Elaina Wins the Contest

It is official....Elaina is the first to walk. As I type I am watching her stand up in the middle of the room. (or in the middle of the bath tub which is not fun for us!!) She does this all day without holding onto anything. She has been taking a couple steps at a time but the other night she took 8 in a row which we counted as she is now walking. She is so eager to do it and gets so excited when she takes steps. Skylar is still cruising along the furniture but is very fast with crawling. He is all boy and into everything. His new favorite things to do are toss a ball and chase after it and get into the dog food. He doesn't try to eat it but thinks it is fun to get into the bin and then throw the food on the ground. Dumping the dog food bowl is also fun. It seems each day we find new things we need to baby proof. They are so much fun and so EXHAUSTING to keep up with these days!!

Finalization Finally!

For those of you who aren't familiar with the process, when you adopt there is a supervision period before you go to court to finalize an adoption. Our agency requires more than the standard 6 month period of supervision when you adopt a sibling group. So we were required to wait a year before we were eligible. We received word last week that we were cleared to proceed with finalizing their adoption and couldn't be more excited!! While we knew in our hearts Skylar and Elaina were to be forever our children, it still doesn't quite feel like you are there parents when you are in this part of the process. We had to do monthly reports, have visits by a social worker, and other things that just don't make you feel like you are truly a parent. We can't wait to go to court and hear the judge tell us they are forever part of our family!

While in Texas we will spend two days in San Antonio where three other families (two from our orientation group) will also be finalizing. We are then traveling to Houston where we will spend two nights with my best friend from college Maggie and her family. She has boy/girl twins that are almost 4 so it will be fun to see what is to come. Jon will also get to visit with his friend Andrew who is there receiving his first round of chemo (see blog posting below). We are excited about the trip but feeling a little nervous about traveling with two very active babies!!

Elaina's First Haircut

So after months of putting it off, I finally took Elaina for her first haircut. The poor girl had never lost her baby hair on top so she had this long patch that was always in her eyes. It looked cute when we pulled it back or put it in a ponytail but she is super active with fine hair so this didn't last long. When we went today, she was very well behaved but did not smile at all!! I think she was a little confused. Like with most haircuts, it will probably look best in a week or so. Her bangs were shorter than I wanted and according to Jon they are crooked (ok I will agree they are a bit!). But they are out of her eyes. And now the back is even and she doesn't have a mullet in the making. I looked at her afterwards and thought my little baby is now a little girl. She seemed so grown up in the chair...where did time go?!?

Look at the height on that hair! Yes, it was time!

What is going on!?!



Checking herself out in the mirror!


Still staring down the sweet woman who cut her hair!


Now her food doesn't end up in her bangs when she eats!


And a side look

Such a big girl now!

Prayers for Andrew

I just wanted to direct our blog readers to another blog. It is called Andrew's Journey and it follows our friend Andrew's progress through his cancer treatment. He and Jon became fast friends when he started coming into Duffy's a few years ago. Andrew is full of life and if anyone can beat this rare from of cancer, it will be him. But along the way he will need lots of prayers and support so we are asking for you to keep him in your thoughts. His blog is also listed on the left in our blog list if you need the link later.

Christmas and Early January 09

We woke up Christmas morning to a very cold house! Our heat went out in the middle of the night. It was a minor problem and we got it fixed before lunchtime but it was not fun. Luckily we had a space heater that we put next to our tree. So opening presents wasn't too bad. And the basement stays pretty warm. We are lucky it was only one day which is much better than I am sure many less fortunate than us could say. We tried to not go overboard with the gifts especially since they just had a big birthday party and really are too young to know. We got them a few little gifts and the wagon was their big present. We also got them tons of books which is as much a present for us since we read all day long and the same ones get old fast! We are so lucky to have the twins in our lives...it makes Christmas so much more special now that they are part of our family!


Checking out the loot and not looking at the camera!!


Skylar was fascinated with his phone, which is just like the kind I had when I was little. Gotta love Fisher Price classics!


Elaina modeling her Smurfette shirt!! Love it!


Can you tell which one liked it right away?!? All it took was a ride around the house for Skylar to get excited! It even has beverage holders:)





Don't worry...no babies were injured during the taking of this photo! Blackmail I am sure later!


Our little man with crazy hair and lots of drool!


Getting into trouble! I was telling her no which she thinks is funny!


Skylar loves his new Little People garage from Aunt Barb! He also loves Elaina's doll house but we are ok with that!


Rock, Chalk, Jayhawk! Thanks Uncle David and Aunt Amy for my KU attire!


They love their castle playhouse and Elaina has decided it is easier to climb over the door to get it. Skylar gets a little freaked out once inside and prefers to watch her!


I have a ponytail now...I love it and Skylar loves to pull it!


Here she is reading, her favorite thing to do!


And another book...


MoMo gets attacked when she comes over! Elaina is checking out her earrings by the way.

