More Pictures

I have a few more pictures to share of the boys.... Oh, and sorry about the poor picture quality. I can't always have the best lighting and in some of these I'm actually holding the baby, which makes it even more difficult.

Darek:

Darek's first bath. He wasn't quite sure about it, but overall he did quite well.

After bathtime. I put him in an outfit of Alex's that only fit Alex for the first week or two. It drowns Darek.

Last night Darek found his thumb. He couldn't quite figure out how to suck his thumb without poking his eye out, so I helped him along there.

Must be a really good thumb!!

Ian: I feel so bad that I don't have more pictures of Ian. But the pictures are all about the same of him. One of these mornings I'm going to try to get to the hospital early so I can get some pictures and video of him getting a bath. But here are a few cute ones I took yesterday while I visited him.

He's so sweet and already does the little bum up in the air when he's laying on his tummy. I can't wait to hold him in my arms. I still have not gotten that privilege. Maybe today.....

Updates

There isn't too much to report at this point. Ryan left very early Thursday morning. It was very hard to see him off, but it won't be too long before I get to see him again. Luckily the family we are staying with are very nice and the kids are very entertaining! They have 3 children, ages 8, 5, and 4 months. Avery, the 5 year old reminds me so much of Alex. In some ways it makes me miss him more and more, but it's also nice to get a little dose of a 5 year old :) Darek is doing great!! He is eating more and more each day. He'll probably have gained a whole pound by the time I get home. Ian is still in the hospital, of course. I went and spend a couple hours with him today. He is stable and is really working towards getting off that vent. I'm hoping he'll accomplish that before I leave next Thursday. I'm a little too lazy to post pictures right now. I'll try later tonight if I can, but thought I'd update everyone for now!

Our LITTLE Boys

I know it probably feels like an eternity to some of you that I haven't posted pictures in just the 2 days I've been here. But I finally have a chance tonight to sit and post. It's not quite as easy to do with a little infant in your lap :) Let me start from the time we got here.

Our plane arrived into Norfolk, VA at about 10:00 Monday morning. We were tired after only getting about an hour of sleep during the trip over. My stomach had done flips the whole trip over and all I wanted was to get to the hospital. We were greeted at the airport by our social worker, Alice. She drove us straight to the hospital where Baby A was staying. A little background here on Baby A. We named him Darek Ethan Wood. He was born July 3 at 7:46 in the evening. He weighed in at 2 lbs 1 ounce and was 12 inches long. He was only 25 weeks when born. Now he is a healthier 4 lbs 4 ounces and approx 15 inches long. He did not have many complications after birth other than just being REALLY early. He has done remarkably well and was released yesterday 8/26/08 at about 6:45 pm. We had a rocky first night. He loves being awake at night. But we got through it and had a wonderful day today. He is such a sweet natured baby and hardly ever cries. Here are a few pictures of our little Darek.

After we were done visiting Darek, we went next door to the children's hospital where Baby B was staying. And here is a little background on Baby B. We have named him Ian Jacob Wood. He was also born July 3rd at 8:56 in the evening. He was also (of course) born at 25 weeks. He weighed in at only 1 lb 15 ounces. But he was a little longer at 14 1/2 inches. He now weighs 3 lbs 11 ounces, however I do not have a current height on him. He had a much harder time coming into the world. Where Darek was born vaginally, when Ian was being born he turned and became breech. Not only that, but the cervix clamped down on him making him impossible to deliver. So they took him by c-section. Even with the c-section it took quite a while for them to get Ian out. He had stopped breathing for a short period of time and the stress of the delivery made him bleed on the brain. They caught it quickly and were able to take him into surgery to correct the issue. He is still on a ventilator, but is working every day to get off of it. Today was very special. We went to visit this afternoon. They said because he was doing quite well that we could try taking him out of his incubator for a while and hold him. Because Ryan is leaving tomorrow, he was able to have that special time with Ian. He did amazingly well out of the incubator and Ryan got to hold him for a full 45 minutes!! It was such a relief to see him doing so well. Let me share a few pictures we have of Ian.

