Identical Twin Girls - the story of Avery & Alexis

(Welcome guests of Kelly's Korner)

Our twin "journey" or more appropriately "adventure" began when our oldest, Kaleigh, was 2. We started talking about having another one after she was about 27 months. After about 4 months of trying, a test confirmed that I was preggo. And at that point I was already feeling symptoms. Nausea, soreness, constipation. What?! I couldn't have been more than 2 weeks along. I made the comment to my husband that "something just felt wrong". Twins never crossed my mind! Within another week or two I'd tried every anti-nausea drug on the market, along with every home remedy. I ended up in the ER not able to eat, sleep, or hold anything down. I will never forget that first ultrasound as I laid in a semi-comatose state, my husband holding my hand. The tech got on the phone with someone who could see what she was seeing.

"Is that? ... Uh, huh... Yeah, I thought so".

Back to us she pointed to the monitor and said "Here's your baby.... And here's your other baby". I literally gasped and sat straight up, now fully awake. Nathan just started laughing. Then crying, then laughing again.

After spending a day or two in the hospital getting fluids and eating some, I went home. Somehow through the grace of God I pushed through that trying first trimester. Also zofran, herbal teas. We had fun sharing our news with friends and family. I was told at some point that the babies were in the same sac, which is pretty rare and dangerous. I tried not to worry too much over that and just prayed about it. My mom especially was praying also. At about 12 weeks or so, we found out that there was a membrane there, it just couldn't be seen early on.

At 19 weeks I went in for my gender ultrasound. I had gotten pretty big by then and was feeling a lot of pressure down below. "Just twins and your 2nd pregnancy is what friends and my doctor said". They did the ultrasound and said "Two girls!" We were fine either way, just waiting for that "they both look great and healthy". That didn't come...

The doctor came in and basically told us we needed to see a high risk specialist right away. I was bawling and wanting to know what was wrong. He didn't say much to help. We couldn't get an appointment that day so we made one for the next day. I don't think I slept much that night. The next day we found out the diagnosis. Twin to twin transfusion. I didn't get a stage, but I think it was pretty advanced. He told us we needed to do something or we would likely lose them both. The best & only real option was laser surgery. We didn't think about it long, we had them call down to Houston and make the appointment. It was for the next day. We went home, packed our bags and started driving after alerting our prayer warriors.

I should add here two significant things - first, this ultrasound was at 19 weeks, not the standard 20. Another week might well have been too late. Also, this laser surgery is only done at 4 places in the U.S. One happened to be within driving distance for us... God was definitely watching over us!
 
When we got to this huge medical complex and found the doctors, they walked us through the procedure and explained the risks and possible outcomes. It was all scary but didn't change anything for us. We also found out a further complication. My cervix was much more open than it should have been, basically I was close to going into labor. They put in a cerclage for that and also prescribed bedrest.

The surgery went well. Those people are miracle workers and I thank God for them and the way they are using their gifts to save lives. But at this point was the most difficult time of my life so far. I was on bedrest for 13 weeks. My friends and family stepped in and came to help take care of me and Kaleigh while Nathan was working. I didn't realize it at the time but I was major depressed and constantly anxious about the babies. I went in for bi-weekly ultrasounds and got to be reassured that the babies were growing properly now. At 33 weeks I went in and Avery hadn't grown since the visit before so my doctor decided it was time for them to be born. I had a c-section. They were 3 lbs, 10 oz and 3 lbs, 13 oz. They were very healthly though, and spent 17 days in NICU putting on a little weight. We brought them home around 5 lbs!

Those first few months were a blur. We survived is about it. Constant feedings, changing, doctor visits, etc. But overall they did very well. They had some developmental delay and got therapy for a little while but are now completely caught up. For some reason potty training was awful. They were well into their 3rd year before that was done. I've heard this from other parents of multiples.

Now my thoughts on the ups & downs of twins. I'll start with the negative first.

The difficult part of having young twins (from my point of view)

1. the pregnancy - filled with potential complications, a twin pregnancy can be very stressful, although some thrive and do perfectly
2. the first year - lets face it, the first year with one baby is hard, two is just rough. And more than that - downright scary! less sleep, more laundry, more dishes, just more work...
3. extra expense - twice as many diapers, aahh! Or you can do like me and have another baby 16 months later = 3 in diapers! Plus two cribs, more clothes, etc. I don't think you need two of everything, they can rotate between swings, bouncers, etc. And think used!
4.  fighting in the older years - a constant companion is also a constant rival
5. it's hard to go places - all the stuff times two, then two babies, more if you have other kids. sometimes it's just not worth it. For the past three years I've done most of my grocery shopping at 9:00 at night, even though I'm a stay-at-home mom.  

