Did you just bust out with that?

I can not express enough how proud I am to be David's mama. He brings so much joy and laughter to our family. Today, we were riding in the car and I said "I love you David James" and he said "Did you just bust out with that?" We both started laughing. It is times like that I love the most.

He turned 6 on March 23 and we celebrated by having pancakes for breakfast (that was an early morning) and we made homemade pizza together for supper. He had cupcakes at school with his friends. His teacher, Mrs. Kelley, had chicken eggs in the classrooma nd they hatched on his day. He got to hold one of them. My mom and Karla and Jim came over and spent time with him. His Grandma and Papa J gave him a fishing pole and he caught his first crappie out of the pond with it.

His party was at Iron Horse Ranch. Perfect day to be outside. He and his friends rode horses, had a marshmallow and balloon fight, and a horse race. I enjoyed watching all of them play together.






Dillan and Daniel are almost 8 months! Oh my goodness! My babies can do so much more now. They are such good babies. They are happy (unless hungry or sleepy) and smile a lot.
Dillan says bubba, dada, and ta. Daniel says dada. Dillan is toothless and Daniel has 5 teeth. Dillan gets up on his knees and Daniel pretty much crawls. He always goes straight for the floor plug! He is the mischievious one who is into EVERYTHING. Dillan is content just laying or sitting and playing.
They love their bubba. Dillan's favorite thing to do is kiss all over him and leave slobber on his cheek. You would think David would find that nasty, but he loves it! In fact, he asks him to do it! Daniel likes to follow David everywhere and play peek-a-boo with David. They play copycat too. I hope this continues for a long time.
Again, God has blessed us beyond measure. Thank you for all the prayers sent up while we were expecting them.

Time Flies

I have been wanting to write a new post, but it is impossible to do so when you can't rember your account information. Yeah, me, not remembering something. SURPRISE!
Anyway, a lot has happened in the last month. First of all, Daniel and Dillan are 6 months old now. I would give you an update on the size, but I forgot that appointment so we will have to wait until next week. However, I did remember Dillan's physical therapy appointment on the same day, at the same time. How that happened, I do not know. My organizational skills have gone out the window. No need to worry, I am gaining them back! Since the last post, the boys have learned a lot of new things. Here are just a few: they both eat fruits and veggies, but it doesn't seem to curb their milk intake much yet, they roll over both ways, they laugh out loud at random things,
Dillan is a cuddler and sleeper, Daniel is a jumper and has found his feet. It's fun watching them change.
David is still great with his brothers. I LOVE listening to him talk to them. He is wonderful at comforting them. He says things like "It's okay, your brother is here and I won't let anything happen" or "I love you, don't cry". David also can read. When I say read, I mean read! He reads words that are not phonemically spelled. His intelligence amazes me.

We also moved into our new house FINALLY! Thank you Jesus! We have so much more room now. The living room is still full with 2 swings, 2 bouncers, 1 activity centers, 2 bumbos, and a playmat. Whatever, we have babies. Everything seems huge to us right now. It seems as if it takes forever to get from our room to the living room and such. We are used to taking a few steps. We still have work to do around here like hanging things on the wall, organizing the storage room, and then building a shop.
I don't look forward to decorating. That is just not my thing. I am not good at it and I just don't enjoy it either. It frustrates me. I need a store that has everything you need to decorate a room in a package, not sold seperately. That would be awesome!

Did you say they are 5 months old???

5 months... where has the time gone? Our sweet peas are learning and growing exremely fast! On January 4th, they turned 5 months old. It was their first day back to day care since we got out of school for CHRISTmas. When I picked them up that day, their teacher said "They sure have grown some attitudes!" An attitude could be good. I mean, you don't want people to run over you. In a baby's world, I guess that means if I don't want to lay here don't make me, or if I want some food, give it to me!

They are both great babies! I guess you would now consider them "easy" babies. They go to sleep pretty easily, especially my sleepy head, Dillan. They like baths now. They go 3-4 hours between feedings. Dillan sleeps all night most of the time. Daniel usually wakes up to eat around 4-5 and then goes back to sleep. There spit up problem doesn't seem to be AS bad. That doesn't mean they have stopped, just that they don't smell like throw up all the time!

We are definately blessed with preemie babies who are right on track. Here is what they are into now.
Dillan

• eats 6 ounces



• smiles



• laughs out loud (and it is funny)



• babbles



• sucks on ALL 4 fingers



• cuddles

Daniel

• eats 6 ounces



• smiles



• laughs out loud



• babbles



• sucks on his thumb



• kicks



• hits object hanging



• grasp the back of his head

Jesus is the Reason

This was our 10th Christmas together! Does that mean we are getting old or we were young when we met? Take your pick. It started as just the two of us, then three, now five! Our Christmases keep getting bigger... and better!
In the past, we have gon to my in-laws church on Christmas Eve and then go to their house for supper and presents. That changed this year because, well, it is just too hard to move all our kids around that much, that late. Sooooo, this year we went over to their house for lunch. Of course we weren't on time because Walter killed a nice buck that morning. None the less, we made it. Lunch was good and the company was great! We ate, had dessert, and opened presents. David was into the gift opening this year and he could read who they were to and from. Dillan and Daniel layed around with bows on their heads. We went home that afternoon to get ready for Santa and put away stuff.
That night, my dad came and we did gifts with him. Then cleaned again.
The next morning, David came into our room to wake us up. We got up and came into the living room to find that Santa had visited our house. He even left David a note telling how good of a cook he is. There were the gifts, trampoline, Hot Wheels Wall Track, Wii things, Cars 2 Monopoly, and more. We opened presents together, then Dillan woke up and looked at his toys. Last was Daniel.
Round 4 was at my mom's house. Everyone was there including my granparents, in-laws, and parents. We had breakfast for lunch. A new tradition started a few years back. We sing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus before we eat and David blows out the candle. I guess two more kiddos will join him next year. The babies went to sleep and slept through everything almost. Dillan even had a bad diaper, so no one could sit beside him, but he didn't care. He just slept right through it. He's the one that matters anyway, right??? David was super excited about his microscope from Mawmaw and Pop. Yeah, the excitement were you kiss all over the box and carry it around everywhere saying I am going to be a scientist when I grow up.
At about 7:30 Christmas night, I noticed some gigts were missing. I go to the computer room where all our packed boxes are and there sat a box labeled PRESENTS! Yep, a whole box full. Most of them were ever wrapped. So, we had Christmas again!
Christmas was a good one. We have been blessed with a great family. Our boys have a lot of people who love them. And for that, I am grateful.

