Ella's pain

 

Here is what poor Ella goes thru with every cast change.  It is no fun for her or for mom!!!   My heart aches everytime for little miss Ella!! I am sooo ready to be done with these casts.  However, Ellas Right foot is just so tight it doesn't tolerate the manipulation very well.  She swelled up again, the doctor did recast her, but didn't do anyfurther manipulation.  We go back next Tuesday to determine if we can continue or wait a few months and start all over.  PLEASE PLEASE let her foot be ok!!!  I don't want to start all over and put her thru all of this again.  :(

Here are her feet with out casts.  Getting better, lets hope we can continue!!!!

 

And we weighed her without her casts and she is a whopping 10lbs 1oz.

 

Singing with Josie

She loves my singing!!!

 

 

 

Josie rolls over

 

Both girls have rolled over at the doctors office but we had yet to see it since until yesterday.  She did it just before this so this is technically her 3rd time rolling over.  Obviously Ella won't be doing much of this with her casts on (she's in the background). 

 

And mobility begins....

 

 

 

Today I found my Best Friend

 

Ella had a cast change today is Iowa City and to change the casts she needs to soak in a tub to get the casts soft (they won't use a cast saw on such little ones).  So while that was going on Josie had a BLOWOUT diaper that needed to be change (I just want you to know how the day was going) and after we got her changed we sat over by miss Ella soaking.  While we there the 2 girls noticed each other.  The staff thought it was so cute and I was saying this is the FIRST time they have interacted together and noticed each other.  Josie is smiling and staring in return at Ella (I know you can't see her).  Immediately out comes the Iphone and we got video.  :D

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Keven~ Senior Pictures

I took a kids senior pictures at the school I work at.  I was told that Kevan was a good kid and his parents weren't able to get senior pictures taken for him.  I offered to take his pictures for him.  It was another chance for me to get some practice in.  So we did it one day after school.  The lighting wasn't the best, but the girls were in daycare until 4pm so I that was the only real time to do it.  I think I got some good ones and I really hope he is happy with them, which I think he will be.  Here are a few of my favs!

 

 

 

 

 

 That's the high school in the background

 

 

 

My first Mothers day

Happy Mothers day to me!!  My first one and it has been good!  Ella woke up around 5:30am and dad got up with her so mom could sleep in :)  I woke up around 7:45 and Josie was still sleeping and Dad made breakfast for me. I opened cards and enjoyed breakfast. 

 

(my girls and me mothers day morning)

Now hanging out with my girls in my PJ's and relaxing all day.

Loving being mom and celebrating today.  The best part about being a mom is I get another present this year!  Yeah!!!  Just kidding..

 

Happy mothers day to my mom and to my mother in law!  Hope you guys have a wonderful day.  Too bad we can't be there to celebrate with you!  Thanks for being awesome mothers and everything you do!  And especially for being awesome Grandmas!

 

 

 



5K's and Team Jody

Every year Joey and I sign up to do the Race for the Cure 5K that is here in Ottumwa, and that was going to continue this year.  In shape or not, we are doing it.  What was different this year is that a friend of mine asked me to do a dirty mudder 5K with her the week before race for the cure.  A dirty mudder is where you have many obsticles to do on the course and you get real muddy/dirty while doing it.  I said yes to doing it and instantly thought, "what am I doing?!!!  I haven't exercised in almost a year!!!"  Pregnant with twins, being in the hospital for 3 months and then just being a mother has taken a toll on my fitness level.  Oh well, hopefully this will jump start me back into exercising. 

 

I was a little nervous to do this with my how outta shape I am, but off we went.  The course was sooo muddy due to the amount of rain we have had recently.  My shoes were about 10lbs each with the amount of mud on them.  Some of the obstacles were running over a log pile, barb wire crawl, 10ft wall climb, ropes course, ice bath and a giant slip in slide.

(barb wire crawl)

 

We finished!  That's about all I can say about that.  We got lost on the course and had to back track and we walked quite a bit so we were not focused on our time, which was 1 hour and 39 minutes!  LOL!  And even funnier is that I was more sore in my upper body than my legs.  It was a lot of fun and I'm glad I did it.  Will I do another one?  DEFINATELY!!!

All done and super muddy! :D

 

Then it was Race for the Cure!  Joey walked with the girls and I ran.  Again not in shape, my goal was to just run the whole thing with out walking.  I wasn't gonna focus on my time like so many years before.  So with that, a friend of mine asked if I would run with her 8 yr old so she could run for a good time.  I said yes.  So the entire race I ran with and 8 year old, however, I felt like I was slowing her down.  She got quite the distance between us and then stopped to walk just so I could catch up to her.  I felt like I was slowing an 8 year old down!!!  Anyway, she actually helped pacing me and also kept me running so I didn't walk.  It worked out well.  My time was 33minutes.  Definitely far from my best, but I didn't walk!!!  Woo!

