Twin's Birthday

The twinkies turned three on Monday, the 22nd!  We had a safari themed birthday party at our house.  It was a lot of fun!  First I had a craft for all the children to do with their parents.  They could choose from a lion, tiger, bear or monkey and make a hand puppet.  It is a Martha Stewart craft from Wal-Mart.  Scott took a picture of us from the balcony overlooking the activity.  Then the children played Pin the Nose on the Lion.  I also had a carnival game of throwing beanbags through the jungle animals for points.  And I had a safari themed growth chart to mark how tall all the children are but we never made it to that.  We did birthday cake and opened presents and the children escaped outside.  The twins didn't open half of their presents.  Scott and I had to finish for them.  Thank you to everyone who came to the party.  It's hard when your children have a birthday party so close to Christmas.  I was afraid everyone would have Christmas obligations and not be able to attend but I think we ended up with about 30 people. 

 Happy Birthday, my little babies!  I love you with all my heart!  I can't believe three years have passed us by.  Their birth was such a blur to me due to my own health at the time.  I was in the hospital 6 days (3 in ICU), Shep was in the NICU 18 days and Wynn was in the NICU for 28 days.  Leaving those babies in that hospital while I got to come home was absolutely awful.  A mother's heart can't take being separated from her children.  Not this mother, at least.  I was so happy to be able to bring them home.  When Shep came home I felt so torn.  I was happy to have him with me but sad that Wynn was there without a mother and his brother.  Shep was so sweet and such a good sleeper from the start. When Wynn came home I put him in the bed with me the first night and slept nose to nose with  him so he could feel my breath and hope that he would feel bonded with me.  I will never forget that night and smelling his breath as he slept.  Scott and I tried for 4 years to get pregnant.  It was a hard journey and I lost two babies in the process.  But those little boys are more than worth the wait.  I know many people who know why they were put on this Earth and what they feel like their contribution to the world is.  Mine is to be a mother.  I treasure it everyday.  I don't enjoy it everyday but I am so thankful God made me a mother.  I love you twinkies!

Christmas Program

Shep and Wynn were in their Christmas Program at their school on Thursday.  It was precious!  They sang three songs and it lasted about 7 minutes.  Shep was really into it and sang and did the motions.  Wynn picked at his lip during the first song, picked his nose during the second song and sat down on the stage during the last song.  During all the songs he yawned. Notice in the first picture where Wynn is pulling his shirt off. Luckily we made it through the whole program without either one of them taking their clothes completely off.  But it was priceless being able to watch them.  

Sick Update for Party

Hello friends!  For all my mommy friends who are planning on coming to the twin's birthday party tomorrow...my house is sanitized!  My cleaning ladies came today and cloroxed it from head to toe.  All the rugs have been washed.  All the hand towels have been washed.  Everything is crisp and clean.  All three children are on an antibiotic and therefore not contagious.  The pink eye is gone.  All we have left is ear infections (Noah got added to the list today.  Scott took him to the doctor and he had an ear infection.)  But you would never know they were sick this week.  They are wild today and everyone is outside playing in the warm air.  Scott is cutting the grass and he has Noah blowing leaves with the big blower.  This is Noah's first time to do real yard work.  He's having a ball but I'm guessing his arm will hurt tomorrow from carrying the blower.  Wynn has helped me clean the windows outside.  Shep is in his own world doing whatever Shep does.  We are ready for tomorrow and seeing all our friends.  Wynn keeps asking if it's party time.  My kids love to party!  So, I hope you guys will come and Bre:  you can come with your kids; I promise not to infect them! Ha, ha

Noah's Party

Noah made it to school today and had his Christmas party.  I have no idea where the hat came from.  It's not his and when I walked in the room he was the only one wearing a hat.  Maybe I should have asked.  When he saw me come in the door he asked me if I brought his eye drops (for the pink eye) and I told him no.  Then I asked if he needed them and he said "No, I did not want you to put them in my eyes in my classroom."  Well, OK.  They had lots of stuff to eat and he received a lot of gifts.  I'm glad he was feeling better and able to go to school.  While I was at the party, his student teacher came in.  Her last day was last week but she came back for their party.  On her last day, I sent her a gift.  I packed a bag full of  teacher supplies for when she gets her own classroom.  Well apparently when she thanked Noah for the gift last week, he told her I just put things in the bag that I had in my office, except the ruler, which he thought I actually bought.  She tells me this story at the party.  I could have died!  I bought every single thing I put in that bag.  She laughed.  He's a mess!  Now we have the twins Christmas program and party tomorrow.  They are feeling much better so they will definitely attend school.  I can't wait to see their performance!

