5 Months

Another month has passed us by and it still takes me by surprise at how time flies! My sweet babies are 5 months old and that much closer to the half-way mark of being here with us for one year. I'm not even close to ready to talk about them being “one year” old and I know they aren't close to it but the way time is flying us by, I know it will be here before we know it!!

I started separating them this past week! They were starting to wake each other up and that was no fun! So, we now have them in their own cribs with their own sound machines and camera! It is going great so far!

I love the stage they are at right now! It seems like everyday they are doing something new. They even look a little bit different everyday to me too! I'm starting something new with their monthly pictures! I've written out most of everything on the picture so it is easier and it is just oh so cute! I wrote out some of their developments in their pic but I'm still going to go in to detail about some other things! Hope you don’t mind;)

Jocelynn~

• Your hair is coming in thick and black! I cant wait to see if your hair is curly or straight! I had curly hair when I was a baby so maybe you just might!
• You are so good with your hands!! You are even holding your own bottle (with a little of mommy’s help)
• You rolled over from your tummy to your back! I'm so happy for you! After you rolled over, you started laughing! I think you knew that you accomplished something!
• You are such a good eater! You weren't at first but now you love all kinds! I think your favorite has been carrots!
• You love men’s voices! It has to be deep though and you just smile when they talk to you!
• You love your brother! When you are on your back or even your tummy, you are always looking at him to see what he is doing. It is so cute!
• You still love bath time! I think that is your favorite part of the day by far!
• You love the jumperoo/excersaucer! Both of your feet might not touch the bottom but when you get in it you start playing immediately!

 

JP-

• You are going to be a blonde headed blue eyed heart breaker!
• Your strength still amazes us!! You started rolling over from back to tummy a couple of weeks ago and you wont quit moving now! Mommy isn't ready for you to be mobile so lets just stay where we are at, ok? hah!
• You might just be a picky eater! You haven't liked anything! We tried bananas this past week and you liked them a little! We tried our first green today and you actually ate! Maybe you just like greens;)
• Whenever someone is talking to you, you have to hold their face and talk back to them! It is so sweet!
• You love bubble guppies! You straighten out your legs and arms when mommy turns it on for you and you start “talking” to them!
• You love giving and receiving kisses!
• You love playing! Whether it is your play mat or the jumperoo! You just love playing!
• You still LOVE your paci! You will not take a nap or sleep at night without it!
• I'm going to guess that you weigh around 14 1/2 pounds!

Happy 5 months my sweet angels!!

The Best Dip EVER

I make this dip ALL the time for ALL occasions! It is just THAT good! I started sharing this recipe with friends and family a few years ago and they have all become addicted and obsessed with it too! Not only is it delicious, but it is super easy, simple and quick!

Ingredients:

• 8 oz cream cheese
• 1 pound of sausage
• 1 can of rotel

I told ya’ll..Super easy!!

1. Cook the sausage and then drain.
2. In a bowl combine cooked sausage, cream cheese, and rotel! **Forgot to add you need to drain rotel!
3. You can serve this dip hot or cold! I like it cold but most everyone prefers it hot!
4. Serve with tortilla chips and become a dip superstar!

Don’t be scared to play around with this recipe! I had a friend add corn into it and it was yummy! You could probably add black beans too! Who knows? It is so yummy that it would be hard to ruin!

Now go make it!! HURRY! You wont be sorry;)

For MOMS by MOMS

When Heather, Megan, Amanda and myself announced this weeks subject last week, we forgot that today was Memorial Day! So, we are going to take today “off” and spend it thinking about our troops! We are so very lucky that these men and women volunteer to fight for our country. We have lost some wonderful soldiers too and today we just ask that you think about these families who lost a loved one to war. We love our soldiers and we hope everyone has a wonderful Memorial Day!!

**Next weeks topic- Bringing Home Multiples!

Within A Week

The past week we have been very busy! I haven't found the time to sit down and blog everything so maybe I can fit it all into this post?

Within a Week-

• My babies turned 5 months old last Friday!! I plan on doing a 5 month old post soon;)
• We went to our friends , Jennifer and Allen, house last Friday night! Allen and Matt grilled while we played with the babies. After the babies went to sleep we played a few games of rook. We all use to play this game (before babies) every night and it was so fun to get to play it again and hang out with some great friends! Oh yeah, me and Jen won!! We are celebrating in the pics below! And our hubbies took a picture of their famous fake smiles!

