Long Time No Post

So, it's been a long time since we've posted! My apologies! This blog was originally Gene's creation but it has been long lost and forgotten, I think. Poor blog.

I have actually started my own blog and wanted to point you to it, if interested. I'll try to do a better job at regularly posting pictures of the kids and life in general. I know so many of our family and friends live far from us and we don't see you often, so the blog was a nice way to keep everyone updated.

So, you're probably wondering, why the new blog? Ever since the twins were born I have wanted to do baby books for them. Unfortunately, I'm not really the "craft" type person. And, the idea of buying all of the paper, embellishments, glue and cutting equipment seemed daunting, and expensive. Plus, I just didn't see myself wanting to pull everything out each time to work on a page and then cleaning it all up after I'm done. I would visit scrapbooking stores trying to motivate myself to take the plunge, but it never happened.

So, last year I decide to look into what's called digital scrapbooking. It's definitely more my speed. Everything is done on the computer so there is no mess to clean up and if you make a mistake or want to change something on your layout, there's an undo key! No undo keys when you're working on paper scrapbooking! So, I found software to use and started playing! I have quickly become addicted.

There is a whole world of digital scrapbooking that exists on the net. Tons of digital scrapbooking stores and designers, creative teams, galleries, etc. So, I started exploring, posting my layouts on galleries and participating in forums. And now, I am working for three different designers on their creative team (CT). Basically, a CT is a group of individuals who work for a designer creating layouts with their products. You have access to all of their designs for free and in return, create layouts with their products and post them to online galleries - hence - avertising for the designer.

So, blogs showing off your galleries and layouts are the norm and encouraged and with being on three CTs, I thought I should start one of my own. It won't be set up as this one is, meaning you won't get an email every time there is a post. But, feel free to visit because I'll be updating it regularly! You can find it here: Oh My Stars

2 Year Pictures

We took Olivia and Eugene to have their 2 year pictures done on Saturday. Luckily for them (and us), we won't be going back for more photos until, at the earliest, December for Christmas portraits.

Needless to say, trying to get two two year old toddlers to pose, smile and look at the camera at the same time is next to impossible. And, as you can see from the photos below, it was impossible for this particular shoot! Not only did none of the above happen, we also had bouts of crying and temper tantrums throughout, as well.

Probably the most comical of the entire event was to see me, Gene and the photographer making complete fools of ourselves, pulling out all the stops just to get the smiles to appear. I think Gene and I were as exhausted as the twins after it was all said and done. However, despite the work, I think we got some pretty good shots in the end.

And here are a few shots of the temper tantrums in progress... :)

Second Year Montage

Make an on-line slide show at onetruemedia.com

Happy Birthday!

Happy 2nd Birthday Eugene and Olivia!! I still can't believe it's been two years! I'll be back tomorrow with more pictures!

What a difference a year makes!

We had our first big snow of the winter on February 13th and Eugene and Olivia loved every minute of it! Last winter, we really only had one big snowfall as well and unfortunately, the twins didn't feel quite the same about the snow. They were only 8 months old at the time and I bundled them up in their huge snowsuits and plopped them in the snow.

They hated it (as seen in the pictures below) ...

This winter, was a different story, however...

Oh what a difference a year makes!

PEE-PEE ON THE POTTY!

PEE-PEE ON THE POTTY! PEE-PEE ON THE POTTY! HAPPY NEW YEAR! EUGENE WENT PEE-PEE ON THE POTTY!

Christmas 2006

Christmas this year was very special for us as it was the first Christmas celebrated in our new home. It was also the first Christmas that Eugene and Olivia were old enough to enjoy opening and receiving presents.

Every year we have my entire family and Gene's family over to our house for Christmas Eve. This year was no different. The thing that has become quite different, however, is that we went from a large family gathering with no little ones to having four little ones present within the span of a year. My two closest cousins each had a child of their own within six months of the twins being born. Lindsay is six months older than the twins and Mason is six months younger.

Here are some shots of all of the munchkins opening their gifts...

Lindsay (in the green) and Mason (in the stripes)...

Here are some pics of Eugene and Olivia opening their gifts from Santa on Christmas morning. Eugene is opening his most favorite gift of all... Dusty the Vacuum (who he affectionately calls "The Mower"). He's been obsessed with Mommy's "Mower" so we thought he should have one of his own.
Olivia got twin (boy/girl, of course) babies and a stroller to push them in from Santa. I don't think she really cares about the babies but loves to push the stroller around the house right along side her brother with his "mower".
And what toddler would be complete without their very own Doctor kit?

Now that Christmas is over, the twins have spent the week keeping very busy with their new toys. And Mommy has been kept busy trying to reorganize the playroom to make room for all of the new toys!
Olivia modeling some of the new accessories that she got from Oma and Grandpa. This girl LOVES to play dress up!
And of course looking your best (right down to the Elmo slippers) is a necessity for cooking dinner in your new kitchen from Grandma and Grandpa!
And Eugene is still "mowing"...
All of this playing sure can make you tired. Breaks are necessary from time to time!
And what day would be complete without a little bathtub art before bed?? This is one of the shots that will have to be saved to embarrass them when they're older!

Eugene and Olivia: 20 months

It's been quite a while since we've provided an update on the twins. Many of our friends and family have been asking for a posting so I thought I should take advantage of this Christmas break and get to work.

