Sisters!

Look at how cute these two are... Mia is so in love with her baby brother and sister! She helps with bottles, baths and even soothes them. We are so lucky!

Mia & Brandon!

Look at my boy with his big sister! He's our little old man...

Passing of the Crib!

Mia was a great helper to Daddy when painting and decorating the twin's room! It wasn't until we broke out her old crib that she hesitated for a moment... After a little explaining and some time to allow her to play in her old crib, Mia was ready to pass it off to the next generation! Now she is very proud to have her little sister in her old 'little girl' crib... What a great sharer!

Twin's Room!

It's kind of difficult holding Momma back from creating yet another pink paradise! Daddy has to constantly remind her that we've got to have a little masculinity for our boy... We compromised on stripes and stencils of fairly monotone consistency. Of course she had to spruce it up with pink accents on Aubrey's side...

Chillin!

The other night Daddy needed a little quality time with the newest midgets, so we loaded them up on his lap. Throw you or me on top of another person and see how comfortable we are... These two? They are most comfortable when tossed together. They look so peaceful. Only problem was that every few minutes Brandon would jerk his arm into Aubrey's face and wake her up... She was pretty irritated by the whole thing! Big lovers.

True Love...

On countless occasions we have found Mia rubbing Brandon's head and whispering to him, or holding hands with Aubrey while they watch TV. Here they were sharing a few quiet moments together during the latest episode of Dora! She really does love them... It's also amazing to see how well she recognizes them. She'll run through the room and barely glance at a baby on the couch or in a swing, and ask where the other one is, by name, without hesitation. The kid is too damn smart...

Mia's Puppet!

Mia was already enjoying have the twins around, and then she discovered how much fun it truly could be if she dressed them up! I'm not kidding that she ran in her room, unprompted, and came out with her Diamondbacks hat because she was certain Aubrey wanted to wear it... What clown that kids is!

Siblings!

Like our experience with Mia, everything is happening so quickly! Brandon already weighs 6 lbs 2 oz, and Aubrey is up to 5 lbs 12 oz. This past Sunday we took the twins for their first adventure out of the home! Big Sister Mia supervised as we went to brunch with Aunt Cathy & Uncle Ryan, and Grammy & Papa. As you can see, Mia was awfully proud to show off her little siblings... Tell me that proud smile isn't the sweetest?! She has been truly amazing in how she has accepted the twins. She has been loving, nurturing and fun! So far there hasn't been the slightest hint of jealousy or animosity... I'm not sure why I'm surprised, as this angel of a child has surprised us with her perfection at every turn! We are very lucky...

Self Portrait!

Her evolving sense of humor is amazing! Absolutely silly...

Mary Bear!

Here she is, the world famous Mary Bear! This is Mia's favorite and best friend in the whole wide world... It's so cute to see how Mia's creativity has blossomed. Every day she tears the house up preparing large and lavish tea parties for her bears! Note that Mary has her own thrown, a few slices of pizza, a cup full of cookies and a bowl full of chips! Those are some serious royal perks...

Mary Bear was named after a dear friend of our family's, Fred's Mom, Mary Johnson. Mary bought Mia this bear, and so she was appropriately named Mary Bear! Recently Mary found 3 more identical Mary Bear's for us to have as back ups, which was amazingly sweet of her! So when the twins came home we decided to give Mia a new Mary Bear from Brandon & Aubrey. I wasn't sure if she would even care about her new bear in relation to old Mary Bear. Wow, was I wrong! When I handed her the new bear her eyes popped out of her head, she began jumping up and down and couldn't even make a sound... It was the most excited I've ever seen Mia! She grabbed 'New Mary', as she named her, and immediately ran to Momma and showed off her new bear with a level of enthusiasm that may go unrivaled until Mia gets married or has a child!! Mary Johnosn, you are the best! (By the way, Mia took this picture...)

Brandon & Aubrey Come Home!!

It's official, we now have 3 midgets at home!! On Monday we got the call that the twins were eating much better and will probably be home by the end of the week. They called back an hour later and told us to bring the car seats and be ready to bring them home within 24 hours... Yikes, we weren't quite ready for that! Mia was a huge help in bringing them home and now we are all safely settled in at home. The picture above was us departing the NICU! Note the oversized children in those car seats... Heee heeee!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

For Daddy's 38th Birthday, we went to dinner with Uncle Ryan & Aunt Cathy at Chelsea's Kitchen! Mia was an absolute blast... They give out wax string for the kids to play with, so Mia & Daddy made spectacles to improve our vision! Then, after dinner, Mia was feeling antsy. So Daddy & Mia went outside for a bit and Mia asked Daddy to dance... We actually slow danced in the front lawn of the restaurant, complete with a dip & a kiss at the end! The best birthday ever...

