Happy half birthday to you....

Today the babies turned 6 months old. Can you believe it? I can’t, I still think of them as my tiny little newborns.
To mark the special day we had a “half birthday.”
Since we’ll be back in Korea by the time their first birthday rolls around, I thought it would be fun to have a birthday celebration with their friends here in the states. So at noon today Nicholas and Nicole (Mom’s little neighbors), Landon, Lorelai, and Katelyn all came over for a party.
From left to right: Katelyn, Lorelai, Ella, Nicholas, Landon, Sterling, and Nicole. We wore party hats and had pizza and “half birthday” cake. This little girl must take after her Mommy. She certainly has the same sweet tooth! Don't you just LOVE those dimples? Unfortunately for Ella and Sterling they’re still too young for yummy cake, but it was so cute! It was a Baby Einstein cake. Ella and Sterling really didn't know what to make of all the comotion and singing.
I THOUGHT I had bought normal candles, but it turned out they were the "trick" candles. They kept re-lighting! As hard as Lorelai and Landon blew, they couldn't get the candles to blow out. I eventually had to dip them in a cup of water. I know I’m going a little overboard with pictures, but it was just so cute, and so much fun that I want to share it with everyone.

The Mason House

This is the Mason House at Emory. Mom has been here since they discharged her late Friday evening. It’s almost like a Ronald McDonald house for adults. Patients and their family members can stay there before, during (for the family members) or after major medical procedures done at Emory. She LOVES it there, and I can’t blame her. It’s very nice. If you didn’t see all the sick people and their families there, you might mistake it for a cozy bed and breakfast. She and Jennifer will be staying there at least a week if not longer. I think the best part of it for Mom is the peace and quiet there. It’s a nice change after a month in the hospital with nurses coming and going at all hours of the night.
She’s doing incredible. She’s really getting her strength back now, and becoming independent again. She begins going to clinic Monday morning. She’ll have to go to clinic 4 days a week for the first year post transplant, so the doctors can keep a close eye on her and make sure she’s not going into rejection or suffering any infections. Right now she actually has water poisoning if you can believe it. When she was still in the ICU she was limited to extremely small amounts of liquids. She kept saying the whole time she was in the ICU that as soon as she could drink water again she’d be drinking gallons at a time. Then she moved out of the ICU and the doctors began encouraging her to drink plenty of fluids. Well, ever the over achiever, she showed them. She drank so much water (happily), she gave herself water poisoning! So, her potassium levels are elevated, and she’s back on fluids restriction. So much for that! It’s really no big deal and will resolve itself in a few days.

Happy Grandparents Day

We hope all our grandparents have a very special day today! We love you Grandmother and Grandpa Thompson, Grandpa and Grandma Wooten, Great Grandmother Wooten, Grammy May, Mom Gibson, and Grandma Boydston. We're such lucky babies to have so many grandparents who love us so much and are so wonderful and dear to us!

Love, Ella and Sterling

Carrots

The kids tried carrots for the first time today. I'm taking it slowly, and only introducing a new solid every 5 days or so. Since we've been enjoying apples for the past 5 days, I figured I needed to try a vegetable next, so carrots it was. They were a hit.Need I say more?
And yes, that is a speck of carrots between his eyes. How it got there I haven't a clue. I still can't get over how excited Sterling is about solids. He is eating half a jar of baby food every morning now! Ella is doing all right with solids, but is not nearly as enthusiastic about them as her brother is. While I was feeding Ella this morning, something tickled her nose and caused her to sneeze... with a mouth full of carrots! So her cute white outfit, as well as Mommy, got sprayed with carrots. Ella is also teething now. Her bottom left tooth is about to break skin, and I can just barely see her bottom right tooth. Sterling's tooth has come in very nicely, and now I'm starting to notice the bottom right tooth just beneath the gum line. Four teeth in 2 weeks- that's the problem with twins! Sometimes things get so messy the only option left is a bath. Had to get those carrots washed off!

Ella the criminal

That’s right. Ellabell is about to have a RAP sheet. Today we decided to get out of the house for a little while and go for a stroll around one of the local malls. We were in the OshKosh B’gosh store where Mommy was paying more attention to the denim overalls that were on sale than she was to the two dumplings in the stroller. After we paid for our overalls and left the mall I was loading Ella into the car, when I realized she had managed to snag an elephant beanie animal. Great. This meant Mommy got to go back into the store and try to explain to the nice sales clerk that her not yet 6 month old baby really did lift “Winks” the elephant (appropriately named, huh?). I’m not so sure the girl believed me, and of course, at that point I had to purchase the toy, since the tag was SATURATED in baby drool. $6.40 later and I’ve done nothing but encourage my daughter to be a shoplifter! So if you see Ella’s picture on “America’s Most Wanted” next week, you’ll know why- she’s a thief! What a proud day for her Mommy.

Birth Announcement

FINALLY! I have a birth announcement for the twins in the mail. I know it's taken me a very long time, but I've been a little busy since last March. Now the announcements are just awaiting the trip to your home, so check your mailboxes in a couple of days. I'm so happy with the way they turned out, that I thought I'd give you a sneak peek at the proof (I come from a long line of "peekers"). I just loved the company I used. I e-mailed them the pictures I wanted to use, and all the important information, and they designed the card for me. I had wanted to make my own announcements, but by the time I have the time to sit down at a computer and do that, the kids will be in kindergarten. Anyhow, if you're ever in need of some baby announcements, I strongly reccomend you check out Purple Stork. They're awesome. They work with you, and will re-edit your proof as many times as it takes to make you happy. And you're actually in correspondence with real people, not just some computer server somewhere. It's great! They're website is:
http://www.purplestork.com/
Hope you enjoy your announcement when it arrives!

Our new favorite portrait studio

I've found a new favorite!
Since before the kids were even born, we've been loyal to the Picture People for our family portraits. Michael can never understand why we pay other people to take our pictures, when I'm very capable of doing it myself. I can't explain why myself, except to say that it's hard to be the person doing back flips and goofy faces at the babies to get them to smile AND be the person behind the camera at the same time. I decided to try a new studio yesterday, and boy am I glad I did! I was so incredibly happy with the results. They still use the same minimal background and props as the Picture People, wich is a style I prefer for pictures, but they are priced so, so, so much better. And the very best part is, they give you a CD with all the images they took for FREE! The images aren't very large files, but they're certainly big enough to e-mail, or post on my blog. I just had to share some of these new pictures, and the link to Portrait Innovations website:
http://www.portraitinnovations.com/index.html
Daddy will love displaying this picture in his office!
Okay, Sterling is being a goof ball here, but I had to get this picture because you can see his first tooth in it!