Baptism

Saturday, October 24th was a special day in the Smith household...Geneva & Lexa were baptized into the Catholic Christian faith. We had a beautiful ceremony at our church, St. Raphael's & a brunch at the house to celebrate. The girls' godmother, Ashley, flew in from Nashville, TN & we welcomed other friends & family. The girls were on their best behavior & loved the extra attention. It was one of the happiest days of my life. Almost one year to the day that I became pregnant! Wow how our lives have changed in 12 short months.

Yummy Cake
The food table
My punch actually turned out!

Group pic-Bill, Patti, Oma, Susan, Ashley,

Eddie, Patrick, Geneva, Leslie, Lexa, Jamie

The godparents with their goddaughters
My blonde angel, Lexa
My little pilgrim, Geneva
Granny with Geneva
Proud godparents, Ashley & Eddie with Lexa
Lexa getting baptized
Geneva getting baptized
Proud Parents with our angels

The godmother & mother, friends forever
SuSu & Lexa

Granddad & Geneva

GO HOGS!

Football Season Begins!
Pop & Lexa
GiGi with Lexa
Lexa in her new Razorback outfit (thanks Amy)
Geneva in her Razorback outfit with SuSu

We enjoy our company for Razorback games. If it wasn't for the kids and the Razorbacks, we would never have any visitors :) Good try yesterday in Florida. SO close!

Labor Day (a little late)

Cousin Ian helping Mommy feed Lexa. He was SO cute!!

Ian, a preemie himself, had the whole feeding/burping

cycle down, and laughed & laughed when Lexa let out

a big burp! He was very proud of himself for helping.
Mommy, Cousin Ian, & Lexa
Great Aunt Nita with Geneva
Rachel, Meredith, & Lexa
Cousin John Scott with Lexa
Oma with Lexa
Granny, Oma, & Geneva
Great Aunt Martha with Lexa

Great Aunt Nita with Lexa

Okay, I am a little late... we had a WONDERFUL Labor Day weekend. We rented a HUGE 8-passenger SUV & headed down to Dad's to show off the kiddos. None of our extended family had met the girls and were dying to see them. My dad is the youngest of 7 so we have quite a few family members and some of my college friends were able to make it, too. I needed to keep a sign-in book, but I think the list went: Nita, Karen, J.K., Jase, Ian, Martha, John Scott, Jeannie, Janice, Bet, Joe, Eric, Amy, Luke, Rachel, Meredith, Leigha, Cody, Joanna, John, Patti, Bill, Oma, and of course Dad and Scarlet. I'm afraid I forgot someone?? Saturday night we had Patrick's family down for fish, caught and fried up by the best fisherman in South Arkansas (AKA my dad). Sunday G & L went to church for the first time. Lexa slept through it all. Geneva was wide-eyed taking it all in, especially the stained glass windows & Great Aunt Nita's organ music. Sunday afternoon is when the visitors poured in. Sunday night we enjoyed a BBQ dinner with Amy, Eric, & Luke. Monday we packed up and stopped by Mi-Mi's on the way home and had a delicious meal with Mi-Mi, PaPaw, Jean, & Paul. I was really impressed with the girls. They did great in their car seats and slept well in their pack & play crib. Lexa even managed to go the whole weekend without puking despite being passed around like a football! Hope you enjoy some of my favorite pictures; can't wait to see everyone Thanksgiving. Can you believe it is so close??

