halloween plus...

of course, like all of you we have had a busy halloween "season" around our home. i *LOVE* having little ones at the holidays...sophie loves them ALL, so we have fun "celebrating" almost every month. for halloween this year she decided she wanted to have a "party," which was really her closest friends she has grown up with coming over to play. she was still so excited she could hardly stand it!! here she is hard at work painting cookies with lucy, avery, and hudson...

i think this is the best "group shot" we got of the big kids. sophie (full-on fake smile), lucy, clifford (i mean, hudson), lorelei, and tyler.
and the babies. we have better shots of them than this one but this one cracks me up b/c of cullen's face. like "oh mom, why are you doing this to me?" sweet miles webb in the middle of the twin sandwich.
the next day sophie had her halloween party at preschool. she goes to preschool at first woodway christian school this year and LOVES it!! siblings aren't allowed to go to class parties (mostly just b/c the classrooms aren't big enough to accomodate everyone) and i didn't want to ask anyone to baby-sit BOTH of my boys. however, sophie mentioned to me she really wanted me to come and i am SOOOO glad i did!! my sweet friend lori watched the twins and i got to go to the party. sophie told me several times during the party that she liked having me at her school and has since talked about mommy being at her school. note to self: appreciate your daughter WANTING you around. it won't be like this for long. *sniff*
sweet best friends. i love lorelei's red clip-on ponytail!!
coloring her craft. yes with someone's *sibling* in the background :).
on to halloween night. our church sponsors a "trunk or treat" every year and it is super fun. here are mommy and li-li just hanging out. TOTALLY biased, but could he be cuter???
not the cutest picture of sophie, but i could not talk about halloween without introducing you to jonah and ainsley's cousin kate. she was in town for ainsley's 1st birthday and sophie met her at a's birthday party when she painted her face. let's just say TONIGHT (6 days later) she FINALLY let me take off the rest of the ladybug kate painted on her cheek. she wanted to wear her headband like kate yesterday so maybe she "wouldn't miss her so bad." kate and her siblings cambry and grant were SO precious with all of our kids. even grant loved holding the babies. how do i raise my sons to be tender like that?? (yet still totally manly??)
little football players. i think liam looks like he has on shoulder pads here (he does not). not sure about culley's pose. nobody tell them they are wearing girls stretch pants.
one more quick shot because let's face it, have you SEEN cuter 3-month-old football players??last but not least. i took these smiley pictures today, and they make me want to laugh and cry at the same time. soph was sleeping and i was just bonding with the boys. they are just starting to giggle and for some reason were finding me pretty funny :). having both of them right there in front of me smiling is just the most pure, unadulterated joy. J.O.Y. last year at this time i was not pregnant yet and honestly did not know if i would ever be privileged enough to bear my own child again. and here i am now with these two gorgeous, happy, healthy boys. i can and will thank the Lord every day for the rest of my life for them and it will never be enough. i am so glad i did not have to "earn" the privilege of bearing them, or they would never be mine. why Jesus saw me fit to be their mom i'll never know, but THANK YOU LORD!!

had to add this one of just culley. he is literally laughing out loud here, and my heart swells to see him. sometimes when i close my eyes i see images of him like this...

and i have to open my eyes again and look at him now and praise Jesus he is perfect and healthy in every way!! it's funny b/c when he was in the NICU i see now that God was just totally guarding my heart and mind, not letting me be so upset or worried i could not function b/c He knew i had to care for sophie and liam too. but now 3 months later i am realizing how sick he was and it scares my socks off!! Satan can paralyze me with fear about this and i am learning more and more how to turn this fear off with prayer and Scripture. wow how did i veer so far off my halloween post?? ;) i hope everyone is enjoying their fall!! it's so hard to embrace the fall as it was 80 degrees today!! i normally love fall but this year have not been as "into" it and i realized why. summer is when i met my wondertwins. it was sweltering hot when i was pregnant with them and delivered them and took them home from the hospital and walked them around the block as brand-newborns. fall means they are growing up. i don't know why i am having such a hard time with this. i know how fun every stage is and that SO many fun things are yet to come. i think it's just that they are probably my last babies and i can't imagine not going through all of these sweet stages again. my sweet friend amy (you can link to her blog at right) is going to have her twins boys any day and i am so jealous!! i wish i could live this miracle over and over!! (although newborns do not sleep through the night, which i am SO enjoying!! :)) okay sorry for the epic post, cherish your life and have a great weekend!! XOXO

3 months + homecoming = a great day!!

