SNOW!!

We were all super excited when the raindrops turned to snowflakes!

A happy Daddy watching his boys play.

A frozen Mommy loving every minute of it.

Hmmm...

I don't have another ultrasound until next Thursday, so still no official update. But here's a new belly shot. My guess is they're growing just fine! :)

Point of Grace - "Before the Throne of Grace"

Before the throne of grace I come

Humble and repentant one

With sorrow for the deeds I've done

Before the throne of grace I come

Before the throne of grace I fall

With a trembling voice I call

For pardon from the Lord of all

Before the throne of grace I fall

I love the Lamb who took my sin

Whose Mercy makes me clean again

Before the throne of grace I hear

Debt is paid your name is clear

Such precious words of life so dear

Before the throne of grace I hear

I love the Lamb who took my sin

Whose Mercy makes me clean again

I rise with words of grateful praise

Knowing now the only way

Before the throne of grace I stand

All because the Son of Man

Bears my wounds, His Feet, His Hands

Before the throne of grace I stand, I stand

Before the throne of grace I stand

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So, I'm a little late on an official Thanksgiving Day post, but surely it's always the appropriate time to give thanks. I just want to share with you the overwhelming thanks I give to my Savior today for the amazing, unearnable, completely undeserved opportunity to stand before the throne of grace. We can stand! His grace covers us. We come fallen and trembling, and He lifts us up! We stand in Him. Clean. Forgiven. Grateful. When we accept His offer to get up, to take His hand, to let go of whatever we've done and whoever we've been, to hide ourselves in Him, that is when we are free to lift our heads in hope and our hearts in praise. We get the outrageous benefit of knowing Him, and He gets the glory due His name. I hope you know Him today in a way that prompts you to join with me in thanksgiving and praise for who He is and what He's done for us.

Getting Bigger!

Saw my friendly OB this afternoon. I didn't have an ultrasound this week, so I don't have an update on the babies' weight. They're definitely growing though. Two weeks ago, my belly measured 37 weeks. Today it measured 40weeks. My dr said the "goal" is still to schedule a c-section at 37 weeks, mid-January. But I have a feeling he doesn't expect me to go that long. On his way out the door he said, "Ok, see you in two weeks. Let's just hope you make it that long!" Yikes! We're getting close! He did say if I go into labor before 34 weeks (that's the week of Christmas), we'd try to stop it. After that point, if I go on my own we'll proceed with the c-section at that time. There's still a chance my Mom was right all along, cause I could soooo end up with Christmas babies.

For comparison's sake...

Okay, so this is an even worse picture, but I had to post it just for fun. Here I am 2 days before Tony was born!

My Belly

Here's a really bad picture from Tony's party to show you how big my baby belly is already.

7 weeks to go!!

Happy Anniversary

Seven years. Four kids...well, sort of. :)

Thanksgiving!

Mom came home this morning and is doing well. She'll be off work all this week. She'll stay on the Coumadin, and the dr will have to check her blood a couple times a week. We're all so thankful to have her out of the hospital. And so thankful the Lord kept her safe from all the potential dangers she faced with these blood clots! Thank you all for praying with us thru this.

Party at StoneCrest

It's official. We'll be having half of Tony's party here tomorrow afternoon and half at StoneCrest with Gramma. Mom did get her walking privileges back this afternoon, and her blood levels have been good most of the day. They won't draw blood again till tomorrow. All good news. The dr says we'll just have to take it day by day. No estimate of how long she'll be there. Please, if you're still reading, continue to pray for her. Thank you!

Mom again

Mom's surgery went fine. She had a rough day yesterday, just cause she's over all this mess! And I certainly can't say I blame her at this point! Her first blood draw this morning was in the therapeutic zone, so if the next one is, too, then she won't have to have her blood drawn every 2 hrs all day. That would be great! The dr hasn't been by this morning yet, so she's still on strict bed rest. Hopefully she can get up once he comes in. She's still hoping maybe she can be out of there by Tony's bday party tomorrow afternoon. We'll see...

Keep praying for Mom, please!

Dad just called. They let Mom get up and walk a little last night, which surprised me. But when she did she had another episode where she couldn't catch her breath. Dr said more than likely another small piece of the clot in her leg broke loose and landed in her lung. He thinks since the symptoms passed quickly enough that probably it is small again and will be dissolved quickly, so he's not doing a scan to prove it's there. They are, however, going to put a filter in this afternoon at 1:30. Should be a minor procedure (which makes me a little nervous since the whole vein thing was supposed to be a minor procedure, too, and here we are!) with a local anesthetic. Anyway, they will put a filter at the clot in her leg/groin area so that if anything larger does happen to break loose it will be caught there and safely dissolved w/o chance of it causing serious injury elsewhere in the body. Supposedly this will not lengthen her stay in the hospital. But, of course, she'll have to come off the Heparin for awhile before surgery so that her blood is not too thin, and then they'll have to get the numbers regulated again. Please pray that all goes well today!!

Update on Mom

Yay! Mom's blood hit the target range this evening. It stayed there for 2 testings, so now she gets to go all night without having blood drawn! Very exciting! She might even sleep. :) They'll check again in the morning to see if it stays as thin as they want all night with the Heparin drip dosage they've got her on. Plus they're starting the Coumadin tonight. She'll be on that for probably six months (unless they find that she actually has a blood disorder that caused the clots, in which case it'll be unending treatment). So we'll go from here in the morning...

