BABIES FIRST CHRISTMAS

The kids had a great first Christmas. It started off with a white Christmas Eve. Dad went out and made their first snowman and we let each of them take a picture with it.

Aunt Cyndi had sepent the whole week with us and on Christmas Day the rest of the Ruske family came to celebrate with us.

The whole gang was here...Grandpa and Grandma...currently 9 in our generation (room for 3 more...in time)...and all 4 grandchildren (room for who knows how many more). We are 15 and counting...no announcements here...especially HERE...yet

Here is a picture of Mom and babies at just over 2 weeks born and recovery.

And we can't leave out the picture of Aunt Jenny and Alyssa in their matching christmas reindeer jammies.

This was our attempt at taking some Christmas pictures of the kids

Here is our little family of 4 now :)

Baby Blessings

Here is a picture from Sunday December 20th...the day the kids had their blessings. Yes, Mom and Dad were a little crazy to venture out to church at 11 days old and do it, but we had 16 members of our combined family of 22 all here with us and we honestly did not think we would have that many people come back up here in a month or so to do it later so we decided on Friday to do it. Unfortunately since it was the Sunday before Christmas many of our friends/Ward Family were out of town and did not get to share this special moment with our little family.

Two of the Sisters from the ward made it even more special a day for us. One came up to us just before sacrament with some premie clothes (we did have a hard time finding some at first) and diapers...even 2 Christmas outfits. The other took the time to write down the blessings and give the copy to us. I had mentioned to Alex that I thought it was something that we could do, but in the moment I was a bit overwhelmed and emotional that I didn't make it happen, but another Sister shared some love and did it for us...THANK YOU

Daddy Graduated :)

Alex went and graduated today. The kids and Mommy stayed home, but can you blame us...geeze they are only 10 days old.

SURPRISE!!!

The kids decided to arrive at 8:56 and 8:58 on Wed morning. Still don't feel like typing too much, but everyone is doing really well and we should be going home today.

Here are some pictures:

34.6 weeks!

We finally decorated our tree this weekend after having it up for a week with a single bulb on it that our 3 yr old nephew put up on Thanksgiving. I have been off work for a little over 2 weeks now and I must say I don't miss it :) I have been able to get a few things done that I wanted to before the kids get here, but I think my list is longer than I will be able to accomplish. I have been taking it easy so I am a lot slower than normal getting things done.

We have our next and probably last ultrasound on Wednesday and we will figure out the kids final positions and see how big they are and hopefully how much longer they are going to be with me 24/7. I am very anxious for Alex to get to help take care of them...maybe then I will get a little break...although I know I will be getting less sleep. Alex had his final class on Wednesday of last week and now he just needs to finish and turn in his take home final. It was a wonderful realization on Sunday night when it dawned on me that he gets to come home every evening from now on.

We can't wait for these babies to get here!

FINALLY

We finally decided on some couches, so we took the plunge today and ordered them. Unfortunatley we did not like the standard color (that we could have had delivered within a week), so the custom order will take 6-8 weeks :(

We have changed our minds on other couches many times before, so I hope these are the ones because now THESE ARE THE ONES.

(ours are a little darker than these)

Thanks again Jenny for letting us borrow yours for the last 3 years while we were deciding on the ones we wanted.

TODAY we celebrate many things

Our house is 3 today...Now that we will have kids in the very near future we will not need to celebrate each year in our house, but we are still really excited that we have our home...especially with the economy the way it is right now. 3 years have gone really fast...we have made some really good friends at church and now in our neighborhood as well. We have sadly had to see some go and move on with their lives away from us...we miss all of you. 3 years paid...27 more to go.

We also get to celebrate our kids today with a baby shower here in Dallas...we had one in Sept in Houston and I will post pictures from both very soon. We are so excited about the kids and it is really fun to see how excited others are for us as well :)

Another celebration is one month from today Alex will be finished with his classes. He will have completed all of the requirements for his MBA from SMU. We are still hoping that the kids will stay put until he is home from his last final. That will be at 35 weeks...that is a great number to reach for or even beyond.

We are also very excited that we will get to see our family again very soon...especially my brother who will have leave from the Marines the second half of December...so he should get to meet his newest niece and nephew then.

Our next Dr. Apt is tomorrow and then we are down to weekly visits. I am still doing really well...eventough that means I am at work everyday still.