Happy Birthday Sara and Eli

My tiny little babies are not so tiny any more! Today is thier 6th birthday! YAY!!! Just posting a few pictures of the early days and then ending with pictures of this afternoon as we celebrated their wonderful day!

Holding Sara for the first time!

Even in the NICU Sara refused to keep her feet in her sleepers!

Sara with her first doll!

Eli reaching for his sissy!

Oh so tiny Eli!

Valentine's Day - the day after they finally came home from the hospital!

For those of you looking for pictures of today's events...

I am having great difficulty getting blogger to upload them :(

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!!

God is so good!

This week has been a long week for our house. Actually the last two weeks have been filled with activity. SO lets catch you up on the Kelly activities....in the last two weeks:

* Kris was baptized...YAY!

* Jaron was healed of hypothyroidism (with evidence)

* I was diagnosed as diabetic - controlling with diet and
exercise for 4 mo. then will return to see the doc and
do more tests and possibly start meds.

* Friday. May 30th, went to the boys' school musical...very cute!

* Sunday, June 1, had a Snow Cone Party for the kids celebrating the
end of school beginning of summer break.

* Monday went to the pre-K picnic with Sara & Eli. Enjoyed talking with the other parents. Got to witness to another parent about God's healing. Her 3 yr old daughter after catching the flu at 18 mo almost died, has a heart condition due to the flu. Such a beautiful little girl. Was able to invite them to church. Hope they come. Really pushed the children's ministries.

* Tuesday was the last full day of school for the boys. They went to school on Thursday to pick up their report cards. Both did very well! Jaron had all A's. Kris master all of the tasks he was to master educationally and on the IEP tasks. He master a few and for the first time this year was progressing on all the rest! Huge improvement for Kris. Both have been advanced to the next grade!

Which brings me to Wed. and my wonderful knee surgery on my "Florida knee". I have been calling it that so that family and friends in Florida understand I finally got it fixed up. YAY! Plus the fact that I just had surgery in Jan on my left knee. I had a scope done as seen above and the orthopedic surgeon basically fixed the two tears in the cartilage. One he snipped out the torn pieces and the debree left behind. The other he sewed the pieces back together and hopefully it will heal on its own. He also did some poking at the cartilage taking small pieces out hoping to create enough scar tissue to add cushion where the cartilage has been worn down to the bone.
I also found out I have Chondromalacia patellae which means "softening of the articular cartilage of the knee-cap." Basically the underneath of my knee cap was a mess. The doctor describe it as blistering bone and he basically shaved and smoothed it out. As well as did some smoothing (shaving) of the femur bone where the knee cap glides over it. We are hopeful that will take care of everything.
I go for my 2 week post-op visit and we will see from there. The doc told Sean I will need cortisone shots on a regular basis. I am suppose to get the pictures of the inside of my knee from the surgery. If I do I will post them here as an educational tool and so show off my knee. So far this surgery although has been painful has been a lot easier because I am able to bear weight on it as tolerated. Which I can only tolerate a little bit at a time right now. Everyday is a little better than the last. As long as I ice after doing my exercises and after doing any type of standing and walking I do well at controlling the pain that and pain medicine. Here you can see I have three incisions. Two are larger than the other. Don't let those small incisions trick you...small does not mean no pain! In fact in my case I was in severe pain and still have bouts with severe pain when not taking the pain meds regularly. I came home with an ace bandage from the middle of my thigh to my toes and on the other leg I had a surgical stocking. The kids thought it was hilarious. In fact Sara, our 4 yr old, wanted to know why I was wearing tights, and said, "you look funny mommy!" Which through tears I said thanks. The pain at that point was so bad I cried for 2 hrs even with the strong pain meds. The picture above was taken Thursday night. I had to change the bandages. Looks good! Today I have more bruising and no more ace bandage to wear except at night when sleeping. Although wearing it through the day does make it feel better. Today I plan to spend sometime outside sitting inthe sun. As you can tell I have lost my "Florida" tan. I miss Florida....you can be tan all year long all free from the sun of course!

God was good to me during the surgery. I had no nausea like I have in the previous surgeries. I also asked the Lord to show the doc that I did not need a lateral release, a lateral release consists of dividing the vastus lateralis muscle. By dividing the vastus lateralis, this muscle is weakened, and if tight, stretched out; hence restoring balance to the Quadriceps muscle. It would mean another 6-8 weeks off my feet and longer PT time. Thankfully Dr. Morgan did not perform this procedure. Which means I will be able to enjoy the summer a lot more. I prayed that I would not need the procedure and God answered that prayer! Thank You Lord! Later I will post about my first PT experience. Lots to me angry about here....but God has been good again and provided me with a very experienced PT and on that will help me where the other two have not! Explain later in a different post.

Get out and enjoy your day! I am!

Happy 4th Birthday Eli & Sara

Happy Birthday Eli & Sara

Their 1st birthday!

Happy Birthday to You!

Happy Birthday to You!

Happy Birthday to Eli & Sara!

Happy Birthday to you!

Four years ago at 12:04 am & 12:12 am

on Jan 22, 2004

Eli and Sara came bursting into this world,

naturally (no c-section).Eli came first with his small

little cry weighing 5 lbs 1 ounce & 16.5 inches long.

