The Blankinships

So Very, Very Thankful

2010-12-27T06:15:00.000-08:00

I know that I say it every year, but its still true every year. And I want the boys to look back through this book about their childhood as they grow up and then even as adults, and know that its true. But we have so much to be thankful for. Much much more than we deserve. And to spend my favorite holiday at my Nana and Papa's house this year made it even more special because of the hard, hard road they've traveled this past year.

You might be wondering where are the pictures of all the fun family celebrations are. Well, the truth is we really didn't have much time to take many pictures this year. Honestly, I think we were all just so happy to have Nana and Papa healthy and with us that we were all determined to do every bit of the Thanksgiving Day work to make sure they rested the way they needed to be. Mama, Aunt Debbie, Britt, Becca and Lindsey and I took care of all the food. And Daddy, Uncle Wilson, Michael, and David rotated duties of picking up pecans, doing anything down at the shop Papa wanted them to, picking oranges off the trees, and running around on the farm with Thayer, Ben and Drew. Our last day there, Britt and Michael even made about 5 extra meals for them to keep in the freezer and pull out after we had left so she wouldn't have work to do.

We all pitched in to make sure that Nana and Papa both stayed off their feet as much as possible. Nana got so tickled because on the way down there we taught the boys to say "Nana, please go sit down" any time they saw her on her feet. Once we realized that she wasn't listening to us, we got more creative and began telling Drew to bring her books and ask her to read to him. I think that might be among my favorite memories; peeping in to watch her read book after book to my completely enthralled child that she used to read to me.

Yes, we did celebrate the Thanksgiving season plenty. And no, it didn't go just like it always has for many years. But it certainly was special. And some things just don't change: we always have a great time together, we always eat really good food, we always laugh till our sides hurt, and we are always there to help each other out. Yes, maybe this year more than any other, I feel so thankful to have been placed in this family. A happy Thanksgiving indeed.

BOO! Scared Ya, Didn't We?

2010-12-27T06:13:00.000-08:00

Happy Halloween! Party time for all the little ghouls and boys was lots of fun. We kicked it off with our class party at school. Here are my little Titans starting off the day by making Halloween masks....And here is the whole class showing off what they made...One of the highlights of the OC Halloween party each year is watching all the other classes go on parade through the school, showing off all their costumes. This year, the boys loved getting to be some of the biggest kids in the school and watch all the "little kids". And here are some of each of the boys' artwork Miss Anna had hanging from the ceiling.

And after all that parading everybody needed a little snack. My favorite little monsters did a great job of helping me get all the food ready (Frankenstein pretzel rods, spider krispy treats, and monster eyeballs and claws aka: grapes and apple wedges), and they were super proud to share it with their friends.

What an adorable class, huh?!

Our other favorite Halloween tradition is Trunk or Treat at our church. Its always so much fun to see all the decorated trunks --people really get into it-- and walk the boys around to all the cars to get candy.

Here's our only decent family picture in the trunk of our car.

The Titans pose for a team picture...

And what Trunk or Treat would be complete without a Lifegroup kids picture?? I know, its not the greatest picture in the world, with babies falling down out of laps and Drew hanging from the ceiling and NO ONE looking at the camera...but I'm pretty sure if we had a perfect picture of all the kids then we would be breaking tradition. ;)
That about wraps up our Halloween festivities. But in other Blankinship Family news, we did begin an exciting new chapter in our lives. Our house that we've lived in since I was pregnant with the twins is now on the market and we're beginning the process of completely gutting/ renovating a house! We've had lots of weekends that we've had to totally rearrange our schedules at the drop of a had so we could have a showing, but we're really hopeful that God will provide for us in His perfect timing. More to come on the progress of the house in the next few posts. Until then, thanks for checking in on us!

Big Boys Turn 5 (let the parties begin!)!!!!

2010-12-27T06:11:00.000-08:00

Where does the time go?!?! I mean, people tell you that time really flies when you have kids. But WOW! I'm still not sure how it is that I am the parent to TWO five year olds! But yes, the time certainly has flown by, and I wouldn't trade one single minute of being the mommy to these boys.

And they were pretty excited about turning five. Maybe more excited than they've ever been about a birthday so far. And of course, we wanted to celebrate them in a special way. So once we FINALLY convinced them that we couldn't have a boys-only-spend-the-night-camp-out-in-our-own-backyard birthday party, they decided they wanted to go to the pumpkin farm. I knew the perfect place.

We headed to Walden Farm in Nolensville for some Fall Fun. We had everyone meet us at the back of the farm where they have this huge kids activity area with bins of dried corn to play in (think, like a sand box, but full of corn kernels to dig around in), see-saws, a 40 foot slide, a huge old tree, complete with a tire swing, and best of all a hay-bale mountain that was enormous! The kids all loved climbing to the top.
This is my best effort at getting a group picture. No one else was really that interested in helping me with this, though. On our way back down towards the log cabin where we had all the rest of the party set up, we stopped at the pumpkin patch to pick out a little pumpkin. We took them all back to the cabin and everyone got to decorate their own however they wanted. We took a break from all the artistry for some lunch and cupcakes.......and then showed everyone our hard work.And that pretty much wrapped up the party. So, most of our buddies left. But seeing that we were blessed with such great weather, we took the few that stayed around on a hayride. Here's a picture with Mommy and the Birthday Boy......and Daddy with the Birthday Boy!!!And it just wouldn't be right to have a birthday party for Ben and Drew WITHOUT getting a picture with their buddy Brax.After the hayride the boys decided to explore even more. So we headed back into the farm to see all the things we didn't have time to do earlier.And wrapped up with a little choo-choo ride.It was a pretty fun day. And the best part is that they both had a great time celebrating with their friends, knowing how much they are loved.

You might have noticed that other than Mommy and Daddy there weren't any of our family members in the pictures. The reason why is because this year, we decided to have all of our family come into town for the actual weekend of the boys birthday, and celebrate with a friends' party the weekend before. Due to the weather last year, it ended up that we were forced to do the same thing. And once we started talking about it, we realized that it really was nice to be able to focus on our families while they're here, rather than rush around with party stuff. So this year we scheduled it that way on purpose. I have to say, I think we really all enjoyed it. And its always so great when you're blessed with families that get along and enjoy spending time together to do so. So here are a few shots of our birthday party at home with both sides of the fam....

hamming it up (a.k.a. "any excuse to wrestle my brother will do") for the camera before opening presents.Opening their very first set of real golf clubs from Mommy and Daddy. They were so surprised and so excited. They took them out to the front yard for a few practice swings and loved hitting with something a little more substantial than the plastic ones we've always used (for fear of things getting broken).Luckily that Saturday happened to be a soccer game. So we brought along an entire cheering section. Michael coached the team again this season, bringing our number of seasons of coaching and playing up to 3! I have to say--he is so patient with all the kids, is great at it, and really seems to enjoy doing it.

and lastly, we celebrated their birthday by bringing treats to their class at school. They chose for me to bring donuts from Krispy Kreme (no complaints here!) and asked if I would come have lunch with them. I was so happy to say YES! The three of us got to sit at a very special table in the middle of the room and eat together. And then they stood up with Miss Anna while the class sang the Happy Birthday song and Miss Anna led a prayer of blessing for them. Of course, I cried during it. But I'm pretty sure I covered it up in time to pass out the treats and get happy to celebrate our boys in such a special place. We LOVE Otter Creek! And we LOVE Miss Anna!!! We are so thankful that they are there!So that about wraps up our three-week long birthday celebration. And thank goodness for it too...I'm not sure how much more celebrating I could do. ;) The truth is they are such sweet spirited little boys, and I am just so proud of who they are. Getting to watch them grow these last five years has been the biggest honor and blessing of my life, and I can't wait to see what all God has in store for them. Each special in his own way, we are blessed beyond measure with these twins.

Thanks for checking in on us! ...at this rate, I might even be caught up on all thats going on in our lives by the next time you stop by.

Finally Fall!!

2010-10-03T12:56:00.000-07:00

What a fun fall we had! We kicked off the cooler-weather season with our very first campout to celebrate our buddy Brax's 5th birthday!! Darci put on an amazing all-boy (read: no girls allowed) spend the night campout in their backyard. All the Daddies came to play with their boys, and I think they had as much fun as the kiddos did.

There was a bonfire to roast marshmallows on, they rode around the yard on the Bad Boy Buggy, and all slept in tents. Our boys had so much fun celebrating Brax's birthday! Here are a few of my favorite pictures...

Uncle Bobber (even though he isn't our uncle, the boys still call him that) somehow managed to be the designated driver of all the kids that were hyped up on CapriSuns!And they played in the "tree house".

Getting their treat bags, which had everything they would need at a campout: a flashlight with their name on it, a bug catcher, a magnifying glass (that was immediately lost), some glow sticks, and lots of other fun treats.The birthday boy with his gummy worm cupcakes...The three amigos showing off their glow sticks right before bed. Everybody taking one last spin on the Bad Boy Buggy before the Daddies zipped them in the tents. ...And here's what happens when you play so hard: (don't you love how he fell asleep with the glow sticks on top of him?!)

Here's what the backyard looked like the morning after...What better way to wake up than to already be with all your favorite friends and start running around outside in your jammies at 5:30 a.m.?
They reallly did have a blast, and months later are STILL talking about how they want to have a no-girls-allowed spend-the-night campout in their backyard. Hate to tell em, but its probably not possible to top that one. Better just leave that to Miss Darci.

A few weeks later the boys' class took a field trip to Gentry's Farm in Franklin to learn all about pumpkins, corn, farm animals and fall. We started off with a picnic, then walked across a little bridge to the farm.

Miss Anna's Pre-K class 2010:First we learned all about corn and listened so politely. And then they got to play in troughs of dried corn kernels
Next stop was the old barn where she taught them all about wheat and flour, and inside were lots of little activity stations for them to play with and learn about.Then we visited an old tobacco barn that is now currently housing a hay-bale maze......that ends with a slide down.Measuring one of my little pumpkins:And then for the hayride. This is Mr. Gentry explaining to all the kids about how the pumpkin starts out as a little yellow flower, and tying it all into God's goodness and faithfulness. Such a sweet object lesson. And then we got to each pick out our own pumpkin.It was one of my favorite field trips!

Anyone who knows us knows that we spend an insane amount of time outside. If the sun is shining we're outside, and sometimes even when it isn't. We are very blessed to have lived in a cul de sac with lots of children, and since we are outside so often we are almost always playing with these friends. Here's most of the cul de sac kids on one random afternoon: Lauren, Allison, Anna Beth, Dalton & Mackenzie. We've gained other friends on our street, and we've said goodbye to one, but we sure have enjoyed having people to play with in the afternoons. That just about wraps up our September. Here's a fun picture of my two little buddies that captures their little spirits just perfectly....Happy Fall, Y'all!

Back to School and Time to Start Snooping Again....

2010-09-13T08:22:00.001-07:00

Way back at the end of school just a couple of months ago, Ben and Drew asked one morning if they could have their friends over during the summer to play in the sprinklers. Well, of course I said YES! with plenty of ideas swimming in my head of how to have a small, fun water day for a few buddies. Well, what the twins heard me agree to, and what I thought we were agreeing to were apparently two different things. Because they went to school that morning and announced to every single teacher and child that they were invited to our house for a water party. Nice. And since the new school year was just around the corner, what with our summer being so full of so many fun adventures, I figured I'd better get on the ball and make good on the promise I'd made to my boys. So, the compromise to having every child at Otter Creek in our backyard at the same time was to invite just the boys from their class (and those boys' siblings) over for a day of water fun. AND FUN IT WAS! We had 9 boys (2 sets of twins), 2 babies and 4 mommies and I have to say it really was a blast! Here is one of the few pictures I could get with all the boys having lunch
We filled up the baby pool as far as it would go, turned on 2 sprinklers, set up the slip-n-slide, had 4 super-soaker water guns, and 2 rubbermaid bins filled full of water balloons in addition to the trampoline and sandbox. I'll say I don't think our backyard has ever been so much fun. Here are two pretty cute pictures of why I do what I do...those little smiles are worth every bit of effort. And then one Friday afternoon after Michael got off work we took the boys to see the Titans practice. We didn't intentionally go on the hottest day of the whole summer, but I'm not sure there were days any hotter. But we all kept our good attitudes, and sweated it out while we watched the Titans and waited for some autographs. Here's #10 Vince Youngand Chris Johnsonand Coach FisherHere's one of the ways the boys passed the time once practice became boring to 4 year olds with a limited attention span: play football with Daddy (while mommy takes pictures from the shade and sips Gatorade)But by far the highlight of the day was at the end of practice when a few of the players come over to the fence to sign autographs. We were at the beginning of the line and Michael had Ben on his shoulders and I was holding Drew on the fence as he was waiting so patiently for a player to come by and sign his plaque. Well, the very first player who came over to us smiled so big at us and Drew held up his hand to high-five him and Drew said "aw man, you were awesome!" Well, this guy says to Drew "thanks, little man. How old are you?" to which Drew tells him "I'm four and a half" and to all of our surprise, he held out his arms and says "you wanna come over here with me?" and Drew went to him!!! He took him onto the field, let him run around with him, and then took him over to his personal bag and told him to pick out whatever he wanted. I think Drew must not have been sure about if he should take someone else's things because he ended up picking out a bunch of stuff and bringing it to us for the boys when he brought Drew back over to us. I wish I could have captured the look on Drew's face as he walked back to us, but to say he was proud and beaming would be a gross understatement. He gave the twins his very own receiving gloves (which Drew sometimes sleeps with, bless his heart), wrist bands that he signed, and then signed all the other stuff we had. For days (and even still now) he has talked and talked and talked about "his friend Mr. Colin Alred" and how nice he was to us. He made such an impact on us and our boys. But that isn't the coolest part. For weeks after that happened, I kept feeling like I wanted to get a thank-you to this person for being so kind to my child. But I had no idea how to get a message to a Titan player....until I was telling a good friend this story. And she asked what that player's name was. When I told her, she said that he had married a girl that we were at Lipscomb with. What a small world!! And once I tracked her down to get that thank you note to her husband, it's been cool to re-connect. And Colin now has 4 lifelong fans, whether he's a Tennessee Titan or not! Pretty cool indeed...there were grown men watching incredulously (and maybe with a hint of jealousy). Next was time for Snoopy Day again! Here are the boys before their first day in Miss Amanda's class. I wish I'd gotten a picture of them with her...but this will have to do: One week into our very first year of Prekindergarten, we got word that my Papa was in the hospital and not doing well. So while Daddy was traveling for work the boys, MiMi and I headed over to the farm in Waycross to help take care of them. We didn't get many pictures...we were much too busy keeping them both off their feet and playing outside. But we did manage to get a couple right before we left. Because God answered our prayers on their behalf out of His love and grace, they are both doing much much better and are still living without any full-time help on their farm. Not only that, but a few weeks after we left them they celebrated 67 years of marriage together. What a blessing they are to me and to so many others. I'm so thankful that God has allowed our boys to have such a sweet relationship with two people who I love so dearly. Without them, these boys wouldn't even be here.

What fun we've had in August!! Time for the best season of the year....bring on FALL!

Our July In a Flash...

2010-08-18T10:34:00.001-07:00

We hopped over to Missouri to celebrate the long holiday weekend with Cousin Dresden and crew. But instead of going straight to Centralia we opted to spend the night in St. Louis and take the kids to the zoo the next morning. Aunt Chelle, Dresi, MawMaw and PawPaw met us there for some fun with the animals.

Even though this isn't the best picture [read: no one wanted to stop and take a picture], I love this picture of the grandparents with all three grandkids. Touching and feeding the stingrays....After cramming as much into one day before naptime as we could, we headed back to Centralia. And the next day had a family putt-putt competetion. Three pretty cute future golfers below: And of course, what fourth of July celebration would be complete without fireworks??? Here Michael created his own way to safely light Chinese lanterns: on a fishing pole.
And, in keeping with their tradition, this is exactly how every single 4th of July picture of Ben and Drew looks. Every single year this is how they watch them. It just cracks me up. And to wrap up the weekend, we went to cheer Dresi on in at her swim meet. Getting ready at the blocks:Ready for the backstroke:
Her cheering section watches intently... What a great time we had spending with our family there. And once we headed home we decided that we needed some low-key days. So we spent the next several mornings and afternoons playing in our backyard.

