October visitors and birthday parties

I started writing this post on the blogger app on my phone, but now the app keeps crashing (booo!) so I'm just going to start over.

Mina on playground equipment at Story Park

Last week and this weekend have been pretty crazy. Mina was not acting like herself (she was lethargic, very irritable and running a low grade fever) at school on Wednesday so we decided to take her to see her pedi on Thursday.  Her Dr. said confirmed that she had fluid in her ear (she’d been congested for a couple of weeks) and that her throat was irritated.  Mina was so sweet to her doctor and even sang a song to her after she let her get a good swab of her throat (which fortunately testing negative for strep).  We started antibiotics that night and by the morning she was already feeling better.  Since the doctor said she was not contagious and Mina was in a better mood, we all got ready for school/work. Unfortunately in the short amount of time it took to get to school Mina’s fever came back so she got to spend the day with Dad.  He took her with him as he went for his liver ultrasound and after that they had a good time at Breadwinners for breakfast.  The rest of the day was spent snuggling. Later that day my dad, stepmom (Pam) and my brother arrived in town.  Since Seth had a softball game we all picked up some Chipotle, ate it at the park, left Seth to finish his game and then took the girls home so they could make their bed time.

Evie wanted to climb up by herself

Saturday the girls had a birthday party to attend (their friend Abby).  Since Mina and Evie had a good night and were feeling well we decided to take them to the party at the Park.  They enjoyed playing with Abby and Karmela.  Since the playground at the park wasn’t crowded, all of the girls got to enjoy interacting with it.  Mary (Abby’s mom) put together a wonderfully intimate party.  She paid attention to all the details and even provided a hand washing station for the kids.  The girls loved that!  Even though Mina was a little clingy, the girls had a really good time.  They had so much fun they crashed for a good couple of hours after we got home :-) Evie woke up before Mina did and got to feed Perry bird a treat when he escaped from his cage.  I'm working on the video of it.  It was too cute - she clearly says “bird” and when she tells him “bye”.  She even does her version of the sign language for bird :-)  I hope to post it soon.

While we were at the party my dad, Pam, and Jared rode the DART to the Historic West End to see the area where I work.  They had a good time running around but had to leave after my dad had a close encounter with a pigeon…

Grandpa Jack and Uncle Monkey tell the girls about their trip to the West End

That evening, my dad, Pam, and Jared looked after the girls while Seth and I went out for dinner to celebrate our seventh anniversary.  Can you believe it’s been that long?  Seth and I had the most delicious meal at 52 seasons and spent the evening reflecting on our time together and all the people that have supported us along the way.  We really do have the most wonderful friends and family!!!

The girls had a good night with my family and went right to bed. Sunday was not as good for Mina.

The girls were happy in the morning so we went out to Cabela’s with my family to let the girls see the fish.  Both girls both enjoyed emulating fish lips and seeing all the stuffed game displayed around the store.  Unfortunately we overstayed our time there and Mina let us know that she was not happy.

Mina (yellow) and Evie (pink) enjoy looking at the fish

So Seth and I left my dad, Pam, and Jared at the store to put the girls down for a nap.   They both slept for a long time, but every time poor Mina woke up she was just not happy.  Since we didn’t want to upset her anymore, but we still wanted to take Pam and Jared out for their birthdays, Seth and Mina stayed home while Evie and I took the others to Babe’s Chicken (believe it or not, it was Seth’s recommendation).

Evie at Babe's Chicken

Dinner was delicious and we all had a good time, but I missed Seth and Mina.  It wasn’t the same without them.   When we got back from dinner, Mina was like a brand new person.  She was so smiley and happy.  Her daddy knows just what to do for a happy Mina.  He gave her a bath as soon as we left and then they ate tons of gnocchi :-)  You should have seen the smile on her face when we got home.  Oh how it made my day!

Moving on into the week - The girls both had a good days at school (even though Evie has become one of the “biters” in class.  She never does it at home, so I don’t know what to do…. The school said that both of the girls have been really happy and social, but at home Mina has still been on the irritable side (and is continuing to pull on her ear).  The antibiotics have made her tummy all wobbly too.

She's got another appointment with her pedi on Thursday for a check up so well hopefully she'll be better before then.   It just makes me realize how lucky we are.  The girls are are so sweet and really only fussy when they don't feel good.  Comparatively they really haven't gotten sick very often.  The doctor reacted in suprise when looking at Mina's chart she noticed that it had been over six months since she'd been in.  Regardless, illness is not easy on any mom and it breaks my heart to see her cry.  I hope I can report back soon with news of sweet smiles from our Mina bean.

