December Photo Sampler

Here are a few photos I got off the camera of the boys having fun.

Parks and Wyatt playing in Duke's Christmas present, a new cage to stop him from eating household items.

Wyatt getting his revenge on Parks by locking him in the cage, although I think Parks was having more fun with this than Wyatt.

My new recruits.

We were on our way to great-grandmother's house on Christmas Eve, but daddy had to stop off at work for a little bit.

The boys at Oma's house wanting to get outside to play with the big kids.

Everyone sharing and getting along while they play with one of their second
cousins and his trucks.

Father and Son

In a retrospect of the recent Christmas season, I caught myself in a special moment shared with one of my sons.

We were playing with one of their new Christmas toys. I remember the moment for a couple of reasons. The first was that we were sitting on the floor together with him sitting directly in front of me with his back to me and my legs wrapped around him and his play area in a way that almost enveloped his whole world. The second detail was the particular toy that my son was playing with. He had recently received a barnyard playset, complete with animals, barn, and crops.

He was sitting their almost unaware of me while he tended to the duties of his work on the farm. He was busy with his own world and would only turn to me for affirmation of what he was doing or for me to fix something he became frustrated with. Other than that, me tying his shoe, brushing his hair or giving him a kiss on top of the head went unnoticed. And then, this thought came to me...

Am I really much different in my daily life in my relationship with God? I go about, in all seriousness, acting out the duties of my occupation while God surrounds my life and showers me with His love and care. How often do I sit with my back to Him and only turn to face Him when I am frustrated or if I seek approval for my actions? As these thoughts faded from frontal lobe, I gave him another hug that he shrugged off and decided...let's go get some CHEESY PUFFS.

The aforementioned toy

Logan

I saw this video (or heard this audio) on one of my favorite blogs today. I can only aspire to be as wonderfully domestic as this lovely woman is, but that's not the point of my post. That's a whole 'nother topic for a different day.

I know I have heard this before, but it really hit me today. I guess because my boys are getting bigger and really starting to understand what we're saying and what's going on around them. I feel the gravity and responsibility of being their mama more each day. Am I really up for the monumental task of parenting these two little ones? Making sure they are fed and that they get enough sleep is a piece of cake compared to what I'll soon be up against. Whew!! I've been overwhelmed with this the past few months...and in prayer about it quite often. As I listened to this today, I thought first of all that this little boy, or shall I say young man, really has a lot more figured out than most grown adults. My prayer is that my precious boys would someday understand their salvation and the gift our Lord gave us the way Logan does.

The Everybody Project

Since moving in March, our family has been involved in the creation of a new church that is a Strategic Partnership with Andy Stanley’s Northpoint Ministries. In that time, we have really seen the development of welcoming environments and sound Scriptural teachings.

During 2008 the church has been meeting in temporary locations, never being able to call any one of them home. At the beginning of the New Year, our church plans to move into a more permanent facility. Last week , the leaders signed a long-term lease on a new facility that will allow the church to create these safe enviroments in a permanent location. We are hoping to be moved into the new venue by the end of January and are making a push to raise the funds for the cost of construction to renovate the facility to fit the church’s needs.

The Everybody Project was created to invite individuals to assist us in the goal of furthering the work of our church home. Ultimately, Auburn church’s mission, like NPM’s, is to lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ. If you feel led to join in this mission and help us meet our goal, please read the excerpt below from Auburn Church’s blog, www.auburnchurch.blogspot.com, on ways to give.

The Everybody Project is an opportunity for attenders/members, who make up the body of Christ at Auburn Church, to help raise support to create safe, irresistible environments in our new facility located at 1667 Shug Jordan Parkway. The cost associated with creating these environments is right at $100,000. So here's the plan to reach our goal.

All of us working together to ask 1,000 people to give $100 each over the next 10 days for one life-changing message that's for everybody! This is a great chance for you to share your story of how God has changed your life through His church. Please check back often as we daily update how close we are to reaching our goal at auburnchurchonline.org. To learn more about how to make your $100 donation, click here! The Everybody Project begins Monday, December 15th and ends on Christmas Day.

Thank you for doing your part! Thank you for creating a church that unchurched people want to attend. Thank you for continuing to share the life-changing message of a right standing with God that comes from God through faith in Jesus Christ that is for everybody!

Christmas Photos

Below are some picture we had taken by a friend of ours in search of quality pictures for our Christmas cards. You can check out her work at Terrible Speller. We had a great time that day and a lot of fun doing it.

Wyatt, our newest walker. Like most things that he does, it takes him a little longer to do something initially, but his learning curve goes straight up from there.

Wyatt would eventually warm-up and cut loose, as you will see, but Parks would not smile for any of the photos.

"Wha'cho talkin' about Willis?"

