Entertaining Themselves

Just the other day I needed to shower and the girls were nowhere near ready for a nap, so, I looked at them and said "Mommy needs to take a shower and get clean.  Will you read a book while I shower?" They look so intently at me when I ask them these questions.  They both looked at me and smiled and said "Yeah.  Yeah.", nodding their head and heading back to their bedroom.  They each picked out a few books, threw them into their cribs, and waited for me to lift them up.  Savannah threw her books into Madeline's crib, which meant, of course, they wanted to sit in a crib together and read while I showered.  Grabbing my phone, I took this pic:

I sent the pic to my sister, telling her how sweet it was that the girls were oh so sweetly sitting in their crib so that mommy could go shower!  Ten minutes later, showered and all clean, I walked into their room and found this:

And had I taken a pic of the floor, you would have also seen all the books scattered on the floor.  At least they weren't screaming or biting each other.  Aaahhhh...what all can happen in 10 short minutes.  

Just Chillin'

This morning was Elmo time.  So, with stuffed animals cozied up next to them, the girls climbed into their recliners and enjoyed a little Elmo, calling all of their red animals "Elmo".  When we were out in the store later today, they saw Cookie Monster and called him "Elmo!", then later spotted Elmo bath toys and just squealed ELMO!  Oh no.  They've caught the bug.  I guess it's time to go find them some stuffed Elmo's.  Thank goodness its not 1996.

But with these faces, I probably would have paid hundreds of dollars for that toy to make these girls smile if it were 1996.  Oh Elmo.  Welcome to our world.

Best Friends

Could there possibly be anything sweeter than 2 little stripped down baby girls snuggling under soft blankets together? Yep....finding them later in their separate cribs, stripped back down to their diapers, sound asleep on their tummy's with diaper butts up in the air, arms tucked under their little chests. Both in the exact same position, sound asleep.  

How much more could I possibly love these girls? I keep finding that out with each new day!

Paralyzing

Motherhood can be paralyzing.  All of the to-do lists, all of the cleaning, all of the work, all of the chasing after twins, all of the playing, and yet when the girls go down for their now one nap of the day, I am paralyzed by too much to do. Shower? No...it will wake them up. Clean up the toys? No....it will expend too much energy to pick up their toys only to see them get scattered back out in 2 hours. Make business phone calls? No....it will surely jinx the girls nap time while I scramble to hide somewhere in the house where they won't be able to hear the screaming. Take a nap too? No....it will certainly jinx the girls nap time the minute my head hits the pillow.  

Paralyzing. So, instead, I turn to the computer. My faithful companion during those paralyzing moments...only to find that as sure as I started this post, I've jinxed nap time and now must go answer the "Mommy!!!!!" call....left unshowered, with an unclean house, and a business to-do list that got nowhere. These are the paralyzing moments of motherhood.

Thank goodness for two sweet girls that make these paralyzing moments totally worth it.

Happy Valentine's Day!

These two girls had a blast picking out Valentine's Day balloons for their daddy....until later in the day one slipped past the open back door and went high into the sky.  This absolutely mortified two little girls who had never seen a balloon disappear into the sky.  For the rest of the day, all we heard was "Daddy balloon, sky. Sky."  By the umpteenth time, I told the girls that the balloon went to the moon!  So, for the rest of the day, all we heard was "Daddy balloon, sky. Moon.  Sky.  Moon.  Daddy balloon, moon."  They have been big on the moon lately.  Every time they see it, they point to it "Moon!"  How fun are these two.

Later in the day, Chris and I took the girls to the park.  What I'm finding the older these girls get is their genuine love of the outdoors.  Not just the playground or slides, but the outdoors!  Oh sure, we spent a good hour or so swinging and sliding....they are FEARLESS, I might add.  Absolutely fearless.  There hasn't been a steep slide, a grown-up swing, or a jungle gym course they haven't been afraid to try!  They are fearless!  And when one flips over going down a curvy slide, she just laughs!  No crying, not scared, laughs!  Fearless I tell you.

Back to the outdoors.  They L O V E to go on a walk out into nature.  They love it.  We look for things God has made...that's what we did Valentine's Day with our girls.

Without any objections, they happily ran away from the playground and joined mommy and daddy for a walk on our favorite trail through the woods....the same trail we took them on when they were such tiny little infants.  To see them run along it, throw rocks into the water, pick up leaves, acorns and anything else of interest along the way made for some pretty sweet moments.

My 3 Valentine's....

