Merry Christmas!

My family and I would like to wish you all a very merry christmas and happy new year!  We hope it is filled with lots of love, laughter, joy, and peace!  Remember on this day that the greatest gift of all is love and family!

To those families and children who are suffering during this time.  We are praying for you and hoping you will find happiness and love on this day!  May God bless you all!

First christmas 2010

The girls first christmas was in 2010.  They were only 7 months old, so they weren't to into it.  I can't wait for this year!  Here are some of my favorite picture from 2010!

christmas cookies!

The girls and I made dough for our christmas cookies (we actually made titi's favorite for when they come in town)!  They had so much fun!  It gets a little messy, but I want them to experience everything and get down and dirty!  To those of you who are neurotic and hate mess', this is not for you!  Here are some pics!

Harly saying cheese, Zoey having a bad hair day and not keeping a clip in it!

Mommy, I hate having dirty hands!

Mommy, I will get this bag of chocolate chips open!

we got a chocolate chip for being great helpers!  Look at our faces!

girls meeting Gavin!

When we were allowed back to see my sister and the baby, the girls were napping in the stroller.  I didn't want to wake them because we drove all night and they woke up at 6am.  We decided to let them meet their new cousin the next day.

They did awesome at the hospital.  They were kissing him and gently touching him.  Harly loved to stroke his tiny fingers.  When they came home from the hospital, it was a different story.  They were very jealous, there was a new baby, titi and uncle ryan couldn't give them their full undivided attention.  When Uncle Ryan would wake up and come out to the living room, the girls would just follow him the whole time and pretty much didn't leave his side all day.  They were very jealous of titi, they had her all to themselves for 18 months.  She did awesome though, making sure they had alone time with her.  She would take them into another room and play with them.

Here are some pics I love of the girls with Gavin and then with uncle ryan and titi!

Harly stroking his fingers!

Zoey touching gently!

Dylan carrying on a convo about the girls clothes!  Love this pic!

This is one of my fave pics, because everyone is smiling!  I never get the girls to smile at the same time!

Gavin!

My sister gave birth to her first child on December 9, 2011 (same as Jackson's birthday!).  She did amazing, I am so proud of her!  Gavin Ryan came into the world at 10:08am weighing in at 7lbs 8oz and 19inches long!  He is also adorable and I love him so much.  I didn't expect to have the feelings I do for this little boy, I feel like he is my own son.  It was extremely difficult to leave him.  I think it is because my sister and I are so close, and because I have children.

As I am typing this I am getting emotional, and it has been 2 weeks already.  I don't remember my sister being like this when I had the girls, but I just think it is becasue I have children.  I am having issues with knowing I can't drive over there whenever I want to see him.  We always talked about getting together with our kids every sunday, like we did growing up.  I am having a hard time knowing that we won't be able to do that.  I want my girls to be close to their cousins.  I want them to be like brothers and sisters.  I am sure I will be able to get through this at some point.  I just miss my sister and especially my nephew.  I want him to be close to me and know that he can come to me for anything, I want to be able to babysit him whenever and take care of him when they need help.

But enough about me and my emotions!  My nephew is absolutely adorable, I love him like he is my own.  My sister and I have such a strong bond, that he is also now has a piece of my heart!  Here are some pics I took of him!  Enjoy!

Jackson!

My nephew was born on December 9, 2010.  He just turned one and now shares a birthday with my other nephew who was just born.  Jackson is such an adorable, loving, happy baby!  He lives in the south, so we do not get to see him a lot, but I love him so very much.  The girls also love him very much.  I have a picture I show them all the time and we talk about Aunt Carrie, Uncle Shane, and Jackson often.  Even though we don't see them very much, I want my girls to feel close to them, I want them to be able to run up to them and be excited when we do see them.

Jackson is Mr. GQ!  Over the summer, we were on vacation and every time I took that camera out to take his picture, he would look right at it and smile.  He is also his daddy's twin!  I hope that we will be able to see them more, I do miss all of them a lot and I know my husband misses his brother a lot!

Jackson-  we all hope you had a wonderful 1st birthday.  We wish we could have been there!  It looks like you had a blast!  We love you with all our hearts!  The girls are blowing kisses to you!!  Love you always and forever- your aunt Jackie, Uncle Ian, Harly, and Zoey!

so much to say!

I have so much to tell you all!!  I know I have been behind, but we have been extremely busy.  I am so ready for a weekend of just the four of us but that won't happen til January.  I am not saying that I don't love company, but we haven't caught a break from in it a long time!  Here is what you have to look forward too!

* Today, the 17th was the day Ian and I started dating!  7 years baby, and I can't believe it.  There will be more on this soon!

* my nephews both born on the same day a year apart!  Happy first bday Jackson, and welcome to the world Gavin- you each get your own blog post coming soon!

* I made canvas boxes from pinterest! Tutorial coming soon!

* many recipes also coming soon.  Yes, I will also post the taco soup.  Please forgive me!

I have gotten some anonymous emails asking why it takes me so long to update my blog.  Well here is why:  I have two active toddlers running around.  I don't catch a break unless it is naptime (which is when I start dinner.) or bedtime which is spent cleaning up from the day and time with my husband who gets home from work late or is traveling. Please hang in there, there will be more posts coming!  Truthfully though- I am grateful to all my readers, and I thank you for reading my blog, but I would rather spend more time interacting and watching my girls grow up than on the computer!  Just saying!!

