Riverdance

What a great visit with our buddy Riv and his parents. They are the nicest, loveliest company, and we always leave them feeling a little more worldly, in-the-know, and, now, in love with little boys. This one is a born dancer, and what’s not to dance about, life is good!

And how about this pig pile?

What is so wrong about being boy-crazy anyway?

Softshell Crab Season

They’re here! It’s time to suspend all sensitivity to small lovely creatures and eat the WHOLE THING. Every succulent bite.

If your fishmonger doesn’t get them, he isn’t worth a lick. Pay anything. Dip it in egg wash, flour, and fry in butter – salty, salty butter. Oh yum yum yum!

And for more yums:

I hope they never show up smothered in salty, salty butter or I will surely eat them!!!

Road Tripping!

And what a journey it was! Babies are great company on the road. They occupied us just enough to make us feel useful, and were peacefully sleeping the rest of the time. We must treasure the days before “The License Plate Game” and other diversions are necessary.

1 stop on the way down . . . isn’t it lovely?

I guess “No Services” means “Not even a freaking picnic table for you!!”

What you can’t see here – the flies, ew. Bad parents, bad bad bad.

Made up for this on the way home when we stopped in Monticello and found the greenest lawn we could find. Just so happens it was in front of the county courthouse/ jail. Bad parents, bad bad bad.

As usual, the fellas are no worse for wear, the best babies we have ever had!!

Both the guys got to have a bottle with their GiGi – Great Grandmother! Such special days!

We think Gaga was a little shocked at how big they have gotten since he saw them last! Thanks for all the bottles and good lovin’ Gaga, Netnet and Juice! We think their lovin’ arms are the ones that encouraged them they can start sleeping through the night. Score? 2 to 2, and never on the same night, but who is counting? We are soo proud – and getting more rested every day.

Aunt Julie, the biggest sucker for babies around!

Matt matt matty matt, matty matty matt matt (and cousins – yum yum!).

Cousin Maggie could be the third twin (triplet?!), at ~12lbs. she is probably right between Matt & Leo. Notice she is the only one cooperative enough to look at the camera. Love you Mags!

And the first golf balls of the year were hit WAAAYYYY into the lake. Must be summer – so where is the sun?!

12 Weeks and Sooooo Big!

My next post will hopefully be a video of me feeding the twins “by myself.” It’s what everyone wants to know and see – and folks, it’s not pretty. The trick is, if there is someone in the room to videotape, there is someone in the room to help feed the twins, so I sure as heck am not going to waste their lovin’ arms on videotaping! We’ll see, maybe I’ll get my act together to do it, it’s pretty funny. 2 weeks ago (before the arrival of their grandmother and auntie) I found myself laying one guy across my lap and sitting the other on his back for burping. I’m definitely not going to reveal who got which position.

The guys smile lots these days but you have no idea how hard it is to catch simultaneous smiles on camera!

Matt up close and personal!

Do you think they look identical? :

Big boys at 12 weeks old!

Matt’s eyes are so bright and beautiful!

And Leo’s eyelashes make us melt!

Party on Wayne . . . Party on Garth!

Anna Sawin Photography/Melissa Woodard’s Photo Digest

Anyone who has met these women in any capacity knows immediately they are in the presence of greatness, and true goodness.

Melissa is such a natural with children of all ages!

Anna knows little boys from YEARS of experience! She & I are also the big sisters to much younger sisters, baby-training started very early for us!

Yeah, right . . .

It has taken me too long to get this together, forgive me. Anna & Melissa visited us for a weekend, cooked, did laundry, kept us great company, and did an amazing job documenting how smitten we are with our our twins, Matt & Leo.

Anna is a professional freelance photographer extraordinaire, blogger, mom of 2 gorgeous boys, wife of one of the sweetest men I know, an amazing friend, aunt, sister, oh god I could go on and on! Melissa is a high-powered prosecutor in Salem, MA, travel buff, lover of babies, an amazing friend, photography buff, and effusive gift-giver. We Keegans love them so.

A sample of their work:

The twins are so much bigger now, and we are relieved to have such beautiful photos of such early and special days, for surely we were too tired to have any working memory. Still too tired. . . note to self – take more pictures.

Visit Anna’s Website here.

Melissa’s Photo digest is for friends who subscribe, and I feel lucky to be a subscriber!

Happy Easter

And thanks for the candy, Bunny. Clearly Mom and Dad need it, especially at 3 am.

