And The Winner Is....

DREW!!!

Now, you might be wondering what game he won. You could guess that we were playing "Who has had the most self-inflicted serious injuries?" ...and you'd be right in guessing Drew, but that's not today's game. Or you could guess "Who inherited his mommy's coordination skills?" ...and you'd still be right, but that's not the game either. No, those are all good guesses. But today's game was apparently titled "Who will be the first twin to have a bone fracture?"

Today while we were at the Y, Drew fell off the slide and fell on his hand wrong. By the time they came to get me out of class he had already calmed down a good bit, but it was still swollen enough that I was concerned and didn't feel comfortable taking him home. So, we called our wonderful Pediatrician and they worked us right in. They took a good look at it, and thought it was just a bad sprain, but did an x-ray to be on the safe side. Sure enough, the fracture was there on his middle bone on the top of his hand. As it happened, one of the best Pediatric Orthopedists was there visiting our doctor. So, he looked at it, and told me what to do. He saved us a trip to his office to tell me the very same thing, and I'm so thankful. So, Drew will have his fingers taped up for the next three weeks while it grows straight.

I'm so thankful it turned out to be as mild of an injury as it did. It could have been much worse. And I also just have to say how very proud I am of both boys. Drew was very brave and had a good attitude all through it. Ben was such a sweet brother, taking care of Drew and very worried about him. He rolled with all the punches, was flexible and was altogether great...let's just be honest: brother getting all the attention can sometimes lead to some behavior issues. But not today. They were so great. And I'm just so thankful for both of them.

So here's my little tough guy showing me his war wound: And -- as if two posts in the same week weren't present enough! -- here are a few pictures that I couldn't resist putting on here. Here are the four boys getting a good scrubbing after lots of playtime outside in the dirt before bedtime. I just LOVE that Brody is every bit as big as(possibly bigger than) the "big boys."

Easter 2009

What a fun Easter we had! Seriously, I'm pretty sure we now have more candy than we did at Halloween - which is quite a feat. But we have managed the sugar-highs (and crashes) and had a wonderful time celebrating our risen Lord. Here are a few pictures of the boys' Easter festivities...

A class picture in front of the pavilion for the class Easter party.
Here is Ben finding the first of his Easter eggs during the hunt. Miss Betsy did something that I hadn't heard of doing before: she asked all the moms to write the name of every child in the class on one egg. It ended up working out great because it made the "hunting" last a little bit longer than in past years, and helped each of the kids get even better at recognizing their own name. Occasionally, they would see one with someone else's name on it, and run to give it to their friend. Drew finding the first of his eggs. Drew giving his buddy Brax some very manly hugs. I couldn't love this little guy anymore if he were one of my own. Ben and Drew act like he's the other brother they lost at birth.
This is maybe my favorite picture of the whole weekend. Maybe, my favorite in a while. Oh, and just to clarify for years later when I'm looking back at these, Drew isn't really taller than Ben. It just looks that way because of the hill he's standing on. With Miss Betsy. I can't say enough how much I've loved having them in her class this year.
After the hunting, we headed back to the pavilion for some picnic lunches and "pupcakes", as they are called in our house.

I'm really glad that they had such a great time at the school party. Because that next Saturday morning we went to the church Easter egg hunt, and we were greeted with temperatures in the low 50's. It was FREEZING. So cold in fact, there was a fire in the outdoor fireplace, and the kids huddled around it as they waited for their turn to hunt. Poor little guys kept huddling into our shoulders asking if we could go back to the car and get warm. Clearly, the weatherman didn't realize that we were trying to have some springtime activities.
And though it's not a great picture, here is the best we could get of the three of us on Easter morning. Ben refused to take a picture with just he and Drew, so that's why I'm in it. My little guys looked so handsome in their little ties. They were so proud of them. They felt very big to get to dress up like Daddy.
We capped off the weekend with lunch at our house with some of our very dearest friends. You could say they are our family we got to choose. None of our parents live in town with us, and we feel so blessed to have been brought together with such wonderful friends to share these sweet times with.

We had a great weekend, and I think the best part for me was listening to Ben and Drew tell me the things they learned in Bible class that morning. We always ask them on the way to lunch to tell us what they remember from class, and this time they responded with "Hosanna! He is risen!" Nothing could make me happier than to hear that they are learning the reason we celebrate anything is only because of what Christ has done. He is risen, He is active in our lives, and we have faith that He will do what He says He will do. By all measures it was a special weekend.

Spring Is Here!

So what do you do when it's been too cold and rainy to do much of anything, once the sun finally starts shining? You put your mud boots on and dig in the dirt! Thank goodness for plastic spoons! They doubled as shovels AND paintbrushes for painting the fence a beautiful shade of brown.So the other day I was folding some laundry and letting the boys play in the playroom by themselves when I hear the beginnings of an argument, that I wanted to let them work out on their own. So, I began to listen, and this is what I heard: Ben says in a very heated voice, "no, Drew! You can't take that from me." Drew, very calmly responds in his most parent-like voice, "No-no, Ben. You DO have to give it to me right now. Jesus says you have to share with me, and you love Him." I'm pretty sure we need to revisit the concept of what Jesus wants us to do.

At the moment, they are loving playing frisbee with us in the yard and cul-de-sac, and are surprisingly good at throwing it. Drew's favorite song these days is "whistle man". He sings it (usually loudly since he loves an audience) all throughout the day. It goes like this: "Whistle man, he pwayed one, he pwayed nit nat on my fumb..." Not only is that the only verse he knows (so he sings that same line over and over), but it's just so cute that I can't bring myself to tell him that the words are actually "This old man". He'll get it one day soon enough, and then I'll be sad that he doesn't sing whistle man anymore. So for now, I'm not correcting him. Ben, has become fascinated lately with making up songs and singing things while strumming along on his guitar that Aunt Chelle and Uncle Dan gave them for Christmas. I keep trying to get some video to post of it, because it's so cute. But he immediately stops once he knows anyone is paying attention. So, I'll keep trying.

That's about all that's happening around here. You can see from the date that I've been trying to get this post on here for a while now, and haven't been able to till now. So, now I'll start working on getting pictures on here from all the Easter activities. Maybe that'll happen before the next major holiday! ;) ...but probably not! Thanks for checking on us.