Abby's Last Day

Abby left early this morning for Grand Rapids to get ready for law school in the fall. We can hardly believe that 10 months went by already! When she moved in with us, the babies were really babies and pretty much just sat there. During her time here, she was able to watch them grow, learn to crawl, learn to eat real foods, learn to walk, and learn to talk. Of course she got to see lots of other things too, like the evolution of their relationship with each other, and the beginnings of their mischief. And they were able to meet her main goal before she left: they both started saying "abby" within the past two weeks. We will miss her and everything that she did for us, which includes more than just taking great care of the kids. She also took care of us by attempting to keep our house clean (her extreme cleanliness balanced out my more "relaxed" style), and by helping out with things like laundry, grocery shopping, and cooking dinner. And of course I can't forget how nice it was to send her out shopping for cute clothes for the kids (those of you who know me know that shopping isn't my favorite activity :) And lastly, she did get me hooked on such t.v shows like The Hills and introduced me to Facebook , for which I will be forever grateful. Of course there are many more things that I could mention, as you get to know someone when you live with them for 10 months. The house seems emptier now, and I know that Elsie and Jess will miss their "ah-bee" a whole lot.

Abby with the kids at the Botanic Gardens on Monday

11 years already

I just found this post that I started the day after our anniversary, so I thought I'd post it now :)

Friday (May 23)was our 11th anniversary. To celebrate, we spent some of our George Bush economic stimulus package and spent the night at a beautiful old hotel, The Brown Palace in downtown Denver, with my mother watching the kids at home. We went out for a nice dinner on Friday night, stayed at the hotel, and slept in until 9AM (this was the most exciting part for us -- the first real sleeping in in 16 months, and with the crazy sleepless nights at home it seemed like heaven.) In the morning we wandered around Denver, found a nice little crepe restaurant for breakfast and splurged on some sweets, and then enjoyed an art festival. To top it off, we headed back to the hotel for a couples' massage (Trev's first massage ever, which he liked). By that time, we were missing the kids, so we headed home for a little family time. I think the night to ourselves was just what we needed. We haven't really had one since the kids have been born with our crazy schedules and everything (my not wanting to leave the kids is a big part of it too...) We have always said that we wanted to take a trip for the 10 year anniversary, but then last year we got two little presents instead:) Maybe for 15 we'll do something big and crazy. For now, this was just right. I had to laugh about one thing though -- it's hard for me to spend money on a splurge for ourselves, so I was feeling a bit guilty Saturday morning. Then I called home to see how the night had gone for my mom. She informed me that Jess had been awake from about 11:00 to 1:30, and then they both woke up at 5:30AM for the day. Instead of me feeling bad for her lack of sleep, my first response was "Well, that was definitely money well spent -- I am glad that we did that." How Dutch am I? Thanks Mom!

Playing with Grammy

Jess loves the trike -- he sits on his own for hours.

Aaron and Leah's Wedding

People have been asking for pics of the wedding, and I promised I would share some. The thing is, we hardly have any pics of the wedding, except some of the kids getting ready. Part of me can hardly believe this, and then I think back and remember that I spent a good majority of the night trying to make sure two 16 month-olds were being appropriately cute and not destructive. Leah and Aaron do have some on-line prints that you can look at though, and the slideshow of the ceremony is very pretty:
http://denver.instaproofs.com

The wedding itself was beautiful, and we had a great time. It was at Devil's Thumb Ranch up in the mountains by Winter Park, Colorado. We got to stay in the lodge there, which is brand new and wonderfully crafted (thanks to Leah's parents for putting us up there!) You could tell how happy Aaron and Leah were, and how much in love they are. Leah was such a beautiful bride and beamed with joy all night long. Trev's dad did the service along with our family friend, Ken, and everything went so smoothly. It was really fun for us to see some of our old friends, and to meet some of Leah and Aaron's good friends from Jackson too. And by they way, the kids decided to wear their shoes, which is a small miracle! They didn't actually walk down the aisle --I carried them instead since it seemed to be a safer option. They were waiting so patiently with their flowers, and then when it came time to walk down they both chucked them to the side with glee. Oh well :) Here's a couple of our pics as well:

All dressed up and ready to go

Cute as ever

Knobs, buttons, anything else to play with?

Waiting to walk down the aisle

After the wedding

The Nydam family

Daddy's little boy

A Majority of the Heeringa Family (missing Jody)

My little sweetheart

Was that a month that just went by?

So I've gotten a little grief about not updating the blog, especially after such a good start. Well, I guess that's the way that time goes around here. Let's see, what have we been doing for the past month? Well, there was Aaron and Leah's wedding (I'll put some pictures up next). That was wonderful, but we came back exhausted. The kids managed to catch a croupy cold that caused them to cough and cough all night long and then gag on their phlegm and throw up. On top of that, they got the stomach flu after the wedding with full-on vomiting and diarrhea, and managed to pass it on to everyone in the house. And then on top of that, both started teething their molars. So, if you combine all of these things, you have a couple of kids who generally aren't happy and who each wake up 2-3 times a night and need to be put back to sleep. I felt like we were in the newborn stage again, which made me rethink my statement that I wouldn't mind, and may even like, another set of twins. The stomach flu also brought me right back to the feeling of pregnancy, and I had flashbacks of carrying baggies around in back pockets so that I would always have something to throw up in at work, even if there wasn't a bathroom nearby. But now I realized just how difficult pregnancy would be when you're trying to take care of two young toddlers. Especially when they are both sick and both want to be held at the same time-- they actually would try to push the other one out of my arms. It was one of those times when the reply to the statement "Wow, you have twins. That must be so much work!" changes from "Oh, it's all right, I don't know any different." to "Yes, yes it is a lot of work." I did learn a few things though. Like, for example, it is very expensive to dry clean rugs. And, when you puke on a wood floor, it makes the floor slippery.

But I digress. Now they are over the sickies for the most part, and are back to sleeping through the night (most of the time anyway). Then, my parents and my sister came out to visit, and we worked on transforming our backyard from a junkyard that Trevor always said reminded him of Sanford and Sons (never really understood this since I never saw the show...) to a place where we could actually let our children play. We've made some good progress, and I should be able to post some pictures later this week. Those who know what it has looked like for the past 4 years will be impressed. Anyway, I have now changed to one of the busiest months of my fellowship, which means I get to see the kids for an hour a day max and the nights can be busy too. So the computer time comes less frequently. But I promise that I will try to do better about taking pictures and putting them up for the world (and by this I really mean the grandparents) to see. Here's a few from the past month, including some silly ones that crack me up: