Baptism

 The twins were baptized yesterday at Independent Presbyterian Church.  It was a lovely service and one I hope I remember for the rest of my life.  Sweet Mary Thorne slept through her baptism.  Poppy gave the a big smile and looked up at the stain glass and smiled at me when the preacher held her up!

 Poppy wore the dress that both Elizabeth Magee and I wore.  Mary Thorne wore the dress that Aunt Bubba bought my parents when they found out the were expecting.

Poppy and Poppy.

Something about this picture reminds me of sitting around in my wedding dress before our wedding....

Mary Thorne and Poppy with Biscuit.

 Elizabeth Magee got lots of presents this weekend but this one was quite unique - a turtle which she promptly named Frog.  Frog thankfully went home with Siggi and Granddaddy but provided quite a bit of entertainment.

We had such a great weekend.  Rebecca, Quinton, and Harris spent Friday night with us and then our family came in Saturday night.  We grilled hamburgers on Saturday night and had a nice lunch at our house after church on Sunday -- we are so thankful to all our family for making the special trip to Birmingham!

Some Firsts

We've had some big firsts this week!  Leigh Allyn and Audrey came to visit on Wednesday and on our walk to the Tot Lot we tried a new swinging technique.  Poppy and Mary Thorne LOVED it.  We went back this morning for some more!

Since the twins will be 5 months on Tuesday, I decided it was time to try some banana this morning.  Here is our first bite of real food -- it was great having Leigh Allyn here to document the moment:

Our attempt at a photo session of all four was rather comical (much like our lunch at Chez LuLu)!  This is the best picture of all four!  I'm hoping the twins will catch up with Audrey in the growth department real soon!

Still can't believe these are all my babies.  We are so blessed.  And exhausted :)

Is this child really starting Mother's Morning Out again on Tuesday?  She is so precious.  She told me today that, "This floor dirty....Daddy doesn't want to come home to a dirty floor."  Where did the summer go?  The days are so long but the weeks and months are so short!  Does anyone else feel this way?

I just can't believe summer is over -- it's kinda blurry (I wonder why???)!  I don't feel like we went to the pool enough and I really want to take another beach trip......it's been really rainy here the last month and the high today was in the high 70s -- it feels like fall already!

NYC

Oliver had a work conference last week in NYC and I tagged along -- we had a great few days in the city and enjoyed ourselves immensely!  I did miss my babies like crazy -- but it was good to get away and have a break -- I think I got in bed with a big piece of cheesecake every night!

The pictures above are from the Live with Kelly and Michael show, the NYC Public Library current exhibit, Fishs Eddy, Today Show, Pies and Thighs (a breakfast must if you are headed that way), our run through the city, the Meatball Shop (another absolute MUST), a crazy guy walking down Greenwich, pizza from John's, drinks at Campbell Apartment in Grand Central, and the last two are from our sunset sailboat cruise the last night -- it was worth every.single.penny.  Seriously, one of the best things I've ever done on a vacation.  It was a small sailboat that sat about 20 people....for 2 hours we took in the sunset and skyline of Manhattan while drinking wine!

I didn't get pictures of everything we did, but we did go see Annie on Broadway and go to the Upright Citizen Brigade Comedy Club....we also ran into a blogger I read, Taza, in Dean & Deluca, she was really nice and it was fun for me to run into someone whose blog I read all the time!  I really admire mamas that raise their children in NYC -- I can't imagine how difficult it would be to do something as simple as going to the park or the grocery!

This was our second trip to NYC together and we spent most of our free time exploring different areas in Brooklyn, Chelsea, Greenwich Village, NoLita (which I didn't know just meant North Little Italy), and Soho.....by far our favorite was Greenwich Village.  Probably because we had our best two meals their - Minetta Tavern and the Meatball Shop.

We were so happy to get home to our little ones and are SO thankful to my mom, aunt, and grandmother for keeping them while we were gone.  My mom sent me this picture with this caption, "Look how many people it takes to do what Julia does:"

Our Weekend

Annie is two!  As Elizabeth Magee said, "I two, Annie two, all two" -- we enjoyed celebrating her all weekend!

Mary Thorne stayed up for most of the party -- she is really noticing what's going on and taking it all in!

Luckiest daddy in the whole wide world!  Elizabeth Magee says, "Daddy has full hands...Daddy has all the girls."  Poppy's in the middle.

4 Months, Cinderella, and Thirty According to the iPhone

I've had my big camera out on the kitchen counter all week and have not taken one single picture!  So iPhone will to document our lives this week!  Tuesday was my golden birthday - the big 30!  We celebrated all day long - Cinderella in the morning, followed by a champagne playdate, and dinner at Rojo.

These two have gotten so silly!  They love to play in all the baby things -- good thing we have two of everything!

Elizabeth Magee refers to the JCC as "my pool" -- she couldn't wait to take Daddy to her pool last weekend and show him how she can jump off the side!  

Poppy thought the pool was pretty cool too:

Poppy and Mary Thorne turned 4 MONTHS last week!  I can't believe it - they are such good babies - sleeping from 7 PM to 6 AM, taking 2 or 3 naps a day, and taking about 34 ounces of milk over 5 feedings -- still nursing twice a day and having 1.5 bottles of formula a day.  They are really growing up -- I can tell they know I'm mama.....they each give me a special smile that I don't see them give anyone else.  Poppy loves loves loves her daddy and Mary Thorne is going to be another mama's girl like her big sister.

At their 4 month check-up, Mary Thorne weighed 11.11 and was 25 and 1/4 inches long.  Poppy weighed 11.8 and was 23 and 3/4 inches long.