Birthday Fun

So I am a bit behind in posting these birthday pictures. Just a bit busy around here!

I love this picture. Sara's stance just cracks me up, her Aunt Jeanette would be proud!

How old are you now? "FIVE"

The boys thought Sara's silly grin was hilarious!

Happy 5th Birthday

Valentine's Day 2004 ~ The twins came home the day before after spending 3 weeks trying to keep them from being born and another 3 weeks preparing them to come home from the NICU.

Daddy's little miracles...first time holding both at the same time.

Eli was praising God even before he left the NICU!

This was week two in the NICU.

Today is Eli and Sara's 5th birthday. I can't believe my babies are no longer babies. Today I was searching for some baby picture of them so I could post them. I had to search through a bunch of stuff but I finally found a few of my favorite pictures. One of these days I will get them all into an album. The kids were so cute, "oh mommy who's is this, it's me? really?" " Oh Mommy I was a baby doll. Look I was bald, look mommy what are those wires, why am I wearing those funny sunglasses?" SO many questions. I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with them, scanning pictures, telling stories, ect. Then this afternoon wen the older boys come home from school we headed to the bowling alley. It's slowly becoming one of our family fun times. While there I was watching my family, laughing with each other an I realized all those thoughts for the future when these two little ones were babies are coming true. You know the ones, when you hold your baby or young toddler and think, "I can't wait to see you playing with your older brothers" or you dream of what it will be like when the baby is older.
I am, we, are so blessed! Four great kiddos, I can't thank God enough for these two precious babies. Ok so babies they are not but I will probably always refer to them as the babies, that was and still is a term of endearment that we have called them since we brought them home. More likely because that was the easiest way to refer to them with the older two boys who at the time were 3 and 1. Yes at one time we had 4 under 4 and all in diapers/pull-ups. I have to say I am so glad to be out of the diaper buying phrase but I sure do miss my babies. I love the smell of babies and how they cuddle up to our neck. I miss the weight of them laying on my chest as we would fall asleep laying in the recliner at three o'clock in the morning.

Here are just a few memories...we lost a lot of pictures when our computer crashed a few years

ago....always make a copy of the pictures...I learned my lesson! Enjoy...

Sara & Uncle Chris, holding hands. Uncle Chris' hand took up 3/4 of Sara's body. She was so tiny... 3.8lbs and 16 1/2 inches long at her lowest weight. From there it was all up hill!

Sara never liked her feet covered. This is how we found her under her blankets one afternoon when we went to see her at the hospital...she had kicked her blanket off and her toes were peeking out when I moved the blanket there was her little leg. The nurses said they would constantly find her undone and with at least one foot out of her sleepers or blanket. Five years later you will still find her with one foot peeking out.

Eli just hanging out in the islet.

Mommy's first time holding her little munchkins.

A bit over whelming with two, knowing I had two more waiting for me at home!

Valentine's Day First picture of all four siblings together!

Poor Kristofer didn't know what had happen.

Mommy was gone for 3 weeks in the hospital,

then three weeks later he had not one

but two babies to fight for Mommy's attention.

One of the many 3AM feedings, you can see how much Kristofer

needed his mommy back then too! Thank goodness we had a king size bed back then!Eli, I was trying to catch his smile...naturally every time I snapped the picture he would stop. This is half a smirk. He was so cute I just want to kiss those little cheeks of his.

Even back then at 8/9 mo old Sara loved frogs~ this was her first time poking one.

Sara was mad that Jaron had taken the frog away. Eli on the other hand hated them, hated being in the pool and what you don't see is him pinching the tar out of my chest in fear that I would let him go.

Tomorrow I wil post the pictures of the family party and what they look like today in thier birthday. Five years, not sure where they disappeared to but looking back over these ictures reminds me just how blessed we are and how much fun having twins actually is!

Happy Birthday Babies!!

The Odd Couple

OK you have to see this! This is remarkable....hmmmmm something we can all learn through this couple!



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What's happening!

ALOT! SO MUCH! TOO MUCH! Man am I tired! Ok so if you are not a friend on facebook.com, seek me out and you can be! But honestly I have been very busy! About a month ago I stated praying about what to do for the new year with children's church. This not only affects my kids but others and I want it to grow and I want it to be fun and exciting. Well one night in the middle of the night when I was supposed to be sleeping I ended up waking up thinking about of all things, the rain forest. So I thought about it some more and prayed some more and then I was cleaning out our desk and found a Children's Ministry Magazine and what did I turn to...the Rain forest VBS page. I know strange but I took it as a confirmation and have ran with it.

So I am posting the pictures of the process of transformation. So far I have spent 64 hours combined of research, drawing, painting and making other items that will be hung up around the room. I have a friend that has helped tear up the puppet stage and is taking it on as her project to put it together. This past week she painted it and soon we will be completing it and will fasten bamboo on to it as well as do more painting. I need to make this very clear - I am not a professional, this is the first time ever doing anything like this and will be honest, I did not do the animals, birds or frogs by hand. I made transparencies of art work from Jan Brett's book "Umbrella" but I did do all the painting, creating colors.

