EIGHT Months and Updates....

So much has happened since my last post (at least the last one I provided updates on) considering I haven't posted in almost a month now. (Sorry). We've been pretty busy around here. First off I should note that we are (or were) all feeling 100% now. Both the boys came out of their little colds pretty easilly after getting on some antibiotics and taking some Benadryl for a couple of nights. But right after they started getting well poor little Oscar caught some 24 hour bug that sent his temp up to 103 degrees. After the whole Tylenol and Motrin regimen he was feeling better that next day though - so that one went quickly. But I just noticed today that it seems as if little MacKay is starting to get a bit under the weather again, not sure if it is teething or a cold but I'm going to have to watch him closely.

We've had a lot of visitors come to see us lately too......the Hehir's (they visit a lot and help out with the boys), Grandma Diane, the James' (Connie, Jerry, Brian and Allen), Grandpa Gary and Terri, Grandpa Dean and Grandma Bonnie etc. The boys love seeing all the new people. And they even have made some "baby" friends at their ECFE class (Fun with your Infant) that we go to every Wednesday afternoon.

And the house.... which has consumed our lives for the past 3 months...... it is nearly done. We now have new windows, new soffets and fascia, new roof, new gutters, new paint, new patio door, new screen doors.... AND.... a new cedar deck off the back. Definitely one of the best additions we've done to the place - a new place to hang out in the summer months. We still have yet to do a little more painting ourselves and John Hehir will be re-rocking our chimney, inside and out later this summer. So once that is all finished I'll take a picture and post it on here.

Some recent happenings and milestones we've hit.... The boys turned 8 months on June 30th and have gone through a lot of changes. They now are in their 18 month (12-18 month) clothes, and we're guessing Oscar is about 22.5 lbs and MacKay is about 21.5lbs. Oscar started creeping about a week ago AND got his 3rd tooth in (if I hadn't mentioned it in a previous post, MacKay finally got his 2nd bottom tooth a few weeks ago as well). MacKay made his first attempt (somewhat successful) at pulling himself up on the coffee table to get something off of it last week. MacKay is saying a lot of "pah-pah"s while Oscar is still stuck on "ma-ma" - which makes sense since MacKay is his Daddy's boy and Oscar is his Momma's boy. :) They really are very giggly and chatty lately. Around the time the boys started getting better and over their colds, MacKay developed a new "night owl" tactic - and played on his Mommy and Daddy to let him stay up until around 11pm each night. We finally hit the point where we couldn't stand it any longer (especially during the time we were at Dean and Bonnie's for the 4th) and in the last couple nights have tried out the "Cry it out" method. We've tried it before but he just gets so worked up that he gets drenched with sweat and can't calm himself down. But it seems to be working now cuz he's finally going to sleep... but it takes a while (45 minutes of crying on Sat night and about 20 minutes last night). Either way - much better than staying up with him until the wee hours.

We spent the 4th weekend in Annandale with the Hoglund/Ledwein side of the family and had a BLAST. We never made it in the lake with the boys (tho Mommy and Daddy were frequent riders on the jet ski) as it wasn't warm enough for them... but the boys took their first boat ride during the Pleasant Lake July 4th Boat Parade and took in their first parade (which surprisingly they both fell asleep for). The boys had so much fun with everyone. And their older cousin Taylor was a great help during the weekend, helping us out with the boys and loving them up. Thanks Taylor. After a fun and chaotic weekend it was good to get home and take care of things back here. We even got their pool set up and they got to have their first dip in the pool on Sunday. They had fun but MacKay took a couple of nose dives and wasn't a fan after that.

Well I am sure more has happened but so hard to remember everything that's happened in the past couple weeks - will have to make a point to post weekly on a regular basis. But, as always, some fun pictures for you to peruse through..... it's what you come here for anyway. :)

Some pictures of the boys out playing in the yard on a nice mid June day. I love those hats..... and was able to capture a moment that happens constantly between the two of them where they are grabbing each other by the bibs and trying to whip each other around.

Had to post these. This picture doesn't do Oscar's lip justice (for those of you that have really seen this you will agree) but Oscar is the King of Pouting. And the other is a picture of MacKay sucking his thumb. Neither of them are habitual thumb suckers (never used Nuks either) but every once in a while we catch them doing this.

