We've made it to 6 months people!  And we are LOVING life.

R E C A P...
So Father's Day weekend, Alex went to a bachelor party in Louisville and I was on my own for the first time since the twins were born.  It was a challenge but thankfully, my family checked in on me throughout the weekend to give me little breaks.  I know I say this a lot: I don't know what Alex and I would do without our families.  They have done so much for us, and if you are reading this... thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

Being alone with the babies for that weekend was a bit frightening, knowing that it was only me with them at night and so forth, but because they sleep so well, it was just fine!  Alex will have a chance to experience it later this summer when I go to a bachelorette party for one of my best friends!  Check back then for how I do away from the babies more than one day for the first time.

These 2 are getting more photogenic by the week...

Family Selfie

The loves of my life.  They make me the happiest person on Earth.

Capturing my sweet Emmy Lou's smile... my heart!

F a m i l y   F r i d a y s   # 4 ...
Last Friday we went to Kansas City's gem, The World War I Memorial and Museum.  It was a hot day so this was a perfect thing to do inside.  I know what you're thinking: taking 2 babies to a museum, why?  Alex and I have had this "bucket list" of things we have wanted to do in KC and after we had the babies, we thought, we can still do these things!  And boom... Family Friday's commenced.

Daddy and Em Girl (She fell asleep like 2.5 seconds after this)

My little man.

Inside the museum.  Poppys representing all the lives lost in the war.  Each poppy represents a certain number of lives (the number escapes me).

We started with them both in the stroller but Bennett wanted out quickly and stayed awake for the entire thing.  Except for the end outside.  He was so "interested" I could swear he was looking at all the pictures.  We ended with the outside (Liberty Memorial) and the breathtaking view of KC.  Our favorite spot to see the city we love!

B zonked out after a very long museum day...

Keith Fam!  (B and E asleep)

Just perfect.

After the museum we quickly picked up lunch at Tenderloin Grill in KC and headed home for feeding the babes.  It was a great day!  Even better because I spent it with my 3 favorite people.

T w i n s ...
So the babies are like minutes away from sitting up on their own and weeks away from crawling.  It's crazy!  I'm loving these milestones.  We are still feeding them 2 solid meals a day along with formula 4 times a day.  I'm looking forward to starting Gerber's 2nd foods!  Which I'm excited about.  Even I'm getting bored of the same foods for them and I'm not even eating them.
The last few days, the babies have been actually sleeping the full 12 hours! 7pm-7am!  It's been a dream.  I don't know how long it'll last but it's great now and we are loving it.
We have their 6 month appointment next week and I'll share weights and their health status then.  I think you can tell from the pictures that we have some happy and healthy babies.

Annnnnd they love prunes, which I hate.  But they are GREAT at getting them to poop.  Also, note Emmy's bib is backwards.  For a reason.  The front is stained by... you guessed it... prunes.  Sigh.

Brother, up close and in his space. 

Brother and Sissy hangin

M o m...
Alright, time for an update on me!  I've been working out like crazy in hopes of meeting my goal by September (9 months postpartum).  And my goal isn't a rock solid goal.  It's just a sense of getting back to close to where I was before I was pregnant.  Time for a belly pic update:

I feel happier than where I was at the 4 month mark, but I'm still not there yet.  I think the biggest part is the excess skin (gross I know).  Since I had twins and when they were born I was measuring 47 weeks pregnant, I was huge and had more stretch than most single pregnant women have.  One thing I have been so thankful for on this postpartum journey is Alex's positive and uplifting comments.  He keeps me going and keeps me focused on why I'm working hard.  I've been using the same YouTube workouts from Rebecca Louise mixed with some running and an occasional Insanity workout.  I'm a big fan of video, especially in the steaming summer months when running outside is almost unbearable.  Plus, I can do them when the babies nap! Win win.

This weekend is the babies first 4th of July (obviously) and we don't have huge plans yet!  Leaving the weekend up to chance.

First family dinner at the table together.  We want dinner time to be a social event and thought we would start it early.

This kid.

HAMS!  Happy about being 6 months old!

Sir Bennett, breaking hearts with that pout.

Emmy, never a picture without her arms open wide... or balancing herself... either one, but probably the second.

See you all next week!
Lauren, E & B

My Bad....

