Caleb & Daniel's First Hair Cut

For the very first hair cut for our kiddos, we like to take them to a fun place for all the picture opportunities, and so Caleb and Daniel went to Kid's Cuts at the Auburn SuperMall for their first cut. Here is a shot of Caleb before his hair was cut. The back of his head was actually fine, but he had this mop on the top of his head that resembled a Donald Trump comb-over, so he clearly needed a cut also even though his hair is much shorter it appears than Daniel's.

Daniel started out with what we called his "Baby Einstein" hair that was straight and all over the place. He was put in the chair first and you can see the beginnings of a cry coming on here as he DID NOT like having the apron put on him and later DID NOT like having the water squirted on his head. We have lots of video of him crying and putting up a fuss for some time! He also DID NOT like the little shaving device for the back of his head. He kept leaning forward to avoid it coming near him. Daniel is one that doesn't like change and so this new experience wasn't so pleasant for him. Daddy said in the background of the video (as if to be Daniel talking), "I've been growing this hair for 2 years now Mommy and I don't want it cut off." And these are true words!!

Caleb was a real champ the whole time. He just sat like a statue and took the hair cut in stride. At the very end he was showing off for Daddy with the video camera by driving his little airplane with his cute new do. He kept looking over at his brother like, "Hey man...what's the big deal?" It was funny that our "drama king" was the laid back one this time. He always takes to new things the best of the two though!

Here is Daniel in the midst of his crying and fussing session. You can see his face turned really red and he had a very pitiful "help me" kind of look going. At one point, he took his sucker back and that calmed him down for the time being. Although, David and I have never figured out why suckers would be a great idea at the haircutting place...the hair gets all over the sucker when they take it out of their mouths. I suppose the idea would be they keep it in their mouth the whole time and it keeps them quiet? That is a nice thought, but it doesn't work that way unfortunately.

Here is a classic shot of Daniel pouting, looking down at his little toy he sat in and Caleb from afar looking over to see what the big fuss is all about. On facebook, I posted some video of them at the hair cutting place and of them playing in the play area after the haircuts. My camera battery died or I would have a better "after" shot of both. David gots lots of video of the after shots though. Hopefully if you have an account there you can look at them. Blogspot wouldn't let me post any of the videos for whatever reason (even though the one I tried to post was small enough).

Josiah Writes His Name!!

I have been working with Josiah to get him more interested in writing and specifically in learning to write his name. I have tried many different methods to get him interested and through much persistence, patience, and coaxing, he was finally able to do it tonight!! Daddy told him that if he could sit down and write his name on a clean piece of paper without us assisting, that he would get a little Star Wars Lego set. Daddy came home with the set today and again reminded Josiah that it was here in the home when he was ready to receive it. Tonight, much to my delight he practiced with me for some time while Daddy was putting the twins to sleep and then when he came out he proceeded to write what you see here on the paper. You can probably see too that he is pleased as punch with himself for getting his Star Wars set! Our Josiah is growing up! We are so proud of him!

Then & Now....

When I first got married to David, I stopped working full time and decided to take up some hobbies, one of which was crocheting. As I mentioned in a previous post, my Grandma Betty introduced the art of crochet to me years ago, but I took it up more seriously about 6 years ago. My first attempt at an afghan was less that perfect of course! On the left you see how loose and LARGE my panels were for this afghan, and after pulling one of the panels apart and redo-ing it, you can see on the right how much I have improved over the years! This is I am sure what it was supposed to look like in the first place, and so I am having fun fixing my first big project. After I am finished, I am giving it to a friend who said she would take it off my hands afterward. It is fun to have a new project to do and it is nice to "recycle" my old yard to do it as well. This old, full of holes aghan will now be new and will no longer be collecting dust in our hall closet!

It's Nesting Time!!

So I am sure you are looking at this mess and wondering, what in the world? And that is pretty much where I was too for quite a while. The guest room has become a dumping spot for most everything we aren't using right now and this happens to be the only space left for baby #4 to reside, so we had to get to it and de-clutter this space before she arrived! My Mom and my friend Melissa came over today and we tackled all the clutter. I was the "director" and they did all the moving and re-organizing. We have this other shed too that had Goodwill items and a bunch of junk in it that we had to clean out in order to move a lot of this stuff in there, so that also was accomplished!

