Sardines

I'm not sure, but I don't think this little box is meant for two, or even one for that matter!

My Babies Are ONE!!

I can't believe they are one today. There were times when this year seemed like the longest year ever, and other times it felt like I just brought them home. It's crazy. They had a good day today. Well, at least I think they did. They didn't tell me one way or the other :) We went to Pop and Granny's in the morning. Granny had already made them a yummy cake! Then we got to see the cute table and chairs that Pop made and Granny painted for them. How cute! We went to Steak 'n' Shake for lunch. The girls had their first taste of french fries and ice cream. It was hilarious watching Delanie eat the cold ice cream. Then Grandma Jody came over and brought them Happy Birthday balloons. They had a big day!

Happy Easter!

Just wanted to send out some pics of the girls from Easter. They got baskets from the Easter Bunny and both sets of grandparents. So they were spoiled as usual. They were really cute w/ their baskets. They were a big hit at church in their pretty dresses. We enjoyed our first Easter as a family :)

Oh, and I added a couple more videos to our YouTube page.

What happens when I don't pay attention.

This is a picture of what happens when I am not paying attention. They pushed this chair down the hall and to the computer room/Tiger's room. We have a gate in front of that room b/c of the computer and that is where Tiger's puppy pads and food are. He can get under the gate, the girls can't. So I guess they decided to try and go OVER the gate!

The girls are 11 months old today! I don't think they are doing anything too different than the last post. They are definitely standing up on their own for long periods of time. They aren't walking though. That is really fine by me :) They are busy enough as crawlers. Delanie is doing the backwards wave when we say hello and bye bye. Pop and Granny are working on pointing out eyes and such and they get it sometimes, but then they usually forget it right away :)

We took our first walk of the year last Friday and used our new wagon. They really enjoyed it. It is so much fun to get them outside and watch them look all over the place. I can't wait for warm weather!

I went to the Hearts at Home Conference on Friday. It is a 2 day conference for moms who stay at home. It was really good! There were some awesome speakers, and I felt really refreshed when it was time to start the next busy day at home.

Scott is blessed to still be employed, and we are thankful. I have those in my prayers that have lost their job during this tough time. I can't imagine the stress it must put on you, please know I pray for you every prayer time I have.

Well, that is it for now. The next post will probably be their 1st birthday!!!

I have attached some pics I took today. Natalie is battling a cold or allergies, we are not sure. So, these pics aren't the best ever... but this is how they look at 11 months.

Oh, and I added a couple more videos to our You Tube page for those that are interested.

TTFN

Tiger is 3!

Since this blog is for the Nichols' Family, I have to include our dog! He turned 3 on Saturday. So we put on our party hats, had some doggy birthday cake and had a great time :) Happy Birthday Tiger!

To all who are interested, I have been uploading our videos to You Tube. It's easier to use and view from there. Just go to this link, http://www.youtube.com/nichosd1, and you can watch videos if you like!

10 months (and 4 days old)!

My girls are 10 months old! They are getting so big and are all over the place. Thank goodness we have a small house. I close all the doors and just let them go. Delanie has only eaten dog food 3 times and gotten into Tiger's puppy pads twice :) Those are pretty good odds considering how busy she is. Natalie started crawling in January and is just as busy. She isn't as curious, but she is a fast little crawler. Her favorite place is the fridge. As soon as I open that door she is in there looking for something to grab. Like mother like daughter, I guess :)

They are pulling themselves up on everything. They are even starting to let go and stand on their own for a couple of seconds. Then they realize what they are doing and grab onto something. I've also started giving them table food and letting them feed themselves. Talk about messy! It has caused some trauma for Natalie as she does not like change, but she is doing better. They seem to learn something new every day, and it amazes me. Delanie was dancing the other day. I have no idea where she got that from. I know it is a simple thing, but it is so funny how they discover things like that on their own. Natalie started dancing today, too. She has watched her sister do it enough and has figured it out. Daddy bought them a dog that sings and dances for valentines day and they love it. Well, at first Natalie did not. She is ok w/ him now :)

Today when I went in to get the girls after a good night of sleep, I noticed Natalie had somehow gotten completely out of her pajamas. She was standing up in her crib in her diaper. Only 2 buttons were undone on her PJs. I have no idea how that happened, but it was pretty funny!

