The Bates' Men

Tim's grandfather (Papa) was in town a few weeks ago. The men got together and had a great time watching football and hanging out. The kid's great grandfather (Papa) is world famous for his cooking and the boys are not far away from getting to try a few bites here and there!!

Tyler (the Twinker's cousin) was catching some Z's on grandpa's lap

Papa is so sweet with these boys...he would hold them for hours on end and shower them with kisses. Which twin is this????

Getting Matthew and Caleb to look at the camera was the easy part...the hard part was getting their 82 year old Papa to look!!!

FYI - Caleb was in the first picture with Papa and Matthew was in the second one. Also, these may be the last pictures you see of Matthew without a helmet for a while. He was diagnosed with flat-head-a-sitis (really it is called plagiocephally - a flat spot on your head). This is a pretty common outcome when you combine a twin pregnancy and premature babies. They are typically born with it and sometimes it will correct itself within a few months, but other times it won't. Unfortunately, we are in the "other times" category. We already have some ideas of how to decorate his helmet so we will have to post pictures of the new head gear. He should only have to wear it for between 8-12 weeks.

This could spice things up because Matthew is already a little more challenging (read: fussy) and I am sure that sporting a helmet 23 hours a day will not mitigate this. Either way, we are excited to get his head whipped into shape (literally).

Cold Days...correction---Cold Day...it's back to 80 degrees...

The first day it got cold in Fort Worth we put the boys in their thermal hoodies...can you guess who's in green and who's in navy???

Caleb is in blue and Matthew in green :) Hopefully our faithful followers are getting really good at figuring out who's who!!!

Go purple!!!

Tim and Matthew decked out in purple for the Frogs' game.
Our neighbors, the Weeks, had a block party and "sip and see" for the boys. Caleb is being held by Mrs. Ernestine whom he loves.
Matthew and Caleb with their pumpkins and "boo" shirts on.
Papa is holding Caleb as his eyes are glued to the t.v. The kid LOVES to look at the television if it's on and he's in the same room. Matthew couldn't care less but I guess Caleb likes the sound and movement. We are going to have a real problem with this kiddo being a t.v. junkie already!!!

Grauntie and Gruncle Visits...

We have had lots of visitors the last few weeks which has been really fun for all of us! Grauntie Sharon flew in from Colorado to meet the twinkers and then Grauntie Nelda and Gruncle Steve drove down in their fifth wheel RV to see the boys again. They came down when the boys were in the NICU at Cooks, but had not ever gotten to see them at home. We loved all the help with the kiddos and with cleaning and cooking...it was wonderful!

Our nephew, Tyler, came over while Steve and Nelda were here to hang out with his cousins...he showed off for the crowd by performing "where is thumpkin" and by dancing and bouncing the basketball. He is so much fun and always makes us laugh!

Matthew is a happy twinker with his Aunt Jennifer. He was all smiles for his Aunt as she was talking to him!

Matthew is working on some modified tummy time on the boppy to help that neck strength. He can't decide if he should smile or cry!

Grauntie Nelda is playing with Mr. Caleb on the floor...

The boys loved seeing their grauntie and gruncle. They discovered that Matthew loves the tree in front of our house and so they would go on adventure walks with him outside.

This is Matthew with his Grauntie Sharon. She prided herself in being able to get Matthew to go to sleep and STAY asleep after the last feed of the night. We have a lot of competition around here in case you haven't noticed! Poor kids!!!

Uncle Casey's visit...

My brother drove down from Lubbock to see the boys in late September. It was great having him around to help and the boys loved him!

Matthew is grinning at his uncle...
The boys are having down time...no girls allowed!
We dressed the boys in their TCU gear for the TCU vs. OU game but unfortunately it didn't help the frogs pull off a victory!
The golf polos are from Grandmary and Grandpa Big Tom. The boys are pretty handsome in their polos!

"Hey, I know you..."

