Twelve-hours good!

My apologies for the two-week hiatus from posting. Jillian has taken over the office (meaning, we've moved her and the pack-n-play in for awhile). Turns out, the girls were ready for a little tough love in order to begin sleeping better. But, I'm happy to report, it seems to be working!

The girls now have their own rooms (temporarily), their own vaporizers and sound machines. So, it's become a little bit harder to get on the computer the past couple weeks. But, it's been so worth it. Last night, the girls set a new record of 12 straight hours of sleep. We've gone from 5-6 hours, to 10-12 in two short weeks.


The girls were 5 months old on Monday. Growing like weeds and doing new and incredibly cute things daily. Lauren is talking up a storm and will sometimes even squeal the way that her sister Jillian does (constantly). Jillian is a smiling machine. She smiles when she wakes up in the morning and whenever you talk to her. They are both so sweet and so cute. I love watching their unique personalities emerge.

We've battled a few colds as well. Two sick babies is not fun, but they are troopers and we seem to be on the recovering end of this one. Jillian is so pathetic when she doesn't feel good. She doesn't smile and she just gives a blank pathetic stare. I feel like she's saying, "Mommy, this stinks."

In other news, I (Jenni), have decided to launch my Arbonne business. I just returned from a training with my mom (Executive National Vice President Sandy Poe) in Phoenix and I'm very excited about getting started. If you'd like to know why I'm excited, just ask me. I'll be happy to tell you all about it.

While I was away, Andy had full-time daddy duties and he did amazing. Having twins has allowed Andy to have a lot of hands-on experience. So, taking over for the weekend was pretty much a seemless transition. What a guy!

So, while Jillian's in the office, I'll do my best to keep the posts coming. Maybe now it will be easier, with all the energy I've gotten from an uninterruped night of sleep.

On the verge

As you can see from this picture, Lauren has become part monkey and I believe she'll be rolling over soon. There are times when I'll put her under a toy, leave the room and come back to find she's done a 180 and is facing the opposite direction.

So, I figured enough about Andy and I and our Super Bowl adventures, let's talk about babies. A few weeks ago, I took the girls for their four month check-up. You won't believe what whoppers they've become. Jillian weighed 16lb 13oz and was 27 1/2". Lauren weighed 15lb 15oz and was almost 27". I was surprised to hear that Jillian was longer than Lauren, since Lauren appears to be long and lean. They are in the 90th and 95th percentile for weight - which is pretty incredible for twins.

The doctor gave us the okay to start teaching them to eat with a spoon. So, for one meal each day, they share a small bowl of rice cereal. Jillian picked up on it like she was born to eat from a spoon, while Lauren spits almost all of it out onto her bib with each bite. But, they are both oh-so-cute eating big girl food from a spoon.

We're still struggling with acid reflux - yes, they both have it. The biggest struggle right now is the frequent night waking. I've begun to chart who is waking up when, and maybe it's not as bad as it feels, but with two babies waking 2-3 times each night (equaling 4-6 wakings, for those slow with math), this mommy's doing everything she can think of to get it to stop. Any suggestions, fellow moms?

But, my babies are beautiful and healthy. So, I'm not bitter that although I know they are capable of sleeping 8hrs at a time, sometimes we still only get 5 or 6hrs. You can tell I'm not bitter, right?.. Sigh.

But seriously, life is good. Last night, when I was feeding Jillian, I started thinking about how they'll never be little babies again. And I wanted to stop the clock and just snuggle her and smell her freshly washed baby hair and kiss her chubby baby hands.

Five seconds of fame...

Andy and I snuck into the frame of one of the interviews on this story that WISH-TV did on the Colts employees going to the Super Bowl.

24-Hour News 8 Exclusive: Jim Irsay Keeps His Promise

Super Bowl XLI Memories

I think Andy picked a great year to join the Colts organization. Mr. Irsay spared no expense in treating the Colts employees to an awesome time in Miami. And we are so grateful! There are a million fun memories to share, but I'll just stick to the highlights and share some of our favorite photos.


Here is Andy at the NFL Experience at Dolphin Stadium. It wasn't as exciting as we'd hoped, but we found this display with Peyton Manning's rookie jersey and thought it was pretty cool.


Here we are outside Dolphin Stadium on game day.


Mimosa wishes and chocolate football dreams. We enjoyed a game day brunch for all staff and players family at the Marriott. We spent a lot of time on the trip with Isaac and Suz (Andy works with Suz). They are a great couple and we had a lot of fun getting to know them.


Outside the Colts hotel. There were security guards everywhere! But, with our creditials, we were pretty much allowed to go anywhere. I know, we're so cool!


This one's for all my homies in KC! These photo op players were outside the stadium. The one for the Colts had a huge line, but KC guy was standing all alone. Weird, huh?






A view from the top! Our seats were in the top section, about 20 rows from the top. We had an incredible view. One of the coolest moments, was when the jets flew over the stadium after the national anthem. Talk about a rush.

Our seats were great for exposing us to the wind and rain, also. I had to include the picture of Andy and I, to show how soaked we got at the game. We were literally soaked to the bone, pruney fingers and all. But, I can't ask for sympathy, we were at the SB!


Andy and his good buddy, Jeff Saturday. At the after party, most of the players and their families were there. Andy decided to go shake Mr. Saturday's hand and he even let us take this picture. Such a great guy!