Somebody Call Wal-Mart, I Think I Lost My Mind!

Tuesday night I realized we were almost out of formula for Daniel and we were about two wipes away from being out of toilet paper too! Two things you can't go without! I went ahead and got myself ready for a trip to Wal-Mart with ALL 3 kids. Yes, I do have to psych myself up for it! I wake up, get all of them fed, dressed, diaper bag packed, bottles ready for just in case, and all the other jazz it takes to venture out these days. We load up and head out. On the way, I call my dad and he decides to meet us there.

We get to Wal-Mart and I get the stroller out. Yes, we have to take the stroller because no groceries will fit in a buggy with two car seats in it. Imagine that! As soon as I get Dillan's seat out, he frowns and begins to whine. I looked at my dad and said "Oh great, this is going to be good," with a smirk on my face.

I plug him up with the handy dandy pacifier (whoever invented that thing is a stinkin genious) and in we go. We start on the hygiene side of WM. A little whine here, a little whine there. David and I are in charge of the buggy; Dad is in charge of the stroller. We make it to the toilet paper and there is more whining from Dillan. Eggs, drinks, and cheese is picked up. Then we go to the formula isle. This is where the whining gets strong. Dillan gets cranked up and I think my dad was tuning it out. I get him out of the seat and decide to carry him in one arm, drag the buggy in the other and finish shopping.

You would think that would solve everything, right? WRONG! Daniel decided it was his turn to start about ohhhhhhh 3 minutes later. I noticed my walking got a little faster. When I saw people I knew (or the ones I didn't bc everyone stops you when you have twin babies) I just said hey and didn't let up. We made it to the register and I put Dillan back down in his seat. They were both quiet for a minute. One even went to sleep. Believe it or not, I can't even remember which one went to sleep. That kind of thing seems to happen a lot these days. :)

Anyway, we made it out alive. As I drove home, I smiled to myself and thanked God for my funny, wonderful family that keeps me on my toes. I love the humor of life. I don't think I would take away the chaos, stress, and whining of my life. Well, okay, maybe the whining... it could go.

We got home and unloaded. Dillan had already began screaming on the way and David had to start feeding him int he ba ck seat. I told David to call Wal-Mart. He asked Why? I said because I think I lost my mind. He started laughing and said he did too. About 10 minutes later, David was eating lunch and said Mama, you're doing a good job, a good job. I said at what? He said at taking care of us! It brought a HUMONGOUS smile to my face.

Ahhh, the joys of life.

My, How Things Change

Dillan and Daniel are 3 1/2 months old now! It is hard to believe. It doesn't seem like too long ago I was on bed rest, praying my babies would grow enough to be healthy. Whoa, are they healthy! They are my little chunky monkeys. I think Dillan is about 14 pounds and Daniel about 13. They both have the sweetest smiles and are cooing quiet a bit now. They are so different in their looks and personalities. Dillan has the white boy syndrome like me and Daniel has darker skin. Dillan has bright blue eyes like David and Daniel's are brownish green. Daniel's hair is black and Dillan's is very light. Daniel can roll from belly to back and has for a while. Dillan hasn't conquered that task... probably due to the extra weight he has!

They both spit up sonstantly, so they will have an upper GI done Monday. Maybe we can find some relief. I know it doesn't feel good and it is so aggravating to have to keep wiping it off.



David is doing great in kindergarten. He can read entire books and his teacher let him start taking AR quizzes early! He gets excited about the tests! He made a 100 on a first grade book today.

He takes care of his little brothers. His patience and love for them is greater than I ever expected. I figured he may want to send them back, but that's not the case.

David's personality is still so funny! He cracks us all up. He averages about 4 smiley faces out of 5 at school. For some reason he can't keep it together for all 5 days! Maybe it is because I give him a dollar if he has 4 good days. We are about to have to up that.

The First 8 Weeks with Dillan and Daniel

The first 8 weeks... some are curious to know what it was like with twin babies and a 5 year old in kindergarten. Well, it's not as hard as I thought it would be. No, I DID NOT say it was EASY! Just not as hard. Anyway, a day for us includes: waking up at 6:30, reminding David to do all the things he needs to do to be ready for school, feed David, sometimes I have to feed the boys (depending on what time they awoke during the night), get myself dressed (sometimes), fix me a shake to drink on the ride, load the car seats, and drive the 30 minute drive to Eclectic. We come back home most of the time and wash clothes, dishes, and hang out. Dillan and Daniel still eat every 3 hours and this is what they look like when they are hungry.
This is sweet Dillan And precious Daniel

One morning we got home, I gave them a bath, and they stayed awake a while and played together

Dillan went to sleep!

In the afternoons, I load the babies back up and we go get David. None of my boys lasted on this trip back home!