Wrestle Mania

Happy June to everyone!  :)

So... It's been an amazing last 8 months.  Yes, the Babes are 8 months old!!!  Just can't believe it.  They are sitting, babbling, drooling, teething, playing, blowing raspberries, laughing, rolling over, EATING, and exploring like crazy.

I have been beating myself over the head for the serious lack of blogging these last few months.  And that needs to stop today.  I do plan to catch everyone up on our amazing Christmas and Springtime adventures.  But I feel like if I wait for that to happen, then I would never blog again!  So I'm just going to start from today and share what my sweet children are up to right now.  And if I can throw in some "catch-up" blogs every now and then, fantastic.

SO!  Without further ado... I give you... 

The Wrestling Smith Twins!!!!!!

In this corner:

Weighing in at, oh probably 16 pounds...

2 foot nothing is...

Xiomara "The Smilin' Slammer" Smith!

And In This Corner:

Tipping the scales at, well somewhere near 17 pounds...

2 feet and a few awesome inches is...

Liam "Let 'Em Have It!" Smith!

There goes the bell.  Xiomara immediately has Liam pinned.  Man, that girl can roll.  

And look at that gut...  

  

I can't believe it!  Now she's kicking him in the head!  Folks, this is a real treat today.  You don't see moves like this very often.  What's this?  Oh man!  Now Liam, with his monstrous thighs, has grabbed her ankle and is chewing on her offending foot...

 

"What the...."

In a bold move of retaliation, Xiomara has... yes, folks.  She has!  She has pulled off BOTH of Liam's socks and is trying to tickle him into submission!  The crowd goes wild!

The final bell dings as both parties, exhausted from their sock-sucking efforts, calmly take a full bottle and then head to the nursery for an afternoon nap...

If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I never would have believed it!  What a match. :)

Until next time....

 

Giggle Buckets

Daddy has a very special touch with all three of our little ones. The other night the babes thought he was quite hilarious! Xiomara has always been quite vocal, but recently Liam has found his voice and is quite the little "talker." Can't believe that they will be 6 months old on Sunday.

Enjoy!

Just a few...

K, here are some videos that I HAVE to share before another day passes by... You'll see what I mean. If you could have the babies in front of you this minute, you would understand just how amazing these videos are to me. Looking at the munchkins now, you would NEVER think that they were 3 pounds when they were born. But in these videos they are about 5 and 6 pounds and are around 36 weeks gestation, although they had been home for about a week or so. :) So incredible. I have so many more to share, and I will I promise. But here's a taste for now! Enjoy.

This is why we started calling her Noisy Cricket. Her little squeaks and grunts made the NICU nurses laugh... and made my mom, Kevin, and I just coo over her.

Together at last... spending the day in bed with Mommy.

Home at last with Big Brother. We'd been home for about 10 minutes in this video.

I just want to thank everyone for your patience with me. I know that I have the greatest excuse EVER for not updating with pictures, stories, and details the way that I used to. But it still frustrates me when I realize just how little I've been able to share so far. Sometimes it takes me a month to reply to an email.... Sorry. :) I love you all nonetheless and I promise that I will get it together soon. Maybe when the babes start sleeping through the night and holding their own bottles! But let's not rush anything, K?

Love,

Enjoying every single minute of every day

@>->--

What's in HER name...

So now it's baby girl's turn. (Baby boy's entry is here just in case you missed it.)

Miss Xiomara Marian Smith....

Our little girl... Our whole world. She has orange red hair and is feisty as all tarnation! She is so bright-eyed and beautiful and such a little sprite. Little punkin'.... Just like Liam's post, these pictures are her 3 month milestone.

Her nicknames are as follows:

Xio ("See-oh")

Sia

Sweet Pea

Sia Maria

Miss Mara

Baby Bobblehead

Little Peanut

Pipsqueak

Pippa (short for Pipsqueak)
Cutie Tootie (self explanatory...)
Spitty Cent

Angel
The Princess

One of our favorites is "Cricket." This basically come from the fact that she's so petite but raises quite a ruckus. So Kev started calling her "noisy cricket" in reference to the gun in Men in Black which is small but packs a wallop. That eventually got shortened to "cricket" and it's now probably her most common nickname that is unrelated to her actual name.

