Tis' the season to be....fussy? falalalalalalala

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. We did in between all the fussing and crying from our little Christmas Diva! My goodness, who was this little baby! Asher wasn't exactly his smiling goofy self either, but not like Miss Priss! We went to my Aunt Debbie's house for a big family gathering to eat and open gifts from Santa. My mom is one of 7 brothers and sisters so our family is quite big. I think some one counted about 60 people! So we dressed the babies all up, Lilly in a fancy Christmas dress and Asher in khaki's and a sweater vest (hehe) excited for them to meet new family members and have their first experience of a big family Christmas. They didn't have an afternoon nap that day, first mistake! Lilly fell asleep on the ride there which was a whole 10 min. drive. My sister Shelly got her out of the car and I got Asher and in we went. The minute we walked in and some one else wanted to hold her the crying started. Anytime anyone talked to her or held her other then Shelly, she cried. Asher wasn't too sure about the new faces either. We are contributing it to being overwhelmed with the amount of people and teething?? Lilly is getting her whole top row of teeth in all at once. She usually loves people and lots of attention and will go to anyone that wants to hold her so needless to say Brad and I were scratching our heads. Daddy even went over to get her from Shelly and as soon as he did she started crying and gave her back to Shelly and she stopped! I looked at her and said "Lilly, that is not your mommy!", Shelly just laughed. Oh and she really hated sitting on Santa's lap to get her gift as you can see in the picture! They did love all their toys though and got better as the week went on. They must also be going thru some phase because as soon as we got home, they were both very excited to get back and see the dogs. So to all my family that was at Aunt Debbie's and saw our Little Christmas Diva in action, I'm so sorry she didn't want to be held and wasn't in the best mood. She is usually a sweet attention loving baby!

A bitter sweet announcement...

Hey friends and family...IT'S OFFICIAL! We have shared this possibility with most of you and have had lots of people praying for us regarding this, which we greatly appreciate and greatly needed! For about 5 months now we have been talking with the Pastor of Hope Church in Carmel Indiana (outside of Indianapolis) about bringing Brad on as the worship leader of the church. He has felt God calling him into this type of ministryfor a while now and we feel this is where He is leading us. We know that God is working all of this out in His perfect timing and He will continue to take care of all the details and things that need to be done to make this happen. We just received the official offer a couple of days ago which is why we were waiting to send out an email! The church is flexible, but would like to have us there pretty quickly if possible, around the 1st of February which means lots of work for us! We are going to start packing right away and try and clear out as much as possible to be able to have room to do some work that needs to be done to the house. It would be a huge blessing to have anyone willing to help us get the house in order in the month of January. I know this is a busy busy time of year for everyone and we are wondering ourselves just what God has in store for our house in such a short amount of time! If you have any free time in the month of January to help us out with various needs with the house, we would be so incredibly grateful for your willingness! Think of it as a going away present to us! hehe. Also, if you know of anyone that wants to buy or possibly rent a cute house in a convenient area please get the word out that we need to do this quickly! (Brad and I have said for years "if Smyrna would just get a Target, we would never have to leave", and wouldn't you know it, they are opening one soon!) Maybe you know a young married couple living in an apartment that is thinking of buying a house or a small family or single person. It has 3 bedrooms and two baths and a fenced in backyard!! It has been a great little house for us. Again, we have no idea what God's plans are for this house, but we are trusting in Him to work out the details of that so we are trying not to stress over it. About the church in Indiana...It's a smaller church of about 200-250 people located on the outskirts of Carmel Indiana which is a very nice, cute little town. The Pastor is great! We clicked with him right away and felt at home. We visited the church last in October and Brad led worship for Sunday morning service and received lots of positive welcoming feedback. We are excited to be a part of this ministryand Brad already has ideas of what He would like to bring to the church. The church is providing a house for us as well which is right around the corner so Brad could even walk to work! We are excited about and ready for the change God has in store for us. The house is 20-25 miles away from all of my family, which means babysitters whenever we want! haha. It will also put us about 3.5 to 4 hours away from Brad's parents instead of the current 9 hours. We are sad to be leaving Nashville and leaving our friends we have here, but at the same time we are excited. Please continue to keep us in your prayers and let us know if you would like to help us out in anyway with fixing up the house! Oh and remember to let everyone know it's for sale or possibly rent?? We will miss all of you and I'm sure we'll be back to visit as often as we can.

With much love,

Brad, Amy, Lilly and Asher

My favorite childhood memories...

