What a Day!

Okay so we all remember the wonderful photos and moments from Saturday. Lazing the day away in our brand spankin new NEON orange baby pool, that William bought. Oh those were the days, right? Well here is THAT pool today.
If you look closely you can see that my three ring pool is really a two ring pool. The top ring busted after only two, count them, two uses! Yep. I was sorely dissapointed in it.

So what is any good mommy to do? Go buy another, sturdier, Bigger, better, pool right? Right! This time I went ahead and spent a little more money on a pool that we all could fit in and that looked like it would hold up for more than two uses. In fact, my mom once had a pool exactly like this in her backyard that lasted us an entire summer.

Okay, so here is why I am just now posting for the day and it is 7:19pm. I spent the entire, THE ENTIRE, day putting this pool together. When I got home from Walmart I handed the quite heavy box to William and instructed him to go blow the thing up with his air compressy thing. My plan was to have him blow it up and then after he left for work at 11am I could fill it up with water and it would bake in the hot sun all day. Then the water would be the perfect temperature for two babies and one mommy this afternoon.

Well after like two minutes William comes back inside and says the compressor thingy won't fit the holes on the side of the pool and he had to get ready for work and I would have to just wait till tomorrow when I could go back to Walmart and buy an air pump for it, unless I wanted to try to blow the thing up by mouth? He was in a less than friendly mood because he was running behind in getting ready for work and it was really hot outside. I got the quick impression that he just wasn't really in the mood to help me with my BIG dilema for the day!

So after I helped him finish getting ready for work and kissed him goodbye, I put the girls down for their morning nap and headed outside to survey the damage. The first thing I noticed was that their were four holes! Two large ones about the size of cap on a coke bottle and two small normal ones with the plug thingy, you know just like the regular things you blow something up with. So I brought out his air compressor. Hooked it up to the extention cord and sat on the ground ready to figure this all out. The sun was beating down hard. It was hot and my eyes felt like they were cooking. The whole pool was layed out neatly (I had done that before he left for work) I found three coke bottle looking caps and figured that those must be needed to plug the big holes to use the little holes. I figured William hadn't see the little holes because they were sort of hiding. This must be why he said our compressor wouldn't work, right? SO, I put the caps on the big holes, there were three caps, one for a spare I guessed? I put the compressor valve in the first little hole, plugged the second hole and went inside.

I checked on the thing off an on for the next THREE hours and it still wasn't blowing up correctly. So I sat back down in the grass and pulled apart the layers to see what was going on. When I did this I saw a third coke bottle hole and third small hole. Duh! No wonder the thing wouldn't blow up. It was leaking all the air I was putting in out of the third big whole. Maybe by now in my LONG story I have lost you. Here is a picture I took after I finally got it blown up. You can see the six holes here:

So I after I plugged this hole, I went back inside and waited a while longer. Brigitta and her sister Linnea showed up to visit the girls and I went back outside to see what was up with the pool. Mind you it was now 3pm. I went out the back door and there sat my uninflated huge swimming pool. The compressor was humming and pumping but it made no difference, for whatever reason the stupid thing was NOT blowing it up. I guess William had been right after all and this pool was going to require a different kind of air pump. WHY hadn't I just listened to him to begin with? I asked Brigitta if she would watch the girls for a little while while I ran to my mom's house to borrow her air pump that she uses when camping. She said sure, so off I went.

When I got back, I plugged up my mom's pump and stuck it in the hole and viola the whole stupid pool puffed up with air in like two minutes flat. The WHOLE POOL WAS INFLATED IN TWO MINUTES WITH MY MOM'S PUMP! TWO MINUTES! TWO! I had spent FOUR hours trying to do it with William's pump and it took TWO MINUTES with her pump! I was kicking myself for not having gone over there to get it to begin with.

