Halloween and Other Diverse Miscellany
First, let me post some Halloween pictures of some pretty awesome dudes:
Alright. Blog is done!!
Ha! Not really. So on Halloween, we had two construction workers driving some their sweet tractor rides, a football player (Liam), Starlord from Guardians of the Galaxy (Ethan), a 14th century doctor (Dave), Strawberry Shortcake, and a random French woman (my mom). We took the boys to Crosspoint Church of Christ's Trunk or Treat. It was the babies' first 'for fun' trip ever. They seemed a little overwhelmed with the amount of people, but it was really great being able to introduce them to our Crosspoint family. Of course, while we were there, we lost Liam. He had made a beeline or the bump-n-jump. Thankfully, there were people watching out for him until we located him again. Leave it to us to lose one of our kids...
We've been staying busy in this household. All the boys caught a cold just after my last post - Ethan and Owen first, followed closely by Liam and Emmett, then Dave and I both caught it. Luckily, it was a MILD rhinovirus strain and it only caused a short overnight stay for Owen in the hospital. By the time Emmett caught it, we knew what to expect and how to manage it.
After that, I executed the final steps to my phase 1 of minimalist living. Our garage went from this:
To being spacious, though not empty enough for my liking. We had a ginormous garage sale. I was pleased with the final product. This is what we had left:
Isn't that incredible?! we donated 6 boxes to goodwill, and I had a few boxes of the babies' clothes and some of my maternity clothes that I donated to Thrive (an operation looking to help young pregnant women). It's kind of embarrassing just seeing how much STUFF we had! So I have started phase two in my minimalistic journey, and let me tell you, I've got it pretty bad! Everyday I wake up and can hardly wait to dig into the books and crannies of our house to trash and organize everything. I feel like I'm nesting all over again, but I'm not - I'm purging, and it feels great! I bought a few new articles of clothing (4 shirts and a scarf), and donated 6 shirts and a scarf that I rarely wear!! Even after having the garage sale, I have packed up and donated four more boxes of clothing and household goods! Phase two is looking to be a huge success as well! Currently, my goal is to sort, donate, trash, and organize things into like piles/locations (I.e. All pictures in one place, all tools in one place, etc.) once this is complete, phase 3 will commence, and I will return to my "piles" and sort, organize, trash, or donate again until all items in my house have a place, and all items are IN their place. This is going to be great. I'm so giddy about our progress!!
The babies have become VERY mobile. In the picture above, the weather was nice outside, and both babies were headed for some outdoor time. We have taken them for a walk around the neighborhood a few times.
With their newfound mobility and general curiosity, I had to create a box that would allow them to pull their feeding pumps and drain bag around WITH them without yanking out their buttons. This is our system:
I know I have a picture of them USING their mobile-boxes, I just can't find it!! Not to worry, I will post one soon.
In the meantime, the babies are becoming well established at the Dallas Scottish Rite Hospital. There are many specialists that the boys are able to see there, and it is nice having one, central location for the majority of their appointments. Dr. Renard (the lead pediatric suregeon who led the separation surgery) told us at our last appointment that he didn't need to see us again unless there was a problem. I'm really not sure how I feel about this. Greatly saddened. Thrilled that they are doing well enough that they don't need recurrent visits. Unfortunately, I can't hang on to all the people who have meant so much to us over the past couple of years, but I CAN remember them, and hang on to pictures of some of them!
As our early doctors and specialists are beginning to phase out, we have a new set of doctors stepping in to help with the different hurdles that the boys are facing (scoliosis, developmentalists, hand specialists, etc.). We still have PLENTY of appointments to attend each week, so our routine has not changed a lot, we are just seeing new faces.
One last picture, and I'll be done for now.
As you can see, I've got my hands full...all the time, and I love it. Ethan is such a huge help when he gets home from school, he plays with the little ones while I cook. He's such great entertainment for them, and ALL the boys light up when he comes home. Liam is such a cutie that it's hard to not let him get away with ANYTHING. And the babies are, well, into everything. Exploring, opening cabinets and pulling content out, making messes, you know...the usual 16mo old stuff.
3 good things;
1.) Dave allowing me a girls night of painting and fellowship with some pretty amazing ladies
2.) HOLIDAYS!!!!
3.) God revealing Himself in such incredible ways.
"We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves."
~ 2 Corinthians 4:7
