welcome to the family

So, I'll warn you. This post has a lot of pictures...like, it's excessive. But there were so many great ones that I had a hard time paring it down. I so badly wanted Maggie Dehart to take pictures of the twins' birth. I really, really love birth photos. No other event gives you the raw emotion that a birth does. How could we not capture that? Unfortunately, our hospital doesn't allow photographers in the operating room for c-sections. I was bummed out by this, but thankfully, our doula is a rockstar with an iPhone camera and got great shots of the birth.

We opted to have Maggie come to the hospital to capture photos of us when the boys were about twelve hours old, plus pictures of our families meeting the babies. I'm so glad we did this. These images are priceless to me. She did an amazing job. Here are a few (or a ton) of my favorites.

Gus getting all clean and ready to meet the fam.

I was getting so excited to introduce Harriet to the boys that my heart rate monitor kept going off. 

snuggling with Lou

The boys were born about eleven hours before our scheduled c-section. My parents had asked us to call that morning so that they could pray with us over the phone. But instead we called to tell them that the babies were already here. They were shocked. Such a fun phone call to make. 

We decided that Harriet would be the first to meet the boys, so Andrew brought her in before everybody else for some sweet family time. I had to include all of the pictures from this series because they're way too precious. I knew she'd be excited, but I didn't know she'd be this excited. 

the absolute best big sister

love this expression

Trying to wrap my brain around the fact that I have three children...still trying to wrap my brain around it. 

And here comes the rest of the family! They didn't know anything about the babies beyond the fact that they were here and healthy, so the next couple of pictures capture the grandmas' reactions to Harriet's announcement, "These are my brothers!"

My mom is on the left. Andrew's mom is on the right.

Harriet picked out special gifts for the babies.

Andrew's dad with Gussy.

Uncle Brad (my brother) and his girlfriend, Alyssa, who is now his FIANCE!!!! Woohoo!

My mom had to unwrap the babies and check out their little arms and legs.

Papa and...somebody.

Harriet's gift from the babies - Clifford and Clifford books.

Watching the birth video.

I wasn't sure whether nursing would freak Harriet out, but she was totally fine with it.

Big helper.

Harriet calls her Sasa. Soon she'll be Auntie Sasa. 

Welcome to the family, beautiful boys. You can't even imagine how much you're loved.