Sometimes I wonder what I did when we were first married? What would it be like to wake up feeling refreshed and ready to start the day with a cup of coffee and curling up on the couch and drinking in God’s Word, and being able to use the restroom without little girls banging on the door to come in or to go for a walk to sweep out the cobwebs out of my head, or to talk on the phone undisturbed by hungry little cries, or to even be in bed by 10:00 and sleep all night!!!!!!!!! Maybe some day I will know what all those things feel like again and for right now I am enjoying our little girlies and trying to be a mom who keeps her sanity without flying to pieces and juggling household duties can be a chore. Thankfully I have two little girls who LOVE to wash dishes and they do a wonderful job and do a super job in entertaining the twins when they are awake and happy. Thankfully all four girls take naps about the same time and that is when the work flies, and I have some time to catch my breath and prepare supper. I am one who does not do well with planning menus ahead of time but have come to the conclusion it’s either that or go hungry So monday mornings I’m going to be pouring over cookbooks to plan our menus for the week. My sister Joanna gave me a Household Planner by Starla Krieder which I’m excited about using next year, and hopefully it will help me to be more organized and not stressed out.

 We love our little girlies and they are growing like weeds. As of Sunday, Miranda weighed 10lbs and 4ozs and Mckenzie weighed 8lbs and 15 ozs. Nursing is going very good, To start with Miranda got 1 bottle of formula before she went to bed, but I started taking some herbs for my milk supply and that has really help so now she doesn’t get it anymore and this morning I think I would have had enough milk for three babies Sometimes I wish they would take bottles so I could leave them if I need to but they do not like it, especially Mckenzie.

We have resumed our responsibilites again as youth sponsers until the end of December and are enjoying it again. Thanks to Roger and Ruth for taking our place for about two months. Mckenzie Gail

     Miranda Kate                                                                              

Big sisters holding their little twin sisters and they love them dearly and get lots of hugs and kisses!  Here they are only about four weeks old. I couldn’t find the ones I took recently not sure where they disa peared to! Tuesday they were eight weeks old and that seems so hard to believe! Time goes by fast when you are busy Have a blessed day, Gina

                      There is nothing like a cup of hot coffee

              on a brisk fall morning topped

               off with a fresh cinnamon roll!

                        Miranda Kate Smucker

                6lbs and 14 oz

          September 9 2008 at 2:33 a.m.

          Mckenzie Gail Smucker

            5lbs and 5 oz                                                    

     September 9 2008 at 2:34 a.m.   

                                    The babies are doing good, nights are a little hairy but hopefully it will get better soon! Pretty much all I get accomplished is nurse babies, eat and sleep. I’m feeling good and its nice to be up and about. We got home Wednesday night around midnight and it felt so good to sleep in my own bed. My C-section went very well and it wasn’t at all what I expected and I had wonderful nurses. So I must say my hospital experience was great. Mark was off all week from work so that was so nice now tomorrow its back to the grind. It feels so good to be pampered!  Tomorrow I need to take the girls to see the dr. We took them in on Friday and Mckenzies weight was down to 5lbs and 1 oz and so she wants to see if she gained over the weekend, which she did and she’s at her birth weight now, so I’m gonna see if we can skip it. Miranda has a touch of yellow jaundice so today she was by the window. Hopefully that will clear up soon. We thank God for his blessings to us and for blessing us with these two precious little girls. My heart goes out to Natalie and Micah! I am praying for you guys and your little Emily Sophia! Looking at her picture brought the tears and I know God hears your prayers and He will be close to you during this time. Praying for His healing for Emily! For more details go to jkamfamily.    Edit, excuse the birth weight on Mckenzies picture the computer will not cooperate!!!!!!!