Okay so this is only HALF of my story. Time is 330pm. If you will remember I wanted to put water in the pool in the morning so that the water could heat up over the course of the day. Yesterday Maddy and I got in the orange pool and she turned blue because the water was freezing from the spicket. Now it was 3:30pm and the sun had already gone over the spot of the pool and the shade had set in. Being that we had spent so much time working on this stupid pool AND that I was wringing wet from being outside in the heat I was determined that Maddy and Morgan and I would get in the pool THIS afternoon. Since I couldn't count on the sun to warm the water I had to improvise.

I called William at work and asked him how to syphon warm water from the tub to the pool out back. He said it would be easier to use the kitchen sink and go out the back door and down into the pool. I being clever like I am didn't listen to the part about going out the back door. So instead we stuck one end of the hose in the kitchen sink and the other out the kitchen window and into the pool. Brigitta and Linnea helped me. Brigitta went outside to suck on the end of the hose and Linnea stayed at the sink holding the hose under. We tried and we tried and no matter what we really did, nothing worked long enough to fill up the pool. I called William back after about an hour of trying dilligently to get the water from sink to pool. His first question was "Do you have it going out the back door?" "No" I said "it's going out the window" "You have to use gravity to syphon water Mandy" he said "OH" I said. I informed the girls in our change of plans. We switched the hose around and ran it out the back door and voila it worked! The water started running from sink to pool ... ever so slowly.


Let's just say that TODAY was an adventure. I learned a valuable lesson: Sometimes William is smarter than me and I should listen to him. Sometimes it is okay to not be so stubborn and try to do everything MY way! By the time we got the water in the pool to a usable level, the wind was blowing and it was just too cold to get in the pool and play. I wasn't hot anymore but I was extremely tired from the whole ordeal. What a waste of time. I could have just filled the pool up with the hose the regular way, waited till tomorrow for the sun to heat up the water and avoided all that extra work.

Oh well, we had fun laughing at Brigitta's blue lips from sucking on the end of the hose. We had fun laughing at ourselves trying to figure it all out. In the end it all worked out just fine, but lets just say that if this pool busts tomorrow the girls will NOT be getting a new pool anytime soon :)

Here is a picture of our new oasis! Lovely isn't it? Can't wait to get in it ... tomorrow :)

Update on Morgan

So far she is doing well. She hasn't had a fever today but we have been giving her Tylenol every four hours religiously. William stayed home today with us just in case she needed to go to the doctor, but we didn't end up taking her.

Thanks for all the prayers and well wishes. I will let you know if anything changes :)

Four Things ...

I got this quiz from Casey's blog. Tonya has done it as well. So I will give it a go. I am tired tonight so I don't know if my answers will even make sense.

Four jobs I have had in my life:
1. Optical Technician at JC Penney Optical
2. Nanny
3. Placement Assistant at Youth Villages
4. Title Clerk for TruGreen Chemlawn (Service Master)

Movies I would watch over & over:
1. How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days
2. Gone with the Wind (reminds me of my Nana)
3. National Lampoons Christmas Vacation
4. ?

Places I have lived:
1. Bartlett, TN
2. Owensboro, KY
3. Atlanta, GA
4. Bristol, TN

Four tv shows I love to watch:
1. Top Chef
2. Project Runway
3. The Apprentice
4. MythBusters

Four places I have been on vacation:
1. Destin, FL
2. Gatlinburg, TN
3. Cozumel, Mexico (on a cruise)
4. Orlando, FL

Four websites I visit daily:
1. I visit all of the blogs in my link section daily
2. BabyCenter.com (but not daily)
3. Walgreens and Target.com (visit regularly to shop or order pictures)
4. Pogo.com (William and I play games on this site regularly. I like ShuffleBump)

Four of my favorite foods:
1. Right Now I have a thing for Taco Bell soft tacos - don't ask me why?
2. McDonald's Ice Cream
3. Doritos Salsa Chips
4. Funyons

Four places I would Rather be right now:
1. Deep asleep. I am really tired tonight.
2. Destin on the beach with William, the girls, my mom and Scott. Fun!
3. In a big swimming pool, warm enough that girls could get in too!
4. With my extended family. I really like it when the whole family gets together.

