Merry Christmas!!

Here are emma and charlotte ready for Christmas breakfast. They must have known it was Christmas because they were an hour earlier then usual.

Excited to see Grammy

I was getting ready to take their photo when Grammy walked in. Their faces lit up when they saw her. I am so glad that my parents and my daughters get this time together.

Sick.

Sleepless nights.

Runny noses.

Fussy girls.

Tired mamma.

We have had our first round of sickness with Emma and Charlotte, and it is no fun at all. Of course, it could be a lot worse, just colds, but everything just seems harder when everyone is sick. Also, I never knew that little babies could make so much snot. Hopefully we will all be on the mend soon.

Grammy and Gramps are here!

We are so happy to have my parents here for Christmas. They have already had fun at the park and lots of fun holding girls.

My Sweet Girls

Lately Charlotte and Emma have become more affectionate with each other. Yesterday I found them like this. They had scooted so that their backs were touching. Today charlotte rolled over and laid on top of emma while they were playing. We also had their one month check up. Everything looks good except that Emma needs to go see a pediatric opthomologist for her clogged tear duct. Hopefully the process to clear that up will be easy. We are getting very excited for the arrival of grammy and gramps on Friday.

What a Thanksgiving!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year.  It has always been my favorite holiday, and this year it was even more meaningful as we got to share it with Charlotte and Emma, who I am so incredibly thankful for.

We drove up to Missouri to spend time with my husband's family.  We first stopped at his Aunt's house and visited with his grandma and two of his aunts.

Sitting with Aunt Winnie

Wearing Daddy's hat with Great Grandma

Emma enjoying a water bottle with Aunt Jane and Keith

Charlotte loved this baby doll Aunt Jane gave them.  She also enjoyed Mr. Don's company.

Sitting with Great Grandma.

After leaving his Aunt's house, we headed to my husband's sister's house.  I was so glad that we were able to spend a couple of days there, including the actual thanksgiving day.  Emma and Charlotte had such fun playing with their cousins.  I am lucky enough to have great relationships with my cousins, and I really want that for my children as well.  On Thursday John's parents came in the morning and spent the day playing with the four girls.  It was wonderful because then I was able to help with the food preparation.  It was really enjoyable to spend time with my sister in law in the kitchen.  The meal was an incredible feast and there is just something so special about sitting around a table with family that you love.  Emma and Charlotte even got to have some of the turkey, potatoes and sweet potatoes blended in the food processor.  It was a hit.  Friday John and I left the girls in the capable hands of his sister's family and we headed out to do some black Friday shopping.  Again, such a treat to have a little bit of time for just the two of us.  We were able to get some great deals too.  A good friend of my came to visit that afternoon (more about that in an upcoming post) and then later that afternoon we all packed up and went to the mall to visit Santa.  I didn't know how Charlotte and Emma would react, but they did great.  We were able to get a good picture and it was fun to see them doing something that I remember really enjoying as a child.  Saturday John woke up with a fever, so he spent the day in bed and I loaded the girls up in the car and went and visited another friend (more on this in an upcoming post).  Thankful John was feeling better by that evening.  We packed everything up and left early Sunday morning.  Overall we had a really special time over the holiday.

Cousins!  

Madeline was so sweet with the girls and wanted to help with them and hold them all the time.  It was funny though because when she would hold one of them they looked like giant babies.

Emma and Elizabeth playing

This horse was a hit!

Cousins having fun together.  I love this picture.

Emma taking a ride.

The beautiful Thanksgiving table.

Here I was, thoroughly enjoying helping to prep the meal.

The whole group.  So thankful for this family.

Uncle bud watching Charlie Brown with his nieces.

Having a tea party.

Look at how well they were sitting at this table.

    

A fun play date!

I am very thankful to have met another new mom who has a daughter just a couple of months younger than Emma and Charlotte through our church.  We have been getting together every couple of weeks to let the girls play and spend time visiting.  It is wonderful.  On Tuesday we were able to get together for lunch.  While there Charlotte and Emma were able to try out this pink pedal car, and boy did they enjoy it.

Emma playing with her friend, who's name happens to be Emma also.  John calls her Emma "too".

Charlotte and Emma "too" watching Emma in the pedal car.

Getting even closer!

Emma heads ever closer to crawling. Today she scooted backward enough to get to their toy bin and proceeded to dump it out everywhere. I think she is also learning the benefits of being able to move around. Also notice charlotte's wild hair, it is looking like she might have some curl in that hair.

Playing together

Tonight I was busy making baby food and let the girls have some play time together in the playroom. They "talked" and smiled at each other and at one point I found them on each side of the exasaucer talking through it. It is really neat to step back and see how they interact with each other.

Drinking!

Both Emma and Charlotte have stopped drinking from bottles. This makes it harder to leave them for a while. We have been working on sippy cups with them for a while as another way to get liquids in them. Today Emma held the sippy cup herself and drank from it. It was exciting.