The girl's first word caught on video

I never officially uploaded this to the girl's webpage, so here it is for your viewing pleasure :-)

Playing with shadows

Lets start off with random before bed cuteness:



Evie has started noticing her shadow. I'm sure Mina has too, but I was on Evie watch on our walk last night (and Mina and dad had hurried ahead of us). It was so cute- she was pointing to it and talking to it. She even bent down to touch it. I just wished that I had had my camera.

We also have new words to add to the girls list: Bye and we think they said some version of high five :-)

In other news, we got a package from Gradmama with Seths request for Halloween costumes hand made for the girls. Anyone want to guess what they'll be this year?



Don't worry, I'll definitely post a picture of their costumes for you all to see. Thanks Grandmama! Hope you are having fun in England, Scottland and Ireland!

- Via BlogPress on my iPhone

Official first word! (besides mom and dad)

Good morning!


Mina is in dads lap.

The girls both said a version of "more" last night at dinner! They already could sign more, but now they have started to say it too! I have video, but I'd like to clean it up first. It's really cute, they both have their own way of saying it. Mina's is kind of long and Evies is very quick. I'll try to clean up the video tonight and post it tomorrow. Any guesses as to what their second word might be?!?

Word count: mom, dad, more
Sign count: all done, shoes, eat, milk, bird
Signs we are working on: walk, bath, dog, sleep, water, hurt, help, dirty, diaper change
Sounds they like to make: lederlederleder, bwwwaaakkkkkk, !ooh!
I think I'll put that list on a page so I can add to it and track some of that stuff :-)

We also had a few other firsts this weekend - dad went to his first major league football game with some of his coworkers. He had a lot of fun, despite the fact that the boys lost.

The girls had their first encounter with the kids club at 24 hour so that Nita and mommom could go to Zumba. They seemed to have fun. They love getting to meet new people and within a minute of them going inside they had already made new friends.

The girls also had their first visit to Starbucks. They recommend the pumpkin bread :-)


Mina says Starbucks is no.1, Evie says "true dat yo!"

Mommom made her first attempt at granola bars. I used this recipe, substituting the peanut butter for Sunbutter, adding flax meal and leaving out the raisins (we forgot to put them in the grocery list). I think they were quite delicious and the girls seemed to agree. I'll definitely be making them again!


Mina left, Evie right enjoying moms granola



Evie and momom

Ugh, I do look as tired as I feel!

Hope you guys have a great Monday!

- Via BlogPress on my iPhone

Weekend with friends

Thursday night we took the girls out to eat at Reds. They really enjoyed looking at the ducks and fountain from the patio.



Our weekend kicked of with us barely making dad's softball game at 6:30 on Friday. The team they played was pretty good at bat and took a big lead right from the first inning. The Bluepers managed to make up a large part of the deficit and prevented them from scoring the rest of the game, but the other team came out on top. We were all surprised by the visitor that stopped by at the end of the game.


The People in the balloon were flying really low so we had a really great view. They even waved down at us :-)

Saturday were very excited our friends the Cory and Robin Cash. They were married back in June in Lubbock. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture with them and the girls, but you we all had a great time. Mina especially liked showing Cory her dance moves :-)

Seth and I also took the girls swimming on Sunday at Oak Point to prep them for their second round of aqua babies here in a couple of weeks. Again, it's hard to get pictures of swimming since it's an all hands on deck type event. Next time I'll get some shots before and after. These girls love the water though! We even managed to get a few underwater moments :-) the girls were so tired Sunday they almost slept through dinner!



They were also being super cute this morning.


Mina poses for the camera



Evie dances for finding moms granola bar

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International Day of Peace

So today the girls' school is participating in the International Day of Peace (have I mentioned lately how much I adore their school!). The school asked that all the students wear white today so I set a calendar alarm to help me remember to dress them in white.

Guess who apparently messed up their alarm (set it up as a pm reminder by mistake). Boo!

At least they are super cute!

Dad helping Evie put on her shoes (oh how the girls love shoes!)

Mina enjoying her breakfast scone

The girls racing down the hall to go to school (they love their school too).

Despite my inability to remember to dress in white today, I definitely intend to spend some time today thinking about those that are in real need of peace, those that protest and push towards a more peaceful world, and what I can do to promote peace and help others find peace.

I'm curious - what things do you do to promote peace? I'd love to hear about it.

Peace be with all of you today and all days.

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Random hi

Just thought I'd say hi and see if the latest blogger update was any good :-)

From a year ago today:







Can you guess who is who?

From this weekend:



A new decal by their table (lasted two days before they found a way to tear it down...



Evie loved the splash park and had no fear!



Mina was a bit more cautious!



