Happy Birthday Brianna Marie!

"I don't know if were ready for a ride?"
Dad and Mom got us a "jogger stroller" so we can ride in it when they run!

Look at my big blue eyes

Watch out boys..here I come

Bother and Sister

I'm all energy right now!

I am so tired

Calm as a cucumber We cannot wait to meet our new little cousin, Breanna

We are so happy to celebrate the arrival of Breanna Marie to Darin and Tricia. She arrived this past Wed. (a couple weeks early). She is healthy and brother Brayden is wondering how his world will change. We are so excited for them. We are hoping to go out to Minnesota in the middle of Feb. We will have the whole Beckering family together. Now there are 7 grandchildren under the age of 4. You can believe my parents are pretty proud. Things have been going well with the Stuive foursome. We have been stuck indoors do to this nasty weather and I have to admit I am going a little stir crazy. Luckily Tim's parents are going to babysit on Saturday night so Tim and I can go on our first date after becomming parents. Ella and Nathan continue to grow as you can see. We are just waiting for them to smile at us. Grandma Stuive is convinced that they might have smiled for her, but we think it was just gas!!!! They continue to grunt and can make some pretty good "tooting" noises. They are still on about a 3-4 hour schedule and one night Nathan went 5 hours from the start time of feeding to the next feeding. We are trying to keep them awake more in the evenings in hope that they will sleep longer at night. We do many experiments, and will let you know if anything consistently works!!!! Oh well, Mom and Dad are getting used to the sleep deprivation!

WE'RE OVER A MONTH OLD

Ella and Nathan are over a month old already. I can hardly believe how time flies. Tim put them on the scale with him and we are guessing they are close to 9.5-10 pounds. They are great little eaters, so I can imagine they will continue to gain weight quickly. We are still are on about a 3-4 hour schedule with them. Some nights are great and other nights....well, let's just say we don't like to repeat those nights. All in all, they are good babies. They still grunt all the time and are continuing to be more alert. Their favorite place to sleep is on any one's chest and they will sleep for hours that way! They are starting to fit into some

0-3 month clothes, but most of the clothes are still somewhat big for them. Both of them have taken up the art of spitting up. Occasionally, Ella gets the nickname, "Old Faithful!" They don't do it every day for which I am thankful. We are so excited for them to start smiling and interacting with us. We are so thankful for their health and we couldn't imagine our life now without them.

Who's sleeping in my bed!

Nathan enjoying some awake time

Nathan has big blue eyes!

What do you see Ella?

Ella is awake!

Ella giving us her serious look!

Curious Nathan

Somebody likes Mom and Dads bed

Nathan (left) Ella (right)

Nathan and Ella have enjoyed sleeping with Mom and Dad in the mornings. If I feed them at 6 or 7am then it seems easier just to let them lay with us for awhile until we get up (or they get us up). One morning, they slept for 2 hours in our bed after we got up. Hey, I am not complaining about that. From the other pictures above, you can tell they are growing and getting more alert. I love to watch them look around and we have gotten some toys out and they love to watch them and are able to follow the toys from side to side. I feel they have been going through growth spurts and want to eat every 2 hours. Yeah for them....but not so great for the mama! Oh well, we enjoy our bonding time.

We don't like this cold weather!

Ella enjoying bath time

Ella getting ready to go away

Where are we going?

can you see how big we are getting!

What a cold weekend! We did venture out to downtown Holland with the babes and did some shopping for a jogger stroller. We are excited to get Ella and Nathan outside and Tim and I are excited to get back into running again! We had a nice weekend and the babies are doing great. The nights are going as good as we can expect and I am hoping this Monday will go good when Tim goes to work. Not a lot new, especially when you don't get out much! We continue to get visitors who want to meet Ella and Nathan and we still are feasting on delicious meals that people have graciously brought us. We are so thankful to everyone!

