11 months and counting!!!

I'm turning into a broken record when I start everyone of these off with "I'm so far behind" but oh well, better late then never... The life of a multiples momma I guess :)

I guess there's not much to update on, the girls are doing well. Turned 11 months old this month! Ellie has her 2 bottom teeth and 2 new top teeth that have popped out. She is crawling much better and pulling herself up on anything that stands still (and even some things that don't stand still) and she is into everything! Very curious and observant and really gaining her independence. Trenna is still teething and not seeing anything popping out yet, but we know they are there! She's starting her army crawl now and rolling to get where she wants to go, so that's a big improvement! We cheered on our UK Wildcats all the way to the Final game and they came just short of #9, but it's ok because we are excited for next year' steam already, mostly because the Harrison twins are returning! (I guess you can tell we are a little twin obsessed!) the weather is still acting a bit crazy, but we've had some really nice days, especially on the weekends, so we take advantage of those days when we can all spend them together as a family! 

We celebrated Easter, their grandpa (my dad), uncle Parker and uncle Dan's birthdays this month along with turning 11 months! We will head up to Cincinnati next month on the 21st for Trenna's MRI and stay the night, then their hearing tests and 1 year check up the next day, the 22nd.... So if any of our NICU nurses reading this will be there either of these days, leave us a comment and we can try to come visit again! We'd like to ask for prayers with the MRI because they will have to sedate Trenna. Also your prayers for a clean bill of health with the results would be awesome. They will be checking to make sure none of the tumor has returned and I believe they will be looking for some other minor things, but I'm not completely sure of the details on that at the moment. Your thoughts and prayers will be greatly appreciated! I am going to keep this brief because I should really go in and start up for next moths post as it will be HUGE! We have big birthday plans ahead, so we have lots to get started! 

Lots of fun in the sun photos to post, but I'll keep it to a minimum! We ate at Tom and Chee and the girls enjoyed their first grilled cheese sandwhich and loved it, then went to the park to swing and the pic of the girls on the orange couch is when we went to get froyo at Orange Leaf! We LOVE summer!!!!

9 months and 10 months... I'm so far behind!!!

We have just been havin way too much fun and excitement that I've completely slacked in the blog! Shew where to begin! 

Let's see, February, the girls turned 9 months and we celebrated their daddy's birthday and valentine's day!

then March they turned 10 months and we had their uncle Hunter's birthday, St Patty's day and all the excitement of March Madness (UK basketball for any non sportsy people!!) 

We just recently had a visit in Cincinnati where Trenna was the only one getting checked out. She's doin well.... They would still like to see her weight gain improve (still not hitting the curve yet, but she's getting very close) so we're changing her formula and the dietitian is going to send me a list of foods to try that should help pack on the pounds. While at the Cincinnati Children's hospital, we ran into the doctors that had even taking are of us ever since we had to have visits there and delivered the girls. She had not seen them since that day, so that was such a great surprise to run into her! And we also got to go to the NICU and visit with a few of our favorite nurses, which made me super happy to get to see them!!!! 

Since the visit on Thursday, we have been trying a new sleep method.... That's going ok, but it will take some time to get use to, for all of us! 

Friday we cheered on our Wildcats in true Ky fashion, decked out in our blue and white when we beat the defending champs/ our in state rivals, the Louisville Cardinals, and then again on Sunday when we beat the Michigan Wolverines to head into the Final four (woo hoo!!) we are calling it "the year of the twins" since our girls were born and two star players are Aaron and Andrew Harrison came on board for the 2013-2014 year :)

We've not been very lucky with the weather lately... Having quite a bit of cabin fever because it has been too cold to go outside, but there have been a few pretty days that we have taken advantage of and went waking with our friends Rachel and Liam and enjoyed some time playing in the backyard and a little in the park. 

Ellie is very active now. She LOVES to get books and DVDs off the shelves and play with them. She's now working on going from the army crawl to actually crawling, so she's on the move ALL THE TIME! She is also pulling herself up and standing! She makes us all laugh when certain commercials she hears on tv, she will stop dead in her tracks to watch it, then go right back to what she was doing. And it's mostly musical commercials she likes. She now has two of her bottom teeth in and I think I've seen two more trying to poke their way out. She loves any food we will give her, and some that we don't, but she'll try to get anyways! 

Trenna is just a ham.... Not sure what more I can say! She's a little behind on developments, but there doesn't seem to be any cause for concerns. She is now liking her tummy time more, rolling around everywhere and even getting up in her hands and knees. Just no crawling yet. She still needs a little assistance when she sits up on her bottom, but is doing ok and is realizing she can reach and play with much more when she's sitting up. Unlike her sister, she is more selective of her foods. She might be our picky eater (uh, like her daddy!) but we are goin to try to get her introduced to as much as we can, in moderation of course! She's such a sweetie though and loves to just be cuddled and have her ducky wubanub! They are both getting more and more interested in the dogs and try to pet them whenever the dogs are sitting still but because they are still a little rough, the dogs try and keep their distance, haha. I'm sure once they are a little bigger, the girls and dogs will become fast friends! 

