World Prematurity Day

I have friends that have preemies.

All of them successful stories.

On this day, world prematurity day, they are sharing their pictures.

And how they can't believe how big he or she has gotten.

They can't believe how far they have come since delivery.

How one week or one month felt like an eternity in the NICU.

 

 

My story is different.

 

 

 

I don't have a "look at him now" pic.

I can't tell you that he's doubled in size since his birth.

In fact, I can't tell you anything new about his life.

 

 

 

But what I can tell you, is how God used a tiny one lb creation and made a huge impact.

I could tell you about the Moms who tell me how they squeeze their babies tighter because of him.

How they appreciate their baby a little more because of our story.

I can tell you about two little girls who have learned more over the last year than I ever expected.

How he changed our family for the better.

 

I can tell you about how much he taught me about love.

And how I still miss him every day.

 

 

And most of all, I can tell you that I don't regret one single second of the last year.

Who would have thought some of my greatest memories would be in the hospital?

 

Good things really do come in small packages. <3

 

**the first time I held him**

 

 

PS Dear Harper, please hurry up and pick out a baby sister or brother and send them on down.

Your sisters are waiting.

 

 



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Catching Up

I'm gonna go ahead and admit that I am falling way behind on my blogging.
And to be honest, I probably wouldn't blog anymore at all if it weren't for my books.

I blog so that one day K&A can go back and read about growing up....
and my desire to do so has nothing to do with being the 3rd child with no baby book.
Nothing at all.

Everyone in my family loves looking back through the books I've written and remembering.
So I need to get back to blogging so we don't forget the year 2014 completely. :)

What's been going on in our neck of the woods?
One word describes our household perfectly right now.

BUSY.

Let's just make a list, that's easiest.

1. Volleyball. The girls both played volleyball on the 5th and 6th grade team this year. It's not very intense, only Saturday games. But they had lots of fun and got better. And I had a lot of fun socializing at the games.

2. Cross country. Alex decided to run cross country this year, which was great. We were all pretty
nervous about this because none of us knew anything about cross country...but we ended up loving it.
And Alex was super fast. She ran 2 miles at each meet and came in first for our (girls') team each time. Here is the breakout for her times:

First race: 18 minutes, 20 seconds
Second race: 18 minutes even
Third race: 16 minutes, 14 seconds
Fourth race: 15 minutes, 56 seconds
Fifth race: 16 minutes, 20 seconds

I was so proud of all her times! She ran her little heart out and loved every minute of it. And
hopefully she will stick with it next year.

 

See also: my phone decided it wanted to do a high dive into my glass of sweet tea. And I lost every

picture that I had taken since April of 2013....yes, that means all my Harper pics too. But most of them were saved on social media so I kinda still have them. But that's why you see my IG name and comment in the screen shot. And yes, I still finished drinking the tea after I removed the phone. :)

3. First middle school dance. When I say that the girls have been talking about this dance since they heard about it in the 5th grade, I'm not exaggerating. Not one bit. They had dreams of fancy prom-like dresses. And up-hairdos. They were a little dissappointed when they found out that it was a casual dance, but they were still excited. I was a little dissappointed when I found out that they would be getting ready while with their dad, so I missed out on it. Luckily for them, their dad's girlfried does hair so at least they got their hair looking fancy, and they got to get ready with a friend, so that's a bonus. They said it was fun, but they didn't dance with any boys.....if only they would make this a trend throughout high school.

 

Kate is never the serious one. 

 

4. Travel softball. Kate tried out for a travel softball team this year. She has been wanting to do it for awhile, but we weren't quite ready for it until now. She made the team! and we were so excited about it. She practiced in Covington two nights a week, and I made use of the time by jogging for the first hour and watching the second hour......and then the team slowly fell apart. It stinks because we really liked the coaches, but I guess once kids get to middle school, there's just a lot going on and it just stopped. I'm glad she got a lot of practice in....and now she will hopefully be ready to make the middle school team in the Spring. I'll be real honest and say that I don't miss the drives to Covington.

 

 

5. Just hanging out as a family. We try to have family time as much as we can cram it in, but we usually don't have much extra time. We did enjoy a concert and then a Tigers' football game recently. It was rainy, and Alex was a little upset when she realized how long the game was. Her exact words were:    "You mean there's FOUR innings??"   Our TV is constantly on a football game, yet she still

thought there were innings? this was an FH fail. We'll just let her stick to playing in games, not watching them.

 

 

6. 5Ks. My sister and I have been running a lot of races this year. She's normally faster than me, but I've now beat her twice....not that I'm counting or anything. We like to do the really small races so that we have a chance of winning a medal. I mean, a free tshirt is great, but I like a medal! Even if I'm just racing some old grandmas.....

 

 

I'm pretty sure that I have decided to retire from running. It literally takes me

about 2 weeks to recover from a 5K because my knees are so bad....so I realize that I

should just stop running.....and then I remember that I signed up for a half marathon that

is coming up in like 3 weeks. And I haven't trained. So this will be my retirement run/walk.

And I might be on bedrest for a month or two afterwards, but what can you do?

 

7. Basketball. Alex made the basketball team this year and it is intense. Those girls are really good and I love cheering for them. And yes, I'm a really, really loud mom in the stands. But at least I know basketball, I'm not just yelling and having no clue. That makes it better, right? They practice for 2 hours 3 nights a week.....and Alex doesn't get home from school until 8:30 on these nights. Sometimes she is literally a walking zombie....

 

 

 

8. The play. The girls both scored roles in the middle school play this year...and let me tell you, it's been a balancing act. They practice a lot. Kate doesn't have to learn any lines, but Alex does, in additional to basketball practice. So our weekdays are pretty packed! I am so excited to watch them in the play!

 

9. Exams. Please shoot me now. This was our first year to have exams and it has not been fun. Honestly, I would rather take them myself than help two 11 year old girls study for exams. We survived though.

Barely. Even though one night we spent 3 straight hours studying and another night we had to study notecards during a basketball game (not successfully, I might add).

 

One morning, after the 3 hour study session the night before, I woke up to find a note in my bathroom drawer. It was from Alex and it said "Dear Mom, I'm sorry it's so hard to study for exams with twins. Love, Alex"

 

At least they noticed. :)

 

10. I feel like I need a 10th item but I guess I don't really have one.....oh, I know. We are working on re-doing our kitchen. We just re-did the countertops in the kitchen and I LOVE them!! Slowly but surely we are making this house our home.

 

And just for your viewing pleasurse....when did my little toddlers turn into preteens?!

 

 

PS and halloween happened too. forgot about that. But I'm not making this #11, beacuse that would be an odd number.

They were twinions. The first time they ever used their twin status to make people laugh.

 

I'll see you back here in about 3 to 4 months with another update.

 

Maybe I should go ahead and say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year now just in case......

 



 



 

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