2 Years, 2 Months, 2 Weeks, 2 Days!

Today, the twins are 2 years, 2 months, 2 weeks, and 2 days old!

I'm not some crazy person....seriously, I'm not! I just happened to notice this on the birthday counter on the top of my blog page. It lists how old the twins are. I'm so glad I noticed it!

Because...

We seem to like to do things around here in 2's. Gee...I wonder why? Two of this, two of that. Change one diaper, change the other diaper. Give one a kiss, give the other a kiss. Pull one down from climbing on the table, pull the other one from climbing on the table. You get the idea!

So it's only appropriate that we celebrate a day full of TWO's! :)

Happy 2 Years, 2 Months, 2 Weeks, and 2 Days my little happy, happy boys: Will & Eli!

This morning we put the ornaments on the Christmas tree. They were overjoyed!

You can see just how proud they are!

Eli

Will

Happy Belated Thanksgiving from my little Native American and Pilgrim!

We give thanks for our precious miracles, Elijah and Will. We give thanks for our faith, family, and friends. We give thanks for our home, clothing, and food. We give thanks for our health. We give thanks we live in a free country where we can freely attend church and worship our awesome God.

We are blessed beyond measure.

God bless you and yours this Christmas season!

SLOW DOWN, MOMMY, & SOAK IT ALL IN

I had a sweet moment tonight with my Eli. It's as if he was telling me, "Slow down, mommy, and soak it all in..."


Something was a little off and he cried and cried while trying to fall asleep. It was an uncontrollable, gagging cry which was slowly breaking my heart. I finally took Eli out of his crib and held him in my arms on my bed so Will could fall asleep in his crib.


In the dark, for the first time in over one whole year, I held my little toddler boy to put him to sleep and soaked it all in. This is a rare occurrence, you see, as I haven't held him to get him to fall asleep since he was a little over a year old. That was when we finally let the twins cry it out and ever since then, they easily fall asleep on their own with no tears. They just do not fall asleep in our arms at all. I am forever grateful that they fall asleep nicely on their own because we went through 13 months of being up many many times each night and spending way way way too long holding them to get them to fall asleep for all naps and at bedtime. (It was torture and I could go on and on and on about that. And if you're super bored, you can read this blog post about our Operation Cry It Out!) But I will warn you, it's very long!


Although, just the other day, I was thinking about how sweet it would be to cuddle them and have them fall asleep in my arms just every once in a while. I wondered what it would be like to hold a sleeping baby in my arms again. And here was my chance. I smelled his hair and patted his bottom as he whimpered every so often. His little sighs ended with a quiet, little laugh. He was happy to be in his momma's arms, so content. And I was overjoyed to have him there, so content. I soaked it all in.


I thought about how this could be a last. I may not ever have the chance to hold a sleeping baby or toddler of mine again. There's no guarantee I can get pregnant again. There's no guarantee anyone can ever get pregnant again. I though about him and only him. I soaked it all in.


I somehow forgot about the billion other things I could be getting done at that exact moment. I was just there...with him...feeling his breathing on my chest. Feeling peace...feeling joy. I gave thanks for my precious miracle. I soaked it all in.


Moments like this are limited and precious. And I know they should be occurring more often than they do. And that is all only because I need to slow down. I need to soak it all in. Slow down, Amy, and live in the moment!


As Elijah's breathing slowed down and he started lightly snoring, I kissed the back of his head. I laid him back down in his crib and proceeded to listen to Will jabber to himself for one whole hour longer. One whole hour until 9:30pm! That little stinker didn't want to fall asleep. But I soaked that in too. I know there will be day when he won't jabber to himself and I will long for those sounds again.


I am grateful for these moments tonight: The little reminder from my Eli to "slow down, mommy and soak it all in." And also the little reminder from my Will, that even if he's not asleep by the time he should be, I can still "slow down and soak it all in."

OPERATION CHRISTMAS CHILD

Samaritan's Purse is a non-denominational evangelical Christian humanitarian organization that works worldwide to meet the spiritual and physical needs of people suffering from war, poverty, disaster, disease, famine, and persecution.

One of their ongoing ministries is: Operation Christmas Child. OCC is a 'global Christmas gift exchange' project operated by Samaritan's Purse. Each November it opens thousands of locations, typically at churches or schools, to collect shoeboxes filled with toys, school supplies, personal items, and other gifts. These boxes are then distributed as Christmas gifts, accompanied by Christian literature.

From 1993 through 2008, some 69 million gift boxes have been handed out in more than 130 countries. AMAZING!

Each year our church, Good Shepherd Lutheran, collects shoes boxes for "Operation Christmas Child." A friend of mine, Tammy, leads this up each year at Good Shepherd. What a blessing she is! This is the 5th year Nick and I have packed shoeboxes to donate. It fills my heart with so much joy to do this each year. Such a simple yet loving gift that will touch the hearts of many. The main goal is to teach these precious children about a loving God who sent His son, Jesus, to die for our sins. Many of them have never heard about Jesus. These wonderful gifts help spread the good news of our Lord and Savior!

And this year was especially special because we took Eli and Will shopping to buy the items and then we filled the boxes together. I know they don't fully understand what these gifts are, but we talked about how they are going to children who don't have many toys or school supplies. And also how this will help these children learn about Jesus, which is the best gift of all and what Christmas is all about.

Click here to learn more about packing your own box: Operation Christmas Child - Samaritan's Purse

Here are some photos of Elijah and Will packing their shoe boxes. We made one for a boy and one for a girl! We purchased lots of fun things to put in them: pencils, paper, pencil sharpeners, toothbrushes, toothpaste, washcloths, jump ropes, socks, balls, hair ties, puzzles, combs, toys, crayons, candy, watches, and a letter from our family.

We had to do a little reorganizing:

Will

Eli

Our family encourages you to pack a shoebox or two and touch the lives of children all over the world. Please ask me if you have any questions. God bless you!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN 2012

I found these two cute little "things" running around our house.

So we decided to take them trick-or-treating. :)

We already had the Thing 1 ~ Thing 2 t-shirts. Then add red pants we also already had. So, all I had to make was the blue wigs. I bought two blue feather boas and hot glued them to $1 blue winter hats from Walmart. They looked awesome! So easy, fun, and inexpensive to make. My only mistake was that I forgot to have the boys try on the hats before I hot glued the boas to them. As you can see, they didn't fit quite well. Oops. Oh well, it worked.

All ready to go!

The one house we trick-or-treated at: Uncle Barry & Auntie Jesse's. Which was crazy as they had hundreds of children trick-or-treat down their street. When we pulled up in the minivan, I felt like I was in a movie. It looked just like a Halloween trick-or-treating scene. I always thought seeing so many kids trick-or-treating wasn't realistic, but apparently it is. Wow! I even had to direct Nick backing up the van when we were leaving so we didn't run any little kids over!

Cousins!

They were a bit upset when kids were coming to our door and taking away "their" candy. Oh my...oh my! They both were crying and screaming "candy, candy!" Maybe they'll understand it better next year.

Even with the tears, we had a wonderful Halloween. I love experiencing all these fun times through the eyes of two sweet little boys.