At Home with the Hodges: Twins

Showing posts with label Twins. Show all posts

April 19, 2019

Emily and Ethan's Birthday!!

It's the twins' birthday!! We woke her up singing and having our traditional donut for breakfast. I got to go to the school today to bring treats to her class and they were having a jump rope competition so I stayed and watched all the kids jump rope. Emily did really well. Later that night we took her and her friends to Skateland and had a great party!. Happy Birthday Emily and Ethan. We love you both and are so glad you were born to us at the same time!!

May 6, 2018

Ethan Ryan

April 7, 2018

My Twin Cousin!

My twin cousin, Andrea stopped by my parents house on the way home from visiting a friend. We got to hang out and talk for a few hours and get caught up. I am only 3 hours older than her, and boy do I feel it! ;) Andrea is great and we have a lot of fun childhood memories together that I hold dear.

May 6, 2017

Emily's Baptism

Today was such a special day! The day Emily got baptized into the church. We are so happy that she has chosen to follow Christ and make this commitment to always remember Him. We felt Ethan's present there that day. Emily got baptized on May 6th, the day Ethan passed away. But the spirit was very strong, and it was the perfect day for Emily to get baptized we think, and I think Ethan would agree. We are so proud of Emily. We can't believe she is our last baby to get baptized! Where has the time gone?!

And because is was the same day Ethan passed from this world, we celebrated his life by letting off 8 gallons for him. Here are some pictures from the day.

May 9, 2013

Thinking of You...

It's been 4 years since you passed away, and a day hasn't passed that I haven't thought of you. A few people have asked me when you are brought up in conversations, if it makes me sad, and if it's too hard to talk about you. What I say is, yes it is sometimes sad and hard. But it's always a gift. Each conversation that I get to talk about you is a gift. Each time I get to say your name, is a gift. Each time I get to think of a memory of holding you, is a gift. I love that I have you as my son. I may not get to raise you on this earth, but I will never forget that you are my son waiting for us on the other side. And just so you know we had your named picked out years before you were even born as we always knew we were going to have a son named Ethan. We miss you and love you so much.

A friend of mine posted this quote on Facebook and tagged me in it and I just thought I would share it as this is exactly how I feel when Ethan is brought up...

"If you know someone who has lost a child and you're afraid to mention them because you think you might make them sad by reminding them that they died--you're not reminding them. They didn't forget they died. What you're reminding them of is that you remember that they lived, and that is a great gift. " Elizabeth Edward

I am grateful to those who bring up my son in conversation sometimes because they knew he lived and want to remember him and that is a great gift. He is as much a part of this family as any of our kids. Yes, we don't get to see him, or interact with him, but he is there with us all the time.

Just yesterday I was talking to the girls about Ethan and Madisen got a little teary-eyed and said she misses him. Madisen never even got to meet Ethan but there is a loss there that she feels and also a proud-ness (if that's what you call it) too that she has a brother. And she knows he is looking over her.

I find the hardest question to answer is when people ask me how many kids I have. I always say silently to myself "four". Yet, sometimes it isn't always easy to tell that to others. And it always takes me a second longer before I able to answer that question, as many times I have the word "four" on my tongue, but the word, "ff-three" comes out instead. I say "three", mainly because I don't want to make people or the situation feel awkward, or for them to have to tell me they are sorry for my loss. So I hesitantly answer "ff-three". Three kids. But by saying that, it always makes me feel sad. Like I am leaving out a big part of my life.

So from now on when someone asks me how many kids I have, I am going to have the courage to say 4. Because to me, I have 4 kids. I don't need to go into detail about it unless asked further. But I have to say four from now on. It's too hard not to anymore. Because telling others I have four kids is a great gift. To Ethan and myself mostly.

We love our little boy so much and we know we will get to see him again.

April 19, 2013

4 Miraculous years!

Happy Birthday to our twins, Emily and Ethan!!

A tradition we started in our family when Madisen was young was to wake the birthday person up with breakfast in bed. But we changed it up a bit this year and did donuts instead... As if we weren't getting enough sugar in the day from the cake, ice cream and candy...Hey! let's add donuts to it too! Geesh. Who's idea was that??!

Oh yeah. Mine. Oops.

Emily had pre-school today and I got the chance to come to her class with treats and she felt so special handing them all out to her classmates.

Emily was super patient waiting for Daddy to get home from work so we could open presents and have cake and ice cream.

For the last month she has been talking about wanting a Spiderman cake and I was thinking, "How am I going to make that??" But then just 2 days before her birthday she tells me instead she wants a rainbow cake. YES! Now, rainbow I can do! A Spiderman cake would have been tricky, but rainbow is definitely manageable! It didn't turn out like I pictured but she liked it and that's all that matters!

She got this great gift from Uncle Nate and Aunt Erin but couldn't open it till Dad got home but the box it came in was pretty darn cool too. It became her "car". I was joking around with her telling her she can't drive yet! She thought that was so funny and got a bad case of the giggles.