9 months

Another month has come & gone and the girls are 9 MONTHS OLD! One minute I was posting about how they were 8 months old and now here I am posting about how they are 9 months old. Time is moving much quicker than I expected. I am just so thankful that I get to be at home with them and watch each and every change. It amazes me what children can not do and then the next minute they are doing something new. Here are some things we can do since last month.
Palmer: crawl, sit up beautifully, say dada & mama, she also has a tooth, oh and she now is eating finger foods.
Blake: army crawl, sit up, say dada, no teeth yet, and loves her puffs!

Stats:
Palmer: 16 pounds, 6 ounces, 27 1/2 inches long
Blake: 15 pounds, 14 ounces, 27 3/4 inches long
It seems to be that Blake has passed Palmer in height by a 1/4 of a inch. That is absolutely amazing to us since at 6 months she was still one inch shorter than Miss P.
The girls both have so much personality and they are coming out of their shells, especially Palmer. I am so impressed with how much they learn everyday. Palmer has decided she really loves mommy's ZUMBA music. She sits up, bumps around on her hiney, and yells. It is hilarious!
Times have changed here in the Moran household. Moveable babies-ahh!

Holy Batman!

Yes, this is exactly what you think it is. A tiny but oh so creepy bat. It is hanging from our patio awning in the back of our house. My mother-in-law went outside this afternoon while keeping the twins and saw something, thinking it was a hornets nest, but oh no, nothing that simple, it was a BAT! I grabbed the camera and snapped some shots to confirm. So here is the proof. I seriously get creeped out just looking at the pictures. When Jeff ts home I nominate him to take care of it. I forsee a youtube video in my near future!

Birthday Project

I have finally finished the baby bishop that I smocked for the twins. Well I smocked one and my friend Lynlee smocked the other one. So I figured since it took me this long (2 months) I should get started on their birthday outfits. I looked online at
several birthday smocking plates and came across one I loved. Today I went to my local fabric store and picked it up. Here are pictures of the plate, pattern, fabric and my thread. I am so excited to get started. Can't wait to share my finished project. Thank goodness I have until August!

Heavy Heart

At 2:45 a.m. (yes you read that time correctly) I woke up to my iphone alarm clock which is a very peaceful song of church bells. I typically wake up thinking, "where in the heck are those church bells ringing", but this morning I was up at at em. Why was I waking up so early you ask? I had made a personal commitment to myself to go and help with the disaster relief. Here in Birmingham there is a ministry by the name of Graces Kitchen. It is a organization started by two families and they feed the hungry at a park here in Birmingham weekly. One of our sunday school teachers a regular volunteer so we typically get the information about what the ministry is doing. They were allowed to cook hot meals at our church and take them to Pleasant Grover and feed the families in need. They started doing this on Monday and have dedicated theirselves to do this for several weeks. The amount of food they provide is amazing. With this being said it takes a small army to get everything together. There was a schedule posted where people could come volunteer and help cook and deliver the meals. One of the times this week was 3:30-5:30 a.m. and delivery by 6:00 a.m. Since I can not commit to taking meals I knew that this time frame was manageable because thankfully my house is still as a mouse at this time. So I hopped up, threw on some clothes, and out the door I went (not to forget the very gigantic coffee cup in hand)! I was excited! We began with prayer then off to the stoves we went. I helped out with grits. We cooked, stirred, mixed, tasted (yum), and made some yummy cheese grits. Others made bacon, cut fruit, and sausage/cheese muffins (delicious). It was a wonderful time of fellowship and a feeling of accomplishment once everything was done and out the door. I have had this deep sense of urgency resting on my heart to assist but just didn't have the time. What a great ministry Grace's Kitchen is! Way to go peeps!
Back home, quick nap, more coffee, breakfast, back out the door to church again for Zumba. It was a great class and a great workout. Left church, back home, played with the kiddos for a bit, then checked my FB as usual. I was heartbroken to see a old friend was being uplifted with prayer for her currect sorrows. After more investigation realized her husband of less then two years had passed away last night from cancer. Knife to the chest is what I was feeling. I just can't imagine and nor do I care to honestly, but I am a woman and where does my mind go, straight to the sorrow. No one to cook dinners for, no one to yell at about their underwear on the floor, no one to hold my hand at the movies. These are the things I now realize I cherish so much and have no desire to live without. My heart is completely broken for her and all of those affected by this death. Life is so short. Why is it that I forget this everyday. Take for granted everything? I know I shouldn't. Every life is precious in its own way. Tell everyone that you love them today.

