Easter Week

Yeeees, I know. It's coming up on Memorial Day Holiday and I'm just now writing about Easter. It was a very busy week with lots of pictures and memories made! It was so refreshing to celebrate our risen Savior in a new light and new appreciation due to the journey He has led us down this past year. I'm so thankful my God lives and chooses to orchestrate the happenings in my life!

We started by getting our 6 month / Easter pictures done at JCP. I'll post more in their 7 month post, but here is one to get you drooling :)

Then we headed to the Beach since Ryan had Friday off. We had a wonderful time with great weather. We still struggled to find out the perfect set up for the twins and their pack-n-plays. We are getting closer though! Caden had a tough trip with his reflux / constipation issues. This was the start of the downward spiral for C-man...but more about that in the 7 month post. We had a great time snapping shots and taking the twins out to the beach for an extended stay. They LOVED the beach...just as they should :)

I can't even handle the next picture...probably my favorite of Ryan and little Miss Jenna

I've had the twins' Easter outfits picked out for MONTHS. Silly and trivial? Perhaps. But I waited a long time to dress a baby so I was not going to let this opportunity pass me by to coordinate two babies' outfits! It is a rule in my family that you can not change clothes (no matter what service you go to!) until AFTER the Easter Family Photo Session. I'm so glad we didn't miss out this year...we were able to get some of my all.time.favorite shots. :) Good shootin' Aunt Robin and Cousin Jamie!

Yes, Robin and Brad hid an Easter Egg in Cadens onesie....

Next year, we will be hiding and hunting for Easter Eggs!

Here we go!

So......remember our 6 month post? Remember my concern that neither of my kids were rolling back to stomach? Remember how the Pediatrician told me that could change in a day? :)

Just like most things in our life since the twins joined us, we do things 0-60 in no time! Enjoy....

Jenna Rolling in Crib from Casey Little on Vimeo.

and no...there is no video of Caden because he is perfectly content to lay flat on his back. No tummy time, no rolling. Ahhhh Caden...

The Final Picture!

**Watch out folks...I've got Blogger Fever trying to catch up on all that has been happening in our lives! I've got a ton of post started and will work on finishing them this weekend so check back often or you will be lost in the blogging dust :)

We now have the final picture with Mr Truett joining us! My girlfriends and I met at Yogurt Mountain to complete our "Campbell Picture Series" last week. We had a good time introducing all of the kids to each other and swapping our new adventures of motherhood and fatherhood together. Click here to see our picture progression before this final picture.

Aunt Robin...a.k.a "College Graduate"

This past Saturday, my baby sis graduated from good ole' Campbell University! We are all so proud of her and what she accomplished at CU: playing volleyball, majoring in Kinesiology, a minor in Biology (ugh!), working with Therapy patients and finishing with a great GPA. (I don't remember the exact number but it was good haha!) Campbell has changed SO much since Ryan and I walked the over abundance of brick paths. We had a good time recreating pictures that my mom took when she graduated, pictures Ryan took when he walked the stage and pictures I took when I graduated 7 short years ago. Here are a few...

Back on the ole stomping grounds...we had some great times here!

Aunt Robin definitely had the best bedazzled cap in the crowd. Shannon, her roomate, gets the award for the best use of Campbell's initials: CU.

The four CU grads in front of the new ridiculously large camel statue

Sisters..........

Dad and his girls who picked his pockets clean paying CU tuition! :)

I bet you cant' tell which one is Robin...

Later that day, our Uncle Jim threw a great pig pickin' Graduation Party. Too bad it was raining and cool, but we had an awesome time anyway :)

We love the Hudgins!

Keeping Jenna Girl warm :)

Congrats Robin! We are proud of you!

My 1st Mothers Day!

So I realized I'm enormously behind in blogging a bunch of stuff, but I'll get to that later. I must do what I remember now! :) I had the BEST Mother's Day...it was so exciting yet humbling to celebrate. God has been so good to me and I'm so thankful he answered my prayers (not to mention countless others, many of you! who prayed with us).

Just like anything we try to do...it was an adventure to say the least. Here is the story: Woke up to Caden having a fever. I really almost cried right there..I wanted to go to church so badly! It was Mother's Day, it was the last class we had with the Seniors AND I had an outfit that fit picked out! ha. We gave him Tylenol and decided to just keep him out of the nursery (duh) and I would hold him through service and class. He actually did very well and didn't act like he felt bad. So I chalk it up to extra cuddle time with him on Mother's Day :) We came home and opened presents: a 1st Mothers Day Christmas ornament from Caden and Jenna, a picture frame from C&J and a monogrammed acrylic drinking cup from Ryan...complete with a straw. :) Yes, there is a reason and funny story behind this, not just a random gift. :)



