Cute pics of the week!



Hanging out on Cloud 9




Sleeping Cutie Pie


Even the kids aren't safe from my self-photography obsession as seen in these pictures...


Lorelai slept right through it.


This woman is nuts...Save me please!!

Welcome to the world, Aiden Richard Beranek!!


Congratulations Rick & Christy = )

Before you were conceived I wanted you
Before you were born I loved you
Before you were here an hour I would die for you
This is the miracle of life

Kellen and Lorelai are two months old today!!

An update at long last!!
 

 
An update is long overdue I would say! Being a twin mommy is definitely hard work and keeps me quite busy to say the least.
 
Our little ones are 8 weeks old now and are getting noticeably bigger. They are now newborn sized!
They are becoming aware of the world around them, which is so neat to witness. Watching your kids grow and develop has got to be one of the coolest parts of being a parent. 
 
I am a parent! That still sounds so strange to me. Someone's mommy? *boggle*. = )
I really love my new job and wouldn't trade it for anything. Kellen and Lorelai make it easy! The work isn't easy mind you, but they are just soooo wonderful that it makes it all very worthwhile.
 
Ok, I have gushed long enough!! Without further adieu here are some of my favorite pictures from the last month.

 
 

Kellen and his daddy having a very Lion King moment!

Lorelai and her mommy = )

Kellen makes the mistake of not staying on his side! *thwack*

Smile? Halfway there! = )

Got milk?

 

The twins react to the thought of four more years of Bush & Cheney.

Matriculation Articulation



Earlier this year I completed a very important personal goal by finishing my degree in Biology! This past Friday was what would have been my commencement ceremony. At the very moment I would have been lining up to walk I was at the pediatrician's office for the kids check-up. It is amazing to me how fast my life has changed this year. From student to Mommy in a flash! So although, questions about caloric intake and elimination sound a lot like Biochemistry they are vastly different too! ; )

These are a few of my favorite things




The new daddy and his babies







Sir Kellen




Lady Lorelai




Please no flash photography!




Freshly Baked




You talkin' to me??




Sweet little dreamers




I see by the bumps on your head that you will live a long and happy life!


Ok, ok, so as you can see I am a very proud mommy. I just had to share some more of my favorite pictures of the past three weeks. It is hard to believe that it has already been that long, time seems to have flown by. It is an easy phenomenon when every three hours you are feeding someone. The hours and consequently the days all seem to blend and merge together. Again I have to say that we wouldn't trade it for the World! We can't wait to get to know these little beings that are a part of our lives now. = )

and the Hollah Award goes to...



To borrow a phrase from Ellen Degeneres, I would like to present the Guads with this weeks Hollah Award! In other words a BIG shout out to our wonderful friends who very kindly took care of our new little ones while we stole away for a quick movie for my birthday.

Thank you both!! = )

Sixteen Years Ago...Sixteen Days Ago



It is amazing to me that sixteen years ago today I met the man who would become my best friend, eventually my husband, and also as of sixteen days ago the father of my children!





I feel fortunate and blessed right now! Two beautiful children and a wonderful husband by my side. What did I do to deserve this? Don't tell me! Let me bask in the magic of it all!

Cute Baby Pic of the Day



Kellen holding hands with his big sis

Soooo...how are we doing?

Well, if this picture is any indication:



We have one delirious Daddy (pictured above), and a Mommy that has twice tried to breastfeed the baby (pictured below) in the middle of the night:



Someone recently asked us if we are getting any sleep.
D's response was "Sleep? New parents don't get to sleep, we just pass out every now and again!" Soooo... true!

Over the past few days we have had several special moments with our little ones.

We gave the babies their first baths!

Kellen was definitely not pleased!



Lorelai didn't seem to mind as much. She must be part mermaid like her Mommy! Oh wait! She IS a Siren after all. = )





Daddy got his chest hair pulled for the very first time!
*picture removed to protect the guilty*


Today we had our first pediatrician appointment. The babies are doing great *breathes a big sigh of relief*. We do need to work on getting them to gain more weight <--- read even less sleep for Mommy and Daddy (Is that possible??), as we now need to supplement after every meal. We also learned just how long it takes to visit the doctor with twins. It was a half day affair at least. Lessons learned and notes taken!


But for these sweet peas it is all worth it!



They love to sleep close to one another.




