Some recent shots of the babies for your enjoyment…happy weekend!

I probably won’t have time to update tomorrow morning, so I’ll put something up tonight.  Lucky you guys!

The weekend was pretty full because Kimberly got married.  WOOHOO!

Friday night, Eric took pictures for them at the rehearsal, so I hung out with my parents who were watching Jason for Karen who was also at the rehearsal.  Eric skipped the rehearsal dinner and came home in time to put babies to bed.  Then Michelle and her family joined us for the night. 

Saturday morning, Michelle had to be at the hair place at 9:00 am, but Chris and the girls hung out at our house for a while.  They seemed to have fun playing to different toys.  And we watched Finding Nemo.  And every so often, one of Michelle’s twins would come into the kitchen and look at me, wait for me to greet her, and then smile at me and leave.  I’m not sure if it was one who did it multiple times or if both were doing it.  But it was kind of funny.

Anyway, the afternoon and evening was spent at Kimberly’s lovely wedding.  And it really was lovely.  My sister sang during the service.  The couple was too cute.  The cake was yummy.  I got to take fun pictures for them (Eric was the unofficial reception photographer…I helped!).  And I got to talk to family and friends I don’t often get to see. 

It’s amazing how tired someone else’s wedding can make me!

Sunday was spent relaxing between church services.  Nothing too exciting to report.

But speaking of exciting reports, the babies are doing such fun things these days.

• Alex has taken to sticking his lower lip out in a little pout.  But he’s not really pouting.  It’s just a pose.
• They love grilled cheese.  Erin will suck the cheese out from the bread slices sometimes.
• Erin now has 3 teeth on the top.
• I wish Alex would get some teeth on top.  Then maybe we could all go back to sleeping all night again.
• I took the twins out to “play” in the leaves on the ground today.  I got some pictures.  I’ll post them later.
• At the wedding, my dad entertained the twins by pushing them around in their side-by-side stroller.  Alex rode the entire time, leaning back like he was too cool.  Erin sat up at the front and bounced around excitedly.  And the faster my dad went, the more bouncy she got.
• Both babies are pushing off things to stand on their own. Alex is quite good at it now.

Okay, I need to stop now, I think, and go to bed.  I will post pictures soon.  Happy Monday (what’s left of it)!

I know everyone is ditching Xanga for Facebook.  But I hate Facebook. 

Obviously, I’m on it.  I do the basics.  I occasionally update my status.  I post pictures there. 

But seriously, it hangs up on me all the time.  Every time they make changes “for my good,” I end up being less able to use the site.  I click on links which go to blank pages because it won’t load them correctly.  I try to see the message in my inbox, but it won’t let me.  It’s been two days since I’ve been able to use the program.

Arggh!!!

There, I feel better now.

Thank you.

Alex is doing SO much better! *relieved sigh*  We’ve had no incidents of anything since Sunday night.  Yay!!

Erin is teething, I think.  She’s got one of her top front teeth through and is working on her next (a canine, oddly).  And this one seems to be hurting her more than usual.  Yay for Motrin and Tylenol!

Sometimes, Erin gabbles at Alex like she’s ordering him around. 

Both are pulling up like crazy.  Erin will pull up on things (or me) and then lean out to reach for another chair or something.  She’s going to be cruising between furniture soon.

Alex actually stood up next to me the other day and then LET GO!  It was the first time he’d purposely stood unassisted.  He’ll be walking before I know it!

We are really, really enjoying this stage of the babies’ lives.  They are so fun and interactive and creative and investigative.  They are little sponges and love to try new things. 

In other news, because of the events of last week, the babies eating pattern changed multiple times in a few days.  My poor little boobies seem to be confused.  They don’t seem to be making as much milk ahead of time as they were early last week (even after all night, I’m not even close to full).  I guess we may be closer to weaning than I thought.  Or maybe tomorrow the milk will return in force.  We shall see…

After two weeks of sickness, I think we’re starting to come out of the woods.  Thankfully.  Seriously, this is the second round of illness that started with a minor cold and ended up taking 2-3 weeks to move on.  It could be a long winter.

Anyway, I told you about PoopFest 2009 last week, which fortunately ended about Friday, but unfortunately degraded into Alex throwing up entire meals at least once a day by Friday.  It was not fun.  Not fun.

We are still convinced it was all the sinus drainage (the poop and the other stuff), but it was not a fun few days.  For him or for us.

It was especially complicated when, on Saturday night, I realized that he hadn’t wet a diaper since I got him up that morning.  So we called the pediatrician who gave me some ideas for getting liquids into him.  He was better on Sunday, thankfully.  But it was a little scary for a while there.

It was also a little funny because he got really annoyed at us for trying to put cups and bottles into his mouth.  He’d clamp his mouth shut, pull his head as far away as he could get it, and give us a look that said, “What is your problem…I’m NOT thirsty…Go away!” 

But I do think we are on our way to complete wellness again. Yesterday he did not get sick once, and he acted hungry again.  For the first time in days.  And he was drinking again on his own.

And, good for me, we are finally well enough to go to Bible Study this morning.  Yippee! 

Our weekend is insanely busy (again).  I don’t know how things get scheduled so fast, but it seems like we’re totally booked every time I turn around.  Here’s a quick overview: 

Today, I need to get some work done cleaning my house (floors, kitchen, tidying, etc.).  I’m also doing baby laundry in the next size so my children have winter clothes to wear…since apparently, winter decided to come in October this year.  Sheesh!

Tonight, there’s a girls night for our small group.  I’ll be honest, I’m not terribly excited about going yet.  But I’m sure I’ll have a good time once I get there.

Tomorrow, I have a haircut in the morning and a family gathering in the evening.  And I have to get more stuff done in preparation for Sunday (making room for everyone, making pies, getting groceries, etc).

Sunday is Baby Dedication at church, which we are participating in (obviously).  So we have a bunch of family coming for the service and dinner/hanging out afterwards.  Thus my cleaning and preparations!

Monday night my Moms group at church has scheduled a “Mommy’s night out” for dinner.  I haven’t decided if I’m going to that one, too.  Right now it just feels like another thing to make me too busy.  But I also haven’t made it to a single other meeting or activity because of sick kids and schedules.  So I’m sort of feeling like I should go.  We shall see.

Okay, enough of writing my weekend to-do list on Xanga.  I’m sure it’ll be a good time…I’ll let you know on Monday!  Hope you all have a marvelous day!

That is the best way I can think of to describe yesterday.

For some reason (pardon my description), the babies had…um…runnier poop than normal.  And they leaked out of diapers ALL DAY.

Alex was leaking out of his diaper into his pajamas when I got them up (and smelled wretched!) and then leaked on his cute little cords later in the afternoon.

Erin, however, went through FOUR, count them, four outfits through the course of the day (and the smell was bad every time).  I was most sick of cleaning up poop and changing clothes yesterday.

So hopefully, today is less smelly, poopy, and all that.

Happy Wednesday!

Just a few things to share on a Friday:

• We’ve had colds all week.  I think I got it from working in the nursery last Sunday and brought it home.  I’m a good bit better today.  Hopefully the babies will be fully back to normal in a day or two.
• It’s hard to be a good mommy when you don’t feel good.
• We had to miss our church’s mom’s group this morning because of runny noses.
• There is another meeting we have to attend tomorrow morning as well, but thankfully, my MIL is going to come watch the babies so I don’t have to worry about the nursery.
• Erin is pulling up on everything: chairs, couches, end tables, gates, you-name-it.  She can now reach the top of the TV cabinet, which is where we’ve been storing diaper supplies for easy access, and can pull off the diapers up there.  I guess I’ll have to find a new place for them now…
• Alex is my climber.  There’s no doubt about it.  He wants to get on top things.  He’s got the right motions for pulling up, and will stand assisted if you put him next to the couch or chair, but he is still a bit away from pulling himself up. 
• As for getting back down from a standing position, Alex has Erin on that one.  She just falls on her bum (looking surprised, of course).  He can actually lower himself using his hands a bit more.  Whatever works, I guess!
• Eric fed the babies lunch yesterday.  They had grilled cheese sandwiches for the first time (totally his – very good – idea), and they loved them. 

I can’t think of any other significant updates, so I’ll call that a post.  Happy Friday…and Happy Weekend!

So I’m starting something new with this post.  It is called Blogging for Books with the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group.  It should be a fun way to do something different on my blog every so often.  And today is the first day!  So here we go…

Welcome to my addition to the Blog Tour for the new book Extraordinary: The Life You’re Meant to Live by John Bevere.

I’ll be honest, from the title, I was expecting a book about discovering and doing what you love.  I couldn’t have been more wrong.  Using Scripture as his foundation, Bevere builds a significant case for starting to live the “extraordinary” life God calls Christians to and explains why so few Christians are actually living that life.

Bevere describes the extraordinary life as one that is well-pleasing to God.  It is a life empowered by grace, not just saved by it.  We are to do more than we “naturally” can do because we are to be living out of the supernatural power of God (grace).  And we access this extraordinary life of grace through faith.  Faith, as Bevere describes it, is simply believing what God says and then speaking and living according to His Word.  It’s that simple. 

Of course it isn’t easy (and Bevere explains why and how most Christians miss this mark).  But it is that simple.  And Bevere uses verse after verse, passage after passage, from the Old and the New Testaments, to prove and support his claim.  The book used so many Scriptures that it was sometimes almost overwhelming.  But with so much of God’s Word packed between the covers, there was little room to doubt the truth of the book’s thesis. 

There were a couple of criticisms that I had, of course.  First, he jumps between translations too easily, and it was hard to switch from KJV to the Amplified Bible to the New Living Translation and back while reading. Second, I did struggle to really get into the book for the first 100 pages or so.  The writing was too verbal in places, as if he was trying to talk to his readers instead of write to them, and this was distracting for me.  Also while Bevere starts with the basics and builds on them, which is good, he started so basically and built so slowly (and for me, disjointedly) that I kept losing sight of where he was going.  Looking back at the book as a whole, the flow made sense, but at first, I struggled to see how the ideas were fitting together.

However, once he got to his main idea, the book really took off for me.  I found myself getting excited about the ideas and the possibilities for my life if I really lived what the Bible clearly teaches about living extraordinarily.  Without a hesitation, I would recommend this book.  The biblical ideas woven together on its pages can change our lives, our families, our churches and our world.

This book was provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group.