Flying on a Jet Plane

We are now a jet-setting family of four! Having kids drastically changes everything especially how you travel. We debated for months on how we would take our first trip to GA to introduce the boys to their family they hadn't met . Do we fly or do we drive?? Each had their pros and cons but in the end flying won out. I am so glad we chose to fly because the boys did awesome! I seriously thought we would be "that" family with the screaming kids you are stuck beside on a flight but no my boys were awesome! The slept, played, looked around at all the people and just were such happy babies. I was so relieved and it was so nice to hear all the compliments on what good babies they were. I am sure 12 hours in a car divided most likely over 2 days would not have been as pleasant as this. We did have a delay in Atlanta but they took everything in stride. We decided to  fly infant in arms which worked out well plus gave us lots of cuddle time.

(Jackson asleep in the Atlanta Airport)

 We are so thankful to the Messersmith's who let us borrow their carriers so we could maneuver around the airport easily. The worst part was TSA, just because you had to unpack everything and it seemed so scattered trying to pack everything back to where you can get to it when you need it. Overall I was very surprised by the smoothness of our trip. When we got to town Grandma, Grandpa, MiMi, Pop-Pop, Aunt Kait Kait and Uncle Ben were there to meet us at the airport! After a quick change and picking up luggage we set off for my Great Aunt Sara's house . My Great Grandmother, Granny Bowen,  is 99 years old and was placed on hospice 9 weeks ago our prayer has been for her to meet the boys and today she did! 

In fact we had a five generations in the room it was such a blessing! 

She has been waiting to meet these boys since we told her we were expecting last October. I was so happy to see them in her arms she held them and kissed on them, we video taped it and took pictures. I told her about how Jackson was named after he husband Ollie Jackson and she said she was so proud it was a beautiful moment for our family tonight one I will never forget! The boys were able to not only meet Granny but Aunt Sara, Aunt Linda, Jamey, Uncle Chris and Aunt Sarah, and Uncle Ben.  

Jax and Grandpa 

 Uncle Chris holding James with Aunt Sarah- it was the first time he has ever held a baby

Jamey and Jax

We all ate dinner at Blackbeards tonight for dinner, which is actually were we told everyone we were expecting twins at. It was such a joyous night I am so happy to be home and my heart is so full! 

Happy Birthday Pop-Pop

HAPPY BIRTHDAY POP-POP!

The boys got to skype with Mimi, Pop-Pop, and Aunt Kait Kait tonight. Mainly they wanted to wish their Pop-Pop a  very happy birthday! We cant wait to see y'all next week!

Loving Life as a Family of 4!!

Hey Everybody! It has been forever I know! We dont have internet at our house just on our phones so updating the blog has been a huge challenge!! We are doing great loving our new life as a family of 4. As most of you know after our sweet boys were born they spent some time in the NICU due to their early arrival. They came home a lot sooner than the doctors anticipated and have been thriving! Bob and I were blessed to have family around for James and Jackson's first 6 weeks of life which was a HUGE help as we adjusted to two babies in the house. We also were incredibly blessed by our church family who provided meals for us for three weeks when our parents left. We are so in love with our beautiful boys and so is Izzy! She is such a little mama to them it is too cute! The boys are doing great and are growing so much!  They will be 8 weeks old Sunday which is crazy to me it seems like them were just born! Currently we are trying to sleep train them so that is proving to be a challenge especially when you have two babies. We know it will be worth it, especially when we can sleep longer than 3 1/2 hour increments. It has amazed me how much our lives have change and how smooth the process has gone to adapting to two babies in the house. I say smooth because I am sure it could be a lot harder. Sometimes thought of what  life must be like with one baby saying parents of one child must have it made (this is usually in a very sleep deprived state when we have two screaming children) but I can not imagine nor do I desire our life any other way. It is a crazy life but wonderful. I have found the key is organization otherwise you wont survive with multiples.  Looking back to last year I could never have imagined that we would be parents to twin boys today but I am so incredibly joyous that God choose to bless and grow our family this way. Bob and I will celebrate our 2 year wedding anniversary on Memorial Day time has flown by. I could not have asked for a more wonderful husband or daddy!
Soon we will be making some more transitions at our house. Bob will be quitting his job to stay at home with the boys when I head back to work in June.  To sum it all up our life is crazy as you can imagine but we are doing great and still appreciate your prayers especially as I get ready to head back to work. Don't worry I wasn't going to leave you without pictures :) and hopefully I can blog again soon!

Moving Day

It is moving day and I am on bedrest. My sweet husband stayed up all night to finish packing. Now he is off to class before the move. I am so thankful we hired movers for this it is alot less stressful. I will be so happy when we get everything in our little house one less thing before the boys get here. The one sad thing user won't have internet so I will try to blog from my phone. Happy moving day hopefully I will eventually get pictures up of our house.

