"Time for your checkup..."

Oh Doc McStuffins!  You have quickly taken over our home and Callie's heart!
Who is she you may wonder??  Well - here she is!



She is a doctor who has her own playhouse and she takes care of all her stuffed animals!  It really is a cute show!

Callie is pretty much obsessed!  She plays doctor ALL the time now - seriously, ask my dad!  Last weekend Callie checked him out like 60 times - he said he is definitely healthy now :)  We bought Callie the Doc McStuffins doll because we thought she'd like her...well, she LOVES her!  She plays her all the time, fixes Lamby and sleeps with her!  I love listening to Callie talk to Doc about everything :)  So sweet!  She even has a Doc McStruffins hair do :)

 I love having our very own Doc McCallie :)

Collin & Carter 4 Month Update

Josh and I were just talking the other day how these past four months really have flown by.  The hardest part now is finding Josh and Cori time.  Between working a full time job, coming home to three very needy children and preparing a healthy dinner for my family - we just don't have time to just "be us"...

Their Gopher hats still fit :)  Even better now!!

We are very good at making time - whether it's hugs in the kitchen or kisses through passing (I love when Callie calls us out on it too..."MORE KISSING???" - in a whiny voice!!!)  our favorite TV shows together or crashing at the end of an exhausting day!  We've made it through the most difficult times...now begins...TEETHING!  Yes, they are BOTH teething!

Four Month Update


Food - This month was a little stressful in the feeding department!  If you remember a previous post, hundreds of ounces of breast milk were lost in an accidental freezer incident.  To help replenish my stock, our boys have been drinking 3 ounces of breast milk mixed with 2 ounces of water and one scoop of formula.  The bad news: they are drinking some formula everyday :(  The good news: I am able to freeze about 25-30 ounces of breast milk every day and I am going to do this for one entire month.  The other good news is that it is filling Collin up more...see "Sleep" below for an update!

Sleep - Carter has been sleeping through the night for awhile now, but Collin JUST STARTED as well :)  YEAH!   Sunday night, September 16, Collin slept through the night and has 4/5 days!  It is so nice!  Every now and then someone gets up, whether it is Callie, Collin or Carter - but being parents, we better just be used to it!

Clothes - The boys were wearing 3 month clothes the entire month, and can still fit into MOST (if not all) of their 3 month clothes.  Lately I have been putting them in their 3-6 month clothes...which are WAY too big -everything has to be rolled in the pants and ankles!

Weight - Once again, we aren't 100% sure on weights.  The boys go in on October 4th for their 4 month appointment, so we will know then.  At a recent Urgent Care visit, Carter weighed 13 pounds.  The next day we weighed Collin at Jessica's and he was about 12 pounds.

 Collin was so blasted happy in these pictures that I couldn't decide which ones to post :) 

So I posted them both!

Carter was so stiff, but smiley as well :)

Height - We are unsure of this at the moment too.

Diapers - Both boys are wearing Size 2 Diapers.  This is where I become a diaper snob!  Huggies are okay when they are newborns...but now that the boys are growing, I am Pampers all the way!  

Health - Besides the spitting up, Collin has been doing awesome!  He is a happy healthy little boy!  Carter keeps getting thrush.  He doesn't take a paci, so it's not that.  I'm not nursing him, so it's not that.  We clean and sterilize the bottles and nipples...and Collin hasn't gotten thrush again (knock on wood) so I know I'm cleaning them enough...ARG!  Anyway, the new medication he is on is giving him an upset tummy - which causes him to have diarrhea ALL the time...  I promise you this, Carter...your mommy and daddy are doing everything we can to keep you happy!!!  I hate when you feel sad :(

My Gopher Kids!

Fun Facts - Both boys can roll from their tummies to their backs.  They are both so smiley and happy!  Collin makes great eye contact with you and will really watch what you are doing while Carter likes to chill out and look around.  Collin smiles at anyone who talks to him!  Carter will smile for you, but you have to work for him...he is more prone to giving you his gut laugh though :)  Both of the boys have found their hands; however, Carter LOVES looking at his hands!!!

The McRae Playhouse!

I have talked about the playhouse that we are going to build, well - it has finally happened!!!

Josh and I purchased some playhouse plans online for $7.00 and began the process.  I sent the "shopping list" into Menards, Home Depot and Lowes.  Menards came in HUNDREDS of dollars cheaper, so we went with them!  We had the wood shipped to our house so we wouldn't have to pick it up (so glad we did this!).

Our friend/coworker, Garrett is a natural builder!  He came over on Saturday to help Josh (okay Josh helped him) begin the building process!  Callie is already beyond excited for her new playhouse and we can't wait to finish it!

Garrett, THANK YOU so much for taking your time to help us!  I hope Callie's excitement alone shows you our gratitude!  Josh will be over to help you paint your house!!!


