12 Months and counting

Gracie and Bailey are 12 months old and I am asking where did the last year go? Wow, time goes by so fast when you are having fun and we have been lots of fun. At twelve months old here are some of our new happenings....Gracie took her first five steps three days before her birthday. Bailey can now pull up on his own but still is army crawling. We are eating all solids and are down to only three bottles a day at 7, 3, and 8. Bailey eats anything and everything and Gracie seems to have a sweet tooth. We take two naps a day. We sleep in the same room and Gracie is an early riser at about 6:30 and Bailey chooses to sleep in and sometimes has to be woken up! We continue to reach for each other's hand when we are in our highchairs and we are beginning to play with each other. Our favorite game now is peek a boo. We LOVE our puppy dog, Dixie and especially love playing in her water bowl. We will have our 12 month checkup on August 23rd and so we are looking forward to finding out our stats on weight and etc.
Gracie has an amazing personality and she is a girl who knows how to get exactly what she wants. Gracie thrives on being independent and she has changed remarkably since being able to move on her own and go where she wants. She can now take a couple of steps on her own, she loves to stand in place on her own and she is great at walking with only holding on to one hand. Gracie loves sweet stuff and had recently discovered animal crackers but doesn't care for fruit or anything with a funny texture. Her favorite afternoon activity is to go for rides in her little pink car and she loves anything outside. She has quite a vocabulary consisting of "Momma, Dada, Dixie, Baba, Doggy, hello and she can repeat just about anything. Talking on the telephone is a skill that is well developed and if the phone rings in her sight then she must have the opportunity to talk. Gracie has a remarkable passion for animals even though she still calls any animal she sees "Dixie." Daddy continues to put her to bed at night and she usually sleeps from 8:15 to about 6:30. People always seem to comment on her eyelashes which are extra long to make up for her shortage of hair at this time!
Bailey boy is still a Mommy's boy and is the sweetest little guy ever. He LOVES to eat and it is pretty much his favorite hobby. He usually eats dinner and then eats again with mom and dad and then has some type of dessert. Bailey absolutely loves his sister and he wants to do everything that she does. He constantly is watching her and laughing at her silliness. He reaches out for her tries to hold her hand but he is also learning how to swat at her when she tries to take his toys or knock him off the Pooh bus. Bailey is practicing standing on his own and looks at his feet in amazement that they are actually holding him up! Bailey has recently learned how to clap and he loves to dance to music. Bailey can sleep and sleep and sometimes we have to wake him up because he is so cozy in his bed. I recently got my heart broken when I was trying to rock him to sleep and he sat up and pointed to his bunny bed. Have I mentioned that he LOVES his bed! Peek a boo is one of his favorite games and he continues to enjoy flap books. His smile can light up a room in seconds and he is as patient as can be which helps immensely when you are a twin!

Gracie climbing UP the slide, silly girl!

LOVES her birthday balloon!

Sweetest Birthday boy ever.

Birthday twins.

Loving our new wagon that Grammy and Daddy Bob gave us.

Gracie flies with her new dinosaur.

Having lots of fun!

Celebrating two by two

Birthdays have always been a big deal in my family and so as Gracie and Bailey started to approach the 1 year mark "well really ever since they were born" I started thinking about how I could make their 1st birthday extra special. We decided to have a big birthday bash with a Noah's Ark theme since Gracie and Bailey decided to come two by two and they love animals. We really were not able to get ready for the party until right before because with the twins very few house projects ever seem to get crossed off the to do list. We gave the twins their present the morning of the party in hopes that it would help to keep them occupied while we made the last minute preparations. I wanted to concentrate more on them and us having fun so we decided to make things easy. We ordered 20 pizzas and 6 dozen cupcakes and filled the house with animal crackers and lots of balloons. We had about 30 adults and a dozen little friends to help us celebrate the big day. It was mighty hot outside and so we put some tables in the garage to help provide some shade and extra seating. It was a priceless moment when everyone sang Happy Birthday to Gracie and Bailey and their eyes lit up at their 1st Birthday candles. Bailey actually started clapping out of excitement and his little hands made my heart melt. Gracie was ecstatic over her Birthday balloons and she still is pointing to them and saying "Birthday." Their reactions told me that they felt special and that my goal had been accomplished. At the end of the day I was a little sad because I had looked forward to the day for so long but then we just decided to keep the parties going and so more posts are soon to come!

