Winter Days

Winter has finally arrived here in Kansas.  Though it is almost over and will probably be gone by the time I finish this post!  We had 2 weeks with more snow than our area has received in 20 years!

Here is a picture during the first big storm to hit us at the end of February.  I woke up at 6:30 am and it had not started snowing yet...this picture was taken at 10:30am, just a few hours later!

And here is a picture of the same view...without snow!

The girls loved it!  They got 2 extra snow days off of school per storm and we are still within our allotted extra days so they do not have to miss any of their Spring Break days.

I love any kind of weather, especially snow and rain, so I was thrilled.  It does make it hard during tax season as we have to get right out and shovel so clients can come to the door.  After the first snow, on the first day, we were enjoying a quiet, lazy day indoors.  The snow had stopped for a little while after about 10 inches and we were wondering if it would pick back up or not.  All of a sudden the doorbell rang and I thought it would be some of the neighborhood kids wanting my girls to come out and play in the snow.  But it turned out to be two of my neighbors, both women, who wanted to let me know that they had shoveled my driveway and walkway!!  WOW!  I was so grateful.  Not just because my clients needed to be able to get to me, but because I was kind of worried about what would happen if we had an emergency with the babies and needed to get out quick...you just never know.

This is also a big deal because while I love my house and the community we live in, we are not the most popular family on the block!  My neighbors tend to leave us out of everything...I mean everything.  I try not to let it bother me.  I know I am an odd duck of sorts.  I am older, have a LOT of children, most of my children don't match, and I don't drink!  My neighbors like to sit in their driveways on a Friday evening after work and drink wine and gossip.  I don't enjoy this, so I tend to keep to myself.  

My girls love to run around our street on a summer evening in the dark.  I know, it is fun, especially if you have flashlights or bug catchers.  And I don't mind sitting on the porch and watching them.  But the girls want me to walk to where all the neighbors are gathered and sit with them.  I think they think I'll let them stay out longer if I am distracted by the other women.  And that may be true, but I do not enjoy sitting with people who are drinking or talking about other people who are not there.  (Yes, I imagine I am part of the conversation since I am not there, but I don't really care.)

Anyhow, knowing that I am not the most popular gal on the street, I was touched that these two women did something so nice for us.  I really appreciate their kindness.  And it made my daughters feel really good also. So often the only interaction we have with the neighbors is watching them have a block party that they specifically did not invite us to.  And I know that will still happen, even the ladies who did this will probably not stretch quite that far.  But I am happy for the moment, and especially happy that my girls feel good about it.  Because no matter what, I expect them to continue to treat others as we would have them treat us, even if they don't usually treat us that way.

A Day at the Farm

October started here in Kansas with the most beautiful weather.  Katy and Ava Marie and I took advantage of that by going on a lot of homeschool field trips.  One of our favorites is always going to Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead.

This is a beautiful piece of property in the middle of Johnson County Kansas which the city built in honor of one of their fallen police women, Deanna Rose.  It is full of fun exhibits that expose children and just about anyone else to life on a farm and more importantly life in Kansas during the pioneers times.  There is a one room schoolhouse, an old fashioned general store, 2 very realistic Native American dwellings including a teepee, a pond to fish in, ponies to ride, ducks and chickens to feed and even cows to milk!

The girls liked playing checkers in the General Store.

Can you see the chickens in the background?  They are in the middle of the store!

We love to feed the goats.  These are the little ones, there are some as tall as Katy!

Don't say G-R-A-V-Y!

Hudson slept through the whole day there.

So did Beckham!

Ava Marie loves posing in the Children's Garden.

Both girls love to do the chores they read about in the Little House books.

Such a fun day, and it is only 20 minutes from our home.  We went in the morning and then went home for lunch and to finish our schoolwork.  Thank you Lord for enabling us to homeschool!

Mackenzie's 10th Birthday

On October 29th Mackenzie turned 10 years old!  We had decided earlier in the year that she could get her ears pierced for this birthday.  She was so excited and of course, all sisters were there to help make it go smoothly!

We started the day off by sending her to school for a half day.  She took donuts with her to share with her class and some special teachers.  Then I picked her up and we went to lunch, just the two of us, to Panera Bread.  Mackenzie felt very special as we shared some thoughts about her day and what she dreamed of in her future.

Then we went back home and waited for Madyson to get home from school.  Then we all headed for the big mall!

We decided to get her ears pierced at Claire's because they charge just one price and it includes the earrings and also the cleaner for your ears.  Also they give you a cute little instruction kit and a place for Mackenzie to write down each time she cleaned her ears.  She loved this whole set!

She decided to have them do both sides at the same time.  I am so glad because she has a very low pain tolerance and I think if she had them do one ear at a time she would only have one ear done to this day!  Katy is standing in front of her holding her hands.  I, of course, am taking pictures!

 Moment of impact!

Yea!  Looks great!

Thanks for holding my hands Katy!

My beautiful girl!  10 years old and beautiful!  She was so proud of herself and has continued to take very good care of her ears.  Happy Birthday my sweet, but fiery red-headed princess!