today was a big and happy day for us!! it started off unfortunately at 5 am for mommy and liam, which is the earliest either of them have woken up in awhile (i shouldn't have bragged on my last post :)). to be fair, he has had a very stuffy nose and couldn't breathe well at all. so, time to get ready for homecoming!! love these sweet little guys in their baseball jammies...

today is their 3 month birthday. i can hardly believe it. why is it 3 months takes SOOOO long when you are pregnant and then FLIES once your baby(or ies:)) are on the outside?? no fair!! i had to post this pic, it KILLS me!! i think it looks like liam is giving a "sic 'em"!
a better pic below. oh my word i love these jeans. they are pretty much in different sizes in a lot of clothes like that...0-3 mo for culley and 3-6 for liam. it's interesting, when sophie was as big as liam at that age i got some pretty rude comments..."wow, what are you feeding her?" (um, breastmilk)..."oh, she doesn't miss a meal, does she??" (well, she's 3 months old...NO!) etc. with liam, it's always like, "oh, look at the little linebacker" and "oh, someone's gonna play football like daddy." it's funny how society kind of thinks it's a good thing for boys to be big but not girls...i digress. again, i can't say enough about how wonderful these last 3 months have been. i have been so pleasantly surprised!! i think i prepared for the worst and it just has not been at all. it just feels right to be a family of 5. i worried i would not love them as much as sophie and of course i totally do. i worried i wouldn't like having boys as much as i liked having a girl and i so do. i love being the mom to boys! it has surprised me how much i love it. i asked shane tonight if we could be the duggars so i could do this 16 more times. i don't really want 16 more kids, but you get the idea :). my little angels are so distinctly their own and each so precious to me. liam continues to be large and in charge. loves to eat more and sleep less than little bro. can holler and scream with the best of them if something is wrong. will cuddle on you all day if you let him. cullen is the most go-with-the-flow baby you will ever meet. the other day at school he had fallen asleep in a swing at the end of the day, so while mandy's and my other kids played in another room with a teacher while we worked, i left cullen in the swing and turned the light off, checking in on him every few minutes. after awhile mandy went and checked on him and angel baby was awake, just swinging in the dark by himself peacefully. didn't mind a bit. this exemplifies my sweet culley.
the next pic is big sis at a baylor women's soccer game. she was the only girl on her soccer team this year and shane wanted to show her that lots of girls really do play soccer and they are beautiful and strong. so he took her on a date friday night to the game!! she looooves date nights with daddy and i pray they have them for a long time to come!!

one of the best parts of our weekend was getting to spend tonight with some of our very best friends, the vietti's. they have loved sophie so much at every stage of her life and now they are loving our boys so much too! (please note that we love their precious 1-yr-old matelyn very much too :)). i can't get the spacing right on these pictures but this first one below is matt and ginny with sophie when she was about 6 weeks old. i feel like it was last month, but alas in 1o months that newborn is going to kindergarten. sob. the next one is matt and ginny with our boys now. don't they look so natural?? and the last in that sequence is sweet li-li napping on matt. poor boy had been so fussy all night with his cold and some reflux issues...i handed him to matt to heat up a bottle and the next thing i knew he was calm! he fell asleep on him and slept for a good while! i guess he knew a daddy was holding him :). thanks matt!
lastly are all of my babies on their first homecoming. just take a look at my baby girl!! i don't know if you can tell or not in that pic how much she really does look like liam. it is unbelievable to me how fast time flies!! i hate that the boys pic was not at homecoming, but we left the camera in the car and by the time we realized it were not going to traipse half a mile back to the car with our 2 infants, diaper bag, 4 year old, and various other items collected during the parade. oh well.

so that wraps up our wonderful day!! i hope yours was wonderful too :).

happy october!

again, we have gone too long between posts but some certain little girl (i am not naming names, but she is pictured above) lost our camera for a bit, and who wants a post without a picture, really?? but OH, have we been busy!! and i love it!!

