It's (one of the) Most Wonderful Tmes of the Year!

Time for the Olympics of course! We at the Vanderwal house love to watch the Olympics and as I type this we are watching the opening ceremonies. I love to see each teams outfits...not overly impressed with the US's this time but Canada looked pretty good ;) The last time the Olympics were on the summer of 2012 we had just brought the girls home from the hospital--it actually worked out perfect to feed the girls at 2 am cause we could catch up on what we missed during prime time.

In January the girls turned 18 months old. We actually just had their 18 month appointment this past week and found out both girls are exactly 32 inches tall, which is the 83rd percentile for their age. They are also within 4 ounces of each other weight wise at just over 24 pounds, which is only the 38th percentile. Tall thin Dutch girls...sounds about right :)

The girls continue to crack us up. They are talking and chatting so much its so funny to see what they say or try to say. Here are some things they say on a regular basis: Mommy (while doing the sign for Mom), Daddy (while doing the sign for Dad), yeah, please no, hi, bye-bye, teeth (which sounds like tee), ow/owie, baby (which sounds like buh-beeeeeee when upset ), paci (sounds like puh=ceeeeeeee when upset), applesauce (sounds like appa-tot), Whered' go?, puppy, potty, tie (for Tayo the little bus show they like to watch for 30 seconds before they move on to the next thing), various animal noises, and I know there are lots more I am missing.
Amelia is still totally our book worm. Most nights she must go to bed with a book, even though she cant see the pages in the dark. She will flip through pages of a book the entire way to and from daycare in the morning and quite often wants to take it in to daycare with her. Quinn likes to read too but won't stick with it as long as Amelia. On the way to daycare she would rather listen to the Sunday School CD and cuddle with her baby.
Both girls have started to say "come here" with their hands if they want their sister or one of us to come by them. They will make a motion with their hands and it is the most adorable thing ever. Kevin will make them a tent, usually Amelia's request, and then she will motion for me and Quinn to come in with them.
Quinn likes to tease the rest of us. If we tell her not to do something she will pretend she is going to do it and just smiles and looks at us like "what are you going to do about it." It's so hard not to laugh.
Amelia is a helper and mother hen. She loves to "help" do almost anything you ask her to...put dirty clothes in the hamper, pick up the diapers they just unloaded from the stacker thing, put an empty bowl in the sink, etc.
Both girls are really good at telling us if they have dirty diapers or want to be changed. Amelia especially. She will quite often point to her diaper before we even have a clue. So far no desire to sit on the potty from either of them though.

I can't believe it's been over 6 months since they turned 1. Cant wait to see what 2014 has in store for them and all the things they will learn.

Have a good weekend everyone! Enjoy the Olympics!

One boy, one girl?

I have read several articles lately written by mother's of multiples offering the rest of the world a look into how conversations we have with people sound from our perspective. I found I could relate a lot to these articles and thought I would write down a couple things that Kevin and I have joked a lot about at home over the last 18 months (and actually about 9 months before that too). These are things we have heard, craziness we have learned, and conversations we have had...if we had a nickel for each one of these.
To start, when you tell people you are having twins or that you have twins, there are three likely responses. The first being "do twins run in your family?"  I wish that I could be quicker with a comeback, but I so wish I could ask "do singletons run in yours?" When I was pregnant I read that twins are actually not that uncommon, 32 out of every 1000 births, so just over 3%. The second response is something along the lines of "are they natural?" Are you asking me if my children have supernatural powers? No? Oh that's right, you are asking me if they were conceived using fertility treatments. Really? You just asked me how my children were conceived. This conversation we are having just got really personal really quick. Do I even know you? Should I reciprocate the question and ask how yours were conceived?  The other common response to seeing our twincesses goes something like this "my brother's friend's sister-in-law's cousin has twins". Like I already said....twins are not THAT uncommon, but thank you for sharing. Kevin likes to compare it to when we meet someone that knows someones great uncle's sister who also lives in Canada.

If you haven't already noticed, I like to dress the girls in matching outfits and make the most of the twin opportunity. Having said that, you would be shocked how many people say to us....are they twins?...one boy, one girl?...are they the same age? Really? They are dressed identical....in pink. I realize Quinn doesn't have as much hair as Amelia, but come on. I don't think she looks like a boy and even if you disagree, she is wearing exactly what Amelia is wearing. WHY would I dress a boy in the same thing that I have dressed a girl in?

The other thing we hear quite often is "I don't know how you do it" or "I could never survive if I had twins." When you are in the situation you just do it. We don't know any different. Before we announced we were pregnant and having twins, I remember eavesdropping on a conversation about how much work it would be to have twins and how one of the people would just die if they got pregnant with twins. Really? Yes, it is A LOT of work but it's worth every penny.

