HAPPY 65th BIRTHDAY DAD / GRANDPA

Today we celebrated my dad's 65th birthday. We gathered for brunch and some family fun in the backyard (minus Jal because she is away - we missed you Jal). 

Kieran and Quinn thought it would be great to have a pinata at "Grandpa's" party. They decided that it had to be a Justin Bieber one and it must be stuffed full of Halloween candy. We all took turns bashing the pinata - but in the end "Grandpa" finally broke through and released the candy! We enjoyed celebrating this milestone and can't wait for many more to come! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! 

Dad / Grandpa getting ready to bash the pinata

Kieran's turn

Quinn's turn 

Jacob's turn (with a little help from Mommy)

Charlotte's turn (with a little help from Mommy)

Kelley's turn

Jacob and Charlotte waiting for their "brunch"

Cousins!!

The cousins hanging out on the floor

I love Charlotte and Jacob's faces in this picture! 

Grandpa and his grandchildren (not the best pic I've ever taken)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! 

TWINS...TWINS AND MORE TWINS.....

Today we met Lindsay (and her twins Andrew and Teagan) and Shaun (and her twins Kai and Kaz) for a picnic at the Beach. It was great to see everyone and so amazing to watch all the kids interact with each other. Four of the six kids are "on the move" so keeping them confined to the blankets and not eating leaves and dirt was a challenge. 


Andrew, Teagan, Kai, Kaz, Charlotte and Jacob "met" at the St. Mike's NICU. They have all come a long way since our time there. It has been great fun getting to know Andrew, Teagan, Kai and Kaz (as well as their parents) over the past nine months and we look forward to sharing lots of milestones with them over the years to come. 

Teagan all smiles on the play mat

Charlotte and Kai hanging on the mat

Kaz was the fastest mover of them all

Andrew enjoying a moment with "Sophie" (I just love his bald head)

Kai, Kaz (11.5 months), Charlotte, Jacob (Almost 9 months), Teagan and Andrew (11.5 months)

A PLAY IN THE PARK....

Today I took Charlotte and Jacob to the park for the first time. We met my friend Kristie and her little girl Katie there for a "play date". I decided to try Charlotte and Jacob in the swing to see if they liked it and as you can imagine they loved it. Jacob was so relaxed during his "swing time" that he actually fell asleep! 

A swing built for sharing

Charlotte not too sure what to think...but she loved it! 

Swinging is so much fun...why did we wait so long to try it?! 

It's also exhausting...zzzz

AND THEN THERE WERE...TWO

Jacob may have taken the 1st tooth "award"...but Charlotte has decided she can do one better....this past weekend she cut two teeth on the bottom. The first popped through on Friday and the second made its appearance sometime between last night and this morning. Both are small and like Jacob too hard to capture by picture but they are sharp! So far teething hasn't really been a lot of fun to go through...lots of tears have been shed. Charlotte seems to be struggling with it more than Jacob but he has had his moments too. I'm hoping that with each new tooth the pain becomes more tolerable for the kids - it sure isn't a lot of fun to see them (or hear them) in pain. 

LET THE BRUSHING BEGIN...JACOB HAS A TOOTH :)

It's pretty tiny and you can't really see it yet (hence the reason there is no picture) but you can certainly feel it when you touch his front bottom gums. Despite its size it is sharp! He has been making funny sucking sounds with his lips the past few days so we think he must know something is different. He will either open and close his mouth biting down on his gums (kind of like an old man who forgot to put his dentures in) or suck like he's got a hard candy in his mouth.  Both are quite cute. We look forward to more teeth arriving over the coming weeks - as long as they don't cause pain and an upset baby - luckily this first one wasn't too bad. So after months of blaming things / moods on "teething" we can legitimately do so now! 

Charlotte is close to getting her first tooth but none have cut through her gums yet....with twins it is always interesting to see who does what first and up until now it has been Charlotte leading the way - - but J-man decided he wasn't going to stand for that anymore and took this "milestone"!