Wrapping up 2009

We started as this family of "3"

Ready to explode :)

Happiest day of my life

My almost 15 pounds of baby, lying exactly how they were at the end of my pregnancy

The beautiful blessings God has trusted us with. We are SO blessed!!!

As 2009 comes to a close, it truly brings tears to my eyes to think how our lives have changed.

To say we've been blessed would be an understatement. We had an amazing and very busy first Christmas with the boys, and can't even imagine what the future holds for these little buddies. They were blessed beyond belief, and just having them was the most spectacular Christmas present we could have ever been blessed with. God is SO Good!!!

Here are several pictures (it was tough to narrow it down) to sum up 2009.

2010 is certain to be another fantastic year for the Blakeslee Family. I have decided that I'm going to train for a 1/2 marathon in April, so that should keep me just a tad busier :) And Dan will be graduating from Law School this August (I can't even tell you how very proud I am to call him my husband). We look forward to throwing a big bash to celebrate his huge accomplishment, so planning for that should also keep my busy, but I'm thrilled to do it. We've also decided with the boys MANY toys, it was time to get our lower level prepped for our family room/toy room. We hope to have this project underway in February, stay tuned for some before and after shots of that too.

I hope everyone has a fabulous New Year. Though 2009 brought many challenges of its own, I will certainly cherish all they joy of 2009 as well. Wilson Reagan and Andrew Patrick, I LOVE YOU!!!!

And....HE'S OFF!

This afternoon I quickly ran downstairs to start a load of laundry while the boys were watching their praise baby video....and came upstairs to find this......






Yup, he's on the move and terrorizing the poor dog now. She was less than excited to find him in her water bowl.
Wil seems to be a little disgusted that Drew is getting around without him, so I don't think it will be too long before I'm chasing both of them around the house and out of the kitchen :)

As for now, I'll keep them corralled in the laundry basket.

9 Month Appointment

Friday I took the boys for their 9 month appointment with the help of my Mother-in-law...Thanks Jill!

They are definitely still growing quite steadily. We held them as the Dr. was doing his exam on both boys, because this is the age where they develop some pretty intense stranger/ separation anxiety. I held Drew, and the poor little guy was very skeptical of the Dr. the entire time. Jill was holding Wil, and the little rascal showed NO signs of stranger anxiety...he hammed it up the entire time.

Wilson's stats:
Weight 23 lbs 9.5 ounces (92nd percentile)
Height 29.25 inches (80th percentile)
Head Circumference 46 cm (65th percentile)....So there, to all of you folks that tell me my child has a HUGE melon :) He just has HUGE cheeks...kissable cheeks I might add!

They also had their 2nd shot for their flu shots and this "normally" dramatic child, didn't even let out a peep. He was feeling pretty comfy with his Grandma talking to him and snuggling him.

He is cutting his top 2 teeth right now, so he seems to just like to snuggle a lot...and most of the time, I'm happy to oblige him.

Andrew's Stats:
Weight 23 lbs 6 ounces (90th percentile)
Height 29.75 inches (90th percentile)
Head Circumference 48 cm (100th percentile)....we are so glad his head has come back on the charts, the Dr. had us a little worried about the rapid growth and what that could mean for brain development. While I knew he was fine developmentally, it's still VERY scary when the Dr. mentions that.

Drew is usually very easy going when it comes to shots and cries for about 10 seconds afterward...not this time, he was hysterical, poor baby.

Drew is working on cutting his 8th tooth, so as you can imagine he is drooling and chewing on everything.

I LOVE being a mommy and definitely have the BEST job ever! Twins are not always an easy task, but it is by far the most rewarding part of my life. I LOVE them to pieces!!!

Our First Christmas Celebration

Saturday, the boys celebrated their first Christmas at my mom's house. They had a very busy day, 2 baby showers and an evening Christmas celebration (with only 1 small cat nap on the car ride down to Grandma's).

We had a GREAT time with them and have come to grips with the fact that there "stuff" will soon over take our home :) Grandma and Grandpa got them their first push and ride toys, and so far they have provided some great entertainment.



Uncle Mark and Aunt Cherie bought them a milk pitcher w/"cookies" in it that moo's when tipped...Wil loves to chew all the cookies! They also gave them one of those deals that the little animals pop up w/you twist or push the knobs. The boys are experts at closing all of them, but haven't mastered how to get them to pop up, or how to get their fingers out of the way to push them down (lots of tears, trying to figure that part out).

