Tummy Time & Rolls

Happy Tuesday! 

The girls have been wearing 3 month size clothing pretty solidly for a while now and it is so fun to dress them in all their pretty outfits! Almost all of our clothes were gifts so it is fun to put them in different things and think of the people who gave them to us. I love when they are matching but I also love when they are coordinating! 

Tummy time! They are both getting stronger every day and it is so fun to see them with their little heads up like tiny turtles. You can see Brynn's neck in the photo- they are both having trouble with a little rash under their little neck rolls. I got a special cream from the doctor and it seems to be helping! Good thing neck rolls are perfectly acceptable and cute on babies! :o) 

Do you notice that Brynn has a sneaky look in her eye? Just wait...

One...

Two...

Three! And over she goes! 

I'm having so much fun with my sweet girls! We are looking forward to a great Thanksgiving week and kicking off the start of December! 

Instafriday

Happy Friday! 

I love doing these Friday posts because they seem like a great way to wrap up the week (or two weeks) and mark the passage of time. It also makes my heart hurt a little bit because I know the number of Fridays I have left before returning to work are limited! 

I have had a fantastic maternity leave and I am 100% looking forward to returning to work. I've attended two concerts at school the past two weeks and it just felt good to be back at school and see my students. I started getting excited and thinking of all the fun things we could do in the spring...my mind was going a mile a minute. I think that is a good sign I am ready to return to work! I am also blessed to have been able to take an extended amount of time off- I have not worked since May and that will have been 7 months off of school. I feel like it allowed me to have a relaxing end of my pregnancy and a peaceful time at home with newborns. I'm happy to have had some special bonding time with the girls and a true break from my normal life- I have no commitments except for caring for babies. I hope I can look back on this time with fond memories!   

And now on to the important business...cute babies! 

 Brynn

Brynn smiles!

Playtime!

Pretty in pink!

All clean! Luckily both girls think it is really fun to be naked, so usually one can entertain herself on the bathroom floor being naked while I am giving the other their bath. It is pretty fun for all!

All snuggled up! 

And now...non- baby stuff!

I have been running around the last week gathering supplies for my Jesse Advent Tree. I ordered this book from Amazon to start. It is beautiful, a large size, and the stories are easy to read. I used the stories and pictures to help guide my ornament selection process. I bought most of the ornaments at Hobby Lobby and World Market and had to gather a few from things around the house. I am excited to start this new tradition with Michael and hopefully I can share more once we get it going in December. 

I also got all my baby thank you's wrapped up- so overwhelmed by the generosity of my friends and family!! I don't think I have written this many thank you notes since my wedding! It felt good to get it done and now I can focus on getting Christmas cards out! 

We had a string of pretty rough nights last week which ended up with long stretch of time where I was not sleeping. Luckily, I was able to take myself on a virtual middle of the night vacation to one of my future travel destinations! I love looking at photos of people's vacations and hope that we can actually book one ourselves in the next four years or so. 

My silly big boy. Scott and I have been tag teaming Sunday mornings at church. It is nice because it gives us each a little bit of alone time with Michael, especially if we run errands afterwards...like to the toy aisle of Walmart! 

After the girls' two month appointment last week, I treated myself to a hot drink for dealing with six immunizations on my sweet babies. However, the barista made my drink wrong and gave me the wrong one along with the right one. It was quite the dilemma- what to do?? Drink them both? Luckily I was reassured by my instagram friends that two babies means two drinks so I went for it. And then I was suuuper productive until all hours of the night! Holy caffeine overload! 

I love these photos of Michael with his sisters- he is doing such a good job being a big brother! They love to keep an eye on him and see what he is doing! 

The face of a 32 year old! Happy Birthday to me! :o) 

And that's it for this post! Whew- that is a lot of instas! 

Have a great weekend! :o) 

(linking up today...go check out the party!)

Baby Smiles!

Girls are growing so fast! They have been changing so much especially in the last few days- lots of smiles and personality! I love it that their little eyes can actually see you and say hi! It makes all the hard work of nighttime parenting worth it. 

Anna is our little baby birdie- mouth open, always ready to eat! Especially when she sees mom! 

Brynn keeping busy with her toys and music- lots of dancing! She was too busy to smile today! 

Here it comes...big baby smile! 

And here comes another one! 

I tried to get one out of Brynn, too but this is all I got. "Am I doing it right, mom?" 

:) 

Happy Tuesday! 

2 Months!

The girls had their two month well baby appointment yesterday! Technically they are 9 weeks old...and growing fast! 

Here are their stats: 

Anna 

10 lbs 6 oz

22 inches

Brynn

9lbs 7oz

21 inches 

Both have gained over four pounds since being born! Yay! It was so exciting to watch Anna tip the scales to over the 10 lb mark- the nurse and I were both cheering! Good job, babies! 

The girls have really started to make some developmental jumps just in the last few days. I've been catching more and more smiles, as well as them just watching my face and looking around like they know what is going on. They are also more sensitive to noises and will turn their head for musical toys or start crying if something loud startles them. They are also getting so strong and have really good neck control which makes it so much easier when trying to pick them up or hold them both at once. 

