Flashback Friday: Sometimes Nobody’s Happy
Brina was watching Karlie cry.
On this Flashback Friday we go to May 2005. The girls were still itty bitty and in preemie clothes. Some days all it took was for one of them to start crying which would cause the next one to start crying. There were times when I knew exactly why they were crying and could help them (diaper change, food, etc…) while other times I had no clue.
I didn’t always get everything done on time or necessary in the right order during those days on little sleep. With the help and encouragement from family and friends we made it through. Jake was a huge help! Due to them being preemies and having the occasional apnea they had to wear apnea monitors at home. It was nice having the monitors go off whenever they had apneas and we never had to worry when they were sleeping if they stopped breathing.
They also had some caffeine in their first morning bottle every day. The caffeine was prescription based and helped with their apneas. The amount of caffeine they received would be the equivalent to my husband drinking several large amount of mountain dews back to back. Needless to say as soon as they stopped taking the caffeine in their morning bottle they started sleeping through the night. It was really nice once they started sleeping through the night. It felt wonderful being able to function on a full nights sleep.
Brina decided that if Karlie was crying she should probably start crying too! The joys of parenthood.
Travel & Vacation: Dry Erase Board Notes
Karlie’s dry erase board note to Jake
In case you already haven’t noticed our family LOVES to travel. Occasionally when Jake travels for work the rest of us get to tag along with him. A lot of times his days are long and we don’t always get to see him throughout the day. On our last work trip I told the girls to bring their dry erase boards and markers so we could “leave Daddy a note” for the day. If he came back to the hotel room and we were not there he could see our notes, know what we were up to, and hopefully feel the love that we were sending his way. It is not always possible to know when he may have a moment to run back to the room and if we are across town we cannot make it back in time to say “hi” so this is a little way to let him know that we are thinking about him even though we couldn’t be there to give him a hug in person.
During this recent trip all of us were up with the sun at 6 am every morning and off in our separate ways shortly thereafter. Sometimes it would be midnight or later before we reconnected again. Several times Jake also left a note on the back of the dry erase boards for us which the girls loved. If he had a few minutes and knew that we would be getting back really late he would prep dinner for us so we could make it quickly while the girls were showering so they could eat, relax for a few minutes, and crash in bed.
We ate all but one breakfast and dinner in our hotel room. All our lunches we packed in our backpacks and would eat whenever we were exploring for that day. To help with the preparation and meal plan we brought a hot pot (yes, like the ones you use in college) to make our meals. We were able to make some good, quick, healthy, and inexpensive meals in our hotel room like sloppy joes, mac-n-cheese, chicken & rice, soup, and more! It was nice to relax together at the end of the day before hitting the bed.
Every time we left for the day each girl would get out their dry erase boards and leave a note for Jake. I would add an note to the bottom or side of each of their notes. They had a lot of fun doing this for him and looked forward to it every morning.
Brina’s note to Daddy
Karlie letting Daddy know we are going to check out the animals!
Brina’s note to Daddy with a variety of colors.
Karlie’s note that includes a “heart family” of all of us. Cute!
Brina’s note with hearts and letting him know to have “fun and do a good job”!
Brina’s note to Dad with my note to the love of my love.
Jake’s note letting us know he prepped the meal and all we had to do is add water and boil.
Sweet note from my Handsome man!
Note from Karlie with her and Daddy as heart people.
The girls love their Dad so very much. It is precious to see how they enjoy not only doing little things for him, but also how excited they get to spend some extra time with him. Thankful for a husband who works so hard to provide for our family. He takes good care of all of us and always makes each of us feel special. He is thoughtful, generous, and kind. Even though he works hard he always makes a point to spend time with us as a family. I am blessed in many ways.
If your spouse travels and you go along with them you can easily do this for your spouse as well. It was super simple, but made everyone feel more connected throughout the long days apart. I hope that it made Jake’s days a little bit brighter.
Flashback Friday: Naps with Tigger
Brina sleeping soundly on her boppy with Tigger!
