Knitwear x 2

I made two little knit sleepers for the babies after I learned that I was having 2 boys. I wasn't sure how big to make them, so I made a newborn size. And when the boys were born, I thought: These things won't fit until the babies are 3 months or older. I stuck the sleepers in the closet.

Last week, I pulled them out to see how much bigger the twins needed to be to wear them.



Glad I didn't wait much longer!

She let me take her picture!

Those of you that know Quinners know that she is non-compliant when it comes to cameras. She hates when she sees me pull it out, and usually starts complaining. No amount of bribery will get her to sit still for 4.3 seconds while I fire off some shots.

So tonight I sat down to complete Ruth's Christmas gift (a 10x20 storyboard). Yes, I know Christmas was like 2 months ago. But we wanted to include photos of the twins. And once they got here, taking photos became much more complicated.

Anyway. I sat down to work on the storyboard and get it ordered, and I realized I had no recent photos of Quinn. See paragraph one above. I decided to try to take just a couple of shots, with very low expectations - I was willing to beg and give her suckers.

She was TOTALLY into it. In fact, I was ready to stop and she asked me to keep taking photos. I think the key was taking the pictures about 15 minutes before bed time ... she seemed to realize in that deep, secret part of her brain that if she kept me down in the basement taking photos, I couldn't make her go to bed. My girl is smart like that. :-) The props were her idea. She wanted the flower, and then asked for the chair (she was originally on a black saddle stool, which was much more coordinated with the backdrop. But hey - she let me taker her picture!)



And yes - she got to eat the sucker.



Here's the final storyboard.

Quinn gets too much screen time.

Noah was playing with my video camera the other day. He decided he'd check in with Quinn, and this is what he recorded. If you haven't seen the movie Cars 47,379 times (like all Lessingers have), you might not realize that my girl is enacting the final race scene - both the spoken words and the corresponding action. Nice.

PS: Ignore the crazy hair.




And then we have this: Noah was upstairs, recording random stuff. It was the first time he ever played with the video camera. When he came back down, he showed me what he recorded, and this little gem was on there. I've edited out the end (think a lot of butt-wiggling, hee hee!) but it totally cracked me up. :-)

Guess who is home!

Yep ... we got home Saturday. Both little guys are doing better, and to celebrate we took a couple of photos.



I was explaining this thing called "the sun" ... not sure they understood since we see it so infrequently.



That's not gas ... they are both starting to smile, albeit a bit randomly!



I love this one. So sweet.



PS: Holden is on the left, and Max is in stripes on the right. In case you couldn't tell.



And with that, I'm off to make brownies with Griffin. Have a great day!

A quick update for those of you that don't know ...

Hey, all. The twins have RSV, and we've been in the hospital since Tuesday night. Well, technically Max has RSV. Holden's test came back negative, but whatever. He's got it too.

Both boys are doing well. Basically, this was a precaution since they are 6 weeks old and dehydration can happen quickly at this age. The RSV is like a big cold, and since they can't blow their noses and clear the passages, they don't eat quite as well. Thus, the concern about dehydration. The other concern is that they might have to work so hard to breathe that they stop. That hasn't happened during our time here, and they have been hooked to monitors for heartrate, respirations, and oxygen.

So the good news is that we just have to hang out here until both of them have clear lungs. Max seems to be almost there. In fact, he might have his monitors turned off tonight and only have spot checks for oxygen levels. Holden is still having dips in his oxygen but he's coming along nicely too.

Bob and the kids are coming to visit each day (CHAOS - LOL!) and I expect we'll all be home soon. Until then, I've got my cell phone to stay connected to the world (and tonight, Bob brought the laptop).

Valentine central.

Let me preface this by saying that I don't do valentine's day. If Bob spent the $$ to buy me a dozen roses, I'd strangle him. But valentine's day parties at school and preschool is exempted from my general disdain. Thus, G has been busy making his valentines for the last couple of days.

First we took a picture with the message:



Then we created the "treat holder" part (we are giving granola bars ... candy that "feels" healthy, ha ha). G cut out 20 red hearts while I printed the photos. Next, we assembled.





20 valentines. We still have to do a couple for his teachers, but we have until Friday.



Meanwhile, Miss Quinn happily played with markers and stickers. And when I say markers, I mean the Crayola Color Wonder markers that I swore I would never buy. I made that promise when it was just Noah. Noah would NEVER color on the cabinets. Or the carpet. Quinn doesn't have the same self-restraint. She markered the carpet in the toy room once before I realized what she was doing. She was a few feet from me, just out of sight behind my scrap cabinet. Anyway, I "stickered" myself and she thought it was hilarious. G found it disturbing and kept demanding we take them off.



And look ... she tried to share her stickers with her brother. Awww.

That smile says it all.

G was "star of the week" last week at preschool. He got to bring anything he wanted in his sharing sack for circle time, was interviewed and had his answers posted on a big board, and got to wear the special hat.



Like I said - that smile says it all. :-)

I was also going through some photos from the hospital. I actually scrapbooked the other night - just for fun. Crazy, I know. Must have been because I was in organizing mode and cleaned up my scrap space. Anyway, this one was cute.



