Birthday Weekend

Saturday was my birthday....my 35th birthday.  Wow.  For the first time in my entire life, I'm actually hesitant to put my age in writing.  But, my husband, and now my sweet girls, have a way of making me feel like the most special woman in the world.  This is my second birthday now as a mother, and it was even more amazing than the first! Even with the "expected" snow problems foiling yet more birthday plans....it's all a part of having the winter birthday! And just like the girls' birthday last month, we didn't get the snow, but others (Grammy and Papa Bob) who were a part of the b-day plans did! However, it truly did turn out to be a perfect weekend. I was looking through the b-day pics and this one made me laugh.  We all three seem to have the exact same expression....I love being their mother.  And I will try my best to love being 35.

Here's a moment that definitely brought another smile to my face on my birthday.  My sweet husband got the girls dressed and ready for our dinner plans Saturday night.  He did this while I was getting myself ready.  We went to the restaurant, had a great time, came home, and while the girls were playing, I stopped and noticed this:

Oh yes, those would definitely be on backwards.  Hysterically precious all at the same time!!  

Love these girls and love their daddy too!!

An Improved Meal Time!

After airing my frustrations about Savannah's sour eating habits, today we had a successful lunch at home!  I finally decided to make them a real sandwich, with mayonnaise and all, and they loved it!  You'll hear Savannah giggling...music to my ears. :-)

Separate Rooms?

I think sleeping in the same room is becoming a problem.  Savannah rubs her eyes when she eats.  That means she's not getting enough sleep, which is causing the downward spiral of other problems.  Am I going to have to separate them so Madeline does not wake Savannah up early from her naps?  This may just be a big problem....

Anyone else have this problem with twins?

The Roller Coaster Ride

Meal time is a roller coaster ride.  When we first introduced solids, they HATED it.  What in the world were we trying to put in their mouths?  It took some time, but finally after faithful persistence, they both began to love food.  I mean LOVE food.  They would eat so fast you could hardly keep up with scooping it in their mouths fast enough!

Fast forward to about 11 months old or a little older.  They suddenly started hating pureed food.  They only wanted real solids, chopped up into tiny pieces.  So, no more pureeing their food.  That was a relief, and suddenly meal time became a breeze.

Just a few weeks ago, I was enjoying being able to lay out their food on their tray, and turn around and get Chris and I's meal ready.  No more sitting with them and spoon feeding them their meals.

But that easy ride is over, and now it's back to hard times.  Savannah is the pickiest eater.  Madeline, well she'll eat just about anything I give her.  But not Savannah.  Meal time has become a huge stress time.  She screams - I mean screams - if she does not like what's being placed in front of her.  Even if she just happily ate it the day before.

Madeline just eats whatever.  So here's a pic of the contrast of lunch today.

Savannah covered in food, pondering what she'll deny next.  And then there's Madeline:

That's right....her chair is already empty and she's out and about playing while Savannah still sits in hers.  Oh meal time...will you please become a breeze for me again?  I liked you so much better then....

Jibber Jabber Moment

Just before bath time tonight, Savannah started just "talking" away.  Chris and I were lucky enough to grab the camera before she stopped. Next, Madeline very carefully had her two choice words to end the moment. Love these sweet, hysterical girls!

Non-Destructible Toys?

I was cleaning up after the girls today and found this amongst their toy balls:

This is really no surprise to me...this is now the 2nd ball out of their set of 50 that they have deflated.  That means we're down to 48 and counting.  These are balls.  How in the world do my girls get their teeth into these balls and chew them up like this?  First it was the cribs, then the coffee end tables (oh yes), and now their play time balls.  They are challenging the thought of "non-destructible toys" for toddlers.  Or do they really even make such a thing?  

Learning to Walk

Answered Prayers

God has answered prayers and opened doors that I had been waiting patiently to open. My life as a full-time mother is about to enter into another level. For the last 13 months, I have been completely focused on the growth and nurturing of my two precious baby girls. This will never change...and with my new opportunity, they will still be the primary focus of my days. But God is good to answer prayers in His time, which is always better than my timing.

