I No Longer Have a Dining Room

It's a special night Lexi and Lyla fans. I'm giving you all TWO posts! Mostly because I'm about to be on my 4 day stretch at work and who knows when I'll have the time to update again.

Back to the title of the update...I no longer have a dining room. My dining room has been converted into Daddy Day Care. We moved the dining room table into the breakfast room and my empty hutch into the "foyer". The extender in the old breakfast table has been removed and that table is now in Daddy Day Care. Got it? The things you do for your babies. The girls now have a large room that holds their jumperoos, activity mat, Boppy, and numerous other goodies. Plus they have a big area to play on the floor. Here's some pictures of them playing:

I bet you didn't know that the Jumperoo tastes delicious!

Lexi...yes that is drool all over the front of her outfit.

Mama, do you want to try my fingers? They are awesome! (Lyla)

Why they aren't wearing bibs, I'm not sure

Lexi

Lyla's deeply pondering one of the gadgets on her Jumperoo

I think the flash caught her off guard

Love your baby blues Lexi

Lyla all curled up with a good book

Reaching for the stars Lexi

Here's my first attempt at posting a short video! I hope it works! Also, I'm sorry for the picture overload but they were all so cute and I couldn't decide!

Another "One Year Ago Today" Post

One year ago today was the day that our lives changed dramatically. One year ago today was a day we will never forget. One year ago today was the day we found out we were having TWINS.

My first pregnancy appointment was supposed to be on May 20th, 2008. Josh took off from work and we went to the appointment. They had me pee, took my blood, and put us in the room and we waited. And waited. And waited. Turned out that my doctor, whom I think might be the OB for the entire Memphis area, had to go into surgery for an emergency C-section. So we left and my pregnancy hormones put me in tears. I scheduled another appointment for May 28th because I did not want to wait a whole month.

On May 28th, 2008 I went to my appointment by myself because Josh could not take off work again so soon after the week prior. I finally got to see my saint of a doctor and I told him about some pain that I was experiencing on my left side. He felt it was probably nothing serious but wanted to rule out an ectopic pregnancy by ultrasound. Normally he would not order an ultrasound that early. So back to ultrasound I went, all by myself. The sweet technician got me all set up and the next thing she said to me was, "Well. Do you want a surprise?". Being naive, I thought maybe she could already tell the sex. Nope. She turned the monitor toward me and said, "Look, you're having twins!". I almost fell off the table. I started crying, "But I don't have twins in my family and I haven't been on fertility drugs!". She gently said, "Honey, the good Lord wouldn't give you anything you couldn't handle." For some reason, as soon as she said that, I felt a wave of calm come over me. "They're so cute!", was the first thing that came out of mouth after that, and then I thought, "Oh goodness, how am I going to tell Josh?". I never saw that ultrasound technician again after that appointment, even though we had about 10 ultrasounds. I wish I knew her name, because I'd love to thank her. On the most trying of days with Lexi and Lyla, I always remember what she told me: "The good Lord would NOT give me anything I could not handle."

From This:

To This:

Sister Sister

My friend Leslie made a comment on my previous post about how Lexi and Lyla must be a blast together. For a while they really didn't seem to notice each other. It was probably at about 4 months or so that they really began to recognize each other. I remember one day I was at work and Josh texted me to call him because he had the coolest thing to tell me. I called him and he said that Lexi and Lyla were sitting in their Bumbos and he walked into the kitchen to put something away. When he turned back around, they were turned looking at each other and smiling. I almost cried because I had been getting so scared that I somehow ended up with identical twins that didn't like each other! As an only child, I am so excited to see the special bond that will form between my girls. I think it will be such a blessing for them to have one another! So here are some pictures to capture that bond that is evolving between Lexi and Lyla. Unfortunately for now, that bond seems to be that they like to have each other's hands in their mouths. (Lyla is on the left and Lexi is on the right)

Hey Lyla, I wanna tell you a secret...I love you Sister!

No Mama, we weren't telling secrets about you!

We're totally innocent.

Lexi, one of these days I'm gonna figure out how to get into that seat with you!

I love you beautiful girls. I hope one day you bring as much joy to each other's lives as you bring to mine.

A Very Belated Happy 5 Months!

