Two Babies!

Introducing...

2011-12-06T08:06:00.003-05:00

The newest member of the Stone family! Baby Boy or Girl Stone is due May 7, 2012. The boys are excited about being big brothers!

Day Out with Thomas!

2011-06-10T20:25:00.006-04:00

The boys have become quite taken with Thomas the Tank Engine, and my principal told me about the Thomas visit in NC. We ventured 3 hours north to Blowing Rock, NC (basically Boone...boo for App State country!), and the boys had a great time! We now have two cool conductor's hats, some rubber stamps and Thomas silly bands...not to mention pix and memories of our ride ON Thomas!

Fun new hats! And of course we had to wear our Thomas T-shirts.

Hurray for Thomas! Except John refused to smile in all of the pictures today...

The boys with Percy, Thomas, and Rosie.

Meeting Sir Topham Hatt!

We have tons more pictures from this spring...we just have to get around to posting them!

Soccer Ball!

2011-03-13T19:32:00.001-04:00

Soccer!

2011-03-09T20:07:00.002-05:00

We signed the boys up for 3-year-old soccer through the City of Greenville this spring. They start on Saturday, and they've been asking daily when they get to "go play soccer ball with other little boys and girls."

Many thanks to Grandpa for their first pair of cleats!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOYS!!

2011-02-13T17:10:00.004-05:00

We can't believe that the boys are 3 today. It's been a busy and fun three years. They have a penchant for not being able to celebrate their bday on the actual day, and this year is no different. The first year, they were sick. The second year, it snowed. And this year, schedules just wouldn't cooperate. We've had a fun day, complete with a fun birthday breakfast cooked by Masie!

Happy birthday, Will and John!!

(that's about the best we could do today...) :)

Funny boys

2011-01-18T20:35:00.002-05:00

The boys wanted to show off their new haircuts!

Will

John

How could you not laugh at these faces??

SNOW!

2011-01-12T10:36:00.001-05:00

Last year, it snowed on the boys' birthday. We're a month early this year.

Recently

2010-12-04T20:18:00.002-05:00

Go Daddy! Go Mommy!

2010-10-31T20:52:00.003-04:00

Grampy and Masie came up this weekend to help us cheer on Mommy and Daddy for their first half-marathon. We're not sure how far that is, but judging by how tired Mommy looked at the end, it must be a LONG way.

It was really cold, waiting for Mommy and Daddy, but we were troopers!

Yay Daddy! Yay Mommy!

Apple Picking 2010

2010-10-16T12:56:00.006-04:00

As is our custom, we went apple picking with Uncle Kev and Aunt Emmy last weekend. This was a banner year, as we let the boys romp around the orchard, as opposed to taking the stroller. They had a blast, and they were troopers with having to go to the back of the orchard to find any apples.

John's ready with his basket!

This apple looks yummy!

Whatcha doin', Mommy?

Just the right height!

The boys - all 4 of them!

We love Aunt Emmy!

The long walk back - we're tired!
But not too tired to enjoy our annual Apple Cider Doughnut.

Hello?

2010-10-13T10:07:00.003-04:00

Yes, we're still here. We have a ton of pictures to post, which we'll hopefully get to soon.

The boys are rambunctious as ever, and they are testing the limits of the "Terrible Twos." We keep reminding each other that it's just a phase.

They are speaking in complete sentences now - you'd never know they had to have speech therapy a year ago! John is starting to be able to say his "L"s, and it's really funny to watch him try to do it. He sticks his tongue out so far, and "yellow" comes out sometimes as "lellow." Their teacher told me this morning that she has noticed a big change in Will socially. Apparently he is much more interactive with the other kids in the class, and he's very affectionate. Now if we can just transfer that to home!

Pix to come...

Sunday Fun - Devildog Style

2010-08-31T13:15:00.005-04:00

A couple of Sundays ago, we went to a party celebrating the arrival of Jacob, a 9-year-old boy who my school friend and his wife are going to adopt. The boys had a ton of fun playing with all the big kids...all future TRHS Devildogs? We'll see!

Love this pic of the boys...mischievous, much?

This is Will. He looks so much like me at this age that I thought it was John. They keep us guessing!

Future Devildogs? It was pretty amazing that we were able to keep all of these kids still long enough for a picture! Ages range from 12 to 2.5!

Fun at the Sibleys

2010-08-18T20:46:00.002-04:00

Fire Truck, Fire Truck

2010-08-08T14:56:00.003-04:00

One of the boys' favorite songs is "Tractor, Tractor" by Randall Goodgame and Andrew Peterson. The video is quite amusing, too. Part of the song deals with fire trucks, and it just so happens that our neighbor, Mr. Randy, is the captain of one of the local fire stations. We took the boys to see Mr. Randy yesterday, and it was like Christmas!

We got to play all over the big trucks! Mr. Randy's friends even turned the lights and sirens on!

John up to no good, of course.

Firefighters in the making?

Will looks like a natural!

Love this shot of John. The boys had perhaps the most fun running around the station and playing in water puddles.

Thank you, Mr. Randy!!!!!

Happy July 4th!

2010-07-14T15:36:00.003-04:00

Better late than never, right? I figured Bastille Day was a good time to post our pic of the boys on the 4th.

Compare to this picture from last year, taken by Auntie Em. Amazing what a year does!

BEACH!

2010-07-09T14:42:00.005-04:00

Yes, we've been home from the beach for over 2 weeks now, and I'm just now posting pics. We went with Grandma and Grandpa (or as the boys call them, "Mama and Papa"), Uncle Stan and Aunt Michelle, and cousins Grace, Sallie, and Parker to Cherry Grove Beach, SC. The boys had a blast, and they did really well being away from home for so long!

Will was quite the seashell-searcher

Daddy and John solve all the world's problems while playing in a tide pool.

