Summer Plans

Oh wow!

The girls will be 11 months old this week!

I can’t believe how time has flown and I can’t believe I’ve only written one post since their 10 month update! Yikes!

I guess things have been pretty busy!

And even though I’m thisclose to being done with school doesn’t mean we’ll have a lazy summer, I plan to pack it full of many fun outings, activities, and even a short trip thrown into the mix!

I have to say – I’m a bit of a slave to the girls’ schedule and I’m not afraid to admit it! We’ve gotten into a routine that works for us and I’ve found that when we interfere with it, its often not worth the hassle (e.g., cranky babies, missed refused naps, tantrums, etc.). Sometimes its unavoidable but If I can help it, I try to stick to the schedule when possible. Its easier for me and the babies are happier – win/win!

Right now they’re still (mostly) taking 2 naps a day (morning and afternoon), but I know that many babies drop a nap around 1 year of age and we’re creeping closer and closer to that milestone. Either way, I’ve found that what tends to work best for us is to have one “big” activity/outing per day (and “big” is all relative, of course). This could include a trip to the mall, museum or zoo. Or it could even be something at the house – playing outside while I “garden” (I use this word loosely, lol), or doing an art project like we did for Mother’s Day. These are activities that are fun, but take a lot of energy. It doesn’t include normal daily stuff (e.g., reading, playing with blocks, etc.). I’m so glad we’re finally in a comfortable routine that allows us to do things like this while still maintaining our sense of normalcy at the house.

So I’ve made a little list of fun things to do around Tucson that are baby-friendly. I can’t wait to try them all!

• Tucson Children’s Museum
• Zoo at Reid Park
• Botanical Garden
• Visiting playgrounds/going on swings & down slides
• Rose Garden at Reid Park
• Picking out books at Bookmans
• Story time at Mildred and Dildred
• Enjoy live music at outdoor venues
• Hit up the various splash pads around town
• Play with the water table outside
• Walks at the mall
• BBQs!
• 1-year-old photographs

Some of these things we’ve already done, but I’m making it my personal mission to try all of these things at least once (more often if they’re successful/fun)! I feel like last summer I didn’t really have a summer because I was huge/pregnant and couldn’t stand the heat and was so exhausted that I took lots of naps and just generally lazed about (until the girls were born, of course). But the babies are growing into little toddlers – they’ll be walking before I know it! – and its so much fun to get to share all of the seasons with them and enjoy all the fun summer offerings that are in store!

Note:  Sorry about the picture-less post. My phone’s camera has been acting up and its much more time-consuming/bulky to upload photos from the “real” camera, but I promise to do so soon! Especially since there’s and 11-month update post coming just-around-the-corner!!!

Fun Weekend!

This past weekend was a busy and fun one!

My Mom came to town to visit because I was graduating(!) on Saturday and I coerced her into coming out to watch me walk across stage (very exciting for her! lol).

As you all know, it was also Mother’s Day weekend! A special treat to get to spend my first mother’s day with my kids AND my own mother, especially since I haven’t been able to spend Mother’s Day with my mom in 6 years! Way too long!!!

Friday was full of errand-running and playing with babies.

Then, first thing on Saturday morning was graduation! I had to be there at 7:00am and my Mom, Chris, and the girls came at 8:30 just in time for the ceremony to begin.

See me? I’m the third person in the second row (I’m the blond wearing glasses)

*Warning – tangent ahead* – I’m only giving you a sneak peak right now (instead of all the photos) because I don’t want to celebrate yet. My dissertation defense is not for two full weeks and even though I walked the stage, I don’t technically “graduate” until I’ve passed my defense. I’ve really appreciated all the love and support I’ve been given and I’ve had TONS of congratulations texts, emails, FB messages, etc. I appreciate them all but, to me, celebrating before I *really* finish is akin to counting your chickens before your eggs hatch. I’m not superstitious, per se, but I don’t want to “jinx” myself, ya know? So save your “Congrats” until I pass my defense. I promise I’ll let you know!!!

That day was a bit of a blur and I can’t seem to remember many of the details.