Our sleeping angels!

Note: this picture is NOT representative of the hours between three and seven a.m.!!

Introducing our beautiful son and daughter!




On Sunday May 23 our daughter, Lorelai Amelia, was born at 9:34 p.m. and at 9:35 p.m. her brother, Kellen Philip arrived! Both weighed in at 4lbs 9oz.




Kellen already loves his Daddy very much!




Our Angels!


It wasn't an easy labor and delivery, but the end result couldn't be better if I don't say so myself! = )
Let the lack of sleep begin!

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly


Where oh where to begin? Time for an update at long last!

We have reached 34 weeks! This is amazing since the doctor has been saying it could be any day now for a while. It truly has been a tough last few weeks, but I am finally starting to adjust to the pains and insomnia associated with late stage pregnancy. However, I am also ready to meet these little ones. In fact this weekend would be good! ; )

Doesn't anyone update this thing? Oh wait that would need to be me. Ok, soon I must come out of my slumber and write again!

The Meridiani Planum landscape where Opportunity finally came to rest Saturday night. *

Last night was extremely cool!! It was such an amazing experience to see all the people involved, who had so much invested in the spacecraft, hold their collective breath... and then upon getting the news of a near perfect landing celebrate by cheering and hugging in a great outpouring of emotion. It was such a positive and moving event to witness, and I feel honored to have been able to. D and I also watched the live Nasa feed during the Sojourner landing and left feeling much the same way. Congratulations to everyone who worked so hard on the Opportunity and Spirit missions!



Last, but certainly not least I want to say happy birthday to my guy... I love you! = )


*Photo from Reuters

Coquille River Lighthouse, Oregon

As you can see we love lighthouses! A few years back we took a trip to Washington state and along the way tried to see as many lighthouses as we could fit into our schedule. I especially loved the picture of this one in Oregon. The weather was perfect and in the picture you can see someone up in the light tower.

In baby news... last Thursday marked the beginning of my fifth month (17 weeks pregnant). It really feels like my second trimester is zipping along. This is supposed to be a period of rapid growth for me. My belly seems to be getting a little bit bigger by the day. I am currently taking a Calculus class at night and beginning to wonder how I am going to fit into my desk towards the end of the quarter. ; )

Monday morning we are going in for genetic counseling, a level II ultrasound (long and detailed), and a possible amniocentesis. We have gone back and forth a bunch of times on whether or not to have the amnio done. I am still not sure what we will decide. Mostly, we are leaning towards not doing it, primarily because it does pose a small risk and we had to work for these little ones! However, if they find something questionable in the ultrasound then I think that might sway our decision. We are also hoping that we will get a chance to find out the genders. It will depend, of course, on if the babies position themselves for a nice view during the ultrasound. We are crossing our fingers! Finding out would make a nice birthday present for D! On Sunday he turns 3* (age withheld to protect the aged)!!

Tonight, we got invited to attend a JPL Mars Rover landing event for the second Rover (Opportunity) landing, which should happen sometime around 9:05 pm Pacific. We are very excited to get the chance to go and see the live feed as well as experience the excitement of all the scientists/engineers that worked so tirelessly to make it a reality. (Thanks Steve!)

This is a picture of the Los Angeles Harbor Lighthouse that we took and then altered with Photoshop. At the end of the post is the original.


A belated Happy New Year to everyone!

I haven't felt much like blogging lately mostly due to feeling pretty blah. Since Christmas I have been tossing my cookies so much that if it was an Olympic event I would definitely be a medal contender!

Can I just say that pregnancy is NOT "Super Fun". Aside from being sick to my stomach much of the time and having crushing headaches, I have been a little down. Our lives are undergoing a huge upheaval and there are lots of things to do and think about as a result. Needless to say it is all overwhelming!

On an upnote I love Southern California weather during this time of year! The sky is so blue and clear you can easily see the beauty of the Chaparral on the Foothills. It is the perfect temperature outside as well. Very conducive to taking walks, hiking and working in the garden! We did some puttering in our garden Sunday which felt so good! It was time to cut back some of our overgrown Bougainvillea and the roses as well. I also planted some pots with Pansies which I just adore. Each little pansy face looks like it was painted by an artists hand. Pansies make me very happy!