So there are our little boys. We found some medical records today which pretty much indicated that these boys are identical! We are not totally positive, but that's what it looked like in the paperwork. They definitely have similarities, but it's hard to compare with all the differences during and after birth. Only time will tell.

Ryan is leaving very early for the airport and will be home tomorrow afternoon. The plan is for me to stay until next Thursday when I will bring Darek home with me. Then when Ian is doing a little better, I will come back to bring him home. It will be a crazy month or two, but hopefully life will get into a "normal" pattern when we finally have both boys home.

Love to all! I will try to post more later!

Miracles

As a few of you know, we have had an incredible miracle (well two actually) happen to us in the past few days. On Friday evening we were notified that there were twin boys in Virginia that were in need of a family. We prayed and prayed and prayed some more and knew without a doubt that these little boys belonged in our family. I have never felt so overwhelmed. The minute I knew, it was so hard not to jump on a plane and head to Virginia to go get our boys. But we still had to wait for an actual decision to be made. So we waited all day Saturday and all day Sunday. I would get a few calls here and there to make sure all our paperwork was turned in and ready to go, but I was literally a basketcase all weekend. Ryan is always so good at keeping his cool, which makes me so mad!! :) But finally today came. They called me around 9:00 to let me know that they had 3 couples to choose between and we were one of them and that they would be making a decision in the next hour. All I did that whole hour was pace around the house and I had a pretty good death grip on my phone. Finally at 10:28 they called and said we were the family that had been selected. I cannot tell you the range of emotions I felt in a matter of seconds. We have been waiting so long for another child to come into our lives. And to now get two sweet little boys is better than anything we could have imagined.

I have to thank those friends and family that we notified on Friday and asked to pray for us. Without those prayers and fasting I don't know that this would have happened. I am so grateful for the amount of support and love that we have been given.

So, we are off in about 1 hour to the airport. Baby A (we obviously don't have names picked out yet) is going to be released from the hospital tomorrow, but Baby B is still going to be in for another couple weeks. So Ryan will fly out with me and come back on Thursday. I will probably be staying there for a few weeks, possibly a month, until Baby B is released. I am going to do my best to find a computer so I can blog some pictures and let everyone know their stats and all.

Thanks again to everyone for all the prayers and love. You will honestly never know what it means to us. We love you all and will see you soon.... with two new baby boys!!!!

Foto Friday

I went shopping at the factory stores in Park City yesterday with some friends. I mainly went to find some school clothes for Alex. We went to the regular stores: Carters, Children's Place, Old Navy, and I just couldn't find anything for Alex. Finally at the last minute I decided to go to Osh Kosh to see what they had. Usually I don't find much there for him since he's in the bigger sizes. But luckily this time I found a few things. My favorite though was a pair of overalls. I have always loved overalls on kids. When Alex was younger, if I found an outfit that included overalls, he had to have it. Last night I let Alex try them on. He LOVED them. He wore them all last night and then begged and pleaded with me to let him wear them again today. He looks pretty cute in them (of course I'm not biased at all). One thing I love is that he pronounces them oooveralls. So here is Alex in his oooveralls.

Funny, funny kid!

Nothing cuter!

I love it when Alex wakes up in the morning. I always get the most random thoughts from him, and he is so sweet and cuddly. Plus, I love all the faces he makes as he's stretching. So, being the mean Mom I am, I went into the room this morning and took some pictures of him waking up. He was not happy that I was using my flash that early in the morning, but sacrifices must be made :)

It drives me crazy how big he is getting. It seems every day he is an inch taller and looks so much older. But I am such a lucky Mom!

Family Photos in St. George

The reason I didn't do a Foto Friday this past week was because I was in St. George. My brother Aaron and his family flew in this past week and we all went down to St. George to see my sisters. While we were together, we decided to get family pictures taken. The ones I'm going to post are just from our camera. We haven't gotten the disc of pictures yet. I'll have more stories from our trip down there later, but for now, here are some pictures.

