We Tried a 1 Year Old Photo Shoot

It was a fail!  A big fat fail!!  But ARE cute little bitty one year old's if I do say so myself.

The problem might have been #1 - a dog they could finally get to, and #2 cows mooing at the them, and mooing up close! Oh well!

Elissa and Ellie's First Year

On this day, a whole year ago, right at the moment I am typing this, we brought not one, but two perfect, healthy, happy baby girls into this world.  And our lives were forever changed.

We celebrated yesterday with a "Sugar and Spice and Everything TWICE" party with our family.  Today we went to Sunday School, church, and out to eat Mexican.

I will post pictures of the birthday party later, as I've got to do a better job at keeping up with the blog.  But this is one thing I wanted to do for the party and just never got around to doing it.  Some of these pictures were taken with the iphone and their quality may not be very good.

Here we go:  The year in pictures!

Minutes old, in the delivery room.  Ellie on the L, Elisa on the R. I have laughed and cried at the comments on this picture after it was posted on face book. I'm happy to report that Ellie has lived up to her expectations based on this picture!

1 week old, their first time to be back together. This was still in the NICU.  Sid and I were afraid to ask to hold them together.  When Mimi got back to town, at 1 week old, she got the job done!

2 weeks old, HOME AT LAST!!!  This was right as we got home, at two weeks old, waiting on big sister to get home.

3 weeks old, stretched out in Poppy T's lap.

1 month old!

8 weeks old, first trip to Mimi's house for Uncle Chris and Aunt Erica's wedding.

2 months old.

4 months old! Christmas time!!!!

5 months old.  Ellie was not happy apparently.

6 months old!  Looks like they grew by leaps on bounds in just one month!

7 months old!

8 months old!

9 months old!

10 months old!

11 months old!

 12 months old!!!

This past week, as I have reflected on my last week pregnant with them a year ago, to giving birth to them, to spending 15 days away from home in the NICU, to the way of life we had to adjust to when we finally brought them home, to where we are now, I have just been overwhelmed.  There were many times over the past year that I wasn't sure we'd make it out of the moment.  But we did and here we are!

These babies bring joy and happiness to our lives that we never knew existed.  These babies made Sid and me  "parents of multiples". It's a phrase you just can't comprehend unless you've lived it.  But we are so thankful for the year we've had with them and we look forward to many more. 

Elissa Marie - she's a joy to everyone who comes around her.  She has a mouth full of teeth and a smile that people cannot ignore. She loves patty cake and loves to hear music so she can dance.  She sucks her paci upside down and uses her hair as a napkin when she's eating.  Everyone needs a baby like Elissa.

Ellie Jane- She's a feisty little thing.  She waves bye to everyone no matter if they are coming or going.  She walks all over the place and although she has no teeth, she can put the food away.  She loves baby dolls and stuffed animals, as well as cell phones.  She will walk all over this house with them tucked under her arm, waving and saying bye!!

When I found out I was pregnant with twins, I wondered how I could love two babies at one time, when there was already a much loved baby in the house.  How was I going to love each of my 3 girls enough or in the way that it would impact their lives.  When they were born, 1 minute apart, that wonder went out the door and in flooded a love so deep, there has never been a question  at how they would be loved again.  Elissa and Ellie, we thank God for each of you daily and we are so thankful that we get to call you both our's.  We love you both so much and we can't wait for another year with you both.

Happy Birthday Sweet Sisters!!!!

10 Months Old

Elissa and Ellie are 10 months old and I just don't know where the time goes. 

I had some major dental work done today and it's been a pretty sad 24 hours around our house so I'm not really in the mood to type much but I didn't want these pictures to get lost in the shuffle.  (I don't want to say too much and get too personal, but if you aren't local, Bailey lost a classmate yesterday in a terrible accident.  Even if you pray for unspoken needs, please just pray!)

Everybody needs a baby like Elissa. She is the most laid back baby I have ever been around.

And Ellie, always the life of the party.

I'll update more later about our what's going on at 10 months!

It Doesn't Always Cross My Mind

Sid and I have been on vacation the past few days to Biloxi and while I had some time in the sun, I thought back on how far this household has come.  And I remembered that we were on the anniversary of Bailey's airway surgery.  If you are new to our story, you can start reading about it HERE!!!  This takes you back to May of 2009, but you may even want to back up to April, 2009. 

In the event you don't want to go back and read, just know we've gone from this:

To this:

Excuse the pj pictures, these are the most recent ones of her that I have that haven't been posted yet. 

I either haven't had time or I haven't allowed myself to think about it this go around, but let  me tell you something -  I am SOOO very thankful for the life, the healthy life, of this sweet girl.  Oh yes, she deals us fits, but we love her soooo much and my heart aches when I think about what she went through those first few months of her life. 

As I was looking back, I realized that today, June 3rd, is the anniversary of the visit  to Dr. Carron post-op where he told us not to come back for a few months unless we needed something.  You can read HERE for more of the journal of the day to day happenings with her during this period. 

Because we always met the kindest people and because we always had the support of our families, but mostly because we ALWAYS walked away from our stays and visits to Children's thankful for not only that, but also thankful that we were dealing with something fixable, I encourage you to please pray for the children at Baston Children's Hospital (or any other hospital) and their parents/families.  You never know when it might be you and you never know what those families are facing.  We are very lucky in the state of Mississippi to have Baston Children's Hospital and their doctors.

There is not a day that goes by that I'm not thankful for Bailey and indebted to Dr. Carron and his team. I love you sweet girl!!!!