Spring Break with the McGaha's

We had a jam packed Spring Break and started it off with a visit from Vovô and Vovó and all of our Titias and Titio. Everyone arrived late Friday night. Paul's little sisters stayed with us all weekend and we had fun having them around to help with the girls and to stay up late to watch movies. I could not believe they had not seen Confessions of a Shopaholic. This may be in my top 10 all time favorite movies and I can completely relate with the main character.

Saturday morning started off early as it always does with Hadley and Hailey. Everyone gathered at our place around 9:00am and we had breakfast and hung out for a few hours before heading to the zoo. This was the girls first trip to the zoo! It was a lot of fun to take them and they were more observant of the animals than I thought they would be. I think the zoo will be one of our favorite places to visit over and over again.

We arrived just in time to feed the giraffes.

Hadley watching the swans

Hadley and Hailey playing the drums in Africa

Family photo with the monkeys

My two little monkeys. Hailey is on the bottom and Hadley is asleep on the top

Hailey looking at the red pandas

Group photo

Family photo

 After our trip to the zoo we headed to a local Brazilian restaurant to celebrate Paul's mom's birthday. The girls did very well at the restaurant and are getting so big. They sat in the restaurant high chairs for the first time. They looked so big yet so little at the same time.

Hailey showing off in the high chair

mmm...drinking guaranara (a brazilian soda)

It was cloudy and rainy on Sunday so we decided to go to Main Event for some indoor fun. Paul and his brother and sisters enjoyed bowling, miniature glow golf, and laser tag. We even played some arcade games and had some photo booth fun. It was a great way to end a fun first weekend of spring break.

Anne, Megan, Paul (Hailey), Jessica, and Jacob getting ready to bowl

Hailey is ready to bowl...well it may be a few years yet still.

Hadley

Strike!

playing arcade games

Paul and Jacob playing laser tag

Photo Booth attempt

The square wasn't quite big enough for all 4 of us.

On Monday it was back to school/work for Paul. Medical students don't get spring breaks :(. Paul's family came over for a few hours to see the girls Monday morning before heading back to Tyler later that morning, and I got to take a shower without worrying I would have to jump out at any minute to tend to a crying baby. That doesn't happen very often. We had a good time, and kicked off our spring break with lots of firsts for the girls!

6 months old!!

Hadley and Hailey turned 6 months (19 weeks adjusted) on February 4th!  They are getting sooo big! I don't even feel like I have babies any more. Their faces are maturing and they are really coming into their own personalities. Hadley definitely acts more like her mommy, but looks just like her daddy. Hailey acts more like her daddy, but looks more like her mommy (or well at least her mommy's side of the family). Hadley is my active, busy baby. She is very inquisitive and serious when she plays. She is also more particular and set in her ways. Hailey on the other hand is all smiles. She is more laid back and never in a hurry to do anything. She can roll over and do all the things Hadley does, but prefers to lie on her back, play with her feet and talk to whoever will listen. She is willing and compliant with anything you want her to do and goes with the flow of the day. Both of my girls are so happy all the time and love to laugh!

Hadley (left); Hailey (right)

This month Hailey and Hadley are:
- still wearing size 1 diapers and 0-3 month clothes

- eating 6 oz roughly every 4-5 hours, and trying solids on the weekends

- attempting to drink water from a cup

- They are still sleeping well in their own room in their own cribs from about 8:00pm-6:00am; every once in a while they will wake up once in the night to eat and go right back to sleep

- They both roll over from back to belly and from belly to back

- They still love to talk and play, and are beginning to interact more with each other now

- They are better at grasping objects and toys and can switch items from hand to hand

- They sit well while supported and love being in their infant chairs

- They both recognize change in facial expressions from across the room and respond to our silly faces.

-They both still love the jumper and fight for time in it.

- They discovered their toes and love to play with them; and take off their socks
- They love being sung to and read to

- They are still doing well at daycare and making tons of friends

Hadley: 13lbs 13 0z; 25 in

Hailey: 13lbs 13oz; 25in

Video of Hailey talking and playing with her pants

Video of Hadley in the jumper.

After Hadley reached for and tried to drink Paul's Dr. Pepper we gave her a cup of water and she knew just what to do

Hailey drinking from the cup

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day will always be a special day to us because it was on Valentine's Day last year that we found out we were expecting a baby. It wasn't until a few weeks later that we found out we were expecting two little babies! Now, a year later, we are blessed with two happy little 5 1/2 month olds. It was so fun to celebrate Valentine's Day with my two little Valentine's in addition to my forever Valentine and puppy Valentine this year. It was also so sweet to see what Paul got them for Valentine's Day. I think we will start a tradition where Paul gets Valentine's for the girls and I get Valentine's for the boys.

Our Valentine's Day outfits...aren't we soo cute! (Hailey: left; Hadley: right)

Happy Valentine's Day to us from Daddy

Happy Valentine's Day from Grandma

Happy Valentine's Day from Vovo and Vovo

Happy Valentine's Day from Uncle Ben, Aunt Kourtney, Tyler, Addelynn and Trevor! Man we sure are loved!

This year for Valentine's Day we played everything really low key and celebrated at home after the girls went to sleep. Paul made me dinner. We were supposed to watch a movie, but I was not feeling well at all the whole week and I ended up falling asleep right after dinner. Paul was great! He really took care or me and the girls plus did all the house work for the whole week. To top it all off he still got me Valentine's Day goodies too! I think I will keep my forever Valentine forever!

My flowers, chocolate covered strawberries, balloons and earrings. I got Paul a board game and some of his favorite mints, but somehow didn't get a picture :(

We hope you had a wonderful Valentine's Day as well!