4 of the 5 Stone cousins, minus baby Parker. L-R: John, Grace, Will, Sallie

John is deep in thought, trying to decide which shell to get next.

Will loves the beach!

John: "Mommy, put the camera away, already!"

Will: "Hey wait, John! Mommy wanted to take a picture of us together..."

And that's the best I got of both boys together. Such cutie-pies!

Our new sleeping arrangement

2010-06-22T21:49:00.002-04:00

Need a bodyguard?

2010-06-05T20:54:00.001-04:00

Their Father's Sons

2010-05-17T21:30:00.006-04:00

The pictures should explain the title:

Yes, Will LOVES to line up his trucks in straight lines. Before we know it, he'll be arguing with Daddy about whether to organize his books by author name or volume number.

Don't worry, John likes to organize things too. He's just a little more creative in his ventures:

This is serious business! Will is NOT happy that John is trying to mess up his nice, neat line of trucks. And John is NOT happy that Will isn't sharing his trucks so that he can make a nice, neat lines of trucks, too:

But, after all that seriousness, there's still plenty of time for fun. Whether it's stomping on the chest at the foot of Mommy and Daddy's bed:

Will

Or being tickled by Daddy:

Will

John

BOOTS!

2010-04-25T18:59:00.002-04:00

Will decided it'd be really fun to put on Daddy's boots this morning. Actually, he thinks it's really fun to put on our shoes all the time. I couldn't resist...

Haircuts!

2010-04-17T20:47:00.006-04:00

The boys got some much-needed haircuts today from Daddy. He used his clippers with the biggest guard we had. Look at our handsome young men!!

Will

John

John and Daddy having fun

It's hard to get them to stay still for pictures, so this is the best I could get!

Mommy's new(er) hobby

2010-04-17T20:42:00.003-04:00

Grampy grows violets. Grampy has grown violets for as long as I can remember. I tried to grow violets. I killed said violets for as long as I can remember...until now!

Lately, I've been feeling confident in my violet-growing ability (thanks to lots of patience and teaching from Grampy), and R and I found some beautiful ones at a nursery not too far from Masie and Grampy's house. Check them out:

We're here!

2010-04-05T19:43:00.010-04:00

Despite our long silence from blog-world, we're still here and kicking. We've been extremely busy, as always, thus the lack of updates. So, to make up for it, here are a bunch of pix from the past few months...

Cute boys in baseball caps

Our Hard Rock Kuwait shirts from Uncle Sage (really Mommy's cousin), who's moving to Charleston from Kuwait! We can't wait to hang out with him!

Our boys LOVE Spaghetti O's! And the mess that accompanies them...

John did a nose-dive off the chair, smack into an over-sized lego...first trip to Urgent Care resulted in Dermabond! He's a trooper! If you look closely at his forehead, you can see the round lego-mark.

Will at almost 26 months - happy as can be!

John at almost 26 months - he's hard to catch!

The boys' vocabulary has exploded! They are starting to form small sentences, and Daddy says that they sound like Yoda ("cow, bye-bye" and the like). My favorite thing lately that they say is from John. He has started to say, "bless you, Mommy" and "bless you, Daddy" whenever we sneeze, cough, etc. His favorite answer to everything is "yeah!" John pretty much starts talking the moment he wakes up and doesn't stop until he goes to sleep...Daddy would argue that he's like his mommy in that sense. John is also our climber. He climbed a small rock wall last night before we knew what was happening!

Will loves to tell people he loves them, and he loves to look for busses, boats, Jeeps and cows when we're riding in the car. He loves finding cars that look like ones he knows - Mommy's, Daddy's, Masie's... our smart little booger! He asks about boats and cars that used to be places that haven't been there in months...amazing. He loves to cuddle, too!

We're TWO!!!

2010-02-13T12:49:00.010-05:00

Happy birthday, Will and John!

Last year, we had a great day playing, even though we had to postpone their party due to illness.

This year, we had to postpone their party due to the year's biggest snow.

Masie and Grampy were able to make it up before the roads got bad, so we're very thankful to have been able to see them on the boys' actual birthday. We can't wait to see Grandma, Grandpa, and all of our aunts, uncles, and cousins - hopefully soon!

We had lots of fun playing:

John

Will

Daddy and his boys!

And Mommy took pretty pictures of the trees:

It's hard to believe they're two. This time two years ago, we were at the hospital in shock that we now had 2 babies in the world. It seems like yesterday, yet at the same time, it seems so long ago. They've grown and changed so much in the past year, and the time just keeps flying by.

It's also fun that one of Ryan's college roommates and his wife had their twin boys yesterday! Hurray for healthy February twin boys!

Hopefully next year the third time will be the charm, and we'll actually get to celebrate their birthday on their birthday weekend!

Here's to a fabulous year of new adventures, new words, potty training (already?!), and lots of fun learning!

Wagons!

2010-01-28T08:23:00.001-05:00

Merry Christmas!!

2009-12-25T08:45:00.002-05:00

Enjoying a birthday party!

2009-12-17T09:01:00.003-05:00

No, not their own. But still enjoying!

Twin Pilgrims

2009-11-25T09:11:00.002-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving!

Will

John

An apple a day...

2009-11-13T11:18:00.004-05:00

...is supposed to keep the doctor away, right?

Apparently the boys need to eat more apples, because the doctor has definitely become our best friend over the past few months.

What we thought were high fevers associated with ear infections turned out to not be the case. The week the boys had their tubes put in, John came down with a 103+ fever 4 days after surgery. A few days later, Will contracted a high fever too. They both had a full blood work-up, only to reveal not a whole lot of information other than they were fighting viruses.

This past weekend, the boys started to have a nasty cough, so we took them to the doctor on Monday. What I thought was croup actually turned out to be pneumonia for both of them. Thankfully, we were able to treat it at home with Augmentin, and they were fever-free and almost back to normal within a couple of days.