The benefits of twins:

1. two at once! - pregnancy is hard, if you can get two out of the way at one time, all the better...
2. they're doing the same thing at the same time - it's not always twice as much work to do the same thing twice. at times it's a lot easier than having two kids different ages, keep them on the same schedule and you will help yourself out a lot
3. the like the same things - same toys, same tv shows, etc.
4. they play together and entertain each other - it's a special bond that twins share
5. lots of attention - it can be annoying if you're in a hurry, but mostly it's fun to see the reactions. people are just fascinated by twins. And they automatically think you're an awesome parent. I'm not sure I understand this...
6. constant playmates - now that they are 3, my twins play together so wonderfully. There is much less fighting than even a year ago. they love to be together even just looking at books. It's fun to watch their unique personalities develop as they grow
7.  Kids are a blessing so twins are double the blessing. Twice as much love! 

Ski Trip Highlights

We got back today from our ski trip - it was sooo much fun! Nathan and I talked on the way home about how 5 years ago we went on a ski trip with these same friends and had such a great time then too. It was kinda in the back of our minds that maybe that was a once in a lifetime never to be repeated experience but this was just as good, better in some ways. It was slightly different taking the oldest kids (all 6 year olds) but really good.  Kaleigh was so wonderful to have along. She was sweet and enjoyed being with her friends and I enjoyed my time with her too.

 As I said, Highlights (details to come later):

• Skiing together - we split up some but for the most part skiied together. I was able to keep up and even did a little racing and some "off roading". I could be better at skiing but I normally do NOT like feeling out of control. When I got that way I just slowed myself down.
• the kids skiing - they all went in ski school for 3 days and it was so awesome to see their progress at the end of each day! I was really amazed at how well they did. On the third day we all went down a long blue together. When it was over Kaleigh said "that was fun but a little boring!) She is not my child, ha! It was just so neat to see her and have this experience with her, and know that she will remember this her whole life.
• The weather - this goes along with skiing but the weather was perfect! We were hot the first two days and just a little cold the third. It was windy that day.
• the Evenings - we came back to the very spacious condos and cooked meals & ate together then played, laughed until bedtime (which was VERY early for some, ha!) Oh, and soaked in our private hot tub, could not forget that. I think the hot tub was responsible for lack on any soreness for me. As I said earlier, I'm not at all in shape and I skiied pretty hard. 
• Days off - we worked it so we had two days off. The first we shopped and went to these amazing hot spring pools. They ranged in temp from the 89 degree swimming pool to the 111 degree hot tub Ben stayed in and our fave - the hot waterfall tub! I really felt luxurious. 

Our own little tropical paradise in the snowy mountains!

Lowlights
  Very few - I think almost all our cheeks were crazy chapped, no matter how much lotion we put on! No big deal, though. The saddest thing was missing our friend Nitzia. She had already decided not to come but sadly her mom passed away on Thursday. I missed her liveliness and her sweet spirit. And my heart aches for what she is going through right now.

So that's our trip in condensed form. I'm going to try my best to come back and break it down, just so I'll remember. Even the drive was fun, with the great company.  I'm glad to be back and see the littles, and so thankful for our parents keeping them for so long. I think they enjoyed it, on both parts.

Vacation!!

Well, just in case you were wondering, my crazy week that I wrote about in my last post continued on into the next week. Nathan got sick, Emory got antibiotics, and the kids kept coughing. But at some point they finally stopped and amazingly all was calm again. For, like, an hour :)

On Thursday Nathan called me and said I might have to come pick him up - he was driving and couldn't keep his eyes open b/c of the brightness. He had slept in his contacts the night before but we weren't sure what was happening. I did have to go & pick him up, and the eye Dr called in some antibiotic drops for him. When we got home he just stayed in the dark as much as possible. I felt like I needed to get one of those shirts that say "I Love Vampires"! Then I left him and went to bunko :) Hey, don't judge. I was gonna stay home & he insisted that I go. The next morning was his birthday and I took him to the eye doctor. Mr. Tommy Moseley was so great. He said Nathan's eye was a little roughed up but should be fine.

