I'm a terrible blogger!

No actually that's not true, I just never have the time anymore!

Right now I'm sat in the dark, huddled over my iPhone while repeatedly telling Faith to lie down. Emily is already asleep and mummy needs a cup of coffee!!!

Life these days is fairly chaotic, and it doesn't seem to stop. The twins are just over 2 and a half now and they are quite the whirlwind on their own.

Both of them never stop talking, they play games and tell each other stories all day long! Life is never dull!

I'm also busy running the cake Makery, which is doing really well after its first anniversary! We have just launched an app for our followers to use, and we are working on an exciting new website to launch next year which will bring our teaching into every home!

This of course means that as husband and wife, Chris and I get little time together that doesn't involve children or work! But we manage and thrive on what we do, and if you read this blog from the start, you will know that we aren't the type of couple to give up and sit down!!!

You would have been 5 today

Dear Matthew

Today would have been your 5th birthday. It fills my heart with sadness that you cannot, and will never be here to celebrate a birthday, that you will never meet your sisters, and that we never got to see you smile or hear you laugh.

I will never forget the day you were born, you were so tiny, just over 15 ounces in weight, born at 21 weeks and 3 days.

The last 5 years have been hard without you in our lives, but we stayed strong and went on to have another 7 rounds of IVF so that we could have your twin sisters, Emily and Faith. They will be 2 this year.

We miss you.

Happy Birthday my little man, I wish you were here with us to celebrate it.

Love Mummy
xxxxx


Give me a whisper
And give me a sign
Give me a kiss before you
tell me goodbye
Don't you take it so hard now
And please don't take it so bad
I'll still be thinkin' of you
And the times we had...baby

The day you were born

22 months old now!

Being a busy mum of twins is never easy, it just doesn't leave me with much time to do the things I used to enjoy doing, like writing in my blog!

It seems weird sometimes as I'm not doing IVF any more, and this blog started out as my IVF diary, and I can assure you that after 9 tries we will NOT be doing it again!

As for the girls, well they are growing up fast. I do keep a daily diary to hand and note down all the funny things that they say or do that day, most days I try to write one or two things in there, so I can look back in years to come and giggle.

Here are a few of the things that have amused me lately:

Faith to daddy "Daddy I can hear an aeroplane in my ears!"

Me to Emily "Emily what are you doing" (she was crawling around on the floor) She replied "We're being wiggly worms".

When Faith made a mess on the floor I said to her "Oh dear, do you think we should get the sweeper and clean it up?" She ran off to get the sweeper saying "good idea mummy, good idea!".

They both love music and singing, and are always trying to sing along with what they hear, Faith knows Twinkle twinkle, and Emily does all the actions to wheels on the bus!

You can see Faith singing (well shouting this time!) twinkle twinkle here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rF5MLe-jj9k

They also know all their colours well now, and can just about name any colour, even when it's a different shade, and Emily is starting to repeat her ABC's.

We are just starting to get into Christmas, they don't really understand yet what it's all about, but they now recognise father christmas and very much enjoy opening their advent calendars every day and eating the chocolate!

Talk, Talk Talk

I finally have an evening where there is nothing majorly pressing (although still many things to do) so I wanted to give another update.

I think I'm going to have to face facts that as a busy mum to 17 month twins, and running a new business is more than enough to keep me going and it just sucks up all of my time (when I'm not cleaning, washing, hoovering, clearing up toys etc!).

The girls have come on a lot in the last few months, it's hard to believe how rapid a child's development can be, and how quickly they learn new things to say or do. It doesn't seem that long ago I was spoon feeding them, now they eat all their meals with a fork (or spoon) and do quite well - OK there is mess, but not bad for their age! They do manage to get most of it in!

Their speech seems to be the biggest leap. We have come a long way from Emily's "Apple". Both of them are now putting words together like "mummy's here", "yes please", and "more milk" but Faith is running away with the ability to add new words to her vocabulary.

She has too many to remember, but over the last few days I've written down a few of the words she has come out with!

"Piece of paper" - said when she handed me her drawing
"I can't see" - said when she put her sunglasses on (they are dark lenses!)
"My mummy's gone" - said when I walked out the room

She also likes to shout out what she has, and we play with their plastic fruit and veg, she can say broccoli, corn, peas, onion, aubergine, pear, raspberry and a few others, and also knows the colours pink, blue, purple, green, yellow, brown!

