happy 5 months & happy 0 months?

Happy 5 months to Kaylee today, happy 5 months to Ethan tomorrow...
And hopefully, happy birthday to Morgan really, really soon (like today)!

food!

According to our doc and a few other sources, the latest on feeding your kiddos real food is that they can start between 4-6 months of age and you can feed them anything (except honey) as long as it's mashed enough. no need to start with rice cereal, although of course, you can if you want. I actually think it's all a little silly and that nobody knows what they're talking about but hey, it seems fun, and ethan was showing signs of being interested in food (watching us eat etc), so why not? (the poop is one answer to why not, but oh well).

anyways, we thought it would be fun to give them their first food on christmas. but... then we later decided that would be more stressful than fun (fitting it into an already packed day) so we decided to go for Dec 26. I think Blake might have wanted to start them with rice cereal, but I wanted to give them something "fun" and unusual for their first food, and different foods for each of them. I first proposed giving them a spoonful of ice cream but blake was appalled by the idea. :D just a spoonful, then they could have more healthful things later... wouldn't it be fun later in life to say that your first food was ice cream? anyways, that didn't fly. then we found our winner of an idea. every year for christmas my family has "red and green soup." I think it's actually called fireworks rainbow soup, but we call it red and green soup. anyways, it's a red soup (maybe bell pepper based?) that's all blended up and smooth, and a green soup (spicy pea soup) that's also blended up and smooth, and then you pour the two soups side by side in a bowl. part of christmas dinner is then to add your creme fresh (white) and use your various utensils to make interesting art with your soup. but I digress. the point is: they're blended, christmas-y, and there are two of them so we could give each kiddo something similar but different as their first food. So... uh... you'll see how that went over in the video. next was prunes, then sweet potatoes (no pics of that, sorry), then bananas.

anyways, enjoy the video!

christmas pics

a few pics taken around christmas time...

danielle swung by the morning after we got back to see the babies before she flew off to new jersey to see her fam for christmas. the babies were happy to see her, although all three of them refused to smile for the same pic...

 a few days later we had a little junior high reunion...

adrianne meeting her godson ethan

matthew hanging out w/ both kiddos

adrianne and both kiddos

the whole junior high group + spouses + babies that were able to hang out that morning.
blake, dave (representing jackie who had to work), me, brianne, adrianne and kiddos, aaron (adrianne's hubby), and matthew

merry christmas! aren't our jammies cute?

today we say goodbye to all the vacationing and go back to work - it's been fun!

see how much they've grown

pretend I wrote this post on new year's eve. because I mentally composed it and intended to write it then, I just couldn't find the file until later.

anyways, here's what the babies looked like last year on new year's eve. it was our first ultrasound in which we found out yes, we were indeed having twins.

yes, it's only 4 seconds long and yes, I can really only find one baby too, but the doc said she could see two, and apparently she was right! in my mind the baby you can see is kaylee because she likes space and ethan is the one you can't see because he likes to snuggle, so I think he's just snuggling the side of his little amniotic sac. of course, in this ultrasound the larger baby (by two days of size) is the one you can see which would suggest it's ethan you can see, but we'll never know and it doesn't matter, so I say pick your favorite and pretend you're right!

anyways, 2010 has been a very crazy year for us, but it has been fantastic. here's to 2011!

CA - the end

the last post w/ CA pics. going minimal on the captions because if you really care about these pics, you prob already know who's in them. :D

@ our hotel

@ the airport

ethan is into reaching and grabbing things now. this is him grabbing the camera. for some reason I love this pic.

somebody (ech em kaylee) needed some swinging at the airport

on the plane at last

the rest of these pics were taken by my incredibly awesome cousin mimi. they're from the day we journeyed over to her parents' house.

the ladies - riley and kaylee

CA trip continued

the rest of our CA trip was great. the flight back was not quite as excellent as the way down - there was some fussing and crying in the airport and we didn't get a free seat so Ethan hung out on our laps, but there was very, very minimal fussing on the flight itself, so no complaints. in an effort to get caught up chronologically and get on to blogging about christmas and eating food (the babies, me eating food is not quite as exciting), I'll skim over the details of the rest of the trip and just give you a few pics and captions.

here goes!

babies in the airport on the way down

baggage claim at SJC (this was not all of our stuff)

Ethan reading his card from Nonnie (Great Grandma Caulley)

Nonnie, Kaylee, and me

Gramps in his "office." He spent a lot of the vacation working and waving at people who visited us through the doorway.

my dad, grandma, and uncle mike at dinner. blake watched the babies so I could join everyone at a restaurant - what a crazy idea! hadn't been to a restaurant in 4+ months...

two of alyssa's friends (and bridesmaids) were also able to join us for dinner - they were very fun to meet!

the kid table at the baers': darren, evan, mimi, tommy, kristin

the adult table: aunt kate, aunt risa, uncle brian, my mom, uncle george

ha! uncle brian, riley, and aunt kate

one of the few pics that includes jennie and philip! also tommy, blake, mimi, uncle brian, aunt kate, & riley

the kinex creation grows...

this is about the state it was in when we left. my brothers and parents stayed to finish it though.



kristin, tommy, blake & ethan, Darren,. evan, riley & mimi, jennie, philip, kaylee & me



these fine folks came to visit us at the hotel one day: my dad, my grandpa, great aunt bea, me, mom, darren, evan, donalee, lyn and rick (my mom's cousin and his wife)

the penguins and bear danced. so did my brothers.

yummy cookie.

tracy (my uncle mike's girlfriend) also came to the hotel to visit! I had actually never met her before and this was sorta a joke because everyone else in my family has met her several times, but we kept missing each other. kaylee really liked her.

annemarie and kaylee at breakfast at the hotel.

grandpa and ethan

grandpa and donalee and the babies

alrighty. there are a few more pics still on my camera, which I may or may not post later. but this is it for now and I'm off to work! if any relatives want a copy of any pic, just let me know. it was really great seeing you all and introducing you to the kiddos!

merry christmas