Opportunities

Last night when Jason was saying our bedtime prayer, he said, "Thank you for the opportunity to go to worship services tonight." A simple sentence, but it really got me thinking. Opportunity... opportunity.
How many opportunities do we have each day to glorify God and how many do we do? It is so easy to let an opportunity slip through your fingers and then look back and wish you had done it. I have often said that I am the "Queen of Good Intentions." I think of something nice to do, but get too busy doing other stuff ( usually not that important) and don't follow through. I want to lose my crown of "good intentions" and get a new one of "do-er."
Next week our Ladies Bible Class is starting. That is an opportunity to learn, grown and fellowship with older and younger Christian women. Will I take advantage of that opportunity or come up with another lame excuse? The laundry can wait, I can roll out of bed and get fixed up, the toys can stay in a pile, the errands can be done in the afternoon. I will be there. What a wonderful opportunity to sit at the feet of fabulous Christian ladies who have experienced so much in life. I can learn so many lessons from being a part of this class.

What opportunities have you let slip by and what opportunities will you seize? Please come join us in Ladies Class. Take advantage of this opportunity with me.

Birthday Fun

We had a fun time celebrating the boys first birthday on Wednesday. Sorry it has taken me so long to write about it... I'm still in photo trauma! Hopefully it will work today, if not then you will just have to get a mental picture for a few more days!

On Wednesday we took our monthly birthday bear photos. Every month on their birthday I have taken their photo with the same bear. It is really neat to look at them all lined up through this past year and see how they have grown compared to the bear! I am working on their birthday scrapbook... only 2 more months til I'm done! yeah!

Then after lunch we ate cake and opened a few gifts. GPop and Granna (my parents) came over and so did Kara. Kara and I have been friends forever... no really our mom's were pregnant with us together! We celebrated birthdays, sang in the choir together, she was my matron of honor... we really have a wonderful history of friendship. SO back to the party...

The cake was a carrot cake (to be a little healthy) with cream cheese icing. After blowing out the candles we let R and J touch the icing. Jacob was raking his fingers through it and loved to lick them. Rylan was not too sure about icing. He did not even lick it off my finger!

I cut the cake. J lunged forward and grabbed his plate off the table and proceeded to pick up the whole piece and cake and try to stuff it in his wide open mouth. R once again was not too sure. Daddy had to give him some bits with a fork. I think he only ate about 4 bites and then started crying! Poor baby! I'm sure some day he will not believe that sweets were not his thing.

Then we opened gifts and played with their new toys for a bit before crashing for an afternoon nap. On the way to church we stopped at the park and took some photos of the boys together and then some family shots. Maybe someday I'll figure out how to get them on here to show you.

THey both LOVED Bible class. J's favorite part is patting his Bible and R loves the ducks.

Even though they shared a womb for 7 months they are totally different people. We love to celebrate their differences and their similarities. But all of those loves can wait for another day.

Thank you for all of your well wishes for their big day! Most of all, thank you for your love, support and prayers this past year. We are immeasurably blessed to have such wonderful Christian friends!

One Year Ago...

August 22, 2006... a day that changed the face of our family. Let me go back a few weeks in time to set the stage. August 9th my water broke. So I was admitted to the hospital for hospital bed rest until the babies were born. My antepartum stay was overall a wonderful experience. The nurses were outstanding and our church family reached out and helped us in many amazing ways.

Back to August 22... at 1:30 I began having contractions. The nurse gave me several shots to help stop the contractions. I never had any pain meds and Jason was by my side the entire night. We called mom and dad to come up about 4am. By 7 am the contractions had slowed down considerably. So Jason finally went to sleep on the bed next to mine.

When my fabulous day nurse, Kathy, came in at 8:30 she took one look at me and walked right out the door. She got my high-risk OB to come in and check me. We were all shocked when the doctor announced, "It's time to have the babies!" I was fully dialated and did not even know it! Immediately 7 nurses rushed into my room. They started giving me shots. There was a lot of commotion - picture a scene from ER. Kathy woke up Jason. We all RAN down the hall, Jason still in his Dallas Mavericks pjs, to the OR.

Rylan was born 30 minutes after the doctor checked me. Jacob was born one minute later. Rylan was 3 lbs. 2 oz and Jacob was 3 lbs. 13 oz. All things considered, the emergency C-section went really smooth.

There were 3 NICU nurses for each baby. They cleaned them up and after a very, very quick kiss from Mommy, whisked the babies off to the NICU. Jacob was put on oxygen, but Rylan never had to have oxygen. That began our 2 month stay in the NICU, but that story can wait for another day.

August 22 began as a painful and scary day, but ended with much joy and excitement. It was our prayer then, and still today, for the Lord to watch over our babies and help us to be good Christian parents. We have full faith that God's loving hand has been on our family and carried us through those scary times.

I'm not really 30!

I'm not really 30, I'm a tween. You see, this weekend I was SO excited and on pins and needles about the premiere of High School Musical 2! Yes, High School Musical 2... the Disney Channel hit! 17.6 million people watched HSM2 on Friday night alone. It was the highest rated cable show to date! I love, love, love HSM 1 and could not wait for the sequel. My good friend Daesha came over and watched it with Mom, Dad, Jason, the boys and I. We were not disappointed! The singing and dancing was so fun and upbeat. And the overall message was good - be a good friend, material things do not matter most in the world and live everyday to its fullest. Mom was thrilled because no character went to the "dark side" like Sandy in Grease. If you are in the mood for a little cheese and a lot of fun, tune in to Disney and sing along with High School Musical!