Eugene and Olivia turned 20 months old on December 11th. It's hard to believe that TWO is right around the corner. They've transformed from babies to toddlers virtually overnight. It's hard to believe how fast our little ones are growing up. I now see a little boy and little girl when I look at them.

Their relationship with each other seems to have transformed overnight as well. They went from basically ignoring each other for the first year of their lives to becoming playmates. It must be really cool to be a twin and have a built in buddy. They chase each other around the house and laugh all day long. They truly love each other.

Don't get me wrong, fights (especially over toys) happen several times a day. But, they're short lived and the laughing and playing resumes just as quickly as it stopped.

They are learning and developing at such a rapid rate right now, too. I'm amazed everyday at what they know and have learned. Olivia surprised me this week by counting to 15. I never even knew she could count to three, let alone fifteen! They're doing really well with their language development as well. At last count (which was when they were 18 months), Eugene had 60 words and Olivia had 30 words. That was two months ago and I've now completely lost count. They are both also saying small sentences of three to four words. Now that the communication barrier is coming down and they can tell us what they want, it makes life so much easier for everyone.

Here are a few pictures that we had taken two weeks ago:

Our New Home

If you've been wondering where we've been lately, we can sum it up in one word: MOVING. We moved into our brand new house last month! The idea of moving came up just about as quickly as the move itself.

Our old house, which was Gene's Grandmother's house, had been our first home. We love that house and were very sad to leave. It's a great house for a couple or single occupant but with only two bedrooms upstairs, it was not ideal for our expanded family. Plus, it's on a very busy street and the traffic made me nervous with the twins becoming more and more active and adventurous every day. So, we started house hunting in September, signed a contract on the house in October and moved in over Veteran's Day weekend in November.

The house we bought was just finished the week we moved in. It's in phase one of a new development about a mile from our old house. The development is slated to have about 100 homes by the time it is finished. We absolutely love the neighborhood and the house and are very much looking forward to Eugene and Olivia growing up here.

Our good friends, Mike and Brooke, moved in across the street the same weekend we moved. It's so great to now call them neighbors. The rest of the neighbors we've met so far have been very welcoming and we're looking forward to getting to know everyone a bit better once the weather is nicer and everyone is spending more time outside.

Here's the house when we saw it for the first time in September:

Here's the house on our last visit before signing the papers. The grass was coming in well at this point.



And finally, here's the house about three weeks ago after moving in and putting up some Christmas lights.



There's nothing like balancing unpacking an entire house while trying to decorate and prepare for Christmas. Needless to say, the Heyman clan is exhausted and thankful that we're finally settled in our new home!

Summer Update Part I - Memorial Day Weekend

This is the first of a series of posts to catch you all up on our busy summer.

Memorial Day weekend was a big weekend for us this year. It was our first year attending the annual East Coast Twinstuff Picnic and Sesame Place Day. Twinstuff http://twinstuff.com/ is a message board for twin parents. I found the site about two months prior to delivering the twins and it was a huge help to me after they were born. During those first few overwhelming months as a new mom of twins, the advice and information that I found on that site (along w/ my best friend, Heather, who is also a twin mom), was priceless. I'm still a regular visitor to the site and am still able to find helpful advice as my twins get older and move onto new stages with new challenges. Only now, I'm able to provide advice as well!

Twinstuff members from the east coast get together every year for a picnic and a day at Sesame Place http://www.sesameplace.com/sesame/pa/index.aspx. It's a chance for all of the Moms (and Dads) who post regularly to the site to get together 'in person'. And, it's so much fun to see so many sets of twins together in one place. The picnic was held at a park in a suburb of Philly and there were probably 40 adults and close to 20 sets of twins in attendance. Gene and I had decided to bring along the super play yard as a way to contain Eugene and Olivia once we got to the party. Turned out that most everyone else who had very young twins had the same idea. The great thing about these play yards is that they all link together. So, we ended up with one huge play pen for all of the little ones! After the party, we drove to our friend's (Heather and Guy) house for dinner and to spend the night. They were going to be joining us the next day at Sesame Place and since the picnic ended up being so close to their home, it worked out perfectly! They have twin girls (as mentioned above) and while we've always been great friends, being parents to twins has brought us all even closer. It's a great tie that we have and even though our get togethers are now a lot more chaotic, I wouldn't trade it for the world!

Here's a shot of both sets of twins going for a wagon ride in Heather and Guy's backyard. If you look closely, you can see that Carly and Sydney are enjoying it a lot more than Olivia and Eugene. We spent Sunday at Sesame Place. This was Eugene and Olivia's first trip to an amusement park. Even though they were too young for most of the rides, they still loved it. What one year old wouldn't love a park filled with Elmo and all of his friends!

Here's Olivia and Eugene ready to head into the park. Don't they look excited? At least they're dressed the part in their Elmo outfits! As I mentioned above, most of the rides and activities were for kids a bit older than 13 months. But, Big Birds Birdhouse was a hit! They spent about an hour climbing around on the blocks and the best part for Mom and Dad was that it was in the shade! We had a great time and are planning to go back next year. The twins will be a year older and will hopefully be able to do a bit more at the park. Regardless of the activity level, Olivia didn't make it out of the park before falling asleep in her stroller. I guess we pushed naptime back a bit too far! Further evidence that nap time was pushed a bit too far! The kids spent Memorial Day relaxing in their new blow-up pool (compliments of Aunt Julie)! What a perfect way to end a long, holiday weekend!