 

The girls were decked out all in pink and so were mom and dad, however it was very chilly this year  (darn Iowa weather), so we were all bundled up and you couldn't see it.

 

 

The girls' first 5K

 

 



This year we were part of a team, Team Jody.  She is a friend of ours and was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. We "raced" for her.  You can see Ella's tag has Team Jody acrossed it. She is only 30 and was actually 34 weeks pregnant with her second child when she got the diagnosis.  She has an aggressive form of cancer and she has started her chemo treatments and will eventually have a mastectomy.  She was there walking with her newborn, 2 year old and hubby.  I can't believe she felt good enough to walk, but I'm glad she did.   She has a very positive attitude and is hitting this cancer stuff head on.  Go Jody!  Thoughts and prayers are always out to her and her family!

4 Months

Josie and Ella had their 4 month check up on Friday.  Here is where we are:

Josie weighs 11lbs 1/2 ounce
length: 22 3/4 in
In the 3-10th percentile. 
You are just now getting into 0-3 month size clothing.  You are still wearing NB diapers, but when we are done with the ones we have left you will move to a size 1 diaper.  You are a VERY happy baby and smile all the time.  You have a special cry for when you just want attention and when you don't want to go to bed you try to get mom and dads attention by cooing and smiling ALOT!  It's very hard to ignore you.  You are sleeping thru the night!  YESSSS!!

Ella weighs 9lbs 1/2 ounce
Length: 21 2/3 in
In the  less than 3rd percentile
You are in newborn clothing and are also still wearing NB diapers.  You will move up diaper sizes with your sister.  You are a sweetie.  You don't need as much attention as your sister, but you are a happy baby too.  You smile and coo at us and also sleep thru the night.  Occasionally you wake up around 5am and you are just soo cute!  I think you just want some time with mom because you go right back to sleep.

They have moved up to their big girl beds (cribs in their nursery) because you guys scoot your way around the pack and play too much.  With Ella getting casts on Monday we decided that we need to separate you guys so Josie doesn't get hit with casts.  So far it hasn't been smooth.  Someone wakes up and mom and dad have to go all the way up the steps to get you now.  Ugh!

My Little Sweet Sweet

One evening while Joey was holding Ella he was talking to her and said
"You're my little sweet sweet"

Me: "What's a sweet sweet?"

Joey: "She's my little sweetie and she's so sweet, she's my sweet sweet"

Me:  "Oh."

:)

Weddings and Uncles

My good friend was getting married and I was a asked to be a bridesmaid. I was honored and very excited. I was pregnant with the girls and in the hospital, so I didn't get to go to her bachelorette party or wedding shower which bummed me out.  But now it was her wedding day!  We were unsure what to do with the girls, leave them in Iowa with some great friends that offered or drive them to Ohio and have Aunt Lisa watch them or take them to the wedding.  The decision was to take them to the wedding!!  I had things planned, in my head, weeks before we left for packing and traveling with twin infants. 

 

We left on Thursday night to travel until we got tired and then get a hotel room and finish the drive on Friday.  We weren't sure how the girls would do and I also was hoping to make it to get nails done with the bride!  We ended up stopping near the IN and IL border and stayed in some jankey hotel that I'm sure someone was murdered in.  The next morning we fed the girls and finished the trip to Cincinnati.  We also made it in time for me to get a mani/pedi with all the girls!! 

 



Me and the pretty bride getting our hair done.

 

I unfortunately didn't get many pictures of the wedding festivities.  It's hard to do when you are in the wedding and also have twin infants! We got our hair done at the hotel, I was able to bounce between my hotel room with the girls and the brides room where hair was getting done.  I LOVED being able to sit around and talk with everyone.

 

The bride was nervous, but gorgeous!!  I think everything went very well!  Our bouquets were beautiful, they had orange gerber daisies in them.  So wish I had a picture.  She had smaller versions of our bouquets in mason jars as center pieces, stones you signed and put in a jar as a the "guest book" and my personal favorite...a chocolate fountain.  And Joey did great taking care of the girls pretty much all day.  My friend Stacy was a big help too!  I think Joey can appreciate a little more after he did it all by himself!

 

I am so happy for the two of them!  I wish them all the happiness and many many years together!

 

The next leg of our trip was on Sunday to drive from Cincinnati to Columbus to see my brothers.  my parents got wind of this and drove down from bowling Green to meet us as well.  We packed up early on Sunday and hit the road to Columbus. This is the first time my brothers were meeting their nieces. :)  It was quite a different visit this time!

 



Uncle Joe and Aunt Crystal meeting Ella

Miss Ella didn't waste much time snuggling with Aunt Crystal

Uncle Randy spending time with Ella

 

We woke up early on Monday morning and drove back to Iowa.  The trip went very smoothly and I enjoyed it a bunch! Glad it went as well as it did.  

Here is what the girls did almost the whole time we drove to Iowa!  They were great little travelers and hope that continues as we will have many more trips to Ohio.