Laissez les bons temps rouler!!!And we plan to do just that!! We are heading out for New Orleans tomorrow after church to spend the week with Jon's family for spring break. So I won't be posting any, except for their 6 month "b-day". Wow, 6 months! I can't believe it.Poor James has another little head cold and he pretty much slept all day today. Please say a little prayer for him that he would get better soon and be able to enjoy his first trip to SuSu and PawPaw's!!

Hannah looked so pretty in her dress this morning I couldn't resist snapping a few shots. Me and the twins didn't go to church with them since James has his little cold. I sure hated to see them go but Hannah assured me she will back real soon with her mama and daddy and Matthew!

Now that's true love I tell ya! I wish Audrey had been sitting on the other knee but of course(just like any other good photo op with family) she was fast asleep!

By the way, the title to this post is French for "Let the good times roll!"

House full of Grace!! Last night my daddy, stepmom and neice came to visit for the weekend and go to church tonight and tomorrow at Pisgah. Hannah was sooooo excited to see "my babies" as she has now started calling them. I guess Papoopsie Darlings is just the title to the blog now! She and Audrey were having a very long conversation about pappies and blankies in the picture above. It was very entertaining to say the least!

Hannah also informed us that there are 4 girls and 3 boys at Aunt Manda's house and three of us have the middle name Grace. She calls herself "the big babysitter" and has watched baby Einstein and Mary Poppins with the twins today and gave them a play by play of each scene!

When she got James in her lap she said "wow James, you are way heavier than Audrey"!!! 4 years old is such a funny age. They know so much and have to tell you everything that pops into their head.

The twins were very excited when they woke up and saw a person closer to their size in their living room this morning. They have smiled and giggled at Hannah and watched her every move.

Me, a baby doll? I know they are my children but have you ever seen anything cuter than Audrey in that hat? I know that all parents think their kids are the cutest but lets just admit that mine really are!!!

This smile was brought on by him looking at the love of his life, me!!!

James gets a little closer every day to turning over and today has been the closest he has gotten! It will only be a few more days and he'll be able to get that big old head to go with the rest of his body!!

Screechy GonzalesMy beautiful, darling, sweet, precious daughter. Audrey Grace. She has many delightful personality traits. She is a very happy child and has a smile that can light up a room! She has the most endearing laugh of a little girl that I have ever heard. She has LOTS of energy already and I am pretty sure that is one of the reasons why she trails behind her brother in the weight department. She has a beautiful complexion(compliments of her father!) and beautiful round, wide eyes. Audrey loves to touch things and see if she can get them into her mouth! She also LOVES to look at books and will actually look at each page carefully and kicks her feet when she is ready to turn the page. She makes the cutest little gurgling noises now when she is studying something like baby Einstein or her toys or when talking to the poster on the changing table as pictured below. For some reason she LOVES to stare at that thing and talk to it. I guess it makes her happy to know her parents will know what to do if she starts choking!

It seems that she discovers new things every day! Unfortunately her latest discovery is screeching. She screeches when she is happy. She screeches when she is sad. She screeches when she is angry. She screeched all through church yesterday morning, boy was that fun. Poor James got none of my attention because his little sissy was making to much racket and I had to find ways to entertain her to STOP THE SCREECHING!! Thank goodness he was such a good boy yesterday!

Last night she was screeching while I was trying to burp her and it just kept getting screechier and screechier. Jon looked at her, smiled, wrinkled his nose, squinted his eyes and in his best Big Mo (Bro. Lonnie Sr.) accent says "Could you adjust the squelch please little darlin?"

Our First Easter Together My sweet husband humored me yesterday afternoon and took us to go have the twins picture made with the Easter Bunny. We went to the mall and ate supper and shopped around for awhile. It was a lot of fun and Audrey really enjoyed it. She fell asleep for about 5 minutes and the rest of the time she was bright eyed and bushy tailed with those legs just a kicking! She didn't want to miss a thing. James wanted no part of all the hoop-la because when he wasn't sleeping he had this blank look on his face like "can we please get out of here mother" and as you can see in the picture, he didn't think to much of old peter cotton tail!

Little squirts
Yesterday while I was cleaning up their room and putting away the gazillions of clothes that they have, I had them sitting on the bed so they could watch me. I am trying to teach them early about keeping a tidy room! HA HA! Anyway they were in such a good mood and were talking to eachother so sweetly I had to stop and play with them for a bit. They don't keep their balance for very long, even propped up against a pillow, so they kept falling into eachother!

Audrey has always been a kicker. Even in the incubator at the hospital she would point her toes and kick her legs back and forth! Now I know what that child was doing inside of me for all those months! I believe she did some long term damage to some of my internal organs with those little feet of hers! She has started raising her legs and instead of kicking them in and out, she goes up and down. It is the funniest thing to watch. She looks like she is doing little leg lifts! No wonder the child is so trim and slim!

I need your hand Bubba

Slide down and lift. Man this is fun.

I like to let my sister do all the work



I need your bib Bubba

Come here Sissy, let me lick your hand

Wow he must love me!!

