Madelyn is scooting forward!

It's exciting stuff people. Madelyn can get on her tummy and then pull herself slightly forward! She uses her arms but some her legs, too. It's not full out army crawl and it's certainly not hands and knees crawling, but I'll take it! Macey is still content to roll where she needs to go. Madelyn also now has all 4 top teeth which is quite cute to see. Macey has 3 of 4 - she's missing her right, true front tooth.

We were gone this weekend to Cincinnati for the RTS Family Conference. It was an amazing time of meeting people we'd only ever emailed with for years and hearing experts talk about RTS and other things related to RTS to help us out. We brought Caden and Avery, leaving Declan, Macey and Madelyn back home with my parents. We truly did have a great time! Avery got very confident in the pool - she was jumping in and swimming halfway across (under water) to me! We spent as much time as possible in the pool. On Saturday and on Sunday morning the kids went into childcare and James and I attended speakers and seminars about RTS. We got some great information from those and were able to have breakfast and lunch in a revolving restaurant - one of only 32 such restaurants in the world I think! The trip there didn't go so well...it took us 10.5 hours to get there. On the way home, though, we stopped less often and made it in 8.5 which felt much more tolerable. It was so fun to see other RTSweeties and meet their families!!

An amazing encounter!

I had an amazing encounter this weekend. James and I were camping with our little tribe. We nearly backed out about 10 times because it was so blasted hot and it was supposed to be just miserable, but we decided to go anyway because we had reservations. After setting up camp I took a walk with the twins in the stroller, Avery on her bike and Caden on his special bike that school made for him. Just 3 campsites away from us a mom smiled and commented on Caden's neat bike, and then signed "baby" to her daughter and asked if she could see the babies. I glanced over at her daughter and my heart literally stopped for a second - I knew in an instant she had RTS. It's so hard to know how to approach something like that, y'know? Some moms are ok with lots of questions about their child with special needs and some really don't wish to have it pointed out that it's "obvious". So I eggshelled a bit - I told her my son had special needs, which led to her stating that her daughter did. I asked then if her daughter had a diagnosis. She said yes, and then said, "She actually has Rubinstein Taybi Syndrome" in a way that I've said it many times - the tone said "You've never heard of it and have no idea what it is." I simply said, "Shut up! Caden has RTS too!!!" She teared up and neither one of us could believe it. A small campground in Iowa, the same weekend, just 3 sites away. What are the chances honestly???? Interestingly enough, they had their 6 year old daughter pull some states out of a hat, then they prayed about it and then decided where in that state they would camp, and apparently Pella, Iowa is the place to be (I mean, we already knew that but still),

So we spent a lot of time chatting over the course of the weekend. The similarities are astounding, both socially and medically. Caden and her daughter hugged each other several times, which is something I have NEVER seen Caden just offer to someone else - they both knew they were something special! This family is from Iowa as well. It was just so exciting!!!

Added a cute lil picture...

of Macey (left) and Madelyn on their birthday up top there! Enjoy!!

James is loving work!

This is refreshing. It is just amazing to see him smile so much, to see him get out of bed early because he can't wait to get to work, to see him smile - have I mentioned that?? I am happy, he is happy, life is good. I will admit that having him get home really late on the days he works in Des Moines is sort of hard, but that's a fair trade off....so far. In a few weeks when he's on his own he will be working weekends which means Fridays and Saturdays. We'll see how that pans out, but I think we can handle it. Thank you God!!

Happy 1st Birthday Macey Johanna and Madelyn Corinne!!!!

Words can't express how much these two girls have changed our lives. They are precious baby girls who light up our lives so very much! I am so proud to call them my babies.

About to lose my cool...

I just posted this on a message board I frequent. Enjoy the peek into my life...

I feel like a pretty even-keel person, but with James' new job it's later hours in coming home. It's 7pm and he is not even home yet. I am about to blow a gasket at my kids I swear it. My 7yo is special needs so developmentally he is about 2-3 years ago. He and my 2yo fight like you WOULD NOT believe. The "mine!" "no, MINE!" is enough to drive me to drink. My 7yo doesn't have many words but of course MINE happens to be one of them. Right now my 2yo is SCREAMING outside their bedroom door because my oldest is supposed to be in bed (I sent him there before I NEARLY popped him one) and he is not in bed. I am on here just typing because if I don't I will say or do something I will later regret. Add to the mix my 5yo DD who is hollering "mommmmmmmmmmmmy, the boys are hurting my ears!" at the top of her ever-loving lungs. She should know better but I expect too much of her sometimes. And all of this is happening within feet of the twins' bedroom door - they are having their bottles in bed and trying to go ni-night.

This all started over a stupid Clifford book that no one could share.

Sometimes I get SOOOOOOOOOOO frustrated at my 7yo and his lack of understanding. He pesters just to pester at times (typical boy, I know) and it just drives me up the proverbial wall. With school being out I feel like I am FOREVER telling him no to something or telling him to stop pinching, stop hitting, keep your hands to yourself. It's SO hard to have a meaningful, fun experience with him and I'm sad.

Ok. In the time it took me to type that all is quiet. I needed the breather. Thank you for letting me vent. Off to start tackling bedtime in a bit. (And no, I am not mad at James for working longer, but this time of day is just HARD. The kids haven't even seen him yet today. But the poor guy got out to his car after work and the battery was dead! He's had "one of those days" as well I guess.)

Happy 4th - er, I mean 5th.

Honestly, what a boring weekend. I am not complaining really, but we didn't do anything 4th of Julyish. My parents kept Declan and the twins on Saturday and we went to Pella's outdoor pool/aquatic center for 3.5 hours which was really fun. Caden is a whole lot braver than I thought he would be! I think it's time for swimming lessons for him, but I'm not really sure where to begin. I think private lessons would be necessary for him. He just basically had no fear, which was good and bad. He also doesn't always listen really well so it's a mixed bag of fun, LOL!

The actual day of the 4th we majorly lazed around. We didn't even make it to church because we slept in so late - now THAT was nice! Today we went and took a bike ride down where we usually camp. The campgrounds are closed due to flooding, so we decided to walk in the campground loops instead of on the walking trails. We thought this would be good because there's no traffic in there right now. It WAS pretty good...except for the mosquitos. Holy CRAP! Awful, I've never seen them so bad. They SAY that mosquitos are so big in Minnesota that they are the state bird. I could almost believe there were so MANY on our kids today that it could be considered the plague!! Interesting too - I bet there were 10 of them on Macey for every 1 on Madelyn! I'm just like little Macey...mosquitos love me, too. Not fair!

The twins are going to be ONE on Thursday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It just can't be so!!!