Two tired little water-babies:

We have such a great time while we're gone. And we do enjoy being busy. But I must say I am very aware that some of our best memories come from the times we are home together as a family, doing the little things of life.

Thats our July in a nutshell....

Our June In a Flash....

2010-08-05T07:20:00.001-07:00

Once we got back from Disney we thought we'd be having a relaxed, low-key summer....right??? Wrong!! While we did cram LOTS of fun into our summer, it was anything but low-key. It was packed with trips (I think we were gone as much as we were here!) and fun adventures nonstop.

The days and weekends we were at home, we settled into a pretty fun routine, comprised mostly of swimming and playing every single sport outside. That's another exciting thing that happened this summer! The boys both learned to swim fully by themselves, with NO floaties!!! We've had them in lessons since they were itty bitty, but fully having the confidence to get out and keep yourself afloat with no grownup to hang onto, and no life vest or floatie to keep you up is a whole other thing entirely. Especially for a 4 year old. So, I'm a little bummed that I don't really have any pictures of them swimming in the big pool by themselves. But, you'll just have to trust me. Or you can ask either of them yourself.....they are extremely proud, and will happily tell you all about it. But onto the things we could document with pictures.....

This is how Daddy found us almost every night as he came home: outside playing some sort of sport, and still usually in our swimmies since you never know when you just might get too hot and need to take a timeout to play in the sprinkler.

The two cutest little sluggers maybe ever!! I mean, come on, could you just melt over these faces???And then we hopped on down to visit MiMi and Pop for a weekend. Being that my mama is the Children's Minister of my home church, she has LOTS of fun stuff that she's always carrying around in her car (her office is even more fun than her car, and is one of the twins most favorite places!). This weekend, she happened to have a HUGE inflatable water slide/climbing wall/pool that she uses for water days at church. (She actually had two this size and wanted to put them both up for the boys. But we had to draw a line somewhere...And we wonder why they are a little spoiled! ;) kidding, Mom.) So Daddy and Pop put it together in the backyard and we were all entertained. Even all of us grownups went down it! I'm pretty sure Pop played on it as much as the twins did. While we were there Ben decided he wanted to take his training wheels off and try to ride like a big boy. So Michael happily took them off and began the process of trying to teach him how to do it. And on the very first time he tried to take off by himself he actually stayed up!!! .....and then he started thinking about it too much, and got a little freaked out, and promptly decided that he in fact did NOT want to take his training wheels off yet. And this is where you need a manual as a parent to tell you when to push your child to stick with it and keep trying and when to allow them to do it on their own time without fear and WITH their own confidence. Hard to know when to do those things. So we encouraged him to keep going, did all the things we could to help him get it, and he still decided he wasn't ready afterall. So we supported him in it and will help him get it when he's ready. But I still wanted it on here for him to see one day that he tried it when he was four, and we're really proud that he did!Over the summer, I tried really hard to keep working with them on their letters, writing and fine motor skills. One day I had them write out their patterns that they each wanted to use, and then follow that pattern to make a colored necklace out of colored straws I had cut into little pieces to thread on yarn. This one is Drew's:And here is Ben's:

And here is the silly hooligans showing off the finished product. What crazy monkeys I have.

That about sums up our busy June! On to the month of July!!

We Did Disney!

2010-06-29T05:28:00.000-07:00

That's right, we took the boys to DISNEY this summer for the first time. You might remember that last summer we took the boys to SeaWorld for a little vacation. We were trying to test the waters, so to speak to see how they would do in the hopes that we would be brave enough to tackle the giant theme park this year. We did our research, gathered our courage and hopped on a plane ready to see "Mickey's House", as they kept calling it. I have to say from start to finish, this was by far the best time we've ever had on vacation with our boys. Maybe its because we waited until they were old enough to walk the whole time every where we went, maybe its because they were old enough to enjoy it and remember it but at the same time young enough that it was all very magical to them, or maybe it was because neither Michael nor I had been there in over 9 years. But regardless the reason, it was so much fun! Here is a documentary of our trip in pictures. But be forewarned: there are about a billion. So unless you're one of the grandparents, this might be a little boring and more than a little tedious. ;)

In our seat on the plane, buckled up and ready for the nice lady to come around and bring us some apple juice!

We made it through the flight with ease. They were entertained by all the coloring books, little cars to drive on the tray table, ipods with their own music on it, and a borrowed movie that they hadn't see yet (thanks, Brax and Brody!) and acted like very big boys.

Once we landed they were all about helping Daddy with all the luggage. What perfect little gentlemen. And all that excitement with no naps thus far lead to falling asleep as soon as we left the airport:But they quickly woke up as soon as we reached our destination. We chose to stay on park property and our own cabin at Ft. Wilderness fit our needs perfectly. Now, don't get me wrong--we're not the kind to do any cooking or anything like that when we travel. But, this allowed us to have both a little place for them to play in the evenings while I got ready for dinner, and gave us all a space of our own at bedtime. After we got all settled in, we headed over to Downtown Disney for some dinner and to explore. This was one of the things we did last year on our trip to SeaWorld, so it was nice to get our bearings and be someplace familiar before heading into the big parks.

Here we are with one of the most popular guys in our house, Buzz LightyearAnd Mr. Potato HeadAt dinner the twins were SO well behaved. And Daddy treated them to the T-Rex Build-a-Dinosaur store and they were SO excited! Ben built a T-Rex, who he named Rex Friendy. And Drew built a Pteradon named --are you ready?-- Don. Both very clever and original names.

The next morning the new additions to our stuffed animal collections helped the boys get ready for their big day in the Magic Kingdom with some cereal and milk at their own little table. These Disney people really do think of everything.Here they are right outside the monorail (which they called "mottorail" the whole time, and we just didn't correct them because it was so cute) in front of the spinning Mickey. I'm pretty sure they liked this as much as they liked any of the rides we went on. And here is the train that delivered all the Disney characters to the park. The opening show at the beginning of the day was so sweet, and the boys were so excited that I will confess I got a little teary watching them enjoy something so much and the thought of my having my babies at Disney. I know, how pitiful, right? But I quickly pulled myself together and our day was off!

They chose to hop on the train to head back to the back of the park so we could hopefully beat the crowds. And we did! Here is the back side of Cinderella's castle. I, being the Princess of this family, thought that we should go in. But I got outvoted because that was "girl stuff". So I conceded and we rode every single ride that their height would allow them to ride. Daddy and Drew on Dumbo's Wild RideBen on the Winnie the Pooh rideAnd then we walked through Mickey's House and we actually got to meet Mickey and Minnie. They were SO excited! I don't think they knew that they would be that big because they approached them with a good bit of awe. After we came off the high from meeting the Mouse, the boys did the Teacups. I don't do well on spinning things like this, I can get carsick if I read even a sentence, so I stood on the sidelines and took pictures.Drew and Daddy raced ahead of Ben and I.And then we got to splash a little bit in Donald Duck's house.

After all that it was high time for a cool treat.

And then we hopped on the Space Needle thing to fly over all of Magic Kingdom.After that we had pushed them to as far into the afternoon as they could go and we headed back to let them take a nap. After we all took a rest and got cleaned up we headed back over to the park for more fun and found Pluto on our way in! Of course Drew was so happy to see him, but Ben wasn't so sure. So Michael walked with him till he got enough courage to say hello himself and Pluto gave him a great big kiss!And they loved getting to say hi to him!

We rode the Buzz Lightyear ride and many many more that I didn't take pictures of. We ate dinner in the park and wrapped up our day with fireworks in front of Cinderella's castle. The next day we were off to Animal Kingdom. Ben and Daddy and Drew and I watch the opening show. None of you will be surprised to know that we were early enough every day at every park to be at the very front of the crowds to watch all of the shows. ;) Mickey and Minnie welcome everyone in to the park:

We did the safari and all the other exhibits first, but really they have been up close to so many of those same types of animals that it really wasn't that big of a deal. We grabbed a great lunch of African fare and then headed over to the Lion King show. I know that they picture is terrible quality and blurry, but I wanted to get it on here so we remember what a fantastic show it was. The we got to see another set of twins! Ben had been especially looking forward to seeing them, and he did get them some hugs and high fives. But he did not want to pose for a picture. But Drew sure did! And isn't it so cute?Next we hopped on over to do the Bugs' Life 3D adventure. We really didn't know what we were getting into before we began this one. So here we are with our 3D glasses on BEFORE the tears. Needless to say, they hated it. It was scary to them, and we left within the first 5 minutes. If we ever visit this park again, we'll try again when they are much older. But for now we know that they don't like things in 3D. Oh well, you live and learn, right?Here they are in line for the big water ride. Now the signs say that you "might" get wet, and they met the height requirement. We prepared them that they might not like it and what might happen during the ride. But they were persistent that they wanted to go. So we did. This is the 'before' shot:And here is the 'after'. I don't think they loved the ride, especially not the part when the three of them got caught underneath the waterfall. But they both held it together very well and didn't cry or complain once. Needless to say, we went straight to the store and bought our treat for that day: a DRY Disney t-shirt.

And after that, once again, we had pushed them as far as they could go and it was time to head back for a nap. After we got all cleaned up, dried off and rested up we headed over to Epcot. But we didn't count on it storming. So we grabbed some little ponchos and didn't let a little shower deter us from having more fun.

We had plenty to explore and right outside of the Moroccan restaurant we ate at we saw Princess Jasmine. Guess who was SO happy to see her??? It was so cute! He hugged her and hugged her so long that Daddy finally said "okay, buddy, that's good" . And when he realized that we were all watching him with this pretty girl he needed a hug from Mommy since he got just a little embarrassed. She even put a lipstick print on his cheek, which he was proud of getting, but rubbed off since he got a little embarrassed. At dinner we had a table that was right next to the dance floor where we got to watch a belly dancer and both boys got to bang on the drums while she danced. Such a fun evening!The next day was Sunday so we got up and headed over to John and Holly McCall's church and then got to spend some of the afternoon with them. I hate that we didn't get any pictures of us all together because they are such dear friends and we love them so much. I only wish we got to spend more time together because our time with them is always such a blessing to both us and to our kiddos. And then after a good nap we headed over to the pool to beat the heat.

Back over to Epcot once again after we cleaned up from the pool for some exploring and some dinner, minus the rain this time.And we got to meet Donald!!AND Goofy!!!

Ben gets a lift from Daddy while exploring in Mexico...And then we made a point to go to China. When my parents took Britt and I to Disney as children, I remember Epcot being kind of boring. But not so this time. And not just for us grown-ups. Ben and Drew loved it! I think that must be because we talk so often about the different places Daddy has to travel for work, and we spend a lot of time looking at the globe. But regardless of the reason, they were SO excited to see what China looks like. They got to each decorate their own Chinese mask, complete with their names and birthdates in character. And then we ate ---what else-- Chinese food! I think the people around us were confused as to why two little four year olds were eating properly with chopsticks.

And this one is just too funny not to put on here. We ended every night of our vacation (except our final night) with the fireworks show at each park. Now, if you've kept up with our blog throughout the years you know very well that this is how Ben looks on every Fourth of July and New Year's Eve. He will tell you "I do like fireworks, I just don't like the noise." So this is how Ben looked at the end of every night during the fireworks show. And I thought it was too cute, so I had to get a picture of it. ;)And then our last day began at Hollywood Studios. A side note: I have no idea who the people are in this picture. Two little people were grouchy this morning, no doubt from staying up late every night, and couldn't be cooperative for a picture. But I digress. Onto the fun...

We began our day with a HUGE breakfast with some of our favorite characters: JoJo, Handy Manny, June and Leo from the Little Einstiens. You know thaany day that begins with icecream for breakfast is going to be a great day!

And immediately after breakfast we headed to see Lightning McQueen and Mater! I can't even descibe the level of excitement at meeting the REAL McQueen.

Kermit was cool to me because Micheal and I grew up with him, but I don't really think they knew who he was. We all rode the Star Wars ride, which they thought was pretty cool since they have Storm Trooper helmets and light sabers and some of Daddy's Star Wars stuff from when he was little....

And then we stood in line for what felt like forever to meet Sheriff Woody!!We played on a playground straight out of Honey I Shrunk the Kids. Again, they liked the playground pretty well, but they didn't really get it. I thought it was great though because we watched that movie as kids. This day we decided to skip naps and watch the afternoon parade. It was our last day afterall. And I'm so glad we got to see it! It was so much fun!
We wrapped up our vacation by celebrating with dinner at Artist's Point. Now, I'll say this: for 4 year olds these boys have eaten at some pretty nice places. But this was by far the nicest meal they've ever eaten and one of the nicest restaurants. So we prepped them by explaining just how we expect them to behave like very big boys and use their best manners and all that stuff. So we sit down and Drew places his napkin in his lap and says very matter of factly "Daddy, I need an appetizer please." We were laughing so hard at being so caught off guard by him that we almost couldn't order. And then he had some applesauce as an appetizer.
We had SUCH a great time. At every moment it was so much fun. Even when we were lost in the huge land of Disney, and even when the boys were being typical four year olds, even when we were so tired from all the walking, it was great. And even though the four of us are pretty close, I feel like we grew even closer. Thank you, Lord for this family you've given me. I am a woman blessed beyond measure, and my cup truly runneth over.

Wrapping Up Another Great Soccer Season

2010-06-15T07:01:00.001-07:00

Who would've thought that Michael would love being a soccer coach so much that he would want to keep spending his Saturday mornings with 8 four year olds? But he did, and - as it turns out - he's really great at it to boot.

Ben and Drew both really enjoyed having Daddy be the coach again. And whereas last year it took all season long for Ben to figure out that going after the ball is fun, he jumped right in with both feet first this year. He was a scoring machine. Drew did really great too. Social butterfly that he is, I think he had as much fun being silly with his teammates (almost every goal merited a flip on the grass and high fives all around) as he did actually playing. But the important thing is that they both had a good time and they are continuing to get better. So our season wrapped up this past May and here are a few pictures of our last game and getting our trophies:

I had to include this picture of my favorite two year old. He's my sideline buddy during most of the games. But if I'm being honest, it's probably only because I sit on the blanket and give snacks to the boys who are waiting to go in the game....Numbers 4, 5, & 6 admiring their new trophiesThe proud daddies with their little soccer stars

Our team this year: Cooper, Brax, Noah, Junior, Daddy, Keegan, Drew, Tyler and BenIt sure has been a fun way to start off our weekends. And they say that they'd like to play again this coming fall...as long as Daddy can be the Coach.

Our Last Day of School in the 4 Year Old Class!

2010-06-15T07:00:00.000-07:00

What a wonderful school year it was!!! The boys really made some big leaps in their learning and had so much fun while they were at it. This year they were old enough to participate in several field trips, of course lots of holiday parties, two programs, and even a special Mother's Day lunch at Mrs. Fisher's house that they prepared for us all by themselves. One of my favorite things about this year was that they were with many of their classmates from last year in Miss Betsey's class. Ben and Drew may only be four years old, but they already have deep friendships that are very meaningful to them. Its such a neat thing to watch your children learn to be good friends and to receive love from others. As always we wrapped up the school year with our Popsicle Party, but this year it was moved inside due to the weather. It didn't stop us from having a great last day of school, though. Here are just a few pictures of their last day of school.

Drew's year end book that shows the progress he's made since the first day of school:
Ben showing me his year end book:The two silly monkeys standing in front of the door that has class pictures from every month of the school year:All 6 boys in the class: Mason, Mac (behind Brax), Brax, Ben, Drew, Kingston Two very sweet (and adorable) redheads: Mary Adeline and Faith Our wonderful teacher Mrs. Fisher:

Drew giving some big bear hugs to Ms. Pat, our amazing director. This is how every child starts their day when she gets them out of the cars in the lineup every morning. This woman is such a gift to our school, and I'm so thankful that Drew and Ben get to be prayed over by her every day.

The three amigos each sitting in their lockers. I can only imagine some of the silliness that must happen at these lockers every day.

