Major's Eyes - Prayer Request

As many of you know, Major has Duane's Syndrome. Essentially what this is is the muscles of the eye do not form properly during pregnancy. They believe this happens in the 6th week of pregnancy, which many of you also know this is when we got the report that Major was measuring 3 weeks behind and my body probably would absorb him. Now eye issue v. Major not being here....I will GLADLY take an eye issue !

There are different issues with each of his eyes, his right eye cannot move all the way to the right. The furtherest it goes is the middle. His left eye is lazy and he does not use this eye properly so most of the time it will end up going inward. What we had to start doing was patching his right eye so he is forced to use his left eye. He is also far sighted, that is where the glasses help. The problem with the muscles is that he cannot focus properly so he sees double unless he looks at you sideways. If you can see in these pictures he tends to turn his head when looking at you. I initially thought this was from him having torticollus (twins often get this, they just favor one side and tend to tilt their head that way. PT helped Major with this a lot).

But later found out it was because that is the only way he can see. The eye doc let Nick and I look through a prism and said "This is how your son sees the world" it hurt my eyes to look through it. Anyway, we will have to have surgery, we knew it was coming. At first the doc said bf Kindergarten but now they are saying before 2. A lot of the times if this is not caught in time and treated, he will lose his vision. So of course this is an important thing to kind of get on the ball with. They wanted to set up the surgery for this Friday but Nick and I decided before moving forward, just to be comfortable we wanted a second opinion. I don't expect a different answer, I know he will have to have surgery but it would not hurt to just be comfortable with the answers we are getting.

Unfortunately, the first available spot in B'Ham (Callahan Clinic) is May 17th so that is when we will go for a second opinion. We go on vacation end of May so I want the surgery asap when we return. I know he doesn't know any different, but knowing he can't see the world properly and how beautiful things are makes me think he is missing out and I don't want that prolonged.

So the prayer part, please keep him in your prayers. This is a common surgery and is performed a lot. This is actually quite popular. But he will have to be put under. Just pray that when this time comes everything will go smoothly and there will be no complications. Major has had to pretty much fight from literally Day 1. First he was 3 weeks behind and caught up like a champ, then his yolk sac was too big and they said he has a 30% chance of a genetic disorder, then during labor he didn't like the pit too well cause his heart rate kept dropping after a contraction so they had to take me off that, then he came out breach, then his left arm stayed by his side and would not work the first day (we are thinking because of the tugging during delivery), then he couldn't keep his temp up so he had to stay by Tripp the entire time, then he had torticollus, and now the eye. And bless his heart he has my sinuses and pretty much keeps a runny nose and congestion. But this is the happiest little boy :-) And God sure has taken care of him! He really has been a Mama's boy lately too which I am just eating up.

Please just keep little Major in your prayers.

Since when did eating healthy become a bad thing?

This has been on my mind a lot lately. I guess since the boys are getting older and eating table foods, I am seeing this more and more. I get the "Your such a bad parent" look when it comes up in conversation that I am not letting the boys have sweets or candy till after 2. Is that such an unheard of thing in this day and time? And I have also been getting the "Oh you just wait you will get them McDonalds everyday if that is all that they will eat" and that disturbs me!!! Now I am not pointing fingers at anyone lol my biggest thing since becoming a parent is realizing what works in one household may not work in another. So I never look down on anyone for their parenting techniques. In fact, I had to apologize to my brother not too long ago bc in the beginning when Aubree was a baby I thought Oh gosh she is going to be a brat because they never raised their voice at her, put her in time out, etc. Well boy did I eat my words and then some! My Miss Aubree is one of the most sensitive well behaved little girls and it is more than a pleasure to be in her company. She has such respect for Wayne and Amanda. She treats the twins and Rowen (aka Ro Ro) with just a maternal instinct. Wayne and Amanda are such great parents and have done an awesome job! So there is a perfect example of how I knew nothing!

Anyway, back to eating habits. I inherited my thinking from my mother, and then through Wayne and Amanda. Aubree loves veggies, really she prefers raw veggies. She is such a good eater. Now granted, I think some children are just better eaters than other....just my opinion don't know that for a fact but this little girl eats well. But she knows that if she doesn't eat her food no dessert. And dessert is a special thing, its not after every meal. And she doesn't get sweets everyday. I think this is important. Mainly, just for health reasons. But I really do get odd looks. Its like the thought of holding out on sweets and then monitoring them later is a thing of the past.

