the graduate.

yesterday brenner graduated from seminary with a masters of divinity.  

i cannot believe that it has been two and a half years since brenner started!

i am so proud of him and all of the hard work that he put into seminary...  

he graduated with a 3.66 GPA! 

it is funny how seminary has changed brenner into a person who loves to learn.  once he started studying things that he was really interested in, his attitude toward school changed so much.  i also like to think that my love of school and nerdiness had something to do with it too.

my brother is now the only one left to finish his graduate work.  

my sister got her masters of business, my brother in law got a masters (sorry adam, i can't remember what it was in!), i got my specialist degree in school psychology (a degree that is in between a masters and phd) and now brenner has his masters of divinity.  all brother has is one semester left before he graduates from law school.

how fun is that!!!  

congrats brenner!  we are so proud of you!

craft time.

i don't know about other parents with toddlers, but i since our days of playing outside are becoming more limited because of the weather (which is annoying anyway because with our ridiculously hot summer, we have had such a small number of outdoor days), i am always on the search for new activities to do with cole.  

my parents got cole a small table for his birthday which we use mostly for crafts.

cole is starting to enjoy playdough more.  we don't have any of the play dough tools though so i have been trying to find things around the kitchen for him to play with.  here he is stabbing play dough with a plastic fork.  i also found my pastry roller (since you can guess how often that is being used by me these days) and a baby food jar.
i know, nothing but the best around here!

believe it or not, this face is actually a smile.  i asked him to smile for the camera and this is what i got.  

(these are also pre haircut pictures)

we have been doing lots of holiday crafts too.  so fun!  what will i do in january when there is no theme for all of our crafts????
(and sorry cole is not wearing pants in this picture!  potty training is easier with no pants!)

here is some of our  artwork. 

 his cheesy "cheese" face.

 working on our fine motor skills threading beads onto pipe cleaners.  

He LOVES this and now has 5 beaded bracelets. 

brenner is so proud of his bracelet loving boy.  

i am thankful for saving all of my random craft supplies from my time teaching and in college!

27 weeks.

here is my 27 week photo.

the doctor said that i am measuring about 32 weeks, 5 weeks ahead of schedule which is normal for twins.  i don't feel like i have gotten that much bigger over the past few weeks.  

the girls are continuing to do great.  

their fluid levels are both measuring normal which is amazing after the prognosis that they gave us just a couple months ago.  the specialist in houston told us that things like this (twin to twin transfusion syndrome) don't regress.  

our situation has regressed.  

my God can do anything!

we feel so blessed for all of the prayers that were spoken on behalf of our precious girls.  

we know that God answered those prayers.  

the other morning i was praying and while i was praying for the girls, i realized that i have not been praying as fervently as i had been when we were uncertain about their health.  

i do not want to become complacent in my prayers and in my praise of God just because things are going well right now.  God answers every prayer that we lift up, they just may not always be the answer that we were wanting.  

right now, God has answered our prayers of healing for the girls, and i am thanking Him for that. 

but i hope that i will still be challenged to trust in Him if things go the other way again.  

i have grown so much over the last few months (more than just physically!), with one of the most important ways being my deeper understanding that God is worthy of praise no matter the circumstance.  we praised Him and His perfect plan when things looked bad.  and we are praising Him and His perfect plan now that things are looking great.  

i hope that God will always remind me of this as i face life's turns and trails throughout my life.  

blessed be the name of the Lord.  

i married a goofball.

cole got a hold of the camera the other day while it was sitting on the coffee table and brenner was on the other side of the lens.  

 i snapped this one after removing the little person from behind the camera.  

i love my silly boys. 

for the love of trains.

this kid loves him some trains.  

i found a couple of trains over the summer for him and then he got some more for his birthday from us and from brenner's mom.  

 thomas and his little friends have provided hours of entertainment.

 i love playing with boys.  i actually enjoy trains, cars, and planes!!

 and since we are potty training, it is only fitting to have trains on our underwear!