Some pictures from the drive...

Here are a couple of pictures of the drive in our new van. Matt drove most of the way. When we stopped, Matt would take one of the boys to feed him and I'd take the other. Jonathan was all smiles at one of the stops and I couldn't resist taking a picture.
This was awesome! On our way back home to IL, we passed a sign that said Bryan 15 miles away. You can sort of see the following sign here. How cool is that?

Visiting GreatGrandma and GreatGrandpap

We stayed at the "Miller Manor" (as we affectionately like to call it) for the time we were in Pittsburgh. We wanted a picture of the boys in front of the "Mantle of Honor" and here's what we got. Grandpap is holding Jonathan and Grandma is holding Bryan.

One of Grandma's gabbing sessions with Jonathan. They both talked up a storm when Great Grandma was holding them.
Unfortunately, both boys caught a nasty cold while we were on our trip. It seemed like we were suctioning them all the time! We have a whole house humidifier, we suction and use saline, we put them in the bathroom with us when we're showering, and we try to keep them propped up when they sleep. They still have very stuffy noses - does anyone have any advice? The pediatrician advises against using anything like Vicks, so that's out of the question.

Pictures from Thanksgiving

So we had a great time on Thanksgiving Day introducing the twins to some of their Cousins, Aunts, and Uncles. Here are a few pictures of those special moments...Here's their cousin, Jamie Miller with Jonathan. They had a great time getting to know eachother.
And they shared some laughs...
Here's Aunt Steffani Bryan feeding (I think) Bryan. The onesies they were wearing that day were courtesy of Steff. They said "Thankful for Mommy" - I know, adorable! They also had Baby's first Thanksgiving bibs courtesy of Grandma Bevevino. Thanks guys!
Here's Uncle Charlie Bryan with Bryan taking a nap.
We tried to get a picture of just the kids, but Aunt Steffani just HAD to get in there! As you can tell, they were all on the verge of breakdown, so she calmed them down. We have from left to right: Bryan Bevevino, Steffani Bryan, Carter Mates, Ethan Mates, and Jonathan Bevevino. Ethan (4 1/2 yrs old) and Carter (1 1/2 yrs old) are my sister Lori's children. If you can, get a close up of this picture and look at Jonathan - it's hilarious!

Rollin', Rollin', Rollin'...

They did it!  Bryan rolled over (from tummy to back) on Tuesday at Day Care and Jonathan did it the very next day at Amy and Shane's.  How exciting!!!  There goes my freedom to leave them on the bed while I run to the bathroom.

Traveling

This Thanksgiving, Matt and I decided it was best to break up the trip to Pgh by first traveling to Michigan to see Aunt Amy & Uncle Shane on Wednesday, then drive to Great Grandma and Great Grandpap Miller's on Thursday.   I was terrified about how the boys were going to handle the long trip.  Sometimes they like to scream in the car, sometimes they're fine.  Their longest trip was to my office in Schaumburg which took about a half hour.  It was a pleasant surprise, after about twenty minutes, they were both sound asleep.  They woke up after three hours to eat and they fell back asleep for the rest of the trip.  The trip to Ferndale took 6hrs and 15min and the trip to Pgh took the same amount of time.  They were angels!!!  I'll have some pics for you in a couple of days.  

"Brotherly Love"

Sorry for the delay in getting last weekend's events blogged.  Matt and I did a lot and I just ended up being too busy to post anything.  So, as some of you might have known, Matt and I were van shopping for quite awhile.  There's so many good models out there - all of them way out of our price range.  Fortunately, a friend at work referred me to a friend of her family and he hooked us up with a 2008 Hyundai Entourage.  It's as bare bones as it gets, but it's all we need with 7-passenger seating, cloth seats (that have been stain treated), a cranberry red exterior, and a pretty powerful engine.  It has much better get-up-and-go than my Tucson ever did and it's much bigger. Now when Matt and I go places with the twins, I can sit in the third row and watch the boys while Matt's driving.  Perfect.  

While Matt and I were car shopping, Grandma and Grandpap Bevevino were watching the boys and they took this picture of Bryan kissing Jonathan.  I can't believe I missed it!

Jonathan's Surgery Results

Ok, so we survived! Jonathan was such a trooper! The morning started with Grandma Bevevino taking Bryan to Day Care and Matt and Kristi took Jonathan to the hospital. He slept the entire way there and was pretty sleepy when we were there for pre-op. The first picture is of Jonathan in his hospital gown (that's right - it was a miniature gown with an open back and everything - adorable! ) and the temp sticker on his head. The remaining pictures are from the post-op waiting area and the recovery room. The hospital was great!
Jonathan only acted up when we needed to change him. Other than that - perfect little angel. Right before surgery, Matt convinced me to have the surgen explore the left side for a hernia there. The reasoning being that the anethstesia wouldn't change, but it could help him in the long run. Thank god we decided to do this! The Dr. came out of surgery and said that he had a large hernia on the right and a small hernia on the left. Both incisions are about an inch long and they have little surgi-strips on them. He didn't have any apnea spells and he's been eating really well. A surprise - when they weighed him he weighed in at 11lbs 2oz! If he keeps it up he's going to be on track with a full-term baby! He was released around 9PM and he was super excited to see his brother Bryan once more. We didn't get much sleep last night - we needed to change diapers often and check temps, but it's all worth the comfort of knowing they're safe and happy. Thank you for all your kind words - we really appreciate it. Lots of love!

