We Are Moving!

About a month ago we realized that Conner and Teagan were nine monthes old and we still didn't have any crawlers. But just as soon as we could start to worry Teagan took off on her hands and knees. Conner quickly followed after. Since then we have tried to “Baby Proof” the house but somehow the two of them seem to find something to get into. Conner has been finding anything and everything to pull up on, even since before he was crawling. We thought he might by-pass the crawling thing and go straight to walking. The teething is back! Just when we thought the slobber, chewing, temperatures and runny diapers had stopped for awhile…their top two teeth popped through. It will only be a matter of time for we have two mouths full of pearly whites.




The summer has been wonderful so far and we have tried to visit family and friends. We went up to the Kansas City area and got to go to our 1st Royals game. Thank goodness for all of the help otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to do it.







Swimming and Bath Time has probably been the most fun for Conner. He LOVES the water. He is like a little fish…kicking and putting his head in the water. He seems so fearless while Teagan is unsure how she feels about getting a pound of sunscreen on and going outside and sitting in the heat. She does enjoy Bath Time but is usually pushed or kicked by Conner going crazy in the bath tub.









We took the family on our 1st Family Vacation over the 4th of July. We went to Hot Springs, AK to visit Aunt Sharon and Uncle Mike. The 9 hour drive did not seem as bad as we had pictured in our mind, the twins traveled fairly well. The vacation was wonderful! We got to go boating, tubing, swimming (in a lake and pool), go to the beach, and watch the fireworks while on a boat! Other family members that made the long trip were: John, Stephanie, Jake & Ashton; Jessica, Barry, Allison, Maggie & Brady; Jennifer, Davey & Jared; and Logan. It was great having all the Aunts’, Uncles’, Cousins, and family there! The rest of the summer will hopefully be just as fun. We will be spending a week in Seneca to hang out with family and friends. With the twins 1 year birthday approaching, we are having a quick reality check of how fast it has gone by.

Changing Everyday!

It has been way too long since we have updated the blog. We have so much going on that time just flies by. The twins are 8 months old and growing like weeds. They are changing everyday and we're starting to see their personalities blossom.

To start off with...here are some pictures taken when they were 6 months old. I guess you could say they hammed it up for the camera!

Here is a little run down of what else has been going on.

In the beginning of May, we had the twins Baptism. Although they were Baptised in the hospital, we had a more official celebration at the Church and our home. A big thank you to the family and friends that made the trip to celebrate with us. It was great having everyone down for the event.

Teagan has 2 teeth and a third one popping up. She can sit up on her own and roll around when trying to get to a toy. At times, she will hold her own bottle but plays with it a lot putting it in and out of her mouth (while laughing). She is discovering how to laugh. She will do this chuckle which is nothing short of adorable. Teagan is the best baby food eater! She loves it all (peaches, green beans, prunes, carrots, etc). She just opens her little month when she is ready to have another bite.

Conner has 2 teeth but shows more signs of teething. The high fevers, runny BM’s and of course the slobber and chewing on everything! Conner can sit up on his own and loves being on his belly. Turning around on his belly is becoming a habit, especially if he can get his feet on his sister to kick her. He loves holding his own bottle and will not put it down until the last drop is gone. Conner laughs a lot. He's warming up to the baby food. There are times that he just can’t get the whole opening of the mouth and swallowing the food.

Together they are a tag team. They love sitting facing each other and will take a toy from each other. Usually, Conner will win the battle but Teagan’s got a grip that once she has something she does not let go. They are sleeping in two separate cribs. I think the transition was harder for Matt and I, but they seem to be happy to just roll around and not interfere with each other. When they were six months old we finally got them onto a good sleeping & eating schedule. Even though they wake up now and again for their beloved pacifier, they're sleeping through the night for the most part. As my school year is coming to an end, I am looking forward to spending some time with them. We will be very busy this summer with activities ranging from: going to the YMCA pool, swimming in the plastic pool we have at our house, swinging (we love our baby swing), going on walks, going to the zoo, running around in our walker, staying a week or two in Seneca, going to visit Aunt Sharon & Uncle Mike in Hot Springs, AK, and possible visiting Daddy while he is working!

Christmas Blog

Dear Family & Friends,

Apparently, our parents are either too busy or too lazy to put out a Christmas letter this year. Knowing them, mom is probably too busy and dad too lazy. Either way, we thought we'd do our part to help them out this year and at least put something up on the blog.

As you know, we've only been around for a couple of months, but we figure most of the fun stuff happened after we showed up at this party anyhow. Besides, from what we gather mom & dad were pretty boring before that, so we've probably picked up enough to fill in the gaps for the rest of the year.