We checked the forecast Sat night where it said, and I quote: "Don't cancel your outdoor Mother's Day plans, little chance we will see any rain." HA! Of course it was cloudy and drizzly when we woke up and even when we got out of church. We decided the rain was mostly gone so we packed up everything to go enjoy a picnic at Lake Lynn. Timeout here: it is NOT easy packing up a stroller, two bumbo's, numerous blankets, toys, bibs, diaper bag, our lunch and yes, the twins, BUT, it's what I wanted to do, so that's what we did! We picked up Panera and headed out! After spending 5 minutes trying to find a patch of grass that didn't have geese poo in it, we settled down. The twins fell asleep in their seats, so we thought we would have a nice lunch just the two of us. NOPE! Over my shoulder, I see two big geese making their way over to us. We tried speaking in geese to them, yelling, shewing, nothing worked. They were fearless. As they got close, they began to hiss at us. Yes, hiss at us! After protecting my food, composing myself from laughing, and snapping a picture, I chased them away with the stroller. ha...take that.

THEN...it started to sprinkle. I was not having any fun and certainly not relaxing at this point so we packed up and ate in the back of the pilot. The Little's + picnics = disaster. (if you haven't heard the story of how Ryan proposed, then this doesn't make much sense to you...you will have to hear that one to fully appreciate our inability to have a picnic!)

After this, Ryan gave me the green light to do anything I wanted! I really couldn't think of anything..my identity outside of "mom" is temporarily missing! ugh. So I decided I really wanted an uninterrupted nap. So, I put earplugs in, AND covered my head with a pillow and had a great nap :) Then we packed up and went to Sonic for Happy Hour...Cherry Limeade please! We were so close to Lake Johnson, we headed over and went for a beautiful (but very STEEP) 3 mile walk around the lake. We came home and played with the kids, worked on sitting up (nope, still not close), gave them a good bath and put them down.




Ryan and I made cookies and got our favorite ice cream and settled down to watch the Amazing Race Finale. Love that show! As we were going to bed, I thought I heard a little chirp in the nursery so Ryan went in to check on the twins. I heard him through the wall in disgust "ohhhhh Jenna!" Jenna had thrown up all over herself (just bathed,remember!?), in her footed pajamas (how do you do that?), and the crib. It was a total start over: sheets, diaper, wipe-bath, pajamas. In between all of this, she would gag and throw up again and then look up at us with those big, beautiful eyes wondering what was happening? I was in tears, it literally broke my heart and took my breath. After about 20 minutes, we thought we were in the clear and put her back down. I turned around to check on Caden (nope, hadn't done that yet!) and he is covered in vomit! Unbelievable! So we start the process with him while Jenna keeps dry heaving in her crib. We finally get them both cleaned and just pick them up and hold them for a while until they fell asleep and we felt the worst was over. Pitiful! The worst part of this story is the suspected reason for our midnight vomit-fest: a bad banana. I smashed up a banana at dinner to give them with their cereal. I even doubted that it was ripe enough and asked Ryan what he thought. I think it was the banana b/c they threw up just about the same time and it lasted the same amount of time. They never ran a fever either. ugh. Lesson learned? If you doubt it, dont feed it to your child! haha

Anyway, it was an adventurous day nonetheless. I would take this Mother's Day complete with surprises, geese poo, unexpected rain, and vomit any day over the past two. However, at the same time, I'm thankful for the past two years and the feelings I experienced on Mother's Day...it has opened my eyes to just how blessed I am, how big our God is, how good He is and how much I looooove Caden and Jenna.

I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day and THANK YOU for the sweet, caring cards in the mail and messages I got all day.

The New Public Enemy #1

With all that has been in the news this week regarding the death of the FBI's "most wanted", I thought it was only fair, humane and considerate to share with everyone the identity of the current Public Enemy #1. See below for a composite sketch:




No, not that poor model....the dress. Yep, that's a picture of my bridesmaid dress for my sister's wedding. The wedding is in 5 weeks, I had twins 6 months ago, I ordered the dress in November and ordered it 2 sizes smaller than what I was measuring 4 weeks post-delivery. All of these numbers equal something bad. ugh.

I've been amazed at how much I'm struggling with this post-baby body. It was SO HARD to gain the weight they wanted me to gain to carry the twins and now it is SO HARD to loose what is left. I struggle with it mentally, every single day. This is definitely the new opening that Satan is trying to wiggle his way in my mind and feed me lies.

I was so obsessed with my milk supply the first few weeks that I didn't even think about dieting or exercising. Now that we are good in the milk department and I'm tired of having like 4 shirts and 1 pair of pants that fit, I've been trying so. very. hard. to get back in shape. I started running in January after we got back from our New Years Eve Beach Trip. It was sooooo cold running at night when Ryan got home, but its the only time I could do it. Now that it is nice outside, I go for walks and runs with the twins a mile or two around our neighborhood. I still haven't taken the dieting into high gear...there is no time to fix good, healthy food! If I want to eat these days, it must be quick. :( Anyway, I'm 15 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight and 25 pounds from my pre-try-to-have-a-baby-hormone-shots and pills weight. :) (that stuff was brutal!)