Which way does mom go?!?!

My how time flies!

So far I'm liking this upgrade, if the bugs really are fixed I'll be posting much more!

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Their Berry first Easter!

For those of you missing your berry fix, here are a few videos of the girls from their first Easter.

 

Enjoy!

Thornberry Photo shoot Spring 2011

Click here to view this photo book larger

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

From our little Lasses






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The girls first knit garment

I started this on the way home from our first baby shower. Needless to say it took a while. Mina was kind enough to model it form me while sister slept :-) (Pictures taken on February 12th)

Blueberry classroom gets new play equipment

The girls class got some new things to play on. See Mina in action!

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Grandee Visit

All the Berries had a wonderful weekend with Grandee. Saturday we went to Watters Creek and had a nine month photo session with Laura from Still:Photography. It was a beautiful day and the girls were in a great mood! I'll make sure to share the pictures when we get them. Needless to say the girls were a little tuckered out after we finished :-)




We had a really enjoyable weekend. We got a little shopping done and dressed the girls in the latest outfits from Grandee.




The rest of Grandees visit was spent enjoying snuggles and playing with our little Berries.

Thank you Grandee for coming to visit we miss you already!

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Option 2 on blogger

One

Testing from my new blogger app

Cute girls in green :-)


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First Feeding

So this past Saturday was the girl's first encounter with anything other than milk. We managed to document it in the video below:

I know I have a really big gap between posts, I am working on a 'catch up' post and hope to get it up soon :-) I've been letting that keep me from posting the latest and greatest - but I won'g let it stop me anymore.

16 weeks in our Berry world

So today we had another first, our first 'sick visit' to the Dr. :-(  It wasn't really too bad, the girls have just been super duper congested for the past two weeks and yesterday Ms. Alberta (the girls' teacher) said she thought she could hear some congestion in the chest.  In addition to that the girls haven't really been eating as well for the past few days and we were a little worried about that.  The Dr. gave them a good look and found an infection in Miss Evie's ear.  She went ahead and prescribed an antibiotic for both girls that should knock out the congestion and take care of little Misses ear.  Good news is the girls haven't had a fever and are really holding up well, despite the constant stuffy nose.  They did really well with their first dose of medicine and we are looking forward to getting over this little. 

We did get a quick little update on about how much the girls weigh - Mina is around 10 lbs 12 oz and Evie's around 10 lbs 4 oz.  I say around since they had their diapers and all their clothes on so it wasn't an 'official' weight.  The fantastic thing about that is that both girls are finally on the weight chart.  Evie's in the 4th percentile while Mina's in the 7th.  This is really great since they weren't even on the chart before.  Our little berries are catching up!

In other news we got a visit from Grandy this weekend and even got the girls out for a bit for their first Greek Food Festival - yum!  The girls managed to sleep the whole festival.

For your berry goodness we have some pictures to share:

16 Weeks Grandy visit

 

 

Tutu Berries

Miss Mina Berry

Evie in her cool shades

15 Week Old Berries

I know, the week was a busy one

Beautiful Berryies on Bellies in Bathing suits

So the girls had a fantastic week at school.  They really have adapted well and have been deemed the best eaters in their class.  Their teachers all adore them and comment daily on how wonderful and easy babies they are.  We really are so lucky.  The girls favorite thing at their new school is their butterfly mobile the school got from the Joyful Child.  It seems to really be a big hit with all the kids.  I think we might have to get one for home :-)  The girls have also been having lots of fun with scarves at school.  This has inspired us to grab ours at home and play with the different textures.  The girls really seem engaged when we play with the scarves smile so big when we stroke their cute little cheeks with the soft materials.  The girls have spent a lot of time sleeping the past couple days (they must be growing) and have been called the sleeping beauties of their class :-)  The school gives us little written reports each day for the girls that are so cute.  I'll make sure to share one soon.  We couldn't be happier with the decision we made on where our girls stay and play while we go off to work.

On Saturday Plano had its balloon festival's fireworks show so we walked down to the park that night to watch them.  Our little sleepy heads enjoyed the ride so much they were asleep by the time we got down to where we could see them.  We'll just have to try again next year.

In other news the boogie man has been by our house almost every night.  He won't seem to leave our little ladies alone.  This has prompted us to invest in a humidifier for their room which really has helped a lot.  The girls are such troopers when it comes to us having to suction out their nose with the bulb syringe.  They will fight us a little bit, but at the end – once they realize they can breathe again – they'll give us the biggest, most sweet smile.

All in all we've had a fantastic week.  We're still getting used to our schedule, but every day it gets easier every day.

