Irish Road Bowling

We went to visit Ryan's family for Thanksgiving. While we were there, we had a family road bowling game after Ryan's dad got done with work. Here are some of the pictures from our adventure. Emma, Megan, Brynne and Elizabeth

Everyone from the back

Check out Ryan's profile. Can you guess what's under his coat?

I just liked this picture.

Brynne

Michael

Another profile shot. A question: Is Ryan having gastric-intestinal fit from eating too much turkey?

And what do I say about this?

Ok, so the answer. The twins are wrapped up in a Snuggly (Ryan) and Moby Wrap (me) and hidden under our coats to protect them from the cold and wind. Don't we look goofy? We are an equal opportunity household. :o)

Laughs

Danae: Ryan, did you have lunch?
Ryan: Yes.
Danae (sensing that was a lie): Oh really? What did you have for lunch?
Ryan (quietly): Oh crap.
Emma: Daddy had crap for lunch!!

It's Autumn Time

Elizabeth had fun playing in the leaves yesterday while Ryan raked the yard. As you can probably tell, it was well past time to rake the yard. Lots and lots of leaves....

You may have to look a little harder at this picture, but the top of Elizabeth's head is poking out of the top of the pile of leaves.

This picture doesn't really belong to the rest of this post, but I thought it was cute.

Seeing Double

Just some of the pictures we've taken lately: Sleeping on Daddy
Tiny hand

In the swing together

Emma and Maddie

Elizabeth and Annie

In the crib

We Survived Week 1

Anne and Madeline are 1 week old today. We seem to have made it through the first week. The twins had a check up today. They both have regained their birth weight and then some. Annie has gone from 5 lbs 8 oz to 5 lbs 10 oz. Maddie went from 5 lbs 9 oz to 5 lbs 12 oz. They had lost a couple ounces while we were in the hospital. I couldn't keep up with their appetites at first, so we supplemented with some formula. That has changed. They also grew a quarter inch. It's good to see that all the time spent nursing is doing something productive.
I was very excited today to see that the water retention finally went away today. I can see my ankle bones. Yea! My shoes will fit better now. :o) Now, if only we could get those girls to sleep at night, I could lose the dark circles under my eyes...
I've taken some more pictures that I will try to post in the next day or two.

The Twins Arrive!

After a really long and tiring weekend of pre or false labor and no real sleep, I called my doctor's office Monday morning and begged for an appointment. I got one at 10:15. Dr. M told me that conditions were "favorable" for an induction and things would be ready for me at the hospital in 45 minutes. Yes! "The babies are finally coming guys!" I packed my bag, Ryan got his sub plans out and ready in his classroom, made arrangement for the girls and we were off.

We arrived at the hospital at about noon, and they started the Pitocin about 1 pm. I was 8 centimeters dilated just after 8 pm, at which point I was wheeled (or Bumper Car-ed into) the OR. Dr. M's condition for letting the twins arrive naturally was that it had to be in an operating room, in case of emergency. I had all the staff available for a C-section just in case. The room was very, very full. My birthing bed, the baby/contraction monitor, two warming tables, an operating table and all the other stuff crammed into one room, plus my doctor, nurses, baby doctor and us. Whew! I pushed 3 or 4 times before baby A arrived at 8:45 pm. Baby B arrived 9 minutes later, at 8:54 pm, with only 2 or 3 pushes. Nice! Baby A was 5 lbs 8 oz and 19 inches long. Baby B was 5 lbs 9 oz and 19 inches long. And yes, this birthing experience included an epidural. There's a reason I was born during the age of technology.

Here they are! Anne Kathryn and Madeline Rae Kannely. This was the first time I got to hold them, which was after I was returned to my room.

Elizabeth is a big sister now! She's pretty excited about that.

Big Sister Emma

The second bath.

Leaving the hospital yesterday as a family of.... what the.....6 people??!?!

We made it home! (Aaaahhh! They seriously just let us take TWO babies home? Shouldn't there be some sort of intensive training first? Or maybe they should send us home with a nurse to make sure we are doing everything right???)