Reality Check for the mother of twins

Ella and Nathan

I finally had time to get some pictures and note up on the blog. I think I had a reality check yesterday with being a mother of twins. They were up more during the night and then were quite needy during day. I would get Ella sleeping and lay her down and pick up Nathan and 5 minutes later Ella would cry and that cycle continued most of the morning. Tim thankfully came home for lunch and I took a bath and regrouped. Today, Tim's parents came for a couple of hours and I was able to take a nap. I feel much more on top of things and hopefully tonight will be better than last night. They continue to grow and grunt! We have had lots of company and friends from our running group and other friend have brought us meals every night this week. We are going to forget how to cook after all of you have spoiled us.

Where did grandpa and grandma go?

Nathan looks so peaceful

Ella snoozing

Grandpa's chest is a perfect place to nap

Grandma and Ella

How many diapers did we go through today?

Grandpa playing with Ella

Brother and sister "bonding"

Today Grandpa and Grandma Beckering left for Minnesota. It was a difficult send off since we have become pretty attached to them and don't quite no how we are going to do it without the extra hands. It was hard for them too and we are so thankful for the 2 weeks of bonding that Ella and Nathan had with their grandparents. I know I am really going to have to keep up this blog because my mom will be looking at it all the time!!!! As you see from the pictures above, our little babes are getting a lot bigger. Amazing how quickly they can change in 2 1/2 weeks and already we are starting to see their personalities come through. Ella is our "little miss piggy." She loves to grunt and grunt and grunt. Often times we walk into her room thinking she is awake, but she is grunting in her sleep. Nathan is our low key guy. If he is fed and diapered, life is good. He does occasional grunting, but I think he sounds more like a goat!

Our first stroller ride

We had to be bundled up tight to go outside!

Here we go for a ride!

Nathan rests after his first stroller ride!

Ella "bear"

Thanks aunt Laura for the outfits. They are a little big yet, but they worked great for our first stroller ride.

Dad decided the babies should get some fresh air so out came the double stroller and away we went. We didn't go very far, but it did feel good to get out and it made me excited for spring and summer when I can take long walks with Ella and Nathan. We had a pediatrician visit and they are growing like weeds. Ella has exceeded her brother in weight. She weighed 7 lbs 2 ounces and Nathan weighed 6lbs 14 ounces. Ella managed to pee twice on the scale and Nathan pooped on the examining table. Proud moments for their parents!!! We are slowing preparing for the departure of my parents this coming Saturday. We are really going to miss them and decided that a team of 4 adults is the perfect way to take care of twins. We'll see what happens next week with me on my own during the day and Tim and I alone at nights.

Can you see were gaining weight

We went to the Lactation consultant on Saturday and we were pleasantly surprised with how much weight they are gaining. Nathan weighed 6 lbs 10 ounces and Ella was not far behind at 6lbs 8 ounces. They totally exceeded their birth weight and more. The nurse couldn't give me any advice, but to keep up the good work. We can see in their faces that they are starting to fill out and they also can wear more of their newborn outfits. We have a Pediatrician appointment this Wednesday and so we'll see if they gained even more! Seems like life is one big feeding frenzy and the washing machine hasn't stopped since we arrived home. Lately each diaper change has required two outfit changes because they pee right after they get their wet diapers removed. We went to Scott and Barb last night and we actually ran out of clothes and diapers, resulting in Barb putting their outfits in the drier and putting a large diaper (from Barb's daycare stash) on Ella to just make it home. Tim used his engineering skills to get the diaper to fit quite snuggly. We continue to learn new things and hopefully will be experts soon(yeah right!)

Our clothes don't fit

Nathan and Ella like their pacifiers

Nathan loves to sleep

Ella is sunbathing

Our "GAP" babies

Ella not enjoying her first real bath

We gave Ella and Nathan their first tub baths and they were not too excited about it, but they did relax quickly after they got their clothes on. We are finding it challenging to get clothes that fit them. Most of their clothes that do fit them were in the wash so we resorted to some oversize onsies, but they do the job.