This is the lovely "AFTER" shot of the room! The table in the corner will be where Josiah can play with his Legos for now. We had to take down the larger table we had set up for him and he was heartbroken, but he now at least has some place to build his creations when the creative mood strikes him! The Legos are in that bin on the table and will come out when he is ready to play.

This is a shot of the crib all fixed up for the baby girl. My Mom also bought the lovely bedding and mobile for her as well. It is so clean and nice in the room now, and I am very thankful for the help! My husband was no slouch today either and while we were cleaning, he made another round of his Chicken Pompadora, pasta, and peas for our lunch. Then we had one of the chocolate cream-filled cupcakes for dessert that he made yesterday! Yum! Thanks honey for taking care of our hungry tummies! It was a very productive day and I am very thankful that the room is ready for our sweet baby girl!

Recent Crocheted Creations

As you can see, I got a little carried away making baby blankets for the upcoming baby girl. Years ago, my Grandma Betty taught me my first crochet stitches and I learned to make a potholder. Thanks Grandma!! Then after I got married, I took up the hobby again and used sites like www.anniesattic.com to learn new stitches. They have a stitch guide there and when you click on it, you can choose from different types of hand crafts, and then there are short video clips for each type of stitch and you can watch the lady do it over and over. This was SO much easier than trying to decipher the written instructions with all the arrows on the pictures for me!

This first blanket above is from a book called "Afghans By the Pound" and it is nice because it tells you how many pounds of yarn to buy, which is much easier than guesstimating how many skeins of yarn you may need for a project. This blanket uses large Granny Squares that you then hook together at the end and add the fringe after it is all put together.


This is from the same book as the one above, and it was called the "Bubblegum" pattern. It is the largest blanket I made of the three pictured here. The only glitch was the fringe instructions were a little hard to follow and I think I messed up on one of the sides (the very top), but it still turned out nice I think.

This last one is from a pattern I got online and is just a basic Granny Square pattern with the fringe added at the end. I made one for my friend Mara also who is due with her baby girl any day now!

Daniel's Words

It is very hard to catch Daniel on film because he would rather be behind the camera rather than the target OF the camera. He is finally getting better from the RSV and ear infection, but he is still very stuffy and this was taken right before bedtime, so he is pretty fussy and irritable. However, I got him to say a few words nonetheless. He insisted upon being VERY close to the camera because again he wanted to SEE the camera and not be filmed. I also have some very cute footage of Caleb walking around in my boots, but unfortunately it is too long to load onto blogger. I loaded it onto my Facebook profile though, so if you have a Facebook account you can click on my profile and then at the bottom of the page "older posts" until you see the video of Caleb.

Thanks all for the prayers for our family in this last week. We are all steadily returning to normality again! I am hoping for a healthy next couple of months! And as a side note, the pregnancy is going well. I have had no recurring contractions again, which is another answer to prayer and my leg pain is subsiding some as well!

Mara's Baby Shower

On Saturday, I was able to break away from all the sick people here at home and go to Mara's baby shower. As a sidenote for those of you not on Facebook, the twins have RSV. It is a really NASTY cold for little ones and some are hospitalized with it when it is bad enough. They have had fevers for days now and Daniel also has an ear infection (which we are now treating) and Caleb has a case of croup (which was also treated with a shot at the doctor). They are both pretty miserable and aren't eating well, but are drinking, so we are still able to keep them home at this time. The paperwork we got says they can be sick anywhere from 7-21 days! A long stent for a nasty cold for sure!

Anyway, back to the baby shower! My mom came over to help watch the kiddos, (since David was sick and needed to finish some important stuff for work) so that I didn't need to feel rushed to leave the party. I was able to document Mara's shower with many pictures and some video for her as well. The video below is of Mara and I comparing belly size. She is due one month before me around Feb. 4th.

I was really glad that I was still able to attend the shower despite all the craziness going on here and Mom even did some cleaning (kitchen floors too) while I was gone, which was a real blessing (THANKS MOM!!) Mara got some gorgeous homemade blankets and lots of cute girlie clothes of course! She announced that the baby's name will be Melody, but they are saving the middle name for the big day. Mara looked to be doing quite well and it was fun to see her enjoying all the baby shower fun.

Josiah, My Big Helper!

