Happy Valentines Day!

I couldn't resist posting a couple of my favorites from last year's Valentines Day Photo Shoot. Then, you'll see a couple of my cuties from this morning. They're pretty clueless about standing, so they're just leaning against the furniture. In all the pictures, Lydia's on the left and Jenna's on the right. Thanks for the cute Valentine shirts, Grandma Blackburn!

A year behind us

Here's a few more recent pictures including some birthday celebrating. We plan to keep celebrating for the rest of the month since both sets of grandparents will be here in the next couple of weeks.

Lydia

Playing at the childrens' museum

Lydia--She was so excited about her cake, but unfortunately she got a big chunk in her mouth, gagged, and threw up everything she'd kept down for the last couple days. Poor girl!

Jenna--yummo!

Happy birthday, little girls!

It's been fun today to think back to February 8, 2007. Unfortunately, the girls haven't had as much fun today as I had hoped. Neither one is feeling 100% yet, so they didn't like my birthday plans for them. After breakfast I thought it would be fun for them to have their first bubble bath, but once I had them both naked in the middle of the bubbles, they both sobbed until it was over. So sad! So, I settled for extra snuggle time in the rocker with both of my little one-year-olds sleeping on me--so sweet! We're postponing some of our celebrating until Jenna and Lydia feel more like celebrating, but we still caught a couple pictures from the day (although you won't really find any smiles). We'll be sure to post more as we continue to celebrate.

Never too much

I've been feeling sentimental lately as the girls' first birthday is only two days away! Ever since learning that there were two babies growing inside of me, I have clung to the truth that God knows us intimately and will not allow us to be stretched beyond what we are able to bear (I Cor. 10:13). Here are just a few of the ways that God has met our needs over and abundantly beyond all we could have asked or imagined.

• strength to carry two babies to 37 weeks

• the unexpected joy of bringing our girls home two days after they were born

• easy recovery from my c-section

• help and encouragement through the first weeks of sleeplessness and so much newness

• daily provisions for the financial needs of our circumstances

• sleepiness to our girls during many road trips, usually right when I was ready to scream along with them

• a husband who serves and loves us so graciously and makes each day much more fun

• content, laid-back personalities in our sweet girls

• countless precious expressions or new tricks from our girls who are such treasures

• a song to lift my spirits

• caring family and friends

I've only touched the surface of all the ways we've seen God's tender care for us through this past year. He's so good.

This week I'm reminded that He knows what I can bear as the girls fight their second stomach bug of their lives. Jenna was sick Monday night and Tuesday. She seemed mostly better today. Lydia puked tonight, and I'm prepared for her to be the focus of my TLC in the coming days. One at a time--You know best. Lord, You have been so faithful. Remind me of Your goodness when I feel stretched and weak.

Little explorers

Even though there are plenty of fun toys around our house, Jenna and Lydia think the best place to hang out is inside this shelf in our living room.

The bottom of the exersaucer is another great option!

Jenna

Lydia

Life really got confusing last night when they were both playing in front of a mirror, and they could see four babies! Jenna has six teeth now (four on top and two on the bottom) and Lydia has four. The girls have figured out how to pull up to their knees, but they're not up to their feet yet. They are getting very quick, though, and thankfully Grandpa and Grandma Blackburn were here last weekend helping get the playroom ready (pictures coming when we finish). Soon I won't be chasing them as much because I can put a gate in front of their playroom and see them from the kitchen. Catching pictures of them is getting difficult these days, because they're not too interested in sitting still. I finally got a few cute ones after lots of failed attempts today. Can you tell the girls apart? It is very difficult now because Lydia's freckle on her cheek is basically gone. Now we have to rely on things like the shapes of their faces, the way they crawl, or if all else fails: Jenna's painted toenails. Oh what fun to have identical twins!

Lydia

Jenna

Lydia (L) / Jenna (R) 11 months old

Each picture corresponds with the caption below.

Christmas

We enjoyed Christmas with new eyes this year. It was fun to watch the girls notice the Christmas tree, play with the ribbons, and make many family members smile. The girls and I loved having Daddy home for three weeks. For about nine days in the middle, we traveled to the Midwest to see family. A few highlights were seeing the Reimers in Newton, having Uncle Brock home from Africa, and catch up time with lots of family including several meeting Jenna and Lydia for the first time. The best news of the Christmas season was from Ben and Maggie on Christmas Eve: "We're engaged!" There are lots of pictures from the last month, so I'll send you here: picasaweb.google.com/ajandmegan.

In other news, the girls are growing quickly now that they're on formula. Lydia gained two pounds last month, and Jenna gained 1 pound 4 oz. Some of their favorite activities include exploring together, kissing each other (without prompting), eating anything they find on the floor, and waving back and forth while Lydia says "bye bye bye". It's hard to believe they'll be a year old in one month!

Lydia (L) / Jenna (R)

Saying bye-bye...and hello

I've uploaded a couple of videos of the girls waving: youtube.com/ajandmegan . They are becoming more mobile every day, and continue to make me smile all day.

In addition to waving bye-bye, Jenna and Lydia are saying hello to bottles. At our nine month appointment, Jenna was 14 lb 6 oz and Lydia was 14 lb 4 oz, which is quite small for their age. We discovered that they weren't getting enough milk from nursing even though they acted very content. We tried supplementing with formula, but Lydia especially really didn't like the bottle. She screamed, pushed it away, and refused to drink each time I tried. So...to eliminate confusion, we are weaning them. We switched cold turkey (from four nursing periods per day to none) so that they could learn to use a bottle without wondering if another option might be available later. AJ was great and came home at random times in order to feed them bottles yesterday (it's much less confusing coming from Daddy than Mommy). Lydia resisted for two feedings then drank 12 ounces before bed last night! Then, this morning they both drank plenty of formula while I fed them bottles! Victory! Weaning so quickly has been a little painful for me, but not as bad as expected which verifies that I didn't have all that much milk anyway.

In other news, AJ runs the White Rock Marathon this weekend and is attempting to run it under 3:10 in order to qualify for the Boston Marathon. He has been quite disciplined about his training, and I think he's going to meet his goal! The girls are ready to cheer for Daddy in their running clothes.