This is supposed to be a picture of them giving kisses, not a pre-fight standoff before a heavyweight bout. Personally, I think it resembles the latter more.

All together now.

We both love this one.

I told you Wyatt would warm-up. He is really enjoying his new sense of freedom with walking. He rarely is caught crawling anymore.

Mommy and our little man.

"For real, what's up with all the picture taking?"

The Lighting of the Charlie Brown Christmas Tree

This year we decided to scale back on the Christmas tree a little and go with a 4.5 ft Target special for a few reasons. One, we are in a transitional dwelling that would not accommodate a normal size tree without losing a couple of main pieces of furniture. Two, Duke has been on a recent destruction rampage when we leave the house for any length of time. A few casualties have been the remote control, throw pillows, and an arm cushion to one of the boys' chairs. Don't worry, we're working to get this issue resolved. Three, we were not sure how the boys could handle glass heirloom ornaments within such ease of reach and we wanted something they could enjoy without breaking.

This is a video of the first time we plugged in our Charlie Brown tree for the boys. As you can see, they were a little excited about this strange occurrence. Why were mommy and daddy bringing a tree in the house? Why were pretty, colorful lights covering this tree? Why were mommy and daddy putting it within reach? Fortunately, the novelty beyond this first encounter has faded. Now, there's no screaming or prodding. They simply point and pause upon passing by. We have enjoyed the beginnings of what we hope to be lifelong Christmas traditions in our family, but it will probably be another year or so until we can explain the "reason for the season."

Also, I am very proud. They are both saying "da-da," clear as a bell. You will hear a little of it on the video. By the way, one of my favorite parts of the whole thing is when they both decide to take a drink break in the middle of their Christmas cheer.

Walking Wyatt

This is a video of what has become part of our evening bed time ritual. It involves, as you can see, daddy crawling around to the various nooks and crannies of the boys' room popping out and scaring Parks and Wyatt. The boys' have also discovered that Daddy is a good ride-on toy as well. We also take time to read a book or two. Their favorite right now is The Moon Shines Down, by Margaret Wise Brown the author of Goodnight Moon. As if you couldn't tell by the fact that Parks doesn't put it down the entire video.

Besides showing you all how goofy I can be, it also shows Wyatt walking. He was released from physical therapy today. Apparently, in this instance, he's like our second child. We have all kinds of video of when Parks learned to walk, but somehow failed miserably in capturing Wyatt's first steps. We wanted to post this before it got too late to be relevant. It has really opened up a new world for him. He is interacting with the other kids at preschool more, largely because he can keep up better. He and Parks are starting to play, argue, and interact more at home as well. Enjoy. I am working on editing a couple other videos that we hope to get up soon.

SEWING 101

I decided some time ago that I wanted to try my hand at sewing. (This is Randi, by the way. I have a pretty domestic husband, but the most sewing I'm going to get out of him is a button.) So, I took a beginning sewing class back in September and was able to complete a corduroy longall for Parks. The people at the local sewing center were kind enough to allow me to use their embroidery machine to apply a cute applique on the outfit as well. Between not having my own machine and several deadlines at work, I had been unable to sew Wyatt's matching outfit until now. There really wasn't a real sense of accomplishment after finishing Parks' outfit because I knew I still had another whole outfit to sew. I ended up working on it over our very boring Thanksgiving holiday and they donned their new outfits for preschool this morning. I was so proud. Too bad Parks' was sewn so long ago he's almost outgrown it. Wyatt's fits perfectly. I now have several projects lined up, most of which I need to finish in the next couple of weeks. I think I might have the bug.

Below is my attempt at capturing photos of them before school this morning. Can you tell the container drawer is our favorite place to play?

Quote of the Day

"Parks, you can read the book, but you cannot ride your brother!"

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

On this Thanksgiving Day, we are thankful for so much. Wyatt has woken the last two mornings with fever approaching 104 degrees. But by bedtime tonight we were beginning to see signs of the old Wyatt. He was playing with Daddy and brother just like every other night at bedtime. With Tuesday's seizure and the subsequent days of high fever, I must admit I have been a little on edge. We are so thankful he seems to be on the mend.

We barely spent time with my family today and didn't get to spend any time with Todd's family. We wrapped up our Thanksgiving with dinner at the local Waffle House. As much as we love living in a small town, there was absolutely no other restaurant open. And while we were less than thrilled with how our Thanksgiving turned out, I reminded Todd that we would never forget the Thanksgiving we spent at WH...as a family, just the four of us.

A Big Scare

The boys were at a Mom's Morning Out program at church this morning when Randi received a call that Wyatt was having a seizure. Luckily, she was in route to pick them up and was only a few minutes away. Apparently, he was beginning to act very tired odd and was starting to spike a fever. They put him in the swing to let him rest. Sometime in the next few minutes he closed his eyes and started having convulsions. His teacher immediately called 911 and got paramedics on site. Randi called me before she had arrived and told me I needed to get back as soon as possible since I was over an hour away from home.

