18 months- 1 and 1/2 years old

18 months old!
• They love to sit in things “just their size” – we have some little red chairs that they sit in and “read” books to themselves
• They call each other bubba and sissy- and they get very worried when the other one isn’t around-it’s so cute
• Aiden’s favorite new word is mama- which I love 
• Aiden now says- choo choo, kitty, mama, shoes, night night, uh oh
• Abigail says- cracker, dada, mama, e-i-e-i-o (loves to say this), uh oh, she also repeats a lot
• They both love to read books and beg me to sit them in my lap and read for hours on end
• Still are on 2 naps a day- and we’ll take this as we can
• Climb everything- furniture, tupperwares, the stairs, often get into boxes/drawers/ect. and get stuck, cry to get out, just to get back in again
• Abigail is much more independent than aiden (she’s the only one we can leave in a nursery by herself)
• Aiden’s loves a push lawnmower, abbi loves a cell phone
• Aiden loves to organize and to pretend to cook- his FAV toy is a regular spoon and Tupperware bowl
• Hold hands when they are scared
• Both are very ticklish
• Read about the “can’t take you anywhere” stage- want to be independent but not quite ready for it, ect….but I’ve feel like I’ve been there the whole time! Maybe that’s just because there are two- but I can count on one hand the number of times we’ve taken the twins out to eat, and when we do we prefer Chic-fil-a in mall foodcourt because- a. it’s so loud you can’t hear my kids, b. it’s dirty and doesn’t matter when they throw food on the floor, and c. it’s chic-fil-a  moms any opinions on this “stage”?

Thankfullness

Thanksgiving is for thankfulness. I love this Holiday becuase it cultivates within my heart a spirit of gratitude. I begin the see the little things I take advantage of every day. In many ways life feels so fast paced right now- the twins are 90 to nothing, school is extremely busy and demanding, and other responsibilites can sometimes drown out the simple pleasures in life. I'm so thankful the Lord has saved me from myself and redeemed my life, adopting me into His family as His own child. I'm thankful for my husband- his heart for the Lord and love for His family, and for my precious children. They are such a joy and delight- what a precious gift the Lord has given to us.

My little buddy

How we get upstairs- crawl ahead of mom, but always look back to make sure she is chasing us :)see who gets to the top first

bathtime fun!

"What's in your mouth Aiden?"

The Great Balloon Race- a HUGE St. Louis Event- they release hundreds of Hot air balloons who then race to another point in the city!



Such a little ham

Aiden getting his mullet cut by our neighbor

Abigail gets SO EXCITED about things!

1st and 90th Birthday celebration

The Birthday Boy- This is my grandad James Rutland. We celebrated his 90th birthday with him this year.

The birthday girl- Addison Elizabeth Dart (my niece) turned one!

Sisters :)

Addison's daddy couldn't be at her party because he is loyally serving our country in Iraq. :(

Granny reading to Abigial- so sweet


2009 babies of the family (we had a busy year :)

Aunt Debbie and the 11 great-grandchildren

Immediate family

Abigail blowing kisses

My grandparents and some of the kiddos

Sisters :)

The second generation- Ruth and James Rutland and their legacy (6 children, 10 grandchildren, 11 great grandchildren so far)

Twins first birthday!

On May 1, 2010 we celebrated the twins first birthday! It was such a special day for us! We were brought to tears as we reflected over the last year and all that the Lord had done (for more details, see previous post). We are so thankful for these two precious lives that were entrusted to us. Our good friend Brittany made a slideshow to capture some of their journey and to show all the people that were so involved along the way. I wanted this party to also serve as a thank you to the many people that were in my home for months and months after they were born. God used each of you to sustain us. The party was a Noah's ark "two by two" theme. We had an ark cake, and had animal themed snacks. All the kids that came dressed up as their favorite animal and Jennifer built them a huge ark out of her gymnastics equipment for them to play games on. Tory did a great job telling the story of Noah's ark (with sound effects:)). All in all it was such a great day!

click on view all images to see all the pictures:

How are we???

We are doing well, just getting adjusted still. It takes so long to really feel settled and connected when you move to a new place. I’m trying to be patient with the process even though my heart feels the sting of loneliness (even when I'm surrounded with people) and the pain of missing well established relationships back home. Ben loves school (although it is hard) and I am really enjoying it as well. The twins are running around everywhere, and they are such a joy. I feel so blessed to have them. They'll be 18 months on Monday, hard to believe!
Highlights:
Log cabin: Seminary has lots of events where they offer free childcare at the log cabin (this is how we go to class together). They do a monthly parents night out, hosts a weekly women’s group, and they do a parents morning out where everyone gets one morning a week the whole semester. It’s fabulous and the twins LOVE it there!

They have sidewalks everywhere! (great for dbl jogging strollers)

Our neighborhood is awesome. I feel like I’m in Mayberry and feel way safer here than I did in mobile… interesting I know. Don’t even feel like I need to lock the doors. We live on a street with 10 other seminary families so it’s been very fun to be in community.

I love this city! It’s very fun and we live 15 min from downtown, yet I can walk to the grocery store, public library, post office, Walgreens, ect. Everything is very quaint, not cookie cutter at all. Lot’s of personality- I love that.:)There are new fun things around every corner, which I love. Even if we explored every day we would not find every cute little “hole in the wall” restaurant or shop.

They have custard instead of ice cream here. Ice cream is my second favorite food (second to peanut butter) so this is an important fact. I don’t really like it…but maybe I’m just hooked on what I know. Either way, I go to Cold Stone a lot instead of traditional little St. Louis custard shops!

A taste of fall and my little cowgirl

It has been so beautiful here lately! The fall is something I've never experienced and it truly is amazing! This is a tree on covenant seminary's campus- it's breathtaking.


These boots are in honor of my dad (whom she looks like):)

Beach

a few fav's

Chicago

Just a few fav's