Babies Babies everywhere!

One of the things I looked forward to during our visit to California was introducing the twins to all of the other babies born to our friends in the past year. I couldn't wait to meet the new little people myself, and I've enjoyed seeing our friends and their precious babies.

Here are some highlights:


These are all the "E" babies! From the left is Ellery, Evie, Eli, and Elsie. There was a quite a crew that gathered together for pizza to celebrate all of our friends being near for Christmas. Becky and I hadn't seen each other since her wedding in Colorado the summer before last. It was too much time gone by. We were both grateful for our fabulous husbands who agreed to walk all our kids around Lowes long enough for she and I to enjoy a quiet moment at Starbucks together. I think Jay and Scott know how much we miss each other.








Jenny and I always get Ryan and Emily together to play when we're out. They love to play in Ryan's Pa's backyard. They get muddy together and have a big time. Now Jenny and I look forward to getting the twins together with Jack. We're quite certian they will get along just as fabulously!


I've seen so many cute pictures of Katie's little guy Henry. It was great to see him in person today, and to see him crawl around like a pro. Even though he was born just one day before the twins, he reminds me of the fun things to come with my babies as he is quite mobile. (I'm also reminded of the baby-proofing that goes with the upcoming milestones!)

Tomorrow!

We drive to Charlotte tomorrow to spend the night before heading to the airport early early Saturday morning! Looks like if all goes well we will be in LA by 10 a.m. Isn't modern day technology crazy? To think that we will wake up in Carolina and be in California in time for lunch is absolutely astounding to me. And I am so grateful!

Anyhow, Emily, who now has to stand on a chair to pull her paper chain links down, came downstairs SO EXCITED this morning. She said "Exciting news! Just one more wake up until we leave to see Grammy and Papa in California!!!!"

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

We're getting close!

Remember when we began this entire chain count-down thing? Well, we're much closer now. The weeks have flown by, and Emily is proud to report that as of yesterday, there is only purple left, which means there is only one week before we fly out to see Grammy and Papa and all our friends and family in California. Only six more wake-ups until we get on an airplane!



Emily is very excited!

Our neighbors

We live in a neighborhood called St. John's Place. Its a great neighborhood that attracted Scott and me right away because it was big enough to have its own neighborhood pool (for my CA friends, most larger neighborhoods have a pool in the middle of the sub-division... its a southern thing I guess!) but not too big that there were a ton of houses. There are three main streets, with some additional cul-de-sacs and so most people know each other.

Last week when Eli had to go to the emergency room, one of my friends in our neighborhood came with me. She stayed with me all night, and ended up taking the next day off work. We were so thankful for her help. And I do one day plan on sharing emergency room stories, which she helped me laugh at in the middle of my little crises.

When we got home from the hospital another friend called me and told me that they had organized meals to be brought over for the rest of that week, and all week this week. I explained that Eli was really just fine, and that we all felt better. But she told me that we needed a break, and the ladies wanted to help.

I can't explain how much help it has been! Every night one of my friends from the neighborhood has delivered dinner to our family. And I'm talking about a fabulous dinner with left-overs that Scott looks forward to bringing the next day in his lunch because they taste so good!

The most important thing has been that we have spent more time enjoying our family in the evenings. Normally when Scott gets home I am trying to finish up dinner while getting ready to feed to babies their solids, and our big girl is wanting somebody to play with her. After we feed babies, we try to keep them entertained while we eat our dinner, and then its straight up to bathe them and put them to bed. Then we bathe Emily, read to her, and put her to bed. Then we come down stairs, exhausted, to clean up after dinner and the rest of the mess from the day. We're worn out!

But this week has been such a treat because dinner is so easy, Scott comes in the door and we can play for a bit with the kiddos before the evening rush begins. Its helped me remember what to focus on, and so when I start preparing my own dinners again, I will hopefully remember that the time we have together is more precious than getting it all done.

So, all that said, we are so thankful for our neighbors. What wonderful friends we have that encourage and help out. We couldn't be more grateful for the break they have given us!

Gross job, but somebody's gotta do it

This morning I was trying to lay the babies down for their naps and Dakota was going crazy. I wish I could say that his barking was a rare occurrence that signified something out of sorts. But alas, this simply isn't true. He barks all the time. He still hasn't figured out that Sergeant Rick next door actually belongs there, and that its okay if Sergeant Rick walks around his own yard. We've lived next to Rick for over four years now.
However, this morning the bark was incessant, and I couldn't figure out why he was continuing with his shenanigans. One look out our office window, and this is what I see.




Turkey vultures are big, and eat road kill. When we first moved here they amazed me at their ability to pick clean an entire deer carcass in twelve hours. And as gross as they look (they remind me of characters from Alice in Wonderland) and as big as they are (literally the size of turkeys) they get the job done.

It amazes me that God even had the yucky details of our world figured out. He even made the turkey vultures. And I'm thankful He did, otherwise we'd have a big mess of road kill to clean up.

Now if only I could get Dakota to stop barking at them.

Mommy Manipulation

Last night Scott and I had the beginnings of a great night of sleep. The babies were in bed and sleeping peacefully, and despite a few reinsertions of their pacifiers, they slept well through the night.

But then at 4:02 a.m. Emily walked in our room and told me her stomach was upset. I thought she was giving an excuse to climb in bed with us (something we rarely allow her to do) and since it was so close to the alarm going off anyway, we told her to just get in bed with us and go back to sleep!

You can imagine where we're I'm going with this. She eventually made it to the bathroom, but not before getting guck on our bed. Nice.