Easter with the Cousins!

For Easter we drove down Tucson for a few hours to visit Grammy & Papa and see Mia's cousins, along with Aunt Caren & Uncle Pat. It's amazing to see how much fun Mia has with her cousins, and how crazy she gets playing with them! She sure has no fear interjecting herself into the mix... Then, on Monday, they drove up to meet Brandon & Aubrey. As you can see by the picture, Mia was very proud so show offer her little siblings...

Big Sissy!

It really is amazing how well Mia is doing with this whole transition... Towards the end of their hospital stay, she was asking if she could go see her brother & sister! Then, as we were dressing them for their trip home yesterday, Brandon started crying. Mia, unprompted, pulled up a chair, climbed up, leaned into the crib and whispered, "It's ok Brandon, Daddy's here!". Wow, the kid is just too sweet!! When we got home, she helped us get them situated and then asked if she could hold Aubrey after Mommy fed her. The picture above is her cuddling with her new sister! I guess we should expect this kind of behavior as she's shown us how incredible and unique she is at every turn...

First Hold!!!!!!!!

Wow, what an unbelievable experience for us, as parents, to see all of our kids together for the first time! When we went to the NICU on Sunday, our amazing nurse, Ann, helped us to arrange for Mia to hold her siblings for the first time. We weren't sure how Mia would react, but she was an absolute rock star! She was so sweet & gentle, and looked down at them so inquisitively. You could almost see the older sibling pride coming out! Then she smacked them both in the head. No, just kidding, that didn't happen! Although it wouldn't have surprised me after all the separation and trauma their arrival caused Mia... It was so incredible for us to see them all together and maybe just a bit scary to see how many kids we're now responsible for! They are doing so well that the NICU nurses told us to expect them home later this week... Can't wait, but yikes!

PS. Aubrey is one chubby little girl, huh?! They have almost doubled their weight, and are now approaching 6 pounds each... Wow!

Kisses for Brandon!

The photo is a little dark, but could anything be cuter?! Wow, she was so sweet with her baby brother...

Quality Sister Time!

This time I think it was Aubrey who was wondering what the hell was going on, and who this other little person was?! We were so proud of big sister Mia...

Happy Easter 2010!

Happy Easter from your favorite Easter celebrating Jewish family! That's right, we're greedy... We're taking all holidays as our own! We enjoyed a great brunch and Easter egg hunt at the Club with the Friends. Then we spent a few hours at the NICU with our newest little Easter eggs, followed by a quick trip down to Tucson for dinner with the family. Wow, that was quite a reminder how much Mia loves playing with her cousins... She snored the whole way home in the car! It was a wonderful holiday.

Finally a Trombone!!

If you haven't noticed, our child is musically obsessed... For whatever reason, she has been yearning for a trombone for quite some time now! Most household objects have become make believe trombones at one time or another. So, Daddy promised the midget we'd find a real live trombone! After searching high and low and finding that trombones are not cheap, we found a pair of 100 year old trombones on Ebay! You can't imagine her excitement when they arrived. We're gonna need a little brass polish and some elbrow grease to make them work, but that didn't slow down her enjoyment!

Silly Girl...

We have been so lucky to have Carmel as a part of our lives! Carmel began baby sitting for Mia when she was just a little baby, and the love between the two of them has grown into something very special... It' really nice for Mommy & Daddy to know that not only is Mia being well cared for when we go out, but that Mia has the time of her life! Often times we come home to find loads of silly photos on our camera. This was Mia being Super Woman and Carmel encouraging with cheers and photos! Too cute...

Mia the Mechanic!

Tell me this isn't the cutest picture?! Mia is very mechanically inclined and takes her work at her work bench very seriously... She has us bring it in from the garage and she'll hammer away for hours. This was a totally candid photo. In fact, you'll notice that she appears a little irritated that I interupted her work! Could she be any more perfect?!

Princess Mia!

This past weekend Mommy was finally feeling better, and decided to take Mia to a fashion show fund raiser! When Mia saw that Mommy had what she called a crown, she had to have one too... So, whe wore her princess crown! Absolutely appropriate for our princess...