After much deliberation and conversation with the pediatrician, we are taking the boys to see a Pediatric Infectious Diseases doctor. We all want to know why the boys get so sick, so frequently, so quickly. We are hoping and praying that we will get answers quickly, because we will have decisions to make regarding childcare if we determine that the boys' immune systems are too weak to be around other children and therefore in daycare. Ryan is student teaching in the spring, so we may need to find an in-home childcare option...one that's flexible and CHEAP.

Please pray for medical answers and for clarity of thought as we try to make future plans.

We'll keep everyone posted!

Tubes Day

2009-11-02T18:27:00.004-05:00

Today started bright and early - 4:20AM for me, 5:00 for Ryan, 5:15 for the boys. We were at the hospital by 6AM, and then went through the normal pre-op paperwork, etc. The boys had fun playing in the children's waiting room.

Everything went well. Dr. Brown said that Will's left ear was full of gunk that was under a lot of pressure, so he cleaned that out before putting the tubes in. John's weren't as bad, interestingly (since he's had more ear infections than Will).

Will and Mommy post-op...about 20 minutes into recovery. Just about normal...

John and Daddy post-op...about 5 minutes into recovery. Not yet normal. John chugged two full sippies of diluted apple juice. Check out his awesome hospital-issue, no-slip toddler socks and hospital gown. You can't see it in this picture, but each boy had a big piece of tape across the front of his gown that had his name and either #1 (Will) or #2 (John) written on it. Pretty funny.

We were home by 8:30, complete with a fun Chick-Fil-A breakfast. They were back to their normal precocious selves by lunchtime. Naps today were a lot better than expected, especially with recovery on top of new big boy beds. So far tonight, not too many struggles!

Here's hoping and praying that our struggles with illnesses are ancient history!

BIG changes afoot

2009-11-01T20:08:00.003-05:00

This weekend has been ROUGH, to say the very least. John has had a difficult time sleeping for the past week or so, but this weekend has been the worst.

Last night we put the boys to bed as usual, expecting to be up a few times to help calm John. Eventually, nothing we did calmed him down, so we decided to let him cry it out. Our little Spidey figured out how to climb out of his crib...THREE times. After the third time, the 4 of us took a trip to Babies R Us to try and find a solution. None was found, so we decided to go home, put their mattresses on the floor and hope for the best.

To make a long story short (trust me, the full story is much longer...), we wound up having a camp-out/adventure/slumber party in the boys' room. Mommy and Daddy slept on the floor, while we tried to keep the boys on their mattresses and asleep. It was a LOOOOOONG night.

We took a trip to Wal-Mart bright and early this morning, and here's the end result:

BIG BOY BEDS!!!

Naptime didn't happen AT ALL today, and bedtime so far has been ok. I wish I could say the transition is going smoothly, but it's not. Hopefully we won't have too many disruptions tonight - we're all tired!

Tomorrow, we have more big things happening - the boys are both getting tubes! I never thought I'd be excited about putting my kids through a surgical procedure, but I'm tired of ear infections, sinus infections, and general illness. We really need this to be the solution. Hopefully things will go well!

Happy Reformation Day!

2009-11-01T20:03:00.003-05:00

We in the Stone family celebrate Reformation Day in lieu of Halloween - Reformation Day is when Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses to the church door in Wittenberg, thus starting the Protestant Reformation. But, the boys' daycare had spirit week all week, which culminated with the kids wearing costumes. Here was our compromise:

Will is Thing 1, and John is Thing 2.

Happy Reformation Day, everyone!

Apples!!!

2009-10-04T20:38:00.007-04:00

Last year, we went apple picking with the Smiths, and we decided that we needed to make it a tradition. We love to go to Sky Top Orchard up in NC, and they are getting busier and busier each year. Yesterday, we got there in the morning around 10, and we spent a good hour or so gathering apples, drinking yummy juice, and eating amazing apple cider donuts. Here are some highlights:

Pretty Fuji apples

"We're ready for some apples...we think!"

"Hmmm...wonder if these are any good?"

Will seems to be enjoying his apple

John's not so sure....he wound up liking it, though!

Eating apples is serious business

"Mom, we didn't know Auntie Em was a monkey! Where's your helmet, Auntie Em??"

Yummy - apple cider donuts!

Will was a sleepy boy - picking apples is hard work!

John's sound asleep too

The boys did very well eating apples on their own - they even seemed to like them, too! We really love our fall traditions. More pix of recent events to come...

ear infections and Clemson football

2009-09-19T20:42:00.003-04:00

We spent the day inside today, due to rain, glorious rain. This caused all kinds of occasions for mischief, as evidenced by Will's somewhere in the range of 10-15 timeouts. John still doesn't feel well from his ear infection, and chose to spend most of his playtime either sitting in mommy and daddy's laps or chilling on the couch watching Clemson beat BC (see below).

Sorry for the grainy image. It was taken on a camera-phone.

Silly Saturday

2009-08-23T13:27:00.005-04:00

Yesterday the boys spent most of the day in PJs. Hurray for PJ day!! Here are a few pix of our fun day:

Now THAT'S the look of a hungry, sleepy boy. No wonder - he took a 3-hour nap! Nice hair, Will!

John's ready for some serious fun!

John's channeling his inner Stevie Wonder. Ryan and I can't stop laughing at this one!

Happy Birthday, Mom!

2009-08-16T12:09:00.001-04:00

We're still here.

2009-07-19T16:35:00.003-04:00

It's been a busy summer, thus the recent absence from the blogging world. Ryan is taking 4 classes this summer, along with working at the 'bux. The boys are in daycare 3 days a week, which is a decision we made to help ease their transition to full-time daycare in August when Becky goes back to school. Becky is taking an online technology class along with a week-long seminar through Converse. We can't believe the summer is almost gone!