She probably comes out with 2-3 new words a day at the moment! Emily is doing well too, and tries to say a few things that Faith says, some of which are very clear, some are still gibberish! But she will shout "purple" at the top of her voice if you ask her what something purple is!

As for me, I'm plugging on with http://www.thecakemakery.co.uk We now have the credit card facilities in place, so advertising has started!

I don't have a huge budget, so I'm having to plan carefully, but am pleased to have built a following on facebook of over 500 fans in just under 2 months!

If you write a blog - feel free to give me a plug :)

Here are a few recent pics of the girls - can't believe how big they are these days!

Enjoying an ice lolly in the garden on a hot summer day:



Just after breakfast we sometimes do drawing - we like to eat our (safe!) pens!



Emily wants ALL the pens...



Someone woke up with bed-head, but made up for it with a pretty smile!



Enjoying their new paddling pool:

What's been going on!

I can't believe it's been two months since my last post. I have been rather busy though so I'll try to fill you in.

The girls are doing really well, they have grown so much in the last two months it's scary! They are still not walking, although Faith will often stand on her own and play with toys without holding on to anything, and will push her plastic chair around while walking, she won't actually take steps on her own! I think Faith is waiting for Emily to show her how as Emily has decided in the last 2 days that she wants to try to walk, and will happily toddle several steps between me and Chris (although it sometimes ends in her flinging herself at you!)

Their speech development is amazing to watch, I wrote a list the other day of all the things they can say, and recognise (and try to say) and was surprised to see how many things are now on that list.

Words that they can both say clearly, include: apple (Emily's all time favourite word), bear, ball, fish, elmo, bye bye, and yeah, they also attempt to say (but haven't perfected) shoe, flower, dog, frog, balloon, banana, cheesy, bird, and spoon. Emily can also say Peppa Pig (Faith says Peepee), and Faith also says ning ning which means no!

They are really quite comical these days, getting into all sorts, tipping the clothes pegs on the floor is a great and frequent game, and playing at tea parties is a new discovery too. Faith has a new drum kit that their nanna and grandad bought them, and she thinks it's wonderful!

You can see her playing with her new drum kit on You Tube!

I also posted another video to YouTube recently of Emily telling me what her favourite computer manufacturer was. You can see that here.

As for me, I'm thinking about what I'm going to do over the next few years while the girls are still small and out of school, I want to do something that isn't in the office all day as this means I can't be around them as they just press buttons, tip the bin over, pull things off the shelves and rummage through the drawers full of deadly and dangerous stationary (Faith eats pens, and everything goes in her mouth, Emily likes pressing buttons, so often tries to turn off my pc with the big shiny silver button!).

So one day while baking some cupcakes I had an idea! It has progressed through several things in the last two months, but a firm plan has been formulated and the wheels are in motion for a new business launch in a couple of months time! I'm excited about it, and it means that once it gets going I can still be home for the girls. Watch this space!

That has pretty much sucked up every spare ounce of time I have, which is already limited when you take into account all the other stuff I do, and how little spare time you actually get once the kids are gone to bed!

I will try to post more often, there is so much they are doing daily now, I should keep you posted!

Emily and Faith enjoying their tea party:

Time flies

Another month has passed and I rarely get time to sit at my computer. I have an iPod touch and a Blackberry phone so I use those most of the time to read my email, keep up with friends on facebook and twitter, but to actually sit down at my computer is nothing short of a luxury.

When I do - I have to sort out bills, emails and other things that are supposed to be more important. We don't watch TV much either!

Once the kids are in bed, I usually have so much to do and only 2 hours to do it. I'm learning sugarcraft so that I can start a new business - I'm trying to find clients so I can start work doing my old 'job' which is online marketing and I'm finding it all a bit of a blur!

The girls are doing so well though. Faith is still not walking on her own, but she loves using her walker - Emily refuses to use the walker but has been spotted pushing other large toys around, so she can do it, just chooses not to.

