Welcome Spring.

Hello Spring.
The Snyders welcome you with open arms.
We are counting down the days until Spring Break and Summer Break. Last night it was a play outside barefoot kinda night and we are hoping for many more of those. Bring on the evening walks, grilling out, sand table play, bare feet in the grass, firefly catching and all that warm weather has to offer.

The Duo- 6 Months

My sweeties are 1/2 a year old. OHMY! 1/2 year already!?! It seems like yesterday that I posted HERE. I thought time flew with Clark, but this second time around things are even faster- shew! These guys are growing so much. They are getting bigger, smarter and stronger each day. We are growing smarter and stronger as parents too. This month we have had some wild weather, Stuart turned 30, we have been watching lots of basketball, shopping consignment sales and gearing up for spring.

Here are the stats of our little ones this month:

Weights:
Shepard- about 14lbs. (5.1 at birth)
We go to the doctor on Wednesday for the 6 month well visit.
Sara Kate- about 15lbs. (5.11 at birth)

 Lengths:
(as of 1/19/12)- This is from the 4 month visit. I KNOW they are longer.
Shepard: 24.5 inches (up from 17 at birth)
Sara Kate: 24.5 inches (up from 18 at birth)


Diaper Size:
Shepard: Size 2
(barely- as soon as we are out of 2s we are moving up to 3s)
Sara Kate: Size 2
(barely- as soon as we are out of 2s we are moving up to 3s)


Clothing Size:
Shepard: 3-6 month and 6 months.
Sara Kate: mostly 6 months but I have been washing some 9 month summer stuff because it is HOT.

Sleep:
They have been sleeping great. We have been putting them to bed around 7:30 and waking them up at 6:00 to eat before I go to work each morning. Bedtime has been getting earlier and earlier these days. They have been rubbing their eyes and getting sleepy around 7:00 so we have been nursing, swaddling and going to bed about 7:30. When I say bed I mean in the Rock and Play Sleepers beside our bed. Yes, they are 6 months old and still in our room. SO TONIGHT we moved the Rock and Plays upstairs to their room. We have been up there three times in the last 20 minutes to replace dropped pacis. We don't have school tomorrow so it is my goal to get them in cribs this weekend. We will see how this goes. They just sleep so well in our room I am so nervous about how this is all going to go. I guess we will see.

Can you spy my sweeties on the monitor?

Eating:
Big changes this month!! We are still breast milk only, but we have added all sorts of solids to our routine! I posted HERE about making my own baby food and we are still doing that. So far they have had carrots, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, peas and apples. Sara Kate was all about the food from day one and Shep has just started to come around in the last few days. Today he cried because we were not shoveling it in fast enough. I am thinking we are going to drag the highchairs out this weekend too.

Our schedule looks something like this:
6:00 am: Nurse
9:30-10:00 am Bottles at the sitter's house & rice cereal (I pump at school)
1:00 pm Bottles at the sitter's house & one cube of food each (I pump at school)
4:30-5:00 pm Nurse after school
5:30 pm- One to one and a half cubes of food each
7:00-7:30 pm Nurse before bed
10:00 pm ish- I pump before I go to bed.
I mentioned last month that I am pumping before bed to store because I am going to be on a class trip at the end of the month and I need 250 oz frozen. Well, I am slowly but surely getting there. We leave on the 27th and I need about 75 more oz. I think I can... I think I can...


Shepard:
Sheppy is doing great. We don't think he has gained much weight since last month. I know he has grown longer, but I think he is still weighing about 14 lbs. We will find out next week for sure. He is a little smiley guy and quite the day brightener. He lets you know when he is hungry and we are pretty sure the whole block knows when he is hungry. He is starting to move around a little more during floor time. He works hard to get to the toys he wants to play with. He can roll from back to belly and belly to back, but it has to be something he really wants! He would much rather just lay and watch the action than be part of it. He still has quite the love affair with his paci. He can pick it up and put it in his own mouth. He has yet to learn how to defend himself from his sister who is a known paci thief, but we are working on it. He loves to be fully swaddled which makes replacing his own paci at night a problem. We are going to have to make a plan for this since they are now upstairs and he is not right next to my side of the bed.