This one is a little hard to see, so let me explain. At the after party, everyone was passing around the trophy and getting their picture taken with it. We were standing next to Coach Dungy's table and someone brought the trophy to him. Immediately, people began to surround the table and take pictures... so this is the best one I got. Look closely, you'll see the Coach standing with the trophy in the air!




The fun continued after we got home. All Colts employees and their families were invited to sit on the floor during the welcome home rally at the RCA Dome. We got some incredible pictures. There were more than 35,000 fans in attendance and it was so cool to be in the middle, amidst all the cheering and excitement.

And a police escort, to boot!

We're here in sunny Florida and in the past 24 hours, we've experienced several firsts: first police escort to the airport, first fancy meal on a plane, first plane ride with the Colts cheerleaders, first appearance on a national TV show (CBS Early Show), first John Legend live performace, first viewing of ESPN's Mike & Mike show, first time picking up Super Bowl tickets and first time sleeping all night without interruptions, since the girls were born. Oh, life is good and the party's just getting started.

It's just so weird that we're here. We were even given creditials, so we can walk around pretty much anywhere and act like we're supposed to be there. Last night we walked the beach outside of the Colts hotel. We haven't run into any celebrities or players, yet. But, I'm sure we will before we head home.


This afternoon, we're headed to Dolphin Stadium for an event called the NFL Experience. There are supposed to be lots of interactive football activities, retired players, etc. I'll have more pictures to post, I'm sure.

Thanks to our families for caring for our babies while we're away. It's a good thing we're staying busy, because I really start to miss them during our down time. But, we're enjoying the break.

By the way...

I believe I forgot to mention that Andy and I leave tomorrow to go to the Super Bowl! Mr. Irsay is paying for all Colts employees and one guest (me... sorry Todd) to go to Miami, all expenses paid. We'll even have creditials and be able to enjoy some fun pre-game parties! It seems too good to be true, but we are oh-so-excited.

Since we're blessed to have both sets of grandparents in town, the girls will split up and spend time with each of them (and one of them will even get to spend the night with Aunt Shannon, Uncle Ryan and cousin Jakey!).

It's going to be hard to leave them. That part should be interesting. But, I think we'll do OK.

I'll take a ton of pictures and can't wait to blog all about it when we get back on Monday!

Lauren and Jillian (at 3 mos.)

Here is a short compilation video of the girls over the last couple of months. They're growing so fast.

Going to the Super Bowl!

Oh man, was last night fun! Andy had to work the game, so I took my dad and we cheered like crazy people ... along with 60,000 other fans. It was so loud in that place, I couldn't believe it. And we're going to the Super Bowl! Man-oh-man, this is gonna be good!

This first shot is during the trophy presentation after the game, second shot is me and dad, the third is during the player introduction and the last shot is the team lining up for the play that scored the winning touchdown!

Have your cake and devour it, too!

It's hard to believe it, but our sweet niece, Sophia Joy, is turning one (on 1/23). We celebrated tonight with an incredible cake and lots of fun presents. Sophie loves books, so Shannon had everyone bring their favorite book with a personal note written inside. What a great idea! She loved it.

She looked adorable in her little pink tutu and pink cowgirl boots!

We love you, Sophie! Happy birthday!

Jillian Laughing

Last Sunday Grammy (aka Debbie Keller) had Jillian laughing her first real belly laugh. Warning: If you're having a bad day, it's about to get better. Watch her expression at the end ... she was exhausted.

Picture day!

I took the girls this morning to JCPenney for their 3 month pictures (even though they're a week shy of 4 months) and they did great. So did mommy, thanks to great help by my friend Melissa (thanks again, Melissa!).

When we got home, I decided to take some more pictures, because at random times I realize how big they're getting so fast and I want to remember every moment - except for the past two weeks, which I wouldn't mind forgetting.

Lauren's acid reflux started flaring up again and then Jillian was giving us a hard time with her sleep patterns. So last night, Andy decided to give me some relief and take the middle of the night feeding (yes, they've gone back to only sleeping 5hrs at a time). But, to our surprise, they went all the way until 6am this morning (making it a 7 1/2 hr stretch!! Woohoo!) We'll see if they keep it up!

Fun at the playoffs!

Andy and I went to the playoffs game last Saturday (1/6) to watch the Colts beat the Chiefs.

Now, I know I grew up in Chiefs territory, but I have to say I also grew up oblivious to the fascination with the sport of football. But now, thanks to my husband, I actually like it. So, needless to say, we had a blast hollering and swinging our towels in celebration.

We're anxious for tomorrow's game. We won't be in Baltimore, but if (I mean, when) they win, we'll be going back for the game on 1/21.

Enjoy these pics, even though they were taken with a lousy camera (sorry).

Christmas clothes!

We've had so much fun dressing the girls in all the new outfits they got for Christmas. They are getting so big, so fast. They'll be 15 weeks old on Tuesday!

I've already begun packing away their newborn and even some of their 0-3 month size clothes. I wasn't prepared for how sad that would make me. But they're doing new things all the time, and that's so fun to watch. Recently, they've both become fascinated by their hands. Jillian is even sucking her thumb a bit (as you can see in the pic on the last post).