Vacation to Maggie Valley (part 1)

Well, we almost didn't make it to North Carolina... the day before we were supposed to leave, Joel got very sick and it seemed almost impossible to make the 4 1/2 hour trip with him feeling so awful. But he toughed it out, and the girls did great on their first road trip, and we arrived around 8 o'clock Wednesday night. We stayed at a cabin owned by friends of my parents, and it is sooo nice! Awesome view, comfortable king-sized bed, large soaking tub, perfect 75 degree weather every day... all around wonderful. Unfortunately, Joel was still sick most of our time there, which was a bummer. I hated that he felt so bad - we had been looking forward to this vacation for a while. But inspite of that, we had a really good time with my parents and sister. It was also nice to have the extra helping hands with the girls. The only thing that could have made it better was if Joel was 100% feeling good.
We just relaxed, ate my mom's yummy cooking, played card games, sat out on the great deck enjoying the view, napped, took long baths, snacked on junk food, watched movies, read, played with Natalie & Kennedy, and overall relaxed and took it easy.
We took lots and lots of pictures, so that is why I am calling this Part One... so more pictures to come, but here are some from our four days in Maggie Valley, North Carolina ~

Mommy & Nat Bug

Sooooo BIG!

Aunt Emily & Kennedy


Me & my hubby on the swing

Our little fam

Peek-A-Boo

The girls looking thru the window at a log cabin playhouse

There were these bear footrests, and we thought it'd be cute to get the girls on them,

but of course they couldn't sit on them without support, so we hopped on. Kind of silly, but hey, it looks cute!

LOVE this picture of my Ken!!!

Check out those stunning blue eyes

Nat blowing bubbles

Also check out her gorgeous blue eyes!

Natalie just hanging out in the jumperoo

Papa showing Kennedy how to play Liverpool Rummy

Natalie just playing... such a cutie pie!

Sisters having fun together

I like this one...

Natalie is a happy baby, just really hard to get to smile in pictures... so you get the stare

On our way up to NC, we stopped at Cracker Barrel

Mommy and her girls

One night in the big soaking tub, we decided that the girls needed to take a bath, so Emily & I put on our clothes and hopped in the tub with the girls, who had a blast splashing and playing in the water. It was their first bath in a real tub, and I think they liked it! Enjoy the video :o)

Gettin' More Fun By The Minute!

It's hard to believe that Natalie & Kennedy will be six months old tomorrow! It has been months full of love, smiles, diapers, laundry, little sleep, naps, discoveries, lots of laughter, and grateful hearts. Joel & I say often how glad we are that God gave us twin daughters!!! We wouldn't have it any other way...
Here are some pictures of what we've been up to the past week or two -

Natalie modeling her new bathing suit

It has matching flip flops (I couldn't resist) but she kept kicking them off,

so they didn't make it in the photo

Kennedy in her new swimsuit - she wasn't in the best mood, but I still think she looks adorable!

Joel & Ken


Rub a dub dub, Kennedy's in the tub!

Miss Ken

Natalie excited about getting a bath

Kennedy playing on her surfboard

Natalie playing

Ken taking a nap on daddy

Natalie likes holding her own bottle

Natalie playing in the exersaucer at Mimi's house

Daddy & daughters

This video is priceless. We all went to the Aquarium restaurant at Opry Mills to celebrate Uncle Andrey's last day here in Nashville before returning home to Ukraine. He took Kennedy over to look at the fish - I did not expect this type of reaction from her, but she LOVED it!!! Her facial expression says it all, but she was so fascinated. I tried to capture it on video, but her face melted our hearts. Anyway, here is Kennedy seeing "underwater" for the first time -

Summer is almost here!

Well, summer is not officially here yet, but we've had some really HOT days here in Nashville! And a fun and busy past few weeks. We spent time getting to know Andrey, a missionary with Campus Crusade from Kiev, Ukraine. He was truly one of the nicest guys we've met, and he loved talking to the girls and we really enjoyed getting to know him! We took our first picnic two weekends ago to Granny White Park, and the girls loved it! Well, we all loved it :o) We had fun at Laura & Justin's house a few w eeks ago, and played with cousins Caroline & Anna Kate. Laura has this cool car that the kids can sit in and you can push them around. Well, of course our girls had to try it out and we got the funniest pictures... too cute! Both Natalie & Kennedy are getting so big and grabbing for everything (most things end up in their mouths) and they are finally sleeping through the night (well, mostly) They go to bed around 8:30 or 9 and wake up between 5 or 6. I am very, very thankful to be getting more rest! We have had to deal with two ear infections for both girls back to back the past few weeks, which was pitiful. Poor babies. They took 10 days worth of yucky antibiotic, only to go back to the Dr to find out the infections had come right back. So we just finished another stronger medicine on Sunday and the girls seem to be doing much better. Since they have been on a lot of antibiotics lately, the Dr told us we could give them yogurt, so we have done that a few times, and Kennedy thinks it is the best stuff!!! Natalie is still figuring out the whole eating-with-a-spoon thing, so she ate a little, but Ken could not get enough! Guess we'll be introducing other baby foods real soon. Well, that's all for now... on to what you really look at our blog for - PICTURES!!! :O)

Me & Emily holding sleeping babies
She is holding Kennedy and I am holding Natalie

Mimi with Natalie

Emily with Natalie

Kennedy driving the car

Look at me behind the wheel!!!

Kennedy loves driving the car

Kennedy in cousin Caroline's big girl chair

Sweet Natalie

Andrey holding Ken

Natalie trying to eat the steering wheel

You think she is teething???

Natalie driving the car

Happy Kennedy
Don't you just want to kiss those cheeks?!?!?!

Big smile from Natalie

Can't remember how we got her to smile, she usually

does not like being in her car seat! :o)

Me reading to my babies

They were actually looking at the pages & paying attention!

My sweet girls...

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!!!

Videos!!!

So like most parents, we take lots and lots of pictures and video of our little ones. And so finally we have uploaded some video of Natalie & Kennedy - these are some of our favorites!

I know most parents think pretty much everything their child does is adorable, but these two girls are so stinkin' cute!!!

So let me explain the videos -

This one is of Kennedy sneezing - sounds like a normal thing, but after almost every sneeze, she makes the sweetest sound, like a "sigh" or an "ohhh" and Joel & I have been waiting to actually catch it on video and finally, we got it. It really is is so cute...

This video is of Natalie sticking out her tongue. Her daddy taught her this, and she does it all the time and when you do it back to her, she thinks it is so funny and giggles!

This is of the girls just playing (K in pink, N in blue)

This is Kennedy in the jumperoo - she really likes it and concentrates so hard on making the music play (and of course we think she is quite good at it and sooo smart!!!)

This is Natalie "swimming" on Joel's arm. First of all, this girl loves to fly around the house on daddy's arm, just like this. It wears his arm out. She also loves t.v. So Joel put her on his arm one night, and she just started kicking her legs, almost like she was trying to swim. We think it is adorable, of course!!! :o)

Natalie loves this catepillar that came with the book "Hungry Little Catepillar" She especially enjoys chewing on one of his many feet!

Natalie in the jumperoo. She loves it just as much as her sister!