In the meantime my brother and sis in law came to visit at the last minute b/c Kristin had a possibility of a job and they wanted to come while they could. Kelly came too :) Nathan got to stay home from work that day but was feeling a lot better so it ended up being a pretty good birthday for him. We went to Carino's that night and all 9 of us ate for almost nothing on his Pasta Points.

Saturday night we celebrated Nathan's birthday with his family. Sunday our whole family got to go to church for the first time in at least 3 weeks. Of course we had nursery duty :) We also had to get there really early for a Deacon/Widow breakfast. Nathan has 3 widows that we are supposed to keep in touch with. we haven't done a very good job but I want to visit them a little more. They are the sweetest ladies. I had fun at the breakfast. One lady just kept me laughing, she has the best sense of humor.

And on Friday we are leaving for our ski trip! We are going with the same friends we went with 5 years ago. If you want to see pics or more details, my friend Amber just blogged about it. This time we are bringing our "big kids". They are all 6. They will all be in ski school so we will be pretty free. Me and Nathan need this vacation. We didn't take one at all last year. Even though we still have K, she's easy so I think it'll be a wonderful break. I'm not even dreading the drive. I saved up some Christmas $$ and got a new laptop so I'll be playing games, watching movies, reading, talking to friends, etc... I'm excited about my laptop. I know I'm a little behind in technology. I wanted an iPad but I had $200, not $700. We got a deal on this laptop. Also it will do so much more, as far as connectivity. We've never even had a new laptop before. Some friends were so sweet to give us their old ones, back when I was on bedrest, but it's amazing how fast a new one goes! I guess in about 5 years, I'll probably get an iPad :)

We did get some sad news yesterday. My friend Nitzia's mom is very sick. She lives in Mexico and Nitzia is going to be with her and will not be going on the trip. Please keep the family in your prayers. Her mom went from very healthy to very, very sick in such a short amount of time. The Dr's still aren't sure what is causing all her problems. My heart is very heavy for all of them right now. I believe God is in control but it's hard to understand His ways sometimes, for sure.

I'll try to update during our trip if I'm not too exhausted! I tried to exercise a few times but it didn't go too well. I may end up in ski school with Kaleigh, ha! This is probably the worst shape I've ever been in for something like this.

It's just been one of those weeks...

Yep. It started last Saturday with Alexis getting a cough that Sunday morning was a hacking cough and low fever. So Nathan took the other kids and we had a quiet morning at home. She was doing pretty good so we took her Sunday night and she sat with us. She did great but I'm still glad we have a year & a half before we have to start bringing her & her sister with us for good!

Then to Monday. Alexis was better and we had some friends coming over. By "some friends" I mean 8 more adults and 10 more kids. And in the craziness of preparation I cooked some taco soup and drained the meat into a bowl. I left the bowl out and a little later caught Emory eating it. I promise that girl will eat almost anything! I think I heard her say "ummm". Yuck! I disposed of that then continued on and forgot about it. She got exceedingly whiny and needy and about 15 minutes after everyone was there fixing food & visiting, she threw up all over the kitchen. Fun, huh? We really know how to entertain! So Nathan & I took turns watching her & giving her a bath. She was sick a couple more times then we put her to bed. I'm still not sure if she was sick from the food or a bug but it lasted several days.

Then Tuesday...Valentine's Day. Last week I had to go to the dentist and get a temp crown put on. So Tuesday my tooth was not hurting less, it was hurting more and I was taking pain meds round the clock. I didn't know if this was normal so I called the dentist and the said I would probably need a root canal. Great. Nathan and I were gonna have a date but b/c of that and Emory we decided to postpone. I took some Ibuprofen and we still had a nice night at home. We decorated for the kids and gave them some goodies then put them to bed. Then we watched Courageous and went to bed. Hey, it might sound boring but a nice quiet night at home is good for me right now!

Wednesday Emory was still sick and I went to my dreaded dentist appt. But thankfully when we got there they had the permanent crown & decided to just put that on and see if it helped. I actually noticed an improvement almost right away when the meds wore off. That was such a relief. I tried to get him to let me buy an iPad with the $$ we saved but he didn't quite see it my way ;)

Thursday night we took all the kids to Nana & Poppa's house to spend the night. We went to a couple of stores, then to eat, came home & watched some TV.  It was great. I'm not sure if Nana & Poppa thought as much, the twins kept them up half the night! They frequently wake with night terrors but go back to sleep. With Nana, they didn't want to go back to sleep.  It wasn't until Nathan's Dad finally got stern with them that they quieted and went to bed for good. I know that pained him so :)

Friday morning I slept in a little then went to Kaleigh's parent/teacher conference. Found out she is in GT and one of the top readers in her class! I was/am so proud, though slightly ashamed that I didn't already know this. Guess I need to communicate with her a little more, huh? Cleaned the house for a couple hours then went and got the kids and they were all coughing pretty good.

