Merry Christmas

Christmas Morning this year was absolutely perfect because I awoke to celebrate the Birthday of Jesus with my precious family of four! I told Preston that I already had everything I needed this year with my Gracie and Bailey and that my heart was content. I really did not want to do presents this year but Santa insisted and so we just did a couple..Santa brought mommy a new glider for the nursery and he surprised Daddy with a video camera. Gracie and Bailey's big present were their highchairs. Preston's family came over to our house on Christmas morning to watch the twins on their first Christmas and we celebrated with mimosas and Christmas Breakfast.

Christmas morning in our home

Mommy and Daddy with the twins big presents

Gracie in her Christmas pajamas

Aunt Kara feeding Bailey his Christmas morning breakfast

Daddy Bob and Bailey before Christmas breakfast

Daddy helping Bailey open his present

Aunt Kara and Daddy helping the twins open presents



Pretty much right after our Christmas breakfast we packed up the car and headed to Macon to celebrate with my family. We were very grateful for Preston's mom staying to help cleanup and watch the twins as we packed the car for a very long holiday trip to Macon and the Beach trip. We just barely were able to fit everything in the car complete with Dixie in the front seat and Mommy in the back in between the twins! The twins had a blast celebrating in Macon with all of their cousins. Santa brought all the big cousins beanbags this year and they were a big hit!

Bailey borrowing one of his cousins beanbags!
Bailey, Mommy, and Daddy with our new side by side jogging stroller!

Bailey with cousin, Molly Kay.

Each year we celebrate Christmas with Preston's family on Christmas Eve at his parents home. We start the night with the Christmas story scripture from the Bible and then his mom has somebody read the Christian version of "Twas the Night before Christmas." Preston's little sister, Kara is usually Santa and has the job of handing out the presents. Bailey got his first laptop from Grammy and Daddy Bob and Gracie received her first Madame Alexander doll.

Mommy and her sweet little one's at Grammy and Daddy Bob's house.

Aunt Nicole and Bailey in his Santa hat.

The McFarland Boys!

Our Family on Christmas Eve!

Tis the Season to be Jolly

I was beyond excited about the holidays this year with our expanded family. We started off the year with decorating our house the weekend before Thanksgiving. We had help in town from my parents and sister and so we knew we would be crazy if we didn't get the decorations up while we had help. I have to admit I was a little disappointed that the twins seemed to pay more attention to the news on TV then the Christmas tree but they seemed to enjoy it more and more each day and I am sure that next year it will be an even bigger hit then I would like it to be! As a stay at home mommy it was especially nice for me to have the decorations up to enjoy during my days. The twins and I had so much fun singing all the Christmas songs which gave us a break from our everyday songs that we sing throughout the day!

These are some of our photos taken at my parents home that we used for our Christmas card. I was so excited to have Gracie and Bailey on our card this year.


I absolutely love the way that Gracie is looking at her daddy in this pic!


Mommy is all ready to go to her Inpatient Hospice Unit's Christmas Party. Uncle Parker and Aunt Nicole were sweet to babysit so we could attend. Daddy and I had a great time!

Our Family pic with Santa at Preston's work Christmas party. We are SO blessed that Preston's work has a family Christmas Party that provides fun activities for the children and babysitters! Gracie and Bailey were on their best behavior for the party and we all had fun.

Last but not least....we hosted a Christmas Party at our home for our extended family. It was great because so many relatives had not yet had a chance to meet Gracie and Bailey and so it was the perfect opportunity to reconnect with family.

Thankful Thanksgiving

One Thankful Mommy!

This Thanksgiving was almost indescribable for me in so many ways. Thanksgiving is a time when I reflect over the things in which I am thankful that God has blessed upon me and this year there were so many that it was difficult to concentrate on the magnitude of the blessings that had been bestowed upon me.

First of all my heart was grateful for an ever loving God that pursues me and challenges me in so many ways and loves me unconditionally.

Preston would have to be next on my list of thankfulness as his love was magnified over the past year with his faithfulness to serve his family in unthinkable ways. Do you all know that for six weeks he worked from 8:00am-6:00pm and spent every lunch break at the hospital with me and then stayed every weekend night and many weekday nights when my mom was unable to stay. This was all in addition to doing the household chores and responsibilities. I can honestly say I am thankful for an awesome husband who now is an amazing daddy!

In addition to my husband caring for me this Thanksgiving I was reminded of my family and friends who showed their love in so many ways from my mom spending every Monday to Thursday sleeping on a hospital sofa bed and the rest of my family and friends for helping out in so many ways.

Most of all I was thankful for my gifts of Gracie and Bailey. I never thought that my heart could have so much thankfulness or that one person could feel so much love. What an amazing BLESSING it is to be a mother and experience this love.

We celebrated two Thanksgivings this year. The first was in Macon and it was spent with my mom's family of about 15 extended relatives from Virginia, Texas, Missouri and Chicago. It is a tradition that we celebrate Thanksgiving early because my mom says it is more important for us all to be together then to celebrate on any one day. Every year we start the festivities with attending Christmas in the South which is a huge craft fair in Macon. We then have dinner at mom's house and end with our annual bunco tournament. This year we added a wine tasting that I sat out of due to the fact that I am still feeding the twins but it was fun to watch everyone else have fun!

One very Thankful Family of Four!

Bailey loves being the "real baby doll" for all of his girl cousins!

