Sneak Peek

I have A LOT of pictures to sort through so here is just a sneek peak of Hannah & Kate's 1st Birthday Party!!!! We had so much fun!

Kate going to town on her birthday cupcake

Hannah being little Miss Dainty eating her cupcake so politely

Don't worry. I have tons more pictures & video to share. Stay tuned...

A Real Go-Getter

This has been happening for a while. I've just never been able to catch it on video until now. It's kinda cute...maybe from Kate's point of view. If she wants something, she takes it. We'll start working on correcting that. I won't always think it's cute.

And I don't normally let her take from Hannah without correcting her. Just this once...to get it on video.

Almost One!

As I have previously mentioned, life around the Lantz household has been quite hectic trying to prepare for a first birthday party and finishing scrapbooks. I decided I was stressing myself out too much over the scrapbooks so I only completed up through May. Considering I hadn't even started on their NICU time up until this past month, I think I did a pretty good job of finishing 8 months (times 2). George has been working every night this week. In fact, I have only spent one out of the last 4 nights with him, which is okay. He gets to come home in the mid-morning, gets paid to sleep, and then gets called back out in the early evening. I guess it's just part of the routine for us now. That's not his set schedule, but he can make more money if he works these hours. Anyway, he has assured (or did I tell him) me that he will be completely rested up for the big day on Saturday!

Kate-she loves to play in car seats. In fact, I have two little monkeys on my hands. They love to climb. They have a little toy chair that I see them standing in every once in a while to get closer to something. Sometimes they try to lift their leg up onto the couch to sit with me. They can't yet, but they have the idea of it.

Kate

Kate-using the car seat to get closer to the top of the table.

Kate

Daddy & the girls looking out the window

Swimming

Here's a cute video of them laughing at Bella running around outside.

Part of my problem with not blogging the last week is that I haven't noted their new accomplishments. When I go back to write in my scrapbook, I have been rereading my blogs so I can write down what new things they did each month. Kate has learned how to hold her own sippy cup and drink from it by herself (woo hoo)! Hannah just started shaking her head back and forth like she is saying no. She's not saying no because she just does it randomly, but it's really cute. They are also both potty trained (wait a minute-WHAT?). They aren't standing on their own yet, but they hover for a couple of seconds if you let go of them. I think that is about it for now. Don't worry...I don't neglect Hannah. I haven't been taking much pictures lately anyway and I guess most of them just happened to be of Kate.

If you think about it, the poor little birthday girls have a cold. Please pray that they will be better so that they can enjoy their birthday party.

One year ago tomorrow, I was laying in a hospital bed doing this:

Looking back at it, we are just so incredibly blessed that God worked the miracles that He did. He didn't have to, but He did. Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

*Just kidding about the whole potty trained thing. Just checking to see if you actually read my blog or you just look at the cute pictures.

Still alive

Just wanted you all to know that I am still alive, but am very busy with planning a certain someones' birthday party, starting a new bible study (which I already love), starting a parenting bible study (which I am really excited about), trying to finish scrapbooking before the party, and also taking care of the rest of my wife and mommy duties. Whew...just thinking about it all makes me tired. One week from today and the girls will be ONE! Can't wait for them to stuff their faces into some cake.

Mercury isn't just a planet

Remember how I told you that George went fishing with some buddies in the Keys. Well, while they were down there, they ate some barracuda along with many other shellfish. Can you see where this is going? George had been complaining of not feeling well since he got home. Dru, Erin's boyfriend, developed hives and some other symptoms the day after they got home. The other guys also all seemed to be not feeling so well (i.e. throwing up, headaches, throwing tables across the house, etc). Okay, so maybe not that last symptom, but everything else. Dru went to the doctor and it turns out he has mercury poisoning. We are assuming that that is what the rest of the guys have also. It's not life threatening. They are just supposed to avoid foods that contain a lot of iron. The reason that I mentioned the throwing tables across the house was because high levels of mercury can make a person prone to fits of rage or mood swings. Haven't heard of any of that happening. I guess it just has to run its course. There isn't anything the doctors can really do for them unless it's extremely serious. Little did I know all of the adventure that would come with being married to George.

Also, did you notice how my little Lilypie ticker is pretty much at the 1 year old mark. Ahhhh! Where has the time gone? Hope you all have a great Wednesday!