Scott and I agreed that Emily probably just had an upset stomach due to her eating many, many things yesterday. First of all, Emily tried octopus yesterday. Not a piece of an octopus, but an entire (small) octopus. She also tried frog legs. Then after a huge lunch, she snacked on lots of sweets and treats at a party. Then she had pizza and cookies at AWANA family night. Then we got hot cocoa to drive through the Bethlehem living Christmas story. It was no wonder her stomach was a little icky.

But nevertheless I kept her home from preschool today, if anything because I was afraid she'd walk into her classroom and announce to everybody, "I threw up all over the place this morning!" You know how preschoolers are. And with all the serious illness going around I didn't want to freak her teachers out like that.

She is at this moment sitting on the couch watching 101 Dalmatians. And after putting the babies down for their morning nap, I went down to check on her. I asked her if there was anything I could get her to feel better to which she acted as weary as possible and replied, "I'd like some ice water, and maybe a piece of a chocolate bar would make my tummy feel better."

Oh the manipulation. She's just fine. But you better bet that I got her a piece of chocolate, even though it was before 9 in the morning. Sometimes it just feels good to break all the rules in order to make somebody feel pampered. Even if she's being pampered for an icky tummy that has long since recovered.

Dear Mom

Next time you leave me alone in the room with Emily Grace, please see that she doesn't have the comb and spray bottle. I'm not a beauty shop doll. And could you tell Elsie its not nice to laugh?
Thanks.
Eli

A late post of Thanksgiving

Last week Elsie and I were sick with our own crud, and I kept thinking all week that I needed to make a list of everything I was thankful for to post on the blog because we are so blessed! But I never got around to it, and Thanksgiving passed. Today is a great day for a thankful post!

1. I'm thankful we were discharged from the hospital and got to come home late yesterday.

2. I'm thankful our pediatrician came to see us, and had a much better spin on what he believed happened with Eli. He saw Elsie with her virus last week, and thinks Eli got that, and may have even aspirated when he was asleep after he refluxed. He's seen the way Eli swallows back down when he refluxed. I'm so thankful that he knows our kids.

3. I'm thankful that we can go straight to a pharmacy and get meds for our kids when they are sick.

4. I'm thankful that I can stay all day and night at the hospital and concentrate on getting our son better without worrying about our daughters at home. Scott can handle anything, and he doesn't even have to call me one hundred times to ask questions. He's involved, capable, and loving.

5. I'm so thankful that for the prayers of my friends and family.

6. I'm thankful that even while my kids have been sick A LOT this past month, they will get better. Being at a children's hospital reminds me that there are many parents there who's children won't get better.

7. I'm thankful that our Emily was SO EXCITED to see her brother yesterday when she came to bring us home. She loves her twins so much. What lucky babies they are to have such a sweet and loving big sister!

8. I'm thankful for so many friends who are willing to help out. Friends to play with Emily while I go to the follow-up today, friends to help out getting her to and from preschool, and friends to drive me to the emergency room and stay all night long so I wasn't by myself.

9. I'm thankful for a sister in nursing who I can call and ask questions to when something doesn't look right. Boy I wish my sister could have been there to put in Eli's IV!!

10. I'm thankful for my parents. I called my mom and dad many many times, because that's just what I do, but also because it makes me feel so much better to talk things through with them. They celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary yesterday while worrying and praying. I'll make sure I tell Eli about his poor timing when he gets older!

Eli

Last night was a very scary night. After a wonderful day that couldn't have been more perfect, Eli woke up with trouble breathing and we decided it was time for a trip to the ER.

Once there they told us it was probably RSV. They did a lung x-ray that showed an elevated right diaphragm, which the ER doc said he didn't know about, and so they transferred us via ambulance to another hospital here in Columbia with a great peds. unit.

**I'll stop for a moment because you're probably thinking that this can't be serious, right? After everything that our family ahs gotten over in just the past three weeks, somebody is sick again with something so much more serious? That is what I thought. This can't be happening, right? Oh, but it was. And when things get back to normal I will fill-in some of the details about ER horrors. But just know I had a friend with me to help while Scott was at home with the girls, and though there were MANY tears from both Eli and me, we were just fine.

Right now sweet Eli is sleeping peacefully in his little crib. He's had several breathing treatments that have been very helpful. We talked to a doctor in our peds. group this morning who felt like it may be either RSV, or croup and RAD (restrictive airway disease) as a result of the same virus Elsie and I struggled with last week. We are praying that is isn't RSV which is rather serious in infants, though common, and it would also mean that Elsie could get it since it would be a whole different virus. We're also praying that a new x-ray will show his little right diaphragm is normal.

We aren't sure if we will stay another night or if they will discharge us later this evening. Our own super-hero pediatrician will come in this afternoon to see us. I'm sure he will explain everything to Scott and I and we will have many of our answers then. Thanks so much for praying for our sweet boy!

Happy Dirdday!

When Emily was much younger she would purposely get her shirt stuck on the top of her head. I guess she thought it looked like she was wearing a birthday hat, because she would always start singing "Happy Dirdday to me..." Of course this was before she could pronounce "birthday."

Well, I'd forgotten all about that until I was undressing Elsie one day and I forgot to unsnap the buttons on the top of her shirt, by the neckline. Of course the shirt got stuck around the top of her head, and Scott was watching. He immediately busted out with a "Happy Dirdday to Elsie..."

Now its literally an every night occurrence. THe babies love it, and so I figured I had to get some pictures of our Happy Dirdday routine.