18 month update

Well, I don't know why I continue to schedule the girls doctor appointments for the week they turn the age that the doctor wants to see them at.  Everytime we go to the doctors, they are slightly delayed.  Then a week later they are above average for their age. 

So, as I said in the previous 18 month post, the girls were behind on talking.  Well literally a week later the girls are saying more than 50 words and now putting two words together.  I will be scheduling their doctors appointments a week later from when the doctor wants to see them.

I was on the phone with the doctor today, and Zoey is walking around saying "I happy."  The doctor can hear her and is laughing! 

Babies, babies, and more babies!

I joined a playgroup last year when the girls were just 10 weeks old.  There were only about 20 members.  Today, I think there are around 62 members!  I absolutely love our playgroup.  I have made some great friendships, my girls have friends, and get to have social interactions with children.  It is so nice to be able to have adult conversations, give advice on raising children, get advice on children and other things, and just being able to have a good time!

Well, pretty much everyone in our playgroup is pregnant, about to give birth, just gave birth, or trying to conceive.  Then there is me.  Everywhere I turn someone is telling me they are pregnant, or you can tell they are.  And it gets me thinking, do I want another one now or not, do I want more ever?  The pros and cons start kicking in, my mind goes crazy.  I go back to thinking about the playgroup.  If I don't have one now, the girls will have their friends they have, but when or if I have another one, the new one won't have anyone their age.  So then that means they will have to hang out with the older kids, they will grow up too fast, and they will only have me to fall back on when the big kids don't want to play with them.  But it is looking like the pros are outweighing the cons and here they are:

* I am happy with my family now.  I love my family of 4.  When I got married, I didn't think I could love anyone as much as I love my husband.  When we found out we were pregnant and having twins, we were shocked but so excited.  Then everything changed, almost losing one, the car accident, early labor, the placenta quitting.  These girls are our life, they are everything to us.  I have so much love for these three people.  Does my heart have more to give to more children? (I know it does, cause we both do want more kids).  The 4 of us are just so happy together, and I don't want to ruin it.

* I have a 75% chance of having twins again.  Twins run in the family.  We were not trying to get pregnant at the time and ended up with twins.  This pregnancy was a surprise.  I have a very high chance of getting pregnant with twins.  I don't know if I would be able to handle a set of toddlers and a set of newborns at the same time.

*The girls are happy 98% of the time. I say 98% because there is that 2% where they are having a bad day.  I am nervous that my next child is going to be a wild, not to happy child.  I really do have great kids, I have been blessed with happy babies!  But, I am also not going to lie and say my children never have bad days ( I will say it is very rare though.)

*I want to go back to school.  I want get my masters degree.  I would like to be a nurse practitioner or a midwife.  If I have another child, there is no way I would be able to do this.

*I would love a boy.  I know my husband would also love to try for a boy. If we don't end up with one that is fine, but it wouldn't hurt to try.  If I had a set of twin boys, I would be happy and we would be done having kids!

*The girls do not let mommy or daddy hold any other babies.  The girls get very upset when we hold other babies.  If I had a baby, it would probably not be pretty.  They are very attached to us right now.

I am happy with the way things are.  My husband and I are just enjoying our girls.  We love every minute of it.  We are comfortable.  We would have a hard time financially also if we added another child right now let alone two if I have twins again.  I don't want to struggle financially, so I will wait!

Dancing!

The girls absolutely love dancing!  they can dance 24 hours a day.  When they hear music, they break out dancing.  I usually have the radio on most of the day, and with it being christmas, I try and have it on often.  The girls have a couple of favorite songs: Charlie Browns christmas, feliz navidad, unchained melody, etc... 

I love that they love to dance and so does Ian.  They have done this since they were tiny babies.  They have always been drawn to music. I am most excited because they are following in my foot steps!  When we all dance, they love to be held by us and dance. 

They are very shy when the video camera comes out so these videos are not really how they get down and dance when music comes on, but here are a couple quick videos!  Enjoy!

I have a couple other good ones, but for some reason they won't upload.  Once I get it to work I will put them up!

No more bottles!

Ok, so the girls were really attached to their ba-bas.  I had prepared myself for a battle, because it was a battle when I weaned them from nursing at 13 months.  We had tried to take them off bottles a couple weeks ago.  I put their milk in a sippy cup, they took a sip and then threw it.  They were very mad at us and boycotted drinking milk.  We decided we would wait til after our traveling for thanksgiving.

So how did it go?

Well on Monday, I took the girls to Target.  I made a big deal about getting cups for milk.  I had a talk with them and was very excited, which made them excited too!  We were on our way to Target, I made up a song about milk and cups while they danced to it!  When we got to Target, we went straight to the cup section.  We had another talk and they picked their cups out.  (I held a couple in my hand and they chose from those, I wasn't about to let them pick the most expensive cups!)  I got a couple other things we need and they held their cups.  On the drive home we sang the milk and cup song again. 
I washed the cups and filled them with milk.  So I am sure you are all wondering how it went?  Right?

Results:  The girls drank the whole cup of milk!  It has been two days now and they are still drinking from these cups.  Yesterday, I tried putting it in one of their other cups and they got very upset.  So yes, these two cups are only for milk!

I really thought it was going to be an ugly battle, but am so happy at how it turned out!  If any of you are trying to get your children off bottles, make a big deal about cups!  I know some moms who did battle for a couple days and knew I didn't want to do that, especially with two kids coming off bottles at the same time.

** Today, all is still good, they even helped me put the bottles away in the rubbermaid container!!!