The twins are so tiny compared to most other babies. These are what their legs look like. Ryan left his hand in the picture so you could really appreciate how tiny Maddie's and Annie's legs are.

Trunk or Treat

Last night was the Trunk or Treat at the church. We started getting ready early, as both girls wanted their hair curled. They even got a little makeup! (Elizabeth has her eyes closed to show the sparklies on her eyes!)

Costumes on and ready to go! Emma was Sleeping Beauty and Elizabeth was Belle.

Dinner was provided. You had your choice of hot dogs or chili dogs. The girls and I opted for regular hot dogs.

There was a carnival before the actual trunk or treat too. It was fun for the kids. Each auxiliary (RS, Primary, Bishopric, Sunday School, etc.) was in charge of a different activity. This was the cake walk.

Just before they set the kids loose to go trick or treating, they had all the kids get up on stage to show off their costumes. This was part of the 0-5 years category.

The weather was very cooperative this year. We were ok to walk around the parking lot in sweaters. Some years we really have to bundle up under thick winter coats, so this was really nice. Ryan handed out candy from the back of our van, and I took the girls around the circuit. We started at our van, and by the time we made it back, Ryan had finished handing out all our candy. Perfect timing!

Carving Pumpkins

Tonight for FHE we carved our pumpkins. I took a bunch of pictures.

Feelin' the goo!

Daddy took care of all the scraping, so all the girls had to do was pull out the stringy stuff.

"I love goo!" And the girls also tried eating the pieces of the pumpkin we cut out. They kind of liked it.

Emma's pumpkin. Check out her eyelashes. (She may have had some help with the cutting)

This is a combination effort from myself and Ryan. We played rock, paper, scissors for doing the mouth vs eyes and nose. Guess who did the JAWS mouth?

Elizabeth drew the face on her pumpkin, and I cut it out for her.

..plus one more pumpkin....

Whatever you do, don't swallow TWO pumpkin seeds.... The seeds really will grow.

I made Ryan laugh with my crazy idea. It's just construction paper and a shirt that really doesn't fit over my belly anymore.

Musings

I came to a conclusion today. Having Dora the Explorer as the "babysitter" video while I try to catch a few zzz's isn't the greatest idea. After a particularly rough night, I get Emma off to school, make sure Elizabeth is set with a sippy cup and a movie, and then I stretch out on the couch to hopefully take a bit of a nap. I am aware of bits of the movie generally. Today, however, my little naps were frequently interrupted by screams of, "MAP!" and "SWIPER NO SWIPING" and the like. Between that, and the general achy-ness of my body, it's a wonder I slept at all. But I did, and I felt much better afterwards.
During these morning naps, I will often turn the ringer off on our phone. I can tune out the tv noise, but the phone? Not so much. When I came to and remembered to look at the phone, I had 4 new messages. Ryan called not once to check up on me, but 3 times. The last message said he was going to come home to check on me at lunch if I didn't return his call by then. So I called him back and reminded him of my intention to nap over the course of the morning.
Others have been checking up on me. One time it was just after I got out of the shower, and I still had a towel on my head. My visitor seemed aghast that I was on my feet. Should I be up for something like a shower? Oddly enough, my discharge paper from the hospital didn't mention anything about no showering for the duration, so it must be ok. Bed rest seems to include small trips to the kitchen and bathroom, so far as I know....?

Ryan's War Machine

Last weekend Ryan built his war machine. He's been needing a project, one preferably masculine. This is called a trebuchet. Not to be confused with a catapult. A trebuchet is a siege engine that was employed in the Middle Ages either to smash masonry walls or to throw projectiles over them. It is sometimes called a "counterweight trebuchet" or "counterpoise trebuchet" in order to distinguish it from an earlier weapon that has come to be called the "traction trebuchet", the original version with pulling men instead of a counterweight. It originally made its debut in the 12th century.

What you cannot see in these pictures are all our dead and rotting tomatoes that he shot down our street. One time a nasty tomato hit the power lines and rained down on our heads. EEEWWW. I was thoroughly disgusted.