Trip to the beach

Last week, the girls and I went to Destin, Florida with some of Matt's family. We left all the men and husbands at home! We had a great time. The girls just loved the sand and water. I'm pretty sure Hannah ate a good bit of sand, which I'm sure was very tasty. We had a few meltdowns which could be expected with the girls being of routine so much but they did very well on the trip! Overall we had a blast. Hopefully, we will get to go back sometime.

Swimming Time!

On Memorial Day we had a small cookout with my parents, brother, sister, her fiance, and their daughter (my niece!). We had a great time and the rain held off long enough that we could let all three girls splash in the pool for a little bit! Hannah wasn't too sure about it at first which surprised me because she LOVES splashing in the bathtub! Hailey and Emma took right to it and had a blast. Hannah eventually realized how much fun they were having and decided she would give it a try. As you can tell by the pictures, she loved it too!
We are going to Florida in a few days so I'm really looking forward to how the girls react to the beach and the water there!

15 Months

It's hard to believe that Hailey and Hannah are already 15 months old! They are both trying to talk and each say a few words. Hannah has mastered "bye bye" and will say it in context but also sometimes just enjoys the novelty of saying it for no reason. She also says "more" and hits her tray/plate when she wants more of something. Her daycare teacher says she usually does this when she wants more fruit and not the vegetables. Hailey's new record is 4 unassisted steps. She moves pretty slow and by then she decides that crawling is much faster. I'm looking forward to this summer when I'll be off all summer and can spend the days with them.
We went for our 15 month check up today and everything seemed good except that both the girls have ear infections! They've had no fever and I thought their irritability was due to teething. We have to go back in two weeks to see if it's cleared up and get their vaccinations.


Hailey

Hannah

Finally a new post!

Ok, so I'm about a week and a half later posting Easter pictures but I couldn't find the cord to my camera to upload anything. Turns out it was in Matt's bag all along... I guess I didn't check there. We had a wonderful Easter weekend. I was off Friday and Monday so we had an extra long weekend with Hailey and Hannah. On the Saturday before Easter, we had an egg hunt at church. The girls didn't really "hunt" eggs but they had a good time and got to see the Easter bunny. Sunday, after church we went to Fulton to visit family. The girls got Easter baskets from Matt's parents and a great time playing in the yard and generally being spoiled by everybody.

Just a little update on Hailey and Hannah... Hailey is getting very close to walking! She is still a little scared to let go but will probably take off soon. Hannah has also started scooting forward/army crawling! This is a big step for her. She continues to do very well in therapy. She has started to stick up for herself a little more when Hailey tries to take toys away from her. Sometimes they play together well, but they usually end up fighting over a toy. We enjoy going for walks around the neighborhood in the wagon and maybe one day the ground will be dry and it will be nice out on the same day so we can play outside more. Neither one of the girls have very many words. Hailey will throw her cup on the floor and say "Uh-oh!" She thinks this is very funny. They both say "Mama" "Dada/Daddy" and Hannah is trying to say "thank you".

Overall, we are all doing very well and everybody is happy and healthy!

Hannah's Homecoming

Hannah came home from the hospital one year ago on Saturday, April 4th after a 60 day stay in the NICU. It was so hard to leave her there those extra 6 days after we brought Hailey home. After all of the discharge procedures we finally loaded everyone up and headed home, our complete family together at last! I managed to squeeze between the two carseats for the 2 hour ride home. We had to stop on the way and feed the girls and then drove through a huge thunderstorm.

When we got home, Hannah weighed around 5 pounds. Now she weighs about 20. Like Hailey, she was eating 2 oz of milk every 3 hours. Hannah was our fighter. She endured so much in the NICU and is doing so well now. Sometimes we have to push her to get her to do something but she is showing improvements everyday. She is doing well in therapy and has started scooting herself forwards this past week!

Here are a few pictures from last year

Grandma holding Hannah

I'm a few days late posting this because we got incredibly busy for a few days!

Hailey's Homecoming

Thought it would be nice to focus on one of the babies for right now (Hannah's post to come soon!).

It was one year ago today that we brought Hailey home from the NICU after her 54 day stay. It was definitely an emotional day; I was filled with joy over the thought of bringing her home and yet also sad that Hannah had to stay. It's so strange how I remember so much about that day and the night before. I even remember what we ate the night before she came home!
After leaving the hospital, Hailey traveled back to Columbus with me and Matt. I was so nervous about having her that first night. We had to set an alarm to get up and feed her every 3 hours and during that time we changed her diaper and took her temperature, just like in the hospital. After that first night home, Hailey went back to Birmingham with us and stayed at the Ronald McDonald house until it was time to bring Hannah home. We took turns staying in the room with her and walking to the NICU to see Hannah.
Here's a few stats:
When we came home, Hailey weighed just over 5 pounds. Now, she weighs over 20.
When we came home, she was eating a whopping 2 ounces every 3 hours. Now, she eats anything we give her and usually wants more!

Here's a few pictures of the day we brought her home!

First Birthday!

This past Saturday we had the girls' birthday party. We had a really good time and it was great just getting everybody together to eat and celebrate what has truly been an amazing year. We had the party at our church's fellowship hall because our house is simply too small to contain our big family. We decorated and had a table with pictures of the girls plus some of their preemie things (micro preemie diapers, outfits, etc.) so people could see just how small they were and how far they have come.

At the end of the day I was totally exhausted and so were the girls. They seemed to really enjoy the party and did really well with all the excitement going on around them. We took a ton of pictures but here are just a few.


Opening presents

A very happy Hannah

Hailey
Hannah at the end of her cake demolition

Hailey, covered in icing and looking very sleepy