Four songs that make me cry:
I won't be able to think of four but,
1. I Will Be Here - by Steven Curtis Chapman - usually a wedding song but I sing it to the girls all the time and I think it applies.


After you've read this delete my answers and fill in your own.

Poor Baby :(

Morgan woke up in the middle of the night with a fever of 101.5. We started giving her Tylenol. She got much better throughout the day and had no more fever, so we skipped her last dose because she was napping. William just brought her to me and she is red hot with fever again. Her temp is 101.4 now. The strange thing is she has no other symptoms. She isn't coughing, no runny nose, both girls have had one "loose" diaper today but that isn't entirely abnormal. I don't know if she is sick from the cold that I have had or something else. I just hate this for her. :(

Please keep Morgan in your thoughts and prayers tonight. Hopefully she will get better with just the tylenol. If not we will probably go to the doctor's office tomorrow.

Splish Splash in The Baby Pool

Today we decided to grill out hotdogs and blow up the baby pool. When the girls woke up from their naps, we put them in their swimsuits and took them outside for a swim. They had a blast. Maddy even crawled around in the pool and sat against the side without support. We were really nervous that she would go under but she did well. William had to finally get in the pool with Morgan. She just isn't strong enough yet to hold herself up like that, but regardless she still had a fabulous time. Now both girls are worn out and are ready for another nap :) Here are some pictures from their adventures!






I had already put this post on the blog and I was sitting here at the computer admiring what perfect babies I have and I started thinking about when they were born. I think the second day they were here I went up to Morgan in her warming bed and watched her laying there so tiny and sick. I leaned over to her and I promised her that one day she would come home with me and she would sleep in a big fluffy crib and in the summertime I would by her a big kiddie pool and we would play and splash to her hearts content. I also promised her a pony, but don't remind her of that one. Now looking at these pictures I realize our dreams are fullfilled. We did it. We are home, we are safe, we can be together all the time now. Wow! What an amazing feeling. Being their mom is the best thing that has ever happened to me! I am so greatful to God for this chance, what more is there to say!

Photos on Friday

Here are some pictures I took today of the girls. Sometimes when I get my camera out, I don't realize how many pictures I am actually taking until I load them onto the computer. There were so many cute ones from today that I figured I would post some of them here and tell you what everyone was up to when I took them ;)

Maddy and Morgan today after nap time. Morgan says "Oh, Hi mommy!"

"Can we get up and go play now?"

Maddy chewing on her fingers while intently watching the BackYardigans.
Morgan sees a toy she wants and goes for it!

Jenny, sitting by the door, watches the girls play!

Just for Fun!

Here is a list of questions I found on someone's random site. Thought I would answer them for fun since I don't have anything else to write about today. Then if you read these and are a regular blogger then answer them on your site too. Tonya, Maggie, Beth, Casey, ect. only if you want to of course!

1.Grab the book nearest to you, turn on page 18 and find line 4.
The nearest book was King Long Shanks by Jane Yolen. Line 4 says "And then they smiled simultaneously and at the same time." This is a children's book Charla brought over for me to read to the girls.

2.Stretch your left arm out as far as you can.& catch air?
No I caught the back of my cell phone cover. My phone is dead AGAIN and the battery is charging.

3. What is the last thing you watched on TV?
I watched Sponge Bob this morning with William and Maddy. The last program I really paid any attention to was Top Chef last night on Bravo.

4. Without looking, guess what time it is?
6:10

5. Now look at the clock, what is the actual time?
6:34 p.m. (I looked not to long ago, so this was kinda cheating)

6. With the exception of the computer, what can you hear?
My dog snoring, traffic from the road. The girls are taking a nap :)

7.When did you last step outside? What were you doing?
This morning I went to get groceries at Walmart.

8.Before you started this survey, what did you look at?
On the computer? Um the site where I found these questions. And all the other blogs in my link section. I check those daily.

9.What are you wearing?
Green tshirt and shorts

10.When did you last laugh?
Probably when I was on the phone with Drew. I can't remember. If not then, then probably yesterday maybe.

11.What is on the walls of the room you are in?
Pictures and a mirror. I'm in my living room.