Grandma and Grandpa with all the grandkids

Aaron, Jen, Kevin, Christopher and Emma

Hayley, Mike, Brayden, Tyson and Julianna

Mandi, Ryan and Alex

Beth and Chad

I had to post this one, cause he's just sooo cute! Brayden (Squishy)

All the older kids taking a bath together. From left Christopher, Emma, Tyson, Alex and Anna

NERF Obsession

So now that Alex is getting a little bit older, he has really taken a liking to weapons (as many little boys do). He has close to 10 light sabers, various other swords, and a few Nerf guns. Well Ryan and I get a little tired of sword fighting and playing star wars, but we have really gotten into the Nerf stuff that we've gotten Alex. Well today we went to Target and saw a Nerf gun there that we've never seen before. It is an automatic and actually comes with a tripod for the gun to sit on. Well, here are a few pics and a video so you can see how it works.

Ryan and I have had this great idea. We want to have a huge get together, have everyone bring their own Nerf guns and have a Nerf war! We have no clue where we would do this so that we all don't lose the bullets. But it's something we really want to do! Anyone game??

Foto Friday

As I was searching through some blogs, I came across one that does Foto Fridays. I really like this idea. Sometimes I don't make enough of an effort to take pictures during the week. By doing this, hopefully I'll make that effort and have some cute pictures to post every week. And that way I'll also be sure to do at least one post a week. So I just took a few pictures of Alex and I since I really didn't take any others this week.

Man I love my little boy!

Plasma for sale

I started donating plasma yesterday. My brother in law already donates and he got me interested in it. The first appointment took a little while since they had to ask all the "qualifying" questions and do a short physical. But the process is really not all that bad and I got to watch a movie while doing it. And then they gave me money! Since we are broke from school and all that fun stuff, this money gets to be my play money. I'll probably buy some new stamping supplies and such. I've thought about saving up to buy a scooter too.... Anyway, if ya have questions about the process, let me know. It's not nearly as bad as I thought it would be.

Slacker

I know I've been slacking off with blogging. Honestly, between my new job and getting ready for school to start, it's been hard to sit down and blog. But I will try and catch you all up on the few things that have happened in the past couple weeks.






I mentioned that I got yet another nephew. This one belongs to Ryan's brother. This is their 4th boy. His name is Brett Charles Wood. I finally got to see some great photos of him online. He is so cute and I can't wait to get to see him in person.

So again, for that running tally, we now have 10 nephews and 2 nieces between our two families. All of them are so cute! I love being an Aunt!

Ryan is all registered for school and ready to start his program. He is excited (kind of), but a bit nervous too. We hope these next two years go well for him and go by fast! I know that he will do great as a Radiologic Technician. He does well at just about anything put in front of him.

Alex is also getting ready for school. We went school shopping to get Alex his new backpack. I figured it would be pretty easy to find what he wanted and be done with it, but Alex was quite specific on what he wanted in a backpack. 1. It ABSOLUTELY had to have a water bottle that came with it. I don't know precisely why, but he was insistent with that one. 2. It needed some kind of pocket to hold his wallet. Now I'm not quite sure why he would need a wallet as a kindergartner, but hey, he knows what he wants.... right? 3. This one was not quite as important, but he also wanted one that had a lunchbox that can attach or be removed from the backpack. Again, in Kindergarten they don't stay and eat lunch since they are only there for half a day, but it's just something he wanted. So, with all those specifications we went searching. We went to 3 stores and really didn't find anything he liked. Then he remembered that we had seen a Spiderman one that he had LOVED at Smiths Marketplace. So off we went. We got there and started our search. We couldn't find the one he liked anywhere. We were about to give up, but went to one more section in the store.... and there it was. The perfect backpack. Needless to say, we bought it and he pretty much hugged it all the way home. We also went to Kmart and found Spiderman folders, notebooks and pencils.

Alex is thrilled to be starting school! We know he will do great academically and will make a lot of friends. I also know it will kill me to see my baby go to school. I'm ready to be an emotional mess that first week.

I know other things have happened in the past couple weeks, but I will save that for another time. It's late, and I'm tired. So hopefully this will keep ya'll busy until I can sit down and write some more!