Bane Beauties

Okay, so there are a LOT of pictures of our beautiful baby girls in this post (but I'm allowed, right?!?! Joel & I are proud of them!!!) And there is also one super cute video too..


So, since it's been a while since I've posted much, let me tell you what we have been up to. Both the girls are getting over ear infections (boo) and thankfully we figured out that you can put the antibiotic IN their bottles (why didn't the Dr tell us this the first go round???) which made it much easier for them to take it. But apart from not feeling so well (and thankfully now the medicine has kicked in and they are back to their usual, happy selves) we are doing great. A few weeks ago, I had been feeling so overwhelmed b/c the girls were still not sleeping very long at night, and after five months of sleep deprivation, you know, it just gets to ya... I thought giving them rice cereal would be the magic thing to help them sleep most/all night, and it worked the first two nights, and then they were back to 4-5 hours at a time. I know every child is wired differently and there is no real rhyme or reason to when they start sleeping all night. I am glad to say that the past five nights, they have slept 7-9 hours straight (of course not both of them at the same time, but hey, I'll take it!) So hopefully we've turned a corner and a full nights sleep is not too far away...


But oh these sweet girls - they are just so fun!!! Personalities really coming out, smiling and laughing, grabbing at things, and putting most everything in their mouths. I love every new thing. Kennedy has become really content, and is happy to play with one thing for quite a while. She smiles a lot, still eats great, and likes it when daddy talks in silly voices to her. Natalie has become a bit more mischievous, and keeps us on our toes. She has found her feet and grabs them all the time, and can even get her big toe in her mouth! She still loves for daddy to fly her around, she likes playing with her catepillar, and is a much better eater now. We have taken advantage of some nice weather lately, and gone on a few walks, which we all enjoyed the fresh air and warm sun.

I just finished my last year at the school I had been working at (Cora Howe) for the past 6 1/2 years. My school closed b/c of low enrollment and rezoning, so I will be starting all over as the Family Resource Center director at a different elementary school. I am kind of nervous and hope the transition will be smooth. And of course, I am still praying for the opportunity to stay at home with my girls.

Joel is working hard, both at work and at home. He has taken over some of the cooking and has probably washed more bottles than he ever imagined. He loves making the girls laugh and helps me out a LOT! He is playing sand volleyball and his team has won all their games so far. We celebrated our 3rd anniversary a couple of weeks ago, and appreciate when Mimi offers to watch the girls so we can have a date night!

Well, here are all the pics from the past few weeks and I am excited to show you a picture of Natalie smiling, which up until lately, has been pratically impossible to capture on camera b/c as soon as she sees the camera in front of her, she concentrates on that and so now you can see that she really has a gorgeous, big smile! Here you go, our beautiful babies ~

Kennedy in her sun hat on our walk this past Friday

Natalie fell asleep on our walk - isn't she just precious???

Kennedy and that gorgeous smile!

Natalie

Both girls ready to go!

Love how it looks like Ken is relaxing w/ her arms behind her head

Natalie eating her foot

holding hands

FINALLY - got one of Natalie smiling big!!!

K holding her doll

K looking cool in her hoodie

Natalie grabbing those feet while mommy is trying to change her

Kennedy playing happily

Sweet little smile from Natalie

Natalie in the jumperoo

N grabbing those feet again

K smiling big after her bath

Just looking cute

K giving us a big smile while playing in the jumperoo

We have been keeping Baron dog, who usually lives w/ Joel's parents, but they have a

missionary from Kiev (Andrey) staying with them and Baron isn't too friendly to strangers, so we've got him for two weeks. This was Saturday morning, Joel started playing with Baron and Kennedy started cracking up while watching them. It was too cute and I'm so glad I got it on video!!!