Twin's First Christmas

Christmas Eve

Tonight we opened our first gifts from Aunt Sarah, Uncle Rodney, and cousin Austin over at Nana and Papa's house. We won't be able to see them tomorrow so we all got together tonight for the kids to get their gifts. The girls got us some Baby Einstein movies and a really cool ride-on/walk-behind toy hippo that "eats up" blocks. They can't play with it quite yet but I know they will soon! My camera died as soon as we got to their house so I didn't get a single picture. Luckily, R brought the video camera so we got it all!

Last night we had a little reunion with my old Girl Scout troop. It is always fun to see all the girls and check in with each other. Unforunately, two girls Diana (aka: Aunt Deenie) and Kristi couldn't make it and we missed them very much. It is so neat to see how we are all growing, maturing, and becoming women. H1 and H2 are now the newest members of Troop 127!

Top to bottom - Left to right

Cathy, Katy, Alissa

Katherine, Heather, Jennifer

Danielle holding H1, and Me holding H2

Sitting Pretty For The Party!

H1 sat up all by herself!!!

It was quite amazing. R was standing right next to us and H2 on the floor and he jumped up to get the video camera. Of course the battery was dead. Whenever they wake up from their nap I will try and snap some photos of her new skill.

We are going to be having the family Christmas party today. All of  R's Dad's side of the family is coming into town. This is will the first time they will all get to meet the girls in person. The last time we all got together is was Easter and I was still pregnant. I am excited to see everyone. Only a few more hours till we get to party!

6 Months Old

Our 6 month appointment was on Monday. The girls are growing wonderfully! They are getting HUGE. I hated having to get their shots again. It's almost worse now that they're bigger because they can really show their emotions and when they are upset...it's just awful.

H1:

17 lbs

25 3/4 inches

H2:

16 lbs 12oz

25 inches

We have officially put the girls in their own separate cribs. The crib divider worked great for such a long time but they are just getting too big. So far they've only napped separately and tonight will be their first in their own cribs. The nap went well and I think it will be fine.

Welcome PJ!

Today was an amazing day. Today the newest member of our family was born. I would like to introduce Patrick (PJ) James Hartman. I was lucky enough to be able to be present for his birth and love being able to be so close to him. He is healthy, happy and gorgeous with his head full of dark hair. He is just so precious and I am happy he is here safe and sound. 

He is going to be a big part of mine and the girls lives as they grow up. Whenever his Mom (Aunt Tes) goes back to work he will be coming to spend the days with us. Whenever I show the girls the photos of him they started to smile and laugh. It's as though they know that he is here and ready to play!

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas...

All the Christmas decorations are up and we're ready for Santa!

Here is our Christmas tree!

Our Christmas village on the mantel and our dining table.


These are our moving Christmas decorations. Our snowglobe blows snow over the polar bear and penguin and our snowman dances and sings!


Our new nativity and the Christmas bamboo.

H1 (left) and H2 (right) checking out Doodle's Christmas tree.

Photo Overload!

Tomorrow is the girls 6 month check up at the doctors office. They will get their 6 month immunizations and their first flu shot. I hope that the flu shot doesn't make them sick. It never makes R or I sick...so hopefully they'll be like us. I've had a cold for the past few days and luckily the girls haven't gotten in. So far H2 has only had a small cold and H1 hasn't been sick at all. I'm glad that they didn't get sick this time. I'm not looking forward to the time when both me and the girls are all sick at the same time.

I've been slacking with the updates lately. We have taken tons of photos so I thought I would post some for your viewing pleasure.

Hanging out on the couch (with supervision). H2 didn't look happy at all in this photo but she was laughing and smiling just a moment earlier.

H1 doing the superwomen pose!

H2 sitting on Daddy's lap happy as a clam!

This is a video of H2 doing one of her new favorite things. She's so silly!

Music Class

Today we went to our first "music class". Ms. Marie works for FSU in the music department and told me about a study that one of the professors is doing (whom she works for) about how music therapy helps simulate infant development. It's a 30 minute free class in which we sing songs, do some sign language, and play with instruments and toys. The girls LOVED it! Because Marie was there with us she held H1 while I held H2. It worked out wonderfully.

H2 made a little friend at group named Dakota who is 7 months old. While each baby had a puppet toy (for a song) she crawled over to H2 and tried to take her bear puppet. Whenever she got close she just looked up at H2 and smiled H2 then proceeded to smile back. They just sat there for most of the song looking at each other and touching each others legs. It was very cute. We met two other little friends as well. Ian and Hope were both 8 months old and just cutie pies! H1 was a bit sleepy by the end of class so she wasn't quite at sociable at the end when everyone was mingling.

The girls are definitely more mobile now as well. H2 rolled over to the Christmas tree again the took one of the ornaments off it. Luckily I put all the non-breakable ones at the bottom in case the cat got frisky. She took of one of the cookie ornaments that I made whenever I was very young. She just sat there staring at it in her hand. She's so funny!

H1 Crawled!

We worked hard to put up the Christmas tree and hang all those ornaments. We needed a nap!

The biggest news is that yesterday H1 pulled up on all fours and tried to crawl! She did one big push forward to try and grab her Moosie (moose toy). It was AMAZING and she was so happy with herself. At first she didn't realize what she did but then she got a huge smile on her face and just looked at me as though to say "Hey Ma...did you see that?!?" She's also pulling up into an "A" on her toes and her hands. So fun!!!

H2 was watching her sister while she was "crawling" and thought is was so funny. She can pull herself up to all fours as well...but has yet to make a forward motion. I love how whenever they do something new they just turn around the look at you wanting to get your approval. They're getting so big! It' wonderful and sad at the same time. My baby girls are growing so fast.