What I do know is that after the girls’ afternoon nap, we all put on our swimsuits and headed to the Hilton hotel at Reid Park! My Mom and Brian (step dad) had generously booked us a room so Chris and I could have a FULL night out and my Mom could babysit the girls (this is the FIRST time we’ve both been away from the girls for a night since they’ve been home from the hospital). The swim was so much fun! It was the girls’ first time in a pool and they loved it! I knew if they loved it half as much as they love baths they would be in heaven, and I was right!

me with Miss Bailey! (the red spot on her forehead is from her helmet which, yes, she’s still wearing. We took it off for the pool adventure)

Dad with Miss Brooke!The girls having a splashing war!

I’m telling you – they were in heaven!

We went up to the room to change the girls out of their wet swimsuits before taking them back to the house, and we had a little surprise waiting for us!!

How sweet is this!?! A bottle of bubbly and some HUGE strawberries dipped in chocolate, with a big pile of freshly whipped cream!

We had to eat the strawberries immediately!

And the girls’ got their first little tastes of whipped cream. I think they liked it!

Brooke thinking, “hmmmm….this is pretty good!”

Bailey saying, “Hey, why’ve you been holding out on me??”

The next day was Mother’s Day and we decided to check out the Tucson Botanical Garden as a fun little Grandma-Mom(&Dad)-Baby activity. Unfortunately, I really wasn’t that impressed (it paled in comparison to all of the Botanical Gardens I’ve visited before – in Austin, Ft. Worth, and Delray Beach). But it was still nice to get out for a bit and share the day together. And the girls still seemed to enjoy it!

All in all, it was a very busy and very fun weekend. I was sad to see my Mom go on Monday morning (a short trip!), but was so glad we got to spend the weekend together! Such a great (first) Mother’s Day!!!

Ten Month Update

Where does the time go?! Just yesterday it felt like we were bringing you home from the NICU, and now your first birthday(birthdays?) is just around the corner!

It’s been a blur!

This month has presented more sleeping hardships. Why oh why does the sleeping-thing never get any easier?!? First, I got sick with food poisoning a couple weekends ago. Again. (Remember I had food poisoning back in January, too!). Then, Bailey got some mystery illness that made her have a super-high fever (in the 103* region) and gave us a few completely sleepless nights (side note: we went to the doctor – they couldn’t find anything wrong with her so they thought it was some random virus. The fever subsided after 3 days and Brooke never got sick, thank goodness!) And more often than not Brooke has been waking up for extended periods during the night.

Remember last month how I mentioned that everyone (pediatrician included) was telling us to let the girls cry it out (CIO)? Well….miserable failures to report in that department! There were a couple of nights where I tried (I really did!), but ended up giving up after awhile. Brooke, in particular, will just work herself up into a tizzy! Instead of crying herself to sleep, there have been 2 occasions of where she’s actually cried so hard that she ends up throwing up. Then its a WHOLE big ordeal because we have to change her crib pad, her crib sheet, she’s totally 100% awake, and we’re up for 3 hours. Seriously – someone help me out with some advice or something! I miss sleep!!!! Everything is so much easier when you get sleep and, on the flip-side, so much harder when you don’t get any! Even interrupted sleep is preferable over no sleep!

Whew – just went off on a tangent there!

Aside from the sleep drama, this has been such a fun month with the girls developmentally!

So What’s New?

• The girls are now crawling backwards! Well, I guess its more of a backwards scoot but they’re definitely covering a lot of ground! I don’t know when they’ll get the hang of going forward but in the meantime its just been a lot of lunging and rolling all around. Bailey, in particular, is like a magnet for choking hazards! I swear the house will look spotless, then I’ll find her clutching a twisty-tie (like the kind that closes a bag of bread) in her little fist. What the heck?! How does she find this stuff?!

• They’ve been saying “Dada” for months, but they’re finally saying “Mama”, too. I still don’t believe that they’re saying anything with intention (though Chris swears that they’ll say “Dada” specifically to him). I still think its all just baby-babble at this point. I’m working with them on saying “Dog” (pronounced “DOGH”) and would love for that to be their first “official” word (something neutral), but we’ll see. We may just end up writing “Dada” in the baby book to please a certain Daddy. ; )
• The girls are eating tons of table foods and are getting really great with feeding themselves (see pictures here). They’re kinda weird with their solid foods – very hot & cold. Sometimes they’ll gobble the food up and can’t seem to get enough. Other times they’re totally disinterested and will start to cry when I try to make them eat.

• We got a big non-slick bath mat for our tub and now the girls are getting baths together in the “big girl” tub instead of the baby bath! I love it because it saves time (since we can bathe them together), and they have a ball splashing around and playing with all of their toys. We tried to do it without the bath mat and it was a total failure. The slippery tub made it difficult for the girls to sit upright without toppling over. But with the bath mat we haven’t had any problems (of course, they’re fully supervised either way!)
• We’ve been seeing our first peeks of what the future might hold for the “terrible-twos” and tantrums! Often I’ll put the girls in their high chairs while I’m making dinner, and I’ll give them spoons to bang on their little tables. Heaven help us if one of them drops a dang spoon! Blood-curdling screams that are only abated when I rush over and promptly retrieve said spoon from the floor. Then they’re right back to being sweet little happy babies!

Likes and Dislikes

• The girls have started disliking diaper changes/clothing changes. This used to be one of their favorite things, but now they’ll often throw a fit the second I try to lay them on the changing table! We’ve become very efficient with diaper changes (like how a pit crew at Nascar changes tires)! Also, I’ve devised a variety of techniques to distract them so they aren’t trying to squirm around and get away from me. Toys are always good. Pacifiers help, too.
• The girls love going to daycare. I think its all the new toys, friends, and stimulation they receive there that provides a nice little break from the same-old, same-old at home. I’ve noticed that some mornings they’ll be super fussy and as soon as we get to daycare they’re happy little campers! Definitely helps with leaving them there since that used to be particularly tough!
• I wouldn’t say its a “dislike” per se, but they’re not as “into” their exersaucers as they used to be. They used to love their exersaucers and might literally spend an hour playing and bouncing around in them (in baby-time 1 hour = eternity!) Now they really have to be in the mood to go in the exersaucer and they get bored after about 5-10 minutes.
• The girls love attention! They’re such astute little observers! I’ve noticed that recently they really pay attention to when one of them is getting more attention (for example – if one of them is sick and is being held more than the other). They’ll get jealous and start to throw little fits (see above – tantrums!)
• And this is an old one, but the girls still love walks. Recently we visited a big rose garden and a mini “lake”, complete with ducks! This last time we went there was a Momma duck with two little babies! Just like me and my little baby ducklings!

 

Baby Stats:

• Weight & Length: We don’t have another doctor appointment scheduled until we go for their 12-month shots, so I have no idea on the weight and length right now.
• Clothing Size: The girls are wearing 9-12 month clothes, depending on the style.
• Diaper Size: We’re officially fully in Size 3 diapers now. They’re only 10 months and I’m already looking forward to the day when we never have to deal with a diaper again!
• Sleep: Pretty terrible (see above). Their daytime sleep isn’t a problem (still roughly 3-4 hours of daytime sleep per day split into 2 naps). The nighttime sleep is the problem. They typically go down at about 8 or 8:30 with several nighttime wake-ups (sometimes lately lasting literally 3 hours long), and they’re back up for the day by 6am. After particularly rough nights I’ll put them to sleep at 8/8:30 and I fall into my own bed by 9pm, hoping to get as much sleep as possible before the nightly wake-ups begin (they usually start around midnight or 1am).
• Food: They’re still eating 4 bottles a day (6-8 oz each time), with 2-3 meals of “solids” per day. I’ve tried to make their schedule more regular so that they’re always eating both lunch and dinner as “solids”, but I try to get them to eat breakfast, too. By 1 year they should be eating 3 meals a day regularly so I’m trying to get us in the habit now.

That’s it for now! Here’s hoping that next month will bring us better sleep and healthy babies (and parents!) <3

Bailey loves playing with the remote control these days : )

Our life lately

Here’s what we’ve been up to lately – according to my phone!

Bailey loves pacifiers! She can have one in her mouth and will steal one straight from Brooke’s mouth just so she has a second one to hold onto. It’s also pretty hilarious to see her as she sometimes tries to put a pacifier in her mouth when she’s already sucking on one. She shoves and shoves until the old one falls out and she pops the new one in. Silly little thing! Good thing Brooke doesn’t mind sharing!