SaraKate:
SK is also doing great. She is our wild child. We are pretty sure she is going to have a permanent spot in timeout. If it is in her reach you had better watch out. She is a grabber. She loves anything she can get her hands on. Thanks to her I am going to have to spend a small fortune to child-proof this house. She sits in her Bumbo now and just grabs. She has knocked over a plant, my diet coke and a bag of almonds in a 5 minute span. She is so funny. We lay them in the floor and surround them with toys to encourage them to roll over and play. She is EVERYWHERE. She honestly looks like she is trying to crawl. She log rolls to get what she wants. It is so funny and Shep just watches her go. She has the cutest little grin. She wakes up with it and if you flash a smile her way you get an even bigger one right back. She is loving all the new foods and even tried to sit up the other day.

There is never a dull moment around this house. I am thinking it is going to be that way for a long time. But who am I kidding, I hate dull moments and I can't sit still long so these guys could not be more of a perfect fit for us.

 It is a basketball kind of weekend around here. We just saw our CATS beat WKU and we are hoping for lots more wins in the future. Even the little Snyders are in on the action.

Here's hoping the babies sleep all night in their room!!

What I'm Loving Wednesday

Today is a BEAUTIFUL day. It is sunny and about 75 degrees. There are so many things to be thankful for so I thought I would play along with Jamie and list a few things I am loving on this day.

1. I AM LOVING this weather!! Yesterday I had a pretty yucky day at school. My kids were not the best (they are beyond ready for our DC trip and Spring Break) and I had about all I could take. I would have loved to go shopping to relieve my stress, but that takes money so instead my little family and I walked to the restaurant in our neighborhood for dinner on the patio. It was just what I needed!

2. I AM LOVING that I did not die today when I ran nearly 3 miles with the 4th and 5th grade fitness club after school today. I ran with them last week too, but before that I could not tell you the last time I ran outside. It is HOT and I am as red as the shirt I am wearing, but I did not die, and I did not come in last! The kids were too cute cheering for me.



3. I AM LOVING my Instagram app. I know I may be behind the times, but I just love it. I have found so many mommies and twin mommies on there and I love seeing all their cute kids! It is such a good spot for me to share some of the 3,500 pictures currently on my phone. Find me :snyderstories.

4. I AM LOVING the fact that we (the 5th grade- 95 people) leave for Washington DC in 13 days. I am so excited. We have a great group of kids and it is going to be a blast! I am sad to leave my littles, but their daddy and mamaw will take great care of them and I almost have enough milk frozen to feed them while I am gone.

5. I AM LOVING that tomorrow is my FRIDAY!! Yay. We have a 3 day weekend and I am hoping lots of grilling out, sleeping in and cuddling is on the agenda. I can't wait!!!


Just five random things that I'm lovin' today!!

Go check out Jamie's blog for more fun lists.

SNOW- Finally!

A few weekends ago was wild! As I posted HERE we dismissed school early due to storm warnings and tornadic weather. We were hunkered down and ready for the worst. It thankfully missed us, we celebrated Stuart's birthday and the weekend was a blur it happened so fast. I was exhausted. I was so ready for a day off and was very hopeful that the rumors of snow were true. I did not get too excited about it or even think twice about it before going to bed. However, I was happily awoken at 3:30 by the text ding on my phone. I got THE TEXT. The no school, snow day text. A text we have not seen enough this year. I got up and looked outside and was shocked! Real snow. I immediately turned off my alarm and went back to sleep. BLISS. Who knew. Tornado weather on Friday and 4-5 inches of snow on Monday. I was so glad to have a relaxing day off and was so glad to let the babies see real snow. Of course they loved it. They did not stop talking about it all day...well kind of. Honestly it was a great day of snow play, pjs, and family. Stuart was home and we did a whole lot of nothing. The snow was beautiful and melted before the next day. It was just what I ordered. Now I am ready for spring, the end of school, and summer break. We loved our one real day of winter even if it was in March.

My little snow babies.

SK checking out the snow.

Shepard's 1st real snow adventure.

Our backyard. I just love anything snow covered.

This guy was soooooo excited.

Our house in the freshly fallen snow.

Mommy and my littles. Little wiggle worms.

I could not get these two to stand still long enough for a picture.

My loves.

Today it is sunny with a high of 70. You never know one day to the next what to expect. :) Gotta love KY weather!

The Big 3-0!