Ready for the party and looking so handsome. Matt on the left, Leo on the right.

In the Russo Portrait Studio:

In case you are wondering if twins run in the family . . .

Leo is smitten with Aunt Katie.

26 (& 1/2) grandchildren.  Life is good!

The Age of Homespun

Fifth graders across New York State can describe the Age of Homespun as the time in our history when goods were not manufactured but made by hand. I can only hope that mothers of twins back then had friends as great as ours. In addition to all of the delicious food that keeps us going, check out these homespun beauties

Beautiful quilts hand-stitched by Diane Wardlow.  The guys’ names are stitched right in!  Matt and Leo love to rest on their bellies and look at the beautiful colors

Sue Salzman crocheted these soft clouds.  Each is uniquely designed, just like our twins.

The star design of these blankets look great on the stars of our show, thanks to Eileen Selzer.

Moon boots compliments of Aunt Julia. (I happen to know there is a fifth bootie  out there  – it’s fun to learn on the fly!)

Aunt Susie is the heir apparent to a renowned knitting tradition.  The “Netter Sweater ” has a whole new look and matching hats!

And these last two photographs?  Gorgeous, right?  Stay tuned for more, and for many, many touts and kudos to our dear friend Anna Sawin.  Full blog entry to come on her and her talents.  In the meantime, check her out at her website.  She documents our lives so beautifully and we are indebted to her in countless ways.  More on this in entries to come.

In the meantime, much love and thanks to all of the talented baby lovers who have been so generous to us.  Matt & Leo know how much love is held in the stitches.

Baby Loves

We get a LOT of visitors. We are family folks, and I’m just so thankful for our family and how much they are loving the boys. I’m trying with the pictures, to keep them all straight, but surely I have lost/forgotten some. Forgive, and enjoy all the smiles. Thank you everyone for all your gifts, food, and love. We are the most blessed family, and that’s all it’s really about, you know? Yes, you know.

Caroline & Samantha were very into these little dolls!

And Joe was into the milk bubbles.

A lovely Aunt Mary and Matt getting to know one another.

Megan & Erin – the big girls!

Aunt Juice – in baby training – the crash course. Dan, the experienced teacher as of 3 weeks.

Net-Net – not really a visitor at all. Part of the home team. We miss her and her joy over ducky feet pajamas, granite countertops, freezing spaghetti, and all things baby. We are at home in our home because she helped make it our home.

Cousin Katie gets to know Little Leo.

The Burons know what they are doing with little boys.

Auntie Melissa – One of the two fairy godmothers.

Anna – Fairy Godmother #2, listening to her lullabyes and eating her snacks as I write.

A hot shot photography team too!

Uncle Leo gets to know a littler one.

Dylan is a natural with Matt.

Teddy? Not so natural, but an enthusiastic supporter.

And the Johnsons, essential part of the baby team. Where would we be without Aunt Ann, consultant, baby expert, carbohydrate pusher, and the ultimate mush. Works with babies all through the night and still has more love to give ours than you can imagine.

To come:

Party & Paul

Lisa & Herb

Melissa

Gabe & Lynn

Amy!!! – For 5 days!!

Fer – hot on Amy’s heels.

Stay tuned for more pics of baby loves!

xoxo

First Days at Home

We arrived home to our house – done! Beautiful! We are so comfortable and Mom & Julia civilize it more each day. We are getting to open our wedding gifts all over again – what a treat! These chairs are where they boys hang out downstairs. We love the chairs and get to gaze at the boys all day long.

Matt’s first bath!

And into some cozy booties knit by Aunt Julia, we think they look like moon boots on those chicken legs!

Leo’s turn!

More moon boots.

The view from my bedside. This cosleeper (kind of like a pack n play but up higher and converts to a pack n play later) is perfect for the twins. (And c-section recovery). They stay close through the night always turn their heads toward each other (Doc says I have to shift them to avoid FLAT HEAD – yikes, who knew about that?!).

We are the happiest family! Check out our cloud chair – we are gliding the days away! Thank you Daddy!

Hospital Days

The proud Grandmothers!

And Grandfathers!

Dr. King worked hard to get these babies into this world  healthy, big, and strong!

Leo, up close and personal.

NetNet & GaGa looking proud.

A tired and proud papa!

It’s time to go home, we had a great stay, learned a lot, and met so many nice people.  We are thankful to everyone who took such great care of us!