2 year olds!

My sweet boys turned 2 yesterday!!  It has gone by so fast.  These precious little boys are growing and learning so much that it's hard to keep up!  Andrew's grandparents sent them each a little money, so yesterday morning I took the boys to find a present for them with that money.  We didn't spend all of it, but we got a great little Thomas the Tank Engine set (that came with Thomas & Percy - so thankful there were 2 engines in there) and it's a good addition to the tracks we already had.  After nap, Andrew's parents and my parents came over and we opened presents.  We gave them the Little People Construction set - which they love because it came with a dump truck & and wrecking ball truck (all cheap from a yard sale, but in great condition).  I wrapped up the Thomas set - which they, of course, love because it's Thomas and has a train station and a train-wash (like a carwash) and a little thing that looks like it's dumping coal onto the trains.  My mom had gotten two big beach towels monogrammed with their names, which they recognized!  Andrew's mom got them bike helmets (they love their tricycles) & bells and paint with water books.  She also got them each a shirt from the boutique she works at - one has a mixer truck and the other has fire truck on it.  They showed very little emotion through the whole gift-opening part, but they played non-stop with the toys the rest of the night!  The living room is still a mess of toys.  Oh, and they've been wearing the helmets around the house because they have Lightning McQueen on them.

 Daddy helping us open gifts

 The new Thomas set

the construction set

Then our friends Scott & Lindsay and the Napps came over for supper.  Scott & Lindsay got each of the boys a gift card to Build-a-Bear!  We've never been in there before, but heard it's fun.  So I'm sure there will be a post on that later!  The Napps have a little boy, Davis, whose birthday is today!  We didn't exchange gifts because that would just be silly.  But Davis did enjoy playing with A&J's new toys and they all play so well together.

We grilled hamburgers and had all kinds of other food.  Lindsay brought us a cake - a triple chocolate, almost obscene cake - that was completely yummy.  And we made ice cream (by we, I mean Andrew's dad) that was also very yummy.  I ate way too much.  The boys did, too, they were bouncing off the walls!!  They are never that animated when other people are at the house!

In other news, Aidan is potty trained!! Whoohoo!!  He was just ready.  He's still wearing a diaper or pull-up and wetting at night, but most naps he wakes up dry (although, I haven't let him sleep in undies yet).  And last night while everybody was at the house, he stayed dry the whole time.  And he stayed dry all through church today, too.  We definitely still have some accidents (he pooped in his undies as soon as we got home), but that much progress only took about 3 weeks.  So I'm a happy mama.  Jordan is in pull-ups.  I'm not the biggest fan, but it seems to help him relax about the whole thing.  He just can't go very long in between potty breaks.  But when he does tell me he has to go pee, he's right.  So we're making slow progress with him.

And we got the results from Andrew's bloodwork and he does not have the big E antigen!  So baby Asa will not have it and it won't be an issue with any other babies we might have.  Praise God for that!

The boys and I all go to the doc this week for regular checks.  I can't wait to see how tall these guys are - I think it's around 35inches.  We know they are still about 30lbs each, but they've slimmed up a lot.  I don't have an ultrasound or anything, so I'm a little sad about that.  But I guess that's "normal."

boy #3!

We're having another boy!  I was pretty sure I'd seen it when the u/s tech first put the wand to my belly, but then she went looking and it wasn't hard to find!  :)  So baby Asa will be making his arrival sometime in October.  He's measuring 5 days ahead!!!  It's pretty standard in my husband's family to have big (really big) babies - that's why no one was really shocked at how big our twin boys were - and my sister and I were not small babies.  I'm also fine with him being big because he's definitely coming at 39 weeks or earlier, so being big could be helpful.  He's a very active little thing.  We watched him kick and roll and everything.  My placenta is in the front this time, so that explains the lack of feeling movement.  I have felt a lot more this week, though.
My BP is still low, so that's good.  My OB set a number today that she doesn't want it get to, so if it starts creeping up then we know the threshold we have.  But so far so good!
My antibodies are still numbering low, so that is also fabulous.  She didn't even feel the need to draw blood this time, she'll do it in 4 weeks at the next appt.  Andrew, however, did have to get blood drawn to see if he carries the big E antigen.  He felt pretty awkward getting bloodwork done at my OB's office, but a daddy has to do what a daddy has to do!  So we should find out about that at the next appt, too.  She seemed to think she'd be seeing much more often after this 4 week stretch, so we will just continue to pray for and be thankful for the quietness of this pregnancy.