Chilling, Wrestling, and Decorating

!

We like to wrestle. We're constantly rolling on each other!

But don't worry...H2 was fine.

She thought is was hilarious and tried to eat H1's toes!

The girls love to roll over to the Christmas tree and sneak a peek at the ornaments. I caught this picture of H2. She's definitely one of the best things you could find underneath the tree!

Our First Thanksgiving

Happy Day Before Thanksgiving

Tomorrow will the girls first Thanksgiving and I am very exciting. The girls now have a small army of foods they can eat so they can actually have some traditional Thanksgiving foods with us tomorrow. They will eat some sweet potatoes, green beans, and apple sauce to represent our sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, and apple pie. *Yum-O!"

Tomorrow starts a fun filled weekend for us. We have the normal Thanksgiving day celebrations tomorrow (watching the parade, cooking, eating, visiting family.) And then Friday I will start putting us the Christmas decorations. It's a family tradition to put up all the Christmas decorations the weekend after Thanksgiving. Friday will be the tree and indoor decorations and then throughout the weekend we'll put up the lights outside. I am excited to see what the girls think about all the new lights and sounds. We've got two animated indoor decorations that I can't wait to see their reaction to. One is a dancing singing snowman and the other is a snowglobe that works on it's own.

We Had A Great Nap...

One of my favorite things is to hear the girls wake up from their nap and look in their room to find to little heads peeking out to see me.

H1 thinks that her Daddy is so funny.
Of course I couldn't get to the camera when she was going crazy...but I still got her laughing!

Long Time No See...

Well, I finally got the computer back up and running again. I'm no computer genius so it took me awhile to get everything back from the black hole that is the "Microsoft blue screen of death".

So, a little update on eating solids. The girls have eaten rice cereal, oatmeal, applesauce, bannanas, pears, and green beans. H1 prefers the applesauce (no H1 Bannana jokes for her, thank you), rice, and green beans and H2 likes the bannanas, pears, and oatmeal. Even thought I say they prefer one over the other they still both ate everything in a feverish pace. These girls are in no way, shape, or form picky eaters which is great! Next week we've decided to start the sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving. I am so excited.

The weather has finally started to feel a bit more like fall lately. It's sad whenever your less than a week away from Thanksgiving and your still wearing shorts and tank tops. Well, this sudden coolness let me bring out the girls "cold clothes". I am happy to finally be able to put them in their pants and long sleeves. They are always so hot...especially H1. Put socks on her and her cheeks turn red as apples. (I've gotten a lot of "put some socks on those babies...their freezing" from strangers. But I know their fine...they always stay super hot.) We even had to bust out the caps the other day and boy were those girls cute!

H1 (left) and H2 (right)

We loved our caps! We tried to grab them off each others head.

Our cousin Steph got us our worms. We were playing with that one that was S's (Steph's oldest daughter) when she was a baby when we went down to visit and we absolutely loved it. I asked Steph where she got theirs and she said that she would get them one. Tes brought them up with her whenever she came back from her visit. I'm going to wrap them up for Christmas but I am going to let them play with them now. They won't realize...it'll just be another fun thing to rip open.

We love our worms so much!

H1 was smiling so big while she was playing and I surpised H2 with the photo because she was too busy playing to realize I was in the room still!


Hannah (left) and Hailey (right)

Silly Babies!

We lost our computer for a few days and it'll probably die on me again here soon. I started this post 3 days ago so...here it goes.

I have some funny little girls. H2 loves to eat and about halfway through her meal she starts putting her hand in her mouth between each bite. She then takes it out and smears whatever food was in her mouth on her face. Yum!

And H1 is just a hambone.When that girl smiles it looks like she could fit the moon in her mouth. Say cheese!!!

Both the girls have started doing this new things now. I could only get H1 on camera.

Pop Pop Pop!

5 Months Old

H1(left) and H2(right)


H1


H2


H1(left) and H2(right)

We are 5 month old today! Can you believe it? Neither can Mommy!!!

It seems like such a short amount of time has gone by since I found out I was pregnant much less had the girls. I can't believe that they're growing so fast. I can't believe that they are already eating solids, laughing and smiling, and rolling around the room like whirling dervishes. It makes me happy to see them growing and flourishing but it also makes me very very sad. I don't want them to grow up. I want them to be my babies forever.

They have officially outgrown all of their 0-3 clothing which consisted of 99% of what they have. So, I have boxed up all their clothes from the drawers and will start taking the things down from the closet soon. I need to get some type of box to keep their "nice" clothes that I want to save. Perhaps I can get two medium Rubbermaid boxes and decorate one of each of the girls. So far I have their coming home, Indepedance Day, first professional photo, first party (Aunt Tes' shower), and Halloween outfits to save. I know it may seem silly to save them but my Mom saved a lot of my nice baby clothes and I still have them to this day.

Since Thanksgiving is coming up quickly I am trying to decide which new food to give the girls for this big day. Sweet potatoes (which is what I was originally thinking), peas, or squash. I believe that they are all suitable Thanksgiving foods.

Our First Halloween

In our 1st Halloween outfits that Aunt Lissa gave us...along with one of our stuffed pumpkins.

H1(left) and H2(right) posing with their pumpkins.



The Twincesses
H2 had found her tu-tu and was amazed!



Twincess H1 (left) and Twincess H2(right)



Trick-or-Treat
Mommy is an evil queen and the girls are the fairy twincesses.


Evil Queen Mommy and Ms. Kit