The twins are 6 months

My babies are six months old! Where has the time gone? The twins are getting so big, so fast! They get funner by the day. :)

Some things about them:

Size 2 diapers

Love, Love, Love their exersaucers

They both love to "chat" with you. It's hilarious. Makes me smile.

When laying next to each other on the floor their favorite thing to grab on each other is ears. I let them pull for awhile, and then move them apart.

Here are a couple photos I took that I'm in love with. They are going to be canvases on my wall.

Blake

Likes to roll over, not so much into getting on his knees and crawling yet, drooling like crazy, but no teeth to speak of, loves snuggling, eating more all the time.

Bowen

Loves to roll, he is up on his knees and rocks, rocks, rocks and belly flops, if he needs to get across the room, he will. he has two teeth, isn't a big fan of carrots, likes to drool a lot.

Big Day for the Kindergartener

Last Wednesday, Jenna came home from school so excited to tell me she got an award. I was like, for what? Apparently, they had an elementary-wide coloring contest for World Rabies Day (or something like that...). They picked a winner from the entire kindergarten and the winner was: JENNA! Too funny! She had to go out in from of the entire elementary to get a certificate. I asked her if that made her nervous (I knew it would) and she said no, "But I almost pooped my pants!" My Jenna. Good golly she is so my daughter!! hahaha!

Also on that day, because we are friends with the P.E. teacher, we found out that Jenna was the hula-hoop champion of her class! That's quite the day in the life of a kindergartener, wouldn't you say? :) :)

How simple life seems when you're five. A coloring and hula-hoop contest. I love it!

Apple Pickin'

One of the things on our imaginary "Fall List" is apple pickin'. We go every Fall and this year we went to the Berry Patch in Nevada to get some apples. Our good friend, Mary, went along with us as well. I love Mary. We're a lot alike in the fact we like to do "experiences" like apple picking and strawberry picking. We both like to make things homemade (she made an awesome batch of drunken apples with what she picked - yum!). Anyway, we always have a good time!

Mary, Jenna and Brody trekking to the apple trees. It was literally a crisp, Fall morning on the Saturday we went. It was great!

I just liked this picture a whole bunch.

Brody and Jenna didn't help pick a lot of apples, but they sure enjoyed taste-testing. Brody apparently couldn't be bothered to take time to quit eating for this photo. :)

All three of us at the end of the morning. Do you get that the apples are an "11" so I remember the year?! LOL.

*Sorry for the bad lighting on all the pictures. The sun/shade was a mess!!

Veggies

BOWEN

BLAKE

The twins have been eating cereal and veggies the last month or so. They are getting pretty good at it. What we've learned so far is that Bowen hates squash and Blake is not a big fan of peas. With Blake's dietary restrictions he can't have carrots, squash or sweet potatoes because of their high potassium levels. For stage one veggies that leaves green beans and peas. Because of his lack of variety, I make him tolerate the peas. :)

Our first road trip

We decided to take our first road trip since Blake has come home a couple of weeks ago. We packed EVERYTHING up and headed to see Grandpa and Grandma Burdorf and Adam and Jill and the girls in Sioux City.

The time spent with family was great! We don't see each other often enough and we always have fun when we're together. I think that is especially true of Jenna, Brody and Addy. They just have a blast!

Saturday night we got to go to our friends, Jared and Jill's house, for supper. They had identical twin boys (now 9 months) in November. I'm completely fascinated with twins and it was so fun to watch them crawl around and interact. We miss the Bodammers a lot so it was great to spend a couple of hours with them.

The whole "process" of actually packing and traveling and doing dialysis not at home, well, I'll be blunt...it sucked!! I'm used to packing for three and with the twins I now pack for five. Remember what it's like to pack for a baby? Ok, now take that times two. And now add on a crap-ton of medical supplies. Yeah...not fun. I was a nervous freaking wreck that I was going to forget something for Blake. The trouble with his stuff is that it's not usually things you can just get anywhere. The other problem is that our van is full, REALLY, REALLY full. Busting at the seams.

It was a couple of long nights with the dialysis and I can definitely say that although we enjoyed the trip, I think the number of trips between now and the time Blake has his transplant will be few and far between.

Here are some family pics:

Addy, Jenna, Brody

All the grandkids - together for the first time!

Grandma and Grandpa with all the grandbabies

Adam, Jill, Addy and Aubrey

And our family.

Thanks again Grandma and Grandpa for having us! Sorry it took me so long to get these pictures up. Thanks to Adam and Jill too for making the trip from Omaha. Always great to see you all!!

Benefit Breakfast

Here's my disclaimer from now until my kids graduate: I will always be behind on my blog. I'm always busy with something it's hard to find time!!

Ok, moving on. :)

Over the Labor Day weekend the cheerleaders at West Marshall were kind enough to put on a benefit breakfast for our family. What a bunch of sweet girls and parents to do that for us! I kept thinking there might be about 7 people that showed up, but it was such a good turnout! Not overwhelmingly busy, but steady for four hours straight.

Aaron and I tried to get around to thank as many people as we could. The babies got passed around and Jenna and Brody played with whatever kids were close to there age.

The girls were ready to start!

All of us with the cheerleaders

This benefit made me realize how fortunate we are to live in State Center and the West Marshall community. People here have taken our family in as one of their own and we are just so grateful to everyone!

Iowa City Check

Last Thursday I headed down to Iowa City for Blake's monthly dialysis check-up. Our good friend Sara, who recently moved down by Cedar Rapids, was kind enough to want to go with and help with the boys. Bless her for making my day easier! :)

Anyway, Blake is doing wonderfully!! He is growing like he should and his labs are looking great! The one thing that they are a little concerned about is his blood pressure. It's a little on the high side (but it has been since he was in the hospital), so they tweaked his dialysis script once again to try to get that down a little. Like Dr. Jetton said, Blake is a "moving target," because he is constantly growing so we have to continually change his dialysis script, along with his meds.

Other than that, a pretty uneventful trip. We did make a quick trip up to the NICU to visit. One of our favorite nurses was working, so she got to come out and visit. Jodi, if you're reading this, it was WONDERFUL to see you!! :) Those nurses up there are so great and I know I wouldn't have made it through those 10 weeks without them.

So, we head back on October 13th for our next check-up.