Did You Know?...

I Am a 'Kept' Woman?

You see, there were a few times when I thought I would lose my mind,
But GOD kept me sane. (Isa. 26:3)

There were times when I thought I could go on no longer,
But the LORD kept me moving. (Gen 28:15)

At times, I've wanted to lash out at those whom I felt had done me wrong,
But the LORD kept my mouth shut. (Psa. 13)

Sometimes, I think the money just isn't enough,
But GOD has helped me to keep the lights on, the water on, the car paid, the house paid, etc.., (Matt. 6:25 -34)

When I thought I would fall, HE kept me up.
When I thought I was weak, HE kept me strong! (I Pet. 5:7, Matt. 11:28-30)

I could go on and on and on, but I'm sure you hear me!
I'm blessed to be 'kept.'

Are you...or do you know a 'kept' woman ?

What's up here...

SO I haven't actually been doing much writing here or on my other blog mainly because I just haven't had much to say. Just been thinking alot to myself and haven't wanted to share anything yet. Every year at the beginning of the new year people make resolutions. Well one of mine for as long as I can remember has been, to exercise and lose weight. I would love to be able to say I accomplished that last year! But as you all know last year was a tough year physically with my knee surgeries. In fact today as I was walking home from taking the twins to school I was thinking wow, in just under two weeks it will be a year from when I had the first major knee surgery that basically put a halt to everything for about 6 months of the year. That is a long time to be stuck and honestly I feel like last year was a year of stretching, pulling and fighting. Yes fighting, fighting for everything! God has really been teaching me a lot of things and eventually I will sit down and write out everything I have learned through last year.

It pretty much has not be a quiet new year for us. Sean lost his job in Dec. and praise God started his new one yesterday. It brings with it a very changed schedule for our family. I am not sure how we will adjust. But I am sure we will do fine. We started the New Year with 23 youth at the Rockin Lockin at church. That was a lot of fun, but I realize just how old I am when I was ready to hit the sack and I still had kiddos up and wanting to play games. I sat with 4 boys 6-13 yrs old (none of my boys) playing Uno for about an hour. Ya know something, play Uno with a bunch of boys of that age and you learn a lot about what they are going through and and they open up faster than if you just wanted them to sit and talk to you! So as a hint to those parents or youth leaders out there, get yourself a pack of Uno cards play a game. You may be surprised at how the kids open up!

Since then I have been nonstop thinking about children's church and the change that 2009 brings. I am switching the theme and transforming the room into a tropical rain forest! Yep a tropical rain forest. Why? Well when you wake up in the middle of the night and all you have on your mind is rain forest and can envision exactly what the room would look like then you know you have either lost it or God has shown you what He wants you to do. I believe that later of the two cause personally I know I lost it a long time ago! LOL!

Our best friends, Mike and Marty came to visit us. It was so much fun! We had free bowling passes so we blessed their kids and we took all 6 kids (total) bowling. They had so much fun! We have been friends with them since 1994! We were in or part of their wedding and they were in ours. They have two autistic children and we have our Kris. Kris and Jay are buddies. It is so neat to see them get excited about seeing each other, its like they have no worries cause they get each other! Seeing them is like a breath of fresh air! We leave off like we have never been apart. They were the ones that invited us to go on vacation with them to Gaitlinburg TN this past July. That was so much fun! Would love to do that again sometime!

On Jan 4th Sean and I celebrated 12 years of wedded bliss. Well we should have been celebrating but we had church all day plus we had promised to take the kids bowling. Plus there was some miss communication and well it wasn't so happy. But things were better by the nights end, just we were apart . . . he was at work. But I am happy that we have been able to celebrate 12 years and we have been able to say no matter what; rich/poor, sickness/health, we have weather many different storms and we have made it through another tough one. We are so looking forward to this year being better and different!

So that is what has been going on here. I am so glad to have put my Christmas decor away, but have kept the snowmen out. Being that we have an actual winter compared to when we lived in Florida, I get to enjoy my snowmen all the way till March. This year I may take them down at the end of Feb. We are heading south this year for spring break. The kids haven't seen my family in a year or my parents who they are very attached to. We are hoping to take another trip in the summer to visit Sean's family in NY. We wanted to head to NY but we all voted for somewhere warmer...plus since we will be there during Sean's birthday, we are heading to Disney...if you go on your birthday you get in free! So we are going to go on his special day to save some money . . . hey $60 is $60 but then again it could be more than that. This is all happening as long as we get a nice tax refund this year! Last year we did so we are hoping to again this year! We'll see . . . what ever God wants for our family and the plans we have made are really in His hands. We can plan but we have to let Him control the rudder!

Let Me Dance Lord~