Gracie and Bailey with their present the morning of the party, they loved it!

Our Birthday outfits all ready for the party!

Sidewalk chalk makes any party fun!

Announcing our sweet little one's big day!

Noah's Ark cupcakes were so yummy

All ready to party!

Lots going on at this party.

Amazement of the 1st birthday candles.

1st time eating cake

We love our grandparents

and more partying to come!

1 Year Pics

Photos were taken by Paige Chesier who just started a photography buisness in Johns Creek, Ga

YHC Homecoming

This past weekend we attended homecoming at Young Harris College. Preston and I met at Young Harris College and later got married on the campus and so we were excited to share such an important part of our lives with Gracie and Bailey. We have attended homecoming for years and we missed last year due to me being on bedrest with Gracie and Bailey and so we were excited to see our friends and show off our new additions to the family. Preston and I both loved Young Harris College because we not only received a great education but we also enjoyed the simplicity of the college being beautifully nestled in the mountains. It was HOT outside but the twins did wonderfully and we had a blast reminiscing about our college days.

We are so proud that Preston's little sister followed in his footsteps and attended YHC. She also was honored just like I was to be the Rose for Kappa Tau Omega Fraternity. Kara graduated from YHC this past Spring "with high academic honors" and she will be attending UGA in the Fall. It was great for Gracie and Bailey to be able to spend the day with their Aunt Kara as we love her so much and have missed her since she has been at school!

We had to get a picture with Uncle "Senator" Zell Miller as we call him. We usually see him each year and as we introduce ourselves and tell him that we met and got married at Young Harris he precedes to tell us how he and his wife did the same. He then quoted a saying that was said at our wedding..."YHC is like a shoe factory, they come in as singles and go out as pairs!" We are mighty thankful for our little show factory in the mountains!

Sharing Mom

This past week was my first week back at my job as a hospice social worker. For those of you who don't know, before I had the twins I worked in hospice for about the past six years. It is a job that I love and could honestly say that I enjoy doing it each and every day. The decision for me to go back to work PRN was something that I really struggled with. It was time to renew my social work license which requires 35 hours of continuing ed and you have to pay a costly fee and so I began to question if I should renew or not. Alot of factors played into our decision but the biggest one was me giving the decision to God. I prayed for his guidance in helping me to make my decision. I think it was a hard decision because I feared having to leave my most favorite job which is being Gracie and Bailey's mom and caring for them each minute of the day. The morning I prayed I opened my schedule book that I keep track of daily routine in to find this verse "Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. John 16:24." Earlier in the week I ran into a family at the grocery store who I had helped with their mom and they began talking about what a wonderful experience they had. It was pretty much like God was slapping me in the face while telling me what to do. So I sent the email to my old boss and within a couple days I had things all set up for me to begin working 1 day a week. I know that I am EXTREMELY blessed in this economy to have such an accommodating opportunity that meets our needs perfectly. This past week the social worker who is in my old position had her vacation and so my 8 hours turned into 33hours but I am holding ground and I am planning to stay at 8 hours a week from now on. Gracie and Bailey were cared for by Preston's mom, Becky and then my mom and my sister and her children came to visit for the week and so they had lots of distractions while I was away.

