Our babies are ONE!!!!

One year with Dylan and Carter! I have to be honest, I was a little bit relieved to take my last "monthly" picture tonight. As you can see, they tend to be a little bit more of a struggle than a happy picture. It looks like the 7 month one turned out good. Not so sure about the rest. Anyway, it's still fun to see how much they have changed.

Wow, what a crazy year it has been. It seems like yesterday we were just bringing these two home from the hospital and trying to figure out how to live life with two little babies.

It sure was an adjustment going from the luxury hopping up and going wherever, whenever for as long as we desired to truly having to be responsible adults. We quickly adjusted to life on a three hour cycle: feed, play, sleep, feed play sleep, repeat. (except the sleep part was for the babies, sometimes for us). I would say one of the first things you learn as a parent is everything is now about your children and your wants no longer matter and you are lucky to meet your needs. And in the early days those desired needs were sleeping, eating and bathing. I will say I think I have been in somewhat of a fog since the day we left for the hospital and am slowly starting to come out of it a little bit.

We have been so lucky to be surrounded by such great family and friends who have helped us out so much this past year. And I am still amazed at all the warm hearts who reached out to us and their generosity with so many nice gifts for the boys and lots of great meals to keep us fed. We had somebody staying at the house for the first four weeks straight after the boys were born. I was a little bit terrified of being all by myself with them and trying to feed them at the same time and making sure both were burped.

There are a few people who I have to say an extra special thanks to for helping us this past year. Our brothers and sisters have very supportive, always making a point to come visit the boys whenever we are home and Adam and Sarah have made a few trips to Minneapolis and are always willing to take the boys overnight if we need help.

Most importantly, we want to thank my mom and Keith's mom. Through the course of the year, they have spent quite a few weeks here helping us out, making us lots of great meals, washing hundreds of bottles, taking care of sick babies, changing lots of diapers and being wonderful grandmas.

My sister took an entire week off work and even more generously, took a week away from her 1 year old to help us out for a week. She was a savior that week taking on all the night feedings. Keith and I would rotate and she got up for every single feeding. Before having kids, I probably wouldn't have thought much of leaving your child for a week, but after having kids I am 100% more appreciative of all her help that week. And if you do get a vacation away from your kids.... you probably want to sleep, so it was so kind of her to let us get some rest.

I learned my best survival tip from Keith's aunt Marita. She was so kind to spend a night shift here and Keith and I didn't really believe her when she assured us that she would not need our assistance at all. She was a pro at feeding two at once and sent us to bed for a full night of sleep. She passed on her wisdom and taught me the best way to feed two babies at once, which is the way we still try to feed them bottles now if they will let us.

Nicole, Autumn and Molly were thinking of me during bed rest and coordinated a fun little baby shower where people sent me gifts every week, giving me something to look forward to every day. Nicole and Autumn also made the hike up from DSM and Kansas City to come get a taste of life with newborns. They sent Keith and me to bed and braved out all the night feedings. And they couldn't have picked better timing, I remember both of us really needing a long stretch of sleep that weekend. We assured them that we would return the favor when the time came and it looks like it will be coming soon for Autumn:))

I would say six months was a huge mile stone for us. We started to figure things out and the boys started getting into a really fun stage and they just keep changing more every day and it is amazing to watch them grow so much and learn so many new things in such a short period of time. We have fallen in love with these little guys and I couldn't imagine life without them and am looking forward to another year filled with adventures. I better buy some new running shoes because these two are busy little guys who have a world to explore and they aren't sitting around waiting on anyone.

Thanks for reading along and hope you are enjoying hearing about our stories trying to figure out life with babies. I will do my best to keep sharing our stories as we begin a busy journey with two one-year-olds!!!