A new type of craving has come upon me. This week I absolutely had to have the smell of fresh baking bread in my house. Making homemade bread by hand, although I am sure can be quite rewarding, has a reputation for being difficult. D being the wonderful husband that he is (and a known lover of all things bread like) took me out and bought me a bread machine! I did hours of online research Friday, which did help distract me from how rotten I felt, to find the perfect one. We ended up with The Breadman Ultimate. The first loaf I made (from a mix) was Sundried tomato and Basil. It came out great and made the house smell wonderful (my craving was satisfied). On Sunday I tried my hand at making homemade cinnamon rolls. These didn't come out so good. Lesson one: when the recipe says let rise for 1hr and 30 min. do not leave them for 3 plus hours while you go out for lunch and shopping at the plant nursery! Well, they did smell good while baking and weren't totally inedible, but they weren't what you would exactly call good either. On my next attempt I will try to be more diligent about following the recipe closely. All in all I love my new bread machine and look forward to making more wonderful new breads and jams (yep you can make jams and jellies in it too- how cool is that?).

In fact Sunday, after some research, we bought a Blackberry plant and a Raspberry plant for the garden. Hopefully in a couple years I will be able to make some homemade jams to go with my breads that is if I don't kill the plants first. = )

Below is the original picture of the L.A. Harbor Light:

Here's a little photo essay of our Christmas together!

We decided to give each other our gifts early this year on Christmas eve at exactly midnight after spending the evening watching a few of the old muppet shows on DVD and wrapping gifts.

One of the first gifts D opened was a book (for him and the babies) that he remembered fondly from his childhood-he was very happy and surprised to get it!






Last year D started a village collection for me of these cute little houses and shops. Every year he plans to add something new to the village. He spoiled me this year with several new buildings. One was Barnacle Bill's Boat House:




When we went shopping at the big toy store D saw this Mega Bloks Man of War model. He likes putting together Lego ships and let it be known that this model would make a very nice last hurrah (the last toy that is his alone). Although he very much looks forward to sharing in the future!




In addition to the Sleep Book I also got him another fun book to read:




Maddie got a replacement Big Mean Kitty and immediately started tossing it in the air. I think he was a very happy puppy!




Thankfully, he doesn't try to toss Aphrodite in the air too!
Here she is examining her annual gift of mice. It does boggle the mind as to where they all disappear to within hours of getting them. I have this feeling that under the fridge is a toy mouse cemetery.



The babies whom we affectionately call Spaz and Snooze (due to one always being active during ultrasounds and the other always sleeping) received their first Christmas gift! Two very cute outfits that were almost matching, but still a little different. They were wrapped so neat with two mini stockings on the outside with a soft little beanie dog in one stocking and a soft musical beanie cat in the other. We loved it!! = )




After birth I think we will have to cease using those nicknames, would hate for Spaz to have a complex!

We had a wonderful Christmas eve with family and then later with friends. It was raining hard on Christmas morning so we stayed warm snuggled under our electric blanket, even Aphrodite didn't want to come out!



Since this was my first Christmas as an expecting mommy we did take a belly pic of me in front of the tree.





We hope you all had a wonderful holiday in whatever form you celebrated and that you have a happy, healthy, and peace filled new year!

Happy Holidays Everyone!

I hope everyone out there is hanging in there and not feeling too horribly frazzled with all the holiday preparations. It never fails to amaze me how fast we get from Thanksgiving to Christmas! Although, I have been laying low for the past couple of weeks (doctor's orders) I did get quite a bit done in a timely manner. Of course there are always a few last minute things that never fail to crop up, but I feel good about all that was accomplished given the circumstances.

Our last Christmas as a childless couple- it feels so strange yet also exciting. The reality of impending parenthood has put a certain excitement back into the holidays that was previously lacking due to our more adult selves. This year we found ourselves in a big toy store looking for some gifts and also feeling excited at what our future holds. A chance to once again re-live that magic and wonder of Christmas (ok, and a chance to play with some toys again, but with a good excuse). We are also looking forward to playing Santa and Mrs. Claus- time to practice our hiding and sneaking techniques.

At a time when the pregnancy road has been a bit bumpy and often racked with doubt, fear, and worry it is so nice to feel this excited anticipation!

We wish all of our friends and family a very happy holiday!

~ S & D

Oh yeah and on Christmas day 13 weeks- the beginning of the second trimester! = )