11 months

 Little Señoritas

"Look Lyla, mom brought us back some maracas!"

 "They make noises, like this."

 "They taste pretty good too, try it out."

 The girls are almost a year old... :( You can really tell they're not be little babies anymore. The big news is that the girls are officially weaned and have started drinking plain ol' milk! They really seem to enjoy the bottle now and they eat most foods pretty well- hopefully they start packing on the pounds... When they were first born my goal was to nurse for 5-6 months and quit as my birthday present, but I found by then it was just so easy. The easiest, cheapest, laziest, cleanest, healthiest way to feed them- it didn't make sense to quit. The Hagens planned a family trip to Hawaii in February and I decided I wanted to be done by then, they'd basically be a year old. I was planning on starting to wean end of January, then a fun trip to Cabo came up just before that mark. I pumped tons and by the time I got back I realized the girls were already 5 days adjusted to not nursing and that the transition would be much easier for them if I didn't reintroduce it only to take it away shortly after. So, I pumped until I felt like they could handle some regular milk and honestly the transition couldn't have gone smoother. Two babies obsessed with nursing, weaned like cake. Phew, that was a relief.

 la niña Lyla

Miss Lyla,
You've been hilarious this month. You're obsessed with blueberries all of the sudden and will just shove as many in your mouth as you can. I give you big handfuls and they are gone in seconds sometimes. You love to dance and whenever we turn on music you head over to the speakers and climb up to the table they're on and just shake it, waving your arms and all. You're quite the little dancer- rocking your head, twisting your body, clapping...you sing sometimes too. You will take steps and like "walking" for a minute if we hold your arms up. You love to wave and say bye-bye and it's so cute. You also say dada, block, and probably a couple other things. :) Lately you've really been into tackling your sister, if I'm lucky you'll tackle/hug me sometimes too. You love being in the bath and if we lay you back in the water you get so relaxed, you could lay there all day. You also really love people's teeth, I guess its because you've now got so many of your own, 7 to be exact! You haven't been throwing those hilarious tantrums lately where you throw your arms up and then face plant into the floor. I miss it...I hope you do it a few more times so I can remember to get it on video, you'd be a youtube sensation. You're such a little sweetie. I love you!
mama

la niña June

Miss June,
You've had a great month, you're such a funny girl. You've gotten REALLY into bottles and if we let you you'd probably drink them all day long...eventually we have to stop you because you gotta eat some food! Near the end of last month you took one little step towards a book you wanted and you love to just stand from sitting position in the middle of the room. We could never get you to stay in your highchair no matter how good we strapped you in, but recently you've accepted the seat and will sit in there to eat your meals. You like dancing too and when you hear a melody you sway your body back and forth, if you're really feeling it you head bang. You've been loving whole bananas and eat them just like a little monkey. You're a lot lot me with food, you're picky and won't eat it if it isn't flavorful & seasoned properly. You love laughing and if I laugh you always do to, which normally results in a laughing fest with you, me, and your sister! They are my favorite. You also say dada, I think you've said mama, block (you and your sister LOVE knocking over towers of blocks!), maybe a couple other things too. Normally you talk in jibberish, but you speak in sentences and say things like "da! da! ya! ya! hah! hah!" over and over and over, it's cute. You've started sleeping a little better which we really appreciate. We love you & you just keep getting to be cuter & more fun!
love,
mama

I guess the girls love photo shoots en español because they could not stop laughing, all three of us basically just laughed till I put the camera down.

 LO SIENTO there were way too many cute pics, I promise these are highlights...

Cabo

Let's talk about Cabo. When you become a parent, at some point it becomes necessary to take a vacation away from the kiddos. Everyone kept telling me how hard it would be leaving the girls for the first time, and how sad I'd be. Apparently almost a year of those sleepless nights, busy days, and lack of "me time" in my crazy twin world added up to the point that I truly NEEDED this vacation, if nothing else to get a couple worry-free, cry-free nights waking up after the sun comes up.

Here we are taking that big step, leaving the girls...just the 2 of us.

We dropped the girls off to Brad's mom and I wondered what we were doing, I'd never been away from them for more than a few hours, why would we leave them, would everything be okay...  I was sad, tears were shed, BUT as soon as we got to the airport and flew down to sunny Mexico I found myself easily distracted from the worries back home and we had a serious blast.

The Zinch founders wanted to celebrate the big sell last year by going on a fun trip with their wives, if it weren't for that I don't think me and Brad would have done it- it pushed us out the door and I'm so glad it did!

The Cabo crew

 The hotel was nice:

We visited Pelican beach & lover's beach, really cool scenery and this is where we snorkeled a little.

We had the most perfect dinner, we went 2 nights in a row- the food was amazing, the ambiance was out of this world, and it wasn't even that expensive!

Even though we were all tired parents we went out for a night on the town, there's lot of love in the clubs of Cabo.

 Not one, but 2 nights we woke up crazy early to go fishing.

 The famous arch

 

We didn't have lots of luck with fish. The boys were after a marlin,  but we only got a couple lil' ones. We fed most of our live bait to the seals.

Every night we skyped with the girls which was so fun. The one night we missed talking to them and that was a little hard, but it was fine, I knew they were fine and that I was awesome. I was laying on beaches, I was sleeping, I was taco eating.














Speaking of tacos...  I'm pretty sure every taxi driver will recommend you eat here, it's not a mistake. My mouth is watering just thinking about the tacos al pastor and the shrimp tacos.

Sure it was a touristy place, but I was surprised to find a little local feel and we had fun around the town. Good husband, good tres leches, good mexi-trinkets. We also had a spa day which was completely amazing, so amazing that I didn't even think to take one picture.

I think a part of me thought nothing like this would ever happen to me again. Soaking in the sun, listening to my music, not a care in the world... I also never thought I'd remind myself so much of Michael J.

The founder boys. Thank you for creating Zinch, selling it, and deciding to celebrate by taking your wives on an awesome vacation, you all rock.

Adios for now Mexico, we are good amigos now, see you again soon. :)

happy new year!

Yay, I'm caught up to blogging about the right year! ;) I have a confession, ever since I started using instagam I've been a bad blogger. I like blogs, I enjoy keeping a record of my life that way and it's fun to keep tabs on my friends and family...but, instagram is just SO much easier- I can snap a pic on my phone, post it with a quick thought and it's like micro-blogging. There are a few problems however..not everyone is on instagram, and since you just post one pic at a time I have no where to show off the other 10 pics I love from my little photo sessions. :) One of my goals for this year is to not perpetually be a month behind on my blog- if you're still following me you've really been a trooper, and you'll be rewarded with more consistent, concise posts. (once I finally catch up)

Besides my blog goal, I'm just hoping that this year in my second year as a mom I will be able to find better balance. The girls really threw things off balance and that's normal, but even though they're always priority #1 I'd still like to reincorporate more of my old life's loves. Including but not limited to: getting creative in the kitchen, sewing, going to zumba, scrapbooking, quilting, getting dressed everyday, reading scriptures more frequently, and keeping our house from looking like a tornado came through it every week.  Lofty goals indeed- but what it's really all about is BALANCE.

Then we said bye to all our Christmas stuff, Brad came home from work and said "Huh, it looks so empty in here...that stuff really does make it homey." It's true, but you gotta clean up eventually.

 And once all the Christmas sweets were gone I thought it seemed nice to limit them more this year- like not more than once a day, except on really hard days.

 Happy New Year everyone, I can only imagine this year will be as wonderful as last!