I promise I am not a bad mean mom, I just want the boys to enjoy good food. And I want a Friday night to be a fun movie night with popcorn and them look forward to it and it not be an everyday occurrence. So I guess I am defending my thoughts in this post lol. There is a reason behind my madness and I hope it works as I want it to. I also want the boys to eat the food off their plate because they know mom and dad work very hard to bring this food to the table.

I end on this note, I ask you for your prayers daily for my parenting. I feel sometimes like I am going through a maze blindfolded trying to figure this whole thing out. Outside opinions and judgments really is the thing that makes parenting that much harder. I just pray in the end that I will raise good Christian men. That is my goal. And I pray that God helps me not mess these little boys up too badly :-) I was holding Major last night as he has become quite a mommy's boy and we were playing and I just looked into his face and thanked God right then. My main prayer when I was pregnant in my first trimester was that God lets me hold Major before He does. Many of you know I supposedly was not "supposed to" carry Major and he didn't get a good report from 6 weeks till about 8/10 weeks. But I trusted that God was bigger and I remember just crying on the way to work pretty much begging God to just give me a chance to raise Major. And He did. And I thank God for my two precious miracles everyday.

Well this was longer than I planned :-) I guess you can call these "Mothers Thoughts"

I needed this weekend...

Unfortunately, this season really makes for missing my hubby. He coaches baseball so there are few and far between Saturdays that we have together. He also entered into a fishing tournament that goes on for several Saturdays so if he is not coaching he is fishing 1/2 the day. So I got up Saturday morning beyond worn out from traveling to NY the week before. This consisted of getting up and leaving my house by 1:45a.m. to head to Nashville, then working till 9 p.m. then getting up for a 6a.m. flight back! I was done! So I got up Saturday and was trying to think of what me and the boys could do. I'm so tired of spending Saturdays doing laundry and catching up! I thought we are going to get out and enjoy this weather! An awesome surprise was when Nick got out of the shower and as I was feeding the boys breakfast he asked me what I wanted to do that day!!! So I was ecstatic to find out we had him all to ourselves. So I hurried and got me and boys ready and we went down to the lake! The boys first boat ride. They love water, they are definitely going to be river rats for sure. When we give them a bath we get soaked by all the splashing but I let them have at it. In fact, sometimes I wish I could do that :-)

We put their new life jackets on and well bless Major's heart he has no neck lol just like his daddy and so it was coming high up and he was not a happy camper. Then Tripp was crawling around the huse with it on and it toppled him over and he couldn't get up, he thought it was funny though.

We got in the boat and before we left the dock, this is what I had on my lap....

We are not the best in taking mommy and daddy pics and of course I was so excited we got the day together I left my stinkin camera so these are just cell pics. Here are the drivers of the boat:

Afterwards, we went to go eat at Top of the River where the boys ate fried pickles (without the fried stuff bc Mommy is anal) baked potatoe, chicken, cole slaw and corn bread. Then we went outside to let them crawl around in the grass. I live for days like this for sure!

My Savings this week!!!