We've had nasty colds and coughs for the last two weeks, and let me be the first to say it was nothing short of miserable. When they are sick, there isn't much you can do except comfort them and be there when needed, calpol helps - but it doesn't stop their snotty little noses from oozing all over the sofa and any other clean material they can find, and it doesn't help them breathe at night, so they wake often and need 'propping up'.

Daddy is a wonderful help at nights, he's always the first to say "I'll take her downstairs" and he does. Mostly because he can sleep anywhere, and once the little one is settled propped up on his chest, he just dozes off, whereas I end up with no sleep at all.

But the last two nights have been good. Neither child has been in bed with us, Emily slept entirely through both nights! so I'm hoping this is the end of this round of nasty colds and we can finally all get some sleep!

Their birthday cake

I just wanted to post a quick picture of the cake that I made for them - everything on it was hand made by me :) I've never done it before but I've been practising making sugar flowers and found it's fun. Oh the cake tasted pretty good too!

Happy Birthday Girls:)

I can hardly believe that yesterday my little babies turned 1! After everything, this past year has gone so fast, and they are growing up even faster...

January was a month that gave us Faith using the walker for the first time - completely on her own - just took off with it! Emily knows what an Apple is and can say the word (although she also thinks pears are apples!) We are learning the word cat - which they have both said a few times.

The highlight of my month was when I was bathing the girls with my mum, and Chris walked in - Faith lights up when he walks in the room, but when he went to leave she Shrieked "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy" at the top of her voice. It made me cry - so sweet to hear her call for her daddy.

They are both trying new foods all the time now, and we are encouraging more finger food eating - spaghetti bolognaise is loved all round, but you have to be prepared to bath them right after and hose down the kitchen as the mess from both of them is unbelievable!





We have also had fun this month with the little ride on car - I've taken the safety barrier off and Emily now loves to ride it on her own - the best thing is now Faith uses a walker - she pushes her sister around, it's too cute!

A great week for development

At 11 months old, both Emily and Faith are so much fun. They are interacting with everything around them, and are completely mobile, with as much standing up as they can get in during the day!

I saw both Emily and Faith take steps last week while they were playing in the hall with the big sit in car, they stand up behind it and use it as a walker - Faith took several steps on one occasion before she ran out of hallway.

They are also learning how to make new sounds, and what fruit is. They can both say 'Apple' and Faith will say it when you show her an apple too! Emily tries to say raspberry, but it sounds more like 'ba ba brry'.

Another milestone last week was cows milk! They were on 3 bottles of formula a day, with porridge/toast for breakfast, sandwiches/cheese/fruit etc for lunch and a jar plus snacks/fruit for dinner.

This means I can drop one of the formula feeds and replace it with cows milk - much cheaper! I will keep them on 2 bottles of formula for a little while longer while they learn how to eat new things, and drop it down to one.

So an exciting week. They giggle and laugh a lot these days, which just fills me with joy. It's the best sound in the world and I get to hear it every day.

I'm a lucky lucky girl.

Happy New Year!

Wow, it's 2011 already - doesn't it seem like yesterday that we were all running around in fear of the world coming to an end, and all computers were going to crash and fail horribly - 2000 - the Millennium - that was eleven years ago....

Well 2010 was an amazing year for me - the birth of Emily and Faith was probably the single most amazing day of my life, and it got better from then on.

This year they will turn one (in 4 weeks!) - they will learn to walk, although they are just about there already with that one! and we will get more talking too - I'm looking forward to taking them to the zoo to see real animals, and taking them swimming more often as they absolutely love the water.

Once summer is here, there is the beach too - although I'm not looking forward to mixing children with sand - I remember how horrific it was as a kid to have your parents rub you dry with a towel when you are covered in sand - ouch!

But there is so much to look forward to - we can't wait...

Happy Chrismas Everyone!

This year Christmas will be fun!

For the last few years Christmas has been a time of sadness for us, and there will still be a little as we remember Matthew and think about what we might have bought him this year. But this year we have much to be thankful for.

The last 10 months with the girls have been an amazing adventure, from the minute they were born our lives have been enriched with the joys of two little people growing up.

They have learned so much in the last few months, and are now becoming little people who will soon be walking!

Christmas for us this year will be spent being thankful for having them in our lives, and for remembering those who couldn't be here and for enjoying the moment with those who are.