Starting next month, I'll begin consulting again which means there will be days when I am away from my girls. The thought of that makes me a little bit sick to my stomach! But, knowing that we haven't been apart for the first year of their little lives gives me a peace that I will carry for the rest of my life! It has been a tough year doing that however, which leads me to my second amazing answer to prayer.

My husband and I have finally learned to play the grocery shopping game. I dabbled in coupons, but didn't really get serious - I mean REALLY serious - about it until 2 weeks ago. A few things happened to us with other inspirational stories that triggered us to get moving on figuring out how to really save money. This happened the exact same week that I got the call about my consulting gig as well. This also, not by coincidence, happened the same week we started beginning our day off at the breakfast table in worship and prayer, turning our finances and my work situation over to Him. He answered. He answered in a big way.

Because I am obviously a lover of blogging, I started a new blog that is highlighting our journey towards getting amazing savings, and also points out our ultimate desire to give back to others through the savings we are getting. The more we started figuring out how to really play the grocery game, the more we wanted to shout it from the rooftops for others to do as well!! So, here's a link to my new blog that's just all about the savings:

Mad Savvy Savings.

And yes, as a mother of twin girls that are now eating us out of the house, that was the true reason for really picking up our savings game. Thus the name for the blog! :-)

Appropriately so, here's a couple of pics of our little Maddie and Savvy eating us out of the house. Love these girls!!

Eating their crackers at snack time, and drinking their cow's milk! The weaning process has officially begun!!

Madeline's hair cracks me up. Silly girls love sitting at their little table for snack time! (They had already had their cow's milk, now on to water in this pic!) And yes, I have to lock Bailey up in another room because this table is just his size to jump up and steal the snacks!!

OH girls.

My little mischief makers are at it again...

I can't tell you how many times I have said "No." "Get down off the fireplace." "Savannah, No." "Madeline, No." And each time, they just turn right around and jump back up there! They think it's hysterical, actually...I'm in trouble. The fun is seriously just getting good.

I Wonder...

So my girls have been down for their nap for 38 minutes now and all I hear coming from their room is giggles and "talking"....they do this almost every time they go down for a nap or bedtime. It is hilarious....they love each other!

Taking this and other things going on, I've had random things tumbling through my mind lately. Today I wondered...

Will it be impossible to keep the girls in the same room through their toddler lives?

Or, will they just keep each other up at night running back and forth when they graduate to a toddler bed?

Will my girls ever learn to eat with a spoon and a fork or will they always - always - eat with their hands, (their favorite thing to do)?

When they are completely weaned, are you sure they'll be getting enough nutrition from what we feed them?

How long will I be blessed with two naps a day from the girls? Without those two, I have zero time to do anything! But I do have lots of play time with them in between. :-)

Will they always be 7 AM wake up girls, or will they ever participate in lazy Sunday mornings?

When the girls don't chew their corn, and I see it on the other side, did they get the nutrients from the corn? (Oh no. Did I just print that? I did. And I guess that's a pure ''now that I'm a mom there's no off-limits" question.)

Just a few things I was wondering today.

And now that it's been 55 minutes since they've been down for their nap, I hear crying. Went from laughing and talking to crying...so, that tells me that one fell asleep and the other felt alone because she couldn't fall asleep. So now 1 of my girls will be well rested and the other will not. Oh well...time for some one on one with whomever is back there crying!

And a few pics of my girls since I have been a horrible picture poster lately!

First Steps

As in everything in life, progress happens one step at a time. Today, BOTH, yes both of my girls took their very first solo steps! I was on the phone with their Papaw when I looked up and saw Madeline turning from the couch and taking two steps towards me! Once she realized what she had done, she dropped to the ground! Yay Madeline!

Then, just knowing they both are standing on their own so well, I lifted up Savannah, stood her in front of me, and held up her big Noah's Ark Play Book. She just laughed and took one step toward it, then plopped to the ground! Yay Savannah!