Getting so close

Emma is getting closer and closer to crawling. She is now going from sitting to all fours, but doesn't quite have the confidence to move from that position. I am thinking soon. We all have colds, which is no fun. We went to the doctor's office this morning because I thought Charlotte had an ear infection, but it is only a cold. She does weigh 21 lbs 3 oz now. Hopefully we will all start feeling better soon.

Bows in Her Hair

While at my husband's sister's house for Thanksgiving we opened some Christmas presents.  Here is where the bows ended up.  I think she is a pretty great present.

Fun with a box

Today we had a lot of fun pulling toys in and out, banging it, and listening to what it sounds like when we run our fingers on it.

Visiting with great grandma

We had a wonderful visit with some of my husband's family. Here are E and C with their great grandma.

We are ready to go!

Well, I have the most important things packed!

So many leaves!

We have been battling leaves all weekend. While we are not near done yet, we had an enjoyable moment when Charlotte and Emma came out to help.

Not to be out done

Emma saw the camera and didn't want to be left out so she smiled big. She is becoming quite the ham. She has also started scooting on our wood floor while she is sitting up. It is pretty funny.

Sippy cup

We have yet to master drinking from the sippy cup.

Attempting Something New

Since having twins I feel like I have had to learn how to do a lot of things all over again, taking into account two very small children.  There are instances everyday where I am trying something new or figuring out the best way to tackle something.

This weekend my husband and I had the opportunity to eat out with the girls.  This was the first time we had done this, just the four of us, since the girls were born.  I have to admit that I was nervous, but also tried to be as prepared as possible.  We made sure to go at a time when they would be awake and hungry.  I packed bibs, spoons, food, wipes, and sippy cups in the diaper bag, as well as the normal assortment of diapers.  The girls did great.  They were so distracted by all of the different people to look at that they didn't get much eating done, but it kept them very entertained. Both my husband and I were able to order and eat our food, although we did take turns trying to feed them.  We did make a mess and were loud with lots of happy noises, but there were no huge meltdowns.

It is very encouraging to have such a great family outing.  I am looking forward to the next time that we are able to go out together.

Charlotte having fun banging on the table.

Emma was too distracted to eat very much.

A Fun Project

This fall I joined our local Mother of Preschoolers group (affectionately called MOPS).  It has been a great way for me to get out of the house, be with other moms, and have a little bit of me time.  At our last meeting we did a really fun craft, Turkey Hand Print Shirts.  I was really impressed at the work and organization that went into helping 30 plus moms applique hand prints onto shirts.  Everyone's turned out great.  I ended up not being able to finish mine before I had to go pick up the girls, so I finished mine at home.  Once I started working on sewing the hand prints on, I felt like they really wanted to be angels and not turkeys, so I turned mine into angels with just a little embroidery floss and a few stitches.  Very fitting for my miracle babies.  I will use this technique again for decorating shirts and other items, it was surprisingly easy.

Standing up

Today Emma worked on standing up at the learning table. She is very unsteady right now, but loves it. Charlotte was rolling all over the room while this was going on. Also, we went to the doctor's office today to get their second flu shot and got their current weights. Charlotte is 20 lbs and 11 oz and Emma is 19 lbs and 10 oz.

Play date

Today we went to play bunco at a fellow mom's house. One of the other moms there has a little boy who is six months old. Emma had a lot of fun playing with him. Granted, her idea of playing involves taking his toy.

Got Milk?

This milk jug was a huge hit.

An Easter Memory

Since I started blogging again when the girls were five months old, I haven't put any pictures of when they were tiny up.  I plan to do that fairly often.  At Easter this year the girls were one and a half months old.  We were still really getting to know each other and I was so concerned with eating and sleeping and caring for them.  A family friend brought over an Easter basket for each girl and we dressed them up in smocked dresses and bonnets.  It was a bright moment in a very overwhelming time.

Eight Months Old!

My sweet babies are eight months old today.

Here they are ready for bed tonight.  I love these jammies!

Both girls are very busy these days.  They are eating three meals a day that consist of a variety of veggies, fruit, meat, cereal and yogurt.  They eat finger food at least once a day and love cherrios, puffs, crackers, frozen peas, and banana.  They nurse four times a day still.  We are down to two naps a day but have an early bed time.  They are still up a couple of times a night to nurse.  Both girls are sitting up very well.  They enjoy playing with toys, especially banging, shaking, and chewing on things.  We try to get out of the house at least once a day and the girls enjoy being outside and with other people.

Charlotte is rolling all over the place.  Last week she found the fire place.  She is able to turn easily on her stomach as well and likes to roll to toys.  No pulling up or crawling yet.

Emma has been a bit more resistant to moving.  In the last month she has starting rolling over consistently and just in the last couple of days she has started scooting backwards.  Today she had scooted herself into this corner, and was not happy about it.

Emma Nicole Hoemann, eight months old.

Charlotte Beth Hoemann, eight months old.