My favorite moment of the day came when Savannah picked up a dried up leaf laying on the ground.  She spotted it, stopped, and picked it up, tracing every curve of its brown, dried up edge.  It was time to catch up with her sissy, so instead of dropping the leaf, she opened her pocket on her sweatshirt and started shoving it into the tiny pocket.  This was a big leaf, so she kept shoving, and shoving, and shoving it into that tiny little pocket.  Well, you can imagine what was happening to that dried up dead leaf....with every shove, I could hear "crunch"  "crunch"...but she shoved it in there.  Later, she remembered her leaf and went to pull it out.  "OH NO.  OH NO!  Broken," was all I heard as she held up a tiny little piece of the leaf to me.  I told her we'd find more, and she just threw it down and kept on going!  Didn't phase her at all as I thought it might.  Silly, sweet girl!!

What a beautiful, fun day celebrating the ones I love in my life!

They Make Me Smile

Jesus Cry!

For the very first time, my girls actually got the story.  I mean really, really got the story.  

For 2 years now we've been taking the girls to church every week, singing songs about Jesus and hearing stories all about Him.  We've been having nightly worship time with them - Chris on the guitar, me corralling them to try to at least stay in the same room while we sing.  They do love it and it's been a pure joy seeing them begin to learn the words to the songs they sing!  But I never really knew if they were getting the stories....tonight, they got it.

Tonight, the story was about Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem and the beautifully written to a 2 year old story book talked about the children waving palm leaves and laying their coats down for Him to ride over and singing "Hosanna!  Jesus is our King!".  And then the part of the story came where Jesus felt the rejection of the Pharisee's and stopping and weeping over the city of Jerusalem (hence the picture above from that page).  The child-like written story said "Jesus cried.  Jesus was sad" and had that picture on the page of the tear on Jesus' face.  The way it was written was very powerful to my two little two year olds.  Their demeanor changed as they both zoned in on the story, then zoned in on his face, and the tear trickling down it.  "Jesus cry."  "Jesus sad."  That's all we heard up until we were laying them in their cribs for the rest of the night.  It was like a beautiful broken record, these two tiny voices saying "Jesus cry."  "Jesus cry."

Chris and I kept telling them that Jesus was ok now and that even though there were some who were mean to Him that He knows we love Him....that Savannah and Madeline love Him....Mommy and Daddy love Him, and that makes Him happy.  They listened so intently to us telling them this....but the record remained broken "Jesus cry. Jesus cry."  I laid the book down and Madeline went for it saying "More! More!"  This was the first time ever they have wanted us to read more....the first time they have shown a hungry desire to learn more about Him!

As I laid them down to those words "Jesus cry", I sang Jesus Love Me to them in the dark as I do every night...and this time it had more meaning than ever as it comforted their very disturbed little two year old hearts over Jesus being sad! I couldn't help but feel amazed at how powerful our God is....He knows how to touch the hearts of two little 2 year olds....He knows how to reach them!  At this age!  He knows how....of course He does.  

What a powerful role I and my husband have as parents to these two precious little ones.  The stories must continue.  The singing must continue.  And following God's lead on how to teach our girls about Him must continue.  It is the single most important role I have as a mother in this life that I've been given.

Mercy!

Chris has taught the girls to say "Mercy!" when we tickle them! It is hilarious! Madeline was just laughing and said clear as day "Mommy, MERCY!"

Mommy's Birthday!

I turned 36 on January 30....for the first time in my life, I experienced the realization of "Maybe I should stop telling people my age.  Should I take my year of birth off of my Facebook page?  I am old!!!"  Thirty-six felt more like an over-the-hill birthday than I expected.  But, BUT, it was an absolutely perfect day!!

Started with an 8 mile run with my husband.  I can promise you that I've never had a birthday where I could just get up and run 8 miles.  This must mean that age is definitely in the mind alone.  When we finished our run, we realized how much the day had warmed up since we had first left the house, so a birthday at the park became my wish!

Looking back, I think that maybe I had an outdoor birthday party when I lived in Florida with my mom for a short 6 month period.....she will have to confirm that!  But, I can very safely say this was my very first outdoor birthday party in Tennessee!  Growing up, my birthday parties always got snowed out - a huge snowstorm would hit and I'd have to cancel it.  Seemed like that happened every single year!  But this year - perfection.

A run with my husband followed by a day at the park with my husband, our girls, my dad, step-mom, sisters, and good, good friends!  We had a ball.  It was a perfect 36th birthday!  Just don't try to correct me if next year I say "It was a perfect 34th birthday!"

Blessed

Today my girls danced...played.....ran around.....laughed....and giggled....and danced.  They bring more joy to my life that I am sometimes just overwhelmed with love beyond words.  So no, there simply are no words I can say right now but these:  I am blessed.