Meet Finley Maxwell and Scout Amelia!

Tuesday, November 25, 2008 we welcomed Finley Maxwell, and Scout Amelia into this world!

Finley was born at 12:44 pm and Scout was born at 1:22 pm.

Finley was our little peanut; 5 lb. 8 oz. and
Scout was a little bigger than her brother; 6 lb. 3 oz.
Both babies were 18 inches.
Both are healthy and precious and wonderful!

I can't believe they are FINALLY here! Things went really well, there were a few minor complications, but I was able to deliver both babies naturally and with no epidural or pain medication!

Here they are in their first hours of life:





Malichi and Kinzie are doing just amazing with them. They were both excited when they came in to meet the babies; eager to hold their new baby brother and sister. They got to open their gifts "from the babies", and they gave the babies the gifts they bought and wrapped for them. It was so sweet. They were so excited to show the babies what they picked out for them all on their own! And they didn't have to fight since they both had one to hold! We were SO impressed with them!

Proud Brother:


Proud Sister:


Our first photo as a family of SIX!!!!


And proud Papa and Mama:





We took our babies home on Thanksgiving Day. Both of our little turkeys are doing wonderful! :)

















Finley and Scout are already a week old and our first week with them was absolutely wonderful!!

It's been a long while....

I obviously haven't updated my blog in quite a long time, and posts may continue to be few and far between after these twins are born!!!!! But I promise, I will try to update more often!

life has been just crazy....
lots of morning sickness for the first 17 wks. :(
busy summer. vacation. zoo trips. birthday parties. beach days. fun stuff.
preparing for twins.
finishing our basement.
finding out the twins are BOY and GIRL!
aaron going back to his old job.
rearranging the WHOLE house.
kinzie's "a big 4 year old".
malichi turns 7!
kinzie starting preschool and LOVING it.
malichi starting FIRST grade!!
lots of ultrasounds and Dr. appointments.
school activities.
halloween events.
christmas shopping almost DONE! Yay!

and just lots more preparing for the twins!!!

We have the nursery all painted and set up. I will post pictures soon of that!

We've got all of those "2nds" bought that we'll need.

We've got the names picked out for our sweet babies!

Now we are just awaiting there arrival!

Kinzie decided way back in July that the babies names would be Lisa and Bam Bam. Those names stuck for a couple of weeks and then she changed there names to Lisa and Max, and then she was dead set that is what the names would be. When I would say how about this name or that name, she would get VERY upset and say "NO. Their names are Max and Lisa. DON'T change the names". We'd be out and about and she would talk to random people and say "My mommy is having 2 babies. A boy and a girl. And there names are going to be Lisa and Max!"

So we decided we better decide on their names early so she could get adjusted to the "real" names. Aaron suggested we use Kinzie's names as middle names. I didn't want to go with Lisa because I don't feel like it "flows" with the names we like, but was considering Max if we went with Maxwell. We decided a while ago that we liked Finley for a boy. And then for a girl, we were back and forth between Stella and Scout. I wanted Scout and Aaron wanted Stella. So he'd come home from work and say "how are Finley and Stella today?" and I would reply "oh Finley and Scout are doing good". I really started to get nervous though that we needed to think of a 3rd girl name that we both liked since we couldn't agree!

Well, on my birthday Aaron came home with the most wonderful gift for me. It was a blue baby blanket with the name Finley embroidered on it, and a pink baby blanket with Scout embroidered on it! I cried when I opened the gift! I was so impressed! I asked him if he did like the name Scout and he said yes. He said at first he didn't but then it grew on him! It was such a thoughtful gift, and I was so happy to be able to call our babies by their names!!!!

Soon we will be welcoming Finley Maxwell and Scout Amelia into this world!

I will be 35 weeks along on monday, and once I hit the 36 week mark, I am in the "safe zone" to have the babies!!!! Wooohooo! And if I haven't had the babies by 38 weeks, I will be induced on Dec. 1st! So that's only 1 to 3 weeks from monday!!!