We hope that yours is filled with laughter, great company, great food and drink and much love.

Happy Christmas Everyone.

Love Elly, Chris, Emily and Faith xxx

Dancing Queen

Since Faith discovered she likes to move and groove to the dancing bear, we have also discovered that she loves music - well they both do if it's nursery rhymes or songs on the TV, but Faith likes dance music!

We discovered this as my ringtone on my phone plays a snippet from 50 Cent's 'in da club' and she would sit and rock when it rings - so I put the track on my iPod and this is what happened:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYy38EK623A

If a 3 minute video isn't enough - here are a few recent pics:

Taken at Nana and Grandpa Russell's:



This was taken at Pat and Walt's in the USA, poor Emily had a terrible cold!

Back home and normality has resumed (sort of!)

We survived our American adventure! The girls had a lovely time while we were out there and they picked up a few new skills along the way!

Faith learned a little trick that three year old Delaney taught her - she can make clicking noises with her tongue!

Emily developed her crawling skills and now climbs over everything - including her sister!

Faith learned to dance!

They also picked up a few new toys while they were there that seems to give them much entertainment - Emily loves the soft toy Elmo and Faith loves the sesame street school bus - they both love chicken dance elmo and Faith always dances to the Cha Cha Bear.

Since they have been home, they are now both crawling properly and are all over the place! Emily can also now stand herself up against the sofa, something she learned today!

They are finally getting settled back into their normal routine after a week of late nights and sleeping late (that part I didn't mind, one day they slept till 10am!) But being 5 hours out, with a daylight savings change too threw their sleeping routine way off!

We also took them to Hull this weekend to visit Chris's family, so they had much attention and had some quality play time with their six cousins! Faith really enjoyed playing foosball with Tom!

Emily and Faith - nine months old now!

I can't believe they are nine months old already, in the last few weeks their development has come on in leaps and bounds - they are both now able to crawl properly, although Emily prefers to crawl commando style - Walt says it's the best low crawl he's ever seen (and he was in special forces!).

Faith spends a lot of time chattering and you can clearly pick out certain words - daddy is a favourite - or dadda, she sometimes says hi. Emily can say mama - but not much else although she knows how to make herself heard!

Emily is most definitely the more dominant of the two - she knows what she wants and she gets it - even if it means taking it from Faith, so she is learning to stick up for herself and take things back.

When you sit and play with them on the floor, they will now come over and climb up onto you asking for cuddles - it melts my heart!

I will try and post more often, I have so much to write about that I think of during the day, but am never on front of a pc for, then when I finally get to sit down for 5 minutes, my brain switches off and I can't remember a thing! I guess being a mum to two very active 9 month old girls will fry a few brain cells :)

In America with the girls!

It's been ages since I wrote in here - things have been really busy as we are currently on holiday in America - we are here for two weeks to let the girls meet Pat and Walt's family and to go back to Shady Grove to say thank you.

We went to Shady Grove a few days ago and also did a follow up interview with the local paper - we made headline news yesterday with a front page story!

You can read the story online here, but we were slap bang on the front page of the printed edition :)

They also took a few pics - here's the one they used:



We are having a great time so far, mostly out shopping at the different malls - so far we've really only bought things for the children - I must remember to look out for some clothes for myself too!

The flight wasn't too bad, they slept through a part of it in the cots that were provided, and sat on our laps playing the rest - the sitting on the runway for 2 hours before an 8 hour flight wasn't the most fun though!

We are planning a couple of day trips over the next few days before we head home - Chris and Walt are off to a Ravens game tomorrow and we have all the family coming for lunch.

Christening photos

You get two posts today as I'm not that tired tonight for once (maybe because I fell asleep on the floor this afternoon!).

Here are a few photos from the Christening - if you have any and you haven't sent them to me - please can you send them?

Chris with Faith:



Me with Emily:



Getting Christened:



The cake (which was chocolate on top and vanilla cream on the bottom and was delicious!):

Oh how things change!

It's been a busy few weeks, first off my PC died, which is why there are no updates - my pc is fairly new so I had to send it back to the manufacturer, it was collected just before the bank holiday weekend and finally ready to send back to me two weeks later - only they sent it to the wrong address - again over a weekend, so it got sent back to them and finally three weeks after it was collected I got it back only to find that when the motherboard blew - it took my graphics card with it :( This now means I have to waste time getting refunds and ensuring I get it fixed!