Miss Lisa is one of the two helpers who has made such an impact on our boys. She and Miss Amy (below) love love love them so much, and I know that the twins know it. With Miss Amy. I can't say enough good things about how these two ladies have made school such a sweet experience for our boys in the past two years.

I know I've said it a million times, and I'm sure I'll say it again. But I am so thankful that Ben and Drew get to attend this school. I know that they are getting a great education. But that is nothing compared to how they are hugged, loved, prayed over, and shown Christ's love lived out.

Thank you Otter Creek for another wonderful school year! Now on to the 5 year old class!!!

Happy Easter!

2010-05-23T18:47:00.000-07:00

We kicked off our Easter season with the boys' class party and picnic. What a fun time they had! The party was the church playground and pavilion and we were fortunate to have some perfect weather for the day.

We started off with some time on the playground with all our buddies

Time for some lunch.....

....and for dessert they each got to decorate their own cupcake! Look at how hard they are all concentrating. Followed by some sack races
Drew getting ready to raceBen ready to jump And then it was time to find the eggs
My two precious boys and I The three musketeers
With our teacher, Mrs. Fisher
And one with our whole class

Big Boy Beds Built for Twins!!

2010-05-23T13:21:00.000-07:00

We sure have gotten every bit of use out of the toddler beds. But they are long gone, and not to be missed. We've moved on to bigger and better and - most importantly - longer. Which is important since they are both growing and growing.

We found a great deal on these from some people at church and then had them refinished to match the rest of their bedroom furniture. They ended up looking pretty good, I think.

So far we haven't had any arguments over who will get to sleep on the top bunk, which was surprising to me. But they do both want to sleep on the bottom bunk. I don't know, maybe it feels like a little fort under there. So we began a rule that we'll switch who gets to sleep where on the first of every month. So far, so good. Let's hope it continues.

Here are a few pictures of our first night in the big bunk beds!

Missouri

2010-04-13T08:53:00.000-07:00

What I failed to mention at the end of the last post was that our car was fully packed to the hilt and as soon as the Spring Program was over we headed up the road to spend the first weekend of Spring Break with the fam in Missouri. So basically that meant a full 8 hours of nonstop questions and comments from the back seat about Cousin Dresi. Did I mention that the talk about Dresi was nonstop? For 8 hours? No, really though, it was sweet. They love her so much and they couldn't contain their excitement about getting to spend some time with her.

One of the things we got to do was watch Dres cheer for her Upward Basketball game. She had two of her own little cheerleaders in the stands and they were pretty excited to yell for her.

And what trip to Missouri would be complete without a visit to see Chuck E. Cheese? I'm sure we spent our combined weights in those little gold coins and won about a billion tickets all to take home some treasured prizes. Pretty fun stuff to these little buddies. And we managed to have a pretty good time too. Those were the highlights of the trip. All in all, it was a pretty quick weekend, but so good to spend a few days together.

Spring Program at Otter Creek

2010-04-13T08:37:00.001-07:00

After an especially chilly winter that felt like it would never end, we were ready for all things Spring. With two very active boys, the need for sunshine and playtime outside to burn off that energy is just not negotiable. And boy have we been enjoying spending time outside and talking about how things grow and new life and how God is so good and makes everything fresh and new again. One of my favorite things about Springtime is the boys' program at school.

The teachers work for months (literally) to get these boys and girls ready to put on a show for us, and I have to say it never disappoints. They are so sweet, so excited and so very proud of themselves to show us what they've worked so hard on.

Here they are making their entrance onto the stage, after the "little kids". All lined up, and ready to go..........But first, let's stop and wave to Mommy and Daddy in the audience!The whole program was about Nursery Rhymes and Miss Fisher's class's theme was Little Boy Blue. So they decorated blue t-shirts with rainbows that they each painted themselves, they recited "Little Boy Blue", and sang songs about the colors of the rainbow. Here they are singing "O Lord, you are my rainbow, you shine in every way. With your pretty colors, Lord you make my day. You are the blue in the sky. You are the green in my eye. You are the orange in the pretty, pretty butterfly. You are the bright yellow sun that makes summer so fun, O Lord you are The One." "Red stand up. Blue stand up. Yellow and Green stand up."And here they showed off that awesome artwork on their shirts. Then after all the classes had a chance to perform on stage, they all came back together to sing a few songs with Miss Janet and Mr Murray. Janet is one of our Children's ministers at church and she does Bible story with the kids each week. Murray is our Praise and Worship Minister (and Daddy to one of the twins' friends in class, Faith) and he also takes time out of his schedule to sing with the kids each week. They sang the books of the Old Testament (I'll have to try hard to get some video of that to post on here), a new spin (complete with dance moves) on Jesus Loves Me, My God is So BIG!, and We Love You Lord. What a blessing to have our boys at a place that puts such an emphasis on teaching these kids that worship isn't an hour you spend once a week, but that its the way you live every day. And here is the best shot we could get of a class picture. And one class picture with Miss Fisher, who loves these children so much. I hope Ben and Drew both are able to remember their time at Otter Creek as they get older. Regardless of whether they specifically remember their experiences there, I love that it is helping to shape who they are growing up to be. They love going to school. And I know that it is because they are told every single time they are there that they are loved 'just because' as Miss Pat always says.
I can't think of a better way to usher in the Easter season! I say bring on Spring!!

Under the Big Top!

2010-02-17T05:56:00.001-08:00

Obviously, its not February. However, I do want to remember what we did in that month of this year. So here goes. We thought it would be a fun treat to take the boys to see the circus for the first time this year. We've wanted to take them before this year. Seems like we discuss doing it each time it comes in town. But then we've always decided against it because its kind of a long show, and we just weren't sure if they would think parts of it were scary. But this year, since they are 4 (four and a half if you ask them. Yes-the 'half' is a very big deal at this age.) we thought they would really enjoy it. And they DID! In fact, I'd even say they loved it. We really made a whole day of it, thanks to our friend Jaime who told us to show up extra extra early to see the pre-show. So we did, and we were able to get them right up on the velvet rope to watch a few of the clowns perform. You can tell a little bit from this picture what they thought of it, but it really doesn't do it justice. Truly, they were belly laughing so hard that they were cackling and roaring. Almost couldn't catch a breath. I definitely didn't expect them to think that the clowns were so funny. But Ben especially thought they were hilarious.

So then it was time for the main event. Michael scored us some really great seats so they were able to really get into all of the action. And, of course, any time you take a break of any sorts - even if that break was meant for you to get to those really great seats - if you're 4, it is viewed as an opportunity for a snack {read: junk food}. But hey, when in Rome, right? So Daddy got us all settled in to our seats and headed back out to snag some very brightly colored sno cones in the biggest, funnest cups he could find. What a treat for these boys!Here they are right before the show began:And a few shots of all the fun during the show itself.

It really was a well-done show. We even enjoyed ourselves too. But the best part was getting to watch Drew and Ben have such a fun experience for the first time. When I think of it that way it really was the greatest show on earth.

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow!

2010-01-26T07:42:00.000-08:00

Okay, so as I mentioned earlier, I'm just now playing catch-up with our blog. Way down here in the deep South we don't often get snow. So when we even get a light dusting, we feel compelled to shut down everything from grocery stores to schools and have a play day. Pretty good idea, if I do say so myself. Back in January we had a pretty good day of accumulation and the boys and I took full advantage of it. Some really forgetful mommy left the top off the sandbox, which filled up with water. But what does a pool of water do when it gets really cold??? Why, it makes two tiny ice skating rinks of course! ;) Lemons into lemonade here, people. They had as much fun making themselves slide all around as they did throwing snowballs at me and each other. And the snow that the trampoline caught made for some pretty fun bouncing. The boys have each been able to write their names pretty well since a few weeks before they turned 4, so I asked them each to write it in the snow. I love the little bit of "flair" that Ben puts on the top of his lower case 'n'. He consistently does this and I know I should make him write an uppercase 'N' correctly. But truthfully, I like that he puts his own little spin on it for now. He'll have to correct it soon enough in school so the artist in me is embracing it. We had our fill of snow cream, a favorite and a must whenever there is any accumulation at all and had fun snuggling after playing in the cold. These are sweet sweet days, and I am so lucky to be these boys' mama. Little did we know when this snow came that we'd have an even bigger snow in about a month. While Michael and I were skiing in Colorado Mimi got snowed in with the boys under about 6 inches, give or take. I wish I had pictures but we were too busy in our own snow. Glad we got these!!!

Merry Christmas Part 4 (Santa Claus Comes to Mimi and Pops House)

2010-01-12T07:54:00.001-08:00

Okay, not quite sure how it happened that today is actually MARCH 1st, 2010 and I STILL haven't finished updating our blog from Christmas!!! Wow, this may be a new record, even for me. Isn't funny though that this year I didn't even list "update blog more often" on my New Year's Resolutions since I knew it would be a lost cause? ;) Well, I'll just say that there have been way too many other things filling up my spare time to sit at a computer and type. However, in the interest of keeping it all documented (and keeping the Grandparents pacified), I'll backtrack and fill in the details of Christmas. :)

This year we spent Christmas at Mimi and Pop's house. We had already written and mailed our letters to the Big Guy letting him know which house to come and visit. So, after making a healthy snack for the reindeer and some cookies and milk for Santa, we were ready for bed. Here are the boys leaving the plate beside the fireplace. Santa left a thank you note back to the boys. But, it turns out that they were much more interested in the other things he left. Good thing, too. Because somehow during the night Nahla (Mimi and Pop's kitty) and Missy Kitty (BeBe's kitty) got into the milk and spilled it all over the note, leaving it glued down to the fireplace. Pretty funny.

Here are the boys opening up their stockings that were filled with Buzz Lightyears, among other goodies. I love that these are the stockings that they made themselves at a special spend the night party with BeBe at her house. But Santa's biggest surprise was a Wii, which the boys have been playing with at Mimi and Pop's house for a couple of years now. So, they are already little pro's, and were super excited!A mini putt putt course was a big hit with them, and perfect for keeping them busy since it was too cold to go outside. See the little hand holding up this pillow? Thats one of our children taking cover from Daddy, who had as much (maybe more) fun with the Nerf dart guns than the kids did. Speaking from first hand experience here, those things shoot really fast and can actually hurt. Smart kids to hide. Pretty sure between Michael and the rest of the grown men who were playing with the guns, everyone was smart to take shelter from them. ;)One of the things I love about my parents house and grandparents' house at holidays is that its not just our blood-related family who is with us. 'Family' is a very broad title and used on anyone and everyone who we love, and this year was no different. The Gentry's have been our closest friends for as long as I can remember. Callie and Zach are the closest thing Britt and I ever had to other siblings and Jackie and Dale continue to be like second parents to us. We've all even adopted each other's grandparents. So we were very happy that they were able to spend Christmas day with us, rather than be in North Carolina like they normally are. Also the Sullivans were with us and have been every year since Brad began preaching at our church. Mason, their 12 year old, has passed down almost all of his old toys and books to Ben and Drew and Hayley is a teenager so she loves being around the little guys. So we had quite a fun crew. After eating some pretty amazing food Daddy and Zach had a little jam session, and we rounded it out with a very very lively game of Catch Phrase among everyone (except Nana and Papa, who were still napping). Ben and Drew were a little bit in awe at all the ...shall we say..."spiritedness" of the game, but they thought it was so funny to help each of our teams. That night (after a much needed nap for everyone) Pop and Drew took on Britt and I in Guitar Hero. I'm pretty sure Drew is singing Michael Jackson's "Beat It" in this picture. Pretty hilarious. Ben and Mimi working on some hot chocolate and doing a little work from her computer. Its not the best quality picture, but I had to put this one on here of 4 generations of some pretty special men in our family: my Papa, my Daddy, my husband, and our sweet boys.

Every Christmas is special because of who you share it with and what you focus on. This year was certainly no different, and I have to say that we were so blessed to share it with our family in Montgomery.

Okay, now to catch us up on the rest of what's been going on......

Merry Christmas Part 3 (School Program and Class Party)

2009-12-22T05:08:00.001-08:00

For the second year we joined the rest of the paparazzi and watched some sweet little faces sing in the annual Christmas program at Otter Creek School. What a difference a year makes! Last year (they boys' first year to participate in a program of any kind) Ben sat there looking at everyone in the audience and chewing the gum that his mommy forgot to make him spit out. Ooops. Obviously Drew enjoyed being on the stage and singing the songs last year. But nothing like this year! This year they both sang along with every song, did all their little motions, smiled and both seemed to enjoy themselves.

Here they are with the rest of the school on stage.
"Rock the baby, rock, rock the baby. Rock baby Jesus is born!"...."Aaaaand....spread Christmas cheer!"And here they are all watching the doors for Santa to make his appearance. After the program all the moms, dads, siblings, grandparents and everyone else headed up to each of the classrooms for a Christmas party. Darci, Jaime and I worked together to do the class party. We had lots of yummy food, the kids got to make a Christmas ornament to take home, they all exchanged presents for a friend (whose name they drew), Santa came to visit the classroom and got to give Miss Fisher her present too. Here are a few pictures with their friends: The class picture with Santa was a little bit sparse since there were 4 kids who were out sick. It just seems like everyone is lately. And a picture with Miss Fisher! We may have a different teacher this year, but nothing has changed at all about how much we love Otter Creek and all the Godly women there. They begin every. single. day. with a prayer for the children who they come in contact with, and they love them each deeply. We feel so lucky to have them in a place that gives as much attention to loving Jesus as preparing for school.
Okay, on to to the next Christmas celebration!

Merry Christmas Part 2 (Celebrating with the Blankinships)

2009-12-20T18:39:00.001-08:00

A couple of weekends before Christmas the Blankinships drove down from Missouri to celebrate with us. For days all Drew and Ben could talk about was seeing their cousin Dresi. So when they finally got here the boys were entertained the whole time. We packed quite a bit into just a few days. We kicked things off by taking the kids to paint Christmas ornaments and even MawMaw painted a little one for her own tree. Of course you know our kids - they are always up early - so we were there when it opened and had the place all to ourselves for most of the time we were there. I think Dres could've stayed there all day long she loved it so much!Here are the cousins in front of our Christmas treeand the obligatory "silly face picture"The boys loved opening all of their presents and loved giving everyone else theirs. Here Drew is showing us his Storm Trooper talking helmet and Storm Trooper gun. He and Ben each got one and if you come to our house at certain times and listen to the sounds coming from the playroom, you'd swear you were in the Star Wars movie. They were so fun to watch this year with the presents. I think they enjoyed handing out the presents and helping everyone else open theirs, as much as they enjoyed their own. What a blessing to see your children getting as excited about what they are giving as they are getting. I hope they are always that way.
After lots of excitement and some much needed rest, they woke up the next morning for some good snuggle time on the couch with Dres while waiting patiently for..........Daddy and PawPaw to put the new trampoline together! That's right! MawMaw and PawPaw gave the boys a trampoline for Christmas. So PawPaw and Michael braved the super cold weather and spent several hours putting it together so that the kids could jump for a little bit.
Talk about excitement! Even the cold weather couldn't keep them off of it. And rather than fight an uphill battle that I couldn't win, I bundled them up really well and grabbed the camera for some pictures. I don't think they minded the chill of the morning at all, especially when I brought out some hot chocolate.

We all rewarded their hard work with a trip to the Pancake Pantry (a must every time they visit, with no objections from us!) and then took the rest of the day pretty easy in front of the fireplace to stay warm. Which was great because its always just so good to visit and watch the kids play.

What a great way to kick off our Christmas season! We sure do love you guys, and had so much fun. Our only complaint is that we missed Uncle Dan who couldn't come because he had to be on call for work. Merry Christmas one and all!

Merry Christmas Part 1 (Breakfast with Santa and Decorating the House)

2009-12-12T13:57:00.000-08:00

We were that family this year. You know the one. The family who put their Christmas decorations up before we left for Thanksgiving. I know, I can't believe it either. But, this year it seems like we were going to be in such a rush once we got back that there wouldn't be enough time to get it all done. And we were right, there wasn't enough time. Once we got back, the month of December was here and we've been busy doing the holiday rush since.

The boys really got into the decorating this year. In fact, they've really been into all of it this year. I thought they were really into it last year. But, no. This year's enthusiasm is putting last year's to shame, and it is so much fun. They know all the words [read: think they know all the words] to all the songs, are all caught up in our Elf on the Shelf (whose name is Blitzen, by the way), love to read "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" at least two times a day every day, and - most importantly - love telling the story of the birth of Jesus. Here are a few of the pictures I took one morning while we were decorating the house...

We also had our annual Family Christmas Breakfast at church and the boys got to have their picture made with the big guy. For the record, this was the first year that Ben didn't cry when he got to see him. And we didn't even have to bribe him to sit on his lap and talk. That's progress, people. ;)

The ladies who put the breakfast with Santa do such an amazing job with it. This year they had a live nativity scene, which was a hit with the kiddos. They each got to make an ornament to put on their tree upstairs, and as always, we ate some really good food. It was such a fun morning and a tradition that I just love.Later that afternoon BeBe came over to pick up the boys for a spend the night party. She invited them over to make a gingerbread choo-choo, painted stockings and loaded up on all the candy and McDonalds they could stand. She was so sweet to have them over so that Michael and I could have some of our friends over for a little grown up Christmas party, and they had such a good time. Here are my precious little elves before they headed out. More to come soon. Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night.

So Much To Be Thankful For...

2009-12-08T10:21:00.000-08:00

There really are too many things to list here. But we are so very thankful to God for so many reasons this year. A few of them are things that we'll be thankful for every year. Things like Jesus' faithfulness to us, each other, our families and on and on.

But there are also a few things that we're thankful for this year that are more specific to this past year, and I want to make sure we don't forget them as time moves forward.

One of the biggest praises is that Ben's body has been so receptive to the the Growth Hormone Treatments. In the first 6 months that he's been on it, he grew a full pound and a full 2 inches!!! That may not sound like much to you. But to us it's monumental, and it was enough to get him onto the weight growth charts for the first time in his life. We are thankful that we have Doctors in our lives who love our children and who we trust, like Dr. Leeper and Dr. Guy. For us, that response was the affirmation that I had really needed to know that we had made the right decision. I mean, its not an easy task to give your 3 or 4 year old a shot 6 days a week. He does pretty well with it, but its still not really fun for him. We prayerfully made the decision to do it, but the doctors never said that it was something we HAD to do. So, we are thankful for two growing boys.

We are also so thankful this year for Michael's job. Seems like we know so many who have lost their jobs or are struggling in this economy. And the fact that Michael can still work and allow me to be at home with Drew and Ben is a blessing.

Fall has always been my very favorite time of year, and Thanksgiving is such a special holiday. This year we were able to spend it in Missouri and as usual we jammed so much into the few days we were there.

We celebrated with more food than we could eat and the day after Thanksgiving Uncle Dan volunteered to take all the kids to play on the farm so all of the rest of us could find some great steals on Black Friday. I'm pretty sure he wanted to do it because he loves spending time with the boys and Dresi. But I'll bet that getting out of shopping was a pretty good reason too. So we loaded up his truck with the car seats, hitched up the trailer with the 4-wheelers and sent them off for a day of fun on the farm. They had so much fun!

We also got to go back to this place called Bonkers that all the kiddos love. Its a cross between Chuck E Cheese and a kid-friendly climbing gym made of woven mats so they kind of bounce as they climb from place to place. I've never seen anything like it, and its really pretty cool. They love it at any rate, and we enjoy watching them have so much fun.

Happy Thanksgiving indeed!

Happy Halloween! (Or Also Known As: Super Heroes to the Rescue!)

2009-11-20T06:49:00.001-08:00

This year our Halloween was so full of activities and parties that it almost felt as busy as Christmas. It was a whirlwind for sure. But a fun one. This year the boys are both all about superheroes. So we got on the Internet and let them each pick out which one they wanted to be. Ben chose Superman (because it was the only one that didn't have to wear a mask).......And Drew chose Batman (possibly because of the extra cool gloves). They were both decked out and ready to go catch some bad guys (and candy).Here are all of the lifegroup boys at the beginning of Trunk or Treat at church.And with a few more buddies while getting candy from car to car. I took Drew around to the cars while Ben opted to hand out candy with Daddy. It took him about an hour to warm up to being in a costume, all the loud noise, and all the people before he decided he was comfortable enough to go get some candy of his own. I just love their little personalities. They are each so special and unique in their own way. So the next day we figured we'd better get a move on and carve ourselves some pumpkins. Here's how you do it!

Step 1: Pick out a really great pumpkin and cover the kitchen table with lots of newspaperStep 2: Get your carving and scooping tools readyStep 3: Pull off the top of the pumpkin Step 4: Pull out all the pumpkin guts and seeds and be sure to yell "Eeeewwwwww" really loudStep 5: Run around the house all hopped up on Trunk or Treat candy while Mommy does the actual carving of the pumpkin, then come back for a picture and take credit for the jack-o-lanternStep 6: Take it out to the front porch, stick a candle in it and say "ta-da!" for every one to see the cool pumpkin "you" carved. So here's where Drew's black eye came from (as seen in pictures below and a few soccer pictures earlier). We had saved the pumpkin seeds to roast them when Daddy came home. That night after dinner we were getting all the stuff ready to make them. Now, the boys help me cook pretty often....they love to be a part of whatever is going on....so they know the rules and they are used to sitting on top of the counter. I turned my back for literally a split second, so I'm not entirely sure what happened. But from what we gather, we think that Drew shifted how he was sitting, then Ben shifted just a little bit, which made Drew lose his balance, and he fell right off the counter. The eye was pretty bad, I'll have to say. And we were all pretty upset about it. We called all the right people and the good news was that he was and would be just fine. The bad news was that it was going to look pretty gruesome for a couple of days. And it did. Poor buddy. But he is such a tough little guy and doesn't ever let much get him down for long. We gave him the option of not participating in the next Halloween event, but he wouldn't hear of it. He wanted to be on that stage.

So....off we went to the Parade of Bible Characters. This year, we did it as a lifegroup again. Initially we thought we'd do something cute with the first family tree. You know, Adam, Eve, Cain, Abel, Seth and a tree. But then - as I was talking on the phone with Jen about costumes - the boys heard me saying that they'd be Cain and Abel. And they got SO upset. Lips started quivering and they started crying. I didn't ever say which one would be which, but Ben said to me "Mommy, I don't want to get dead." And then Drew said "And I don't want to be a bad guy!" Bless their hearts, I felt so bad. I didn't realize they would even think about it that way. I guess they've been paying attention afterall.

So we found another story to do. But that was the end of Ben wanting to go on stage to do it at all. Instead we did the Zacheus story. Drew was Jesus, Owen was the Wee Little Man, Jay was the sycamore tree, and Weston was the money that Zacheus gave back to all the people. I'm sure that it was an okay Bible story with good clues. But the truth is that Owen totally stole the show. That sweet baby marched right to the middle of the stage and proceeded to lift his whole costume up and show it all for the whole time. The audience roared and I'm pretty sure Jen was mortified. But it was a great moment. I'm just glad someone got it on video. Next was the boys' classroom party at school. They first got to go to the craft table and make pumpkin picture frame magnets. And then got to enjoy many Pumpkin-themed games around the room. Here are all the Batmen.And here are all the boys in their class (except Ben, who was not in the picture taking spirit at all.). Daddy even came up to the school to celebrate with us!Drew with a couple of his girlfriends, Emma and Ava.The whole class (minus Ben again...see above for details).And one class picture (albeit amid tears) WITH Ben in it! One day he'll thank me. But I assure you it wasn't that day.They trick-or-treated to Miss Pat's office to get a piece of candy, and each class gets to parade their costumes to all the other classes. After all that we all came back for some treats. It was such a fun party, and Miss Fisher has a great group of kids in her class. Actually most of the kids in the class were together last year in Miss Betsy's class too, so they already have some pretty strong friendships.

And no Halloween would be complete without Trick-or-Treating in the neighborhood. The last couple of years the Belvilles have come with us to go around a few streets here. But this year they were moving on Halloween weekend. So instead, we met up for dinner and brought Brax home with us so the three musketeers could collect candy together. (Oh, and as a side note, yes-Drew opted to change his costume to be a UT basketball player. He's got the uniform on underneath the track suit. And in this picture he couldn't look at the camera because he needed to make sure I got a picture of the #1 painted on his cheek.) Here we are before we head off.

It was a really fun Halloween....maybe the most fun I've ever had. They really enjoyed it this year, and truly there is nothing more fun than watching your children enjoy something.

Happy Halloween, little spooks!

We're 4!

2009-10-29T10:23:00.000-07:00

You know what they say about "the best laid plans"....well it was definitely true this year for the boys' 4th birthday party. Honestly every single year when it comes time for us to decide what to do for their birthday party we always talk about wanting to do something outdoors. Every single year we opt not to because we always think "what if it pours? then what?". And every single year [up until this year] the weather is always gorgeous. I mean its the most perfect fall weather on the day of the party. So this year, we had heard about this great farm from our friends Rusty and Andrea where you could pet all the farm animals, ride horses, and do all the other cool farm stuff that little boys dream of. So we thought, let's just go for it!

Don't you know the weather was awful. Unseasonably cold, wet and rainy. And at first we were all a little disappointed that things had to be rearranged because that meant that all of our family - who all live out of town - wouldn't be able to come to the farm.

But we rolled with the punches, and I have to say that things turned out perfectly. We ended up having more time to spend with our families than we would have, and basically the boys got to celebrate for the whole weekend. Who wouldn't love that??

Since it was super cold and rainy we couldn't take the kids to do anything fun outside, but instead we took them to the Jump Zone where we all played and had a good time. Then we came home for some lunch, GiGi's cupcakes and presents. Sadly, these are the only pictures we got of our time with all the family here. We'll have to do better over the upcoming holidays. Here are the boys opening up their presents and Cousin Dresi helping.

We definitely made the right decision to postpone the party by one day because the next evening was just perfect. The farm wasn't even that muddy considering all the rain we'd had. We had a bonfire for everyone to roast hotdogs and smores, there was a playground, sheep to pet, two of the cutest sweetest pigs wandering around hoping to steal your food and an arena where they all got to ride horses till their hearts' content. It really was so much fun.

Here is Tricia putting helmets on everyone and teaching them about how to ride. After each of the kids rode the horse, she taught them each how to lead. Here is Brax leading Xander.Even all the little ones got to ride as much as they wanted (even if they couldn't keep the helmets on). Owen got a little extra help from his Daddy.Martha Ann, Daisy, Ben and Josh down at the sheep pen.Time for a cheetoh breakCousin Becca and BeBe roasting hotdogs.

Beautiful baby Brenna and her beautiful mommy.Looking down from the arenaThen - as if all that wasn't enough - Tricia took all the kids into the stables and they all got to paint the ponies! She wrote "Happy Birthday Ben and Drew" on it, and they all got to paint him as much as they want and put their handprints on him. They all LOVED it. All that was left to do after that was take a picture with the pony and Patrick the pig. That was a little difficult since Ben doesn't like to be the center of anyone's attention and certainly doesn't want his picture made. So this picture doesn't have him in it. But with a little coercion he let Miss Tricia hold him for one group picture with all his buddies. Here they are each blowing out four candles.And here they are licking all the icing off all the props on the cake.I thought we were all done with all the excitement, but Tricia went way above and beyond for all these sweet kiddos and pulled out little horse-sticks for each of the kids to pretend to ride on in the arena.

Once it finally all came together it turned out to be a really special day. Drew and Ben had been looking forward to their farm party for weeks and would ask every single morning if it was the day for their party yet. They loved every minute of it and we were so happy to watch them enjoy it so much.

Ben and Drew, may you always know how much your Daddy and I love you and how lucky we feel to be your parents. You both bring us so much joy, laughter and love. Our prayer for you on your birthday is the same as it is every day: thank you Jesus for Ben and Drew and may they live a long life of love for You.

First forray into organized sports

2009-10-29T09:40:00.001-07:00

One of our favorite things to do after we clean up the kitchen from dinner every night is to divide up into teams and we "play" soccer in our upstairs den. A good game can easily last for half an hour or more, and its become something that the four of us love to do together. So this year, when we realized that they were old enough to begin playing soccer with the Y league we thought they would both really have a fun thing to do on Saturdays AND it would be a great way to introduce them to team sports.

A few weeks before the first game we got an email saying that our team needed a coach, so Michael volunteered to do it. I mean, how hard could it be, right? After all, they're 4 year olds. So, we had a couple of practices before our first game, and those both went surprisingly better than I ever dreamed. They listened to what Michael told them to do and tried their best and seemed to have fun. And then....we had the first real game. And that was another story entirely.
So he huddled them up, and the team decided their team name should the "The Swipers" (you know, from Dora). He had tried to explain to them the concept of the two teams of four running after the ball and trying to kick it into the goal. But I guess that felt much different than our nights of playing two-on-two in the den. Because that first game there were many tears over not getting to kick the ball in the goal and falling down, a little bit of timidity when lots of other unknown boys started running towards them, and generally not wanting to play on the field at all. Thankfully, we had a little boy on our team who had played the previous year, and he knew just what to do. He was our star player for the first couple of games, and then all the rest of the boys caught the hang of it. We had several games rained out, but once we started playing them again, they seemed to really enjoy it. Drew was hilarious and went after the ball every time he was on the field, cheering for all his buddies. Ben, very true to his nature, took a little while to get used to the idea of the game. When it was his turn to be on the field he ran right next to Daddy the whole time, cheered for his teammates, and avoided the ball (and any attention). I think that he finally did kick the ball once during the last few minutes of the last game. The way the Y has this age group set up is really great for introducing kids to the game. They don't have goalies, they don't keep score, every body on the sidelines cheers for all the kids, and at the end of every game all the kids get to run through a little tunnel made by the parents while we cheer for them. (But just so you know, we did win every game by a ton of goals....they were little star athletes, all of them, and - even though they didn't know it - they were by far better than any of the other teams we played. And no, I'm not biased at all.)We got to make a few new friends that we really enjoyed getting to know.......but one of the best parts for Ben and Drew was getting to play on the same team as Brax. (Doesn't he look so tough waiting for the ball here? Yes, that is a black eye he's sporting here. But its from an unrelated incident. That's another story for another day....more in the next post.)One of the best parts for Michael and I was getting to spend our Saturday mornings hanging with our good friends Josh and Darci...and any of the other spectators that came out for some good entertainment (BeBe, Jeff, Aaron, Bobber and we can't forget Brody).I confess, I stole this picture from Darci's camera. But I just couldn't resist putting it on here because it was just so cute. A little good-luck booty bump from a buddy.And a good-luck-hug-turned-wrestling-match on the soccer field followed by lots of laughing.
And what sporting event would be complete without your very own trophy? They were SO proud and thought they were pretty big showing those off.

And here's our team from left to right: Cooper, Jayden, Ben, Michael, Drew, Jackson and Brax. I've never had so much fun cheering on my three favorite guys. Luckily they really enjoyed playing, so I think this was the first of many chances to be their cheerleader and biggest fan.

First Spend-the-Night Party!

2009-10-29T08:38:00.000-07:00

So, Michael's busiest travel times are during the spring and fall. And I figured that while he was away on one of his trips to China, that that would be the perfect time for a spend the night party with one of their best buddies Brax.

They were so excited! We made a special trip to Target and I told them they could each pick out one thing that they wanted to share with him (I'll just say that the three of them polished off one whole box of cereal straws in less than 24 hours, and leave it at that) and we came back to get the house ready. We worked to transform their bedroom floor into a bed for the three of them to share. They chose 5 (yes, FIVE) blankets to lay down for the palate to make sure it was "comfy enough" and chose two favorite movies to watch (which we didn't watch at all because there was so much else to play with and do.)

Here are a few of the before-bedtime pictures I took:

The three macho tough guys with all of their loveys that none of them can sleep without. So adorable!I will say I was prepared for the worst - crying at bedtime, up all night, maybe even some fighting over toys. But none of that happened. In fact, it was so much fun I told Darci and Josh that I wasn't sure why I hadn't thought of this before. It was really the best of all worlds: something fun and special to pass the time while Daddy's away for us, and a small break for Josh and Darci.

Maybe next time I'll be brave enough to invite Brody too!

Gone Fishin'!

2009-10-20T18:29:00.001-07:00

Right before school began we took one last quick trip down to Mimi and Pop's house for a quick weekend visit to wrap up the summer. Since the day we found out Michael and I were having boys, my dad has dreamed of the taking his grandsons fishing. It was something that he and his daddy always did together, and even something that he and Granddaddy enjoyed taking Brittany and I to do too. So we went and got them their very own "big boy" fishing poles, lures and tackle boxes and ventured to some good friends' house from church.

They have a really good sized pond behind their house, complete with a pier, canoes, rope swing and slide. We baited our hooks, cast them out and it didn't take long for the fishies to start biting. Here Michael shows them each how to wait for just the right moment to reel them in. And here Pop lets them see their first catch They never pass up a chance to run at full speed and play outside
We all had so much fun! Thanks to the Lassiters for being so hospitable and sharing your pond with us. We had such a great time, and made some special memories...both for the boys and for Pop.

Missouri

2009-09-11T19:09:00.001-07:00

We wanted to get one last trip in to Missouri to visit the family before we officially said good-bye to summer and began another new school year. So we headed over for a long weekend and a great time. As usual, we crammed as much into our few days as we could.

Pretty much from the time we get there till the time we leave Drew, Ben and Dresi are inseparable. They adore each other, and I'm so thankful to have her in our lives. She's just the sweetest little thing. And because she loves them so much (and therefore talks to all her friends about them all the time) they are pretty well-known in Centralia. One of her little friends came over to play at MawMaw and PawPaw's house one afternoon, and after listening to me talk for a while (don't guess she'd ever been to the south before), she whispered to Michelle "Is she from England?!" and Michelle looks at her and said "No, sweetie. She's just southern." HA! I laughed till I had tears!

We got to do some really fun things while we were there, like the slip n slide:

Playing with MawMaw:Playing at Uncle Dan's daddy's farm with the dog and the duck. The kiddos all chased the duck around and even got to feed it some treats. That little duck is the cutest thing, and loves people like most dogs do. Children of the corn
And - upon Dresi's request - we took them all to play at this place called Bonkers. I'd never heard of it, but just think 'kids climbing gym meets pump it up meets chuck e cheese' and that's basically what it is. Needless to say, they all had a blast!

We had such a great time just visiting and hanging out together. We always do, though. Our only complaint is that our time flies too quickly.

Jerkins Family Reunion 2009

2009-08-06T12:56:00.001-07:00

The morning that Ben got to take his cast off (he actually got to take it off himself. It was kind of like a very firm ace bandage. He thought he was pretty cool.), my parents, grandparents and whole extended family came in town for our annual family reunion.

But before we could head over to the festivities, we had to get a couple of shots of our apple tree with Papa. Ben and Drew had been waiting to show it to him, since they know that he grows just about everything at his house. They actually asked Nana if she could make them some jelly from the apples. She just didn't have the heart to tell them no (Great Grandparents are even bigger suckers for the grand babies!), so she told said 'maybe when they get ripe.' and then leaned over to me and said she'd bring some apple jelly she already made next time she came. So sweet.

My Papa and his brother (who lives here in town) are the last two remaining siblings living of the original four. So about 6 or 7 years ago, they decided to get everyone together. Since then we've done it almost every summer, and we always enjoy it so much. Since many of us live here, and it is kind of the middle for the rest of the family, we have the reunion at Gary and Karen's house every year...they are so kind and so hospitable to open their home up to all of us. Gary gave each of the boys a really cool soccer ball that they ran around with the whole time. Michael was pit master on the grill, we churned lots of homemade ice cream and the boys rode their hot wheels all over the tennis courts.....they really loved that. Drew, Ben and Baby Thayer were definitely the center of attention and we basically all just had so much fun catching up and hanging out.

The proud Aunts and the three nephews:

All the Mamas cooking away:

Relaxing on the patio:Grilling on the other patio:Drew and the other Brittney...they really bonded over their shared love of Little Bear:Ben and Cousin Becca:Aunt Geraldine, Stephen, Nana and Cousin David:

Eating ice cream:What the end of the day looked like at our house:

Ben's Surgery

2009-07-07T12:03:00.001-07:00

We've known for quite some time now (like about a year or so) that Ben would need surgery on his thumbs. He developed trigger thumb, which basically means that he didn't have mobility in the middle joint of his thumbs. It usually didn't bother him at all, was never swollen or red, and he was still able to use it. So - under the guidance of our orthopedist - we opted to wait till the middle of this summer to correct it so that it wouldn't hinder him during the school year.

Well the time came, and we headed to Vandy early on Monday morning to have the surgery. George (his monkey) and Lammy (his lovey since birth) went with us, and even got matching hospital bracelets to match all of ours.

Ben did great while we were getting ready for surgery...but then again, we had been talking to him about getting his thumbs fixed for a while now. We'd been to see doctors, we'd read kids books about hospitals and played with our doctor kit to "fix" all of our stuffed animals thumbs. I felt good about how he did going into it because I knew he was prepared. We got a great surprise in that we were fully prepared to have both thumbs operated on, and once we were checked out that morning by his surgeon we only had to do one! The left hand thumb had corrected itself! Here he is in the holding room while we met every person that would be with him:

Showing me his thumb before:Playing with some glow in the dark bracelets:

So they gave him the "happy" medicine and he and Lammy went back with the doctors all by themselves, leaving a tearful mommy and a quiet daddy to wait together in the waiting room. They took him back at 7:45 and we met with the surgeon for a report at 8:50. At 9 he was in recovery coming off the anesthesia and we were holding him and crying happy tears of joy and thankfulness by 9:15. None of us were prepared for what would happen as he came to: he was scared beyond what I thought he'd be, he didn't remember where he was, he didn't remember that he would have a cast on one hand, he was very uncomfortable with his IV line, he was groggy, his voice was raw from the breathing tube and he was not quiet at all in letting us know all of this. There were lots of tears and screaming for what felt like an eternity for Michael and I.

But we made it! We finally got him calmed down (with a little help from some meds) and we were able to take him home by around 10:45 - MUCH sooner than we'd planned.

Mimi and Pop were gracious enough to come up and have a special day with Drew while we were at the hospital. They took him to do some really special things: breakfast at McDonalds, a trip to the park, and a trip to the Dollar Tree to get some special get-well presents for his best buddy. I couldn't be more proud of how he handled the whole situation. He really is such a loving boy with a sweet heart and spirit. My mom said that all day long - even though we had prepared him just as much as we did Ben for what would happen - he never really did act like himself, and kept asking where Ben was. This was definitely one of the longest stretches they've ever gone apart.

They were so happy to see each other once we got home. Ben -though still a little woozy and out of it - was excited to show off his cast, and Drew was so happy to give Ben all the balloons and other presents he'd picked out that morning. Here are the boys watching a movie in Mimi's lap:
Later that day we got some more balloons from MawMaw and PawPaw, Aunt Chelle, Uncle Dan and Dresie. So they both had a great time using those as punching bags and eating all the candy they could.

After all of the drama of the day we were all exhausted, both physically and emotionally. So the boys just chilled on Daddy for most of the evening after dinner and we all headed to bed early.

So the next day he woke up feeling great and back to his old self. He even felt good enough to wrestle his brother (try as I might to stop them, it was useless) and he quickly learned how to use that cast as a weapon. I needed to get them out of the house and stay busy without using his hands, and without getting his cast wet. So we headed to the zoo and BeBe met us there for some fun. Here are a few pictures:

And finally, here are the only pictures we got of Ben unraveling his cast at the end of the week. He only had to keep it on for 7 days, and it wasn't the kind that had to be cut off. It just slowly unraveled, and he was feeling pretty proud of himself for doing it like a big boy.

We are so blessed to have been able to go through two surgeries (the first when they were both three months old) and come out perfectly each time. God was surely with us and we were covered in prayer. We cannot say enough how thankful we are to Him for these boys and the fun we have by getting to spend every day with them. Thanks to everyone who walked with us through this...from the friends who prayed with us and over us, to the family who was and always is there for us, to the friends who brought us dinner: you are so loved and appreciated...we could not have made it without you!!!

Now that that's all over with maybe we can set a goal of staying out of a hospital for at least 6 months. I mean, a whole year without going to a hospital would be great. But I won't push our luck. We'll just hope for 6 months! ;)

We're Back...

2009-06-19T14:41:00.000-07:00

....from a wonderful vacation to Puerta Vallarta, Mexico with our good friends Rusty and Andrea. Though it started off with a few snags in getting there due to missing connecting flights and being without any of our luggage for the first day and a half, we rolled with the punches and had such a great time. Every morning when I woke up, I would look out off of our balcony to the left, and this is the sunrise I saw!And when I looked down and to the right, this is the pool and ocean I saw...Pretty hard not to have a good time when you're surrounded by so much beauty. We went into the downtown part of the city on the boardwalk and took a few pictures.But mostly just laid by the pool, soaking up all the sun and relaxation we could stand. It was a perfect getaway. One of the coolest things we did (though we didn't get any pictures for fear of dropping our camera off the mountain) was to go down 13 zip lines through the Sierra Madre mountain range. Even in that dry, humid heat the mountains were so green and beautiful. It was definitely one of the funnest adventures we've ever been on. But definitely the best part was getting to spend some quality time with each other and some really dear friends. So we got home on Tuesday evening, and tried to get everything back in order pretty quickly because Friday was a really big day at our house for two reasons. First because we got to spend the weekend with our niece Dresden, and Aunt Chelle and Uncle Dan as they were passing back through town on their way home from vacation (more to come on that).

But secondly, because we met with the home health nurse and began Ben's growth hormone therapy. Honestly, I've debated about whether or not to even post that information here. But I've decided to share that with all of you out there for two reasons: 1) because one day Ben and Drew will look back on this blog and I want them both to know about all the good and fun stuff that happens in their lives, but also about the hard stuff and the paths that we've walked together that have been a little bit tougher to go down; and 2) because we covet any and all prayers that anyone offers up on our boys' behalves. I guess I figure if you're reading this and care enough to keep up with our family, then surely you wouldn't mind praying for our sons. There's no such thing as too much of that.

So, having said all that, we began what will at least be a six month journey. It was something that both Michael and I have been dreading doing for a while, and have been praying about for months. We were very scared of the unknowns of it all, and subjecting him to something that we'd wrestled long and hard with doing in the first place. It just seemed like the kind of thing that other people deal with...not us, with our boys who seem - in every other way - happy and perfectly healthy. But we trust his doctors and we've submitted it to the Lord. So, we began. Before anything else, I have to take a minute to get on my knees in praise. Ben did great!...of course he did! And Drew was jumping up and down hugging him saying "you're so brave! you did great buddy!" and it was almost more than this mommy could take to watch these two little three year olds be there in a big way for each other. So we all had our own little celebration. We didn't tell him beforehand what was going to happen....we didn't want to give him too much time to process it all and get upset about it. And we really thought it was important to downplay it all since they always play off whatever our emotions are. All we said that morning was "a nice man is going to come over and show mommy and daddy how to give you your 'pinch' so you can get some medicine to help you grow big and strong. No big deal." Inside we were pretty nervous since we didn't know if it would hurt or not. Basically he gets an injection once a day, six days a week. So far, he doesn't even act like he feels it. There's no crying, no fussing over whether or not to do it, or where to take it. He's been so big and brave, and I can't help but feel that this is both an answer to prayer and a response that will help him through life as he deals with things that are out of his control and maybe less-than-pleasant to endure. And I also have to take a minute here to brag on how big Drew has been through this. All of the attention has been on his brother for a while now (hard for a boy who loves being in the spotlight), and the whole time he was focused on being encouraging and loving on his brother. For sure, it is our privilege to have these boys in our lives. They continue to teach me so much.

Anyways enough with all the heavy stuff, we made it through and an hour or so later, Dresie was here and all was right in the boys' world! They enjoy each other so much, and we had so much fun with Dan and Chelle. We were able to grill out, go to the pool, play water balloons and even make a trip to Chuck E Cheese (the bane of all adults existence). Here are just a few of my favorite pictures:Playing with Myrtle, Dresie's new hermit crabFilling up water balloons with DaddyPlaying games at Chuck E Cheese

Phew...and after all that, we're worn out! It's been great, but now we're ready for our first down weekend out of the last five. Sounds like we'll be hitting the pool!!!

Time with MawMaw and PawPaw

2009-06-10T11:01:00.000-07:00

What a great time we had with MawMaw and PawPaw! This past weekend they came for a long weekend to have some fun and spoil the boys. We put poor PawPaw to work, and he helped Michael stud the walls for the attic behind our bedroom. We've been in the process of finishing it out as a sitting room/art studio for a couple of months now, and I'm really excited about how it's going. He and Michael are both so good at this kind of stuff. The hundred-year old house we used to live in down in East Nashville was gutted and re-done by the two of them, and Jim's been building or remodeling houses since he was old enough to hold a hammer. So not only are they both really handy with these kinds of projects, its really fun for them to do together. Here is one of the two walls they studded. I did try to take some pictures of them with Ben and Drew "helping" with the wood and the nails, but none of them seemed like they really wanted their picture taken. So the few I got weren't very good. At least I tried, right? We took them to eat at some of our favorite Franklin places, and took them to all of our favorite antique stores for some shopping. At least Shari and I had fun looking around for some new things for our room, even if that's not any of the boys' idea of a great time.

MawMaw and PawPaw surprised the boys with a set of big soccer goals for the backyard and a few other fun toys for summer, so we've managed to be outside even more than normal now that we've got new toys out there.

PawPaw tried his best to take a little rest after working so hard in the attic. But in our house, if you're on the floor, you're fair game for a wrestling match. Its a good thing he's pretty tough because these boys love to tackle.
We also grilled out, played in the slip and slide, and made some of our favorite ice cream. The weather couldn't have been any better, so we were outside almost the whole time. Thanks MawMaw and PawPaw for a fun weekend!!! We love you guys!

Fun Time in Montgomery

2009-06-04T14:29:00.001-07:00

We just spent last weekend at Mimi and Pop's house. As usual, we all had lots of fun and all got a little bit spoiled. We crammed lots into the weekend: the zoo, grilling out, playing in the water slide, swimming at our friends' pool, the sandbox, golf and even churning ice cream. Here are a few of my favorite pix of the boys:

Michael captured these awesome shots while we were on the train at the zoo...he really should be in charge of the pictures more often because I just love these.Standing like flamingos while watching the flamingos: The slip and slide:

Thanks Mimi and Pop for everything!!! We had so much fun!!!

A first, a last, a first, and another first

2009-05-31T18:40:00.000-07:00

Its a good thing we rested up while on vacation. Because since we got back we've been busy with several 'firsts' and one very important 'last.'

Last week we were loading up the car for the boys' last day of school, and Drew got to catch his first dragon fly. It was so pretty and much bigger than I remembered them being. Since I'm trying not to pass along my -- shall we say "dislike" -- of bugs, I got all excited (not that they needed any more excitement than their own, mind you) and grabbed the camera off the front seat of the car. They were really fascinated by him, and tried to find the perfect place to release him. Poor guys, they just don't realize that almost all living creatures are terrified of them because they get so excited.

So once we finally got everybody loaded up and were off to school to celebrate our last day of our first year at preschool After we had a fun time of showing all the mommies all our cool dance moves (demonstrated by Brody, who doesn't know he's not in their class) we headed outside for a popsicle party... A few end-of-the-year shots with Miss Jeannie and Miss Betsey...

I cannot express enough how blessed we have been by the women at OC. They are such gifted educators and women of prayer. I have seen my boys grow in their learning and just as much in their [very young] faith, and I can't say enough about how much I love this place.
During our first weekend of summer, we got to meet my cousin's first baby. David and Lindsay had baby Thayer five weeks ago, and it was so special for us to meet him. David and I have always had more of a brother/sister relationship and I love how both of our growing families love each other so much. (Can you see Ben hiding behind me and the green paper he was holding up?)
Daddy (the good photographer) coaxed him out and managed to even get a smile. So, I felt the need to document our first official day of summer when I came upstairs to find the boys playing trains. We kicked off our busy summer with a lazy morning of playing and not going anywhere...but I still managed to get some good shots of them:

After a day of playing hard with Mommy, here's how you wind down:
More to come soon.....

Destin 2009

2009-05-20T12:48:00.000-07:00

We just got back from our trip to Destin and WOW did we have a great time! Where to begin?!? How about the very beginning? Well, for most of us traveling with three year olds, bearing through the journey to the destination is reason enough to need another vacation. But not this time!! No sir, these boys were pumped! When I picked them up from school Ben, Drew and Brax could not stop talking about how much fun they were going to have at the beach (in addition to a fake burping contest. Really.) So the Belvilles, us and two of the most wonderful babysitters on earth headed south with more stuff than any 10 people could possibly need for four days (thanks to Josh and Michael's master packing skills we even took the corn hole boards with room to spare). We stopped in Montgomery at Mimi and Pop's house to spend the night so that we could break up the trip for the kids (and also because the thought of the grandsons passing right by their house without getting to see them was just too much.) So with full tummies and lots of stored energy we got to Florida with plenty of time to hit the pool after unpacking.

We were pretty lucky in that the pool in the neighborhood we stayed was AWESOME! It - first of all - was beautiful. But also it had the zero-entry so the kids could play safely and it was just a short walk from our house. It was definitely Ben's favorite part of the whole trip...he's going to have to learn how to appreciate the sand, I think. Here's an action shot of the three amigos jumping and splashing:Someone let the daddies have a turn with the kids' water cannons, so we all took cover under the lobster float.Chillin in the floatsThe next day we were ready to hit the beach. Drew is exploring for seashells. We have a huge glass jar filled with seashells we collected from our honeymoon, and they both love to play with them while I get ready in the mornings. They were convinced that they would be able to find some to add to our collection. Luckily we were able to convince Drew that the seaweed needed to stay at the beach (since he didn't find any shells). Both of the boys were a little intimidated by the magnitude of the ocean. I'm always surprised that they respond this way, I guess because they love to sleep to the sound of ocean waves. But they were not interested at all in going near the water without the strong arms of Daddy. Ben with Laura BethDrew with Catherine
Me with my two surfer dudes. And for all you other Mommies out there whose buddies love the Backyardigans, you can appreciate the fact that they were yelling out all over the beach "Surf's up! Whoa, Daddy!!" What a special gift to be able to watch your children really enjoy something that you have done for them.On our last day at the beach Michael ran out to grab some cold treats for all of us. I love Ben's face! He had just gotten a few grains of sand mixed in with his bite of fudge pop. Rob and Kristin came down a day early for their vacation so that we could have a few hours together. Even though they were on a grown-ups only trip, they were so sweet and came along to play with us while we took the kids out to ride go-carts and play for a bit. Here we are waiting our turn in line.All ready to race...And we're off...Then on to the bumper boats. I have to just give a shout out to Bobber here because I wanted no part of being trapped on water in a big rubber boat with boys who were out to soak me. Thanks, Bobber for jumping in to play with my boys so they could both have fun. We had to dry off somewhere. Where better to do that than inside where you can play more games for tickets? Notice how soaked they all are! And then we took airplane rides...Now that the kids had sufficiently worn themselves out, we headed to the beach to attempt a family picture. Not our best ever, but not awful either. Here are our girls with three of the four buddies. Even with the suckers we bribed them with, we still couldn't get Ben to take a picture. He was DONE. And may I just take a minute to say how blessed we were by them. These are two of the sweetest, most wonderful babysitters we've ever had, and all of the boys adored them. It didn't hurt that they are also both beautiful...these boys know a pretty girl when they see one! But we enjoyed having them so much. So thank you, LB and Catherine for joining our family. You are now both stuck with us, as we already miss you and are thinking of ways to see you again soon. And, Miss Dele, we officially want to adopt your daughter.After we got everyone back home and fed we were able to meet up with our good friends Jeremy and Hailey, who also happened to be beginning their vacation. So all eight of us headed out for some grown-up fun. We laughed and laughed till our stomachs hurt. Here are all the guys hanging out on the dock after dinner. So now we're back home and all settled back in, and trying to get back to the real world. We did have so much fun. We enjoyed every minute, truly. But I just do have to take a second to say that we sure did miss you, Campbells. You were missed terribly and we thought of you often. Don't worry though...we will definitely do it again!

What a way to kick off the summer!!

I love these little guys!

2009-05-07T19:04:00.000-07:00

The other day I began thinking "I haven't done a very good job of taking pictures lately." So, I ran downstairs to grab the camera and just capture whatever was going on that morning. Here is a perfect example of how these two precious boys keep coming more and more into their own personalities--and can I just say that I love all the things about each of them that make them unique:

Drew sees the camera, and immediately hams it up (fireman costume had been in place for quite a while before the camera came out...it's a new costume or character almost every day).Ben, on the other hand, sees the camera and immediately dodges for the safety of under-the-covers. "No, Mommy! Don't pull my covers off!!! I'm trying to hide from you!!!""Surely if I just block your photo-op then you'll leave me alone and put that silly camera away...""Oh, Mommy you're just too silly when you want me to smile for the camera...""Oh for goodness sake, I might as well just give in and give you the picture you want. I knew I came by my stubbornness honestly.".......

...to which I might reply, "totally worth all that work. These pictures are too precious to miss out on."

So, in other news, Michael's friend from Taiwan, Pony was here visiting again. You may remember that last year he joined us for his very first American baseball game at the Sounds stadium. It was quite the adventure since it ended with Drew busting his head wide open. Needless to say, he was a scarred (and scared) from the incident as Drew's head is. We've been able to have dinner with him several times since then, and the boys both just adore him. I'm fairly certain it's because he's a big of a kid as they are. But since the Sounds were playing at home, we decided to take him back and see if we couldn't have more of a low-key evening. We all had a great time! This was the first time we'd been to the stadium since they've made all the improvements, and it was really nice. They now have a great kids' area that Ben and Drew had a blast at before the game with inflatables, batting cages, and other fun stuff. Here's how we spent our first 45 minutes inside the park:

What goes up....
...must come down.......and down.......and down.......and down.........and down until Mommy and Daddy say "the game is starting".

All the guys heading off to get "ALL the junk food," as Ben always says.We were lucky enough that Ozzie came by to see two of the cutest fans ever.Drew and PonyOur family picture taken on a very successful, very accident-free, very fun Nashville evening. We also recently took them to see their first movie at the movie theatre on one Friday that Michael took off work to play hooky. We went to see the Disney documentary Earth, since they are both such animal lovers. It was a really good first movie experience. Truthfully, my expectations of how they would do were really low (so there was no place to go but up). But they completely surprised me and did as well as any active 3-year olds can be expected to do. Since it was a Friday morning and pouring down rain, we were the only four people in the whole theatre, which was so nice! We were able to talk to them about what they were seeing the whole time, without feeling like the obnoxious people who can't be quiet. They are actually still talking about some of the story lines from the movie, and really enjoyed it. I'm not sure we'll be rushing right out to do it again really soon. But for our first time out, it was really fun. Definitely a special treat.

So that's about all that's been going on with us lately. But stay tuned because school is almost out, and I'm sure we'll be just as busy as always. Summer here we come!

And The Winner Is....

2009-04-22T13:01:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-20T09:41:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-04-07T09:47:00.000-07:00

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.

March Madness, Indeed!

2009-03-14T13:35:00.001-07:00

Last week Ben and Drew had their first Spring Program at school. They did GREAT! We had such a good time watching them perform all of the songs they have worked so hard on. They are learning so much, and I find myself very thankful that they are at such a great school with teachers that not only great educators, but also love the Lord with their whole lives. I had no idea that they had learned the books of the New Testament, and many of the other songs that they sang - I can only get tidbits here and there about what they do at school - but we sure were proud. We've been staying pretty busy around here lately. But that's okay by us...we like to stay on the go. We have been taking swimming lessons at the Y again, in prep for the beach and pool this summer. We were lucky enough to snag the Director of Aquatics at our Y, and she is great with them. They are loving it this time, and making good progress. I'll be sure to keep you posted as to when they can really swim all by themselves. But in the meantime, it is one of the highlights of our week.

Now that the weather has been a little bit nicer, we've been spending as much of our weekend time together as possible at the park near our house playing soccer and flying kites. Both have become favorite ways of ours to run off some of the never-ending energy these boys seem to have.

So this week the boys have been on Spring Break and at home with me. While I do love having a little extra time to myself while they are at school, I have loved having them with me this week. I already feel like my time to play, teach them and love on them is too quickly running out, and I feel so aware of how short and precious my days are with my sweet boys. They truly are such a blessing to me, and I thank God for the honor of being their mommy every day.

Thanks for being patient about my lack of posts lately (to all of you who have been asking and asking)...my little business has been going well, and I've had so many orders lately that it is hard to do much else during naptime and after they go to bed at nights. Lots to balance and juggle while still keeping my priorities in place and often blogging doesn't make the cut. But with the economy the way it is, I am so thankful for the way God continues to bless me with business. All that to say, we are still here, and are glad you checked in on us. Love to you all!!!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2009-02-16T12:48:00.000-08:00

Our 2009 has seemed to fly by already! We've already managed to begin a few projects around the house, celebrate 5 birthdays and 1 anniversary, go on a grown-ups only vacation (BIG thank you to MawMaw and PawPaw for playing with the buddies while we were away!!!!!), celebrate Valentine's day and plenty of other fun stuff in between. Here are a few pictures to document a little bit of what's been going on in the Blankinship house:

Helping Daddy tile the laundry room (we had to take a break from all the hard work to take a bath and get ready for bed).
Playing in Mommy's uggsTaking Otter (our class pet at school) for a weekend of fun. Every Saturday morning we go with Daddy for some guy time to eat donuts at our favorite place here in Spring Hill. So we took Otter with us........and then showed him how to pick out the ones with the most sprinkles........and then later that night, we showed him how we help Mommy cook, while Daddy grills out and makes us a fire for a fun night of hanging out at home together. The parents were invited to join in for the Valentine's Day party at school, and I honestly wasn't sure how the boys would do having me at school with them. I almost didn't go. But the thought of them looking around at the other mommies who were there, and then wondering where their mommy was, was just too much. So I went. As it turned out, Mimi was here spending a few days shopping and celebrating BeBe's birthday, so she was able to come to the party with me. They loved having us both there, and showing us their classroom. But when it came time for us to leave or for them to follow directions from the teachers, the fun was over. It wasn't pretty. I'm still not sure if I should go to another class party or not. Here they are with their class, who they talk about constantly. Drew (and Mimi) showing me that he likes to eat "pinecones" (or to the rest of us, pineapple.).
And my sweet Ben, who hates to have his picture taken. While this isn't the best picture of him since he isn't looking at the camera, trust me that this is the best one I got of him all day. Of course, my boys spoiled me for Valentine's Day with flowers, presents, and getting to sleep really late Saturday morning. And Ben and Drew seemed to enjoy making "Balentimes" for Daddy this year for the first time. Though I let them make his cards every year, up until this year it's been totally lost on them. So it was fun to explain they 'why' and them be able to understand. I certainly feel blessed beyond measure and loved more than I deserve. I hope I did a good enough job of doing the same for my three wonderful guys.

That about does it for whats up with us lately. Thanks for checking in on us!

Tagged!

2009-01-10T12:05:00.000-08:00

My wonderful friend, Jen, tagged me JUST so she'd hurry me up and get another post on our blog. Well, my friend, I've already posted. But I'll do it because I love you! ;)

I'm supposed to find the 4th folder on our computer, the post the 4th picture in that folder, explain it, then tag 4 more people to do the same. Here goes:

Our first day in the Domincan Republic while visiting TJ and Holly back in 2007. Our luggage didn't make it there till the next evening, but borrowed clothes and all we still had a great little getaway in paradise.

Now I tag:

Hayley B

Paige E

Kim C

Amy P

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and all the other stuff in between!

2009-01-07T10:13:00.000-08:00

The wait is finally over!! ....if there are any of you who actually still check our blog, then I'm sure you're all passed out on the floor by seeing that today there is an update, as it's been far too long since I last posted. Anyways, since this blog is more a way to scrapbook for the twins, than it is anything else, here is a brief rundown of our last 6 weeks or so...

Breakfast with Santa at Church~
This is the first year (other than when they sat on Santa's lap at a whopping 2 months old) that Ben has NOT freaked out when seeing the Big Guy. This year, I guess he got it. Drew and Ben both jumped right up there and told him very politely that they'd like a choo-choo train and a fast jeep. By the time the whole Christmas season was over they sat in a total of 3 different Santa's laps, and each time had the same answers about what they were wishing for. As it turned out, Mommy and Daddy provided the choo-choo tracks and Thomas trains...Santa only had room in his sleigh for one really big gift.

Spring Hill Christmas Parade~

Then later that night, BeBe came out to our house to bundle up and go with us for the very first Spring Hill Christmas Parade. Now, I'll just confess up front that I had really low expectations of what this Parade would be....we were really only doing this so the boys could experience their very first Christmas parade. But I cannot say enough about how well done it was. And it was HUGE! I think our whole city came out to support every business, church, civic group and organization that worked so hard on the floats. They all did a really good job with it all. And even though it was pretty cold, we had a great time.

Otter Creek Preschool Christmas Program~

This being the boys' first year in preschool, they've never had the opportunity to be in front of such a big audience and perform. So we really had no idea what to expect on this Thursday morning. Would there be tears? shouting? running through the paparazzi of parents to find us? None of the above, in fact. Drew, our little performer hammed it up and shouted "Mommy?!?!" in between every song to make sure we were watching his every move, and to ensure that we were applauding loudly enough. Ben, our little introvert, hates the spotlight, but did really well. He sang every song, and sort of did the motions, but sat back in his chair for almost the entire time just chewing his gum (that some Mommy who will remain nameless forgot to take out of his mouth, while running around the school that morning in prep for the class party).

Here they are after the program in the classroom listening to Miss Betsy read a story. Notice the stockings they hung [by the chimney, with care] that they are sitting underneath. Here they are with Miss Jeannie, who is the aide in Miss Betsy's class.And here with Miss Betsy. They are both such great teachers, and we are so thankful to have the boys in their class. They love and pray over each child, and our boys love them both dearly. They have been such a blessing to Ben and Drew's development, both educationally and spiritually. And here they both are with Miss Pat, who is a dear friend of mine. She is in her 26th year as Director at OC, and she is such a gift. Nelson Family Christmas~
So, next my parents came up to celebrate with us the weekend before Christmas. Here is the "before" picture of our den. Its a little out of control, don't you think?For some reason, we didn't get many good "during" and "after" pictures on our camera. But my Dad did, and then proceeded to post some really embarrassing ones of me and Britt on his facebook page. Thanks, Dad! ;)

My parents had never seen the Christmas lights out at Opryland. Every time we've tried to take them it's been pouring down rain and way to awful to even attempt it. And this year was no different. But we decided to brave the elements and go anyways. I'm so glad we did because my mom, who LOVES Christmas, was like a kid in a candy shop.Blankinship Family Christmas~

Then it was off to Missouri. We were able to do some really fun things that I've wanted to do with Ben and Drew for Christmas, but up until this year, they had really been to little to get it or enjoy it. So this year was so much for Michael and I to be able to experience the joy of Christmas through their eyes.

Here they are playing in a big box with their cousin Dresden.
We made sugar cookie dough and let the kids roll it out, cut it into shapes, and then decorate the cookies to leave for Santa and Rudolph. Dresi's face says it all...let's just say Shari's kitchen was covered in flour, icing and sprinkles! ;)

The finished products (that Ben hadn't eaten one or more bites off of). Not too bad, I think!And then Christmas morning, here is a picture of the boys driving [read: wrecking into all the walls, furniture, and people] the new jeep that Santa left. We will be working on our steering skills as soon as weather permits, needless to say.One of the neatest things about Centralia is that every Christmas morning the firefighters and Santa turn on the sirens and take goodie bags to every child in the city. They go street to street, and I love this tradition since it's something Michael and Michelle loved as children too. How special that they get to pass this down to these three sweet pumpkins.