Going back to work is a very opinionated topic as far as people's input on the topic goes. It seems like everyone was so thrilled with me staying at home with my babies but now I am told on a daily basis that "it is good for me to work and get out of the house." Before having children I always thought I would be one of those moms who would say "I have to work because it makes me a better mom" but I was so wrong. I absolutely love every second with Gracie and Bailey, sure some days are more trying then others "when carrying two babies at once, feeding them at once, putting two fussy babies done at one time, cleaning double the amount of bottles and etc " but my heart is happy at home. For their first six weeks I had to leave them in the care of other's hands and now I am blessed beyond belief to be able to care for them myself. I was going to title this "working mom" but I already work at home about 10 times harder then I do at my job so I didn't think it was a suitable title.
What I have realized since returning to work is that I have a gift that God wants me to share with my patients and families. It is a gift of being able to sit on the bedside of a patient who has a life limiting illness and to be able to hold their hand, listen to their fears and help them to say their goodbyes peacefully and to also support their family in this very hard moment in their life. Since being on bedrest for 7 weeks I feel like I can relate more with my patients and really can give them empathy when they talk about missing their belongings, pets, or home environment. Each day at work I am reminded that life is a precious gift and for that I am thankful.

Gracie and Bailey's fun while mom was away!

Into everything and the best 2 dollars

Now that Gracie can walk by holding onto the furniture and the walls and Bailey can army crawl they are into everything and anything! Gracie can maneuver very quickly and will be gone in a flash if our eyes are not glued to her every move. The other morning I was loading the dishwasher and Gracie was playing behind me with some of her kitchen toys and I turned around to find her like this...
Bailey's new favorite obsession is to tear the playroom floor up and to try to eat it if he doesn't have a paci in his mouth. He is a little behind his sister in walking but don't let him fool you because he can get to any destination in a flash and will have the entire playroom floor torn up in a matter of seconds. I have been saying "no Bailey" so much that both of the twins have learned to shake their heads no to me and they think it is hilarious. Bailey obviously doesn't quite understand what "no" means yet. Preston and I walked in the playroom to find him literally tangled "if you will notice his back leg" in the floor.

Today we had the dreaded task of getting new tires on my car. I sure do hate the grown up tasks in life that are no fun and cost way too much money. At least while we waited we had some things to keep up occupied at the mall. This was Gracie's second time on the carousel and Bailey's first. Bailey loved it and rode it with his Daddy. Gracie and I would wave to him and he would pass us and then realize that it was us waving and laugh and by that time he was around again. Gracie rode with me and she was such a ham. She literally would wave to all the people in line for the carousel and then when it was time to get off she decided to wrap both arms around her horse's pole and proceeded to make me pry her from the pole while Daddy was laughing on the other side. I must say that the carousel is our best $2.00 fun ever. We then enjoyed some yogurt and after THREE hours of waiting and not getting anywhere we decided to take our screaming twins to sit by the cash registers in Sears and my car magically was done in a matter of minutes!

First Fourth

This Fourth of July was spectacular because I had my precious angels to celebrate it with. The Fourth of July in the past couple years has been quite memorable. Not many people know this but two years ago Preston and I lost a sweet little baby over the Fourth of July weekend. That weekend I watched the fireworks tearfully while holding a friend's baby. I knew in my heart that one day soon I would be watching fireworks with my own sweet baby but little did I know it would be "babies!" Last year Preston and I watched the fireworks from my hospital room. I can remember it like it was yesterday...we were so excited that we could actually see the fireworks through the trees and I was excited that I had a reason to get of bed for a short period of time. This year the holiday definitely made up for the one's in the past. We joined my sister Paula and her family in Helen once again in order to celebrate the holiday. Preston, the twins and I all stayed in a camper with Paula, Chad and their three children. My mom was also in town because my Uncle Mike from Missouri came into town to visit. The boys played golf and the girls enjoyed a picnic in the park. We had a family fun filled weekend celebrating the independence of our country and remembering those who are serving and who have served our country.

Going for a walk at the campground.

Daddy and his little firecracker.


Girls just having fun! "Doesn't my baby look so grown up!"

Mommy and Bailey acting silly!

Granny and Gracie in the park.

Doubly cute Red, White, and Blue!

Michael and Bailey swinging while waiting on the fireworks.

Our Family's First Fourth!