Both babies are growing well and doing well. At my last ultrasound on Oct. 21st, Finley was 4 lbs. and Scout was 3 lbs. 8 oz.!!! I was so surprised they were as big as they are!

I am sooo ready to have these babies. Besides the fact that I can't wait to meet them, I am just feeling miserable. I am measuring 44 weeks! (if this were a singleton pregnancy)! No wonder I feel so damn uncomfortable all the time!
Sleep is NOT coming easy and hasn't been for a while. I get only a few hours a night of sleep. I can't WAIT to sleep on my stomach again!!!!!! My hips aren't handling all of this very well either and I have had some racing heart issues as well that I was in the hospital for a couple of weeks ago. :( BUT I shouldn't complain too much...LUCKILY I have not been put on bedrest yet! That is a definite plus! I just have to keep reminding myself that it is almost over, and the end result is MORE than worth the pain!

Kinzie and Malichi are so excited for me to have the babies. Malichi says he can't wait to teach them how to play Lego Starwars! And Kinzie says she is going to be my helper and change all the diapers, even the poopie ones. We'll see how long that lasts!!!!

Kinzie asks me almost daily, "are the babies going to come out today?" Such a long time for her to wait!!!! She loves talking to them and every morning she says "Good Morning Finley and Scout!" She looks at my belly and asks "mommy, here did your belly button go?"!

Malichi asks me if my belly button will go back together after they open it up to take the babies out! :) I haven't yet gone into any details on how the babies are really born! He isn't ready for that yet.

They are going to be such good siblings to these babies!

Here is what I am looking like these days......





And probably our last photo as a family of 4...




Oh and one last photo to share. Aaron and were Juno and Paulie Bleeker for Halloween this year! How perfect is that!?

Say What?!

Went to the Dr. on Monday. He decided to do an ultrasound to check if we were accurate on the due date...and to "make sure there is just one in there, or to see if there might be two" as he said!

So I am up on the table and he is doing the ultrasound and he says "so......... have I talked to you about having multiples"?

"WHAT?....What?"

"Yeah...there are 2 babies in there"!

That's pretty much the last thing I remember from the appt. I left there sweating, and shaking and pretty much freaking out.

It's crazy though because I had been having dreams for a while about having twins. But I just kinda blew them off. And when I was at a garage sale, the person having it had twins and she had 2 nice bouncy seats for really cheap and I felt the need to buy BOTH, but I talked myself out of it thinking "ok really do I NEED 2 bouncy chairs?"

I guesss that Mother's intuition was really trying to tell me something!

I called Aaron after the appt. and told him. I think he thought he was going to come home from work and I would say "Just Kidding"!

But I wasn't...and here is our ultrasound picture to prove it! It's pretty clear that there is 2 in there!



So after the initial shock and being scared, we are excited. Still scared, but very excited as well!

Check out this cute video!

Funny Girl....

Last weekend we visited my friend, Kim and her husband, Nick and their baby Georgia. While we were there, we were looking at photo albums. I came to a picture of Kim just a few days before she had Georgia. I showed the picture to Kinzie and said, "look Kinzie, in this picture Kim still had the baby in her tummy". She looked at me in utter confusion, and then said "Did she SWALLOW the baby"? It was too cute!

so proud....

So first, I've got to show ya my new RED wall in my living room! My living room needed a mini makeover. So I painted the big wall behind the couch red, and put some brand new prints up!



I found these great frames on sale for $10.00 each the day after thanksgiving, and I just bought black matting, and framed a couple of my favorite prints.






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We had Malichi's conferences last night! They went GREAT! He is doing so well in school! He started the year out at a 3/4 reading level, and he is now at a 12/14! Isn't that amazing! I am so proud of my boy! :) He loves doing math in school, and art. He is doing really well in all the areas....except for a little time management.
He takes after me, and is a perfectionist when it comes to his artwork or projects. He really likes to take him time, and do his best work. But he gets really upset if he messes up a drawing or something. He'll draw a big X on it and start over! His teacher has really been working with him on not being dissapointed in himself if he makes a mistake, and that he can still finish his project, and also to manage his time better so he can finish his projects in the time allowed.

