7 Months

The twins have been a part of our family for 7 months now! Things are going good here in NC. It's hot, but we've been cooling off in the pool lately. Jared finishes his wake forest MBA program near the end of August! We can't wait for him to be done! Kyler has been enjoying his little summer camp/preschool program he goes to twice a week, and I have been busy with the twins and keeping up on house work- it's crazy how much dirty laundry the twins can create in a day, and how many dishes we can go through hah. 

 I love these 7 month pictures I snapped of the twins :) I don't know how much they currently weigh, because we haven't been to the doctor in a while (thank goodness! and knock on wood) but Lyla is still definitely bigger. I feel like Ryan is (finally) starting to fill out though!

They still aren't sleeping through the night, but I've gotten pretty good about sleep walking to their room and popping binkys back in their mouths, so it's hard for me to remember how many times I was up the night before. They are still waking up for a feeding at about 4am, but I have a feeling we will be able to get rid of that soon, because they'll only nurse for a few minutes and fall right back to sleep.

They've been eating well! Ryan still eats almost twice as much baby food as Lyla. They're still nursing 5 times a day, and then we typically try and give them one bottle of formula in addition.

A behind the scenes from our little photo shoot- Kyler was trying to act like a baby... not a bad impression! They are hard to take pictures of.

Kyler has been stuck to my side like glue the past few months. He would rather help me with the babies than play with his toys any day. Bedtime for him has been a struggle for a while now. He's smart, and comes up with every excuse in the book to get us to stay in the room a little longer with him, but we stick to our routine, and he has a sticker chart that helps (sometimes). I just have to look at the big picture most nights, and remember that he won't be little forever, and pretty soon he's going to be coming up with every excuse in the book to kick us out of his room faster haha.

He got this little Buzz Light Year toy from filling up his sticker chart recently (usually his prizes aren't this fancy) but he loves it, and tells us "when I leave the room and sleep, buzz talks and walks!"

Ryan and Lyla have been stealing each other's binky's right out of their mouths lately lately- so funny! They haven't learned to retaliate yet; they just cry. I love how Lyla's face is so innocent in this picture after she pulled Ryan's binky right out of his mouth.

They inch/roll around the room now, and are both getting so close to crawling! I've been trapping them in the packNplay lately so they don't get in to everything- time to baby proof!

Lyla loves grabbing our faces...it's cute but hurts so bad haha

 She is such a daddy's girl!

I found this on Pinterest the other day and love it :) 

A few years ago, I actually memorized The Family: A Proclamation to the World, word for word. It's long, but it wasn't hard to memorize- I love it!

Our dinner entertainment lately

Starting to hold their bottles :)

Oh this yummy Belle(y)!

We've also been hanging out with my parents a lot lately! Pool, frozen yogurt, walks around the neighborhood, church events, dinners, shopping trips- you name it! We've been making up for lost time :)  My dad watched the twins while Kyler and I took a ride on the Merry-go-round the other day. Kyler was trying so hard to do a good smile- looks forced though :D

We had a great 4th weekend! On friday we hung out with some good friends, and on Saturday we went over to my parents' house. 

The babies loved watching the fireworks!

All 3 kids were out like lights by the time we got home.

Morning snuggles with big bro.

Kyler switches back and forth between which twin he plays with the most. I try and get him to play with both evenly, but kids will be kids! These past 2 weeks he has been loving on Lyla especially lately. Too cute, I remember when he used to only want to hold Ryan!

Catching Up-

It's getting harder and harder to keep this blog up to date... life is busy with 3 kids under the age of four! I love looking back at all of the pictures and memories from the past though, so I'm doing my best at keeping this blog updated. This is like a journal to me!

Let's back up. I still haven't put the twins 6 month stats up here (and they'll be 7 months next week eek!).

Ryan 14lbs 1oz. (less than 5%) Height 25 inches (less than 5%)

Lyla 15lbs 8oz. (40%) Height 26.5 inches (60%)

We're all so confused as to why Ryan is so much smaller, because he eats nearly twice as much as Lyla. Typical guy metabolism I guess :p They are both still nursing great! I have also started giving them a bottle of formula occasionally when we are out of the house during a feeding. They've also both been doing great at eating solids! I've been trying to make the majority of the twins' baby food, because store bought baby food is a joke. Don't get me wrong, it's convenient, and we still buy it, but it's over priced, and doesn't taste nearly as good... not that the twins know the difference haha but I guess my biggest reason for making it, is because I like to! So far, we've made some fruit/veggie purees like: sweet potatoes, peaches, avocados, green beans, and bananas! We do the ice cube tray method...I get these ideas from Pinterest!

My parents came home from their 2 year church mission in Chile a few weeks ago! What a reunion that was! I'm pretty sure all of us girls had happy tears rolling down our cheeks. My parents have now officially met 3 out of the 5 new grand babies that were born while they were away. I know it was hard for them to not be there when they were born, but I can honestly say that our family has been blessed in so many ways, while they were serving the Lord, and we've seen many miracles in our lives because of their service!

It's been SO good to have them home again! Courtney and I (and the kids) went on a last minute trip to the beach with them last week. A few sunny days at the beach was just what we needed.

Check out that bee we didn't see until after the pic. Andie is all staring at it like "Duh guys, you don't see it?"

We saw the craziest wall cloud while we were there! I love watching storms roll in... especially ones over the ocean:

I love that my SIL snapped this pic. I had to crop out my neon pink pj pants, non makeup got-no sleep-last-night- face and ratty ponytail hair (haha it was scary ya'll- I did you a favor). but that's the reality of what I look like most days, and this is what my arms are full of all day, and I wouldn't have it any other way!!

Oh this happy Ryan boy!

...and adventurous Ky Guy!

...and this Lyla Belly! I can't stop munching on that delectable tummy!

We've gone to the pool several times now! This twin float is pretty cool, but the twins are still a little small for it, so it's a tad bit stressful taking them out in it!

Courtney cut my hair! I seriously was so sick of my long hair. Short hair is so much easier!

The twins are finally sitting up on their own!

...well most of the time, they still topple over pretty easily!

Father's Day 2015:

He teaches Sunday School to the 8 year olds at church (voluntarily). On Father's Day, his co-teacher was gone, so I stepped in the class to help out. I LOVED listening to his lesson. 

My children are so lucky to get him for a daddy!

One last thing... several friends have asked me about Lyla's recent hip x-ray:

She had her hips x-rayed a few weeks ago, because her previous x-ray (standard procedure for breech babies at 6 weeks old) showed some slight angulation problems. I was hoping that she would be "in the clear" now and we wouldn't have to see the specialist again, but it looks like she still has some angulation and they would like to keep an eye on it as she grows. We saw the pediatric orthopedist yesterday, and she showed us Lyla's x-ray. She said they like the hip angle to be symmetrical, and under 20 degrees. Lyla's was 21 degrees on her left side and 23 degrees on her right side. Also, her hip socket is smaller on one side. The doc said that right now, it's not a big issue at all, and told us not to worry. We'll take her back for another x-ray in 9 months.

Here is google images of what a normal baby hip x-ray should look like: 

Here is Lyla's x-ray (ps look at her chubby thigh rolls showing up on the image :D :D )

This is what a baby with hip dysplasia x-ray would look like:

I'm a visual person, so I hope that helps explain what I was talking about! Lyla's hips don't have any serious problems at all right now, but because she does have some slight angulation differences and asymmetry, they want to keep doing x-rays as she grows to make sure her hips are growing properly and she doesn't develop hip dysplasia.