5 Months Old!!

Hadley and Hailey turned 5 months (15 weeks adjusted) on February 4th!  They are such sweet girls, and I love being their mommy. They are so much more interactive now, and I just love each month that they learn something new. Each month is better than the last, but I still find myself missing and longing for the months left behind. They really do grow too fast.

Hadley (left)  Hailey (right)

This month Hailey and Hadley are:
- still wearing size 1 diapers and 0-3 month clothes

- eating 4-5 oz roughly every 4-5 hours.

- They are still sleeping well in their own room in their own cribs from about 9:00pm-3-5:00am

- They are trying to roll over from back to belly...Hadley almost has a few times

- They love love love to talk and play.

- Hailey has started tracking things from across the room and loves to watch and laugh at Dasher 

-They both love the jumper and fight for time in it.

- We are still attempting to eat rice cereal. They are not consistent at eating it, but each attempt they tolerate more an more bites

- I think we have begun teething as they "eat" everything, but especially their hands. They have even been known to eat their sister's hand if it gets too close to their mouth.

- They are still doing well at daycare and making tons of friends

Hadley: 13lbs 8oz

Hailey: 13lbs 8oz

Christmas...I mean...Martin Luther King Day with the McGahas

Paul's parents and his little brother and sisters came to visit on MLK weekend.  We hadn't really gotten to see just them since Thanksgiving so we exchanged Christmas presents too.  We also went to the cheesecake factory and after a really long wait we finally got to enjoy the yumminess.  We are so blessed that the girls are so easy going and happy babies. They were champs at waiting sleeping the whole time and woke up to eat right after Paul and I ate. They love restaurants and watching all the people.

After eating we went back to our house to play a game. The next day we introduced Paul's brother and sisters to the show Once Upon a Time. We watched several episodes before they had to go back to Tyler.

 

Bethany with her pesent

Jacob enjoyed his cash present

Megan with her goodies

Anne with her goodies

Jessica with her goodies

Paul's dad

Paul's mom

Jessica with the game

Jessica is amazing at entertaining the girls

Part of my team for Disney Cranium...we won of course

Paul's team

with Vovo and Vovo

We had a good visit and look forward to the next one.

We're 4 months old!!!

On January 4th Hadley and Hailey turned 4 months old!!! I can't believe a third of their first year is now over. I also can't believe that they should only be 11 weeks old. They are so big and have changed so much since the day they were born. We are so proud to be their parents, and couldn't have asked for better babies.

Hadley (left) and Hailey (right)

This month Hailey and Hadley are:
- still wearing size 1 diapers and 0-3 month clothes

- eating 4 oz roughly every 4-5 hours; however they do go through random growth spurts and eat 4oz every 2 hours on occasion.

- They are still sleeping well in their own room in their own cribs from about 9:00pm-3-5:00am

- They are trying to roll over from back to belly

- They are able to support their own heads for long periods of time while supported sitting. 

- They have started laughing and giggling at the silly things Paul and I do.

- They love to play with the toys hanging from their jungle gym.

- They love love love to talk and play.

- They are becoming more independent and don't like to be held as much :(

- We got them a jumper and both are doing well practicing to stand!

- They also took their first bite of rice cereal this month. It will take sometime before they start eating it as a meal, but they are practicing.

- We also started going to daycare while mommy works hard.

Hadley: 11lbs 4.5oz and 23 inches long

Hailey: 11lbs 10.5oz and 23inches long

Don't know why this one won't turn right, but them after their first day of daycare! They got a great report card for their first day and were so tired when they came home. Also, the day care ladies asked for them to be dressed differently so they could tell them apart. We'll give them a few weeks and then hopefully they will see how different they really are.

We love to talk to each other

Look we sit up now

Hadley taking her first bite

Hailey taking her first bite

Hadley demonstrating the jumper. She actually likes it better than Hailey does right now.

We are so blessed by them each and everyday and cannot believe they are right on track developmentally. It is very common for preemies to be behind developmentally, but our girls are so strong and smart. We are so proud of them!

Ringing in the New Year Brazilian style

We headed back towards Houston on New Year's Eve. We were originally only going to stop for a few hours in Dallas before continuing on home, but at the last minute we decided to stay the night in Dallas with 'Aunt' Beth again.

We dropped Dasher off at Beth's house when we got into town then headed over to Paul's Titia Mattie's house for the girls to meet some of Paul's Aunts, Uncles and Vovô and Vovò for the first time. There were lots of people there and the girls also got to meet cousin Josiah for the first time since he was headed back to Beaumont too. We had fun meeting and catching up with new family members.

Hadley with Paul's Titia Lisa

Hailey with Great Vovo and Great Vovo

Titia Mattie

Hadley, Hailey and Josiah

I love these outfits

More cousins to meet.

After dinner was over we headed to my friend Holli's house to stop in and say Happy New Year real quick. Holli and I used to work together until she ditched me for a guy and moved to Dallas. Luckily she comes to Houston to visit still and we drive through Dallas a lot so we still get to hang out.

This is from when they met Hollie for the first time in Houston. We didn't take a pic on New Years.

We got back to 'Aunt' Beth's house just in time for apple cider and hot cocoa and to tell Happy New Year!! We are so lucky 'Aunt' Beth lives half way between Houston and Minco so that we can break up our long drive.

However, I must say that we are very blessed because the girls are great travelers and either sleep or enjoy watching the cars go by in their mirrors. They are such sweet good babies. We hope you all had a wonderful New Years!