Happy Birthday Molly and Taylor!!!

My Babies are Three Years old!!!

Here are some pictures of my girls from the past few years, I can't believe that they are three!!!

I have been reading through a journal that I kept up with during my pregnancy with Molly and Taylor (this was before I knew about blogging), so I decided in honor of their birthday I would include the journal entry of the day that they were born. Many people will say that they day they had their children was one of the best days of their life. Well, it was a little bitter sweet for us, but that’s happens when you have premature babies.

I wrote in my journal like I was talking to Molly and Taylor…


Today is your daddy and my anniversary. It is a Wednesday, and I do not have to go to work today so your daddy decided to stay home to spend the day with me. We tried to sleep in, but the phone kept ringing off the hook. When we checked our phones we had several missed calls. I called my mom (Mimi) because she was worried that we were not picking up our phones. She thought I had gone into labor (like I would have kept this from her) and she even called the hospital to see if we had checked in. When she called the hospital she ended up talking to our friends Mike and Rebecca Harms (they were still at the hospital because they had just had their son Austin). After she talked to Mike and Rebecca, they started calling us to find out what was going on. I thought the whole thing was kind of funny and told my mom that everything was fine and that I would call her if something happened. She wished us a happy anniversary and then and we got off the phone.
After I got off the phone with my mom your Aunt Karena called to wish me and Stuart a happy anniversary. I told her what happened that morning with my mom, and we joked about how that would be funny if I went into labor on our anniversary. When I got off the phone with Karena I went to the bathroom, as I had to do so very frequently at this point in my pregnancy. After I came out of the bathroom, I went into the kitchen to fix a bowl of cereal and realized that I was leaking. I went back into the bathroom and at this point your daddy was getting out of bed…it was about 10 a.m. I told him that I think my water broke and he calmly said “are you serious.” I told him that I was not sure, but I think so. I told him that we need to go ahead and pack a bag and to get ready to go. I figured that we had plenty of time; even if I was in labor (don’t they last like 12 hours???).
I got dressed, made the bed, and picked up the house while your daddy was trying to get car seats installed in the car. I called out to him, and told him that we had better go because I was starting to have cramps. I had a false alarm once before, but this felt different. I was still a little nervous about making a trip to the hospital, because I didn’t want them to just send me back home. We got into the car around 10:30 or 11 a.m. and I called my mom. She asked if I was kidding when I told her that my water broke, because of what we had gone through that morning. I told her that I was serious, and she said that she was watching your cousin Seth and that she would leave as soon as Karena picked him up. I had contractions that were 2-3 minutes apart the entire way to the hospital, it was starting to really hurt at this point.
When we arrived at the hospital I had to use the restroom while we were checking in. I was feeling a lot of pressure and my contractions were getting stronger and stronger. We were then taken to our room. Mike and Rebecca were still at the hospital and requested that we have a room close to theirs. I had to put on a gown and a nurse came in to check me and confirmed that my water actually did break and that I was dilated to 3cm and 100% effaced. Your daddy and I were starting to get excited now that we knew you were coming today.
I told the nurse that I wanted an epidural as soon as possible, and she said that she would go work on it. The doctor came in shortly after the nurse left to give me an ultrasound and confirmed that you were both head down (that was very good news). Everything started to move real fast after this point.
Mike went to McDonalds to get something to eat for your daddy and I kept going in and out of the bathroom feeling a lot of pressure. Your Mimi got to the hospital around 1:30, and I was starting to get more and more uncomfortable. The nurse came in to say that the anesthesiologist was busy, so I could not get an epidural at this time, but she gave me a drug in my IV. This made me very sleepy, very quickly. The contractions still hurt, but the medicine definitely took the edge off.
The contractions seemed to be getting closer and closer and I was getting more and more uncomfortable. My mom told Stuart to call the nurse to come check me, because she thought I was in transition. The nurse came in to check me and told me that I was dilated to 9.5 and it was time to push. I started to cry at this point and told her I really wanted an epidural. I was worried that they would have to do a c-section and would have to put me under; the nurse reassured me that everything would be fine.
They wheeled me into the operating room and had me move from the bed I was on to another bed that looked way too small. I think I snapped at the nurse at this point saying that I would not be able to fit onto this bed. The room was full of people; they had a team of 3-4 for each of you and a team of 3-4 for me…so there were at least 12 people lining the wall just waiting for your arrival. Your daddy and Mimi came in shortly after they got me all set up. When the doctor came in she told me to go ahead and push when I felt a contraction. I pushed about six times and “baby A” was out it was 3:03 p.m., the doctor handed her to me and asked me what her name was, and I said Taylor. I got to hold you for just a minute and then they took you away. I remember telling the doctor that I did not want to do this again. The doctor said that “baby B’s” membranes did not rupture and that she was going to have to do it with a little hook. After she broke the sac she told me that I would need to push on my next contraction, again after only about 6 pushes “baby B” was out. It was 3:07 p.m. They did not let me hold you Molly; in fact they rushed you out of the room. I asked if everything was ok and they told me that they needed to do some chest ex-rays. You had a little trouble breathing and they decided that it would be best to take the both of you to the NICU in Springdale because the hospital that I was at did not have a NICU at the time. They brought you into my room when they were ready to take you off. There were two EMT’s along with the NICU doctor. They were all very nice and reassuring. Your daddy went with you to the NICU to make sure that you were ok. We didn’t get much sleep that night, and got out of there as soon as they released us the next day to head over to the hospital that you were at. You girls were doing good you just had some common problems that premature babies may experience. They had to teach you how to eat and make sure that your lungs were nice and strong before they sent you home.


