4 months old!

Nathan likes to chew on his tongue

I am not so sure about this "pink"bumbo seat that mom keeps putting me in

Look at my pretty dress from Aunt Jessica

Looking slightly dazed and confused

Ella has big smiles for mom

Nathan looking at the camera

Ella looking at the camera


Yesterday, Ella and Nathan turned 4 months old. Hard to believe how fast time goes. They are making many mile stones that I probably have already talked about in the past blogs....giggling, cooing, rolling over, grabbing for toys, drooling and much more! The weather has been so nice this past week so we have been taking many walks. There was a huge garage sale on Wednesday and so we ventured out in the 75 degree weather and then yesterday, I went walking downtown Holland with a girlfriend from work. It is great to get outdoors and it makes the day go faster. Tim has been very busy at Disher design in Zeeland doing contract engineering for them and I keep busy with my 20 hours at work and then taking care of the munchkins! I hope to get some video out soon of them rolling over!

We love to drool!

Instead of pacifiers, our mom give us washcloths to suck on!

See how I like to help my mom with laundry

Trying to get Nathan to look at the camera

Look how strong my neck muscles are. We love our tummy time!

Ella in her "Bumbo"seat

Nathan likes to sit up too!

Thought I would post some quick updates since I have to work the whole weekend and will not have anytime. The babies are really starting to do more things. We put them in the "bumbo" seat and they just sit there like their "big stuff!" I also tried the "exersuacer" and they think that is pretty fun too. They can turn themselves around in it and mom likes it because it will entertain them for awhile. They are also starting to grab for toys. When we put them under the play mat, they will reach up and occasionally will get a toy (on purpose) in their hands. They like to study the toy and of course put it in their mouths. They continue to drool and probably have their hands in their mouth 80% of the time. The other day, they were fussing while I tried to get supper ready, so I gave them each a cold washcloth and they just sucked on those things. It gave me some good entertaining time. It is amazing what you think of to distract them! If I didn't say it last time, Nathan can roll from his back to his tummy and I would say Ella is not too far away. As for Tim and I, we celebrated our 3rd Anniversary this week. This year's celebration included holding babies while we ate lasagna, bathing babies, and putting them to bed, and us going to bed at 10pm. Oh yes, it was very romantic. Truthfully, we hope to do something next weekend just by ourselves! It has been nice weather, so we have taken some walks which is a great way to get out for awhile. We are excited to share that my brother Dan and Laura are expecting their 4th baby in Oct/Nov. We are so happy for them. Our parents will increase their grandchildren to 8 and there will be 4 babies under the age of one by the time Laura has the baby. Wow, Christmas could be chaos! Have a great weekend!

3 months and counting

Updates on Ella and Nathan:

We are having so much fun with them. They are so interactive with us and we get smiles and cooing all the time. Nathan has always been our vocal one, but just lately Ella has found her voice and is starting to make sounds and imitate our voices. When we put them on their tummies, they can really hold their head up well and Nathan can roll from his tummy onto his back. It is fun to see them get more mobile, but I don't think were ready for crawlers yet. They are obsessed with sucking on their hands and also on any one's shirts. If I forget to put a burp cloth over my shirt, it I can literally ring it out with "Ella saliva." They have been doing good at night. Ella longest night was from 9:45pm-7:00am. Yeah! Nathan still seems to like a 3 or 4am snack, but hopefully he will grow out of it or we'll have to do tough love next month. We are excited for their 4 month appointments at the end of this month to see how much they weigh. We are sure that Ella has a pound on Nathan.

Another video

I got excited that the video worked so I tried another one. This one is from Feb, but it is still fun to see them active.

First video

"Daddy Daycare"

Dad was in charge this weekend. I worked a 12 hour shift on Saturday and Sunday and Tim was home with the babies. All went well. They are taking their bottles so much better and Tim said they were very content. 12 hours flies by pretty quickly especially when you are working hard to get out on time. I was pretty tired by Sunday night. Each morning, I would start the day out at 4am (since that is the time that Nathan would get up for his first feeding). I then maybe had 20 minutes before I would get up at 5am and then get Ella up for a feeding. It is tiring, but it works. I give people so much credit for getting up early everyday to get their kids to daycare. I am so glad I only have to feed them and then I can stick them right back in their beds. We have rainy dreary weather this week. I am waiting for some sunshine. The babies continue to grow. We think Ella is maybe a pound bigger than Nathan. You can definitely tell when you hold both of them. They are really getting interactive and their new thing is giggling.

Happy Easter

Our first Easter

Ella wore tights for the first time

Ella got tired from all the Easter excitement

Big smile

Nathan sleeps while dad reads the paper

Here we are showing off our cloth diapers and covers

Ella in her "fuzzi bunz" diaper

We like to nap on the couch

Nathan sleeps with his elephant blanket

We are like to look at our toys

Nathan is so tired

Ella is getting big

Happy Easter to everyone! What a wonderful day to celebrate that the tomb is empty and we are saved from our sins through Christ's death and resurrection! This past week, I went back to work and thus we had"daddy daycare." I of course was nervous about how things would go with Tim taking care of the babies by himself and also how I would do going back to work after being off for almost 5 months since pregnancy and then maternity leave. I left Tim in charge at 6am and no, I didn't cry, but I did have a weird feeling as I left the house without Nathan and Ella. Thankfully, everything came back to me at work. I easily fell back into the routine and it did feel good to be using my mind in a different way again. Tim did absolutely wonderful with the twins. Not to say, that they didn't give him a run for his money, but he is calm and patient and just did what he could with only two arms and no breastfeeding capabilities!!!!! I wish they would take the bottles a little better for him. It can be a challenge, especially if their both hungry at the same time. I asked him if it was too much for him, but he said it is fine. I truly think he loves spending time with them, even when they are screaming and not wanting to eat. I am so proud and happy that he has such an active role in our children's life this far. It is so nice to share in the day to day duties of raising twins. I love to watch the bonding between him and them and it definitely makes it easier for me to go back to work. Nathan and Ella continue to grow and become more active and content. Nathan is our more vocal baby. He loves to coo and will mimic your sounds. Ella loves to smile and is our more spirited baby. We like to call her "Jekle and Hyde" because she can cry relentlessly and then the next moment she is smiling at you. They are doing good at night. Usually one of them will sleep for more than 6-7 hours. We are just waiting for them both to sleep that long. It still is great because if one does wake up during the night, it is a quick feed and change and then they go right back down to sleep. We had some true signs of spring and we had taken the babies for walks, but now as I write this note, we have snow on the ground and the forecast shows it will snow more this week. Yuck, I cannot wait for good weather. Well, I think that is all the updates we have for now. I'll try blog a little more often, but it can be a challenge to find a moment to type without a baby in my arms.

Thought I would get a couple pictures of Ella and Nathan smiling. Their smiles are so adorable, but hard to get on camera. Yesterday, Tim took care of the babies by himself while I went to work to do some paperwork. They are taking their bottles "OK." They will wiggle it around in their mouths and it was challenging for Tim to feed them at the same time. We will continue to do more bottle feeding to help them get more used to it. I go back to work next Tuesday. Not much else going on here. We were excited because 2 nights ago, Ella slept from 12am to 7:30am. Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!! Last night they both woke up at 4:30am. When I went in their room to get them, I found them lying horizontal in the bed, head to head, shoved up against the side rail. I probably would wake up too.