When Randi arrived, Wyatt was already starting to come out of the seizure, they loaded him and Randi in the ambulance to the emergency room. He was lethargic and unresponsive for a while after the convulsions ceased. With Wyatt's neurological history brought on by his prematurity and growth restriction, we had only the worst in mind.

I finally made it to the hospital to find him stripped down to a diaper asleep on Randi's chest in an emergency room bed. His fever was still at 103.2 F when he arrived at the hospital. He was completely out of it. The poor little man. It seems like these things more often than not happen to him. We found out that he had experienced a Febrile Seizure that is due to a rapid rise in temperature. Fortunately, there is only a slight risk that it will be something that develops into any type of epilepsy. To sum it up, it seems his body got too hot too fast and shut down. It is something that he will eventually grow out of, but there is a chance that it will happen again with future fevers. There will be precautions that we will have to take, but it is such an answer to prayer that it is not far, far worse. Our prayer now is that this was an isolated event and we won't have to deal with this in the future.

As you could imagine, he slept most of the rest of the day after we were discharged. He started to show signs of normalcy during our evening hours of play, though he was moving a lot slower and seemed a little off kilter. What a wild day that has left us all drained.....except for Parks, who seemed to absorb all the energy that we were dispelling. He was soooooo wound up, it brought a little comic relief.

We will try to keep everyone posted on Wyatt's status as we monitor him over the next few days. Thanks for everyone's prayers. They were definitely felt today.

Enjoy the Chaos

As you can see, we are going through some changes here to make this a better blog. You never know what might pop up as I try to retool and expand into new avenues to have this be a more enjoyable site. I am working solo, so please be patient with us. I am not very good at Html.

THE DAY AFTER THE ELECTION

A dose of perspective for us to read, the morning after the election.!!!

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, Jesus will still be King.

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, our responsibilities as Christians will not have changed one iota.

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, the greatest agent for social change in America will still be winning the hearts and minds of men and women through the gospel, not legislation.

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, my primary citizenship will still be in this order – (1) the Kingdom of God , (2) America , not vice-versa.

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, the tomb will still be empty.

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, the cross, not the government, will still be our salvation.

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, our children will still be more concerned with whether or not we spend time with them than with who is President.

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, my neighbor will still be my neighbor, and loving him/her will still be the second greatest commandment. (Do you remember the first?)

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, the only way to see abortion ultimately overturned will still be winning men and women to a high view of life through the gospel of Christ.

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, my retirement will still not match my treasure in Heaven.

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, “Jesus Is Lord” will still be the greatest truth in the Universe.

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, we will still know that God is in control. No matter the outcome, I pray that you will remember who you are and who He is.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

We had a wonderful second Halloween. Mommy and Daddy escaped another year without trick-or-treating and instead spent time at a local festival and a pumpkin carving contest. One of the many joys of living in a small town are all of the many community activities.

In our cute Halloween PJs.

This one speaks for itself.

Wyatt loved his costume.

One of Wyatt modeling Parks' costume. We needed to see how it looked on a non-screaming child.

Our First Beach Trip

We traveled to Orange Beach, Alabama for the weekend. It was the boys first real trip to the beach. We were a little concerned it would be too cold for them, but the weather was beautiful. Much the way it always works, Wyatt LOVED the gulf, the sand, the pool, all of it. Parks on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with any of it. We really couldn't have two more different boys. Unfortunately, we failed to bring the camera the one time we were on the beach with Wyatt in the water. Every time the waves hit his little legs he would laugh hysterically. Here are a few pics from our weekend.

Our attempt at trying to capture a Christmas shot on the beach. Wyatt decided to use Parks for balance and Parks did not like it.

Some sweet friend of ours boated over from Pensacola for breakfast. While the boys didn't actually ride in the boat, they loved exploring.

Note the look on Wyatt's face. He was so excited, he wanted to climb over the back of the boat and play with the engines. His lack of fear absolutely terrifies this mama, especially when our condo was on the 15th floor.

At the zoo in our new Radio Flyer wagon. We've had been debating whether to get one of these for months. So far I really like it.

The closest Parks would get to any body of water. Never mind the fact that he wouldn't even let his feet touch the sand.

Parks and the Dogs

Today, I watched as Parks shooed, or growled, our dog Duke out of the kitchen as they vied for space around daddy as he was eating an apple that both of them wanted intently.

Later, Parks thought it would be funny to give Dante his Goldfish. Funny turned into gross as Dante slobbered all over his hand. Gross turned into fear as Dante got a little nibble of the fingers on the next go round.

