My Reason to Relay...

Jackson with the luminaria in Honor of Doff and in Memory of Granddaddy Scooter. What a profound impact these two men have made in the life of Brandon and in turn our kids. Much love to you both.

This past weekend was the 15th anniversary of the Gwinnett County Relay For Life. It is a huge event and this year has already raised well over $2M dollars. It was fun to go back to the event as a participant rather than a staff member...you certainly see the event from a different angle. The staff and volunteers did an outstanding job, once again, pulling off the largest Relay For Life in the world!

Brandon stayed all night and helped Randy (my old manager) in the accounting room. Randy loves for Brandon to help because it means that the spreadsheets will match to the penny. Brandon got home about 9:30 on Saturday morning and had a couple well-deserved naps! Peppy came up on Friday to visit and we celebrated her birthday and Mother's Day on Saturday with her. She took Jackson the Chick-fil-A on a lunch date which he loved.

Happy Mother's Day to Peppy, Mimi, Nene, Nana and Grandmother (as well as the Aunts). We love you all!

Dual Crawlers!

Maggie started moving her hands and hopping her knees forward yesterday. Something must have clicked while she slept last night, because this morning she is officially crawling! So now I'm running after 2 crawling infants. We ordered a baby gate last week that would go across the 12 foot opening between our kitchen and family room. Two of these gates can be configured to make a "baby corral" so the order was placed for a second gate last night! We're keeping our fingers crossed that we'll have both gates before we leave for Dallas next week. :)

Rookie Baseball!

Jackson is finally old enough to play baseball!! He'll be in the "Rookie" league this year which is the step before t-ball (I had no idea there was a step before t-ball!). The season runs from early August through October. We play baseball almost every day in our front yard, which is one of Jackson's favorite things to do. Jackson bats and throws left-handed, though he writes right-handed. Just wanted to share our fun news...we're all so excited!

Da-da-da-da-da

The babies have been babbling for a couple weeks now, though William is in the lead so far using consonants and stringing the sounds together. It kinda irks me (j/k) that Brandon and I heard him say da-da-da-da-da yesterday afternoon instead of ma-ma-ma-ma-ma. After all, I say the "mmm" sound to them pretty often in the hopes of hearing a distinct "ma-ma." My efforts seem to have failed since William said "da-da" first. At least with two babies I can hold out the hope that Maggie will say "ma-ma" first!

Twins are notorious for having their own language and being a bit delayed in the speech department. I wonder when the "twin speak" starts...or if it's already started?!?!

Time Flies...

when you're having fun...and when you have a 3 year old and 8.5 month old twins! I look at our blog often and wish that I had updated it when the twins reached certain milestones or we have done something exciting as a family, but I never seem to find the time. Today is the day, though! Jackson is at preschool and the twins are down for a nap. Bills are paid, house is picked up/fairly clean and I've just gotten home from the gym. Seems like a perfect time to let you all back into our lives! We are all doing really well. This is the last full week of Jackson's school year before the summer break. Previously, I had been dreading the summer and having to entertain 3 kids 24/7. I think I am finally relaxing in my role as a stay at home mom (it will have been a year on May 31). I joined the gym about 5 weeks ago which has made a significant difference in how I feel being at home. It gives me a chance to have some "me" time, get in shape, take a shower(!) and just clear my head. The kids stay in the childcare center while I'm working out and they all seem pretty happy there. Jackson goes to a kids exercise class on Monday afternoons and really enjoys it. Brandon and I are working with a personal trainer 2 days a week...he's a former NFL player and definitely pushes us past what we think are our limits! William and Maggie are pure joy. They have the sweetest smiles and expressions. We are very blessed that they are such good babies. They sleep from about 7:30p-7:00a every night and take 2 good naps during the day. William crawls about 90 MPH and is pulling up to stand and even walking a few steps. Maggie has been pretty content to just sit and look pretty, but in the past several weeks has begun the rocking on hands and knees which will soon turn into a crawl. Jackson loves the babies and they light up when he walks into the room. He loves to go into their rooms (we moved them into separate rooms about 4 weeks ago. Better sleep for everyone!) in the morning to be the first to say 'Hi'.


Coordinating outfits made by our friend, Julie. So cute!
We have lots of fun planned for this summer. Jackson gets out of school next Wednesday and we leave on Friday to go to Dallas for about a week to visit our old stomping grounds, plus see friends and family that we haven't seen in a very long time! We'll also spend a couple days in Wichita Falls with friends. We are pretty excited! On the way home we are planning to stop in Hattiesburg, MS to visit Megan (she was accepted into their Psychology PhD program and moves there this week). In June, I will be one of the crafts leaders at church for VBS, which means Jackson will get to attend the 3 y.o. VBS class (twins will be in the nursery). Then in July we head to the beach for a little over a week...we can't wait to go since we didn't get to go last year while I was on bedrest with the twins. Jackson will be going to a sports camp in July, also. Each day they focus on a different sport: football, baseball, basketball and soccer. He is really excited as are Brandon and I. He is such a great little athlete and we can't wait to have him play team sports. In June I'm also going to see Beth Moore in ATL and will spend the night away...it will be Brandon's first time with the kids to himself overnight. I'm sure he'd appreciate many, many prayers :)

Brandon's job is going very well. He was instrumental in leading his business unit to success in sales in '07-'08 (fiscal year just ended). I am very proud of Brandon and love to see the congratulatory emails/calls that come from his upper management. McKesson had a family day last Friday. Jen and I took all the kids to Brandon's office for the day. Jackson and Morgan had a blast in the blow-up jumping thing, getting their faces painted (Jackson got Superman, Morgan got Hello Kitty) and playing carnival games. Maggie, William and Matthew hung out in their strollers and napped off and on! Twin mannerisms...notice the position of each ones right foot. :)

Jen and I took all the kids to the zoo last week. It was a perfect day...beautiful weather and kids that listened and minded us pretty well.
Sorry for the picture and detail overload. I know I've left a ton off stuff off that happened in the last month. As I say almost every post, I'll try to post again soon :)