Father's Day

Below is the Father's Day card we (Jacob and Robbie) put together for Daddy. It was cuter in person, but mom's too lazy now to scan it to get all the cute pics, etc. Here's the excerpt from a boring word document... :)
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Top 10 Reasons Our Daddy is THE BEST:

10. He brings home the bacon (whatever that is!)

9. He gives the very best rocket ship rides!

8.He teaches us cool things, like how to engineer buildings (we don’t know why it takes him so long – it looks easy!)

7. He helps keep mommy sane and happy so she doesn’t mind so much when we cry

6. He brings us cool places like target field and the boat

5. He loves to take naps with us on the couch

4. His chest is our favorite place to cuddle

3. He changes a mean diaper – even if we do get poop on him every once in a while

2. He loves to brag about us and all the stuff we can do already

1. He loves us a lot and is so good to us every day



Thanks, Daddy! We love you!

HAPPY FATHER’S DAY!!!

-Jacob, Robbie, and Mommy

Oops... kinda forgot we were supposed to be keeping this blog!

Well, here we are again - finally! Life keeps getting in the way of documenting life! Here are a few highlights from the past weeks:

On mother's day, we surprised my Grandma and Grandpa with a visit at their nursing home in New London, MN - our first road trip (only 2 hours!) and the first time Vince and Vivian met the boys! They were so excited - aren't these photos precious? Our boys are so lucky to have great grandparents.

Both boys with Great Grandma Vivian

Robbie with Great Grandpa Vince


Had to snap this photo to show Grandma Jean and Grandpa Don that the boys fit into their Florida shirts... for about a minute and a half. I can't BELIEVE how fast these kids grow! Seems like every day I put something in the "too small" pile.


Ah, here it is - the first day on the boat for 2010. We've been a bit busy (ha!) so our boat is still in our driveway, but our friends Kelly and Bonita invited us out for an afternoon over Memorial Day weekend. The boys were amazing - didn't mind being in their life jackets, and essentially slept through the whole ordeal. That's good news, as we hope to spend lots of time on our boat in the near future.

Jacob takes a nap on the boat

Robbie woke briefly to say hello!

Would you believe these are the smallest hats we could find?

Every night, we swaddle up Jakey and put him in his crib, on his back. Every morning, this is how we find him. This boy loves being on his side, and his tummy. He can even roll over from his tummy to his back already.

One of my favorite "twin moments." Our guys are so different from each other in so many ways, we get a kick out of it when they decide to be "twinny" every once in a while.

Spaeking of the boys having different personalities, and wanting to do different things at different times... This photo is a prime example: Robbie was kicking and smiling and cooing and going crazy in their "gym" (he, so far, is our "social" boy - loves to "talk" and smile and laugh). So here he is, kicking and cooing right in Jacob's ear. Jacob, you'll notice, is sleeping through it all (on his side, of course)

Grandma Kathy has been here several times to help us with the boys. They love her so much that they even talk to her on the phone after she has to go home - I'm certain that they recognize her voice.

My favorite moments are when the boys are entertaining themselves and we can just sit back and watch them be happy and learn about the world around them. Enjoy these videos of the twins doing just that:




(That's Robbie on the left and Jakey on the right)

You may notice that Jacob and Robbie seem completely unaware of each other, even as they are hitting and kicking each other. Too funny!

Today (one day short of their 3-month birthday) is the first day they've ever made eye contact and smiled at each other - adorable! So we hope to have photographic proof of that soon.

Thanks for your patience - we hope you keep checking back for our next update... we'll try to do it in a more timely fashion this time around! :)

Highlights from weeks 4-7

Well, we've been awfully busy living our crazy lives, and not so good about documenting it here... here are a few pics to get you caught up on how the boys are growing - SO FAST!

Descriptions of the above pics follow:

-Obviously, those sleep wedges are not doing the trick any more for keeping the boys in place :) We've discontinued their use because the twins are too big and strong, even when they're sleeping!

-The boys had their first play date the other day, with Michael, the son of our friends Mark and Heidi. Maybe some day we'll get a photo of all 3 of them smiling... for now, Jakey's doing his best to smile big enough for all of them!

-Daddy with Jakey - need I say more?

-The boys hanging out on the couch - can't believe I got 2 smiles!

-For their baptism, Jacob and Robbie got lifejackets from Jason and Johanna (Jakey's godparents). None of us have laughed this hard in a long time!

