Grandpa's Here!

This past Saturday my dad flew in to join our party. We were very excited about his arrival--especially the babies. They took baths and wore their "finest" outfits in preparation for Grandpa's arrival.

Pretty Nora--i love her crossed feet, a little lady!

So Sweet!

Holden was a little worried.. He said he didn't know what a grandpa is. He pulls at his face when he feels this way.

The paci helps with the worry. He's showing off his snazzy overalls here. Thanks Grandma Cottle-he's so cute in them!

Here they are waiting in their stroller for the plane to land--it was a little bit delayed, but they didn't seem to mind too much.

Sleepy Baby and his 'boo-boo lip'

Pretty Baby and her bow

After the plane landed Nora got a little anxious waiting for Grandpa to come to baggage claim so mommy and daddy decided to take her out of her seat and take a picture--Holden was being a sleepy head

He's here!

Checking our our sleepyhead

Grandpa's flight came in during feeding time, so before we left the airport Grandpa got to give his first bottle to Nora

and then burp her

Nora is thinking "who is this funny man holding me?"

I'm feeding Holden, but Grandpa got to burp him

Snuggling at home...and already have a Jamba Juice (notice the end table)

We spent our first few days in the house just getting acquainted and loving on the babies. Today was our first outing with Grandpa. We went to get frozen yogurt at Menchie's and then to the grocery store. Because of the two car seats the truck gets pretty crowded, but we found room for Grandma in between the babies...and although it was a bit tight, i am pretty sure she thinks it's the best seat available and she's prolly right!

Putting Nora to Sleep...

...apparently puts Daddy to sleep also!

Grandma Cures the Toot Toots

Nora had a little constipation a few days ago...but Grandma Anne knew just the remedy,

a belly massage! Nora's totally in "the moment"

Grandma changing Nora's diaper

Bath Time with Holden

Holden at bath time....a bit of a different story. His crying starts before we even enter the bathroom--more like when we start taking his clothes off--such a touch-me-not! Except when it's time to cuddle of course! Holden exclusively bathes at nighttime. He knows better than to get himself messy with diaper accidents cause he hates baths so much. He stays as clean as he possibly can in hopes that mommy and daddy may even stretch his bathing to every other 2 days instead of every other day...but, not much of a chance buddy! (unless we're super duper tired of course!)

So here he is in the very beginning already crying

Taking a break for smiles from daddy...not a chance of getting one from Holden though!

This is his "please someone help me, my parents are trying to drown me" face

My sweet baby, like Nora calms a bit on their bellies

Then it's time to rinse, the water spigot is much quicker, but oh so much scarier!

Shampooing his balding head! Really about all that is left is a thick patch at the nape of his neck that just keeps getting thicker...He's beginning to look even more like an old man with his receding hairline!

drying off with mommy, finally safe and secure

and hungry too! mommy tries to kiss him, but Holden has a surprise for her--lip latching!

Then Daddy diapers and dresses Holden...he's back to crying now.

"Can't they just stop messing with me? I'll be a sweet boy, really."

Almost done now, and wore slap out!

and just a little disclaimer: for those of you observant people who are also focused on each twin equality--Holden also got his cuddle time and feeding time, we just don't have any pics because his sister was SCREAMING and Mommy had to go attend to her...thus no one was around to document the "loving on Holden" part of the routine!

Bath Time with Nora

Thought we'd share some pics of Nora's bath time routine...which most of the time happens at night before bed, but every once in a while (like yesterday) she shi shi's during a diaper change and ends up needing an emergency bath session!

First we wash the front...she's not too sure about it, but still thinking on how to respond--it's best to be quick during this stage to subside the screaming

Then we flip to the back, she likes this okay--although she holds on to the sides for dear life!
Here's daddy (check out the goatee and Nora's teeny tiny bum)

Then it's time to wash the hair...she's glad to get out of the tub!

But if you take too long, she starts crying because she's cold! Mommy has to tell her its okay...and steal some kisses!

But you also gotta watch out for those kisses, cause she might latch on to your lips! (which she did right here and it made mommy laugh!)

After bath we get to dry off, and Nora likes that part...she also really likes her pink towel! She knows she's cute!

We try to get a family picture, but Nora is telling us that she wants her clothes and some food instead

We give up trying to her to cooperate...4 week olds, they never listen!

Nora then likes to cuddle with daddy while mommy picks out her jammies

She's getting hungry though and is telling daddy all about it!

So mommy hurry's up and dresses her little girl

and then they sit down so she can eat!

Wow, bath time can be quite exhausting!

Welcome Grandma Anne!