Minnie Mice

Whooo...what a weekend! We stayed super busy and with Daddy out of town (I know, again), we had lots of girl time. George went to the Keys with some of his friends to do some fishing, swimming with sharks (you know my husband, go big or go home), catch some lobster, etc. I'm glad that he got to relax and had some fun doing man stuff. When I told him the other day that I was taking a 4 day trip, he got a little anxious and said, "Well, what are you going to do with the girls?" "What do you mean what am I going to do with the girls? You're going to watch them." (Hahaha-what a cruel joke for a wife to play on her husband). I was just kidding, but I wanted to see his reaction. However, I do think that a short weekend getaway with just some girl friends would be nice. We'll see.

Here's a picture of Hannah yesterday drinking from her sippy cup. I'm hoping to have them on sippy cups only in the next month or so. Kate still likes to bite the end of the part that she drinks out of. She occassionally will suck on it. So Hannah is ahead of her at this part of the game.

On Saturday night, I dressed them in their matching Minnie Mouse pajamas that they got at one of my baby showers. They were 12 month sizes so I tucked them away, but I'm glad I decided to pull them out because they were a tiny bit snug on Kate. They were too cute in them! Remember I was by myself this weekend so getting them together for a picture was nearly impossible so many of these pictures are separate.

Kate

Kate-my attempts to sit her a couple of feet away and take her picture. You can see how that worked, huh?

Kate

Isn't their chair cute? We are borrowing it from a friend.

This was Kate falling forward out of the chair.

Another attempt at a picture together

Hannah using the chair to surf

Hannah

Our new nickname for Hannah is Popeye. She likes to curl her lips under when she smiles and it makes her face go a little cockeyed. It reminds us of Popeye. We sing, "I'm Popeye the sailor man. Toot toot."

Silly Girls

Hannah and Kate have done some really silly things lately that make me laugh out loud. One of Kate's new accomplishments is smacking her lips. It's actually very sweet because of the face she gets when she does it. However, the following pictures depict Hannah in a rather precarious situation. The both love to climb on things that are low to the ground and sometimes that includes me. Yesterday, I was in their room cleaning up and I had a box of baby wipes on the ground. Hannah decided she was going to climb on top of it. Her plan worked great until she couldn't get off of the box. She beached herself on the top of a diaper wipes box. I left her there while I ran to get my camera. It was too funny! She thought so too. Her little legs and feet were just wiggling away figuring out how she was going to get off the box.

Hannah has also become a big girl with her bottle. For the longest time, Hannah refused to eat unless you held her bottle for her. Well, all of a sudden, she decided she would be okay with holding it herself. So here is Hannah feeding herself. She also will drink from a sippy cup by herself. I'm so proud of her!

Kate has graduated into a big girl car seat. If you know our family well enough, you might be thinking whose car is that. You're right, it's not my car. I had a rental for a couple of days while mine was getting $800 worth of work done. Thank God for warranties because I only had to pay $70. Anyway, back to my story. The base on Kate's infant seat wasn't staying tight so I decided just to switch her into the convertible car seat. It's so much easier to carry her now without the added 10-15 pounds of the infant carrier. I have even managed to get myself, Kate on my hip, Hannah in her infant carrier, my purse, and their diaper bag all out of the door and into the car at the same time. The fun part will come in when Hannah gets into her big girl car seat. That might take some more creativity on my part. Here's a picture of her first car ride in her new car seat.

Here's a video of them eating. They like to eat finger foods unless they are really hungry and then they get frustrated that they aren't getting full fast enough. This is at snack time.

Here's a video of Kate pushing around a walker toy. No real steps yet from either girl, but Kate can walk with this toy really well.

I baby-sat Rachel while Sarah went to a training for her new job. Rachel will be spending time with us two days a week when Sarah starts her new job. What's one more baby to add to our already crazy household? And she's a sweetie so how can I say no? (Sarah, here's Aunt Lauren trying to get Rachel to take her pacifier. Doesn't she look so cute with one in?)

I had a fun-filled evening to myself last night. George is in the Keys fishing with a group of guys. The girls spent the night at Grandma & Grandpa Schaefer's house. I stayed up until midnight scrapbooking. My goal was to have their first year of life done before their birthday party. I'm finished through November. We'll see if I can get the first year actually done, but I'm determined to spend at least a little bit of time everyday scrapbooking. It's amazing to go back and look at all of the pictures when they were in the NICU and see God's hand at work. We actually went back to the NICU one night this week to do our monthly visit and every time I step into the elevator, the smell brings me right back to feeling "at home." I could walk right into the NICU and get back into the NICU routine without a blink. I'm not saying I want to. It's just weird how smells and sounds can bring that back. Off to pick up the girls and then go to Jeremiah's (their second cousin) first birthday party!