Here are some pix of our latest adventures:

The boys have decided they really like spaghetti...or is it the mess that they like???

Will's spaghetti face - if you look closely, you can see his handprint in the middle of his face!

John was going for the Two-Face look. But he's no villain!

We went garage saling yesterday, and we got some amazing finds! The church down the street had a TON of kids stuff, and we got a Lego table with Legos, two wooden kid chairs, a wooden kid rocker, and an old school toy - the cube that you drop the different-shaped blocks into. Grand total? $6.50!!!! We almost felt guilty for spending such a small amount of money.

The boys and the Lego table:

Will is REALLY excited!

John's pretty pumped too...it's just hard to get him to sit still long enough for a picture!

More firsts

2009-06-22T19:04:00.006-04:00

Last night the boys had spaghetti for the (kinda) first time. John liked it better than Will, but that's not saying much:

John's all smiles...for now.

Will is NOT happy with trying new things.

Today, we tried coloring with crayons! Mommy helped us, but we were more interested in eating them. Thankfully, Crayola crayons are non-toxic!

John's perfecting his "look."

Will - a blooming Michelangelo? Don't let the picture deceive you...most of the markings are from Mommy!

First swim!

2009-06-16T10:37:00.004-04:00

The weather was nice this past weekend at the lake, so we decided to put the boys in the water. They didn't like the lake too much:

Will

John

But they liked the nice, safe kiddie pool on Masie and Grampy's porch instead!

Will

John

at long last! and only 3 months late!

2009-05-21T20:24:00.002-04:00

pictures from the boys' birthday!

Dinner time and ravioli head

2009-04-02T17:30:00.003-04:00

Here are a couple of pictures from tonight's dinner time. The boys know how to say "oh no!" and they put both of their hands on their head. Hence, at dinner time, ravioli head! And Will's sad because we went to get more food and there wasn't anything on his tray.

Swinging!

2009-03-07T18:55:00.005-05:00

Here's a couple of pictures of the boys in their swing from Kev and Em and John for the first time!

SNOW DAY!

2009-03-03T07:37:00.003-05:00

Yesterday we got to play in the snow for the first time. We didn't like it too much, but we LOVED spending the day with Mommy and Daddy!

Walking!

2009-02-13T20:27:00.005-05:00

Both boys are walking! John more so, but Will's trying to catch up! They've been doing so for a while now. We just haven't had a chance to post a video. So here's one of John walking from daddy to mommy (with Will getting in on the action at the end, or at least trying to).

Happy Birthday!

2009-02-13T20:02:00.009-05:00

We're one year old! Yay! Here's a few pictures of our fun day with mommy and daddy. We got to have a fun morning bath, breakfast, Chick-Fil-A with mom and dad, a trip to Lowe's, playtime at Furman, playtime at home with our baseball (and daddy's hat!), and watching cars drive past the house! Man... we're pooped! Growing up's hard work! (P.S. You can see what we looked like this time last year here.)

11 Months!

2009-01-13T19:15:00.003-05:00

Wow. I can't believe that we will be celebrating the boys' 1st birthday in a month. While on the one hand it seems like yesterday that Ryan and I were driving to the hospital to have the boys, on the other hand, it seems like FOREVER ago. As each day goes by, I enjoy the boys more and more. And I also get more and more terrified of the fact that we're in charge of two little people. And I STILL have those "Wow. These are MY kids" moments. Wonder if those will ever go away?

Some of my twin friends have blogs, and every month they list the different things their kids are doing at that moment. I wish I had started that earlier, but here's what the boys are up to:

Will
- has 6 teeth! His middle two front teeth just broke through the surface within the past 2 days
- is a champion crawler
- can stand and pull up and cruise the furniture
- can say "mama," "bwah" (whatever that is), "ga," "dada"
- loves to screech at the top of his lungs
- is looking more like his Daddy

John
- has 5 teeth, though I know there are more coming soon, judging by the way he's drooling and chewing on everything
- crawls like he has a motor attached to his rear
- likes to stand on his own
- is walking!!!! He can take 4-5 steps at a time, though Daddy has yet to see it
- can say "mama," "dada," "puh," and other things that I can't remember right now
- loves to blow raspberries
- is looking more like his Mommy

I'm sure I'll remember other things, but these are the things that come to mind right now. We have such fun, fun little boys.

Fun with Em!

2009-01-12T13:48:00.000-05:00

Em took this picture last Friday while taking care of the boys.

First Christmas!

2008-12-31T19:31:00.005-05:00

Well, we've had our first Christmas with the boys. As you can see, they got new dinosaurs. As you can also see, they're not daunted by the t-rex. They'll eat him too!

Stone Wars Episode V: Houdini Strikes Back

2008-12-10T21:07:00.004-05:00

Some of you loyal readers (Hello grandparents!) may remember that we often referred to John in the early days as our little Houdini because he was constantly getting out of his swaddle, no matter what.

This morning, I was woken up around 5:30 to a crying child. Nothing too big, no "I'm in pain" cries....just the normal fussiness of "I'm bored. I'm lonely. I'm hungry. Mommy, where are you?" In our home, we have a pretty strict schedule where the boys don't get up until it's time (be it in the mornings or nap time). So, I let him cry until it was 6:00 - wake-up time. Judging from where the cries were coming from, I determined that the crying child was John. When I went in to get him, I found him almost exactly as he came into this world - NAKED (except for his diaper, thankfully)!!!! Little booger had somehow wriggled out of his PJs, and who knows how long he had been naked. Oh, but it gets better...

I thought maybe somehow he figured out how to unzip his PJs (currently a fleece, long-sleeved sleep sack) and wasn't exactly sure what the zipper did. And I thought that maybe he was just overly curious - just like the Curious George he sleeps with (and with which his Daddy before him slept too). When I grabbed John's PJs out of the crib to dress him again, I discovered that they were perfectly zipped and snapped. This led me first to offer up numerous exclamatory statements and second, to scratch my head in incredulity as to how exactly my youngest, though larger, son managed to do this.