I had so much fun taking these pictures of the boys at my mom's house. We just plopped them on a chair together and got some really fun pictures out of them as they wrestled and cuddled each other (.... as you can see, Oscar is more of the "cuddler" of the two...whereas MacKay, well he's just our little imp) :)

The boys playing. The first is just when the two of them rolled to each other and sort of snuggled up like this. Totally not even posed. And the 2nd is a picture of the boys at Gma Bonnie and Gpa Dean's playing with the "Little People" Farm they have there.

Some pictures of the boys during the 4th of July Festivities in Annandale. Here are the boys dressed in the outfits Gma Chris bought for them to wear over the 4th.... topped off with some fun head wear courtesy of Gma Bonnie and Gpa Dean.

Here are some pictures from the Pleasant Lake Boat Parade. They do this every year the night before the 4th. People decorate their boats and do themes etc. We got to take the boys on their first boat ride. The first picture is of Captain (Gpa) Dean letting Oscar drive (or at least sit on his lap). The 2nd is of all the kids (cousins) - front Left to Right: Taylor (holding MacKay), Stella, Jack and Sophia (holding Oscar). The last picture is of us with our fun goofy hats we wore for the boat parade.

The boys also took in their first parade on the 4th. They both fell asleep regardless of the Veterans' guns going off and the multiple Marching bands. We were able to lay MacKay on a blanket on the ground but Oscar woke up when we tried that with him so he got to take on a bit more of the parade. Of course Taylor was there to lend a helping hand... here's a picture of her with Oscar. And a picture of us again in our traditional matching Old Navy July 4th shirts that the family gets. Unfortunately none of my pictures of the entire family turned out (too hazy) so Kelly Jo or Denise, if you have any that turned out well, send them on.

Some miscellaneous pictures of the boys. Here's Oscar and his classic crawling/creeping move where he gets up on all fours (pulls knees up too) and looks like he is about to "bear walk". And MacKay sporting some really nasty bed head after his first night of us letting him CIO (Cry It Out).

Some pictures of the boys during their first dip in the pool.

Well that's about it for now...... more to come later, and I promise I won't wait another month to do my next post.

6 Month Professional Pictures

I'll do another post later with some updates on what is new with us... but for now I just want to share the new pictures we got of the boys from Mandy Birdwell from their 6 month photo shoot. We're pretty excited about how they turned out. Here are some of our favorites:

The outside sitting we had with the boys was so fun. They had a blast with the grass (their first encounter) and just love being outside in the breeze. I absolutely adore that picture of the boys with Chris.

Just the basic jeans and a t-shirt (onesie) look..... I love these pictures cuz they really show the boys' personality. That little impish look that MacKay gives... and concerned and sensitive little Oscar.

Naked time... the boys loved this cuz they never get too much naked time around our house (we're just not confident enough that they won't make a complete mess) :) Love those chubby tummies, legs... and of course those little butts.

Sick Little Boys :( (and now 7 months old)

Our poor boys are so sick right now. MacKay isn't as sick as Oscar, but the two of them have some raging cold/sinus infection like - their noses are like faucets and they have the most god-awful barking coughs. Oscar's coughing attacks are so bad that he coughs until he gags (unfortunately I think he gets that from me cuz I have done that since I was a little girl) and if he has eaten anything recently he will throw it all up. Has made for some pretty big messes and tons of laundry. Chris and I aren't feeling so fantastic either. Infact we all had doctor appts this Monday and got put on antibiotics. Oscar actually has been to the doctor 3 times in the last 1.5 weeks. At first they told us it was just seasonal (nice... thanks for the help). And less than a week later we were back in with him cuz he was oozing green goo. At that time they put him on amoxicillin. And less than a week later we were all back into the doctor's due to our sinus infections, Oscar's incessant coughing (Link, that is SO your word), and MacKay was starting to cough. Irks me a bit that they only looked at Oscar, especially after the doctor heard MacKay cough (while sleeping in his car seat), and said "Wow - that sounds like croup". When we asked her to take a look at him she just sort of blew him off saying if he didn't get better in a few days to bring him in. Unnnghh. These doctors, I tell ya. But the good news is I think we're all on the upswing now and the boys are starting to eat better, in better spirits, and sleeping better at night. Well even though this has consumed our last few weeks.... onto other things that are new with us.

We now have new windows, a new roof, new soffets and fascia AND new gutters. YAY. Now we're just picking out paint colors so we can get that taken care of. This house is going to look like new before we're done with it. But we figure with how horrible the market is, that we might as well put money into our house than even try look for another one and try sell ours. Plus we just like the location (and the lakeshore access across 371) and with all the changes the house is really starting to grow on us.