Here comes the sun...... Little darling it's been a long cold, lonely winter
Little darling it feels like years since it's been here
Here comes the sun dudu dudah
Here comes the sun and I say it's alright
Little darling the smiles returning to the faces
Little darling it seems like years since its been here

For the last two weeks on American Idol they have been singing the Beatles and Here comes the Sun is one of my favorites and I have had the lyrics in my head for the last couple of days. James' smile in the first picture is so cheery it reminded me of the sun this morning so I thought I'd share! Anyway, the twins are finally starting to feel better from their colds (it does seem like its been awhile) and are sleeping a little more soundly at night. However, at 2 this morning they both woke up and were hungry and let me just say it is not easy to deal with cranky, hungry babies that early (or should it be that late?) I'm not sure which is worse: James waking up at 2 and Audrey waking up at 4 and then James again at 6. Or them waking up at the same time crying. I think it's a toss up!

James and Audrey get very excited when they see their daddy in the afternoon when he gets home from work! Which I think is just too precious!

I am feeling a little blue with homesickness this week. I really miss Middle Georgia and my family. Especially this time of year for some reason. And I am missing things like seeing all the Cherry Blossoms painted on the windows of businesses and cars since the Cherry Blossom Festival is this weekend in Macon. I'm missing the Easter Party that I used to go to as a little girl and hunt Easter eggs with all my friends from church. I miss the crowd that Cool Springs always had on Easter Sunday (because you know Easter always brings out the people who only come once a year!)Oh how I miss sitting in a marvelous song service and hearing my daddy's voice above all others during "Now To The Power of God Supreme". I miss going to church at home so VERY much. The Middle Georgia area has been so abundatly blessed with church's every 20 or 30 miles atleast, so there is always a meeting to go to. "Jerusalem, my long sought home, Oh how I long for thee! When will my sorrow have an end? The joy when shall I see?

Home, sweet home, my long sweet home. My home in heav'n above!"

I am desperately missing my beautiful Knock Out Roses in my flower garden in Gray and our beautiful little patio that was always so peaceful during the spring time. I miss walking at the track with Dana in the late summertime evenings. I miss being able to just jump in the car and be with Betsy and Buddy and their children in a flash. I miss my aunts and uncles and cousins. I miss my daddy and mama. I just plain old miss home today. It doesn't seem to happen to often because I am really happy here. I love this part of Georgia and the church and the community here but......it's just not "home". But don't worry too much about me, I'll be alright. As Scarlet O'Hara said, "Tomorrow is another day"!

6th month check up

The twins had their 6th month check up this morning and everything checked out wonderful! James weighs 12/5 and is 23 in. Audrey weighs 10/14 and is 24 in.
Dr. Walker was very pleased (once again) with their progress. When I told him that they both can roll from their stomach to their backs he was very proud and said that that is a 4 month milestone so they are ahead of their time. (remember that they were 2 months early which means that they can be 2 months behind in progression) What a blessing! My little babies aren't so little any more!

They also had round 2 of their immunizations today which was quite a circus seeing how I was BY MYSELF! Whew! I'm glad that is over and unless I have to (like today) I don't plan on doing that again until they can walk and talk and go to the bathroom by themselves and tie their own shoes and crawl into chairs on their own etc.etc.etc......Seriously though, it wasn't as bad as I had feared it to be. Last night when I realized I had to go alone (everyone I know within a 200 mile radius is sick) I started to panic but remembered that you can not panic (especially with twins) or you will simply be worthless to yourself, your children and everyone around you. So, I started praying to the Lord that He would bless me with calmness and peace and He certainly did. I was amazingly calm and ON TIME this morning.

They love to play with eachothers ears!


On the gloomy side, James and Audrey have a little cold. They are still coughing and sneezing and are really cranky at night. And poor James can barely cry. As soon as he starts to get loud his little voice gives way and all you can hear are raspy little cries. If it weren't so pitiful to listen to I would be enjoying the break from level 4! Since they are so young still there is no cold medicine for them so we have to give them Simply Saline a couple times a day, sit in a steamy room a couple times a day and he said we could give them Tylenol every 6 hours to help their feelings. Maybe I can get some sleep tonight. All the rest I got from being sick is totally tanked!

We're back.......Sorry for the absence lately in blogger world but last Monday I came down with the flu! Monday night Jon came into our room and asked me how I was feeling and I told him I felt like I was dying. So we had a church member to come and keep them Tuesday while I went to the doctor and allowed them to jab my nostrils with q-tips and swirl my sinuses around so that I would cry, cough and sneeze all at the same time! And my reward for letting them do that was these words: "Sorry Ms.Mizell, but you have the flu. Better go home and get some rest" Rest?! I told her I had 5 1/2 month old twins at home and I didn't have time to have the flu and could she please give me a shot or something to make it go away. Unfortunately her answer was no. So I proceeded to Wal-Mart, all the while dragging my feet and hacking like I was going to cough up a lung. I had to wait 2 HOURS to have my very expensive prescriptions filled (yes, we have state insurance but some things are just EXPENSIVE anyway!)