So many people told us "just get through the first year". Looking back, the first year was a breeze compared to some moments we have had the last couple months. Kevin and I have decided that 12-18 months was harder and more tiring than the entire first year. At 12 months they are mobile. They compete for toys and attention. They feed off of eachother-especially when they are being silly, loud, or naughty. If you are reading this and happen to be expecting twins, yes, you have to "get through the first year" but please don't jump to conclusions that it gets easier at 13 months.

I wanted to take a second to mention some things we have learned while traveling with twins. Before we first traveled with the girls we did a bunch of research and pinterest-ing to figure out exactly what we needed to do to ensure a smooth sailing trip. Just know that it probably won't happen.
The first thing we learned is that only certain sides and rows of the airplane contain AN (as in one) extra oxygen mask. We have twins so just one of anything doesn't cut it. Because of this, we could never sit as a family on our trips to BC. We now know this and the flight attendants know this, but unfortunately the gate agents and check in folks are clueless. We have played fruit basket upset on just about every flight because the gate agent says "oh your seats are fine". When we walk on the plane you can see the horror on the flight attendants face seeing us each walk in with one child in our arms.
"You can't sit together."
Yes, we know."
I will have to do some rearranging."
"If only someone would have mentioned that before? Oh wait, someone did? We did? That's right."
Oh well, once the girls are 2 and have their own seat it will be a non issue. But for those of you traveling with more than one child under the age of 2, be prepared!
We have also learned that there are very few healthy options for children when flying. We grabbed some McDonalds for the girls at one point and paid just over $7 for Chicken Nuggets, Fries, and a Diet Coke (for me). They don't love fast food (which is a great thing!) so I also grabbed some things from Chilis To Go....a yogurt, fruit cup, and milk totaling close to $15. Really? I have to spend $5 per item to feed my children something healthy? We also have bought several bananas for $1.50 each while traveling.
We have learned that you must find empty halls and gates to let them run in, stickers are a must travel toy and that security and customs people are quite helpful and friendly. Especially the Canadian ones, as we have gotten to go to the front of several lines. Pack too many diapers. You don't want to have to choose which child gets to be changed (yes that happened to us while getting stuck in Chicago, luckily I found a couple at a Hudson News so both girls were in luck)    :)

OK, I could probably go on and on but this is a little look into the kinds of things we laugh at on a daily basis. Hopefully you can laugh at this with us too! If you see us return your question with a smile, glazed over face, or an answer that sounds rehearsed. It probably is. We have heard it before and we will hear it again. We have said it before and we will say it again.

We are so proud and happy that God chose us to be parents of twins girls, even if that means it comes with all of the stuff I just mentioned. Must mean he thinks we can handle it (them) right? :)

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year everyone! We just got back from a very relaxing vacation to visit Kevin's parents in Enderby, BC. It has been 5 years since were have been there for Christmas so it was a well needed trip. We left on Saturday morning, Dec 21st at 6:30 am and had a quick flight to Denver and a very quick layover there. We then had a 2 hour flight to Seattle of which Amelia chose to scream for 1.5 hours. She was so tired but would not get settled down. We passed her back and forth and nothing helped. After throwing her paci and baby on the floor about 20 times, squirting one of those applesauce pouches on top of her head, and a lot of looks from the other passengers, she fell asleep as we were getting ready to descend. We then had a 3 hour layover in Seattle so we got some lunch, found a large kids play area (which had to have been so germy I can't think about it for long), and found a bunch of empty hallways for the girls to run and look out the window. After that it was just a quick one hour flight to beautiful Kelowna. The flight from Seattle to Kelowna is always a pretty small plane--turbo prop style, and they offer complimentary wine and beer. I am sure they do that because the plane is kinda scary ;) but traveling with children changes you...haha. This is the first time that Kev and I had to say no thanks. Anyway, the rest of the trip was great. The girls were amazing sleepers every night and took great naps--which also means we got sleep and were able to take naps. We got to read, play games, go snowshoeing, Boxing Day shopping, and just hang out. Quinn was a little nervous about the cows the first day or so but she eventually came around. Amelia thought they were neat! The girls had so much fun playing with their girl cousins Taylor and Sydney and they gave their aunt and uncle Dan and Kristen a look into what life with twins is like. They are expecting twins in May--so exciting.