Here are some of my conclusions:
A) he somehow got a shoulder out, then an arm, and then in a fit of anger, the other arm and finally his entire little body (all 28.3" of it) and couldn't figure out then why he was so cold and mad
B) I slept walk and undressed him (highly unlikely)
C) he figured out how to unzip his sleep sack, got out, then cleverly zipped it back up and piled it in a heap in his crib...just to keep us all guessing.
D) none of the above...and he's secretly gloating that no one (except for him and maybe his big bro, who slept soundly through it all) knows the truth.

Sign me up for the Bad Mommy of the Month award for making my kid cry for 30 minutes, NAKED, in his crib.

Oh well...at least it was a nice balmy 60 degrees out this morning, as opposed to the normal 30 degree December mornings. Somehow that made me feel just a little bit better.

I think John has forgiven me. He was quite mad this morning, even when I was re-clothing him in order to make him more comfortable. I rocked him and shushed him and asked for his forgiveness and told him that I loved him. When he looked at me with wet eyes and his silly grin, I knew all was right with the world again.

First Christmas Tree!

2008-12-02T20:33:00.003-05:00

We took the boys out tonight to buy their first ever Christmas tree! Now let's just hope that they don't get into trouble around said tree!

P.S. Anyone want to guess who's who in the picture?

9 month pictures!

2008-11-25T20:42:00.002-05:00

100th post!! And a new tooth!

2008-11-24T20:03:00.003-05:00

We officially have a vampire on our hands! I found this morning that John's other top eye tooth has broken the surface. Yesterday I had a feeling that he would pop another tooth soon, but I didn't think it'd be this soon.

Hopefully all two of our blog readers aren't bored with posts about teeth. :)

The boys had a fun day today playing with their Uncle John (our friend John) and their Auntie Em (proud god-mama), since Ms. Melinda was sick. While they hated to not get to play with Melinda, rumor has it that they had an amazingly fun day with John and Em. Apparently John spent lots of time talking to them and telling them how adorable they are. And Em somehow found the time to make dinner for us and some friends of ours who welcomed their baby boy, Benji, back in October, as well as fold my laundry. What amazing friends!! Fun times had by all!

Tooth count: Will - 2; John - 3.

Squared up...kinda

2008-11-15T10:37:00.002-05:00

Mommy found another tooth in John's mouth yesterday!!

I was very surprised, especially because it's NOT where I thought his next tooth would come in. Most babies get their front bottom teeth followed by their front top teeth. John, apparently, has to be different than most babies because.... he has one of his top eye teeth (aka canine teeth). While he won't let me see it yet, I can definitely feel it.

Tooth count: Will - 2; John - 2

9 months!

2008-11-13T20:31:00.002-05:00

It's hard to believe that the boys are 9 months old today. It's crazy to think that they've been here with us longer than I was pregnant. This time last year, we had recently found out that we were expecting boys, and I was actually looking pregnant. Now we have two little boogers to keep us amused.

Will's and John's personalities are getting stronger and stronger. Will is still laid-back, though he's starting to get into mischief. He and John love to crawl all over the place, and they especially love to try and pull Mommy's cookbooks off the shelf. John has turned into Mommy's little boy. He loves to cuddle and be held, but he also loves to go, go, go. They really are so much fun.

Nine-month pix to come!!

More apple pickin' pics

2008-11-05T19:38:00.002-05:00

Check out these pictures from Kev and Em from apple pickin'. Particularly take note of the b&w photo of John. That's a daddy expression if we've ever seen one.

Alas for the Clemson sleepers. Every time the boys have worn them, the Tigers have lost. Haven't worn them since.

Leveling the playing field

2008-11-03T19:37:00.003-05:00

Almost as soon as I posted last time, Will showed me that he could, indeed, crawl. It seems that he's still army-crawling because it gets him places faster. Can you blame him?? He enjoys switching back and forth and keeping us guessing.

And....John's 1st tooth is in! I checked his mouth yesterday morning, and lo and behold, there it was! It has just barely broken the surface, but it's definitely there!

Tooth count: Will - 2; John - 1

Crawling...

2008-10-30T17:58:00.002-04:00

Somehow in the busy-ness of life, we missed being able to pinpoint the day that John started crawling (not army crawling, but crawling-crawling). He's scooting around like a champ! We're thinking he started sometime within the last few days....

Still no teeth for John, and Will is *this close* to crawling-crawling, too.

And I'm sure we'll miss many more "firsts". Such is life with twinfants!

2-0

2008-10-22T20:26:00.003-04:00

Tooth count: Will - 2. John - 0.

That's right, folks. Will's 2nd tooth has just barely broken the surface, but it's there! I found it this morning when the boys got up.

Never hurts to encourage a little friendly competition, right? Ryan always reminds me that the boys are going to be competitive regardless of what I try to do. Not that "tooth growing" is necessarily controllable... :)

8 months old!

2008-10-19T06:41:00.001-04:00

And as you can tell from the pictures, personalities are becoming stronger and stronger...

How incredibly naive we can be...

2008-10-18T20:01:00.004-04:00

We've been looking back at previous posts and I read the following:

2nd day at home.... And we're still getting adjusted.

We've been home with the boys for 8 months now and we're STILL getting adjusted. And when we've had the boys at home for 8 years, we'll STILL be adjusting.

Signed,
Ryan, the poster of pictures and not much else.

Welcome, Lucy!

2008-10-15T20:42:00.003-04:00

Will and John asked us to help announce the birth of their newest cousin, Elisabeth Lucille Rank. Lucy was born this morning at 7:17AM. Mom and Baby are both doing great!

