Crouching Tiger, Sleeping Baby

Halloween was quite the event for the boys. We dressed them up and visited Brian at work and made the rounds at his office and the hospital. They made lots of friends...it doesn't hurt to be dressed in matching costumes with a bucket full of candy. It was great to see the CCN Wild West office and the MountainView ER and cath lab crews. Grandpa Tim was here the last few days and seemed to get more giggles out of the babies than we thought possible. He didn't bring the pony...apparently they wouldn't let him bring it on the plane. If he brings it before next Halloween the boys can be real cowboys!

Spa Day

Hi everyone-

In preparation for Halloween we decided to have a day of leisure and relaxation at the local spa (aka the bath tub). We know Halloween is going to require a lot from us...smiling at all the kids in costumes, passing out the delicious candy that we aren't allowed to eat, listening to Mom tell Dad to stop rooting through the candy bowl to remove all the "good stuff"...so we felt the need to rejuvenate before the big event. We took a plunge bath, got our nails clipped, got some diaper cream put on our bums and even had our hair done. (Matthew would like it pointed out that Casey had his "hairs" done.) The longest part of our whole spa experience was putting on our robes and posing for the camera.

Happy Birthday Uncle Dennis

The boys were very excited to wish Uncle Dennis happy birthday until Casey realized that he wasn't going to be able to partake in the birthday festivities (ie cake and ice cream) until he got his teeth. Notice how Matty was smug as a bug thinking his two teeth would be his ticket into happy cake heaven. Casey let out a big scream, took off his hat and let us all know that he was done being cooperative with the picture taking. Matty helped him with his hat thinking that would just mean more cake for him. Wait until he realizes that Uncle Dennis is 900 miles away!

We are doing well and really enjoying the fall weather with lots of walks. We are looking forward to a visit from Grandpa Tim this weekend. He loves to walk so we'll make sure to get in a few good ones while he is here.

Take good care and we hope you have a great day, Dennis. Hi to Sue and Nolan!

Toasting Benjamin and Joey

What a wonderful day it is, October 15th! Baby Benjamin Catarino Macias made his way into the world and we hear he is healthy and that Auntie Katie was a trooper and is doing well, too. Uncle Tommy is a very proud papa and is already adopted the Notre Dame fight song as the little guy's lullaby. Thanks be to God for bringing this little blessing in our family! And, he arrived on Uncle Joey's birthday so now Uncle Joey can claim a namesake or birthday connection to each of his nephews. What a birthday present!

We raised a glass (well, more like played with our sippy cups) to Joey and Benjamin. May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind be always at your back. And until we meet again (or for the first time), may God hold you in the palm of his hand.

Big Boys

We had to tell you how big the boys are getting...we still aren't sure how Matty is bigger than Casey because he spits up all the time and eats less. Casey must have his mother's appetite and his father's metabolism.

Casey is 15 lbs 8 oz and is 25 inches long and Matthew is 16 lbs 10 oz and 26 inches long! They cooperated at their appointment for about 10 minutes until they treated the entire office to a symphony of crying/screaming. The staff kept saying they have heard louder babies until Casey really got going and then they aggreed that he is pretty loud for a little guy.

Speaking of appetites: we have started them on cereal and squash which is a real adventure. We found squash in Casey's ear today. They seem to have more fun smearing the food onto their bib and eating it from there than the taking it from the spoon. Matthew likes to grab the spoon and "help" feed himself by shaking it and eating the handle of the spoon. We are trying sweet potatoes next so it should be entertaining.

Long Pants!

Hi everyone. Today is the first day we got to wear long pants. It is finally cooling off in Vegas and it is time to wear all the cute clothes Halmunee sent us! We love wearing onesies, but who knew you could wear pants OVER the onesies and if we get too hot we can just take off a layer. Genius!

Our exciting news is that Matthew has a tooth...a very cute, tiny bottom tooth! Casey is drooling like crazy, so his aren't far behind. Both boys have started to giggle this week and it is enough to make us stop whatever we are doing so that we can hear it again. They have their 6 month check-up this week so we'll update the blog after our visit and let you know how big they are getting. They will be 6 months old tomorrow (Sunday). Part of us feels like it has been 6 years and another part feels like it has been 6 days. We are definitely counting our blessings.

Teething

Well, Matthew has somehow become Casey's teething toy. Since neither one of them can crawl we aren't sure how Casey even found Matty's foot in the first place. Casey is trying to crawl, but he hasn't figured out he needs to put his hands and knees on the ground to go forward. He looks like he is body surfing...his belly stays on the floor and his arm and legs move all over the place. Matty is a little more calculating. Yesterday we put a toy between them and Casey tried desperately to crawl towards it while Matthew just sat there and pulled the blanket the toy was on towards him. Casey is still confused how Matty got the toy.

The boys are now in their own room. We got their cribs out of our room and into their bedroom this weekend. They did great and slept well. They don't consistently sleep all night, but we are usually down to one wake up between both boys during the night. Brian was convinced he wouldn't be able to sleep with them SO far away, but he seems to manage to sleep just fine even though he put both baby monitor speakers next to his head. Meanwhile, I heard every sigh and cough (think baby monitor surround sound) and was sprinting out of bed to make sure they were ok.

Hope all is well with everyone. Brian is on vacation this week so we are looking forward to some fun days. Take good care and thanks for reading our blog. We decided that Halmunee and Auntie Mayme get the prize for most responses so far.