So I am getting pretty good at figuring out this couponing thing. I didn't get to watch Extreme Couponing bc well it might as well be on at midnight for me because I go to bed between 8 and 9 because I get up around 3:30-4. This was my first, "aha" moment at Walgreens. I have figured out you have to know what you are getting before you go in the store with your coupons ready. Don't buy anything you didn't plan on just because its on sale because you will end up not thinking it through completely. For $30 I got: 4 - 32 load Purex (free n clear) 5 - colgate toothpastes 1 - Tampax 6 - Campbells Healthy Choice Soups 1 - Scotts Paper Towels 1 - Herbal Essence Shampoo 1 - Herbal Essence Conditioner 1 - Garnier Shampoo 6 - Dawn Dishwash 4- Boxes of Cereal I think that is all.....I also figured out, thanks to my wonderful friend Tanza Watkins, that Walmart will comp prices if other places have them on sale. They will then take any store coupon and then a manufacturer coupon. So that is the main thing to do when buying items is look for sale items, then look to see if any store has a coupon for it (Target..Walgreens) and then see if you have a manufacturer coupon to stack on top of that. Two items at Walmart I really lucked up on is Wishbone dressing. We don't eat a lot of salad in the house just because its hard to keep salad stuff fresh. So if we do I will go get it that night. But I love some Ranch dressing! So Walmart had this dressing on sale for $1.88. Then I had a Target coupon for buy 2 get $1.50 off THEN I had a manufacturer coupon for $1.00 off one. So I could use 3 coupons for 2 salad dressings. I got 4 Wishbone salad dressing for....drumroll please....$.13 cents a piece!!!! Now granted, that will last me probably 8 months or so, I will not have to buy any for a while but I was so excited. Then my other one was my dessert every night is Yoplait Chocolate Mousse Whipped Yogurt. Its 160 calories and feeds my chocolate craving. Its the best thing not to want anything unhealthy after dinner. There are always coupons for Yoplait. So I had a $.50cents off 6 Yoplait yogurts which is not the greatest amount of money off. They are .58cents at Walmart. Bi Lo had a sale this week for 20 Yoplaits for $8.00. This ends up being about .40cents per cup. Then I was allowed to use 1 of my coupons (not sure why I couldn't use 2 but I didn't argue) so they ended up being .37cents! And I am stocked up on Yoplait till end of May lol. Nick said it right the other night and I didn't realize it till he said it. I do love saving money, but the one thing about me is I love a challenge and I love figuring stuff out so this is really up my alley. I have also been ebaying a lot of stuff. Mainly because Lord willing we will be building our house on our land in about 5-6 years and I am starting to declutter now! I have been selling things right and left. It feels so good to throw away or sell or donate stuff! April C. did a yard sale last Saturday at this yard sale site next to Burger King in Rainsville. This couple has set up tables and its this looonnnnggg row of where people come and set up and pay $5. You make good money because there is such a crowd that comes there. So I have a ton of stuff, mainly baby items to sell. Mom has a bunch of wedding stuff so we set up at 5:30 a.m. Saturday morning (which by the way at least 10 sides were filled up already). My mother had sold over 1/2 of her stuff by 6:30! She was thrilled. She was also letting the stuff go for next to nothing but like she said, she just wants to get rid of it and why not make a few dollars! I was able to sell over 1/2 of my stuff too but I had more stuff so I think I will be setting up for the next few Saturdays while it is not so hot in the mornings. Plus I still have a bunch of stuff at home I need to get rid of. It was a very successful day! Plus I got to spend time with my mother. I stayed from 5:30 to about 10 a.m. Nick had a baseball game so my mother left at 8:30 to get the boys and bring them up to the yard sale but ended up leaving with them around 9:15. Alright well its sunny outside now and I have to get in the shower to get ready for church. I hope everyone has a safe and blessed week. Make it your goal to do something nice for someone and make a difference!

It's early and quiet and it's Sunday!

I love my heading :-) Everyone is still sleeping, I can hear everyone snoring...best sound in the world. I got up at 5 to pump and the boys have been sleeping so good lately I am very well rested!

I love Sundays. It starts a new week, always new beginnings. I love going to church with my family. It has started being quite a challenge with the boys since they are getting older so I hope there is one person paying attention to the lession :-) Nick had taught Tripp and Major that if you talk in a cup, bucket etc. it echoes your voice. This is now Tripp's favorite thing to do and we think its the cutest thing ever....until he decided to do it in church to one of his toys!

I'll update on my boys first. How things are flying by. I love each and every stage we are going through but when I look back I think "What happened?!?!" I feel like they were just in my belly and I was freaking out because if they were out I could not protect them!

So here are some pictures. Major is getting very fast as scooting on the floor and Tripp should be walking soon lol and I fear for my well being at that point. Major tends to be about a month behind Tripp, as you remember when I first got my ultrasound he started out measuring 3 weeks behind, well Doctors say it has nothing to do with it....I beg to differ. They also said Major wouldn't make it...God and I seem to be proving them wrong on their predictions :-P

The boys, especially Tripp, have really gotten into table food. This is so much easier! The only thing I have to adjust now is their schedule bc I do not have dinner ready at 5p.m. So this one particular night Major wanted his babyfood so that is what we did with him....my little peanut, such a sweet boy

So Tripp loves loves loves table food.... I am definitely the mom that believes they should have at it and then I can strip them and put them in the bathtub! I tried to savor the trays on their highchairs and put the spaghetti on a plate thinking he would just eat it off of that WRONG. First thing he did was pick the plate up and toss to the side...spaghetti all over the floor lol it was funny.

We went to Barry's BBQ last night for dinner. Since my money saving kick, we are eating in way more and I have lost weight because of it. It got to the point that we were eating out Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday afternoon and that adds up! That is not normal for us normally it is just 1-2 times a week but now it has been 1-2 times a month. Thinking Major wouldn't be up for eating tablefood, I had brought some babyfood but he loved it!!!! Which made me so happy. I have been so paranoid my children are going to be the ones that say chicken fingers and fries, .....which they are probably still going to go through phases of likes and dislikes which is fine I just want them to appreciate Mommy and Daddy work very hard to put food on the table. Major loved baked beans! He ate cole slaw, baked beans, bbq, potatoe salad....I think that was it. Tripp of course eats everything. There was a gentleman sitting beside us and he said "I want to give them a spoonful of ice-cream to see what they will do". And Nick just laughed and I was thinking you try to give them ice-cream and Mommy is going to form tackle you over these chairs lol. He was just making conversation though.

