A couple short videos of the girls :)

This video features the girls practicing climbing.  As you will see Em may look cute and innocent, but she can be a bully too.  If you watch long enough you will see that Izzy does get a turn playing in their favorite new toy, the recliner.

In this video you will hear lots of jabbering from your favorite girls ;)  It seems that we got lucky and the novelty of just saying "No" wore off for Izzy, but she does still slip it in.

The Play-yard just won't do!!!

I decided today that the girls are not being offered enough chances to excercise cooped up in the play-yard and the pack-n-play. So today I moved all the furnture in the living room and did a thourough cleaning of the floor.  Then I encompassed the living room in play-yard to give them a lot more space to run around and burn some of their energy 

They loved having all the extra space. While they were running around playing I decided to try to get my phone to take a more clear shot of my children that are always on the move.

Instead of the camera capturing the still shot that I expected it took several pictures and overlayed them to make just one scene.  It was such a neat effect that I took several of these motion pictures. It was pretty funny when I showed the first picture to Aiden;  he thought there were 3 babies in the picture and got confused.

I love that there is more than one shot of the people that move and only one of the people and things that sit still.

I also loved how I could take a panoramic picture and capture the whole room in one shot.

Even though the girls can't actually make it onto the couch yet, they are more than capable of getting into the recliner and it overjoys them to be there as well.

Thanks for all the support :)

 
On Saturday August 25, 2012 my family and I held a celebration of life for my Daddy at his "mountain" house.   I want to take a moment and thank everyone that came to honor Rodger D. Bivens 1944 - 2012, it was nice to hear how many lives my Dad had touched over the years.
 

 

My family and I also want to thank everyone that sent flowers, food and cards to my family in honor of Dad.  He was a very special man.  There are a lot of things I never had the chance to learn from him, but he did teach me quite a bit.

 

 

I also want to send special thanks to my sister Barbara and her husband Steve for everything they did to put together a wonderful day.  You two really did a lot to pull this together and did a fantastic job making sure that Daddy was honored the way he should be.

 

 

It was especially nice to see the armed services present to give Military honors and will always remeber the Reverend offering donations to anyone that did not respect the Armed Servies of the United Statesof America, so that they could go live in some other country.  That was exactly the type of thing that my Daddy would have said in conversation. It was a comfortable ceremony all the way down to the songs played: The Wind Beneath My Wings, by Bette Middler and Puff the Magic Dragon, by Peter Paul and Mary. 

 

To every one of my readers: You all mean a lot to me and I love to see that I have had visitors. At this time I am grieving a terrible loss, but as I go through this I bear in mind that my Daddy isn't suffering anymore and I am grateful. 

 

 

On a lighter note, the twins have started to vertical climb and Izzy has become a "No." baby instead of one that says "Yah." I am shaking my head as I sit here and think. Before Izzy learned to say "No." she learned to say "Yah." You could ask her things and you would get jibberish or "Yah" as and answer to questions. Once she learned to say "No" it became the answer to almost every single question.  I will have to take a video of how she says it too.  It is so adorable to hear the inflection that she adds, plus if you are lucky you will see her say "No way" which is way cute too.

 

 
 

Really Roanoke Times? :( you get a bad review from me :(

It has been irking me for days now that the Roanoke Times managed to mess up my father's obituary in the first place.  They not only spelled his name wrong, but they also put the wrong location.  So they offered to run a short obituary for two extra days at no charge.   I was left feeling a little better, until I had realized that though they fixed the location, after spelling his name right the second go round, they managed to get it changed back to their original mis-spelling for the extra free days.  The long obituary was well written and can be viewed at http://updikefuneralhome.com/?p=1905.  We will also be having a visitation starting at 1pm.

I am very thankful for all the support our friends and family have shown and continue to show through this hard time in our lives.  It has been very comforting to see all the support that my Mom, especially, is receiving from family, friends and neighbors. 

My family and I have put a lot of thought into the best way to celebrate my Daddy's life.  We have put together a Celbration of Life event that will be at the "Mountain" house where I grew up.   It has taken a lot to pull everything together, but I think it will be the perfect celebration to honor everything that my Daddy was.

One chapter ends and another begins :}

At about 1:15 am on August 21, 2012 my Daddy's suffering was over.  He had been battling cancer for a long time and God took him home to rest in peace.

We took the kids to visit with him on Sunday and Dad's face lit up each time he was able to focus on their faces and a look of recognition crossed his face.  Daddy was in and out a lot on Sunday and seemed very confused, but comforted by familiar faces.

Mom was the best wife she could be all the way to the end and was with him and my big sister when he passed.  For monthes before that she took care of him at home and did everything she could to make sure he received the best care.   

We are having a hard time getting Aiden to comprehend that Papaw is really gone.  We spent a good part of the day at Mom's today and even  after Aiden had been told several times, when we got into the car to go home Aiden proclaimed "Mommy I wanted to see Papaw today, too!" 

We will be honoring Daddy at the house I grew up in on Saturday.  There will be visitation from 1pm to 3pm with funeral to follow.  We will be welcoming friends and family to join us.  If you need directions or an address to send condolences please message me or call me for more info.

We all love and miss you Daddy!

Rest in peace, you don't have to suffer anymore.

This little flower was in bloom when we got Mom home from the nursing home early this morning.  We can only assume that it bloomed for Daddy as most of the vine has withered for the fall and the flowers are normally only out during the day.

