Merry Christmas!! ?

My girls weren't so sure about ol' Santa Claus this year....

A Merry Sick Christmas!

My babies are sick!  Ugh! Poor girls.  Just days before Christmas, Savannah came down with a pretty harsh fever which turned into herpetic gingivostomatitis, or rather a very bad, bad case of fever blisters...all around and inside her little sweet mouth. I have never in my life hurt as badly as I hurt for her and the pain she was in.  I had a dentist tell me that this is one of the most painful acute infections a baby can have.  Awful.  Just awful.

But now, Savannah is beginning to come out of the woods...thank the Lord!  And now, Madeline is in the middle of it...but no where close to as bad as Sav had it thanks to proactive medications knowing immediately what was striking her.  However, the sweetest, sweetest thing happened today.  Madeline was standing by the window, just crying "ooww...oooowww..." in pain from a blister on her lip when Savannah bee-lined it straight across the room to Madeline and gently kissed her on the cheek.  Can there be anything more precious?  Anything sweeter?  

More to come on our Christmas adventures....I have the most resilient, strong, precious baby girls in the whole wide world and I am so thankful to God for the gift they are to Chris and I.

Birthday Parties for Two

This December we have been constantly on the road...from vacation in California to our extended Roberts' family Christmas in the Smokies to Garth Brooks in Nashville tonight (woo hoo!), we were completely on the road for the girls' 2nd birthday.  So, instead of having a big party at home, we took the party(ies) with us! 

First up was birthday with Nana and Papa in Napa.

Followed by a birthday celebration in the Smokies with Mimi and Papaw, Aunt Lynsey and  Aunt Robin and Caitlin (and all of the Roberts' family aunts, uncles and cousins!):

Followed by the grand finale birthday party with Grammy (GaGa) and Papa Bob, Caitlin and her twin sisters that were also born on the same day as our girls!

These are two blessed little girls with LOTS of family who care so very much about them and want to help us celebrate their special day!  We love all of you...thank you for making their 2nd birthday so sweet!!

I'm 2!

Happy 2nd Birthday

Dear Madeline and Savannah,

Today you turn 2.  Today I officially have two toddlers whom I absolutely now will not refer  your ages to in terms of months. Today, you are my two year old twins.  You are growing up on me so very fast, yet I feel no sadness or heartache for time to slow down.  Instead, I thank God for your health and for the gift of giving you two to me for the past two years!  With each new day I am truly awed at the blessing I have received of being your mother.  What an honor, what a blessing.  I think often about your birth - being born early and sent off to the NICU for your first 6 days of life.  THOSE were the longest 6 days of my life.  Those are the days that lasted forever.  Why would I ever want these days I have with you now to feel like that?  I don't! I treasure the blessing of time flying by - it only does that when you are having a great time, and filling each day with more joy than you could ever imagine!  I don't want time to slow.  I don't want time to stop!  I want to treasure each moment and savor in its flying by! I thank God for the blessed life He has given you two girls, and I thank Him for the privilege of seeing my two tiny angels become 2 years old, and pray that time will fly by with joy and happiness.

Madeline, you are my thumb sucker.  Savannah, you are my paci taker.  This is how I often refer to you two!  You both take such comfort from your favorite pink bunnies.  Somehow, SOMEHOW, you know the difference between the two and can't go to sleep without YOUR bunny.  I guess this is a funny way at getting back at anyone who wonders how we can tell the difference between the two of you!  I know your faces...I know your voices....I know your laughs....I know your personalities.  You are my heart and soul, day in and day out.  Oh, I know the difference. Somehow you know something about those two bunnies that we don't!

You girls L O V E to pray.  You love to pray!  You get down on your knees, fold your hands, close your eyes, and pray.  You're both even beginning to say "Dear Jesus"...it sounds more like "De Je sas" but we hear it!  Where ever we are, whomever we're with, you have to call everyone into the room, point at them to get down on their knees, and all pray together with you.  Madeline, you squint those little eyes, scrunch up that nose with your head tilted upwards, and pray.  Savannah, you fold those sweet hands, sometimes close your eyes, but more often look around to make sure everyone else is closing their eyes!  You girls.  At the young age of 2, you are already a shining example of faith - faith in a heavenly Father who is looking down with pure love on you.  You are an example of what we should all be - a people who gets on our knees and thanks our God each day for His blessings and His gifts.  That's what you do, before every meal, before bedtime.  How preciously wondrous HE has made you, and how preciously amazing that you already know to thank Him for that.