Let's see, what else..... MacKay still just has the one tooth. Waiting for that second one to pop out any day now. And the boys LOVE having their teeth and gums brushed. Makes that tedious job much easier to do when they are smiling and enjoying it. They're almost done trying out all the new Gerber Stage 1 foods too.... we only have a few more to go (Peas - ick, and Peaches) and we get to move onto the Stage 2 mixed foods and such. They also are getting on all fours and rocking back and forth (just inches away from creeping/crawling) when they are on their tummies. Infact Oscar started showing signs the other day of getting how you need to bring a knee up to move forward - just didn't get him anywhere :)

We've got Angus all booked up at this luxury-like kennel for the week/weekend of July 4th. We can't wait to head to Grandpa Dean and Grandma Bonnie's for their traditional July 4th celebration. Pretty big deal in Annadale... and it's like 2-3 days of all day open houses. Everyone stops in. Can't wait to get the boys' little swim trunks on them and dip them in the lake... hopefully it warms up sometime before then. This weather is just awful.

Well.... here are some more pics. Sorry.... haven't taken a lot of recent ones due to the boys being under the weather. Even the shutter on my camera isn't fast enough to take a picture before all sorts of green goo slimes out of their noses. :)

These cute Addidas outfits were from Nikki Bjugan and family. I swear that girl (and family) keeps Addidas in business so I wouldn't have expected anything but this from her. They really are cute and comfy little shorts outfits.

A few weeks ago (gosh has it been that long since I last posted?) I got the boys outside on a blanket to hang out while it was nice out. Found a nice safe shady spot for them and they were SO amazed at the outside world. This also happened to be their first encounter with sippy cups. Oscar has really grasped the idea (and the handles as you can see), whereas MacKay would rather YOU hold the sippy cup for him so he can drink.

Heidi Nygren and family stopped by on their way up to their cabin on Woman Lake over Memorial Day weekend. Her son James (turned 2 in Feb) just LOVED the boys up - tons of hugs and kisses and he LOVED playing with all their toys with them. Oscar was just starting to feel under the weather at this point so he wasn't in the best spirits but I think these three are going to have some fun when MacKay and Oscar get older.

MacKay has now started in with sticking his tongue out as well. His pales in comparison to Oscar's (Oscar's tongue is monstrous) but he enjoys it just the same.

Both MacKay and Oscar love their pop up toy they got from Marcia Sharp and Bar Martin (family friends from the Osage block). They haven't quite gotten the jist of how to get them to pop up (aside from an accidental attempt) but when we pop them all up they work together to get them all back down. It's pretty funny to watch. They have so much more control over their movements now.

Love these..... some pictures of the teeth.

More to come later as always... and let's hope by next post I can claim the entire family is feeling 100% (hey, I'll settle for 70% at this point).

Six Month Professional Shots.... AND TEETH

A lot has happened since my last post. Let's see..... On Wednesday we noticed that MacKay had cut his first tooth. For the few days prior we were noticing he would chomp down on the rubber spoons when we were feeding him his veggies - I don't know why I didn't think to check for teeth. But last Wednesday (5/14) I was cleaning the spoons and saw little indentation marks on the bottom of the spoon. Stuck my finger in his mouth and low and behold there was a little razor sharp tooth coming in on the bottom left. Then just a few days later on Saturday we checked Oscar cuz he was drooling more than usual and there was his first tooth, in the same place that MacKay cut his first one. AND, today we just saw Oscar's second tooth coming in right next to the other one. So now Oscar has two little teeth coming in on the bottom. So far teething hasn't been too bad..... it's worst at night when we are trying to get them down to sleep. But chilled teething toys and frozen wash cloth corners seem to be doing the trick. And we're not sure if they have developed colds again or if it is yet another symptom of teething but they are a little stuffed up with runny noses as well. Otherwise the boys are handling it very well and in pretty good spirits. I personally am bummed cuz that means my boys are just growing up too fast... not to mention I love the look of those little gummy smiles. :)

Thursday night we headed down to the cities because the boys had an appt Friday morning with Mandy Birdwell for their 6 months photos. Overall it went pretty well and we think we got some good pictures out of it. This time we even did some family photos. Only bummer was that during the outside pictures we couldn't really get a lot of smiles out of the boys as they were more interested in their first encounter with grass..... they couldn't get over how it felt on their bare little feet and were just kicking around in it. And every time Mandy would put her camera down or fiddle with different settings on it they would just beam ear to ear with smiles. Unnnnghhh. I think they are so used to Mommy sticking that camera in their face all the time that they have gotten a bit camera shy :)

So we just hung out at Grandma Chris's for the rest of the day on Friday and the boys' Uncle Dennis even stopped out to see them. He came equipped with his hair cutting tools cuz we had mentioned that MacKay is in need of a hair cut.... but we decided to give it a bit more time before we hit that milestone. Dennis was pretty amazed at the things they are doing now and how big they have gotten.

