WWF ain't got nothing on the Schlegel boys

The boys have recently taken up wrestling.  Perhaps they were inspired by the Olympics?  Although I can't tell if this Greco-Roman or a more traditional form.  Either way, it's pretty entertaining.

It's often difficult to tell who's winning, but Carter seemed to be the clear victor in both of these videos.  Anderson usually ends each match by crawling to Mom.  Sort of the same thing as holding a championship belt above your head, except better.

Visit to Ohio

We also took the boys to Ohio this summer to spend time with friends and family.  Unfortunately, we did not remember our camera and therefore have very few pictures of the week and a half.  Luckily my mom was able to come up for a day to see the boys and she is never without her camera.  Here are the few shots she took:

On a morning walk with Mommy and both grandmas, checking out Lake Erie

Bama trying her best to get Carter to like the sand, he was pretty skeptical

Anderson liked the water, but enjoyed it more when there were big waves.  

Mommy and Anderson, RIP sunglasses.  Please note above caption describing Anderson enjoying large waves.  Large waves + holding onto a baby + fashionable but not utilitarian sunglasses = disaster

Our Summer Adventures

Many apologies for the lack of posting this summer.  We have been out of town, or had at least one house guest for the majority of the summer and blogging has taken a back seat to packing, unpacking, laundry, etc.

We traveled with the boys up to Wisconsin for some time with my extended family and the wedding of one of my college roommates.  My parents met us in Chicago and we went to visit family for the first day.  Here are a few pics:

Enjoying the hammock and significantly cooler weather than in Texas

Carter checking out the boat

He called his brother over to confer

What's a day on the lake without a cold beer? (Please note Carter looking longingly at Anderson's bottle)

Carter loves to tap the Rockies

Carter helping Garry drive the boat

Enjoying the German Club (Please ask Ty for a more complete description.  I fear I would hardly do it justice)

Anderson got to help drive on the way home

Family photo before the wedding reception

First Birthday Party

I should preface this post with a statement making it clear that I am well aware of the general sentiments about people who do completely over the top, Great Gatsbyesque first birthday parties for their kids, which are entirely about celebrating the parents and their friends, parties that epitomize the age old tradition of competitive parenting and keeping up with the Baby Joneses, and parties which celebrate excess rather than children.  I share the majority of these sentiments.  But I may have taken one giant leap towards this dark side with the boys' first birthday party.

To begin with, we had a theme.  Of course we did.  We tried to focus on something the boys loved, but quickly discarded the idea of a pureed foods party, despite its obvious appeal to both the very young and very old, thus celebrating the life cycle in its entirety.  As a runner up, we decided on a golf party.  The boys love to chew on the plastic golf balls that came with their little golf set and to hit each other with the plastic clubs.  And I love to see them in polos and argyle.  Win, win.

We tried to stick with the golf theme for food and decor and stopped short of outfitting the boys in full golf regalia (side note: yes, Anderson was wearing a Masters polo for the party.  After all, if they're going to be golfers, and they sure seem to have a better chance at that than football given their stature and lineage, they might as well be excellent golfers).  Friends and family joined us to celebrate our accomplishments in our first year of parenting, err, the boys' first year of life.

Truly, we wanted to celebrate with everyone who supported us, prayed with us, cried with us, laughed with us, brought us food, changed a diaper, made a bottle, held a baby, or just listened to/read the rantings of two first time parents.  We wanted to honor our boys, but also the community of friends and family that supported us through this whole year.

We didn't manage to capture too much of the party in photos, but here's what we got:

Guests were greeted with a sign made by our very talented friend Annie

And a close-up of the sign.  Rickie Fowler (Carter) and Payne Stewart (Anderson)  at the Masters.

Some of the food
(Yes, the golf tees were holding together the sandwiches.  Please refer back to my preface)

Cupcakes, fruit pizza and a banner of all the pictures of the boys at each month; our golf course only had 12 holes 

Ready for the boys to practice

We made a cupcake for each of the boys.  While I originally  was quite proud of myself for using such a dark  green frosting to mimic grass, when I saw lots of little children eating said frosting and dripping it down their hands, I made a mental note to place practicality before aesthetics in the future.  Please hold me accountable.

They have no idea what's happening.  

Not exactly the excited face I imagined

This is a little better

Very tentative first attempts to touch the cupcake

First taste

First taste for this one

Wait, is his cupcake bigger than mine?  

Now we're excited about the cupcake and annoyed with Dad for  interrupting the process by taking photos

Ditto for this guy

I have no words.  He bore a striking resemblance to the Incredible Hulk. You know, the slightly lesser known yet very intimidating 15 lb. version  

This guy loves it

Golf ball pops for favors.  Fore coming and celebrating our kids and the ridiculousness of their parents.

1 year photos

Our very talented friend Helena offered to take some photos of the boys for their 1 year birthday.  We had so much fun trying to get the boys to stop moving and smile.  When neither of those things worked out, we tried to just get a photo of them in their natural state, which is constant motion.  Here are a few of our favorites:

Thank you Helena!

Happy Birthday

After 76 days in the hospital, 1 blood transfusion, 456 minutes of hand washing, 1 surgery, 3 appointments with the eye doctor, 10 visits to the pediatrician, 1 visit to a surgeon, 4 visits to the developmental specialist, 4 visits to a pediatric gastroenterologist, 16 sessions with an occupational therapist, 5 shots to prevent RSV, 7 blood draws and 2 appointments with a pediatric immunologist, our little boys finally made it to their first birthday.  There were certainly days in the beginning when we didn't think we would make it to this point and there were very few times when we thought we'd make it with the boys doing as well as they are.  We could not have done it without the prayers of so many literally around the globe, the support of our friends and family, and the sweet dispositions of our little guys.  They have been through a fair amount and it is amazing to see the resiliency of children.

We went from this

Carter at 2 days old

and this

Anderson at 3 days old

to this

Carter at 11.5 months old

and this

Anderson at 11.5 months old

And from this

Our family with 1 month old boys

to this

Our family with 11.5 month old boys

We cannot thank you enough for your love and support this year.  We are blessed.

Happy 1st Birthday little guys!

Babies laughing is the greatest

The boys love their nanny, Jamie.  She recently sent me a video of how hilarious the boys thought it was when she was playing with their toys.  I love their sweet little laughs.