Babies' first Christmas

Christmas was spent at the lake house, and I can say with certainty that it was the best Christmas I can remember.  Well, I guess that's not entirely true.  I remember Christmas as a young girl.  Those were so wonderful.  My parents always went all out for Christmas, gift wise.  More importantly (not then, but I recognize that it is now), we celebrated the birth of our Savior in the Christmas season.  We had an advent Calendar each year in which we'd count down the days.  I remember one Christmas Eve, before church, sitting down on the couch with Mom and Dad while they read us the Christmas story from Luke's gospel.  And of course, they always took us to church on Christmas Eve.  Very special.

But this Christmas was special because it was the first Christmas with our own little miracles.  Not only did we celebrate the birth of the Christ child, but also the birth of our children.  It was the first Christmas with cousins also, for Carter and Olivia.  Morgan and Caroline were a joy, as we got to watch them open presents and see Christmas through their eyes.  In fact, I have a story about Morgan on Christmas morning that I want to remember forever, but I think I'll make that another post.

Anyways, I guess I don't have any pics of the present opening, but I do have several family pics taken on Christmas Eve before we went to church at Cedar Creek UMC.  It was kind of a crazy portrait session, but I think many of them turned out pretty nice. 

Olivia and Dad:

Morgan trying to prematurely open a gift.  Don't worry, Liah didn't let her.

This is right after Liah removed the present from Morgan's hands.  Hence the tantrum.

Here are the babies, loaded up and ready to go to church.  Grandmommy bought them these adorable Christmas pajamas.

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.