The Russells (and then there were four): April 2012

We officially survived our 2nd year at the Walk for Babies this past weekend!!! There was a different route this year and we only made one small shortcut. The Rowdy Russells had a great turnout – SueSue, Mimi, Jojo, Payton, Malley, Brooklyn, Tayden, Tim, and me. Lolly and Landon met us at the finish line in an awesome show of support. Lolly also shuttled one person from each car back to the parking lot so that we did not have to walk the additional 1.5 miles back to the cars!! We had a wonderful celebratory lunch at Boomer Jacks – delicious! Participating in the walk, we were once again reminded of all the precious babies that are born too soon or born with birth defects. It is amazing to see families walking with their miracle children and also read the memorials on their shirts honoring their sweet babies who have become angels. Thank you so much to everyone who sponsored our team!!! We reached our goal of $200!

On Sunday we had “picture day.” Taking family pictures with twin two year olds is quite a challenge, so we decided to knock it all out in one day. We started at JC Pennys and did family pictures in our Steelers gear (before they outgrown their jersey and cheerleading uniform) and then pictures of the twins in their birthday shirts. They had to barricade the door to keep Brooklyn from escaping. She would not sit still, which is a required for the studio camera. I was not expecting to have any that we liked, but we fell in love with a lot of them!!! From there, we traveled to Frisco to meet with my precious friend Ann Marie who photographed the twins when they came home from the hospital and their first Christmas. They took a good nap in the car and were ready to go when we arrived. We went to the downtown area that had numerous great backdrops, railroad tracks, and a train. We actually got to stand right by the tracks as a real train passed. The twins thought that was great! Ann Marie is a twin and is also pregnant with twins! As the twins were running in different directions she sweetly said, “This will be my life in two years!” I hope we didn’t scare her too bad!!! We will have the photo disks in a week or two and I will definitely post our favorites. On our way home we stopped for a reward dinner at IHOP. The twins did have some pretty crazy moments throughout the day, but overall they did a great job!

Last week we studied the letter Cc. Our words were caterpillar, crown, cow, clown, cloud, camping, and carrot . We made yummy chocolate chip cookies to celebrate our week of all things C.

Our team shirt

The start to the walk

Our team

Our inspiration

The Heaths

We ran into our NICU friends Will and Alex and were able to finally get a picture of both families.

Precious!!!

The Russells

Malley and SueSue

The Heaths at the finish line

The Rowdy Russells - the sun was right in our face so you can't really see us - bummer!

She felt the need to dress up

eating her carrot

This past week was pretty calm. We studied the letter Bb and our words of the day were: ball, bat, broccoli, bear, bee, bus, banana, and butterfly. The twins love to color and still have issues with keeping all of the crayons on the table. They like breaking them in half and throwing them in the floor. Brooklyn is very good at sneaking away to color on the tile, the walls, or just about anything she can get to.

On Wednesday, we traded in our Tahoe for a Suburban made the same year with very close mileage. Tim decided that we needed more space for all of our “stuff,” and started looking online 2-3 weeks ago. We had gone to look at a few, but when we found this one, we knew it was meant to be. It has everything we wanted, and our car payment went down incredibly! I am still getting used to driving a bigger car, but I have loved the transition! We have two roadtrips planned this summer, and having the extra space will definitely come in handy. I was going to post pictures, but the car was not perfectly clean (due to the recent rain) so Tim asked me to wait.
On Saturday, SueSue and I took the kids to ride the train at Trinity Park (by the zoo). It was pretty windy, but there was a nice breeze and we all enjoyed getting out of the house. Brooklyn was a little frightened, but Tayden tried to jump out every chance he could get! The train stops for a pit-stop and we bought some popcorn, which is one of the twins’ favorite foods.

I decided that while working with the twins on a letter each week, I should focus on the significance of that letter for me as well. B - BLESSINGS. This past week, I have focused on all of the many blessings we have in our lives. I have been blessed with an amazing husband who goes above and beyond each day to bring me joy. I married my best friend and soulmate who encourages me, supports me, and makes me want to be the best I can be. We have been blessed with almost 9 years together. From early in our relationship we talked about how important having children was to both of us. We made sure to do a lot of traveling and enjoy our time before becoming parents. Now, it is hard to imagine our lives without our two greatest blessings Brooklyn and Tayden, who are healthy, precious children that make us happier than we ever imagined possible. They walk and talk and have the cutest, individualized personalities! They are daily reminders to us that miracles do happen and that we serve a MIGHTY GOD!

Tim and I have also been blessed with good health and great jobs. He works two jobs to provide for our family – both which allow him to make his own schedule and be able to spend a great amount of time with the twins. I often think back to the 4 months that he was working nights, and how hard being a single mom at night was. His current job was definitely an answered prayer!!! I am extremely fortunate to have a job that allows me to spend 5 – 6 hours a day with my children and have 15 weeks off each year. Most of you know, but Fort Worth ISD announced earlier this year that campus Literacy Coaches would be losing their positions and would need to find other jobs for next year. My amazing principal made it possible for me to stay at my campus (my home for the past 8 years). I took my Special Ed. Certification exam at the end of March and passed!! I will be the Special Ed. / Inclusion teacher at my same campus next year! I am so grateful that Mrs. Garza worked her magic!

One of our most precious blessings is our wonderful families who are always there for us. I think it is amazing when you can consider your family members among some of your closest friends. We might not be able to get together as much as we used to, or dominate game night anymore (hahaha), but we still enjoy seeing them every chance we get! I must specifically recognize my mom: SueSue – you are a gift directly from God and we are so grateful for all that you do for us and our children each and every day! I am so glad you are here to walk with me along the journey of motherhood! We are also blessed to be surrounded by a wondeful network of true friends that love us and support us each and every day!

On Saturday night we drove downtown to pick-up food from one of our favorite Italian restaurants – Saviano’s. I followed the routine for when one of us runs in somewhere – dropped Tim off out front and then circled the block several times until he came out. The twins were listening to a fun kids’ c.d. and I found myself looking in all of the restaurants and at the patios full of people who were enjoying themselves among other adults. For a single moment I thought back to how we used to be those seemingly carefree people, but then I looked in my rearview mirror and saw two beautiful faces singing “Where is Thumbkin?” and I realized that my life is absolutely the way I always dreamed it would be and that there was no where else in the world I would rather be in that moment. God is the originator of each blessing that we celebrate and we continue to stand in awe of His goodness.

We are walking in the March for Babies this weekend! There is still time to sponsor our team by making a donation to the March of Dimes - The Rowdy Russells. If you are interested you can click on the link on the link below.

http://www.marchforbabies.org/team/t1749467