last sunday at church we dedicated our wondertwins to the Lord in front of our church body. as we stood on that stage with our boys and the rest of our family, my tears were a-flowin'. this church was just such an important part of our journey with infertility. we sat in that sanctuary so many times begging God for a baby (or 2! ha!) and i remember crying through every sermon i heard while i was pregnant with the boys :). i remember praying with other ladies who had gone through infertility there and praying with our pastor in the parking lot at church. the fact that i was holding my alive and well angel liam and shane was holding our perfect cullen was almost too much to handle. these boys are the miracle of my life.
could they look any cuter in these overalls?? i don't know if you can see it but liam's is monogrammed with an "L" on the pocket and cullen's with a "C." and i love their sweet teeny white dress shirts!! i was looking all over for the shirts that morning and asked shane if he had seen the boys blouses. he was mortified and made me promise to never again refer to his son's shirts as blouses!! ha!
with our loves after they were dedicated.
our wonderful pastor and dear friend james with the boys. liam is sacked out. sophie was the very first baby james dedicated when he got to our church, so him dedicating the boys too was very special to us!
okay, on to the pumpkin farm!! we went to this fun farm with the higgins's last saturday that was full of fun stuff to do! i love this picture of shane and the babies from the back!
mama and her loves.
we couldn't get a good picture of them in the pumpkins to save our lives. in this one i feel like cullen is looking at me like "mom, seriously?"
soph playing this little game with the help of ronny :)
i love this picture of sophie and hudson. these kids have a lifetime of fun memories together. every time we get together with him i get nostalgic that they are this big now! they are supposed to be babies, and they are SO not babies. how did this happen?? no more blinking!
i love this picture! look at the beautiful sky!
this fun barrel ride! sophie looks so excited, i love it!
my lambs just playing on a blanket. i love to just lay them on the floor and talk to them and watch them interact with me. they are starting to "talk" and giggle and interact so much. i forgot how much i love this stage/age!
and now, drumroll please...what does this sleeping baby...(who, yes, is sleeping on a pink sheet :))
have in common with THIS sleeping baby?? (you know, besides the whole sharing-a-womb-for-nine-months thing??)
why, they are both sleeping through the night, of course!! and they have been for over a week!! holy moly do i feel like a new woman!! like some nights 9-6, or 10-7, 10-8...but no more 3 am or 4 am wake-ups, thank you very much!! it is funny, although he is smaller cullen consistently sleeps about an hour later than liam. i kind of like it though because i get that time to nurse and spend with liam one-on-one, then i put him in the bouncer and get some one-on-one time with cullen too. thank you Jesus for my good sleepers!! (and let me not be jinxing myself by bragging...:))
i know things will continue to be busy with Baylor homecoming and halloween...and the boys turn 3 months on saturday, too!! pics and posts to come. hope everyone is loving their fall!!

back to life, back to reality...

the last few weeks in the watwood household have been busy because we have been getting back to REAL LIFE! it kind of makes me sad because it means i don't have bitty newborns anymore but it feels good to be getting back into the swing of things! this picture up above was the babies first Sunday at church. it is SO GOOD to be back at church, i can't even say. the boys love it too!!

this pic has nothing to do with getting back into the swing of things but it makes me happy :). sophie woke up one morning and said, "i am SO HUNGRY. i want a BIG bowl with a BIG lot of cheerios and a BIG spoon." so this is what daddy came up with!! he is so awesome!! (and the brown things in there are chocolate chips...i know, really healthy...don't ask!)
look at these gorgeous boys! i am totally biased but oh i think they are just beautiful. cullen is on the top and liam on bottom, i really notice culley's baby blues and liam's brown eyes here.

friday night fellowship at church. the pictures above they have been matching but sometimes we just like to coordinate, like here. they honestly do so good at church, the nursery workers ask us if they are this easy at home. they may just be saying this :) but we choose to believe they really are well-behaved!! while they were at church we were roller-skating with a few different life groups...oh my!! what a (fun) workout!! and shane won 2nd place in red light, green light to boot!! (and was sore the next morning for his 20-mile run ;))
my beautiful little pumkpin-head at school. yes, we are back to school and loving it! it is so hard for me to get all 3 kiddos ready, myself ready, bags and lunches packed and to school on time but once we are there it is great for all of us!! i work mondays and wednesdays from about 9-3 and my boys are about 10 yards down the hall from my office. i love peeking my head in on them and going to steal kisses ;). i know once they get separation anxiety that will have to stop but for now i love it!
this is what li-li thinks of school...what a snooze!! ;)

pumpkin-heads just getting to school. is liam not so much bigger than baby bro??

