And now there are three......

For those who may not allready know.....we're expecting a baby sometime in September!
We are very excited and a little nervous (well, at least I am) all at the same time!
There isn't much to report but that I'll have my first appointment in a couple weeks (where we will double check to verify there's only one in there!).
There are some things you could begin to pray about for us however.....
1) That everything goes smoothly and carries out to full term this time!
2) That we will determine if we should do a c-section or not since I had to have one last time but would prefer not this time.
3) I'm not too sick just a little queasy and pretty tired at night. Not fun and challenging with the boys but I pray it does not get any worse so that I can make it through the first three months without going crazy :)
4) I'm concerned about going on bedrest. If I did I would need lots of help. I have friends and family that will be more than willing to help but it can be a little tricky since everyone either has kids or works.
5) Pray for Jared's job - that it will be a good year financially and emotionally and that when he takes a little time off there won't be too much stress for him.
6) We're not sure what we'll do about vehicles. If we buy 2 new car seats for the boys that are smaller we can probably squeeze all three in the back seat. This isn't a very good permanant solution since it will be quite tight but we can do it if necessary. We're particular about the type of vehicle we're "looking for" (honda odyssey or honda pilot) with good reason (for us - and I won't get into all that here :)) but affording it will be an issue. We do have a car we can sell but we won't get what we need for something else. A car payment isn't the best option for us. We're still paying off bills from the boy's birth as well as a variety of other things from a really rough financial year the year the boys were born. Ask God to show us what to do and provide whatever we need.
7) Finances - some of this is explained above but it would be great to make progress this year on our payments even with the medical costs invovled in having a baby.
Thank you all! I'll keep you posted!

Picture Update

Here are some pictures...

Here is a video of the boys playing with the basketball hoop for the first time. They call it a "oop!"

And here is Jackson getting his buzz cut....You can hear that I am concerned in the video :)....

Too Fast

The boys are growing up way too fast. Jackson got his first buzz cut today. It was very sad for mom. He's had many hair cuts before but the back of his hair does this weird stand straight up thing so we thought it was time. It looks nice (though a little thin on top - but that will thicken up) and he looks older.
We went to a birthday party this morning (where the boys did very well and had fun) and we got them home for their nap a tad late - it was obvious that they were tired. We put them to bed and they started to wind up. Jared was downstairs and I was up and thought I heard a thud and a whine. I listened for a minute and didn't hear anything so I knew all was well and thought someone kicked the side of their crib or something. Then....I hear their bedroom door close....what? So I go over and look under their door and am pretty sure I see little feet. So I go get Jared and we come up to see which one has learned to climb out of their crib. We open the door and Jaden is running around and Jackson is in Jaden's crib! We laughed (though silently I was crying - many children climb out of their crib way before this and I have felt so blessed that mine don't - but now, life as I know it is over :)) They were obviously not tired so we took them downstairs and eventually they were BEYOND tired so we took them up. Several minutes later we here a couple thuds so we make our way up the stairs. We meet two boys marching down the hall in the dark. Though we decided to give up on the nap for the day we put Jackson in his crib and asked him to show us how they do it. They actually pull themselves up on the dresser (perfect height and very stable) between their cribs, get on their stomachs, and let themselves to the floor. Tonight before bed we had a conversation about how they needed to stay in bed and they stayed their and fell asleep but I have a feeling they will get out first thing in the morning (sad for me because I usually let them play in there a little while in the morning while I get ready). So I think we'll put them in their toddler beds this week and teach them that they need to stay in their beds. Pray for me this week as I'm sure naps will be a huge challenge and I will be putting the boys to bed myself 3 nights this week. :)
One of these days the boys are just going to start having constant conversations with me. Jackson is already trying. He talks a mile a minute. I usually know what he's talking about but I don't always know why and I don't know half the words he's saying. I think he will be the "why" child.
They have zoomed through 18 and 24 month clothes and are now fitting nicely in 3T. I thought that size would last us a while...but I don't know.
They love to be together and are really good at sharing....but also at fighting over the same toy :)
Jackson is pretty good at playing basketball and Jaden is pretty good at using his toy guitar as an actual guitar.
We've been working on please and thank you with the boys and they're really good with please. Jaden is good at Thank you but I have to remind him. When I try to get Jackson to say thank you he says - welcome! I can't seem to get that fixed, but it will fix itself eventually :)
Both boys know many of their letters and colors and are starting to count - so that's fun. I'm not a believer in pushing them too hard (just a little to encourage them to learn). I tried working with them on letters and numbers before and they just were not interested so I dropped it. Now they are taking an interest on their own and learning quickly.
Tonight when we put the boys to bed we said goodnight and Jared was at Jaden's bed and said "I love you" and Jaden said it back to him - it was very sweet.
That's about it from here I guess. I'm going to see if I have time to load up some pictures now and if so....there will be another post!

It's like having twins...

Can I vent for a moment?
Sometimes I want to scream when people who have children who are not twins but born less than 2 years apart say to me - "oh, i know just what it's like to raise twins, my kids are 15 months apart so I know just what you're dealing with" Um....no they don't. Even if their children were to be 9 months apart they are still not twins. They are not doing the same thing at the same time, they are in different stages, they are a different size, and the list goes on. Now, if they want to say it's harder to have kids close together than it is to have twins, fine. I think there are some things harder about twins and some things harder about having 2 very young babies that I will never have to deal with. So they can tell me their child raising experience is harder than mine and I'm fine with that (unless both my children happen to be throwing a tantrum or something at the time they are telling me this - then I might not feel like believing them :)) But PLEASE don't tell me it's the same. A friend of mine with twins said she usually just smiles and says "no it is not". I couldn't do that without being rude (she can definitely pull this off) so instead I just smile and let my blood boil until I get a headache.
Thank you. I just needed to get that out.

