Give Me a Hand!

Link List

Instead of copiously reading for my eschatology quiz today, I am going to leave a little post instead. Sounds reponsible? Not so much, but I thought you guys might like to know a little bit about our links we have posted on our blog. I added some new ones recently.

The Link Family - My friend Becky from Southeastern. She has two boys, Jackson and Samuel and a little girl, Mary. We share a profound addiction to coffee and being goofy in general.
Rob & Jess Dohner - My friend Jessica from UBC. She has two daughters, Brie and Briar. We share a profound addiction to ridiculously expense haircuts and overprocessed hair.
The Chandler Clan - My friend Jackie from UBC. She is the director of our WEE school at UBC and has two daughters Megan and Madison. She is also pretty good at Taekwondo - watch out!
The Daily Kick - my oldest sister, Heather's blog, who I constantly complain to because she hasn't updated her blog since my niece, Gwennie B., was born.
Douglass Casa - My friend Diana, who has two children, Ella and Beckett, with another cutie on the way. The Douglass' moved to CasaBlanca this year and we miss them so much. But they have been longtime friends and even came to see us in China! We are so proud of them for going and love to hear about their adventures!
Casey Chappell - My friend from Southeastern who is the most AMAZING photographer you've ever seen. She took our photos when we went home for Christmas. She recently adopted a little girl, Zoe Elizabeth, over Christmas.
Mathews 6 Pack - Our friends from Houston who have a son, Caden, and triplet girls (Emery, Addison, and Harper). They are longtime friends and Jonathan went to high school with Greg. We think Greg should go into stand-up comedy with all his jokes and stories about life with mutliples.
Team Huntley - the blog of friends from Austin, Rachael and Chris, who have the cutest little girl named Delilah. We call her Lilah. Chris and Jonathan are college buds, and although Rachael and I have never actually met, we've become great blog buddies. Hi Rach!
Stover Family - more longtime friends (Jonathan went to highschool with Ben) who live in Mission, TX. We all went to A&M together. They now have three boys (Tyler, Jake, & Luke) and just had their little girl, Katie Grace, who is currently in the NICU because she born early! Say a prayer for her!
Dear Charli Photography - An Austin photographer, Alecia, who took the boys birth announcement photos. She is very talented!
Grow Young w/ Karin - Jonathan's older sister, Karin, who sells Arbonne products. You can find everything and anything you need here! The Hopkins live in Conn. right now and are probably snowed in as we speak!
Village Schools Int'l - a missions group in Tanzania that teaches the local townspeople how to build their own schools while sharing the love of Christ and ministering to AIDS victims. This is the second year, our family (on the Deming side) has given to VSI instead of giving each other Christmas gifts.
Reap South - a group of International Mission Board missionaries who work in Peru to share the love of Christ. Our church is currently partnering with Reap South to plant churches in the Huarochiri Region, close to Lima.
UBC Peru Page - the website for UBC's church planting initiative in Huarochiri, Peru (a mountainous region with little no or no acess to Bibles, church services, etc). Jonathan and I were part of the first team to go to Peru - visiting 5 villages. It was an amazing time and the people were welcoming and extremely hospitable.
Philip Hayden Foundation - a group we worked with when we lived in Beijing. This is the parent organization for Lang Fang Orphanage. It is the largest, privately operated orphanage in China and they do amazing work with orphans - also giving medical aid. Their websites have beautiful calendars you can purchase to benefit the orphanage.

So - those are all our links! Enjoy!
Melissa

Playtime with Dad

7 Months

Running the risk that Jonah is going to KILL me when he is 16, I am going to post this layout I made today while I was supposed to be studying. The photo was taken during bathtime (while brother went to bed early due to an extreme case of the crankies). Here is a pic of the transfer from the changing table to the tub. What cute buns!

The boys are 7 months now and are becoming so much fun. Each day we can see their little personalities developing more and more. They are beginning to interact with Dad a lot - becoming a little testy when one gets bounced or played with a little more than the other. They love to be around people and like to be where they can see me in the house. If they are in the living room while I fix their meals, they are sure to complain about it.

They are growing like weeds. We bought some 9 mo. clothes this weekend at target and they are already snug at 7 mo. I think we're going to have some pretty big boys! They are rolling around like crazy. I can't keep their socks on them because they keep pulling them off and trying to eat them. They are reaching for things a lot, although they aren't very good at holding onto toys for very long. We are still working on sitting up, but they do great if supported in their bumbos or in a lap.

