A Holiday Card Contender

I can't believe Thanksgiving is in ONE week. Christmas is just around the corner! So it's finally time for us to send out our 1st family Christmas card! It's been fun shopping around for cards and uploading photos to see how they look.  Hehe...I love this one of Maddie showing her silly side!  I ended up choosing a card that had multiple photos to show off the awesome work our friend, Joseph Kang, took of our family.

Our Autumn Family Photoshoot

We had our family photos taken by our wonderfully talented friend, Joseph Kang!  Our girls were naturals in front of the camera. They were big troopers for hamming it up for quite a few hours! Lucky for their Aunt A(aka Gomo) for being in town the same weekend.  We got in a few shots with her. :)

A Mile-High Adventure Theme Bridal Shower

Just a quick post... (a post for my SIL's wedding invitation to come soon!) 

I had the pleasure of designing my SIL's bridal shower invitation and co-hosting her shower last weekend. One of her other BM's came up w/ this clever theme for the party.  It was perfect for the SIL since her wedding will be in Denver, and she and the fiancé have a love for traveling. We carried the theme further by taking a Trapeze Class with all the guests after the shower!

Coming up with a way to incorporate the theme into something tangible was a little tricky.  I brainstormed a bunch of different ideas (hot air balloons? love is in the air? swings?) And finally settled on a cloud theme. As I was at the party store looking for inspiration on how to make a backdrop, my eyes landed on the paper plates. I'd remembered seeing a party on Hostess With the Mostess with a backdrop made out of paper plates. Genius!! Pinterest and I became best friends as I was planning this party. I found the idea to use a cloud paper punch for the cupcake toppers and straw toppers (not pictured) on Pinterest. A cute and quick way to continue the cloud theme. Quick being the operative word for this momma of twins! I'm so pleased with the way things turned out!

Finally caught on camera!

I dunno why, but it's so hard to capture Sophie's laugh on camera. Maybe b/c she only smiles when she's moving around? This was taken as she was bouncing in the Jumperoo. Every time she bounced, she would laugh. But when she paused, she wouldn't smile. She's started to wrinkle her nose as she laughs and smiles.  It's adorable, isn't it?  If you look closely, her 2 bottom teeth are coming in!

homemade breakfast, a wedding, and a walk

that's what my weekend consisted of.  (if anyone still reads my blog...) how was yours?  

i spent saturday morning with my college roomies. jennine (37+ weeks pregnant!) made us a full breakfast of french toast, kale and onion frittata, and fresh fruit. i seriously love homemade breakfasts...and i seriously LOVED that frittata.  i enjoyed it so much, i just might have to remake it.  she got the recipe from this Williams and Sonoma cookbook. must order now!

later that evening, the husband and i left the girls with the in-laws and went to a friend's wedding. holy cow...does M have the case of stranger anxiety or what??  she cried for a good couple of hours before finally falling asleep.  she did the same thing last weekend too when our cousin babysat.  so sad...

is it possible that this awful heat wave has finally broken? sunday was gorgeous with low humidity and sunny skies.  so we took our girls on a walk in Lincoln Park and found a new route along the picturesque North Pond.  

Modern + Unique Prints

how unique are these beautiful prints by Cozamia?  i came across them a few months ago on the the Decor8 blog here.  the second print is my favorite.  i would love to add some of these lovely pieces in my house!

I love this face

[M at 33 weeks]

t h i r t y - f o u r

Apologies for such a long hiatus!  Life w/ my twin girls has been busy busy busy. I can't believe they're already 8.5 months old! Here's an update on what's going on at 8 months:

::m a d d i e::

• is able to sit unassisted. once in awhile, she'll topple over.
• is more content with being still
• loves to flap her arms and legs when she's on her belly
• has just started to get on all fours. crawling is near! (33 weeks)
• is able to shimmy backwards on her tummy
• is impossible to feed sometimes.  she will only open her mouth halfway.
• has the most contagious smile
• has the juiciest, chubby thighs that i love to squeeze
• makes a winking face while scrunching up her nose (33 weeks)

::s o p h i e::