Josh busy chiseling away the wood!  I didn't realize they needed to do this to help turn it into a "puzzle" as I called it!

Garrett cutting the wood...which he was very quick at...wicked talented!

The wood pile - it did get smaller :)

Assembling the base structure :)

I love it - it's in a perfect location too - shaded area!

Isn't she a beauty!  They're assembling the boards to hold the floor!  Trellises??  Maybe that's what it's called!

Screwing the floor in :)  YEAH!!!  Man they worked fast!

So I bought an 8 ft. slide and it was too short; however, they didn't have a 10 ft. slide, so we decided to go with it!  Garrett built this wood piece that keeps the slide in place but off the ground (I'm telling you, he's very talented...just created this on his own)...

Callie climbing up and getting ready to slide down!  We learned we need to add some handles, but we'll do that when the house is on top and we're almost done!

SHE LOVES IT!!

Callie doing a test run :)

Haha - what a landing!  She loves it so much and talks about playing on it nonstop!  We're going to turn the bottom into a huge sandbox that will be complete with side seating!  Garrett, thank you!

The boys were hanging out inside!  Thank you Pam for letting us borrow your bumbo seats!  Carter especially likes sitting in it!  He was checking out his brother  :)  So sweet!!!

Soon enough all 3 of our children will be outside playing in their playhouse!  We can't wait for the "house" to be added on top!

Don't cry over spilled milk...

Whoever said this has never breast fed or pumped milk for their children...

Recently, I experienced what may feel like the worst thing that could have happened that does not involve my children's health or safety.

As you know, I had been pumping and freezing milk since the day my boys were born!  My freezer got so full, that I had to bring a stash up to my mom's house to store in her deep freezer!  I brought a few bags (not a lot) over to Jessica's house and lately I've been pumping JUST ENOUGH for one day...

It was Wednesday afternoon and I mentioned to Josh that I need to get some "Mother's Milk Organic Tea" from Target, because it will help increase my milk supply - it's not that I'm drying up, it's just that the boys are drinking so much because they're growing that I'm producing JUST ENOUGH for one day...

Wednesday Night...I had just gotten back from running (a personal best in a long time...2 miles in under 20 minutes)...when Josh informed me of the worst news EVER!  Our deep freezer door hadn't shut tightly and was cracked open...since Monday.

There was more than 2 months worth of milk in the freezer for twin boys (that's about 4 months worth if we had one baby...) and it was thawed out.

I'm not going to go into details, but in the end, there was no milk at all :(  Hundreds and hundreds of ounces gone...all that hard work, pain, emotional attachment - gone.  I had the hardest time dealing with this.  I called my sister, Heidi right away - in a complete hysterical state of mind.  Thankfully she has done this before and understands.  She right away felt horribly and knew exactly how I was feeling - and also reassured me that it was okay to be this upset.

I noticed that evening, after pumping, that we didn't have enough milk to get our boys through the night (I was stressed when I was pumping, so I only produced half of what I normally do - that was at least 3 bottles I didn't end up pumping that night)...so I sent Josh to Walmart at midnight to pick up formula :( :(

Here is where we stand now:
I am nursing Collin again, any chance I can get!  The nurses suggested this as it will increase my supply again because my body will automatically produce more when a human being is latched on...

I am drinking the most disgusting tea ever "Mother's Milk" about 3 times a day to increase my production.

I am pumping every 3.5 hours instead of every 5-6 hours.

Carter is drinking 2 oz breast milk + 2 ounces formula.  He has Thrush again, so I can't nurse him...I could end up with it, and then Collin could end up with it.  I will try nursing him this week!

Collin receives the same 2 oz breast milk + 2 oz formula when I am not around or I had just pumped.

I am freezing as much milk as I possibly can right now.  Because we are only using 2 oz instead of 4-5 ounces, I am able to freeze a lot.  I froze 90 ounces within two days, so I feel very fortunate for the hard work and ability to continue producing.

This was one day's worth of milk going into the freezer - 50 ounces!

Formula is NOT the route I wanted to go, and I know they are going to be just fine...but I decided I will do this for one month and then we'll go back to only breast milk.  I will stock up my freezer for once month and then get back into our old routine.  Because I am pumping more, there are some major downfalls:
1. I have to pump two times during the school/work day instead of one (which is okay right now since I am not working with groups).
2. I have to wake up in the middle of the night to pump :(  So when I have Carter - who sleeps through the night, I have to wake up anyway to pump.  Thankfully Josh got up last night so I could have one night to sleep...the emotional roller coaster I was on for a few days has really caught up to me and I am completely and utterly exhausted.