The girls are coming along great though, so much is happening right now - their development is so interesting to watch.

They are both now given different foods at mealtimes, they still get their purée but I also give them cheese, strawberries, bread sticks, rice cakes, toast, raspberries and other tasty snacks that they can suck the life out of!

Emily copes really well, you can place the food on her high chair tray and she will pick it up and eat it, or smoosh it all around and make Emily art, then eat it!

Faith isn't so good - she will pick things up and also put things in her mouth, but she's not keen on swallowing anything even vaguely lumpy. She spits out breadsticks when they break off, the same with cheese, but if you dip the bread stick in philadelphia cheese she loves it! (still won't eat the bread stick bits though!).

They are both able to get themselves right up onto their hands and knees now and can rock themselves backwards and forwards - getting ready to crawl and cause chaos. Faith likes it more though when she lies on her tummy and 'humps the floor'.

The best thing that has happened recently though is them learning to say a word.

They have been doing it for about a week now - but they can both say 'mama' (although Faith sometimes says baba instead - could be trying to say dada?).
The first time they did it - it made me cry.

I can't believe that there are two little people that call me mama - it's the most amazing feeling in the world. I'm so proud.

Emily and Faith's Christening

On Sunday we took the girls to church for their Christening, I have been planning this for several weeks, it's taken a huge effort to organise everything and get things ready before the big day.

We went up to the church for 10am, everyone who was coming bar about 3 people were travelling anything from an hour to 4 hours, so we appreciate that people had to get up early to be there on time - if it's any consolation we were up from 6am anyway!

The service was lovely, a friend of mine has it all on video so we hope to see that again soon as I hear the girls were somewhat animated when they were having the water poured on their heads!

After the service we all went to the pub over the road, a place that we eat regularly and is really nice, however I can't say that I enjoyed the food that they prepared for us.

The cake however was amazing, I will post a few pics when I have taken them off the camera - I can't do it now as I don't have my PC as it's gone back to the seller - long story!)

People then came back to ours to continue the party and eat more food!

All in all it was a lovely day, the girls were on their best behaviour and looked great in their dresses - I hope someone has a photo of them as I didn't get around to taking any!

Christening this weekend!

It's been a busy few weeks for me, organising their christening, getting decorations, a cake, a venue, food, invites and cleaning the house for the after party.

However they have come on in leaps and bounds in the last few weeks.

Faith has always been the whiner, she hates being on the floor for very long and used to cry and scream until you picked her up or put her back in her bouncer chair.

Last weekend we decided to make it more comfortable for them, so we got an old double duvet from the attic, put a cover on and laid it on the floor. An instant success!

They have their playmat on top, all their toys, pillows to sit up against and as much rolling space as they can cope with - and they love it!

Faith will now roll around a lot more, she still cries when she's fed up, but her tolerance is much greater! they both also fall asleep on the floor now too - although Emily still prefers to stay awake as much as she can!

They also now enjoy time in their door bouncers, Faith now laughs when you put her in it and Emily bounced so hard she hurt her toe!

We've also got a new walker/car that a friend has lent us, pictures will follow at some point - my pc died a few days ago and it's in for testing so I can't post anything till it's back online!

I will also post pics from the christening on Sunday :)

Twins are expensive!

We don't usually think about the things that they need, we just get them - but sometimes I stop and think about the cost of it all and how much we spend on them each week.

I'm not talking about the cost of toys or clothes, or things like door bouncers, I'm talking about food, nappies and milk!

When they were 2-3 months old they seemed to have a problem with the aptamil milk we were giving them. It was the powdered type and they screamed a lot after we fed them, so we switched to the pre made milk and it made a huge difference.

The pre-made milk is £1.07 for a 500ml carton and they use one per feed. They were on 4 per day, but now we are weaning this seems to be 3 a day now - so £3.21 a day in milk.

They are eating porridge for breakfast mixed with 1 little fruit pot each - the fruit pots are 42p each and the porridge works out to be about 20p per meal each so £1.24 for brekkie.

