Teaching the Twins

Another month ends...

2012-01-31T18:24:00.000-08:00

And so another month ends. This month has brought abut some beautiful and challenging changes for me. I am still struggling with a great deal of emotional issues, which I don't think will cease any time soon. While that seems daunting and negative, alas! it is not (all anyway). I am learning about letting go and trying "to be present" everyday with the kids. There are lots of things of which I must let go and not just the obvious.
The kids were playing at the park on an unseasonably warm day last week and I was reflecting back over the past year and what a difference a year can make. I was thinking that this time last year I was getting a group of third graders to achieve in state testing. Everyone in education knows that after Christmas comes test prep!Now, I am teaching college students! Still teaching reading (my favorite) and even still teaching it to struggling students. While I miss many things about the classroom, I feel that this is where I am supposed to be. Clearly God's hand has been in evident in my life. What a blessing it has been to be home with the twinkies during this transition and move. I am just starting to really feel it and relish in the enjoyment of having the time to read books, watch movies, sew, and cook! All of which I do after I have spent the day teaching and playing with my own children (because I'm not falling in the bed exhausted-well, most days anyway).

At church, we have been working on a series about Games and how we need to stop playing games with God and His church. It's time to step over the line and be fully committed to giving, growing, and serving. This is a time of growth for me and clearly God has put me in this place to grow closer to Him. In time's of loneliness, God is often crying out for a relationship with me (when it should be ME crying out for that relationship). It's my hope this year will be a year of growth and release for me. I'm hoping for growth in the Lord and release from the anchors that weigh heavy and me and keep me grounded in this world. (If you're interested, watch this HILARIOUS video-If you grew up on Nintendo and Mario, you'll love it!)
I've made several personal goals this year (perhaps I'll share more in a less winded post) one of which is to read more books. My goal is to read 52 (one each week) which should be easy-I hope! I just finished Eat, Pray, Love and what a relevant book it was for me in my life right now. I didn't always agree with everything in it and our beliefs are quite different, but just as I teach my students about the value in all literature, I did manage to glean the desire for God, enjoying what he has giving me, and finding balance in this crazy hectic life!

And enough of the waxing poetic.....

Here is the completed January Homeschool Plan that I posted at the beginning of the month. I have done a little color coding on this chart. Anything that is yellow did not get accomplished. Anything that is pink was added and not on the first chart. Anything in blue or pink was done! I thought it would be neat to see how much we actually got accomplished. Call it the "data driven" teacher in me, but I want to see some growth!

And here is the new calendar for February. Of course, we're doing Valentine's for the first half of the month. My plan is to do some activities about dinosaurs for the second half of the month!

If you have hung in with this post for this long, you deserve a treat! I wish I could have you click a link and get a Target Giftcard, or chocolate chip cookie, or whatever it is you like! But, I cannot do such fancy HTML coding. I can give you a penguin and fish rhyming game to play. If you would like it, just click Penguin Rhyme Time.

Happy End of January-
K

PS. Our January Book list is completed! We read something all but two days this month, for a total of 75 books read and 51 different titles read! That's pretty exciting (I think anyway-I know, I'm a nerd!)

A Little Freebie for you....

2012-01-29T17:24:00.000-08:00

This is the first time I have created a Freebie for my site! It's kind of exciting. I was making this little conversation heart coloring page for my twinks and I thought I would up load it here as well. It is full of very simple sight words (the first few on the Fry list I think). Sister knows all of these. Brother knows about half. On a positive note, sis decoded a lot of two letter words this week (mostly rimes, which is great!). I'm so proud of them! If you use the sight word coloring page, I would love to know what you thought-Happy coloring!

Just click here to see the worksheet.

I'll be back later this week to tell you new things I'm planning for homeschool for the month of Feb!

2012-01-23T14:09:00.001-08:00

This week at our house.... (Well, two weeks actually)

I'm a little behind on the posting. Sorry to the two of you who read this blog (Grammy and Nona). Oh wait my Aunt Robin just told me she was reading it, so that makes three! We went for a visit to Poppa and Nona's in there and we had a birthday party of J-Man! So, we've been trying to stay busy in the meantime. We're continuing our snow theme, even though as I see the weather report right now, it is currently 60 degrees in our neck of the woods. Oh well. Fine by me.
Here are some things we did:

We talked about Penguins and where they live. The kiddos can also tell you that polar bears and penguins live at opposite poles. They can also tell you that the daddy penguin stays with the egg while the mommy goes back to the ocean for food. And that the leopard seal eats the penguins.

Here are a few math things we did. We worked on making winter shapes with pattern blocks. We reviewed the shapes (especially trapeziod and rhombus). And then we did a little sy-mitten-try (sorry, couldn't help it). They both really liked this. I think it was because they got to smush their paintings!

I saw this cute little snowman on Pinterest and wanted the kiddos to make them. I added a little math to it by having them make the square in a pattern. They also had to draw the circles themselves. You can't really tell by Brother's squares are stacked on top of each other. They also had to cut out the squares themselves from strips of paper (for some cutting practice).

Yes, we are still obsessed with The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats as mentioned before (see previous post). I found this mixed media art from Pitter Patter Art and knew it would be perfect for my two. Brother chose the last page for his art and mostly painted and painted, while Sis chose the sledding/sliding Peter for hers. I cut out the Peters and they glued them on to their paintings. I think they came out great!

Here is Brother's art.

And here are Sis's.