Back to September 2012

Like I said, I am going to keep going back to last year to get caught up on all of our 2012 happenings.  And I will continue to post about 2013, so it will be like a bad movie where you keep having to suffer through flash backs!  But if you are reading this and have been reading my blog for any time at all, then you must want to see all of this and I really need to get it all down!  My big goal is to have everything documented on the blog and then to get the blog printed in one of those cute blog books!

We left North Carolina, our new little family of 7, (Randy was still in KC of course.) and headed back the way we had come.  The plan was to drive to Paducah, Kentucky and stay the night then go on straight to home.  We probably would have mead Paducah by 5pm, but somewhere on the north of Nashville I missed a turn off and didn't realize it until we were about 100 miles out of our way!

It wasn't a big tragedy, but it did make for a very long night.  By the time I realized my mistake, we were far enough out of the way that it just didn't make sense to turn back.  (That was a wrong asumption, and my instincts told me to turn back, but I was already very tired and I wasn't thinking really well.)  So we continued traveling North and ended up in Louisville, Kentucky.  I was interested in stopping for the night, it was around 7pm and I had planned on stopping that night at 5pm, so I was already 2 hours over when I thought I should rest.  But when I travel I like to stop on the other side of a big city.  So if I am traveling east to west, I go through the city and stay on the west side for the night.  Then when we get up in the morning to leave, we do not have to travel all the way through the city in morning traffic.  This plan usually works out perfect, but not that night!  We saw many hotels on the east side of the city, but when we got to the west side, well, lets just say we did not see anything suitable and we did not feel safe stopping.

And then it was just so dark!  By the time we got out of Louisville it was approaching 8pm, and as I continued to drive west I just couldn't seem to find anything.  There were lots of signs for motels, but nothing you could see from the highway and I didn't want to stop until I knew for sure that we would find a nice place.  We were looking for a Hampton or a Drury Inn, or even a Holiday Inn.  You know, some place you could identify with a good reputation.

At 8:30pm we stopped at a small area that had a Drury Inn and a Wendy's.  We went first to the Wendy's as the kids and I were starving!  While the kids ate I called the Drury to see if they had any vacancies, which they did, and a pool that was open until 10pm.  We were set to stay there!  Yay!  Then we walked out of the Wendy's to get into the car.  There was a shouting match in the parking lot between some people in some cars just about 20 feet away from us.  We got into our van quickly, locked the doors and drove across the street so I could fill the gas tank up.  During the time we were at the gas station, we witnessed some other things that made me decide that this area was not a good idea to stay in either.  By now it was 9pm and I can tell you I was really getting worried.  I knew that I could not keep driving and we were still about 5 hours away from Kansas City.  (Though were now in Illinois.)

I ended up driving another hour west to Evansville, Illinois.  I really felt like I could keep driving, but then all of a sudden I needed to turn off.  There were about 7 motels to choose from and we ended up at the Holiday Express.  We checked in right after a nice large homeschool family and the man at the front desk was an adoptive father!  We knew we were in the right place.  Felt totally safe all night and had a delicious breakfast in the morning.  Also had a lot of fun talking to the other family about homeschooling and adoption.

We left around 9 am and were able to drive straight home by 2pm.  You know we have to stop a lot to feed and hold babies!  But the boys did great throughout our trip.  Unfortunately I got absolutely no pictures of that driving day.  I was too upset by my mistake and then too tired to even think about it.

But here are some pictures of all the people who came over the next few weeks to visit and cuddle our little darlings!

 Of course this is just sissy loving on her sweet baby brother, Beckham!

Aunt Tina came over to hold her baby Hudson.

Aunt Lorraine came bearing such wonderful gifts!  The "baby" on the left is a receiving blanket, a onesie, a baby hat, a pacifier (with a mustache sewn on!) and baby mitts all stuffed with rolled baby diapers!  It was so unique.  Lorraine made two of these and I just love them!  Of course we had to take them apart so we could use all the beautiful items!

When the boys went in to Olathe Medical to have their circumsicions, the doctor asked us to pack pacifiers for them so they would not be fussy.  I packed the ones Aunt Lorraine had...embellished...you should have heard the laughter coming from inside the room when the nurse pulled them out of the diaper bag and plopped them into the boys mouths!  She hadn't noticed the little mustaches until she and the doctor were standing over the boys to "get to work"!  She said it was "classic"!!

Lorraine's daughter Olivia thought the babies were precious!  Big sister Ava Marie loves to show the right way to hold a baby.

Katy's friends Eryn and Chandler Patrick, also twins, came over to hold the boys.  They each thought their twin was the cutest!

  Besides all of the visitors, the boys spent a lot of time together.  They slept together and ate at mostly the same time.  The girls helped out during the day, when they were home, but I was still doing all of the night time feedings.  These days are just a blur to me now.  Beckham started sleeping through the night just before he turned 3 months!  That was awesome!

Hudson looks so tiny against this big boppy!

Here's Mommy trying to feed both babies at the same time.  Yeah, no, this did not last!  I like to hold and cuddle babies while they are eating, Just needed to get the sisters involved.

