Building Uranus

Here are a few pictures of Mason paper mâché-ing Uranus. We are also
working on Jupiter. The solar system is nearly complete.

More Birthday pictures

Thanks Miguel for playing photographer and sharing your pictures.

http://tinyurl.com/msyqdg

Birthday Pictures

I had pictures taken for the babies first birthday. Here they are...

Megan

Morgan












Maggie













Mason









Megan & Morgan

The McMillan kids

Happy Birthday Morgan!

Happy Birthday to you...
Happy Birthday to you...
Happy Birthday to Morgan,
Happy Birthday to you!








June 11th was my other baby's birthday. She, too, is getting so big! It seems like just yesterday my water was breaking and Matt and I were rushing to the hospital. Morgan had a short stay in the NICU, which was very different for me. I hadn't had that experience before and it was shocking and emotional. Raising twins has probably been the hardest thing I've done so far in my life. There haven't been a lot of relaxing moments, but plenty of enjoyable ones. Taking pictures is always difficult, but we've tried to take some here and there. It's been hard. I know it will probably always be hard. But things are changing.

Morgan is now crawling! (Army-crawling, but still moving.) She started moving forward about mid-May and her therapist is extremely please with her progress. Morgan can sit too, once we put her in the sitting position. I also noticed this last weekend that Morgan can scoot backwards in a sitting position. She scooted backwards to reach the activity table. Very good problem solving skills.

We went to the pediatrician for her 1 year well baby check and Morgan is now 30 1/4" long which puts her in the 75-90th percentile and she weighs 19 pounds, 3.5 oz., putting her in the 10-25th percentile. She is growing great and has kept her same growth curve since birth so the % gap between height and weight is fine for her. (Mason was and still is the same way.) Morgan doesn't weigh enough to switch her to forward facing in her car seat so Matt and I have decided to hold both babies rear facing until we can switch them both at the same time.

Morgan has 4 teeth, 2 on the top and 2 on the bottom. She also says Mama and Dada, but does not converse the way Megan does. I do however think that Morgan is the happiest baby on this planet though. She ALWAYS has a smile on her face and rarely makes a fuss. Megan has some serious separation anxiety that Morgan does not have. Morgan will go to anyone and still smiles about it.












Morgan is definitely an individual. I'm not sure yet what qualities Morgan has that the other children have, but I'm sure during this next year we'll find out.

My Morgan is 1. Happy Birthday Baby!

Happy Birthday Megan!

Happy Birthday to you...
Happy Birthday to you...
Happy Birthday to Megan,
Happy Birthday to you!

June 11th was my baby's birthday. She is getting so big! I cannot believe the year has gone by so fast. Matt and I have truly been in survival mode raising these twins that there hasn't been a lot of time to sit back and enjoy them. We've tried to take pictures here and there and then we go back and remember the moments. It's been hard. I know it probably will always be hard. But things are changing.

Megan is now walking! YEAH baby girl! She took her first steps on June 2nd while on vacation, and she has been walking all over the place ever since. We just went to the pediatrician for her 1 year well baby check and Megan is now 31" long which puts her in the 90-95th percentile. (BTW, when do we change from length to height? Inches long vs inches tall?) and Megan weighs 23 pounds, 9 oz., putting her in the 75-90th percentile. She is now old enough and heavy enough to switch her car seat forward facing, but I think Matt and I decided to keep her rear facing until we can move both babies forward.



Megan has 6 teeth now, 2 on the bottom and 4 on top. She is saying a few words: Mama, Dada. And she definitely has something to say. She is "talking" a lot, but in her own language, better known in our family as Meganese. (It used to be called Magganese when Maggie was this age.)





There are qualities I see in Megan that are just like her brother; the fact that she doesn't like to, or seem to need to, sleep a lot. But more and more things I see in Megan are just like Maggie. Both girls are very independent, they look very much alike and I think Megan's personality is turning out to be very similar to her bigger sister's, which is going to take all my patience.







My Megan is 1. Happy Birthday Baby!

Texas Tornado

June 11th. We should've been having a little cake for the babies birthday. But instead, we were camped out in the closet underneath our staircase. We were having a severe thunderstorm with lots of lightning. A tornado touched down about 3 miles or so from our house. It's pretty cramped in this little closet especially with 6 people. And it was hot. And Maggie had gas. Of course the kids thought it was the funniest thing. Not so funny.

Fancy Nancy Dance Camp

I enrolled Maggie in a dance camp last week. It was only a week long thing but she had SO MUCH FUN! The camp was called Fancy Nancy Dance. Because Maggie is only 3, she doesn't actually learn to dance. It's more spacial awareness, body control and creative movement. They did a small performance at the end of the week, it was very cute. I forgot the regular camera so I had to use my phone to take pictures, sorry. Since Maggie had such a good time, I enrolled her in another week long camp in July; it's called Sleeping Beauty Ballet. I'll try to remember the regular camera for that one.