Well that’s a silly way to lay!!!

That’s better! Sitting up like big girls! A back-up shot of the living room. It’s been overrun with baby items, but we keep it pretty contained to one general area at a time.

Happy girls! Brooke (above) sitting up! Bailey (below) working on holding her own sippy cup!

Sleepy babies are the most precious babies!

And big girls sit upright in strollers without needing car seats! Here we are waiting at the doctor for Bailey’s head check (for her helmet – these visits occur at least once every 3 weeks, generally sooner depending on how her head is doing).

Big girls also sit upright in the grocery cart! Yay! First time doing this!

The thing I LOVE about Costco is that their baskets are so big they have spots for TWO babies! Woohoo! Now I can go shopping on my own without it being a huge ordeal of a thing! Just park next to the cart return area, grab one of the carts, put the girls in straight from the car, and go! Yay!! The logistics of having twins is becoming so much easier the bigger they get! (although…I’ll probably change my mind when they’re walking!)

These little girls sure do love each other! Its so fun playing with them the bigger they get, too! I’ve been making little play areas – spreading out a blanket, surrounding it with pillows, plopping a handful of toys in the middle, and just letting them play with whatever they want. Brooke is much better with sharing than Bailey so as long as Bailey gets whatever she wants they’re both happy campers. Lord help us all the day Brooke decides that she doesn’t want to share anymore, lol.

(Sorry for the blurry photos – remember all these photos are from my phone and its not great at capturing those moving moments….babies never stop!)
They love chewing on their spoons. Often times while I’m getting their food ready I’ll just let them play with their spoons to keep them occupied. Sometimes this involves them banging on their high chairs, but usually it involves them munching down on the hard plastic. Mmmmm : )

And that’s it for now. The last picture was dated from April 14th, so we’re still a week behind “real time” but that’s pretty good for me right now (a lot better than an entire month behind!) Baby skills develop so rapidly, so it’s funny now looking at these photos and seeing the babies surrounded by pillows, for example, to cushion them for when they topple over. Now they’re sitting like champs and haven’t fallen over for over a week. But I love being able to document where they were/how they were doing throughout the various stages of life. I’ll try to be more “on top of it” with the pictures. I’m imagining things will be MUCH easier once this dissertation is off my plate. And for those keeping track – that should be very, very soon! *fingers crossed* Come on, May! I cannot wait!!!

 

 

Disappearing Act!

You can always tell that the end of the semester is near when things really start to get out-of-control! Another tell-tale sign?  No blog posts. Yup. I’ve been spending lots of time with the girls and sneaking in dissertation work in every spare second so there hasn’t been much time for anything else. But I want to document what’s been going on, because its been a lot more than just school work! Check it out – these photos date back to a month ago – late March:

Self-Feeding: Solids!

Their favorite breakfast is pancakes (just like their Momma). They get theirs served plain (no syrup), ripped into tiny shreds. They’ve tried many flavor varieties, too (blueberry, banana, etc.)

And Rocky has finally discovered that he can scavage off the dropped pieces of food. Makes my life easier (less clean-up) and makes him a happy camper. He’s finally starting to come around the girls a bit more frequently (he still mostly keeps his distance, but I think they’re finally starting to grow on him now that they have  ”purpose” in his eyes…aka – giving him food) : )

First Street Fair:  4th Ave

In Tucson they have a big street fair called “4th Ave Street Fair” twice a year – in Spring and Fall. I’ve been to almost every single one of them since we’ve lived in Tucson (with the exception of this past Fall after the babies were born….too much chaos!) It was SO fun to bring the girls with us this time. And it was really surreal, too. The last time that we came (last Spring), we had recently learned that we were expecting twins! It was so crazy to bring the girls here now that they’re on the outside of my belly and walk around with them.

The fair reminds me a lot of Austin, too. Check out some of the crazy tent offerings – artwork of animals…

and tie-dye everything/anything…

and of course some fair food! Last year when I was preggers I had a crazy craving for funnel cake while we were there. This year, Chris and I split what was probably the best caramel apple of my life (an “apple pie” caramel apple with cinnamon, white chocolate chips, graham cracker crushings, and more deliciousness than I can even remember)

Sorry babies….none for you!

 

When we got back to Texas for my sister’s wedding, things were a blur! I was still forced to spend some time working on my dissertation (boo!) but also had wedding-responsibilities to attend to. Plus normal mom responsibilities that don’t end simply because you leave town. But we had a lot of fun, too!

My Mom and I took the girls to the park for their first time ever to go in a swing!

Neither of them were unhappy, per se, but neither seemed to overjoyed either. Here’s Brooke’s “I’m-not-impressed” face:

Got a smile out of Bailey!!

And because life happens, guess what occurred approximately 90 seconds after we got there? Bailey had the most epic blow-out of her life. I’m talking poop everywhere! Of course this happens the one time of my life that I don’t have a spare outfit for her in the diaper bag. So we gave her a mini-bath with baby-wipes, put her in a fresh diaper….and she rode home nekkid. : ) Yup. Back in the car we go! So much for our afternoon at the park! Here she is covered with a burp cloth so she won’t be cold on the ride home, lol.

And, of course, there were wedding festivities, to attend to!

Eeeek – my little sister was getting married!!!!

On the way to the rehearsal:

 

I don’t have pictures from the wedding, itself, because I was the MOH so I was running around like a crazy-person all night long and didn’t have my camera on me. If you’re friends with Britt – check her fb page.

We only stayed in Austin through the rest of the weekend after the wedding, but we did get to play a little more with the babies…

We went to breakfast with my Dad, his friend, and my uncle. It was the girls’ first time to sit in high chairs at a restaurant (we don’t eat out often and when we have, we’ve usually just left the girls in their carseats and sit next to them in big booths)

Bailey was having a blast dancing and “talking.” My Dad also bought the girls a couple of toys, but Brooke had just as much fun eating the paper packaging as she did playing with the toy, itself.

Back at my Mom’s house, Bailey discovered she can stare at herself in the mirror for hours (not really hours but a good 5 minutes, which = hours for a baby!)

and Brooke was content just playing with her pacifier and her own toes…

Before we knew it, it was time to hit the road back to Tucson. The girls decided they would drive to give me and Dad a break

Ha! I wish!!

We’ve done a lot in the 3 weeks that we’ve been home since then, too. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I think that’s plenty of pictures for now. See you again soon!

 

 

 

 

 

9 month update

I’m going to keep this post photo-heavy and light on words. I’m already over a week late posting this and the 10 month update will be here before we know it!!

9 months – they’ve flown by in the blink of an eye!

And this has been quite an eventful month! We drove back to Austin for my little sisters’ wedding the last week of March. It was so fun to have time with family and get to spend Easter together (first time in 6 years!!) We also got to have the babies take bluebonnet photos – again, its been 6 years since we’ve been in Texas during bluebonnet season in the Spring (usually we go for visits during summer and winter). Check out the photos!

Easter:

All time favorite photo!!! Sooooo adorable!

Playing with toys from their Easter basket – little bunny rubber-duckies

Girls with their baskets from Mom and Dad (they also got baskets from their Grandma and their Mamaw – Chris’ mom & my mom – spoiled little girlies!)

Tasting the Easter egg! We filled various eggs with rice, dried beans, raw nuts, etc. (anything to make noise), then supervised as the girls used them as rattles – shaking them to make noise. I like the idea of giving the girls toys and books, etc., rather than candy for Easter. This year they’re too young to eat candy anyway, but I think I’d like to keep this tradition. It makes easter-egg hunts interesting (what am I going to put in the eggs when they get older??), but I definitely want to try to raise the girls with a healthier outlook on Easter than what is “traditional.”

Bluebonnets:

First, some disasterous photos that I had to share because they were too funny! I had this idea in my mind – I wanted to have little naked flower-fairy photos. I got the girls these red sparkly wings and skirts. I had white bloomers to cover their diapers, and I thought about draping long pearls around their necks.

