All Tucked In

I took the girls for their first doctor check up yesterday. They are just so tiny in those big car seats. They're definitely starting to wake up more now... especially at night. <yawn>

Two for Two!

A baby for each Nana!

How Tiny!

The girls went into their car seats for the first time so we can take them home from the hospital. Look how tiny they are!

Going Home!

The Girls are getting ready to come home today! At least Brenna seems to be a little excited. Cailee just keeps sleeping.

More Adorable Every Day

These little girls are getting more adorable every day. They're still sleeping most of the time right now, but they woke up a few times today to show us their beautiful eyes, but then knocked right out again after a little snack. Ben got to meet his sisters today for the first time, and even though earlier in the day he yelled out "Ewweww!" every time I showed him a picture of the girls, he was as sweet as could be with them when he got to meet them in person. He rubbed their heads ever so gently and wanted to hold and feed them right away. He's doing a great job of being an older brother already! He even was upset when we had to leave them in the hospital tonight. He wanted to take them home so they could sleep in his room tonight. Jill & I are so proud of our family.

One Day Old

Sleeping Beauties. So sweet and peaceful this morning.

The Wonder Twins!

Introducing  Brenna Suzanne & Cailee Jeanne Rudyk!  

Brenna is 5lbs 7oz & Cailee is 6lbs 1oz. and both are about 18 inches long. They're both beautiful and pretty much perfect!   Jill did a great job delivering them and she's doing well.  She's thrilled that she made it as long as she did and is ready to get back to being mobile again.

It's amazing how you can see the little personalities in these girls already.  

Cailee is chilling out and pretty much went right to sleep after the nurses checked her out.  They woke her up for a bottle and she passed out again.  

Brenna is wide awake, wiggling all over the place, pulling on the monitor cords and crying for food.  After leaving them for a bit to go check on Jill, when I got back the nurses were telling me that Brenna is a trouble maker and a very feisty baby and Cailee is a little sweetie pie.  Jill's been telling me over the past two months that this is exactly what they would be like - and she was right!
 
We're in for some exciting, fun and exhausting times!  Anyone who wants to come over and help are more than welcome!

Beautiful Girls

Cailee

Brenna

Here are some pictures of the girls now that they've had a chance to eat, warm up and get used to things a little.  Aren't they beautiful!

The Three Girls

Too cute! Melts my heart!

Grrrr, Girls!

Ben is actually very excited about his babies that are due to arrive tomorrow. He refers to them as "my babies" all the time and talks about how he wants them to sleep in his room, how he's going to teach them letters and how to do puzzles. I reminded him again earlier tonight that they were coming tomorrow and then he mentioned something about only bringing one back from the hospital and leaving the other one there.... Hopefully he was just kidding. In any case, we're all in for some new adventures, and we're all going to have to learn to share a lot more. Ben's also going to have to share his website... I'm not sure how I'll adjust the name of this blog yet, but everyone can expect to see pictures of Ben, the twins and our entire family here. Stay tuned - the adventures continue...

Holiday Horses

At the same holiday festival where we met up with Santa, they were also giving horse & pony rides! Ben was very excited to get up on that horse. Heck, he was excited just to put the helmet on! He got right up on that horse and just loved it! There weren't many people there so he got a nice long ride too. After he was done, we went right back on line and went for another ride on the little pony just a few minutes later. Jill was so proud of him when she got to see the pictures of him riding - while he tracked mud and sparkles (from the ornament project that he made) all through her hospital room afterwards.

Santa Surprise!

I took Ben to see Santa last week at a local holiday festival at the county stables while Jill was in the hospital. We went on a hayride that ended at Santa's house! Mrs. Clause was waiting outside and Ben practically jumped off the trailer and made it second on line to see Santa. He was a little unsure at first, but then he quickly warmed up and had a nice conversation with Santa and let him know exactly what he wanted for Christmas - his own computer, his own phone and a few other things. Santa's still trying to figure out how to handle those requests...

Ben or Jill?

Jill always says that Ben doesn't look like her, but when he put her glasses on a few weeks ago, it was a different story. He does look like Jill!

Hospital Visits

Jill's been in the hospital a total of seven times over the past month or so for monitoring of some pre-eclampsia symptoms. Fortunately, it never got so bad that they needed to deliver the babies early. But her longest stay was for a solid week. Ben enjoyed going to the hospital for visits to see Mom, plus he enjoyed all the other interesting things to see and do at the hospital... especially the power bed. It would make Mom's day when Ben would come to see her, and you can see why.

TP Tower

Ben's not going to be happy about me posting this picture someday, but that TP tower just cracked us up! We've finally mastered the potty stuff, but it doesn't mean that he doesn't still get bored while sitting on the potty these days. This was much better than a week later when he unraveled an entire roll...

Tricks, but not many Treats

It was a weird Halloween this year after dealing with hurricane Sandy. Our entire area pretty much skipped Halloween this year, but Ben's daycare finally had their Halloween party about a week before Thanksgiving. Ben was Dash from the Incredibles movie. Dash runs very very fast, which is pretty much what Ben did all afternoon - so I didn't get very many good pictures. The bottom pictures is pretty close to what Dash looks like in the movie though.

Snow Ball Fight!

We had that early snow storm last month and Ben was thrilled to see snow again, even if it was only a few inches. He had been wanting to have a snowball fight ever since he saw some kids having a snowball fight on a TV show, but he didn't want to put his boots on or wear more than his thin wool mittens. We had a great, but short, snowball fight and he decided that next time he would wear his boots and gloves. Oh, and we made a snow man and a snow cat too. Unfortunately the snow melted be that evening, and he's been asking when it's going to snow again ever since. Hopefully soon.

Fall Family Pictures

We had a nice Fall family outing and Ben actually agreed to stop playing on the playground for a few minutes and agreed to pose with us for some nice fall shots. Amazing.

My Fishing Buddy

 

I had bought Ben a fishing pole for his birthday but we didn't get a chance to use it until later this Fall up at the lake. I was amazed at how good he did with it. After a few tries, he actually was able to cast it out pretty far! He kept saying that he wanted to catch a fish so he could eat the whole thing - head, tail and eyes. Unfortunately, I knew we weren't going to catch anything on this trip because I only put a paper clip on the end of his line (safety first!), and we didn't have any bait on that paper clip either. One step at a time... We'll work on hooks and bait next summer. Casting was our first fun step towards fishing.

On Top of the Pumpkin!

 

I put Ben on top of a giant (fake) pumpkin in front of the fruit stand that we go to and asked him to smile and he gave me the best reaction!

Disney Climber

 

We went to Disney this past September for a last family trip before the twins arrive. Ben thoroughly enjoyed the trip and one of his favorite parts, besides meeting Buzz and Woody, was climbing on these huge climbing net maze things. This one was about three stories high and of course he had to climb it multiple times, and of course I needed to follow him every step of the way. I only got him out of there because they announced that the park was closing!

Bird Boy

 

I just love this picture. We were at a zoo up in the Poconos where they let you go into the bird cage and feed these parrots some apples. Ben wanted one to land on him so bad but of course they were flying to the taller people. Then finally one landed on him to eat his piece of apple and he was thrilled!

Not Always Happy

 

I'm way overdue to update Ben's blog with some pictures. The twins are due to arrive within the next two days, so life's about to get even busier... I figured it was about time to catch up with some pictures.

I've heard people say that Ben is always happy, but he's not... He was mad about something for a few minutes late this summer while we were at the beach with Eli for dinner. Fortunately it's usually short lived, then he moves on. But he still looks cute.