Sad!

We won't be able to post anything more until we get our own internet. The internet connection we've been using is now secured. The only one that we can access is super, super slow. I cannot upload any pictures. I can only upload text. So, until we get the internet, take care!

She can stand!

Ha! I finally got a video of Alexis standing up on her own!

4th & 5th of July!

We headed off to Dorney Park for the 5th of July. I know, tsk tsk for swimming on a Sunday. Not many options, though, when you work every single day of the week except Sunday! It's like Lagoon, except bigger!!! The girls weren't too sure about the water. We took them into the tidal wave pool (only to the 6 inch mark) and sat in the water with them. Alexis wasn't too sure about it at first, but then she warmed up to it. Taylor would not warm up to it. We decided to sit at the very beginning of the pool, where the water was only a couple inches deep. She still didn't like it. My guess is it reminded her too much of the beach with the waves coming at her. Thayne took her and sat across from Alexis and I. Once Taylor couldn't see the waves coming at her and she could see Alexis splashing, she decided it was okay and splashed her little face off!Just having a little lunch! Yum yum! (Lexi left & Tay right)Lots of slides!
This is the tidal wave pool that we mentioned earlier.

Thayne headed off for work early the 4th. It was a tough day for him. He found that a lot of people weren't very friendly. Understandable since it was a holiday and everybody just wanted to relax. Back at home, I took the girls to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch to celebrate Krista's birthday! I enjoyed a small salad (that wasn't all that small) and the girls enjoyed banana slices and puffs! Later that night, we had a potluck with 3 other couples, one of which has a one and a half year old who's super cute! Thayne and Ryan lit off a flower and threw it off the 7th floor balcony. They were hoping it would float in the air, but it didn't :( Since the girls were tired, we headed back down to our apt and put them down for the night. I wanted to see some fireflies just flying out in nature so I walked out into our backyard. Thayne brought out a jar and we caught one! Here is a picture of it!

Sorry! We did not take any other pictures on the 4th. We did not do anything cool so we didn't see any reason to take any.

Roo Roo & Lexi Lex doin' their things :)

Alexis began to crawl last week! I really think she's known how to do it for awhile. She's just not as interested in it as she is in standing. Her whole goal when she crawls is to get food and find the nearest piece of furniture she can use to pull herself up into a standing position. As you'll notice, she kinda whines as she crawls because she hates it so much.Taylor is right behind her. She'll get into the crawling position and push herself backwards. She mostly rolls to get to places and loves to stand whenever she gets the chance! Tay hasn't quite figured out how to pull herself up on her own using furniture, but I'm sure she will pretty soon.

Alexis is really good at picking up those small little Gerber Graduate puffs and feeding them to herself.

Below is a video of Tay. She is working really hard on feeding herself. She always gets them UP TO her mouth, but she can't quite get them INTO her mouth. Poor girl :(

Oh! Alexis' new thing is pulling herself up, getting balanced, and then letting go and standing there completely on her own for a little while before falling down!!! I'll have to take a shorter video of Alexis doing this and post it! The only one I have is too long :(

Long Beach New Jersey!!!

Long Beach was awesome! This last weekend all of the office went to Long Beach for a barbaque and to hang out. Its only a 1 1/2 hour drive from philly so we loaded up the girls and headed out. The Girls had a great time because a couple of people brought dogs and they went crazy over them as youll see in the video. Alexis and Taylor are fearless and will grab ahold of everything, especially poor helpless little dogs! The beach was so different from the one on the oregon coast last year. This beach had thick pure sand vs the rocky stuff in oregon. The other nice thing was that you could just about drive to the edge of the beach, we parked our car, put the girls in the stroller and crossed over the board walk onto the nice white sand. We had to carry the stroller a little ways but it was fun :) the last picture is me giving Alexis a bath after we got back :) as you can see, sunscreen and girls rolling in the sand doesnt mix. Tay (pink) Lexi (Purple)

Amish!

First, we started our day off with an authentic Philly Cheese Steak! There is a guy who makes them from his little trailer thingy that he has parked on the sidewalk on Market Street there in Philly. His English isn't very good, but he sure knows how to make a Philly Cheese Steak!

We then headed out to Ronks, which is where you can find lots of Amish. They were everywhere! It was really neat to see them walking down the side of the road, pushing themselves down the road on their little scooters, plowing the fields with their team of horses, and riding in their buggies. Thayne was really excited about this vacation, especially since it's the first one he's had since we've been out here! He printed off information about the Amish so that we had a little bit of a better understanding of them. Married men grow beards, but NO mustaches are ever worn by the Amish men. Married women wear white bonnets, whereas single women wear black bonnets. The wheels on their plows and buggies are made of metal, not rubber. In the summertime, men wear straw hats and felt ones in the winter. All of them wear plain clothing so as to not create statuses. They speak old Pennsylvania Dutch (a dialect of German). It's not until the go to their ONE ROOM SCHOOL that they learn English. They do not use electricity as it makes them feel like electricity would connect them to the world and all of its temptations. They do, however, accept modern medicine and make use of it when necessary.

Should you ever need to run to Wal-Mart here in the Lancaster area, be sure to make room for the buggies!

Ha ha! They even have parking stalls for the buggies. I'm talking little barn-like parking stalls for the horses to stand in while they run inside a store or enjoy a day at the park.