And yay for diapers! All this learning to stand and now taking steps is showing me just another reason why they wear such cushiony diapers.

Girls, as you get older, life is going to hit you with tough things....remember your first steps. Remember that you had to start somewhere. And remember that you did fall as you learned to move forward. I love you both so much and am SO proud of you today for your very first steps!!!!

Church

Ever since the girls were born, church terrified me. Absolutely terrified me. Since my husband is a pastor, I knew I would be alone with two babies to handle in a room full of people that were quiet. I wanted to reach out to any other pastor's wives out there who had twins and ask how they did it because I knew I could not possibly be the only person in the world that was scared to death to take 2 babies to church by herself, with no family around, while her husband sat on the platform throughout the entire service. Not to mention we had just moved here, so not only was there no family around, but I didn't know a soul there.

Because the girls were preemies, I didn't take them to their first service until they were almost 8 weeks old. My sister was in town when we went, so she held one sleeping, tiny infant through the entire service while I held the other. Simple enough. Lots of kind, well-intentioned church members offered to help the next time I went by myself. I can still remember both of the girls getting fussy and me handing one of them off to a complete stranger while I took the other out to soothe her. It is a scary, scary thing, let me tell you. To this day I watch new mothers come into church and am very envious of them with only 1 baby to deal with and a husband sitting by her side to help.

Here we are, one year later, and I've had wonderful people come to my rescue at church. However, help, even family help, can't quite help...the girls want their mommy OR they want their bed. Their bed. Not my shoulder, not someone else's shoulder, but their bed. After all, one of their two naps of the day is in the morning....when we're at church. Church has become a challenge.

Today Chris didn't have to preach so he was able to sit with me. At one point we even had a third person helping, and at another point, we had a 4th person helping. But guess where Chris and I ended up: In the mother's room with both girls. It wasn't that they were hungry or tired, they just wanted to play. They don't quite get this whole "sit still and be quiet for 1.5 hours" thing just yet. And it wouldn't matter if Chris was able to help today or not...it's just a bit chaotic at this age.

When Chris got home much later from the meetings he had after church today, he got out of his suit, into his comfy clothes, got his his guitar out and we played songs for the girls and sang about Jesus. Because, after all, home is where they will learn most about Him. Especially at this age. Home is where they will see Him. What an awesome responsibility we have.

They LOVE the guitar.

Decided to plop them in their Bumbo's....worked much better! They love to "sing"!

And after a couple of songs, time for a little prayer...this is what it's all about.

High Intensity Interval Training

My favorite type of cardio exercise by far is high intensity interval training or HIIT. This is when you get on the treadmill, start at a fairly good speed, and then increase that speed each minute for 4 minutes, then back down to the original fairly good speed. Do this 4 times, then, at the end of the 4th time, you top out at a full speed run and hold it for one minute. Then you pretty much collapse. At the end, you're completely exhausted yet exhilarated at the same time.

Spending your day with two 1-year old twins is much like a high intensity interval training run. We start out at a good pace, then it gets a bit wild, then nap time where you don't exactly fully rest, but you get back down to a fairly good speed until they wake up and you hit it all over again. Then, when the 5:00 hour comes, you begin kicking it into that final, high gear. For the next 3 hours, it goes something like this: Mealtime, worship, bathtime, pajama time, milk time, then bedtime. Then, collapse. Kindof like this:

At the end of the day, once they are down for bedtime, my world gets quiet, really quiet for the first time all day. But as exhausting as the moment feels, it is equally exhilarating knowing that we made it through another great day with two little beings that are entrusted to my care. That's when the moment is exhausting yet exhilarating. And the rewards are even better than the health rewards of a good HIIT workout.

By the way, Savannah stood today completely by herself for a very long time. Way to go Savannah!

Double Trouble

Lately I've been at a complete loss for words. My brain has just been fried in my efforts to do my favorite thing in this whole wide world: write. And then this morning, while the girls were quietly playing in their room, I walked in on a moment that reminded me of why I've had brain fry:

Almost every single book on the bookshelf, down. This is not an unusual moment, however it is a first for the bookshelf. But this moment captivated the chaos that is running rampant throughout our house even as we speak, and simply reminded me of why I have not been able to write like I so love to do.

