The girls first Thanksgiving

Well, after much deliberation for a few weeks prior to Thanksgiving, Matt and I decided to take the girls to Columbus, GA to see my grandparents. We were not sure how the 3 hour trip and a night in a hotel would go with two 7 week olds, but it was very important to me.

Every year my grandmother hosts Thanksgiving dinner and my whole family goes to Columbus for the event. Last year, a few days before Thanksgiving, my 85 year old grandmother fell off a ladder and had hip surgery. Needless to say, she was in the hospital for the holiday and after that everything kind of changed. My grandmother took care of my granddad, as his health has been steadily depreciating. After the fall, they were forced to move from their house and into an assisted living facility.

We were unsure how things were going to work this year. Thoughout the year granddad has been getting so much worse and is now on hospice care. As my pregnancy progressed I could no longer drive there to see them, and there were times I was unsure if I would get to ever again. I wanted my girls to meet him so much, so with the support of my wonderful husband we took the trip.

We got some pictures and granddad and grandmother got to see the girls. It was a great moment for me, and my grandmother cried knowing granddad did indeed get to meet them. He now has 9 great grandchildren, 7 of them girls. The girls did wonderfully on the trip. They were quiet until the last 15 minutes on the trip there and slept the whole way home. Not a bad thanksgiving!

Thank you, Matt for being such a supportive husband and taking on the task of a road trip with two babies for me. I love you!

Iron-Brother

I know this is not 100% about the girls, but it relates. Siblings make for such an interesting dynamic. Two people made from the same people, but most likely so different you would never know they are brothers or sisters. This is interesting because we have twins, and already they are two totally different little girls.

For me though I enjoyed having a brother 5 years older than me (he might not have liked the brat little brother though). It gave me someone to look up to and admire. He was a great example for a brother to have. As the years pressed on, we started seeing each others as equals, and this created a strong bond that people are amazed at. We still fight, argue, disagree, but we are brothers that would do anything for one another.

This weekend though, I became the little brother again. Jason participated in the IronMan Florida. A race that consists of 2.4 miles of swimming, 112 miles of biking, and 26 miles of running. I watched my big brother suffer through 13.5 hours of physical hell and come out on the other side smiling. That is something a little brother can look up to. I am 25 now, and have my own family, but I dont think I will ever get to the point where I do not look up to him. He was truly awesome this weekend, and he is now and IronMan, IronSon, IronHusband, IronFather and to me an IronBigBrother.

I pray one day that my little girls even though the same age will be able to find inspiration and example like I find in my brother.

Congratulations to all the IronMan competitors this weekend, and a shout-out to my good friend Ben, who is now a two time IronMan, beating his last year time by 45 minutes.

Thank any of you who sent down prayers for Jason and his safety, we know God was watching over him the whole day. Thank you to my parents for getting us a place to stay, thank you to my loving wife and sister in law for watching the girls so I could go, and lastly thank you to my brother for showing that pain is temporary, and that reaching for your dreams and goals only happens through hard work and perseverance.

A trip to "Christmas Village"

Last year I went to Christmas Village at the BJCC and vowed that whenever I had kids I would have to go back. They have some of the cutest things (especially for little girls). Well now I have my little girls and I really wanted to go again, but I was kind of thinking it would be later in the year.

It apparently ends this weekend so Thursday night I asked my sister if she wanted to venture out with me on Friday to go to the BJCC with the girls. We came up with the brilliant idea that we would carry them in the Baby Bjorns (infant carriers that you strap around your back so they are nestled up to your chest with their legs and arms hanging out - wonderful contraption. We figured that if they were not together in the stroller and we did not match them, people would be thrown off and not know we had twins. We could in fact just be two friends who happened to have babies at the same time.

So we awoke and fed the girls, then Laura and I both got showers, packed the diaper bag, bathed and dressed the girls, and after another feeding we were on our way (3 hours later). Hannah and Leah are great in the car (so far) so it was a peaceful trip downtown. After strapping them in the Baby Bjorns and again changing them, we walked our way to the arena. It started on the stairs outside. A lady asked if we had twins and ogled over them. Ok she figured it out but we werent in a crowd. 5 minutes later we were finally at the ticket window. I tried my best to give the lady my card, but we got a gambet of questions yet again. After about 10 minutes she took my card and gave me the tickets.

It was funny at first, and I didnt mind showing off my beautiful babies (just dont touch!). Laura and I got stopped a few more times in the next few minutes after getting inside and we thought we would count how many people said something. There is no way we could have kept up! I would say that we had about 150 people (not exaggerating) come up to us and always asked these questions - after saying they looked like baby dolls: How old are they? How much do they weigh? How much did they weigh at birth? Are they girls or boys? (hello - they were both wearing bright pink), Who was the mom? Occasionally we got asked how old we were, and also we sometimes had to hear the whole family history related to twins of whomever was asking us the questions. Apparently everyone always wanted twins and had X number of sets in their families but never got any (you get the drift).

What was worse was I would say out of the 150 people, about 50 of them didnt think they were real babies! So they would come up to us and touch their hands (cue baby wipes) and then tell us they thought the babies were dolls and we were high school students who were in some home ec class and carrying around those fake babies that seem real. SERIOUSLY? I know I look young but who would do that at christmas village and I had a 50lb diaper bag I was carrying as well! We had one lady approach us and say that she had been discussing with her daughter whether the girls were real or not, and swore the next time we passed she was going to ask us.

I really didnt mind so much but it does get a little tiring telling everyone the same thing. And also, we just wanted to enjoy the shopping. If one person talks to us for 5 minutes, does that person think he/she is the only one who has done so? I think w could have been done in about half the time! :)

So our brilliant planned to throw people off the twin trail did not quite work. But I have to say that I was told that going out with twins was a spectacle but I never EVER thought it would be that big of a deal. On another note though, the girls racked up with all kinds of cute things (most that I could do myself but now no longer have time). They slept the whole day in their little carrier. We only had one outfit change after lunch and no screaming fits. A success! Laura and I could barely walk afterward though and all 4 of us slept rather well last night!

I enjoyed getting out!!! And now I feel like I can do almost anything! :)

Returning to normal life....hopefully not too soon.

Well life is trying, or we are forcing it to return to some sort of normal. In the past week the following has taken place. We have gone to my brothers for my belated birthday party and the Auburn Ole Miss game, Allyson has taken the girls by herself to an eye appointment, that same day she brought them to visit my work crew and today Allyson and Laura were brave enough to venture to Christmas Village. Too much, too soon? well most likely for the parents that are dog tired after a pretty rough sleep week, but for the kids only time will tell.