i am sorry but these 2 are so cute it HURTS!! how can i not smile all (okay, most) of the day when i am gazing at these faces??
i know all of my pictures and stories are of happy times, and truly, 90% of the time in our life is so so sweet right now. but i want you to know there are times too when i feel like i am drowning. last week one day i was just begging God to let me come up for some air. i was drowning in laundry and drowning in toys and drowning in crying children and drowning in breastmilk. and frankly i just wanted to drive myself to the nearest hotel, check myself in and spend 24 hours alone. luckily after work shane did come home and take over and send me to the gym (what a vacation, right? ;)) but still, this is hard too and i want to be honest about that. that same day we went to get sophie her 4-year vaccinations. they said it would only take a minute (ha!) so i didn't feed the boys before we left. about 45 minutes later we have 2 screaming babies in a very small exam room and a hysterical 4-yr-old fixing to get her (4!) shots. i literally was laying across her restraining her and after her 1st 2 shots i was crying too. it was pretty much hysteria. well, the nurse's hand slipped and sophie was kicking and the nurse stuck herself with a needle after she gave sophie one of her shots. she got the worst look on her face and told me that protocol for that was that sophie had to go to the hospital and give 2 vials of blood. you. have. got. to. be. kidding. me. dr. martindale heard all of my screaming children and came into our exam room to try and help. he picked up liam, started rocking him and trying to distract sophie. he did not leave our sides until we left. i called shane bawling and he went to the hospital with sophie. i did not have it in me to restrain her again. when we all got home poor little munchkin asked if we could have spaghetti and meatballs for dinner and took a 3-hr nap!! but--after that day--i just needed to come up for air.
i read this quote lately and i LOVE it. i find myself rushing through the little moments (brushing teeth, making lunch, changing diapers) and i have to remind myself i don't want to miss MY LIFE!! because friends, this is LIFE and i know each MINUTE is a gift not to be missed.


Most people miss their whole lives, you know. Listen, life isn't when you are standing on top of a mountain looking at the sunset. Life isn't waiting at the altar or the moment your child is born or that time you were swimming in deep water and a dolphin came up alongside you. These are fragments. 10 or 12 grains of sand spread throughout your entire existence. These are not life. Life is brushing your teeth or making a sandwich or watching the news or waiting for the bus. Or walking. Every day, thousands of timy events happen and if you're not watching, if you're not careful, if you don't capture them and make them count, you could miss it. You could miss your whole life." Addition by Toni Jordan

have a great week, friends!! cherish all of your minutes!! XOXO, meg

my 2 month olds!!

be still my heart...my little loves are TWO MONTHS OLD!! i know that sounds like little babies still but to me they are getting so big and i know i say this every post but ohhhhh it is going too fast!! i truly love having babies so much this time and am so afraid it's going to be my last and it is flying right before my very eyes!! if i could rewind time back to july 24th and start all over with these 2 i would...even the L&D part :). here are my loves at 2 months...
seriously, you say?? is that the best pic i can get of the 2 of them?? well, it's better than this:
or this:

i'm telling you, it's a hard job photographing the 2 of them together!! this one's a little better...
you can see big sister's hands holding cullen's head and the sign in place there. my little helper :). we went to their 2-month check-up on friday and HOLY MOLY are they growing!! cullen was 11 lbs, 7 oz and 21 1/2 inches long, and liam was 13 lbs, 7 oz (!!) and 22 1/2 inches long!! they have both over DOUBLED their birth weight, and culley in particular has gained almost a pound a week since he got home from the NICU. it is funny b/c 11,7 is a good size for a 2-month old (50th %-ile) but i feel like he is still sooo tiny, compared to liam and sophie at that age. sophie was actually 13 lbs 12 oz at 2 months which was off the charts for a girl, and liam is holding steady in the 90th %-ile. i remember saying how happy i was that i had smaller babies this time so they would stay little longer...ha ha, joke's on me because apparently shane and i just do not produce small children, nor do i produce milk that grows small children :)! according to the dr. they are the picture of health and for that we are MOST grateful. at 2 months:
liam--my little snugglebug. i would snuggle you all day if i did not have other things to do :). you are my drama baby, going from smiling to all-out wailing in seconds if you are not happy. then we pick you up and you are all smiles again!! your reflux has been soooo much better this month!! you have been sleeping great at night (although fighting going down) and LOOOVE to eat. i love your chubby little legs and your biscuit feet and your precious dimples. i love how you calm down instantly in my arms and look just like your sister. you enjoy swinging in the swing and walks in the bjorn, and your little eyes are already turning brown. my love, i do not know what i did without you in my life. you make me laugh every day and i love you so much it's pretty ridiculous.
cullen--my angel boy. i see God's goodness all over your life. not one to snuggle so much, but full of curiousity and loving to look around. you so easily offer up smiles and coos and they melt my heart. you are the most laid-back little guy and really don't cry unless you are hungry. not loving the swing, but will sit in your bouncer and crane your head back at the TV for just about as long as i will let you :). we are not sure who you look like yet, but i am thinking daddy (which is a good thing, because i think he's pretty handsome!). not so interested in eating and a GREAT napper!! your eyes are still a gorgeous blue. your little personality endears you to me more and more every day. the true "baby" of our family, you complete it perfectly. i love everything about you!!
love from a sappy, sappy mama :)

soccer mom?