This project is a crayon resist. I have LOVED crayon resist since I learned about it in my Art for Education class. I have probably used it as my "go-to" artsy activity for a lot of different ages. For now, I wrote the kiddo's names in white crayon and drew some snowflakes on their white paper. Then they water colored on top of it. They ooohhhed and ahhhhed. Brother even said it was "Magic Paint." And here's the best part-They were still and quiet for at least 30 min!

Here's one of the last things we did last week. I've been working on a few sight words with the twinkies. Sis has her's down pretty well. Brother still needs some work, so I thought I would make a kinesthetic activity! I taped down sight words on the kitchen floor. Each kiddo had their own color. When I shouted out a word they had to jump on it. It was so fun! We'll definitely be playing this one again. I'm getting ready to read Boys and Girls Learn Differently, which of course I know, but my schema ;) is limited, so I'm going to read some to build my background knowledge.

I also have our book list to post and another few things, but the oven timer is beeping at me, which means the meatloaf is ready! I'm also back at work for the new semester and I have a bit of a commute this time, so things get hectic from time to time (anybody else feel that way?).

Happy Learning!

The Snowy Day

2012-01-08T18:26:00.000-08:00

My children apparently do not read the weather report! It has been unusually warm here, but we've been doing nothing but reading about SNOW! Our new obsession is Ezra Jack Keats' The Snowy Day. So this week we did a lot of crafts and learning games with our good friend Peter and his snowy day. We will definitely have to get some more of the Peter series books! Here's what we did this week:

We got a new Melissa and Doug alphabet magnet set for Christmas, so we've been sorting lowercase and uppercase everyday. We've also been spelling our names and other simple words.

This is brother's "Don't See Me" face. He does NOT like to have his picture taken (most of the time), and yes, sometimes we do work in our pajamas!

We also made snowflake stamp paintings like the end pages of The Snowy Day (for some reason it is not letting me italicize or underline the title, which is really bothering me!).

I made those stampers with foam stickers stuck on bottle caps. I LOVE pinterest!

To continue our winter theme, we made these cute little handprint mittens

(remember I'm a sucker for a handprint craft!). They turned out SO cute!

For a little math, we made snowmen using lots of different shapes and we talked about sizes and order and so on. We also reviewed the shapes we used (hexagon, trapezoid, rhombus etc.).

I'm so glad the princess was able to join us for this activity!

We've also been working really hard on sight words. We played a new sight word memory game, which brother LOVED! It was the first time that he wanted to say the words and it wasn't like

pulling teeth to get it out of him.

Another Snowy Day activity we did was work on sorting beginning sounds. We sorted "Starts with S" things from the story and "Does not start with S" things from the story.

We also did a little interactive writing with this and the kiddos wrote the beginning letters for the pictures.

We also made a flow map of the sequence of the story. We had to reread it a few times to make sure we got it correct, but trust me, they didn't mind! I'm working on getting all these things together to make sort of a Snowy Day Tot Pack out of it, but I'm about halfway finished.

Another thing I am trying to do this month is chart what books we are reading each day. I thought it would be neat to look back at the end of the month and see how many books we read. Here is what we read this week:

Sunday: The Snowy Day, Berenstein Bears Count their Blessings, Berenstein Bears Too Much Junk Food

Monday: The Snowy Day, Tops and Bottoms, Asparagus to Zucchini: A Vegetable Alphabet

Tuesday: The Snowy Day, The Biggest Snowball of All, Let it Snow, Mine-a-saur

Wednesday: The Snowy Day, Brave Irene, Put Me in the Zoo

Thursday: The Snowy Day, Ready, Set, Skip!

Friday: The House that Jack Built, Put Me in the Zoo, Lost Little Monkey

Saturday: Jan Brett's Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Construction Countdown, The Great Dogwash

Wheeewww! That is a lot of work in a week! It was a great week and we got a lot accomplished! I love being able to be with these two little miracles. Thank you God for giving me the opportunity.

Something New!

2012-01-02T19:20:00.001-08:00

Since it's a new year, I decided I would post something on here that I've never posted before. I know you are all waiting with bated breath! It's a RECIPE! I've never posted one before and I thought it might be fun. This is an old recipe that I've made a million times. It's so good and easy! It freezes great and we always have leftovers. This soup is also great the next day! I love stuffed peppers, but with three year olds, it isn't too easy to eat a giant pepper! So this is sort of an "Unstuffed Pepper Soup." I think this recipe is something I modified from Taste of Home, but I honestly cannot remember. I hope you will try it (and like it, of course!). Let me know if you do!

Here is what you will need:

And of Course:

And here are the simple directions:
1. Brown the hamburger, onions, and green pepper and drain. Set aside.

2. Mix can of tomato soup and one can full of beef stock.

3. Add drained hamburger mixture to the tomato soup mixture.

4. Add cooked rice to mixture.

5. Heat on low until desired consistency is reached! So good!

Owl Moon

2011-12-29T14:29:00.000-08:00

I personally LOVE the book Owl Moon by Jane Yolen. I used it all the time in the classroom when I was teaching Readers' and Writers' Workshop. It has beautiful, rich language that greatly demonstrates wonderful writing. In addition, it tells a beautiful story of a little girl's simple adventure with her Pa (almost every kiddo has a simple adventure story to tell!) While I know the twinkies are too young to understand some of the poetic devices found in this book, I'm a big believer in exposure to great literature leads to great readers and writers! So I read the story aloud and we talked about the season and what the little girl was doing. We also talked about what sound an owl makes and where animals are hiding in the book (this will lead to another activity later). After we were done with the book, we made a shape owl with handprints (I'm a sucker for a handprint craft) and talked about all the shapes in the owl (we know all of these already, but reviewing is VERY important!)Here is a cute little picture of our owls!