I am so blessed to have two happy and healthy little girls.
Happy Birthday Molly and Taylor.
I love you so much!

Look Out Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen...Here Come the Twindalls!!!

I’m so proud…Molly and Taylor are in the October Twins issue of Peekaboo Magazine. Peekaboo is a local magazine that you can find at many business locations within the area, so be sure to pick up a copy and check out my cuties!

You can also view the issue online at http://www.peekaboonwa.com/twins/

Weekend with Mimi and Papa

Molly and Taylor made a trip to my mom and dad’s this weekend, and had a wonderful time. Mimi and Papa took them, along with three of their cousins (Braden, Seth, and Jonah) to the West End in downtown Fort Smith. It looks like they had a ball with their cousins.

Papa took the older kids (Braden and Seth) for a ride on the Farris Wheel…

The little one’s (Jonah, Molly, and Taylor) watched from the bench down below….




Thank you Mimi and Papa for watching the girls this weekend!

Things to Rember About Molly and Taylor at the age of Two!!!

Molly and Taylor are going to be Three years old next month, and because I have been so bad at keeping up with their baby books I thought I would add some things that I want to be sure to remember about them at this age. I want to warn you that this entry is going to be kind of long because I have a lot to make up for and they are just so darn cute!

Molly and Taylor can make each other crack up by a just looking at one another. Now, this is not something that happens all of the time, but when the mood strikes the sound of those giggles is the best sound in the world.

Taylor is NOT a morning person. I am much better at dealing with the early morning as I have gotten older, but I know that she got this from me. She will pull the covers over her head when she hears me coming, and just wants to lay in bed and stair at the ceiling for a while.

Molly on the other hand is usually pretty bright eyed. I will walk in the room and she gives me a smile through her binki asking if I had a good nap, before I even get the chance to ask how she slept. She then is ready to go downstairs to watch little bear and have her milk and balls. This is what they call Caption Crunch Berry’s…Balls!

They both still sleep with a binki in their mouth along with their woobies. We are going to start working on getting them away from the pacifier after their 3rd birthday (that’s just a month away!) Let me know if anyone has any advice on how to do this!

What are Woobies? Woobies are these little dolls that are made out of a receiving blanket that they got in the NICU right after they were born. The NICU was not in the hospital that I delivered them at, so we were separated almost right after they were born. The nurses at the NICU sent these “woobies” over to me, and told me to sleep with them so that they would take on my scent. This way they could put them with Molly and Taylor the next day, and they could take comfort in knowing that I was with them even when I was not physically able to be there. Ok, so I’m sure that this did not really work, but it helped comfort me when I was sad that I could not be with my babies! To this day they won’t go to sleep without the, “woobies.”

Molly and Taylor would watch TV all day long if we would let them. It’s nice to stick them in front of one of their favorite shows when I’m cooking dinner or doing something where I can’t entertain. I just want to say that we do set restrictions on the time they spend in front of the television!

Molly and Taylor’s Top three favorite television shows…
Little Bear
Dora the Explorer (I like to hear them interact with this show…it’s so funny to hear them yelling at the TV)
Elmo’s World on Sesame Street…but not Sesame Street.

Molly and Taylor’s Top three favorite DVD’s
Enchanted (I like this one too!)
It’s a tie between a Care Bear’s video or an Elmo Video
The Bee Movie

Taylor is always singing. She even makes up songs and sometimes just uses gibberish lyrics when singing, but she is always singing something. She will get embarrassed, and stop singing if she notices that you are watching her, so I just try to keep my smiles to my self so that I can enjoy her little songs.

Molly will sometimes yell at Taylor to stop singing, and Taylor will cry and say, “I don’t want to stop singing.” This is usually the start of one of their pointless fights. Yes, my precious twins do fight with each other.

Molly has a little more of a dominant personality then Taylor. She will boss Taylor around, but she also looks after her sister. If Taylor is upset you can hear Molly saying, “What’s wrong Tay?” or if Molly wants Taylor to come upstairs to play you can hear, “Come on Tay!” I think it’s so cute that she calls her sister Tay!

Taylor is a little more sensitive then Molly. Just within the past few weeks she has grown so attached to Stuart and me. She wants her Mommy and Daddy at home with her all the time. She doesn’t throw big fits when we can’t make this happen, she will just put on a sad little face and say, “I don’t want you to go.” Which I think can be worse than the big fit. OH THE GUILT!

