ready to go. When I first put her in, she puked a whole bunch. I had to hurry and wipe it all up. She is so little that we had to put rolled up t-shirts and a blanket to make her fit correctly. She will be big enough to fit before we know it.

Even though I am so excited to have my little girls home, I will miss the wonderful nurses at IMC. Thank you so much to our primary nurses, Peggy, Stephanie, Janie and Carrie, who were the best! I will miss you! Also, Allie, who was our nurse 4 different times, thanks for being great.

Baby Nursery

I must say that I have the cutest nursery on the planet AND I have the best friends ever! I have this group of wonderful girlfriends that have saved me. While I was in the hospital, two of my girlfriends, Hilarie and Jeanine, came and completely decorated my nursery. They gathered money from the other girls in my group and did a complete make over of the room.

With Hilarie's secret agent questions, she found out exactly what I would love in a nursery. They purchased everything that you see in these pictures except for the furniture. Hilarie had been in contact with Ron to let them come in and survey the room and then work on it.

Since I wasn't expecting the babies for weeks, I had done nothing in the room. I hadn't bought bedding or anything. In fact, things were pretty much just thrown in the room to take care of and put together later. I can't even imagine right now having to go back and forth to the hospital, take care of twins, a 3 year old and put together a nursery.

To top it off, Hilarie's daughter, Annie, even bought Lucas a set of Toy Story sheets. He loves them.
Vinyl lettering on the wall.
When I came home from the hospital, Ron took me into the room and showed me all of the hard work that they had put in. Being a girl who is normally very emotional and had just given birth, I cried pretty hard for about 15 minutes. When I saw it I asked, "What? Who did this?" Ron explained, "You have really nice and generous friends." Ron did video me, but considering that I am a horribly ugly crier, we will keep that video to us. :)

Like I said, I LOVE my friends! They are the best in the world! Thanks girls, for letting me be a mom and not have to worry about putting together a nursery. I can't begin to thank you enough!

Our 1st Welcome Home

What a wonderful day yesterday was! We got to bring Emrie home. This was very bittersweet. As excited as I felt bringing home one of my babies, I was VERY sad to leave Eva behind. I had a couple of breakdowns when I thought about having to leave her at the hospital. I just have to realize that she is in good hands and being taken care of by the wonderful nurses at IMC.
Emrie saying goodbye, for now, to Eva.
Mommy and Emrie's first cord free snuggle!
Emrie was not a huge fan of the carseat when we first put her in. She did calm down quickly and went right to sleep.

Last night was interesting with having a newborn in our house again. It will take a while to get used to a routine, then it will all change when we have two at home. :)

A Few Firsts

The girls have had a few firsts recently. We are so excited that they are growing and reaching milestones. We can't wait for them to come home!
Both babies had their first swaddle baths last Thursday. At the hospital they use swaddle baths on preemies. This helps the babies stay warm and hopefully not hate the bath as much. They get wrapped in a fleece blanket and then submerged in water. Emrie loved her bath. She kept trying to suck the water out of her blanket. Eva on the other hand, was not a fan. She was fine at first, but when I took her limbs out to wash them, she was not a happy camper.
Also, both of the girls had their first bottles last week. The lactation specialist had decided that their breastfeeding was established enough for them to have bottles. I got to give Emrie her bottle last Wednesday. She was a champ. Ron gave Eva her first bottle last Saturday. She did well. They are both getting better and better at breast and bottle feeding. Yahoo! Way to go girls!

Easter as a Family of 5

Our Easter celebration as a family of five was a wonderful one.
The festivities started out by visiting the Easter Bunny at Fashion Place Mall. Lucas loved the bunny and was giving him big kisses. He was being a goof ball and would only make silly smiles. The cutest thing was that he was so excited to wear his new outfit. I must say that he did look adorable in it.
The night before Easter, Lucas went to his cousins house and colored eggs. He had a blast and was quite the pro. He had yummy pizza for dinner, as you can see on his face. :)
On Easter morning, Lucas woke up to a basket full of goodies from the Easter Bunny. He was so excited for all of the yummy candy and the fun toys.
We got to go and spend some time with the girls at the hospital. They even got new Easter outfits to wear. Emrie looked so cute in pink and Eva looked adorable in white. I can't wait for next year to buy them fun, fancy dresses.
We went over to the Treat's house for dinner. Thanks Terri, for making all of the delicious food for us to eat. Lucas and Colton got to find eggs that the Easter Bunny had hidden for them in the house. It was so much fun to watch them so excited to find each egg. After the hunt, they had a lot of fun playing together and being goofy. Lucas loves Colton so much and loves to play with him.

Our Easter was fabulous! We are so excited for next year and to be able to spend the holiday with everyone together.

Both Of My Girls

I got to hold both of my girls at the same time last Sunday. The nurse let us "unplug" Emrie and bring her over to Eva's side of the room. This was so sweet and tender. They haven't been near each other since they were born. I was happy that they could be by each other and feel each others presence again. Also, it was the first time that it actually hit me that I have two babies! WOW!
We brought these outfits for the girls to wear. Up until then, they had both just been wearing outfits from the hospital. They were so stinkin' cute in them!
Eva
Emrie