Sick House

We took the twins to the doctor Monday.  Wynn - double ear infections (and his tubes were out) and pink eye; Shep - sinus infection.  Then I went to pick Noah up from school and when he got in the car both his eyes were red.  I said "Noah, you have pink eye."  He said they itched all day but didn't tell his teacher.  I called the doctor and he called me in the eye drops.  Then Scott and I started with a sore throat.  So today, we were all five at home.  Merry Christmas was not the attitude in our house.  I am praying everyone is better by tomorrow.  Noah's Christmas party at school is Wednesday and the twin's Christmas program and party at school is Thursday.  

Sick Sunday

Welcome to the sick house.  This is what my family looks like today. All three boys want to sit with daddy under a blanket.  Here's the rundown:  Noah - sore throat, low fever; Shep - green snot, cough; Wynn - cough, pink eye.  I will be paying quite a big co-pay at the doctor.  If anyone needs to reach me today I will be holding a child.

Happy Birthday, Noah!

Today my little Noah turned 8!  Time has flown by.  I can't believe I have an 8 year old.  We had his party on Saturday at Game Zone.  Then he had two friends spend the night with us.  I'm not sure they actually slept.  I went to bed when they were watching Star Wars (I don't remember which number).  Scott said he turned off the tv at 11 but at 12 he heard Noah turning it back on.  He got a DS from me and Scott and a game from the twins.  His Aunt Marsha and Uncle Wesley gave him DS games also.  He loves it!  He got lots of other great gifts as well and I think he's up to about $140 in cash and gift cards from people.  He is like his mother and loves to shop.  I'm sure he will spend his money this weekend on more games.  Now he has a Wii, XBox, XBox 360 and a DS.  I should start having birthday parties for kids at my house and just let them play with all his game systems. Anyway... to Noah:

I am so proud of you!  I prayed so hard to have you and when you were born I kept saying how perfect you were.  I know you are not perfect but in my heart you are still that baby who changed my whole world and has brought more joy to my life than you will ever know.  I am so honored that God chose me to be your mom!  Happy Birthday, I Love You!

Parade

Our family was in the Alabaster Christmas Parade on Saturday.  We rode on top of this RV.  Our float (RV) was the City Council float.  We were the first float in the parade.  We told the children that they were going to throw candy at people and they were very excited.  Well, we should have given better directions.  Noah chose to stand beside the mayor.  We all had buckets of candy we were throwing.  Noah took his bucket and threw all of the candy at one time out to the people below.  Needless to say, he hurt some folks!  The mayor did a quick lesson on how you only throw a few pieces at a time.  So to all the babies who were left crying after the parade was over because of anything my children threw at you, I am sorry.  It was a lot of fun.  Scott said that in all his years of growing up in Alabaster, he had never been to a parade.  I think he had as much fun as the children.  

Happy Thanksgiving

This was our annual Thanksgiving picture in Aunt Margaret's yard.  We had a great trip to Memphis for Thanksgiving.  This is an annual trip that revolves around lots of food and fun.  Every year we have a BBQ feast on Wednesday night at Mom and Pop's house.  They have a banner that says Patterson Corral that they hang up for the night.  Mom always has everything decorated perfectly for the hoedown.  Unfortunately, this year Pop was too ill to host.  We had the BBQ at Uncle Pat and Uncle David's house.  Kendall decorated beautifully.  They were wonderful hosts.  I'll post pics later of the kids.  Kendall had a fire pit in the back yard with hay bales and the kids got to roast marshmallows and make smores after dinner.  They also played football.  Shep and Wynn didn't realize they were to little to tackle and dove right in with the older kids.  We had a delicious catered meal from Corky's BBQ.  

The next day we went to Aunt Margaret's for lunch.  We had just walked in the door and I had not even made it into the living room when there was an accident.  Aunt Margaret has a pool and a hot tub outside.  Both are covered for the winter.  Well Shep went outside with all the other children and walked right out onto the pool.  Sam (10 years old) came running in and got Scott while Noah "watched" Shep.  Scott fished him out as he was sinking into the pool.  It scared him to death.  We had not even had our picture taken yet.  We took his pants, socks, and shoes off and put them in the dryer.  The family picture of us was taken after the incident.  Noah is standing in front of Shep to hide that he doesn't have shoes on.  Shep is still clinging to Scott because he was still upset.  Luckily, that was the last accident of the day.  We had a wonderful lunch with all the Thanksgiving fanfare!  We stayed all day and had a wonderful corn chowder soup and sandwiches for dinner.  We finally went back to the hotel around 9:00.  We were all exhausted.  

On a sad note, we came home on Friday afternoon and on Sunday morning, Pop passed away.  Scott and I will travel back to Memphis on Tuesday for his services.  He was such a patriarch in their family.  His absence at all our festivities this year was noticeable.  I am so thankful we were able to spend some time with him on Wednesday.  I am thankful God allowed all of us to see him one last time.  We will miss him beyond words can say!