June 26: 3 Full years of love and life

Three years ago today Tad and I were married on the most beautiful day

outside at a beautiful country club (pre-wedding photos- yes there were guests)


along side our family and friends


(the 6 bridesmaids- sorry groomsmen I don't have a pic. of you all stored on this computer)

Little did we know how quickly these three years would pass. We certainly didn't think we'd be the parents of 2 boys already, then again we didn't ever imagine twins happening to us.

These 3 years were filled with many excited things. Here are a few of our favorites.

- We traveled to weddings of our dear friends
- Saw other close friends become first time parents (also ones with twins)
- Went to my brother Brian's graduation at Harding
- Sold our condo and bought our first home together
- Found out we were pregnant
- Took a vacation with my family and grandparents to Mackinaw Island in Michigan
- Found out it was twins
-Took a beach vacation to visit my sister's family- this was going to be our last time to touch the sand for a while- and that
still holds true
- Our neice Kenzie was born
- Our Twins were born- family visits
- Our lives fell off the radar as we went into a whirlwind of craziness, colic, reflux, parenting, diapers, bottles, soy, more
diapers, tears, laughs, doctors visits, phone calls to parents, etc.
- We venture on our first 4 trip months later to Missouri for Easter (looking back it was one of the easiest we've done)
- Celebrated with my grandparents their 65th wedding anniversary
- Tad runs his first full marathon with his brother Clark
- The boys have their first birthday
- Our nephew Dayton was born

What's going on now?
- We are still changing diapers & calling parents with questions
-Bottles are replaced with chicken nuggets, pb&J, hotdogs, & animal crackers
- Our world is more familiar with the latest Little People series and Little Tike toys than the latest movie releases or fashion
trends.
- We laugh at each other and our boys
-We know the best family friendly restaurants
-We have a list of great take-out places
- We fill most of our evenings and weekends playing with the boys, staying home, taking a bike ride, or being in the backyard and I wouldn't trade that in for all the trips, nice restaurants, or shopping we used to know. (Ok now and then would be nice)

No tropical vacation will follow on Monday as it did 3 years ago so for now we'll hang on to our memories and pictures.



Seriously, life in our house is a happy place and the four of us love being together. When I married Tad I imagined a wonderful life with him. What I have, surpasses anything I dreamed about. Happy Anniversary Tad.

(who are these tan people anyway?)

Father's Day- a little late

I had every intention of posting a tribute to Father's well before Father's Day but you know some times things get pushed aside these days. We had a great time celebrating Father's Day at my grandparents. Tad and I took the boys down early Sunday morning again and did church and lunch with my family at my grandparents. We are becoming regulars it seems visiting their church and I'm sure our own congregation wonders where else we placed membership. It has been weeks since we've seen our church family. Anyway it was a relaxing day. We grilled steaks and played with the boys in the pool. They loved their car floats- actually using them as intended. We missed celebrating with Tad's dad...distance is the enemy. His family all got together at his parents house.

I found this great picture of Tad and his dad Vern I wanted to include (from our wedding).


Being a father comes so naturally for Tad. He loves his boys and you can see him display that love daily in so many things he does. Here are only a few examples.
1. - Every morning Tad is anxious for the boys to get up before he leaves for work. Lately this hasn't worked out. They sleep in past 8 am and I am all for letting them sleep as late as possible because my lazy self gets up when they get up.
2. Tad calls us in the mornings and afternoons from work to see how our day is going and to talk to the boys.
3. Tad comes right home after work and walks in the door ready to see the boys.
4. Tad plays with the boys every evening, sometimes taking them for a bike ride alone to give me a break.
5. Tad gives the boys baths and is good at getting them ready for bed.
6. Tad has always helped with diaper duty- even the worst ones.
7. Tad takes his turns getting up with the boys in the middle of the night- (during the colic stage- this chore was huge).
8. Tad does a great job keep them by himself if I run out for errands.
9. Tad wrestles with the boys and gets them cracking up with laughter.
10. Tad can read them a story book, do puzzles or play with them and their toys and it is a picture that melts your heart.
( I think he's glad he's not playing dolls though)

Here are a few pictures of Tad with his sons over the past 18 months.






Thanks Tad for being a great father and husband. We love you and feel blessed.

18 mo. check-up

Connor & Peyton went for their 18 mo. check up today. Everything went great. Neither of them were too fond of the nurse and her measurements for their height & head. Peyton refused to sit on the scale- even broke down into tears so we ended up standing him on a different scale instead. I'm not sure any of the numbers today were too accurate b/c the boys didn't cooperate but all in all they are healthy and growing as they should. We'll go back in December for their 2 year appointment and we're excited there are no more shots until age 5. Connor weighs 29 pounds and Peyton is 31. Of course they are in the 95+%ile for weight and about the 60%ile for height. This is the biggest difference between them so far but I"m not even sure it is accurate. We are to keep using whole milk until they are 2 yrs. old and then we can switch them to skim. We keep thinking they will slim down now that they are running around. Hasn't really happened. But we're glad they are healthy. Yesterday Peyton took a spill on the kitchen floor and busted his lip. He also has a red cheek from sleeping in drool from his teething...so I was a little embarrassed that today we saw the doctor. I always feel like you have to explain the accidents. It was no big deal though.