Saturday (today) I was helping host a shower at our house. We scrambled around trying to clean everything, especially with the crud in our house. The kids "helped". Anytime we sent them out of the room, someone was crying within 5 minutes. Emory was cranky and only got worse as the day went on. She was asleep for the shower though. That went really well. I made this bad boy. A motorcycle diaper cake.

It was fun to make - I'm sure you'll be seeing them all over the place soon!

The funny thing is, my friend Liz showed up with one also. My hub and her hub Andy are always doing the same things at the same time and we laughed that it was rubbing off on us! Of course we both got the idea off pinterest. Here's the link to the tutorial if you're interested. This girl has the most detailed, easy to follow tutorial that I've ever seen! Pictures too! I'm not crafty but I figured I could follow directions and it wasn't that hard. Liz just looked at the pics and made one, but I can never do that, I would just make a mess.
My friends had some other beautiful creations. Jennifer is very talented and made some adorable petit fors (sp ?) and these amazing chocolate suckers. Hand painted!

I can't fathom how she did these!

Nathan took Emory to a party and I relaxed a bit but also am feeling ill. I had a feeling it would hit me at some point.

And that's where we're at right now. A week of ups & downs. Some trials & some blessings. It makes me think of the verse in Isaiah "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, Neither are my ways your ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." It's hard not to let circumstances affect you and God showed me this week that things can change and then change again before I've had a chance to analyze it! (As I so love to do). I have a friend Jill who is fostering two little girls right now and I think of her a lot. Changes like that can throw a person if they aren't grounded in a constant, which is only God. So yeah, it's been a crazy week but who am I to say next week won't be crazier?!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Emory!

Today is our special little girl's 2nd birthday. Because we are still on our Daniel Fast until tomorrow we are having Emory's party on Monday. But I think she still had a fun day. Nathan and I woke her with a pink marshmallow and 2 candles. She loves blowing candles out! This afternoon we went to a friend's party and that's almost as fun as your own, right? She didn't seem to mind.

Emory is doing great, from what I can tell. She is more than developed socially, talks constantly. She loves to copy her sisters, especially Kaleigh. And me. We were leaving the house the other day and she said "Come on kids, time to go!" And she has started calling her sisters "girlies" cause I call them that. She's definitely independent and is getting fairly defiant but overall she's a good, fairly easy child. Slightly strong willed and very mischevious. I haven't worked with her much on shapes or colors yet. She's probably sat still for about 2 books in her whole life :)

In some ways Emory is one of our easiest kids. She sleeps good, doesn't cry a lot, and has been pretty healthy. She's got a fun personality and people seem to really like her, especially cause she still attaches herself to certain people. But in other ways Emory is definitely, shall I say "challenging". What do I mean? Well...

• she went through a phase of climbing on our bathroom sink, getting in, and playing in the water
• she emptied my dad's wallet, likes to go through people's purses, takes what she likes and runs away with it
• climbed on K's top bunk before the twins would, at 1 1/2 
• likes to get food out of the trash can and run off with it. 
• Drags chairs around the kitchen and gets food off the counter, runs off & eats it
• She once got into a tray of deviled eggs my mom was making. She had taken bites out of 7 of them before we noticed her
• likes to get toothpaste out of the bathroom and eat it
• uses Kaleigh's lip gloss as skin moisturizer

You get the picture! Not trying to pick on Emory, she probably knows how much we secretly laugh at her even while we're scolding her. She is just a Busy girl! She's full of fun and we love her so much.

Watch this video and see how crazy she is! 

Our Louisiana Adventure

Last week I decided kinda at the last minute that we needed to go & visit my parents at their new house in Louisiana. I wanted to stay more than the weekend so Kaleigh and Nathan stayed home while I took the three littles. 

We had a good time. My Mom & Dad took us to play at a couple of parks. We had a picnic at one. Everyone at their new church oohed & aahed over the kids, especially Emory. 

Queens of the mountain!

We had a birthday celebration for Emory, since she will turn 2 soon but my parents won't be here for her actual birthday.   

Emory liked her purse but looked inside and said "there's nothing in there" :)

Very good at blowing out candles!