Christmas

We had a great Christmas complete with snow! Our Christmas Eve service got cancelled due to the snow but Jared's family came over for make your own pizzas, games, dessert and an ornament exchange which was fun.
Christmas morning Jaden did NOT want to wake up. As you will see in the pictures he was really out of it at first. I was actually starting to worry about him but eventually I carried him over to the stockings where he could see stuff peeking out and as soon as he started pulling things out he perked up and got excited. The boys were on their best behaviour all day for which I was very thankful. We opened our family gifts and even opened a few of Geep and Grans over the webcam for them to see. After a relaxing morning we went over to Jared's parents and snacked and opened gifts where we were spoiled rotten! The boys napped, we ate dinner, and then the boys opened their gifts which was fun. Throughout the day they were both more interested in playing with the new toys than tearing off the paper for a new gift. Each piece of paper no matter how small that they tore off they wanted to immediately throw in the trash which made for long gift openings! By the end of the day Jackson was very into putting the bows in the bow box and saying "oh pesint" (other present) so he could pick one up and carry it to whoever it belonged to (after removing the bow himself of course!)
The boys received some great gifts. I am especially glad about that because most of the things they have they have had for about a year and have been outgrowing some of them. I think they were getting bored. They didn't complain about it but it was just harder to entertain them :)
Some funny moments of the day...
* Jared's parents gave them shirts with guitars on them. They matched but were in 2 different packages. Jackson opened it first and was SO excited. Jaden saw it and started trying to rip his shirt off so he could wear the guitar shirt. We found the other one as quickly as possible and put them on both boys who were very proud to be wearing them.
* There was a gift bag that had santa claus on it that looked kind of real. The boys recognize "au cause" and are just fine with him. Every time Jackson passed the tree he would wine and look frightened. We finally figured out he was terrified of that particular Santa bag. If I picked it up he asked if it was ok.
* Jared's parents gave them a mr. potato head. They were both completely terrified. After a couple minutes Jaden warmed up to it and now loves it. Jackson is still afraid. If he sees it in his toy box he looks frightened and runs and grabs on to me. At this point both boys like to take the pieces and try to attatch them to their own bodies in the appropriate location.
* At dinner someone left the table to blow their nose. Jackson heard them and kept asking "ok? ok?" with a very concerned look. When I would say they were ok he would say "zissue" (tissue)
The boys weren't terribly fond of the snow either. But they liked to look at it and talk about it. Now that the snow has melted they are constantly telling me how the snowman has melted into water.
Here are some pictures of the past few days....





Here are some pictures!

White Christmas

I haven't taken too many pictures lately but there are a few...still on my camera so I'll probably post them along with the Christmas ones.
Over the past 2 weeks (mostly this week) we've had random days of snow. The ground has been well covered for several days and they're expecting several inches again tonight so we will get to enjoy a white christmas! I just hope we can get around to the Christmas Eve service and Jared's parents Christmas day!
We will be having Jared's family over on Christmas Eve after the service which I'm looking forward to and then spending some time at home on Christmas before heading to Jared's parents for the remainder of the day.
The boys love to look at the snow. They call it "no!" so I have to be careful not to get confused :) We took them out in it one day to build a snowman but it didn't turn out to be snowman snow and after a couple minutes they started screaming unless we were holding them.
They are currently obsessed with snowmen (ohmaine)and Christmas lights (Jaden: Leyets!, Jackson: Ooooo LOTS!). They love our tree and the ornaments but have been super good about not touching it (most of the time). We have a star on the top of course (for the boys) and they ask me every morning to turn the lights on.
Last night we watched Rudolph with them and Jaden especially sat there and watched almost the whole thing which was very amazing to me. We watched Frosty on a different night and they liked that too.
A couple nights ago we made snickerdoodles as a family. Jared was standing behind the boys who were sitting on our island and I was putting in the ingredients. Sometimes the boys helped but mostly they just wanted to peek into the mixing bowl after each ingredient was added. We watched Frosty while the dough chilled and then Jared rolled the dough into balls and put them on the plate of sugar for the boys to finish. They would wipe it around in the sugar then put them on the pan. I had to fix them a little but they did pretty good. I love raw cookie dough of almost any kind. So when the boys weren't looking I took a tiny pinch, dipped it in the sugar and popped it into my mouth. Jackson looked up right as it entered my mouth and immediately put the entire dough ball he was holding into his mouth. Jaden saw that and quickly did the same. Jaden seemed to like it (though he didn't try it again) and Jackson thought it was gross so took it out of his mouth and put it on the pan. Gross. :) It was a fun experience and we laughed alot.
We haven't been getting out much with the snow. Actually most of the roads aren't awful and they even plow a number of them near our house - it's just getting out of our neighborhood. The snow is pretty deep and neither of our cars are very high off the ground. Jared is a good snow driver but I completely avoid it.
I can't wait until Christmas, it should be fun - as well as funny to see how the boys react.
We hope all of you have a wonderfull Christmas!

Previous Post

So, I want people to be able to easily email us if they don't want to leave a comment BUT I don't want my email posted because I will get SPAM!!!!
So I created the previous post so that I could link to it on the right. Eventually you won't see it anymore but it will still be useful.