This post I'll leave you with some pictures from a few weeks ago that I hadn't posted yet since they were on Seth's phone – the girls in their bathing suits!  How fun is that!  They won't get to go in a real pool till their at least 6 months, but we may have to hang out in the tub one afternoon just to splash around a bit, unbath related ;-)  I'll let you all know how that goes :-)

The girls love their suits!

Mina with Grandmom

Evie with Grandmom

Berry Berry Beautiful

Mina and Daddy

Sleepy Evie

Just had to share Mina and Evie's beautiful outfit today.  All thanks to Heidi and Haley!  You're so crafty Haley!

Over Two months without an update!

So it’s been a long time since we’ve updated our berry blog, but that doesn’t mean that things haven’t been moving along for us.  Really we’ve just been busy trying to settle in to our schedule and getting ready for the girls to start their Montessori school (they start on the 13th).  Some of the highlights:

    *          Aunt Trish came to help out (Auntie Trish is hard to catch on camera)
    *          We started our cloth diaper journey (we’re really loving it so far)
    *          Mom and Dad went to classes for the girl’s baptism

double berry goodness

    *          The girls had their first pediatrician’s appointment.  Mina weighed 6 lbs 2 oz and was 19 3/4 inches long.  Evie was 5 lbs 12 oz and was 19 3/4 inches long.

Froyo visit

    *          We took our first trip out of the house - for froyo

Grandmom Leane double burp pose

    *          Grandmom Leane has been helping us a ton
    *          The girls enter the system – we receive their social security cards

Off a walking we go

    *          We went for our first ride in our jogging stroller

First Play date

    *          The girls got to have their first play date with Miss Clara

Mia and berries

    *          Granddad Richard and Miss Mia came to help out

Evie boppy berry

    *          The girls made an appearance at their first Bluepers softball game

Granddad Richard with berries

    *          Seth & Granddad cut tons of dead leaves off a massive tree in the back yard

Evie the game show host

Mina the Flamenco Dancer

    *          Magnifico reveals what our girl’s are going to grow up to be – Evie a game show host, Mina a flamenco dancer

Aunt Lala and Unkie Monkey with Berries

    *          Grandee, Unkie Monkey, and Aunt Lala came for a weekend to help out

Auntie Trish captures some fun photos

    *          Auntie Trish came for a weekend to help out
    *          Our great friend Larry took pictures of the girls for us

    *          The girls started sleeping together in a crib in their room

Yin/Yang Twin moment

    *          The girls had their second pediatrician’s appointment (with bonus immunization shots).  Mina weighed 7 lbs 8 oz and was 21 ½ inches long.  Evie was 7 lbs 4.5 oz and was 21 ¼ inches long.

Snuggleberries

    *          Mommy had her follow up appointment with her OB and was released for all activities, she still is on meds for her blood pressure
    *          Mommy started swimming again (1-2 times a week)

Grandee, Mom, Berries

    *          Grandee came for a week to help out
    *          The girls attended their first knitwits
    *          The girls got to go up to Mommy’s work to meet all her coworkers
    *          Daddy was put back on the job market

Berries with Grandma Pam and Grandpa Jack

    *          Grandma Pam and Grandpa Jack came to help out for a week
    *          The girls had their first visit to IKEA

double daddy changing system

    *          Mommy and Daddy had a week or two flying solo
    *          The girls started sleeping 4 hours between their feedings at night
    *          The girls outgrew all their newborn clothes!

Mina Smile

Evie Smile

    *          We've seen some real smiles from the girls
    *          Mommy started back at work

Mina Spider booty

    *          Grandmom Leane came back to catch us up before the girls start school
    *          Mina saw the Dr. to have her umbilical cord site recloterized, Mina had her weight checked at the Dr. – she’s over 9 lbs!
    *         Daddy accepted a new position at SoftLayer in Addison (Starts September 13)
    *         The girls have started mimicing us (especcially when daddy sticks out his tongue).
    *         The girls lift up their heads really well (with great neck control) and have started grasping things
    *         We've finally managed to take all our feedings from mom over the weekend - boy is it nice to not to have to worry about bottles 24/7!  This definitely helps us all out!

Three months

    *          The girls had their third pediatrician’s appointment.  Mina weighed 9 lbs 7.5 oz.  Evie was 9 lbs 2.5 oz.  The pediatrician is beyond impressed with their weight gain and says we can feed on demand now and don't have to wake them for feedings any more.

Now that you all are caught up, here’s the plan for the future – I’m going to start a new feature – “TWIN TUESDAY”.  Every Tuesday I am going to do a quick update on what our family has been up to and post at least one photo.  Hopefully this will keep mommy from slacking off on the blog.