Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to Our Two Favorite Girls!!!

Josh and I are sending a special shout out to Katie and Anna. Today was Katie's birthday and we got to hang out with her for a bit. Saturday is Anna's true birthday! We hope you both had a great day!

This was actually taken today. Josh and I drove home this afternoon after seeing both of them. Happy birthday to the pair of you! Love you.

Selfish Favors?

Well.....this past Wednesday I believe I became the most selfish person I know. Mary Jane asked me to come and help her out with her beautiful girls and I jumped at the opportunity. I was able to hold and love on both girls as well as help with a feeding. Twins are overwhemling for the people that aren't even the parents and I was amazed at how awesome a job both Mary Jane and Jason are doing. While I was there I also was able to put together another swing for the girls. Now they have matching Fisher Price Nature swings! It's really cute. So I can write this blog about all the great help I was able to give some friends, but it would be unfair. Without a doubt...I got much more than I gave. I love to see those girls and love on them any chance I get. I hope I get many more opportunities to give them some "favors" just for the chance to see how amazing those little girls are. I'm a lucky girl to know them, and even more so to help thier parents out every once in a while! While I'm on the subject of shouting out for my favorite twins, Parker needs some prayers. She is having problems picking up on her feeding like Emma. Her mom thinks it's most likely reflux and has been started on some meds to help it. The issue is it takes up to two weeks to start helping. Can you pray that Parker stops having so much pain with her eating and picks up on the bottle really soon. It's awful to see her in so much pain with feeds. Thanks in advance. Now... I could talk about those girls for three blog pages, but I will end with a big Happy Birthday to both of them since they are now term and leave you with some pictures of their beautiful faces. Love you girls!



The most beautiful term twins I have ever seen. Emma is on the right, Parker on the left!

This is Emma again snuggled up in her swing after a feeding!!!

Mrs. Paker happy with a full belly. A wonderful sight. Hope you feel better with each and every feed big girl. Can't wait to cuddle with you both again real soon!

Birthdays

You know, it's interesting this year. My birthday was Saturday and I think I'm at that in between age of life. I know where I'm coming from but just not sure of who I'm going to be when I really grow up. When your born your birthday is the happiest day in your parents life. On your first birthday you still don't really know what is going on, but your accomplishments really make your parents proud. By the time your six or seven it's all about you and what you "want" for your birthday. You think about how many toys and "things" you might get, and you still manage to make your parents proud. I have spent many birthdays in the past years without my parents around. This year, I was lucky enough to have them here for Thanksgiving AND my birthday. For the first time, I almost forgot it was my birthday. I wasn't worried about how many cards I would get, or how many calls. (although...i did make a big fuss about the mailman bringing the mail that day!) Let me be clear, those things make me glow with happiness and reflect on how lucky I am to have such great family and friends. This year was different though. For the first time I think I was more proud to spend the day with my parents and my husband than my parents were of me of my accomplishments. I'm not sure proud is the right word, but it was a real sense of completeness. There was nothing fancy, a big breakfast, time shopping and eating with my parents and Josh, and a relaxing evening in front of the Wii. There is no doubt that my parents are so proud of me and what I have done in life so far. They love to come visit, and it's always a relaxing good time. I think it's always going to be different now though. I think I'm a big kid now. One who is proud of what her parents have made her, how they have shaped her, loved her, and encouraged her to just be her. That is a whole lot to be Thankful for this holiday season. Josh and I also want to send a shout out to the family that we couldn't me with this Thanksgiving. We miss you tons and hope to see you after the first of the year! As I mentioned before, my mom brought her Wii out and the four of us had a screaming good time trying to play that thing! I have attached some pictures for your viewing pleasure. Be sure not to have anything to drink or eat while viewing these.....you may choke on laughter! Enjoy.

Here is my mom getting us all started on the Wii. She was the only one who had played the Hula Hoop game before!

This is my Dad trying to figure out Wii bowling. He may have thrown out a shoulder during our tournament!

(p.s. Right now, Mel has the all-time high score!)

Here's Josh really getting serious on the Wii!

And of course Carson had to get his Wii game on too. He would not leave the floor playing area, he really enjoyed watching how silly the rest of us looked!

Gobble, Gobble, Gobble

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!!