Krystal and girls sitting in a miniature of Thomas the Train!ALL ABOARD!!! This was my first train ride (and the girls' first train ride, too)! We rode aboard the Strasburg. We sat in the Dining Car so that we could enjoy a nice little lunch as we rode through Amish country! It was unbelievably fun! They would ring the bell (ding ding ding) and blow the whistle (toot toot)! The girls had a blast reaching out and grabbing food off our plates and attempting to shove it into their mouths before we could stop them. Everyone was going wild over our girls; they thought they were soooo cute!
If you know my husband, then you know that he could not resist going to Intercourse once he learned there was a town named that. Naturally, he wanted a picture in front of the sign. On the side of the road, there was a stand with Amish selling jams and pies. We bought strawberry jam and a little pie that looked like and tasted like an Oreo cookie. We stopped at an Amish store and bought souvenirs. Thayne wanted shirts that had the town name, "Intercourse" on it, so we grabbed some shirts for us. We had two rottweiler shirts made for the girls to resemble Diesel. Diesel! Diesel! Diesel! I miss my little love boat!!! We also grabbed copies of the Declaration of Independence, Amendments, and Presidents. We grabbed some magnets because we are in need of them. The Amish dolls that we got for the girls have no faces because the Amish do not believe in letting children play with dolls that have faces. They feel it goes against not having graven images, likeness, or idols. Oh, the tiny license plates we actually bought from the Strasburg Railroad souvenir store. Thayne just wanted to take one picture of all our souvenirs.

Simmons Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Roots - Family tree chart

Simmons Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celebrity - Collage - Morph

Phillies vs Blue Jays !

We just got back from Krystal's and the girls' very first professional baseball game! Our office had won an incentive from Pinnacle to go to a baseball game. Everyone got up early and went out to sell so we could all get off early for the game. I was able to sell 2 before I ran home to help Krystal with the girls, but she had things all ready to go. We went to Citizens Bank Park to watch the game. During the game, we were picked out of the many thousands of people at the game to be on the jumbotron with our little girls!!! That was freaking rad! We each got a big ol' brat and drink (on Pinnacle of course). Shawn and his wife, Anna, were nice enough to hold little Alexis and Taylor while we ate. I would have to say that, overall, the girls did pretty well with all the screaming and yelling. At the end they got a little tired and cranky so we had to leave a little early but we grabbed a couple of shirts to remember the occasion. The Blue Jays won at the end 8 to 3 :(

8 Months Old!

(Picture: Alexis on left and Taylor on right)
Honestly, I never thought I would make it this far. Some days were really hard, while other days were, well, super freaking hard. Nonetheless, I am grateful to have them. I think Heavenly Father felt like I was growing so much in just a few areas of my life that He figured I was getting a little lopsided. Instead of sending me just one little bundle of joy, he sent me two. He just knew that one wouldn't be hard enough and wouldn't push me to grow in areas that I hadn't really grown in yet. But, He knew that two would surely force me to grow and, hopefully, no longer be so lopsided. I love my little girls very much. They have taught me that patience is not something we are born with, but rather it is something we learn to have :) I now value what little time I get to sit down and take in a few breaths while surrounded by silence (which is sure to end the moment I exhale). But, the most important thing of all, they have taught me to love another's life more than I love my own life. I miss them when I go to sleep. I look forward to seeing their smiling faces (or crying faces) when I walk out into the front room each morning after Thayne (my wonderful, loving husband) gets them up for the day. Sometimes I find myself reaching back into their car seats just so I can touch their faces while they sleep as we drive. I also find myself going into their room while they're asleep. I'll lay my head on their tummies and whisper the hopes and dreams I have for them. My little girls are a lot of work, but their mine (well, ours). Anyways, I'm done sobbing and ready to update you on their progress.

Taylor Addison

• Weight: 14 lbs. (Just guessing since we don't have a scale)
• Length: 26.5 inches
• Can sit up without any support. Rarely falls over.
• Is starting to roll more frequently (mostly rolls to get to places when I am not in the room. Stinker!)
• Sometimes uses things to pull herself up into a standing position. Can't stand there on her own for very long.
• Loves to suck on her blanket and thumb at the same time.
• Is fascinated with jewelry.
• Thinks it's hilarious when I do the sign for milk.
• Hates to wear shoes.
• Holds her own bottle.
• Loves to feel everything (and scratch it).
• Loves to suck her upper lip in.
• Will not sleep without her pink blanket that Rachel gave us when we were at the hospital.
• Splashes up a storm whenever she plays in the tub or pool.
• Loves to pull out the baby wipes and suck on them.

Alexis Nicole

• Weight: 15.5 lbs. (Again, just guessing)
• Length: 27 inches
• Can sit up without any support. Rarely falls over.
• Army crawls backwards. Mostly rolls to get to places.
• Uses anything to pull herself up into a standing position and can stand there for a long time before tipping over.
• Loves to eat. Drinks between 4 & 7 oz of milk each feeding. Enjoys all the baby foods (fruits, vegetables, meats, etc.). Loves the puffs. Can't get enough of the food that I eat (I only feed her the stuff that she can have).
• Holds her own bottle.
• Loves to feel everything (and scratch it).
• LOVES to suck her upper lip in.
• Will not sleep without her pink blanket that Rachel gave us when we were at the hospital.
• Splashes up a storm whenever she plays in the tub or pool.
• Scatters our movies across the floor whenever she gets the chance.
• Loves to pull out the baby wipes and suck on them.
• Does not like to sit here on the floor by herself while I publish this post!