A holiday can't be complete without a sister pic! "Laura, Mary Ellen, Paula and me!" My mom and 3 out of 6 of her siblings: Mike from Missouri, Paul from Texas, and Mark from Chicago!

On Thanksgiving day we celebrated with Preston's family at his parents home. We kept it pretty small this year since we are still trying to keep Gracie and Bailey out of the crowds but it was very yummy as we always enjoy Becky's cooking and spending time with family.

Aunt Kara loving on a sleepy Gracie.

Uncle Parker and Aunt Nicole spoiling Bailey!

Daddy Bob and Bailey.


Two tired Thanksgiving twins!

First Date

Obviously this wasn't our first date ever but it was our first date in a very long time! We had lots of "dates" in the hospital when I was on bedrest but a hospital bed and takeout just aren't as fancy as a real date! When Gracie and Bailey were in the NICU we had numerous people to tell us to "take advantage of our time" and to enjoy ourselves by going out on a date. Well....they obviously knew very little because we had very little time between Preston working full time and visiting the NICU on his lunch breaks and evenings and me visiting every single day numerous times including the travel time to and from in addition to pumping milk every 2-3 hours for my two little one's left very LITTLE TIME for much of anything. Most nights we were lucky if we got to eat dinner in the car on the way to our visit. None of this is to complain because I thrived off these visits and I wouldn't take a single one back but more then less just to explain. It also surprised me how people really don't think about the emotional toil of having an infant in the intensive care unit, I am sure if my friend's children who are years older were in the ICU then they would think very little of going on a date! Ok enough explaining.....So my parents and sister came up to babysit and Preston and I enjoyed a nice dinner at a local restaurant called Normands Landing. It was very yummy as I love seafood but I have to admit that we talked about Gracie and Bailey and how much we loved them just about the entire date! I know our eyes showed love for one another but we seemed to still be in a honeymoon state of love for our little ones. These are a couple of pics of the big date night!

Three Months Old

Where has the time gone? I can't believe that my Gracie and Bailey are THREE MONTHS OLD! It seems like just yesterday I was still in my hospital bed in room #7 at EJC Hospital waiting for them to arrive and doing my best to keep them from arriving too soon! They have grown so big and we have been in awe of watching them grow and develop from being so tiny. I feel so blessed that we have Gracie and Bailey at home with us now. I can remember the many nights of driving home from the NICU and smelling my hands because I missed the smell of my babies and the feeling of sadness of not being able to take them home with us was heart wrenching. Since bringing them home we have enjoyed every second and have tried to do our best to capture all "the firsts." As of 11/10/09 Gracie weighs 8pds 8 ounces and Bailey weighs 9 pds 9 ounces. Gracie is eating about 90 ccs and Bailey is up to eating 120 ccs. They both have started to smile and cue and are attempting to "baby talk." We love doing tummy time, playing with toys, and listening to books and music. The twins are still on their monitors but their last report was very good and so we are hoping that soon we can decrease the use of the monitors to only at night time. We are getting a little more sleep with the twins going four hours some nights and mom and dad are adjusting to surviving on very little sleep! Mom is grateful when she has helpers during the day but is learning to feed them both at the same time and has developed a daily routine. We are looking forward to the upcoming holidays and can't wait to spend them with our sweet babies. Each day is a blessing as we are reminded that miracles really do happen!

Now to compare how big we have gotten....

Kathryn Grace McFarland 3pd 3oz to 8pd 8oz

Preston Bailey McFarland

3 pounds to 9pds 9ozs

and finally our blessed and happy family of four!

Fall Fun

One of my favorite times of the year is Fall. I love Fall because it is the beginning of the Holiday season. Holidays to me are special because it means spending time with family. This year has been so much fun because we have little one's to celebrate with. We started off our Fall with taking a trip to the Kinsey Family Farm. We were a little nervous about taking the twins out but cabin fever had set in big time at our house and to avoid insanity we hopped in the car and said let's go! I am not quite sure what we were thinking because if a double stroller doesn't turn some heads then a double stroller with twins dressed in costumes will certainly get some attention. Gracie and Bailey were absolutely the celebs of the farm and we had so many people asking questions and saying how cute they were. It was a beautiful day and we had a wonderful time picking out two little pumpkins for two very special babies.

Halloween was next on our list to celebrate. We have always loved answering our door to all of our trick or treaters in our neighborhood and we usally have some type of get together at our house. This year it was so much fun to have our own two little one's to dress up as a giraffe and pink leopard even though they were a little bit too small to go trick or treating. We starting off the day with our cousin Lauren and Aunt Mary visiting. Lauren was a big help with sorting out all of the candy! Next we went to Grandma and Grandpa's to watch the GA game. The game was not much fun but we enjoyed visiting with family and filled our tummy's with Grandma's yummy tailgating treats.

Then we came home and so many trick or treaters were already out in the rain ringing door bells. Aunt Mary and Uncle Brian came with our cousins Lauren and Andrew and Mom and Dad decided to swap kids. Mary and Brian stayed with the twins while Preston and I took "princess Aurora and Batman" my niece and nephew trick or treating. Our neighbor's all commented "my the twins have grown fast" when they saw us with Lauren and Andrew! It was fascinating to see our Gracie and Bailey all dressed up like big kids and we thanked God that they were here with us to help us celebrate our first holiday as a family of four!