The smell of Strawberry Shortcakes dolls.
Eating spaghettios.
Riding in the basket on my grandma Lois' bike while she peddled us up to the store.
Watching my grandma Daisy "put on her face" (makeup!) at the kitchen table with her big lighted mirror.
Watching my grandpa Spanky make his Christmas cookies.
Singing to Olivia Newton-John albums at the top of my lungs with my friend Jenny.
Thinking I could dance exactly like Michael Jackson.
Spending the weekends at my grandma Daisy's campground with my cousins.
Slumber parties.
Staying home sick from school at my grandma Lois' and watching the price is right with her.
Riding my bike everywhere.
Spending as much time as I could at our small town roller skating rink with Lisa and Jessica and we were some good skaters! It makes me sad that it isn't there anymore...
Going to Kings Island amusement park every summer.
Learning how to ride a bike and crashing into a big oak tree. (The big scar on the top of my foot is a good reminder!)
Watching my older sisters fix their hair and put makeup on and thinking they were so cool!
Spending the night with my cousin Carrie.
How no matter where we lived, even if it wasn't very nice looking on the outside, my mom could make it look so good on the inside.

Tis' the season...

This picture was taken last week....happy healthy babies....this week...not so much! My poor babies have a stomach virus. It started with Lilly two days ago. She woke up at 3am and had gotten sick all over her bed. I cleaned her up, changed her and put her in bed with us and Brad and I spent the rest of the night sitting her up to get sick in a little pan he kept on his night stand :( I could always tell when she was getting ready to be sick because she would start crying right before. The next day she acted a little better, only getting sick two more times and drinking half of her bottles at each feeding, she didn't want food at all. Asher peacefully slept thru all of this both at night time and for naps...until this morning. He was acting just fine so I gave them both a bottle, Lilly drank half again and Asher gulped his down fast as usual, then I heard something and looked and up it all came! He was covered, the floor was covered, it was coming out of his nose...poor guy! I was being so careful not to feed them from the same spoons, dishes, etc....but he still got it. So that was Asher's day today...he spent the day getting sick and rocking with mommy. He was able to keep the last bottle and some oatmeal down. Lilly didn't get sick today but is still not quite acting like herself and doesn't want to eat still. Oh and it's not over....the little angels passed their little virus on to daddy so he has been in bed all day today as well with the same virus. Mommy hasn't gotten it .....yet, but is battling a different virus with a sore throat and coughing. Anyway.....lift up a little prayer for the Beckey home!

A little late getting this post up...

A couple of weeks ago Brad's mom flew in from Michigan to visit us and the babies. It was a great visit and we are so glad she was able to come! The weekend she came was the same weekend our church was having a fall festival so we went to that and had a nice relaxing day. It was so perfect outside, sunny and not too cold. We let the babies pet some of the animals in the petting zoo and we ate hot dogs and cupcakes! I don't know why hot dogs always taste so good at events like that?? Sunday before she left she was also able to go with us when we got the babies 9 month pictures taken by my friend Alison Bynum. It was a great weekend for her to come and we loved having her, come again soon Grandma Chris!! (as you can see in the picture, Lilly did not like the feel of the straw she was sitting on!)

Fun Facts About Me, Lilly!!

I turned 10 months 4 days ago.

I have 3 names, Lilly Emma Daisy (my mommy and daddy couldn't decide between Lilly and Emma for my first name) and Daisy is after my mommy's grandma. Some people in my family call me lil' daisy :)

I fractured my leg when I was 9 months old.

I am a daddy's girl.

I can hum and dance to my toys that play music.

I can give kisses but only when I want to.

I am learning how to clap.

I don't like table food at all!

I am learning to drink from a sippy cup (and getting better then my bubby!)

I have two teeth.

I LOVE books!

I can't crawl yet so I just roll around everywhere.

I am learning how to throw little fits so I get mommy and daddy's attention faster!

I squeal and get excited every time mommy vacuums the floor.

I love my blankie.

I sleep thru the night too and love taking naps with mommy when she lets me.

I have tiny feet.

I look like my daddy.

My nickname is Lillybug.

Fun Facts about me, Asher...

I turned 10 months old 2 days ago.

I have 3 names, Asher James Vincent. James is my dad's grandpa (his mommy's dad) and Vincent is my dad's other grandpa (his daddy's dad).

I am finally getting my first tooth!

I cry when I see my bottle coming even though I know my mommy is going to give it right to me.

I have big feet so mommy and daddy call me a hobbit.