On Sunday March 4th, Stuart finally caught up to me and hit the BIG 3-0! In my mind I have always looked forward to 30. Call me crazy, but I always thought it would be a time in my life when I would have some direction, be settled and know where my life was headed. Well, now that I am 30 I know that my life will always be headed in a new direction, I will never be one to settle and who knows where this life is headed. I will say that 30 has been wonderful to me. There is not one thing in my life worth complaining about. Is it perfect? Now way! But I am happy, I am content, I have THREE beautiful children, a loving husband and things are good. So, no I was not sad to turn 30 but I did always think I would have a big party to celebrate the big day. That all changed when I delivered twins 2 weeks before my 30th birthday. But who could have asked for a better present?!

So, when Stuart finally caught up and decided to turn 30 I wanted him to have a party! He deserves it. He is such a hard worker and a great daddy. I wanted him to have some fun times with his buddies to celebrate this event. So I reserved some tables at the restaurant in our neighborhood, called some of his buddies and ordered a cake. I did not however order the tornadic weather that occurred Friday, on the day of the party. ugh. Yes, the day of his party was the day we had terrible storms. So bad that school was let out early and Stuart, me, Clark, Shep,SaraKate and Barney were all tucked in nicely into the closet under our stairs for a short while. We were safe, thank the Lord, but the party had to be rescheduled. We ended up having it the next night and most of his friends could still make it.
Of course we had a good time.
Of course I took pictures (on my phone and they are not the best- and I did not get everyone).
Of course I love this 30 year old husband of mine.

LOVE this cake. Notice the 3 goggles! :) 3-0.

How do we look for a couple of 30 year olds?
(Please ignore the red eyes)

The Proctors.

Brett (oh jeez) & Holly

1/2 of the Proctors and Seth.

Stuart's parents joined us too!

It was a fun evening celebrating Stuart. We closed the place down, enjoyed good food, good friends and time with each other. Happy 30th Birthday to my guy.

Eat Your Veggies!

This weekend was a big deal for a certain set of sweeties. On Saturday Sara Kate and I got up early and headed to the grocery store since we had ZERO food in this house. When we were there we picked up some veggies for my first attempt at making baby food. The babies will be six months old in a few days and I thought this weekend seemed like the right time to try it. I did not make baby food with Clark, I loved shopping for it and picking out new flavors. I thought it was so much fun. This time around I wanted to attempt it myself. So that is just what I did.

It was her first time at Kroger.
Look! She loved it.

As you can see by the buried baby in the full cart, we picked up quite a few things, but we also picked up some sweet potatoes, butternut squash, peas, carrots and Lima beans. When we got home I started with the potatoes and squash. Not sure why, but I was so excited to try this. 





First, I peeled and cut up all the veggies. No, I did not cut them beautifully.
 (This was my first time to cut a butternut squash as you can tell)

Next, I used these handy bags to steam the veggies.

Then, I used my mom's hand-me-down food processor.
(thanks mom!)



After I had it at just the right consistency I spooned it into ice cube trays.

It was so easy! Two potatoes and two squash made 48 cubes of food! I really hope I keep this up. I can't wait to make the carrots, peas and Lima beans. I will also be trying some fruit but we wanted to do veggies first. However, I would not recommend putting all of the peels down the disposal at once- slight clog, plunger needed, helpful husband to the rescue.

We let them try sweet potatoes this afternoon and it was so funny how different their reactions were. Sara Kate LOVED it. She lunged forward like it was the best thing that she had ever seen.(very much like her momma!) She eventually grabbed the spoon from my hand to get it in her mouth faster.  She even wiped the leftovers off Shepard's face and ate that too. No joke.

Shepard was not so excited. He just kind of stared at the spoon for a while, barely opened his mouth and then kind of let it sit there in his mouth. He was so funny. SK was angry that I was not giving it to her quick enough and he could take it or leave it.(very much like his daddy) He may take a few more tries to get him interested. He was happy about the whole ordeal, just not excited.

It was quite fun. I am going to keep up with the sweet potatoes this week. Giving them some after the 1:00 feeding and the 5:00 feeding. Next, I will try the squash. Today they split one cube at each meal time. So it was just a taste, but soon I will try to give them each one whole cube. I dumped the ice cube trays into Ziploc bags and labeled them in the freezer.This way each morning I will just get out what they will eat that day to thaw so it will be ready to eat when they are. Anybody else have any tips for this process? If so, please feel free to share. It has been awhile since I did this whole process with Clark and the whole make your own food is new to me so good ideas are welcome!

We are under a winter weather advisory tonight and I am not going to lie, I am hoping for a snow day tomorrow to get all caught up on things. But for now. I will leave you with one more cute picture from our first veggie experience.