College roomie vacay!

My college roommate, Janet, who I was placed with randomly our first year became my roomie all 4 years- on and off campus. We got together in williamsburg a month ago! We had a great time- They have two girls, and she's pregnant with a 3rd, which will be a surprise what it is until the birth. All the kids got along and we really had a great time. We did family stuff together, the guys golfed one day and we got pedicures. It really was so much fun. We even got to see another roomie of ours too! I miss them so much!

The Woof clan on the boat:


Jon and I had to take turns since we couldn't bring the stroller on board, so here's me with Caed:

Haley and Caed in the burned out boat:

fun jamestown stuff...

C in the gear!

holy gimoly!

I found this picture tonight. I usually blog from my netbook, and tonight I am working on some photos I recently took and so I'm on my desktop. I ran into this picture....38 weeks....wow. I thought I would have delivered by then.....but no. Delivered at 39 weeks, so here you have it...it doesn't help my shirt doesn't fit over my belly either...

Birthdays

Today is my dad's birthday- he would have been 68. I went and visited his "spot" with the three kids and took a picture, I did it because I know the rest of my family would have liked to do it if they could have. Tonight Caed asked why we didn't have a cake! We should have, next year I think we'll celebrate his birthday with cake, maybe small personal square cakes because my dad liked the corner pieces of cake! Yum, I'm hungry thinking about it! Here's to next year.

nearly 1 month ago my Nana turned 90!! I didn't do a post because I was in the middle of getting my computer returned and trying to catch up on all things with the hulabaloo around the twins turning 1! Although we couldn't make the celebration, we were celebrating in our hearts with her! (which hers is going strong, thankherverymuch!) I value all the conversations and time spent with my Nana. She holds a very special place in my heart of course! If I had to choose the most valuable quality about her, it would be her faith in God. Growing up we had the opportunity of living with my Nana and Grampy for a bit- in that time I really got to live her faith, experience it. She's an incredible woman and knows the Bible back and forth (right Nana?) and has read it through so many times! One of things I loved was looking through her clothespins and finding my name. she wrote people's names on the clothespins and would pray for them as she hung out her laundry. (and there was a lot of laundry to be hung then with all of us together!) I value her faith also because it's laid such important roots for me. I so valued living and growing up in a Christian home, and it's because of her continuation on in her faith that has me believing and living it as well.

Happy very Belated Birthday! And here's to at least 10 more!!

At Christmastime:(where is my flash?)

oh there it is- too much!! She's holding Theron and I love that it appears that he's looking up at her.

And for Mother's Day sake, My mom and Nana with my mom's grandkids and some of Nana's great grandchildren. (taken Aug. 2009)

zoo

i am going to skip ahead a little here, but I'll be going back. Just wanted to get these photos for family. I took the kids to the zoo all by myself and we had a great time, I even had time to take pictures! I napped the babies in the morning and got us all ready and then got them up changed them and put them in the car. We ate lunch there, and it was so cute to do together, they did really well! I didn't push it or have any expectations, and when I sensed reaching the end, we packed up and left. we'll be back!

One Year down and a lifetime to go!

I can't believe one year went by and no blog about it at all.

I was a little thrown off as my computer was sent to be fixed before the 1 year warranty ran out. (it was one of a couple of gifts for birthing the twins) We had family in town and then we've been going ever since. So let's see if I can catch myself up.

One year (+) ago...

Aldan Douglas

Theron David

Jon and Auntie April getting ready to come into the OR. You have to deliver twins in the OR in case you need an emergency c-section at any point. Luckily I delivered them both naturally (with epidural). My Dr. also let me deliver on the bed and not on the OR table, which is not what they normally do! Can you imagine? Whew!

I have valued this year so much. I've seen my family, good friends, and neighbors come around us and support us. I've found some deep hidden strength to make it through the days, weeks and months (with the generous support of those that came in to help those first 4 months!). Making it through this first year with twins has felt like such an accomplishment, I can't stop pinching myself that we made it. I know I've said it many times, but we've been so blessed by these boys. The twins, although lots of work, have been fun. I'll be real here too- there have been some really hard times. This winter they seemed to struggle with ear infections and teeth acquiring. We were really sick for about a week after Thanksgiving, and that was REALLY difficult too. Nursing although now ended, was great, but a welcome relief to make it to a year and be done. I just never saw myself as a mom of twins. I love human dynamics. Watching families and friends and all sorts of dynamics that we encounter in life. So having twins has really brought up some interesting family dynamic issues. Do we treat the twins the same? Do we force something between them and Caed? How does our first born get a fair share with the dynamic of three immediate kids? Are we running a daycare now? and lots more!!

All of these things pass through my mind, and although I could read to my hearts content, I am sure, I don't. I would prefer to love these kids without a pretense of why I may be doing one thing or another. I want them to know that we treat situations differently- things weren't 'even' with me and my sisters, so I am not concerned about fair or even, just loving them and helping them grow into the men that God has created them to be. I think that will look different in each of them as they grow into their personalities.

It's been an experience to go from one kid to three. Our life feels so full, and well, our home, and car do too. At the seams to be exact. We can't take anyone home with us in the car, and our house occasionally sees a friends of Caed's to nap, but we wouldn't be able to have another kid in this house. (if it were up for discussion, which it is not) We are so excited to see how our lives unfold with Aldan and Theron in it. We love them so much and we're so happy to have them as our sons. We have a wild ride ahead of us I am sure. Back to reading Bringing Up Boys!

