Swinging

Baby B and J really enjoy swinging. Baby C tolerates it but isn't exactly thrilled with the idea. What the little ones find especially fun is older siblings pushing them on the swing! I took the little kids to the park while Daddy and older kids were running an errand.  The little ones enjoyed the park time!

I love listening to how hard Baby B laughs about Big brother C pushing her and being silly!:-)

OOPS! Forgot to post the video of "A" being a powder monkey:-)

Here is "A" in her role as Powder Monkey!:-)

Family Time . . . History . . . Just what we looked forward to being here.

 We decided to take some time off from the settling process to do some sight seeing.

We had a super fun time at Yorktown and Yorktown Battle Sight. When we were on our way home the kids would say "Today was so fun." It really was sooo fun.  We started out at Yorktown Battle Sight and went in the museum which showed the canon and you could go on a replica ship of the age. We took a guided lecture of cannons of the time and as you can see from the movie "A" got to be the powder monkey! She LOVED that! They practiced and practiced that.

After the battle sight we road a trolley looking bus on a visual tour and then went into Yorktown and walked down the main road and the kids loved seeing the cannon balls in the sides of the homes. Then from there we walked down to the York River which was BEAUTIFUL early evening!!

This sign is telling about the tall white monument at the bottom of this entry.

A and J exploring near the York River.

The kids at the York River.

This sign explains the cave below. Townspeople fled to the caves including Cornwallis!!

The kids really thought seeing the cannon balls in the walls was very interesting!!!!!

Daddy teaching the kiddos.

Inside a mock up of a ship.

Big C and I with General Washington!:-)

Reenactment of shooting the cannon.

Daddy with Baby C. It was VERY HOT out there.

J with Baby B.

Inscription on a 1681 mortar reads "I send not the rays of sun but the thunderbolts of Jupiter."

Big C wore his hat Grandpa J had bought him in TN.

The top of this hill looks out over where the land battle took place. Later in the day we went to the redoubts because that is what G REALLY REALLY wanted to see. I think he saw 2 of the redoubts. While at the redoubts the kids found a bird with its leg tangled in the grass and they got the bird freed. Their mission was accomplished.

Our cute J.

Yorktown Battle Field. In the evening the deer were coming out in the area which was so pretty! The deer were a beautiful reddish color!

Daddy with Baby B. Notice she is standing using both legs!

Yorktown Victory Monument.

A Year Of Grace . . . A Year Of Blessings . . . Time to Celebrate the Twins 1st Year!

Baby C and Baby B had their first birthday on July 17th. It seems strange to reach this mark. It really seems so much longer than a year ago. The girls are making great progress in their development. Baby C is all over the place crawling. She is still not cruising but does walk with a baby push toy walker. I have never seen that before that she doesn't cruise but will walk with a walker? At least she is making progress.

Baby B has just progressed by leaps and bounds since her spica cast. I am so pleased at how hard she has worked and where she is at. She also is crawling and starting recently to pull up to her knees (two Sundays ago to her feet). The doctor said she was at about a 9 month level. Not that that matters she has come SOOO far and doing tremendously.

I was remembering before the girls were born I would ask moms of twins for advice and I noticed they were hesitant and really didn't give details. I now know why:-) You just do what works for you and you troop through. The best advice I got was have a camera handy and take pictures because you won't remember it from being tired. I took a lot of pictures and so glad I did because it really is a blur. I do remember setting my phone alarm for every 2 hours at night and feeding them and changing them and pumping.  As the girls birthday rolled around I did look back and remember the night before they were born, etc. but the emotion of it did not take place until I was sorting clothes after moving into the house. As I sorted the teeny tiny clothing I really felt emotional. Seeing the clothes brought it back to me;-) Praise the Lord they are off oxygen and doing well. I also flashed back to earlier this year when "A" got out of her chest surgery and was in EXTREME pain. It has been quite a year to say the least.