There are so many things that made this year special for me: being able to really talk to Ben and Drew about the birth of Jesus and watching them absorb such an important part of our faith, watching them get excited about giving presents to people they love, letting them help me decorate our tree, then listening to Drew say "Mommy, Santa's going to LOVE it", making our own traditions that will be important to them, and so many others. It was a wonderful season. But as good as it was, I think its safe to say that I am glad we only do it once a year because at the end, we were all exhausted!

So now we have hit the ground running in 2009. Hard to believe its here. That about covers all our high points of the season. Thanks for checking on us. I'm now going to sit back, relax, and watch my inbox fill up with comments of friends who can't believe I've actually updated...you're welcome!

Our Trip to Paris!

2008-11-17T07:12:00.000-08:00

So, for all of those still keeping track: yes, I am still playing catchup with the blog posts. At this rate, I estimate that the blog and the events of our lives will be in sync about the time the twins leave for college. ;) Until then, you all who keep up with us through this will always be about a week (or two or three...) behind. Oh well...as we always say in the Nelson family, better late than never, right?!

So, anyways, last Tuesday night, Michael and I flew back home from a wonderful few days in Paris for our anniversary! What a dream come true for me to be there with Michael! There are really no words to describe how perfect, how fun, how romantic, and even how blessed (we were absolutely covered in prayer) our time was. Michael was traveling all over Europe for work for the five days before I got there. And when he finished up with his boss, I flew over to meet up with him.

On my first day there, we headed straight for the Eiffel Tower, and a river boat ride along the Seine River. The skies were overcast, the wind was definitely strong and there seemed to always be the threat of rain. But that didn't deter us at all from adventuring all over the city almost entirely by foot.

On the boat ride, you can choose to stop at any one of ten major Parisian landmarks. We chose to hop off at the Cathedral of Notre Dame. Now, I don't know if it was the fact that we did this on the first day, or if it was because I had had so many discussions with God about getting me back home safely to take care of my boys, or if it was because it was the most beautiful church I'd ever been in. But this was, for me, such a moving experience. I couldn't get over that so many people had worked with their own hands so long ago to build a place of prayer and worship. People who - granted - don't believe the exact same things that I do, but nonetheless are my brothers and sisters through our Lord Jesus. It was so moving to be in prayer, and at the same time think that all these other hundreds and hundreds of people might be praying too. And He's not stressed out, He knows each language, He knows each heart, and is just as active as He always has been. In many ways, it's not just a church...it's a tourist attraction. But we asked ourselves as we were leaving (and passing by all the trinkets you could buy that said "Notre Dame") "would Jesus come in and overturn the tables, or would He be glad so many were in His house of worship?" I don't know. But He met me there in a powerful way.

This statue of Jesus letting the little children come to him made us think of and miss our boys because they look to be twins. Had to snap a picture.

In front of the Louvre...we could have spent the whole day here. We loved it! We took over 100 pictures here alone.

Though I didn't put any boring museum pictures from it, we also hit Musee D'Orsay and got to see a special Picasso exhibit that was pretty cool. Michael made sure to point out at every piece that "he could've done that too..." ;

After Musee D'Orsay we walked (and walked and walked) till we found the Luxembourg Gardens. They were even more stunning than I anticipated. Here is the Fountain of the Medic.

I don't speak enough French to translate what the plaque said about this statue. But I love this picture that Michael took (he's a waaay better photographer than I am). And I love that you can see the top of the Palais Royale behind it. On our last day there we were just strolling around, and realized that we could see the Arc way behind us. So we asked a lady to take our picture. I think it turned out pretty well.

We really did have such a great time. I cannot believe that I am lucky enough to be married to this wonderful man. And that he places importance on us spending time away together by ourselves is just icing on the cake.

So, now we're back home, all settled back in, and just enjoying being back with our buddies. Stay tuned....more on them to come soon (hopefully!).

Thanks for checkin in on us!

Halloween

2008-11-13T07:57:00.001-08:00

I know, I know...I'm so far behind in updating this blog. I mean, my goodness, we're already halfway through November, and I'm just now putting Halloween pictures on here. But, for the sake of this being our scapbook for the boys, here goes a quick game of catch up.

My parent's were in town for one of my 2nd cousin's wedding. So, what do you do to kill time on a beautiful fall day before the evening wedding? You head on over to our favorite pumpkin patch in Nolensville. Here they are pumping water from the well. Ben had zero desire to get such a cute picture. But - to no one's surprise - Drew did! Pretty cute little punkin, if I do say so myself!

Digging dilligently through the troughs of corn.

Our favorite girlfriends Daily and Maisey invited us over for a costume/birthday party since Maisey turns three the week of Halloween. Once again, I couldn't persuade Ben to get in front of the camera (regardless of how much candy was in the negotiations). But Drew loves to have his picture taken...especially when it involves two of his girlfriends.
Here with a few friends from church at Trunk or Treat.
Our favorite superheroes

We also went trick or treating for the first time in our neighborhood. The Belvilles came along with us, and though we didn't get many great pictures, we all had a great time. ....except for trying to get the boys to come down off that sugar high so they could get some sleep that night. Oh well...it's only once a year, right!

Our Big Birthday Party!

2008-10-20T10:28:00.001-07:00

This past weekend we celebrated Ben and Drew's 3rd birthday with a party at Pump It Up. Everyone had so much fun....even all the grownups! While some of our favorite buddies weren't able to be there (we sure did miss you Chelle, Dressie and Uncle Dan!), we had a blast with our friends that came. Here are a few pictures of the boys enjoying their special day:

Ben going down the slideDrew and PaisleyWyattA big pile of munchkins as they all went down the slide together
Ben and Daily Josh, Brax and BrodyBen and Drew on the Birthday Throne
And the beautiful cake, made by one of my friends, Brooke O'Dell. I just have to put a little plug in for her business Ice This Cakes and Creations. She was just featured in the Scene for the Editor's Picks Best Of, and she's wonderful! I couldn't have dreamt up a better cake, and it was so yummy!

Since the boys love choo choo trains, I asked Brooke to do a train cake, and the boys gave each of their friends a Conductor's hat and a wooden train whistle. Not exactly sure where my good sense was when I concocted that little idea, since we loaded them up on sugar then gave them something to make lots of noise with...but regardless, they all seemed to have a great time. A big thank you to everyone who was able to come and shower our boys with love and blessings as we celebrated three whole years!!! We love each of you and are so thankful that you are a part of our lives!!

Quick Visit and Touch a Truck

2008-10-13T05:36:00.000-07:00

Last weekend while Michael was in China, my mama and daddy drove up to visit the little guys and to help me out with a little break. We always have so much silly fun when we're all together. We packed lots of lovin in to just a couple of days, though with cheering on all the football teams, making cookies and pizzas and playing outside.

Here BeBe and Mimi were resting and then the boys woke up from their naps. They were all cuddling on the couch, so I grabbed the camera.....
But Pop hates to be left out, so he had to join in the fun and jump on top of everybody....
We sure are happy to have Daddy back home with us. So we spent the weekend just enjoying being back together. Michael is so great about always taking an extra day or two once he gets home to do nothing but dote on his boys, so we took them to do some really special things. We took them to the zoo - something they never get tired of, and took them to an event held here in Spring Hill, hosted by the parks and recreation dept, called Touch a Truck.

They had every imaginable kind of truck available for the kids to sit in, turn the steering wheel and blow the horn. Lots of the trucks' operators gave away hard hats, stickers, candy and toys. Needless to say, these boys thought they had hit the jackpot.

Brax and Drew showing off their construction hatsBen having a blast in the trash truck ....until he realized that I was trying to take his picture.

Drew "driving" an Army field ambulance. In this one, the siren is located so that the driver just has to press his knee against it, which means for a two year old, just the right distance to press your foot against. Let's just say every one for miles knew he was coming.Ben showing off his Lightning McQueen-inspired racing skills. Drew was pretty much done by this point, so no more pictures of him. But here is Ben digging up the ground.
There was so much to do and see, and I think it would've been an even bigger hit with them had they not been feeling a little sick. They are both battling colds with yucky coughs, as are all of their friends. Ben's has turned into a sinus infection already, and I'm sure Drew's will too since they share everything. But even with not being 100%, we still managed to have a great weekend together.

Off to start another busy week! Happy Monday, everyone!

First School Pictures!!!

2008-10-06T07:03:00.000-07:00

OH MY GOODNESS! Aren't these these school pictures too cute?!?! I just love them!! How in the world he got them to both smile and look at the camera, I'll never know. And, I couldn't believe that he did an extra shot of the two of them together. A mommy couldn't ask for more!.....well--except maybe to have smoothed over those wild manes of hair. But hey, all things considered, pretty darn good if I do say so myself.

Happy 65th Wedding Anniversary

2008-10-05T19:20:00.001-07:00

A couple of weekends ago, we loaded up the car and headed to Montgomery to celebrate 65 years of marriage between my Nana and Papa. Anytime our family gets the chance to be all together, we can't help but have a blast, and this time was no different. We were able to have a special dinner for them, honoring them for such a special milestone, had a small "wedding cake", and we put together a surprise album of pictures, cards and letters from each of us, distant relatives and old friends. It was such a special day and I felt so honored to be a part of it. They have touched so many lives along their journey because they are so generous, caring and giving. The faith that I have now is due in large part to the role that they have played in my life....not because they told me what to do, but because I watched them humbly live out the things Jesus said to do. I know that they have covered me in prayer every day of my life, and even before I was a twinkle in my Daddy's eye. I know they have covered my husband in prayer even before he was born too. And I know that they pray this way not only for every person in our family, but also for the friends in their lives. That knowledge has given me so much peace and confidence. It is just the kind of people they are. Congratulations, Nana and Papa! We are so proud to be a part of this family that you have made.

Our Trip to SeaWorld!...(the one where she posted too many pictures)

2008-09-17T05:43:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, Michael and I took the boys on their very first family vacation with just the four of us. Most of Ben and Drew's little buddies have flown before, but Michael and I have been a little nervous about taking them on a plane. Visions of the possible melt-down at any given moment with no place to escape to filled our heads. But, from the very start of the journey till the very end, these boys were as good as gold! We were both so proud!! They did awesome on the plane, hotel, in restaurants, and at every turn in between. Here's our trip in pictures with a few stories too...

Watching the planes coming and going in the Nashville airport:I don't have any pictures from the plane ride itself due to the fact that the camera-lady was busy entertaining the munchkins, but they were great, and we made it safe and sound, only to discover that it was POURING in Orlando. Great. The only incident during the flight was that toward the end, Ben said "Mommy, I want to go to sleep in your lap". Given the good moods and excitement of the day already, I thought that was a little weird. But he climbed up, and fell right to sleep. And it was around 10:00 in the morning. By the time he woke up, he was blazing hot with a fever. Fantastic. But we got some medicine in him, got the fever down (which stayed until around midnight that night), and he woke up the next morning back to himself and ready to see Shamu. Thankfully it was just a 12 hour fever virus that Drew escaped until we got home. We braved the rain, and headed out to Universals Studio's Board Walk area for some exploring and food. We ate at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville, chosen because of the indoor volcano that erupts every hour and Pirates that make you swords out of balloons. We thought it'd be a hit. And it was with Drew. But Ben was a little overwhelmed, and he and I headed for safety in the gift shop. Here are Daddy and Drew having a good sword fight during dinner.

The adventure really begins: Here we are at the entrance to the SeaWorld Park. Sorry about the foggy picture...it was really humid there after the rain the day before.After renting the obligatory stroller and figuring our best park-route-strategy, we made it to feed the stingrays. Here Daddy shows Ben how to hold the sardine just right so that they take it, and don't mistakenly try to suck one of your fingers down. He and I swam with and fed stingrays when we went to the Caymans a few years ago, so this was fun to show them how to do it.Next up, this really cool aquarium that housed sharks, jellyfish and all other kinds of fish swimming above, beneath, and around us. With many many other stops in between, we had to make time to see the famous whale. Here the boys and I are outside of Shamu Stadium. And stadium it is! It packs in TONS of people, and honestly I was a bit surprised at how many people were at each of the shows since the park never really felt too crowded.

The boys' expressions during the shows were priceless and they clapped and cheered for everything. It had been many years since either Michael or I had been, and it was so fun to experience it through their eyes. We stayed at the park for as long as we could, given the fact that they both still need at least two hours or more of nap per day. So we left around 2:30, and had them down for naps in our room by 3. We woke them up and took them to dinner at Downtown Disney and let them pick out a few things in the Disney store, eat ice cream sundaes till they (we) were ready to pop, and explore. Just a little teaser to see what they would think about the real thing.....

Holding up their Mickey suckers for me to seeBuilding and then racing Lego cars outside of the Lego store with DaddyMesmerized by the Lego Family (built entirely out of, you guessed it, Legos)And that was a pretty full day. Saturday morning we took our time getting up and ready and then headed over to see our good friends, John and Holly and their kids Anniston, Grady and Wiley. John and Michael were good friends in college, was in our wedding, and Holly and I were instantly friends from the time we met years ago. They are just so special to us, though we just don't see them as much as we'd like. Here Ben and Drew join Buzz Lightyear (Grady) and Spiderman (his neighbor) for some superhero snacks (colorful sno-cones).I hate that this picture didn't turn out very well, but here are the boys with their boys all decked out in UT orange for gameday. John has a tradition that I'm pretty sure hasn't been broken and makes UT shaped, orange colored pancakes every gameday. So we all watched the game together, ate lots of good gameday food, and cheered on the team. We stayed all day long, with the boys even napping in John and Holly's bed and didn't want the day to end...even after we all had dinner together (that's 4 adults and 5 kids) in a restaurant. Our time together was just not enough, and over way too soon. We sure do wish they'd move up here!!!

But we headed back and packed up and headed back to the airport. Here the boys tell Goofy and Mickey goodbye one last time.It was a quick trip, but we jam-packed lots of fun into just a few days. This one will definitely be hard to beat. But when it goes as smoothly as this one did, we'll be sure to try!

Thanks for checking in on us!!!

Getting Back in the Groove of Things

2008-09-04T08:15:00.000-07:00

It seems I've fallen off the blogging wagon again. Not on purpose at all, but just because we've been staying busy. I'm still getting used to this new school schedule. This summer we had our weekly and daily routine down pat. We got into a good rhythm, and it really worked well for us. But don't you know that just as soon as you get good at something, it all goes and changes. So true. So, now I'm adjusting to finding a new rhythm. We'll get there. But in the meantime [grandparents], bear with me while I'm slacking on the updates! ;)

Here's what's been going on with my guys:

They are both obsessed with direction. Like, "what buh-wection are we going, Mommy?", "Are we going to the wight or the weft?", "That car up there isn't going the same buh-wection as me. He's going stwaight." And so on and so on. If you ask them to raise their right hand, they can both do it correctly. ....but you have to ask which one is right before we ask which one is left, or else they get a little confused. ;) hey, we're working on it.

Do you remember the old "aren't you glad i didn't say banana?" knock-knock joke? Well, they also have recently discovered knock-knock jokes, which they think are the funniest thing EVER. And truly, I'm not sure there ever has been anything as funny as listening to them tell a joke to each other or anyone else. We laugh so hard our stomachs hurt. Here's how it usually goes:

Ben: knock knock (complete with hand motions, knocking)
Drew: who's dere?
Ben: owange.
Drew: Aren't you glad I a nana?

Followed by immediate uproarious laughter as if they really do get the punch line. Which is then cause for even more laughter since we next ask them "do you get it?" And then they think that the words "get it" is the joke. Even more screams. It's just hilarious.

They are still helping me cook almost every day at least a little. Its usually messy, but they sure do feel so proud when they sit down to eat something that they know they helped with. And I love giving them that feeling of responsibility and pride in themselves. The other day Drew was still napping and Ben wanted to help me finish getting dinner ready to go into the oven. So we pulled the chair up and I let him stir away. He looked over and saw the bag of flour sitting there, and reached his hand in and said "oooooh, I wike sugar, Mommy." So I gently said "Ben, that's not sugar. That's not going to taste good, and you don't need to eat that." To which he says, "No, it is sugar. I need some." Seeing that this battle wasn't worth fighting about, I just said "okay, but you're not going to like it." So he sticks his whole hand in the bag of flour, pulls out an enormous fist full and shoves it into his mouth and all on his face. He chews and swallows with this awful look on his face, and I said "it's not very good is it? Maybe we should've listened to Mommy, huh?" And he looks up at me, all covered in flour and confused/grossed out look on his face, and said "See? I DO wike it." Priceless.