Thanks for understanding my emotional connection, Josh, and for giving me the space I needed to deal with this.  Also, thanks for supporting me in trying to rebuild our stock pile.  After spending $23.00 on one can of formula - that was enough to put me over the edge!  Man we save a ton of money on breast milk...

Callie's 1.6K = 1 Mile Race~

On Saturday, Callie and I ran in the Hormel Nature Center Run - 1.6K :)  That's a full 1 mile run!  She did so well at the MN Zoo Tiger Trek that I decided to sign her up for this race.  I knew she'd walk a lot of it, but surprisingly, she ran A TON!  It wasn't until the .5 mile turn that she told me that her legs were tired!

Here she is - ready to run!  It was chilly - we took off her sweatpants right before the race...it warmed up really quickly!

She didn't have a problem putting her number on this time!  She wanted it on her back again, but hey - we're getting good :)

Getting a "Good Luck Hug" from Gramma before her big race!
I think it was like Cross Country Races for my mom all over again...all those time she came out to support me, and now her 2.5 year old granddaughter!

1. Callie loves to run.
2. We're promoting a healthy lifestyle at a young age!

Short video of her running at the Hormel Nature Center!

It became a long race (a whole mile), so we made a game out of it - she had to touch every cone that she could run to!  Thankfully there were a lot and they weren't too far away from each other :)  That's what kept her running!

Here she is crossing the finish line!!!

YUMMY Water after a great race!  I'm so proud of you Callie Lynae!  You worked so hard and did such a wonderful job completing your first ever mile run with a time of 20 min. & 45 seconds!

Climbing the big rock like the other kids were doing!

She got a free ball from Overby Orthodontics - they sponsored this race :)  What a wonderful job they did!

My running partner :)  I have a feeling the two of us will run a lot of races together in our future :-)

Enjoying a banana after the race (notice she has her "rainbow" socks on - they are her running socks...or so she says!)

Callie with her biggest fan!

Gramma & her brothers came to support her!  Thanks mom for watching the boys during the race :)

Callie and Scott enjoying their bananas - he did a fantastic job running as well :)  He is almost exactly 1 month older than Callie!!!

HHHMMMM...she's putting chapstick on him - I wonder if she was preparing him for her big kiss, because she planted one on him literally 5 minutes later!  Oh boy, I have a lot to worry about!  At least he's a good kid and I like his parents :)

That's it!  I wonder what race Callie and I will be running next!?!?!

My Performer

If you know Callie, you know she likes to perform!

We decided to buy her a microphone!  Not just any microphone - one that we can plug our iPhone's into and play Pandora through!  

I don't need to describe the following video...just enjoy :)

Miss America 2032!!!!

2012 First Day of School

Today marks the first day of the 2012-2013 school year.  For everyone else, it is the day they send their kids off to school.  Kindergarten, second grade, middle school, high school senior and college...for these individuals, they have already done the hardest thing...daycare.

While everyone plasters all over Facebook how excited they are to see their kids go off to school, my heart breaks into a million pieces.

Callie has been going to Jessica's house for two years now, and the first day of school is always difficult.  But this year is extra hard.  You see, on May 20, 2012, my heart grew 3X its size.  I always wondered how I could possibly ever love any other children as much as I love Callie.  God answered this question for me - he didn't make my heart smaller or categorize my love for Collin & Carter...he simply made it BIGGER!  He made it so big that I am over flowing with love for my children.

So when we send our children off to daycare - we don't have to "settle"...we got TOP NOTCH care for our children!  We get...Jessica!

For all of you "Mom's" (or dad's) out there that have the ability to stay home with your children, I envy you!  I would love more than anything to stay home with my children, play with them all day, steal kisses and hugs every minute, play-play-play all day, snuggle on the couch, each breakfast and lunch together, make a mess, and teach...Oh how I would love to teach my children everyday!  But I can't -why?  Because my husband and I are both teachers and we just can't afford not to work.  Yes, we could budget and make it work, but we also like to enjoy life...and spoil our children!

Along with Jessica comes some amazing "big siblings" to Callie :)  Alexis (3rd Grade) and Jet (2nd Grade).  I first met the Crews family when I had Alexis in my kindergarten classroom!  I thank God everyday for this placement :-)

Now Jessica...oh how we love Jessica!  We have hit JACKPOT with Jessica!  She is loving, kind, honest, caring, silly, smart, and the best thing that could have possibly happened to our family and caring for our children.  Callie adores her, and Collin & Carter are falling in love with her!

The adorable outfits were a gift to us from our friends, the Bonorden Family!  Thank you so much :)  Can you believe the boys are big enough to wear these!?  Perfect first day of school outfit!

 Carter

 Collin

So here we are, the first day of school!  When you get all excited about sending your children off to school, remember the day when you had to leave them for the first time...knowing that this was it - the school year had begun and your daily cuddles were limited to the evenings...

How many days until Summer Vacation???