Leila and Eva Turn One!

I know all of us mothers say the same thing but HOLY CRAP MY BABIES ARE ONE!  They have full-blown attitudes now and by they I mean Eva.  Man, she's a drama queen!  And a bully!  And an attention hog!  She's got two inches on Leila and takes full advantage of the overhead view to smack her sister's head, rip her bows out of her hair and if there's no bow to grab she just grabs hair and pulls, hard.  I hate to say it but I'm actually a bit proud of Leila since this last week she's started standing up for herself.  And, by standing up for herself I mean smacking, ripping, and pulling back.  I'm glad for this since Leila's developed a little habit of holding her breathe when she gets hurt which sometimes just leads to me blowing in her face and begging her to breathe while other times her lips and mouth turn blue and she finally lets out a tiny whimper before collapsing into my arms.  She always comes to a second later and is just really tired for a minute then back to her normal self but still, it's scary.  We're working on understanding "no" but as all of you that have ever experienced a one-year-old know learning "no" takes a long time.  And by a long time I mean FOREVER.  Despite their antics they actually love playing together and truly look sad and lost when the other isn't around.

So, back to them turning one.  I'm quickly realizing that the busyness and expense of the holiday season is going to carry way into January for me for a long time.  After flying to St. George for Thanksgiving, driving 15-hours to and from Salt Lake the week before Christmas, enduring the actual Christmas holiday and all those festivities, plus the New Year (although that shouldn't really count since we just sat on our butts at home and stayed up barely long enough to watch that stupid ball drop and then crashed into bed like senior citizens) I was seriously doubting whether I would actually go to the effort to throw a bash for two little ones who would rather chew on Tupperware than attend a party.

I'm convinced I would have regretted it if I hadn't, so party we did.

Mmmm, yummy beverage and cupcake table.  My great friend Taneev did an awesome job making the punch after (in my pre-party frantic haste) I pretty much threw the ingredients at her with zero instructions on how to actually make it.  I kept getting compliments but could take none of the credit.  It turned out better then if I had even done it myself I'm sure.

Great job on the sandwichs, Mom.  So delicious!  (Again I threw the ingredients at someone with hardly any instructions.  I'm sure they were so glad they volunteered to help.)

Ah, this one I actually did myself.  I had run out of people to throw stuff at. :)

The cupcakes turned out so cute!  Special thank you to great friends Julie and Amber who stayed until almost midnight the night before making sure the frosting was the perfect color pink and cutting out endless fondant flowers.

Eva: "Mom, there's a lot of people here.  I think I'll just hide in the corner of the couch."

My cute family!

Eva: "Mommy, time to open my presents."

Leila can hardly wait.

They love their Tubtime Tugboat!

Leila's all partied out.

The girls listen intently as I explain to them what these delicious creations are for.

Starting to understand.

Leila gets it.

And so does Eva.

The birthday girls all pretty in pink!

Time to Play Catch Up

Today, months after actually creating our family blog, I've decided to make my first post.  I've discovered over the last year that I am terrible at journal keeping.  Well, to be fair, I've actually known this for a long time, but I really had high hopes that I would become a changed woman once our twins girls were born and I would be so excited to record their every moment that I would have stacks of journals after just one year.  Yet, here I stand with only two (one for Leila and one for Eva), each holding only one entry a piece.  Pathetic, I know.  Here's to hoping that blogging goes much better...but I'm not making any promises.

Last May my husband Kyle and I were blessed with quite a surprise.  After over a year of trying to start our family we were thrilled to finally get a positive pregnancy test thanks to the help of some wonderful little fertility drugs.  We were practically bouncing up and down at my first doctor's appointment.  Jokingly my doctor told us that at this appointment we wanted to accomplish two things: confirm I was actually pregnant and find out how many were in there.  Kyle and I chuckled nervously.  With the ultrasound probe on my slightly bulging tummy he pointed to the screen and said, "Here's your baby."  Then, after moving the probe a bit he said, "And here's another one."  Holy crap!  He looked at me and all I could choke out was "You better make sure there's not three."

Eight months later, on Friday, January 16, 2009, Leila and Eva were born.  They were about five weeks premature but still both healthy, strong little girls.  Leila was born first and weighed 4 lbs. 2 oz., 17.5" long and Eva weighed 5 lbs. 6 oz., 18.5' long.  After six days in the NICU we were able to bring them home.

After a whirlwind of bottles, dirty diapers, nap times, nasty spit up, bedtimes, teething, rolling over, sweating it out on a trip to Mexico, learning to crawl, crawling EVERYWHERE, pulling each others' hair, throwing up on a trip to St. George, throwing ALL their food on the floor, enduring a 15-hour road trip to and from Utah, hitting each other on the head, giving kisses, practically chewing the rails off their cribs, and much much more we are at today.

Okay, now you're caught up.

Enjoying their favorite Christmas present.

Opening their first Christmas present.  And what could it be?  Christmas jammies, of course!

Celebrating Great-Grandma and Grandpa Simmons' 75th Wedding Anniversary.  Five generations together.  Too bad Leila slept through it.

The girls first trip to Park City, Utah.  They had a blast!

Babies love to help on the kitchen.  Let's hope they don't break my dishwasher in the process.

Eva's got some crazy bed head!

My little mess makers.

So sweet!

They were definitely not sure what to think of their new stroller.  Turns out they love it.

"Mommy, I so tired."

Nakey babies!

First day home from the hospital.  They loved to curl into each other.  I'm sure it was comforting after spending so much time together in the womb.

Finally leaving the hospital.  They looked so tiny in their car seats.

Little Leila

Little Eva

Here they come!