Here are some funny pics, it makes me smile to look at these because well...it explains my children to a tee.

This was within a split second of each other lol.

They have their molars (sp?) coming in now so bless their hearts they have tried to be happy but very uncomfortable for them. It has to hurt :-(

Their first bday is about 5 weeks away. We are just having a small family get together in the park. Nick will grill and I will have cake. Thing 1 and Thing 2 theme ...I'm excited lol. I am excited about their bday gift too. We got them a collection of Disney movies. I want to have a Family Movie night on Friday nights where watching movies will be a treat. These will not be an everyday occurrence just bc well they need to play not watch tv all day. Then we got them mega blocks!!! I found the perfect set and I almost giggled outloud (yes I probably am more excited about them) they came with a little pull cart too. And I paid next to nothing for both of these bc I have been shopping around.

What a Day to be Thankful!

This Saturday has been beautiful and I feel like so muc has been accomplished! Cleaned kitchen and been doing laundry, washed everyone, fed everyone, played!!!! While the boys took a nap I did some hardcore Spring cleaning and got some more stuff packed for my upcoming yardsale. Then Tripp got up and I actually was able to post a bunch of things on Ebay. Finished folding a bunch of laundry and cleaning more. Tripp and I ate lunch. Then 3 hours later Major decided to get up! So I decided we all needed some fresh air so fed Major and got the boys ready and packed up and off we went to go walking!

If you are wondering why there is not an individual of Tripp, its because he was in the process of taking his hat off when I was taking the picture. We spent an hour walking and enjoying the beautiful day! Now Tripp is sleeping and Major and I decided to do this quick post and then we are going to play.

Hope everyone enjoys their weekend!

Subscribe & Save

Has anyone ever heard of this? Seriously the best thing known to man!!! To save money with the twins, we did cloth diapering for the first 6 months. This saved a ton of money but it got too much with the laundry and me traveling so we switched to disposables after that. I was able to sell all my cloth diapers for more than 90% of what I paid so I think it ended up costing me .....around $100 total for 6 months for twins. The detergent and water ended up not even being $5 more a month so I feel like it was well worth it. Well they don't go through as many diapers now but it is still an expense in our household. Luvs is my favorite! And pampers is my favorite wipe. Well Parents Choice is the cheapest and the diapers are not bad and well I hate the wipes lol. Anyhoo, in my recent addiction to cutting costs and saving money I was playing around with trying to find coupons so I can get the diapers and wipes I want. Truth of it is Parents Choice is so much cheaper you really can't....until I found Amazon's Subscribe & Save and Amazon Mom! Let me break it down, I spend .20c a diaper and .03c a wipe. Most diapers are over .25c and wipes are .05c. (It seems like just pennys but they add up with twins!) So with Amazon's S&S and AM, I get 30% off of diapers and wipes with free s&h. All you do is sign up, tell the quantity you want and how often you want it delivered and there you go! So right now, I signed up to get Luvs diapers and Pampers extra soft wipes. Do you want to hear my savings!!! Yes Savings, not only do I get the brands I want but I save money while doing so. I now am spending .16c per diaper and .02c per wipe! Is that not crazy!!! Through Amazon's S&S I also signed up for some household items. Everyone knows how expensive razors are. In fact, Walmart has started putting locks on their razors bc people are stealing them! I signed up to get Mach 3 razors through this AS&S and I am saving .50c PER RAZOR!!! Not packet, per razor so that is approximately $4. I was so giddy yesterday. I'm telling you this new life of watching for sales and couponing really has me on an all time high! Now onto to sale ads and couponing. I have been watching my coupons and Earthbest babyfood is the pricey kind. I have a $1.00 off when you buy 7. Well even with the coupon its the most expensive baby food. BUT Publix (my all time new favorite grocery store) has a sale till April 5 with a buy one get one, they take coupons on top of that and Publix doubles your coupons up to .50c so I will get 1/2 half, plub $1.50 off every 7 I get. Definitely going to Publix bf the 5th. Also, Bi Lo right now has their boneless chicken breast on sale for .99c a lb. Does anyone pay attention to what chicken normally costs? Its well over $2 a lb and when Walmart has it on sale for $1.78 a lb I stock up, so .99 c lb is CRAZY. So I am going to look like the krazy koupon lady at Bi Lo on my way home today bc I am going to stock up on chicken! Any neat deals you have seen lately? Happy couponing!