And the finished product...

A little later, we worked on sight words by playing a fine-motor clothes pin matching game.

And finally we continued to work on our alphabet border for our "classroom."
This idea is from Totally Tots, which has amazingly cute ideas to do for all kinds of ages! My goal is to put Upper and Lower cases all the way around our "classroom." We have a ways to go, but I think it looks really cute already. When we are reviewing these letters we play the usual guessing games (What sound does it make? What are words that start with this letter? etc. We also practice writing that letter as well). Here we are working on the letters...

...and here it is up on the wall!

We also worked on some other crafty things around the house. I'm hosting a crafty night tomorrow night with my girls, so I wanted to get a jump start on my crafty list! (Don't worry girls, I didn't do anything we are going to do tomorrow!) I also managed to do three loads of laundry, made pork tenderloin and sweet potatoes for dinner, and read a few chapters in my book! All in all a very successful day!

Merry Christmas and January Fun!

2011-12-27T19:05:00.000-08:00

Well I hope everyone had a marvelous Christmas! I know we did! We had a great time with family and all of us received WAY more than we could have ever wanted. We are truly grateful for all the wonderful memories that were made, despite the circumstances.
For Mommy School in December, we did a lot of wonderful activites (labeling Santa, making Santa hats, handprint Santas) and we did focus on the REAL reason for the season and made footprint manger scenes, labeled the manger, made the nativity out of toilet paper rolls, and did this AMAZING nativity pack from Over The Big Moon. I have lots of pictures to show from those activities, but I have been working in reverse for a few months now, so you don't get to see the things we are doing until after the "season" is already done, so I thought I would try to do things a little different this time. I am posting our January "schedule" for Mommy School now. Let me just tell everyone out there that, yes, I was a teacher for 8 years, but, no, that does not mean the same thing as homeschooling! I am very new to that part and since I have never taught the littles before, I really have no idea what I'm doing! A lot of our homeschooling is just like parenting-trial and error. I try something and see if it works. It might work one day and not the next. When I began this Mommy School, I was making plans for each week. That was WAY too structured for us. Part of the reason I want to homeschool is because I want to really slow down and enjoy things (family visits included!). So then I switched to just a daily list of things I wanted to get done, which worked o.k., except that I didn't really know what I had accomplished for the entire month and I couldn't remember which activities we had and had not completed. So this month I decided to do a "Monthly List," which just lays out the entire month, but things are organized by subject rather than by day (too much pressure to get everything in each day!). So I print this out and it is hanging on my fridge. I just mark off the things that we have completed and certain things I do EVERDAY (sing ABCs for example).
This month we're focusing on Winter/Snow/etc. and SIGHT WORDS!! So far, the kidlets know the following sight words : I, am , a, the, and. We're working on reviewing those and learning a few more (which I haven't narrowed down yet!). They can also recognize their own names and their sibling's names, and "MOMMY" so we usually include those too. The "Art/Craft" section will be done as a response to the literature that we read. It is pretty interchangable as to what book and craft go together, so I can just choose which one I feel like doing that day. I have a great teacher friend over at The Garretts who has taught the littles and I glean from her amazing knowledge from time to time to make sure the activities I'm doing are developmentally appropriate. Anyway...we've already completed some things on this list (even though it isn't officially January yet) as I would much rather have to add more things to do than to feel like we didn't get everything accomplished. Some things are a review (like the alphabet-mine already know all letters and sounds)but I wanted to throw them in so we can decorate our classroom!

January Monthly Mommy School

Hapy New Year to you all and kiss and hug your kiddos!

Party on Dude....Ummm, I Mean Dad!

2011-11-27T08:54:00.001-08:00

We had such a blast at Dad's surprise birthday party! He turned 60 the weekend before Thanksgiving and retired from his job of 38 years in EMS. He secretly knew something was up, but we still managed to pull a surprise on him I think! We all dressed in our best 60's gear (get it? Since he was 60 haha)

We got a lot of our ideas from Pinterest like this picture idea:

and we all wrote him letters to tell him a fun memory that we had of him.

Even the cake was tie dye!

Of course the kiddos LOVED the balloons best!

Here is the present we got for dad, which he loved! I asked each kiddo what they loved best about Poppa and then I typed it up on a little sign for them to hold and took their picture. J said that he loves Poppa because he "tickles my toes and watches TV with me." E said she loved Popps because he "drinks coffee and chases her down the hallway." It turned out really cute and it was such a simple, but meaningful idea!

It's always fun when the fam all gets together! Happy Birthday Dad!

Thanksgiving Activities Continued

2011-11-27T07:14:00.001-08:00

Well, sorry about E's silly face in this pic. Apparently she has had too much turkey! This is a cute little activity I made for the kids. We did so many activities with this one little mat. It just has turkey body on it and the feathers are separate. Here are some activities we did with just this one little guy!
-We made patterns with the feathers
-We counted the feathers
-We rolled the die and put that many feathers
-We put some feathers on the right side and some on the left. Then we compared the sides (which has more? etc.)
-We put some feathers on the right side and some on the left. Then we counted them altogether (this is really adding sets!)

