Season 1 is on AmazonPrime instant movies, as well as Netflix, Season 2 is on PBS.com for free

The cast is phenomenal.

Anybody else wondering why hasn’t O’Brien been sacked yet? I mean what she did with that bar of soap is horrible!

Who else has the Downton Abbey fever?

On another note, lets talk about food

Ginger Snaps

Soft and chewy. Not overly sweet. Delicious.

And I’ll include the recipe because I haven’t found one that compares to this one.

And last but not least:

You know those cookies you used to get on the airplanes? Well, they turned them into a spread. Spread it on toast, eat it with a banana, in a crepe, or eat it straight out of the jar. Just like Nutella but better. Way way better. Picky-palate has some amazing recipes with this stuff. I’m dying to make these cookies. Yet another thing on my to do list.

You’ll be lucky if your grocery store carries it. HEB has it in the PB isle. And now they have crunchy spread. Wish HEB sold that too…

We went to Seattle this year to my folks house. I decided at the last minute to stay for a month so I could get some help with the kiddos. Fernando stayed for 10 days, then had to start his new assignment with Exxon back in Houston. He enjoyed being baby-less for the remaining weeks although he was a bit lonely.

We got to meet my sister Crystal’s new baby Megan (on the left) born 6 weeks before the twins. Such a cute little chunk. To get an idea of their difference in size, Megan wears 9 month size and the twins are in 3 month.

Some of the things we enjoyed over the holidays

It was so nice having help with the kids. Even with the help, I think I left the house on average twice a week. My parents babysat one night and treated us with tickets to go see Annie Get Your Gun, which was a super fun musical. We went to my favorite breakfast place: The Original Pancake House a couple of times and got the amazing apple pancake and bacon waffles.

Unfortunately we all caught a never ending cold. Mine turned into the flu, which let me tell ya, it stinks being sick when you have babies to care for! Thankfully my mom was there!

1. My sister Crystal made this amazing rainbow birthday cake that was to die for!

2. Grandma ice skating with the grand kids.

3. Everybody watching Cassidy play Angry Birds of the iPad. (You’d think the other kids would find something more interesting to do).

4. Story time with mom

My nephews got a puppy for Christmas. Lilly is such an adorable and well behaved puppy. Maybe she’ll finally convince my husband to get a dog…

As I was leaving, a great snow storm was hitting Redmond. I loved it! But we high tailed it out of there. My mom flew with me, and thankfully a lot of people missed the flight because of the snow, so we had empty seats next to us. The babies did surprisingly well on the flight.

They’ve decided to start sleeping through the night! That’s right. From 10 to 7 hallelujah!

It almost makes up for the fact that they only take 10 minute naps during the day. Anyone know of a cure for acid reflux? Don’t tell me Zantac. It doesn’t do a thing.

For Thanksgiving, we headed up to my brother’s place in Austin to be with his family and my other brother Mark and his wife Sara. It was tons of fun to be with family again. We miss it.

The kiddos on turkey day

Ryan carving his masterpiece smoked turkey masterpiece. Suzette’s rolls and stuffing were to die for.

The kids decided to have an air soft gun war in the backyard

I’m not sure who won

Mark grew this for Movember. We all thought he looked a little pedophile-ish. sorry Mark.

My favorite part of the weekend was all of the help we got! Thanks guys!

We even got to shop the Black Friday sale Thanksgiving night at the outlets. It’s starting earlier every year. I gotta remember next year to show up at 9:30 pm.

Insert random cute picture of baby.

The end.

We headed on our first road trip with the babies 90 miles away to College Station, TX

Fernando thought it was tons of fun. Although we were a little disappointed that the car had a stock engine. For some reason I thought it was going to be a Shelby. Oh well. Its not often that you get to push a car to see just how fast it can go. He maxed out at 110 and had a fun time drifting on all the curves and turns the course offered. I didn’t even get to see him drive since I was stuck with the babes.

I was a little jealous.

The babies did beautifully on their first road trip. Slept all the way. While we were there we managed to meet up with some of Fernando’s college friends, and check out the bonfire memorial at A&M. Oh yeah, we fed, burped, and changed babies diapers four times x 2. And before we knew it the day was over.

After we said goodbye to my mother on the last Friday of October, we actually started the paternity week festivities by having our good friend, Dana, over. Having grown up with her since high school, it was great to catch up and see what her family has been up to lately. Anyway, she was only in town for 24 hours, so we said our hellos and goodbyes and then got the children ready for the zoo on Saturday morning.

Work sponsored a trip to the Houston Zoo during their Zoo Boo, which is held every year. I’d never heard of the event, but children dress up in the costumes and go around the zoo trick-or-treating and playing at the various booths that are set up. We made it in time for lunch and were able to catch up with a lot of friends who also happen to work with me.