I know I'm closer to 6 months than to 5 months, but I don't want Lexi and Lyla to look at their blog one day and wonder what happened to 5 months! The girls were doing wonderfully on their 5 month birthday and I believe it was around that time that we decided to drop their middle of the night feeding. Josh always did that one by himself and one day he realized that he was basically waking them up to feed them. Plus, he said that they were really uninterested in eating at that time (makes sense since he was waking them up!). They sleep really well, with Lexi waking up a couple of times just wanting her paci back. They used to wake me up in the morning by crying for their breakfast bottles but lately they wake each other up and just start babbling back and forth. It is the CUTEST thing to listen to over the monitor. When I go into their room, I usually find Lyla doing her "happy wiggle" as I call it with her blanket in her mouth. Lexi is usually turned on her side scratching her nails along the bumper. These girls are so sweet in the morning and it just really starts my day off right. Now here was my once again failed attempt at some 5 month pictures. Their precious outfits are courtesy of Aunt Debbie. Thank you Aunt Debbie, we love them!

Lexi (left) and Lyla (right)...very serious

This is what picture time always turns into...sister on sister

So sweet. I love you girls.

Ok- it's tummy time!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all you Moms, Mommies, and Mamas! It truly is an honor and a gift to be a Mother, and I am so happy to be the lucky mama of those 2 beautiful girls above.

I actually had to work on Mother's Day which was a bummer, especially with it being my first Mother's Day. However, one of my sweet technicians, Jaclyn, started my day out by giving me a really nice card. It was just a sweet thought and really made me feel loved. Then, one of my other sweet technicians, Amber, told me she was buying me lunch and we had Panera (YUM!). I had so many wonderful patients wish me a Happy Mother's Day and it really ended up not being so horrible to be at work.

Then, I came home and my amazing husband had Lexi and Lyla all ready and awake from a nap. They were sitting in their Bumbos and had that picture above sitting in front of them. Oh yeah...and a GORGEOUS diamond bracelet. It was such a nice surprise, totally unnecessary, but come on, who doesn't love jewelry?! Like I said before, it is such an amazing gift to be a mother. I hate that I can't be there at all times for my girls, but I have to believe that one day they will understand that I go to work for them. In the meantime, the big belly laughs that I got tonight from Lexi show me that they love me regardless. And I love them!

Pop quiz: Who's who in that picture?

The Past Two Weeks in Pictures...

The best way for me to remember what's been going on in the past 2 weeks is to upload the pictures off of our camera! So bare (or is it bear?) with me as I show you all what we have been up to!

The weather has finally started to warm up here so the girls are getting to wear more of their spring attire. I have to say that when we first found out we were expecting, we hoped for a boy, but obviously we just really wanted a healthy baby. But now, I can't imagine having boys. I love dressing up these girls. It really was a highlight for me to put spring clothes on my babies. Anyway, here are Lexi and Lyla modeling some cute dresses. (Lexi is in yellow and Lyla is in the pinkish)

Lexi decided to turn and face plant into Lyla's lap. By the look on Lyla's face, she wasn't pleased.

I turned 30 the day after the above pictures were taken. Sadly, I didn't take any pictures. I actually wanted to because I straightened my hair. For those of you that don't know, I pretty much only wear my hair curly these days. My parents watched Lexi and Lyla while Josh and I went out for dinner. Surprisingly, I haven't minded being the big 3-0.

Josh and I decided to remove the net from Lexi and Lyla's bathtub because they are getting too big for it. Also, they thought it was fun to hang their legs off of it so we decided it was time. Here's Lexi chilling in her big girl tub:


Lexi and Lyla get bored really easily so we are constantly having to move them from location to location to keep them happy. We were starting to run out of "stations" for them so we finally broke down and bought them some Jumperoos (dang those things are expensive). They seem to like them so far but we have to put a pillow under their feet since they are little shorties.




This next story isn't really that interesting but the pictures are way too cute. Josh and I had Chili's take out the other night for dinner. Apparently Lexi likes chips.


Josh and I took the girls in his Jeep and went to Mensi's the other day. Mensi's is an old school little stand off of Town Square here in Collierville. They have burgers, corn dogs, milkshakes, snowcones, and much more. We'd been wanting to try it for a while but just hadn't had the chance. Our plan was to get the food and go to a nearby park to eat but of course it started to rain, so back home we went. Here are the girls when we got back (Lyla asleep):

And here's some good stuff. The girls LOVE carrots. Well, especially Lexi. We finally gave up on the rice cereal because they just don't seem to like it. And I don't blame them. I mean that stuff STINKS.

Here are the girls post-carrots. ALL CLEAN!

Finally this morning I caught Lyla trying to apparently escape from her bouncy seat. Don't worry, I was always there to make sure she didn't go too far.

Really I think she just wanted her feet.

So that's a taste of the Jones life for the past 2 weeks. Thanks for checking up on us and I hope everyone has a great weekend!