A Blessed Life

So last weekend while Grandpa Jim and Grandma Nancy were here, I took advantage of the extra hands and took some time to clean out the boys' dresser. I came across a number of things that reminded me of how blessed we are to have these healthy, beautiful boys in our lives.

As their mother, I do remember how tiny these babies were as I held them in my arms just days old. But it didn't really sink in until I discovered these itty-bitty hats that they wore when they were in the NICU. I thought it would be fun to do a little shoot of the hats the boys wore back then and the hats that they wear now.

Their old hats now fit nicely on these Valentine bears that used to watch over them in their isolettes in the NICU. Tiny!!!!

The boys in their big boy hats now!!

The boys were quite curious about these little bears.


I must say, Blakey is the perfect model ALL the time!!

The bears are wearing preemie sized diapers that the nurses put on them. I took one off and compared it to the diapers that they wear now. Unbelievable!

As I reflect on my life at this moment in time, I feel so thankful for so many things. The boys, of course, are number one. Then my dear husband, who just the other night, when I was at the end of my rope of consoling a teething Nicolas, got up and was able to get him back to sleep. The next morning, after only sleeping 4 or 5 hours, was still able to crack a joke about a nightmare he had where Nico was up all night. Yes, I am very lucky to have him as my partner in crime in this thing called parenting!

Jeff and I are both so thankful for our families and friends who have loved and supported us unconditionally, especially in the last year and a half when we haven't been so good at returning calls, hosting events, and generally keeping in touch like we used to!

With that, I will go snuggle with Jeff on the couch while the boys drift off into dreamland.

Love and hugs to all of you,

Rebeca

Who are these big boys and what did you do with our babies?

Seriously people, these boys are not babies anymore!! "All they want to do is, all they want to do is STAND and STAND some more"..."they like to stand up (ooh), they like to fall down (ooh), all they want to do is, all they want to do is STAND!". Sorry, I sing this song to them and myself all day long. Yes, I am going crazy!

After a week of this standing thing, they are just now discovering how to get back down to the ground without falling on their poor little heads! Oh, speaking of heads and as luck would have it, Blakey is officially out of his helmet!! Yay Blakey!! It is so nice not to have to mess with that stinky thing anymore. We can't decide if we should burn it or keep it as a momento.

Both boys are "cruising" along the couches and the gates or anything else that might be in their path. Once the crying stops, it really is so cute to see how proud they are of themselves to be standing. The dogs have had to adjust to these changes too. Believe it or not, Guapo wins the Patient Pet award. He has gotten his tail pulled, his ears bitten and his food bowl moved across the room by the boys and he hasn't even flinched! He is a "tough guy" on the street, but boy is he a pushover behind closed doors!

The boys got together and decided it would be fair to give us a mama and a dada. Nico chose the dada and Blakey gives me a delightful mama all through the day! It was very thoughtful of them to not offend either of us!

Okay, enough chatter..........See for yourself all of the trouble these boys are getting into!

The boys have long since outgrown their bouncy seats but they are fascinated with the animals on this seat.

"We're in this together Bro" says Blake to Nicolas.

"Let me out, let me out!"

"Ha ha mom, you look away for a second and I'm gone!" says Speedy Gonzales Blakey.

This is probably one of the first times Nico pulled up on the couch. Yes, a very proud boy.

"These gates have nothing on me!" says a determined Blakey. I must say, he is quite "determined" (aka- stubborn) to get to where he wants to go regardless of what is in his way. Surprising for the Fassetts in this family? Not really!

A sleepy Nico in his Sunday Chargers jammies. By the look on his face you can tell it was an exhausting game!

Our future bookworm!

Our future musician. (as of last Saturday, the electronics are no longer in the boys' reach. We purchased a new entertainment center and these cool gadgets are way up high! sorry guys!)

**These pictures are from my nephew Andrew's 6th birthday party in the park.

My mom entertaining the boys with her songs. They LOVE listening to her sing!

Nico swinging away!!! "More mommy, more!"

Blakey figuring out what this scratchy green stuff is!