I also have the birth announcements just about ready to go - woohoo! But I'll save any photos for after I mail. Don't want to ruin the surprise. Ha.

Quick snapshots from today ...

It is COLD here. Not cold. COLD. As in -26 F when we got up today. Add in the wind chill and it is COLD.

Because of the cold, MOPS was canceled. So we've been bopping around the house today. I need to leave my camera sit out more, as a reminder to take photos of this:



This is how I found them when I checked on them in the pack and play after breakfast. Awww.

And this. Could her eyelashes be any longer? No mascara for this girl (when she's older, of course). She was lucky enough to get her daddy's eyelashes instead of mine.



In other news, Griffin and I have discovered why Bob is in love with the Swiffer Wet Jet. Look out, dirty floors. :-)

More photos.

I tried to get some shots of the boys this morning. Newborns are supposed to sleep. But my boys are too curious and things just didn't work like I was hoping.

Fortunately, I can try again tomorrow if I want. :-)

We cut off the last of the hospital bracelets. I'm worried that I'll get the babies confused, so we tattooed Max's foot. Isn't he cool?



Babies in a basket.



Holden thought Maddox's hand tasted better than his.



And last but not least, a pile of sleeping babies. Everyone say AWWWWWW.

A few more pictures ...

This is how Bob and I looked just before Holden was born. Twins are delivered in the OR - hospital policy - so Bob was in full scrubs. Cute, eh? And I got to wear the shower cap. Of course, at this point I was fully "epiduraled" and feeling no pain. I could have been wearing absolutely nothing and probably wouldn't have cared - ha!



This is Bob with Holden (I think), just after we were all back in my room. Bob and Holden had to leave during the c-section, so we didn't get to all meet again until I was out of the OR. I'm pretty sure one of the nurses had grabbed the camera at this point. Isn't this just too sweet? Such a good daddy.



My parents watched the kids while I was in the hospital. They also got in as much baby time as possible. Dad is so much more comfortable holding babies than he used to be. It's really cool to watch. Dad has Holden, and Mom has Maddox in this picture. I think Mom has some photos of Ruth holding the boys in the hospital room. I wasn't up to taking any photos at that point, but I'll try to get copies and post them.



The color on this is totally out of whack because of the funky hospital lights, but I think it is still an adorable photo. :-) My boys ... just before we left the hospital.



That's it for now. I'm going to try to take some GOOD photos tomorrow or Wednesday so I can work on birth announcements.

In other baby news, we had a checkup today. The boys have started regaining weight and were both 6 lb, 10 oz this afternoon. How cool that they are still the same weight, eh?

Meet Holden & Maddox

Born 12.31.08. Each boy weighed 7 lb, 3 oz.

We are all doing well. I'm a little sore, since Holden came naturally but Maddox required an emergency c-section. Ouch.

Their full names are Holden Carl (Carl for my grandpa that passed away last summer) and Maddox Darwin (for my other grandpa). We plan on calling Maddox "Max" - any of you that know us know we always nickname the kids. This one will just make sense. :-)

There will obviously be more photos when mama gets more mobile. Until then, here are a few from the hospital.

The other kids are doing well, too. Griffin has decided Max is his favorite (probably because I told him that Max looks like him). Noah thinks that adults find babies too interesting, since all they do is poop and pee and eat and sleep - he does have a point. And Quinn seemed to really notice them today for the first time, which was fun.

They also made it here before Grandma Ruth had to leave to go back to NY - barely. They arrive Wednesday morning and she flew out Thursday afternoon. Like true Lessingers, they cut it close. Hee hee! Grandma and Grandpa T. have met them and are getting in plenty of quality holding time. The extra hands have been a blessing - the birth process took a lot more out of me than I expected.

Have a great new year, everyone!

G's preschool program

Griffin had his preschool Christmas program last Friday. It was awesome - the kids sang:

• Away in the Manger
• Candy Cane Carol
• The Chubby Little Snowman
• Rudolph's Workout (my personal favorite)
• Way Up High on the Christmas Tree (this one was more of a rap, hee hee, with extra points for loudness!)
• Ring Those Bells (complete with bells, of course)
• S-A-N-T-A
• We Wish you a Merry Christmas

I am amazed at how well every kid listened, and how many songs there were!

I don't have great photos. The room was PACKED, and I couldn't see G very well from my seat. And of course, I'm not the most nimble creature in the world right now. Bob was in the front, with the Flip - but of course, he was on the opposite side of the room as G. DOH. I have video, but it needs to be edited. Perhaps sometime in the next couple of days. :-)

Our little star ...



and the entire group of very intent and focused preschoolers!

This is too much fun.

So here's another short video.

This one is called: He's Touching My Toast.



And here is a short "thanks" to Ray & Laura. With a little background noise from G. I'll save his singing debut for later, but let's just say he REALLY likes seeing himself on the video camera. :-)

An experiment ...

I got my Christmas present early this year. Actually, I get my Christmas present early just about every year, because Bob gets excited about the gift and wants to immediately have me open it. But this year, there is a practical purpose to the early giving - it is a Flip Mino video camera. The coolest feature? It plugs directly into the computer. No tapes, no cards. And it is small enough to fit in my purse or coat pocket.

