It's Spring!

Today is the first day of Spring.  Earlier this week my sister, Heather, told Rebecah that Spring would start today and Rebecah got so excited.  I have never seen someone get so excited about the first day of Spring.  Rebecah would even remind me that Spring was starting on Friday.  Poor Rebecah, she thought that the start of Spring meant she could give up her coats and the snow would melt by today.  I warned her that the snow wouldn't magically disappear so she wasn't too disappointed today.

We had have an interesting winter.  Here were some facts about our winter from The Weather Channel:

February 2015 was the coldest month on record dating to 1903.  The February mean temperature was 9 degrees, the previous record being set in 1934 during the Great Depression.
Second snowiest February with 60 inches.  A least a trace of snow fell every day from January 29 through March 9, a streak of 40 days.
Record 19 straight days with over 2 feet of snow on the ground (through March 9)


Even though we set records and had 5 feet of snow fall in February, I didn't think our winter was as bad as last year.  Last year I did 95% of the shoveling so I knew exactly how much snow was falling.  This year I did only 5% of the shoveling because we bought a snow blower and Joseph did most of the snow removal.   Now that the temperatures are a little warmer the snow has melted quite a bit, but we still have a fair amount still on the ground.  I still love the snow and the winter so no complaints from the New York Coffeys.


These pictures were taken some time in February.

"What Are Their Names?"

I am asked all of the time what the babies are named.  I thought it was an odd question because no one ever asked what we named Kimball and Rebecah.  It finally dawned on me why people ask me this question...I have twins and people expect matchy-matchy twin names.  They must be so disappointed when they hear Lincoln and Annika.  I'm just not a matchy-matchy twin mom, sorry world!  Actually, when we were asked this week Joseph without thinking replied:  "Kimball and Annika" and I had to correct him.  Poor Lincoln and Annika.  We call them Kimball and Rebecah all of the time!

St. Patrick's Day

This year we celebrated St. Patrick's Day on the 17th and 18th.  I had a church dinner on the evening of the 17th so we had our festive dinner on the 18th.  The highlight of the holiday has become the gold that the Leprechauns leave in our house.  Kimball told me recently that the Leprechaun gold is his favorite part of St. Patrick's Day so I made sure we had Rolos on hand so he wouldn't be disappointed.  In the past, the Leprechauns have left the gold just inside our front door, but this year they left it on the table.  The kids came to me so disappointed because there wasn't any gold.  Apparently, when they didn't see any candy on the floor by the door they assumed that the Luck o' the Irish wasn't with us.  They were relieved to find it at breakfast.

We managed to find green for everyone to wear.  Lincoln was the hardest, but his first outfit had some green leaves on it and then the sleeper that he is wearing in the picture has a tiny bit of green on the collar of the dog that is on the sleeper.  

5 Months Old

The babies turned 5 months old yesterday.  They are growing so quickly.  Here is a little update on each of them and then plenty of pictures.  I managed to take quite a few this month.

Lincoln continues to be a mama's boy.  He loves me and if I'm in the room he usually will only be happy if I'm holding him.  Even if he hears my voice from another room that is enough to make him cry until I hold him.  He still gets up 2-3 times at night and that is hard on me, I'm not going to lie.  I know he isn't always hungry, but feeding him is the only way to calm him so he will go back to sleep.  If I let him cry he just cries until Annika wakes up and then I have TWO crying babies.

Lincoln has definitely found his voice and he loves to make sweet cooing noises.  He has a softer cry and a more gentle coo than Annika.  Her cry is louder and more demanding and her coos are louder too.  She wants to make sure she is heard.

Please excuse the purple Bumbo seat, but I thought Lincoln looked so handsome in his little overalls.  Such a cutie!

This is a shirt that Kimball wore as a baby so I see a lot of Kimball in Lincoln when he wears clothes that Kimball wore.  That is probably while we frequently end up calling him Kimball and Annika-Rebecah!

We started the babies on cereal about 5 days ago.  We give them a small amount shortly before bed in hopes that they will sleep better.  I'm still trying to decide if it is helping or not.  Lincoln tolerates the cereal, but I can't say he loves it.  I started these babies much earlier on cereal than I did with Kimball and Rebecah. With the others I waited until they were 6 months old before starting them.  These babies aren't really ready for cereal yet because it is taking them longer to get the hang of it.  I'm just doing it in hopes of giving myself a few extra hours of sleep each week.  Here are Lincoln's eating pictures:

Annika is sweet and still loves her swing.  She usually gets up 1-2 times a night.  She is active and smiley.  She will go to anyone as long as they are willing to care for her.  Her hair seems to get redder each month.  She rolls from side to side, but neither baby consistently rolls over.  Annika, too, has found her voice and I love to hear the babies being vocal.  It is so sweet.  

 


Annika doesn't really care for her cereal.  We have to try to trick her with her pacifier in order to get her to open her mouth and then she makes gagging sounds.  I don't really care that she isn't too interested in her cereal because I would rather she drink milk at this point.  Since both babies are still on the small side I am very careful to make sure they have just enough cereal to help them sleep, but not so much that they don't eat well at bedtime.

 

The weather has warmed up recently so we were able to go on a walk last week.  I still bundled the babies up, but they really enjoyed the nice day.  After our record setting cold February the 30s and 40s feel so warm.

Rebecah loved going on a walk with the babies.  It makes her feel so big.  Splashing in the puddles of melting snow was pretty fun for her too.

Four Months Old

Lincoln and Annika hit the 4 month mark on Presidents Day.  We love having them in our family so much.  They are sweet and smiley and I couldn't imagine our lives without them.  Here are a few pictures with a short update from the last month.  

The babies went to the doctor today.  Annika weighed 11 lbs 7 oz. and was 23 1/4 inches long.  She handled her shots much better this time.  She screamed only a few minutes.  In the last month Annika rolled over once from her tummy to her back.  She also slept through the night twice.  She loves her swing and she will sleep in it for hours if I let her.  She is smiley and loves having people talk with her.  I don't think her pictures show how cute she is!

The first set of pictures were taken about 3 weeks ago.  

Lincoln has finally taken the lead in a big way by weighing 12 lbs 8 oz. this morning.  He is 23 3/4 inches long.  The 1 lb 1 oz difference in weight is the biggest difference the babies have had.  Lincoln loves his mom and loves to be held.  If Lincoln sees me he won't settle to be held by anyone else.  Even Joseph can't make him as happy as I can.  Lincoln has rolled over three times now.  His third time was at the doctor's office this morning.  It was the first time I actually saw him roll over. Lincoln has slept through the night once so I am eagerly awaiting the night that both babies sleep through the night on a regular basis.  Lincoln likes to stick his tongue out a lot.

I think this picture is cute.  Both babies have their fists ready.  Who will throw the first punch?

These pictures were taken about 3 weeks ago too.  They show that Kimball actually does hold the babies.

The happy older brother first thing in the morning.

These pictures were taken on Monday, when the babies turned 4 months old.  Annika was rather interested in her dress in the first picture. 

A big smile from a big girl!

  

Lincoln was just relaxing for his pictures.

 

We finally got a smile in the last picture!

 

A Budding Artist

One activity Rebecah does at preschool is "Mat Man".  This activity teaches the kids how to draw people using shapes.  Rebecah now makes "Mat Man" drawings regularly for us.  Joseph liked her work so much that we framed her drawings and will hang them in our house.  

Here is our little artist with a white board marker drawing.  It is a self portrait of
Rebecah in her "Minnie Mouse"dress with Lincoln and Annika in the picture as well.

Close up of the drawing.

   

Here is our goofy artist showing her personality.

Here are her pencil Drawings: