Holiday Travels - Part 1

We have made it to Utah!  As usual, our trip here included a variety of motorized transportation.  This time, we opted for a direct flight out of Washington DC, which meant a long drive up to the DC area and a visit to see our good friends the Cromwells in Quantico.  We miss having Adam, Kimzey, Gavin and Tobiah two houses down from us and we had a great time catching up with them, which included a fun trip to the National Zoo in DC.

The girls got some new warm coats and hats for this trip.  It is like 25 degrees here in Utah and still over 70 today for a high in New Bern.  Our weak, southern blood doesn't know what to do with the cold.

The Cromwells at the zoo.

Checking out the gorillas; the girls made their monkey sounds.

Family pic in front of the crocodiles...or the turtles, I can't remember!

After leaving Quantico, it was time for our flight.  As I mentioned, it was one, direct shot, which makes the biggest difference when traveling with the girls.  We had to buy four seats this year, but we ended up giving up one of our seats and trading with someone so we could all sit on one row together.  The girls were troopers.  Josie came down with a cold the morning we left, so she was overly tired and sick.  Piper was literally bouncing between the seats.  One lady in front of us was Facebooking about being stuck on the "baby wing of the screaming baby plane".  Sorry Erin Parrish, whoever you are!  All things considered, the flight went well and we made it to Utah right on time.

The very next morning we headed downtown so Josh could make his radio debut on our very favorite radio program, Radio from Hell on x96.  We have been listening to this show for years, maybe even a decade.  I listen religiously from 8-12 everyday.  It helps keep me entertained when I am stuck by myself at my computer and it has given us a connection to home as we have moved around the country.  The show has a regular "Ask A" program where they spend an hour with someone with an interesting (or even not-so-interesting) job.  Josh offered himself up to talk about his experience as a marine aviator.  It was a lot of fun to visit their studio and sit and watch them talk to Josh.  I thought he did a great job and lots of our friends and family listened.

We got a picture with Kerry, Bill and Gina.

Then, last night we had more fun at the Jazz Game, thanks to an invite from Brynn and Nate.  They played the Trailblazers and won, but just barely.  We haven't followed the Jazz in years, but it was fun to be there and fun hanging out with these two...

Then, the next night I was able to catch up with some of my friends from high school at Suzy's house.  We had a great dinner and chatted away the evening.  It was so fun to catch up.

Merry Christmas?

Two!

We are now parents to a set of crazy little two-year-olds.  The past couple of years have really flown by, yet I also can't imagine our lives without Josie and Piper.  Each month that goes by, I feel like they are more and more on their way to becoming more tiny little humans that can communicate and have opinions and ideas (usually too many).

We celebrated last weekend with a fun party at New Bern Gymnastics with a bunch of other equally energetic two-year-olds.  It is crazy to set a bunch of toddlers free in that place.  Before the party, we had a little photo shoot on the front steps.  Here are some of my favorites.

And here are some of the best pics from the party.  Their friends that came to play are Emma, Emma, Reed, Owen, Ike, Alejandro, Stella, McKenzie, and Jack.

Then later this week, we had their two-year-old check-up.  All went well and they are still healthy girls.  I think I will worry about them being small until they are fully grown.  It's just one of the lasting effects of having preemies.  But Dr. Kafer assured me that they are just fine.  In fact, I think they've moved up to the 25 percentile for weight and 50 for height.  Here are their stats:

Josie
Height: 33 3/4 inches
Weight: 25 pounds
Head: 19 inches

Piper
Height: 33 1/2 inches
Weight: 24.4 pounds
Head: 19 inches

And then there is the "terrible twos".  There is a lot of naughtiness at our house - some hitting, some tantrums, some throwing food.  It is still exhausting.  But there is also an awful lot of sweetness.  Every time I walk into a room, one of them says so happily "hi momma!".  Before we put Josie down for a nap or for bed, she says "cuddles?" and snuggles right in with us for awhile. It is pretty much impossible not to take a break and sit there with her for awhile.  Also, Piper is very attached to her "bear bear" but we have figured out that the way to get her to put him down to eat, or to go somewhere, is to tell him he needs a nap.  She runs into her room, puts him in the crib or leaves him in her carseat and says "nap".  Such a good girl because I know what she really wants is to have him with her everywhere we go.

Also, every night before Josh gets home, I say "guess who is coming home" and they start yelling "daddy!!!" and run to the door to wait for him.  If daddy isn't around, he is automatically "workin".  If Blue isn't around, he is automatically in his "kennen".   We are headed home in a little over a week for Christmas and have been talking about everyone we are going to see there.  I hope Utah is ready for these crazy girls.