 

• Jocelynn’s ear has been draining in her sleep for about a week now and on Monday morning she started grabbing it, so I decided to load the babies up and take them to the doctor to check for an ear infection. Her ears looked great and everything else did too!  But they ended up doing a catheter on her to check for a bladder infection too;( It was sooo sad but I guess they need to check all angles since she has been so fussy! He said all of the fussiness and other symptoms were being caused by teething… gggrrrrrr. She was a happy girl while waiting on the doctor to see us!!

I took this picture of her after they were done with the catheter… broke my heart;(

• JP is rolling over from back to tummy!! He has been getting on his side for the past few weeks but now he is just rolling and rolling until he gets where he wants to go!

• Jocelynn is now in 6 month old clothing!! Just all of the sudden..
• I've been getting the babies out a LOT more lately! We went to publix to do a little grocery shopping last week and we went shopping on Wednesday! We went to carters to buy some clothes for my growing girl and then babies r us!

Jocelynn usually screams when I go places but she was just all smiles while we got groceries. I had to keep talking to her, of course , to keep her happy!

Here are a few pics of our outing on Wednesday! They did so good;)

• I think this post has turned into a “randoms” post!
• I cannot find any food that JP likes! So far we've tried sweet potatoes, squash, carrots, and most recently bananas. He did a little bit better with the bananas yesterday but hopefully after a few more tries he will start liking food!
• I made homemade beef and broccoli last night and it as delicious!! A pinspired recipe and ill do a separate post on it because it is just THAT GOOD!
• My husband and I have are very first date tonight!! Its been over 22 weeks so to say I'm excited is an understatement!!
• We went to a party for my niece last Saturday! The party was after her dance recital to celebrate her finishing dance! It was fun and the babies had fun too!

Here's a picture of JP and Gracie! I think he looks like her!

Jocelynn wore a tutu since it was a dance party!!

I'm off to go shopping with my mother and get ready for date night!! YAY!

For MOMS by MOMS- Baby Gear

Its that time again! Time for another MOMS link-up and this week is on baby gear! Amanda is hosting this week so go over to her BLOG right now and link-up because if you're expecting multiples this post will help out a ton!

In my baby gear post im going to talk a little about everything… Things I registered for that I thought I just had to have and other things that I didn’t have that I needed very badly!

My husband and I went to register when I was 25 weeks pregnant. If there is any type of advice I could give a mom who is carrying more than one baby is that go and register as early as you can. I am so glad I went and registered early on (to be honest I should have done it earlier) because by the time I was 29 weeks pregnant, my feet were so swollen and I could only walk a little bit at a time without my spine hurting! We registered at Buy Buy Baby! Click HERE to see everything I registered for. We didn’t get a whole lot from the registry and the things we did get people forgot to say it was a registry gift so they didn’t mark it off. Honestly, more than half of the items I registered for were not even necessary! Some of the items that weren't necessary and still aren't (just yet) are: **And remember this is only my opinion because of what my babies have used and have not.

• Most safety items. A walk-thru gate, outlet safety caps, door knob locks, cabinet locks. Don’t get me wrong, all of this stuff is necessary but not needed until babies are mobile which isn't until over 5 months of age.
• Bedding- Yes, bedding is adorable and it completes the theme of the room but we didn’t need and still haven't needed it yet. I had the cutest bedding picked out but with bumpers being recalled we just decided to wait since the twins were going to sleep in the pac-n-play by our bed the first few weeks anyways. I plan on purchasing some bumpers soon but I'm not going to get the comforter because my babies sweat in their sleep and they each have a light blanket they sleep with.
• High Chairs- You WILL need these (and you could register for them just to see if you get them) but not necessary until babies start food and are sitting up on their own.
• Layette Gowns- I thought that I just had to have these!! If I didn't have enough for the both of them I was going to panic. Guess what? I haven't even put them in a gown! We use the footie pajamas every night. The gowns might be easier but the footies I find more useful and convenient. The babies can move around and do tummy time with the footies.
• Bibs- I haven't needed bibs up until now. They never really spit-up when babies so I never put bibs on them. We've recently started purees so they definitely wear them now!!
• Changing table- I don’t think I have changed one of their diapers on the changing table yet! Me and the babies are always in the den and on the floor playing so I always change their diapers on the floor! I might use the changing table one day but I don’t see it! Especially the more active they get!

And that’s just a few things I found not necessary;) hah! Now, for the fun part!! The items that I could not live without!!!

