1 wk down!

 1 week down and things are going great - have a mentioned it's b/c my husband is unbelievably amazing!!!  Well, he is!  It's been a lazy week for these two, for the most part they lay around looking like this, all hooked up trying get the yellow away. 
 They both had very high levels of jaundice, which has caused them to be very, very lethargic. They are snapping out of it slowly - and hopefully Jude will start gaining weight, nursing better, and we'll be right on track!

Other than some jaundice, and some fun "light saber" suits as Stephen calls the lights, their doing great!  We are so blessed and over joyed :)  Thanks for all the prayers and love, keep them coming!! :)

Welcome Cecilia Marie and Jude Martin Maddox!!



 So I know my last post said that the twins were coming Monday - but they had a different idea



Mimi and Cecilia

Sunday morning, very early.... ok middle of the night, my water broke!  Thanks so much Lauren and Dan for coming to the rescue!! :)

 After a somewhat short afternoon, Cecilia and Jude were born 1:35 Cecilia and 1:44 Jude

 Jude had a little fluid in his lungs so off they took him to the nursery to get him on some oxygen

 And look only 7 hrs on oxygen and an overnight observation and he was in the room with us!!

 Stephen was so excited!!  The first thing he asked when he first arrived at the hospital on Sunday was where's Jude - so on Monday he was so thrilled when he was in the room with us!

 He just wanted to hold him and hold him and give him some love! :)

 It did take Abby a bit longer to get used to everything, but she's come around

Since we've been home, things have been great!  Alan is amazing and I couldn't do this without him!!  Stephen and Abby seem to be adjusting well.  The twins have some jaundice, but they should only be glow worms for a few days!  :)  keep us in your prayers, and keep updated - it will take me a bit longer to blog these days I can promise you that!!

What are you doing Monday?

 What are you doing this coming Monday?  Well, I can tell you these four cuties will be hanging out

 Most likley in their PJ's

Why?  B/c this Mama is 37wks and her doctor finally feels her pain and is inducing on Monday!!!  Please pray that all goes well!! :)

Getting closer

 In the back of my mind I am hoping and praying that if I woke up this morning and blogged about being at 36wks and posted it on facebook then I might go into labor

Unfortunately, pregnancy doesn't work that way :)  So on a wonderful great note, I'm at 36wks; it's hard to complain - this is such a miracle so for now I will leave it at that! :)  I will say though that I just can't wait to see Cecilia and Jude and it is getting so close!!!  Will these little ones have red hair? blond? or dark like mommy and daddy??  We'll see soon!!

Our Lady of Lourdes pray for us!!

Are you a planner? I am!

I have always been a planner, I remember as a child packing and unpacking and repacking weeks before a family vacation - or really anything! 

 So it should come to no surprise to me or my family that this past month has been a month of preparation - I didn't want to get to prepared for the babies before they came so that I was bored and had nothing to do closer to their due date.  But even that being said poor Alan has had a little list of things to get from the storage unit and he has just had to deal with piles and piles of clothes all over our room as I sorted, washed and figured out where in the world we were going to put everything!!

Now we've hit the 34 week mark (actually we're closer to 35 now!) and I'm still going strong!!  My urge to get prepared is still there, I even started the hospital bag; and after yesterday's appointment I'm glad I did!  We headed in for another ultrasound yesterday and there was a moment where the ultrasound tech just kinda look funny b/c Cecilia's head is soooooo low she couldn't even get a measurement.  She made us think we might be going into the hospital that day - but we didn't :)  It's not time just yet, and there's no reason to rush things; we want these babies to keep cooking.  As of now, if I go into labor then they won't stop me - that's a good place to be in this pregnancy!!  The twins - well their growing really well!  The ultrasound guess is that Jude is almost 5lbs and Cecilia is almost 5 1/2 lbs!  This is wonderful for twins at this age.  So keep us in your prayers that they stay in a bit longer, keep growing and get to come home with us!   I'll keep sending Alan back to the storage unit for just a few more things :)

Melt my heart!!!

 I would like to introduce to the world Henry Leo Murphy, III aka Bing.  Oh my what can I say - my heart melted the first time I saw him!!  Thank you Hank and Nikki for traveling town and sharing this amazing child with us!!!  When I first held him.....my womb yerned - then it remembered it there were already two miricles inside and there was no need for yerning :)

 This is my Memere holding her newest Great-grand child (this makes 9 I believe)!  What a sweet moment

 Stephen wanted in on the action - I was despritly trying to get all three of the Henry and Jayne grandchildren in on a picture with their Great Memere....but that wasn't working

 This would be about as good as it gets - but hey we did it!!  Now let's see what happens when we add in the other two in just a few weeks :)

 Sweet Popi, don't let this picture fool you; Bing was just sad b/c they were about to leave

And I just don't think Mimi could get enough of this little guy - do you blame her?  Look how stinking cute he is, I can't wait to hug and kiss him again!!  Stephen is still talking about him! :)  Love it!!!

What a year

I thought about it and thought about it and finally let in to my desire to post an ENTIRE year of pictures of my children - I mean can you really blame me?

I ended up looking at some pictures on facebook and just was amazed at how Stephen and Abby have grown, me too by the way - but I'm not documenting that :)

I know it happens, it happened to your children too - but when you see them everyday you just forget how they change, and change and change

So I thank God for many things, but especially for the invention of the digital camera!!!

B/c this invention has allowed me to take hundreds and thousands of pictures of my children, even just in a single month :)

I just need to become a little bit better about doing something with these pictures, these great memories

 I know if I don't get better about printing them out, then they will just be a bunch of thousands and thousands of pictures my children will have to sort through to see themselves grow.....

 Something tells me that's just not as much fun as sitting on the floor going through, album after album and random envelopes of pictures like I did many many times

 So my goal for this week is to order those pictures I've put in my Sam's Club cart, and then maybe next week put them in an album.....

 My guess is this should be done before the twins get here - what do you think :)

 Is anyone still reading this??

 I'm starting to run out of random things to say to go along with these awesome pictures in review....

 I personally like watching transitions in the pictures, like how at the beginning of the year Stephen was in diapers, and by this point he is not..... pictures help us block out all that in between that it took to get there!

 Then again, this picture might capture some of it!

 I also love to watch how Abby went from having very little hair, to the cutest curl in the back!

 Then it starts to grow over her ears, what a big girl

 Then I'm reminded that Stephen - though very articulate and makes me think he's 5 is really only 3 and still such a little guy!

 And he will always be my first baby

 She will always be my first little girl

 but not always my baby girl, that will be a changing role I'm sure of :)

 Then again, sometimes I think all my children will still be my babies forever and ever

Even when they're all grown up and blogging about their own children 

So happy 2011 - can't wait to add the twins to these pictures very soon!!! :)