HaPpY 8 mOnThS {{ 1.25.2014 }}

The girls turned 8 months today. We have been having a REAL winter this year, so we have been cooped up inside for a few weeks, with exception of going to the our Doctor visits here in town and in Cincinnati, so we are all SOOOOO READY FOR SPRING AND SUMMER!!!!!

Our visit to Cincinnati went well. Everyone is coming along well and we got to see Dr. Lim this time ( the surgeon that removed Trenna's tumor) and he said she is looking very good. She was weighing 10 pounds, 14 ounces last week at the doctor visit, and most likely is up to 11 pounds now! Ellie is up to 14 pounds and 13 ounces, so as well she has probably bumped up to 15 pounds.... Growing like little weeds! We go back next month for a hearing test and to check up on Trenna, but Ellie is fine until her one year check up. After a long snowy trip up to Ohio and back, the next day we had to o back out again to get the dreaded shots at our pediatrician, but everyone is protected from the flu, RSV and all the basic 6 month stuff too!it was a bit rough since they had to have 4 shots each, but they were troopers and only cried a little

The girls are learning new stuff everyday. We've been trying new foods but their favorite right now is peaches and animal crackers (under close supervision, of course) They have also tried bananas, butternut squash, and will start trying broccoli in the next few days!!! Of course, we've let them try a little ice cream too... Just a smidgen of a taste, and Ellie loved it, Trenna wasn't sure about the strange cold stuff I was giving her (I'm beginning to think she could be my picky eater!)

Because we are experiencing a real winter this year, we are taking the time to let the girls experience it, like feeling snow...

Ellie is SO CLOSE to crawling.... she just can't get the movements of her arms and tucking her knees up under her at the same time, but she can roll and army crawl with the best of them! Trenna is playing with her feet and doing lots of tummy time, but she is standing her ground and refusing to turn from her back to her belly, even though we know she can do it! they are both still in the teething stages with nothing breaking through still, even though the docs say their gums are looking swollen and "full". Cutest thing ever is that they notice each other all the time now and "talk" and smile at each other a lot.... but of course the moment I reach for the phone or video camera to capture it, the moment has passed.

Though we have been through a lot of rough patches in 2013 and we are still faces challenges each day going into 2014... with each of those challenges comes knowledge that we have to look above for our answers and not try and do it ourselves. We want to work very hard to make sure the girls understand the love and appreciation for our Almighty God. In a world that seems to be trying to break down the beliefs and remove God from our everyday lives, it's more important now more then ever to teach our girls the power our Lord and Savior has to help keep us safe and look after us, as long as we do two simple things.... believe in Him and keep the faith in Him.

And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.

~ Ephesians 3:18

And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.

~ Philippians 4:19

Merry Christmas, the girls turn 7 months old!

Sheesh it's been a busy couple of months! With the all the holidays and family and friend visits, I never thought I'd be able to get this month's post finished.... Even though it's been in draft for a few weeks! So because the holidays fell on the time that the girls turned 7 months old, we didn't have to go back to Cincinnati at all this month, and only a nurses visit to the pediatrician's here in town, so there's not a lot to report as far as doctor updates go, but Ellie is around 13 lbs and Trenna is over 10lbs now! So because there isn't a lot to report, I'll just post all the cute Christmas pictures we did with the girls!

We never got the chance to send out real Christmas cards this year, so this was our on line greetings to everyone

Aunt B's birthday was December 15, so she came by for a visit. You can't see their shirts, but Trenna's said " My auntie rocks" and Ellie's said "My aunt is my BFF"

The girls and their first picture with Santa... they didn't know what to think of him.... but if you look close, you can see Ellie was twirling her hand in his beard!

The many faces of Christmas Ellie

Lots of crazy stuff happened this month.... Including Trevor being hit on his way home from work one evening and it flipping his car completely upside down, but soooo thankful he was unharmed, minus a few sore muscles. And then there was the night we came home from my parents house, where we celebrated our family Christmas that night and had strong winds, a down pour and tornado sirens going off..... and discovered that the winds were so strong they tore a chunk of our shingles right off the roof, so in the pics below was Trevor temporarily tarpping it until we got it fixed!

Yup, that would be Trevor's car UPSIDE DOWN in the street!

 

But besides all those crazy events, we had a great Christmas spent with out families, playing Phase 10 with Aunt B and Aunt Annie, going to Jessamine Christian Church with the whole Sherwood clan for the Christmas Eve service and the girls even got to experience solid foods for the first time! They tried oatmeal, rice cereal and sweet potatoes! Still a work in progress, but they are kind of getting the hang of it!