Babies first visitor has arrived!
So far, grandma is just adjusting to the time change...stay tuned for more!

Mike vs Food

Mike and I are big fans of Man vs Food on the travel channel. If you haven't watched it before, the host Adam Richman, travels around the country stopping at famous eateries and does 1 "food challenge" per show. He visited Hawaii earlier in the year and tried a variety of local foods, but his food challenge was at Mac 24-7, a restaurant in a hotel downtown. Some of you may remember me blogging about this back in the fall when we stayed at the hotel for a leadership retreat. Well anyway, the challenge is to eat 3 14 inch pancakes made from about 4 lbs of flour plus whatever toppings are one it...and getting them plain is not an option!. Mike has been wanting to do this since he heard about the challenge and if ever there was an eating challenge that Mike could do, pancakes would be it!

So we decided that what better day to do it than New Years Day...So that's exactly what we did. Mike invited his boss and our friends, the Corizzo's to come and join the support team as he attempts this great feat.

Here are some pics from the kitchen as the Mac Daddy Wild Blueberry Pancakes are being prepared.

All started out well, Mike was all smiles. and really looking at them it wasn't all that daunting.

Thing was, they were super thick and heavy, not the normal fluffy buttermilk pancakes that you are used to eating. Still, he went at it for a good 20 minutes and almost ate half but then he hit his wall. You have 90 minutes to finish, so he took a break, but after about another 30 minutes it was clear that he was not going to be able to finish. We all, including Mike, were disappointed at the results--but what was more disappointing was that the pancakes weren't really that good and that was what was making it so hard to eat. I don't like pancakes very much, but i tried a bite anyway it really you could actually taste the flour in it...they weren't moist at all! No wonder only 7 people out of like 300 have even finished the challenge...who wants to stuff themselves full to the point of sickness for food that isn't even that good?

So, in today's battle of Mike vs Food, Food won. But really we can't blame him! And we probably won't be back to the restaurant either. Now if Boot's and Kimo's (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kailua-HI/Boots-and-Kimos/55389804011) wants to do a pancake food challenge...we'll be there for sure!

Happy New Years from the Burns Team!

Our New Years Eve was spent at home watching some TV and loving on our babies--a far cry from what we were both doing a year ago. I was in Chicago with some great friends ringing in the New Year in the freezing cold with a ton of other crazies and Mike was in Iraq sleeping through it. Even though last year i was having a great time, I think it's safe to say we both will always treasure our first New Year with our babies and the beautiful simplicity of it all.

This past year was super eventful and it flew by so fast when i look back its all a bit of a blur. We started off the year separate with still 2 more months to go in the deployment. When Mike came home (which was definitely in the top 3 moments of 2009) we spent the next few months reacquainting ourselves to each other and married life and also spending as much time as we could with all of our wonderful friends before they all moved away. After quite a long wait, we finally got the AMAZING news that we were pregnant, and then a week in a half later we found out we were having twins! The next 7 1.2 months is where the blur really starts to set in for me. As excited as we were about the pregnancy it was actually quite difficult and I was sick for a lot of it. The days kind of all run together as I spent the majority of the time on the couch and trying to sleep. Mike dove right into work, trying to train new people and get ready for upcoming deployments\ as well as take care of me and the house. Then for the best part of our year and what makes all the rest of 2009 completely worth it, was the birth of our beautiful and perfect twins. Life these past few weeks has been better than we could have ever imagined--although we spend a lot of it tired and busy, things couldn't be better. We have been so blessed in 2009, hopefully 2010 will bring us some time to just enjoy all that we have been given!

We do have some resolutions for the year--i'm not really one for making resolutions, but there are just a few and we're just sticking to basics...nothing too crazy and off the wall. I think the theme of this year will be just appreciating the little things, taking time to breathe and not get too overwhelmed with everything. We have a lifetime to do all the things we want to do, but we only have a little time to be with our children and enjoy being parents to our 2 precious babies.

Our Resolutions are
-Mike wants to get back in school
-Although this may sound quite cliche...Jess would like to see some resemblance of her pre-twin body by the end of this year
-We both resolve to stop looking so much to the future and what's going to happen and spend as much time as we can just enjoying and cherishing the time we have with our children. They're going to grow up before we know it and we want to be able to look back with no regrets.
-We also resolve to take time out for each other with no other distractions. It's so easy to get caught up in the day to day routines...but we're apart too much already. We can't afford not to "be together" during the times that we actually are together instead of halfway around the world from each other.

We hope of each of you had a great end to 2009 and we wish you all the happiness that life can bring during 2010!