Vacation Time

Well, it's official. We are NOT going on vacation again! Well, I shouldn't say that. What I should say is that it was hard. Matt and I and all 4 kiddos flew back to California for a week vacation. We had been planing this trip for about 8 months or so. We debated over flying vs driving. Flying - a direct 3 hour flight, no plane changes, no layovers. Have to rent a car though and have 4 kids on a plane. In a confined space for 3 hours. And it's gonna be about triple the cost of driving. Driving - we can take our own car (a plus) but it'll take us 3 days to get there. THREE DAYS! Have to rent a hotel 4 times (2x there, 2x back). It would save us a lot of $$$ though. But it's going to take 3 DAYS! So the argument came down to cost vs time.

After much internet searching, I found us some great rates on Jet Blue and we ended up flying! Woo Hoo! (I really didn't want to drive.) Everyone, including the babies had their own seat. We even took the babies infant carriers on the plane to keep them strapped into. We packed everything in the house it seemed, taking 4 suitcases, 3 backpacks, a laptop bag, and a large catch-all bag. The big kids each carried their own backpacks on the plane, plus their jackets and their blankets. (Thanks Auntie Sam. The kids LOVE the ones you made for Christmas last year. They go everywhere with us.) Getting through security was really the hardest part. We were carrying on 5 bags, the blankets and the infant seats. It was way too much. Coming home, we eliminated 2 of the bags and it helped a lot. The actual flights weren't too bad once we had given the babies a little help falling asleep.


During our vacation we got to visit with some good friends, see all the family, do some touristy stuff, and even relax a bit. Our friends, Mike and Joy, threw a BBQ and invited a bunch of friends we hadn't seen since we left 3 years ago. None of our friends had seen the twins and some hadn't even met Maggie. It was so good to see everyone. Of course the kids didn't seem to mind playing with people they didn't remember or only having just met.






We also got to visit with Matt's grandparents. The last time we saw them was 2 years ago when we made a trip out for Grandpa McMillan's 90th birthday. Grandpa and Grandma both looked good and the visit was sweet.




Teri and Alan took Mason and Maggie to Disneyland one day while Matt and I stayed home with the babies. I have to admit, I was nervous that one of my kids, or both, might get lost. So before they all left for the day, I went over some basic info with the kids. What is your name, who are you here with, what is Grandma's name, what is Papa's name, etc. I explained to the kids that "sometimes parents and grandparents get lost with so many people around. And if you cannot find Grandma or Papa, you should go to a worker, someone in a uniform, and have them take you to Lost and Found where they will help you find your lost Grandma or Papa." But all was well and no adults or kids got lost. And from reports, everyone had a good time.


Matt and I and Teri took all the kids to Legoland too. All the time we lived in So. Cal., we had never been to Legoland. (It is geared to kids 6-12 years old and Mason was 3 when we left for Texas.) It was really neat seeing so many things built from Legos.






The big kids also found the sprinkler area at the end of our day. Enjoy the video...






At the end of our vacation, Teri and Alan had a big birthday bash for all the June birthdays in the family at El Torito Grill. We filled the entire banquet room. (Mmmmm, I love the Cesar salad dressing there.) Again, more family and friends and some good Mexican food. (The Mexican food is different in California than in Texas. Texas has Tex-Mex. I think it's different spices and ways of preparing the food.) Our family's June birthdays: 6/4 Walter (G-pa Revell), 6/4 Teri, 6/6 Madison, 6/11 Megan, 6/11 Morgan, and 6/29 me.

The party was a nice way to round out our trip, but I was glad to be going home. Vacationing with 4 children is hard work. Especially with 2 of them being babies. I wish we would have had some way to contain the babies a little better so I could have relaxed a bit more, but that's okay.

So, maybe when the babies are Maggie's age (3) we might try this flying thing again. But until then, we'll just vacation close to home.

The McMillan Clan

Finally a picture with all 6 of us.

Mason gradutes from preschool!

Mason graduated preschool last month. (Yes, I'm a little behind in the blog department.) He was given an award for being the "Wiz Kid" in class. His teachers, Ms. Deslyn and Ms. Ami were great teachers and enjoyed having him in their class. He is very smart and is reading EVERYTHING! Matt and I are very proud of Mason and look forward to him starting Kindergarten in the fall.

My New Hobby

I have been looking into take a sewing class for...wow, a little over a year now. I want to be able to do some basic things; hem pants, sew on patches, make matching dresses for the girls, maybe even make some curtains eventually. But I have not found the time to take a class and I never had a sewing machine. (What's the point of taking a class without a sewing machine, or the money to buy a sewing machine.) So finally, a couple of weeks ago I took a sewing 101 class at Joann's (the fabric store). Maggie's preschool teacher, Ms. Paula, was my sewing teacher. Paula is great and funny and she sews all kinds of things. She's even made Maggie a couple of dresses out of Matt's old business shirts. Anyway, I really enjoyed the class and I am not so intimidated by the sewing machine anymore. Since the class, I had been looking at sewing machines. I checked out the new ones, but didn't really want to spend $300+ on a machine. I checked out Craigslist and found a lady selling a sewing machine with the table it sits on for $50. But, the machine is as old as I am. After talking with my mom about it, she recommended I go ahead and buy it since the older machines were made out of metal and were built to last forever. (The newer machines are built out of plastic.) I went ahead and bought the older machine. I am excited to start sewing stuff, with all my free time of course. I'll post pictures of whatever it is I do end up sewing, even if it is just a bunch of straight lines.