12.Seen anything weird lately?
Not really. I was trying to think of something really funny to put on here, but I am drawing a blank.

13.What do you think of this quiz?
I didn't read it before I started it and so now I am thinking I live quite a boring life.

14.What is the last film you saw?
Derailed. It was pretty good. I didn't think I was going to like it, but it was pretty good. And even though I kinda figured it out before the end, I still liked it. We rented it on Pay-per view, we had a free coupon.

15. If you became a multimillionaire overnight, what would you buy?
William would say an island. I guess I would just buy a house with a swimming pool and lots of land for my family to live on.

16.Tell me something about you that I don't know.
That is hard. Some of you know me really well and some of my blog friends don't know me personally at all. Ummm ... I am an only child. Wow, I am pretty much an open book to my family, so it is hard trying to think of something to tell them that they might not already know. I am afraid of the dark and can't watch scary movies because I get to wrapped up in them, no matter how absurd, and then I can't sleep for days. My immediate family still makes fun of me because "Signs" scared me so bad I wouldn't go outside at night for about a month (we do live on a farm people :)

17.If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do?
I would eliminate ALL crime.

18.Do you like to Dance
Yeah, if I am at home cleaning or with the girls alone. Not in public, too much stuff jiggles these days. Have you seen that jello - jiggle when you wiggle commercial, yep that's what I mean.

19. Imagine your first child is a girl, what do you call her?
My first children were girls: Madelynn Grace and Morgan Gabrielle

20. Imagine your first child is a boy, what do you call him?
Carter

21.Would you ever consider living abroad?
Probably not, unless it was a tropical island that was safe from Tsunami's and Hurricanes.

22.What do you want GOD to say to you when you reach the pearly gates?
Welcome, My good and faithful servant!

Let me know if you post this on your site and I will be sure to read your answers :)

Rambling On ...

Wow. I seemed to have stirred quite a lot of people with the last post. I will try to keep it calmer tonight :)

Today I went over to Beth's house to take care of her and Adam. See Beth's Blog in my links section. I posted on her website for her since she is technically supposed to be IN the bed. (She is sneaky and gets up and down some) I left the girls home with Brigitta our babysitter. She is great! She is very responsible and seems to be really fond of both girls. I feel comfortable leaving them for a few hours with her.

I still feel pretty crummy today. My nose is running less but my head is still full and the dizziness is making me slightly nauseated. I skipped the DayQuil today though as I didn't want that drugged feeling to occur since I knew I would be driving.

There's really not that much to post about. Maddy is getting really good at sitting up on her own and is even so talented now that she is able to throw a full on tantrum while still sitting.

Oh, I know what I can tell you. This morning, Maddy was pulling up on the armoir in the living room. William was in the room with her and Morgan and I was ... I was in the other room I guess. Anyway, she fell and bonked her little head on the door of it and now has a little bruise on her forehead. This is her first bruise caused by falling. Her first bruise at all, if you don't count the ones the IV's made in NICU. William and I both felt bad. He reminded me that there will be plenty more over the years as she learns to walk and run, ect. I know, I know. But it really hurt my spirit that my little moo had a bruise on her perfect little head. I gave her some tylenol and then I held a cold teether to her head in hopes of keeping it from swelling. She is fine now.

Don't you hate how your fingers get orange when you eat cheetos! I hate that. Why do they have to be that orange color anyway.

Well I guess I will go now. Since my baby is pitching a fit and I have orange cheeto dust all over me. Till tomorrow ...

Stop Playing Favorites

What a smart baby!

I always feel like when I say one is smart I have to say the other is smart in the same sentence. I mean I think they are both brilliant, but why do I feel compelled to say it at the same time? I want to be fair? Or is it that I'm afraid if I mention one is smart or beautiful or ect that you might think that I favor that child and don't feel the same way about the other. Well, whatever. They are both smart and perfect and beautiful to me!