Lunch is usually a jar of something from the organix range at 65p per jar - one will feed both kids at the moment followed by a fruit pot or other dessert between them - another £1.20 for lunch.

Dinner is something I've puréed so this one is pretty much free - although I still have to buy the carrots, potatoes, apples, pears etc...

I estimate we go through 6-8 nappies each per day (sometimes more!) at 12p per nappy so about £1.68 a day in nappies.

so daily we are probably spending approx £7.33 on their basic needs. My calculator tells me this is £51.31 a week - it's a good job they get a whole £30 a week child benefit between them!

Oh, here is my new favourite photo of Emily!

Weigh in today

I took the girls up to the weigh in today and they are getting to be little porkies!

Emily now weighs 15lb and 13ozs, and Faith now weighs 14lbs 6 1/2 ozs! its seems Emily has gained a few extra ounces over Faith - which is probably down to the fact that she eats just about everything you give her while Faith is a lot more picky and doesn't want as much.

I'm really enjoying watching their development now as they are starting to learn new things, seeing the concentration on Emily's face when you give her a new thing to hold and play with, while she turns it around in her hands and examines every bit (before shoving it in her mouth!) - while Faith will just shake things and throw them on the floor.

Emily can put her own soother back in her mouth now, and loves to help guide the milk bottle away and towards her while she gurgles at it!

Faith gets more frustrated, she will lie on the floor for a few minutes quite happily, but gets very annoyed when she can't move herself or her head gets too heavy!

I guess the fun starts here!

I took them on the swings the other day when I went to the park with a friend - I think they enjoyed it - hard to tell as I couldn't see their faces, but I did get a couple of pics:)

Trying different foods

When they were about 5 months old, I started giving them some baby rice, or porridge in the mornings, we tried all the different flavours!

For the last week or so I've upped their dinners to include lunch, and they are now trying a variety of vegetables, and some puddings too.

I went out and bought the Annabel Karmel book last week so it's time to get the blender out and start making some yummy food for them as they are now almost 6 months old!

Today we tried a little avocado mashed and mixed with a drop of their milk, this did not go down well at all! The look on both of their faces was hilarious - it looked like they were thinking "OMG mum you just put dog poo in my mouth!" - they spat it out and refused any more.

So then we tried mixed vegetables, Faith refused to let much into her mouth, however the apple and strawberries they had for pudding went down well with both!

Being a busy mum

I don't get all that much time on my PC these days, I can grab a little here and there when the girls are napping or watching a little TV, but it's always a toss up between sitting on the computer reading facebook, or sorting out the laundry/dishes/bottles/hoovering/cleaning etc that also needs doing! I know I'd rather be sat looking at Facebook, but the house won't clean itself (damn!).

But I have to say I love it, being a mum is everything I knew it would be and more, it is hard work, tiring but also watching them grow has been so amazing so far, and now they are just starting to really develop new skills every day. Also to see their differences starting to show.

Emily is still a little ahead of Faith, she seems to do everything first, but Faith watches and is soon having a go herself!

Emily loves to hold thing in her hands, she looks at them, examines the detail and takes her time, Faith just thrashes about and it ends up on the floor!

They both love porridge now and we are starting to introduce new foods, I'll write more about this another day, but weaning is upon us!

Both girls can now roll both ways, Faith still gets herself stuck, but is getting better at it now!

And the drooling has increased somewhat too, I guess their little teeth are getting ready to make an appearance! They are going to look so cute.

Photos

Here are a few new photos of the girls!

Emily after she had rolled over for the first time:



Faith giving us a lovely smile with her mad hair!



Another one of Emily on her tummy:



One of them together in their bouncers!

Still rolling

Emily has taken to rolling over like a duck to water, now she can do it she wants to do it all the time! I had to roll her back (after she decided she didn't like it any more) twice this morning in bed, and several times during the day while on her play mat!

She just needs to figure out how to roll back now, then we won't get the screaming abdabs because she got herself stuck!

Emily rolled over today

Both girls are now at the stage where lying on their backs is just plain boring, and sometimes you can roll onto your side and see something different!

Emily has been rolling about three quarters over for a week or two, but then she would just lie on the floor with her head twisted around and stay there, no attempt to lift her head at all!