Mom is in her third year as a Deaf/Hard of Hearing Itinerant teacher for the Wichita school district. She thinks she has the best job in the world and thought she had this whole teaching thing figured out until we came along. Now, she's been away from work for a while and kicking it at home with us, but next semester she goes back to work and gets to enjoy the new set of challenges that come with being a working mother.

Dad is still working as an account executive (we think that's fancy for salesman) at Johnson Controls here in Wichita. He also enjoys his job, despite the struggling economy. We know what your thinking. How do these three and a half month old babies have such a large breadth of knowledge and such a distinguished vocabulary? Well, two heads are definitely better than one. Even so, we amaze ourselves sometimes.

Now on to the VIPs of the previous year. As fun as it was for us to be smashed up against each other in mom's belly for the 7 or so months, we thought we could use some fresh air. Besides, is there any better way to set the tone for future orneriness than by showing up 9 weeks early right before a wedding in Hays. Which reminds us, we planned on taking this time to apologize to Kellen & Kayla for causing such havoc on your special day, but since you have yet to visit we'd like to hold all apologies until we've had a formal introduction. Our little stunt did mean that we had to spend four weeks in the hospital, but we got to catch up on a lot of sleep and everyone was pretty nice. Since then we've just been trying to keep mom and dad on their toes. We have a system worked out where one of us cries until we've exhausted ourselves and then the other takes over. You should come by and see it sometime. We've also taken our first trips. First we got to go to Lawrence and party with aunt Jen when she graduated from KU (rock chalk Jayhawk). Then we went back to Seneca for Christmas and to see the whole family and some of mom & dad's friends. Christmas rocked. We definitely hit the mother load this year. Mom & dad could hardly fit it all in the car to come home.

Oh, before we forget, everyone seems to be pretty concerned with how fat we're getting, so you'll be happy to learn that Conner is weighing in a whopping 12lbs and Teagan is tipping the scales at just over 10lbs. We'll leave you with some pictures of us with our cousins, kicking it at home and posing it up. We even let the 'rents into one of the shots. We hope you all have a wonderful 2009 and look forward to seeing everyone in the coming year.

Merry Christmas and a Happy new year,

Conner & Teagan

Growing Fast

For the past couple of weeks, I start every day off with a declaration. "Today is the day that I'll write on the blog", I say. Then I go to work, come home, figure out what we're doing for dinner and give Julie a much needed hand with the twins before I'm ready to pass out in bed. Even that doesn't seem to last to long. Really, life hasn't been too hectic until this week. Luckily, we had an extra set of hands around in one form or another for the first four weeks that Conner & Teagan have been home. I don't think that we'd have come out of the transition alive without the help of G & G Calderwood, G & G Lueger and Julie's aunt Sharon. Now the days of extended sleep, having meals cooked for us and our laundry done are long gone. Just typing it makes me sad. While I'm thinking about it, if anyone would like a job as a nanny/ homemaker we're seriously considering opening up the position for applicants. Getting up to see the faces of Conner & Teagan make all the aches, pains and sleepless nights well worth it though.

Now on to how they're doing....

Last Monday we had our 2 month checkup with the pediatrician. It was also immunization day. Which means shots. Leading up to it I had visualized holding a kicking and screaming baby while the nurses struggled to get the needles in, but before they even knew what hit them the were pricked three times in the leg and the hard part became putting the bandaides on. Now the good news. Teagan had been alarm free for a month and since she wasn't taking any caffeine we were able to take the apnea monitor off. Conner had also been alarm free for just under a month, but unfortunately that just means that we can stop giving him caffiene this week. Now if he goes another month without any alarm we can get rid of that monitor. Even so, it's a huge relief to only have one baby plugged in.

Conner & Teagan are growing like weeds. At 8 weeks old Conner weighed 8 pounds and Teagan weighted 6.5 pounds. Each of them are approximately 20 inches long as well. Between the feedings, which happens about every 4 hours, the twins are more awake and love looking around. Probably the most amazing thing is tummy time and we get to see them in action. Truly awesome to see them pick up their head and turn it from side to side.

Both are doing really well and hopefully continue to do so. Well, like I mention before writing the blog is squeezed in between feedings, diaper changes, doing laundry (really Julie does that), etc. So I will leave with more pictures and less typing!

Barry & Teagan

Jessica & Conner

Allison & Teagan and Maggie & Conner

Brady, Teagan & Conner

Conner's 1st Halloween

Teagan's 1st Halloween