Photo Shoot

Today was the twins' 4 month pictures (we're late for the 3 month bc/ I had to cancel bc/ I was in the hospital). Though I'm kind of ruining some Christmas presents for family, I had to share these cute pics!

Catching Up

Where was I in October and November? Not blogging apparently! I'm going through some pics form then and trying to catch up on things I missed on my blog. I had to post these pics from my brother's band contest because I am so proud of him following in my band footsteps like I've always brainwashed him to do! He's in Page High's band. They are GREAT, which is a big change from when I went there. I went to Page Middle but was less than excited about joining their small band, which was the main reason I transferred to Franklin. I met Jon at band camp, so it was obviously meant to be. In fact, he was actually wearing a bra and make-up the first time I saw him as part of a rookie torture scheme. I can remember it so clearly, though I'm sure he wishes I would forget it or at least stop talking about it!

Anyway, back to my little brother. Page is now incredible! I LOVE watching them perform. This night was the state competition at Independence. Tyler plays the trumpet, though my favorite thing is to watch him play cymbals in drum line though it sometimes appears he's going to be decapitated with the moves they do! They won state for the 4th or 5th time in a row breaking the record! They also won lots of others awards as you can see by the big pile of trophies. For some reason I took awful pics that night of them marching, so I'll just show off pics of him with his loyal fans (me, my mom, and stepdad). I'm not sure how it happened that my "little" brother became this really tall 16 year old!

Big Boy Milestone

Today was a big day in the Dodd house as the twins had their first food! They weren't crazy about it as most babies aren't. I was surprised though because my chunky Wesley never turns food down, but he actually liked the food less than Will. Wesley made the classic awful face I remember Jackson making. Will didn't love it but took it in stride and even smiled some.



Of course, Jon had to get in on the action!

We are trying the cereal as a way to get them sleeping thought the night. They are actually kind of sleeping through the night. The problem is; they are on opposite ends of the spectrum. Wesley falls asleep early. About 10 Will wakes up in the best mood raring to go. He's really cute and fun at that time of the night. I have to fuss at Jon for playing with him and getting him all riled up at bedtime, just like he does the big kids. Several nights Will has kept us up past midnight while Wesley snoozes. I'm afraid Jon is spoiling him (albeit out of despertion) by doing his famous "swinging" that he spoiled Jackson and Ashton to before they could fall asleep. Will is definatley a night owl like his mommy. Unfortunately, Wesley takes after his daddy and is apparently a morning person. He wakes up about 3 or 4 to eat! My little piggie can't sleep through the night because he can't go that long without eating! I actually don't mind getting up with him that much. It's amazing how simple it seems to get up with just one baby! Jon and I keep laughing that we'll never again have sympathy for those with just one baby!

It was bound to happen...

and it finally did. It's a good thing Jon had his "procedure" because we can't handle 5 kids apparently. Here's what happened (and I pray that child services don't happen to read my blog!). Baylor came home with us after church to hang out until choir practice. We had to drive to church seperately since our van can't handle 5 kids. I was a little ahead of Jon with the babies and the girl. Jon pulled in when I was carrying Wesley in. I made sure he saw me with Wes. The big kids were running around, and Jon and I were doing a dozen things. Suddenly I stopped and asked Jon if he brought Will in. He said he didn't! Will had been asleep THANK GOODNESS! He was only there about 5 minutes, but it was a horrifying feeling. Like I said, it was bound to happen! Of course, having twins we work really hard not to play favorites, or least favorites as in this case! So, since we left Will in the car, we let Wesley ride to church last night not fully buckled in-yikes! Jon and I decided it probably wasn't our best day in parenting history, and I know that he is thrilled that I'm posting it for the world to see! Here's to a better tomorrow (and by better I mean hopefully less than 50% of our children's lives will be endangered! YIKES, I'm abbout to call child services on myself!).

Gall Bladderless Blogger...

So, I'm back. I wonder how many times I'm going to start my blog with that sentence after long absences. Of course, it isn't like I've been off on exotic vacations or eating bonbons. I stopped blogging a few weeks ago because every time I tried to think what I wanted to talk about all I wanted to say was, "My back hurts! My back hurts!" I figured you poor people are tired of hearing the sob story that has been my health lately. After suffering with what I thought was the worst back attacks of my life all night I would be exhausted during the day. Finally, the Friday before Thanksgiving when the pain was so horrid I became sick to my stomach Jon finally took me to the ER. I had my gall bladder out early Sat. morning. I was supposed to go home Sunday afternoon. Jon already had groceries in the car and my pain prescription filled, and my IV was out when my temp. went up. They kept me until Tuesday when I walked out in all my open down the back gown glory and informed the nurses' desk that they could find the doctor to release me, or I would release myself because I hadn't seen my babies in 5 days, and I was going home! It worked, and I got to see my babies who I swear had grown- A LOT!
I'm so afraid all of you will quit reading my blog because something bad always seems to be happening! So, I'm determined to always see the positive things! Instead of continuing to be bummed about the fact that I've been in the hospital 7 or 8 times in the last 7 months (I have honestly lost count!, I have decided to celebrate all the things I learned from the situation. So, here goes...

What I learned from emergency gall bladder surgery:

1. I can't handle my morphine. Not only did it make me itch and swell, I had lots of conversations with people that didn't weren't in the room.

2. I am mean to my husband when in pain and on drugs. When they wheeled me in from surgery, I asked him to get me ice. After 3 starts, he still hadn't given me ice. I informed him he had 30 seconds to get me ice or I was going to divorce him. The nurse got a kick out of it! I also continually mummbled in my drugged state, so he would lean in to hear me. Then I would come to and tell him to get out of my face!

