Big Brother

One of the sweetest parts of having our little girls here is to watch Owen turn instantly into a very caring, nurturing, and mostly gentle big brother. I wanted to share some moments that melted my heart:

~ Owen will often be holding Adelyn's or Anabel's hand while we drive places. He will also just rest his hand on their carseats.

~ When we start unloading kiddos out of the car once we are home Owen will often get upset when we get one girl and then "leave" the other in the car. He will start to cry and then point to the one still left in the car.

~ When Adelyn was crying once she was put in the car we were frantically looking for a binky to help calm her down. Owen offered her his own binky out of his own mouth- which normally is his greatest possession. He offered her his binky again today when she was crying and I couldn't attend to her immediately. Although I don't normally encourage binky sharing the fact that he would give up his own in order to offer comfort is such an act of kindness that it just made me so proud of him- especially knowing his own attachment to his binkies.

~ Anabel was crying in her swing as I finished nursing Adelyn and Owen went and offered every source of comfort he could think of including a binky, swinging her very gently, and giving her hugs and kisses. It was so sweet to see his genuine concern.

Stolen

My dear friend and neighbor had this quote on her blog and I think it is so precious I felt like I must copy and paste it here. Hope that is okay :)

"THERE IS SUCH A PLACE AS FAIRYLAND - BUT ONLY CHILDREN CAN FIND THE WAY TO IT. AND THEY DO NOT KNOW THAT IT IS FAIRYLAND UNTIL THEY HAVE GROWN SO OLD THAT THEY FORGET THE WAY... HENCEFORTH THEY MUST DWELL IN THE COMMON LIGHT OF COMMON DAY. ONLY A FEW WHO REMAIN CHILDREN AT HEART, CAN EVER FIND THAT FAIR, LOST PATH AGAIN: AND BLESSED ARE THEY AMONG MORTALS. THEY AND ONLY THEY CAN BRING US TIDINGS FROM THAT DEAR COUNTRY WHERE WE ONCE SOJOURNED AND FROM WHICH WE MUST EVERMORE BE EXILES. THE WORLD CALLS THEM ITS SINGERS AND POETS AND ARTISTS AND STORY-TELLERS; BUT THEY ARE JUST PEOPLE WHO HAVE NEVER FORGOTTEN THE WAY TO FAIRYLAND." -LUCY MAUD MONTGOMERY

One Month!

We can't hardly believe that we have had our sweet little girls for a month now. It has been such a blessing to get to know them each individually and watch Owen be such a sweet older brother- as well as to see each other as parents again times two. It is hard to believe that we are really a family of five so quickly. As can be expected life is a bit chaotic at times and a tad sleep deprived but as always God gives grace to get through that day.

I've been asked what my days are like and thankfully we have had full time help basically since they were born and actually even a couple weeks before that. It has truly been such a blessing! I really wanted to be able to nurse both babies and don't think that I would have been able to manage the feedings, pumping, and visits with lactation consultants as well as taking care of Owen and getting any rest without help. God has really answered prayer to take care of us!

Adelyn is a great little eater and always has been. She is weighing in at about 8 lbs 11 ounces and looks like the cutest little chub. She is one rolly polly! She is super sweet and content yet struggles to a degree with gassiness which often leaves her crying out in pain. It is so hard to see my little girl hurting and not be able to offer much comfort.

Anabel has always struggled with being a good eater due largely to struggles associated with her slight prematurity. While Adelyn took right to nursing we had to take quite a different approach with our little peanut. She is growing well and is at 7 lbs 3 ounces which is adequate weight gain for her- but it has been a bit of a struggle to keep her on a good growth chart. She was not able to coordinate a suck, swallow, breathe rhythm and was eating by sucking on our finger with a feeding tube. Thankfully, after much consultation with a lactation consultant, we are almost to a place with her where she can nurse exclusively- she is only getting about 1 ounce of extra milk in a bottle after nursing.

Now for what you really want... more pics :)

Our sweet Anabel
Sweet little Adelyn

I need to upload more pics and videos... hopefully coming to you soon :)

Cool Resource

Leslie sent us a website that is made to help disciple seminary wives at The Master's Seminary. "It has wisdom from techniques to clean your house to book reviews to wise counsel." - Leslie. I appreciated her sharing the link so I thought I'd share too- since it is not a members only club. Enjoy :)

http://www.tms.edu/semwivesweb/distaff.asp

Why everyone needs an Aunti T

Online Nursery

At the hospital here in Jackson they put up photos of all the new babies that are born. Our little ones made the cut (there wasn't any tryouts) so you can view their online fame by clicking here. You could also click here. Really- I could make anything I want to a link. Sorry, a bit tired here at 2:30 am waiting for the wee ones to settle so I can return to my sweet slumber.

note: The link doesn't take you directly to the page where you can view them so just scroll the top scroll button thing to St. John's Hospital (your only option) and click submit. You don't have to fill out all the other mumbo jumbo- it will just take you to the main page and you can click on their names and see the pic. Hint: look under the girls column.

Just a little fun

Owen and the girls got a new CD for Christmas and he started to dance to it, so we thought we would share the fun.