Our first trip out of town... Houston here we come.

So, we headed out to Houston earlier this month... Trip was EXTREMELY fearful that this was going to be the worst idea we ever had!  Our sweet friends Claire and Nathan (Kristin's brother-in-law and soon to be sister-in-law) got married in The Woodlands and we wanted to be there!  So, we headed down with a plan to stay with Lauren and Bern for a couple of days, then go to the wedding and drive back to Dallas directly after the wedding since the wedding was at 4 pm, we were already and hour or so closer to Dallas, and because it would give us a full day in Dallas to recuperate and get the babies back on schedule.

Surprisingly enough, the trip went really well... until 7:15 pm Saturday night.  We had a great weekend hanging out with Bern and Lauren, we ate dinner at Lupe's (and lunch), we went to the Galleria, saw a couple of good friends and went to the wedding.  We had such a great time and Lauren, Bern and Talan were such great hosts and wonderful helpers!

On Saturday, we only gave ourselves 1 hour to get from Houston to the church (we needed 1:15 due to Houston Saturday afternoon traffic???).  So only Caden was fed before we went into the wedding, luckily, both babies were fantastic during the ceremony... Linley slept and Caden was content.  We decided to push Linley to the next feeding so she would be on schedule with Caden since she was sleeping away, VERY BAD IDEA.  She slept until the next feeding but when she woke up at 6 pm to eat both she and Caden were pissed.  So there we are feeding them at one of the tables at the reception, thank goodness that Therese had the foresight to put us at a fantastic table with a group of really sweet friends, lots of grandparents, so it worked out okay.  Then we decided to head home, caution, this is where it gets bad... since we skipped Linley's 3 pm feeding the 6 pm feeding wasn't quite enough and as soon as we got in the car to drive back to Dallas she starts screaming at the top of her lungs and would not calm down.  Trip stopped to get gas in Conroe and the gas pump asks him 20 questions before it will allow him to pump gas (DL #, odometer reading etc...) so he got REALLY frustrated and decided to go to another station.  At that station I decided to jump out and warm up the bottles in the restroom since that was the only thing I could think of doing to calm miss Linley down... no hot water.  I tried the coffee machine, no hot water?  Really, no hot water at the gas station, ANY WHERE.  I finally did the one thing you aren't supposed to do, I microwaved the bottles.  I promise I didn't scald them, but really, NO HOT WATER????  I tried feeding Linley in the car seat, no go, still screaming... so I resorted to pulling her out of the car seat and feeding her, sorry I know, I am a bad mom.   She finally calms down enough to eat but about 3 ounces into the feeding I realize I had made a terrible mistake.  Unfortunately, this realization came after she threw up all over me... there were 4 bottles in the cooler, 2 of formula and 2 of breast milk and formula.  I accidentally gave her a formula only bottle and her little tummy was very upset with that.  I had throw up all over me, all over her and all over the car.  So there I am in the back seat of the Expedition with throw up all over the place, searching for burp cloths to clean us up, searching for new PJs for Linley (she ended up in Caden's) and new PJ pants for me.  It was not good!  In fact, the car looked like one of the bags exploded the next day when Trip unpacked.  Meanwhile, I had been needing to pump since about 6 pm but since Linley had her meltdown I hadn't had a chance.  After I got Linley situated (she was finally happy), I climbed up to the front seat and busted out my pump.  Yes, that is right, there I was in the front seat pumping after an hour and a half of screaming Linley.  All of the sudden both Trip and I start laughing and he just shakes his head and says "where did my life take such a drastic left turn?"  I think it was the pumping in the front seat that put him over the edge...

Caden has figured out how to grab and hold toys

Lauren and Caden

I think people thought we had triplets... Casen, Ashtyn,
Byron, Sherry, Hauck and Lexi joined us for lunch at
Lupe's

Lauren and Linley

Bern and Caden

sleeping away the wedding, if only we knew what was
coming next.

Dad and Caden recovering on Sunday... Caden in his
hamburgler pjs as Trip calls them.

One of 3 updates... I am so behind

Been a while since our last post so there are quite a few pics to get everyone up-to-date... babies had their 4 month check up at the beginning of the month, they are doing fantastic.  They are completely on track; Caden is in the 10th percentile for weight and the 6th percentile for height, Linley is in the 3rd percentile for weight and 5th percentile for height.  Why this is great... they are on regular growth charts, not accounting for the fact they were preemies and 2 months early; they may be on the bottom of the chart but they are on there and trending perfectly!

