Baptism

October 21st, 2012 was a very special day in our family! Our twins were baptized! The ceremony was beautiful and the twins did a fabulous job during their "part" both babies were silent as the baptismal water was splashed on their heads. Our other minister, Jonathan was not present but We were so thankful to have so many family members present! Our prayer for our babies is that they always recognized God's grace and use their lives to glorify Him.

The day in pictures:
(Get ready for picture OVERLOAD.... also- I just realized that some of the pictures didn't sync with my picasa web albums account so there will be more soon!) Please excuse the blury-ness. My Dad took a lot of these and its hard to get it right with the lighting in the church.

Does anyone else's church make banners for the new babies? I love this idea. Emma Cate's symbol is a butterfly which we've always said represents my Grandmother and Holden's is Jesus with the children, which we chose to represent his Grandfather.

Us with the Godparents

Emma Cate

My cute little guy!

My Aunt Barbara (one of my mom's sisters), Emma Cate, Me

My (sporting her 1st wig!), Me, Emma Cate

Me and Emma Cate

The Godparents

Allie (my middle sis) holding Holden, Jay, Christopher (Jay's cousin), Me, Bo (my youngest sister) holding Emma Cate

My immediate family

My Mom's side extended family, my Aunt Chris in the front left and cousin Erin in the middle

Jay's immediate family

With Great Grandma Helen

Jay's Mom's side extended family

Jay's extended family plus Aunt Vic

All the families together!

Emma Cate

Holden

The following pictures are from the baptism party! Big thanks to all my family members who helped me get this all together!

Mimosa Bar (I would highly recommend!)

Thanks to my sister and friend Lauren for sewing these runners for me!

Baby Holden

Baby Emma Cate

Dessert Table

My sister Bo made this sign for the twins before they were born!

For the silver, I combined our family's collection. Mine is on the left and my mom's on the right! For the brunch we also used my MIL's. I thought it was a fun way to incorporate our families!

"Bless This Child" banner

Thanks to Candace for helping me make this circle garland to hang as the backdrop!

The food table. The party was catered by Trio and delicious! Big Thanks to Mary Clare for getting everything set up for us!

Holden's button letter

Emma Cate's button letter

Entry way table

Delicious cakes from whole foods!

Cookies from Sweet Treats By Robin. Y'all these are seriously the BEST cookies I have ever tasted!

No Bake Oreo balls made by my cousin Erin!

Holden

Daddy and Emma Cate

Kathryn, Jen, and Liam

Ray, Linda, and Daniel (can you believe that Daniel is only 3 days older than the twins!)

Holden and Erin

Jay's Mom, His Grandmother, and Aunt Terri

Twin Updates

Some new fun things this week:

Emma Cate is a chatty cathy and I love it! She is so sweet to greet me when I get home with lots of babbling. Recently she has enjoyed sitting in her high chair next to me while I cook dinner! Can't wait for her to join me in the kitchen!

Holden has been his his same old smiley self! His new thing this week is sleeping on this side. I'm pretty sure he'll be rolling over soon! I love checking on him in his crib and seeing him curled up on his side.

As of this week, both babies are swaddle free! We had relied on the swaddle to get our babies to sleep and right around their 4 month appointment we started going swaddle free at nap time. We transitioned Holden over to sleeping overnight without a swaddle without any issues. We tried Emma Cate and she was a mess! We kept her in a swaddle for another week and then started to notice she was able to get her arm out and suck her thumb... if she can self sooth, she can definitely sleep without the swaddle. She's been swaddle free for three nights now and is doing amazing and sleeping through the night!

My mom has been sending me pictures while I'm at work. Here are a few of my cuties enjoying time with their Gigi!

bundled up for a walk this morning

Holden

Daddy dressed me in my elephant PJs on the wrong day! 

our thumb sucker in action

tummy time. I think Holden looks like such a little boy in his rugby shirt

finally holding her head up well!

This was taken the other day after our mommy-daughter day. Someone was pooped. She NEVER falls asleep like this!

Hey bubby!

Reading time at Gigis

I got this one this morning of Emma Cate and my Dad at the computer. If you know my Dad and his love of technology, this picture is perfect! I think we have one of us when I was Emma Cate's age at his computer! I'll have to look for it.

Our Week in Review

Now that I'm back at work, I can sneak in a few more blog posts. I'm working on some longer ones about the first few months with twins, breastfeeding, and necessary gear but for now, here's our life:

The biggest question I got asked this week was "How are you doing back at work?".
Honestly, I'm doing really well. No tears. In a way, having to leave my babies for 7 hours at a time to go to my mom's chemo sessions helped prepare me. I also only had a three day week last week and only have a three day week this week so that helps tremendously! It also helps that I have an amazing husband. We are very organized and get everything we need together the night before and line it all up to take downstairs to put in the car.

I've learned that I have to take a shower the night before if I want things to run smoothly. I wake up at 5:45 and pump for 20-25 minutes while Jay snoozes. He gets up, showers, takes the dogs out, puts the diapers in the dryer, wakes up the kids, changes their diapers and puts them in carseats. I quickly get myself ready and join him in time to carry the kids downstairs (big help... I know). I drop the kids off at my mom's, get their bottles, warmed up, kiss 'em goodbye and head off to work.

Lucky for me, as a teacher, my day is jammed packed and I don't have a ton of down time. My kids are always on my mind but I know they are in such good hands! I often find myself looking at the clock though and thinking about what they're doing. I try to get home as soon as possible to see them at the end of the day and am able to see them by 3pm most days.

The following pics are all from my phone so I apologize for the quality!

Monday- Dropped the kids off at Gigi's for the first time

They were sad to see me leave....

Tuesday- Caught my little thumb sucker, Emma Cate

Wednesday- My Halloween babies! My Grandpa's girlfriend sent these cute Halloween outfits for the twins.

Trick or treating as a family of lobsters and chefs.We had a pot to carry them in but the night was chilly and the babies sleepy

Thursday- I took the pictures because I am amazed at how long and lean my little guy is!

Friday- I was off work Friday morning and we enjoyed hanging out in bed and cuddling

Watching TV and holding hands

Saturday- I spent most of the day coaching my girls! All three teams I coach took first place in their divisions! Whooo hooo! Wish the Wolfpack would have had as great of day :(

6th grade

7th & 8th

On Saturday night, we went to my parent's old neighbor's house to celebrate Mrs. Campbell's birthday. This is a picture of her son Matt holding Holden while we sat around making smores. 

Sunday- I had an end of the season party for my 7th grade cheerleading squad and decided to take Emma Cate with me at the last moment. I'm a little nutty in that I like the twins to dress alike all the time. Emma Cate has a few cute outfits that don't match Holden's so I took the opportunity to dress her up in her sassy cheetah outfit for a day with the girls!