We are MOVING!!!!

I am so excited to make this post. For months Bob and I have been looking for the perfect rental house to live in, we have searched and searched. Finally last week Bob and I found the perfect house. We then found out we were not the only ones who fell in love with the house. So after a week of anxious waiting we got the long awaited phone call today! We GOT THE HOUSE!!! We are so excited! This will be the perfect house to bring our two sweet boys home to.  It is 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, and brand new! It has a beautiful kitchen, the perfect room for a nursery, and a wonderful master suite! We are beyond elated!!!
 Don't you just love it, it is so cute!

Let the packing begin!

Catch Up...

I need to play catch up. I know is almost the end of January but time has really gotten away from me! Christmas was great a little bittersweet as this was our last Christmas as a family. Bob and I celebrated Christmas in North Carolina with the Smithermans, McIntyres, and Lewis'. We are so blessed to have a wonderful community group from church that has become like family to us. The day after Christmas we had tons of snow as you may remember from my last post.  January has flown by I absolutely forgot to make New Years resolutions but to be honest I am not sure what to expect this year. I can not believe in just a few short months we will be parents and not just parents to one baby but two an instant family of four. That is mind blowing!  There is not to much to catch you up on simply because our lives are pretty quiet right now. Bob started back seminary last week. He is taking a full load and hoping the babies come during spring break, we will see. I have had to reduce my hours significantly at work because of the babies, but as long as I am not on bed rest right now I am a happy camper we are just having to learn to be very frugal with our money. Our biggest obstacle lately has been that our lease is up right when the babies our due so we having been trying to deal with our living arrangements. We live in a 2 bedroom apartment now and are really tired of apartment living thanks to our loud, obnoxious neighbors. We have been looking for place to move for a few months now. We decided that even thought the housing market is ideal for buyers right now we are not going to try to buy a house because we are not sure how long we will be in North Carolina. Bob has about 2 more years on his MDIV but is not sure where he is going to get his PhD degree from. We began looking at houses to rent but did not really want to raise our expenses with the cost of two babies we are adding to the budget this year. This has proven to be a challenge since things are way overpriced up here. Last week we actually found a house that we liked that is closer to the seminary and our church family and only about a 10 minute increase in my work commute. We are going to look at it today. It is actually a brand new house that the owner bought just for rental purposes so far it seems like an answer to prayer so hopefully it will all work out. I will keep you posted. I think you are all caught up on our life now. I told you there was not to much going on!

Christmas Snow...

 It was a white Christmas night.  Last night it began to snow. The snow kept falling throughout the night and the prediction was for us to get about 2-3 inches. We woke up this morning to a Winter Wonderland. When I measured the ground we had 7 inches and it was still falling. It has been flurrying off and on for the day. It is just beautiful.

 Izzy loves the snow too!

A little snow day video:

Merry Christmas!!

Wishing you and your family a very Merry Christmas!

Izzy and Santa...

I took Izzy to see Santa at Petsmart today. She was not to sure about him but finally she looked at the camera and we got two really cute pictures.

They let anyone take a picture with Santa for $10 and $5 of that goes to homeless pets. You get two digital prints and picture frame. I think next year we may just have to go back with the boys and Izzy it was a lot less chaotic than the mall and a cost a lot less. Sorry the picture is poor quality it is a picture of a picture since my scanner will not work. 

Book Review: Two Tickets to the Christmas Ball

As you may know I am part of Waterbrook Multunomah's Blogging for Books program.  I absolutely love doing this since I am an avid reader of Christian fiction. They have recently revamped their program so it has been a while since I have had a chance to review a book. Since it was almost Christmas I decided to review Donita K. Paul's Two Tickets to the Christmas Ball. I have never read one of Mrs. Paul's books before and I am always looking for new authors.

This was a charming and entertaining story of two people who have been around each other for years but this holiday season they are brought together by unexpected encounter at a peculiar bookstore. After their encounter at the bookstore they each find themselves in possession of a ticket to a very special Christmas Ball thanks to some very unconventional matchmaking booksellers. This spurs on an interesting series of events that will leave Cora Crowder and Simon Derrick with a holiday season they will never forget. 

This was a very different book for me to read. Mrs. Paul intertwines faith and fantasy in a way I have never seen before and I quite enjoyed it. I would encourage you to give this book a try. It was very entertaining in it's quirky narrative. Even better throughout the narrative Cora is able to truly catch the Christmas spirit reminding us all of the reason we celebrate this time of year. Grab a cup of hot chocolate and cozy on up in your favorite reading chair and dive in to this delightful book. 

Here is a link  for you to download the first chapter of "Two Tickets To The Christmas Ball"

You can also purchase this book at Waterbrook Multnomah 's Website in hardback or ebook format. 

"I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review"