my little 4-yr-old is playing on her first organized team this fall!! she decided she wanted to play soccer and hasn't looked back!! if you know sophie at all she is the prissiest girly-girl around so seeing her like this is a trip...but i LOVE it!!
i totally love this picture up above. she looks so determined! shane is so proud that she already has a great runner's stance...nice long stride. my little lady even scored a goal!!

teeny little fan cullen sleeping on boppy. soph insisted the bubbas wear orange too!!


sweet li-li is a much more involved fan! my little chubba-bubba!

every good player needs a post-game pick-me-up of fruit snacks and capri sun!!

our dear precious friends scott and lee ann snuggling the boys. poor liam looks like he doesn't have a head...i think he is craning it back to look at scott. this couple literally helped pray these boys here for us!

my sweet, sweaty little player!! i love those tiny cleats. girl needs an orange bow, though! i am on a mission to find one before pictures on saturday :). it seems like we have had a looong week here in the watwood household!! sophie had a tummy thing going on yesterday and threw up twice...YUCK-O. today she was better just in time for her first day of speech therapy! i mentioned to her dr at her 4-yr-checkup that she still has trouble with her "r"'s (says them like "w"'s--"wed" for "red," etc) and he recommended going ahead and getting her started in speech therapy now. so we started today and sophie had a ball!! i am so glad!! she will be going once a week and i think it is going to be great for her. be on the look-out for the boys 2-month post!! their actual 2-month birthday is TODAY but tomorrow is their dr's appt, so i am going to wait until i have some stats to report!! i am a sad momma about TWO sets of shots in their 4 precious little leggies :(. have a great weekend!! XOXO!!

growing boys!

these weeks are absolutely flying by!! i wholeheartedly want it to SLOW DOWN!! i feel like we waited so long for these babies, and they are getting big right before our very eyes!! check them out...
about the closest i can get a picture of a smile out of liam. when he really smiles he has darling dimples. i L.O.V.E. dimples but always thought they were heriditary (?) so never thought i would have a kid with them. when i saw them on liam in the hospital i envisioned God smiling and placing His finger in liam's cheeks before He sent him to me.

check out this smiley baby!! i know it is horribly blurry but it CRACKS me up!! he is such a smiley little guy. his smile lights my heart up. every day culley reminds me of God's goodness. i think of his time in the NICU and how good God is that we have a healed, absolutely precious angel boy.
look how BIG these babies are getting!! check out their chubby cheeks and just total baby-ness, not newborn-ness!! cullen is on the left and liam on the right. liam looks SO MUCH like sophie when she was a baby. he is just very very familiar to me, and we are still trying to figure out who cullen looks like. someone precious, that's for sure! :)
again here i think they look so big and chubby!! especially cullen. when we brought culley home from the hospital he weighed 5.7 and was SO TINY...his head was so bitty and literally the skin just hung on his baby arms. look at those arms now! we are so blessed that they are just THRIVING!! i packed up my first load of too-small clothes today :(. i am so not ready for these boys to grow up. except for the sleeping thing. they will give us good stretches of sleep sometimes, but not with any consistency. last night liam actually gave us 8 hrs in a row (and cullen gave us 6); we will see about tonight! while we are doing great i will say that this has not yet gotten any easier. i don't really think it will ever be easy, but hopefully at some point it will get easiER! i think when shane and i are more well-rested it will feel easier, even if it isn't :). things just feel worse and i tend to be more pessimistic when i am worn out. the thing about this being our 2nd go-around as parents is that we have perspective about how brief this period is. they will be sleeping before we know it, then cutting teeth, crawling, walking, turning 1. knowing that, i don't want to wish away one second of it!! so i will take the sleepless nights and cherish that they are still tiny enough to cuddle up close, wear size 1 diapers, smile toothless smiles and smell like milk all the time. when i cuddle them i tell them "you are my luxury." it's a pretty sweet life.
p.s. we got professional photos done if the boys a few weeks ago and a few of them are up on our photogs blog...go check them out at http://abigailcrinerphotography.wordpress.com/.