1. Boppy Loungers!!! I purchased these from Amazon and literally could not function without them! I have used them everyday since the babies were born to feed them in and they love sitting and playing in them too!
2. First Years Diaper Disposable! This thing is unbelievable and highly recommended!! Cheaper than a diaper genie and you can use regular trash bags in it!! Go and purchase one now!! I ordered mine from Amazon!
3. Dr. Browns Bottles! They have been wonderful! They help reduce gas, colic, and acid reflux. There are a lot of parts to this bottles but worth it if our babies tummies don’t hurt right? I love the Dr. Brown bottle brush too!
4. Formula dispensers! These are great if you plan on being on the go! We haven't started getting out a whole lot until recently but now that we do, these come in handy!!
5. Swaddle-Me’s!! Before the babies came I learned how to swaddle a baby using a swaddle blanket but I purchased some swaddle-me blankets just to see if they would work! They do and you need these! So much easier than swaddling in a blanket because it is Velcro! It is very hard for the babies to get out of and they make all sizes!
6. Big diaper bag! With one baby you need a bunch of items but with two you need a TON! My husband bought me a Coach diaper bag when I was 11 weeks pregnant;) It is huge and I love it! We now use two diaper bags! One is for diapers, meds, wipes, clothes, and cloths and the other is their “night-time” bag with their p.j’s, bottles, formula, swaddles and we even bring our monitor with us when we go to friends houses!
7. Summer Video Monitor! I love ours;) You can see them while they sleep and hear them!
8. Blankets!! I use lots and lots of blankets!! The babies like to have the blankets all over them (tight like in the womb) when they sleep. I also use them to help me feed them and put them on floors so they can play!
9. A swing!! I have found the swing to be a life-saver at times. Whenever one of the twins wouldn’t finish their nap I could put them in the swing, still swaddled, and put a blanket up to their face holding their paci and they would go right back to sleep!
10. Sound Machine. I have used a sound machine since the night they came home from the hospital! They love it and it makes it easy for them to go to sleep now when they hear white noise. I have even downloaded an app on my ipad that plays white noise so they can go to sleep whenever we go out!
11. Pacis! The hospital will give you pacis but I went ahead and bought a handful anyway! I'm glad I did because somehow they disappear on a daily basis! We use the avent soothies.The avent soothies are the best for breast feeding babies (my doc said) because it helps them with latching somehow!
12. My breast-friend! I didn’t use this a lot until they got a little bit bigger but when I started using it, it turned out to be so helpful! It has pockets so you can put a bottle of water in it and very comfy for babies and yourself.
13. Bumbo Seats! I have put Jocelynn and JP in these seats since they weren't even big enough to sit in them! They are pros at sitting in them now! The seats help with developing the core and neck muscles. We play in them, eat in them, and even splash in the bath while sitting in them!
14. Infant Car seats and Stroller. I looked everywhere and researched everything before purchasing a double stroller and car seats. I finally chose the Chicco Key-fit car seats and the Chicco Feugo Stroller! I am very pleased;)



I know that’s not all but enough right?!! I hope this comes in handy for all of you expecting MOMS out there!! Feel free to email me for any advice on registering or if you have questions about any of the items! Hopefully I provided you with enough to get started!! Hope everyone is having a wonderful Monday!!

Now go link-up!! Click Here! Remember to come back next week.. Our topic is going to be “Bringing Home Multiples”. We will be talking about going from hospital to home and how hard it is adjusting to a life with multiples. Feel free to comment topic suggestions!!

 

Cheesy Chicken Crescent Rolls

You need to go make this immediately!! If you are on a diet.. do not attempt! I ate at least 3 hah! I have been seeing this on Pinterest for a while and it kept calling my name so I had to finally give in and cook it! Here is a picture of the ingredients minus the milk..

Chicken Crescent Roll Casserole
Original recipe can be found HERE

2 (8 ounce) cans Reduced Fat Pillsbury Refrigerated Crescent Dinner Rolls
1 (10 3/4 ounce) can 98% fat free cream of chicken soup, undiluted
3/4 cup grated cheddar cheese or swiss cheese (or any cheese of choice)
1/2 cup milk
Filling
4 ounces cream cheese (very soft) * I used 1/3 less fat cream cheese*
2 tablespoons butter (very soft but not melted)
1/2-1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 tsp minced onion flakes
2 large cooked chicken breasts, finely chopped (or use about 2 cups, can use cooked turkey)
1/2-3/4 cup finely grated cheddar cheese
1/2 tsp seasoning salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper (or to taste)
2 Tbsp. milk
1-2 cup grated cheddar cheese (for topping)
Set oven to 350°F. Spray a 9x13 dish with cooking spray. Mix together milk, 3/4 cup cheese and undiluted chicken soup (can season with black pepper if desired).
For the filling --- (make certain that the cream cheese and butter are very soft) in a bowl, mix the soft cream cheese with butter until very smooth, then add in garlic powder. Add in the chopped chicken, onion and cheddar cheese; mix well until combined. Add in 2 tablespoons milk; mix to combine (add in a little more if the mixture seems too dry). Season with seasoned salt or white and black pepper to taste. Unroll the crescent rolls. Place 1 heaping tablespoon chicken mixture (or a little more) on top of each crescent triangle, then roll up starting at the thicker end. Drizzle a small amount of soup mixture on the bottom of the dish. Then place the crescent rolls seam-side down on top of the creamed mixture in the casserole.
Drizzle the remaining sauce on top (you don't have to use the full amount of cream sauce, just use as much as desired) and sprinkle with 1 cup (or more) grated cheese, or amount desired. Bake for about 30 minutes.

