A Typical Summer Morning

During Addie's morning nap the boys and I typically head to the front or backyard and get some energy out. On this particular morning Alex kept saying "MOM! Take a picture of me doing THIS!." I did.

and sometimes during his "photo shoot" of all things AWESOME that he can do, I zoom in and get one of his sweet little face. He has NO idea. :)

My babies are 4! (part two)

The birthday boys were none to happy to wake to snow on the 18th of April. They got past it and the snow did melt before the actual celebrating started. We didn't have a party this year, just Mom, Dad, Alex, Eli and Adds. We did of course have ice cream and cake and took them to McD's.

Here are the iphone pics taken with the hipstamatic app that is so popular right now. It is kind of a fun, funky, vibe.

FOUR!

My babies are 4 today. Jared and I have been thinking a lot about 4 years ago. A lot. So many words rush into my mind. So many words that previously bore no relevance in our lives.

Viability

Preemie

Quality of life

Disabilities

990 grams

27 weeks

Fragility of life

"if they go home" being said rather than "when"

Fear

Dark, deep, fear

And thank God there were other words.

Hope

Faith

Love, Intense Love

Marriage

Friendships

Family

Prayer

Sweet, precious babies

Alex

Eli

I cannot speak words that explain what they've done to me, to Jared. For me, For Jared. They've changed us.

This day will not be taken for granted. Their kisses and arms around our necks will be cherished. Those candles being blown out will be monumental. A monument to what we got to keep on April 18th, 2007. A monument to what God had planned for Jared and Becky, Alex and Eli and now Addison. A monument to His Grace poured out on us.

I love you guys.

Thanks for making me a Mommy 4 short years ago.

You can quote me

Some of the entertaining things they've said in the past few weeks.....

"Daddy, I love you and sometimes I may get angry but I just have to get past it." Eli (Wisdom taken from one of their Larryboy videos).

"nagget!" Eli (I think this is swearing, little boy style. He says this when frustrated. A combo of dang it and darn it, if you will.)

"I'm on it". Eli (Ex. "Eli, go potty before nap". Response: "OK Mom, I'm on it".)

Are you seeing a trend here on who these quotes are mainly from. He talks all.the.time.non-stop. My brother in law was in town for the past couple weeks and stayed with us. He referred to it as a running commentary.

Recently, Jared and the boys came home from "Cubby Church". Jared threw me a bag while getting the boys out of the car. It was the "pre-school bag of shame". You know, the wet pants and undies due to an accident. I felt bad for Alex and worried about whether or not he was embarassed at having to wear the "extra pants" provided by our nursery. All this running through my head in 5 seconds. Meanwhile Alex bounds out of the car......"MOM, I got new red pants at Cubbies AND sponge Bob undawear!!!!!!" Ahhhh, crisis averted. Maybe it is a boy thing but he could not have cared less.

After their cashew reaction Eli says to me "Mom I don't eat nuts". You are right Eli, you don't so if anyone tries to give you some or asks that is what you tell them. "Mom?" Yes, Eli. "I don't eat poop either." Yep, Li-li you don't eat poop either. I walked away from this conversation a bit grossed out and strangely, relieved.

One more poop story. The boys came in from playing in the mud, which, has been there favorite past time, although, I wish my floors could say the same. He went to the bathroom and after several minutes I went to check on him. I asked whether or not he was alright and he replied "yeah, mud makes me poop".

To the squeemish, sorry about the poo stories. I have avoided them mainly on the blog but that is IMPOSSIBLE with 2, almost 4 year old boys in the house. Trust me.

Their favorite line in a book right now is "and to the tigers in the zoo Madeline just says pooh-pooh." Herer are a few more pics from the hands on museum...

Back to Blogging

Just needing to get my feet wet in the blogging/computer world again. I have been absent for a bit due to.... well, LIFE. Mom to 3, wife to 1 can be busy enough, right? So in honor of just throwing something on to the ole' blog that I LOVE, I really DO, here are some pictures. My awesome sister Mindy got a new camera because her husband has to upgrade electronics like the rest of us upgrade well I can't think of a comparison but he likes his gadgets and due to this I have her old camera while we save money for my future camera.

Updates:

Alex- is getting sassy (God give me strength) and I think 4 is going to be the year of questions. OH MY WORD. We watched a movie together and he asks the kind of questions you can't answer. I can't think of an example but trust me there are no answers to these questions and they come at rapid fire speed.

Eli- is more manageable currently but every time I say that they decide to pull a 180 so tomorrow he'll probably wake up and be a different kid. He is really big on showing us love lately. He seems as if he might burst if he doesn't tell you he loves you. It is adorable and he has captured many a heart. Jared's brother Steve is here visiting and Eli told him something along the lines of "you're great to hug".

We took him to get glasses tonight. He has REALLY bad vision in his right eye. He was on oxygen for 6 months which can cause vision problems. The eye doctor said if you covered his good eye he wouldn't be able to see accross the street. Insert: preemie mom guilt. It is ridiculous but it rears it's head periodically. Glasses pictures to come after they come in.

Addison- did really well at her developmental assessment and they already discharged her. Yay! I have pics of that too. She is eating solids and loving it. She is tipping the scales at 13lbs. 8oz.

