The Past Few Weeks...

I knew it had been a while since I last updated, but I didn't realize it was over a month!  Sorry!

Christian likes helping when he can...

 He ran into his room one day and fell, hitting his head on a stool, 

got a huge gash in his head that bled pretty badly, what a trooper...

 

Our first walk with the girls (they might be too big for this now)...

 

Daddy and His Gals...

Flying a kite with Grandma...

He really enjoyed holding Jadah...

 Woo Hoo!

The girls were dedicated at church, they are gifts on loan from God!

 So happy!

 Went with my mom and my kids to MI to visit her family.  Had a wonderful time!

 Christian loved riding the gator! (Thanks Becca and Daniel[aka "boy"]!)

Farmer Christian...

 My Grandpa is so amazed by twins... he really enjoyed this!

 My Grandma with the girls...

Life is going well.  I stay busy and don't get out much. Simon's been busy at work but does a wonderful job helping me at home when he's here.  It was rainy all week, I'm ready for nice weather so I can get outside, and hopefully attempt another walk with all 3.  The girls are pretty much sleeping through the night and eating 6 times each day.  They're cooing and starting to smile (finally!).  The girls and myself ended up getting thrush (which also happened with Christian), so we're finishing up treatment.  But through a long and hard (and quite painful) process, I've decided to slowly transition to formula (never thought I'd say that!).  I'm pumping 4 times a day, using what I had in the freezer, and giving formula before bed.  Doing this (versus breastfeeding) has greatly diminished the stress on myself AND our whole family.  It was pret-ty rough there for a couple of weeks (explaining the lack of blog posts).  Things are going much better now.

I'm pretty much back to normal physically.  In the first 6 weeks after the girls were born, I lost over 40 pounds!  (sounds like a fluke weight loss program).  But I have an unlovely pudge that doesn't seem like it will part easily.  Shoot, I might have to actually work out to get rid of it. 

Anyway, I have some things to do!  I also took on an interior design project last week (a continuation of one I did last summer), so I will be trying to find time for that also.  Lord help me!
LOST finale tonight!  It's finally over. :)

Creativity Funk

I have done nothing creative for over 2 months... I was getting desperate. 

So I figured since I have to make dinner anyway, I might as well use that as a creative outlet, and I tried a few new things (nothing too fancy, but still fun!)

Spinach Roulade
(if you like mushrooms, you'd LOVE this!)

 Eggs Benedict

 

Frittatta

 

Puffy Pancakes with homemade Strawberry Sauce

YUM!

Blue Eyed Babes

Our Girls are almost 3 months old!

 And we don't know how, but they (still) have blue eyes...

...this is Jadah...

 

...and this is Selah...

 

Our little ladies growing up!

 

A Glimpse!

My Sweets...

 

Wrath of the Rash

No jokes--- it's BACK!  Just when I thought my skin was finally becoming normal again, I get a new rash.  Don't know if it's the same kind, it's not as itchy, but is all over me: and quite bothersome.  I went to the doctor today and got some meds for it.
The girls also visited the doctor this week.  They're both over 8 pounds and are well on their way to catching up with full-term babies born at the same time.  They each got a shot too.  Nothing too interesting to report.  But on the flip-side, feeding has gone downhill in the last few days.  I have been using a nip-shield to help the girls eat since their mouths are so tiny.  But they were starting to suck too hard and cause problems, so I am trying to wean them off of the shield.  I think I gave birth to piranhas.  All 3 of my kiddos have not been natural breastfeeders... they don't open their mouths very wide and have painful latches.  Needless to say, my left side is out of commission, so I'm alternating the girls between breastfeeding on the right and giving a bottle.  Once I get the girls on either side of me on the couch, I position one to my left with her head propped up and burp cloth tucked under her chin.  I get the other girl latched on to my right side, then use my left hand to bottle feed the other.  The trickiest part is burping them throughout the feeding (usually one of them has to wait to keep eating while her sister is getting burped).  And then when I'm done feeding them (which takes 30-45 minutes [they are slow eaters too]), I burp them again then they take turns getting their diapers changed, being put in bouncy seats, and eventually put back to sleep.  And then somewhere in there I have to pump some milk for the next feeding from the left side, which takes another 20 minutes or so.  I haven't quite figured out yet how I'm going to do all that and keep Christian occupied at the same time.
Christian had a busy week.  He played at some friend's one day, stayed with Simon one day, went to MOPS without me one day, and was watched by Lauren one day.  And after each of those things, he came home and would sleep for 3.5-4 hours.  NICE!  What a perfect time for him to start taking such long naps, but to me they seem to fly by, kept busy by the above feeding routine and a quick nap, and then another feeding before he wakes up.
And then Simon gets home and helps lighten the load.  How do single moms do it?  A husband walking through the door is a stay-at-home mom's favorite sight.  Simon is also still helping me feed the girls for the middle of the night feeding.  He's a life saver.