We are also experiencing more and more happy baby time- times when they are awake and not screaming. It is a welcome change for this mama! Our schedule continues to improve every day and the girls are doing a great job stretching out their feedings to 3 hours- it helps for times when I am out of the house or just having some predictability in our lives. I would love to feed them on demand but it is just too hard with two babies! 

Miss Anna chubby cheeks. 

Miss Brynn sassy pants. 

People have been asking if their personalities have started to develop in different ways. So far we haven't seen a ton of personality but it seems to me like Anna is more sweet and content while Brynn is more stronger willed and energetic. When sleeping, Anna will always lay right down in her crib, look around and fall asleep without fighting. But if someone is awake too soon, crying, or fighting sleep.... 9 times out of 10 it will be Brynn. 

I have celebrated a few milestones of my own this week- turning 32! There are days when I feel like I am too old to have newborns and there are days where I feel like the best is yet to come. I am working hard at trying to get back in shape so I can have more energy and be the best mom I can be! 

I also had a big milestone of taking the girls out to the doctor appointment all by myself. It was a big, big job! The girls were very good except for their shots but they calmed down quickly afterwards. The nurse said it was a good thing I had such a calm personality...making me a perfect twin mom. I'm glad I have her fooled! :o) 

I also took the girls out to their first target trip this morning! They have been taking a good, consistent morning nap around 9:30 so I figured it would be the perfect time to sneak out of the house. I asked Scott to grab some baby tylenol last night but he forgot so I thought I would just run and get it quick since it seemed like the girls were still uncomfortable from their shots. So I loaded them up, put them in their stroller and took Target by storm. It went really well and I was proud of myself. Using my stroller meant I could only get things that fit into my basket but that is all I needed anyway. We took a big lap around the store while I did some browsing and we really got the twin "celebrity" treatment. Every person we passed would smile or say, "wow! Twins!". Parents would tell their kids to "look at the two babies!". In the checkout line, the lady behind me said her granddaughter was expecting twins and the cashier said she had twin boys that were now grown. It was really funny to me and I'm glad the girls were snoozing and behaving the whole time. The cashier said I must have a really nice family and I agreed. :o) 

20 twinkle toes! Full of blessings! 

InstaFriday!

Happy Friday! 

If I was in school now, this would be a day off for me! Every year it seems like conference week (and the teacher comp day) correlate with my birthday! Since my birthday is Monday, if I were working and had the day off I would be doing all sorts of fun things like treating myself to a shopping day, lunch out with Scott, etc. But alas, I am not doing any of those things today! 

I was complaining to Scott last night how I can not get a single thing done during the day unless the girls are sleeping because it is just so much work to keep them happy and content when they are awake. I was mostly upset because I was trying to squeeze in a measly twenty minutes on the elliptical and both girls couldn't play happily by themselves for just a little bit. I was up and down for about ten minutes trying to exercise and soothe a baby at the same time and it was really frustrating! So I gave up and then ended up with TWO crying babies that required lots of my energy. Immediately after complaining about it last night I felt terrible and realized how blessed I am to GET to hold two babies all day long! If I can just get over my own self and stop trying to run a house and a family I think I can be at peace with this season of my life. Anyone have any solutions? Just let the clutter/dishes/laundry build up all day and deal with it at night to have a clean house in the morning? I think the most frustrating part of it to me is that visually seeing all the clutter in my house drives me bonkers! 

Anyway, so I guess what I am trying to say is here are two weeks of photos of me holding babies since that is basically what I do all day! :o) 

Throw back thursday to Michael when he was about the girls' age! I think the girls look similar to him although he was a pretty chunky monkey! 

Anna: naptime is so rough! The struggle is real! 

Sometimes one girl will still be out at naptime and the other is ready to get up so I will grab them and they can finish sleeping in my lap. It is nice to have them one on one! 

My trio! Can't forget about big brother and his new spiderman jammies! 

Brynn looking bright eyed at our lunch out at Gortz Haus with grandma and my aunt Gwen. I had never been there before so it was a nice treat and we had the place to ourselves. The Gortz Haus is an art gallery and cafe in an old church in Grimes. It is really sweet inside and a fun place for a lunch out! 

Baby snuggles!

Anna is like, "Seriously?". Pretty in pink this day!

More baby snuggles! 

Last week Michael celebrated Halloween at his school with a party. He said he wanted to bring treats and so we made these little Kleenex sucker ghosts. Pretty awesome, right? I was all for a quick, easy craft that Michael could help with (he drew the faces). He came with about six goody bags so I hope parents appreciate the fact that we didn't send their kid home with lots more candy than they need! 

Two backseat buddies! 

My mom was here this past week but the week before I was all on my own. As luck had it, I also had THREE appointments scheduled that week. Scott was a big help and let me drop the girls off at his office for a little bit while I buzzed to the appointments and back again. However, it did mean I did my fair share of backseat nursing- a new adventure with twins! 

This is what I'm usually doing. Yup...exciting. :o) 

That's it for me! Have a great Friday! 

Just a reminder you can follow me on instagram @rosekundel. I try and post a photo or two of the girls every day!