And while at Grandma Chris's the boys even tried their first Cheerios (Daddy's idea). MacKay actually got the jist of it and had about 6 of them and played around with them on his play tray. Oscar wasn't a fan of the Cheerio though. On his first attempt he spit it out quickly..... and on the second attempt he gagged so hard on it and just gave us some pretty horrible faces so we gave up on him for the time being. But so far the boys have tried Squash, Sweet Potatoes, Applesauce... and their newest is Green Beans which I was a bit worried about, but they really seem to like them and scarf them down. And they are on a great schedule where they are eating breakfast (cereal), lunch (veggies/fruit) and dinner - gotta love that. Oscar has even become such a good eater that he gives MacKay a run for his money and sometimes even finishes before MacKay.... just opening up waiting for that next spoonful. We also stopped at Grandma Bonnie and Grandpa Dean's on Saturday for a few hours on our way back up to Brainerd. They had a wedding to go to so we couldn't stay long but we had a nice visit.

This coming weekend Daddy and a few other guys are going to install new soffets (sp?) and fascia (sp?) outside on our house so Grandma Chris is going to come up and help out. Maybe she'll even watch the boys for one of the nights so Mommy and Daddy can go out and socialize (something Mommy needs more than Daddy... but oh well). I should note that last week we got a new roof put on. I LOVE IT. Every time I am outside I just have to admire it. And after the work this weekend is done we're going to pick out colors to re-paint the house. We've already checked and Grandpa Gary and Terri are willing to come on down to help us paint for a couple days when we are ready to take that chore on. Our house is going to look SO different. Will post pictures when it is done.

Anyway..... I think that is about it with us. Here are some pictures......

AND... be sure to check out our photographer's blog to see some of her favorite pictures from the boys' 6 month photo shoot: http://mandybirdwell.typepad.com/photoblog/2008/05/hoglund-twins.html

Here are some pictures of MacKay and Oscar eating for the first time in their portable Fisher Price booster chairs that they got from Nikki Bjugan and family. Thank you again Bjugan family, I love these things. So easy to use and easy to travel with - not to mention the boys actually seem to like being in them. (Note: and the little dudes are wearing one of the MANY sets of big boy PJs that Grandma Chris got for them)

Here's Oscar being fed his Applesauce lunch by Grandma Chris.

MacKay with his first Cheerios. He made some weird faces while trying to mush them up in his mouth but wanted more when he was done.

And Oscar scowling and spitting out his Cheerio. We were only successful in getting him to actually eat a half of a Cheerio after he spit out and gagged on his first two attempts. (P.S. I had a picture of him gagging on it, but thought better of posting that one - we're not THAT cruel) :)

It was such nice weather last weekend in the cities that they boys got to romp around in just their onesies. Here are some cute pictures of them sitting and smiling for the camera (btw - what is with Oscar's goofy smile? It almost looks like it hurts his cheeks to puff them out like that)

These are some cute outfits that Grandma Diane's friend Becky got for the boys. Caught Oscar in the act of either putting his arm around his brother lovingly.... or giving him a good whack on the back - can't remember.

These are the most adorable pants, and these are from Grandma Diane. They roll and tack up to be cropped and are nice and lightweight for summer. After getting these I had to go get a couple more pair in a bigger size too for later.

Just a cute picture of MacKay and Oscar interacting. They are constantly reaching out to touch or put their arms around each other. And they're wearing the cute onesie and jean short outfits they got from Grandma Bonnie and Grandpa Dean for Easter.

And lastly... the video I mentioned in a previous post of MacKay laughing SO hysterically over Chris shaking a can of almonds. He did this for about 10-15 minutes.... long enough for us to get video of it and to call Grandma Chris for her to hear it. We were all in tears listening to MacKay cackle. Hope you enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOV_soj87Ho