8 months

The girls are about to be 9 months but I never posted their 8 month pictures. Here are a few pictures from the last couple of weeks. They are so much fun and have become very interactive with us and each other. Every month just keeps getting better! They aren't yet crawling but Kristen is getting very close. They both sit up so well and love to play with their toys. Kristen loves to give kisses and Sarah still loves to cuddle. They love to eat all of their new foods. Music, dancing and books are all favorites right now. They love squash, sweet potatoes, peas and carrots. They are turning into such big girls. They are officially out of their bucket car seats and now into the big girl car seats. They also sat in their first high chair when we went out to eat last. They are the sweetest babies ever and I love them so much!

The new ride

Last Sunday afternoon we took them up to our church for a grand opening celebration. I love this picture because Sarah was trying to hold Kristen's hand.

Visit with my Dad

Last weekend we took the girls to visit my Dad and Cheree. My brother and his wife were also able to visit with us each day we were there. We spent a lot of time outside and the girls loved it. My Dad has a really nice back patio with outdoor speakers so music is always on when you're outside and the girls literally danced all weekend. They had been swaying a lot when on their stomachs but it's definitely stepped up to another level and they now dance to music. When they hear music they will move from side to side and really get it into it. I've discovered that they will also do this even if I'm just singing.

My Dad was rocking Sarah and they took almost a 2 hour nap together in the recliner. She was asleep so long she ended up peeing on him through her diaper but that didn't seem to wake either of them up.

My Dad also has this bright yellow truck golf cart. The girls got to go for a couple of rides in it and they each got to drive for a bit. They really seemed to enjoy it!

We had a really nice time and I think my Dad very much enjoyed spending time with his granddaughters.

This is the golf cart

Hollywood....Here I Come!

Long Time No Blog

I haven't blogged in awhile but I wanted to share pictures and an update of what we've been up to the past couple of weeks. We were busy moving out of our house and moving into my Mom's house. What a job! My brother helped a lot and that made it go faster than it would have otherwise. It was very tough to leave our house. We LOVED living there. The neighborhood was perfect and we really enjoyed our house and our neighbors. As much as we loved it we look forward to our new house and the extra room it will bring for the girls to roam. Our new house should be ready by the middle of June or maybe a little earlier. They have already finished the exterior and painted inside. I think they will do the tile in a few days.

The girls also have a new cousin. Casey and Tricia welcomed their daughter on Tuesday morning. Her name is Brooke Nicole and we look forward to meeting her soon.

Fun new toy

Sarah jumped so much that she wore herself out

We've moved up to the double stroller and the girls love it. They can see so much more and are generally more comfortable. We took them to The Domain and did a little shopping.

What A Couple of Weeks

Two weeks ago Sarah started to get a cold, which later turned into an ear infection. Poor girl just felt miserable. Kristen was oblivious to this and happy the entire time. Just as she was beginning to feel better, Kristen was beginning to feel bad. Same situation....different baby. The both got ear infections and both had to take antibiotics. Now that two weeks have passed and they've taken their medicine, they are both beginning to feel better. They loved taking their antibiotics. I don't know what they put in that stuff but it apparently tastes pretty good.

This week they started to eat meat and chicken was the first selection. Luckily my mother fed it to them during lunch so I haven't had the meat in jar experience yet. She said that they didn't like it and that they want to be vegetarians. I don't blame them. Needless to say the antibiotics must taste pretty darn good after chicken in a jar.

Oh yeah....I also got sick and then Nana but we both just got a chest cold. Joe was spared.

Thank goodness the girls are finally better because tomorrow is moving day for us. The movers will come in the morning to put all of our furniture in storage and Joe will be moving all of the boxes we've packed. Our new house is almost framed and is moving right along. Joe's already had to point out several things that they did wrong and will need to redo. I'm sure we're the builders worst nightmare. :)

Since we're moving I will no longer have Road Runner, which means our email address will no longer work. You can email us at joeandjulieh@gmail.com instead.

Here's some pictures of the girls. Sarah is starting to get a tooth! The picture below is blurry but you can see the tooth coming in (barely but it's there). I will try to get a better picture soon.

Here's Sarah playing her piano (one of her favorite toys) and Kristen eating the piano.

One last thing.....yesterday our real estate agent stopped by to say hello and Kristen checked her out the entire time she was here. As she went to leave she waved bye to the girls. Kristen put her arm out and started moving her hand. She was trying to wave bye!!! I then started waving bye to see if that's what she was really doing. Sure enough she did it again. We hadn't even been trying to teach them that. It's amazing how smart babies are and how they pick up on everything.

Miracles

A couple of weeks ago I added a link to Tricia & Nathan's blog (link on the right). I do not know Tricia or Nathan but I came across their blog several months back through other blogs I like to read. They live in North Carolina and Tricia has Cystic Fibrosis. She was on the transplant list last year for a double lung transplant but discovered she was pregnant. She delivered her daughter via c-section very early and Tricia was then put in a medically induced coma. She got back on the transplant list again and desperately needed her double lung transplant because her life was truly at stake. On April 2nd....Tricia got her new lungs. Talk about a miracle.

Speaking of miracles....I cannot help but think about something that changed my life. One year ago today I had an amniocentesis done (actually two of them - one for each baby) and the stress that it brought over my life was enormous. A few days prior to this I received a call from my doctor indicating that the results of an elective prenatal test I had performed was abnormal. They said that my test results were indicative of babies with Down Syndrome or other chromosomal abnormalities and that the chance that one or both babies had Down Syndrome was 1 out of 75 (actually 2 out of 75). Of course the tests were only screening tools and not an official diagnosis so the only way to get confirmation was to have the amnio performed. Joe and I met with a Genetic Counselor to review our family history and discuss the situation further. We ultimately elected to go forward with the amnios because the risk of it resulting in a miscarriage was actually very low (much lower than the risk of having one or both babies with Down Syndrome). Plus, I trusted my physician and had zero doubts in his abilities. We were uncertain if we were having identical or fraternal twins so we didn't know if each baby had an independent chance for this or not. My physician indicated that they were most likely fraternal but he couldn't be certain until they were born. Due to that I felt we really needed to do the amnio and get a true diagnosis. It wasn't going to change anything other than the fact that our doctors would be able to better treat us with more information. Just a point of clarification.....if we would have been having just one baby then I wouldn't have gone through with the amnio. Putting two babies into it changes everything.

To say that I was scared would be a drastic understatement. I remember my hands trembling. This was the first time my "motherly instinct" had kicked in and I wanted so desperately for everything to be fine.

The day of the amnio was stressful. Joe and I went to Dr. Darby's office and I was a mess emotionally. I felt like I couldn't breathe. I realized that I had absolutely no control over what was happening and that scared me. The procedure was not something I ever want to repeat and I hope that no one ever has a need to go through it. I will spare everyone the details of what happens. Even though I never want to undergo another one.....I'm very glad that I did it and it changed a lot for me.

If the amnio wasn't hard enough then you learn that it takes 10 days to get the results. 10 days. Do you know how hard it is to wait for results like this for 10 days??? I was a basket case the first 5 days. I knew it was out of my control so I prayed about it. I think I talked to God every second of each of those 10 days...while driving my car, while brushing my teeth, while working, every second of every day. About half way into the waiting period I finally felt a sense of peace. Something had changed.

On the 11th day I called Dr. Darby's office first thing and the nurse said that my results were in and that they were normal. I couldn't believe it. Amnios produce extremely accurate results so I immediately felt like a huge weight had been lifted off of me. The nurse told me that my original screening must have just been a false positive. I know that what happened had nothing to do with a false positive. I had prayed every second of every day that I would get good news. I know the answers to our prayers aren't always the answers we're hoping for but fortunately this one was.

Recap From Last Weekend

I'm late posting this but I wanted to share pictures from last weekend. Last Saturday was Angela's birthday and we joined her, Matt, Katie & Galen for lunch at Moonshine, which is downtown at 3rd and Red River. Lunch was really good and it was great visiting with everyone. Angela is a fantastic sister-in-law and Katie is such a wonderful mother-in-law to me....they are great. Katie brought the girls their Easter gifts. They each got the book "The Tale of Peter Rabbit", some hair bows and a cute outfit. They actually wore the outfits today and looked super cute.

After lunch we drove to my Mom's to visit with her, my brother and my aunts and uncles who were visiting from Houston.

Nana

My uncle Miles, Aunt Shirley and cousin Tiffany

My uncle Henry with the girls - I was too slow taking the picture and Kristen started moving

My Aunt Joanne and Uncle Butch

Angela's Birthday & Visiting Joe's Family

Angela's birthday was last weekend. Unfortunately the girls weren't feeling well and Sarah threw up during lunch at Chuy's. Afterwards we went to Matt's for cake and the girls ran around his yard (Sarah started feeling much better by this point).

These pictures are from several weekends ago that I hadn't been able to post.