I got home at about 4:30 am and knew I had to be awake at 6:30 am to get Aiden ready for his first day of school.  So I did my best to stay awake all night.

I think I may have dozed off during the last 1/2 hr, but we were successful at getting him up and dressed and ready for school with time to spare.

We went outside about 10 minutes early to wait for the bus to make sure we didn't miss it.

Aiden was doing good and was ready to go to school.

Since he is a new student the bus driver missed our stop and had to back up a little to get us, but as soon as the bus went into reverse it was on.  Aiden took off like a freight train and was back in the house bawling in no time flat.  I still attempted to put him on the bus, but he was not letting go and leaving us behind.

So for his first day of school I had to take him.  Aiden wanted me to walk him back to his classroom, so I waited out front with him and his class until all of the buses were there and unloaded.  Then he found his friend Larone and our neighbor Lewis and we were on our way to the classroom.  I tried to hang back and let him go on with his friends, but he noticed and came back to be with me instead.  As we approached his classroom, I crossed my fingers and hoped it would go smoothly.  However as we got closer I could hear one of his classmates revolting with a vengence.  As Aiden looked through the doorway and saw the little girl having a meltdown he turned to me and said "Mommy I think I will go to school tomorrow."  Mom's friend Bonnie is the guidance counselor and she was walking by as I was trying to leave, she quickly assessed the situation and offered to take Aiden out to pet the bunny in the courtyard.  It worked like a charm and I was able to sneak away undetected.

I was so proud of my Little Man when he rode the school bus home and even more proud when I read the note his teacher sent home.

Today was the end of one chapter and the beginning of another.  As we move on to new adventures and acheive new challenges we will always hold the memory of Daddy close to our hearts and on our minds.

My Daddy, My Hero

Today I write to ask for prayers for my Daddy.  Some of you know that he has been ill for awhile now, some of you may not.  We finally had to put Daddy in a nursing home where he could be given round the clock care to try to control his pain.  I love my Daddy and it breaks my heart to think of him not being around, but I am praying for him now and I pray that God will take away his pain. 

Sorry for the short thought tonight, I just have a lot on my mind today and can't figure out exactly what to say.  Thanks for all of the prayers and toughts of good will.

 This song is for my Daddy.  I learned this song when I was in elementary school and i remember singing it to you. Whenever I hear this song I will always think of you.

My Little Terror!!!

So this morning I awoke to find out that I had neglected to lock the basement door after I came up from work last night.  Tornado "Aiden" hit my basement and I had a huge mess on my hands.  There was cat litter that had been shaped with the cat food bowl, water from one end of the basement to the other, and the dog had oxy-clean sprayed down his back.  The newest disaster took me about 4 hours to fully clean-up if that tells anything about its size. (and yes Aiden was grounded until the cleaning was done and had to sit on a stool without any toys or tv while I was working)  So I finally got done and went to take a bathroom break.  From the toilet I hear Aiden ask "Mommy how do you draw people?"  At this point there was nothing to do but pray that he was not making a new mess.  When I did get done in the bathroom I was presented with this picture of Aiden with Mommy and Daddy.  No matter how mad he makes me and how much work he creates, he will always be able to melt my heart and remind me of yet another reason I love him so much.

Drawing by Aiden

Goodnight all, I am off to hit the hay and I will be locking the door behind me this time. ;)

Double Trouble update!!! ;)

Yes! We do still have the girls around too! LoL. I realized that I had not put the girls on here in awhile, so i wanted to take a moment to give everyone an update on them too. As usual I have a lot more pictures, but these girls move way to much to get very many good pictures. 

I was able to catch a few shots while the kids were strapped down in the car.

It really does make it easier to get nice clear pictures.

There's that pretty smile I am always trying to capture.

Izzy found her foot.

As usual Bubby cannot keep his hands to himself.

He really loves his sisters!!!

Emma is loving figuring out how to take things off and put things on!!!

Critters Critters Everywhere!!!

We are so blessed to live where we do.  There is a plethera of different animals and bugs around us to explore.  The other day when we were cleaning the iris garden we got to see a big blue-tailed skink and this fellwo.  With Aiden's love for bugs it was hard to convince him that he could not keep the praying mantis, but he was so very excited to find one and get to examine it up close.  My favorite part is their big green eyes and the way they stand and pray. 

My baby boy is growing up too fast!!! :)

The last time Logan came to visit the boys decided they wanted to learn to climb a tree.  Though they never made it into the tree on their own, they were brave enough to sit together in the branches. 

I thought it would really hit me hard when I sent Aiden off to school, I guess I didn't realize how hard it would hit his Daddy too.  So far I have been going through the motions and doing what I can to get Aiden stoked about going to school so that hopefully he will get on the bus next Tuesday.

Today Aiden and I set off to the Roanoke County preschool picinic.  The first thing Aiden saw was the playground and he was not interested in talking to his teacher from that point forward.  It was nice to see a familiar face when I saw my childhood friend Jodie who is starting as the new pre-school teacher for Oak Grove Elementary this year too.  Congrats on your new position, you will be great and have so much fun.

He was having a blast on the playground even before he met any of the other kids.

He was even more happy when the teacher introduced us to two of the other boys that will be at his school in his class.  He hit it off with a little boy named LaRon right away and even shared his cars with him. We were supposed to get food and hot dogs, but Aiden was so distracted by the playground that we had to stop on the way home to get some dinner.  it was great to have been able to wear him out enough that there was no fight at bed time.  If I have that to look forward to I am going to have something to smile about.