The Twins are Here!

The twins arrived into the world at 9:10am and 9:11am. Amelia Kate beat her baby brother, Luke Allen, by one minute. She weighs 6lbs/4oz and is 19.75 inches long and he weighs 6lbs/12oz and is 19.5 inches long. The babies are doing amazingly well. Tiffany is recovering from her C-section, but other than that is doing well too.
Audrey and Luke:

Ford, Amelia & me:

This past weekend, I went on a women's retreat with my church. We went to Natchez Trace State Park and stayed at a lodge there. It was a wonderful, peaceful weekend and it was nice to spend it with the sweet ladies from my community group and church. Here is the view from our balcony:Sunday afternoon, after I got home, Scott, Ford and I went to the park. Here is a picture of Ford at the park in his cute Master's shirt from Grana and Papa Forest.Here is a funny picture from the park. Notice the "big" boys playing on the slide. Whenever Ford sees "big" kids, he likes to stand in close proximity to them. When they laugh, he'll laugh really loudly as if he is part of the conversation. It really is a hoot to see. Those boys were probably eight or nine and couldn't have cared less that Ford was standing there. Thankfully, at this age, Ford doesn't really know the difference.This past week, we had dinner with Suzanne and her sweet baby Benjamin. We were so glad to be able to spend some time with Suzanne and Ben. Look how cute he is!A strange phenomenon happened last week. Ford took a long nap and when he woke up, I went in to check on him. He didn't want to get out of his bed. We've only been allowing him to have his poppy (pacie)when he's in his bed, so that may have been why he wanted to stay in there. I asked him if he wanted to read his books in his bed. He said yes and I gave him a few books and told him to yell for me when he was ready to get out. About every five of ten minutes I would go check on him, he'd ask for more books and I'd tell him to yell when he was ready to get out. He stayed in his bed and "read" quietly for over an hour! I couldn't believe it!
Well, I guess that's all for now. I'll end with some pictures from the past week. Ford in his Yoda shirt from Uncle Greg:
Ford this morning before school:
Ford likes to stand with his hands in his pockets:
Ford eating dinner with his friend from church, Tyner:
Eating breakfast with mommy (notice the snow through the windows). Ford is saying cheese:
Hopefully my next post will be pictures of the twins on Wednesday! Have a safe and wonderful week!

Twin Update

If I have calculated correctly, Tiffany is 36 weeks pregnant today! What a wonderful milestone to reach in a multiples pregnancy! Tiffany is scheduled to have a C-section on this coming Wednesday, March 5th. It's so exciting for our family!

If you get a second, say a prayer that Allen and Tiffany will have a restful weekend, that they'll get to spend some quality time with Audrey and that everything will go well on Wednesday!

I'll post an update the minute the twins arrive!

What's goin on?

With us, you ask? Not much. But, I'll let you know about this past week of our lives.

Ford goes to Playschool on Mondays and Fridays. On Valentine's Day, one of the other kids, Conner, was sick and his mom was supposed to take a Valentine snack and read a book to the kids. So Ford went in Conner's place and I took heart shaped cookies and read a Valentine book to the class. These aren't the kids that are usually in Ford's class, so neither Ford nor I knew these kids. But, by the time I picked Ford up at the end of the day, he had two buddies, John and Simon.
Ford and his new friend, John (look at those curls!):

Alex and Ford's cute, sweet teacher, Miss Kelli:

The rest of the the Thursday class and Ford's other cute, sweet teacher, Miss Emily:

We reached a huge milestone in our renovation process. With the exception of a few minor details and me getting out rugs, things to hang on the walls, etc. we have several rooms that are complete...the living room, dining room, Ford's room, our bedroom, laundry room and three hallways! Ford's room is still a mess, but here are pictures of some of the other finished rooms.





We have also been working on a master bathroom since the beginning of the year. The plumbers are coming on Thursday to hook everything up! We'll have a few other details to take care of , but it will be a functional bathroom by the end of the week! I'm still going to do an entire post dedicated to before, during and after pictures so you can see how much progress we've made. It's very exciting!

I'll end with a cute picture of Ford in his John Deere cap (which he insisted on wearing to school yesterday):

I Should Have Known...

I was looking through a 2006 calendar last night and ran across where I had written that Ford rolled over for the first time. He rolled from his tummy to his back when he was 3 1/2 weeks old...about the time that this picture was taken.

LOOK HOW LITTLE HE IS and he rolled over! He was crying and grunting and he put his forearm out beside his head and kicked his left foot until he pushed himself over. I couldn't believe it, so I put him back on his tummy and he did it two more times.

I should have known that this was an indication that I had a very persistent, strong-willed boy!

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day! If you are reading this, you have a special place in our hearts and we love each and every one of you!

Ford's first Valentine's Day:
Ford's second Valentine's Day:

My Last First Date

My last first date was exactly eight years ago today. Today marks the eight year anniversary of Scott's and my first date. It's easy to remember how many years we've been together because we started dating in 2000.

I met Scott in September of 1999 at a gathering for my friend Abby's birthday. We were all single and in our twenties so we were celebrating at one of our favorite hang-outs, Jonathan's in Hillsboro Village (it has since changed ownership - man, I miss their pizza). Abby worked at CNA insurance and most of the attendees worked there too, including Scott. I remember introducing myself to Scott and his friend Dean and that's when we met.

(Neither Scott nor I can remember the chronology of the next two paragraphs of the story. But, this is how I remember it).
We had the same circle of friends, so I would run into Scott at house parties and on nights when we would go out. One night, about a week or two before our first date and before I even knew we were going to have a first date, Scott and I were talking about our mutual love of the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team. We started talking about old players one of us mentioned Joaquin Andujar. I said he was a pitcher and Scott corrected me and said he played in the outfield. I disagreed and said he was a pitcher. So, Scott bet me $30 (I'm not sure why it was $30) that he wasn't a pitcher. I took the bet.

I ran into Scott the next night, January 30th, at a Super Bowl party that our very own Tennessee Titans were playing in. He confirmed that I had in fact won the bet and that he would be good for the $30. As I was leaving after the Titans lost, he asked me for my phone number and I gave it to him (verbally).

He called me about a week or so later and asked me out on a date. I said yes and our first date was on Friday, February 11. I give a hard time that he didn't want to waste a Saturday night on me so he asked me out for Friday night.

He picked me up at my house in Sylvan Park, walked in and handed me $30 (I won the bet, remember?) and I took it! Then we went to 12th and Porter (which is now defunct) and bowling at Melrose Bowling Alley (which is also defunct). We had a fun time and after the date I remember thinking there was something different about Scott than the other guys I had dated.

That was the last first date I've been on. I looked and looked for a picture of when we first started dating and I can't find one. I must have been too superstitious to have one taken!