Still learning this photo thing... this photo really goes with the eye doctor story so you can see their eyes better... Oh how I love technology! hee hee

Today was a little adventure for our family. Jason, Rylan, Jacob and I loaded up for a trip downtown to the Medical Center for the boys 1 year eye appt. Since they were born at 31 weeks, this put them at high risk for ROP (Retinaopothy of Prematurity). Their initial NICU eye exam was good and showed no signs of ROP, but a one year follow-up was needed. So back to today...

Our appt. was at 10:15, so being the paranoid mom that I am, we left our house at 9:00. That should have given us more than enough time to fine the correct tall building, get parked and find the office. We were about 25 minutes down the road when my sweetheart realized that he did not have his phone... his work phone. So we turned around to go home and get it. Got home, got the phone, got on the road again, and there were still 2 sleeping babies. But their was a HUGE wreck on the freeway...20 minutes later we are two exits past our house. So now it is 9:54 and we are really just leaving. After the big wreck close to home, we made really good time and entered the parking garage at 10:25... and sweetheart did not even speed! (Yes, I was watching the speedometer... I am a paranoid mom, you know!) We got into the office at 10:30... just 15 minutes late.

About 11:00 the nurse came into the waiting room to give the boys the drops to dialate their eyes. J was first. You would have thought she was poking needles into his eyes the way he screamed and kicked. Then it was R's turn. He cried a little, but nothing compared to brother. About 20 minutes later she came back with more drops. Repeat scene one with the sceaming and crying.

At 12:30 we finally went back into a room to see the eye doctor. (Side note - this is the same eye doctor that I saw back in the 80's. She fixed my crossed-eyes with many years of glasses and I do not have anything now for my eyes! So we all think she rocks... even with a 2 hour wait!)

The exam... R went first. We sat him on my lap and he did really good. He squirmed a little, but overall was a great patient. Then it was J's turn. Remember how in the waiting room he screamed like we were putting needles into his eyes? Well, push that up about 10 levels and that was his performance for the exam. Poor little guy - we had to have me and one nurse to hold him down while the doctor looked into his bright blue eyes. Luckily the exam was very quick and a LONG snuggle with mommy calmed him down. Bless his heart!!!

And on to the best news... there are no signs of ROP! And she saw no indications that either boy will need glasses for many years to come. Thanks to our wonderful Lord for protecting our babies once again and providing perfect eye sight.

Hopefully this photo will load and show you guys their 4 perfect blue eyes - while chewing on toys to boot! :)

Blast into God's Word

This summer our church had a challenge for the kids. Read every chapter of Psalm and Proverbs between Memorial Day and Labor Day. For every 20 chapters completed, the kids get prizes.

Jason and I thought this reading club was a fabulous idea, but could 10 month olds handle it? Could they listen to 1-3 chapters a day? When would we find the time in our busy day to read the Bible? Would they even understand? Would it make a difference?

Well, we are just stubborn enough to give it a try. Following the advice of Lacie, we picked a meal to read right after and make it our daily routine. We chose breakfast - that way the boys are still strapped into their high chairs and it is a great way to start our day! :) So we eat breakfast, read the assigned chapters and then say a prayer.

The first few days there was a lot of screaming and squirming from our two angels, but now they basically listen. We're not sure how much they are understanding of the content, but they know that this is what we do as a family. We tell them every day that this is the Bible and it is God's Word. It also gave Jason and I the jump start to begin family devos that we have always talked about doing with our kids.

So was it worth it? Absolutely!!!! Have we learned from God's Word? Definitely!!! Will we do it again next year? No doubt! Have 10-12 month old children grown to appreciate the Bible? We are confident!

Thank you Stacey for organizing it and helping our little family to start a wonderful tradition. Will your family join us?

Finally!

Hello Blogging World!

I know you have been so anxious with anticipation to hear the stories from our little home that is doubly blessed! My sweet husband and I have been married for 7 years and have 11 month old twin boys. Our life has been richly blessed this past year - hence the title of my blog.

Several of my dear friends have blogs that I enjoy reading so much. They have been giving me some positive peer pressure to start one - so here it is!

Jacob and Rylan will turn one year old next week! It is so hard to believe that one year has passed. For those of you who do not know, they were born at 31 weeks and spent 50 days in the NICU. Overall it was a wonderful experience. The neonatologists and nurses were fantastic and took excellent care of our two precious boys. Looking back I can't believe we did it. Seeing IV's in thier arms, legs and heads, ventalators, taking blood pressures, hearing alarms all the time, not being able to hold them for two weeks, pumping around the clock... but it was WORTH IT!!!!!

We fully believe that our Lord was watching over Jacob and Rylan every step of the way and also carrying Jason and I as we struggled to see our babies that tiny. It was so hard, but God never left us. In fact, he provided us with supportive nurses, an indescribable church family, priceless friends and family.

I better go get dinner finished. Then tonight I will learn how to add photos and other fun stuff to make this blog more interesting! Hee-hee!

Thanks for reading!