Family Hike

The hike was very pleasant.

The photo session started off well,
...then Jack wanted to eat rocks,
...and then it went downhill fast

Growing in double time

At a combined 40 lbs, a trip out with the boys is no easy task.

Erin has done a terrific job photographing their ages. It is amazing how fast they grow, yet how similar they look to their early photos.

Florida 2011 - The Trip Home

On the drive home we were on our own. Two adults, a 3-year-old, two newborns, and 1300 miles. Daunting...but it went amazingly well.

We woke up at 4:00 when the boys were hungry and were on the road by 4:30 am.

I drove every mile and we pulled into our driveway 20.5 hours later at 1:00 am. We were so efficient that the 3 kids never even left the van. Our stops were either gas or drive-thru. Twice we drove almost 6 hours on a single tank of gas and only pulled off when our gas light had been on for over 30 miles and I was getting quite nervous.

2 weeks of fun tired Evie enough to take 2 naps on the way home.

During our short breaks we would "play" in the car. Evelyn loved to have the babies and "99" sit in her seat while she sat in our seat and buckled up.
Evelyn once again did great. She was annoying at times but with good reason and never pitched a fit. Our headphones are too big for her so Erin had to do some creative engineering to get them to stay on.

Two Months

Two months old already. Since Jack's 2 day stint in the hospital the boys have been doing great. At 2 months they were a healthy 11 and 11.7 lbs.

Will (left above) is more finicky but his projectile urping has improved tremendously. Will has a high pitch squeal when he gets really upset. It is hard not to laugh when he busts out the squeal.

Jack (right above, pic below) is a tank, eating a lot and just SOLID (heavy) overall. Jack rolled over at 1 month but hasn't repeated the trick since.

Both boys are smiling more and more and starting to show personality.

Evie continues to be a bundle of energy, joy, and ...work. She's hilarious one moment and pitching an end-of-the world fit the next. She definitely keeps us on our toes but that is how we like it.

Every day when I leave for work she asks me why, so I tell her "to get more monies." Then she'll ask "you monies all gone?" When Erin went back to work she pretended to talk to her on the phone and said "Momma, you go to work to buy more monies?"

The January 7

In no particular order, here are 7 pictures from the month of January. Life is never boring!

1. Playing with daddy. Will and Jack rarely get quality daddy time. If it looks fun, Evie joins in.

2. Playing with mommy. Will and Jack sometimes get quality mommy time, but only if Evie isn't around. If she is...
3. A BIRD in our house! That's right. One evening we were just sitting down to dinner and I was already in a foul mood for some reason. Before I could eat my first bite the doorbell rang. It was our neighbor, but more importantly, there happened to be a bird nesting in our wreath. The door opened and in flew the bird!!! Obviously that didn't help my mood even though Erin found it rather humorous. I chased the bird into the garage with a tennis racket and let it suffer overnight before opening the garage door the following morning.
4. U of M basketball. We ventured to Canton for a weekend and while there Evie and I went to a Michigan basketball game. We had a good time despite the loss.
5. Lots of visitors including Evie's "best friend" cousin Chase.
6. Evie's favorite hide and go seek spot became a fun play spot one day.
7. The twins' future friends.

Twins at the hospital

After an awesome delivery and a few hours of tending to the boys, we were carted to the postpartum floor for the rest of our hospital stay.

Erin enjoyed some cuddle time with the boys. They weren't interested in feeding for the first 16 hours but have been doing great since then.

We wanted to make sure the first visitor would be big sister Evelyn. She came clomping down the hallway looking for those 2 babies everyone was talking about. When Evelyn arrived they were in the nursery so I help her up to look through the glass. Evelyn also noticed all the other babies. When we went back to the room with William and Jack Evie wasn't very interested - "Daddy, I want to see more babies" and a few minutes later (sadly), "Daddy, I want babies to be all gone."
As you can imagine it was a little hard on Evie. But her next visit was much better. She happily talked about William and Jack and ran around the postpartum floor with glee.
Of course both sets of grandparents came to see us.

William and Jack also met most of their aunts and uncles, some friends, and some great grandparents.




On Thursday morning we brought them home. Leaving the hospital with them wasn't nearly as strange of a feeling as with Evie. But in a very similar way, our lives will never be the same, we're looking forward to it!
(Jack in focus below)
(William in focus below)

Elenbaas Twins

After 36 weeks of pregnancy and 2 months of strict bedrest, Erin was given the OK to start walking around again. Turns out it was a good thing she was on bedrest that whole time, because 24 hours after going off bedrest she went into labor.

Monday was kind of a strange day. Erin called me from her appointment and said "do you want to have some babies tonight?" She was measuring 5cm and the doctor said if she kept contracting to just check into the hospital. So she drove home and we spent the afternoon just hanging out at our house. We did some chores, watched a movie, and then went in to the hospital around 5:30.
Erin's work connections kicked in again. We walked into the hospital, skipped triage, and were admitted into a corner room.

From 6 to 8 not much happened. We hung out with the other nurses and walked around hoping for Erin's contractions to pick up. She progressed slightly, got an epidural, and then the doctor broke her water around 10:30. We put on a movie (The Holiday) but Erin progressed quickly and by 11:30 it was time to prep for labor so we moved into the OR (in case they needed to do a crash C-section).

The OR was almost comical. There were 2 doctors, a nurse practitioner, and SIX nurses to "assist" and we pumped the Christmas music. Once everything was set, Erin pushed a total of 3 contractions for baby A and he came right out. The doctor held the baby up and we were both surprised to see it was a boy! The baby cried and I cut the cord. About 3 minutes later the doctors told Erin to push for baby B. This time it only took 1 contraction. The doctor held up baby B and we were even more surprised...another BOY! Twin boys, WOW!

The nurses and doctors did their thing while Erin and I spent our first few moments with our two sons. We named them William Lloyd and Jack Douglas. William was 5 lbs 14 oz and 19.5" long. Jack was 6 lbs 3 oz and 19" long. They were born at 12:30 and 12:34 a.m.

Once again Erin is my absolute hero. She was rightfully nervous all day, but did such an amazing job. I am so proud to be her husband.


Jack had low blood sugar initially and both were struggling with deep breathing. After some consultation we decided to keep them with us and keep an eye on them. Within a few hours they were breathing well and all other tests were normal.
Our fabulous team of nurses made our experience great.