The Look

I love catching glimpses of my girls looking at me - just looking at me with their big blue (green, brown, not sure what color they are right now!) eyes, not saying a word, just looking.  Sometimes it's accompanied with a sweet little smile, other times it's just accompanied with an expression that cannot be described. It is in that look that I know they love me almost as much as I love them. I am so proud to be their momma, and I literally feel my heart fill with love for these two when I catch that look from their eyes. There is nothing more precious than to feel the love of my girls through their eyes.

Time with Grandparents

The girls have been very blessed lately to have lots of fun times with their grandparents lately!  Nana and PaPa (Chris' parents) along with Uncle Jon, were able to spend a few days with us before and after Chris' ordination.  While they were here, we were able to head down to a Braves game, a favorite of the Massengill family!  The girls - and everyone else -  had a big time.

Notice Savannah still hasn't moved! 

The following week, their Papaw (my dad) came down to spend a few days with us on his week off.  Lynsey was still in school, so unfortunately for us, their Mimi and Aunt Lynsey had to stay home.  While Papaw was here, we took the boat out on the lake for the first time this year!  The life jackets that were SO BIG last year were still so bulky on the girls, but they truly didn't seem to mind them! Yeah!

Savannah wanting to stay close to Mommy

Madeline sporting the Donald Trump look

Daddy holding tight to Madeline

Savannah holding tight to Papaw

Then this last weekend we spent a few days with their Grammy and Papa Bob.  While we were at Camp Meeting, Grammy came over and spent the day with us on Friday.  They had such fun running around Southern Adventist University's campus!  Too fun.

And I guess all of this fun is why I have had zero time to blog about it lately!  Well, that and my literally running after two toddlers all day long.  God is good!

Congratulations, Daddy

After working with youth as an assistant chaplain, serving as a youth pastor for 5 years, spending a year and a half on campus working and receiving his master's in divinity, then serving as the pastor for two churches, Chris was ordained as a minister of the gospel at a beautiful service on May 15. We are so very blessed to be a part of such a caring, loving, and God-centered church conference that held this special service honoring Chris and his work thus far, and affirming him publicly in his ministry while giving him the tools to do even more for God in his service to him.  

We were so very thankful for family and friends that drove such long distances just to celebrate this special day with Chris and our little family. And the girls, well I know that if they could say it, they would say "Congratulations, Daddy...and thank you for bringing us into a life that is dedicated to service to our loving God and Creator....we saw Him in the womb, we saw Him in the NICU.  He has been holding us in His arms from the minute we were created into being and ever since.  And to know that you have dedicated your life - and now ours too as your family - in service to Him makes us happy girls.  We love you, Daddy.  Congratulations on this big step forward in the path and journey God has us all on with you!"

Ministerial Director of the Conference and his wife making a presentation to Chris and I.

The President and leaders of the Georgia-Cumberland Conference, and Pastor Steve on the far right who came all the way from Indiana to speak at the service.

Our parents - minus Patti!  

Aunt Robin and Savannah

Congratulations, Chris....I am so privileged to be a part of your successes that are all about Him.

Growing and Going

People often ask me if life with twins is harder now that they are walking. Of course they ask me that when they see them both taking off in 2 different directions. I always thought the answer to that would be a resounding YES! In fact, I can honestly say I was a little bit worried about the day they would keep me running in two different directions (kind of like Scooby Doo...you know what I'm talking about.) But nothing could be further from the truth - life is so much easier now!!  

The only emotion I deal with is the growing nostalgia for the days when they were so very tiny and cuddly...but now I have the joy of watching them run around in every direction exploring their world! I have said goodbye to the lingering back pain of bending over twice as long to give baths, laying them all the way down and picking them up from their cribs, carrying two babies on each arm throughout the day. Now my independent little girls can stand up and walk over to me when its time to get out of their cribs. Now they can play all by themselves in the bath tub while I just sit up straight and watch them. Now they can walk from the bathroom to their bedroom for bed time.  Now when I pull into the garage I can get one child out of her car seat, put her down, and let her walk around the garage while I go get the other child out of her car seat.  

Of course the key to all of this is having as child proof a house as possible.  Having breakables put out of arms reach, having all stairways and electric sockets child proofed.  Makes life much easier when they run in opposite directions.  But, with a resounding NO, life is not harder now that my girls walk everywhere!  I am enjoying this twin mom thing more and more with each passing day.....I was told the same thing when I got married and it rings true for having twins:  It only gets better with each new day!!

Love my two little running toddlers.

Corn on the Cob

Um....yes...we have a winner. Corn on the Cob!!

17 Months Old

Today my girls turned 17 months old.  I love the month birthdays. They are a reminder to me that my girls are still small....still babies, as much as a baby they each can be.  I have had many friends tell me that once their baby turned 17-18 months, their development started sky rocketing.  I am already starting to see that in my girls.

At 17 months old, Madeline finally added "Papaw" and "Pa Pa" to her vocabulary.  When she called my dad "Papaw" I thought his chest was going to pop right out there in the the middle of the church fellowship hall!  Later that day she kept calling Chris' dad "Pa pa" and when he finally heard it, I thought HIS chest was going to pop right out!  We were at a restaurant with the girls Nana and Pa Pa and every time Madeline would say "Nana?" "Pa Pa?" they were left speechless with joy!! Savannah loves to say "Nana!" but hasn't yet mastered the Papaw or Pa Pa yet.  It will come soon!

Savannah on the other hand, clearly said to me "Where did it go?" just the other day.  She looked at a picture of a strawberry today and said "straw?" "straw?"  She cracks me up with her tongue....Savannah will stick her tongue in and out, mimicking the look of our speech.  And then she'll just laugh!  Wow do I love watching both of my girls language skills develop.

These girls love books.  They LOVE to be read to!  They grab books all the time and carry them around, asking us to read to them by saying "huh? huh?" and handing us the book!  Madeline's favorite book is the "Thank You Prayer" and Savannah's favorite book is "Baby ABC's" although they both love both of those books.  

The girls still love to eat.  I mean they eat, and eat, and eat.  A typical breakfast consists of Cheerios, fresh strawberries (lots of them), a banana, yogurt, and 1-2 pancakes with peanut butter and syrup and lots of milk.  A typical lunch or dinner consists of Gold Fish, broccoli or corn or green beans, whole wheat toast with butter, whole wheat penne pasta, and Fri-Chik (veggie chicken for my little vegetarians), and lots of milk.  The girls can eat!  And they love their vegetables and fruit.  Love it.  

Naps are still twice a day!  Yay!  The girls wake up at 7:15 a.m. and are back down for their morning nap by 9:30 a.m.  until 11 a.m. After lunch, they are ready to go back down for an afternoon by 2 p.m. and sleep until 4 p.m.  By 7:30 p.m., the girls are tucked away in their cribs and out for the night.  I am blessed by their sleep schedule right now....I will count my blessings NOW as I sense they are nearing the close of 2 naps a day.

Oh, and the girls now take Kindermusic!  They love it!  Once a week we take them to their class where they meet up with their other new friends and sing songs and learn.  I love watching them explore the toys and flowers and different instruments they play with each week, and I love watching them become familiar with the other babies and the songs being played each week.

The girls weigh around 18 pounds!  My sweet petite girls can eat so much food but they remain petite!

Oh how I have loved the last 17 months of my life.  I have experienced joy like none other before.  I miss them when they sleep and love them when they awake.  I love just watching the two of them play much like I did when I loved just watching them sleep in their one tiny bassinet.  We have our ups and downs as they are in the depths of the toddler years, but I am enjoying every challenging/rewarding moment.  Happy 17th month birthday girls....you are the lights of my life.

Night-Night

If there is one thing I can say we have got down pat with these two girls, it's nap time and bedtime.  I was playing with the girls when Madeline grabbed her blanket and said "nigh nigh".  I know what that means!!  So, here's a little video of what happens often with these two...they will toddle down the hall saying "nigh nigh" the whole way to their bedroom.  Love these precious girls!!