Just to backtrack a little, we went to my parents for Easter and had a super weekend.  Simon and I got to go out twice without any kids: lovely!  We got a double stroller that will hopefully soon be put to use now that it is getting nice out.  Christian also had his first egg hunt and loved eating the Yogos inside (a decent alternative to jelly beans right?).

Getting ice cream: isn't this the creepiest ice cream man you've ever seen?

We thought it was so cute that he was laying on his belly coloring!

Love my kids!

Every once in a while we let him sit here... so far nothing has happened...

A few weeks back when Luke got to meet the girls:

I have to go feed my babies now.  TTFN.

I know I know...

...you're wondering how we are doing, right?

Okay so the girls are now 5 weeks old and I can't believe how fast time is going.  I actually don't have time to write now(although all 3 of my kids are sleeping the beautiful day away!), but just wanted to let you know we are well!
So many times during my day I am thinking in blog... meaning, I start writing a post in my head and how it will sound and how you will all love to read it, and of course, I just don't get to it.  So all my stories and thoughts will just have to drift away.
I must say though that Christian is the most AWESOME kid ever.  I am amazed everyday at how helpful and good he is being.  Of course there are those moments when he acts deaf and completely defies me, but for the most part, he's the best.  He's got the most gorgeous brown eyes with thick long dark eyelashes (thanks Simon!).  And Simon and I both agree that Christian has the biggest butt in the world... well, only compared to his sisters.  Ha!

Oh yes, the sisters, I'll mention them quickly before I go do the dishes.  They are getting bigger, hoorah!  Last night was great, they ate at 10:45, 3:45, and 8am.   Yay for sleep!  We'll see if that happens again or not.  Oh, one of them just started crying, time for them to be laid in their crib (they're hanging out in their room together, one in a bouncy seat and one in the seat of my glider!).  I have a ton of pictures I could post, I just need to put them on my computer.  I've barely been checking my email recently, let alone uploading pictures.  In fact, I often wonder what I did during the day: everything pretty much revolves around food.  I'm either feeding them, feeding Christian, eating, or trying to maintain the kitchen mess.  FOOD!  I suppose my full time job right now is keeping 3 kids and 1 adult alive.  Sorry Simon, you're a big boy and are capable of fending for yourself.

Okay, really, time to be productive.  A late happy Easter to you, and yay be glad it's April!  Is it just me or did the winter FLY by?  Fine with me!

Blessings...

Cute Chaos

I had several visitors the other day... along with their lovely children!

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves!

These 4 were born within 2 weeks of each other

Joshua Clark (son of Jeff and Tiffany born 2/19) on the right, 

Selah and Jadah (daughters of Simon and myself born 3/1) in the middle, 

Will Tonagel (son of Greg and Amy born 3/5) on the left:

Now add the big brothers:

Now add several people trying to stop Christian from rolling over on Will:

CRAZY CUTE CHAOS!!!

But after everyone goes home, I still have my crazy cuties to myself:

(I guess the girls are cute... at least the tops of their heads?!?!)...