• is able to sit unassisted for a decent amount of time, but prefers to...
• army crawl (drags her body) every which way to explore
• is curious about EVERYTHING 
• will reach out, grab, and eat anything she can get her hands on
• LOVES to eat
• will open her mouth w i d e and will whine if we don't feed her fast enough!
• is super active and always on the move
• loves the Jumperoo and bouncing
• has the cutest, gummy smile
• has her 2 bottom teeth growing in (33 weeks)
• scrunches up her nose when she smiles (32 weeks)

[6 months]

[7 months]

8 months

Bold & Colorful Statement Necklaces

I love bold, bright necklaces. It gives a simple t-shirt and jeans (or shorts) outfit instant pizzazz! Sadly, I'll have to refrain from wearing or buying any for now. My babies love to tug and gnaw on anything and everything. The only necklace I've been wearing is a simple gold necklace. They grab it all.the.time. I'll just have to admire these beautiful necklaces from afar. Sigh...

Source: reddressboutique.com via Cindy on Pinteres

Source: reddressboutique.com via Cindy on Pinterest

Source: francescascollections.com via Cindy on Pinterest

Source: jcrew.com via Cindy on Pinterest

baby bump photos...finally completed!

It's hard to believe I was once so BIG! I must say I wasn't one of those women who loved being pregnant.  I was ridiculously uncomfortable throughout most of it.  The first 4 months involved daily migraines and vomiting.  It became much better after the retching stopped, but then an onslaught of other pains and pregnancy-related symptoms began.  Yuck! But that's all over and done with.  Phew!

The very last photo was taken right before I left for the hospital.  Hence the tired face and poor lighting.  I'd just taken a shower and was waiting for the husband to hurry home from work.

It's fun to look back at the progression. It's amazing how the body changes. I would definitely recommend taking regular photos of your baby bump.

little personalities

[[20-21 week update]]
Maddie is my little sunshine.  She wakes up with a smile on her face. I just want to kiss and squeeze her! She's the even-tempered one.  So when she cries, you know she's really uncomfortable and needs milk, a new diaper, or is over tired.

But for some reason, she's been crying (or more like screaming) every single night until she's red in the face.  It always happens around 8-9pm.  We always try to put her to bed around 5:00 or 6:00, at the first sign of tiredness. But she just won't sleep! So by 8:00 or 9:00, she's way too tired and has been up for 2-3 hours. She'll scream and scream anywhere from 20-60 minutes.  No amount of rocking, bouncing, swaying, or singing will help.  Eventually, she gets too tired of being over-tired, and will fall asleep.  We've discovered she likes sleeping on our soft bed.  So we'll try to put her down there to see if it'll calm her.  It doesn't usually help until she's quieted down in our arms.  Then we can put her down on our bed somewhat drowsy.  From there, she'll finally fall into a deep sleep til the wee hours of the morning...sleeping through the night.  Sigh...  It's just getting there that's the hard part.

Sophie is my little munchkin. She's always been smaller than Maddie ever since the womb.  She is always moving around.  But she has become our good, little sleeper.  We are able to put her down in the crib, and she'll fall asleep on her own.  At least one of them can!

our 1st trip in instagrams

We survived our first trip with the twins.  I stressed and fretted for weeks beforehand, but it turned out to be a pretty smooth trip.  Sophie, the fussy one, cried quite a bit on the way there and back.  But she slept through the night (BOTH nights!) for the first time that weekend! Maddie, on the other hand, was a handful both nights.  She just wouldn't sleep! But she was a dream on the plane.  Slept almost the entire flight. When the plane landed at home, both girls woke up screaming in unison...like a chorus.  Haha.  Everybody around us started laughing.  I'm glad they weren't all annoyed by all the crying!  Phew!

We got to enjoy some sunny weather in Denver along w/ some really good company.  We met up w/ my SIL and her fiance and visited his parents.  I'm so happy that my SIL is marrying into such a great family!  J & A absolutely LOVE the girls like they're their own grandchildren.

(1) arriving at the Denver airport (2) me + maddie in the Ergo (3) auntie A playing with sophie (4) strolling around the SIL's soon-to-be new neighborhood

(1) a delicious homemade waffle breakfast (2) SIL and her fiance (3) me and the hubs at the Coors Brewery tour in Golden, CO

(1) the SIL's future FIL w/ Sophie (2) SIL with Maddie (3) Red Rocks Park (4) the hubs and Maddie

can you feel the excitement?

