EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. -- For a couple of hours Saturday, Kyle Rudolph won't be consumed with preparing for the Detroit Lions. He won't be just the 6-foot-6, 265-pound Pro Bowler who has more catches (39) against the Minnesota Vikings' Week 4 opponent than any other tight end since he entered the league in 2011.

In subbing his shoulder pads and cleats for unicorns and rainbows, Rudolph takes on his favorite role of all: Daddy.

Between the best season of his career and becoming a first-time father, the last year has been a blur for the Minnesota tight end.

Rudolph and his wife, Jordan, welcomed Andersyn Kate and Finley Claire -- the Rudy Twins -- last Oct. 4 and will celebrate their first birthday Saturday. For months, Jordan has planned every detail of the party, from shuttling family and friends from the airport to their home, down to the cake smash the twins will one day laugh at upon seeing pictures of their infant faces covered in frosting.

On Oct. 3, 2016, Jordan watched her husband and the Vikings beat the Giants in U.S. Bank Stadium before heading the hospital early the next morning. After 12 hours in labor, the twins entered the world around 8:30 p.m. -- Andersyn first, then Finley.

An hour later, the football-sized babies were high and tight in Dad's arms.

The twins are identical in looks but are starting to form their own personalities. Andersyn is the chill one who likes to go with the flow, and Finley is more vocal.

"It's really her way or the highway," Kyle Rudolph joked about Finley. "She lets you know how she wants it. If that's the not the case, then she's upset about it."

The addition of his daughters has certainly changed Rudolph's perspective and outlook on life. The milestones he keeps track of were never limited to catches and receiving yards, but nowadays, the 27-year-old anxiously waits to watch his daughters go from crawling to taking their first steps to walking and getting into everything.

There's two of everything in Rudolph's world: two bows, two "Daddy 82" jerseys blinged out with rhinestones and two great big smiles that make leaving for training camp and away games a little harder.

"Obviously I miss my family when I'm gone, and every day I feel like I come home and they're doing something different," he said. "But this game allows me so much and provides so much for them. You take the pluses and the minuses. A lot of parents go back to work full time right away and have to work all day, every day, all year long, whereas, I got to spend the better part of four months with them every day."

Though his daughters are now the center of his world, Rudolph has long been involved with philanthropic efforts benefiting children.

Since he was drafted by the Vikings in 2011, Rudolph has donated his time and raised countless dollars for the University of Minnesota Masonic Children's Hospital. The inspiration to support families struggling with sick kids came from his own childhood. Rudolph was 15 months old when brother Casey was born with neuroblastoma, a type of cancer that typically occurs in infants and young children. His brother eventually beat the disease, and as a way to give back, Rudolph's family volunteered at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital, where Casey received extensive treatment.

Now that Rudolph has his own children, everything hits closer to home, particularly during hospital visits.

"Disease, illness, cancer, it doesn't discriminate," Rudolph said. "There's no reason why these people are there and we're not. At any point in time, we could be going to Masonic Children's Hospital with one of our kids. To think about how lucky and how blessed we are that we have two healthy babies that are growing and developing as they should, it definitely makes you realize how fortunate you are."

Earlier this year, plans were unveiled for "Kyle Rudolph's End Zone," a 2,500-square foot space at Masonic where patients can engage in therapeutic play and experience a sense of normalcy and fun. The space is set to open Dec. 18, just in time for the tight end's big Christmas party.

"It's unlike anything in the country,"Rudolph said. "We got ideas from all across the country. I think one of the coolest things we did is sit down with kids, all the way from 5-year-olds to the 17-year-olds, and found out what's important to them. What do they want? What do they not have right now at the hospital? We can put all this super-cool stuff in, but if it's cool to us and not the kids, it doesn't really serve a purpose. We wanted to find out what the kids want and what the kids would use, and we did that."

Andersyn and Finley have already made appearances at Rudolph's "holiday huddles," the parties he and his family put on in the hospital during Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Just as his parents did with him, this charitable effort is one the tight end is incorporating into his daughters' lives from a young age.

"They're always down there; granted, they have no idea what's going on at this point," Rudolph said. "We'll always bring them with us. We have some other families that bring their kids down for visits. One family has two high school kids and they do their own toy drive at Christmastime. You can see that they've had the values instilled in them about giving back from a young age, and that's something that we'll want to pass on to our kids, as well."

As the Rudolphs celebrate their girls' first birthday, it's a reminder for the tight end of how quickly time passes. Soon enough, he'll be teaching his daughters how to ride bikes and taking them on meaningful visits to Masonic Children's Hospital, where they'll get to volunteer their time and give back to those in need.

And while it's a long way away, like any dad, Rudolph already has a plan for when his daughters' first dates enter the picture.

"I figure by the time I'm old, I'll be pretty intimidating and just able to sit on the porch as the dates come in," he jokes. "I'll be a pretty big man so I don't really have to have my guns out there."