My boy

Will has been such a great trooper this week with everything that has gone on. He was very concerned for Catherine and he helped take care of Anna while they were gone.

He and Jay went to spend some boy time together this morning, which included breakfast at The Ham House, a haircut, playing at the park, going by Jay's office, and going to Barnes and Noble. Then they played football this afternoon.

Can you tell Jay was in charge of the haircut???

My favorite Will conversation of the week was on Weds night. Once he was at my mom's and Catherine's surgery was all done, I wanted to reassure him that Catherine was fine and he didn't need to worry about her. The conversation went like this:

me: Will, you don't need to worry about Catherine. She's doing great now.

Will: I don't worry about anything. I mean, I guess if a bear was chasing me and going to

eat me I'd be worried. But I don't see any bears here.

me: Okay then, buddy. Glad you're not worried.

The next night once he was back home we talked about just Will and I going on a trip together one day.

me: Will, where would you like for us to go?

Will: maybe Montana. or Spain.

me: I would love to go to either of those places with you.

Will: let's go to Spain. how do we get there?

me: We have to probably take an airplane. Do you have any money to buy tickets?

Will: I have one dollar.

me: Hmm...that probably won't buy plane tickets.

Will: We could take a boat.

me: We could, but it would take a long time to get there.

Will: we could take a SPEED boat. it would get us there really fast. but are there bears in

Spain?

I'm not sure where the bear idea is coming from, but I love these kind of conversations with my boy. He's such a great guy!

Appendicitis

Well, we're adding appendicitis to our parental resume.

Catherine had a little stomach virus a couple of weeks ago and has complained off and on since then about her tummy being sore. But she is sometimes dramatic and complains about things hurting, so we just dismissed it. On Tuesday she said her tummy felt really sore. She even woke up twice during the night to tell us her tummy was sore.

By Weds morning, she was still complaining of a sore tummy, running a fever of about 100, loss of appetite, and very lethargic. She also said that the day before she kept feeling like she had to urinate more frequently. By God's prompting, I felt pretty sure that something was going on other than a stomach virus. Appendicitis was the only thing that kept coming to mind. I googled the symptoms of appendicitis in kids, which are often easily misdiagnosed. A kid complaining of a sore tummy and running a fever could mean 100's of different things. I called the dr's office and they said to bring her in just to be sure. So we immediately hopped in the car and headed to the pediatrician. She checked for UTI, strep throat, and a few other things. Everything was negative which really left the possibility of appendicitis as a pretty likely diagnosis.

Our pediatrician called the pediatric surgeon and discussed it with him and they said to bring her over immediately. For us not to even to stop for lunch. I still had Will and Anna with me, who at this point were rolling around the floor at the dr's office since we had been there for almost 2 hours. Thankfully our good friends Stephen and Taryn live very close to the dr's office and let me drop them off there until my family could get them. Catherine and I headed straight to the surgeon's office and Jay met me there. She was starting to feel nauseated at this point and fell asleep in the car. The surgeon met us at the office a few mins later, did a very quick exam and said that he felt pretty confident it was appendicitis based on the lab work we had done that morning. She they started the process of admitting us to the hospital.

By 2 o'clock or so, we were checked into the hospital, getting Iv's and antibiotics. By 4:30 they were ready to take her down to surgery. The only real way to diagnose appendicitis is to do the surgery and look at it. So at this point there was still a possibility that we could do all of this and it not be appendicitis. She was in surgery from around 5pm til 6pm. Her appendix was in fact infected, although thankfully it was still the early stages. We really didn't want a ruptured appendix! She was in recovery for about an hour and by the evening we were back in her room with her resting.

By the next morning, she was feeling much better. At 6:30am, she was eating a popsicle and watching cartoons.

By 10am, she had eaten a little breakfast, disconnected the IV, and wanted to go to the playroom down the hall.
By noon, we were being discharged from the hospital and headed home!