Yesterday our friend Susan found us some Little Tikes bubble car floats to use this summer in the pool. They are so cute and only $10 each. I blew them up so the boys could play with them inside. Obviously they can't put their legs through the leg holes since they are sitting on the floor- so it is a tight fit. Connor doesn't seem to mind- he puts his legs out the front. Peyton isn't too sure about it. They climb in but kinda get stuck so I guess we'll save them for the pool only.

Peyton (Left) Connor (Right) - The boys are the same size, Peyton just isn't sitting down to relax like Connor


More pictures of Connor-- Peyton didn't stick around for any more photos


Well Tad should be home soon and we have nothing fixed for dinner so I best get busy. Hope you all are having a good week. Ours seems to be going quick.

Bits & Pieces

We had a great weekend down at my grandparents. Tad was gone helping my brother move to Dallas so my mom and I took the boys to her parents house Saturday and Sunday. The boys did great traveling. On Saturday my mom and I took them swimming for the first time in my grandparents pool. They ended up loving it! We even did it again on Sunday. Then they took an exceptionally long nap so we helped my grandparents make homemade ice cream. It takes a while to make as much as we did so it was a huge help the boys slept. However, that long nap created a late bedtime- 11:15 pm so we were a little out of our minds by then. We did church on Sunday and then had lunch on the back screened porch for my grandpa's birthday. I made a birthday cake for him and it turned out great except after traveling 2 hours it started to crack- so I didn't take any pictures of my work. It tasted good but wasn't too pretty by then. Anyway, we had a slow Monday back home doing everyone's laundry and unpacking us and Tad. We just spent this morning (Tuesday) at the zoo with our friends Amy and Ellie. The boys came home and are taking another late nap- so we'll probably be up late again tonight.

We have another prayer request for everyone out there. Recently a couple at our church Ryan & Katrina Cook had a daughter born premature. She was 23 weeks and her name is Abby. She is in Children's Hospital and has some major hurdles to over come. We don't know them personally but we want to add them to our prayers and hope you will do the same. They have a blog that I linked on ours so you can check it out.

The boys go to the doctor tomorrow for their 18 mo. check up. We normally wouldn't have shots this time but they skipped them at 15 mo. because they were sick and we got into the whole nebulizer and had enough trauma from the breathing treatment experience. So I'll update again tomorrow with the boys stats. We are anxious to see how much they weigh.

More again tomorrow. Oh- I don't have any new pictures to post because Tad took the camera to Dallas but I have video and I just need to figure out how to do that. Hopefully soon.

The Flu Bug Bites Us

Well the Flu offically hit the boys for the first time over the holiday weekend. We spent Friday night out with some friends for dinner with the boys and their daughter. Had a great time and then later that night - we experienced a whole new level of sickness with the boys. We thought reflux with both of them at the same time was bad...not hardly. Connor woke up covered in vomit and preceeded to be sick every 15 - 30 min. for the next 5 hours. Peyton helped us out a little by waiting until Connor was almost done. We only had about a 2 hour window where they both were getting sick at the same time. Anyway enough details. Our washer usually runs frequently- lets just say that this particular weekend it ran continuous for the entire day. We went through many many sheets, towels, clothes, etc. They bounced back by Sunday and then I took my turn from Tues. until Friday. Tad stayed home 2 days and my mom stayed with me on Friday. Tad managed to escape this time.

This past weekend was much better. Tad and I went out to the Muirfield Memorial PGA tournament. We had free passes from Tad's work for Saturday. There was a rain delay for a couple hours so we came home for a while and then went back in the evening. The tournament is 5 minutes away in my mom's new neighborhood so it was nice to be able to come and go easily. Then Tad got passes again for Sunday so he and a friend went out after church. I took the boys shopping while they were gone. Today is an ordinary Monday. The boys are now napping. Tad is flying out Wed. to help my brother move to Dallas and he'll be back Sunday night. I'm going to take the boys to visit my grandparents this weekend for my grandpa's birthday. Tomorrow (Tuesday) might be a zoo day. It is to be a high of only 70 degrees.

If you haven't checked out the website for Ethan Powell- you should. His parents are facing some critical decisions this week about what path they will take next. They had some disappointing news last week with his bone marrow 78% infected. Please keep praying for them. Also our friend Joe should be leaving this week for Iraq. Please keep him, Tonya (wife), Sophia, and Jade (their girls) in your prayers too.

I'll try and post more pictures soon..I will for sure have some after this next weekend.

Have a good one!