Communicating Twin Style

The one thing I'm really noticing about these girls is their communication skills have really picked up! When I start to sing "If you're happy and you know it clap your hands!" they start beaming from ear to ear and automatically start clapping their hands. They know exactly what to do and I don't have to show them! They also have their own way of telling me when they want water, or when they want a snack. I do feel like a baby whisperer at times when they just look at me and I know exactly what they want. I love that.

But the cute thing I'm really noticing about these girls is their own unique way of communicating. When communicating with each other, they have their own jibberish words, but most of the time, their means of communicating is by laughing! They will look at each other and just LAUGH!! It's like they are talking to each other, only they just laugh! The funniest is at bath time....when one has soap in her hair, the other just looks at her and LAUGHS!! It makes me laugh just thinking about it.

Their other unique way of communicating comes in the form of two syllable words. They both now say "Ni Ni" for night night. They now say "Nay Nen" for "Amen" at the end of a prayer. And, they shake their head "No" when they don't want something I'm trying to give (feed) them. Usually it's when they already have food in their mouth that they haven't swallowed and I'm trying to feed them the next bite too soon. I love it!

But, the funny thing that I've been noticing is that they have both started mimicking my words through my tone and by just saying "da da". Everything - I mean everything - is "da da". I'll say a two syllable word and they just look at me and smile and repeat it with "da da". No girls, it's not daddy, it's ___(whatever the two syllable word is I'm trying to get them to say), and they just smile and say again "da da".

They are hilarious. They know who Da da is and they know they are calling him by name when they say Da da to him. They also know how to say Ma ma and do so usually when they want something. "Ma maaaaah". It's so funny. But the funniest is seeing how their little ears hear words and repeat them with "da da". I can't wait for them to start really repeating the words, because just hearing them say "Ni Ni" when it's time to go to bed, and "Nay nen" at the end of a prayer is melting my heart in two.

The Spectacular Blur of December

Wow. What a whirlwind this past month has been. In 4 weeks, we celebrated Christmas with our extended family up in the Smoky's outside of Gatlinburg, we had the girls first birthday party, we had Christmas at our home with Chris' parents and brother, then Christmas with my mom and step-dad, sister and niece in Chattanooga, then an impromptu unplanned trip up to northeast Tennessee once again for Christmas this time with my dad and step-mom, brother and sisters and sister-in-law and nieces. We had originally planned to completely stay home with so many coming for the girls birthday party, but as the party passed and Christmas arrived, it turned out to be the best way to truly differentiate between the big, special occassions. Now finally back at home, settled in, and a bit sad and lonely from all the wonderful memories we made in those short few weeks! Did I mention we celebrated the girls first birthday too? Of course I did...and the pics in my earlier posts prove it. But my goodness does it feel like one big whirlwind. All of the many wonderful toys and clothes the girls got prove that they celebrated two big occassions in less than a week. They are blessed....and so are we.

When we found out the girls would be arriving around Christmas time, I was so nervous about them not enjoying their own day for a birthday. The girls already have to share their birthday with someone else, but to have to share the special occassion with the biggest gift giving time of year....well I wondered how we would make them feel special? Not to mention the worry of wondering how in the world we would be able to afford 2 birthdays and Christmas at the same time with two new additions to our family that we want nothing more than to spoil like crazy! Still not sure how we will do that in the future, but if this past month was any indication, we made it successfully and I hope that we made it the most special time for both of our girls, for both occassions.

Yesterday we finally took down not only SOME of the Christmas decorations (more to go), but also SOME of the birthday party decorations. Wow...this house was a decorated wonderland. But the birth of our Christ Savior remained the most special occassion of all, which is something our girls will grow to understand more and more with each passing year, and hopefully feel honored that their birthday is so close to the One who created them and loves them more than we will ever understand. What a blessing!! Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas, sweet, sweet Madeline and Savannah.