Visitors and Outings

It seems as if our days have gotten away from us a bit... :)  Throughout the last couple weeks, our day-to-day living has pretty much settled into a routine.  Daddy is back at work and survived a busy, sleep-deprived VBS week.  Mommy and Grammy continue lovingly caring for the boys all throughout the day.  We talk about updating the blog a lot.  Then, it's time to change, nurse, hold, or try to get a growing baby to sleep, and the days slip away.  Amidst the regularity of our daily routine, we have had the recent joy of welcoming some wonderful visitors to our home to see the boys.  Besides just attending worship at our church, we also have gone on some outings as a family which have helped Amy and the boys get out of the house.  Described and shown below are our wonderful "escapes" from routine. :)  We start with the visitors...

Our dear friends, Jonathan and Jennifer, came by for a visit so our boys could meet their boys.  Noah was super cute with how quiet he was, and Micah seemed happy to look at his new sleeping friends then play with their toys. :)  We think these four boys are going to have quite a fun time growing up together.  As others have shared, there might even be some "Boll to Schleicher, back to Boll, alley-oop to Schleicher" moments on a Trinity basketball court some years down the road.  I suppose the alley-oops could go to a Boll boy, too.  We praise God for the love and friendship of this dear family.   

Our Principal and Kindergarten teacher (Mr. and Mrs. Thomas) came over for our boys' first official "home visit" by Trinity staff.  Rick told us later that as he looked at the boys, he just couldn't help but think about how much work they are!  We'll take the bulk of the work now...we look forward to watching these two friends and all of our other Trinity co-workers deal with the "work" of telling our boys apart in about 5 years and 2 months as they walk through Trinity's doors as students. :)  Suzie is holding Cody.

Amy has had the great joy and privilege of leading a Small Group Bible study for younger women in our home for the last few years.  They've met faithfully on Tuesday nights without a lot of time off for pretty much any reason.  Thanks to their dedication and the willingness of one of the group's members to host, these ladies have continued to meet for study and fellowship this summer, despite their fearless leader being a bit occupied with other duties on Tuesday nights lately.  Amy felt well enough to invite as many of the group that were in town back over to our house one of the past Tuesday nights.  Becky (holding Jaden), Richelle, and Alecia (holding Cody) took advantage of meeting the boys and encouraging their Mommy.

Karole Michel is a friend first, fellow teacher at our School second.  We have appreciated Karole's (and her husband Roger's) support during our years in Billings.  Karole is a fellow guitar player with Jason for Trinity's Saturday night worship services, and she has taught with Amy each of the years we've lived in Billings.  She's great with children of all ages, and Jaden took full advantage of her care and cuddle on one recent morning.

 Thank you, visitors, for your time and effort to come see us!  We thank God for your friendship and love!  We kindly ask anyone else who might think about visiting to simply call first to set up a time.  Thanks for the courtesy!  Now on to some of our outings...

Jason's first evening ministry commitment after getting back in the DCE swing of things was a Youth Board cook-out and informal meeting.  This group of people has been a huge support for Jason in ministry ever since we moved to Billings.  They extended their care and support to the littlest Schleichers and were happy to be some of the first church members to hold the boys.

Here is our good friend (and one of Jason's fellow pick-up football partners), Josh, cradling Cody like the running back he dreams he is.

Kim brought her daughter, Ryann, to the barbeque.  During the last two years, Ryann has been a member of Trinity's youngest Youth Group called "Flicker" for 5th and 6th graders.  The board has yet to vote, but I doubt adding Youth Groups down to infants to include Jaden and Cody is going to happen anytime in the near or distant future.  Jason has always joked about "Baby Youth", but now that he is Daddy to a couple such babies, Flicker will most likely be as young as Trinity goes for Youth Ministry. :)

Rhonda, our chairwoman, and a grandma to twins herself, proudly holds Cody.

Janese and Julie show proper holding technique for our little zonked-out "Copy" and "Paste" guys.

Sherri and Theresa enjoy the fact that our boys were content throughout the dinner and loving the outdoor fresh air.

Another outing took us to a follow-up doctor appointment for Amy.  We really grew close to our medical team since we saw them about every two weeks throughout pregnancy.  These are four of the six super supportive professionals who cared for us and our boys for 36+ weeks.  We were blessed to get to know these people on a pretty personal level, and we thank God for their teamwork in order to best take care of our boys.

Our family (minus Daddy) ventured out to Walmart and Hobby Lobby on different days, but we don't have those trips documented with pictures.  Neither of the trips allowed for pictures since all Mommy and Grammy had time to do was talk to the gobs of people coming up to the double stroller for a peek and sharing time.  We've always heard that babies out in public attract comments and onlookers.  We don't know what having one baby is like, but after these two short outings, twins are like the world's most powerful people magnets...times two hundred. :) 

Our final documented outing was to Trinity Lutheran School for the VBS Ice Cream Social.  Amy LOVED seeing many school parents and students who are not members of our church.  It was fun for Jason to tell many of the VBS kids throughout the week that the twins would be coming to the Ice Cream Social.  Needless to say, our boys were celebrities that night, and the School sign out front also announced a word of welcome to them.
   

Visitors and outings...these are blessings from God for an adjusting family that can feel like shut-ins at times.  We praise God for our supportive and loving Church and School family of faith.  May God continue to bless you, Trinity family!  We're excited to see many more of you in the days and weeks to come.