Well…. then this happened:

haha! Chris had packed the bloomers elsewhere so we couldn’t find them for the photos, we had no pearls, and the girls were NOT happy about the whole ordeal. We thought maybe they’d do better with Chris and me holding them. Ummmm….then their wings just blended into our shirts and it was still a pretty terrible photo…

First family bluebonnet photo – March 2013

Luckily, we were able to get a couple precious photos of them in the bluebonnets in their pretty Easter dresses – a MUCH better option compared to the naked flower fairy photos, lol!

Brooke on left, Bailey on right. If you notice the red mark on Bailey’s forehead, its from her helmet (which we removed for photo purposes, but was replaced promptly afterwards).

Bluebonnet photos – March 2013

And now to the meat of the post:

Baby Stats:

• Weight: The girls just had their check-up today where they were weighed so this should be accurate! Brooke =  14 lb. 4 oz. Bailey = 14 lb. 12 oz.
• Height: Brooke & Bailey =  26.5 inches (both the same)
• Clothing Size: Although the girls can still fit into some 6 month clothes, we’ve been transitioning into all 9-12 month stuff. Some of it is still a  little big, but they can grow into it. We got so many new clothes when we were back in Austin (Thanks Monica and Mom!) that its time to clear out some of the old stuff to make room for the new. Their drawers are overflowing right now!
• Diaper Size: They can technically still fit into size 2 diapers (according to the weight recommendations), but they’re getting a little small (TMI alert!!! The way I can tell when its time for a larger diaper size is that every time they poop it ends up as a blowout. every.time!) We just bought our first pack of size 3 diapers and plan to finish up using the size 2 ones that we’ve got, then making the switch to size 3.
• Nighttime Sleep: Sleep, sleep, sleep. I remember hearing from Mom friends that they hadn’t slept through the night in 9 months and I thought I might die if I were in their situation. Well, lookey there! Here we are! Really though, sleep has been up and down. This past month its been a bit better since we haven’t been dealing with illness, but I think in the last 30 days the girls have slept through the night maybe 1 or 2 times total. Luckily, the wake-ups are generally brief (just need a little soothing) so its no longer a 3 hour ordeal to get them back to sleep. LOTS of people have been saying I should just let them cry it out (their pediatrician, included!). Its hard with 2 babies though because one will wake up the other and then its a nightmare. Right now, its working better for me to just get up, soothe a baby for 5 minutes, and go back to bed. We’ll see about the future…
• Naps: The girls are still generally taking 2 naps a day (morning and afternoon). The length varies so I just listen to their cues. Short naps are about an hour and on rare occasion they’ll take a long nap of 3 hours. Average length is about 90 minutes.
• Food: Having the girls eat solids has become soooooo much easier now that they have high chairs and are able to start eating foods with more texture (as opposed to completely pureed mush). They’re eating 2-3 meals of “solids” a day in addition to 4 8-oz bottles. Their favorite foods are anything sweet (sweet corn, fruit, etc.) and the’ve even started sharing foods with me! It makes my life a million times easier to be able to just feed them off my plate, and I’m so excited for them to start eating “grown-up” foods. A sampling of my foods that they’ve tried includes:  pancakes (no syrup – one of their favorites!), bread/rolls (love their carbs), meat from pork ribs, smoked turkey, & chicken and veggies like broccoli and smashed-up peas. I’ll just take whatever I’m eating (already cooked, of course), and either rip/cut it/smash it into the tiniest pieces ever. Then I’ll put it on their high-chair tables and let them feed themselves. It always turns into a total mess, but I don’t mind because (a) they’re adorable with broccoli smeared all over their faces, and (b) I’m excited about them learning to feed themselves (also – Rocky helps with clean up, so that’s nice too!)
• New Skills: Well if you hadn’t noticed from the photos, the girls are officially sitting up on their own for extended periods of time now! Woohooo! They’ve also mastered the pincer grasp (thumb and forefinger), which helps with feeding themselves small foods. They still aren’t crawling, but I think we’re getting close. They show a real frustration with their lack of mobility and will frequently lunge at toys, food, or anything they want, but they can’t sustain the forward motion yet. Because of their motivation to be mobile I think it will happen sooner rather than later. Only time will tell! And we’ve been working with them on holding their own bottles. They’ve got the concept down, but they don’t do it without prompting, and they won’t hold the bottle in place without guidance. I think we’ve still got awhile before they master that skill.