So much math with just one little math mat! I LOVED this activity AND I will definitely be able to use it again next year for more complicated math concepts. I didn't get enough pictures of some of the other things we did, but here are some more. I took this turkey coloring page and put capital and lowercase t/T all over it. I also mixed in other letters (especially ones that look like T!) and the kiddos had to stamp the T. We also read This is the Turkey and Thanksgiving Day by Gail Gibbons. I'm a sucker for Gail Gibbons nonfiction! We did the typical art projects too (handprint turkey, mosaic turkey, etc.)

Hope everyone enjoyed their Turkey Day and didn't get hurt on Black Friday!

And now on to Christmas!!!!!

2011-11-14T18:24:00.001-08:00

Yes I have two crazy turkeys in my house! We have been having fun with all our Thanksgiving activities. Here are a few that I wanted to share with you. Most of them I have found via pinterest (which, by the way if you are not pinning yet, you really should be-It's awesome!).

This is a beginning sounds game, which my kiddos LOVE! I thought this might be a challenge for them, but it was not at all. It was so easy for them that I'm going to have to make more!
So basically it is just a cute little seasonal pic (you could do whatever) and three options for a beginning sound. Then you punch holes in cardstock below the letters. The turkeys then take a pipe cleaner and put it through the one they think is the beginning sound. Then they can flip it over and look for the sticker to see if they got it right (I think that's their favorite part!)

We have also been doing a lot of matching with dry erase markers, which my turkeys are obsessed with! They had a matching activity at church the other day that was difficult for them, so I thought we should practice that! The worksheets can be found here

One big project we have been working on is a Thanksgiving Book. If any of you really know me, you know I'm a little obsessed with book-making. I loved to make books when I was in the classroom. I really think it helps students/kids love books that much more. So we've begun the book making process here!

Some days we get a lot done here (homeschool wise anyway) and other days.....

..... it's just too much to do homeschool!

We have a big birthday coming up this Friday for our Poppa! I can't wait to post some pictures from what we are getting for him! He will love it. P.S. Nona if you're reading this, don't say anything to Poppa!

Halloween Costumes and Sewing

2011-11-03T07:39:00.000-07:00

Here are just a few pics from Halloween, Pumpkin Patch and a cute litle skirt I sewed for Sass!

These are of our trip to the Pumpkin Patch. That's brother giving the scarecrow a high five when he finished the little kid corn maze, which was neat. At each station the kids had to trace an animal print and once they got them all they were done. They did this one with Nona while Uncle Do and I did the big one, which was fun (but HARD!)

These are from Trunk or Treat at Nona's church where Sass and Brother were Raggedy Ann and Andy. I was supposed to be a housewife from the 50's, but it was raining and really I just looked kind of pitiful-HA! The second is from Halloween night. Everyone usually congregates at my Aunt Robin's. Usually we're not able to, since we lived too far away-Not anymore! SO we had chili and just hung out. It was nice to be with family. That's Brother and Sass and Baby Jonah in the middle. They just all happened to have their skeleton pj's one. Brother's pants have gone MIA though!

Here is the cute skirt I made for Sass! Super easy and CUTE!!! She wore it everywhere this season-Pumpkin patch, church, Halloween parties!

Halloween Activities

2011-11-03T07:22:00.000-07:00

Well, we really didn't do too much for "Halloween" homeschooling per se. Not necessarily because I'm against it or anything like that. Time just simply got away from me. We spent two weekends at different pumpkin patches and we went to Trunk or Treat, so between all that, I just didn't have a whole lot of time to make any activities. Here are some things we DID get around to doing:

-We measured the pumpkins we got at the patch using our different lego blocks and unifix cubes
-We made a shape scarecrow, which was a lot of fun. I gave the kids a completed copy and they had to try and figure out how to put it together, which was surprisingly difficult for them (Note to self: more work on this later!)
-Our favorite activity was the candy corn match. We had the three parts of the candy corn with the capital, lowercase, and a picture and they had to line them up all correctly. They LOVED this activity and they were SOOOO good at it!

I also did some sewing in October. I made this cutie little skirt for Em and some scarves. I wanted to do a few fun things before the Christmas activities begin!
We also took a week out to do dentist activities because the kids had their first trip to the dentist at the end of Oct. I'll post some of those activities next! I can definitely say they were VERY well prepared. The kiddos also had their first trip to Dollywood this month! So all in all, very busy!

Apples Unit Plan

2011-10-24T17:52:00.001-07:00

Being a teacher for seven years has really helped with the homeschooling of the twinkies! Although I have never taught in the lower grades have have definitely never taught Pre-K, I'm just trying to use what I know to plan the best activities for my kiddos! For the month of September, we foc used on an Apple Theme. I started the planning by picking the books we would read. These are all books I had from my classroom collection. We read at least one of these a day. Many times we read two or three!

Then we worked on tree activities. Here are some of the tree activities we did:

tore paper "leaves" for fine motor development
matched colored stickers to the coordinating Xs on a tree to make the apples
put different colored apples to match with letters (ie-capital letters are red apple stickers, lowercase are green apple stickers, non-letters are yellow)
add the coordinating number of apple stickers to match the number on the tree trunk
added apple rings to the tree using a toilet paper tube dipped in red paint

Back to Blogging!

2011-10-24T17:39:00.000-07:00

Well, it has been an extremely long time since I did any blogging, but with a full time teaching job and twins, it was just way to hard to find the time. We've had quite a timultuous summer, which included a big move and a job change for me! During this difficult time, we found out boy twinkie is allergic to A LOT, which makes it a challenge to plan his meals. But some wonderfully miraculous things have happened as well. We've moved closer to family and I am working as an adjunct at a local college, so the twinkies no longer have to go to daycare! While I thoroughly loved the daycare we were attending, it has been my desire since the twins were born to stay at home with them. I am so blessed! God is good all the time and ALL things work together for the good of those that love HIM!

