Happy New Year!

Let's be serious now. It is NOT 2011!!  My girls were born in 2008....so what happened to 2009 and 2010?  I am serious about this.  What in the world?!

I guess that's besides the point.

Happy New Year!  May 2011 bring more joy, happiness, and blessings than the year before (that is apparently a blur...but that's besides the point).  For me personally, I have no doubts that 2011 will be a glorious year as I have two little girls that are now 2 and are becoming more and more vocal, animated, personable, loving, sweet and hilarious with each passing day!  What a joy to have this interaction with them, this budding relationship with them as we become closer as mother and daughters and as a family together. 

My sincerest prayer is that God blesses the lives of our two daughters as we step into a new year sure to be filled with joy and many, many memories to be made.  May He guide my and Chris' footsteps as I continue to feel my way through this whole parenting thing and lead us down the path of raising two little girls with a continually constant, solid godly focus on Him as the center of their precious lives.  

Big orders for a new year....but that is my desire for this year.

Happy New Year, my sweet angel girls.  Your momma loves you more than you will ever, ever know. 

Pics to follow!

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.

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!!

Christmas 2010 Part 2

Today I was working on Christmas cards - I feel so on the ball!  We must get them out before I travel for business this week, head to California next week, then to the Smokies the weekend we return from Cali, then Christmas!  So, today was the day to get that done.

Red stamps.  I have a red stamp for my address stamp.  Savannah was crying to "caw caw!" which means "color".  She wanted to do what I was doing so badly!  So, Chris put her up in a chair at the dining room table to "help".  We decided it was ok if she got a stamp on her hand.....then Madeline wanted a stamp on her hand....then Savannah wanted a stamp on her other hand....then Madeline wanted a stamp on her other hand...then we saw it.  The pretty red address stamp had now rubbed off onto the sweet little ruffled long sleeved shirt they were both wearing that was yes, white.  The stamps were getting all smeared as they rubbed against those beautiful white sleeves...all four of them.  And thus began the panic of trying to take off the shirts without getting anymore red ink all over the white shirts...and getting them to the sink to wash off the stamps...and then stopping them from taking off their pants which would lead to the diapers off too....

We got it.  Just in time.  Now Savannah is running around with a new white long sleeved shirt - with no stamps on her hands - and Madeline is running around shirtless. Just a day in the life of twin toddler-hood at Christmas time.

Christmas 2010 Part 1

I have a feeling this will be an (x amount) Part series as this Christmas season progresses!

Last night we put the Christmas Tree up - so excited this year about that!  After the girls were down to sleep, we pulled out the tree and stockings and got everything set up.  Everything but the ornaments.  Thinking those might be on hold this year...but we'll see.

So, this morning, the girls woke up and I led them to the living room to see Christmas!  Savannah was the first to see it - eyes just lit up! Madeline was still laying on my shoulder and hadn't yet turned around.  When she did, she looked straight up at the tree, with eyes lit up as well, and in unison, the girls said "ight! ight!"  of course meaning "light!"  Then, the turned to see the stockings and said "Shoes? Shoes?"

It's gonna be a matter of time before those stockings are pulled down from the chimney and pulled right up onto 4 tiny little feet before I can say "nnnnooooooooooo!!"

Happy Memorial Day

This Memorial Day we spent the day watching America's Favorite Past time - a great baseball game at Turner Field.  The Braves clinched the #1 position in the division while I girls watched and squirmed and laughed and "cheered" through the whole game.  This is their 4th MLB game watching the Braves play, and every time they've attended a game, the Braves have won.  I guess this now makes them official Braves fans!  

We didn't go alone to the game!  Grammy and Papa Bob came with us as Papa Bob proudly stood at the special Memorial Day service when they honored all of those who had served our country.  Thank you Bob for serving our country across seas in the Vietnam War.  We are thankful to God for his service and safely bringing him home.

After the game, the Beach Boys gave a free concert on the field.  The girls were troopers.  Thankful for seats under cover away from the sun, and thankful for an entertaining concert to top off their attention spans, they did great.  And we managed to survive another fun outing with our girls.

Happy Memorial Day and thank you to all who have and also those who are continuing to serve our country to give us the freedom to live in this free country and do things such as lounge all day at a baseball game without fear.

Easter Fun!

This year, the girls' second Easter was amazing!  For the first time, they had Easter baskets.  And for the first time, they instinctively knew what to do with them!  While their daddy and Uncle Jon were outside hiding the Easter eggs, the girls were waiting in anticipation at the top of the stairs, just waiting to go down and outside!  They truly had the cutest instincts....they put their Easter baskets on their shoulders like little purses and went outside in hunt of these eggs!  How fun!!  

They are walking everywhere now, so it was super fun watching them walk around outside with their baskets.  The only problem was that they are not used to walking on slopes, so when they got to the front yard where it started to slope, down they went.  But they just laughed!! They loved it!

It is so fun watching their joy.  I could sit here and watch them all. day. long!!!  It made Easter especially special this year...knowing the joy that must have filled Mary and the disciples hearts when they realized that Jesus had risen!!  That is joy beyond comprehension....and watching my girls experience joy on Easter morning with their surprises that awaited them only begins to give them the delight they will soon begin to understand about the joy of our Savior being risen from the dead after dying for their sins.  

Happy Easter girls...with each year you will begin to understand more and more the love that our heavenly Father has for you and the incredible sacrifice He made just for you.

And yes, we're anxious for our Bermuda grass to catch up with the rest of the world and turn green, but once it does, it will be so much fun for the girls to play in!!  And look better on camera...ha ha!

Christmas Time is Here

Last night Chris and I put up the Christmas tree and hung 4 stockings over our fireplace...how fun! For the first time in my life, I really felt like Santa's Elf because we did all of this after the girls went to sleep. I knew that trying to set up the tree with them crawling around everywhere would be a nightmare for one thing, but I also wanted it to be all put together when they woke up this morning! Sure enough...the girls woke up and we brought them out to the living room and the immediately got this big, huge eyes and just looked up at the tree like "What in the world????" Then, I turned the lights on. HUGE eyes! They loved it! They were so cautious with it though...crawled up to it and slowly reached their tiny little hands out to just touch the branches. These are the times I am thankful for a fake tree. They can't pull these leaves off!! We are so excited to going into this Christmas season with our special girls....it makes all of the magic of Christmas even more magical than ever.