8 Months Old!!!

2008-10-13T09:08:00.001-04:00

Happy 8-month birthday, Will and John!!!

Latest Milestones

2008-10-11T10:07:00.003-04:00

This morning, the boys got their first taste of Daddy's pancakes - YUMMY! Happily, they LOVED them! The boys wanted some syrup, but Mommy said no. Mean ol' Mommy!

Will is now consistently sitting up on his own - as in he will go from his tummy to sitting up all by himself! And that tooth is still sharp! :) Will loves to eat pieces of banana that Mommy and Daddy give him.

John is scooting all over the place. His latest fun thing to do is to pull up on the chair so that he's standing! Such a big, big boy. We think he's going to skip "real" crawling and go straight to walking. We'll see if he's like his Daddy in that respect. And John LOVES yogurt!

They are interacting more and more together, and it's so much fun. We have such happy boys!

Will's trump card

2008-10-05T19:04:00.003-04:00

John has pretty much been the first to do everything (besides being born, of course) - roll, sit up, crawl, etc. But today, Will just said "Take that, Lil' Bro!" Because....

He has a tooth! :) Masie was the lucky one to find that his little tooth had finally poked through the surface. Yay Masie! Yay Will!

Apple pickin' with Kev and Em

2008-10-03T15:09:00.004-04:00

Hey! Who are you?

2008-09-25T19:38:00.000-04:00

Dapper little gents!

2008-09-21T17:47:00.002-04:00

Feeling curious

2008-09-20T19:37:00.002-04:00

Baptism

2008-09-15T09:16:00.002-04:00

Here's our latest family picture, taken 8/17/08 after the boys were baptized. Mommy is holding John, and Daddy is holding Will. Happy boys!!

6 month pictures - FINALLY!

2008-09-05T16:28:00.004-04:00

Sorry for the delay!!!!

Bye-Bye Chunky Butt and Small Fry

2008-08-23T16:35:00.002-04:00

The boys had their 6-month appointment on Friday (can we really believe it's been 6 months????). Everything went really well. Doc is still pleased with how the boys are doing. They both should have teeth within the next couple of weeks. Doc seems to think that all 4 of John's teeth will come in around the same time. That might explain some of his recent fussiness!

AND, the boys are the same weight AGAIN! They haven't been the same weight since birth, so we were pretty amazed. We knew John had caught up with Will, but we weren't sure how much. They're both 15lbs9oz. Will is 26" long, and John is 26.25" long.

The boys were baptized last Sunday at church, and both sets of grandparents and aunts, uncles, and cousins were there. It was really special to have our families with us to celebrate the occasion. Auntie Em and Uncle Kev were with us too...as were all of our other friends from church. :)

We have 6-month pix...soon to be uploaded.

John's still kickin'...

2008-08-11T19:59:00.004-04:00

Veggies!

2008-08-11T19:56:00.004-04:00

Here's our first attempt at veggies with the boys. Not the most successful thing we've done, but I think they got some vegetables in their stomachs!

Cereal!

2008-08-03T12:37:00.003-04:00

Tricksy parents

2008-08-03T12:33:00.004-04:00

We recently played a bit of a trick on our families. We sent them the following 4 pictures and played "Let's guess who!"

What we didn't tell them is that the 3rd picture is actually Ryan's niece! Hehe.

Yum!

2008-07-13T06:40:00.006-04:00

All kinds of new things this week! Rolling! Feet! Cereal!

p.s. Will's in green and John's in blue.
p.p.s Happy 5-month birthday, boys!!!

This week in review

2008-07-09T16:42:00.002-04:00

Things have been hoppin' around here! We have some SERIOUS rollers on our hands. Now we just have to learn how to roll BACK to our backs from our tummies and not get so mad. :)

John has found his feet! He loves to grab them and hold them...no sucking of toes yet, though I'm sure it's coming soon.

We broke down and put the boys in separate cribs last night. Ryan found Will literally ON TOP of John during a nap yesterday, and that was that. It was so sad for me to get them up this morning and not see them cuddling. Oh well...guess it had to happen sometime.

As for us, we spent a lovely long weekend with Masie and Grampy at the lake (well, what's left of it). Ryan, Grampy, and I ran the Peachtree Road Race on the 4th...and I mean ran! I had no intention of running very much, seeing as how we'd only run a handful of times since the boys were born. We wound up running the 1st 3 miles, walking miles 4 and 5, and then running the last 1.2. Oh my goodness - I looked like a little old lady hobbling around for about 4 days afterwards. I was so sore! I think today is the first day I don't feel any soreness or pain whatsoever. We were so blessed to have Uncle Kev and Auntie Em come down this weekend too. I know they enjoyed their vacation as well!

Pix are coming...we have them, but we just need to download them from the camera.

Rolling, rolling, rolling...

2008-07-01T13:59:00.002-04:00

No, we're NOT going to start singing "Rawhide"...

The boys have started rolling!! John is a champ, and Will is determined to keep up with lil' bro. Today during one of their naps, John fell asleep like this:

Excuse the poor quality...I took it with my camera phone because the memory card on the digital camera is full - we've been having too much fun with the video function!

Oh, and John got his first ear infection, poor baby. He's doing much better with antibiotics.

This is how I found Will this morning...

2008-06-27T10:03:00.002-04:00

Camera time with John

2008-06-23T20:28:00.003-04:00

John having a little fun! The background noise is Olympic gymnastics qualifying...

Check up!

2008-06-20T17:25:00.004-04:00

We had the boys' 4 month check-up this afternoon, and everything was great. The pediatrician is very pleased with the boys' progress. They even flirted with her a bunch too!

Will is up to 13lbs7oz (18th percentile, but 60th adjusted...meaning compared with other full-term babies born when he was) and John is not far behind at 12lbs13oz (10th percentile, 40th adjusted). Will is 24.3" long (21st percentile, 50th adjusted) and John is 24" even (14th percentile, 50th adjusted). Yay for happy, healthy, strong boys!