Fall Fun!

2008-10-19T14:21:00.000-07:00

Pretty much since the babies were born, we've had someone visiting our house (usually grandparents!) for the weekend or day. This weekend, Nonna and Poppa visited from Crossvegas. They came up on Thurs. night, which was great because I had parent/teacher conferences and Chris had a terrible headache, so they were able to watch the babies. Then, on Friday, Uncle Do went to school with me and Nonna and Poppa stayed at home with the babies. It was great! Uncle Do helped me get a TON of stuff done at work (since I have been leaving pretty much as soon as the bell rings lately!) and I didn't have to worry about the babies at all. On Saturday, we went to the local pumpkin patch and picked out some cute pumpkins for our porch. We got a daddy, mommy and two baby pumpkins. It was very windy out, but we managed to get a few pictures. Then we had lunch a did a little shopping at the Avenue. All in all it was a great weekend.

On a related note, I went back to work this week and the babies started daycare. I really like where we have them. It is a relief not to have to worry about them. Of course I wonder what they are doing throughout the day, but I don't have to worry if their diaper is getting changed or not. I had a pretty good week at school, minus two small incidents on Tues. I really like my class this year, so that is something positive. When I got back, I remembered how much I really do love my job!

Chili's Gang (I'm trying to beat Clarissa to the punch!)

2008-09-30T18:04:00.001-07:00

So for a couple of years now, my teacher friends and I get together on the occasion Friday after school. We started it when we all worked at Waldron and since the schools split, we have kept it up. It is so good to get together with friends and hear about all the fun things happening at their school. Usually they know the things that are going on at our school before we do!!! Last year was quite hilarious as all the preggos were there eating oh so much Molten Lava Cake.
This was the first meeting of the year for this school year. I'm still on maternity leave, but I was not about to miss a get together with friends. I brought my two kiddos and Clarissa brought Jackson. The twins and Jackson share a birthday. I was shocked at how big Jackson was!!! He is exactly the same age as my twins and he weighs 14 pounds!!!!! That's even bigger than Eliza who was born two months earlier. Hopefully the next time we get together, we can have Eliza, Holland,Clare and Cullen there too! What a fun little play group we would have!!

Too Cute!

2008-09-30T11:19:00.001-07:00

How adorable is this little picture??? I love it. It is sooo cute. I love that they are holding hands!! Not much to blog about. I just wanted to share this picture of my adorable children!

2 month check-up

2008-09-23T07:43:00.000-07:00

I cannot believe that my babies are two months old! Wow...these past two months have flown by. Yesterday we had our two month check up with the Dr. For those of you that don't know, babies get shots at two months. It was not so fun. It was quite heartbreaking to hear those little cries. Not only was it done once, but twice. Jake went first and then Emmy. We scooped them up as soon as it was over and gave them a bottle, which made them feel a little better. They were pretty much conked out for the rest of the night.

Jake now weighs 9lbs. 8 oz. and Emmy weighs 8lbs. 9 oz. They are both about 21 inches long. Emmy isn't gaining weight quite as well as her brother, so we're adding some rice cereal to her last bottle. Hopefully, that will put some weight on. Overall, they are doing well. They are cooing and smiling and grasping at things already. Here are some pictures from a little photo shoot we did over the weekend.

I said it's great to be....

2008-09-21T15:35:00.000-07:00

a mommy! I know you all though I would say a Tennessee Vol, but alas, no. It is very sad to be a Tennessee Vol as of late. Tennessee football has been such a disappointment so far this season. Titans football on the other hand has been very exciting.
Back to the Vols....I bought these cute little outfits for the kiddos long before they were born and we put them on them before the Florida game. Daddy said if we win, they have to wear them every Sat. Oh well....I guess that's the end of those outfits. We do have Titans outfits, but they are way too big right now.
For those of you that keep up with us, we have another doctor appointment tomorrow. The twins have to get shots, so daddy is going with us this time. I do not want to see my kiddos get shots (sniff, sniff).
The countdown is on for me returning to work. I go back in three weeks. I have been working on lesson plans while I have been off. I've been working on a unit for the book The Bad Beginning. It would normally take me about 2 days to do it, but with the twins, it's taken me about 4 weeks! I'm a little apprehensive about returning to work for a lot of reasons, but I'm sure once we get into a schedule, it will be o.k.

I'll update more tomorrow when we get back from the dr! For now, here are some photos for your viewing pleasure!

Labor Day Festivities

2008-09-06T11:06:00.000-07:00

Well, since Chris was off for Labor Day, we decided to trek to Knoxville for the babies' first visit with grandparents' houses. We thought we were going to get a good start because Chris got home around 2:00 the Friday before. I had just fed the kids, so it was a good time to go. By the time we got everything loaded up in the car, it was time to feed again, so we had to wait for that. Then we finally took off. Jake was not happy, so we stopped in Lebanon to check his diaper. He finally calmed down after that. As we started off again, we hit a HUGE traffic jam. It took us about an hour to go 9 miles. Of course, Emmy started to scream. We assumed this was because she was hungry and the car wasn't moving anymore. We got off at the first exit we could to feed the babies. I had a bottle, so I fed Emmy and Chris gave Jake a bottle. When we got the babies out, we saw what Emmy was screaming about. She had the biggest blow-out I have ever seen. She had poop all over the place! It was all in her car seat and even in her ear! I had to give her a baby wipe bath in the McDonald's parking lot. Soon, we were on our way again. We traveled back roads for a little while to get out of the traffic, which we managed to do. It was about 11:00 p.m. when we got home. Needless to say, what would normally be 3 hours at most took about 5. It was not too fun.

