3 weeks old

Yesterday the twins turned 3 weeks old. Here are the hilights and lowlights of the last 3 weeks. You get to decide what goes in each category:

• the boys are nursing well and at the same time, about every 3 hours.
• at the 2 week weigh in they were both over 8 pounds.
• we are going through about 15-20 diapers a day.
• Claire has successfully picked up one of the boys on her own, without help or permission only ONCE.
• Caden's vivid imagination has him pretending to be a baby.
• At least one of the boys has his days/nights mixed up every night.
• Claire loves to give the babies kisses and with those kisses gave the boys her cold.
• I have actually taken care of all 4 children on my own every morning this week, and we're all still alive ~ although the honeymoon is definitely over.

10 days in...

Here are some new pictures of the babies. The bottom three were taken today - the jury is out on whether or not they are identical. Sometimes they look exactly the same and sometimes they do not. I can always tell them apart, but I don't know if that's just the mom instict. What do you think? By the way, Dane is wearing the blue dog outfit and Drew is wearing the green alligator outfit.

The Boys are Home

We were able to escape the hospital fairly quickly and arrived home around 1:00 pm on the 9th. Here are the boys in their comfy car seats.

Everyone is doing well now that we are at home.

Nick Meets the Twins

What a great big brother to have - the twins are lucky to have him

Caden and Claire Meet the Twins

Here They Are the First Pics

D Cubed Day (Drew, Dane Delivery Date)

12/7 - 8:40pm

We should have known that it wouldn't be easy after it took an hour and a half to get to the hospital this morning. Why can't people drive in the rain in TN.

We arrived at the hospital at 8:30am and Amanda was started on Potocin around 11:15 and of course nothing, for almost 9 hours she has progressed from a 3 to a 5.

So now at 8:40 they are going to go ahead and move things along by breaking her water, but before that Amanda is about to receive the Epidural and hopefully I'll receive mine soon after. This should move things along quickly so we are hoping that they are delivered before midnight.

Stay tuned for an update.

9:17pm - Epidural is in, waiting for the dam to be broken

12/8 - 12:06am - IT'S TIME, WE'RE GOING INTO THE OR. We're keeping our fingers crossed as we go in that Drew (aka, Baby B) who is breach will be able to be turned and come out without a C-Section. The next post will be announcing the birth.

12/8 - 12:27am, Dane was delivered and luckily Drew followed his lead and flipped around, head down and came out 6 minutes later. No C-Section Required!!

Dane Walker born at 12:27am weighing 7 lbs 3 ounces and 19.5 inches
Drew Walker born at 12:33am weighing 7 lbs 11 ounces and 19.5 inches

Thanks, Bill

I've wanted Bill to participate in this blogging thing since the beginning - this is what I get...
Enjoy!

Happy 4th Birthday, Caden!

Caden then...

Caden now...

Caden, Claire and Nana Lynn with Caden's self-decorated birthday cake - complete with pink icing and about a pound of sprinkles. We can't wait for Aunt Lauren and Uncle Mike to arrive next week with the REAL cake...

...and here's the REAL cake - we love The Cake Shoppe in Roswell, GA.

Twins Update

Yesterday was my (hopefully) last ultrasound to check on the boys' growth - and they are definitely growing! Of course all measurements are give or take about a pound...please, please, please I hope it's not give a pound because...

Baby Boy A's approximate weight is 5lbs. 11 oz!
Baby Boy B's approximate weight is 6 lbs. 10 oz!

No wonder my lower back hurts.

Of course there are no signs of these two making an appearance any time soon, so we went ahead and scheduled a back up plan for around December 7th. I haven't made the final appointment yet, but an end is in sight. Thank goodness. I'm ready to get this show on the road.

Ode to College Football

One of our family's favorite fall traditions is going to Vanderbilt football games. This year we didn't have much to cheer about, but it's still an awesome experience and a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon. Here are Caden and Nick at the last game of the season.

Of course Caden has worn his football "uniform" ever since Saturday. This consists of his Vandy jersey, orange soccer socks, soccer cleats, and a black armband that he got from a "real football player" after the game. Hopefully next year we'll have more to cheer about.

