My Little Note to Cruz and Levi

Dear Cruz and Levi – mama wants to wish you the happiest first birthday! You have made me, your daddy, and Luke so happy since your arrival. I would not trade all the sleepless nights and chaos for anything because you have given us more laughter and more love in our house. I can’t wait to show you the world (and Chicago). I thank God for answering my prayers. You have healed my broken heart and taught me to never give up hope for life…for living! I love watching you grow together and looking forward to all the twin bonding.

Cruz – I love watching your easy going ways and how you play with toys. The way you look when you are examining them, bit by bit. And especially when you look up at me with the sweet smile. The smile that truly shows you’re happy and content to see me and to be doing what you’re doing. Your smile fills my heart.

Levi – I love that you’re the life of the party. You make your presence known. You take charge. And when you laugh, you laugh with your whole face. You keep me on my toes since there is never a dull moment with you. I hope you continue with that spirit.

1st Birthday Party Celebration

I still can’t believe it! We officially made it through our first year with twins!

Cruz and Levi turned one this past weekend and it was quite bittersweet. I will miss the newborn/infant babies they were but I’m so happy that we survived the first year and I think we’re still sane.

When I shared on Instagram that it was their first birthday, a lot of people said they couldn’t believe they were one already. And although it did seem quick, I tell everyone that it felt like the “longest, shortest year ever”! The nights were so long as they would wake up multiple times but everyone just seemed like a blur. I looked through my camera roll the other night and it’s amazing to see how much they have grown and can hardly remember those early days or even six months ago.

Cruz and Levi are definitely developing into their own personalities. Cruz is the laid back, easy going twin while Levi is very active and always on the go. It’s been so fun to watch them grow and and finally interact with each other and with us!

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On Sunday, we threw a birthday party at the lower level of Fieldhouse Jones. It was a great venue for us because they did everything. We just showed up the cake and candle. The lower level included slot cars, foosball, air hockey for the kids and the kitchen area for adults to just hang out. I ordered some rainbow balloons from Luft Balloons since the twins are my rainbow babies. To go with the rainbow theme, I ordered a rainbow cake from Bake Chicago, which everyone loved! That’s about all the planning I did for this party. I’m so glad I didn’t put that much pressure on making it look party perfect. The surprising thing about that is that everything about that afternoon felt perfect from the friends who came, to how worry-free it felt, and how much fun we had with our friends. I hardly took any pictures from they day… these pictures are the ones our friends took and shared with me. This is very different from Luke’s first birthday when I hired a professional photographer…oh how times have changed.

We tried to get the twins to “smash the cake” but they seemed to be nervous with so many eyes watching them and chanting “smash the cake” to having a whole cake in front of their faces. But they barely touched their cakes…which was also very cute.