Daddy at Breakfast Time...

Caleb saying "Da-da...."

Daddy doing the monkey---which Chooch loves!!!

Our Dad is CRAZY!!!

The following two pics are why I entitled the post "Our Dad is Crazy."A few weeks ago there was a bad thunderstorm that rolled through town. Tim started to get a little anxious about the weather and informed me that we needed to go into "emergency mode" with our kids. He scurried around the house getting flashlights (actually candles and matches because we couldn't find our flashlights because our children hide them from us) and necesary food items together before he proceeded to gather the kids up and head to the makeshift storm cellar (a closet underneath our stairs). We fed the kids their bottles in there next to all of our "crap" that we store in that closet. I will give him credit--the tornado sirens DID go off for about 2 minutes, but we stayed in that closet with our 1-year olds for a lot longer than that!

Poor Matthew taking his bottle in the storm shelter with Mom's vanilla candle going strong!

Tim and Caleb hanging out in the smallest square footage in our house! You can see Tim is a little cramped for space!

Okay, I think I fully know the definition of "double trouble" these days! Caleb opened the pantry door and started pulling down baskets from the bottom row. Well, of course Matthew followed his brother into this mess and ended up being the one who got caught!!! Caleb was just grinning the whole time thinking he outsmarted us!!!

The boys' Grauntie Nelda and Gruncle Steve sent them these balloons for their birthday and they played with them for two weeks! They loved them!!! Here is Matthew sticking his tongue out at the balloons :)

Caleb's ornery look :)

Remembering a year ago...Happy Birthday Boys!!!

This was me with Matthew 3 days after he was born and I was discharged from Harris SW Hospital and allowed to finally meet and hold my babies for the first time. I will never forget that day, EVER...I just remember the Lord giving me this overwhelming peace and being able to see past all of the breathing and feeding tubes and i.v.'s and just be comforted by the fact that God was in control and was sovereign over every detail of their life...every breath, every heartbeat, everything. That is the only thing that comforted me during that time. I really want to thank our family for loving us so faithfully during that time through daily shifts at the NICU, taking care of Tim and I through meals, cleaning, etc.., and praying for us daily. Our friends and church body continued to love us through all of this as well and I cannot thank you all enough. Raising children really is a group effort!

This is our first family photo that was ever taken which was at Cooks in the NICU. It was the first time the boys got to be next to each other since the womb. It was amazing and a picture that we will never forget. It is such a picture of HOPE to me. The doctors told Tim the morning of the boys birth that Caleb and Matthew may not live, may live but have permanent disabilities, or may be totally healthy...that only time would tell. It is amazing what time has told in a year. We thankfully have two healthy children whom God has blessed us with and given us the task to raise them up in the admonition of the Lord. It is a big task, but what a privilege. May we never take it for granted...

This is Tim with Caleb the day he was born and transferred to Cooks. What an emotional day for Tim...I was given so much medication that the day the boys were born is an entire blur to me. But, Tim had to endure every single moment of uncertainty that day and it was a really rough 24 hours for him. I remember he felt so torn going back and forth from the NICU at Cooks to Harris SW where I was still a patient for the first 3 days of the boys lives. It was a crazy time for us, but we did not take for granted being able to take our babies home at 3 1/2 weeks of age...we were SOOO excited. What a WONDEFUL day it was!!! Okay, enough sappiness...let's move on to these crazy boys of ours who our little wild men now! They may have had a rocky start, but they are moving full speed ahead now and Tim and I are along for the ride...it's a really fun one, too!

The boys had a great first birthday filled with fun, including yellow cake with chocolate frosting and sprinkles!!! This is Caleb devouring his cupcake!

Matthew hesitated at first and just wanted to play with the cupcake. But, eventually he decided he liked his cupcake, too!

Daddy and Caleb swimmin at the pool...Cabers loves the water, especially alongside his Daddy.

Dad and Caleb with Uncle Tom and Tyler...

All the birthday fun pooped Matthew out!

Caleb started off his birthday morning by eating styrofoam...LOVELY!

The boys LOVE the dishwasher...(for all of you worried, there were no knives in the bottom that the boys could grab :)) and as soon as I open it to put something in there, they are right beside me and crawling on top of it. This could be great for the future...maybe they will love to load it as well as play on it!

Matthew loved his birthday breakfast which included a blueberry waffle with whipped cream!

Caleb just wanted to chew on the "1" birthday candle instead of eat the waffle!

************Dad Insert*************

If you notice in almost every picture now Caleb has this look like he is angry at the camera. That is because mom's camera has this red light that flashes on the target before it takes the picture. Caleb will be completely content and playful and then as soon as that red light is on him, his face sours and he gives us the teenager I'm-mad-at-the-world scowl that all of you parents with older kids would recognize!!! The picture at the top of our blog really shows this face well.

Big boys...Almost one!

Well, we have been super busy as of late. I have been "slacking" on the blog posts and many of you have been asking when we were going to update it so here it is!
We have been to Houston to see Tim's parents and then to Henrietta to see my parents and go to a wedding. We are headed back to Fort Worth soon and will be there for the boys birthday on Tuesday.

Tim and I cannot believe they are almost one! What a wonderful year it has been and what a wonderful God we serve. We really didn't know that having children would be this amazing. It has not been a perfect year by any means or a sleep filled one, but it has been one where we have seen God's hand in so many ways through our kiddos. What a blessing... Honk! Honk! Make way for the twinkers!!!

Swimming at the grandparents!

Caleb's pouty face...

Choochie's sweet smile...

Our shirts say "spelling champ..." in honor of their mom, who was on the spelling team at her school...:) (thank you jeanette for the shirts!!!)

Dad's camera

Here are some pictures that I've taken over the last few months.

This were the last cold days of the winter so we got the boys dressed up in their warm clothes one last time

Dad and Chooch were having too much fun

Their Great Grandpapa (The Original Big Tom) came in a few weeks ago and loved on those boys so much. It is so obvious watching him interact with them how much he loves them. You have to pry our kids away from him with a crow bar!!! This is a wonderful picture of Caleb falling asleep on his shoulder.

Emily zonked out after a hard days work with the boys.

Papa was juggling two at a time and they were loving it. He has such a special way with kids

More wagon video footage...

I couldn't resist putting one more video of the wagon ride on here. This is even better then the first one because it's more of a close up of the boys....enjoy! It's so fun to see how kids delight in things and how contagious their laughter is.

Little Red Wagon

We took our first wagon ride the other day and the boys loved it! They had their toys in the wagon and were set to go. However, we ended up carrying all the toys between the two of us because they are in the phase now where they throw EVERYTHING on to the ground and laugh. After we had picked up the toys roadside about 5 or 6 times, we decided the game was over. And besides, who needs toys when you are on a wagon ride?!
Both boys have about 5 teeth a piece and constantly have their hands or a toy in their mouths from teething :)

Tim captured this picture and we both love it! As soon as we put their hats on, they try to take them right off so Tim worked at lightning speed to get this pic before that happened.

This video is GREAT. You can see that Caleb REALLY liked riding in this fun wagon...