I AM BACK!!!

Girls first pool experience, at the hotel by Mall of America

At Mall of America

After church one Sunday

Ok, so it has been very challenging to keep up with my blog, but I am going to try harder! The twins are now 8 months old! Where has the time gone? They are both crawling everywhere. London has 7 teeth and Lilly has 4. London can now pull herself up to everything, which makes for a lot of bruises. I think she is wanting to walk, what am I going to do. As you can see London favors me, left, and Lilly is a little Spencer, on the right. I have enjoyed every minute with them.

A quick update: Our summer flew by for us. Spencer was so busy that the only vacation we could squeeze in was a three day weekend to Mall of America. It was lots of fun and lots of shopping! Fallon absolutely loved it. If any of you haven't been there I would highly recommend it. There is a fun amusement park in the middle of the mall.

Fallon is back to her swimming and has her first meet on November 8th. She is now in young womens and loves it. We are very proud of her.

Spencer is still working hard, but is now considered a senior resident. This makes it nice when he is on call. He gets to sleep more often!

I am doing great and love being a mom to a teenager and twin babies. Wow, life is busy but great! The best news is that my sister and her family moved here this summer. They only live a mile from my house! It has been so great having my family here.

We are two months old and growing!

The past two months have flown by. I have cherished every moment with my new girls. They are very good babies. They each have their moments, but don't we all. I have truely enjoyed getting to know their personalities and watching them grow. Boy have they grown! They have both DOUBLED their birth weight! London is in the 10lb range and Lilly is in the 9 lb. range. They are smiling all the time now and London is trying to roll over. Lilly hates tummy time, but I have her do it anyway. Mean old Mom! It is so fun to watch Fallon with the babies. She is a little mommy too. I honestly don't know what I would do without Fallon's help. She is my rock, especially when Spencer is gone. She will even get up with me at night when Spencer is not home! What a gem she is! The girls are on the same schedule. They eat and sleep at the same time. They get up once a night and are up by 7 am for the day. When they were first born they were up every three hours at night and it took an hour to feed them!

I am getting braver everyday with them. At first I didn't take them anywhere. They were 7 weeks old before we went to church. Once I started taking them out I always had to have someone with me. Now I take them where ever I need to go. It is amazing how nice people are at the stores. They see a mother with twins and fall all over themselves trying to help me, but especially to see the girls. I will have 5-6 people around my cart at different times. I try to take them on walks around the neighborhood when the weather is nice. Cars slow down when they see the big limousine stroller rolling down the side walk. It must be quite a site.

We had the girls blessed when they were eight weeks old. All our family came up, Spencer's and mine. Spencer's family had never seen the girls. We had a full house that weekend. It was nice to see everyone and to watch them with the babies. They are now 10 weeks old. I don't know where the time has gone. Soon they will be graduating from high school and leaving for college! Maybe not that soon, but time does go by fast.

Fallon has really grown up this year. She will start back swimming for the summer. I can't wait for her to be home this summer. It will be nice to have someone to visit with during the day. She will turn 12 in July and will go into Young Women's. I cannot believe she is that old. It is so hard to savor the lives of our children when time goes by so fast. I am so glad I have been able to stay home and be with our children during their growing up years so far. I can't imagine what I would have missed out on.

One month old today!

Lillian is now 5lbs 8oz and London is 6lbs 3oz. We are having so much fun watching them grow and discover the environment around them. Viv's hanging in there. She is pretty exhausted at times, but loves every minute of caring for her little ones. Fallon has been a HUGE help around the house and with her sisters. She has been on break this week from school and spent most of her time playing with the girls. She is a big help with bath time. You probably can't tell from the pictures, but the girls love to take baths. Spencer has always enjoyed cooking and it's a good thing, because he's been doing alot of it lately. He made Shepard's Pie recently for the first time and it wasn't "too" bad - hehehe. It's certainly been a change to our lives, a change we are so thankful for. More pics later. We love you all.

Check out my Slide Show!

Check out my Slide Show!

Welcome Lillian Brielle and London Ashley!!!
DOB: February 24th 2008

WOW!!! We are so blessed to have these precious girls come into our lives. We are so thankful to all of our friends and family for thoughts and prayers offered on our behalf. The birth could not have gone better. Vivian delivered Lillian and London naturally and only 3 minutes apart. We had an uneventful 2 nights stay in the hospital and came home on the day we were supposed to be induced, the 26th of February. We feel so very blessed and enjoy the challenges of raising twin infants. Every 3 hour feedings, diaper changes (let's just say the Diaper Genie is working overtime!) and laundry keeps us busy. Needless to say, sleep is at a premium around here. Spencer has already burnt himself sterilizing bottles, cut himself twice preparing formula and has to be the only dad who has ever used more than 3 diapers during a single diaper change. He is learning that you don't have to use an entire package of wet ones at one time. Just like their big sister, these two are going to be super spoiled!
Fallon is a great big sister. She just loves the girls and helps tremendously around the house. She enjoys holding the girls and helping out where she can.

We hope you enjoyed the slide show. We will post again soon.

With love,

The Kirks.

Check out my Babies Room!

Spencer spent a lot of time on their room. He picked out most of the furniture and did all the painting. I absolutely love it! I love the ladybug theme and the pink and green colors. Our names are Lillian (Lilly) and London. We still haven't decided on middle names, we will let you know!

WE HAVE A DUE DATE!

This is BIG me exactly one week before the twins are scheduled to arrive! Yes that right, I am scheduled to be induce on February 26th. We are so excited. I will be 36 weeks and 7 days on the induction date. The babies are in the 4 and 5 lb. range, which is pretty good. I don't think I can handle any more baby growth. We will post our new arrivals next week.

Spencer decided he wanted to feel my pain, so he put a soccer ball inside his shirt. Not much of a comparison when you can take out the ball whenever you want! Must be nice. He has been a great support though and is very excited to have these two little ones arrive.

The Iowa Blizzard!

We had a blizzard on Sunday and of course my family had to play in the snow! Spencer and Fallon love the snow! I just watch from the window. They were outside for several hours building a snowman and just playing together. This time next year he is going to have two more girls to play with in the snow.

They always make a big snowman, and Fallon loves it. I think the ski's added a nice fininshing touch to their creation! They had so much fun and I had just as much fun watching them. We have had snow all winter. I sure am ready for summer to come along! Today is -8, the coldest day yet. I like Iowa, but this is rediculous.

She is going to State!

Fallon had Sectionals this last weekend and did awsome. Not only did she make the State cutoff times in all her events, she broke her own records and set new team records! I am so proud of her! I made it to most of the meet. They last 6-7 hours, which is way to long for a huge pregnant girl.

Fallon will be swimming at the Iowa State swim meet on March the 2nd. Unfortunately I will miss this big event in her life. The twins should to born in the next week! We are very excited about that, no more pregnancy! I am very blessed to be pregnant, but am getting very uncomfortable.

Fallon reads our blog so feel free to wish her good luck!

THE SURGEON

My husband the Surgeon!

Spencer is completing his 2nd year of a general surgery residency at Mercy Medical Center in Des Moines, IA. He definately enjoys what he does. The hours are not very family friendly right now, but I hope for the best when he is finally finished in a couple years. I never get to actually see him in action, but I hear he is pretty good. Let's hopes so, he is supposed to be saving lives!



I honestly don't know how he can stand in a surgery for hours at a time and still perform the way he is supposed to. I think I would fall asleep after the second hour! He will call me after a six hour surgery while he is preparing for the next one. I admire him so much!


I do enjoy the stories that he comes home to tell. I am glad I don't have to actually see the graphics, I'll leave that stuff to him. I like to hear the successes. There have been a few losses, that's life, but Spencer seems to be able to deal with them and move on to the next case.



He had a nurse take these pictures of him operating so we could see him in his second home. I think he is quite the studd in his surgery uniform!

The only complaint I have had is the accumulation of scrubbs that seem to just multiply in our home. I guess that will be something that will never change, given the profesion he has chosen.


The best thing about this surgeon is that at the end of his long day, he leaves it all at the hospital. When he comes home he is truely home, which makes Fallon and I feel like the most important things in his life! Sorry all you girls out there, for I grabbed the best man on earth!

Swim Girl

OUR LITTLE FISH! We have the cutest little fish that ever lived...

Yes, that would be Fallon. She loves to swim, she practices everyday after school. Sometimes I cannot get her out of the water. Swimming is definately what she was born to do. It has been so fun watching her develop this talent that continues to grow and improve everyday! She is my inspiration.




Fallon competes year round for the YMCA swim team. She is now preparing for Sectionals where she will hopefully qualify for State in four events. She is an awsome swimmer and way cool in her googles!




The events she usually competes in
are the 100 meter Back stroke, 100 meter Individual Medely (you swim a differents stroke for each lap), 50 meter Back stroke, 50 Free Style and the 50 meter Butterfly. She will be swimming the IM, 100 Back and 50 Back in Sectionals.


Of all the strokes, she is a natural at the back stroke. She has already beat the State cut off times in regular meets, she just has to keep though's times at Sectionals to qualify for the State meet. Spencer and I are so very proud of her dedication and determination. Fallon is striving for a college scholarship, which seems like a big goal for an eleven year old, but that is what she says she wants to do! You go for it Fallon!

My baby shower

I just had a baby shower on January 19th. It was so fun! The twins got the cutest things to wear. I cannot wait to dress them up!

They also received lots of bathtime essentials. Lots of handmade blankets, which I love. There were 5 pregnant girls at the shower. This is definately the baby booming season!

I received lots of nice things, ate good food and enjoyed the company of many guests. Including some family members who made the trip up from Missouri. I feel so blessed.

I am now 33 weeks pregnant and feeling like I should be 40 weeks. I don't think I can handle anymore growth! So far I have not been put on restrictions (bedrest), just to take it easy. So, I have been paying Fallon to do all my house work. She likes the money of course, more trips to the mall! I have 3 more weeks to go for the twins to be considered full term. After that there is no more taking it easy!!!!!!!

The Wii

Our family received a Wii for Christmas! What a fun activity. We have never owned any video games, but I have to say it has been very fun for everyone. Fallon's arms hurt, the next day, after playing boxing. It is definiately a workout. Spencer sure has enjoyed playing it as well. Our favorite games are Wii sports and Mario Galaxy!