California-Day 6

Hollywood, here we come! Yes, today was the day that we went to Hollywood and Los Angeles. It was about a 2 hour drive with a couple of fun stops along the way due to two twins having digestive issues. We got to see the Hollywood sign, but there was never a place for us to stop and actually take a picture. Matt got one from the highway, but you have to zoom way in to see it. All of our failed attempts up side streets led us to one sign after another that said "No access to Hollywood sign". A little disappointing, but we tried.

We did spot stars on our short time in Hollywood. One was Jamie Foxx. He was shooting a movie called "Valentine's Day" (due out in Feb.) and they stopped sidewalk traffic. We happened to be one of the first groups of people they stopped so we got to see him run across street traffic for one of the scenes in his movie. Kinda neat. The other person was Nigel, one of the judges from "So You Think You Can Dance". George suddenly cries out in the middle of lunch, "Holy crap." I'm thinking that there's some sort of emergency. Then he says, "It's Niles." I turn around and look and realize who he's talking about. "No, dear, it's Nigel." At least we weren't close enough that he could hear him incorrectly call out his name.

After our short stint of walking Hollywood Blvd. we headed out to the Pacific Ocean. One word...brrrrr! We walked along the beach and stuck our toes in the sand and then headed home. Here are a couple of pictures from the day:

The next day, Thursday, we just hung out at home and prepared to come home. Friday was another long day of travel. Hope you had fun hearing about the adventures of Hannah and Kate! Back to real life blogging soon...

California-Day 5 (The Adventures of Gilligan & Skipper)

Not too much exciting to report about this day. We just hung out around the house & the pool. Dad, Mom, Michael, Matt & George all went to an aviation museum. Anyway, it was a fun, relaxing day.

Today was the day that Hannah (Gilligan) & Kate (Skipper) earned their nicknames thanks to their cute little hats.

Mommy & Kate
Mommy & Kate

Enjoying the pool

Hannah (our little Gilligan)

Hannah

Hannah & Kate

Hannah

Kate (Skipper)

Daddy trying to reel Kate in for a picture

Kate

Mommy & Kate

Tune in tomorrow for the adventures of our little starlettes...anyone want to guess where we went?

California-Day 4

On Monday we went to the San Diego Zoo. Once again, we arose early. (Side note here: I forgot to explain in my previous posts that California is 3 hours behind Florida time. Not a huge adjustment for adults to make, but think 3 babies that are very routine sleepers. 7:00 here...yes, think hard...you can do the math...that's right, folks...4:00 a.m. Plus, the sun rises at about 5:30 a.m. in CA so you can imagine none of us got to do the sleeping in that you usually do on vacations. The first morning the girls woke up at 4:00, then it got progressively later with a stall out at 6:30, which is decent. To correct the early morning sun waking them up, all 3 babies slept in my parent's walk in closet (which was the size of a small room) where there was nothing but darkness.)



I digress, back to the San Diego Zoo. We packed into the van, this time much more comfortably without all of the luggage and drove about 2.5 hours west to San Diego. The temperature, while still hot, was much more bearable because we were closer to the coast. Here are some pictures:

On the way to the zoo-Hannah

Kate-left, Hannah-right

Driving on the way to the zoo-trying to capture the vegetation

Hannah's new ability-Peek-a-boo. She learned how to lift the blanket over her head and she hides. She doesn't quite get the fact that she has to pull it down, but she enjoys when I tickle her armpits & then gets her to bring the blanket down. She could go on for hours playing this game.

Hannah

Notice the wind turbines by the road. They had massive fields of them generating clean electricity. Not something you see in Florida.

The mountains

Panda Bear-both of them were sleeping.

More mountains

Kate sleeping

Zebra




Polar Bear

Who let these two out of their cages? Uncle Michael & Kate (her new favorite funny face)

Daddy & Hannah

Uncle Matt & Rachel

Lion-they were feeding them

Lioness

Capybara-world's largest rodent

Elephant

No trip to the San Diego Zoo would be complete without souveneirs. Grandma Schaefer bought them t-shirts, which they unfortunately won't fit into for at least another year. Mom & Dad bought them two little monkeys, one is pink and one is purple. Kate laughed when we showed it to her. They aren't really interested in stuffed animals so for the time being, they are hanging from their cribs.