The next day, Chris went to visit his family and I took the babies to see my Nanu. Everyone enjoyed seeing the babies. They were held and spoiled the whole entire time. I was so glad that Nanu got to see the babies. We got a lot of good pictures with the babies.

Then on Sunday, we headed to Crossville to visit with my Granny and the other side of the family. They were having a cookout at my Aunt Betty's house, so we visited Granny and then went to the cookout. Everyone enjoyed seeing the babies there as well. My only complaint was that it was outrageously hot. The babies were passed around to all kinds of people and they were extremely hot, which is pretty uncommon, so we left after visiting for a few hours. The twins and I feel asleep on the way home. In fact, Chris has a pretty incriminating picture of me sleeping. By the time we got to Grammy's that night, we were all exhausted. The babies slept well and Chris and I did too.

Finally, on Monday, Chris visited his family a little more and the babies and I hung out with Grammy and Poppaw. Soon, we were on our way back to Smyrna. The babies slept the whole way home, so we were afraid that they might not sleep that night, but that was definitely not the case. In fact, they slept the best they had. Jake slept pretty much all night and it scared me to death! I'm just not used to it (but I'm getting there

All in all, it was an exhausting, but enjoyable weekend. We had a great time visiting with family and everyone loved seeing the babies.

Six Weeks Old!!!

2008-09-06T10:05:00.000-07:00

I can't believe the babies are six weeks old. They have changed so much since they were born. They are starting to make lots of cooing noises, which Chris and I just love to hear. It is quite amazing how much they have grown. Jake now weighs more than his sister (finally!). He weighs 7 lbs. 9 oz and Emmy weighs 7 lbs 7 oz. Must be all that breastmilk! I have thoroughly enjoyed being home with them. Although some of this time is unpaid, it has been worth every penny. Your life really does change when you have kids and you can't really remember your life before them.

In addition to the cooing sounds, the babies are close to sleeping through the night. They are only waking up once at night now instead of twice. They can usually sleep from about 1 a.m. to 5 a.m.

I have about 5 more weeks until I go back to work. I am dreading leaving them all day, but I do have to go back to work and I know they won't remember this time, since so much of it is spent sleeping!

It's such a wonderful thing to be a parent. I was beginning to think I wouldn't get to experience it. I am so blessed and grateful to God for giving me these wonderful little miracles to take care of. I only hope I can do the very best things for them!

A Birthday Surprise!!

2008-08-27T11:40:00.000-07:00

At the end of August, Erin's husband, Brandon, planned a surprise party for her 30th birthday. He did a great job planning because she had no idea we were all going to be there. She was quite startled when she came into her pitch black basement and we all yelled surprise. It was great to visit with friends and everyone loved seeing the babies. Eliza and Emmy enjoyed playing together (well, sitting and crying together) and Erin and I had a nice time catching up. We had wonderful food (thanks to Brandon) and great cake. Emmy was upset when we left, so she cried the whole way home. I think she wanted to sleep over at Eliza's house for her first slumber party!!! We had a great time. Here are some pictures from the event.

PS The babies turned one month old last week. I'll have pictures and a blog about that soon. Keep checking!

Three Weeks Old!

2008-08-13T17:54:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe that the twins are three weeks old! Everyday brings something new. It is so neat to see the little smiles (even though I know it's just gas for now) and to hear all the little sounds they make (even the cries).
We have been visiting Dr. Rosser once a week, per his request, to be weighed. He has twins, so he knows how important it is to make sure they are putting on weight. When we left the hospital, Jake had dropped from 6 lbs. 3 oz to 5 lbs. 8 oz. Now, three weeks after birth, he has surpassed his birth weight and is up to 6 lbs. 8 oz. He still is no match for his sister who was 6 lbs. 11 oz. at birth, but dropped to 5 lbs. 15 oz before we came home. She has put on the weight and is now at 6 lbs. 15
oz.

Parenthood is truly the hardest, but most rewarding job ever. Chris and I are enjoying every single second because we know just how fast it goes. These past three weeks are the proof!

A field trip

2008-08-13T12:55:00.000-07:00

Last week, the twinkies and I took a little field trip to LLE and RWS. I know, field trips are supposed to be AWAY from school, not to a school. It was a teacher work day, so all the teachers would be there, but no kids! I wanted to show the kids off, but I didn't want a lot of germs around, so I figured that would be the best day.

Everyone was really excited to see the twins. They were quite popular! The fourth grade teachers took turns holding and playing with the babies while I visited with Erin and helped all the EA's work on my room. The sub I was originally had planned backed out, so Mr. McCann had to hire someone new. Everyone did a great job working on my room. Erin worked on my room instead of her own, which was so sweet if her.

After we visited at LLE, we drove down the street to visit at RWS. We didn't see as many people there, just Stephanie, Jennifer, and Surles. Surles and I compared noted on raising twins (his were born in June). Clarissa called Stephanie while I was there, so it was nice to hear from her too!