Sara came came behind him, small and quiet.

Sara was born with her sac intact and Dr Doyle-Vallery

had to break it open. Sara weighed 4 lbs 8 ounces

& 16 inches long. It took her a while and a lot of work by

the nurses but she finally squeaked out a small cry.

Both were rushed to the NICU where they would

spend their first 3 weeks of life.

Little Ms Sara

Little Master Eli

Those first few days were long and tiring for everyone!

You can tell them apart from the beginning not bcause one was a boy

and the other a girl but because Eli had a bunch of hair and Sara didn't.

The pictures above - First time I got to hold Sara...she was 4 days old

and Eli's first open eyed picture. He was 8 days old here.

They have grown so fast! The first year was pretty

much a blur! I cherished each moment I had with them I just

remember every moment. Having twins is a wild and exciting

adventure. I have learned more, laughed and cried more having

these two wonderful kids in my life! My (gran) Mom aways told

me she wanted one of her granchildren to have twins. Had she lived

long enough she would have gotten her wish.

These two are so much fun!

Part of the Diaper head crew!

Big Stuff here!

Our favorite time of day!

Bath Time!

So Sweet..sharing Mommies drink!

Aha! It's mine!! (Both were giggling!)

Dec 2007

So today we celebrated and the kids were so excited to see their bikes! I do not have pictures of that but let me tell you Eli screamed for Sara to come see the bikes. Too funny how they alwasy call for each other! Here are just a few more pictures of today's celebration!

One week and counting

Well the official count down has started. The kids are counting down the days till Granma Dee-Dee and Grampy Mac-Mac get here. I am counting down the days till the surgery. Honestly I never thought the last 6 weeks would fly by so fast! It was the week after Thanksgiving that we made the decision to go forward with the surgery and now we are a week away. Just seems so fast! There have been many days lately that I think maybe we should cancel the surgery or postpone it. But then I have days like I have had the last few days and realize I have to do this to get my life back! The last 4 days have been nothing but constant pain and my knee giving out on me. It's not a pleasant feeling when you can literally touch your knee cap and can feel it go back in place (or in my case back to where it started but not in place completely due to
mal-tracking).
I have been working hard at getting things organized and such for my mom and for Sean. Thankfully Mom has already been here once before after I had gall bladder surgery and she knows the basic routine of the house. Sean does to but it is usually me that says, ok Sean this has to be done or its time for this when it comes to the kids. Now I have posted up on my wall a Helping Hands chart so the kids as well as Sean knows what chores they are responsible for. I also have a chart with the usual activities for the afternoon such as homework starts at 4:30 and the bedtime routine. It should make the week my parents are here go smoother for Sean. This way he has something to look at instead of asking me. Specially since I will be in the hospital for a few days.
I think I have gotten everything ready. We have purchased the wood for the ramp my father will make so it is easier to get in the house, will be picking up the wheel chair on Sat, have a bunch of gel ice packs ready (been advised to have a bunch!), got a few puzzle books for me to do since tv is not that great during the day and I probably won't get much access to the computer. Trying to think ahead and stay ahead of the game. Should prove to be interesting that much I can say!
This week 4 years ago, I was in the hospital trying desperately to stop our twins from coming too soon. The little boogers just wanted to make sure they debuted much sooner than they needed to. Those days I wasn't counting down I was trying to keep counting forward in how many days they stayed in gestation. They made it to 33 weeks 4 days. It's amazing how much a day can make in the womb to a little preemie. I can't believe my "babies" are going to be 4 on Tuesday. My goodness the days go by so fast! It's hard to not think of them as my babies and then Eli will say things like, "I'm not a baby anymore Mom!" Normally it's "Mommy this and Mommy that" today it was "Mom (Eli -giggle) I can do it myself!" Once they were born then it became the count down to when we could bring them home. For us thankfully it was only 3 weeks later (the longest 3 weeks of my life!). They came home Feb 13...our Valentine's Day gifts!
Boy I remember so much from then, not much from the first year just the first weeks. But that is another blog I plan to do later in the week for their birthday. I can tell you that we plan to celebrate their birthday on Sunday, instead of their actually day the 22nd due to my surgery. So I will make sure to post pictures of them opening gifts and blowing out candles as well.
Good night all!

Fall is in the air!!!

We awoke this morning to wonderful crisp fall air!

The temp was 50 degrees and the high is only

suppose to reach 70 today. Later this week we are

suppose to have highs in the low 60's!

AHHH fall is here!

The leaves are starting to change. Some have

actually lost all of their leaves. The picture above

is from last year. It was taken just down the road

from where we live now.

I love fall! I love the crisp air, the falling leaves,

the variety of colors all around and of course all of

the pumpkin patches! Fall is one of my favorite seasons.

It is why I love the northern states. Florida can not

compete when it comes to fall!

In a few weeks Sara and Eli's pre-K class has a

pumpkin patch field trip that is open to the whole family.

It is actually on a pumpkin and apple farm which

will be lost of fun for the kids. When we lived in

Florida we would go to a local church that sold

pumpkins for missions. It was so much fun to go

and take pictures of the kids sitting in the midst

of the pumpkins. This year shall prove to be even

better. I have been told that it is a wonderful

farm and the kids will have a great time!

So be looking for those pictures at

the end of the month!