Wonderful Weekend!

Wow, what a fun weekend. To kick off the fun events, we walked in the MS walk on Saturday through downtown Portland and around the East Bank Esplanade. It was perfect weather and the girls loved their 3mile walk in the stroller. They got to watch all kinds of people, animals, and it was the first time they've been down to the river and walked across the bridges. Clearly we've been depriving them of one of the best things about Portland. So much fun!!!

Emily & Ellery

"what that?" as we stroll through downtown PDX

Team "I Smell Roses"

We also had a few play dates and dinners with family and friends. It's so fun to watch the girls interact and play with other kids. Can't wait for the weather to be consistently nice so we can start doing bbq's and playing outside a bit more.

Sunday we took the girls to the Woodburn Tulip Festival and were completely amazed at the beauty of the tulip fields. I think I could look at those fields all day long. I felt like I was in a dream the entire time. We took amazing pictures and all had so much fun. The girls wouldn't smile for pictures because they were so enamored with looking and touching (and picking) the beautiful tulips. There were also pony rides, bouncy houses, train rides, and all kinds of food to eat. Ellery tried a bouncy house and Emily only made it in for two seconds and came right back out. The elephant ears were a hit however.

Ellery & Emily not touching the flowers. Maybe I should have said they should touch them. Reverse psychology??

Emily

The Fam

yum elephant ears

Hair, High Chairs, and Special Days

I've been on a massive post move in purge session of any and all items in the house. We have so much stuff it's so ridiculous. I thought prior to moving when we unloaded 20 extra large contractor garbage bags at Goodwill that we had made progress. Apparently not, because I just dropped off another 10 and still feel like my house is a cluttered mess. Maybe my life as a hoarder/pack rat/I'm so going to need this one day is taking a turn. I did get used to a nice uncluttered "show ready" house while it was on the market for an entire year. I'm wishing we could become minimalists but I'm not sure I'm quite ready to get rid of THAT much. I just don't want to come home every day to a jam packed with stuff, furniture, toys, and junk type of home. Wish me luck!

Welcome back old buddies!

The girls have reclaimed their favorite NICU gifts once again. Emily can't be found without her two Micky Mouses and now her angel bear. It's still crazy to me that I once thought these beanie babies were so big compared to my kids. As I was writing this I was thinking about how I am still emotional when I think about our time in the NICU and the unknowns surrounding everything in our life at that time, when I realized that today two years ago was the day our girls were released from the NICU and came home for the first time. I think about our experience on a daily basis....actually every single time I look at my sweet babies....but today just seemed a little different. Now I know why.

Emily & her angel bear

Emily & Angel Bear 2/25/08

Ellery & her pink bear

Ellery & bear 2/25/08

Crazy Hair!!
The girls hair is starting to be a little unruly. We just had a trim and came out of the place with nice flat normal looking hair. I swear people must think I don't brush E&E's hair, but honestly the minute we walk out of the house it does it's own thing.

Ellery has lots of curls, but as soon as she lays down it's just a fly away mess. She does have the most adorable ringlet that forms in the front. So cute!!!

Ready, Set, Go!

Emily & her cheese smile and her mop of hair.

High Chairs

Emily - What do you mean we're getting rid of our high chairs??
Ellery - How could you do this to us?

Oh wait....it is so we can make room for more toys....yahoo!!!!!!

Ellery Sept 2008 - can you believe the difference???

The girls haven't used their big high chairs in almost 8 months. Other than the fact that they were supportive back when the girls couldn't sit on their own, they've always just been super bulky, hard to clean, and kind of a pain. In the future (probably no future) I wouldn't use a highchair like this again. SO....since they have been living with us rent free I decided it was time to get rid of them. We brought them in the house today and of course the girls were super excited and ended up sitting in them for over an hour. They ate, read books, and chit chatted....all the things they used to never do in the chairs. I told them we were getting rid of them and giving them to another set of babies to use and both girls burst into tears and said "my high chairs".

March for Babies

Our March of Dimes - March for Babies is just a week away from tomorrow. We blew out our original fundraising goal of $3500 and are still going at it. We also have a team of 20 walkers joining us. I'm honored by the outpouring of support of our friends and family. The donations and those willing to walk with us....leaves me without words (oh, but not tears!!). Prematurity hit painfully close to our family and some of our friends, I'm just glad that we can make a minuscule difference in raising awareness so that hopefully we can find answers, cures, and ultimately give each baby the life they deserve.

