I hope everyone had a joyous and blessed Christmas. I wanted to share how ours went. On Christmas Eve we went to my parent's house and celebrated with them and my brother. My mom went all out with the food and desserts. We had a table full of delicious food including: gourmet sandwiches, fried mushrooms, country ham biscuits, spinach dip with Hawaiian bread, cheese ball with crackers, and far too many desserts to name.

My twins are actually 15 months old, but hey, it's the thought and effort that counts right?! I've been trying to find the time to take their pictures since a little bit before Lucas and Zachary turned one, but with all the illness and busyness that's been going on in the family, it's been postponed a few times. But....I FINALLY did it!! The boys weren't very into it, they were just all over the room wanting to play. I did, however, get several good shots that were just too cute not to share. I will post some of them below. I hope you like them as much as I do!

Gah! I love them so.

Baby Raccoon, Baby Monkey :)

Lucas knows to get anything he wants, all he has to do is give Mama this look!

And the same goes for Zachary when he gives me this look!

My Santa Babies

I hope you are all enjoying this holiday season. We just had a 75 degree day in mid December, which was very odd, but I'm not complaining! Annnnd....I finally got around to doing some Christmas shopping and finished a lot of it! Only have a couple more people to buy for. I am so excited to give them out! Anyway, I will be writing another blog post soon and will include pictures of our Christmas festivities. I hope you are all well and I'll chat soon.

Christmas is my favorite holiday for many reasons. It's just that feeling you get around this time of year. It gets cold outside and dark early. Everyone hurries in and bundles up together under a blanket. It's when you get your hot bowl of chili and hot chocolate and settle in for a nice night watching a movie. Every year I get so excited for this time. This year it snuck up on me. Feels like it was just a few weeks ago we were going to the pool and drinking lemonade outside. I've tried my best to get into the holiday cheer and I've struggled this year. It's true what they say...that the older you get the quicker the time passes. I guess I've just been so busy juggling life with my 3 kids that I have yet to find the time to get some holiday cheer. I decided to try and get in the spirit and decorate my house!

I dragged in all the decorations, put the babies down for a nap and the fun began! I even turned on Christmas Pandora music (and ignored my husband's eye rolls--he really was a good sport though). We struggled trying to decide what to do with the stockings. We normally hang them on the TV stand with our cute Christmas stocking holders, but we knew that wouldn't work this year. With my tiny tornadoes they'd be jerked down before you could blink. I finally had a great idea for them, no matter how silly it may look. I just couldn't put out my decorations sans stockings!

Laugh all you want, I know it looks a bit ridiculous with them hanging from the curtain rod. But hey, it works! The babies finally woke up from their nap and it was so wonderful to catch their reactions from the tree. Lucas was still getting over being sick but even he was excited.



And then I remembered why I always love Christmas so much. It isn't the presents or the food (although they are both great too), but the joy I see on my children's faces. The spirit of the season that brings family together. No matter how small your family may be, it's still wonderful to all be together during the holidays. It's just a feeling in the air. The scent of pine and cinnamon, mom's homemade chocolate covered pretzels, watching children's faces light up from tales of Santa Claus. I have still yet to buy one gift, but it was that day that I finally got into the holiday spirit. I'll be going shopping soon and then there will be the fun of wrapping and watching my daughter shake the gifts to guess what's in them. She was spending the day with her grandparents the day we put up the decorations, but she was thrilled when she came home. Since I don't have a picture to post of her from that day, I'll post one of her beside a blow up tree. We went shopping one night and she was so excited about the Christmas decorations that I had to take a picture!

Isn't she cute?? This has also been the first year that I've been able to get her to understand the real meaning of Christmas. That it's also Jesus' birthday and not just a day that Santa comes to bring gifts. She talks about Jesus' birthday all the time and that makes me proud. We also have an elf on the shelf. Izzy named her Glowy and loves her. Our elf doesn't do pranks though. Mama doesn't really have the energy for a pranking elf, I might just have to kick her out :-P

I hope this finds everyone doing well and I hope you are all getting in the Christmas spirit! It'll be here before we know it with how fast the time is flying by!

Talk to you all soon.

Hugs and Love,

Please forgive me that I don't have any pictures to post for this blog entry, as my Thanksgiving was a bit different. It seems here lately that I can't keep my children well. Since my daughter started preschool in August, she has brought home just about every illness you could think of. It's been pitiful to watch my children be sick and pass it back and forth to each other. Normally they are just your run of the mill colds, but this most recent one was a doozy.

