Awesome Grandmas!

Brody and Aidan just wanted me to give a little shout out to their awesome grandmas!!! They (and grandpas too, but they just might not know it) have been so generous since the boys were born. We cannot thank them enough. So a big thank you to both of you!!! We love you and wish that we got to see you more!!!

Grandma & Grandpa Hodgson with Josh and I

Grandma Kathy with her boys!

Look at the loot Grandma Kathy sent last week...holy cow that's A LOT of stuff!!!
Grandma Jackie keeps buying us diapers and formula every time we see her...look at the size of this can! She also helped mommy and daddy be able to afford our new Cadillac
(pics to come soon)

More Cuteness...If You Can Handle It!

Well, I promised another update today, so here I am although I should really be trying to hit the hay. I am so tired today. I feel like I got hit by a truck. I can't imagine what it's going to be like next week going back to work full time and getting up in the middle of the night. Oh what fun!!! I know this is going to be shocking, but most of this post will be pictures and my attempt to get good at our "photo shoots"!

The closest I've come in a LONG time to get Brody to smile! (BTW, do you see those ears? Can you say Brody-Michael-Phelps-Wilson??)

Brody likes to slap his knee with his hand right now. Must be some funny stuff running throught that head of his.A close up!This is my final attempt at getting some good pictures of the boys. We went outside and I think they turned out pretty well. I didn't have to deal with the flash at all, so I was able to take the pictures quicker. Not bad for an amateur, but Brian and Shannon I could still use some help!


These are more just candid shots of what they're doing now at five months. Aidan LOVES holding his little blankie tightly when he naps.

Brody always looks like he's concentrating so hard!
They're definitely starting to do more exploring of toys and objects. Brody's giving the bouncer a workout here...both the monkey and the parrot are getting knocked around a bit. This is one of the best baby items by the way. They love this bouncer!!! I wish I would've bought two of them because the other bouncer isn't nearly as entertaining for them.
This is an attempt to capture my best mommy moment yet. On Wednesday the boys went to daycare because I had a big recruit come for a campus visit. I picked the boys up around 2:30 PM and took them home. Brody was SOOOO fussy he was screaming in the car. By the time we got home he was sleeping. Josh was still home for lunch so he helped get Aidan out of his carseat while I took Brody out and laid him down for a nap on the bed in the guest bedroom. As I was doing this, Aidan started to fuss while Josh held him and when I walked out of the room he reached for me. It made my heart melt. It might have been a fluke, but he did it a few more times that day. I think he missed me...maybe I'm not such a bad mom after all. Every once in a while (maybe more often than not with twins) you need some sort of reassurance that you're doing a good or at least okay job.
Not only is Aidan reaching for me, but he loves to grab his toes now! So cute!

What? Five months? Says who?

Let me preface this entire post by saying, "It's going to be a long one." I hate when I get behind on blogging; then I just have so many things to post about and I don't have enough patience to get it all in before bedtime, so bare with me through all the spelling and grammar errors and anything else that seems a bit off with this post. (Okay, I'm editing here...it's not as long as I thought because I'm too tired to wait for pictures to upload. I'll post again tomorrow...I PROMISE)!

I know it seems like I say this phrase repeatedly, but where has the time gone. The boys were 5 months on Sunday. I can't believe. Josh keeps asking me how long we will be celebrating their "monthly" birthday. Apparently he doesn't think it's such a big deal, but what happened to my four pound, Aidan the Dragon? It seems crazy to think at 5 pounds we called Brody - Brod the Toad. I don't know how any baby can appear even remotely "chunky" at five pounds, but they're filling out now. We got them on the scale with us today and Aidan weighed in at 14 pounds, 13 ounces and Brody at 14 pounds, 10 ounces. That's right people Aidan really is the big brother now...must be the head. :) They are just growing up so fast and every day they do something that amazes me. I seriously think that I've taken 125 pictures in the last few days trying to capture their "5 month pictures". I haven't been very good about keeping them in the same spot/chair, etc. but at least I'll have pictures. So here's some pictures of my five month olds...I really wish some of my friends (i.e. Brian or Shannon) would teach me how to take some pictures. You'll notice I really did give a good effort this week to get some good pictures. They are sick of taking pictures and my "photo shoots". They seriously frown when they seen the camera now. I can't remember the last time I got them to smile for the camera.

