Finally an update!

So much has happened since my last post. Start with the good stuff!

Anna is the best baby ever! She is eating and growing like a weed. She is two months old now and slept through the night a few times. Today, she has slept from around 12 last night and is still going! It is 8 am! She smiles and chortles and enjoys interacting with people - especially her daddy. She has lost that "I'm a newborn" look to her and has the best pudgy cheeks. Still wearing mostly 0-3 months clothes after being in newborn size for a month. She loves her teddy bear mobile and would rather be held and sleep on a person than any other place in the world. Daddy's side of the bed is a close second, however. She is such a Daddy's girl already :)


Twins are making progess in both therapy and teething! Eli only needs 1 more tooth to be caught up with Ruthie. He has been a grouch lately though because of all the teething. They go the dentist for their first appt just after the new year. Ruthie's speech is starting to pick up, but Eli is still very grunty and guttural in his language skills. Have a feeling that speech therapy will be starting in January. Eli was almost able to jump last week at therapy! Both feet off the floor and everything! It is a really big feat in case you were wondering! Ruthie is a very stubborn and strong willed child - not looking forward to the teenage years. BOth are wanting to sit in booster seats at the dining room table instead of in their high chairs. We will have to see about this!

Noelle is doing great in school - making straight A's on her report card and avoiding trouble more often than before. She loves reading, Bible time and art. She has been a great helper with Anna and is always available to wrestle with Eli :) She likes to build towers with blocks for Ru to knock down. Way to go big sister :)


Jeff has been a trooper since I am not always feeling up to snuff. He has put in a lot of late nights with Anna so that I could rest. Santa should be bringing him some extra presents for being so good this year.


My medical issues continue. Neurologist appt was good - headaches are due to my bp. My meds are not controlling my bp enough so Cardiologist appt this week. Just like my first pregnancy, i have a kidney stone and other urological issues, so appt next week. BUT I feel better these days and we are in finals week at work! Yeah!

Here are some random pics for your enjoyment!

Anna Joy 10-8-2009

Welcome to the world Anna! We have had quite a time lately. Anna was born on Thursday last week with much strife and illness on my part. I ended up in the hospital for 8 days with my blood pressure doing really wacky things. It is still not quite stabilized but we are working on it. She was almost an emergency C-section on Wed night but my bp finally came down and we were able to wait until Thursday morning for her birth (she was actually due Nov 2nd). She is absolutely precious. We did an amnio on Wed morning to check her lung status. All was good. She weighed in at 6 lbs 10 oz and 18.5 in long. She is too tiny for 0-3 month clothing so my sister-in-laws mom did some emergency clothes shopping for us :) All the kids are so excited about baby Anna. Eli and Ru can't get enough of her and try to kiss and touch her all the time. Can't stay at computer for too long so I will post pics and update more later.

Proud or shameless Parents are we. HELP!!

We have entered Eli into the BabyGap casting call and would love your support. It takes a minute to go to www.gap.com/castingcall. Enter Eli's contestant number 946083687 and vote once a day. He is just the cutest thing - not of course to be outdone by Ru or Noelle, but his personality would actually allow people to take pics of him :) You do have to sign up for a Disney account - it's free and quick. Thanks much!

Baby Anna news and kids pic

Baby Anna is over 4 1/2 lbs now and is looking good! Unfortunately, I am not looking as good as my blood pressure is going up, swelling is not going down and stress is rising as well. I head back for a check up on Friday of this week for blood pressure. Keep you posted.

Noelle came home from school today early because she was sick - well really it was just allergies that made her cough so hard she threw up. Oh ragweed, you really need to go away!

Eli and Ru are doing ok, but both are teething and ornery. Eli is getting 1st year molars and Ru is getting 2nd year already!

Enjoy the pic!

First Day of School

Finally posting first day of school stuff! Noelle has been in school for 2 weeks already! Where does the time go? First grade and homework has begun but she loves to read and do math so its all good :) All other kids are doing just fine. New pics soon. Anna is still cooking and looking good. Another ultrasound this wed and hopefully a good pic!

Referral Anniversary

Hard to believe that a year has gone by since our referral (Aug 11)! It seems at some moments like it was yesterday that we first saw the pictures of our new children, but then at other times, it is like they have always been with us. We are so excited to see what the next few months have in store for everybody. Ruthie is now walking on her own, up to 10 steps at a time! Eli is still running and crashing into everything in sight. The kids have grown so much. At referral and now there measurements were/are:
Eli: 2008 24 in. and 9.4 lbs 2009 34.5 in and 30 lbs

Ruthie: 2008 21.6 in and 6.8 lbs 2009 31.5 in and 27 lbs

We are so happy and thankful that they are with us. We can't imagine life without them and remember their birth mom often.