Josiah was having fun dressing up the other day and I captured one of his funnier moments here with his Wall-E shirt, his clip-on tie, a fireman's hat and his Lightning McQueen sunglasses. His new thing is to put on the sunglasses and his Yankees hat and sit and either watch TV or play his Leapster 2. He thinks he is pretty cool when he does that! Another cute thing is he puts his glasses in his hat and sets them on the kitchen counter "just like Grandpa does."

We have really been working with him to help out more around the house and it is really starting to pay off! In the mornings, I have been having him make sure his room is clean before he can watch his favorite TV show, which starts us off right and at nighttime, David and I both encourage him to clean up the toys in the living room. He sometimes resists helping, but we find creative ways to motivate him and it usually works. He has also been my little runner, getting me things that I need or taking thing away to various locations, and that has been really helpful in allowing me to stay seated and rest.

He has been paying more attention to the order of letters and numbers now and points out letters and numbers that he sees more frequently. The other day he brought over the magnetic letters B, S, and U and tried to spell the word "bus" by himself. His first attempt was actually "bsu," but having him sound it out, he figured it out. Then after watching Sesame Street and seeing that the number of the day was 17 and the letter was E, he later found those magnetic letters and numbers and brought them to me to show me. I have also taught him how to spell the following words: no, on, men, fun, sun, dog, God and others like that with the letters. He still isn't too interested in writing letters, but the fact that he is interested in spelling with the magnetic letters is exciting to me as that is definitely progress in the right direction! He has always been one to try things only when he is ready and then he is a real go-getter, so I am still waiting on this writing thing!

He has been loving playing his Leapster 2 and he has this "Rattatouie" game that he plays where he cooks various dishes by following the recipes. Out of the blue last night before bed he said, "Cream puffs and crepes are from France Momma," (he said France like "Fraw-nce" in an accent). I laughed at his cute little attempt at a French accent. He is certainly growing up and it is giving me hope to see the "light at the end of toddler-hood." It will be a neat new adventure for us all to explore together for sure!

History Almost Repeated Itself...

You may wonder why I posted this older photo of me, but it is because I have no real "current" photo than this one to go with the following story. Needless to say, we weren't in a camera-taking mindset during this emergency.

For some reason, on New Year's Day in the evening I started to get some recurring contractions that kept coming and coming (about every 10 minutes or less). They weren't super painful, but at the same time I had told myself before that I wasn't going to fool around this time and wait too long to get checked out when I had recurring contractions. I tried the usual drinking more water, resting on my side and such, but nothing seemed to stop them. I called the doctor on call and he said that since I had more than 4 contractions in an hour that I should come to labor and delivery and get checked out. One thing that made this more concerning for me is that the twins were born at 31 weeks gestation and I have just hit that mark in this pregnancy.

We went to the hospital after I had endured 2 hours of this at home and thankfully we had our friend Laurie to come at a moments notice to watch our kiddos while we went. I was hooked up to the monitors and sure enough I was still getting more contractions there as well. The good news through all of this was that the baby girl was kicking me a lot, so we knew that she was had plenty of oxygen and was doing well. The doctor prescribed for me to get a shot of Trebutiline at one point to stop the contractions. This is NOT my favorite thing to take as it makes me shake like I am super cold, makes my heart race, and makes me feel like I have a fever. Yet, it does its job and stops the contractions, which is what we needed. Following this, the nurse checked me and thankfully all was well and there were no other signs of impending delivery, so after all the tests and such we were sent home around 10:30pm.

I am very glad that we went in as who knows what might have happened if I hadn't gotten the contractions to stop early on! I waited way too long with the twins and that was why I ended up with an emergency C-section, and although this is a singleton this time, I still didn't want to make the same mistake twice!

I have been told to take it easy this weekend though I haven't been officially put on any kind of bed rest yet. The thing is though, every time I walk I have been getting either a contraction or some kind of tightness/pain in my abdomen that makes it very painful to walk, so this keeps me in a modified bed rest kind of situation anyway. I am concerned that the next two months will be quite difficult if this trend continues, so I am hoping for some reprieve and yet I know that all things work for good for those who are called according to God's purpose. And so I press on, knowing that help will come when it is needed and that the baby will come when she should whether early or later!

My prayer is that through all of this I won't despair (from sheer boredom and cabin fever) and that I would come closer to my Lord and Savior and rely on Him for all things. Please join with me in praying this if you would! Thanks all! Happy New Year!