And in the end we had fun and were worn out!

Our Family New Years Resolutions

I know many of you applauded my general laziness & lack of ambition on facebook when I said my resolutions were to clean my house & exercise once, read a book & organize my silverware drawer. Sorry if this disappoints, but I actually do have some real ones. I took a little time to think about it.

Nathan had a really good one. His resolution this year is to spend one on one time with each of our girls. He decided this after having to take Alexis to the Dr the day after Christmas. She had hurt her arm & it turned out she had nursemaid elbow. Her elbow had popped out of socket. She was fine and he took her to Chick-fil-A after and said he realized that he rarely spent alone time with her like that and it was nice.

Kaleigh filled out a little survey I found online. In 2012 she wants to learn "to make snowballs". Wants to get better at "Swimming", and her Biggest Goal is to "make ice cream with snow". I hope it snows here this year!

 
So I decided my resolution is to learn how to use our good camera and get better at taking pictures. Nathan is basically the photographer. I've managed to get a few good ones, usually just on automatic setting and basically from luck, but it's time I really learned the camera. I have progressed, I now know that A does not mean Automatic, but aperture. :) For my first lesson I'm focusing on Aperture. I didn't do too well, found out after that I should have changed lenses, but that was a learning experience too! I'll keep working on this for a while. I think most of what I did during my first "practice shoot" was wrong, but I feel like I learned a little bit. I did get some cute shots though!

My 2nd resolution is to eat less sugar. I was reading on all the harmful effects of sugar and I know it will only help to cut back. That's kind of vague but I'm going to make a conscious effort to think through my choices. Not to say I won't celebrate with sweets on special occasions!

Celebrating the Season!

We had fun doing more of our advent chain activities. And who knows, there may be more still to come. I'm sure it will be no surprise to you that we didn't get to do everything, but we did our best. No one's complaining, we had a busy & fun Christmas.

Give everyone crazy hair!

Decorating nativity pictures 

 You may not have know this, but something I found out while decorating the nativity pictures was that the wise men brought Jesus - "gold, Jupiter, and Mars" We are definitely going to have to go over the Christmas story in a little more detail from now on...

And the painting of the toenails was a popular activity. Daddy is NOT a fan of polish for his little girls but their feet did look so sweet and they loved it!

Paint everyone's toenails

More favorite sites

To continue my earlier post, my second favorite web site right now is Pinterest. Now Pinterest is not for everybody. But it's great for moms or people who like to do crafts. People who decorate or like to cook or bake. Or if you have any hobbies, or just like looking at funny or interesting images. Or anyone who just wants to waste/kill time. So, pretty much everybody :)

It's too hard to explain what Pinterest is, just pretty much the ultimate time-waster, ha! But I have made 5 or 6 things that I found, and used it to get some picture ideas. I would do a lot more if I actually did have time to do some of the things but for now I just like to look. I'm gathering ideas for our basement and future crafts for the kids, that sort of thing. My favorite quote about Pinterest, found on pinterest is "Thank you pinterest for helping me feel creative even though I've just been sitting at my computer for three hours". So true :)

 And now, a picture of the kids visiting Santa. We are doing HIPPY again. A Home based education program for 3 & 4 year olds. I am actually fortunate that Kaleigh & the twins get to do an extra year b/c their birthdays fell in October. So Kaleigh was able to do a 5 year program, as will the twins. Anyway, they had a little Christmas party and Santa was there. True to her word, Avery would NOT sit on his lap. He didn't seem up for a screaming kid so I didn't do that to him, but Alexis & Emory sat with him.

Making snowflake ornaments

scooping out reindeer food for Christmas Eve

Avery Enjoying her snacks

My favorite web sites...
I thought I would list some of my favorite web sites over the next few days, just for fun. 
It will probably not come as any surprise to those who know me at all, that my favorite web site is amazon.
Oh, my dear amazon, why do I love thee so? Let me count the ways...
(1) Obviously for shopping. During the holidays when many people are running around town from store to store buying things, I'm sitting on my computer clicking "add to cart". I have free prime through amazon mom and anything I get is free two day shipping. And gone are the days when amazon was just for books. Oh no, if you can think of it, amazon has it. I once purchased some unstretched canvases and guess where I was able to find very affordable wood stretcher frames? I've been buying diapers through them for over a year. I was able to get Pampers for cheaper than WalMart brand and sometimes way cheaper! Unfortunately, their prices have recently risen on diapers and thankfully two of my three in diapers are about 90% potty trained. Their prices can be really good, but I always check around to be sure. Prices on amazon fluctuate constantly.
(2) Amazon is a great place to check for reviews on items, especially toys. Have you ever spent $25 or more on something you were sure your kid would love, only to find it didn't work properly or was falsely advertised? Well, if you check amazon, you can almost always avoid this type of scenario. You still have to take it with a grain of salt, but if something gets 4.5 out of 5 stars, you can probably be confident in that purchase.
(3) I use amazon to find new books to read. I don't buy them from there, I just follow the trail of suggestions from a book I enjoyed to similar type books, read the reviews, then request them from my library. I've found many books this way that I never would have otherwise.