A fun evening and pregnancy update

Well, it appears that I may have gestational diabetes. Oh yippee. I will be heading in next week to chat with the nurse and educator. All the kids are enjoying the warm weather - finally! Noelle has been swimming lately and the kids are enjoying going for walks. The pictures are from sidewalk chalk the other evening. Yes, we did have to change their pjs because they got full of chalk dust. it was a spur of themoment thing. Enjoy!

Basic news with pics

We've been busy lately with VBS and the twins club picnic along with other daily common life stuff. Noelle has been at VBS learning digital photography for the week. I will post some of her pictures later since they are still on her camera. We had a great time at the twins club picnic with over 400 people in attendance - all families have some version of multiple births and there were soooo many babies there! It has been cold and rainy so we haven't gotten out very much lately - hopefully that will change. Enjoy the pics and new updates will come soon - another doc appt for Annie on Tuesday.

Ru's big mess

Twins club picnic

It's RU!!!!!

Ru and Mom

Feed the pig

Eli being helpful

Dad and Eli

Lookin Good!

I had a doctor's visit and ultrasound today for baby #4. All is good to this point and the placenta is still working very well. Thank you all for your votes in the baby naming poll. While Abigail was the clear winner, we have elected to go off list and allowed Noelle to offer a name. We all really liked it and so, new baby girl will be named


Anna Joy Okrasinski aka Annie


She is currently in the 60th percentile for growth which is great for us and still projecting the same due date. The expected c-section delivery date is Oct 26th. Woo Hoo! Here is a pic of her smiling :) Keep praying and we will keep you all posted. She moved as the pic was taken. Sorry

Doctor visits today!

So I have huge children. Not really a surprise. I thought for sure Eli was over 30 lbs though and he wasn't on the doctor's scale today. Officially at 15 months here are their results:

Eli - 28.3 lbs 34 in (that's 90th and 97th percentiles on US charts - unbelieveable)

Ru - 26.3 lbs 31.5 in (90th and 75th percentiles - can u imagine my little 4 month old 6 lbs ruthie is now in the 90th percentile for weight!!)

Since the kids came home in Nov, they have always been 2 lbs apart. must be a twin thing :) Kids are doing great and only cried for a little while from their shots :(

Noelle did good too and we are now on a more frequent feeding schedule with her for hypoglycemia. She may outgrow it by age 8, but we will see. Otherwise, all is good!

Happy 4th of July!

Hope everyone had a great 4th! We celebrated with the whole family up at gramma and grampas house. We cooked out and had sweet corn. It was a fabulous time and the twins first 4th. They are almost citizens!! One more set of paperwork to go! Woo hoo!

First Haircut!

Eli had his first haircut by Dad today! It was okay at first, then not so fabulous but ended with big smiles and the reward of a bath! Both he and Ru love splashing in the tub! Enjoy the pics!

Happenings at the Os

Well, Eli is really walking now. We will soon have video of this amazing feat (still a bit Frankensteinish, but getting better everyday). Ru has been pulling herself to standing and cruising furniture now for about a week. They are making huge gains in the physical area these past few weeks. It is so exciting to see. As is the destruction that occurs on a daily basis in the house!

Ru is also developing more language skills and is adding more words to her vocabulary. Eli finally slept through the night! Praise God!! He has done it for two nights in a row so far. We are hoping it is a permanent change!

We are halfway to filing our income tax return :) Ru's SS card came in the mail today so Eli's should soon follow. We did not file them together so that we did not have consecutive numbers. This was the advice given by the very friendly and helpful person from the SS office. We can't wait to pay off our adoption loan! Our state reimbursement came in last week and they awarded us the higher amount since the kids needed to be adopted together (put them into the harder to place category for adoption). So that covered a fourth of our loan and now we hope that we will get enough back from the gov in year one to cover the remainder. we shall see!

We went to the Gurler house music festival on Saturday and had a great time! (sorry no pics). We also went to a wedding renewal that evening and had a great time! We got to see Aunt Audrey and the twins enjoyed themselves immensely. Sunday was a great father's day up in Rockford with my folks. We played dominoes and had pork roast. It was yummy. We are in week 21 of the pregnancy and everything is looking good still. Baby girl is kicking up a storm and making my life oh-so-pleasant! Enjoy the pics!

The view from our place
A typical Noelle pic - i personally like the squirrel in the background
Chalk at lunch with Daddy!

Tub time anyone?