Foodwise, we've worked our way up to stage 2 foods. The parsnips didn't go over very well, but the spinach was a major hit! Zach is still the better eater right now (but I think that is because he is usually focused on the task at hand while Jonah is pretty personable and easily distracted at meal times.)

The next few months will be an adjustment. We are following doctor's orders and keeping the boys away from other kids and crowds during the rest of RSV season (feb. and mar). So we won't be doing any fun outings or going to church. It sounds crazy I know, but because the boys were born at 34 weeks, the results of contracting RSV are potentially fatal. Despite being very healthy and strong right now, the decision has to do with lung development and capacity at birth. We will only have to do this for this year, but we would appreciate your prayers for everyone in our family to stay healthy in the next few months.

Layout Credits: "Sk8 or Die Dude" kit by Stacey Towers/ "Urban" effect on photo by Coffeeshop actions

Study Group

Over Christmas Break, I got together with my old Study Group from NC. In regular fashion, we took over an entire Starbucks and spent a couple of hours talking. The get-together was made even more perfect because Casey brought her daughter, Zoe, she recently adopted! She is so beautiful. Casey snapped some shots for us! Thanks gals - I had so much fun!

Dad Rules

I try to keep the kids up until Jonathan gets home from work so he can see them. Most nights we make it, but sometimes they are cranky and so we go to bed early. The last few nights, Jon has been able to play with the boys for a bit and I snapped some shots. They have so much fun together that I'm sure bedtime is real bummer for them. And yes, I realize the boys have very yellow cheeks/noses. Blast those those silly carrots! I mix them with other colored veggies, but it doesn't have any effect! What's a mom to do?

I put together these layouts with time that I borrowed from next week. You know...when I'm supposed to be doing more productive stuff - like working on an article or reading for class or cleaning the house or making baby food or ironing Jon's work clothes. ya know...stuff that benefits more than just me. ;) In the first layout, you can see a pile of clean laundry to the left of Zach. So you see, I do have some good intentions...

Credits: Papers, label, and buttons from Little Dreamer Designs Party Time Mini kit/doodle frame by AllieKat Creations/cardboard by digitreats

Credits: Mud Puddles kit by Christie Lemmon Designs

Eat. Drink. Be Merry

Eat. We've compiled quite a list of veggies for the boys - and they seem to like them all so far. I'm trying to make as much as I can, although my sister already forewarned me about the difficulty of making green beans without a foodmill. Everything else is pretty easy thanks to my handy dandy food processor that my mom gave me for Christmas. I either bake, boil, or steam the veggies - I try to avoid the microwave because that seems to zap out the nutrients. My friend Jess asked me if I was tasting everything I make. I told her yes. So, when I made the parsnips this weekend I felt obligated to taste them despite their strange smell. I don't ever remember eating parsnips as a child - either we didn't eat them or I've blocked the memory because it was too painful. They were pretty bad - think paint thinner people.

Next week we will start them on fruit. Hopefully, we can still get them to take their veggies after getting the sweet stuff.

Drink. We're still nursing too, and after a month of consolidated persistance we finally got the boys to take bottles again. Pretty soon we'll introduce some water!

Be Merry. There is all around merriment these days at the Deming House. The boys do so well adjusting to our schedule, and seem to be pretty happy-g0-lucky. Although, they have started grunting at me if I'm not quick enough with the sweet potatoes. Jonah is still jumping to save his life. Zach is still standing up like a solider. Both are trying to sit up, but haven't figured that out yet. They are grabbing for things and taking each other's toys. They eat four times a day (6:30 am, 10:30 am, 2:30 pm, and 4:30 or 5:00 pm). Sometimes the afternoons are a grab bag. But we usually get three naps a day, although the third one isn't always a success. They are sleeping 12+ hours a night, so we can't complain. Those nights of getting up every 2 hours are just a distant memory now! Thank goodness! Overall, life is good!

layout credits: Shabby Princess "Festival" kit/post-it flag by Polka Dot Plum/worn overlay by hsg_wofs/notebook paper from "My Guy" kit by sjtowers/polariod frame by Saramarie.