It was a crazy whirlwind day or two, but we are so thankful that everything went smoothly. My devotion from the day before all of this talked about how when our days don't go as we had planned, that is the time to look for how God is working and how He is going to provide for you. So we tried to look for those things and praise Him for it. One main thing that stuck out to us was that we ended up on the pediatric oncology floor because of room availability. Knowing that we were there for an appendix when other kids were there with much more serious illnesses helped us keep some perspective. We had great doctors and nurses who were wonderful in their care of Catherine. We also have been blessed by friends and family who have helped care for Will and Anna, provide meals, and pray for us. We are all recovering well, just a little bit tired.

3 Roommates and 7+ Children

On Saturday night, we got together with two of Jay's Furman roommates. Jay spent lots and lots of time with Lee and Allen and we are glad they live close by so that we can all see each other. It's a little different now for us to all hang out than it was in college. Who knew these 3 would have 7 (and more coming....) children?

The big kids:
The little kids:
Catherine (age 6)
Will (age 4)
Cade (age 3--4 in a few weeks)
Eddie (age 4)
Anna (age 21 months )
Charlie C (age 20 months)
Charlie T (age 21 months)
And 3 more on the way--Jill and Allen are expecting baby #3 in about 3 months. We are now 16 weeks with the twins. (And to Jill's credit--I didn't turn as far sideways as she did. She also always has enormous babies.)
We're glad to still share our lives with our college people. Furman is such a special place to us.

We're still here....

I haven't posted anything in a while.

Here's some quick snapshots of what's been going on.

• Jay and I just got back from 4 days in Puerto Rico with our annual Northwestern trip. It was 85 degrees and I thoroughly enjoyed the warmth and sunshine. The babies and I needed some extra Vitamin D. We did nothing except eat, sleep, and read books while we were gone. I didn't even take my camera. It was great to get away with Jay for a few days, but I was ready to come home to our little people by the end.
• Catherine lost another tooth. She now has a pretty large gap on the bottom. It's really cute.
• Will alternates between being dressed in a suit and tie or his exercise clothes or camoflouge. He's a renaissance man with many talents. His speech is significantly improving and we are very pleased with his progress.
• Anna is talking lots more. It's really cute when she says "okay." She has also started calling Catherine "sissy" and gets really excited to pick her up from school.
• Speaking of school, today I registered Catherine for first grade. I didn't even cry (yet).
• I am finally starting to feel better from the nausea. I've even had 3 or 4 days in the last week that I've made it without nausea medication. However, the indigestion has hit full force, so now I'll start taking medicine for it. I am so very thankful for these babies, but physically this pregnancy is already wearing me out in a different way.

That's about it for now. I'll do better soon about taking pictures soon.

Just wanted to let you know we're here.

Our Babies at 13 weeks

I went today for a checkup on the babies. Thankfully both babies looked great and are growing well. Baby A's heart rate was in the 160's and Baby B's heart rate was in the 150's. Here are a few pics of our little pair:

Baby A:

Picture of the top of both of their heads:

Baby B:

I am gradually starting to feel a little better. The nausea is not gone, but it doesn't start until a little later in the day and isn't quite as severe. I'll keep taking my medicine until it subsides (hopefully in the next few weeks). I have started to feel the babies wiggling around in there some, especially at night and that's really fun.

We are getting more used to the idea of having twins. I alternate between feeling very excited and very scared. We've had babies and feel somewhat confident about doing the newborn baby thing, but at the same time, we've had babies and we know how much work 1 newborn is, much less two. At times I feel worried about the pregnancy or delivery or the logistics of caring for 5 small children at once.

Something I read in my devotional the other week has really stuck with me though. It said that if you feel fearful about the future, it means I'm trying to picture the future without God in it. I'm trying to think of how I would do it all myself. I'm forgetting that He will be with me and He will give me grace, strength, and power. I have to keep reminding myself of that. And my prayer is that my heart will be like Mary's, who at very unexpected news of a baby replied "I am the Lord's servant. May it be to me as you have said."

We are so thankful for the blessing of both of these babies and can't wait to meet them and add them to our family.

Celebrating Christmas

We had a great Christmas celebration this year. The kids are at such great ages and it is so much fun to see the excitement on their faces.