Tonight we let Quinners open her birthday gift from her godparents early (hey Ray and Laura - she loved it!), and I used my Flip to video. Now comes the experiment ... can I get the video to load on my blog?

Thanksgiving 2008 + Noah's birthday

We hosted Thanksgiving here this year, and it also happened to be Noah's birthday. I think this may be the 2nd time his birthday has fallen on the actual day of Thanksgiving.

Anyway, Mom, Dad, Jackie, and Grandma T. made the schlep over to MN for some turkey and stuffing. Bob was super chef. He did the turkey and stuffing all himself. It is a Martha Stewart recipe we've made before, and it was AWESOME. You can check out the recipe here. We skipped the cranberry glaze, though. I made the mashed potatoes (from a box, because those are my favorites) and candied sweet potatoes, plus a pie. The pie was an adventure. Haven't done that since my 4-H days, and the first attempt at the crust was a horrid failure ... for me. But for G, it was very much a good thing. :-) He got to play baker with the failed pie crust and enjoyed every second of it. As a matter of fact, he wants to make a pie tomorrow. Not happening, but I'm glad he enjoyed the experience.



G was also in charge of place mats. He cut out all but 4 of the feathers for the turkeys - that about 30 feathers. My little 3 yr old is a crafty dude! I love this one because the turkey has 3 legs. :-)



This is what the table looked like with G's place mats.




If you've met Miss Quinn, you know she likes to eat. She inhaled a ton of food, then retired to the couch after her meal. And as she ate, she made these crazy piggy noises ... not really slurping but not exactly Emily Post manners. Poor Grandma T. had the pleasure of sitting next to Quinners. If Quinn tried something she didn't like, she'd delicately place the half eaten item on the edge of Grandma's plate. I'm sure Grandma was thrilled. :-)



In addition to pie - and we ended up with 6: 1 homemade, 2 from the grocery store (buy one, get one on Wednesday before Thanksgiving), and 3 that were from Shopko (my family stopped by Shopko on their way to our house from St. Cloud) - Noah requested oreo dessert in lieu of a birthday cake. Mind you, he's never had oreo dessert. But I told him what was in it: oreos, butter, ice cream, hot fudge topping, and cool whip. Sold.



Noah was actually in heaven all day, because he got Lego Batman for the Wii AND we put the Wii in the living room for the day (it is usually in the toy room, attached to the old faulty tv that fritzes out without warning, causing all gaming to end. Not a bad thing for a toy room, but this was a birthday celebration, right?)

The final hours of Thanksgiving were spent playing Rock Band. Ahhhhh. Good times.

Quinn meets chopsticks!

Check out my baby girl! I brought home some Chinese tonight (craving broccolli - mmmmm). I accidentally grabbed an extra set of chopsticks from Leann Chin. Quinn wanted to see them, so I handed the chopsticks over. I fed her a few waterchestnuts with my chopsticks, and then she did this:









I'm impressed. And the best part? She likes Chinese food! She calls broccolli "guacamole" but she eats it. Woohoo!

Awwwwwww.

My "new" lens finally came home. I bought the Tamron 28-75 f/2.8 last summer, and just wasn't happy with it. The focus seemed off. So I sent it back for Tamron to fix, and it finally was returned to me this week. I haven't had much time to play with it, but I did get this shot today:



It's so nice when the kids get along.

Happy Thanksgiving!

What does 46 inches look like?

Well, if we are talking pregnant baby bellies, it looks something like this:





I'm 32 weeks along. According to my doctor, the babies would be ok (with some help, of course) if they came now. So we've definitely hit a good milestone.

But I still plan on baking them a few more weeks. :-)

My photography website

Hey, all!

My photography website is up and running. I've decided to go forward with the whole photo biz thing. I was thinking about holding off until after the babies get here, but the photo party was a success (for those of you that don't know, I did a portrait party in SoDak in conjunction with a jewelry party). So I'm going to keep moving forward.

If you know of anyone looking for portraits or photos of their kids/families, I'd love for you to pass on the website info:

jenlessingerphotography.com <--- click this and it will take you to my website. I'm also going to sell Christmas card designs. I have some premade designs loaded on the site now. If you are interested, you can purchase the cards from me. After your order goes through the shopping cart, I'll contact you for the photograph to insert into the card as well as the text. Then I prep the card and have the finished product shipped to your door. No muss, no fuss! I also do custom card designs for a $30 set-up fee (using your photo). If you know of anyone that might be interested, I'd really appreciate you spreading the word! Thanks!

PS: for those of you not on facebook or June's email list, check out this cutie patootie! I took some 2-yr pictures of Turner when he stayed with us last week. My kids are going through Turner withdrawal. Quinn and Griffin have asked me about 25 times: "Where's Turner?"

Better late than never, right?

This is a quick card I made of the kids in their Halloween costumes.

If you are a grandparent, aunt, uncle, or great-grandparent, avert your eyes. You are getting a hard copy in the mail, and I don't want to ruin the surprise. But the rest of you - all 4 of you - enjoy. :-)