It's been too long!

Before I get started, I just want to apologize for the huge gap between this post and my last! I will do better, I promise!

A lot has changed since my last blog. We are now new residents of Fort Collins, Colorado!!! We have been praying for a while about this and relying on God to show us His plan for our lives. Within a couple of weeks Jay got a new job at Poudre Valley Hospital, we put our house in Flint on the market, we found a house in Colorado to rent, we packed and moved. It happened so fast and is really a blur now looking back. This all started with a desire to be involved in the ministry of the Fort Collins Community Church plant which was being lead by our closest friends, Chris & Randi Freeman and David & Laura Sutton. Little did we know that God would have us be this involved!

We left our home in Flint on March 15th and started the drive at 4pm. Jay and his mom, Diana were in the moving van and my cousin, Meghan, and I were in our car with Haven and Jackson. Overall it was a good trip. Haven started getting sick about half way there, but she was a trooper and we made it to our new house about 11AM on Wednesday, March 16th. Upon arriving, we were met by Chris Freeman and a big group of college kids from Wichita Falls who proceeded to help us unload our PACKED van. Less than an hour later all of our things were either our house or garage. They were lifesavers! It would have taken us several hours to unload by ourselves and at this point we were past exhausted.

It has taken us a few weeks to settle in. We have battled a little bit of sickness every week it seems. The first week we were here Haven had a double ear infection and RSV. We have all been adjusting to our new climate change, but not without our fair share of runny noses, coughs and congestion. Haven, again, was sick this past weekend with Roseola, which we didn't figure out until the rash presented itself. She is on the mend and will hopefully be well for a LONG time!!! We are so ready to get out and enjoy the beautiful outdoors.

We have an awesome back yard that Haven and Jackson love to play in. We set up their swings and their bikes are ready to ride all over. The owners of the house have flower beds all over and ready for planting. Some already blooming with different types of plants and tulips are starting to bloom in the front. There is also a vegetable garden which I hope to get started on soon!

Haven has been walking so good and has moved on to "almost" running. She is fearless! For example, she approaches dogs, even barking dogs, without a care in the world!

Jackson is not walking on his own yet, although we are SO CLOSE! Jay thinks he walks behind our backs=) We practice all the time. He will go back and forth between us until he is too tired. He will get there! I'm hoping he is there by this Sunday for the Easter egg hunt!

They both enjoy riding in their bike trailer behind daddy and going to the park!

We have our first service in our new location this Sunday, for Easter. Please pray for this ministry as we prepare for this. We know this is God's plan for us, but like most things, we don't know what the future holds. How can it not be amazing when God is in the middle of it! We are all very excited!

I hope everyone is having a super week! And like I said before, I will do better and try to get back on my weekly schedule!

Rebekah

The Furniture is Shrinking!

I've decided that our furniture is getting smaller and it's not that Haven and Jackson are growing! We had a very fun week with them. Haven has been taking baby steps but on Wednesday walked across the living room to get her baby doll from daddy. The next day Jackson climbed up the couch 5 different times all by himself! I can't believe how big they are getting!

I love the stage they are at right now. I find myself sitting back watching them instead of in the middle playing as they are doing things on their own now. Some things we have shown them how they work and some things they just figure out. When we get something new I only have to show them a couple of times how it works and then they usually have it down.

One of our favorite things to do is read books. They sit on the floor and flip through them over and over. Their favorite though is "Eight Silly Monkeys." When we read it they both shake their pointer fingers at the monkeys on the page when it says, "No more monkeys jumping on the bed." A couple of weeks ago I started quoting the book and Haven crawled across the room through their baskets of toys, found the book and brought it to me! I was blown away!!! The next day Jackson did the same thing! Needless to say, I was one proud mommy! That is an everyday occurrence now. Today while on Skype with my sister, she wanted her husband to see it so I started saying the book again and off they both went to search for the book. I could see it hidden behind their big activity cube and knew they wouldn't be able to find it, but they were looking through the toy boxes trying. Haven started coming towards me then with one of her little cardboard books and handed it to me. It was the book we were looking for, but another book with a monkey on the front! It is so amazing to see them understand what things are=)

Jackson has started really pointing at things. He learned what light is, so every time we say light he points up at whichever light fixture is in the room. He also loves to play with light switches, flipping them off and then waiting for me to turn it back on. He hasn't quite figured out how to turn them back on once they are off.

I learned this week that if it is coated with pesto, they will eat it! I made them pasta with pesto not knowing how they would like it, but they gobbled it up! So I did an experiment, mostly for Haven as I have had some trouble with her eating green beans, or any kind of vegetable for that matter. I added just a touch of pesto to the green beans and she ate them all no problem. They have very sophisticated taste buds=)

I am anxious every day to see what Haven and Jackson do, whether new or not. The day will never come when I am not in awe of the simplest thing. I still look at them and can't believe they are my children. Thank you God, for bringing them into my life and allowing me to be their momma.