Jared & Becky- Celebrated their 8th Anniversary on March 21st. We had a slightly odd waitress that asked what our "secret" is (consequently this made me feel kind of old) and we were both sort of speechless. Actually Jared said "leave the kids at home". But, after she left we discussed it and I said (as cheesy as it may sound) "marry your best friend". No matter how crazy things are or even how mad I may get at Jared from time to time he's the one I want to talk to and laugh with. We were best friends almost from the time we began "hanging out" and our friendship has only grown. I know his love and friendship is invaluable.

Wow, long post. This is what happens when I stay away from the blog for too long. And I still haven't posted pics. OK here goes.

In this lighting you can see the peach fuzz on top of her head. It's coming!!!!

Eli giving Addie some love. (LOVE this picture.)

Addie getting a little TOO much love.

Me and the boys on a random afternoon. It is possible that that little glimpse of snowflake you see in the corner are my pajama pants. Just keepin' it real, just keepin' it real. I am not a "dress to your shoes" kind of mommy and some days call for pajama pants past noon. :) They just do.

A Big Snow

We got snow this past week and the boys responses, as usual, were quite different. One morning we got a good amount of snow after Jared had already shoveled and left for work. I decided it would be good exercise and good fun for them to get out there and use their new snow shovels. Alex decided he did not want to. He held his resolve until Eli was in his full snow gear including his "sergeant" pants (snow pants? not sure why, but whatever)with shovel in hand. Suddenly Alex wanted to go too. They had a great time and so did I.

This past weekend Jared went out to shovel again and I geared the boys up to join him except Alex wasn't into it. Luckily, for him he would get the luxury of staying in today because Mom and Dad were home. You see twins rarely want to do the same thing but often they have to in order to accomodate the other. I am sure it is the same with all sibling relationships. Anyways, it is nice when they get to be their own little person and decide which activity they prefer.

Everyone was happy!

See this face......

cute, right???

he's a nurturer

and he loves BIG

and last week when Daddy told him to stop doing something this was his response.....

It did not go over well.

Alex is a lot like me. He feels things deeply. I am hoping Jared and I can survive all of the "depth". :)

We had a wonderful wknd picking out and carving pumpkins. There are LOTS of pictures to share. I have been up most of the night with one kid or another so I will save those for another time, soon, I hope.

Are we going to the movies???

I mentioned when we started potty training (again) a few weeks ago that Alex was having some "fears". Well, to help him overcome this said fear we had to pull out the big guns. You see, Eli was such a sweet brother that when he went and it was time for a prize from the box (I bought two of each thing) he'd just get the same thing twice in a row and give one to Alex. Really sweet but REALLY not helping the cause. SOOO instead of telling our son who was doing a nice thing to NOT SHARE (we thought that might send a mixed message ;) ) Jared said that if Alex "went" (I cannot believe I am discussing this) he would take them both to the movies. Needless to say Alex did it and they had a boys night out that night. After that night however we went right back to the "problem".

We had a talk with him (after 3 accidents) and explained that now he knows what to do and he needs to do it, etc., etc. I told him this morning that if he and Eli had accident free days Daddy and I would have to do something special for them. So again NO ACCIDENTS!! Aw yeah. The funny thing was after this major victory Eli ran in and yelled "Good job Alex, .....are we going to the movies". :)

AND now the real reason that I wrote this whole post was so I'd have an excuse to share this adorable picture of one of the times he was successful.

He was very proud!

my sweet boy

deep in thought

They won't go to kindergarten in diapers!!!

Everyone says this but I thought my sons may be the ones to do it. I can't blame them I have not consistently tried. When I did they weren't ready and then the past 4 months, well, we have been a little "busy" with bedrest, hospitalization, NICU, newborn, etc., etc., BUT because we are crazy we decided to potty train the boys last Saturday, newborn or not it had to be done. Actually, I decided. Jared has been saying "sarcastically" (although I think he was serious) when referring to potty training the boys that I needed to get on it. This led me to decide on a Friday that tomorrow was the day and that I would have Jared's help all wknd. I am so glad WE started on the weekend because there is NO way I could have kept up with Addie and dealt with the boys at the same time without his help.

We are a little over a week into it and I am saying cautiously confidently that Eli is potty trained except for nap and bed time (we aren't even trying that yet). Alex is SO close but has some poo fears. If anyone has insight into this I'd love to hear from you. :) We are so excited about this and thankful that we will no longer be buying diapers for 3. I should take this time to thank all of our diaper contributors. :) You know who you are. We SO appreciate being able to buy one less box or more.

As far as the process, we give 5 M& M's and a sticker for each successful trip to the potty and when you fill your chart you get a present from the box ($ store toys or hot wheels cars). When you go #2 you also get a present from the box. The are also thrilled to flush the potty. :) I am hoping that this continues to work for us.

a little alex & eli love

It's been so nice to be home & enjoying sweet moments with the boys. They are lovin' life like only 3 year olds can. As an adult it is so fun to "tag along" for the ride.

My Little Rock Star

Could you die? This kid cracks me up. This particular day a month or so ago Alex woke up before Eli and we were playing play-doh at the table and listening to music when he decided he needed to ROCK! He disappeared into his room and emerged, my little rock star. :)

Say "CHEESE"!

Here is what we are dealing with. Enjoy!