Maddy is now officially sitting up by herself. She goes from laying to sitting up to crawling. She is getting faster and faster every day. Morgan is crawling all over the place and although she is not quite doing the same physical feats Maddy is, she is doing better with her verbal and fine motor. Maddy is brave. She sees something she wants across the room and she is off like a rocket towards it. Morgan, on the other hand, thinks things through. She contemplates how to get there before going for it. It will be interesting to see if these patterns remain the same as they grow up.

I think sometimes people, even close family and friends, want to compare the girls. I think they pick one or the other and it has a tendency to come across as favor of one over the other. Usually this favor lies with Morgan. Since Morgan is the cuddlier baby, she is still a baby baby and she is typically quieter than Maddy, I think people tend to want to bond with her more. Maddy is always moving. She only cuddles when she is sleepy and usually that is reserved for me or William. She whines more and her cry (as I have described before) grates on your nerves more. Here below are some examples of comments I have heard in relation to my girls:

Not to long ago we went to a family dinner. One of the family members was standing around wanting to hold one of the babies. I really didn't want her to have the babies at all, but she was hovering. Over the course of the afternoon she ended up with Maddy. It was hot inside the house because there were so many people there. I went outside with Morgan to sit on the porch. This family member came out of the house and looking over at Morgan made this comment: "I don't like THIS ONE (meaning Maddy), I want to hold THAT one." Those were her exact words people. I went inside, got William and made him come get Maddy. I am pretty sure she didn't even know their names. Why else call them "this and that"

This isn't the only time comments have been made.
Another family member mentioned while holding Maddy, "Oh, I KNOW which one this one is" At the time Maddy was fussing.

One of our therapist calls Maddy "Meanie Weanie" and another calls her "Wild Woman"

I'm not mad at anyone about this, I just think its kind of unfair to start labeling my children now. Who knows if Maddy will grow up to be "impulsive" or "dramatic" I am seriously afraid that if this child grows up being seen as the "bad one" or any other labels that people want to come up with, she will have low self esteem. I don't want that for her or for Morgan. I want them to both feel completely loved, equally by ALL the people in their lives, especially their family. I want her to feel nurtured and appreciated and I want to let them become whatever it is in life that brings them happiness and fullfillment. She is a baby people! I truly believe that if they were not twins, I wouldn't hear half of the comments that I do. People would automatically think every new thing they do is just magnificent, and personality wise there would be nothing to comment on because there would be nothing to compare them to.

Anyway, I will get off my soap box now. I don't know where all this came from anyway, I was planning on writing about how yucky I feel today and how I didn't really feel like writing. I went through my recent pictures and was planning to put a one liner up and post a picture. And this is what I got instead.

I'm delusional from DayQuil (which did in fact make me drowsy and a little sick to my stomach) So just ignore my rantings. A blog is a place to rave and RANT sometimes right? So there ya go! See you tomorrow with something happier hopefully :)

Monday Blah's - 10 Random Thoughts

I am not feeling good tonight. My throat is killing me and my nose is running. My right ear hurts too. Since I don't really feel like posting tonight, here are 10 short and random thoughts ...

1. Maddy is sitting up by herself now. I just looked over and she is sitting straight up in the play pen playing with toys. Earlier she was in her bed (I had forgotten to lift the side rail) and I went in her room and she was trying to stand up in the bed. When she saw me she plopped back down with a face that said "You caught me, Ma"

2. Two times this weekend, I went out to eat with someone and ended up getting my entire meal for free. Yesterday at Dixie Cafe and today at Chili's because they brought out the wrong food and then we had to wait FORRRREVVERRR for them to bring it back out and by that point we had to get it to go because Melissa had to get to work. Not fair to have to pay for something you will have to microwave later to eat.

3. Beth is now officially on complete bedrest. She went back to the hospital last night for more contractions, they released her and she went to her OB today and they are sending a home health nurse out to her house tomorrow to hook up a monitor to her and start an Terbutaline drip thing (I'll know more later) So her baby shower is off and I think she said her doctor is giving her steroids this Thursday and planning to Csection her at 34 weeks if she makes it that far.