You're wearing 18 month clothes, still in diapers (although very very close to potty training), not sure yet of your official weight, have already had your first haircut, are putting words together and understanding colors and people's names and many other amazing smart things. My goodness do I love you two.  I hope you feel that every day.  Happy Birthday my angels.  Thank you for making your birthday one of the happiest days of my life.

Love,
Mommy

The Christmas Journey to Cali - Part 1

This year we opted to have Christmas with Chris' family out in Napa Valley, California at the Vino Bello Resort.  A perfect way for us all to getaway to a beautiful place for the holidays - a tradition Chris had already been doing with his family when we started dating and carried through with them into our first few years of marriage.  However, with the major events of the last few years around Christmas time, we hadn't been able to carry on the tradition with them lately, but this year, we did!  This meant the girls had to fly...their very first flying experience, and our very first as caretakers of two same-aged toddlers on an airplane. I wasn't sure how this would go.....

 

After days planning out their airplane toy-filled diaper bag, I discovered I had left it at home when we arrived to the airport.  Great.  There went to the toys, the empty milk sippy cups, their favorite spoons, the travel wipes, travel diapers, special paci's we bought just to ensure they'd chew on them on the take-off and landing for the sake of their little ears, and the list could go on.

The second surprise came upon arrival to the airport - you can't travel with two toddlers on your lap in one aisle because of their only being one extra oxygen mask per row. This blew our plans to watch Barney on Chris' laptop with the girls sitting next to each other.  We had to split up.

Thankfully, Nana and Papa saved the day!  At the last minute, Nana and Papa were able to change their connecting flight schedule to join us on ours.  Nana had already brought two zipper bags full of stickers and fun things to keep them entertained on the airplane, and I had some extra necessities in the second diaper bag I did remember to bring along.  Also, we switched seats with people once we boarded, and were all able to sit in close proximity and just pass the girls around throughout the flight.  Forget sharing Barney on the laptop!  They had more entertainment than I could have ever dreamed.  Crisis averted.

 Bunnies made it.

Major crisis averted on that one.

Just a few lessons that were learned on our first flying experience.  1.)  Don't forget the diaper bag.  Hey, that's a new one!  2.) Always carry a second change of clothes no matter their age.  Milk spilled all over Savannah on the plane and she had to actually sit most of the flight shirtless.  That was nice.  3.)  Don't forget to check the diapers....the 3 hour time change thing really threw me off my regular "time to change them" schedule.  Wow!  This also leads back to #2 in my case. 

We finally arrived in Napa and are enjoying a beautiful place with daily maid service, two incredibly happy little girls, and no sleep.....oh, guess I could leave that one out in an attempt to make things sound magical, but, the girls 4 AM Pacific Time wake up has not changed since we arrived.  Other than that, magical! 

My new favorite part....

Not that this is exactly anything new...but my favorite part of Christmas was my night out with my husband last night.  We had a date night and left the girls with a sweet babysitter and headed out to dinner, followed by a little stress-free Christmas shopping.  As we were leaving Olive Garden, I was waiting on Chris by the front door and noticed their tree - the angel tree.  Joey kept jumping out at me.  

We hadn't planned on picking up a little boy to buy gifts for right now, but little Joey's name was jumping off that tree at me.  And thankfully, my husband completely agreed with me and we grabbed the tag and walked out the door.  For the rest of the evening, we spent our night going from store to store to find the perfect little gifts for this little boy.  What a way to put Christmas in a most humbling perspective.  How hard is it to grab a tag off the tree? And all he wanted was a pull toy? He is getting a brand new pull toy - one that has been tested very long and hard on two little toddlers (they love theirs), as well as some nice warm clothes and some other little toys for this little guy he'll be sure to like.  Every year.  We will do this every year and have the girls pick two tags and let them buy for little ones in much  more need than we'll ever be.  What a humbling, humbling way to bring  one of the  precious meanings of the Christmas holiday home.

Merry Christmas, Joey!!

Two Little Diva's

Have I mentioned these girls love - I mean LOVE to wear momma's shoes?