Today’s Flashback Friday takes us back 10 years ago. The girls were only a couple months old. They were great nappers and would sleep pretty much anywhere (from their cribs, swings, boppies, pack-n-plays, and other random locations). We usually rotated them to different spots to take naps so they got used to sleeping anywhere in the house. At night we would always put them to bed in their cribs, but were more flexible with their napping locations. Looking back on it they were awesome travelers because of this too. They could sleep at anyone’s house or a hotel and it never bothered them the least bit. Probably their favorite place to sleep was their swings, they LOVED their swings!!!
There is something so peaceful about a little one that is sleeping. So thankful for these two little ones. It doesn’t seem like that long ago they were rolling around on the floor, taking naps throughout the day, and playing with the little Tigger toys. The years have went by quickly, but I am grateful for these precious moments.
Karlie on her boppy with Tigger on her tummy and her foot sticking out of her clothes. She had a way of wiggling her toes out of the closed-toed outfits!Flashback Friday: Exhausting Day
Must have been an exhausting day!
Our Flashback Friday goes back to April 2005 when the girls were almost 2 months old. Jake and the girls were playing while I was making dinner. When I came back to check on them this is what I discovered. Everyone was napping peacefully. Must have been a busy day for the crew. Maybe it is all those middle of the night feedings interrupting our sleep.
Thankful for my family and the blessings in my life. They look so peaceful when they are sleeping. Those first few months were especially tiring for Jake and I. I am not sure how he did everything. He got up every night to help me with feeding the girls and then go work a full day. There weren’t a lot of parties and late night fun activities other than taking care of babies during this season of our life.
Travel & Vacation: Walt Disney World Epcot (Orlando, FL)
Spending the day at Epcot
Thankful for a chance to spend time with the family at Disney’s Epcot. It was so much fun. The kids kept up remarkably well and had great attitudes the entire busy day. I am grateful for kids who love to learn and explore new places. They just soaked in all the neat stuff going on at Epcot in. The second day was not as hot which was nice too.
They got me to go on Mission Space again. This time we went on the Orange ride which is more intense. Let’s just say I was looking a little green after this ride, thankfully this picture was taken before take off.
Jake and Brina cruising along
Image Works was a cool place to explore
Playing music at Image Works
Our own little Mickey Mouse. Karlie wanted the black hat and ears.
Our own little Minnie Mouse. Brina wanted the headband with a red and white Minnie Mouse bow.
Walking with Dad, so exciting!
Sweet girls.
All smiles
Pausing graciously to let me take a picture even though she’s worried about missing something!
Brina Bee
On the move
Taking in all the cool sights around her
We found a place that engraved names onto leather bracelets.
The girls have unique names which makes it impossible to find items with their names on it so we got these for them as a souvenir. They were fascinated watching the worker do the engraving and proud of their bracelets.
Flashback Friday: Sharing, Sleeping, & Surgery
Brina and Karlie sharing a pacifier
Today our Flashback Friday hits when the girls were only between 1 – 2 months old after coming home from NICU. They shared everything and could sleep peacefully in the most unusual positions. It was much easier to get their pictures at this stage because they were not mobile yet. Thankful for these little blessings. It doesn’t seem like these days were that long ago.
They were preemies and came home on heart / apnea monitors for the first few months. You can see the wires coming out of their clothes in many of the early pictures. We never had to worry about them stopping breathing because the monitors would always alarm if they did. It wasn’t long before we got used to it.
During this time Karlie also had to go back into the hospital to have surgery. Her stomach wasn’t getting the milk she was drinking and she was throwing up after feeding. It was pretty scary taking our little one back in for surgery. Watching her being wheeled off to the operating room in the huge crib broke my heart. Thankful for Doctors and their help during this time.
Baby sleeping pile
Somehow Karlie managed to scoop herself until her bottom was against the wall and had her feet resting up on the wall while snoozing away.
Karlie resting after surgery with her huge IV bandage
Brina hanging out in the pillow. She thought it was pretty cool standing up at first, but decided after a few minutes she would rather be free.
Travel & Vacation: Train, Dumbo, and Winnie the Pooh Rides at Disney’s Magic Kingdom (Orlando, FL)
Brina having a blast and laughing.
We had the opportunity to go to Disney’s Magic Kingdom in Orlando, FL recently. The girls and I headed out first thing in the morning while Jake was at his conference. He was able to join us in the afternoon after the conference ended which was really nice. We packed in as much fun as we could while at Magic Kingdom. We were there only one day, but we had a blast!
