Graduation!!!

I graduate college this coming week. I am so proud of this accomplishment because during my many years (8 years) of attending college I have gone through a lot of things. I have had 4 major surgeries, 4 children, one marriage and a blood transfusion all while never missing a semester of college. I am the youngest of my siblings and the first to graduate and I am very excited about this accomplishment! I hope that I continue to keep updated on this blog so all my followers can hear about the next journey my life takes me on!

The Festival of the Arts

This weekend we loaded up all the family and headed to the Arts Festival in OKC. I love the month of May simple because of the fact that there is an Arts Festival every weekend. Of course, my luck, it poured down rain all over us during the festival. That didn't stop our fun! MY older boys ran all over the grass playing in the rain and the twins were well covered in their stroller.
Between spending over half and hour in the food court. (we needed different food from over 5 booths) and getting balloons we had little time for looking at art. That is fine with me. I will look at the next Festival. We had our picnic and spent the day laughing in the rain. It was wonderful!

The newest addition: Annie our PUPPY

This week I decided to get my boys a friend, and a responsibility! I found the cutest and smartest puppy! She is a toy/mini Australian Shepard. She is Red and White and such a good little puppy. Andrew and Nolan have spent the week taking her outside (every hour to potty) and running around the house with her.

Fiday we took her for her first vet check, which was totally crazy because when I was loading the kiddos up in the car to go home it started pouring. AND of course, my luck I got the stroller stuck in the trunk and spent 30 (in the rain) minutes unjamming it. The good news is Annie is healthy!

She is so SMART! She has only had 2 accidents in the house (which might have been prevented if it wasn't raining)
She already can sit and come hen told! Even by Nolan my 2 year old!! I look forward to seeing all of the tricks we are able to teach her.

I am sure there will be a lot more posting about Lil Annie!

Baseball

So, tonight was a baseball night. My oldest son Andrew is in his last season of machine pitch baseball and I love it!! He plays on all the same fields that my brother's and I played on whne we were little. Actually, the field he plays on this season is the same one I payed on when I was in softball at the same age as him now!! I love every thing abuot baseball, I love how the sun shines down on you and hoe the fields have that distinct smell of ruffed up dirt and the smell of the concession stand making nachos. I secretly hope that my son want to keep playing because I do not know what I would do if I had no reason to be up at the ball field.
We (The Bandits) (my son's team) had a game tonight and we won 19 to 0, it was great, but what made it better is the fact that the weather was so nice and I had so many firends at the ball field to visit with!!

I just wanted to post about how much I love this time of year, I love everything about Spring except all the bugs that start to appear!!

Holiday Stress

Why is it that as a Mother you try so hard to make sure that EVERY part of your childrens holidays are perfect? I am so exhausted from trying to make it all perfect. I woke up at 6am and got ready so it would be less hectic when the kids woke. Then we did the Egg hunt and off to church (in our coordinating colored outfits, i might add) And then to cook for my dish for the in-laws, to the in-laws and back home to make a ham dinner for my family. I love the fact that my kids laughed the whole day and had so much fun hunting eggs. But I wish there was a way to make holidays less stressful on parents so we can spend the day playing with our children, which is the most important part of parenthood? I am exhausted and ready for bed. Sorry that this post is so short...... As I keep daying there are pictures to come but as a mother of four in full time school it is hard to find the time.