I feel like all I do is write about my kids not feeling well. I guess it's that time of year. Last Friday, as I was putting my daughter to bed, she was complaining of not feeling well. She usually never says that, so I figured she was coming down with something. Then the next morning, she was running a low grade fever and was sluggish. By nightfall her temp had reached 102.5 and she was so tired and had a horribly runny nose. I gave her two different types of meds and put her to bed. Over a week later, she still isn't completely well, her cough is awful, but her fever is gone and she is back to acting normal.

So that brings us to Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving. She was still pretty sick and my boys were starting to run fevers as well. We normally go to my parent's house for Thanksgiving dinner with the rest of my family, but I knew this year we'd have to miss it. I decided to rise to the occasion and cook a Thanksgiving meal for the first time (hey I'm young and have never had to, don't judge me ;). I went to the store and bought everything I'd need the night before Thanksgiving. You'd be surprised at how many people actually do their shopping the night before, or at least I was. It made me not feel so crazy.

I made a sliced honey cured ham, sweet potato casserole, sage and onion dressing, deviled eggs, rolls, and the family favorite peanut butter balls. Everything, aside from the dressing, turned out well and we had a nice family Thanksgiving meal. It wasn't as good as Mom's, but it was good enough. And the peanut butter balls were amazing. After cleaning everything up I was wore out. Props to all those who do all their family's cooking for the holidays each year. I hope I don't have to do it again for a while. I was thankful for a meal and to be home with my family though, so I was happy overall. Just sad that my kiddos were feeling so bad.

We all laid down and watched a movie together and today we put out the Christmas decorations. My husband has had a nice long weekend off, and that has been great. So I would say, other than the illness, we had a great Thanksgiving and now we are looking forward to Christmas! I hope everyone out there had a great day and got to eat lots of ham and turkey. God Bless you all and give thanks for your blessings!

I will be writing another blog post soon. :)

Hugs and Love,

It seems as though every day during the week that my husband has off is filled with errands and being busy in general. There is always something to do and things to get done right? Especially here close to the holidays. But who am I kidding? I haven't even started my Christmas shopping yet.

I wanted to share my twin boy's premature birth story, not only to document the events for memory purposes, but to also enlighten or help anyone that may be facing the same thing.

Twin's 7 week ultrasound!

I was 32 weeks pregnant and the pregnancy had had a lot of ups and downs. Finding out I was pregnant with twins was quite a shock to both my husband and myself. There is only one set in my family and they are distant relatives. So, seeing the two tiny peanuts on the ultrasound was exciting and scary all at the same time. My pregnancy with my daughter had been pretty uneventful (and wonderful). Aside from some slight bleeding throughout, not much happened during my pregnancy with her. I carried her to 41 weeks and was induced due to some high blood pressure. After 14 hours of labor and almost 3 hours of pushing, Izabelle arrived. She was a beautiful 7 lbs 2 oz of pure perfection. Three weeks after her arrival I started hemorrhaging and that went off and on for 3 weeks. I finally found a hospital that would help me, and come to find out I had what they called "retained placenta" and was bleeding profusely. Traumatic..very. I had anxiety for a few years after that due to the fear I experienced. But I had an emergency surgery, called a D&C, and all was well. So, the pregnancy itself was wonderful. Izzy was a very active baby and I was calm and happy throughout the entire 41 weeks. We even moved when I was 39 weeks along (I still don't know how I did that). And now on to my twins story...

32 weeks

Early on in my pregnancy with the boys I started noticing my heart rate was staying in the 150's all of the time. It frightened me. So I called my OB and was set up with a cardiologist. I had many tests run and it was concluded that, in fact, my heart rate was staying in the 150-170 range all of the time. But my heart was healthy and only having to adjust to all the extra blood I was pumping to nourish 2 babies! What a relief! Nonetheless, my OB decided that my job where I was on my feet all day was going to be too much, and I was taken off work. Even though I was filled with apprehension about not working, I only wanted my babies to be okay and healthy. It seemed to be the best decision, and I was able to keep Izzy home with me and bond with her before the babies came. Everything seemed to be coming together.