Anyway, the month of May is bootcamp month. The dress zips, which is good...but I liken it to a can of biscuits when you pop the seam: busting out the top and sides :)Anyway, pray for me to stay focused, accountable to my goals and mentally positive. Oh yea, and for some pounds to disappear! :)

Happy Anniversary!

Today is our 6th Wedding Anniversary and boy have we packed alot in 6 years. I love my husband so much. I see more and more each day glimpses of just how perfect God set us up to be together. I'm so thankful Ryan opened his eyes (finally!) and saw the scrawny 9th grader who was so in love with him! haha All joking aside, God made my eyes only for Ryan Yates Little and he is the only fella I've ever wanted to be mine.

We had such a great time dating...it was a long time (5 years hello!) but we really enjoyed it, had a great time, and learned just about everything we could about each other. We were so perplexed when people asked us what we had to adjust to when we got married...there were really no secrets or surprises that we learned once we were together 24/7! God blessed us so much with such an easy, fun, non-stressful marriage until we tried to have children and lost our first baby. That was an extremely tough 2 years that I can't even begin to put into words! I wont lie and say we "relied on each other and grew stronger each day" bla bla bla b/c if I'm being real with you...it was rough. We had some rough rough days and nights in the Little household during those 2 years. But God's grace is bigger, stronger, and more powerful than our selfishness, anger, sadness, disappointment and disbelief! He brought us through that tough time and due to some very hard lessons we learned...we are, in fact, stronger in our relationship with Christ first, then our relationship with each other in our marriage. Praise God!

We have enjoyed a very typical Anniversary-with-infants this year. Our fab friends Brandon and Marybeth came AGAIN and watched the kiddo's for us to go out to...yep Maggiano's AGAIN. You can't go wrong there people! We ate so much we didn't even have room for dessert or coffee. We were so tired so we just came home. How old. How boring. How typical now :) It was great to get out and reflect on all the Lord has brought us through the past 6 years.

And now...a trip down memory lane. (no comments on the very wide range of poundage both Ryan and I have flexed between! haha)

2005Our Wedding Day...best day ever!




Yes...this is when our Unity Candle wouldn't light....



On our Honeymoon to Fiji (totally awesome. Bula!)



Snuggle joins our family!



2006

We join our church and meet awesome friends!




2007

We buy a house and spend lots of time together fixing it up


We train and run a half marathon together



2008
Ryan learns how to be a nurse after my Knee surgery. HA! shouldn't you be helping me instead of taking pictures!?



We begin our annual trip to New York with our best buds: the Hudgins'


We go on an awesome Cruise!


2009

New York again! At Johns Pizza (Pizza Heaven)


We go to Peru on a Mission Trip with our Church



2010

New York again of course:)


We're going to have a baby! I mean babies!


Double our Fam in 6 amazing hours:


I love ya, babe! Looking forward to many more! Happy Anniversary!

Table for Four

Oh boy! We now have two solid-food eating infants and let me tell you...it is HARD. Much more difficult than I thought having two babies who can't do anything for themselves and having two mouths to get the spoons to! The first week of Jenna joining the table was tough. It took me an hour and fifteen minutes to feed them both the first day...all three meals! I was having to use two separate bowls of cereal because Jenna needed hers much thinner than Caden. Then, Caden was on to his solid food, but not Jenna (I did cereal-only with her for a week first). Whew! I only had to do that for a few days solo. We headed to the beach last week so I had plenty of help there to get me through the introduction week with Jenna. Things are much better now, I make one bowl of cereal and one bowl of "solid food" and feed them both from it. It usually goes something like: spoon full to Jenna, spoon full to Caden, spoon full to mama of her food. It is an absolute production! :)

Jenna must have picked up how to eat from a spoon by watching Caden these past 2 months. She picked up on it in one day and takes it like a pro! Our first food to try has been Bananas...we had a ton of ripe bananas that we needed to use so that ended up being our first food to try this week! Caden LOVES it, I can't get the spoon in his mouth fast enough. Jenna was NOT a fan at first. Today she actually took more so hopefully persistence will pay off and she will begin to enjoy it. Sorry kids, part of being a twin is sharing and taking what is provided! I'm not going to start preparing two separate foods b/c of pickiness :) I think she is coming around just fine...it was just a new texture for that crazy tongue of hers to play with.

Caden with Bananas: in pure bliss

Jenna with Bananas: what is this!? ick!

And here is a little glimpse into dinner time madness:

Dinner Time Madness from Casey Little on Vimeo.