I can crawl now.

I am eating some table food and I love it!

I am learning to drink from a sippy cup.

I am a giggle box.

I sometimes need to be cuddled for a few minutes after I wake up from a nap before mommy puts me down to play.

I sleep thru the night and usually take pretty good naps, which I have heard mommy say she loves!

When I was first born people said I looked like daddy, now they say I look like mommy.

I am two and a half inches taller then my sissy and two pounds heavier!

My nickname is monkey boy.

getting BIG!!

The twins will be 10 months old in just a couple of days! I can't believe in a couple of months we'll be having their 1st birthday party. They are sweeter and cuter then ever. We are so happy to have them in our lives and couldn't imagine it any other way now. Asher boy is crawling now and man is he fast! He can crawl the normal way but most of the time chooses to get around using the "army crawl". You can just look at him and most of the time he will give you a big goofy grin with a crinkled up nose. He has also learned to sit himself back up from a crawling position and is quickly discovering that everything else in the living room is more interesting then his toys! He loves food, including table food and is now trying to master picking tiny pieces up with his fingers and putting it in his mouth. For not having any teeth, he sure can chew pretty good! Little miss Lilly is taking her sweet time on the crawling thing. She hasn't even attempted to get up on her hands and knees and rock back and forth like Ash did for a while. She is fine with sitting up and playing with her toys and occasionally rolling to get to where she wants to go. She doesn't like table food AT ALL!!! As a matter of fact the couple of times we have given her tiny bites, she has proceeded to gag so much that she ends up throwing up! She has learned to shake her head back and forth really fast if you are trying to do something to her that she doesn't like (suction her snotty nose, put a piece of food in her mouth, give her kisses!) so it makes it really hard for you to accomplish it. Her leg is all better, praise God, and the Dr. said she should be just fine from now on. She squeals when she gets excited and is always quick to give away smiles to anyone that talks to her. What fun babies....

Stuff I'm sure your dying to know about me...

I change my pillowcase everynight
I drink way too much diet coke
I got married when I was 19 and wouldn't change a thing!
I love and hate that my babies are getting older
I think I look funny without lipstick
I am happiest when it's fall
I love shakes from Sonic and get them way too often
When I fly, I close my eyes during the take off and landing
I am terrified of spiders
I have never been in the ocean past my knees because I know I'll get attacked by a shark
I love and hate naps
I love being a mom and a wife and desire to be better at both
I like my hair most days
I have a hard time finding clothes I like myself in
my favorite cartoon is still the smurfs
I think the teletubbies came about from some ones nightmares
I love being a girl
I may or may not have had a mullet in 6th grade
I often sing Air Supply songs when I am alone in the car
I wish I read more books
I miss watching Gilmore Girls

Mail.....for me??

Ok, I know I put a ton of pictures on this one little event, but it was just too cute! Brad came home from work today and like always got the mail before coming in which included an envelope addressed to Lilly Beckey, her first piece of mail! She was quite excited too when daddy handed her the envelope and said "Lilly, this is for you"! She looked up at him like, really , this is for me? She shook it and patted it like she does with everything she really likes then it went straight into her mouth. It was a card from my best friend Jenny in Indiana saying they all were praying for her little leg and sending her "warm fuzzies" (The card had yellow fuzzy baby chicks on the front). Now isn't that the sweetest thing ever! Thank you Jenny! Lilly loved it, we will keep Lilly's first piece of mail forever and put it in her baby book!

Our horrible yesterday...

