Great Nana and Grandpa's Visit

Whew! What a week! It seems it has been forever since I posted and it seems everytime I get a little bit of time I think about posting something comes up and I am off to do that. A week ago my Nana came to visit the girls along with her boyfriend, Curt, all the way from Florida. Presley and Kourtney, this is your Great Nana. Grandpa came too, along with Grandma Della a couple of days later and we all had a good time. We mostly visited, talked, and played and I think the girls enjoyed it a lot. Nana brought some hats that she crocheted for the itty bitty babies in the NICU so I am excited to take those to California Pacific next time I happen to be over in that area. It is amazing how small they look but yet when Presley and Kourtney were born they fit just right. Amazing. Nana also bought the girls the Fisher Price Little People Sound Zoo and they absolutely love it. It seems they love zoo animals and penguins are their favorite. They is not a day that goes by that their isn't a fight over who gets the penguin. I really need to find some more penguin toys. Grandpa and Grandma brought the girls their first pairs of tennis shoes. Nike of course! It is hard to find walking shoes that have a rubber sole and are not just the typical crib shoes with the soft bottoms because the girls are still in a size 2 which would normally fit a 3-6 month baby.

K helping Grandpa put her new toy together

Jump! Jump! Jump!

Silly girls thought the air mattress was a moon jump!

P with her new zoo

Playing with Grandpa

P with Grandpa before bedtime

Tickle time!

Grandpa feeding K her breakfast

Great Nana with K, Grandpa with P

Great Nana

Great Nana with Presley

New shoes!

K gets kisses from Grandpa before bedtime

Grandma Della and Presley

I love you Great Nana!

 We all took a great walk on the San Andreas Trail one afternoon which is one block from the house and everybody loved it. I haven't really written about it yet until now but it is my favorite trails to walk along. It is by Crystal Springs Reservoir and it is just amazing beautiful, serene, and a nice hike with hills and valleys. Their is a more challenging trail that is across the street from the house but that one is really going to be too dangerous for a stroller to go on since it has a pretty steep hill at the very beginning. I love to bring the girls here on nice days during their nap time and although I haven't been going lately because of the weather, we are really starting to get beautiful weather here and I look forward to making it a daily activity. It is going to be so great after being cooped up in this house for the past couple of months. I normally have the girls sitting in the stroller so that they can see what is going on around them but it happened to be crazy windy and a little chilly this particular day so I didn't want to chance them getting sick. It might have been chilly and windy but the sun was out and it was BEAUTIFUL! It was so nice to have my family to go on the hike with me this time since I usually go alone.

Grandpa pushing the girls

Grandpa and Nana

Me, Grandpa, and Grandma

Me, Grandpa, Great Nana, and Curt

Grandma and Grandpa

Great Nana and Curt

I love this trail!

Tree tops

Grandma, Grandpa, Great Nana, and Curt, and the girls

Travis took Grandpa and Curt up to the airstation to show them the helicopters that he works on and they enjoyed it and snapped a few pictures for us girls that stayed home.

The week went by very fast--too fast--as always and we were so sad to see everybody go but we always look forward to seeing them when they come back for another visit.

Welcome Blog Party Participants!

 I was recently invited to participate in the Ultimate Blog Party that is going on right now and thought it would be really fun to do and a great way to meet other mommies that blog. This website just recently went "public" though it has been around since March 2011. It had been for friends and family exclusively at first as a way for them to get updates of our little girls as we were so busy but now I feel more comfortable sharing our story and letting people follow our journey.
So I'll introuduce myself and our blog:

I am Ashlee and the proud mother to twin girls, Presley and Kourtney. Our girls were born at only 25 weeks gestation, 4 months premature) and weighed only a little over a pound each. It was both the scariest and most amazing thing that has ever happened to us. My husband is in Aviation in the Coast Guard and we are currently stationed in San Francisco, CA but are true Texans at heart. We are going to be celebrating our 5th anniversay in July and I can honestly say that we have grown a lot closer through this journey. The blog was started as a way to keep friends and family up to date about the girls as we were under such emotional stress that it was hard to even find time to eat. Sometimes I feel like their whole NICU stay was a blur (110 days) so it is really nice to look back on my posts and to also just remind myself of how far they have come. The site used to be private as I was scared that my story would have a sad ending like many other premature babies' stories are but luckily here we are! Hope you enjoy our blog and our story!

Our Second Easter!

Today is Presley and Kourtney's second Easter! We really celebrated Easter yesterday since Travis was home (he has 24 hour duty today). Yesterday we had a little Easter egg hunt in the front yard and the weather was absolutely perfect! It was a "warm" 65.As I was gathering the camera and a blanket up to take downstairs, the girls got into a fight. Earlier in the day, Kourtney had pushed Presley down and decided that she was going to stand on her. So she did. Poor Presley had imprints from the play mat on her face. I warned Kourtney that Presley would get her back one day. And Presley sure did. A couple of minutes after setting them down in their Easter outfit, Presley grabbed Kourtney's headband and snapped it right on her head! It is elastic so I am sure that it didn't feel good! Haha! Let's just say that if they were a little older, maybe they wouldn't have been going outside to Easter egg hunt and would have been in time out instead. Haha!! Here they are looking really innocent right before the fight:

After we got Kourtney settled down, we headed downstairs where we laid a blanket out and just hung out for a while in the nice warm sun The blanket we used was actually Travis' baby blanket so that was kind of sweet to use. We played with the girls for a while with all their Easter goodies and the plastic eggs were of course the biggest hit!

We also made glittered tie dye eggs which of course the girls couldn't help with because that would have been a big mess! I look forward to when they are a little bit older and can help with Easter crafts because I have a whole lot of things in mind that I would love to do with them! Of course, I am not rushing time along as I am perfectly content with them staying my little babies for as long as I can.

This past week we also got some professional Easter/Spring pictures of the girls done by Jennifer Dickey and they came out so cute! I am never disappointed with the pictures she takes of the girls ever and just when I think she cannot do any better she does! I will put up all of the pictures in another post but here is what I have so far:

I also wanted to take a minute and post a before and after of where we were exactly a year ago today. I count my blessings everyday. Thank you God for allowing my girls to thrive. Here are the girls on their First Easter where they were 4 weeks old (29 weeks gestation) with their first bunnies, Cupcake and Hopscotch):

Our Very First Picnic

Travis and I took the girls on their first picnic a few days ago at Cuernavaca Park which is about about 4 blocks away from us. It is a beautiful park with a great few of the San Francisco Bay and huge lawns to sprawl out on. I love picnics and after being cooped up all winter and during RSV season it is nice to be able to go out and get some fresh air all together and enjoy the warm spring sun. Being cooped up is really starting to get to me but I fear that if I give in too much or become too lenient that the girls will catch a bad cold and that we would end up in the hospital again. So, the girls got their last shot of Synagis two weeks ago and so by the end of May we should be able to go wherever we want freely but also limiting our time spent with other kids. I packed chicken wraps, chips, and strawberries and we took one of my favorite comforters to lay on. I packed some Baby Mum Mums for the girls and they enjoyed those very much while we ate and just took in the fresh air and the view. It was a great day and really helped to lift my mood and take my mind off some of the many things that have been getting me down lately.