We're 5 months today!!!

Look at those cute butts (thanks for the onesies Shak)!!!

Attempt #2 (Monday)Caught them before they rolled over on me
Look at those big blues!Yes, Brody is in the laundry hamper...and not happy about it at that...
The proud parents...

Olympics Addicts

I don't really have much to post. I guess I'm not a very good blogger. I might have to work on that. Most of the other blogs I read, post about their days or thoughts or just to vent. I almost always coming to the computer to post because I have PICTURES! Oh well, I'll work on that other part.

The other day I tried to set up to take some cute pictures of the boys in the living room. Wouldn't you know it...they just didn't turn out like I hoped. I think it's going to be much harder to take their pictures from here on out without them squirming around. And yes, I really had Olympics on the t.v.

Apparently they think that there should be sychronized rolling in the Olympics...Yes, Aidan is crying because he got the silver.

This is my attempt to get them to look at me...

Now I finally have Aidan's attention, but...Brody's still watching beach volleyball.

This is the best I could do and Brody still doesn't look very happy.

They love to hold hands. Aidan' grabs for Brody's hand every chance he gets.

She Bangs!

Okay, so I think I finally have a haircut I absolutely LOVE. It was a long process, one filled with nerves and tension, but I think it's finally over. It all started on our trip to Door County and thanks to Erin I got the process started. I wanted to go short, but once she cut it I loved that I could still pull it back and was scared to go shorter. She did an awesome job and I felt like a new woman. Then about 3 weeks after vacation I went to see my amazing hairstylist Brittany (thanks for the referral Kraem) and she convinced me I could indeed go shorter without highlighting the chubby face and extra pregnancy weight. I went shorter and loved it. It cut even more time off getting ready. However, after a week I was certain that I needed my bangs trimmed, but was REALLY nervous about that. Everytime I got dolled up I ended up running my fingers through my bangs to tuck them back and they ended up looking GREASY...attractive, I know.

If I think back to a year ago, just finding out I was pregnant, I thought I'd always want my hair long to pull back in a ponytail as a mom. Although that would be nice, I would also NEVER have time to do anything fun and feel good about how I look. Maybe its true what they say, once you get married and become a mom, the shorter your hair gets.

Here's a pick of Brody mastering the Podee bottle and me showing
off the new "do"!

If You Ain't First...You're Last!

Okay, so I'm kidding and I would never teach my kids that, but we just discovered something pretty exciting. Check out our video...Enjoy!

Where did the time go?

As I'm coming up on my return to work in two weeks, just a week after the boys will be 5 months old, I cannot believe how fast the time has flown. Last week I seen a 7 pound baby and was telling my mom that there's no way that Aidan and Brody were that small at one time. We have a lot to do before I go back to work, including getting the boys on a more structured routine for the babysitter. Despite what other people's beliefs/thoughts are, I really enjoyed my time with the boys and just "going with the flow", but I know that it will be better for Katie if we get a little more structure. It was also so hard with us traveling so much and them staying at different places to get them on a routine, but now that we don't really have any traveling plans for a while, now seems like a great time. I'm reading the book The Baby Whisperer and so far I like it a lot. We've already tried implementing some of her techniques, but we'll do a complete transition next week. She says that it usually takes 5 days or so for babies A&B's age to catch on. Here's some comparison pictures of my little boys.

Here is a pitcure of the diapers they wore when they were born and the size 2's they're in now. That other little thing is their ID badge that was around their ankle. Look, it barely fits around my thumb.

Here Aidan's first bath...and look at him now!
Brody was a little peanut...now he has filled out!
Daddy and his boys both past and present.