Today was a fun day at our house (Oct. 23rd). I put the boys on their boppy pillows and faced them toward one another. For the first time ever, they made eye contact, smiled at each other and exchanged "goooo" and "ooooohh" sounds. This interaction only lasted for about 30 seconds, but it was priceless. The boys will lie next to each other and coo at toys or hold hands or whack the other one in the face, but haven't really made any attempt to communicate so this was fun to see! I've heard lots of twins develop a "secret language" so we'll see if this happens with these guys. Unfortunately, I couldn't find my camera or video camera when this was going on, so I missed it. But, below are some other cute pics from later that day.

Daddy on his lunch break with Caleb...

Momma with Caleb and Matthew on their favorite chair.


Matthew and Caleb all decked out in their Halloween p.j.'s.

Two little pumpkin butts...SOO cute!

For those of you who don't know about this, it will change your world! Edi, a friend of mine from church, told me about this power "booger sucker" (a.k.a. nasal aspirator) that plays music and lights up and sucks boogers out with super battery power. Matthew (who's had allergies and constant stuffiness) LOVES this little gadget and used to scream when we used the old fashioned nasal aspirator. You can buy it at Target or Babies R Us and it's awesome!

Pioneer Reunion/Twinkers' First Road Trip (September)

For those of you who don't know this about me, I'm from a small town near Wichita Falls, Texas called Henrietta. My family moved there when I was two years old and have been there ever since. I grew up going to the town's parade every year called Pioneer Reunion. There is a big parade and rodeo Friday and Saturday and then shopping, eating, music, and hanging out around the courthouse square. I have never missed this event and think it is one of my favorite things about being from a small town. It is so much fun to back every year and see people that I grew up with and catch up. This year was extra special because I got to take the twinkers AND I got to see my dad, who is the mayor of Henrietta, ride in the parade.

This was the first time I took the boys on a road trip and I was a little nervous about how they would sleep and transition in a new place. THEY DID GREAT!!!! They loved being in the car and didn't make a peep the entire drive there or back. I was so proud of them and they slept better at my parents than at our house. And, I got to sleep in every morning I was there because my parents got up with them and played so I could go back to sleep after their morning feed. It was also nice to have my mom cook all weekend and for me to just relax. It was a very refreshing trip!

Auntie Kelly with Matthew and his froggie pacifier at the parade...

My mom bought the boys cowboy sockies and made them little horsie onesies which they wore with their first pair of blue jeans. This is Matthew with his momma!

Caleb the cowboy!!!

The boys also wore matching John Deere green outfits...this is Matthew.

Caleb is giving us a little winkin' action...

The boys had their first double date with the Davis' twins from Henrietta. Avery and Kennadie were so cute and agreed to go out with younger men just this once! My parents really enjoy these girls and are always telling us fun stories about them so we had to meet them. It was great having another twin mom (Jennifer) to talk to!

Matthew LOVED the ladies...reminds me of his daddy when he was younger, actually!

Grandma bought a new bath for the boys at her house and it worked so much better doing it in the sink instead of bending over in the tub. The boys loved it and Momma didn't have to do bath duty which was nice!

Pictures from Dad!!

Here are some pictures that I took over the last few weeks with my camera!!

The kiddos get dressed early before church so they can goof around on the couch before we go!!

One of the few family portraits we have where no one is making faces.

Caleb wanted to show off his big smile

Caleb is dazed and confused

Grandma was a huge help getting Caleb ready. Is it me or does Caleb look pretty stout in this picture????

This is Emily and "The Chooch". We've given Matthew the nickname "Chooch" because Jack Davis calls him "Ma-chew". We started calling him "Chew" and it evolved into "The Chooch".

They are laughing because they both have poop diapers and we are supposed to be leaving for church in two minutes.

The last night of the Kaleidoscope Show, we decided to have family come up and celebrate the home tour being over. At this point we were asked the kids to have a "flex off" to see who had the biggest muscles. Tyler (Matthew and Caleb's cousin) seems to be the only one participating.

Tyler was horrified when he found out there had been allegations of steroid use and he was robbed of his gold medal.

This is a picture of the RV we rented for the TCU vs OU game a few weeks ago. It was a bummer that we lost the game (read: we got blown out), but we still had a lot of fun in this monster!!