However today, she made the full roll and lifted her head off the floor for a considerable amount of time! OK it was so she could see the TV, but she did it - twice!

Faith isn't far behind, although she still tends to roll onto her side and just hang out there for a bit!

If I have time, photos and video will follow!

They don't like this heat

We have had some glorious weather over the last 2 weeks, blazing sunshine and high temperatures, which is lovely - unless you are very small!

Both of the girls have been suffering with heat rash, even though they have just had their nappies on, or a thin vest. Faith also gets very grumpy and will cry when she is just too hot! so we went out and bought an air conditioning unit which has made a huge difference.

It means now we can all huddle in the 'cool' room on those super hot days.

The girls are finding their voices!

As always Emily seems to be the one who does things first, but Faith is not far behind either and it appears they have both discovered they have voices!

We get lots of moans, groans, squeals, goos and other such noises from both of them as they test out the sounds that they can make - it's adorable!

Smiles all round

This morning while we were sat in bed feeding the girls, we turned them to face each other so that they were face to face.

Faith smiled when she saw Emily and Emily smiled right back at her! This went on for a minute or so - the two of them just smiling at each other - it was too cute!

Emily Laughing

I just took this video clip - she seems to find it funny when I pretend to sneeze!

Their second wedding

We went back to Somerset this weekend for my cousin's wedding, and stayed in a castle overnight! It was very cool.

The girls were really good throughout the weekend, only a few small bouts of grizzling when they got a little too hot, or they weren't getting enough attention!

Banwell Castle was lovely, we had a huge room with a four poster bed, there was plenty of space for their travel cots and even a sofa to feed them on!

It was lovely to see Renee and Ady finally getting married! We wish them all the best.

Food and Laughter

Two of life's most wonderful things! Both of which have been enjoyed this week by both girls.

I'm now giving them 'breakfast' in the mornings which so far has been 6-10 or so spoons each, much of which gets pushed back out and dribbles down their chins resulting in a spectacular mess - but today Emily got the hang of it a little better and ate most of the bowl! Faith is also getting better at it, but she thinks its funny so smiles a lot - meaning you can't get the spoon in her mouth!

I also had both of them laughing yesterday for the first time also :) Faith gets quite excited sometimes and sort of laughs, but with a few silly faces, tunes and much arm waving (me waving their arms) I had several giggles from them, sadly it was 15 minutes before daddy came home, and by the time he arrived they were all laughed out.

They are such a joy.

We are off to another wedding this weekend with them, this will be their second! We bought them lovely dresses to wear but Emily wee'd on hers 20 minutes in, and it was so hot we decided to take faith out of hers too, but we did manage to get 1 photo of Emily in hers!

There are a few other photos and a little video for you too:

Emily in her posh dress:



Some video from the wedding - Emily in her dress and Daddy with Faith (trying to stop her from crying!)



Holding hands.... awwwww.



Sat on the sofa:



Emily enjoying the swing lent to us by Aunty Tracy:

Taking the girls swimming

As someone who loves swimming, I've been keen to get the girls into a proper swimming pool since they were born! We have put them in the bath with us a few times to get them used to the sensation of floating around in deeper water than their little baby bath - and the trials generally went well!

So recently we bought them some swim nappies and a couple of different swim suits, plus Aunty Tracy bought them a set of two piece suits - we took a picture of them wearing their suits for your amusement!



So today was the big day, we thought we would get much crying, but they actually enjoyed it quite a lot, Emily cried a little at first, but I think that was more because the water was colder than expected!

We stayed in the little pool with them for about 40 minutes, floating them around and letting them watch all the other kids playing.

Getting out wasn't as much fun, we took towels for them to the pool side so they didn't get cold, and the pool has a family room to change in, but only one baby change station with no-where to put the other child! So I stood around freezing my ass off with Emily all wrapped up in a huge towel, while Chris stood around freezing his ass off while getting a screaming Faith dried and dressed, he then had to stand and hold her (still wearing his wet trunks!) while I got a now crying Emily dried and dressed, then myself dressed - Chris could then hand Faith to me and get dressed himself.

They have two family rooms there - next time I think we will take one each, it will be much smoother!

Lessons learned! We all had fun though and the girls are worn out now, time to go and feed them and put them to bed :)