4. I wish William was off tomorrow. Or for the rest of the week. This weekend we ran around so much and lately I feel like we don't have a lot of time to be together, alone or with the girls. Everything is always rush rush rush. I think this coming weekend I just want to hunker down at home and not do anything.

5. Did I mention that my ear is hurting.

6. Maddy Moo and her Daddy. I love her socks like this.
7. Picture of Morgan in our new umbrella stroller. Daddy took her for a walk out to our veggie garden this weekend. It was sunny.
8, 9, & 10. Honestly, William just pulled up and I feel like I am getting sicker by the minute. I think I am just going to call it a night and go to bed. So instead of 10 random thoughts, lets just make it 8 random thoughts :) Night everybody.

Happy Mother's Day

This was my very first Mother's Day. It was a great weekend (with the exception of the baby scare - see previous post, but even that turned out wonderfully). Friday night was the Mother's and Daughter's Banquet at our new church. I took the girls to the dinner after asking Brigitta, our new sitter, to help me while there. It was really nice. Everything was decorated beautifully and the men of the church had cooked a four course dinner for us. Here are some pictures of that.





Saturday my mom and Scott came over and picked up the girls and kept them overnight. Then today after church we picked them up and went to lunch with mom and Scott for Mother's Day. We went to Dixie Cafe in Bartlett but it was not good. We ended up getting all of our meals free because the service was so terrible and the food was cold. After we ate we took the girls home and got ready for evening church. We just got home. Overall I would say that the weekend was very good. Not very restful, but still a very good time.

Prayers for Beth

For those of you who don't know, my husband is older than me and has a 23 year old son. He is married to Beth and they have one son and a baby girl on the way. Beth is 31 weeks pregnant and just called to say her water might have broken. We are all on our way to the hospital. Please keep us in your prayers and baby Aubree. We are hoping she can hold out a little longer as Beth hasn't had any steroid shots yet. Adam their son was born at 34 weeks so Aubree is coming a little earlier than that. We may all be in for another NICU ride. Oh I hope not :(

Here is a picture of Beth from yesterday with Adam her son and Morgan and Maddy. Thanks for your prayers! We'll keep you updated!
UPDATE: As you know, if you have seen the comments, Beth is doing great. Her water didn't actually break, but when she got to the hospital and they hooked her up to the machines, she was in fact having regular contractions. So they ended up giving her a Terbutaline shot and fluids to stop the labor. She is home now, on bed rest, until Tuesday when she goes to the doctor again. We are so thankful for all of your prayers. We are so relieved that Aubree Elizabeth is still safe and warm with her mommy and we will see her in a few weeks when she is a little bigger and fatter. We love you Beth-a-Rini! Glad everything turned out okay :)

The Wheels on the Bus ...

There are so many cute pictures of the girls that sometimes I am torn as to which ones I should post. But today when I saw these I just couldn't resist! These are by far the best pictures I have of the two of them yet :)

Monkey Monkey

Madelynn is pulling up now and getting into everything!
Look at my little monkey!

Killing Me Softly

At this very moment, my sweet Morgan is in her crib, crying her head off. It is literally killing me. So why am I letting her cry? I am trying to let her "cry it out". I am trying my hardest to teach her to go to sleep on her own and to nap. She is very tired, which is why she is crying SO hard.

Morgan and Maddy have different cries. We have known this all along. Maddy's cry is more of a whine and Morgan's is more hysterical, accompanied by screams and crocodile tears running down her cheecks. Morgan cries to the point of huffing and puffing. Her eyebrows turn red, her lip pouts out. She sucks her breath and her body shakes with deep breaths.

Maddy's cry is annoying and grates on your nerves, poor baby (I don't love her any less for this) but we started putting her in her bed when she was first home. She was colicky and there were times where we just had to put her down in another room to get through it. So early on, Maddy learned to go to sleep when put in her crib. Now it is effortless. I simply take her in there when she starts to show signs of sleepiness and she goes straight to sleep, often without as much as a wimper.