It's hard to believe my little babies are already FIVE months old! They've mastered tummy time, but have yet to perfect rolling over. They've done it quite a few times on their own, but seem to have plateaued at that skill for a few weeks. Hmm...

But they have finally BOTH reached a milestone I have been waiting for...sleeping through the night!!! I could hardly contain myself on my Facebook updates yesterday.  Haha.  Maddie has been sleeping through the night for a couple weeks now...sleeping 5-7 hours at a time. But Sophie still woke up 2-3x a night for feedings. Sigh...  But she had a breakthrough moment this weekend when we were visiting family in Denver.  Sophie slept through the night the entire weekend!  Hallelujah!  Praise the Lord! I thought perhaps it was just because she was super tired from being out and about through the day, but she's slept 7-9 hours the last 2 nights at home!  I think this is the real deal, people!  Sound the horns!  My babies are sleeping through the night!!!

I don't know if they were worn out from our trip or what.  They were sleeping all day yesterday until about 1pm.  They would only wake up to eat or poop, and back to sleep they would go.  I finally busted out my DSLR and 50mm fixed lens.  It's just been so much easier to shoot w/ my point and shoot Canon s95 than to have to fiddle around w/ the DSLR.  I definitely need to practice though.  Shooting inanimate objects is hard enough.  Capturing moving, fidgety babies is almost impossible!  Here are a couple decent shots of them.  Sophie is so good at looking straight at the camera with her huge, round eyes.  Maddie has the biggest smile that I was trying to capture.  (She was starting to get tired of being on her tummy.) Sigh...I love my girls.

Maddie

Sophie

M + S Update :: Months 1-4

(top row: 1 & 2 months, bottom row: 3 & 4 months)

Oh my has time flown by!  I can't believe my girls are already FOUR months old!  Actually, they're closer to 5 months now.  The first 2-3 months were a complete blur.  I was functioning purely on survival mode.  How else can you survive on 3-4 hours of interrupted sleep?!  They are currently 18.5 weeks old.  They've mastered tummy time, are thoroughly enjoying slobbering all over their hands, and are babbling and cooing.  They rolled over from their back to their front quite a few times, but it's been a week or so since they've done it again.  Hmm...strange.  Don't regress, girls!

Their 4 month photo was taken on the day of their 100 Day celebration w/ our families.  They looked so adorable in their dresses and cardigans.  Hehe.  Too bad Maddie had a pooping episode in her dress like 5 minutes after we arrived at the restaurant!  Ahh...you just have to roll with the punches when you have kids.

Traveling with Twins

In a couple of weekends, our little family is going on our first airplane trip together.  I was stressing a few nights ago and couldn't sleep for the life of me!  There are just so many logistical details you have to consider when you have little ones...especially twins.  Like...how are we going to manage pushing 2 strollers and our luggage when we arrive at the airport?  We each push a stroller and pull a suitcase??  Our solution?  Curbside check-in!  Problem solved.  But then what do we do when we arrive at our destination and have to get our rental car?  We'll probably have to take a shuttle bus to the rental car terminal.  We still run into the same problem.  Haha...oh the headaches.  We'll figure something out...  Wish us luck!

Featured Invitation!

Dino-mite! Two of my dinosaur invitations were featured here on the KandyOh blog.

Spring is here! Gorgeous just-because flowers from the husband.  I never knew daffodils smelled good!  Aren't these beautiful?!

Bath time = FUN time!

Maddie and Sophie's 1st bath at 2 weeks old in the Puj tub.  They were SO tiny!  We had to wait until their umbilical cord scabs fell off before giving them a real bath.  I was too nervous to bathe them.  I made the husband do it.

Eeee...I love that first photo of Maddie.  She really enjoyed her 1st bath after the initial shock of being in the water. Look at that face!  I love how her hair gets all fluffy and fuzzy after it's washed. Hehe.  Both of the girls LOVE bath time with Daddy.  They splash their arms and legs like crazy!

::Maddie::

 

Maddie at about 11 weeks.  I just wanna eat all her fat rolls!

::Sophie::

 

Sophie at 11 weeks.  Splishing and splashing in the tub.