Overall he is doing awesome in school and loving it!


Proud Mama I am.


* * * * *

Kinzie is sick....again. She started throwing up this morning around 10 am. This is the 3rd time in 3 weeks. Seems that about every weekend she is throwing up lately. I am taking her in to the Dr. on Monday to have her checked out. I am just worrying a little because I don't think it is the flu. She is fine, no fever, feels fine, and then all the sudden she is throwing up. She throws up a TON at once, then after that she is fine. No more puking, no fever, no tummy ache. And it has been like that all 3 times! Plus none of us have gotten the stomache flu, and with this being her third time being sick, you'd think at least ONE of us would have gotten it by now.

I am just so sick of cleaning up puke! And I feel so bad for her because she has had to miss so many of her activities lately because of it :(

My poor girl.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Lil's New Do' !!! :)

I took Kinzie to get her hair cut today! This was pretty much her first real haircut!!! She's gotten ONE trim before this and that is it.

SOOOO we went all out and chopped it! We went to Kids Hair in Chan, which is great! They are so friendly and they really make it fun for the kids. We had been getting her pumped for it the whole last week and have made it a big exciting thing for her, so she didnt get scared about it.
They stylist put her hair into two low piggies and cut the ponies so we could keep her hair! So she has two little ponytails about 6 inches long each. And Kinzie did awesome! She sat so nice and was all polite and thanked the stylist after she was done! I think she really loved showing off her new hair afterwards!

Okay so enough already right?? Are you ready to see the new do'?!



well ok first lets see the before....


I can't believe her hair was even this long!



And the after.....

She looks so grown up with her new hair style, doesn't she!?



And look how darn cute it is from the back....


here are her little piggies they cut first.....

I miss this....

I miss the beautiful fall weather.
It is soooooo cold out! Malichi didn't have school today because it is so cold.
I feel cooped up!
My KIDS are going crazy being cooped up.
I can't WAIT for warmer weather again!

Just like his daddy....

Malichi is just like his Daddy. He loves to figure out how things work. He loves to learn. He is loving math right now. And he is one smart kid. He'll grow up and be just like Aaron; doing algebra for FUN! :)

Steph and Adam got Malichi some new workbooks for Christmas. And even with all of the craziness of Christmas and everyone in the house, he found his own spot to sit down and do some adding and subtracting! :)



We had Christmas with Aaron's side of the family on New Years Eve and New Years Day.
I am just now finally getting all my pictures sorted out from then and thought I'd share a few!

Here's one of little miss princess. This look is so her isn't it!?



So Aaron and I had a shirt made for Adam.... and I JUST love the reaction we got as he opened it! The shirt says "Never trust a fart"..... I don't know that I am at liberty to share the story behind it on my blog...soooooo... use your imagination I guess! :) haha



When Aaron had his wisdom teeth taken out after Christmas, he had to get one of his front bottom teeth pulled as well because of an infection. And he can't get a temporary tooth in there for about 6 weeks...so for the time being he is toothless in that spot! So Christa bought him some chicklets for a temporary fix! :)



We had yet another wonderful Christmas celebration! Here are a few more photos.

The funny things she says....

We were getting into the van today to go get Malichi from school. I was standing on the street by Kinzie's door getting her buckled into her carseat. She says to me, "Be careful Mom, don't get hit by a Reindeer!". I laughed and said "ok Hunny, I will be careful." Then she says, "If that happened, that would be bad. Cause then Santa would be on the Naughty List!"

Santas Little Helpers

...Aren't they cute!?




I am sad Christmas is already over! It really snuck up on me this year! And it was a bit stressful getting everything done before Christmas! Next year I need to get back into my more organized mode, and not be so last minute, so I have time to really enjoy the holidays before they are over! Not that I didn't enjoy the Holidays, I did, I was just busy right up until the day we went to celebrate Christmas with my family! We do still have more celebrating to do yet too, so the festivities aren't over for us! Tommorrow I am going for a spa day with the girls on Aarons side of the family (which I can't WAIT for!), and then we get together with them for New Years to do our Christmas with them. Plus we will get together with my Dad soon too.

