The Arrival of Ruby and June

We added two beautiful baby girls to our family this week. Friday morning May 28, 2010 to be exact. What a blessing and huge relief to have them here safe and sound after all these months of worry, prayer, and hope. Thanks so much to our friends and family for your prayers and love. We feel that power and are so grateful for you. There is nothing in the world like the arrival of two of your eternal family members. It's the greatest reunion of sorts.

Here are the stats on our little beauties:

• June Elizabeth Lamb was born at 7:43 a.m. - 5 lbs 2 oz and 18 1/2 in long

• Ruby Louise Lamb was born at 7:45 a.m. - 6 lbs 2 oz and 19 1/2 in long

I think they look alot more alike than my other two girls (obviously) but definitely with some distinct differences - head shape and size, eye and mouth shape, and hair color to name a few. Here are their glorious first moments - I love these moments and live for them throughout my pregnancies.
Below: June

Ruby

The girls are in the NICU for a few days for some typical preemie stuff, but they're doing great and we just found out they can come home on Wednesday (Ruby) and Saturday (June) as long as they keep eating well and keeping their temps and oxygen up. It has been a rigorous schedule going down to nurse them on the NICU's schedule (8, 11, 2, 5, etc round the clock), but its been a good reality check for whats to come. In the meantime, Arden and Susan are dying to meet them and bring them home. This is as close as they can get since the NICU doesn't let anyone under fourteen come in; the girls were so excited to see their baby sisters!!!

Thank heaven for mom's, mine arrived literally in the nick of time and I checked in to labor and delivery 4 hours after her arrival. Now she is taking care of the girls and the homefront while I recover and learn to mother twin girls. She is such an amazing mom - and my hero. My girls are in heaven with her there. Thanks mom.

And one last one because I'm in love with them.
For journaling reasons, I thought I'd tack on this email I sent to my family with the news, so I could remember some of the details of how these little angels came into the world.

"Here's an update or an announcement in case you didn't hear:

Our 2 sweet baby girls were born yesterday at 7:43 a.m. and 7:45 a.m. We are so excited to welcome them to our family!!! Here is a link to some pictures from the last 24 hours:

http://picasaweb.google.com/mitchandnicole/LambBabyGirls?feat=directlink

Baby A (whom I affectionately nicknamed "the giver" bc she was the nice, responsible, giving twin in my womb) weighed 5 lbs 2 oz and was 18 1/2 in long. She is mellow and beautiful with lots of gorgeous strawberry blond/brownish hair.

Baby B (known as "the troublemaker" for her wild ways in the womb), weighed 6 lbs 2 oz and was 19 in. long. She is in fact a trouble maker and did not want to come out of her vacation spot in my tummy, making two doctor's work really hard to catch her mid-back-flip and pull her out. Needless to say, she is spunky and sweet with ash blond hair and she is, of course, beyond adorable.

I went in with contractions yesterday at 6:30 a.m. and was dilated to a 6, but since my special VBAC doctor was out of town, I ended up with less complicated C-section by the on-call doc. All is well though, I'm feeling good and up and around today.
(sidenote: here we are Thursday at Arden's graduation; who knew I would be able to say goodbye to this large appendage on my mid-section the very next morning):
As for the babes, they're doing the preemie NICU thing for a few days, but are making amazing progress. They started out with A on some oxygen and needing a little help keeping her temps up and B needing a breathing tube and some meds to help her lungs develop. Now they are both on room air and being moved to open air cribs, so we just need to make sure they keep their oxygen and temps up and start eating good in order for them to go home. The goal at this point is Friday or Saturday, depending on how the eating goes.

Sorry, I realize you don't need all those details, but some people are asking, so there you go. I am so thankful to be part of this awesome family and hope you are all doing great. Lots of Lamb Love,
Colee

P.S. we're pretty sure on the names, but not positive, in case you see the picture captions and wondered?"

Arden's Preschool "Graduation"

Arden completed her first year of preschool on Thursday - it was such a treat to watch her grow up and become comfortable in her first social/educational setting. She has learned alot about herself and her surroundings in this class and become such a fun, sweet, and curious little 4 year old. I just love everything about this girl!
The kids did a cute program about some of the things they learned and Arden sang the songs like a champ. I can't believe how much she's come out of her shell in the last 10 months.

She thought the graduation hats were so cool - I think because she saw daddy wear one a few weeks ago. I am so proud of both my graduates!
Way to go Arden! 1 year of school down, about 20 to go;)

Mitch Graduates!

We celebrated a huge accomplishment last week with Mitch's MBA graduation from the University of Utah! We are so proud of him for all the hard work, late nights, and balancing work/family/church he had to do over the last two years. It really flew by for me and I can't believe we are already done. My girls run around the house every day shouting, "Yeah Daddy! NO MORE SCHOOL!" They are so excited to have him home more and it is just in the nick of time for these babies to come.

We had an amazing show of support at the ceremony - thanks so much everyone for coming. It is such an act of love to sit through two hours of name-reading, it meant alot to have you all there.
L to R: Suzanne, Scott, Dennis, Tom, Susan, Arden, Suzy, Mitch, Rob (and thanks to Lisa for babysitting so these people could all come)

Here's the graduate about to get his diploma:
This is Mitch's school group - these guys have been through every class, project, and grueling assignment together. Mitch was really lucky to have such a great group - congrats to all of you!

Throughout the ceremony, Suzy kept yelling, "Go Daddy's Cougars!!!" Susan and I got such a kick out of the irony of it all. If she wasn't so cute, she may have come out of there with a black eye.
And here's the obligatory family picture. I'm not thrilled about posting it (for two obvious reasons), but thought maybe it would at least give us a good laugh when we look back on these years of early marriage. Who am I kidding, you are already getting a good laugh looking at it now. You're welcome.