Morgan on the otherhand, has never cried it out. Whenever Morgan would cry it would ignite a fire in me. I would rush to her and cradle her and rock her, we got into the habit of cuddling her and rocking her to sleep. All this worked well until a couple of weeks ago when she decided to stop napping. She was cranky and every aspect of her personality and routine was affected by her decision to abandon napping. I could rock her to sleep but if I so much as breathed funny she would wake up and be ready to play until an hour later when she would be extremely cranky and irritable because she didn't have a good nap. Then I resorted, for about a week, to putting her in her baby swing and letting it rock her to sleep. This worked pretty well but she would still only sleep about 30 minutes in it.

So Monday after William left for work I put her in her crib and decided I would let her cry it out. She cried for about 20 minutes and then was sound asleep. Then yesterday, Tuesday, I put her down (same time) and she cried for about five minutes. Last night at bedtime, I put her down and she didn't cry at all. She just went straight to sleep. So today when I put her down, I wasn't expecting the fit that is currently going on in the other room. She has now cried for about 30 minutes and I am sick to my stomach over it. It is taking every ounce of my being not to bust through the door to get her. I must stand firm, right?

wait ... wait ... I don't hear anything. YES! she is finally quiet! I hope she is asleep and not in there thinking that I have abandoned her and don't love her anymore. I read somewhere that most of a person's personality is formed in the first three years of life and I don't want her growing up thinking no one loves her because I let her cry it out at 9 months old. I feel so tormented. Does every mother go through this? They must, right?

She isn't asleep, She is crying again. I guess she was just catching her breath. I don't think I can do this much longer. Typing is keeping me from going in there. Do you feel like you are on the front lines with me? I think Morgan's cries finally woke Maddy up too because Maddy is in there talking and cooing. Probaby telling her little sister that mommy does in fact love her and it will be okay. Let's hope!

Let's rationalize for a moment, okay? If I go in there now and rescue her, I have basically wasted the thirty minutes of progress we have now made. It reinforces to her that if she cries long enough I will come and get her. So we will have to start this entire process over again another day (cause I can't do this again today). But if I leave her alone she WILL eventually tucker out and go to sleep and then next time I put her down she will maybe cry less figuring that it is a waste of time to cry that long because mommy isn't coming till she sleeps and wakes back up. That sounds good. I will hold the fort :)

. . . 5 minutes after last paragraph! . . .

She is quiet again. Maddy is talking in her bed. But I do not hear Morgan. Hooray! I survived.

. . . 5 minutes later . . .

Snuck in to get Maddy and Morgan is finally asleep! Thank Goodness! :)

Serious Prayer Request

My mom just IM'd me. Her friend Frank was in a terrible car wreck tonight in Chicago and was taken to the hospital for surgery on his brain for swelling and a blod clot. They removed him from life support at 6:30pm. Please pray for Frank and his girlfriend Michele (who works side by side with my mom) and their families. As well as my mom and Scott. I think everyone is very shaken and sad. Thanks!

New Things Everyday

This afternoon Charla came over and brought us some toys to play with. She brought a yellow bus that holds blocks for baby to stack and play with. The girls had a fantastic time knocking the blocks over. We put Maddy on top of the bus and she sat there all by herself. When she started to fall over she righted herself and didn't fall. I tell you what, these babies learn something new everyday. They are so amazing!

Good Food, Family, and Friends

Saturday, William and I decided to cookout at our place and invite a couple of friends over. We first invited Shelley and Dan and Melissa over. Then we added William's son Tim and his family, Beth and Adam, Nora (Beth's mom) and Keith (Beth's little brother). Then I was talking to my mom and invited her and Scott over. We thought it was going to rain us out, but it didn't and we all had a great time. We had BBQ ribs and beans, deviled eggs, broccoli casserole (yum-Melissa), potato salad (Thanks Nora), and chips and brownies (so good!) After we pigged out, or should I say while we pigged out, we played Bocci (spelling is my best guess) and then later we played board games inside after it got dark. I think everyone had a really fun time and it was so nice to be with our family and friends all at one time. Today William and I invited my dad over to see the girls and have leftovers and it was just as good today as it was yesterday. After my dad left, Maddy took a nap and Morgan and William and I all went outside and played some crazy game like badmitton. We were terrible so we switched to horseshoes. We got tired of chasing the birdies. Overall I would say it was a nice weekend full of sunshine, good food, and loving family and friends! Hope everyone out there in blog world had a nice weekend too! Here are some pics from the festivities :)

Morgan in her sunglasses! ---- Maddy plays on the quilt!