O o p s...
Hey all.... for the first time since I started this, no blog post this week... I know.  Cue the tears.  I was too busy playing with my babies and put that first this week.  I promise to have a great, whole post next week for you! Thanks for being readers and for sticking with us.  Check out instagram for updated pics to get you through until next Thursday.  OR snapchat!  Some of those vids are hilarious: lpatriciaw...

Until next week,  I promise...
Lauren, E&B

City Life

"Uh sis... you have some spit up... just there..."

 E & B... such photo babes...

F a m i l y   F r i d a y s   # 3:
It was a HOT one but one of my favorites so far.  We took the babies downtown KC to try the new streetcar!  We started in the River Market with a lunch at The Opera House!  Great food and really cool drinks--- HOWEVER ran into my first "no changing table in the bathroom" place and wouldn't you believe it, Bennett had a blow out.  I had to change the poor guy!  #2 was everywhere.  So I boldly went up to a table of men having a lunch meeting of some sort and asked if I could change him at the only open booth there.  They of course were fine with it and to be honest I don't even know if they heard me 100% but I was going to change him and that was the best I had.
My mom and her friend Sal joined us for lunch and after we hopped on the streetcar and rode it downtown KC.  The streetcar is totally free, clean and extremely efficient.  I loved it.  We walked around the Power and Light District and ended back at the River Market to visit my mom's favorite Italian deli.  Overall, a great adventure for Emmy and Bennett.

These two hooligans... I remember the days when they used to sleep all the time in their car seats... now, not so much.  Everytime we stop, they are UP and stay up for the most part.  Which is fun- they get to see so much more.  Won't be long until they out grow these car seats (insert sad/happy face).

My aunt got the babies these teething beads and they have been a god-send!  They attach so great to the handle of the car seats and are easy for them to grab onto.

My men!  B looked too cute for words in his hat!

Streetcar!  We were up front and loved it... there was room for the stroller too!

Ahhhh too cute B, too cute.

Mumsies!  Such a great day.  B fell asleep after walking around and let's be real, those carriers get real hot if you're in the sun carrying an 18 lb baby.

Both feel asleep at the very end.  Hot day, hot sleepy babies...

KC Power and Light District

My Fam

U p d a t e   O n   T w i n s...
Big things are right around the corner, I can feel it.  The babies are D A Y S away from sitting up on their own and only weeks away from getting the crawling thing.  I could be way off but it seems like they make improvements at it every day.

The best sit up yet!  Still heavily relying on his tummy and arms for support but WHO CARES! Buddy is on his way...

We have still been going at it with the "solids" (which I think is a hilarious term for pureed food that you basically drink) for almost a month and a half now and boy do they LOVE them.  I've only made homemade sweet potatoes, apples and banana's.  The trouble I have is finding good containers to store them in in the freezer.  I got these GREAT trays from Pampered Chef and they work so great. ((See below)) They are called herb freezing trays but I've used them for baby food.  Freeze them, then pop out a few cubes before feeding and they are good to go!  Similar to ice cube trays... They are easy to stack and don't take up a ton of space!

Today we pooled it up again in the front yard like hillbillies.  It was over 100 degrees in KC and we needed to cool off.  They loved their pool!  And the pictures are to die for..

He LOVES to splash in the pool but when he was done, all he wanted to do was cuddle with his pops.

Sissy Bear Loungin'

Another subject everyone seems to ask about still is are they sleeping through the night?  YES and we couldn't feel better about it.  The twins take 3 naps a day ranging from 30 min to 2 hours depending on how tired they are... They go to sleep around 7:30 pm and sleep until at least 6 am which is a big step up for them!  The other morning they slept until almost 7 which was INCREDIBLE!  They love their cribs (they each have their own but they share a room) and can put themselves to sleep for the most part with a binkie and lots of white noise.  I remember back to the days Alex and I were sleeping in the nursery, trying to get them to sleep for at least 3 hours at a time.  We put in work and many sleepless nights to get them to where they are today and I can honestly say, doing it with Alex was the only way I survived.

W o r k...
A lot of people have been asking me how my job is going and how we make things work with the babies, Alex and my schedule changing often.  Well overall, I love the position I have (on call during the week for heart surgery).  This past week was the most I have worked (less than 10 hours) and it wasn't bad.  I went in almost every day but was only there for a few hours.  I like that I can stay home with my babies and I don't take that for granted at all.  There are more momma's than not that don't have the opportunity to stay home with their children so I am sure to count my blessings.