Karlie all smiles as we ride the train to our next stop!
We walked onto the Dumbo ride that morning with no lines.
Enjoying the ride!
Something is laugh-out-loud funny to Karlie!
Playing in the garden while waiting for the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh ride
We got onto the ride pretty quickly and now we are all set to go!
Silly tigger
Tigger pounced on Winnie the Pooh
Flashback Friday: Sweet Girls (13 Months)
Sweet girl!
Today’s Flashback Friday brings us back to 2006 when the girls were just over a year old – 13 months. It was amazing how quickly the first year flew by. It is hard to think that they are now 10 years old!
Having fun!
Karlie trying to eat the “ice cream” (which is actually a bubble container) while Brina checks it out! Curious and exploring new things!
All smiles!
Flashback Friday: Happy 5th Birthday!
Karlie with her Rocket Cake and Brina with her Princess Castle Cake made by Aunt Kristen!
Today we flashback to February 2010 when the girls turned 5 years old! It was a fun birthday party at our house. We did a dual theme for the girls this year which was a lot more work than I initially realized! Karlie was really into space and rockets while Brina was into princesses.
Half of the house and party was about Space and the other half was about Princesses. The nice part about the theme is that it appealed to both the boys and girls who attended the party. We did a castle out of cardboard in Brina’s room and a rocket out of cardboard for Karlie that was put on the front porch.
Somehow we didn’t get a picture of Karlie’s room inside the house where we put black trash bags on all the walls, stuck glow in the dark planets and stars on them, and replaced the lights with black lights. It turned out really well, but it was darker so none of the pictures actually turned out which is a bummer.
Aunt Kristen made the beautiful and delicious cakes for the girls birthday, which they LOVED! The girls had a wonderful time celebrating their birthday and we are thankful for our family and friends who helped with the party and came out to make this day extra special for the girls. Thankful for the blessing of these two girls!
Checking out the cool rocket that Daddy, Grandpa Russell, Uncle Lee, and Uncle Josh stayed up after the kids went to bed to build.
They had no idea that the guys were building a rocket (and castle, see below) for them! As they were eating breakfast the guys rang the doorbell and “delivered” their special party props! They were so excited!
Karlie hugging her rocket (notice she is wearing her favorite rocket pjs)! Too cute! She was thrilled and kept going back outside to play with her rocket!
Had to check everything out!
After a few minutes of coming back into the house the back doorbell rang and the guys delivered the other party prop, a giant cardboard castle! Daddy, Grandpa Russell, Uncle Lee, and Uncle Josh worked on putting this together and painting it after the girls went to bed the night before the party. They were super excited!
The castle was huge! They are standing on chairs in order to peek through it! The castle was a big hit in the princess room!
Dad and Grandpa Russell putting the finishing touches on the castle! It had a tower, door, and even a roman numeral “V” flag on it!
Time for all the princesses and princes to come to the party! The castle was a big hit with all the kids!
Karlie all smiles as she sits by the easel. She loved coming outside to check on her rocket which was next to the easel!
Hanging out in her rocket as people started arriving. Very content to stay right there with her special rocket!
Brina’s princess cake turned out beautifully – thanks Aunt Kristen!
Karlie LOVED her rocket cake! Thank you Aunt Kristen!
Lighting the candles! Kristen put candles at the back of the rocket so it looked like it was taking off – so cool!
Getting something to eat and hanging out with cousins!
Grandma Penny and Brina putting a puzzle together! Super fun!
Hiking Through the Woods
The girls love going for hikes in the woods!
Recently the girls and spent a couple hours outside having a picnic, hiking through the woods, climbing on trees, raking our campsite, playing with the animals, and more fun. Thankful for some quiet and relaxing time with them out in nature. They love spending time outside. Hiking through the woods is always an adventure with them!
Skipper is always willing to join us!
Karlie hanging out by the big tree!
Waiting patiently for us as the girls play around and climb a couple trees.
Enjoying our time outside!
Hiking deeper into the woods!
Raking and trimming the thorny bushes at our old campsite. The girls are ready to go camping again!
Brina having a blast!