Time to Eat :) ------- Shelley visits with the girls!

Having fun as a family! ------- Maddy finally tuckers out :)

Visiting with Papaw

Here are pictures of the girls with Papaw, their Great Grandfather :)
These were taken on March 11th.

Maddy Grace

Morgan Gabrielle

Sleeping Beauty

Today William and I sadly took down the twin bed in the girls room. We got a new crib from my friend Courtney and we decided to put it up so that both girls will have their very own beds. As they have gotten bigger they have started to roll over each other and sometimes seem to be quite uncomfortable. At other times they seem to want to be right next to each other. With a second crib we now have the option to separate them. The girls are still not really sleeping through the night. They do on occasion sleep seven hours but on a typical night they are each getting up at least once and sometimes twice a night. We wondered to ourselves if it is because they are waking each other up and maybe the subtle movements of one baby wakes up the lightly sleeping other baby. So this morning we took down the twin bed. It was sort of sad because we all spend quite a bit of time snuggling in that bed, either in the morning or in the afternoons during nap time. I had to remind myself and William that we can still snuggle in our bed with them or on the couch. That as they get older it will be nice to sometimes have toddlers leaping in between us in our room. In order to take the bed apart and put it out in the shed we had to get the girls out of the walkways in our house. We put Maddy in the pack n play and Morgan in her bouncy seat. Oh, how she LOVES to bounce. The child is like Tigger. She jumps and jumps and jumps. She jumped so much this morning that she wore herself out and fell asleep. I went to WalMart to get a second crib mattress and William snapped this picture of her while I was gone. Too cute!

Once Upon A Time ... Yesterday!

A Story About Sharing ... Or Not!

Maddy had a bottle and was really enjoying it!


Morgan thought it looked yummy and
decided she wanted some too! So she reached for it.


She grabbed ahold of it!


Since Morgan is getting really good at grabbing and holding
onto things, she took her sissy's bottle and put it in her mouth!
Maddy was not very happy about this!


Mommy had to intervene and give the bottle back to Maddy.
She had it first.


Don't worry! The story ends happily.
Mommy, being the super smart mom that she now is,
fixed Morgan a bottle of her own and then both babies were happy as ever!
The END! :)

Morgan and Her Frog!

Walking to Save Babies

2006 March of Dimes WalkAmerica

Saturday morning I snuck into the girls room and woke them up at 6am. We had to get ready for the March of Dimes Walk. The girls were so cute all snuggled up in bed together.

At the Walk we went to the Family Teams tent where they had food and drinks and the "Mission Garden" Here is a picture of Shelley reading stories of the other babies affected by prematurity. Our girls were on the Wall of Honor and also had their pictures and signs up for all to see and read about. Shortly before 9 am, we made our way to the starting line. It was pretty windy so we had the girls bundled up in the stroller.

Melissa and Shelley, Me and the Girls actually walked the course. I walked two and a half miles and Shelley and Melissa finished the four miles with the stroller. They said near the finish line the wind was so bad that Shelley was pushing and Melissa was holding the front of the stroller so that it wouldn't blow over. Below is a picture of Me and Shelley before the walk began and one of Maddy Moo in her stroller.

It was a great turn out. Our family raised $251.00 to help save babies born as small as our were. Thanks to all of you who helped us raise this much this year! We did a great job as a team.

After the walk we all went to Huey's for cheeseburgers. We decided that this would be our annual tradition. Walk and then replace all those calories we burnt up with cheeseburgers.

Thanks Mom and Scott, Shelley and Melissa, and Alissa for coming out to support our team! We had a blast and can't wait till next year!