We have a few more weeks until we are making our first big trip to Minnesota for my Grandma's 80th Birthday celebration!  It will be the twins first real road trip and our first time away from home for more than 24 hours!  Needless to say, I am mentally preparing now.

Until next week,
Lauren, E&B

Pics, because well, ya love em....

My girl Em.... such a dollface!

Sleep still is going well.. especially for B and his little sleep sack... Looks like a starfish.  His Zipadee-Zip was SUCH a great buy.  You can find them here at www.sleepingbaby.com.  My cousin recommended them to me and we haven't looked back since.  Great for transitioning from swaddles.  It took a couple nights for him to get used to it but now, he loves it.

'Scuse me sir, I mustache you a question... 

Bathing beauties!

Rolls.  Everywhere.

No I in Team

Fa m i l y   F r i d a y s   #2
This past Friday, we took the twins to our good friend Olivia's pool to swim!  We've been told babies can start swimming at an early age and so since the weather was 86 degrees, we were ready to get in the water.

Well the water was not ready for us.  It was ~C O L D~ and the babies felt that immediately, especially Bennett.  Emmy was fine for about 2 minutes and then decided it was not for her.  We will try again another time later this summer.

After that, we headed to the mall (which we had not been to since like high school) to get our watch batteries replaced!  Which, trust me sounds small but we've needed to do that for like a month.  It's the little things. 

Emmy Girl... looking strong in her 2016 swim gear!

MY HEART!  Father son bonding time before the icy plunge

Annnnnnnd we're going in...

Bennett is about to realize he hates it...

DAAAAAAD!!! WHYYY!!!

Family Fun!

Buddy blowin bubbles...

So, we are going to the lake at the end of the summer and the Morgan's bought the babes their first life vests!  They surprisingly LOVED them!  All set for summer!

M y   B e s t   F r i e n d...

Having a baby changes a couple.  Having two?  Well, you guessed it... it changes couples too.  But for the better, I'm convinced...

Alex and I always talked about having children while we were young and starting our family after we were married.  We also agreed that we wanted a big family too!  God had a bit of a sense of humor when he decided that it would be right after the honeymoon and there would be two babies.  Like I've said before, Bennett and Emmy have been the greatest blessing in our lives.  But to make it to where we are today, we've had many hoops to jump through; and most of those hoops seemed to be lit on fire and on the 102nd floor of a skyscraper if you get my drift.

I could not have imagined having had a baby, or in my case babies, with anyone but my best friend and husband Alex.   Having had a c-section, I relied on Alex for many things during the recovery period.  You are vulnerable and your modesty will go out the window and not return for several weeks.  I needed help showering, drying off my body, getting into bed, walking down stairs, getting into the car, etc... I'm not sure if everyone goes through this type of recovery after a c-section but he helped me with everything.  He even put scar ointment on my scar to help it heal faster when I couldn't even see it below my ever protruding stomach.  For that, you've got to be 100% comfortable and confident in your relationship.  It's incredibly humbling to witness.

In the beginning of all this, I tried to remain composed, do things for myself, keep myself covered up, because that's just the person I am.  After many tears, Alex finally told me "It's not a big deal, I do it for you because I love you!"  He explained to me it was the most beautiful thing seeing me as a mom and that there's nothing to be ashamed about.

I realize this all may sound silly.  But like I said, having a baby will change a couple.  Technically, we were still on our "honeymoon phase" after getting married.  That lasts like for the first year right?  Well by the first year, we already had two 3 month olds!  Alex and I grew up quickly and learned things pretty fast because we needed to.  But I believe we got through all the hard times and the tough stuff because we were so close and he's the person who gets me the most... my best friend.

On our honeymoon!  Isn't he a hunk?  I'm a lucky girl...

Tomorrow is, you guess it... FRIDAY and we are so excited!  We have a little plan in our head and so tune in next week for another crazy KC adventure.  We have another wedding this weekend and can't wait to celebrate with our friends.  Ahhh wedding season!  Makes me so happy.

These 2 little bugs...

B and E... always hanging..

Soooo glad I caught this moment... Emmy sat watching sports on Daddy's phone for like 10 minutes...

Alex and I at our friend's wedding over the weekend! Mom and Dad's night out!

SUUUUCH a smiley little girl!

B all chill! Let me be clear, we are Royal's fans but my family lives in MN and had to get the twins some Twins gear!

We whipped out the Twin Z pillow again--- it's crazy the last time they used this, they slept in it!

Until next time....
Lauren, B & E