and I will feel like a normal person again, I hope It just can’t come fast enough. I’m not even going to hope that it will be before that, cause as soon as I do, my hopes get dashed and I look at myself and I’m still pg!!!!!!!! Sunday was a very discouraging day for me. I told Mark I have never had such a round of discouragement and depression as I do with this pregnancy. No wonder two set of hormones to deal with instead of one Guess that makes sense? I try to not complain and look on the bright side of life, the babies are healthy and I am thankful I carried them this long, less expense and better for the babies, but when you are big and clumsy and can’t bend over and you use your toes to pick up things that you drop and you heave and hoe to get out of bed and you use the restroom at any hour of the night, etc, etc, you get weary and all I want to do is stay in bed until it is time for them to come. It was good for me to get out yesterday. Our church had a labor day picnic and I was very tempted to stay at home but I’m glad I didn’t. I had a good day and it was fun to mingle in with other people and it took my mind off my troubles. Well, I must run along, my work isn’t getting done by itself. Have a wonderful Tuesday. It’s a beautiful day here in VA!!!

   It is truly a rainy day and so welcomed by everyone!! A good day to curl up on the couch and drink coffee and read your favorite book! How I wish that would be possible.  I will have to wait a while to do the curl up thing!! Today I would like to do some more cleaning, we were up bright and early this morning, I had a midwife appointment at 8 so we were dressed and breakfast in our tummys and out the door by quarter after 7! That deserves a high five! Thanks to my dear hubby for helping everyone to be ready on time The girls and I treated ourselves to coffee and a pastry at Panera Bread before coming home. YUMMY!!!

 Here are some pics of all the camping we did this summer. We had three camping trips back to back this summer, so we were camped out, thankfully they were in cabins and not tenting.

                  Gingerich Camping

               Smucker Camping  

       Have a blessed afternoon!

Yesterday I had a doctors appointment and was so hoping that something is happening and I would be close to giving birth to our little girls, but no, it looks like I could go for a while yet! Baby B is still breeched and weighs less then baby A which is good, (not the breeched part tho) cause baby A is head down and bigger and she is first. So if nothing changes and I don’t go into labor before 38 weeks I will have a c-section, something that is kinda hard for me to accept cause I know I will not be able to have any more children at home cause my midwife does not do VBAC.  Some people just can’t figure out why in the world that would be so hard on me, Let me tell you this, you try having your babies at home and I will assure you, you will like it There is nothing like being in your own bed and your own house and everything being quiet and just you and your honey and the midwife and her helper are there and you can let it “all hang out”! Get the picture!  I guess I should wait until my experience is over at the hospital and who knows maybe I like it I do have alot to be thankful for the babies are healthy and I know the good Lord is in control and I want to accept whatever He has for me. Tomorrow Mark and I are going to Williamsburg for two days and I am looking forward to it, we wanted to do something before the babies come! Outlets stores here we come and I am hoping to find lots of baby bargains! It is time to get things together for these little ones and I hope too by next week be all ready and WAITING!!!!!!!!  Have a blessed day!

 It’s a lovely Saturday morning, looks like it could rain all day and I hope it does, we are dry and in need of rain. A good morning to stay in bed and sleep but I don’t sleep very good so I might as well get up and do something edifying. I’m starting to look like a whale and waddle like a duck and to think that I still have 12 more weeks till my due date, sometimes I wonder how in the world am I ever going to make it, I can’t clip my own toe nails or hardly tie my shoes, then is when my dear husband kicks in!!! There are so many things on my list to do before these little girls arrive and sometimes I have a feeling they won’t all get done, with all the camping trips and doctor trips, we are going to be busy running around. Someone asked me the other day when I’m going to slow down and I said after the babies are born It doesn’t help that we are are youth sponsers and that keeps us hopping. We are planning on getting someone to cover for us for a few months and so that will give us a nice break. The other day I went through all my baby clothes and I have about three or four bins of clothes I would like to sell, someone need girl and boy clothes? I never had winter babies so this will be the first. I planning on having a yard sale next week so I’m hoping to get rid of alot of stuff. I need to go through drawers and put away winter coats and sweaters and would like do some hard-to-reach cleaning with the help of my husband. We are also in the process of buying a metal business and so that is going to involve alot of work and also alot of decisions are to be made and so it looks overwhelming at times but I know God’s grace is suffient for each day and we need to rest in His will cause that is the best place to be.