Just wanted to upload some pics of the girls in all their Christmas gear. They have too much of it, but I couldn't resist. Not too many new things to report on them. Natalie still sits most of the time. She is flipping on her tummy if she has to. No huge advances in crawling. That's OK though. She is good at other stuff, like being cute. Plus, I would only like to deal with one mobile child at a time! Delanie is doing well with the crawling. She came all the way down the hall to see me tonight. She claps when I say yeah, she is putting food in her mouth, understands patty cake, and loves to play peek-a-boo. This is all stuff I've noticed this week. She has been saying something along the lines of 'Pop' and 'Bye-Bye'. Or, she could just be saying 'babababa', and we make it into something it isn't :) Natalie does say 'MaMaMa' when she wants something. Natalie is pretty funny about the stuff she sees Delanie do. Today, Delanie was taking some food out of my hand and putting it into her mouth. Every time she did it, I would say 'Yeah!' and clap my hands. So then it became a thing after every bite, Delanie would smile and clap. Natalie noticed I wasn't clapping when she ate the food out of my hand (she bends over and sucks it off of my hand). So she picked up the food and tried and tried to put it in her mouth. I would try to help, and she would jerk her hand away. Then she dropped it. I put another in my hand, and she just bent over and sucked it off my hand again. It was pretty funny. It was like she was saying, 'Eh clap for her. I just want to eat.' They are just so much fun right now. It is really a joy to be home with them.

Hope you all enjoy Christmas this year and remember the true Reason for the Season!

Rotating Tree

It took me a bit longer than usual, but I got my house completely decorated last week. I added a new addition to my tree this year. A rotating base! Yes, that's right. My tree rotates. I decided to make a video of it so you can all see it!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I say Happy Thanksgiving, but we've already been to see Santa! I thought it be best to get that trip over with before Thanksgiving. I didn't know what to expect from the girls. I wasn't sure if they would respond well to him or not. They did ok. No huge smiles. More like a deer caught in the headlights kind of thing. But the pic turned out cute. I have to comment on St. Nick though. We went to the one at Northwoods, and he was not that friendly! He almost seemed irritated w/ us. I don't know, maybe I had too many expectations for their first Santa Claus visit. Those of you who know me well, know I LOVE Christmas and Santa and all that. So I have been so excited to see them sit on his lap. Now I am realistic an didn't expect them to be all in love w/ him, but I did expect him to be a bit nicer to the girls. He was just grouchy. And now it costs to see Santa?? We paid $20 to have the girls sit on his lap and get 8 pictures. I asked if we had to buy the pics, and she said it was recommended. Well what do you say to that??? So we bought them. I did take a couple of my own as well. OK, enough complaining!

The girls are changing all the time! Natalie was our wild child and has really seemed to calm down. She sits up really well, and that's all she seems to want to do.... sit. If she falls backwards while sitting, she just lays there and watches TV. That is so different than how she used to be. Delanie is all over the place. If you lay her on her back she immediately flips over and then scoots all over the place. She is sooo close to crawling. Our house is not ready for that! They are sleeping better these days. I usually get one full night of sleep, then the next night someone wakes up. At least they are giving me some sort of a break :)
OK, that's all for now. Hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Day before Halloween

I tried to get these to show up in my previous blog, but they wouldn't work. These are their little outfits from the day before Halloween. The shirts are from Grandma Jody and the bows are from mommy :)

Halloween!

We celebrated our first Halloween on Friday. What fun! Well, more so for me than them :) They were good sports though. I took tons of good pics. I took some the day before as well in our little Halloween shirts. As you can see, Natalie is our ham.

Scott and I went to Chicago this weekend to celebrate our 3rd anniversary. We had a good time. We had no plans, so we basically just ate and slept :) Scott was sick the whole weekend, so he stayed at the hotel and watched football on Sunday and I shopped. Maybe he wasn't sick.. maybe that was his plan all along :) It was a nice getaway. However, we missed the girls a lot. We talked about them pretty much the whole time.. yes, we are THAT couple :) They were awfully sweet when we got home though. Natalie didn't know whether to cry or smile. Delanie just had her usual full face smile on. It was pretty cute.

Hope you enjoy the pics.

oh... the pics of the girls in the costumes should be a slide show. If it doesn't come across that way to those who get my email update, go to http://sdnx2.blogspot.com/.

Jumparoo!

Thought I'd send a couple of videos of the girls in their jumparoo. Natalie is a bit more into it than Delanie. Turn down the volume as my mom and I sound ridiculous :)

Oh and they are sitting up now. Delanie has a little trouble w/ balance, but she is doing good!