Last weekend we spend the weekend with my family. Had our own little Christmas at my moms, and then we went to Hanska to celebrate with everyone.
We ate lots of food, stayed up late playing games, fought over dice game gifts (an old school Nintendo in particular) and opened way too many presents! Might I recommend the games Dirty Minds, and Man Laws-Woman rules! They were hilarious!!!

My mother this year, took the liberty of buying her own Christmas presents for us to give to her; a Tom-Tom GPS and a fireplace for her room, so she just figured we would have all chipped in and got that for her, so instead we could just "pay her back" for it!!! AND so we did.....with 24 ROLLS OF QUARTERS!!!

I gathered up all the $ from me and my siblings, went to the bank and asked the teller:
"so could I get some rolls of quarters"?
she says, "sure"
I say, "Can I get like TEN rolls?"
She says, "yeah"
So I say, "welll... How about 24 ROLLS!!!?"
She looks at me funny and says "well, I don't know that I have 24 rolls of quarters here, that's $240.00 worth you know? So I probably don't have that may rolls here, but somewhere in the bank we do, and I could track some down. But let me check if I need to charge you a fee to do that!"
She didn't need to charge a fee, and was able to give me all 24 rolls!

So I wrapped them up in a shoebox, packed it tightly with a towel so they couldnt shake around, and gave it to my mom!
It was hilarious watching her open it, she was like what the heck did you get me that is so heavy!?

Here she is opening all her quarters!



And some more Highlights from the weekend:

Check out that teamwork!


Kinzie loves her new Christmas Dora jammies!


Aaron was seriously excited about his new programming book that he got for xmas!


I LOVE Shel Silverstein! I hope Malichi does too!



We got snowed in at my Grandmas on Sunday night and ended up staying until monday morning. We headed back to my moms to pick up all our gifts that we left there, which were ALOT! I am super excited about what I got.
Everyone went in together and got me this:



No that isn't my house though, that is a picture from the magazine! I have to exchange mine for a darker color so I haven't been able to put it up yet!

So we packed up our van, stopped to have lunch with Aaron's parents, and headed home for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day to ourselves!

And it was so nice and relaxed! And believe it or not, I was soooo laid back! I know I can totally get anal about stuff, and feel the need to clean the house all the time, especially with boxes, and wrapping paper and stuff EVERYWHERE, but I DIDN'T!!!! I was pretty proud of myself! haha!

We made our cookies for Santa.



Check out this ginormous Santa cookie I made!



And it was yummy!



After dinner, we opened presents.

Look what Malichi made for me! Isn't that sweet!?






And then after we put the kids to bed, Aaron pulled out a card and present for me! :) We weren't going to get eachother anything. But he got me a very sweet card, and get this... a 12 pack of Diet Cherry Coke, and some chocolate! :) It was sweet. Thanks babe! Sorry I didn't have anything for you under the tree this year! :(

Christmas morning we got up and of course ran to see if Santa came! He did. And he ate ALL the cookies, and left the kids a little note!

The kids opened their Santa gifts, and checked out their stockings and then for breakfast we made Rainbow pancakes (pancakes with whip cream and sprinkles)! YUM-O!

Malichi got some more snow globes to add to his collection! I think he has 20 or so now!


And Kinzie got her baby "sister" that she asked for! Now if Santa could just bring her a REAL sister, that'd be great!




And after that we spent the rest of the day relaxing, and playing with the kids! It was wonderful!

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Wednesday, however, wasn't so wonderful... at least for Aaron. He got all four wisdom teeth out and another tooth pulled that had an infection in it!!! So he has had the whole week off to take it easy after having that done! Everything went well, and he is feeling pretty good.

Sooooo that was long winded! I'll try to post more often so I don't have such ginormous posts from now on! K!? :)

I hope everyone had a safe and wonderful Holiday!

X0Shan