Drew hogging all of the new toys

Aunt Shellie bought the boys TONS of great books. We've enjoyed reading A LOT this week, lots of Dr. Seuss and baby Einstein books!!! THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!! I love having books that they can play with and not worry about pages missing in the future!


Wil also decided all he wanted for Christmas were his 2 front teeth. Saturday morning I noticed they are starting to come through (it appears he won't have a HUGE gap like Drew does :)) Drew also got his 7th tooth Saturday, so as you can imagine, there has been lots of motrin and tears in the Blakeslee house over the last few days!

Last night, I also decided it was time to find a better way to make bath time easier on me, since Dan is often gone at night. So, we decided to try out the big tub. Needless to say, these little buggers would have stayed in until they were raisins if I would have let them. There were a lot of tears when it was time to get out. But the important part was, it was easier for me and they LOVED it.

Wilson, VERY disappointed having to get out of the tub

Splashing as much as possible (in about 2 inches of water)

We hope everyone is enjoying their Christmas Season, and truly remembering the reason for the season!!!

In Christ~
Dan, Gretchen, Wil and Drew

9 Months!

Today my babies are 9 months!!! They are really starting to show their little personalities.

Drew seems to be quite independent, and shows this whenever he's being buckled into his carseat (he tends to shove me away :( ). He also seems to think he's too big to lie back to take his bottle, he insists on sitting up. This little bugger is just days away from crawling, although some days I think he might just skip the crawling all together and just walk. As for now, he just gets around by bouncing on this bottom. He still really loves his Praise Baby videos, but I think it's time to invest in a couple new videos (for my own sanity). He continues to be quite a mommas boy, but sure does get excited when daddy comes home from work. Drew also has 6 teeth, 2 on top and 4 on bottom (with 2 more coming in on top).

Wil has developed quite a little "tude" in the last month. He makes this awful "growling" noise. At first we weren't quite sure if he was in pain with his reflux when he was doing it, but now we are pretty sure it's just him expressing himself. He does it when he's on his tummy, or in his carseat and the car isn't moving, or when Drew has a toy he wants. We also found out last week, that we are in our last month with the helmet...we are soooo excited about that (look for photos of the new and improved head in future posts). Wil still has yet to feed himself, but I think he'll grasp this soon. He continues to struggle with his texture issues, therefore not experimenting with too many new table foods. He wasn't too fond of Turkey
dinner last week, the potatoes gagged him and turkey just wasn't his thing. He still only has his 2 teeth on the bottom, but when he smiles he makes sure you know he does indeed have 2 teeth.

These boys continue to be the light of my life, and there isn't a day that goes by that I don't thank God that I'm able to be home with them. Being home with them has had many added bonus' in this flu season. We've been blessed to only experience a couple colds.

We are really looking forward to Christmas this year with the boys. This weekend, they will have their first of many Christmas' with my mom's side of the family. And it looks like it will be a white Christmas for sure. Today we got about 4 inches of snow in Holland, and I'm ok with it as long as the roads stay clear. We hope your Holidays are filled with Love, Health, and many Blessings.

Drew and Wil all ready for the first snow fall.

It's getting harder and harder to get a good picture of the 2 of them together.

THANKFUL!!!!

With Thanksgiving just over a week away, I decided it was time to give some thought to what I'm Thankful for. I'm challenging myself to 25, so here we go (in no particular order)


I am THANKFUL FOR:
1. My beautiful healthy little boys

2. The family I always dreamed of having
3. Amazing supportive parents (both mine and Dan's)
4. A nice warm home
5. The blessing of staying home with my children
6. My Freedom
7. My incredible brother who fights selflessly for our freedom (please remember him in your prayers as he is in Afghanistan again).
8. Dan's job
9. The love of a Merciful God!
10. Friends
11. My friendship with my mom
12. My blog friends
13. My close girlfriends expecting babies
14. The MIRACLE of IVF
15. My Health
16. Extended Family
17. Food (and an abundance of it)
18. Our small group
19. Naptime :)
20. Grandparents and Great Grandparents for our boys
21. Our financial stability
22. My Husband
23. The compassion I feel for others fighting the bitter fight of infertility
24. My Church
25. Unconditional love

I challenge you to also give some thought to what you are thankful for this time of year.