I figured since I had the flu we had better go ahead and call in the cavalry, so Jon got his ma on the phone and she said she'd be there by the next afternoon. A little relief. I only had to get through one more day without any family around to help out. I could make it. The same church member was going to come back but she called at 6:30 that next morning and said she felt horrible and was running a fever. So Jon (poor baby) quickly ran down the list of ladies who stay at home during the day and every one of them either couldn't come or didn't answer. Except for one sweet sister who has been married for 30 something years and her and her husband were never blessed with children. Uh-oh. Yep that's right. She didn't have any experience with babies, let alone twins. We were kinda nervous but we had no option. I couldn't get close enough to breath on them never mind the fact that I felt like a semi had run me down and then backed over me a few more times. So we had to have help. When she got here you could tell she was nervous and I felt so sorry for her. But she did wonderful with them (minus a few mishaps with some diapers!) and we all made it through another day.

SuSu got here around 6 p.m. that evening and she was a welcome site! Bless Jon's heart, I know he was so tired. Staying up with the twins 2 nights in a row and then going to work all day, then coming home and taking care of everything around here and me as well. Not that there is much that you can do for a moaning, groaning, shivering lump under the covers!

The twins did well and didn't catch the flu. But they did run low grade fevers at one point and were real cranky Thursday and restless Thursday night. But they got over whatever it was by Friday and were pretty much back to their old selves. Except for the fact that they missed me. It was horrible watching their little faces look at me with the anticipation that I was going to pick them up and then have to walk away. A few times they started crying once they realized I wasn't gonna pick them up. It was agony.

As you can tell by these pictures (I just took them a few minutes ago) they are doing great. Audrey has a little bit of a runny nose but she feels fine and James just cleaned out his bowels so he is feeling really good!! I have never really seen a resemblance between James and Audrey in the past but I think in the above picture James looks like Audrey. It's in his smile.

I just thought this was funny!

We are so thankful for all the help we got over this past week. Our church family is wonderful and so sweet and loving. But there is nothing like your own family. Especially when you don't feel good! Times like these is what makes it really hard to be so far away from our families. But, life goes on and hopefully we will be seeing some of y'all REAL SOON!

When Daddy dresses me........Of all the clothes in Audrey's drawer Jon picks this shirt for her to wear! Imagine that! I had pictured my daughter growing up a sweet southern belle, not a redneck woman! We obviously will have to limit the times that daddy dresses her! Well yesterday I decided that it was time to teach my children where every good woman shops: Wal-Mart! A dear brother and deacon at Tired Creek passed away yesterday and I wanted to buy some breakfast and snack food to carry to the family. So when the weather cleared, I loaded them into the van and hit the road. Jon had to go ahead and go over to the Faircloths so I ventured out on my own. I was a little nervous going by myself but I knew I would have to do it one day and may as well get it over with and where better to start than at Wal-Mart buying groceries for church members?
When we got there, I pulled out the double stroller, buckled them in and wheeled them inside. I then got a buggy and started pulling it behind me while pushing them in front of me. Go ahead, laugh. It was quite a site I'm sure as I got many funny looks! People would see me coming and see the children first and smile sweetly and say "oh how cute" then they would see me, the doting mother, and give me an appreciative smile. Then they would see the buggy loaded down with stuff that I was pulling behind me and just laugh!
It went very smoothly. They enjoyed looking around at all the stuff and seeing all the people so they were content the entire time. However, I have discovered the way to loose all your "baby" fat and stay in shape while buying junk food: push a heavy double stroller (with your right hand) loaded down with 2 babies that together probably weigh 26 pounds, while pulling and navigating (so that you don't knock down any displays or little old ladies) a huge shopping buggy (with your left hand)filled to the brim with food. Now do that for 45 minutes and you easily will burn 1,000 calories while also working out your triceps and thighs. It's free and doesn't get boring! The only problem I found with my new-found shopping methed is that you can't turn around if you miss an aisle. You have to go down the next aisle and circle back. Even though I had a list and know that wal-mart like the back of my hand, I kept thinking of stuff that I needed that of course was on the aisle I had just gotten finished going down. We made it out before the sun went down and had time to go into the Faircloths for a little bit before they got fussy!

What I will buy all new parents from now on Some of you may remember a few months back when I told about Jon wearing the "ear muffs" he uses to sight in his guns during a scream fest one night at our house. Well we had another scream fest last night while Audrey was taking her bath and my sweet husband brought me the muffs pictured above and put them on my head and it was immediate relief! I could still hear her but it was not mind-numbingly painful. I could actually finish the task of bathing her and getting her dressed without getting frustrated or ending up with a splitting headache! At one point I was actually dancing while I dressed her! I strongly suggest every parent get a couple pair of these. They will save your sanity and your hearing. Now maybe I won't go deaf until I am 45!

James and Audrey have both found their fingers and boy do they love them! They are constantly sucking on them and constantly shoving them so far down their throats that they get choked on them! Audrey especially loves her two middle fingers!