All in all, it was a great day! We were out and about for the majority of the day and the kids did wonderful!! Surprisingly, I am doing well with the navigation of twins and all their gear! We're going to Knoxville for Labor Day, so well see how well I navigate that.

Here are some pictures from our little field trip.

Life with Twins

2008-08-02T11:27:00.000-07:00

Life with newborn twins has been quite exciting! We had our twin babies, Jake and Emmy on Tuesday, July 22nd. Both were born at 9:49 a.m., within seconds of each other. Jake came out first and Emmy followed very shortly after. Jake weighed in at 6 lbs. 3 oz. and Emmy was a whopping 6 lbs. 11 oz. That was quite a lot of baby! They both had a little difficulty feeding at the hospital and lost some weight. We're working on adding that back on. We left on Friday and enjoyed a somewhat quiet night at home. From that point on, each night has been different!
Chris returned to work on the Tuesday after we went home. This day was quite difficult for me, even though I had help. Hormones from pregnancy and childbirth can be a beast!!!
We've had a few visitors that have enjoyed seeing the babies. Mostly family has been by, but also the girls I work with. Erin brought Eliza by to "play" with the babies in the hospital and after we got home. Then Beth, Melanie, and Melissa came by to visit as well.
We are loving learning all about the babies. They each have such a different personalities. Jake is laid back and very quick to inform us when something is amiss, like when he needs a diaper change or is hungry. Emmy is high maintenance and is such a daddy's girl! She loves when Chris rocks or holds her. It has been a blast so far and we're both enjoying every little minute because we know it will fly by before we know it!

More Doctor Fun!

2008-07-01T09:03:00.001-07:00

So I had quite an exciting weekend. I was supposed to have an NST test on Fri., which I did go to, but not with my regular dr. It was with the "practice nurse," which I can honestly say I will NEVER do again. She wasn't happy with how Emmy was responding to the test, so she sent me over to Labor and Delivery for an ultrasound....GRRRR. I should have said no right then, but I didn't. So off we go to L&D. I get hooked up there and hang around for a few hours. Then I finally have an ultrasound. Then I think I should get to go home, right? WRONG. I have to stay and eat and then they have to monitor my blood sugar, which is two hours after I eat. After that they inform me that I am having monster contractions, which I cannot feel at all, so they want to keep me over night.....I WAS SOOOOOOO MAD!!!

Anyway, I finally got to go home the next morning, so I slept most of the day on Saturday, seeing as how those hospital beds are none to comfortable.

Yesterday, mom and I went downtown for ANOTHER ultrasound to check out Emmy's head. It is a little oblong, but it's only because she is squished up next to her brother. Everything else is fine, so thanks to all of you who said a little prayer!
We also learned that she is a whole pound bigger than her brother (she's almost six pounds, he's almost five-So for those of you keeping track, I'm carrying 11 pounds of baby).

I go see my regular dr. on Thurs. and we're not too sure how much longer he will let me go, so the babies could be here soon!

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer!

Latest Dr. Appointment

2008-06-24T13:25:00.001-07:00

So I went to the dr. yesterday and found out some very good things! The babies are five pounds each and I'm not dialated at all. My dr. is going out of town this week, so that is very good. I definitely do not want to have these babies without him!

He also noticed that Emmy's head is slightly oval and he is sending me to have another scan at a maternal fetal group in Nashville. This could mean a few things. She could just be squished and since babies bones are softer, that would make her head oblong. It could also mean that she just has an oval head. Most people don't have a perfectly circular head anyway, right? The worst case scenario is that it is an indicator of spinal cord issues and neural damage. The dr. doesn't think this is the case because we would have caught it before 34 weeks. It still doesn't make a momma feel any better. I can't get in to see the other dr. until next Monday, so I have a week to wait, which is agony.

This is very stressful, just because we don't know things right now and we have to wait, which is difficult.

I just wanted to update everyone and ask for prayers for our little Emmy.

Old Men on the Block

2008-06-18T14:59:00.001-07:00

O.K.....So I was watching t.v. the other morning and this came on VH1. How funny! I almost fell off the bed (not a good practice for someone in my condition). I have to say that I, like oh so many my age, did indeed love the New Kids. I was slightly disappointed in this video for several reasons. Number One: it's about a particular season, so you know it will be played every summer for the until kingdom come. I mean really, look at Will Smith's Summertime. That song is three days older than dirt and I heard it the other day on the radio, just because it's that time of year. Brilliant move New Kids. Number Two: Where are the snappy dance moves? I was very saddened just to see a little arm movement floating around (very reminiscent of the Hangin' Tough video). I assume the moves are missing due to the geriatric nature of the gentlemen by now. I mean, come on, they must be pushing forty at least. What a trip down memory lane. It did take me back to middle school at least!

Father's Day

2008-06-16T18:51:00.000-07:00

So, technically, Chris isn't a father yet, but he can feel the babies kick him and they are already draining his wallet, so I figured that alone made him worthy of Father's day gifts. We'll call it a pre-fatherhood father's day. After breakfast, I gave Chris his gifts, which included a cute little book that he can read to the twins called, I Love My Daddy Because. It's a cute little book that shows animal babies and their fathers and says all the reasons why daddies are great. I also got him a video camera case for his new "Daddy Cam." Finally, I got him a cute little t-shirt that says, "Real Men have Twins," which he wore with pride.
After that my parents came up to get Chellee, whom we had been dogsitting, and we went to Opry to look for two outfits to have the kiddos pictures made in. We were not very successful, because we are pretty sure they are going to need preemie size.
On Saturday, my dad, stepmom, and brother came up to see our new house. Then they took us to lunch at Jim and Nick's.
It was really nice to see all the dads in my life on one weekend! I can't wait until next father's day when the twinkies will be here to help us celebrate as well.