I should also mention that we have an exciting couple of weeks coming up. Grandma Nancy, Grandpa Jim and Uncle Dave are coming up for a visit this weekend. They will help us put in cabinet locks and electrical outlet plugs throughout the house. On Sunday, Grandpa Bob and Opah Cay arrive for a couple of days before they are off to Phoenix for Thanksgiving. The boys will meet their Uncle Scott (Jeff's other brother) for the first time on Monday while he is here on a business trip.

The boys say "Bye for now!!"

Love,

The Fassetts

Trick or Treat Fassett Style

As many of you know, Jeff and I both enjoy Halloween for various reasons. We love dressing up, decorating the house and passing out candy to little darling dragons, fairies and pirates. So, as you can imagine, we really enjoyed having our own two little darlings to dress up this year!

Blakey's helmet inspired us to go with a sports theme. Originally it was going to be an all Charger theme, but when we discovered Nicolas had grown out of his Charger onesie we had to go to plan B! Nico did have a Dodger onesie so it was quickly decided that we would have one football player and one baseball player in our house. As usual, the day before Halloween Jeff says "what are we going to be?". We brainstormed a bit to come up with something low maintenance as we had little time or money to put together anything too fancy. My initial suggestion was for Jeff to be a ref. Not just any old ref, but the infamous Ed Hochuli. (He is an NFL ref who blew a big game for the Chargers last season.) Jeff thought it would be fun to call his costume "Dead Ed". (something very out of character for him!) Remembering that I had my high school cheerleading uniform in the closet, my costume was easy and pretty much done!! We handed out candy for a little while and then strapped the boys in their stroller and trick or treated with my niece and nephew. Enjoy the pictures of our future athletes!

I had to get a picture of the backs of their jerseys. Jeff's family is in the sign software business so he is VERY particular about lettering and spacing, etc. He meticulously placed these letters on the jerseys and then ironed them on.

They call him "One-eyed Fassett" in the Dodger dugout.

Blakey warming up those legs for a long punt return for a touchdown. Go #43! (oh, he's with my sister, by the way, who was in a very cool gypsy costume. Dressing up runs in the family!)

Blakey with his cousin Andrew "Boba Fett" (a Stars Wars character I am told- boy do I have a lot to learn!!)

Nicolas with Carolina the Vampiress

#43 on the Chargers is a player by the name of Darren Sproles. He is the smallest player in the league but boy can he run like the wind!!

#16-Andre Ethier. Not sure why we picked his number other than the fact that he is a big home run hitter.

Rewind to earlier in the day, before the boys got into costume, we did a small shoot in the front yard with some cute Jack-O-Lantern hats that Grandma Nancy got for them. Blakey was particularly amused by these darling little hats!












So what else is new around here? Well, I am glad you asked!

As of this weekend BOTH boys are crawling and oh my goodness are we in for trouble!!! You can tell that they are just so excited to be able to explore their little worlds on a whole new level. In addition, Nicolas has now learned how to pull himself up into a standing position. He particularly enjoys doing this in his crib when he is supposed to be napping. We would usually ignore this but he has now fallen backwards several times resulting in him hitting his head against the railing and crying like a baby! (go figure!) They are both able to pick up "puffs" (cereal bits that dissolve quickly) and feed themselves.

Part of me is so proud of my big boys but part of me is sad that they are getting so independent growing up so fast!!

I think this post is long enough. Happy November to all!

Love,
Rebeca

"Rock the Gap Vote" Campaign

Last week sometime I came across a Gap Baby Contest. AsI read through the details of the contest, I realized that the deadline to enter was a few days away. I thought to myself "Oh, we have so many cute pictures of the boys we should really enter." I emailed the link to Jeff and, being the dedicated father that he is, he dropped everything and we put together a "little" photo shoot of the boys.

Jeff was convinced that it would help the boys' chances of winning if we dressed them in Gap clothing. So there I am going through our bins of hand-me-down clothes trying to find some cute Gap outfits. Miraculously enough, I managed to piece together 6 outfits that were, believe it or not, ALMOST all Gap products.

The rules stated that you could only enter 5 pictures per family so we used the best 5 out of 6. There really are two contests, the Fan Favorite and one that is judged by a panel.

So, here is where we need your help......We need all the fan favorite votes that we can get! Click on the link and it will take you to the page where you can vote. (Unfortunately it will ask you to register.) You can vote once a day for each picture until November 17. (the current first place fan favorite has something like 34,000 votes so we have a ways to go!)

http://family.go.com/gapcastingcall/entries/JBFas/

We'll keep you posted if we hear any news! Thanks for your support and we'll be sure to send you all a postcard from Vegas should we win!