It was delicious and the hubs LOVED! Not good for the diet or the waist line but its ok to have every now and then? Right?

My Very First Mothers Day

A baby asked God, "They tell me you are sending me to earth tomorrow, but how am I going to live there being so small and helpless?"
"Your angel will be waiting for you and will take care of you."
The child further inquired, "But tell me, here in heaven I don't have to do anything but sing and smile to be happy."
God said, "Your angel will sing for you and will also smile for you. And you will feel your angel's love and be very happy."
Again the child asked, "And how am I going to be able to understand when people talk to me if I don't know the language?"
God said, "Your angel will tell you the most beautiful and sweet words you will ever hear, and with much patience and care, your angel will teach you how to speak."
"And what am I going to do when I want to talk to you?"
God said, "Your angel will place your hands together and will teach you how to pray."
"Who will protect me?"
God said, "Your angel will defend you even if it means risking it's life."
"But I will always be sad because I will not see you anymore."
God said, "Your angel will always talk to you about Me and will teach you the way to come back to Me, even though I will always be next to you."
At that moment there was much peace in Heaven, but voices from Earth could be heard and the child hurriedly asked, "God, if I am to leave now, please tell me my angel's name."
"You will simply call her, 'Mom.'"

I just love that and I wanted to share it with all of you! I celebrated my very first mothers day on Sunday! I've been waiting so long for someone to call me “mommy” and I just feel so complete now. I remember this time last year we were wondering if I was pregnant or not and all I could think about was how I get to celebrate mothers day next year because I knew I was pregnant and I knew I was going to be a mommy. We,moms, are truly amazing. We do everything and anything for our baby (babies) even if it means not taking care of ourselves sometimes. We put our children at the top of the priority list and love them and take care of them until it is time for them to take care of themselves. We still put them first even if they are 25 years old, married, or going to college. We will always love our children and there is nothing anyone can do about that. It is an honor to be a mom and I'm taking complete advantage of mommy hood because I wished and prayed so hard, for so long to finally be able to call myself a mother.

Sunday I woke up to my husband holding JP and Jocelynn in my face saying Happy Mothers Day! While feeding the babies, I couldn’t help but just sit and stare at them while thanking God for the wonderful miracles he sent me. Matt cooked a huge breakfast for us (me and him) and we ate while playing with our sweet babies. We put them down for a nap and got ready while they slept so we could all go see the MIL and go to Wal-Mart when they woke. When they woke up I put them in their “what happens at Grandma’s, stays at Grandma’s” onesies! I thought those would be perfect for this special day.

We then ventured out to Wal-Mart and Matt bought me a new coffee pot! Mine broke recently and I cant live without my coffee! So my sweet husband bought me a brand-spanking new one;) We went to Cathy’s house to eat lunch and to give her a mothers day present. She cooked steaks, twice baked potatoes, and veggies. It was delicious! Jocelynn and JP napped while we ate and when we were finished we loaded them up and went home because my mom and dad were stopping by on their way home from the beach. I couldn’t wait to see my mom to giver her the present I made for her! Somehow I didn’t manage getting any pictures of it but ill do a separate post soon after I go to their house to get some snapshots of it! I made her a canvas that said “The only thing more important than having you as a mom is my children having you as a Moo-Moo”. She has always loved cows. So instead of her grand-kids calling her ma-maw she wants to be called moo-moo! Cute right? After they left we spent the rest of the night cuddling, playing, and celebrating. I love my babies so much and I couldn’t imagine my life without them. They complete our family and I cant wait to enjoy the many more Mothers Days there are to come!

And of course how could I talk about Mothers Day without some mommy pictures?

Jocelynn and JP- We've been through so much together already and I'm looking forward to watching yall grow and blossom over the years to come. I love you both so very much! I thank God everyday for choosing me to be your mommy:)

Hope everyone else had a wonderful Mothers Day!