(for some reason I can't get more photos uploaded, and I've waited long enough to try to get this post up, so I'll try to add a photo of Aldan later!!)

,

so proud!

My sister kik ran a 10k 3 weekends ago. This weekend my sister Heather did the biking part as part of a relay team in a duathalon (20 miles, super hilly!). (her husband did the whole thing today too)

so proud of them both. Kik is 40, Heather is 37. First races ever.

I "run" a 5K tomorrow if my tummy is feeling better. It won't be impressive, but it's a start. For me it's a mindset change to make health a priority. I don't care my weight number if I've got the energy and ability to chase these kids and my grandkids around one day.

Yay for sisters (working on April who's got asthma to do something too)!

(ps. I just got my computer back after being fixed, and I am so happy!)

funny kids

today we had two particularly funny incidents with the kids.

First was Caed. I was walking around on my hands and knees with him on my back (like a horse) and I crawled into the kitchen. My knees killed me on the tiles. I told Caed to hold on, "i am old". He said "yeah, I know, you're going to die soon." Wow. What an encourager he is! I can't tell you how shocked I was over that comment!!

Second was the babies. I went to Target at naptime and Jon told me the twins were talking and laughing the whole two hours I was gone. When I called him on my way home, he said they had settled down but one of them was fussing. I said okay, but leave them up there (they haven't been napping well and I'm trying to get Theron to actually lay down and nap!). When I got home Theron was still fussing. i let it go on for a bit, but then decided to go in and get him. I went in and he was without pants. I quickly looked at Aldan, who was sleeping, and he was pantless too. I thought I saw the pants in Aldan's crib. I quickly left, with Theron pantless, and brought him downstairs. I asked Jon if he put them to sleep without pants (thinking they were too warm?). But he didn't. So all their laughing and jolly good time up there without napping produced two babies without pants, and their pants in Aldan's bed. I wish I had a video monitor, and could have seen that! How did they get their pants off (especially Theron who is less coordinated) and then decide Aldan needed them in his bed? Man, this kids are getting organized!

I guess there will be more of this stuff in the future- and I can't wait!

spam

I just changed some of my blog settings, I was getting spammed with junk and I was sick of getting them! Sorry to you if you post a comment with anonymous setting and it won't let you anymore...stupid people who made me make the change...

on the move

yup, Theron is on the move. He started crawling forward on Saturday...Sunday he didn't get much chance to practice, and today, he was crawling back and forth through the house, getting into all the 'first' trouble Aldan got into.

Whew, this kid made it before our 1 yr. appt. next week with the pediatrician, just in the nick of time!

Exciting times around here!

Early Birthday Celebration

While Jon's parents were here we celebrated the Twins 1st birthday a little early. We had a great time. We took the family to the circus to kick off the festivities. That was exciting! We got in our seats (big apple circus- great seats all around!) and about 15 minutes after sitting in our seats, there was a nice big 'clunk'! That's a great feeling when you are 20-30 feet up in the air. We quickly, and not so easily, filed out- I was on the inside of the row with Aldan, Caed and the backpack. I tried to leave the backpack behind to just move quickly, but Caed was insistent on keeping our stuff with us. He freaked out, and so I had to try to appease him by grabbing the backpack too. It was the juggling act, and spooked us a little bit. We stayed to watch the rest of the show in new seats, but Caed was NOT happy! He kept asking to go home, go to the car, or go to the his stuffed animal kitty. We kept him in the fun with us, and he did relax by the time it was over, but it took the whole time for him to gear down. The twins did pretty good the whole time- there was lots to look at! I think it's a great thing to do with kids- it's easy for them to stay occupied, and it's entertaining for everyone...

We came home and we ate pizza, salad and I had made carrot cake cupcakes with cream cheese frosting for the babies. Yum! They loved them (of course!) My sister April came, with boyfriend Tom (who partly saved the evening with feeding the babies all their dinner, so we could prep everything else!) and our good friend Katrina and daughter A- and of course Grammie, Grandpa and us. It was a fun evening, kids running everywhere and wrapping paper and presents strewn about...


It's so funny to teach this age kid how to unwrap a present...it's just not possible...but how quickly they start to understand what it means. i think of Caed now dying to unwrap gifts, it only took 3 years to get it, and it's lots of excitement from here on out for him!

and actually as soon as a present was unwrapped, the wrapping and ribbon became more fun to them anyhow. So I see how wrapping paper begins it's attraction to kids...

our friend Katrina bought these adorable shirts for the boys! LOVE THEM!!! (and now we can wear them 2 or 3 times officially) So excited to be celebrating this birthday with them!

I am looking forward to changing the babies seats around, no more jarred food, and soon their own mobility. It's nice they don't places quickly, but carrying them around is a real bummer. It makes it really hard to have twins! I need them to start to move upright, on their own.

Everyone always remarks how different they look- and they do look opposite! And they have opposite personalities (at this point). But wherever I go, I get lots of comments about having 3 boys, having twins, and how well we are doing (out and about). It's funny how expected those comments begin to be. Oh life...

We'll certainly have more celebration, and I'll post those too.