After a successful outing at the zoo, we decided that we wanted to go out on our Saturday evening rather than sitting at home (which seems to be the trend these days). We ventured over to the Galleria and enjoyed our walk around the shops. It was our first outing where we used our baby carriers and it worked like a charm. Lucy and Evan both slept the whole time!

Unfortunately, as the start of the week began (Monday), we had a tough time with these two little kiddos. I remember Monday being especially challenging as they tag teamed us for hours on end. I quickly learned that holding a full-time job is a million times easier than being a stay-at-home mom.

Fortunately, after a difficult Monday, we were rewarded with a slightly better Tuesday. Since HMNS is free on Tuesday afternoons, we decided to head to the museum for our daily walk. The children behaved themselves for a while, but once they started getting rowdy, we knew we had to get the heck out of Dodge.

By midweek, I was having my doubts on how Diane was going to be able to manage parenting newborn twins by herself with me at work. So, that’s when we broke down and bought the Mamaroo. Initially, Lucy loved it and she would calm down immediately. Evan didn’t care for it so much, but it’s now growing on him.

On Thursday, we hit up Katy Mills because Lucy desperately needed some girl clothes. One thing I learned is that shopping at the mall on a Thursday afternoon is great because nobody is there except for a few moms — most of whom were sporting sweats/PJs.

Overall, paternity week was a lot of fun. I’m lucky to have been able to spend it with Diane and the children.

Hard to believe its been a month already. Life is a bit exhausting at the moment. The babies were a dream at the hospital but as soon as we got home, they became a little more demanding.  Fernando took his paternity leave this past week, and actually said he wished he was back at work. We could not get the kids to stop crying (particularly Lucy). When it comes to baby products, we are minimalists.  The goal was to keep our house looking like babies had not overtaken it.  We didn’t want a swing, or high chair, or pack n’ play, etc.  But when kids are crying, you’ll do anything to keep the peace and quiet.  So we broke down and got a must-have baby item: the MamaRoo.

And life has been much better. And Fernando is sad he has to go back to work on Monday (which makes two of us).

And now a plug for my favorite doctor in Houston: Camille Boon, M.D.

If any of my Houston friends need a great Ob/Gyn, I highly recommend Dr. Boon. I’m actually sad my weekly appointments are over. She’s super nice, genuinely concerned about her patients, a very talented surgeon, and saved my life on one occasion. And she’s an awesome doctor because she did subcutaneous stitches instead of staples after my c-section (which is probably why my recovery was such a breeze). Anyway, thanks to her (for a multiple of reasons), Lucy and Evan are here.

And now for the monthly recap from the top:

Evan had jaundice and had to lay on this sweet fluorescent bed. He loved it.

The babies had their first photo shoot at one week. It lasted 4 hours and they did great!

More pictures here. Thanks Kelli for taking such amazing pictures!

Fernando gave the babes beautiful blessings at church when they were 2.5 weeks. Sadly we didn’t get a happy picture of them even though they behaved wonderfully at church.

We had lots of visitors including Fernando’s cousins, parents, grandma, my parents, sister, brother and family.

Our nephew Josh holding his new cousin

Fernando made the kids their monthly onesies with iron-on transfer paper (my husband is proving to be pretty crafty).

I can’t resist a picture of a baby crying. So true to life.

So there you have it. We have survived month one.  It’s been exhausting, but we love being parents.  I’m not quite ready to touch the sewing machine yet, but I did manage to get in the kitchen and make caramel apples last week, which felt good.

Born September 28th at 37 weeks

Lucy Nicole (5 lbs 15 oz) and Evan Spencer (7 lbs 1 oz)

Final belly shot 37 weeks

We went in for a scheduled c-section since the babies were positioned in a way that they were blocking each other from entering the birth canal.

Fernando and my mom prepped for surgery

Here I am under the knife awaiting to find out the gender of the kiddos

After what seemed like seconds, Lucy is born!

One minute later, Evan entered the world!

We are so happy that we got a boy and a girl.

Proud new daddy

After catching a glimpse of the babies in the OR, they were rushed to the nursery while I was stitched up. This is me holding them for the first time 3 or 4 long hours later.

Baby Evan

Lucy definitely takes after her daddy’s looks

While Evan looks more like his mom

We are so thrilled to be parents at last. We are a little blown away by how blessed we are.

Basically I sat back and let Fernando do all of the opening of gifts since after all, it was his shower.

The shower ended promptly after one hour since the conference room was reserved afterwards. (which was a huge difference from showers in the past that I’ve been to.) Can’t say I minded it at all.  Overall it was a fun time, and super nice of Fernando’s co-workers to do for us. Thanks guys!