5 Months old!

Hudson and Beckham turned 5 months old on February 2nd!  I am so amazed at how much love and joy these two little guys have brought into our home.  They are such a joy to hold and cuddle and we have so much fun watching them interact and smile and coo.

Right now they are both sleeping through the night.  Beckham likes to go to bed around 7 pm and sleeps until 7 am, right straight through.  He rolls himself over from his stomach to his back, so in the morning I always find him on his back looking around the room and smiling.  He does not cry when he wakes up, he just lays there softly talking to himself and looking at everything.

Hudson is our little night owl!  He is usually up until 9 or 10 pm and sleeps until 5:30 or 6 am.  He cries really loud the moment he wakes up and continues to cry until you give him his bottle!  He seems to be very hungry all of the time!

We started solid foods last week.  It usually takes about 3-4 tries to get a baby to understand what they are eating and to like it, and also to stop pushing the food out with their tongue, but Hudson got the idea by the 3rd spoonful!!  He ate 3 tablespoons full on his first day!  I used rice cereal with a little of his soy formula.

Beckham on the other hand, not so excited!  He kept making faces and turning his head away.  It will take a few more tries to get this little guy interested in solid food.  In fact Sunday I added bananas to the ceral and both boys were much happier with the taste!  Beck ate several tablespoons full and Hudson ate almost half the banana!

I love this picture of the two of them....it looks like Hudson caught something!

And they just love to look at each other and coo and giggle, I am so excited for them to have a close relationship.  I know they will probably get into mischief together, but they are just so cute!  I am so glad God gave me twins, it is such a special relationship and I am so grateful to be a part of it.

They love their bouncy seats and will talk to the little turtles and frogs like they are little friends.

I think they are finally the same size now.  Beckham was about an inch longer, but it seems they have evened out.  Mommy loves her big boys!

The rest of the story...

I feel like I left off from our trip to North Carolina, and then life started to fast forward again.  It just never really slows down.  This morning I transferred another 525 photos from my camera to my laptop!  They are from December 2012 through yesterday January 29th 2013!  I find I pick my camera up pretty much every day.  I take pictures of the kids, food, funny things I see, just about everything.

So I need to back track and get the rest of the North Carolina story on my blog and then I will keep going through the end of the year and try to update all of our 2012 happenings.  Of course we will continue to document what is happening now and I will continue to be behind, but since that is the story of my life, I guess I will just go with it!

While we were in North Carolina to pick up the boys we stayed at The Hampton Inn in Mooresville which is just east of Lake Norman.  It is home to all of the Nascar racing companies and so everything out there is themed for cars and racing.  Below are some pictures of our awesome hotel.



This photo of Hampton Inn Mooresville is courtesy of TripAdvisor

The delicious free Breakfast Room we were fortunate to have.  Can I say it was never a problem getting the kids out of bed and dressed in the morning?!  In fact some mornings they went down and got my coffee for me and made me a plate because I was exhausted from being up with the babies all night!  But the staff was wonderful!  They were helpful with the girls and so kind to us.  We plan on going back to the Hampton Inn the next time we are there.

This photo of Hampton Inn Mooresville is courtesy of TripAdvisor

A view of the front desk and the Coffee Bar that was set up 24 hours a day.  Super fresh coffee and they also had fresh cookies all of the time!  We just loved this!

This photo of Hampton Inn Mooresville is courtesy of TripAdvisor

And after breakfast we usually got in an hour or so of swimming.  The pool is small but very nice and the girls always love to swim!

Even the boys enjoyed the fresh air and sunshine!

Hudson

Beckham is in the shade behind Hudson who was in the sun so we could be sure to help him with his Vitamin D.  Hudson was the one who was a little jaundiced after birth.

We also ventured out to a number of parks.  Unfortunately, most of the time I would drive everyone over to a park, let the girls out to run and play and then I would fall asleep in the van with the boys!  Can I say I was exhausted?!  So I either didn't think to take a lot of pictures or I would forget to bring the camera in the van! Too bad because we found a lot of interesting parks!  Lots of big trees and shade, lots of fun play equipment.

One of our favorite places to go was actually an outdoor shopping mall called Birkdale Village.  It is so pretty and there is one long avenue of buildings on either side of a beautiful street with trees and a walkway down the middle.  The buildings are 3 stories tall with shops on the main floor and apartments on the second and third floors.  

My favorite area is right in the center where there is a cute water play park and a Starbucks on the corner!!  Perfect for kids and momma too!

The whole area  feels so Southern Chic to me!  Lots of people outside enjoying each others company.  We really enjoyed ourselves here!

We plan to come back to this area in a few years, probably when the boys are 4 or 5 years old.

We also played at a fun park where we visited with their birthmom Courtney on our last full day in North Carolina.

Hudson on the left and Beckham on the right.

Hudson

Beckham

With their birthmom Courtney.

Her son was there too, but that little cutie pie would not sit still for a second!  I tried to take a picture of him four or five times and all there is is just a blur!  

We were sad to leave this beautiful area of our country, but happy to know we were headed home!  And we will be back!