Baby Steps

Well, yesterday Eli and Emmaire turned 6 months old!! This is a huge milestone for them, they got to eat baby food (rice cereal) for their first time. I title this post baby steps because it is me that is making all the baby steps watching them grow. I know they are the last babies I will have, and the last little ones too give that first bite of food too that gets pushed out by their tiny tongue and lands all over their bib. I have to take baby steps myself to make sure i cherish all these moments.
As of now, we only have one high chair. Eli was sleeping when by the time I got everything ready so Little Emmarie went first. She was so little in the chair I couldn't help but giggle! Nolan was so interested he kept saying "my Emma eating cereal mama??" She struggled to get the concept of what was going on, i think it will take some time till she is really ready, but the pediatrician says she needs it now! I think sh only took in a couple bites. Andrew wanted to feed her a bite and so did Nolan, I think Nolan will want to "help" every time now!
Then it was Eli's turn...... He sat up so much taller in the highchair then his sister. Eli was all smiles as he waited for the bib and during the first bite!! He is such a charmer! By the time his tongue got the cereal to the back of his mouth he would make a real crunched up face..... it was so funny! Andrew and Nolan both had to feed him some too! All in all the experience ended in bath time for all!!
I also went through all the clothes in the closet that they have outgrown and replaced it with bigger sizes.... I couldn't help but cry. I felt like I was not only replacing clothes but I was replacing the fact that I will NEVER again hold a newborn baby in my arms that belongs to me, that I gave birth to again....... I hope someday I will be a proud Grandma and it will still feel like my baby I am holding!
They also went for their 6 month check up and Eli is 15 pounds and Emmaire is 14 pounds! They are still a little behind developmentally but that is normal for premature babies.
As crazy as my house is, I love having these little blessings with me all the time!!! I never thought God would EVER bless me this much!! I guess I am pretty special!!!

The TWINS: Eli and Emmarie O'Daniel

So now to tell you about my youngest, I write about them as a pair here because yes, they are twins.
These little bundles of joy were nothing like the planned pregnancy and delivery we experienced with Nolan. These two had their own plans!!

Nolan had just turned 1 year old and Jay and I were working hard to get a little farther ahead in life. We knew we would want a third baby someday but not yet as we had a lot we wanted to accomplish first, like buying a house and my finishing school. We never imagined I would get pregnant, I mean come on, we had to do invitro to have Nolan. But God has his own plans, I have learned, and they are the best ones ever!

This month one year ago I found out I was pregnant when I got sick and admitted to the hospital, at first it seemed like a daze because of how sick I was. I had two blood transfusions and a lot of medicine. (the last year of my life is like a total Daze) After I got out of the hospital and I was having a liver function test they, for some reason, checked to see if I could possibly be pregnant and they told me that in fact I was!! When I went for my check up with my OB (by myself) weeks later, he did a routine ultrasound and pointed to the screen and said "there is one healthy heartbeat".....(my guard went down, yeah, the baby is healthy), then he continued to say "and this heartbeat looks good over here too, and he moved his pointer". I was in total shock, so much I almost threw up right there in the exam room. I even asked for a trash can. How could this be? How could I be pregnant with twins?? So many things were running through my head. I had just weaned Nolan and not been breastfeeding for a month and now I'm pregnant with twins??? I called Jay as soon as I got in the car and told him we were healthy and pregnant with TWINS!!!!! He was so calm about the whole thing and his first response was "well we need to get a bigger car then" WTH???

The pregnancy was my most uneventful one ever, I was healthy happy and had a lot of energy!! I love being pregnant and having twins was just so stinkin cool!!

As unplanned as the pregnancy was, so was the delivery. I went into the Hospital because of a little discomfort to find out I was in preterm labor. They tried to stop with multiple shots of breathine but the contractions were getting bigger and closer. I was 7 weeks early and I know the twins were not ready to be born, they needed more time in their Mama. My doctor took them by c-section on Sept. 23 2009 Eli only weighed in at 4 pounds and Emmarie weighed in at 4 pounds 7 ounces. A boy and a girl!!! I was so happy!!! They both got rushed to the NICU, where they stayed for the next 3 weeks (that will be a post all in its own) and we finally got to reunite the family.

Eli and Emmarie are now almost 6 months old and the cutest babies EVER!!!! They smile all the time and coo and laugh! They sleep through the night, most of the time. They are always happy and hardly ever cry. My life is so busy now with everything going on!!! But once again God has blessed me with amazing children and it is a privilege to get to spend everyday taking care of them. I love my babies so much! I am still nursing the twins exclusively and I plan to till they are one. We get to try cereal next week, so that post will be interesting!!

Eli has the biggest blue eyes, olive skin and light brown hair, he is such a cute boy! Emmaire has hardly any hair at all, but I think it is strawberry blond, and light blue eyes that are beautiful! She looks like a porcelain doll, she is perfect in every way!! My two peas in a pod!!!