Special Treats: Twenty-Thirteen

It was a good year. In fact, the best year of my life so far. The birth of Abby and George makes this year so extra special and so wonderful. I don't remember life without these two precious babies. They are my world and I love them more than I ever thought possible.

Here's a quick recap of 2013...

January: Welcome to the 2nd trimester! Work was busy this month with training lots of clients at the gym as I tried to keep down my breakfast from some morning sickness. I would come home from work and crash from being so tired.

February: The hubs took me to Spain for my 30th birthday! We had such a wonderful trip. It was his first time to Europe and both our first time to Spain. Such a lovely place it is! On my actual birthday, February 28th, I was in the hospital for pre-term labor. I was in the hospital for almost 3 weeks...not fun. I had a cerclage put in at 21 weeks and was told I was going to be on bed rest the rest of my pregnancy. Ho-hum. Thank god the babies stayed put for a few more weeks!

19 weeks pregnant

20 weeks pregnant, right before I was put into the hospital:

Abby

George upside down!

March: Not much happened this month...I spent it on the couch and in the bed! For a very active person this was hard, but I knew the end result was worth it and boy was it ever. I had lots of fun doing crafts and planning the babies nursery.

April: Again, a pretty "boring" month. Two of my very good friends came to visit me from SC and this was such a sweet surprise. I was supposed to have a baby shower in SC this month but I had to cancel it due to bed rest, so instead, they brought the shower to me. I'm so thankful for these sweet friends!

May: My pregnancy was going well and even though I was still on bed rest I was out of the danger zone so was now allowed to have one small outing a day. I had a baby shower this month and it was so much fun. It was so nice to get out and get gifts for the babies!

June: June 4th, Abigail Elizabeth and George James were born! Best.day.ever. It was a whirlwind of a day but ended with these sweet babies who were healthy as they could be. At 34 weeks pregnant they were great sizes. Abigail was 5 pounds, 2 ounces and George was 4 pounds, 6 ounces. My little itty bitty miracle babies :) The hubs and I also celebrated our 4th anniversary!

Here we go!

First bath!

July: The hubs and I were in the throws of very little sleep and just trying to survive. My parents watched the babies as they so generously let us go to their country club for a 4th of July dinner. It was so nice to get out of the house, just the two of us. We were exhausted, but getting by. Babies were eating every 3 hours at this point and it was SO hard. We got through it though!

August: Again, just trying to survive. My parents were huge helps, along with my mother in law who came up numerous times to help. We could NOT have done it without all this help! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! Also at the end of this month my cousin came and stayed with us for a week to help out. She was a saint. She helped cook, cleaned our house (!!!), took a few overnight shifts with the babies and helped during the day...she truly is a gem.

September: We went to the beach with the hubs family. We had such a good time and it felt soooo good for me to get out of our house and have a change of scenery! Even though we didn't leave the house much, it was still nice to be there. The house was on the beach so every day I had beautiful views of the ocean. It was glorious! I kept reminding myself that the next year we'd be able to be outside more and would be chasing after these two. :) This month also held the twins baptism. It was such a special service. These two are the biggest blessings ever and I know God has such big plans for them.

October: Babies started sleeping through the night!!!!! Horray! We also celebrated their first Halloween. George was a lion and Abby a pumpkin. My Mom was out of town, but my Dad came over and handed out candy while we took a quick walk around the neighborhood to show neighbors the twins dressed up. My Dad also helped us put the babies to bed that night so that the hubs could hand out candy.

Starting solids for the first time!

November: We celebrated my Mom's 60th birthday and had soo much fun. We also went to Raleigh for the babies first Thanksgiving. It was a wonderful time getting together with family, as always.

December: This was such a fun month!!!!!! We celebrated the hubs birthday and went out to a good dinner while my parents watched the babies for the night. We also went to my parents country club with them and the babies sat on Santa's lap. They did great! While we were there we also had an amazing meal. We spent the week before Christmas in Raleigh celebrating Christmas there. We spent actual Christmas here with my family. Christmas is much more special when you have children! Even though they don't get it yet, it's still so much more fun. The twins were spoiled this Christmas and really enjoyed watching everyone open their gifts, playing with the wrapping paper and sticking it in their mouths.