First Thanksgiving

We celebrated the girls' first Thanksgiving. It was a little crazy but all and all great. They traveled to Granny & Granddad's all 3 hours in the car without crying! They LOVE their carseats & just babble back & forth to each other. They got to meet Uncle Corey, Aunt Anna, and cousins Ethan & Madeline for the first time (Patrick's brother & family). Other visits included time with Uncle Eric, Aunt Amy, and cousin Luke Wednesday night. On Thursday, we made it to the Lancaster gathering & saw dozens of cousins, aunts, uncles, etc. & enjoyed all the Thanksgiving favorites. The girls were well behaved & enjoyed being passed around. Friday was Thanksgiving with my mom's side of the family at Mi-Mi's house with 17 of us. Again the girls loved riding in the car & were the center of attention. We came home Saturday so we could get everything unpacked, the laundry done, & get ready for work Monday. We spent most of the day today putting up the Christmas tree. The girls are doing great--6 months old last week! They are rolling over constantly, standing up with a little help, sitting up with very little help, laughing, smiling constantly, playing with toys, sleeping 8 hours at night, responding to their name, scooting across the room in seconds on their backs, and really engaged with their environment. They have changed so much just in the past week or two. We are starting solid foods this week. Wish us luck! Thanks to all of our families for making this a great holiday.I know I'm biased, but look at those beautiful eyes and rosy cheeks
Look at that big girl rolling over
Lexa finally shut her eyes in cousin, Andrea's, arms
High school friend, Susan, holding G for the first time
MiMi with Geneva who quickly fell asleep in great-grandmother's arms
Geneva doing her favorite thing, standing up
Cousin, Megan, with Lexa. I was at the hospital when Megan was born June 29, 1999. It was an incredible moment. Now she finally gets to meet my children. Crazy how fast things change.

More Pics from Baptism Weekend

More pics from Baptism "afterparty" that I never got around to posting...Ashley B. with Geneva
My blonde angel/cheerleader
Geneva being mischievous
Can't you tell we're Ole Miss fans, JUST KIDDING. Houston is a TRAITOR!
Godmother, Ashley, with Geneva

One Year Ago Today...

One year ago today was the happiest day of my life. Some would argue that May 25th should be the happiest day of my life. Of course it was in some ways but the fact that my babies were 7 weeks early, I didn't get to see them for 10 hours after they were born, the confusion and pain of an emergency c-section, being in labor for 6 days, etc. caused a lot of worry and was not exactly the picture I had in my mind of a happy childbirth. So back to November 6, 2008--the day I found out I was pregnant!! Of course I could not blog or share about my happiness then, so for the sake of my girls baby books which I will never get around to completing, here is the story... I had gone in to the clinic for a pregnancy test that morning at 8:00 a.m. I just KNEW the test would be negative. I had been told 2 years prior that I would likely never conceive and after years of disappointment, I had learned to protect myself from heartache. Not to mention, the home pregnancy test (which I was warned NOT to take because of high false negative rates due to the drugs I had been on, but Hilary made me take!!) was negative. That's another story in itself. I had bought a 3-pack of tests over a year prior and had since lost the instruction manual. So when the test came back with 1 solid line, I assumed that was negative because I thought a positive result was 2 lines. Come to find out, a blank test with that brand was negative and mine with a single line was positive. It's kind of funny now looking back though at all the signs I had--other than a positive home test. Just in case I were to be pregnant, I was making an effort to eat breakfast every morning. That week, I was literally making myself in every since, just gagging at the thought of toast and cereal. I even said to Patrick, "I can't wait until I get the negative pregnancy test so I can go to the doctor and find out what's wrong with me!" DUH! Something just wasn't right... So back to November 6th--I was told the nurse would call me about noon that day with the blood results. Well noon came and went. I figured they were calling all the positives first and saving me to last because I was negative. So by 1:00, I had given up and went to my favorite lunch spot, Chick-fil-A, for a comfort-filled lunch. I was in the drive thru when my caller ID lit up. I knew it was the nurse. I answered just as I gave my order "number 1 with lemonade." "Leslie, this is Lynette from the clinic. I got your bloodwork and... you're PREGNANT!" I was in complete shock. I remember looking down at my then flat stomach (those days are gone!) and said "ARE YOU SURE?" I just remember repeating "ARE YOU SURE?" The nurse was laughing so hard... "I'm sure. In fact your HcG is twice as high as it should be.... which means you probably have more than 1!" Again, all I could muster was "ARE YOU SURE?" "We need to repeat the bloodwork in 2 weeks to make sure the HcG continues to rise and then we'll see you in 4 weeks for your first ultrasound." So during the conversation, I had received my lunch and was pulled over in the parking lot just staring at my stomach. I hung up the phone and just screamed in excitement. I had planned if this remote chance had happened that I would wait and surprise Patrick at home with a nice dinner or at least wait until 3:30 and surprise him at school. I waited all of 3 minutes and just couldn't contain myself. I knew it was during his break so I called, he answered the phone on the first ring... "yes.." "I'M PREGNANT" The sound of his voice and laugh was like none I had ever heard from him before. We had beaten the odds and the impossible had become possible! I will always cherish that day forever.

Rat & Rain

We have had a ton of rain in October--I think I heard on the news that it had broken a record since they were kept in the 1800s for the wettest October. These pictures of our backyard were taken Thursday night. We received a lot of rain--fast all the way up to our back door. About an hour after these pics were taken, I opened the door to let Corkie out. The water had receded but she was still hesitant to go out so the door was open & I was trying to get her out when I looked down and there was a furry rat NOT a mouse, a RAT on the doorstep!!!! As you know I am deathly afraid of bugs, spiders, and any kind of rodents. I screamed like I've never screamed before but had enough sense to shut the door before he ran inside. Guess he was on the move from the rain. Luckily we haven't seen him since. Needless to say I had nightmares all night!!

Happy Halloween

We had a wonderful 1st Halloween. We attended the nursing home Trick or Treat Friday night & the Mom's of Multiples Party on Saturday. The girls were a hit (of course!!!), especially by the nursing home residents. Some couldn't get over that they were BOTH mine. Geneva was quite the social butterfly--smiling & laughing. Lexa had a few fits but overall was cooperative. Geneva is now rolling over on her own, and Lexa has really discovered her voice--squealing constantly!!! Never a quiet moment for sure.