This weather stinks!!! We are housebound:(

We are feeling a bit housebound with the weather we are having lately. Walks have been nearly impossible but now it is so cold, we don't even like to take the babies anywhere in the car. Our whole house just feels cold! BLAHHH!! I am already ready for spring and warmer weather! So here are a few photos from around the house

Both the kids love to be read to and enjoy books. But Elaina REALLY loves books! Like, if all she had were books to play with she would be happy. She crawls over to them and looks at the pictures, will go through the baskets until she finds one she likes, and will point at the things she sees while turning the pages. We are so excited that she likes it that much and are really encouraging it as much as we can. We let her hold books in the car, in the bath, and read to her (and Skylar) as much as possible. We also think books are one thing you can't have too much of and we buy them as often as we can so they have lots to choose from. As you can tell from these pictures she gets comfy when reading!

This one cracked us up. We have their old bathtub in the upstairs playroom and put their books in it so they are easy to get to and stay somewhat neat. Well, we noticed that Elaina had decided to just climb in and read. She was in there for awhile and when she couldn't find the one she wanted, she looked for it outside the tub and then settled back into it.


Skylar playing with his new Christmas toy from Grandpa and Mimi. He loves it but as you can see from all the pieces he has thrown on the ground, he gets a little rough with it. He is ALL BOY!


With weather like this, we tend to stay in our pajamas most of the morning. Doesn't she look cozy?!? I want an adult version of those pajamas!


Someone Jon knows through work, made this dual rocking chair for the kids as a gift. It is beautiful and was such a nice present!! Skylar didn't like it at first, but now he climbs onto it and plays with the bears faces and laughs. This is classic Skylar and Elaina though and it makes me laugh looking at the picture!


Want more proof he is all boy? Check out the hole in the bottom of his mouth! He had cracked a tooth a few weeks before and finally had to have it taken out. It looks much better now. Poor guy has not had it easy with teething. To make it worse, he got relief for one day (the day this was taken) and then the next day was super crabby because the tooth on the other side came in. He now has a gap on the top and the bottom!


Ok, so the lighting is not good but look at the cute toy they gave him and put in his overall pocket! It just made me smile and we saved it along with his tooth which they put in a box for him.


Finally onto the big tub...they hated being in it together. Well, actually it was more Elaina who wanted nothing to do with Skylar in the tub. He didn't mind too much! We got pictures and got them out. Now they love to play in there and Elaina especially loves to lay down and put her face in the water. No fear at all of the water, which is both reassuring and scary. We had planned to do swim lessons last summer but with moving it didn't happen. Soon, very soon, so our little fish are ready for the pool in the summer (and the beach when we go on vacation this spring!)

The twins are One!!

We had a lot of fun this weekend at their first birthday party. So many of our friends and family were here to help celebrate. The babies did much better than expected considering all the people and fun going on around them. The theme was cowboy/cowgirl and it was so much fun to plan! The pictures below show some of the fun we had over the weekend! Also thanks to our friend Scott who filmed and posted the eating of the cake.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9plOzVAcK4

We asked our guests to bring a donation to the Ronald McDonald House and we are happy to say we have many boxes to deliver next week. If you are thinking of a charity to donate to, we encourage you to think about your local Ronald McDonald House. Here is the message we included in the invitations:

Dear friends and family, As most of you know, we spent almost a month in Dallas when the twins were born. While they were in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, we were fortunate to stay at the Ronald McDonald House. Meals and lodging were provided to guests and helped us avoid significant costs associated with such a long stay from home. Because it was within walking distance of the hospital we could go back and forth to the hospital several times a day. We also met so many wonderful people staying at, working at, and volunteering at the Ronald McDonald House. We are thankful this was available to families like us who were so far from home and loved ones. The support we had there was incredible! To pay it forward and in honor of the twins birthday, we would like to collect some of the things needed most to help the St. Louis Ronald McDonald House. Household items such as toilet paper, paper towels, napkins, dish soap, and travel size toiletries are just some of the things that are needed on a regular basis and are often overlooked when donations might be made. We hope you can help us by bringing to the birthday party one of these items you might have around the house. Thank you for helping with donating supplies that are necessary to run our local Ronald McDonald House which serves families who are away from home and often not staying for as joyful a reason as we were. With thanks, Jon, Julie, Skylar, and Elaina

Elaina relaxing with Aunt Amy and some good books


Elaina


Our little cowboy and cowgirl


Grandpa and Elaina


Uncle Tim, Aunt Erika, and Cousin Olivia (6 weeks)


Skylar with Aunt Barb, MoMo, and Uncle Pat


Aunt Barb and Olivia


Elaina and Grandma P


With Grandma and Grandpa P (Skylar loved the harmonica)


With cousin Arielle


The birthday boy and Daddy


We couldn't get a picture with all four of us that was good!


The attempt


Yummy!


She loved the cupcake!




He was all hands!


Elaina with Melissa and Bob


Julie and Cari


Two sets of twins


Wendy, Skylar and Joe


Erin and Ryanne


Aunt Amy, Liz, and Uncle David