I took the boys out to see her this evening. I'm not sure who was more excited, her or them! Some of Mom's friends from their church small group came while we were there and brought flowers...and those really cool bubbles that you can actually catch without popping. Mom was already taking the boys for "rides" with her on her hospital bed! Uuuuuup, dooooowwn, uuuuup, doooowwwn!! Then they had bubbles to play with, too. It was quite a hospital visit. :) Dad and I just laughed. That woman will never grow up...and it's one of the things we just love about her!

Please pray

Mom recently had what was supposed to be a minor surgical procedure done on some really painful varicose veins in her leg. She had some unexpected complications. Yesterday she had a CT scan which showed blot clots in her lung. My brother and I took her to the hospital last night to be admitted for treatment. (My Dad, despite still recovering from foot surgery of his own, made a super quick turn-around trip from Mississippi to get back here after taking my Mamaw home yesterday. So he got in about 1:30 this morning.) Mom's been on a Heparin drip since last night. So far, they still haven't gotten her blood thinned to "therapeutic levels" in order to dissolve the clots. They found an additional clot today in her upper leg. Apparently a very rare result of the vein procedure and the origin of the clots in her lung. They're having to take her blood every 2 hours to check thickness, so the arm w/o the IV has already been stuck about 1o different times and is all bruised up. Ouch! Originally the dr said 2-3 days in the hospital. He came by while I was there today and explained what all they've found and changed his prognosis to a week in the hospital followed by blood thinning treatment at home.

Please pray that the clots dissipate quickly and safely! Also, pray for her state of mind. Mom's a very positive person. Not much gets her down, so that's always good! But the timing of all this really kinda got her. I had an ultrasound this morning, and we'd planned for a couple months now for her to go with me and see the girls. Then we were going to spend the day out together (since my dear hubby agreed to keep all the kids for me!). When she called last night she was more upset about missing the ultrasound than she was about going to the hospital! Now they're saying she may need to stay at the hospital all week...and Tony's birthday party is Saturday afternoon. She's going to be one upset Gramma if she can't come to the party! We've all learned that when it comes to being with her grandkids, you better just let my Mom have her way! :) Sooo...we may be having Tony's 3rd birthday party at StoneCrest!!

Careful now...

You guys better be careful putting your baby holding skills and volunteering hearts in writing like that! I'm keeping a list, and there's a good chance you may get called up for active duty!! ;) And this is what it could look like...

Mad, mad Tony at 4 weeks old!

Wow!

You guys, I'm so excited! Thanks for the comments. It's great to hear from you all! Feels good to be back on the blog.

Just for the record, at 28 weeks into this pregnancy, YES, I am pretty much still in shock!! Both by the fact that I'm having twins AND by the fact that they are girls!! What on earth am I gonna do with GIRLS?!?! Don't get me wrong, I couldn't be happier. Steve and I were both hoping for a girl this time. And this way, I get to even out the troops all at once! I'm looking forward to not being outnumbered by the boys. Tyler and Tony are both really excited about their sisters, too. Tyler was hoping for a girl from the beginning. Tony not so much. I believe his first response was, very grumpily, "I no like sisters!" He's definitely warmed up to the idea though. I think he's ready to be a big brother. Tyler has taught him well. :)

So far, everything has gone wonderfully with the pregnancy. I was pretty sick for the first 12 weeks, but I guess between having twins AND girls I didn't have much of a chance to escape that this time around. I'm a lot more tired with the twins than I was with either of the boys. And I'll admit I'm beginning to wonder just how enormous my belly is actually going to get!! My official due date is February 5, but my dr said we're shooting for 37 weeks. So, assuming all goes as planned, we're expecting to have the girls around the middle of January.

Time has started to fly by, much like it usually does around here when autumn hits! There's still so much to do. Lisa and Vicky, my wonderful friends, are helping me finish up the nursery. Vicky's doing all the shopping around and hunting for all the stuff we need to finish decorating. And I am sooo thankful. I love, love, love to do this kind of thing. Shoot, I love to shop for pretty much anything. But I'm just worn out all the time! And I knew I should have already taken care of all this stuff, but the procrastinator in me just kept putting it off. Now I'm huge and achy and tired...not to mention a little whiny, huh?! :) Anyway, with their help I'm sure the nursery will be absolutely lovely. That way at least I'll have a nice, cozy, comfy, happy place to sit and pull my hair out when both the babies are screaming at the same time and their big brothers are trying to kill each other as boys often do!! Yep, this is going to be an adventure...

Birthday Camping

Despite my growing baby belly (and the need to go pee every 10 minutes), we went camping again this year for my birthday. It was actually the only chance our family had to camp at all this year. We stayed with Jason and Lisa in their camper. Everyone had a great time! These kids sure were ready for a bath when we got home.

Okay, okay!!

I know, I'm a complete failure in blogdom!

I know this! I can't believe you guys are still checking. Seriously. Well, you win. I'm giving in to the pressure. But not right this minute. Heehee...you have to wait just a little bit longer. My promise to you: a new update by the end of the weekend. A real one. So check back to get the scoop. Right now I've got some preschool teachin' to do!

A Beer

A beer? Huh? My two year old wants a beer? It took a few days, but we finally figured out that Tony's really saying "up here." Then I realized that when I say, "You want up here?" it really does kinda sound like, "You want a beer?" Sooo, any time he sees something interesting up high or wants us to hold him, he kindly requests "a beer." :)