We were hoping for a boring trip home but there are always surprises when traveling. On the way home (Sun, Dec 29) we traveled from Kelowna to Calgary and then to Chicago. When we landed in Chicago we noticed there was a line of airplanes just sitting in a row but not at a gate or anything. Our plane pulled up next to them and it was announced that there were no available gates and that all of these planes were waiting for their gate to free up. We got nervous because it was only going to be a 40 minute layover. Well an hour later we finally got a gate ( I am pretty sure the flight we were waiting for was our flight to Sioux Falls). I ran ahead with Amelia to see if the SF flight had left and it had. It was the last one to SF that night. Kevin got in the ginormous line at United Customer Service while I found the girls some supper. A bit later Kevin called me to see if I could find another United CS center which was supposed to be in another terminal. So I trekked around that airport and found it....almost no line! So I called him back and he ran over to meet me. It was pretty crazy. The girls were AMAZING during this whole time. I thought they were going to get antsy or whiny because it was getting late but they were such troopers. United gave us a hotel and food vouchers so we caught the shuttle to the hotel--which ended up being very nice but only had 1 pack n play to offer us. So the girls had to share and they did well. They probably slept better than we did.  We were up again at 5:30 to catch the 6 am shuttle back to the airport. Security did not take long and then we redeemed our food vouchers for some well deserved Starbucks....an Iced Caramel Brulee Latte to be exact. Anyway, we were on the 8:15 flight back to SF and we all took an amazing nap when we got home.
On New Years Day we celebrated Christmas with my family in Rock Rapids. I think the girls were still catching up on sleep because we finally had to wake them up from there nap after 3 hours. It was another very relaxing day filled with coffee, treats, soup, and football. Wish there could be more days like that!

Here are some pics of our trip. Thanks Anthony and Maria for letting us borrow some of your boys' outdoor clothes....we joked at how much the girls looked like little boys :) But it totally saved us some packing room!

Running around with Sydney and Bep! They could do this for a long time!

Sitting with Bep

With the girl cousins Taylor and Sydney

Goofballs :)

With Bep and Grandpa

Christmas Day Family Photos...I promise it looks colder than it really was.

Going for a ride in the sled with Dad...Uncle Dan and Sydney were running way ahead but the girls were not quite ready to go that fast.

Amelia loved to look at the cows!

Quinn got to the point where she did NOT want to go back in the house because she was having too much fun outside.

Another ride for our little "boys"

Both checking out the snow on their gloves

On one of our snowshoeing adventures.

Talking to Bep after she had a little spill out of her sled.

Beautiful British Columbia....and the Enderby Cliffs.

 These are some pictures of Christmas with the VV side...

The girls got a cozy coupe...and were pretty excited about it.

Checking out their new vacuum and dust buster with Grandma

Reading a new book with daddy

Helping everyone open their gifts

Love our new Nikes from Auntie Lori!

We are so thankful for the blessings we received in 2013 and can't wait to see what 2014 has in store for our family and friends. 

No Share November :)

Yikes! I am REALLY behind again but I wanted to make sure to get a post in while it's still November. Hopefully I can remember most of what has been happening around here.
I titled this post "No Share November" not because I didn't have anything to share with you but because of how well the girls have been sharing lately. :) They are so funny right now. Their little personalities are really starting to come through. Amelia is very strong willed and can turn the tears on and off in a heartbeat. She quite possibly could be our drama queen. She is also very sweet, loves to cuddle-especially with her momma, and has the most adorable belly laugh. Quinn tries to be a little comedian and loves to tickle and say "tickaticka" while she does it. She loves to have her daddy chase her around the house and she loves to do puzzles. The girls have become very possessive. They usually want to play with something that the other one is currently playing with. They will hold things behind their backs to hide it from the other. They are also possessive of Kevin and me. If Quinn is sitting in my lap, Amelia will wedge her way in, but as soon as she does, Quinn is done. It's quite hilarious actually. A little disclaimer though, for as much as they are going through a no sharing phase, they do have the rare moments when you can tell them to "give something to your sister" and they do it so cutely. They even will sometimes do it on their own, which we absolutely LOVE to see.
They still love to read books, especially any book about animals. They love to point to the different animals when we ask them "where is the tiger" or make a fish face when we ask what a fish says.

Here are a couple pictures from the girls 15 month photo session.

Miss Amelia loves to pick up rocks...and then hide them in her hand :)

Q-bear loves to run around her in pink cowgirl boots.

Love this one!

Kisses for Sister!  XOXO

This is a little peek a boo at the food court in the mall:

 Out for a walk on a sunny (but still kinda chilly) day:

Quinn decided to color on her face rather than the paper...

The volleyball season is now over as of last week. Roosevelt got 2nd place at the state tournament. Of course Kevin would have loved to have gotten first but they have to remember that a lot of teams would have loved to even make the tournament and that 2nd place is not a bad place to be. I have to admit, I am pretty glad to have my husband back...and the girls sure did miss him while he was at state!

Cuddle time with Daddy!

This week we are enjoying celebrating Thanksgiving with our families. We have so much to be thankful for! From our beautiful daughters, to our parents, and our family and friends, we appreciate all you do!
Kevin's parents are here for their annual American Thanksgiving visit and it's so fun to see the girls interact with them. We are going to be heading to BC for Christmas so we will get to see them again in just a few short weeks--which is not something we can say very often. We are pretty excited about it!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone and we wish you a joyous holiday season ahead!

Psalm 95 O Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD; Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms. For the Lord is a great God.