Happy To Be Alive

Finally Time to Post

OK-I do have a really good excuse--Patrick broke the computer (a leaky water bottle in his backpack to blame) so we spent two weeks without one waiting to hear if it could be salvaged..then ordering a brand new one on-line. When it finally arrived, it had to go to the computer store so the old data could be transferred to it. Plus, did I mention I do have twins that are quite demanding these days??? Sorry to all my blog-followers. Please keep checking as I will go back and blog on several recent events, including our first road trip! Things are pretty good. I am back to work. All in all it has been a good transition. We have hired a babysitter, Brittany, who was a full-time sub and worked with Patrick last year. Her mom is also a teacher. Her ultimate goal is to be a nanny with a service but they wanted her to have experience with the same family for at least a year. So it just happened to fall into place. Avoiding the germs of daycare not to mention having to get them up and dressed and transported to a day care has been a blessing. This was my greatest worry during pregnancy, and everyone kept saying it will work out, and it did. Going back to work, even the first 2 weeks was actually a welcome break in some regard, actually showering, brushing my teeth, and getting dressed before noon and having a somewhat normal schedule. The patients welcomed me back like a queen. After five years of being there, I have developed some close relationships. All the residents are so curious about the girls and loved seeing their pictures. But I will admit by now, 6 weeks into it I am missing G & L more & more & dread Mondays. Juggling the housework, the grocery shopping, the cooking, taking care of 2 little ones, and being away 8 hours a day is challenging. I feel guilt at times, overwhelmed A LOT of times, but mostly sadness that I am missing out on the little stuff that will so quickly pass. But, unfortunately that's how it is in America these days. It takes two just to pay the mortgage and keep our heads above water. The girls are doing great! They are in size 3 diapers and 6 month clothes. Lexa is fat and happy. Zantac has been a miracle for her. She rarely suffers from the painful reflux and is so much calmer. She is such a morning person. Don't know where she gets that!!! I go in their room about 6:00 every morning and she is just laying in her crib smiling. She stays awake most of the morning and gets sleepier by the afternoon. She loves to eat and outweighs her sister by several pounds. Patrick and I laugh at her fat rolls and "thunder thighs." Last night Patrick said, "I'm afraid our baby is obese!" Her hair is still blonde and has really grown the past few weeks. Her latest discovery is a high-pitched squeal that she does over & over & over again. Geneva is a little smaller and still doesn't really desire to eat, mainly doing it because she has to. She is NOT a morning person, now I know where she gets that!! She HATES getting up in the morning. She eats about half of her bottle for the morning feeds and gets more alert and hungrier as the day goes on. Some of her hair has fallen out in the back but continues to be dark brown. She loves to nap, but when she is awake--she is fully engaged. She loves to study her parents (or anyone for that matter). She looks deep into you and smiles & coos & is beginning to laugh. She loves her tongue and loves to stick it out. She doesn't really cry just more of a fuss when she is bored. They change every day and like I said are definitely more demanding these days as they stay awake and require more entertainment. They love to go outside in their strollers and play on the floor with each other, kicking and "talking" back and forth. They are much more aware of each other and love to stare at the animals now. Did I mention, they are sleeping 6-7 hours during the night now! They go for their 4-month old shots this Thursday. I can't believe how fast they are growing up. We are so blessed. It is challenging having two, but we wouldn't trade it for anything. The Mom's of Multiples Club has been such a great outlet for me, getting to talk with and get support from other mom's with twins and even triplets. The club was nice enough to cook me dinner for the first week I was back at work. On a sad note, please pray for one of our new members whom I met at our August meeting. She delivered her twins on Thursday (at 22 weeks gestation) and lost both her son and daughter within 24 hours. My heart just aches for her. I can't imagine our lives without G & L. They are our miracles!

3 Months Old, OH MY!

Can you believe my little preemies are 3 months old and so chubby??!! We went to the doctor today (big thank you to Darlene, my co-worker & friend of 5 years who helped me out, don't think I could have done it by myself). Lexa is in the 75th percentile for weight at 13 pounds, 1 ounce (keep in mind she is compared to normal 3 month olds, technically she is not even 2 months based on her due date). She has made up for her lowest point of 3 lbs., 13 oz. for sure. Geneva is in the 50th percentile at 11 lbs., 15 oz. but is longer at 22 inches compared to Lexa's 21 inches. Isn't it funny that it was the opposite at birth--Lexa was lighter & longer. Darlene agreed today with the blog poll results--Lexa a "miniature Patrick" & Geneva a "miniature Leslie." Daddy is in awe of Lexa & just stares at her glowingly stating, "she really does look like me, doesn't she!". He is hoping she will be daddy's athlete & outdoor girl. If our Sunday outing to the park is any indication, she will be. We broke out the 2 umbrella strollers, each pushing one. We got stopped every few feet, "Are those twins?? They look like baby dolls." One girl even asked to take their picture on her cell phone. Crazy. It was our first outing other than to the doctor's office several times where the nurses always go crazy for them, too. Anyway, back to the park--they did great. Geneva (like her mom) doesn't appear to care too much for the outdoors preferring to sleep through most of it. Lexa, on the other hand, was wide-eyed & soaking it all in keeping her best friend, the bippie, in her mouth the entire time. Guess she did inherit something from me! I think I was attached to mine until at least 3 years of age. Hope you enjoy the pictures. Aren't they sweet holding each other's hands. Yesterday Geneva was quite fussy during blanket time & Lexa (with bippie in mouth) just kept studying her, crinkling her eyebrows, "saying" What is wrong with you?? Geneva continued to fuss, so finally Lexa just stretched out her hand & placed it on her belly & it worked. Geneva stopped crying. So sweet!

Poll

Lexa
Geneva

Please vote in my first blog poll (on the left toolbar). I am curious to see who people think our kids look like. We get conflicting answers every day.