Hmmm...let's see what is going on in our life right now. Well, first off, ear infections have taken over my twins and refuse to give their happy smiling selves back. First it was B, then P, then B&P, then B, now B&P. I mean that is a lot of ear gunk if your asking me. I resulted in drastic measures today. I took them to my old employer to see Dr. LeJeune. He said hopefully with new antibiotics they will clear up, but I'm betting Blake will be seeing the inside of a operating room soon for tubes. I took them all by myself and they were pretty cranky. We made it out alive..no one left behind. AK did put her "azule" sucker in the exam room trashcan then proceed to take it back out and give it a big lick. GROSS! I'm sure she will live though. Our pictures that we had done of the girls to show their growth so far are back. Hooray. If you want to see them you can go to www.theblinklady.com. Click on Client Proofing, then Private Sittings, scroll to Kristen M., and type in MORAN (caps). Blake wasn't herself that day due to her first ear infection. She normally hams it up. We took our house off the market and are now putting it back on. I am hoping and praying for a sell before the twins 1st birthday. My house has turned in to a play,sewing,office,living space and I don't have that much space. Bless poor little Ashlyn Kay's heart. We don't have room for a play kitchen for her so she uses Jeff's bedside table drawers as ovens. Bless her little imaginary heart. In keeping up with my thankfulness here are some thankful thoughts: 1. A home (too small or too big) I have a place to keep warm and cool 2. A good husband 3. modern medicine 4. Caring friends Have a wonderful week!

Another Week

Its another week and another day. Starting off the morning good today, thankfully. Starting the morning off right is not always the norm, but more like the exception. The twins didn't wake up until 6:00 which is wonderful. They typically wake up at 5:00 (ouch). No one is sick and all is well. The twins finally (I believe) have gotten over the ear infections that took my sanity just last week. They turned 8 months on Sunday. This is just absolutely unbelievable to me. I honestly believe that they are growing faster than normal-ha! At 8 months they scoot around the floor. One minute they are here and the next they are there. Not full out crawling yet (praise the lord). Yammering away, blowing bubbles, and saying dadadad(not that they know what it means). The Occupational therapist and physicial therapist say the girls are developing wonderfully. Which is such a blessing. At their last appointment they both weighed over 15 pounds and they are in 9 month size clothing. Big girls! I will post their 8 month pictures soon, I promise. A couple things I have been thankful for lately.... 1. A helpful husband. 2. Modern Medicine 3. The ability to be at home each and every day to see my babies grow. What are you thankful for?

Already Forgotten

I'm sitting here on the couch watching Blake bounce away in her rainforest jumperoo, Ashlyn Kay is using her Dora pencils (thanks to Bebe) to draw a rainbow, eating my Nutella and toast and drinking my oh so sacred coffee just thinking about what I hope to be thankful for today. I realize I didn't have time to write down what I was thankful for yesterday. One day in and I'm already slacking. This is not good. So today I am going to be doubly thankful. I would first like to be thankful for my memory and mind. The ability to be able to remember what I forgot yesterday is a gift. I know at some point in my life this might become a frustration and ability I do not possess. Its nice to be able to recall things quickly and retain them. Secondly I want to be thankful for family. I am going to share a story with you. My mother informed me yesterday that she had a cousin she was very close to as a child and teenager. She had down syndrome unlike her brothers and sisters. After the death of her parents a kind woman who had been taking care of her for a period of time just moved away with her. No one knew where she was including her siblings. If you are close to your family try and imagine having a sibling one day and then they disappearing the next. I just can't imagine. My grandmother is a pink lady at the hospital in Wetumpka and helps out with patients there. Through a random series of events and divine intervention my grandmother found herself in this one particular patients room. She noticed her name and it clicked. IT WAS HER! The long lost cousin. No one knows where she has been for 30 years, how she wound up back in wetumpka, and how she wound up at the hospital where my grandmother volunteers. It is a very amazing story. So I want to be thankful today for my family because I know where they all are. I can reach them at a moments notice. How comforting and wonderful!