More Proof that I need a medical degree!

2008-06-16T18:44:00.000-07:00

In my previous blog, I forgot to mention that I have been testing my blood sugar as well, which is oh so fun. I have to test four times a day by sticking myself with a tiny needle and then putting my blood on this little testing strip. I take medicine to keep everything stable, but sometimes it doesn't quite work out so well. Occasionally, my blood sugar gets too low and I get sick, or it gets too high and guess what? That makes me sick too. It's quite common for moms of multiples to have gestational diabetes because of all the hormones swirling around in there. Fun times!

Can I Also have a Medical Degree?

2008-06-15T19:30:00.001-07:00

So, as many of you know, I just received my Masters degree in Education, which was quite a task considering my condition! It was quite difficult to make it through this last semester with the twins, but I am so glad that I pushed on through. By far, this was the most difficult semester. Melissa and I had such a horrible professor (but that's an entirely different blog). Anyway, since I am progressing further along in this pregnancy, Dr. Castelli has asked that I come in twice a week now. Once a week I have an NST test and the other time, I have an ultrasound. An NST test occurs when I am hooked up to the fetal monitors (one for each baby) and also a monitor to watch for contractions. At this point, I think I can hook myself up to the monitors and read them correctly. I know how to fix it when the babies move and the monitor no longer reads the heart beats. I am also learning what all kinds of things mean (BPP for instance is an ultrasound that just tells the basic facts about the little ones). So for that reason, I think that after this pregnancy is over, I would like my medical degree in obstetrics please! Perhaps I would make more money and then I could afford to take more maternity leave!

P.S. Stephanie enjoy reading....I'm trying to do better.

Eliza Grace!

2008-06-03T19:19:00.000-07:00

I am so excited to announce that Eliza Grace is here. Erin went to the hospital the day school got out early and then little Eliza came the very next day. She is so adorable. She has been doing remarkably well. Erin, too, has been doing well. I'm glad she's going through all this stuff first so she can offer me tips and tricks!

Two Preggos!

2008-04-13T18:26:00.000-07:00

It is so very cool that Erin and I are preggo at the same time! Who would have thought? And, no we didn't plan it (we get that a lot). You can see that I am getting vast in this picture, but Erin is hardly showing at all! I have to say that she has popped out there these past two weeks, but she is still so tiny!

It is also quite exciting that a bunch of people we know are expecting right now. There are three of us at work. Clarissa and I are a mere two weeks apart and Surles and his wife are also having twins. The Chili's gang is expanding quite quickly. We need a picture of all the preggos (although Bates is no longer preggo! Her baby is already here). It is very fun to experience such a neat time with a lot of good friends!

Baby Bedding

2008-04-13T18:21:00.000-07:00

Here is the bedding we have picked out for the nursery. It was VERY difficult to choose something for both boy and girl, but I love this bedding. It is very appropriate since I am a teacher! We have a white crib, though, so it will look a little different. I can't wait to get in the new house and get the nursery put together. We are moving around the first of May and mom and I are eager to get to work putting they babies' room together. What do you think?

Car Seats, Strollers, and Bouncers Oh my!

2008-04-13T18:01:00.000-07:00

So we have picked out lots of interesting things for the babies! We spent this weekend purchasing some goodies. We bought one car seat (the other one will come soon). Babies R Us gives us a discount since we are having twins, so we went ahead and got the car seat. It coordinates with the stroller we want and it snaps in the stroller. We sometimes have a difficult time picking things out since we are having one of each gender. We like what we got because it isn't too masculine or too feminine, so those kiddos should be quite happy! Here are some pictures of the car seat and stroller.

Baby Updates

2008-04-13T17:48:00.000-07:00

Things are progressing very quickly with the pregnancy! I can't believe I'm already six months. Chris has really started to feel them jump and kick and I can definitely tell which twin is kicking me. Emmy kept me up all night last night because she wasn't comfortable I guess! She was also very active in church this morning. After I got her settled down, Jake started in on the kicking. I'm sure such is the life with twins. When you get one settled, the other will act up. We are both so excited. I go to the dr. again on Thursday, but there will be no ultrasound this time. I'm taking the glucose test, which has mixed reviews from my preggo friends, but hopefully I will pass the test!

We think we have found a daycare, which is quite an undertaking. For those of you out there who have never be honored to search for a daycare for infants, let me give you one piece of advice, start early! I really like the daycare we picked. It came on the recommendation of a girl I work with and after visiting there, I was pretty much sold. This was a big answer to pray, as many of you know how difficult it is to select a place where your children will be for a large part of the day.

Check back for an updated preggo pic sometime this week.

There's a first time for everything!

2008-04-13T17:43:00.000-07:00

So as Chris sits and watches baseball, I decided to blog a little. I wanted to make this blog to keep everyone informed about the babies and what is happening with our little family. The past few weeks have been crazy and the upcoming ones show no sign of stopping. We have just bought our first house, which we are extremely excited about. We wanted to find something before the babies got here, so we searched furiously for something that would fit our needs. I am also finishing up my Masters degree (so we can afford the new house!) and if all goes well I should be finished by the beginning of May. Chris is working tons of overtime (so we can afford daycare!) and is dreading the move, but looking forward to the new house!