Pony Rides!

For their birthdays, they each got a pony.
(Thank you cousin Jordan! Thanks, Grandma Bingham!)



(Kayla in pink pants, Megan in blue)


Of course you have to ignore the baby toys scattered throughout the living room... (and the dog's backside, and the football game...)




And then Megan decided she wanted to ride in the basket!

So Glad That You Were Born

(Lyrics from the song from "7 Brides for 7 Brothers")

Through your eyes skies look brighter
Grass more green clouds are whiter.

When you're close cares grow lighter,
I'm glad that you were born.


Through your eyes hills stretch higher.
When you smile you inspire hearts to sing in a choir.


I'm glad that you were born.
Born to laugh, born to dream


Born to spread your light.
Through your eyes I see clearer


You bring God so much nearer.

Life has grown so much dearer,
I'm glad that you were...



Born to laugh, born to dream.
Born to spread your light.


Through your eyes I see clearer
You being God so much nearer.


Life has grown so much dearer


I'm glad that you were born.

First birthday party

Last Saturday we had a birthday party for the girls here at the house. Granny and Grandpa Vogts came, along with Great Grandma Vogts, Aunt Linda and the boys, Aunt Karen, Uncle Carl, and Nathan, as well as Grandma Bingham. A full house to be sure.

Mommy did a great job getting decorations and making the cakes:





Little girls also had special party dresses, again thanks to Mommy:





We had a little lunch, including what could affectionately be called the "feeding trough":



And then, of course, we let them loose on the cake. Thanks to Mommy, each girl had their own, personal cake to go crazy on; however, they were both a little tentative with them. They got into it some after a while, mostly preferring the icing to the cake, but not to the degree one might expect.





And then on to presents!





They got a lot of great presents, a couple of "ride on" pink horses, an indoor slide from Grandma Bingham, a pop-up activity center, a pink train/block set, a pink wagon/block set, lots of clothes, several books, and probably lots more I'm forgetting about right now. Thanks to everyone for the great gifts.

But of course, like most little babies, boxes seemed to be the most popular gift:



Well that's all for now, we'll see you....Wait! NINJA VANISH!

Wow. It's been a year -- What can I say?
It brings such strong emotions when I think back on the last year.



We are so incredibly blessed to have our two beautiful daughters. They are absolutely a gift from God that we treasure every day.

Megan, with her thoughtful approach -- you can tell there's a lot going on in her little head! We nicknamed her early, "High-Maintenance-Megan". She always wanted held, always wanted to sleep on daddy's chest. She was the smaller of the two, and still is to a lesser degree. I was most worried about her development, but she's quickly proven that there's no need for concern.
She started out shy with strangers, but has since come out of her shell. She's the light sleeper, the one most likely to wake in the night.


Kayla started as the out-going one, always looking to make a new friend. As she's grown, she's become more reserved with strangers. But in the comfort of her home, she'll dive right into anything, no fears in that little girl there! She sucks her thumb when she's tired, screams if she doesnt get what she wants and her smile is the biggest little smile!
She often wants whatever her sister has -- and takes it from her. But if Megan takes something from her, she tends to take it right back.


They each have their own personalities that are developing more each day. It's so exciting to see them growing up! But at the same time, I want to keep them my little girls forever.


Happy Birthday, my little miracle babies! We love you more than you'll ever know!

One Year Old

Today is the girls first birthday. They celebrated by getting up at 6:30, having a little milk, playing, soiling a couple diapers, and then taking a nap.

In lieu of any fantastic new tricks or accomplishments, then, we'll post/repost some old pictures, to pseudo-document the past 12 months.


Baby's first night. We were up at 4:30 that morning to get into Wesley in time for the 7:52 birth, and it seems like it may have been close to 11 or 12 by the time they got us all squared away and in the recovery room so that anxious Grandma's could come see us. We had several other visitors that day, and IIRC this picture was taken at some point that night, while Jenn was asleep. Note the caps lack the "A" and "B" labels, something the nurses in the nursery took to doing that night to tell them apart, a habit we kept until well after we had them home (changed to Megan and Kayla of course).


We took a lot of pictures of the girls when we were still at the hospital, obviously. These onesies are probably newborn size, and still just falling off of them. The tracker things under the mesh kept falling off by the second day.


First day home from the hospital, sleeping in one of the pack and plays. We had two; one in the living room and one in our room, where the girls slept at night, for perhaps the first month or so. Jenn was on "night duty" for the most part, and probably didn't sleep more than 4 hours at a stretch until December. Lucky for us, the girls started sleeping through the night at around 3 months.


Girls at 3 months old. Seems like maybe I broke with the usual "Kayla on the left" convention in this picture as well for some reason.


Dresses that Jenn got online I believe.


In pink KU outfits.


Able to sit up by themselves.


Around 4th of July.


Getting into mischief, around 10 months old.


More mischief, closer to 11 months.


And of course this morning, officially 1 year old.

Good thing we're not having any birthday parties today, that nap didn't work out so well. Tried to put them down twice during the writing of this, it's apparently just not going to happen. Oh well, such is our life now. One final shot to end the official One Year Old blog post: