Guess what we got????

I am so excited to share with you our latest news.....we are now the proud owners of a share of a dairy cow!  Yep, you read that right.  Nope, I haven't lost my mind.  :-)  Hahaha!  I AM super-excited about this though.  The twins and I along with my mom & step-dad packed up this morning and rode to a nearby
small farm to taste fresh milk.  It was amazing!  I wasn't sure how we would like it but it was great and the kids loved it too.  Carson let out a big approving belch at the lady's kitchen table.  That's our boy.  LOL>  On a side note- He was also completely naked when I went in to get him this morning.  He seemed so proud for having figured out how to get everything off.  I hope that doesn't become a habit or it's one piece jammies from now on.  Back to the milk, we will pick up our milk once a week.  There's just something so nice and real about getting fresh milk in mason jars.  I love fresh, local foods.  In addition to the fruits and veggies we get in the summer of course, we now are getting fresh milk, eggs, and our freshly ground whole wheat bread weekly.  I also get local honey when I can.  We are slowly transitioning to a more whole, local diet and I think the kids will be healthier eating this way.  I really believe that.  I am hoping it will also help Carson's eczema.  He has not had an outbreak since we started using unscented goat's milk soap I get from a lady locally as well.  That's all for now...I'm going to make some applesauce for the babies.  We'll see how long it takes to determine whether it's easier to just buy it. :-)  Hope everyone has a good weekend! 

A week of playing....

This week we've stayed in all week and had lots of time to play with cousins.  It's always nice to have extra kids to play with.  Carson & Emilynn love playing together, but I think it is nice to change things up and have extra kids around.  Tuesday their cousins Shelby, Hunter, & Kelsey came to play for the day.  It was a lot of fun and I must admit-I had fun myself.  We played "house" and I was the aunt.  Of course.  The aunt who babysat the twins while the "mom" Kelsey grocery shopped and the "dad" Hunter went to work in the Little Tikes pick up truck that we have.  It was fun and reminded me of when Amanda & I used to play stuff like that growing up.  My sister had a school bus, a real one that had some seats up front and then a school set up in the back.  We played for hours in there and had our pets out there too.  We had the smartest dog around the neighborhood!  Haha!  On Tuesday we also bowled in the house.  For some reason we decided bowling would be fun and so I came up with some toy buckets for pins and a huge bouncy ball for the ball.  It was a lot of fun and even the twins could take a turn with that since they can throw a ball.  Yesterday, my other nephew named Hunter spent the day with us.  The twins are just big enough now to start playing with him and I don't know that he always appreciates that, but they are growing on him.  He tries to help me with them and tells me often "I a good helper."  It's really cute.  I started with a cold yesterday so I was feeling a little rough last night but doing better today.  That's all we've done this week, just lots of downtime at home.  Dustin & I snuck out for Mexican last night so that was fun too.  
Meme & Poppy came to visit the twins tonight so that was fun because they hadn't seen them in a while.  It's neat to see how good they can walk now if you haven't seen them in a while.  Even a week makes a huge difference right now.  Carson ended up with a bleeding nose....a boo-boo from trying to get on the couch and misjudging it.  Poor boy.  He went to bed with cream on his nose that looked like sunscreen.  Emilynn was in a rather goofy mood tonight.  She has the cheesiest grin.  Her eyes almost close she grins so hard.  The babies love company, so it was nice to have someone else to see other than mom & dad I guess.  :-)  

Where have we been????

I know, it's been forever since I posted...well, only a little over a week actually.  I should do better though! 
We have been busy....I was gone two nights last week, one night was our new women's Bible study which I think is going to be awesome.  The other was a Relay for Life meeting.  We have lots going on!  It's good to be busy!  The twins are doing great and walking everywhere!  It is so cute to see them walking.  They walk with their legs far apart so they don't fall.  Emilynn usually has one of three things tucked under her arm when she walks-either a baby doll, a bottle, or her play remote control.   She looks like a little football player-so cute!  We did some visiting this week, which was so nice.  We finally made it to see my grandma "Granny" (my dad's mom).  We had not seen her since way before Christmas.  She was thrilled to see the babies and watch them play.  We about tore her house down, but she doesn't mind.  While there we broke an angel figurine, Emilynn pulled a lamp down on herself, Emilynn rolled off the sofa, Carson pushed all the buttons on the satellite dish, and I found out later we apparently lost Granny's remote control.  She says she doesn't think we did it....but I'm pretty sure she had it before we got there.  ??  After that we went to my other grandma's, Nanny (mom's mom) to see Rosa, the lady who helps my grandparents.  Rosa watched my mom and uncle when they were small.  She's been in our family forever.  She was so excited to see the twins and just watched them and played with them.  They had fun following her around the house.  Cousin Hunter was there and he accidentally dumped a huge box of Frosted Flakes on the living room floor.  All three kiddos were sitting in the floor when I walked in the room, just chomping on frosted flakes.  My kids were SO excited and chowing down. They've never had anything that sweet!  Nanny and I just laughed and watched them till they lost interest and then it all got vaccuumed up.  What else could you do but laugh and let them have a rare treat?  Friday we made it to see Dustin's grandma, so we got a lot of visiting in this week.  She was also thrilled to see the babies and it was so good to see her.  We are still not taking the babies out in places where they'll see lots of people or be exposed to lots of sickness, but I'm glad we are back to getting out the house a little.....it's good for all of us!  We delivered the last of our Christmas gifts while we were out so that was nice. 
Another update-Emilynn's fingers are healed up and knock on wood-she's not sucking her fingers anymore!  I guess a blessing came out of something bad.  Isn't there always a blessing?  Carson continues to battle eczema, poor little guy.  We are trying to figure out a solution for him.  I don't want him to be on medicine for it because it's going to be a constant issue it seems.  He does have some prescription cream, but I am going to try to change our diet to help with it and see how that goes.  He had a flare up this week and it was right after he ate some yogurt that is shelf stable-ewww!  It was given to us so I thought they could use it when we were out and about and didn't have access to our normal yogurt (Stonyfield Organic Yo-baby whole milk yogurt-it's awesome!  The babies LOVE it and if they see it before they are done eating their main course...it's over. You may as well give them the yogurt or have a riot on your hands!).  I didn't buy this "fake" yogurt but hate to waste so I let them have some this week.  He broke out right after.  I'm guessing it's probably full of preservatives and who knows what so I'm starting to wonder if his diet is really affecting his eczema.  I will pay more attention and see how it goes.  I have been researching a more whole foods type diet without a lot of processed foods.  I am blessed to have a wonderful lady who makes us bread each week.  She grinds the flour and everything and it's delicious!  I am so thankful for that resource.  We also now can get free range eggs from chickens fed an organic diet, so that is all the babies will eat as long as we have that source.  I feel like they eat pretty good anyway (almost all organic), but I guess I'll keep making changes and hope it helps Carson. 

Date Night!!!

Dustin & I are going out tonight!  :-)  We are looking forward to it.  I always enjoy getting out but I miss the kids so much when I'm not with them.  Last night after I put them to bed I really missed them!  It's good to get out of the house though.  I will be happy for spring when I can take them with me.  Tonight  we are having dinner and we might see a movie.
Dustin's been having a fit to see True Grit.....he loves westerns.  I'm not a western fan but he doesn't ask to
do much, so I will probably be seeing a movie tonight!  Nicole will have the kiddos...she is our "regular"
babysitter-haha.  I think she's the only one who has never turned me down to watch the babies and she
has actually volunteered to watch them on many occasions.  She will call and say "Why don't you go
do _________ and I watch the kids?"  A great friend.  We realized we've been friends for 20 years.  Aren't we sounding old????  Anyway, she watches them more than anyone and doesn't mind having them both so it works.....a night out that doesn't involve getting groceries-exciting!  :-) 

I didn't think it would ever happen.....but......

We are almost weaned off formula!  It was rough going at first.  (which means I gave in....which I know you should never do....but honestly when you have two screaming 1 year olds grabbing your legs and hurling bottles at you.......sometimes you break down).  I didn't cave completely though, I have been "cutting" the formula with milk since their birthday.  Lo and behold, I think they finally like the milk.  I've hardly used formula at all the past few days and everyone's happily sipping their milk.  Peace again in our house till I work on weaning from bottles to cups.....We do cups okay but there's still some comfort in those bottles, so that's our next big task! 

In other news....Emilynn burned 3 fingers.  Urrghhh...I know it's awful.  It was an accident.  She touched part of the oven that we didn't even realize GOT hot.  The dr. reassured me that it does happen, even though in an ideal world it wouldn't.  So, Monday was an unplanned visit to the dr. to have Emmy looked at and get an antibiotic cream.  If you have to take something positive from this incident, it is preventing her from sucking her fingers, so that habit might be broken.  And we are gating off the kitchen.  I usually keep them out of there when cooking anyway, but our house is pretty open so it's hard.  Especially when you are by yourself and Dustin was keeping them by himself while I was at church when this happened. 
Anyway, she's having trouble going to sleep without those fingers to suck on, but other than that she's doing great. 

We still aren't taking the babies anywhere right now.....we are homebound every day.  I haven't left home since the dr. appt. Monday, so I am looking forward to buying milk tonight-hahaaha....Actually it's not too bad.....it hasn't been nearly as bad as I thought but I do miss being able to visit family.  :-(  I haven't seen my Granny since before Christmas.  Maybe soon.....

I'm off to do a few more things before nap is over! 

Happy Birthday Amanda & Alyssa!!!!!

Today I have not one, but TWO sisters celebrating their birthday!  And no, they aren't twins!  They just happened to be born on the same day, 19 years apart.  We will have a fun birthday weekend.  I just love birthdays, I think it's so neat to celebrate the person and do something special for them. 
Having a sister is the best thing on Earth, it truly is.  Sisters share such a special bond and I love all my sisters-they are all so unique and different.  A sister is someone you can fight like crazy with, but they are still your best friend in the whole world.  I hope that one day Emilynn will have a sister to share this experience with. 

Amanda and Alyssa are both so different, yet similar in a lot of ways.....here are some things I love about them...

Amanda is kind, very sensitive, very passionate about whatever cause she is involved with, athletic, quiet.  She cried when she saw our Christmas parade float.  She's that sensitive.  Yet, she was determined that we would win first place-and we did!  She's also taken up reading which thrills me to no end.  I was such a bookworm growing up and she hated reading.  Now, we both read all the time and it's been so nice because we share books back and forth, discuss them, shop for them.  It's been really nice. 

Alyssa is spunky, full of life, also very passionate, very caring, very independent, athletic, witty, and hilarious!  She says the funniest stuff.  Last year right around her birthday she came to visit the twins and when she was leaving she said...."Having twins at 7 is much better than at 6.  I know so much more about what to do with them."  She had turned 7 that week!  Too funny!  Apparently with that birthday came a lot of wisdom and maturity!  I wonder what she'll have to say this year.  ???  Emilynn is so much like Alyssa-she looks a lot like her and she acts like her too sometimes.  It will be neat to see if that continues.  

Well, gotta go make a birthday cake......with peace signs on it of course (guess which one picked those!)

Happy Birthday to two of the greatest aunts & sisters anyone could have!!!!!