Silly Big Sister

Here's a little moment I caught last night. Aiden has always been our silly, smiley, easy to laugh little guy. Audrey, on the other hand, well you had to work really hard to get her to even crack a smile. Until recently (like in the last month), however, we have actually started to hear her giggle and laugh for the first time, really! So here's the giggle, courtesy again, of big sister Lauren's strange antics...(don't mind her minimal clothing-yes, she is wearing her bathing suit cover-up and its only 30 degrees out with 10 inches of snow on the ground-that's normal Lauren-wear, I'm actually lucky she had any clothes on at all!)

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

New Tricks

Another little video-this is Audrey's new way of getting around, 'walking' in her own way, not necessarily faster than crawling, but now she can carry (or get away with!) something in each hand! FYI, this video was taken after her eye surgery at the beginning of November, for those of you who are used to seeing her, you can see a definite difference in how her eyes align. You can also see the now 'outward' wandering tendency she has in especially her left eye, something we are working on with exercises.


Audrey "walking" Nov 08

Video Clips

I'm going to try and add a few video clips for those of you far away...random happenings in the daily life of us. The twins have been experimenting with standing and even taking a few steps, so we'll try to get a few of those on too. Enjoy!


The first clip is Audrey in the Kitchen..just after we caught her standing for the first time in the middle of the room, she decided to show off, picking up a stool.


Audrey October 2008

In the second clip, try first to ignore the large crash in the background, that would be Brent dropping several cups/glasses out of the cupboard, and secondly, I apologize for the level of noise...playtime isn't usually a quiet scene of togetherness!

A Lesson in Sharing...or not.

Audrey and Aiden turn 1!

Friday, September 5, marked the twins one year birthday. We can hardly believe an entire year has passed by...and our little babies are 1! The time has gone so fast at times, and so slowly on those hard days with sleepless nights. We celebrated with a small party at home (with Nana and Papa joining us from Georgia via the web cam), with a home-made number 1 shaped cake that Lauren and I managed to create the day before. Audrey, was a cake eating machiene, not waiting a second after the cake was in front of her to dive in. She knew right where that chocolate cake belonged, a girl after my own heart! :) She even took the time to lick her tray clean afterwards. By the time she was done, she had cake to her elbows and beyond! Aiden was more careful, ripping his cake to a hundred little pieces, then only after mom popped a piece in his mouth, did he realize that it actually tasted good. They both took the same approach when opening gifts...taking pleasure in ripping the wrapping paper to shreads rather than noticing the gifts, which annoyed older sister Lauren who just wanted to see what was in the packages! It was a great night! And when I snuggled my one year olds before laying them in bed, they still smelled of sweet chocolate cake...Happy Birthday Audrey and Aiden, Love Mama.

First Day of Preschool

Lauren's first day of preschool was on Wednesday. She is again attending a Spanish Immersion program through Zeeland Christian. Her teachers this year are Maestra Garcia and Maestra Jiminez (a difficult one for a 4 year old to pronounce!). Both teachers are very nice and extremely mothering with lots of hugs and kisses. Her class is exactly opposite from last year with all boys and very few girls. Lauren is one of 3, and after the first day had made friends with all of them. We are hoping that she will use the knowledge she gained in her spanish class last year to have more confidence and use her spanish in the class more often this year, and maybe even help her classmates to learn. She already seems more comfortable and willing to go into class and start her day. I had to ask her several times on the first day if she was ok, more to make myself feel better about leaving her! She quickly kissed me, and walked into class, saying 'adios mom!' Oh, they grow up too fast!