In the event that anyone didn't know the Webster's definition of turkey, I have included it in this post for your reading pleasure.
Turkey (tur' ke): 1. any of a family of large North American birds with a small, naked head and spreading tail, including a wild or domesticated species bred as poultry and a wild species of Central America, with eyespots on the tail 2. a failure: said of a theatrical production 3. an inep, stupid, or unpleasant person 4. Bowling three strikes in a row
All kidding aside, Josh and I want to wish everyone a happy holiday. We hope everyone is relaxing and enjoying time with friends and family and the beautiful weather.
Love,
Josh, Mel, and Carson

A Who Dey Revolution

This blog entry is definitely geared towards my Cincinnati peeps. However, any of you who have ever been a die hard fan of anything will completely understand. So my Bengals are in a rough patch.....well have been for most of my life. There is a group of rebels in Cincinnati who have put together the most amazing website. The website is geared at collecting donations for bill board ads like the one I will attach as well as other things to eradicate our current general manager Mike Brown. You have to believe with the amount of talent my team has had over the past couple of seasons that we could have a better showing than this. The main problem, the front office at Paul Brown Stadium. You have to start somewhere and this seems like the only logical option. I could go on forever right now about the problems with the team and what we need to change, but our biggest need is a change of attitude. We need to change the very way we think about the game, our players, and most especially our fans. Only fans like the ones that would make this billboard make an NFL team float in this league. We pay for the tickets, merchandise, and need I remind anyone Mike Brown's salary. Bottom line, this bill board makes me proud to be a fan of the "jungle". Hope you enjoy.
Josh and Mel
www.whodeyrevolution.com

Street Shout Out: Andrea Jenkins

Hi all,

So I have to admit with shame and embarrassment that I had no post on Veteran's Day. I have no real excuse, it was only an eight hour day at work. I really had nothing better going on I just simply forgot. It pains me though, I'm usually right on time with that type of thing, and there is no reason I shouldn't have added a post about my brother's first Veteran's day. The good news, he forgives me and he was safe and sound at home the entire day! I hope to have a lot more Veteran's days like that. My friend Andrea is miffed that there was no entry on the pumpkin carvings. Likewise, I'm miffed there isn't one and that she has never commented on any of the blog entries thus far. (note: Life got out of hand busy in the two weeks leading up to Halloween and Josh and I just simply ran out of time to carve pumpkins. We were just as upset and have great things planned for 09!) Now, let me remind folks that we have had this blog since July, and not one lousy comment from Andrea has been received. So, this post is just for her. I will add a picture of my beautiful friend and send her a shout out. We met my freshman year in high school. For those keep track, that was a helluva long time ago! We have been fast friends since. We have watched each other grow up and get married. We have spent many hours laughing so hard that our guts hurt, and not in a good way if you know what I mean Andrea! Wink wink! I could spend many entries talking about what a good friend she is, but for the sake of more embarrassment today, I won't limit it to my miserable writing abilities. Words won't do it justice. Hope everyone is well. Love you Andrea. Hope you enjoyed the post.

Andrea on her wedding day. She was such a stunning bride. I was so happy to see her and be a part of her day.

Happy Electing!

Hi all,
Whew, I have to say, I never thought I would make it through the line at my polling place today, but perseverance paid off. Happy Election day to you all. I went mid morning hoping to beat the lunch crowd and sneak in behind the early birds. Boy was I wrong. I rode my bike because the weather was just gorgeous here today. I stood in line for over 2 hours and actually saw an elderly man collapse. I am not sure if it was the heat or just his age? They had to call the ambulance for him and I think that he is going to be fine. They didn't have to transport him off the premises. I do hope he was still able to cast his vote. As I stood in line today I reflected on what a great thing being able to vote really is. I thought of the millions (yes millions) of people in this world who have never and will never have the right to vote in a democratic election process. I have to say, it made the wait a lot less burdensome for me today. In our parents lifetime there have been minorities who did not have the right to cast a ballot. It is utterly sad. I'm thankful that I haven't know that in my lifetime. I also felt proud to stand in a line, sure of who I am and my vote, and not have judgement cast upon me. Standing there in that line among hundreds of people, I was not Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, or Independent. I was simply another American citizen exercising her right and civic duty. Although I could spend hours talking about where I really stand, but I am perfectly happy to stand in anonymity and simply be an educated voter exercising a right. No matter which candidate you voted for, I hope you did just that.....vote. May the candidate to 270 electoral votes first...win. Hope everyone had a great day!