Will likes to sleep like his mommy does...with one leg out:

4 months old!!

2008-06-17T09:36:00.003-04:00

Wow. We can't believe that the boys are 4 months old already. In some ways, it seems longer, but in many ways it seems so much shorter. And to think - we still have a lifetime to go!

Ryan had a good first Father's Day. We went to the lake to celebrate, along with celebrating Madeleine's 2nd and Chris's 36th birthdays. All in all, we had a great trip.

For your viewing pleasure:

Will is on the right, and John is on the left.

Milestones

2008-06-10T14:23:00.004-04:00

This past week has been a big one! After my last post about the boys not sleeping through the night, they've done it every night since! :) We actually had to WAKE THEM UP at 6AM on Sunday morning. It was - and continues to be - amazing. John still manages to get himself unswaddled and turned around in the crib. It's quite humorous to find your baby in a completely different place from when you put him to bed!

As of Friday, I'm now officially a SUMMERTIME STAY-AT-HOME MOMMY! It's FABULOUS!

On Saturday, we took the boys, along with Uncle Kev and Auntie Em, to the Greenville Scottish Games and Highland Festival. One of my students gave us free tickets, so we couldn't pass it up. It was really neat, albeit HOT! It was a bit too hot for the boys, so we didn't stay long. But we're still glad we went.

We went back to Community Group on Sunday evening for the 1st time in probably 6 months. We were there for just a little while, and everything was just fine. Good to see everyone again.

We made our first outing yesterday - just Mommy and the boys. We went to Babies R Us and Target, and all with minimal fussing. The boys did well too! My proudest moment was when I was trying to fold up the stroller to put back in the car after Babies R Us. And I couldn't remember how to do it! I'm sure I looked really cool.

The boys got their first taste of Baby Einstein yesterday when I popped in Baby Bach for Will while I was feeding John at 3. He LOVED it! And John got to watch it, too, while I was feeding Will. Three thumbs up for Baby Bach...and that's just because John is likely gnawing on one of his thumbs that he's recently discovered.

They've also decided that naptime is no fun. They used to sleep all the time - waking for a bit before and just after feeding time - but now they've decided it's too fun to stare at the popcorn ceiling in the living room. This afternoon, after John had been awake for about 2 hours, I pulled out the Miracle Blanket (yes, Renee, I actually have 2 of them! :) ), and he calmed down a bit. I just worry that he's a bit too hot. We'll see how it goes. So far, so good.

Grandma and Grandpa are coming up tomorrow night so we can celebrate Father's Day with Grandpa. Then we're headed to GA for the weekend for many celebrations - Father's Day, Madeleine's 2nd birthday, and Uncle Chris's birthday too.

Summertime will be over before we know it! :(

Here's our latest family pic from Mother's Day (was it really over a month ago???):

3AM...

2008-06-04T11:36:00.002-04:00

came waaaaaay too early this morning when John started fussing. So much for sleeping through the night! He came unswaddled and had rotated almost 180 degrees again. I think he woke up because he was cold.

Back to the drawing board...

Sleep, Glorious Sleep

2008-06-03T09:23:00.002-04:00

They did it! They did it! The boys slept through the night!!!!!!!!!! (can you tell I'm a bit excited?)

They've been sleeping more and more at night, so I knew it wasn't too far away. Ryan said he heard them peep at 4:40, but I didn't hear them at all. They didn't start fussing until 5:30! Will and John slept from 8:30-5:30! Way to go, boys! I'm sure it had something to do with the fun day they had with Masie and Aunt Ka-Ka on Monday. When I went to get the boys this morning, John had managed to not only come unswaddled (surprise, surprise), but he had rotated himself almost 180 degrees. His little head was up against the front bumper, and his feet were just about in his big bro's face. We may have to start separating them soon... :(

I can't believe they are 10 days away from being 4 months old. The other day when someone asked me how old they are, I answered, "2 months." Then I stopped and realized that I was wrong! At their 3-month check-up, Will was just shy of 12 lbs, and John wasn't too far behind at 11lbs1oz. They've outgrown most of their 0-3 month clothes. Thankfully, we don't have to buy any clothes for them! We've received LOADS of hand-me-downs from lots of people. The boys have more clothes than me and Ryan combined - and that's A LOT of clothes.

John has found his thumb. I caught him numerous times last night sucking away on that thumb, much to our dismay. I tried to persuade him to suck on his paci instead, but apparently his thumb tastes better. Hopefully we can break this habit fast. As Ryan pointed out, you can cut a paci away, but you can't cut a finger away. So true, so true.

Here's to more sleeping through the night! Hopefully this is the beginning of a great habit and NOT a fluke.

John, the kicker

2008-05-31T09:48:00.002-04:00

Here's a picture of John in his bassinet. It might have outlived its usefulness at this point...

Take me out to the ball game...

2008-05-23T07:31:00.004-04:00

With Grandpa and Grandma!

Sneaky little Will

2008-05-05T14:54:00.003-04:00

We need a caption...

2008-04-26T16:25:00.002-04:00

...and we want you to supply it! Have fun!

Things have been a bit busy

2008-04-20T21:50:00.002-04:00

I realized today that it's been far too long since we've posted. I'll attempt to update in the next 10 minutes before it's time to feed the boys.

Our new schedule is working!!! The boys consistently go 4-5 hours at a stretch at night, and last night we got 5 1/2! WOW! It was great! Here's hoping last night wasn't just a fluke.

The Zantac seems to be working alright, but I guess it's just simply hard to tell. It'd be really nice if the boys could just tell us what's wrong, but I guess that's not part of the deal right now.