Church with Twins

Being a pastor's wife with 16 month old twins lends itself to one major challenge each and every week:  Taking our girls to church. I must admit that for the most part, I dig my heels in every Wednesday, fearing what lies ahead in 3 days.  I literally feel myself getting a panic attack just thinking about how I will handle two disruptively energetic toddlers of the same age throughout a service that is supposed to be quiet and extremely reserved and reverent.  How do I teach 16 month old toddlers to sit still for 1-2 hours at a time?  I can not even keep them to sit still for a short 10 minute family worship at home which is mostly made of kids music with daddy's guitar and singing!

This past week I wanted it to be different.  I prayed...I contemplated...I studied.  And after doing all three, I realized something.  In the Bible, Jesus said "Let the little children come to me."  He rebuked the disciples for keeping them away from Him!  If Jesus were leading out at our church, what would He do if I walked in with my girls?  Would He look at us and say "Ok...take them outside.  Don't bring them in here."  Absolutely not!  And guess what, He IS leading out every week!  It is HE who we come to worship!  The more they come to Him, the more they will learn what being reverent is.  The more they enter His presence, the more they will love Him too and want to serve Him.  If I ever took that away from them, what would my girls gain by not entering His presence each and every week?

So, I began preparing.  I put together two little church bags of quiet things that I would take out once they got settled into their pews.  Then I put together two snack sized ziplock bags of Cheerios.  Whenever I brought their fancy little snack holders, they would get more excited over the snack holders than the snack themselves, and fight for the other's snack holder!  Goldfish and crackers would fly everywhere...it was just a disaster that always turned into chaos...so this week I just went with the simple, basic ziplock bag that I knew I could easily zip shut if they wanted to hold them and shake them around.

The night before, I laid out their dresses and completely packed their diaper bag.  I also laid out my outfit for church.  I wanted that morning to be a seamless as possible.  No stress.

Once Saturday morning came, I got the girls up and kept them up. I didn't lay them back down for a nap before getting them ready for church as I had normally done.  We all got ready, I grabbed the diaper bag I had packed before, and we were out the door.

We had one screaming episode.  I was sitting in the pew by myself with the girls and after taking them up to the Children's Story, we were walking back to our pew and they screamed.  I mean SCREAMED.  They did not want to go back into the pew!  I picked both of them up, one on each hip, and walked out the door and took them to the Mother's Room where they continued to scream at the top of their lungs!  Suddenly, the door opened and there stood a kind woman from our church.  The girls immediately stopped screaming.  I mean immediately stopped and just looked up at her.  She said "Can I help?" I said "YES!"  From that moment on, the presence of a "stranger" to them was all it took.  She picked up one of the girls and helped me calm them down for a few minutes until I decided to take them both back into the sanctuary in hopes of listening to daddy's sermon.

They sat still!  This kind woman (WENDY!) held Madeline while I held Savannah and we both held open two ziplock bags of Cheerios. The girls quietly grazed on their Cheerios through the entire sermon! It was a SUCCESS!

Here's why:

1. I planned ahead - diaper bag packed, church play bags packed, and Cheerio's packed the night before
2. I did not let them have a morning nap before church.  They were tired and relaxed onto our laps through the service.
3. I gave them a few crackers after our Sabbath School class and before we went into church to curb their ravenous appetites, then saved the Cheerio's only for sermon time.  All about timing!!!!
4. A kind "stranger to them" helped calm them.  They were less likely to calm down with me than with someone they didn't know. 
5. PRAYER.  I asked God for help.....My mom prayed for us that morning, and my mother-in-law prayed for us that morning and I know others in our family who know our struggles prayed for us that morning.  God listened!  God answered our prayers and helped!

Now I know that this will not be a success story each week.  After all, I have two toddlers of the exact same age and no daddy to sit with us each week.  But I learned a valuable lesson...."Let the little children come unto me..."  God wants my girls in church!  God wants to hear my prayers asking for help.  And in the meantime, I must do my part to plan accordingly to help make our Sabbath day go as smooth and seamless as possible!

I read an amazing story on Jesus blessing the children in the Bible....It's in one of my favorite books, The Desire of Ages - you can read it HERE.  It speaks to mothers - and fathers - about children and talks about the story where the disciples tried to keep the children away from Jesus.  It spoke to this mother's heart.

Thank you, God for hearing our prayers.  This mommy sat through an entire sermon for the first time in 16 months!  Yipeee!!