Here is how it happened...
We change diapers/clothes on the spare bed that is in their bedroom because we just got used to doing it that way when they were born since there were two, we hardly ever used the actual changing table. We lay them side by side on the bed, well now that they are rolling all over the place I knew it would be getting harder to do it that way. I really used to only have to watch out for Asher because he was the roller, Lilly actually just learned how to roll within the last month or so. So yesterday morning I laid them both on the bed as usual and started undressing them, they were both rolling like crazy so I was getting nothing accomplished except for flipping babies back on their backs one right after the other. Lilly hardly ever rolls when she is on the bed, but yesterday morning she decided it was her day to not stop! I went to put Asher on the floor to play so I didn't have two babies rolling around and that is when it happened, the thing I was trying to prevent, she rolled right off the end of the bed onto the floor. I of course, screamed out her name in horror and swooped her up and cried right along with her. It honestly didn't look like a bad fall, the way she landed from what I saw. She sort of landed on her bottom and then fell the rest of the way back, so I knew she didn't hit her head hard or anything. Anyway, right after that happened and we both calmed down it was nap time, so I let her take a nap with me in my bed, she took a good nap, but then when she woke up she was screaming and I knew she was in pain. I took her to change her diaper and gently lifted her legs up and she cried and screamed even harder and started to shake. At this point I was crying again too because I knew something was hurt but didn't know what. I called Brad and told him to come home right away and told him what happened. We took Lilly to her Dr. and while he was checking her out, he knew something was hurt but didn't know what either. He tried to stand her up on both legs and that is when she really started crying and let up the weight on her left leg. So he sent us to Vanderbilt Children's Hospital for x-rays. Brad was superdaddy! He is the one that went in with her to get the x-ray because I knew I wouldn't be able to hear her scream in pain when they had to stretch her out and stuff (which she did, very much.) I spent most of my time crying and feeling extreme guilt over what had happened. We had to wait another 20 min. after the ex-ray before finding out what/if anything was wrong. We were so hoping it was just sore from bruising, etc. But that wasn't the case! She ended up having what they call a buckle fracture right above her knew and needed a cast. The Dr. explained to us that since her bones are so much softer then adults, instead of breaking in two, it sort of compresses like crushing a coke can. But he said that if it was going to happen, it happened in the perfect place and would heal just fine. She got what he called a soft cast on her left leg, from foot to hip! Just to make sure she doesn't move it and we go back in two weeks to see him again. What a story , huh?! She is doing ok today, just a little fussy and is having trouble sleeping. Keep Lilly in your prayers, for a speedy healing and that she wouldn't be in pain. We found out yesterday that was the absolute hardest thing, was to see and know your child was hurt.

Our blue-eyed babies...

Few Misc. Pics of my 8 month old big boy and girl...

It's hard to believe they will be a year old in 4 months?? I was just looking at their newborn pictures and was got all emotional thinking about the day they were born. I was so scared and overwhelmed that morning when I woke up. Just hoping and praying everything would go well, scared to death of getting the IV and epidural. (I am a really big baby!) Maybe I shouldn't share this but I cried when the nurse walked in to give me my IV! I do it every time...pretty sad huh? Then shaking like crazy when it was time for the epidural, looking at Brad with this terrified look on my face. He felt so bad and was trying to talk to me so I wouldn't think about it. The nurse kept saying, "ok, I need you to hold really still and stop shaking" I would just cry harder! The c-section was a very surreal experience. Once again Brad was talking to me to calm me down and distract me and before I knew it they were pulling Lilly out and holding her up to show me. I was crying so hard I couldn't even make out what she looked like thru the tears but I knew she was beautiful. I got to hold her for a couple of minutes while they worked on getting Ash. I just remember looking at her and talking to her feeling so blessed. I couldn't stop kissing her. They took Lilly to clean and warm her up and held my handsome boy up to show me. His little arms and legs where just spread out as wide as they could go screaming his head off. He didn't want to come out of his cozy home just yet. I didn't get to hold him because they had to stitch me all up, etc... and I had lost a little more blood then normal so I was in recovery for quite a while. I couldn't stay awake for anything. I remember people coming in to see me like my mom, sister, Brad, his mom, etc...and talking to me, holding my hand, telling me how beautiful the babies were. All I said in return each time was when do I get to see my babies??!! and fall back to sleep! That was really hard to not be able to be with them right after they were born, that was something I wasn't expecting. Brad got to hold them both and walk them down to the nursery and his mom snapped this shot when he came out of the operating room. Everyone's first look at the babies and daddy had them both...Here are also a few pictures of them I took the other day, they are such fun good babies...

Goofy things daddy put on our heads...

First Fights...

Lately if we walk out of the room for a second and leave the twins sitting up playing on the floor, this is what we come back to find...

A visit from my family...

A couple of weekends ago my sister and her husband Tom and their 3 kids came down to visit. My mom surprised us and came with them also, she couldn't resist a chance to see those grand babies of hers! We did what everyone does at least once, when they have visitors from out of state. Drove them around down town and went to Opryland Hotel. (or maybe that is just Brad and I??) We have been to the hotel many times, but it was actually nice to go back and see it again. The last time we went parking was free, now it's 12.00 dollars! The babies were wonderful the whole day and enjoyed walking around the hotel and looking at everything, it was a long day for them and they really only started to get fussy at the end of our meal. We went to Goten's Japanese Steakhouse later that evening. It was a great visit and I miss them all already! Here are a few pictures from the weekend...