They had their 2 month check-up a week and a half ago, and the doctor is quite pleased (of course!). Will weighed a whopping 9lbs14oz and was 20.5" long, while John was up to 9lbs even and was 21" long. I told Ryan that Will is built like me and John is built like him! :) By this point, I'm guessing Will is close to 10 1/5 lbs and John is nearing the 10lb mark. It's funny - John still feels so much lighter to me!

Tomorrow marks the beginning of my 2nd week back to work. While last week was so incredibly hard, I know that it's a) for a short time and b) for the boys. Monday wasn't too bad because Mom was here, so I didn't have to worry about packing everyone up and heading out. I'm happy to say that Tuesday-Friday, I was at school around 8:00 every day! I made it to our sitters' houses at 7:30 pretty much on the button every day. Let's just hope that continues. I'm not enjoying having to wake up at 4:50am to get everything done, but I guess I'll get used to it in time...and by that time it'll be summer vacation! It felt good to be back at work and back in the swing of things, but of course I missed the boys dreadfully. I actually felt like a human, all dressed up and with make-up on. Though I can't complain about 8 weeks of lounging in my PJs until noon! And Ryan is doing an incredible job helping around the house and feeding the boys when he gets home from work and I'm still at school.

We hope to post some more pix soon. We forgot to take some last week on their 2-month-iversary, so we'll have to fudge it a bit. They'll never know, right?

Chunky Butt and Small Fry

2008-04-01T21:30:00.002-04:00

Will and John have new nicknames - Chunky Butt and Small Fry. We knew that Will was heavier, and that was confirmed today when we went to the pediatrician. John is up to 8lbs3oz and Will is up to 9lbs!

Both boys are now on Zantac for suspected reflux. They've been very fussy lately, so we're hoping that this will help calm them down a bit.

We're also going to try out a new nighttime schedule so we can get (hopefully) some more sleep. Here's hoping it'll work!

First Easter!

2008-03-23T20:52:00.002-04:00

Here are the boys and us on their first Easter. Grampy and Masie came up for the weekend to take care of us (all of us!).

I've been remiss...

2008-03-23T16:55:00.002-04:00

...in informing you that our boys have pets. Indeed! Kermit and Frog! Though I only have a picture of Kermit...

One month picture

2008-03-15T18:18:00.004-04:00

Thanks Grampy!

John's on the left, and Will is on the right.

One month check-up

2008-03-14T12:00:00.002-04:00

We went to see Dr. Schultz this morning for the boys' one month check-up. They did great! Will weighs 7lbs9oz and John is up to 7lbs1oz. Both boys are 20 1/4", and their head circumferences are the same still - 14" (I think). Their reflexes are great, and the doc was amazed at their ability to hold their heads up. She said they're doing things that are normal for 2 month olds! They're still the wonder twins... :)

Mommy and Daddy did very well too when the boys got their HepB shots!

Happy Birthday!

2008-03-13T17:25:00.001-04:00

Today is Will and John's one month birthday. My how time flies! On one hand it seems like yesterday when they were born. On the other hand, it seems like forever ago.

We have some new pix to upload. Hopefully it'll get done soon!

Reason #4,365,982 why I love my husband's job

2008-03-07T13:31:00.002-05:00

Of course, the obvious reason is the free coffee. Then there's the great people he works with - one of his co-workers bought me a 6-pack of one of my fave beers after the boys were born. Then there's the benefits (stock options, 401K, health insurance...).

BUT, reason #4,365,982 is this... the regulars. Since the boys have born we've received gifts from 2 of Ryan's regular customers. One customer, affectionately known as "hot mommy" to the Starbucks crew, gave me a book called "Love You Forever." If you're a mommy of boys and feeling exceptionally emotional, DON'T read it. I cried for 10 minutes. Another customer today gave Ryan a card. No biggie, right? "Congrats on your 2 new bouncing bundles of joy," right? Yes, but also $100 in Babies R Us giftcards. I mean, WOW! I've met this customer before - we had a nice conversation through the drive-thru window (and yes, I've actually had a face-to-face, too) - but I wouldn't call her up and make a lunch date.

I'm humbled by the generosity of these two women...two women I don't even know!

It's 4 AM...

2008-03-06T04:11:00.001-05:00

...and my son just projectile pooped. It hit the door, the wall, the floor...an impressive feat. 4, 5 feet maybe?

Just wanted to share.

That's all.

tummy time and first bath

2008-03-01T08:56:00.014-05:00

Here's some pictures from the boys getting some tummy time (doc said it helps premies not have misshapen heads?) and their first bath!

Two weeks??

2008-02-28T16:47:00.003-05:00

Two weeks old already? Next thing we know, they'll be walking...then starting school...then asking to borrow the car...then...oh my!

It's been a busy week 'round here. The week started out with the boys getting their very first bath - a sponge bath since they both still had their cords at the time. Then, John lost his umbilical cord on Monday. He trumped his big bro, yet again. We went to see the pediatrician on Tuesday, where we found out that we've got a pair of porkers on our hands! Both boys gained a bunch of weight - Will is up to 5lbs14oz, and John is up to 5lbs12oz...both up from 5lbs3oz in just one week. WOW! We also went to see Dr. H (my OB) on Tuesday for my 2 week check-up. Both Doc and Amanda were sorely disappointed that we didn't bring the boys, but with the flu epidemic, we didn't want to risk it. I'm healing quite nicely, thank you. AND, while we were at the OB, Masie was babysitting....and Will lost his umbilical cord! Now we can give the boys are real bath!!

Grampy is here with us as of today. He and Masie will head back to GA on Sunday, unfortunately for us. It's been so nice to have help 'round the clock. I know we need to get in the swing of things ourselves, but we've been so spoiled! It's nice to know that both sets of grandparents are so close and so willing to come help at a moment's notice. Now we just have to get Grandma and Grandpa over this nasty flu!

Oh yeah, and we still can't tell them apart. The spot that Grampy found on John's cheek disappeared...