3. Though for 16 weeks I have been dreaming of sleeping through the night, it's not as fulfilling when you're so drugged you can't appreciate it.

4. When on said drugs and forced to watch Soaps for lack of anything else on, it is very disconcerting when they are doing a hazy dream scene. Add that on to your actual dream like state and things get really out of whack and you think you might be totally loosing it.

5. Doctors and especially nurses don't hesitate to give you good drugs when you have a good reason (probably becaue it makes their patients easier to deal with), but use them sparingly. I came home with 2 bottles of Oxycotin. I took one (pill, not bottle) when I got home and 20 hours later when I came to, I decided maybe some Tylenol would be better. If I had any less morals I'd try to sell it to pay our medical bills! JK:)

6. Showers are an underappreciated luxury, and 5 days is WAY too long to go without one.

7. Being a recovery room nurse would be fun (Sonja, feel free to sahre stories!) because I'm pretty sure when I woke up I heard one nurse tell the other, "She's out of it. She's already told me she's straight 3 times." Which begs the question what was she doing that made me feel like I should tell her I was straight! Scary and embarrassing!

8. When the doctor tells you you can't go home until you start walking more in order to fend off pneumonia, you will walk the halls for hours on end even in an open-backed gown and an extremely unwashed state!

9. 5 days is way too long to go without seeing your babies (unless of course, you're somewhere tropical with your husband!).

10. Lastly, this being my first surgery experience after learning how I respond to medication and that they hurt, I am beginning to rethink my dream of having some work done to have some unmentionable areas restored to post baby status!

There you have it, 10 wonderful things learned from a horrible experience. I just hope the hospital doesn't see this or they'll probably try to charge me for the learning experience like they did for the murky water they called a liquid diet! Also, FYI don't quit reading my "bad news blog" as my new year's resolution is to stay Jon's "vertical wife" as he calls the non- bed rest/hospitalized version of me that can actually do housework! Here's to a hopsital free new year and a return to happy blogging!

Why I Shouldn't Brag...

Any time I see a mom of twins, they always tell me, "Hang in there. It will get better." Cocky me, I'm always like oh, it's not that bad! Honestly, having twins really hasn't been quite as hard as I thought it would be, and then there are nights like last night...
I didn't get home from the band cotest until midnight, but thought I was doing well since I got to fall back an hour. Then I couldn't get to sleep until 2:00. "Whizzing Wesley" woke up at 2:30 having wet his clothes. Then they whined and fussed off and on, which of course woke me up. Then I got up to feed Will at 4:30. As soon as I fell back asleep I was up feeding Wesley when Ashton woke up, and it was all down hill from there. Both babies continued to whine and fuss until Will ended up in the swing and Wesley in bed with me, but the worst part is Ashton proceeded to talk from 5 on. Jon and I finally decided her problem, she has no interior monologue! The worst part is we didn't make it to church. I HATE missing church, but was literally crying when Jon told me it was time to get up. He told me he'd go, but then he got a call from work and had to fix it. I'm sorry we missed but hope what those other moms said is true and it will get better! Last night was beyond miserable! I think it would have been better to just stay up rather than get woken up every time you had just fallen asleep! Any way, I've had breakfast and I'm hopefully going to take a nap! Here's to hoping they sleep through the night tonight and the Hallelujah Chorus is playing inmy head once again!

Hallelujah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I wish you could hear the hallelujah chorus that is playing in my head because...the twins slept through the night!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! From 10 to 5! I don't know what caused this miracle, but hope it wasn't a fluke! We think it might be because we fed them ready to feed formula last night instead of the powder kind, and it kept them full longer. Rest assured they will get that kind every night! Jon must be living right because the boys just happened to sleep through the night the night he was going hunting. Then he got a great buck this morning!

You'd think after a full night's sleep, I'd be Mrs. Energetic but instead all I want to do today is sleep, maybe I rememebered how great it is! I'm awake now, but too lazy to do much so I thought I'd post a bunch of cute pics!

I love this one of Daddy and Will.

Will loves his big brother and sister so much. I remember when I had Jackson that his eyes lit up when Jon and I entered the room like they did for no one else. Then when I had Ashton, her eyes lit up like that for Jackson. I was actually jealous! Now I am simply amazed at how Will and Wesley light up when their brother and sister are around. It's like they know at this young age that they are something really special to them! I can't imagine how much they will worship them when they are a little bigger. It worries me though that they'll be jealous of each other or have favorites. I had to have a talk with Jackson and Ashton this morning about not picking a favorite because they'll hurt their feelings as they were fighting over one!


My favorite day of the year is the day we go to Gentry's Farm. The kids have so much fun, and it's my favorite because of the great photo ops! My all-time favs are them on the tire swing. I take it every year and love comparing it! Here's a few from this year.




Everyone always asks what it's like to have twins. I don't think I can describe it, but here's my view as I feed or hold them both. Too cute...


Since the boys have started smiling, we are all a goofy mess around here trying to get them to smile for us. Jon plays, "I'm gonna get you", and I play "Where's Mommy's smile" with camera in hand, of ocurse. Will has actually even laughed a couple of times- so sweet! I look forward to the day they laugh at the same time, video camera get ready! Will grins at anything and everything. He's Mr. Personality, really happy or throwing a fit, while Wesley is like Daddy, Mr. Calm, future pitcher! His smiles are rare but all the more precious for it. Here's a rare one caught on camera...


Enough Dodd cuteness for today! I'm off to my brother's band contest. They are competing in state tonight, which they have won the last 2 years, so wish him luck. I'm really proud of him following in big sis's band footsteps, though his band and their shows are a little cooler! Still, I'm not too embarrased of being a band nerd as I met Jon at band camp, wearing make-up and a bra- him not me! I'm in so much trouble for sharing that! Hee-hee!