Pictures

Matt and I finally made some time to have a professional picture sitting. Here's the info if you just want to check them out or if you want to buy some pictures. As a reminder: to tell them apart (looking at them) Jonathan's hair goes to the left (his right) and Bryan's goes to the right (his left) Enjoy!

www.sylverstudio.com event ID: 2704

Jonathan's Surgery

Jonathan's surgery is set for this Wednesday. I'm a nervous wreck. I know, it's very common and there's nothing to worry about, but that's my baby that's getting cut up! He's been pretty fussy this week. I'm constantly worried that he's in pain, so I'm bending over backwards to make sure he's not crying at all. I can't wait 'till it's done and over with. Please send Jonathan some love, prayers, positive energy on Wednesday! I'll be sure to write a post-op entry by Thursday.

My Morning Gifts

Thursday, November 5th was a crazy busy morning. I know, what morning isn't, but this one was especially busy with Matt having to leave for work at 5:30AM (without me knowing ahead of time) and me having to get ready for work, feed, make 6 bottles of formula, and change diapers and clothes of two crying babies by 6:30AM. A little daunting, but I managed to get us all ready and at day care by 8AM. What made it all worth it was seeing my two little guys smile at me at the same time. I was so excited to see them so happy, that I ran around the house to find the camera or the video camera. I found the video camera and took this picture. Now the big question is how did I manage to go to work when I had such adorable little ones looking up at me? They started to wail about three minutes after this picture. Oh well, it was such a gift to see them so happy together for that short period of time. (*picture note* Jonathan is on the right)

Our big brother, Pepper

As many of you know, we have a male cat named Sgt. Pepper (Pepper for short). It's been really interesting watching him adjust to the boys move into his territory - especially since he's always been fairly dominant. Before the boys were born it was fun listening to Pepper chase after Matt when Matt just wanted to walk up the stairs and go to bed. Pepper would try to nip at his ankles like he was hunting for food. Matt would have to run up the stairs, turn around real quick to stare him down, then a playful hand-to-paw fight would erupt 'till Matt had enough and they would both hop into bed. This was their nightly ritual.

We believe that Pepper has found it in his heart to accept the boys even though they're sometimes loud and take up valuable bed space. However, he hasn't always been so accepting. He's been urinating outside of his litter box off and on. Recently, we found a few spots of urine that had blood in it. Worried for everyone's health, Kristi took Pepper to the vet this weekend to find out what the problem is. It turns out that this is a bladder infection that's fairly common for house cats on a canned food diet. He put him on antibiotics and we're feeding him a special prescription diet for a few weeks to see if it clears up. After some research, I found that the newly renovated living room was the culprit for some of the urinating in there. I guess he lost all "sense" of where he was and needed to get familiar with it the best way he knew how. Yuk! So Matt and I invested in some heavy-duty cleaner and started to pay extra attention to him. It seems to be working so far. Word of advice to pet owners, change one thing in a room at once - not all in the same day!

Over the hill and through the woods to Grandmother's house we go!

On Sunday, we took our weekly trip to Grandma and Grandpap Bevevino's. Mom and Dad take this time to go grocery shopping while we hang out with the Grandrent's. Here's Jonathan with Grandpap.
Here's Bryan with Grandma.
When Mom and Dad got back from shopping, we all watched football and ate lots of yummy food. Here's Dad with Jonathan.
We're in the middle of a growth spurt, so we're eating anywhere between 4 and 8oz of formula at a sitting now. We were sleeping through the night last week, but this weekend we got up about every 4 hrs to eat. Still, not too bad but it was great getting a few extra hours of sleep.

Update on Jonathan

Kristi took Jonathan to the specialist on November 1st. He checked him out and confirmed that he needs surgery on his inguinal-unilateral-hernia. He'll have the surgery on November 14th first thing in the morning at St. Alexius Medical Center. Although it's a very common surgery, there are still risks involved with the anethstesia. He'll be able to eat an ounce of clear pedialite the morning of the surgery, but that's it. Should be interesting. The procedure takes about a half hour then he's allowed to eat as much as he wants, as soon as he wakes up. The Dr. said he'll leave it up to the Anethestesiologist on whether or not he'll stay in the hospital overnight or go home. He'll just want to make sure that Jonathan comes off of the medicine okay. Followup care will involve frequent diaper changes and sponge baths instead of regular bath time.
According to the Dr., there's a 40% chance that there is a hernia on his left side and he gave us the option for him to go ahead and explore that region while he's under, but we decided against any unnecessary surgery since there were no apparent signs of a hernia on that side. I hope we made the right decision!

Halloweenies

For Halloween, the boys were Thing 1 and Thing 2. They went to Grandma and Grandpap Bevevino's for a while to pass out candy then came home to do some more of the same. To our surprise, we found two trick-or-treaters that had on the same costume as the boys! Unfortunately, every time we went to the door to pass out candy, we screamed. Here we are in a better mood... *Bryan is on the left*