That's it from our world these days. Here are a few pictures of our last days of summer...maybe the best one of my life. Enjoy!

Impromptu playtime in the sprinkler

Playing in the pool in the backyard

At the Day With Thomas the Tank Engine in Nashville (they even got to ride a real life-sized Thomas!...a very big deal in our house!)

First Day of School!

2008-08-19T12:14:00.000-07:00

How in the world are my babies already old enough to be going to school?!?! I'm not sure, but the truth is they were SO excited to go. Here they are in front of our house before we took them to Snoopy Day, where they "snoop" around their new classroom, meet their new teachers, meet their new friends, and play on the playground. Michael and I both went, and we made a whole day of celebrating how proud we are of our big boys.
Ben and Drew are one of THREE sets of twins in Miss Betsy's class this year, so I can't wait to see how they enjoy hanging out with other twins since they've really never had much opportunity to do so.....now that I think of it, maybe we should all start praying for Miss Betsy now! ;)
Snoopy Day was only an hour or so long, so it wasn't until today that I really had the full experience of packing lunchboxes, backpacks, dropping off and picking them up. People have often asked me if I'll be sad when the boys go to school a couple days a week, and I had talked so big, dreaming about all the things I would be able to get done with some "free time" that I didn't really think I'd be too sad about it. But - truth be told - as I pulled away from the school without the two people who've been constantly by my side for the past 3 years I found myself feeling very lost. And those feelings were a surprise to me. Yes, my babies are growing up. And I suddenly got very nostalgic thinking about how all of their firsts are my firsts, and likewise, all of their lasts are my lasts. Over the course of the last several years it has [at times] been hard to remember that whatever phase we're in won't last forever, and that they are only little once. But today it became perfectly clear.

So, their first day of school was great! They jumped out of the car with full excitement, giving me high fives and blowing me kisses. They read books, played with all their best buddies and made some new friends too. They even ate a good lunch for their teacher....must have been showing off since that's a rarity at our house. They grew up a little bit today. But the best part about the first day of school was that when we came home, things were in a little bit better perspective, and we were all a little more thankful for each other...if that's possible.

Here's to hoping that Thursday will be a little less emotional!

First Spend-the-night Party

2008-08-04T08:24:00.001-07:00

Dear Ben and Drew, Saturday night your Daddy and I spent the night in our house without you both here for the first time since October 20, 2005...almost 3 years ago! You got to have your very first spend the night party with Aunt BeBe at her house since Daddy and I had a wedding shower at our house for our good friends Jeff and Laurie.

You boys were SO excited to pack up your backpacks all by yourselves, thinking of everything you'd need for your first night away from home and Mommy and Daddy.

BeBe took you first to McDonalds for an ice cream cone and to play on the playground (since it was way too hot to play outside), and then to Chuck E. Cheese for dinner and more playtime. You went back to her house to take baths, play with the two kittens and get in jammies to read books.

You sure did have a great time, and we were so thankful to BeBe for letting you come over, but as Daddy and I laid in bed to say prayers, we sure did miss you both. We missed tucking you in bed and doing our routine that has become our favorite part of the day. We realized that part of us was missing, and the two of you really make this house our home. The things you each bring to our everyday life are everything we've ever prayed for God to give us, and He has been faithful and generous.

We are so glad you got to go and do something special, and we look forward to all the things you'll do as you continue to grow. But we're even more glad that you always come home to us.

Love, Mommy and Daddy (who slept much better Sunday night)

By The Way.....

2008-08-04T08:19:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to mention here that I now have a link in the column to my painting blog. ...Just overlook the fact that it's taken me more than a year to get it on the web). Stop by and see what you think! I'd love to hear from any and ALL of you (even if I don't formally know you usually stop by;) ), so feel free to leave a comment, email me or give me a call.

Check back often to see what's new! Happy Monday everyone!

What We've Been Up To...

2008-08-04T05:33:00.000-07:00

A couple of weekends ago, the Wilbecks joined us for a picnic at sunset with all the buddies in tow. We all had a great time, and since I forgot to bring our camera Jen snapped these awesome pictures of the boys. She's become quite the photographer lately. Ben and Drew (as well as everyone around us) were very entertained by a good game of golf.

Here's to great summer evenings with great friends!

Big Boys and Bikes

2008-07-17T10:24:00.000-07:00

As you can see from the fact that our children are still in their jammies, from the time they wake up till the time we drag them inside kicking and screaming after dinner, we can usually be found playing outside on our big boy bikes. It makes no difference to Drew and Ben if it's 6:10 in the morning (which it was when this picture was taken, and we had already been up long enough to hit the donut store and come back home for our second cup of coffee), if its nine thousand degrees hot, or if its pouring down rain. None of that matters to them. What matters to them right now is being outside and playing together.

Here are just a few of my recent favs:

Smiling for Mommy on the "Bap-mobile"...pretty sure they don't get it.

Obviously, sticking your tongue out helps with concentration.

Ben consistently puts his sunglasses on upside down. Maybe he knows something about what all the cool kids are doing that we don't.We've had this little one-seater for forever, so I'm always surprised that this one is always the chosen favorite. This is what Ben, Drew and Brax decided I meant when I said to "share". But, at least they are all happy. This is how they drove around for at least 10 minutes, laughing all the way.

Fun With Our Cousin

2008-07-17T04:04:00.000-07:00

Aunt Chelle, Uncle Dan and Dresden came for a quick visit on their way to Knoxville, and we had so much fun. It was a short trip, but we jam packed our time with them with a trip to the pool, grilling out, churning ice cream, golf in the backyard, church and Vittles (of course).

We only wish you guys could've stayed a little longer!

The Sun and Sand, Part 3

2008-07-09T09:45:00.000-07:00

So after feeling very relaxed and rested from our time in the water, sun and sand, we unpacked our bags, did two-days worth of laundry, packed back up our bags and headed down to southern Georgia to visit my Nana and Papa. As it turned out, Michael had a sales meeting he had to atttend for work on Jekyl Island, which is about 45 minutes away from my grandparents' farm.

While we waited for him to get done with his meetings we had a great time picking all the blueberries and strawberries that we could eat. We happened to be there at peak harvest time for blueberries, so Drew was eating every one he could get his hands on. Ben, on the other hand, is quick to tell you that "I no wike bwew-bew-wees." But he sure can pick 'em.

We headed over to Jekyl Island to pick up Michael once he was done, and took the rest of the day to play at the beach there. Drew LOVED running after all the seagulls and couldn't understand why "they no want to pway wif me." Ben, screamed with excitement at every wave that he jumped into, with Daddy's help, of course. Then, after we had had all the fun we could stand for one afternoon, we headed back for two days of hanging out with my grandparents.

My Papa had a very successful career as an engineer for the CSX Railroad line before he retired. He graciously gave the boys several things of his for their Choo Choo big boy room, and he also wanted to show them one of the trains that he worked on. That train - and lots of other railroad stuff - is set up at the RailRoad Museum in Waycross, so we took the boys to see it. Here are Ben and Drew in the Conductor's Seat. This was so cute to me because they have a book that they love called "Engine, Engine Number 9". And this is such a special picture to me. This is my Papa showing Drew a picture of himself with his crew of men in front of the very train the boys were just on. When the museum opened, my Papa not only helped get that engine in it's place, but also donated many of his own personal memorabilia for exhibits. We were lucky enough that my Mom and Dad were able to drive over from Montgomery to spend the last couple of days there with us too. It was great to all be together, and we definitely can't wait to go back at Thanksgiving.

The Sand and Sun, Part 2

2008-07-09T09:30:00.000-07:00

About three days after MawMaw and PawPaw left, MiMi came into town for some fun of her own. She stayed with Ben and Drew (with the help of BeBe) while Michael and I went down to the keys for a little getaway of our own. Here's a picture of us girls down in Key West.And here's a shot of Michael and I at the Southernmost Point of the Continental U.S. the last time we were in Key West...can't you tell I'm almost 7 months pregnant with Ben and Drew in this picture??? One week after we got back in town from this trip 3 and a half years ago, I went into preterm labor with them, and then promptly got put on bedrest. And here we are this year!

It was such a perfect trip, full of great food and a great time with friends.
We sure did miss our boys, and were really glad to get home. But we had a GREAT time hanging out with some of our dearest friends and reconnecting with each other. Thank you Mimi and BeBe for playing with the buddies while we played on the beach!!! We love you so much!

The Sand and Sun, Part 1

2008-07-02T09:34:00.000-07:00

A few weekends ago, we were able to spend some time with MawMaw and PawPaw. We were -- of course -- so excited to spend some time with them, and take them to do some fun things. But as it turned out, they brought all the fun with them, and we really didn't need to leave the house to do any of it. They surprised the boys with a new sandbox for the backyard, and new sets of golf clubs.

Needless to say, these have both been a huge hit, and we spend most of our days playing with both. The boys were much to "busy" working on sand castles to be bothered with a picture. But this is the best I could do to get all four of them together.

When we did finally leave all the fun of our own backyard, we did end up taking them to our favorite park up the road. Here Ben and Drew are showing PawPaw how we like to throw rocks in the creek and pick up worms. We also took the to see our zoo, but for some reason those pictures won't upload.

Suffice to say, we all had a great time getting to visit and catch up with them. Thank you for the awesome sandbox you guys!! We love you!!

Booty-licious and Lots of Other Fun Stuff

2008-06-16T18:34:00.000-07:00

At the risk of embarrassing my precious boys when they are much older, these pictures are part of the reason I have had even less time to blog as of late: potty training. And any mama who's ventured down this road will tell you (as they've all told me) that it's more about training ME than THEM. This has definitely proven true in our house, and we're going with the more laid back approach, not rushing it and just working on it when we're home and don't have much to do.

So far, it's been going pretty well...knock on wood. I'm slathering them up with the SPF 55 and letting them play outside with the occasional interruption for a potty break. The only down side will be weaning them off the coveted "pee pee tweat" (one small smartee for getting it in the potty without having wet big boy pants). But we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. We're taking baby steps here, and so far it's working for us.

The only real problem we've had has been finding days that we are actually home. Those are few and far between so far this summer. Not that we're complaining at all, mind you! We've had such a good time lately catching up with family, hanging out with friends at the pool, and even having some family down to visit us too.

More pictures to come of our time with MawMaw and PawPaw soon. Thanks for checking on us...

Fun in Montgomery

2008-05-13T05:03:00.000-07:00

This past week Michael was out of the country for work, and so the boys and I headed to my parents' house for a very long, and very relaxing visit. While we were there from Monday through Saturday, it passed by way too quickly and we were spoiled rotten as usual. Here are just a few of the many pictures I took.

One of the boys favorite things to do is walk down to the pond to feed the ducks, geese and turtles. This time they opted to ride their "my-cycle" (motorcycles). My dad is a very talented songwriter and musician. His grandmother taught him how to play the piano when he was little and the boys always love "helping" him play the guitar. However, they don't like any "help" whatsoever when they sit down to compose on the piano. My Papa has 4 or 5 orange, tangerine and tangelo trees on his farm in south Georgia. When he comes, he always brings some for the boys to share. Every morning after he reads his Bible and fixes my Nana's coffee he peels some oranges for their breakfast. (Easy to see why this man is one of my true heroes). Drew is gobbling them up as fast as he can peel them.I'm pretty sure that after this week Ben and Drew both think that "ice-sicles" are a food group all of their own, and a perfectly acceptable meal.Drew and Pop snuggling in the morning. The boys almost always sleep downstairs with my mama and daddy because my mama says she "doesn't want to miss a minute of fun with them." So, I am usually able to get in a few extra minutes of sleep while we're there. I just love the next two pictures of the boys with my Nana and Papa.
For the past few years on Mother's Day Weekend my parents' church has had a Mother-Daughter Tea, complete with teapots, beautiful teacups, tea sandwiches and lots of yummy desserts. It was such a neat thing to be able to go with three of the most important women in my life. Without my Mama and my Nana I wouldn't have a clue how to be a mommy to Ben and Drew. They have taught me everything I know, and I am blessed beyond measure to have been put in their lives.

We had a good time while we were there. It was just what we needed to get us through the week without Michael. We sure were glad to get home to him though, and we were equally spoiled over the rest of the Mother's Day weekend by being together again. All of the treats he brought home were just icing on the cake and made our weekend even more sweet.

So, even though this is a little late, I just want to take the time to say to all the wonderful mothers in my life, Happy Mother's Day. The young ones, old ones and in-between ones: you all are treasured gifts for which I am so thankful.

Play Ball!

2008-05-01T05:47:00.000-07:00

We've had one of those weeks where the week is now almost over, and I'm just now catching my breath. It's been an eventful past few days around here as we had the best and worst of our week all in the same night. I guess we just try to be efficient that way [insert sarcasm here].

One of Michael's friends that he has worked with for many years, Pony, was here from Taiwan on business. Rather than have Pony just sit at the hotel after work, Michael invited him to come to the Sounds game with us and the twins for his first ever Baseball game. I'm not sure who was more excited about being there: Pony or the boys. I"m pretty sure it was a tie.

We had just sat down to eat dinner overlooking home plate at Judge Bean's when Drew went over to the couch right next to our table. I said "Drew, get down off that couch, and come back over here." He was in the process of obeying me - something that I'm proud of since that's not always the easiest feat for a toddler - and jumped off the couch (typical exit off a couch, mind you), lost his footing, and busted his forehead on the metal corner of the plate glass.

I'm not gonna lie: It was bad. Possibly the worst thing I've ever seen. Deep, long, very bloody and all in the middle of the restaurant. Once we finally got some band-aids on it, my little man was fine. He was as happy as could be with his bandages, and content to eat all the ice cream that Judge Bean gave him. Judge Bean (who was more than helpful and so kind) made many many calls from his cell phone to find the team doctor. I feel like the whole thing was completely under the control of God since the man filling in for the team doctor that night is a Sports Medicine Pediatrician at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital.

He took the four of us and Pony down to the team locker room where we saw several baseball players, and Drew had them all entertained in minutes talking nonstop. He and Ben thought it was so neat to see all of the bats, baseballs (or as they still say "bee-balls") and tables where the baseball players get fixed up. Dr. Gregory took lots of time to clean the cut out well, and he was able to use DermaBond, rather than stitches to hold it together.

Drew did so great! He was so brave, and only got upset when I had to hold him still so that the DermaBond could set. I can't even begin to tell you how proud I am of him. And proud of Ben too. He was so sweet to sing his A-B-C's to his brother when he was upset to try to calm him down. Needless to say, we gave them all the treats they wanted when we finally finished up and got to watch the game. Suckers, popcorn and juice all around.

Here is Drew sharing his popcorn with Pony

We really wanted to get a picture with Pony and both the boys, but on top of Ben being a little shy, he really hates having his picture taken. So, here is Drew cheesing for the camera. (you can just barely see the stitched up cut above his right eye.)

And what family outing would be complete without a picture? The boys are holding up their very own baseballs that one of the players gave them while we were getting all stitched up. So very sweet, and they boys have only parted with their souvenirs to sleep.
So, yes. A very full week indeed. The boys are fine. Drew's head is fine. In fact, he was back to his normal self running around and jumping off things again the next morning (as I about had a heart attack every time he moved). But what can you do? They're boys, you know. Full of energy and life. Life that I am so thankful for.

Truth be told, right now there is probably more damage on my heart than there is on his head. It's hard for a mommy to see her baby get hurt. Harder than I ever knew it would be. Someone once told me that watching your children is like watching your heart outside of your body. I feel that way. But I'm so thankful that I serve and am loved by a Sovereign God who is always in control. He was Tuesday night. He is today and every other day. And the truth is that He used a terrible thing to draw me closer to Him and to teach me how to be a better mommy...just like a good parent: always loving and always teaching.

So we're good now. Back to normal, and just enjoying the spring weather. We're hoping your week has been a little less eventful than ours. Thanks for checkin in on us!