Five.

On Friday, our amazing little miracles turned FIVE YEARS OLD.

 

I know. I can hardly believe it either.

 

I asked David if he would take one good picture of me with my babies on the eve of their birthday...our last night with four year olds...

Well.

Birthday Madness had already set in, and these two wanted absolutely nothing to do with a staged photo session...but the candid shots turned out pretty fun anyways...

 

 

These two were worth every minute of the wait.

Even in my most overwhelmed moments, I know we are richly blessed. 

"Though it linger, wait for it;
    it will certainly come
    and will not delay."

Habakkuk 2:3b

Because blogging sounded like a good idea...

(**I wrote this on Saturday night. And then completely forgot to hit "publish". Let that serve as a testament to how much my brain is currently mush.**)

It's Spring Break?! I'm not sure how it's nearly the end of March. I guess we're still catching up from the February of Illness??? But seriously, will we ever not feel behind around here?

I should be doing about a dozen things other than blogging, but I just don't want to.

We put our house on the market earlier this month. It was a good time to do it -for a number of reasons- so we did. I have mixed feelings about it. We became a family here, ya know? So many memories.
Also? Super hard to keep a house clean for showings. Kinda hate that part. Our broker is hosting an Open House tomorrow. I should probably clean.

I still have a large tote shoved in my van full of crap important things that were on the counters and floors and just generally outta place prior to our last showing. Somewhere in that tote is the information the DMV mailed me regarding renewing my drivers license. Which is now expired. Should probably dig that out.

The twins turn five this Friday. FIVE. It was five years ago that this happened. Babies were born. While I can't say it's gone by fast, I also am struggling to wrap my mind around the fact that we have five year olds now.

Lots of party stuff to do.

 

Whenever my To Do List gets too long, and I feel overwhelmed by all that needs to be done, I get SUPER dramatic and become an absolute wimp.
 

My husband is a really lucky man.
 

I flail my arms in the air and declare "THERE IS TOO MUCH TO DO!"
 

And then I go into avoidance mode. Today when I got home from work, the kids were still down for Quiet Time (and I'm playing fast and loose with the word "Quiet" there) so said a quick "hi" to Dave and immediately left to take Dory for a walk. For 45 minutes. Because I wanted to avoid everything that needs to be done at the house.  

(But, also because she hadn't been walked since Tuesday and we don't have much of a yard for her to run in...)

Then I came home and played with the kids.

Then I made dinner.

Then I cleaned up dinner.

Then I found random small things to do around the house.

And then I read books to the kids.

Then they went to bed and now I'm blogging.

Because I have 4 phone calls I need to return/make...and I don't know which one to do first so I'm just not gonna do any.

Because I have clean laundry in the dryer that if I don't fold tonight I'll likely need to tumble again tomorrow to get the wrinkles out.

Because I could do some things to get ready for the Open House tonight, like mop or dust.

Because my email inbox is out. of. control.

But mainly because I realize that nothing that overwhelms me today is critical. The majority of it is First World Problem kinda stuff. And that fact grounds me when I'm circling the drain... but also doesn't help me get motivated ;)

So blogging and facebook it is ;)

Last week I turned 34.

It was a good day.

My sister Emily was here, and she came with us to the community center for Family Swim. We have a blast every time we go, and this time was extra fun with a 3 on 2 offense. (remember, the best defense is a good offense). We swam and swam, and then got take out on the way home for dinner. It was just the fun and relaxing day I'd hoped for =).

 

 

Then on Saturday David and I got to go to a cabin on a mountain with another couple. They are some of our favorite friends, and we had such a great time relaxing and hanging out. The cabin was right on the river and it was so peaceful. We ended up being gone exactly 24 hours, but it really felt so much longer.
It's much easier to get away like that now that the kids are older - for them and for me ;). It helps that the kids have a ridiculous amount of fun with their Aunties ;).

(the fort Auntie Mem made for them...seriously impressive!)

 

And if you've made it this far into this rambling, stream of consciousness, you will now be rewarded with pictures of the World's Cutest Twins...

 

I mean I know I'm biased...but still, how adorable are they?!?



Lately...

As Spring begins over here, I figured it's a good time to do a good old fashioned picture dump =).

 

I always love having these posts to look back on and see what we were up to "way back when..."

I had contemplated giving up blogging after my Grandma passed - sometimes it just feels like ONE MORE THING TO DO - but I started reading old posts from when I was pregnant, and when the twins were tiny babies, and I realized how grateful I am for this Memory Book of sorts =). Plus, if I ever make the time for an actual thoughtful post, it's a good place to journal.

