Luke & Taylor's Dedication

The practice of dedicating children affirms their place in the midst of the congregation. The service of dedication provides an opportunity for parents to commit themselves to the Lord in the care and training of their children. Members of the congregation join with the parents in pledging to pray for and to nurture the children. Biblical examples: 1 Samuel 1:11, 24-28; Mark 10:13-14.

Taylor never passes out like that. She crashed right before going up for the dedication. I was a little concerned that she might cry when being handed over but she never woke up. Luke did very well. He was calm and just took it all in.

Today was a special day and we had lots of loved ones around us.  Our friend Jeremy preached and it was an awesome word. Nick even sang in the praise choir. :) They sang one of our favorite songs, "Come to the Cross." Pastor Adin joked about Luke being a wrestler or a heathen boxer. lol Wonder where he got that information...hmmm. Our church has their sermons online now on their website. Jeremy's sermon should be up soon.

One more thing happened the evening after the dedication. LUKE ROLLED OVER!!! FINALLY! It took a lot of grunting but he did it. Miss T can now roll both ways and from back to belly and belly to back. She's pretty much out of control.

Come to the Cross by Michael W. Smith

Mourner, wherever you are
Wherever you are at the cross there is room
Tell your burdened heart
Your burdened heart at the cross there is room
Tell it in the Savior's ear
Cast away your every fear
Only speak and He will hear

Chorus:
Hallelujah, everyone
Everyone can come to the cross
It doesn't matter what you've done
Everyone can come to the cross

Sinner, come today
Come today, at the cross there is room
Blessed thought for everyone
For everyone can come to the cross
Now a living fountain, see
Open there for you and me
For rich and poor, for bond and free

Chorus:

Music Interlude

Tell it in the Savior's ear
Cast away your every fear
Only speak and He will hear

whooooaaahhhhhh.........(have to do that part) :)

Going Bananas

Taylor immediately cheeses when she gets in the "big girl chair"

They both finished their bowls today!

Luke is getting the hang of it......he actually dives for the spoon sometimes when he gets excited. He does still like to take his time tasting it and moving it in his mouth. 

Taylor on the other hand is can't get more fast enough.

Cheese! lol

This is the second time he's fallen asleep right after his last bite. It's tough being a big boy. 

It's 12:45AM and I just finished separating, packing and freezing 23lbs of meat. Kennies had their meat sale today. I saved $65 with that sale and coupons. Should last us a while. :) At least the meat will. I also realized I'm allergic to lysol cleaning spray. Man that stuff is deadly to breathe. 

Anyhow, the babies really seem to like bananas. Much better than applesauce. They both made sour faces at the applesauce but the bananas they love.

Good times.

Off to take a hot bath and SLEEP.

The Diaper Box & PCR

Is it some kind of sick joke that as the babies get bigger the boxes of diapers have less in them. What kinda game is that? Ya buy this big massive box for $40 and every size they go up, there is less in the box. Like somehow it's supposed to make me feel better to pay $40 bucks for that box no matter how many diapers are in it. To me it just means I have to go buy more boxes more often. Taylor is a 2 and Luke is a 3. It's been like this for quite some time. It means Taylor goes through a box in 33 days and Luke goes through a box in 29 days. I guess that doesn't seem as bad as 24 diapers less in that size 3 box! It is crazy to me when I think that they go through approximately 420 diapers a month. And I'm not quick to change just any diaper. There are mom's who change them when they pee. I can't imagine how many diapers they go through. The hospital taught us the routine of changing them at feeding time and I've stuck with it. I don't have time to check for pee. lol I change them every 3 hours on the dot when they eat and if they poop, I get them out of the nasty as soon as I can. 

Something else I learned. It makes me mad because I just looked into this. You can claim points from the Pampers website. I have all my boxes still so once I had the chance to figure out where the number is, I was going to enter them. Well.........the number is on the darn bags inside the boxes. Yeah.....I threw all those away with the diapers except for two unopened boxes. That stinks. Yeah....well.

I'm continuing to coupon it up. I spent $98 at the grocery store last week and I saved $36. No lie. I had to show Nick so he believed me. I will stretch our money the best I can.

Melanie from PCR came tonight and it was nice to have her do some hands on things with the babies and teach us some things to help them. They are doing really well and both of them are on schedule developmentally except for Luke not rolling. He's getting there though and she showed us some ways to help him strengthen his back. She also noticed how strong Taylor's legs are and told us to try strengthening her upper arms so she can progress to crawling upright instead of the army crawl using her leg strength. She showed us some stretches for them and talked to us about some of the next stages. She said we'll be seeing stranger anxiety and their need to have a parent in their sight. She said that's a normal stage that they will grow out of. She said games like peek-a-boo can help them know you're there or soon there even when they can't see you. Miss Taylor has been testing this one out. She has days where she will scream and cry when she can't see me and she wants held. Luke likes to follow me with his eyes but he can go much  longer without getting upset. He can play and be content for the most part. 

I talked to her about schedule and how any change in it has a night and next days worth of grumpiness. For the babies and for Nick and I. lol She has boy girl twins and she said she had the same thing happen. Saturday night Luke slept in the car both ways to and from Gettysburg and he was in a deep sleep when we got home. Taylor slept on the way up but was awake on the way home. We fed them, on time, put them to bed on time, Luke tossed and turned and then was up screaming at 2am, I carried the swing into the bedroom, this worked for a little until he woke up again...crying until 5 when we fed him. Eventually it woke Taylor too, which it's always a joy to have two screaming babies when you're dead tired. Poor Nick got home at 1:30 from a Men's retreat, so he got a good 1/2 hour, I was awake in bed waiting for Nick to come home. lol Then I tried to sleep in and Luke was not having that. I talked to Melanie about naps and she said to absolutely get them on a napping schedule. I told her Taylor takes cat naps and Luke takes one longer afternoon nap. She said even if it's scheduled "down" time and they don't sleep the whole time. This sounds great but once again, that gets changed when we go somewhere and it's another thing to work around. She said once they start eating solids and being able to go longer between eating, things will get easier as far as getting out without the consequences. I've read lots of places that schedules make happier babies, kids and even parents. Jon & Kate + 8 talked about how their kids even at 3 know what's next throughout the day and keeping to it makes for more peaceful days. We hear that. I can't imagine what that was like for them with twins and sextuplets when they were in the early stages. She pumped breast milk initially which means feeding 6 babies every 2 hrs. That's just nuts. Watching that show makes me look at two and say, no problem. :)

How Do You Do It, "I" Can't

I thank God every day that he gives me the ability that he does to take care of these babies. It's an honor to raise them for the Lord. I know that he wouldn't have blessed me with them without the ability to take care of them and he's given me a peaceful confidence. That's the only way I can describe it. It's not like I don't have frustrating days but I'm able to laugh and know it will be better the next day. I know so many people who make their kids their "gods" and they worship them. I see the product of that in some of the teenagers who we have ministered to. I pray that God will remind me that these precious babies are His and he's given us the pleasure of raising them. It helps to pray for strength because when they are both screaming there lungs out, I can take a deep breath and still smile at them knowing that God is using them to grow me. He's blessed me with patience I never had and unconditional love at a depth I never knew. As parents, we get a little taste of how much God loves us. We aren't capable of loving them as much as He loves them and THAT is incredible to me. I also appreciate my husband when he lifts me up by saying I'm a "champ" and telling me what a good mother I am. There are days when you doubt and I need his unwavering support. It's not that I know it all and I'm certainly learning more every day, but I know that I can do what I need to to take care of them with His help. 


I can do everything through Him who strengthens me.
Philippians 4:13

He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall
but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not faint.
Isaiah 40:29-31

Prayer

Please remember the prayers for tomorrow. They are under my entry titled, October 7th. Thanks!

5 Months Today

Catch Up ~ Ridiculous Amounts of Pics

Last Sunday after Church . . .

I realized I put the captions above

instead of below the pics.....heyah well....

The snazzy hat.

He looks like a little man.

I love it.

I asked Nick to grab the khaki colored socks,

he grabbed the argyle olive ones.

Makes me laugh to see them in the pictures. 

I get a kick out of finding cheap clothes. 

The vest and shirt were both a $1 on clearance. 

The jeans $3 consignment, 

socks were hand me down and 

hat was the whopping $8 full price. 

Tell me it's not worth it though.

You can tell he was crying with those puffy red eyes.

Miss Taylor, our crazy girl.

Our neighbor gave us these 

black shoes and her feet are tiny, 

they are the only shoes that fit her.

She kicked and carried on with them on

at first until she got used to them. 

And if course the dress always gets pulled up

for her to try to put it in her mouth.

Our maniac. I often sing that song..."she's a maniac"

I love her rolls.

She rolls over and talks to herself in the red mirror. So cute.

She naps like this every day.

Luke wears himself out in the jumper, then crashes.

He weighs a ton trying to get him outta there when he's asleep.

Taylors hair in the morning after a bath.

Cracks me up, it's sooooo soft though.

Luke with his new friend...the left thumb.

This is after being taken outta the jumper. lol

Taylor cracks up when I sing her name. 

The big blues.

Doesn't this look like they are watching a scary movie? lol

Does he look beef or what? He gets that from his mom. lol

Chewing everything.

I love, love, love these pjs. Nick's old boss got them for us. 

They are Gap and super soft and comfy.

This girl is always on her belly now. I put them on their back side by side, 

made their bottles and came back to them like this. 

Today she was watching Luke in his swing talking away at him.