Xiomara

Kevin here. Since this is "my" name, I'm the one in charge of explaining it ;) I served a mission for my church for two years in southeast Mexico. While I was living in the city of Coatzacoalcos, we taught a family that had a cute little 6 or 7-year old daughter named Xiomara. Ever since I've always wanted to use it; however, since it was so uncommon (even in Latin America), I didn't hold out a lot of hope. When we found out we were having a baby girl, Nicole started "trying out" several different names on the little girl in her belly. One day Nicole turned to me and said, "I think she's Xiomara - nothing else feels right." I probably had the biggest goofy grin on my face at that moment!

There doesn't seem to be a lot of consensus on the internet about the origin, meaning, or pronunciation of Xiomara. Most say that it probably has its origins in Spanish, generally via a Mexican dialect like Nahuatl (the language spoken by the Aztecs - and still used quite a bit in Mexico) or Mayan. Some websites say the name is Portuguese, French, or even German, Greek, or Aramaic. Etymology isn't always an exact science, but my opinion is that our Xiomara is definitely Latin American, but I'm not sure where. I like the idea that it's Nahuatl since I learned to speak it conversationally while in Mexico, but personally I don't think it really fits in very well with other Nahuatl words other than the fact that it starts with an "X" - but maybe that's enough. Some websites think that it is derived from the spanish/portuguese name Guiomar. Most sources conclude that Xiomara means "famous warrior" or "ready for battle." I didn't really care much about what it meant, I just liked the name. Then again, she definitely is a fighter!

Now for the part everybody's been waiting for! ;)

For pronunciation the "x" is essentially pronounced like an "s" and the "io" is a diphthong so it should be a single syllable (pronounced like "yo"). So it would be pronounced with three syllables: "syo-ma-ra" - but that specific diphthong doesn't really exist in English so most Americans have trouble with it. The usual pronunciation we expect will be more like "see'-oh-ma'-ra." Honestly, I'm probably the only person that will call her "syo-ma-ra" anyway.

Marian

Nicole here. From the moment I found out I was having a girl, I knew what her middle name would be. Marian is my grandmother's name, and she is one of the sweetest, strongest, and most amazing women that I've been privileged to know in my lifetime. Grandma was in her late 40's when I was born, and I remember her being a young, fun Gram. She was always on the floor with us cousins while we played our games. She always had waffles ready with homemade jam for breakfast, and jars of frozen cookies for dessert. Now that I'm grown, I truly appreciate just how strong and steadfast my grandmother is. She is a woman full of faith, hope, and joy. I love her so much. She raised 4 children, worked for the same company for over 40 years, and was still running/ walking 5 miles a day up until a few years ago. We almost lost her to a serious illness just about 2 years ago when she ended up in the ICU with sepsis and renal failure, complications from a bout with a kidney stone. After losing circulation to her hands for a period of time, her fingers had to be amputated. I remember being so worried about her and how she would adjust to her new situation. But Grandma is truly a warrior and she fought hard to learn to do the things that she loves with her new hands. An inspiration to all of us.

When my sweet Xiomara was born 9 nine weeks early, I knew she had some battles ahead of her in order to come home. I remember looking at her full name on her birth certificate when it came in the mail and thinking to myself how glad I was that she is named after Grandma Stephie, hoping that some of Grandma's fight would shine through in her and bring her home soon. Grandma and Xio haven't met yet, but we're hoping that will happen early this spring. I have a feeling that they will be very close to each other in this life and the next. :)

Reason #5723...

... Why it's cool to wear this hat:

Because THEN you look so awesome while drinking a capri sun.

Right?

ALSO!!!!! Here's a little peak at what truly got me through my bed rest... AND helped my little babes be so big and strong when they were born:

(NOTE: These moments were captured this summer. I'm just NOW getting to those pictures. More coming soon!)

.... You're drooling, aren't you?