The best so far...

There's really no general theme behind any of these photos. They are just a random assortment of the twins and what they've been up to. Getting too big, too fast.

I love these onesies because they each say "One in a million." Notice how they are holding hands. Melts my mommy heart.

Blake (left) and Bowen (right)

Both serious...

...and both happy!

Bowen (left) and Blake (right)

I love naked babies! Love the bigs eyes and that they were both gnawing on their hands. I think they were giving me the, "are you going to feed me soon?" look.

Blake (left) and Bowen (right)

Boys lovin' some tummy time! Notice the drool on both of them. :)

Bowen (left) and Blake (right)

And finally...

I think this is the best both-looking-at-the-camera-and-smiling picture I have gotten in four and a half months. It was work. I had to be at my goofiest, but they bought it. I would be goofy all day long if I got results like this:

How do you not smile when you look at that?!

Bowen (left) and Blakers (right)

First Days of School

Well, I'm only about 10-12 days behind here, but at long last...here are the kids' first day of school pictures! Jenna started kindergarten on August 19th. Brody started preschool on August 23rd. They both did so well! No clinging to my leg. No tears. It's times like those I'm glad my kids are independent. Here's everybody before we loaded up for Jenna's first day of kindergarten. I figure next year the twins will be running around... :)

I can't believe Jenna is old enough to be in kindergarten. I know every mom says that about their own kids, but she's my firstborn. She wanted her hair chopped to her shoulders and now she seems even older.

Sitting at her desk, ready to start her first day. She gave me a kiss and told me to have a good day. That's Jenna, Miss Independent. I walked her inside the first two days and after that she told me she could do it by herself. I watch her walk inside every day - total confidence with her hair bouncing from side to side.

Brody's first day of 3-year old preschool! I was thinking I was so smart to make them hold these signs that say the year, so 10 years from now I'll remember. Of course Brody had to be ornery about it...

And still more orneriness...

I was a nervous wreck the first day of preschool that Mrs. Randall was going to call me and tell me Brody was just too much for her to handle and was going to kick him out of preschool or something!

Picture with big sis

Our big preschooler...the first day when I went to pick him up, he was standing on top of the playset. Mrs. Randall informed me he's the first one to ever do that. I'm sure there will be more stories to come from this blond-haired blue-eyed kiddo!

Four and a half months

Our baby boys are four and a half months old. They are growing bigger and getting stronger every single day and it is just so fun to watch them!

They are starting to catch-up a little as far as percentiles go. They are both 25" long and in the 50th percentile and their weights are right around 15 lbs., which is in the 25th percentile. The doctors are so incredibly happy that they continue to grow at the same pace.

I was so bummed that Blake had to be in the hospital for as long as he was. I really, really, really wanted cute twin newborn pics of them all snuggly and stuff. The other day I got the next best thing. I was doing a project in Jenna's room and the boys fell asleep on her bed like this:

I know, right?! Super adorable! I can sense the twin bond between them all the time. It truly amazes me.

This was too precious. It's like they are always aware of where the other one is. Bowen was resting his hand on Blake's leg.

My sleepy boys.

Here's another thing they like to do: SMILE!! :) They are such happy babies and we are so very lucky. No matter how crazy things are around our house, I see those smiles and it is an instant mood lifter!

Bowen

Blake

Jenna and Bowen

Brody and Blake

Some of the things they are doing right now are:

1. Rolling over like crazy

2. Getting into crawl position (it's only a matter of time...)

3. Working on eating cereal

4. Just started playing in their exersaucer

5. Drooling. Lots of drooling.

6. Kicking/punching/wrestling with each other

Brody's First Race

A week ago last weekend there was a run east of town called Ethan's Tractor run. Long story short, it's in honor of a little boy who passed away and really loved tractors. The money raised goes towards scholarships for Marshall County students.

Saturday morning Aaron and Brody went with our friend, Jay, to the run. Jay's an avid runner and ran this race last year and had mentioned they had a kid's race. Brody wanted to do it, but Jenna was just too nervous about the whole dang thing.

Here's Brody with his bib on getting ready for the race.

According to Jay, they increased the distance by about 3 times compared to last year. The kids ended up running about a quarter mile. You can see Brody clear to the left in the picture. For not having anybody to run with and running so far he did great!

All the kids got a medal and Brody was SO PROUD!! Here he is with his medal posing with Jay, who got 4th overall (1st in his age division) in the 5K.

Because of Blake's dialysis, I wasn't able to go, but when Brody got home he said to me, "Those other kids beat me, but I still got the championship!" It was so cute!!

Ken's Photos

When my cousin Ken was down she brought her camera with her. She had it out a lot a took a ton of pictures and I really think she's a budding future photographer. I'm not a professional, but I really think she has a good eye when it comes to taking pictures. I thought I would share some of the pictures she took.

Kase at Grimes Farm...so pretty :)

Blakers taking a snooze. Love the perspective.

Blake in the swing, his eyes crack me up.

Bowen snuggling with his monkey

Love the light and of course his cute smile. :)

This obviously wasn't taken while Ken was in Iowa, but I stole it off her card. The lake. In Wisconsin. So pretty. Don't you just feel so calm now?!

Summer is Slippin' Away

Can you feel it? Summer is slippin' away from us. :( The countdown has begun at our house. Six days until Aaron has to go back, 10 days until Jenna starts kindergarten and 14 until Brody starts preschool. So sad.

The start of the school year means baseball season really is over, fall sports are ready to be covered by me at the paper, homecoming, etc. Until then, we're going to soak up every minute of the summer that we can.

We've been hanging out at the pool at one of our friend's house. The kids have so much fun! Don't you love it when people take cool pictures of your kids? Yep...me too! Our friend Jay took these pictures so enjoy some summer courtesy of Jenna. :)

Bowling

When the girls were down we went over to Perfect Games in Ames. Every Monday through Thursday they have free bowling from 11AM-2PM, so we decided to take advantage. I think this was the first time for Brody bowling and maybe the second time for Jenna. They did really good considering. What we learned is that Aaron was the best bowler (surprise, surprise) and Kasea, Ken and I are really bad! Oh well, we had fun!

Ken giving it her best shot

Daddy helping Brody

...Letting it fly

...and the LONG wait. I think we spent half our time just waiting for Jenna and Brody's ball to get to the end of the lane.

Jenna and Kasea cheesing it up

Don't look at this form! I'm pretty sure this is how it's NOT supposed to be done. :)

Jenna did pretty good. She even held it like a real bowler.

Ken, Kasea and Me