Whew...

So much to say and yet not much to say.  I feel like there is so much going on in my life right now that I am still processing through much of it and am just not ready or able to even begin to share it.  Much of it is good, but these past few weeks have been hard in several different ways.  I am learning to be obedient to God as I teach my children the importance of obedience.  Not easy for any of us.  I see so many parallels in my relationship with God as my Father in the relationship between myself and the boys.  I want so badly for them to be obedient because I know it will bring good things to them and make all of our lives so much easier.  I have thought how much more God desires for me to be obedient to Him and what good things lie on the other side of obedience, but yet through stubbornness or lack of trust or fear, I choose my own way.  I am thankful that God is patient anyway and continues to be consistent in loving me and teaching me, which is my prayer to bear those characteristics as I teach my boys the importance of obedience that they might one day become obedient to Christ.

As far as the boys are concerned...they are doing great.  We have gotten into quite a nice routine in the new year that's working for all of us.  Levi continues to work hard in his gait trainer, but some days are better than others.  We are glad to see continued desire to walk in it, as he asks almost every day to get in it.  His vocabulary continues to grow and we see how smart he is each and every day.  The speech therapist is always telling us how smart he is, as she is quite impressed with his ability to learn things pretty quickly and begin to use them daily.  Machiah has started to stand on his own for a few seconds at a time.  Just a little less than a month and we will be celebrating his 1st birthday! Crazy.  I am pretty sure he will be walking by then, but we will see.  He is working on getting his top two front teeth, making the teeth count at 4.  He did really well as they popped through the gums and I wouldn't have hardly noticed he was getting them except for their visibility.  Both the boys, I have to say, have been pretty good teethers (especially considering Levi went from 4 teeth to a whole mouth full in about 3 months!).

I have slowly been working on a Shutterfly album book for 2011.  Lots of good memories.  Here is one of my favorite pictures of the boys. They continue to enjoy playing together, which has been so fun to watch and see how their relationship develops.