I can’t believe the girls have been with us for 3 quarters of a year! It’s been a roller-coaster and I definitely would not recommend anyone to have twins while they’re in their last year of finishing up their dissertation (or….really anytime during grad school would be difficult). But we are very blessed to have them with us – they enrich our lives in many ways. Life now is totally different than it was a year ago (it was the end of March last year that we found out we were having twins!!!) We’ve had to make some sacrifices, but the changes have all been for the better. We love our little ladies and are soaking up every precious second. I know the time will pass far too quickly and I try to sneak in all the cuddles I possibly can before the girls get old enough to start pushing me away. : )

Newest Member of the Family

(NO – I’m NOT PREGNANT….don’t even *THINK* that!!!!)

Our family car-history has been a bit weird.

Chris and I had always.always.always each had our own cars. Always.

Then, about a month before we moved to Tucson (when we still lived in Florida), Chris got into an accident that totaled his car. We didn’t have gap insurance and our regular insurance didn’t cover the whole loan amount, so we were left with a car payment (for a car we no longer had!) for about 6 months. So we decided to be a 1-car family.

Then we moved to Tucson!

And, as it turned out, we could get away with 1 car quite nicely! Tucson is the smallest city we’ve ever lived in and we were close to campus (close enough to bike-ride or hop on the city bus for a short 10 minute drive down to campus). So even after we finished paying off the loan on the car we no longer had, we decided to stick with just 1 vehicle.

It worked well that way for the next 2.5 years!

When I was pregnant, we decided we needed a second vehicle. Chris always took our Ford Explorer (2002 edition!) for work and I felt like I needed a vehicle at home with me and the girls. Plus, Chris really needed a designated work truck. So just like that – we decided the Explorer would now be “my” car, and we got Chris a work truck all his own.

The Explorer worked great for our family! It was large enough to hold our new family of four (or 5 if you count Rocky) and has made several cross-country trips back and forth to Texas (remember?)

December 2012 – Driving to Texas with Rocky in the front, girls in the back, and me in the middle!

Well, all that use as a work vehicle (prior to getting our 2nd car) plus cross-country driving was starting to take its toll.

The Explorer had 150,000 miles on it. And although it was still mechanically reliable (never left us stranded!), there were plenty of other problems. It seems like we were always fixing something:  new tires, new brakes, new struts, fixing the heater, fixing the a/c, etc etc etc.

I think I only mentioned briefly, but remember last summer when the girls came home from the NICU? We had to rent a car because the A/C in our Explorer was out and it was 115* outside. It ended up being a very costly fix. Then the heater went out over the winter. Another costly fix. And just last week…the A/C went out…again!

We’d had enough. With an upcoming trip to Texas planned (to see my little sister get married!!!) we HAD to have A/C. In fact…we just needed a new car altogether!

So we looked

and looked

and looked.

We spent an entire weekend doing internet research. Then on Monday we spent 12+ hours going from dealership to dealership, doing several test drives, etc., before we settled on “the one.”

And guess what…..

It’s another Ford Explorer!

It’s a 2011 Ford Explorer, the top of the line model. We’ve got leather, 1 sunroof (up front) & 1 moonroof (in the back), a backup camera, Satellite radio (which will be AWESOME for the 14 hour drive to Texas because usually we have a good solid 7+ hours with no radio and get bored listening to the same CDs over and over and over again), and all kinds of other features I don’t even know!

The babies have loved being able to look up and see the sky and although its not noticeable while driving, the new Explorer is a bit bigger (both wider and longer) than our old one, so it will be incredible for long road trips. More room for suitcases, my butt (between the girls’ car seats!) and our legs! Very exciting!!!

Of course, I’m NOT excited about having a car payment again. Ever since we payed off that totaled car 3+ years ago, we haven’t had a car payment and it has been glorious! It’s going to suck when that starts again, but its a worthy trade-off. I’m VERY excited to have what I consider to be a “real adult” car for our little family. Now we just need me to get a “real adult” job (after I graduate) and we can buy a “real adult” house (preferably back in Austin) and then we’ll be set! ; )

So Welcome – to the Newest Member of Our Family!!!! She better be around for a loooooong time! : )