Mama's sweet baby girl

Mama and Izzy

The rest of my pregnancy went pretty smoothly. I craved home cooked meals every night, so I was doing a lot of cooking. Any kind of junk food made me sick. I knew then my boys were going to be good eaters, and I had a strange need to smell Pine-Sol and Febreeze all the time. It's an ongoing joke between my husband and I. He always pokes fun at me about how I was poisoning the family with all the chemical sprays. I read it is a form of Pica. Odd I know. Anyway...other than that, I was feeling pretty good and getting bigger by the day.
Since I was carrying multiples, I was considered high risk, so every 1-2 weeks I would go have an ultrasound. I always got a good report and left feeling so relieved. Plus, all the cute photos they gave me were a great added bonus! I reached 32 weeks and was feeling pretty good, until a few days later. I woke up and just felt very tired, more so than normal. I tried to stay pretty active during my pregnancy, playing with my daughter and keeping up with the house work. But this day, I just couldn't muster the strength to do anything. I stayed in the recliner that entire day, only getting up when I absolutely had to. I'm very blessed with a little independent child that would go to the refrigerator to get her own snacks. I sent my husband a message while he was at work later that afternoon informing him I was absolutely not going to cook dinner. We decided on Wendy's and I couldn't wait for him to get home. Once he arrived, we put in the movie Bad Boys II and ate dinner. After we finished, I got up to go use the restroom and while in there I felt a sensation that felt like one of my babies had punched me in the nether regions. A large gush came and I called my husband in for help. He started laughing saying I probably just lost control of my bladder. "I don't think so, pretty sure my water just broke!" I called to him. I got up and decided to wait and see what came of it, and every step I took more water gushed out. We decided to call the on call OB. She informed us to get to the ER immediately.

I wasn't planning on writing anymore tonight, but I just want to. You ever have those late nights where you've been down and out and having a hard time, and you just can't sleep? Well, that's me tonight. Except it's only 9:25 pm. Hey, that's totally late to me. It actually feels like it could be closer to 11. The sun now goes to bed around 5 pm with daylight savings, so I'm all messed up on what time it really is. Life has been a little tough lately. First world problems I know. Just to preface, I know I am tremendously blessed with my life, home, and family. But even us very blessed and happy people have problems. It's just been rough. My husband and I can't seem to get along lately, everything has become an argument the past couple of days. Money, kids, time, you name it, we've hashed it out. I'm sure every couple known to man has had these same types of debates, but for some reason I always feel like I'm one of the only people in the world going through this and I must be doing something horribly wrong in life. When I was younger in my early twenties, I used to be so confident and sure of myself (I'm sure most early twenty-somethings feel this way). I would get out with girlfriends and go to Sonic just to drink a slush and chat. I did things for me and had time for me. Now, as a mother, I do for everyone else all day everyday and there is little to no time left for me. I really wouldn't have it any other way. Because if I had all this time for myself that would mean my family didn't exist and that would be the worst thing ever. I just want a little time for me every once in a while ya know? Like to just go out and get my nails done, or peruse the aisles of Target, or go stare at a wall somewhere alone. I know my husband probably feels the same way. He works very hard at his job, with very long hours. He comes home exhausted to a house full of screaming youngsters most nights. It has to be frustrating. I guess this is where most older couples would tell us that these are the most difficult, yet rewarding times in our marriage, and that we will miss them when they are gone. I suppose they'd be correct. I can't imagine a time where all of my kids are grown and gone. I tear up just thinking about it. But just as a person, as a woman, I miss the me I used to be sometimes. That confident 21 year old that felt like she could take on the world. I literally thought I could be anything I wanted to be. I married young and started my family young. I love being a mama. To me, there isn't anything more rewarding in this world. But I do feel like I am failing daily. I am sure if I talked to any other new stay at home mom, she would tell me she feels like this too. Sadly, all of my friends are accomplished full time employees working on their careers and waiting to have families. I wouldn't trade them, I love my friends and am proud of them. We just don't really relate to each other anymore, and I haven't met or found any other mommies to bond with yet. I know my husband probably wishes sometimes that I had a mommy friend to talk to, that way I'd stop talking his ear off so much haha! When I was a full time employee, I had all kinds of adult conversations. Now my conversations revolve around baby talk and Barbie talk. But I missed my daughter terribly when I dropped her off at daycare every morning, and I am blessed to get to stay home with the kids now. I guess what I am trying to say with all the ramblings, is that I really do love my life. I am blessed with a supportive husband, healthy children, a roof over my head, clothes on my body, and food in my belly. And even though I am so so happy most of the time, I still have those moments where I want to sit and cry. I want to see that confident 21 year old again when I look in the mirror. Some days I miss her. And I think that's okay.

Goodnight all and God bless.

Hugs and Love,