Saturday morning we woke up at 4:20 to meet up with some friends and drive to Clearlake for Fernando’s first triathlon.

We were both nervous since the forecast predicted 107 degrees all weekend, but the heat wasn’t really a problem at all.

Sadly I somehow missed him transitioning after the swim. But I caught this picture after the race.

Here he is starting his run

Ending with a strong finish

He said he completed his two goals:

#1- not drowning

#2- finishing under 1.5 hrs

I was very impressed, and exhausted watching all those people running around. But mainly very proud that he did so well. I don’t think I could do it.

I think there’s a possibility of more triathlons in the future.

Our friend Ashley was a super star and placed 3rd in her age group!

32 weeks

I’m a little shocked by this picture. I didn’t think I was this big :(

Anybody know of ways to flip a breech baby? Cuz baby B is feet first dang it and the flashlight trick is not working!

On another note, I wanted to post about the crib skirts I made:

I followed this tutorial, although a tutorial really isn’t necessary. All you do is measure the length of the sides of the crib and how long you want your skirt to be.  Hem the pieces, and sew them to a rectangular piece of fabric (in this case I used my leftover curtain liner) and you’re done. Quickest project I ever did. The fabric is Premier Prints Waverly in charcoal.

The Curtains

For the curtains I used Premier Prints yellow zig zag fabric. I just love a good chevron! I basically wanted this fabric in every color. Thanks Fabric.com!

To make lined grommet curtains, I used this tutorial then followed the manufacturers instructions on the back of the grommet package. The hardest part was by far measuring out the distance between the grommets. I didn’t realize how much fabric is necessary to make curtains. To make four panels at 85 inches, it took 11 yards of fabric! It came out to be $36 a panel, which isn’t Ikea cheap, but isn’t Restoration Hardware expensive either. It is pretty easy to find a Fabric.com coupon code online, so you can save money there (wish I discovered that sooner).

Just gotta sew two crib bumpers then I’m done. But dreading dreading dreading…

Restaurant week is one of our favorite things to do here in Houston.  During the month of August, for $35/person you get a three course meal at 70 or so of the top restaurants all in the Houston area. Not only is it a good deal, but $5 goes toward charity. This year we went out with some good friends to Ruth’s Chris Steak House.  We’ve heard good things about this restaurant, but none of us couples had ever been.  Fernando and I usually don’t like a lot of hype, because it seems like nothing ever lives up to it, but this was one of those rare occasions.

First of all, for some reason, almost every restaurant here in Houston has a valet service.  Meaning, they block off half of their parking lot and use it for the valet cars.  No thank you. I don’t want to pay you, a stranger, to drive my car 15 feet and park it, when I am perfectly capable of parking it myself. I mean come on, is this really necessary? Valet parking at the ER or labor and delivery unit at the hospital: yes absolutely, but at a restaurant? no. In fact I could use the exercise to work up an appetite or to burn off the delicious meal I just ate.

Anyway, back to tonight, as we pull up, all signs point to valet, so naturally we think we have no choice but to let the stranger take our car and park it ten feet by the entrance. But no worries, that would be my only complaint about the evening. It turns out that we could have just kept driving straight thru.

Now lets talk about the food. Our server (Dragan-fantastic waiter btw) brings out warm loaves of bread with freshly whipped butter. I order a caesar salad and Fernando orders a watermelon and greens salad. Both very large and yummy.

For the main course we both get the 6 oz fillet with shrimp and a side of either green beans and mashed potatoes.  The sides are more like family style portion sizes.

Pictures courtesy of the Ruth’s Chris website.

The steak, super tender, juicy and cooked to perfection

Cheesecake with berries

The desserts were huge as well

I opted for my favorite, bread pudding, w/o the whiskey sauce. Delicious, although I don’t like raisins in my bread pudding.

Overall, one amazing meal. I might not even need to eat my midnight snack which is saying something.  Best steak I’ve had in well, two weeks. (It turns out that McCormick & Schmick’s also has a pretty good steak minus undercooking it). Ruth’s Chris so far surpasses our other restaurant week pics from previous years. Don’t waste your time with III Forks or Smith and Wollensky’s.

To make the night more exciting, we returned home only to find out that our alarm had gone off while we were gone, and since both of our phones were on silent mode, they sent the police to check it out.  And when they checked the front door, they found it unlocked! We can remember to set the alarm when we leave, but we leave the front door unlocked.  Brilliant. Our alarm had just tripped from when Fernando was cleaning the balcony earlier today and didn’t shut the door fully. The police walked through our house and finding nothing amiss, left.  We’re just waiting for the bill…