The Brooks Blog

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Our First Christmas

...it was wonderful! What a very fun age for our girls. Of course they didn't understand much, but could grip and grab wrapping paper....so fun! The weekend before Christmas we spent in Levelland with Dustin's mom's extended family, Christmas Eve was in Levelland with the Brooks', Christmas morning and lunch was at our house with our family and Christmas night was at the Yates'. The holidays are always busy for us, but more than ever we are thankful we are a 10 minute car ride instead of a 6 hour roadtrip. Besides...how in the world would we have traveled with all of their presents....x2???!!

We spent New Year's in Vegas for Dustin's 30th birthday....yeah that was exhausting! Not that we expected it to be relaxing in anyway, but we got more sleep in those 3 days away from our girls than we do, normally, at home with our girls.

Currently Claire and Caroline are 9 months old and time is flying. We are starting to be more reflective as their 1 year birthday is approaching. I checked in to the hospital to patiently wait a year ago this month. : ') It is still very emotional for us.

I am going to try to be better about updating this thing.....with instagram, facebook, the blog, texting videos/pictures all day, 6 big girl meals and 8 bottles to the girls plus some laundry leaves every minute of my days BUSY! I love it...staying at home is harder than I thought it would be, but the things that are time consuming have to be done at some point, so I am glad I have all day to find a way to get it done!

Happy New Year to you and your families!!

Our First Bath Together

Some Piano Banging with Dada

Practicing a few days before Christmas...

Christmas at Pawpaw's

Caroline, Emma & Claire (the ham)

Such a fun present! ...look how excited Caroline is!

Caroline asleep with Nana!

Homemade Christmas cookies and milk for Santa (he loved the milk, especially!) Me with Claire

Getting our Twin American Girl Dolls

Beep, Beep

Christmas morning with Momsey and Pops

One of my very favorite pictures...

Christmas Morning

Christmas at Gigi and Lil' Paw's

Macy and Caroline

Gigi and Caroline

Connor and Claire

Playing!

Cruising in our new tent....not quite a fan yet!

Happy 30th Birthday, DADA!

@Pawn Stars in Vegas

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Another Momo Mom...

I've met a girl here through a mutual San Antonio friend that is a little over 12 weeks pregnant with mono/mono twins, just like I was. Please pray for her journey and safety of her twins. We've met and she is in great spirits and is a very relaxed person so I know she can do it!

Check out our fall pictures on our photographer, Brittany's website. http://blog.britjonesphotography.com/cchalloween/ One of my very favorite pictures...

We closed this past week on a house that we bought with my parents in Ruidoso. It's in Country Clubs Estates by Cree Meadows if you're familiar with Ruidoso. So we're close to the village, restaurants, and have a great view of the ski mountain. Being so close to Lubbock I know this will be a place we utilize a lot. I love to ski and as Dustin tells everyone gamble <---don't worry I'm not hotline worthy. He loves the races in the summer so this will be a year around place for us. And fortunately we have enough room for everyone to have a room plus guests. My parents had been looking for a while for a "safe" place that met their needs as far as the girls go. So we have a relatively flatter lot with a concrete covered porch that goes around both sides of the home with lots of pines....it's perfect, but certainly needs our touch.

The girls are wearing their Doc Bands for only one more week. This has been a very painless process minus the effort it takes to get them to Dallas each Monday. I cannot say enough great things about Cranial Tech and their coveted Doc Band. It has worked wonders for us and the girls will have only had to wear them for 7 weeks total. This really has gone by quickly! They will be 7 months on Saturday....I cannot even believe it. This weekend we are headed to Santa Fe for a long weekend hopefully full of food, wine and shopping. This will be our first full and long weekend away from the girls. At this point, it isn't sounding like that much fun being away, but I know I can use the rest!!!! I will be 29 on Saturday....and that's hard to believe too... boo!

Friday, September 21, 2012

1/2 Birthday

The girls are now officially 6 months! I cannot believe where the time has gone. But I will say in the last 6 months we sure have done a lot! From a NICU stay to selling and buying of a new home, a move to Lubbock, Dustin opening his own firm and being voted on to the board of Yates Pet. It's been a busy 6 months for us and for the girls. The girls can now roll over from front to back and back to front. That is an accomplishment we weren't sure we were going to make being 4 months adjusted (8 weeks early), but Claire was the last one to roll from her back to her stomach and she did it the night before her 6 month birthday -- she loves to keep us on our toes. So we have mastered all of the 6 month checklist of things babies do and this mommy couldn't be any more proud! We love love love to chatter especially with daddy when he comes home from work. We are smiling constantly, but we won't dare crack a smile while in our carseat, haha. Both girls sleep through the night and have for almost 3 months now. I think God knew our boat was loaded and gave us very congenial and easy going babies. At our 6 month appointment. Claire weighed 15 lbs. and 2 oz and Caroline weighed 14 lbs and 14 oz. Putting them in the 30th and 27th percentiles...NOT ADJUSTED! Woo hoo. We started rice cereal yesterday -- they are not sure what to think about that and then we start on vegetables next week. I wasn't expecting all of this at this appointment, but I am so pleased at their progress. We are currently wearing the doc band. Each girl was born with a flat side of their head due to really limited room in the womb. We worked on positioning them early on but the flat spots on their head remained so now we are flying to and from Dallas once per week to get these bands adjusted. In only 3 weeks time wearing the band we have seen a drastic change in their head shape. I am a firm firm believer in this thing and know our time spent in them will be short and so so worth it. We only have 4 more weeks in it! I was a little anxious initially about taking them in public because people just don't know what to think about it and often say what they think but I have mastered the 15 second pause where they have to rethink what they really just said then I tell them why they needed it. But overall it hasn't been near as bad as I thought it would be and the results will be worth it! Below are some pictures from our 6 month birthday party. We are going to celebrate 1/2 birthdays since the girls will forever have to share their birthday.