Recap of October

So Happy

Drew

Wil (He's much happier in his helmet now that he can sit on his own)

They look so grown up, I can't stand it

Drew, having a rough teething day

Wil

My best attempt at getting a cute fall picture

Mommy's little chick

The cutest little monkey

Getting ready to go show off

We had a great and very busy month of October.

Aside from getting a little housebound over here, we are doing well. We've decided to try to eliminate any unnecessary trips out and about in an effort to keep the boys healthy. As of now we've dodged the bullet.

We definitely are feeling a little jipped out of our fall weather here in Michigan. However, we've learned to appreciate any little bit of sunshine and hustle right out for a nice run. There were several days last week where we managed to get 2 in each day.

October brought a lot of new adventures for the boys and their mommy.
I turned 30 on the 7th and have to say I feel better and happier than I can ever remember feeling.

Dan and I had the opportunity to go out to a Grand Rapids Griffins hockey game, and the boys had their Grandma (my mom) stay the night to take care of them. It was so nice to have a date with my husband and be able to relax knowing our boys were in good hands.

We also had a sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa Blakeslee's house for 2 nights. Wil apparently does well sleeping wherever. Drew on the other hand, not so much. We had 2 VERY ROUGH nights...thanks to Grandma Blakeslee for taking the night shift so we could sleep one of those nights.

The boys also celebrated their first Halloween. Drew was a chicken (or a rooster) and Wilson was monkey. Drew was much more content in his costume than Wil, but all in all we had a great time getting them all dolled up and showing them off.

The boys are also getting to experiment with more regular food. Some of our recent samplings consist of, avocados, bananas, spring mix vegetables, fruit cocktail, wheat bread, soft pretzels, and the list goes on. Drew is a GREAT eater, and poor Wil has his mommas texture hang up.

We are diving right into a very busy November and are hoping and praying we all stay healthy.

8 Months Today!!!

Wil (L) & Drew (R)

Drew

Wil

Time is flying, and I want my babies back :)

The boys are an absolute joy and amaze me daily with their new accomplishments.

Drew now has 6 teeth...2 on top (with a LARGE gap) and 4 on the bottom. Teething has made for some very rough nights, but the past two nights he's managed to make it through the night and we are soooooo thankful. Neither of the boys are showing any signs of crawling at this point, in fact they hate to be on their tummies for more than a couple of minutes.

Wilson still only has 2 teeth on the bottom, and is just content with those right now (and so am I). He's adjusting well to his helmet, and has made tremendous progress. As of right now they are guessing he'll be in it until at least Christmas.

The rolls have definitely reversed with the boys. Wil is so easy and just content to sit and play wherever he's placed. Drew on the other hand, he's a huge momma's boy right now and would prefer I sit and cuddle him all day long. While, I'd love to sit and cuddle him all day long, it makes me feel bad for Wil as well as feeling guilty about my house that's gone to the birds. I know they will only be this little for a very short period of time, so I do make sure I sit and just snuggle them as often as possible.

Right now they LOVE Praise Baby videos. If you have a little one and haven't yet made the investment in a couple of them, we HIGHLY recommend them.

A normal day at the Blakeslee house looks like...
7:30 Rise and Shine with bottles
9:00 Breakfast of Baby Cereal and a jar of baby food
9:15 Nap time
11:00-11:30 Get up from nap
1:00 Lunch Bottles and eat lunch (2 jars of baby food between the 2 of them)
1:45-3:30 Naptime
4:30 Supper time (3 Jars of baby food b/t the 2 of them)
6:40-Bedtime Bottles
7:00-Bedtime

If you can't tell, I'm a very schedule driven person, and I think my boys are thriving because or it. I LOVE being a stay at home mom, and wouldn't trade any bad day for anything.

7 Months

Wilson

Drew

Our Family!

We did a few family pictures and some 7 month pictures of the boys this past Saturday. Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate so we did all of our shots inside. The boys didn't cooperate much either, so we have very few smiles and just a couple of both of them looking at the camera (I guess that captures 7 months pretty well).

They are both sitting really well on their own now. We are hoping to reconnect with the photographer in the next couple of weeks for some outdoor shots and another attempt at the two of them together.

September in a nutshell

Just when I thought I'd get better about blogging, I realize it's been almost a month since I last posted.
Time flies when you're having fun.

September has brought a lot of change for the Blakeslee house. The boys are growing so fast, and I'm just amazed how much they change from day to day.

