PURPLE . . . .

  . . . is the color of grapes growing on our grapevine.

.

 . . . is the color of the grapes we picked off our grapevine.

  . . . is the color of the juice and jelly we made from the grapes off our grapevine. 

  . . .is also the color of our favorite smoothies right now!

 

. . . is the color of my children while eating their favorite smoothie.:)

I

  I love the color purple, but mostly I love that water washes away the color purple, most of the time! :)

Two Weeks Of. . . . .

           Our last two weeks in random order: 

• 2 little munchkins eating dog food at Grandma's house (and loving it enough to throw a fit when I took it away.)
• many scraped knees, elbows and toes
• lots of garage-saling and treasures found
• painting of Reese's school desk in preparation for homeschooling
• fun days at Grandma's
• an unexplained entry of a bird in an upstairs bedroom of our house
• pooping in the bathtub ( credit of one twin) followed by much crying (both twins) and jumping out of the tub and landing on poor unsuspecting baby sister and Mommy laughing because it is either that or cry :)
• Mommy being asked by a wonderfully tactful Wal-Mart employee if I am going to have a baby (while Joslyn is sitting in the cart right next to me). Christ-like manner won and I didn't deck him even though he deserved it.
• Joslyn's EKG being completely normal PTL!!!!!!!
• Joslyn growing like a weed
• Gage getting stung by a wasp
• too much chocolate consumption
• too little sleep
• feeling overwhelmed with responsibilities
• struggling to squeeze a workout in my day
• crazy hot, humid weather
• entire box of fruit loops being dumped on the living room floor followed by two gleeful looks
• lots of muddy faces, hands and feet
• lots of baths
• 30 some loads of laundry
• wishing I had more time, patience, energy and a better schedule to get things accomplished
• hoping the next two weeks go well and treasuring memories made :)

Photos

A couple of newborn pics and other random pics.  I am not very chatty today apparently so I thought I would at least post pictures. :)

Life goes so fast, don't waste one minute of it!!!  Babies grow up and we can never go back in time so enjoy the blessings God has given you!!  (I am looking in the mirror as I type this.:)

Dr. Appointment

Today I took Joslyn to the doctor for a well baby check, basically just to weigh her and listen to her heart again.  She is growing like a weed, only way cuter and I don't want to pull her and throw her away.  Wow, I am a little chatty, I should be in bed, it is 12:16 am!  ANYWAY, she weighed 9lbs. 12oz. today.  She loves her milk, she is the easiest baby to nurse.  And even better, the doctor listened to her heart for a while but never heard the PAC beats!!  Yay!!  She said that sometimes they completely grow out of it or it at least happens less frequently as they get older.  She is perfect!!  Anyway, now that she is peacefully sleeping on me, I am going to go to bed and maybe next time I post, I will be coherent. :)

6 Years

I am married to the most wonderful, amazing man!!  He always makes me laugh, he is a wonderful, loving father, he can do or fix anything, he is kind and compassionate, and most importantly he has a heart after God!  Today is six years!!  I can hardly believe it!  It didn't start out bad but, every year has definitely gotten better, we have grown closer and closer and I look forward to spending the rest of my life with my loving husband!  Here are some fun facts about our marriage:  married 6 years
                       pregnant for 3 of those years
                       nursing for 2 of those years
                       have 5 kids
                       only slightly tired :)
We were going to go out on a date tonight.  Were being the key word.  Due to 3 of our children being sick since Saturday, that won't be happening.  My mom is wonderful though, and she has the oldest four at her house today, so it is just me and Joslyn at home!!  I almost don't know what to do with myself.  Hence the reason I am finally able to sit down and blog.:)  The three--Gage, Everett and Hadyn) are down to only having diarrhea instead of vomiting too.  They are playing better too.  Gage spent 5 days laying on the couch looking miserable!!  Not fun!!  Anyway, I am glad they are finally feeling better and I am extremely grateful for normally healthy children!   

Happy Anniversary to the man of my dreams!!  I love you Tim!!

Joslyn Rayna

Meet the newest member of our family:  Joslyn Rayna Bender!!  She was born June 24th at 7:35 pm.  She weighed 6 lbs. 15.6oz. and was 21 1/4 in. long.  She came out pink and crying which was reassuring and an answer to prayers.  Okay so I will back up.....Thursday the 24th started as any other day.  I had a massage and a dr's appt. so my mom came to watch my kids at our house.  I went to my massage first and then to my routine dr's appt.  Everything was normal until the dr. listened to the heartbeat and I could hear it right away. The baby had heart arrhythmia.  Basically the heart rate was very irregular.  She told me not to panic, leave the office, call my husband and freak out (almost her exact words).  I said I am fine and I won't freak out.  So, I only halfway freaked out. :)  She said it might be nothing but that I needed to go to Mercy Hospital right away and do a non-stress test and an ultrasound.  So I walked into the hospital and right away all the nurses remembered me, from the twins, and were very caring.  The ultrasound showed that structurally the heart looked perfect.  Good!!  Her heart rate was still very irregular and it would drop from 150 to 50!  Not good!!  Nobody knew for sure what to do so they decided to break my water.  I called Tim and in less than 30 minutes he was standing at my side (it generally takes longer to get to the hospital than that, let alone parked and inside:).  They broke my water at 12:45pm.  The doctor wasn't sure if it was safe to let me labor naturally so she wanted to do a c-section or send me over to the University and have them monitor me more closely.  The baby was going to go to the University NICU either way so we decided to head over and try to deliver naturally.  I got my first (and hopefully last) ambulance ride with sirens and lights going.  I was very glad my contractions weren't very strong yet.  They aren't kidding when they say, "it's a bumpy ride."  My nurse from Mercy got to ride over with me so she could keep tabs on the baby's heart rate.  She was wonderful!  After we got to the U the pediatric cardiologist reassured us that this was fairly common (in his world) and that the baby would most likely be perfectly healthy.  So at approximately 7 hours after they broke my water, we welcomed beautiful baby Josyln Rayna into this world!!  I was so grateful to be able to deliver her naturally and without any drugs.  (Although I struggled with being grateful for about the last 45 minutes of it:)  They took her to the NICU soon after her birth and kept her there over night and part of the next day just to monitor her heart rate.  She has what they call PACs--premature atrial contractions.  Basically her heart skips every third or fourth beat when in this mode.  It happens less than 20 percent which is apparently okay.  The peds cardiologist said if it is more than 20 percent than they are worried otherwise she is fine and will be normal.  We have an appointment for an EKG at the beginning of August to make sure nothing has changed. 

We think she is perfect in every way!

 Daddy is in love, once again!

 The boys absolutely adore her!!!  Gage kept saying, " She's so cute!"  They couldn't wait to bring her home.

    We love you Joslyn Rayna!! 

Birthdays and Fevers

I am now 2 days late on posting about the twins turning 1!!!  We had a party for them on Wednesday night and we are doing another party tonight along with their cousin Titus who turns 6!  So tomorrow I will post with pictures.  :)  

Yesterday morning, Gage woke up with a fever of 103.3.  By last evening it had spiked to 106.1!!!  We immediately gave him Motrin and a bath and that helped.  The fever seem to break some through the night, it went down to 100.7.  Then this morning it was back up to 104.  His throat is really sore but the strep test came back negative so it is just a virus and we are waiting it out and praying that his fever stays below 104.  We would appreciate your prayers too!