What An "Eggs"elent Week!

Last week was a busy one. First we went to Auntie Tayva's to make Matzoh balls for the soup being served at Passover. The girls did pretty well for their first time. Yes, they actually handled and rolled a few. They were then easily distracted by cousin Ziva's toys...but that may be a good thing. However, I do have to say the soup was amazing! Maybe these girls have a future in culinary arts??

Then we had two passover dinners. Both nights were a blast. Love those family dinners!!

Later in the week Emily & Ellery and their best girl friend Avery got together to color Easter eggs. They did pretty well again for their first time, but they were more into coloring themselves and trying to crack the egg shells. Oh well, we'll work on our technique for next year.

Ellery telling grandma which sticker she wants to put on the egg

Emily filing up on the color! Watch out Eggs!

Elle holding up a work in progress

Emily showing her masterpiece

"OMG, Avery & Emily that is sooooooo funny!!"

Time for a snack....

It's more fun to color our bodies than those silly eggs.

Easter Eggs!!! By Emily, Ellery, & Avery!

Emily & Ellery Easter Morning

Dancing!!! And Emily's "Cheese" smile


Our first Easter Egg hunt!!! It was SO much fun! Thanks Avery & Cooper we had a blast!

Bathroom Humor

What do you notice here? Aside from the orange socks and pink shoes we have to potties with two little ladies sitting on them. Ready or not, here we go...............

Emily asked to use the potty for the first time this weekend. It resulted in absolutely nothing but a lot of laughs for everyone involved. She and Ellery kept getting up to check every two seconds for something. This could have gone on all weekend. Then on Wednesday Emily asked to use the potty again and peed. What?? Then she did it again and again. Tonight before baths she did it again. She'd go a little, dump it out in the toilet, go a little more. Somehow she's made the connection and I had no idea it was even coming our way. I still think potty training is a little ways away, but as I said before Ready or not here we go.....................

Emily is all smiles!

Who knew potty time was so much fun?

And in sticking with the bathroom humor I had an "OH CRAP" moment last night as I watched Ellery fight going to bed. As I was telling her all the reason why she should go to sleep and how mommy wished she could go to bed at 7:30 she threw her leg over one side of the crib and used her arms to push her body up to balance on top of the crib. All that was left is for her to drop/fall over the side and she'd be a free woman. Oh no....she can escape the confines of her crib. So now it looks like we'll be converting her crib to a toddler bed which really makes me nervous. Now she will be able to get out of bed on her own and wreck havoc on any and everything. This growing up stuff is hard! I'm not ready for potty trained, toddler bed sleeping, "move tv mommy" saying, kiddos.

We've Moved

It's official! We are now Tigard residents. We moved our stuff in a week ago but just this last Thursday was our first night staying here. Aside from the endless mounds of rubbermaid bins and black garbage bags (my 2 fav packing receptacles) we are getting settled in. Things are slowly coming together, but wow....adding two kids to the mix definitely makes a move much harder and much bigger. Emily & Ellery have so much stuff it's ridiculous. The neighborhood is wonderful, very kid friendly, park across the street, and super nice neighbors. The girls have enjoyed a few park trips and stroller rides already and we are all looking forward to many many more.

Sisterly Love

.............And a little bit of corn meal paste...............

Ellery & Emily

Emily & Ellery

Emily's Heart Follow Up

Today we took Emily into Doernbecher Children's Hospital for her annual heart follow up. If you recall Emily still has a PDA which is an extra heart valve that should have closed after birth. It's common for it to take a little extra time to close for preemies and we thought both girls had closed on their own. However at our 6month check up our ped found that Emily still had a PDA and could hear a murmur. We've just been monitoring it with an Echo every year. Normally for Echo's they sedate young children but we've lucked out now three times and have been able to get Miss Emmalina to cooperate (it was touch and go though!!). The tech tried to get out of it today, but Andy and I were able to show her that Emily would be fine. Emily was a star and sat still for the 20 minutes.

Then we met with the Cardiologist who decided now is the time to do something about the PDA. The procedure is called Cardiac Catheterization. I'm nervous but when I think about the fact that the alternative would have been surgery when she was still in the NICU and barely 3lbs and would have required a ventilator....I'm all for this. I'm going to wait to schedule it for the summer when cold & flu season is somewhat at bay. In order to have the least amount of complications we need a healthy girl!