Both of the girls are very interested in knowing about our family’s relationships to one another. They will hear me call their Mimi “Mom”, so they have learned that their Mimi is my Mommy or that my Dad is their Papa…you get it! Now that they have this down we will often have conversations that go something like this…

Taylor: “Where is Papa?”
Me: “He’s at his house.”
Molly: “Papa is your daddy?”
Me: “Yes.”
Taylor: “Papa’s name is Michael Charlton.”
Molly: “Mommy, Your name is Melissa Tyndall, I’m Molly Tyndall, and daddy is Stuart Tyndall.”
Taylor: “And I’m Taylor Tyndall.”
Molly: “Where is Mimi?”

This goes on and on. We go through all the members of the family…funny how you can see the wheels turning during these conversations!

I think that Molly and Taylor really believe that they are princesses. They will tell me that I am also a princess and that daddy is a prince. They think that any white dress is a princess dress, and they get pretty excited when they see someone in a white dress because they think that the person is also a princess like the rest of our Royal Family.

Story for Molly…
Right around Fathers day I was in the Wal-Mart photo area waiting on a Kodak Kiosk to open up because I needed to print some pictures for a Fathers day project that I was working on. We were waiting behind this woman that had an oversized derriere. Molly was sitting in the front of the cart when she suddenly started saying, “Mommy, look at her booty, look at her booty.” This was one of those time’s where…

It was so hard not to laugh, and
I was so glad that Stuart was not with us, because HE WOULD have been cracking up and probably would have made the situation that much more embarrassing.

Story for Taylor…
We were driving along in the car and the girls were having some dry cereal and watching a DVD in the back of the car. They were watching an Elmo sing along video, and Molly was really getting into it, as she was chomping away on her Cereal. I caught a glimpse of Taylor just staring at Molly with this disgusted look on her face (It was early in the morning, and like I said before Taylor is not a morning person). I looked back again and Taylor was still just staring at Molly with that same look. She was just appalled. Molly was oblivious to Taylor looking at her, and was just singing and eating her cereal. All of a sudden Taylor speaks up and says, “Mommy, Molly is eating, she’s eating her mouth open.” Molly starts to get upset and say’s, “I am not, I not.” To get Molly to settle down I say, “Ok Molly you are not.” It’s quiet in the back for a second and Molly looks at Taylor and says, “Taylor I just teasing.” I don’t really know what she was teasing about, but the whole ride that morning just cracked me up!

Well, that's all for now.

Have a Great Weekend!!!

Wigging Out

I picked up a Hannah Montana wig that I found in the clearance isle at wal-mart the other day (it’s for a Halloween Party). I came out of my bedroom wearing the “blond” wig…that was actually a little more gold than blond. Anyway the look on Molly and Taylor’s face was so funny when I walked into the living room. They looked very confused. Molly exclaimed, “Mommy, your hair, your hair is like mine!” Then Taylor wanted to know where my brown hair went. I told them that my brown hair was in the bathroom so they took off running to find it, they came right back to tell me it was gone…they are so funny.

I got some cute pictures of the girls wearing the wig…I had to bribe them with M&M’s to put it on. We were just cracking up…they look like little dolls.

Taylor Giving the peace sign

Dolly Molly

I didn’t include a picture of myself in the wig; in fact I deleted it off the camera. I just cannot pull off the gold hair look. However, I thought that Stuart looked pretty good!

He just might kill me for putting this picture on here, but I thought it was too funny not to!

Have a good weekend!!!

Labor Day Weekend

I can’t believe that fall is creeping up on us…this is the start of my favorite time of year! We had a great Labor Day weekend with family. We went to visit my parents on Sunday. We were treated to my dad’s famous baby-back ribs and spent a little bit of time with a few of my siblings. We headed over to Stuarts Dad’s on Monday for a bbq. We got in one final swim before the cooler weather hit!

My sister Kim and niece Anna Claire

Taylor getting ready to climb out of the pool.

I remember when I was a lifeguard in my teens, my fellow lifeguard friends and I would make fun of these kids that would crawl around the pool, barking and acting like dogs. We thought they were so strange, and I'm sure even made the comment that when we had kids they would not do odd things like this…guess what!?!?

Go Molly, bark away girl!

Sesame Street Live

A few weeks ago we took the girls to see Sesame Street live along with their cousin Thomas and uncle Brooks. We didn’t tell them where we were taking them; we just told them that it was a big surprise. As soon as the show started I was just kicking myself for not bringing our video camera. The reaction that we got from the two of them was priceless! They were yelling out the characters names with so much excitement as they came out on stage, and they really freaked out when Elmo came out. Molly sat on Stuarts lap and just had this sweet smile on her face and would lovingly look at Stuart and then give him a big hug...it was so cute! Taylor is defiantly my little performer. She was singing and dancing along the entire show. What a great day! They are still bringing it up when we say prayers at night…”Thank you Jesus for Elmo.” They are just so sweet!