I know several extended family members like to check in and see what our family is up to, and I still receive weekly emails from people wanting to advertise on here (which is not something I'm interested in...sorry!!) so it must get more traffic than I realize...which I choose not to spend a lot of time thinking about, or I start to get a bit weirded out..;)

 

So. Lately:

 



One evening Luke decided he wanted to sweep the laundry room.

Um, ok. Sure. I'll allow that.

He tucked Bear into his jammie shirt to assist him...adorable.

 

 

I feel so blessed that we get to raise both a daughter AND a son.

Hand to God, I would have been completely thrilled if we'd had two of the same sex...I was just so giddy to finally be pregnant, let alone with TWO babies!

But when we found out we were having one of each, I felt like we had won the lottery.

And it continues to feel like a gift each day. They are so alike and so different (and I realize only some of that has to do with gender) and it's so fascinating to me that two kids being raised exactly the same, going through the exact same stages (age wise) at the exact same time can be so different.

One of the main things I love about it is the collaboration of toys.

Here is Abbey parking SuperHero cars in garages made of blocks, and then putting SuperHeros to bed in bunkbeds made of blocks.

I die.

=)

 

 

Pulling your weight around here by pulling weeds...

 

 

 

Being sick most of February meant being cooped up at home A LOT. That forced us to get really creative, and we ended up digging out some things we hadn't played with in a long time. Like the sensory bin...

We also got creative and lined up action figures all over the bedroom and practiced shooting our nerf guns...

 

 We also recently hosted our very first "school friend playdate". While playdates are nothing new to us, this was the first time we invited friends from preschool - kids who I wasn't already friends with their parents, like my Twin Momma group, or Church friends, or family friends.

I'd met these kids' parents at preschool, but we'd never been to each other's houses.

I told our kids they could each pick one friend to invite over. Abbey picked her sweet friend F and Luke picked his fun friend E.

 

 

We've been playing more games lately, like Memory...

 

And I think this may be the most surprising thing about being *almost* five...the ability and interest in sitting still and coloring. It has TAKEN OVER our home.

And I'd be lying if I said I wasn't thrilled about it!!



 

So, there you have it. A glimpse at our days lately. Of course this doesn't include the battles and weeping and gnashing of teeth, because I tend not to photograph those moments =). I'm not sure if it's coming off of 6+ weeks of illness, or just a frustrating Season, but the kids and I have been struggling to find our groove at home lately. But, we press on =). Seasons come and go, and it's nice to take a moment and sit down, look at pictures and write about the good stuff =). 



Valentine's Day =)

Because suddenly it's March.
I feel like I lost all of February to illness, and I am behind on every aspect of life because of it! Seriously, How is it March already!??!


We had a low-key Valentine's Day, as it fell in the middle of all our various illnesses.
Also, David and I don't really celebrate Valentine's day. We're big on birthdays and anniversaries around here =).
But 4 is such a fun age for excitement. Everything is fun and exciting when you're 4! Expectations are still fairly low as well, so it makes it pretty easy for me to add some Joy to our home.

Abbey and Luke were pretty blessed this year! They received mail (also a really fun thing when you're 4! No bills!) from all 3 sets of grandparents! They were so excited.
 

 Opening their Valentine's Day packages from GrandDad and Grannie Annie...

Putting together the puzzle message Grammie and Bopbop sent, and reading cards from Grandma Donna and Papa...

 

Their preschool had a little Valentine's Day party that I got to volunteer for. It's always so fun to get to observe our kiddos in their class!



 

Checking out their haul...



 

We had pink, heart shaped pancakes for dinner that evening...
(Aunt Kay, great minds think alike!!)

 





 

Abs showing off her heart puppet from preschool...



I saw this idea on Pinterest, and immediately knew it was something I wanted to do.

I've said it before, if I can instill gratitude and kindness in my children in their early days, I'll be so thrilled. I really do not care if they succeed in academics or sports or theater or band or whatever, I just hope to raise grateful, respectful, happy kids. Because that's really the key to a happy life =). 

The kids cut out little hearts I'd drawn on different colors of construction paper. We left them in a baggy on the counter, and each day between Feb 1st and 14th, we'd each right something we loved about another family member. It was so sweet to see the things everyone came up with. I beamed with pride when one of my family members said they loved that I "gave the best hugs and kisses"....there's something to hang your hat on! =).

And now it's March. In fact, the first week is even already over. Oy. The twins turn 5 this month (!!!!) and I've done exactly one thing to prepare for their party...confirm our Church gym is available for use again this year. That's it. Luckily, as mentioned above, they are at a pretty-easy-to-please age, so as long as there is cake and some friends, they'll likely be thrilled =).

Happy Spring!