-Baptism photos are with Jason and Jo, and Robbie's godmother, Suzy. and our priest, Fr. Abraham.

-Robbie enjoys the music and lights on his new toy.

-Jakey checks himself out in the mirror.

-I bought this play gym yesterday and it's been a big hit with the boys - I can't believe how well they can entertain themselves already... so fun to watch :)

The twins' 1st trip to see Daddy play hockey, and their 1st Easter (Jacob is the one sleeping, Robbie is the one scowling!)

Remember us?

Many of you have asked how Merfy (dog) and Flip (cat) have handled this big change in their lives. In a word, they've been wonderful! Although they're a bit jealous... In the above photos, Flip is obviously annoyed to not have enough room in Gretchen's lap, and Merfy seems to think that whoever sits in the boppy pillows gets the attention! Merfy is quite protective of the babies and worries about them when they cry. I actually think he's getting less sleep than we are. :)

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Today we had our first fun outing. Mom and Dad took us, Grandpa Jack, and Grandma Sara to see where Dad goes everyday to bring home the bacon. We are not sure what bacon is but Daddy says it is what you use to buy stuff. We started at his office downtown for a tailgate party in the atrium. We are not sure what a tailgate party is but after going to one we think we like them. The acoustics in the 9 story tall atrium are a wonderful place for us to let the world know we are hungry. At the party we met a lot of new people who were anxious to meet us. Some of Dad's friends wanted to take us home with them. That was scary.

After the tailgate party we went for a walk dowtown to the new Target Field where we "watched" a U of MN Gopher baseball game. I am not even sure what a Gopher is but Dad says if you see one you shouldn't feed it because they bite and they don't know how to play baseball.

The game was the first game at the new Target Field, where the Twins will play. When Dad told us we were going there, we told him that we don't even know what baseball is - how can we play it? Then Dad told us the "Twins" are a Major League baseball team. Our Dad sure is smart, and he knows a lot of stuff too. The tickets were $2 and we got in free. That is not a lot of bacon. See? We learned something from Dad already! Dad was very excited to get his first baby freebie.

The weather was a balmy 50 degrees - Wonderful weather for March baseball in Minnesota. We loved heat lamps scatered throughout the concourse and Grandpa Jack and Bob were mezmerized by the 5,800 square foot big screen HD TV! Halfway through the event (in other words, the bottom of the first inning) Dad realized he had become one of those annoying people pushing a double stroller in a crowded place.

At the end of the first inning we got hungry and tired so we decided to start the walk back to the car to eat and go home. When we got home we were exhausted after our adventure into the big bad world so we took a long nap on the couch with Dad until it was time to eat again.

Now we are spending some last minute quality time with Grandpa Jack and Grandma Sara before they go home to Aberdeen tommorow.

What a great life we have!

The boys are 12 days old today - it's going so fast already!

Here's a little insight into our daily lives as new parents of tiny twins...

After losing weight after their birth, both are gaining again and are almost the same size as each other... at our last appointment, Jacob was 6 lbs. and Robbie was 6 lbs. 1 oz.

They are very good babies! They generally only cry when they need something. What more could we ask for? :) However, because there are two of them they still keep us very busy and quite sleep-deprived, as expected -- Totally worth it, though -- they're just so precious!

We are learning to be quite adept at avoiding golden showers during diaper changes. But, with 2 boys being changed every 3 hours or so, there's no avoiding it altogether. Having 3 hands would be quite helpful!

Both boys have LONG fingers and toes. Looks like they'll grow up to be big boys!

We keep trying to categorize them, just to keep them straight in our heads... for instance, Jake is the one who always gets hungry first, or Robbie is the one who needs his diaper changed before a feeding, to wake him up... BUT they defy our assumptions and change personalities pretty much every day. Sometimes Jacob is the "easy, quiet one, and sometimes Robbie is -- they're keeping us on our toes.

Unless it's 3am and our eyes are very bleary, we almost never mix them up. They look quite different and have very different features. Robbie has larger facial features and chubbier cheeks. Jacob has a leaner face and very delicate features. Robbie has lots more hair, too. When they're wearing hats it's tougher to tell them apart!

Hope to post more pics soon, and maybe a video or two. Tomorrow is our first family outing that isn't to the pediatrician's office. Stay tuned...