Monday, October 26, 2015

ELLIS & VANCE TURN ONE!

i absolutely cannot believe its been a year since the boys were born. 3 months in the nicu and 9 months home. they still really feel so young to me though since they are so small and still pretty behind compared to other, full term, one year olds. they're acting like 9-10 month olds.. which is fine! i felt like i was missing out on having babies since they were in the nicu so long. but its actually the opposite because preemies stay babies longer! they are babbling allll the time. ellis talks more than vance. vance never sits still and is crawling everywhere. ellis army crawls or just lays around playing. they are both starting to pull up on things. they both are working on getting their 8th tooth, and all of their teeth have come in at the same place at the same time. pretty crazy. ellis wants real food. vance wants baby food. so alike but so different. ellis is social and vance is more reclusive. they can still wear 3-6 month clothes, if they aren't long sleeved. their arms and legs are really long though, so they need 6-9 months for long sleeved clothes. i can't wait to see what they weigh at the doctor this week. they've been in size 3 diapers for what seems like forever. they go to bed at 7:30 pm sharp (they're serious about their bedtime) and wake up at 8:30 am. they're sleeping champs and only cry if they've lost one of their pacis. they love each other and are always looking to find where the other one is. its really sweet. i love seeing their bond. heres a photo from the morning of their first birthday!

and holding their first photos from the nicu:


we had their party yesterday at the house. cal always says my parties are "over the top" but i just really like party planning and if you start planning it enough in advance and do little bits each day, its really not a big deal. i wanted to do a noah's ark theme since noah had 3 sons and loved the idea of "2 by 2" for a twin birthday party.

the happy birthday banner and gold pumpkin were from our local target. white pumpkin and gold skull were from home goods (similar skull here

God said to Noah, "This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all the creatures on earth." Gen 9:17


the party favors were jars that i picked up at hobby lobby (buy them online here for $1.49 each) and glued these baby zoo animals (i bought two packages) on and then just spray painted metallic gold. the sour rainbow bites were from kroger (similar here) and i used about 19 ounces for 10 party favors and just one 10oz bag of marshmallows.




i made the animal garland with the $1 plastic figurines from kroger and screwed in a screw eye bolt and spray painted them. the rain clouds were from tissue poms from hobby lobby and i cut some rain drops and threaded them with a thin string.


i iced animal crackers for toppings on our cupcakes. DISCLAIMER: this is SO MUCH harder than i thought. hahah!




for their birthday guestbook i got a vintage noah's ark book from etsy. 


their primary nurse in the nicu, stephanie, came and i totally cried when i saw her. she was such an angel during a really difficult time. we love you stephanie!



in typical fashion, ellis loved his cake and vance wasn't interested… probably one of the many reasons that vance is still so much smaller than ellis. big boy ellis LIKES TO EAT!



annnnnd you know who was caught stealing cupcakes… the one and only big brother simms...


their favorite part of the day was definitely getting cleaned up after the cake smash. these boys love water!
THANK YOU to everyone who has supported us in so many ways during this last year. it truly takes a village and we couldn't have done it without our village. i never thought 3 boys would be so much fun, but i can't imagine anything else! PRAISE BE TO GOD.