Happy Birthday Gabe and Grayson

Well, it's official - the boys are now one. I wonder how much longer we are allowed to call them babies?? It is hard to believe that a year ago today they were calling me back to go to the hospital and have these guys at 37 weeks.

They were soooo tiny! Gabe was the "big" one at 6 pounds 4 oz. and Grayson was our little peanut at only 4 pounds 13 oz. The whole first few months were a blur - but especially the first few weeks. Grayson spent two weeks in the NICU and Gabe came home - but we had to shuffle back and forth between the house and the hospital - but only on of us could go back at a time because somebody had to stay with Gabe....what a nightmare!

Now here we are a year later - Gabe is walking, Grayson is only wearing his brace at night - they both have amazingly different personalities and are funny, funny, funny. We survived the first year with twins. There were times when we didn't think we were going to make it. Anyone who thinks they are tired with just one baby gets NO sympathy from this end. Zip, zero, NADA.

The babies were amazingly well behaved today - both ate cake (Grayson tried to shove the whole thing in his mouth at once!), played, took quick baths, opened presents and went up for a nap without fussing -- all while people were over. Amazing.

We got a few good pictures, but no video :( I wish we had gotten a picture with the two of them together, but all the pictures taken from a distance ended up with Carson in them stealing cake from their trays. I guess I will have to decide to be happy that at least we have some close up shots of just them.

Cobbettes!

Tonight we decided to try something new with the boys - corn on the cob! We made some corn and then I sliced the cob into 3-4 inch pieces. Once they cooled off we handed them over and sat back to watch what would happen...


As you can see, it was quite the success. They LOVED it and really enjoyed chewing away on them. We have been trying to get our meals under better control so we can all eat at the same time...the cobbettes helped with this so much that we might be having a lot of corn in their future.

Crazy Days

I have been really bad about posting the last few weeks, but that certainly doesn't mean I haven't been thinking about it. In the past few weeks we have 1- returned from SC, 2- survived two babies with croup and 2 adults with subsequent head rot from being around said babies, 3- spent a week in Radford working on the ACS exam and ChemEd, 4- started moving things into my new classroom at my new school, 5- tried to pretend this is summer and I am not still crazy tired, stressed, and not feeling well rested at all.

Things of particular interest from the past few weeks - well, first of all I think it is that Gabe is walking...like standing up in the middle of the room, letting go, and taking 3..4..5+ steps before he gets so happy he falls over in his excitement.

I signed Doug up to take a 4 hour pyrotechnics course at chemed. He seemed really happy with it, so while it is not your 'typical' vacation activity, it went over well. He got a big book, a lesson on safety, and a lab opportunity...and lots of excited chatter from him afterward.


I decided to be the assistance VB coach at my new school. I really like the sport (and they don't have swimming), they make coaching easy (kids don't miss class, I don't miss class), and it is always kind of a nice way to start the year in a new school.

We are also working on planning a little get together for the boys first birthday. We aren't doing a big party like a lot of people on my twins board. I wish I had the time and energy to plan a cute themes party like they are, but the truth is that I can;t pull it off this year. Not with all that has happened this summer and my new school starting just a few days before their birthday. I feel like I have plenty of birthdays in the future to make grand gestures, so I hope others will understand why we aren't going all out.