A Day at the Beach

Brent had a day off today, so we spent a little time at the beach. This was first time Brent and I and the twins have been back to the beach this summer since May, when we were vacationing in South Carolina! (Lauren has gone with other family and friends). The beach is quite a challange with the twins at this age, they have a short attention span and not much time before everyone gets cranky and its time for another nap, so we've haven't ventured out since we had lots of family around to help. But it wasn't the weekend, so we hoped the beach would be a little less busy, and we could sit close to the water for Lauren. The day was beautiful, the waves big-which Lauren loved. The twins got their first feel and taste (!) of the sand--Audrey was content to just feel it between her fingers, Aiden had to get down and dirty- digging in and spreading it all over himself--they both had a great time. And it was great to get back out to enjoy the weather and beach after missing it all summer!

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

A Good Day for a Run

Today, Brent, Lauren and Adam participated in the Byron Bank 5K and Kids Fun Run. It was a great day weather-wise, overcast and 70 degrees this morning, although a little muggy. Brent and Adam both did great, and Lauren did great as well in her second 1/2 mile Kids Fun Run. The Byron Parade afterward was a long and warm 90 minutes of tractor, after tractor after firetruck and campaigning trustee, justice or representative...and of course provided Lauren with a bag full of candy, enough to last until Christmas! We had a great morning!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Good for a little laugh

Here's a little clip if you need a good laugh..at least Aiden thought so. Every once in a while, Lauren can get him going doing the silliest of things...this day it was trying to comb his mohawk hair-do. Notice Audrey, just a little smirk or smile out of her..apparently it wasn't as funny to her!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

4th of July, 2008

We again spent the 4th of July Holiday at the Holland State Park with Brent's family. The day started out with the bike parade around the campground..Lauren did great this year, and was able to ride her 'big girl' bike around most of the campground before falling too far behind and running out of steam. We watched the fireworks over the channel from the beach in the evening. The twins, of course, were way overtired before they even started..and the first boom woke Aiden out of a peaceful sleep. Besides the rather chilly temp outside..it was a pretty nice evening! Here are some pictures of the day...

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Here we go!

Until recently, I never in my life thought I would need one of these things, much less do I believe that anyone would want to be reading the regular rantings of a mom of 3, but here we go!

Not only have we had a long distance relationship for many years with grandparents, aunts and uncles, a few years ago I lost my sister to the lure of Savannah, Georgia. And now my parents have had to relocate to nearby Statesboro, Georgia. So suddenly, it seems it would be a bit easier to have a central location where everyone could check in on the Kehrwecker family if they so choose! Hence, our new blog. So while you will most likely not find highly intellectual thoughts and philosophies on life and other subjects here, you will most definitely find a bragging mom who can’t talk enough about her three most beautiful children, her great hubby and our busy lives.

Life since the twins were born 6 weeks early in September 2007 has been, well, an experience I won’t quickly forget. In the last 10 months we’ve endured 3 weeks of neonatal hospitalization, the first year of preschool, two broken arms, more colds, fevers, pneumonia and influenza than I care to recall, relocation of our beloved Nana and Papa to Georgia and the closest thing to sheer exhaustion I hope to ever endure. Just when you think life is too busy and you are as tired as you could possibly be…God blesses you with two newborns. And as much as these months have been crazy, amazing and scary all at once, they have just as much been a lesson in patience and humility. Because, it takes an experience like this to remind one just how much your friends and family care for you when things get a little challenging. Without those friends and family members, we would have been lost…thanks a million.
Countless times Brent and I look at the kids and wonder how we went from a perfect family of 3 to a perfect family of 5 so quickly. It is nothing short of unbelievable that God has entrusted the care of three growing, healthy children to us. And while some days I get caught up and frustrated by the unending little tasks that are involved when you have a young family...I have to stop and send a little thank you to heaven for the privilege of having to do all those little tasks. Thank you for another sleepless night, thanks for this 10th dirty diaper of the day (and its only noon!), thanks for three loads of laundry today, thanks for having to clean up the splatter of pureed squash off the floor and thanks for the army of bottles that have to be cleaned and made up for tomorrow. To be without all those tasks, would mean I would be without the family I love and have been so blessed to care for.
So, stay tuned. J More pictures, videos and updates to come from Brent, Emily, Lauren, Audrey and Aiden!