Halloween 2009

Halloween this year was a ton of fun. The weather was great which made it easy on everyone. Of course mom stayed home to pass out candy due to her "condition."

Caden was a ninja turtle, Leonardo to be specific. Thank goodness for Target - he'd been planning the costume for months and we found it in early October. He was allowed to wear it during the month as long as he wasn't eating or outside playing. After Halloween the rules were relaxed and he pretty much wore the thing every day though I drew the line at wearing it to church.

Claire was a lion - a cute hand-me-down from Caden's first Halloween. I figured that she was too young to protest I should get my money's worth.

The kids went door to door with their friends Zoey, Reed, Von and Micah. Caden's comment as his bucket filled with candy was that "this was the best Halloween ever."

After trick or treating we joined our neighbors in the cul-de-sac for BBQ and s'mores. We are lucky to have such wonderful friends.

Caden's soccer

This was Caden's second season playing 3 year old YMCA soccer. The second season was much more successful than the first - there were few tears and he really got the hang of running up and down the field. By the end his team was actually remembering to score in their own goal. He had 3 preschool friends on his team which made it extra fun.

Labor Day Weekend

Our last hurrah before these boys are born was an extra long weekend at Gulf Shores. We had a blast with our family and friends. The hilights included:

Sand...

Fishing...

Putt putt...

and Oreos...

Can't wait until next year!

Just Our Luck

Our first home "remodeling" project is complete. We added French doors to the front room to create a "Man Cave" for Nick and his buddies. It looks great and pretty much went like clockwork. Our handyman's job was to install the doors and our job was to paint.

Saturday was paint day, we got the primer and paint on the doors/trim then turned to the walls. Bill retreived the builder's paint from under the house which of course we'd been storing for the almost 4 years we've lived in this house. We're set, right? Wrong...

Turns out we've been storing dining room paint and we'll be needing to repaint the ENTIRE FOYER. Any color suggestions?

Dancin' Queen

Several months ago McDonald's gave out "Kidz Bop" CDs in the Happy Meals. We are the unfortunate owners of 3 different CDs (don't judge me just because this means that we went to McD's at least 3 times...actually there were more than 3 and I told the cashier she could keep the ones we already owned.) These CDs are the bain of my existence and are often "lost" or "broken" when Caden asks if he can listen to his songs.

Even though I can't stand the music, my kids love it. Caden sings along and Claire starts rocking out every time the music comes on - here's proof:

Spoiler Alert!

Today was the big day - we know the genders of our twins!

Twin A is...



a boy!!!

Twin B is...



another boy!!!

Poor Claire - with 4 brothers she'll never be able to go on a date.

Meet the Walkers

Today is our family's official debut into the 21st century. We don't text - don't even know how. We don't do Facebook. We don't do My Space. If you want to get in touch with us you're best bet is the landline because the cell phones rarely leave the car.

But we do have some exciting things going on in our lives and our kids are growing up way too fast so it's time we shared our simple and happy life with our friends and family.

The most exciting news that we have is that we are expecting twins in December. We don't yet know if they're boys or girls or one of each. We'll know on August 3rd so until then you can vote and let us know what you're rooting for.

Caden is our 3 year old son. He's 100% boy and a lot of fun. He's pretty high maintenance and his antics will likely be the subject of many future posts. Never a dull moment with this one.

Claire is our daughter who is 15 months going on 15 years. She is about the sweetest thing ever, however she's pretty full of her own antics. She started walking at 10 months because it was about then that she figured out that there were parties going on and she was missing them.

Nick is our resident teenager. We're pretty lucky though, because I think everyone would like to have a teenager like Nick. He keeps his room clean, he does school projects weeks before they're due, and plays with Caden and Claire even though they're a decade younger than he is. Nick loves sports, sports, sports.

Bill is Mr. Walker. He is from Louisiana, pronounced "Lou - siana." He loves to golf and fish but doesn't get to do either as often as he would like. Bill is lucky enough to be able to say that he loves his job. His simplified job description is that he develops software for the healthcare industry.

Amanda is Mrs. Walker. I am from the Atlanta area although I have lived in and around Nashville for 13 years. I went to Vanderbilt for my undergraduate degree, landed a teaching gig in Nashville after graduation and the rest is "history". The "history" is another story for another time!

Until then...