On Christmas Eve, we had our annual breakfast at Cracker Barrell. Then we went to the Christmas Eve service at church later that day. (And please note our small Christmas tree this year. With me not feeling well, the Christmas decorations were very limited. So we got a very small tree and it had about 12 ornaments on it!)

On Christmas Eve night, we thought it would be fun for all the kids to sleep together. Catherine and Will have done this for the past 2 years. We thought we'd put Anna in there too. However, an hour after putting them to bed, we could still hear Anna upstairs shouting "Hey, Hey, Night Night, Hey" so we finally had to put her in her crib. (I'm hoping this isn't a precursor to how things will be when she and Catherine share a room in a few months.)
On Christmas morning, Santa had left a few goodies for everyone.
We make the kids all wait upstairs and then come down together. I think Jay likes to torture them. Especially Catherine and Will had a long wait. They were up by 6am, and we had to go wake up Anna a little after 7am.
This is how Anna spent Christmas morning--in her new red shoes without any clothes on, pushing her baby grocery cart.
Jay got Will a Bengals football uniform and he looks so handsome and strong.
On Christmas afternoon, we headed to Union to celebrate with my family. Somehow in the chaos of 20+ people being in one room I didn't take any pictures. But we had lots of fun, and Santa left Catherine her Barbies in Union--a Christmas miracle.

On Tuesday, we went to Huntington. We loved spending time with little Marshall especially. He is hilarious and has some awesome dancing skills.
Will was very excited about his new bowtie. He also got his shaving kit he had asked Santa for.
Unfortunately, those are about the only pictures I got in Huntington because my little camera died. We really did enjoy our time there. It was sad to leave because that is the last time we'll probably be there. It was difficult for Jay to leave on Saturday morning knowing that he won't go "home" again. But we are looking forward with great anticipation to having Steve and Marcy here in a few months.

And by the way--we are the worst Santa parents ever. Here's a quick synopsis of our Santa mishaps this year.

• Santa did not bring Catherine or Will the one thing they each asked for on Christmas morning. Thankfully, grandparents came to the rescue this year. (I guess I shouldn't finished Christmas shopping by Halloween.)
• Santa did a terrible job putting together Catherine's new bike. The seat fell down, the handlebars wouldn't turn correctly, and the pedals wouldn't go. So we had to take it with us to Union for Uncle Bill to work on.
• While Uncle Bill is working on the bike, Jay looks at me and says "So where'd you get this bike anyway?" and I reply "Toys R Us". Catherine, who is standing there, says "But Santa brought me this bike."
• The next day, Will is crying because the belt that Santa brought him is a little too big. Jay says to him, "Do you know why Mommy got you this belt? I mean, why Santa got you this belt?"
• Catherine went downstairs to the basement to get something and discovered the stash of boxes we need to throw away. She came upstairs and said, "I saw the box that Anna's grocery cart came in. But I thought Santa brought her that." I replied, "Can you believe Santa left his trash here for us to throw away?" They now think it's really funny that we have Santa's trash in the basement.

So we need to either step up our Santa-game or this isn't going to last long at our house!

Hope you had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New year!

Losing her 1st Tooth

Catherine lost her first tooth yesterday! It has been a little bit wiggly for a few weeks and on Thursday she noticed that it was leaning sideways. With a little bit more wiggling, it came right out! I feel all sentimental. It means she's growing up. I remember when she got that baby tooth; it was a long night of crying! And now it's gone!! She sure does look cute with her toothless grin.

Such a small little tooth--this is in her hand.
We had a little dilemma about the tooth fairy because Catherine and Will were having a slumber party in the basement with Jay last night. So she made a note with arrows and put it on the stairs.
My mom made her this cute tooth fairy pillow for her birthday the other week (Just in time!). It was great to hang it right on the door and has a little pocket for her tooth. The tooth fairy left her a dollar. She was surprised because she only expected a penny :)
We figured it was good for the tooth fairy to come last night, because if it had been tonight the tooth fairy and Santa may have bumped into each other!