New York, New York

Just to get everybody caught up on some of the happenings in the family. Recently, Randi and I made a trip to New York. The trip started out as a simple selfish attempt by me to go to a baseball game at Yankees Stadium one last time before it was razed to the ground. It turned into a four day weekend that included not only a Yankee game but also a ferry ride to Governor's Island, a day trip to Hyde Park, Vanderbilt Mansion, FDR's home, the Catskills, Spamalot, and a lot of walking around.

The Battery Park skyline from the ferry to Governor's Island. Randi and I were in NY during Christmas 2002, and it is still odd not to see those Twin Towers.

Waterfalls in NYC? Yes, it was a part of a new public art display, in which, they erected 5-6 of these waterfalls all around the south seaport. Give me waterfalls made of rock and earth any day.

On one of our outings to Grant's Tomb near Columbia, we walked by a church under renovation. These saints were getting a "face lift."

For some odd reason, this doorway struck me, and I had to get a picture of it. Some graffiti on the doorway of the "Roumanin-American Congregation of Talmud Torah." Of all the grand vistas in huge cities, it always seems to be the little slices of life that you remember the most.

Moss and spruce seeds sprouting roots on the wood shake roof shingle of a farm house in Hyde Park.

Home to one of this country's most influential families, the Vanderbilt Mansion in Hyde Park. It's not so grandiose when you use to take school field trips to the Biltmore Mansion in Asheville, NC.

The Hudson River at we ascend into the narrow roadways along the Catskill Mountains.

Some huge, beautiful doors with intricate ironwork and stone work on a cathedral that we pass along the way.

Welcome To Our New Blog

It seems like it has been such a long time since we blogged that the title is true, but lest it is not. We are still here. Randi and I are just getting our heads above water coming out of the busy seasons for both of our jobs respectively.

There are so many stories, photos, and videos that we are wanting to share that it is hard to know where to begin. Both the boys are doing great, growing right before our eyes, and turning into such little men. Thanks to all those that have hung in there with us. We will do much better in the future and are looking to make some big changes to the overall style and scope of this blog in the near future.

Parks discovering that there is a smattering of fun with drawers besides pulling all the containers out and spreading them around the kitchen floor.

Parks and Wyatt getting ready for bed and not feeling very well with one of the many colds that have been spreading around recently.

Wyatt drinking his evening bottle (which we are weening). We think he believes he can absorb the nourishment of milk through his skin.

Sinatra -- Old Blue Eyes

Wyatt Update

We haven't had one of these in a long while, which is a good thing. That means we haven't been to see any specialists. Overall, he's doing exceptionally well. Through the state's early intervention program we are working with a speech therapist, a physical therapist, and a developmental specialist. Thankfully, they all come to our home for his therapy sessions so we really haven't had to travel for medical care in months. He is not walking just yet, but is beginning to take a few independent steps. Now that we have one walker we are anxious to get the other one walking.

Wyatt and I traveled five hours round trip today to the big city to see the Pediatric Opthalmologist. You may (or may not) remember that Wyatt was diagnosed with Duane Syndrome, a congenital eye movement disorder, when he was 7 months old. Wyatt's left eye does not move laterally, or to the outside at all. This causes his right eye to cross when he looks to the left too quickly. He then compensates by turning his entire head so he can see clearly. There are varying degrees of severity and since it is a 'syndrome' there are other symptoms that can occur with it, some of which are very disturbing.

We received a very good report today. Wyatt has 20/20 vision, which I have no idea how they know that on a 15-month old, but I couldn't be happier. He will have enough visual challenges with Duane's. I would hate for him to have to contend with poor vision as well. His eye structure is perfect and the physician felt that his symptoms would not progress or worsen over time. Additionally, he is not a good surgical candidate which is a good thing because there is no real good surgery for Duane's. Basically, he got the best report he could have gotten for the condition he has. We are very excited!

Our First Real Pool Party

As usual, we are a bit behind here at Two By Two By Two. A few weekends ago we met up with JMom for some fellowship and swimming with her parents, her sister's family and K, P, and R. It was the first time our boys had been swimming in a real pool.

Parks was in rare form and only wanted to float in a small inflatable boat. He was completely laid back and showed absolutely no interest in socializing whatsoever. As long and J's niece was pushing him around the pool he was content.















Wyatt, on the other hand, would have nothing to do with the boat and only wanted to splash. So far, he has no fear of the water.

The Backyard Pool Party

We blew up the pool, set out the tent, filled the pool with hose water and released the hounds. The boys splashed about in their slightly chilled outdoor bath. Parks did not want to get out, but Wyatt did not last long in the pool. He was happy to go from lap to lap, play "patty-cake," and show a little game face.