Natalie Update

A lot of people have been asking me how Natalie is, so I thought I'd give an update. She is pretty much back to her old self. She is very playful and hyper! Her head is healing nicely. Some of her hair is even growing back. After almost 2 weeks we think we have her back on a sleep schedule. After the Dr. said she was in no pain, we had to start letting her cry it out at night b/c she was getting up A LOT! She was never a good sleeper, but it just got worse after the surgery, which is understandable. But, I read that 6 months was a good time to let her cry it out and it should only take 3 to 4 days. HA!!!!!! Try 12... and we're not even sure it worked for any long period of time. I just know she slept a couple nights in a row. She did cry a bit, but she soothed herself back to sleep. We put her back in the room w/ Delanie, and they did really well last night. For the time being, I have them on a good nap schedule and bedtime schedule. I hear that can change though. I try not to think about that and just be happy for the moment that I am getting some good sleep!

Below are some pics of Nat at the hospital.

I guess deflated mylar (sp?) balloons could be a suffocation hazard. I left Delanie on her tummy in the living room and Natalie in the jumparoo to come in here and type this entry. I heard this odd noise but didn't think much of it. Then Tiger came running in the room barking, so I went to the living room to see what was up. Delanie had managed to turn herself completely around and bury her face in the balloon. I don't think she was scared, she thought it was funny. I picked her up and she had this huge smile on her face and got mad when I took the balloon away. Guess I'll have to remember not to leave deflated balloons lying around! :)

6 month pics

I took these pics the day before Nat's surgery. They are sorta their 6 month pics. Scott bought me this nice camera, and I did the best I could. I took about 600 pics (literally) and got a handful of good ones. So here they are!

Natalie is doing great. She looks as precious as always and is all smiles. I do believe the back of her head hurts her, but she doesn't complain much. Hopefully that will get to feeling better soon. She must be worn out today b/c she has been sleeping forever. I finally got Delanie to sleep so Nat should be waking up anytime now.. and I think I just heard her. I can't figure out how to get them to nap together :)

Anyway, things are going good here. Just wanted to update anyone that reads this that my little girl is doing great! Thanks to those who prayed for us.

Thanks Katie!

Yeah! Katie Chatwell read my blog and commented :) Thank you!

So it is almost a month later and I am udpating this. Ha! It has been busy around here. I am working like mad to get bows and clippies made for the Marigold Festival. It is getting closer and I have so much to do.

Scott and I bought a new camera. It's a nice one that has 2 zoom lenses and all that. I was told if we bought it, I had to learn to use it correctly.. Yikes! This also means no more professional pics from Joy... we will see if that sticks :) If I haven't shown you the awesome pics from Joy, click on the link below

http://photographybyjoy.blogspot.com/2008/07/sneak-peak-x-2.htmljoy.blogspot.com/2008/07/sneak-peak-x-2.html

The girls are now eating baby food. They are doing pretty good. Delanie is hard to read though. I feed her green beans, and she screams the whole time. I can't figure out what it means. She screams but eats the beans. So who knows.

Natalie is a good little eater. She actually grabs the spoon and helps me put it in her mouth. They are messy little boogers. I have to strip them down to their diaper to feed them. I just sit in between them and feed away.

I am working hard on bows and clippies for the Marigold Festival. I only have a couple of weeks left and a ton to do. I am working on a website too, so I am getting in over my head just a bit.

OK, I am going to try to post this again.. somehow I lost the first post.

More to come... after the Marigold Festival I am sure.

Don't know what I am doing....

So I have no idea what I am doing w/ this blogging stuff... but I thought I'd try since my girls are napping at the same time for a change!!!!!!! I feel like since the babies came, I am very very bad at keeping up w/ everyone. Maybe this blog will help? Or maybe it will just tell you all things about me that are of no interest to you :)

I actually have nothing exciting to write today... Scott is out of town so it is me and the babies. Well, ok not really.... my mom comes over every evening and stays. But it's not the same without Scott. He is in NC right now. He took a promotion which is going to require him to travel every other week. It could also mean a move for us at the beginning of the year. We just don't know yet. I am not too excited about that b/c of the babies and all. It is hard enough to get out and about w/ twins when you have family here to help. It will be much harder if we move where I don't know a soul. Oh well, we will see what God has in store for us :)

Speaking of twins... it is really hard to have two babies at once. I don't know how many times people say, "what if you were John and Kate plus 8?" I seriously don't know what I'd do! I do have two good babies, but it is just really hard some days. Yesterday was Cryfest 2008. Not sure what the problem was, but wow.. what a day. We think they may be teething, which may account for the fussiness. My mom came and got them for a sleep over. So I had some alone time, which was so so nice. It is great to be a stay at home mommy, but it is great to get away too.

Natalie has discovered her voice I think. She is talking up a storm today. She hasn't done that until today. It is too cute.

Delanie is napping... which I am glad she rediscovered :)

Tiger likes the bouncy seat. I think he just likes to be wherever the babies are so he can get some attention!

Ok. I guess this is enough for today. Natalie is awake now and is talking and drooling up a storm.