Hugs,
Rebeca

The Farmer Fassetts

We braved the heat and made our way to the pumpkin patch this weekend. As usual, Jeff and I were far more excited about this trip than the boys were! But really, once you have children, how can you NOT go to the pumpkin patch??

We met up with some other twin families and then tried to take some pictures of two cute but overly tired babies! Enjoy!

Blakey didn't really enjoy being in the wheelbarrow but he did like standing on the hay and investigating this big, round, shiny orange thing! He actually stood on his own for about 15 seconds.

"I'll just chill here in this cool "stroller" for a while!" says Nicolas.

Love the hat and luckily he loves wearing them!




Smoochie from daddy to Blakey!

Dad and his boys!

There's a rumor going around that there might be some video footage from this excursion....hmm......you'll just have to check back in a few days to find out for yourself!!

Hope you are all enjoying this time of year as much as we are!

Love,

Rebeca

Making Their Daddy Proud

Hello Family and Friends!

So as I was looking back at some of the pictures that I have taken over the last couple of weeks I was reminded of what great models these boys are!! Thinking back to when Jeff began shooting seriously, Bella (our older dog) was really his only loyal model. Then I came along and was forced to go to some horrible places like wineries in Santa Ynez and the beautiful beaches of the California coast to help Jeff with his assignments at Brooks. Now I have gladly passed on the torch to the boys and they are taking the job very seriously! Have a look for yourselves......(Blakey in particular is quite a ham in front of the camera)

Blakey chillin' in his activity chair

Nico "practicing" drinking from his sippy cup

Fall is definitely in the air in our neck of the woods (For us, this means 70 degree weather and the need for a sweatshirt.) I bundled up the boys and couldn't resist the urge to capture their cuteness!

"Look at my teeth everybody!!"

"Can someone turn on the lights" part 3

(I really don't think Blakey thinks its as funny as we all do!)

"Go fast mom!" say an excited Nico and Blake.

I guess the excitement wore off for Nico by the end of our walk.

Over the past several weeks the boys have been more and more active and aware of their surroundings. At our house, their surroundings include 2 dogs and a loud cat. Jeff and I are so glad that our fur babies are FINALLY able to earn their keep around here by keeping the boys entertained!

Guapo and Blakey

Bella and Nicolas

Blakey eyeing Boo Boo

The boys have also become more aware of each other. They smile at each other and they seem to know who we are talking about when we ask them where their brother is. So far there has been no known "fighting" over the same toy but I'm sure that is in the not-so-distant future.

Playing nicely with the same toy

Jeff and I really love this time of year.................The weather is cooling down, there's a slight chill in the air, Halloween is around the corner, and, of course, IT'S FOOTBALL SEASON!! Some of you may find this hard to believe, but I actually enjoy lounging around on Sundays cheering on our San Diego Chargers just as much as Jeff does. "Lounging around" isn't what it used to be BUT we are enjoying sharing the excitement of watching our Bolts play (and hopefully scoring lots of touchdowns) with the boys.


So what else is new around here??? Let's see, Nicolas now also has both of his bottom teeth. They are both on the verge of crawling. There is alot of rocking (Nico) and rolling (Blake) goin' on. We are partly excited for them to reach this milestone, but scared out of our minds as they will become more mobile once they "crack the code" on this one! We have not completely baby-proofed the house yet but know that's in the imminent future. They are both sitting up independently but not for very long. Eventually they topple over!

Blake still has his helmet on but has pretty much made all of the growth he possibly can. The dr's are very happy with his progress and are now just wanting us to keep it on so he doesn't go backwards......In a few weeks he will probably only have to wear it at night.

Nicolas is still disgusted by anything that resembles solid food. You wouldn't tell, though, when you pick him up! We're not sure what either boy weighs, but man, my biceps are getting larger and larger each day!

Man this is a long post...I guess that's what happens when you let so much time go by!

I need to go to bed....It's a busy weekend around here with Jeff working two weddings!!!

Here are some parting shots I just couldn't leave out!

Hugs and kisses,

Rebeca