Happy second birthday my sweet girlies!

13 years by the numbers

Josh and I celebrated 13 years of marriage on Monday.  It was right after a busy Thanksgiving weekend, so we didn't do much, but ended up going out for a nice dinner Friday night.  I asked him if he thought 13 years went by fast and he said yes, but a lot has happened.  And I agree that we have crammed quite a bit into those 13 years...
Six states
Nine total houses
Five surgeries (two back, one knee, two infertility-related)
Three rounds of IVF, Three rounds of IUI
Two deployments
Three grandparent deaths
Three international trips - Thailand, Costa Rica, Ecuador
Five marathons
Two dogs - one no longer with us
And of course, best of all, Two beautiful baby girls

It would be okay if the next 13 years were a little more low key, but I am pretty sure that will not be the case.  Life is anything but boring.

Thanksgiving 2011

We had a fun Thanksgiving weekend this year with the Koupals and Josh's mom here visiting.  It was a busy weekend with lots of playing for the kids, lots of eating for us, and a little shopping mixed in too.

We started out the morning at the Turkey Trot.  This is the third year I have run this race and it gets bigger each year.  There are all sorts of people out there - walkers, people running with their dogs, strollers, families running together.  I really like the tradition.

I had a good race and came in second this year and was beat by a girl who came in under 19 minutes while running with her double stroller.  Ouch!!  That one hurt a little.  Notice Piper's hat in this picture.  We were rushing out the door and told them they needed to wear hats and she insisted on wearing her sun hat, which really looks like she is heading out for a fishing expedition.  But we didn't have time to fight her.  

 Josie and Grey look a lot like brother and sister.  The kids really had a good time playing together.

 Alden helping the girls out with their mash-ups.

Dudes in the kitchen.  Josh fried another turkey.  I was really glad not to have to worry about cooking a turkey.  Too much pressure!

 The girls thinking they are so big and ready to eat at the big table with all of us.  They liked the sweet potato casserole (which was of course full of sugar and butter), but didn't really dig any of the

Blue just watching the world go by.

 Alden and Piper being sassy.

We went out on Friday for some Black Friday shopping.  This was my first time and it was much more low key than I thought it would be.  It was busy, but not crazy.  However, we didn't get there until after 10 and I guess all the crazies head out at midnight on Thanksgiving now.

That Twin Thing

We try hard not to think of Josie and Piper as a matching set.  We don't insist on dressing them the same, I won't force them into the same activities, and I didn't give them matching names for a reason.  They aren't identical and they are pretty different little girls.  Josie is silly and goofy, breaks out in song and dance on a whim.  Piper is intense and focused, a little quieter with a very tender side.  When I pick them up at preschool, or at the Y, they aren't always playing together.  They are often interested in completely different things.  Yet it's hard to deny their "twinness".  

One example: Josh goes in their room each night to check on them before we head to bed, and this is how he finds them most of the time:

Night after night, they end up in the same position in their crib. And, we noticed a few months ago that, despite the fact that their language was picking up, they still won't say each other's names.  I tried prompting them, pointing at Piper and asking Josie "who's that?"  For some reason, her answer was "dada".  So I asked Josie the same thing about Piper and she said "dada".  Huh?  We tried it over and over and they always came back with "dada" as the answer.  I am certain it wasn't their limited language ability because they say much more complicated words just fine.  I suspect that "dada" was the very first sound they made and they immediately associated it with each other - they did, after all, know each other before we even knew them.

So we started talking about them as "sissy", which they picked up on right away.  They talk about sissy - each other and themselves - interchangeably.  I'll ask Josie "where's sissy?" and most of the time she points to Piper, but sometimes she points to herself.  Last night in the bath, I asked them where Piper was and they both pointed at each other.  I can only guess that they have been so "together" for the two short years of their lives that they still think of themselves as interchangeable. 

Airplane Haircuts

We recently took the girls for their first haircuts.  We heard about a place downtown with a little kid airplane chair.  Their mullets were getting unwieldy and I didn't trust myself to cut it myself. 

 Their preschool teacher thanked me for getting their haircuts and said they look different enough now that they can easily tell them apart.  Apparently, they were keeping them straight because Josie looks a little bigger than Piper, so they referred to them as "Petite Piper" and "Juicy Josie" (Josie's in utero name!).  They are still almost exactly the same size, but Josie has a little bit of a fuller face. 

 Anyway, their hair looks much better now and we will definitely be back for airplane haircuts again. 

Halloween 2011