I've learned more about myself in this last year than I ever have both the good and the stuff I need to improve on. Intense stress will bring a lot to light! I had more comments on my personality traits more this year than ever before too. In many ways I am a "take life seriously person" but I definitely have a take it as it comes side to me. As one Dr. said I "just roll with it." A lady the other day in a store was EXTREMELY shocked that all the kids were mine. She was surprised I wasn't frantic.  I've learned that that side of me that just rolls with it allows me to get through a lot and handle things. But on the flip side sometimes I let a little bit to much slide and I can drive other people that are planners and schedule people batty and cause them to be uncomfortable. I need to learn to while being myself to give a certain amount of structure when those type of people are around out of kindness. Also, I can learn from the efficient structure of others. My mom keeps me from sliding to much into my laid back side.:-)

I love my two girls sooo much. I can remember laying in bed not knowing if one or both of them would not make it through the pregnancy. I prayed and prayed they would both make it. I also remember early on in the pregnancy but after I found out it was twins that I wished it was the day I was delivering so it could all be done with. I had had an ultrasound and got a picture of one baby but weeks later I started bleeding and thought I was already in the process of miscarrying. I wrote down some verses to take with me to the ER thinking I would find out the baby was gone. The ultrasound technician was a serious lady and said she could not tell us the results of what she saw and that the Dr. was to do that. Babe and I tried to look at the screen and figure it out ourselves but it just looked weird. I had seen a lot of ultrasounds but this one was different but I didn't know why. Finally, the technician said "I want to share this moment with you." Huh? What moment? I thought she wasn't going to tell us anything? Then she told us there were 2 babies! We were SHOCKED. I was crying but Babe just sat there not understanding then I told him and he was SHOCKED. He was soooo shocked. He just kept going over and over it in his mind . . . what about a vehicle, etc. It was very cute.

I was hospitalized the week before the girls were born with preclampsia. I was SOO swollen. I actually lost about 30 or 40 pounds the first 4 or so weeks after delivery I had so much water weight. The girls were born at 30 weeks. Baby C was 2 lbs 11 ozs and Baby B was 2 lbs. 10 ozs. and they spent 7 1/2 weeks in the NICU. When they were delivered Baby C was silent but Baby B made a little kitten noise and the people in the operating room went "AWWW!" It was so sweet. My Dr told me later that the student in there was just thrilled she got to be in there for that delivery. They were at an excellent hospital and the care they received was super. The nurses were like friends. I could go on and on because their story is long but God is good. I adore my girls. I am grateful to God I was able to meet them and love them.

The older kids also have memories of going to the NICU. It is fun to hear their accounts of their memories. I almost always brought one or two of the other kids with me to come see the girls and I would rotate through them. It was a good experience to see how a NICU works and what their sisters were going through.

The picture at the top was taken at the Cheesecake Factory on their birthday. We had a great time there as a family. Even the twins were enjoying themselves! The pictures below were taken the day after their birthday but it is them eating their birthday cupcakes! We had a great celebration both times! Two parties are better than one!!

The second party was outside on our back deck. Great place to get messy!

Moving In Day Was Exhausting

I just couldn't leave this picture out of my blog. This was actually taken the day our household goods were delivered. J had a favorite mover that was moving our stuff in. He was a big burly guy and J obviously thought he was a neat person so he just followed him around! The guy took a liking to J. Finally, "J" just laid down in the study and fell asleep! It was so cute and we all and the movers got a kick out of it. I just pulled him off to the side by the boxes to finish his nap. He slept quite awhile in the middle of LOTS going on!!

Big C is a Big Jumper!

We sometimes call Baby C our "goat" or "mountain goat". We call her that because if she can get something to her mouth she will just like a goat. Goats aren't picky! I guess we could call her C the kangaroo too!!! She is quite the jumper . . . reminds me of G when he was this age. We've never have a kiddo since G that could jump like him but Baby C is getting pretty close!!

Two Sundays ago Baby B started pulling up onto her feet!! She is also waving now. She is progressing so quickly! Sometimes cries when she gets up to her feet probably for 2 reasons . . . she hasn't figured out how to just sit down again and I think her leg may not be super strong so it gets fatigued but even that I think is getting better.

Kids Are So Resilient

G took these videos for me this week documenting our amazing little Baby B. She can do just about anything in her brace now . . . roll over, crawl, sit up. . .  except stand up in it . . . given long enough she might even be able to do that. What a blessing to see her spirit and drive. We are so thankful for her and how God has helped her reach where she is.

We are also thankful for the good orthopedic Dr. we had in CO. He told us he didn't want her pushed to do anything but to let her do things at her own pace and she has been doing so well. She is quickly catching up to Baby C.