Well it's only been 2 months since I posted last...
The truth: blogging has taken a backseat to a lot of things!  It's hard for me to write about the things going on in our lives because we have such great adventures everyday!  But then I also don't feel like our lives are really all that news-worthy, so I usually just skip the blogging.
So here's where we are now...
I'm 18 weeks pregnant with baby #3!  We find out boy or girl next week and we cannot wait.  We settled on a boy name (which is weird because I don't like a lot of boy names), but can't agree on a girls name.  I feel like it's a boy, but that really doesn't mean anything.  This baby either moves a lot less (well, definitely less than 2 in there together) or is just not as strong... or I have more padding... or all of the above.  So I'm also anxious to get those good strong kicks (and wondering if it's a girl).
A & J are talking like crazy.  Jordan is a hilarious little parrot.  He literally repeats everything we say - maybe just to hear himself say it.  But he's pretty good with words.  Aidan is not as good with saying words, but he does try.  He's harder to understand because if he says more than one word, all words in the phrase are shortened to the first syllable or mushed into one-syllable.  Also pretty hilarious.  They are learning to ride their tricycles, which is so cute.  They are obsessed with sitting in the backseat (3rd row) of the van - which is good because they'll be moving back there, come fall.  We are going to potty train in about 2 weeks - yikes!!
We have also started foster care classes, held by Lifeline.  Lifeline is a Christian organization that provides social workers to foster families partnering with DHR.  We are being obedient to the call of James 1:27 to take care of orphans.  We are excited about this opportunity to minister to foster children's hearts and to their families.
Because of all this new life coming into our house, Lord willing, we (mostly I) have been rearranging furniture and trying to plan where in the house everyone will go!  So moving stuff around and cleaning out have taken a lot of my time.
So that's where we are!  I'm sure I'll post again next week when we find out boy or girl.

The Zoo

Today was our first real trip to the zoo!  I haven't been to our local zoo in years and I remember it being a little sad and outdated.  But I had heard a new section just opened and Andrew's mom is on Spring Break, so we went!  The boys had a blast!  Like any little boys, mine love animals.  Big animals, little animals, any living & moving creature.

 Macaws

 Kangaroos

 pretty Black Swans

 Monkeys!

 playing the djembes! (African drums)

 Zebras (or as Aidan says, "beezras")

 Giraffes

 Fish

 up close and personal

Why is there a tractor at the zoo, you ask?  Because we live in Alabama, I say.  And it was right next to the petting area (stinky goats and such).

The newest area is calls Trails of Africa, so we got to see an elephant pretty close up.  This zoo's elephants died a few years ago and, evidently, they've been without them since.  Now they have 2 and have 2 more coming this spring/summer.  The new Africa section made me miss Animal Kingdom so much!!  (I worked at DisneyWorld for a semester in college.  Fan.tas.tic.)  They had good music playing and a new kids' play area, complete with new cafe and tables in the giant tiki hut.  That's where the drums were, too.  We rode the train, which the boys loved, of course.  And we even got a few free tokens from a friend we saw, so we rode the carousel, too.  It was kind of an expensive day because we bought lunch there - didn't want to carry lunch around with us - and we didn't take the stoller in, so the boys did a LOT of walking!  They're sleeping soundly as I type.  I think a membership would be fabulous for this summer!

Learning our colors

I've never posted video before, but we have a great video camera & I just loaded the software on my new laptop.  I took a couple of cute videos today - we had a lazy day with Andrew at home - and wanted to see if I could share.  This sounds crazy... but the boys are learning their colors & doing really well!  We have the Preschool Prep videos (Meet the... letters, numbers, colors, shapes, etc.) and watch them every week or so, purely as educational entertainment.  I never expected these boys to actually learn any of this early - I just thought it would help them learn.  But they are really good with their letters and colors.  See if you can hear Aidan saying them!