The other week we had a bad hail storm and here are some pics of what it look like around our place, our garden was pretty much destroyed and it looked like a war zone outside. They say we had six inches of hail and a snowplow was out scraping the hail off the road. Imagine that in June!   My poor tomatoe plants were stripped and so were the pepper and cucumber plants and beans. We did keep the corn and potatoes in and they are looking really nice.

A couple weeks ago the youth girls and I went to Tangier Island. Its a quaint little island about 5 miles long and we spent a few hours there, we took the boat out it was a three hour ride all together. One of the youth girls left to go to Michigan to work so we wanted to do something together before she left. Went the night before and got a motel. It was a good trip. Here are some pics.

Monica Byers, the girl who went to Michigan. We miss you!

                 Eating Chips

        Monica and Jessica Byers

     Kristalyn, Karida and Kaylita Stoltfuze

         Merideth and Melissa Beachy

                  Our Boat

                          IT’S TWIN GIRLS!!!!!!!!

Excited, overwhelmed, scared, are some of the feelings going through my mind at this point! How will I survive with twin girls plus a 2 and 4 year old? I know I will have good help when they are born so that makes it so much easier. Marks sister Jo will be helping us out and that is going to be a blessing. I still can’t believe we are having twins!!!!!! O how we wished for a little boy but we are excited! I was suspiscious for a while and I knew that my midwife would not deliver twins at home so when I asked what she thinks the possibility of twins would be she didn’t outrule it but she couldn’t find two heart beats and I was measuring only about two inches over but we can do an ultrsound if we want just to put our minds at ease. In the meantime I found out I had Group B strep and if I still had it at 36 weeks she couldn’t do the delievery. So we decided to the ultrasound. So yesterday at 11:00 was the utlrasound and it was kinda funny cause the lady who did the utlrasound said well heres the baby and she goes over to the other side of my stomach and she pulled it off and looked at us and said, do you have twin history in your family? Yes, we do and she said, you are having twins and sure enough there they were!!!! Mark is so excited cause he has been wanting twins for a long time and I was the one who didn’t want it, but I’m getting excited and it totally changes everything! I need to start thinking two of everything! The hardest thing for me is having to go the hospital to have my baby, I have never admitted to a hospital and I have no idea what it is like, I love having my babies at home and not having all those nurses and doctors coming in and checking you, etc.. People tell me its not that bad I will still have a midwife and I’m excited about that. So today I already have two doctor appointments and also one with my midwife on Monday, so here we go!!

That is my lifes story today and we are NOT having good success . I think the washer is getting its fill of wet undies and the carpet got a nice scrubbing out of it but the toilet has seen no results! HELP!!!!!!

   Last Friday we celebrated 5 wonderful years of marriage! Sometimes I can hardly believe its been that long and other times it seems like yesterday since I married my best friend. It has been a wonderful five years and I look forward to many more together if God grants us that priveledge, if I would have the chance I would marry him all over again We wanted to do something special but we are so busy and we were ready to stay home and plus with gas prices sky-high we decided to wait until later. We did spend the afternoon and evening together by ourselves. Mom kept the girls. We went mower shopping but we didn’t find anything and then we went out for supper and played putt-putt and ended the evening with Starbucks coffee! Yummy! If was a good evening just being together and enjoying each others company. I’m so thankful to God for leading us together and it has been a good five years. I fell in love with him all over again and he makes me happy, I can cry on his shoulder anytime and he understands me and loves me even if I’m cranky and knows what makes my day and leaves me messages almost every day on my phone and is a wonderful daddy to our little girls and loves me even if I’m big and pregnant He’s an encourager, a wonderful example and true Christian leader in our home and I love him with all my love. Ok, enough said, I don’t want to bore you!