They had their 6 month appointment earlier this month.
Drew was:
20 lbs. 8.5 ounces (92nd percentile)
27.5 inches (88th percentile)
47.2 cm Head Circumference (off the charts once again :))

Wilson was:
20 lbs. 2.5 ounces (92nd percentile)
27 inches (75th percentile)
45 cm. Head Circumference (88th percentile)

Once again, they did amazingly well with their shots. I took my mom along with me for some moral support for myself and another set of hands for the boys.

We also did some apple picking. We love our honeycrisp apples so we managed to pick about 85 pounds. They sure are delicious, so I get enough to get sick of them for a while since they are only around for a short period of time.

Drew has also almost mastered sitting up, which seems to make him much happier. He's not confined to the bouncy seat or the exersaucer as much now. He's also starting to show a lot of signs of crawling being right around the corner. He manages to push up with his arms and then he flails his legs...as soon as he figures out that they need to be up and under him, he's off. Now that he sits up so well, he's forgotten how to roll over...go figure.

Wilson is struggling a little more with sitting up because his helmet adds a little extra weight to his head. However, he is rolling a lot more than Drew.
We also managed to get him off of one of his reflux meds, which had a lot of side effects (one being looking and feeling drowsy). He continues to struggle with the spit up, but the apnea episodes are GONE, praise God. He also seems to be protesting the bottle lately, and typically takes only 14 ounces or less of formula a day. The doctor didn't seem to be too concerned...as you can tell by his weight...he's not starving.

They are also eating a lot more foods. We've graduated to 2nd foods (some of which are a little thicker, and just thick enough to gag them). They are enjoying the gerber puffs and Drew has just mastered picking them up himself and getting them to his mouth most of the time.

All in all, we are pretty close to running on schedule with our milestones (which is impressive for twins).
We are looking forward to family pictures next week, and some Halloween shots too. Stay tuned for a post on that later next week.

Hard At Work

6 Months (good poses are getting hard to come by)

Didn't make it for breakfast (Wilson)

Playing is hard stuff (Drew)

Wilson with his HUGE apple

Both Boys with their apples in the orchard

Apple Picking

Wil's new "excited" face

Drew sitting up with a little help from the boppy. Happy boy!!!!

He's Ready for the Ice

Wilson

Today I took Wil to pick up his helmet. He wasn't too excited about it to start with, but is adjusting well. He has to wear it for 3 hours today and then we will gradually work up to 23 hours a day, by day 7.

We are hopeful that this will help with his misshapen head, and hopefully it will only take about 4-6 months to correct. In the mean time we'll just wear it with joy and emphasize his adorable chubby cheeks.

August Happenings

Wow...where did the month go?
We had a VERY busy month, and I am enjoying every minute of my time with the boys.

This month brought a lot of changes to the Blakeslee house:
-Dan's new job
-Drew and his 2 new teeth
-Wil and his 2 new teeth
-A shopping trip to Chicago
-Wil's Helmet fitting
-Rolling over for both boys

As you can see we've managed to keep quite busy.
Last Friday we took a shopping trip to Chicago, with my mom, my friend Haley and her mom. We drove to Michigan City and then took the train into Chicago. The boys did great on the train, and seemed to just take in all of scenery. While we were there, Grandma bought the boys their first Halloween costumes...pictures to come in the next couple of months :)

Wil has continued to struggle with his flattening head, so we have decided to pursue the helmet therapy. He will get his helmet tomorrow, I will post some pictures of that too.

Drew is now struggling with some separation anxiety issues. While it's very sweet that he ALWAYS wants his mommy told him, it makes it very difficult to get anything done, and to give Wil equal love. I actually thought maybe he had an ear infection since the other day he SCREAMED every time I put him down. So, I took him in only to feel foolish leaving with a diagnosis of separation anxiety and "stranger danger". Poor Guy!

Wil and Drew will be 6 months tomorrow, I can't believe how fast this time has gone...

Here are some pictures of "August" in the Blakeslee house

Dan and Me at the summer BBQ

Drew in his "office"

Chicago shopping, the boys were getting pretty burned out

Wil sportin' some shades on the train

Drew with his buddy Steve at the BBQ

Grandma (My Mom in Peach), Haley with Wil and Joanie with Drew

Departing from Michigan City Train Station

Leaving Bright and Early from Grandma's house headed for the train station

Doing some tummy time

Wilson, helping Mommy make Daddy's Lunch