So, if you have time to kill, go on over & check out all the wonders that amazon has to offer!

How has so much time gone by since I last blogged? It really does boggle my mind. Somehow we also haven't taken any pictures in the last month. I'm pretty sure there won't be a Christmas card this year :( But that's okay. Christmas will still go on...

Since I last blogged Nathan's been hunting twice. He got 3 deer (or something like 2-1/2). We had a little holiday, that's nestled in between Halloween & Christmas, called Thanksgiving.  And I'm most excited about the fact that the twins are pretty much potty trained. Avery did just as I predicted. One day out of the blue she wanted to go and within a couple of days was staying dry. Nathan and I refinanced our house to a 15 year mortgage. We are so excited to know that we will have so much more paid off when the time comes to move again (which will hopefully be a while).  His work Christmas party was Friday and we came back with $60 worth of gift cards. Not too shabby. And the kids sang at church last night, it was a really neat program. It really did get me in the Christmas spirit.

I really want to make this season special for the girls. We can't do a lot with two 3 year olds and a gettin crazier every day almost 2 year old! But I made a little advent paper chain and each link has an activity on it for each day. We're a little behind already but so far they got to have a bubble bath and make salt dough ornaments. Just something special to look forward to each evening.

My sister's wedding is now 12 days away, so we'll be busy with those preparations too! It's still strange to think of her being married but I'm excited for her & Brett.

So that sums up the last month, but much more excitement to come for this month...

We love October - full of fun! Especially dressing up & getting candy.

But, we decided not to dress up this year.

Instead, the kids just went as themselves...








The Statton Circus!

Kaleigh the tightrope walker...

It truly is a circus!

Birthday Madness!

Three of our kids have had birthdays since I last blogged so I'm just going to try & catch up as best I can. In all, in less than one month's time we have 7 birthdays of close family members! On top of that, October always seems so busy anyway, doesn't it?

So anyway, I'll start with most recent & work backwards, I guess. Kaleigh is six! How is that possible? She's still the skinniest little thing, with long legs. She is getting taller, she's almost grown out of size 5 jeans and into 6 now. Speaking of jeans that's all she wants to wear now! A year or two ago it was only dresses! I look forward to seeing her styles change over the years.

Our beautiful six-year old!

She's doing great in school. She loves to write and draw and lately likes to write little stories. I took a picture of a sample of her work. The spelling is all hers :). I'm so proud of her b/c before she started school she never would have done this type of thing without knowing that it was all completely accurate. I'm glad that she is doing things on her own now.



It starts off saying "hello my terrific 17. We did go to computer lab. In lunch I had hamburger and peaches and french fries then I had recess then I had naptime then I left. The End"










We had her party and the twins' together. Really most of the twins' guests were siblings of her friends. I didn't invite her school friends this year but next year I think we will have to. The party was at church & I did a magic theme. My dad is a pastor & has done little magic tricks for a kids' sermon in the past & I asked him to do a few tricks. The older kids were really into it! Some of the tricks even had a biblical message!

The picture station made for some cute photos!

I made the cupcakes - so much easier than cake and fun to decorate. I made the fondant toppers myself, copying some I found online. It took some time, but I just sat down one night and worked on them while watching TV and it really wasn't hard at all. It was like playing with Play-do! The fondant stores well so it was something I could do ahead of time.

We were excited to have my parents & Lance & Kristin here for most of the week. It was a really fun time, still busy even though I tried to do as much of the "work" ahead as I could. I think it was the longest we've gone (1 1/2 months) without seeing my parents, but the shortest we've ever gone seeing my brother & sis-in-law.















Also just a sneak peek at the basement. Nathan's finally had a little time to work down there and we are making some progress. This is a look at the bathroom & closet.