FIRST birthday!

My babies are turning one! Chuck didn't get throwing a party for babies who won't remember it but you only have your first birthday once. It is time to celebrate! Thanks to those who have helped us within the past year and helped us celebrate our sweet girls!

The theme was butterflies

Making and planning the decorations was pretty much the biggest part of the preparation. My favorite part of the decorations was the "Year in Review" window of all of my favorite pics of the past year. 

 They were all labeled

There were butterfly streamers and butterflies intermittently dispersed through the pics. 

 More decorations

 Homemade banners

 I love my girls! I love how their precious little outfits turned out as well.

 My little butterflies!

 My sweet little miracles

 I love the butterflies and the frills!

 Thanks to all of our friends and family who came! Dayna

 All the little girls at the party made their own butterflies to take home.

 

 Jen

 Crafting it up

 Chuck's sibs

 Crackers, cheese, fruit, veggies, cupcakes, and juice.

 Chuck the wasp slayer. Dang wasps.

 My sweet Charity

 AnneMarie

 My lovely Harmony

 Kendra and E just two days older than the girls!

 Aunties Rosanne and Janeen

 Nancy, Michael and S

 The gift bench

 Kendra, Miles, O & E

 Time for the CAKE! I think one year just sounds too early for sugar. I found a healthy recipe online with bananas, apple sauce, wheat flour, etc. The frosting is cream cheese, etc.

 The only real sugar crap I used was the dang pink piping icing that LEAKED everywhere. GRR!!! I love their little candles too. The blue one is a butterfly.

 sampling...

 I LOVE that messy face!

 I may have made her take a taste. I think she liked it. ;)

 Not too sure. The just liked playing with it

 checking in

 finally taking a taste by choice

 Cute smiley girl!

 a little mushed

 destroyed!

 messy, messy. We probably should have stripped them down beforehand...

 E. So cute!

 Present opening!

 Their pillow animals. I got all of their gifts off of KSL or garage sales except for these pillows. Little commercial: I found them at Costco and the girls LOVE, love, LOVE them!!!

 We have the greatest friends!

All of the loot!

 

 Grandparents. The millers (cousins on my side of the family) showed as well but weren't able to stay long and I didn't get a pic.

 "Poop or cake? Poop or Cake? Cake. What if that had been poop?" Name that movie.

 Girls all cleaned up and dressed and playing with their toys.

 My beautiful little ladies. I have so much fun with them every day. They are my joy and my everything. My life has been forever changed and is fuller than ever! Happy birthday my little angels!!!

I know some family and friends weren't able to attend. We felt your love and are so grateful for your love and support toward our little girls as well. We are so blessed!!!

Happy Birthday!

Playing with their animal pillows

My little models

My friend, Cydnie's daughter Lauren has an etsy shop that she wanted the girls to model for. I was excited for my little beauties to have the chance to pose in such cute little headbands. They were a little crazy and hard to work with but I think she snapped some really cute pics! The headbands are so adorable as well. We had a great time. Cydnie and Lauren were so great with the girls and so easy and fun to work with.  

I LOVE my cute girls!!!

Weaning

Well, the time has finally come to officially wean my babies. I have a mixture of emotions. On one hand I'm so proud of myself for making it this long. On the other hand I'm sad it's over. I never produced enough milk for the girls. We had to supplement with bottles starting in the hospital. I was totally okay with that. With having twins through the whole process I've just known I needed to just go with the flow: Do my best but not worry if there needed to be a change of plans. The girls have always nursed so, so well.
It was hard in the beginning when I was nursing, bottle feeding and pumping. After I stopped pumping (except for before I went to bed at night or Sunday mornings) it was much easier. The girls have progressively needed more and more formula. I'm not sure if I would have produced enough for just one baby but I was definitely not enough for twins. I nursed them and then gave them bottles or solids. When we booked our trip to KY in July I knew I couldn't travel while feeding them the way I did (using my twin size breast friend). I knew it was time to start weaning them. I was afraid of the pain, the engorging, etc. The gradual tapering worked very well, however. I had no pain. I'm surprised how quickly my body adapted. Every few days I cut out nursing them from 5 down to two feedings a day until I was just nursing the first and last meals of the day. While in KY I cut out the last feeding as well. Since I couldn't travel with my pillow I nursed them one at a time. For the most part it worked out okay. I wanted to keep nursing them as long as I could. I know that not all women are able to nurse. I've enjoyed it so much and I'm sad to be moving out of this phase.
Nursing twins was such a sweet experience. At first, of course, they weren't aware of each other. As their awareness grew they enjoyed making sounds, holding hands, and reaching for one another. As they grew that turned into poking their sister in the eyes, grabbing clothes and pulling each other off as well. It wasn't just a bonding experience for me and my babies but for them with their sibling as well.
In the beginning it was hard to nurse two babies at once and I'm so grateful for my mom and my sweet husband who were more of a help in the process than they wanted to be. It got easier and easier until they got mobile and started trying to throw themselves off of the pillow.
I'm now entering a new phase where they are no longer dependant on me. They never have been 100% and if they needed always took a bottle if I had to miss a feeding. But I feel nursing gave me a special connection to them. They relied on me. My body was still a tool in providing for them as it had been in the womb. What I did to my body would affect them. I stopped bleaching my teeth, using an eyelash product, using a lotion for wrinkles (don't judge), worrying about taking cold medications, etc. I can now do whatever I want, take whatever I want. I can now fast again after being "off the hook" for over a year and a half. I now have my period again after being "off the hook" for that as well for a year and a half.
I know I am still the main provider and care giver to my babies. I'm just kind of sad to be closing this chapter. I made it much longer than I thought I would in the beginning. 11 months is a good number. It is what it is.
Are these thoughts normal? What did you experience when weaning your babies?
I'm so grateful to have had that experience to nurse my sweet babies for so long. I'm now just moving onto new experiences with my little miracles. :)

baby aven

This cute face is reason enough to travel to KY. He is such a sweetie!!! He loves me too. He has fallen asleep on me twice now. He even felt comfortable enough to pee on me. That's a good sign, right? We're loving KY. Is so cute too see the cousins with the girls. They are so sweet and so helpful. The girls light up when they see them. We're having a blast! More pics to come soon!

traveling to ky

We did it! We made it to ky safe and sound. The girls were amazing! They we so good and did so well. Prayers work!!! We learned a few things along the way so I'll be a seasoned traveler with my sister in the way home. The only downside about the trip was we missed or first flight by five stinking minutes because tsa didn't like our baby food. They went through everything and have chuck a pat down. Five minutes turned into five hours but we made it. Chuck and I were able to sit across three aisle from each other each with extra open seats. The only packed flight I was sitting next a nice grandma who helped whenever I needed an extra hand. Did I say prayers work? We're so excited to be here to see our friends and family!!!!