The Black Bag

Today is a momentous occasion for me! After 16 months of pumping I am packing up my black bag! It is very strange to not see it sitting next to my bed or packed in the car when we leave for a day trip or longer. I feel so free, yet kinda sad, oddly enough. I haven't added up how many times or the number of hours I sat there and I really don't want to know, but for 13 of the 16 months I was pumping every 3 hours for 30 minutes. I do know that I saved about $5,760 in formula costs though, and any pain, discomfort and inconvenience was well worth those savings! More importantly than the savings in formula costs is the joy I have that I was able to provide in this way for Haven and Jackson. The past 3 months have been spent slowly weaning in hopes that I could avoid any painful engorgement, so far so good, and I also wanted to end on a solid number of months. I woke up this morning feeling comfortable with this decision. So thank you black bag for what you helped me accomplish! Goodbye, Adios, Salut, Ciao and any other way to say it!!!

Changing everyday

Since I haven't done this in a very long time I thought I would update on Haven and Jackson! They are 16 months old today, (13 1/2 months adjusted). Where has the time gone?! We had our 15 month dr. visit about 2 weeks ago. Here are their stats:

Haven:

19 lbs. 2oz, 4%,

29.5 inches, 19%

Jackson:

21 lbs. 7oz, 10%

31 inches, 42%

These are from our regular family dr. We visit a developmental specialist every 6 months who does our adjusted age along with our actual age. Where it would appear they are behind, they have always been right on or ahead with their adjusted age. We do all kinds of different activities there to test their new skills. It's so fun to see them interact and watch their little minds working on figuring out the little activities she has them do. I will definitely give an update on how that appointment goes in a couple of weeks!

On another subject, being the weekend and proving yet again how it always seems to be this way... Everything's different when daddy is home!

It never fails... During the week when I'm home by myself naps never go so smoothly or as long, most days I don't get very much house work done and we usually have a couple of "it's the end of the world" tantrums, mostly from Haven=) During the day when Jay calls to check on us I'll tell him of the days events, including how short naps were and how long it took to get them down and so on. On Saturday mornings Jay will get up with Jackson and Haven and let me sleep in. He gets their bottles and usually breakfast taken care of and I wake up to him doing a little bit of cleaning while they are calmly playing and giggling in the living room. Then at nap time they lay right down with no fighting and sleep longer than they had all week for me. I'm glad they do so well on the weekend and for Jay, but I don't think he'll believe me for too much longer that this is not the norm for them during the week. But as "hard" as some days can seem I absolutely love it and wouldn't trade it for anything. They really have been very easy babies and only recently have we had some challenges with tantrums. Being a first time mom, any ideas or advice on how to handle tantrums and strong willed children would be much appreciated!

Over the weekend we had a couple of fun things happen. We went to the zoo 2 days in a row. We haven't been in a couple of months and with the perfect weather we just had to! Haven and Jackson have always enjoyed going, but this time they rode their trikes. Haven was really interacting and pointing at everything she saw. I would try to get Jackson to point and show him how, but as soon as I would put my hand down he would pick it up and want me to point again. It was very cute! And then on Saturday Jackson climbed up on the couch all by himself! He was so proud!

So I have been working on this blog since Friday and am still not happy with it, but I will go ahead and post. I'm sure as I do it more it will get easier. Hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Getting Started Again & New Design

So... after months of wanting to start up blogging again I am finally going to do it! My last attempt did not last very long, but I am really wanting to do this! That's not to say that I will be as dedicated to it as my sister, Amanda and sister in law, Melissa are but my personal goal is at least once a week!

After spending too much time trying to figure out a new layout and background I am giving up! My sister has finally gotten on Skype this morning and she is going to help me out! Thank you Amanda!!! As soon as she sets it up for me I will get started!

Quick Update & New NICU Visitation Policy

Jackson & Haven took a small step back this morning, but they are still doing very well. They were having a few more "Brady's" than they prefer, so they had to put them back on the nasal cannula. They are still breathing on their own, the cannula just puts continuous air into their nose to help them to remember to breath. A "Brady" is where they forget to breathe for a second and their heart rate drops. This is very normal for their gestational age because the part of the brain that helps them remember to breathe is not fully matured. They were doing exceptionally well to be off of the cannulas so early, but it is also very normal to have to go back to them. Unfortunately, this means they also had to separate them again. Because of the additional tubes, they need more space. Hopefully this will be a very temporary change.

Both of them have gained weight the past two days. Jackson is now at 2 lbs 11.9 oz and Haven is at 2 lbs 13.3 oz. They are both handling their feedings well and additional calories are being added to their milk, so they should start to gain pretty consistently going forward.

Effective immediately, the NICU is changing their visitation policy due to the flu season. Only parents and grandparents will be able to enter the NICU for the time being to see Jackson and Haven. Because neonates are so fragile, and a flu outbreak in the NICU could be devastating, they have decided to be very cautious. We appreciate this for the utmost protection of Jackson and Haven, but it will be difficult at the same time because we love letting others see them.

Anyone is more than welcome to swing by, we just won't be able to bring anyone back. Thanks to you that have visited already, and for those that were planning to...we are so sorry. But, we will continue to post pictures regularly. It's definately not the same, but it will have to do for now.

As always, thanks for continued prayers for all of us. Particularly be praying for Rebekah as I go back to work next Wednesday. It has been so great being back together the past two weeks, but it looks like we will be separated again during the week for the next 5-10 weeks.

Jackson & Haven's 1st Week