They are both social smiling and laughing now; they are so funny to watch and play with now.  I know it just gets better and better with every stage but I am really enjoying this one, I love how interactive they are now.  They are both sleeping well; Linley sleeps from 11 pm to 8 am pretty much every night unfortunately Caden isn't quite as predictable.  He goes to bed at 11 pm and he wakes up at 4 am or 5:30 am or 6 am or 8 am... none-the-less if he wakes up before 8 am he doesn't get fed, he just snuggles with mommy and goes back to sleep.  I must admit, I love how snuggly he is... Trip says we sleep nose to nose in the bed. 

Linley... the etrade baby, helping Kristin with Claire and
Nathan's wedding slideshow... a nightly ritual.

Our first walk in our jogging stroller,
thanks GiGi

Mrs. Shelley with Caden at Jenner's Birthday party

Jenni with Caden at Jenner's birthday

Jenni & Kelli with Linley Grace

Our good friend Bennett

Daddy & Emme making Caden laugh

Mrs. Mandy with Caden

Happy Halloween!

Well, we had our first Halloween together as a family of 4... it was full of trick or treating, just kidding.  Actually, we did go over to our friends Gabe & Shelley to celebrate as is our tradition.  Usually we go over to their house, eat dinner, have a couple of drinks and enjoy a hay ride through the neighborhood while the kiddos trick or treat at each stop.  We thought we weren't going to get to go this year because their house is usually packed full of little kids and with Caden and Linley still being so susceptible to germs we didn't want to chance it.  Lucky for us though, Shelley decided to keep the Halloween festivities to Sarah, Adam and their sweet 5 week old Emma, her mom and Gabe's mom so we got to go!  We did skip the hay ride this year, can't imagine what that would have been like with Caden & Linley!

Caden, Linley, Emma, Bennett

Mom came in town last week on her way to Tulsa to visit my aunt Judi... my dad is in Romania so she decided to go on a road trip.  She cleaned my house and helped with the babies feedings, I am sure our nanny loved having her around!

Our sweet nanny Doris, Linley, Mom and Caden

Last Thursday evening I went to dinner with the girls to celebrate my birthday, we went to Mercy wine bar and enjoyed a couple bottles of wine and great appetizers!  We had a fantastic time although we missed Kelli tremendously, she had to cancel at the last minute as she picked up a virus.  It was sad without her!

Caden and Linley are smiling and laughing more and more each day.  We finally caught some of their smiles and laughs on camera... we also introduced them to the Bumbos this week.  It is strange to see them sit up on their own.

mommy and Caden watching the Rangers game

Birthday picture...

Saturday night Trip and I celebrated my 31st birthday, at what age am I no longer supposed to tell people how old I am?  We had a great time, we went to our favorite restaurant Taverna and shared our usual amazing meal.  The manager, who we have gotten to know over the years, was so surprised to see us since we hadn't been there in such a long time (wonder why).  He sent over dessert for my birthday (chocolate souffle) and champagne for the babies!


Most of you know how fantastic of a gift giver Trip is, this year he got me a vacuum... silence anyone?  Luckily, the vacuum was a joke or someone would be in big trouble.  Our vacuum broke recently so we have been talking about getting a new one, I told him absolutely do not get it for my birthday... he did it anyways.  To his credit it was a Dyson and lucky for him, my other gifts were fantastic so this just topped them off!

We weighed Caden on Sunday... a whopping 12 lbs, can you believe it?  He is huge!  Linley is also growing, just not quite as fast, she came in at 9 lbs.  They are both smiling and laughing like crazy now... especially in the morning.  Last night, Caden was such a hoot... he was laughing and smiling and copying the faces we made, specifically me sticking my tongue out at him.  He would stick his tongue out and then laugh and kick his feet and wave his arms.  It was so funny!

Another bow run in... whoops!

Aunt KB and aunt B babysat... apparently they had a
photo shoot while we were gone.

15 weeks...

Caden and Linley are just busy, busy growing.  Nothing too exciting to report except that they have finally started social smiling and laughing.  It is so precious, usually it is in the morning though so poor Trip misses a lot of it.  Linley is now sleeping 8 - 9 hours a night, I feed her at 11 pm and she typically sleeps to 8 am or 9 am depending on when we are feeding Caden.  Unfortunately our big boy doesn't seem to want to get on the same schedule so he is still waking up at night somewhere between 4 am and 6 am.  We can usually get him to go back to sleep for a little while but he is definitely not sleeping through the night like his big sister.

Shifty eyes...

Cute outfit...

upset about cute outfit?

Snoozing with aunt KB

We have matching PJs...

Do I look like I am up to something?

Our sweet babies are such water babies, they love their baths.  At least while they are in them, afterwards, not so happy!  It is amazing how much they have grown in the last couple of months, I remember how small they were when I first gave them a bath in the NICU, now they are practically taking up the entire bathtub!

tool kit...

Happy...

Sad... what a face!