Baptism

This was such a special day.  I tear up just remembering it.  We scheduled the baptism for December 18 at the 11:00 worship service.  This is probably the right post to mention Trinity UMC, our first church home together.  In fairness, we attended Keller UMC for the first year or two of our marriage, but we never really got plugged in there.  At Trinity, we becamse part of the church.  We were active members of the Foundations Sunday School class, which provided us with a fellowship of other Christians who were of a similar age and were at a similar place in their lives.  Some of our best friends came out of that class and I will miss them dearly.  We also participated in the Alpha program there, which I found to be life changing.  Forrest volunteered for a year with the youth group and went on a couple of mission trips with them. I had a small stint in the Esther Circle (a UMW group).  Also, we took a trip with a group from Trinity to Israel in January of 2011.  We made wonderful friends on that trip too. 

Anyways, Trinity was a huge part of our lives in Arlington, and it broke my heart to leave shortly after the babies were born.  It was important to get them baptized at that church, by the pastors who we loved and in front of the congregation that had become our family. 

Here are pics.  Dr. Scott Youngblood (Senior Pastor and the organizer of our Israel trip) performed the baptism and Pastor Scott Heusel (Youth director and honorary member of our Sunday School class) assisted.  Also, you'll see our good friends Kelly and Melina Wouters in the pics too.  They prayed for us while we were trying to conceive the babies and then through the whole pregnancy.  They are true brothers and sisters in Christ.  Also pictured is their baby Luke, who was born in June.  Ok, on to the pics:

Afterwards, our whole family came to our house to enjoy lunch.  Forrest and I brought in Olive Garden, and it was a hit.  Carter and Olivia also got several gifts on that day.  We are so blessed.

Hattiesburg reconaissance trip

In May, Forrest got a job offer to work at the University of Southern Mississippi, in Hattiesburg Mississippi.  He interviewed there and it was an obvious fit for everyone, so they gave him the offer at the interview.  He came home from the trip and the decision was obvious.  I could tell right away that this was the right thing for him, and thus the right thing for our family. 

Forrest left the energy business in the spring of 2006 to go back to school to get his Masters degree in higher education.  He followed that degree with a PhD in Educational Psychology.  He graduated in December of 2011 and needed a job.  Everyone said that it's impossible to get a job in education right now.  There are all sorts of budget cuts and folks losing their jobs.  However, I suspected Forrest wouldn't have that hard of a time.  He already has several publications and has made a name for himself, even before achieving his PhD.  Sure enough, he got the job he wanted, and although they wanted him to start in August of 2011, that was bad timing for us since we were expecting the twins, so USM agreed to wait until January of 2012.

My mom and I made the trip to Hattiesburg on the first weekend of December to find a house for us to rent.  Our plan is to rent for 6 months while we sell our house in Arlington.  Hopefully it sells within that time and we can find a house to buy.  We had a somewhat stressful first day in Hattiesburg, but we found our new place and that's what really matters.  Plus, my mom got a good feel for Hattiesburg and I think the charm of this place swayed her by the end.  Our new address is:

3403 Arlington Loop
Hattiesburg, MS 39402

Belly pics

These are my belly pics:

14 weeks:

16 weeks:

 17 weeks:

19 weeks (taken while on vacation in Gulf Shores)

 20 weeks:

 22 weeks (taken before Adam and Camille Cochran's wedding):

 26 weeks:

30 weeks:

 32 weeks:

 33 weeks:

34 weeks:

 35 weeks:

That's as far as I got since I delivered Carter and Olivia at 35 weeks and 3 days gestational age.

Photo Bomb

Are you ready for me to drop the bomb?  The PHOTO BOMB?  Everyone likes that, right?  These pics were taken in weeks 3-6 of their lives.  They are from oldest to newest, so you might be able to see them growing and developing as you scroll through the pics (or maybe it's just Forrest and me who can see the changes).

Carter:
Wearing a preemie outfit:

 Newborn outfit:

 Enjoying the Baby Einstein toy his Grandmommie gave him:

 During a night feeding:

 His favorite way to be "held" by his dad:

Olivia:

 This was a newborn outfit that was comically big on her.

 Wearing her brother's preemie outfit because he outgrew it (and it was something warm on a cold day):

 Gameday:

 Still in preemie clothes, but starting to fill them out better:

Twins:

In the "Jungle" gym:

Going for a walk in the neighborhood:

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was spent at the lake house, and it was a fantastic weekend.  Our first weekend at the lake was a couple weekends before that.  Grandmommy and Pops were out of town on their mediterranean cruise, so it was just Aunt Ellie and Uncle Chris, and the Wieds.  That weekend was stressful for our family.  The babies didn't do well at the lake and I did not have a nice relaxing weekend.  However, Thanksgiving weekend gave us what we sought - a relaxing and fun weekend with the people we love most. 

Grandmommy and Pops graciously offered to take one of our middle of hte night feedings off of our hands, on both Thursday and Friday nights, so we took them up on that and got some much needed sleep.

On Thursday night, we watched the last (?) game between the Longhorn and Aggie football teams.  C and O - big news the year you were born centered around Texas A&M leaving the Big XII conference.  I'm sure you two will never watch a game between two Big XII teams, because that conference will likely have gone by the wayside, but for now it's a conference that I love but it's starting to wind down.  It started in 1998 and had a great run there in the 2000's.  Unfortunately, Nebraska and Colorado withdrew from the conference last year and Texas A&M has been itching to ditch it too for a couple of seasons.  In September of 2011, they announced their intentions to join the Southeastern Conference which signaled the end of the historical annual football game between A&M and Texas.  It's a heartbreak to Longhorns and Aggies, but also to all of college football.  It's an important rivalry game that, at least for the foreseeable future, won't be played anymore.  I hope your generation of decision makers gets it right and reunintes these two schools on the football field each Thanksgiving.  We all love that tradition.

Anyways, we dressed you in our school's colors and took some family pics. 

We have so much to be thankful for.  God gave us you, and he gave us to you.  What a generous and deliberate gift.  His goodness is beyond measure, and that's what Thanksgiving was really about.

 Olivia is in the Longhorn shirt and Carter is in the Howdy shirt.

 Olivia is wearing one of Carter's old sleepers (grey and navy).  She had dirtied all of hers - oops!

 Yes, she's too young to be facing forward, but it was just for a few minutes and she really liked it!

Body Image Issues

Olivia is only 3 weeks old and already her doctor is putting pressure on her about her weight.  For her first two well baby checks, she was gaining weight, but not quite as much as he would have liked.  Carter, on the other hand, is such a shining star as far as weight gain and development.  He got kudos from the doctors and nurses in the NICU, and the pediatrician and his staff feel the same way.

Olivia's weight gain was "on the low end of normal", so we had to go back for a third weekly visit to check her weight.  Dr. Dao was hoping she could gain an ounce a day, and previously she had been averaging 0.75 ounces a day. 

We took her back on Thursday and she had gained 8 ounces in 8 days - right where they wanted her to be!  So, now she's a whopping 5 pounds, 9 ounces, and 19.5 inches long.  I'm so proud of my little porker.  Maybe she'll catch up with her brother after all.

The babies turn one month old on Wednesday.  In some ways it seems like this has been the longer month of my life.  The delivery feels like forever ago.  But in other ways, it's flown by.  Time is hard to explain right now.  All I know is that every day with the babies is kind of the same, but it's wonderful so the same kind of wonderful is something I will gladly take right now.