Happy birthday to the cutest twins in the world!

 My babies are a whole year old. We did it. We survived the twinfant stage. I remember very vividly when we found out there were two children coming our way. Josh was shocked. I was crying. My doctor was laughing. I immediately called my sister and she started crying. I called my mom and she had to pull her car over and kept saying, "This is the meanest joke if you're joking!" Josh called his mom and after his "Guess what?" she replied, "You're having twins?!" Yes we were and yes we did. And we've survived.

We survived 3 days in the NICU.

I survived taking 12 college class credits.

We survived moving to Salt Lake.

We survived the girls' first fight. 

We got to experience them becoming friends.

We survived torticollis and baby rehab.

We survived 3 months of breastfeeding.

We survived the dreaded 4 month sleep regression (as well as the 5, 6, 7, and 8th month regressions. We FINALLY got a full nights sleep 9 months into this crazy year!)

We watched them become even better friends.

We survived answering a LOT of questions about twins.

I realized how grateful I was for my c-section.

We survived the logistics of two babies.

We survived some more baby fights.

We survived buying a house which meant moving again. 

We survived Lillian turning into a monster baby. Luckily, it was short lived.

I did ridiculous things to ensure that the babies would fall asleep.

We survived cloth diapering in spite of really hard water and ammonia problems.

We survived bonding with them.

We survived changing a billion diapers and making a trillion bottles. We've received just as many comments on their big, beautiful blue eyes and reminders of how lucky and blessed we are. Having twins has been the hardest challenge I've ever faced. It's also been the most rewarding and fun experience I've ever had. These girls aren't only gorgeous, they're hilarious. I love discovering more and more of their personalities each day. These girls have given us a lot of attention over the past year and although sometimes I don't like it, I take it as a huge compliment because I know that's how special these babies are. They really are that amazing and we are completely humbled by the thought of being their parents.

When a lot of parents reach their child's first birthday, they say things like "I can't believe how fast the past year has flown by!" I don't think I can say that. When I fell asleep on August 8th, 2010 I had no idea that not even 12 hours later I'd have two children (ok, I had a little heads up...). I had no idea how busy the next year would be. I had no idea how proud of myself and of Josh I'd be knowing that together, we took care of these babies pretty much on our own. There were nights where we literally got an hour of sleep and days when I really questioned my maternal abilities. But we did it. As I was watching our first ultrasound and trying to listen to the doctor explain things about membranes, pre-term labor, and the odds of c-sections, I was really thinking, "How are we going to do this? What are we going to do? How am I going to survive?" Although I'm not sure how we did it, we did. And I've never been happier.

Happy Birthday, Sophie and Lillian!

And since a picture is worth 1,000 words. Here's 15 minutes worth of pictures from this past year. No, I don't expect to watch it since I made it for us, but I must say that it's really cute.