See ya!

Going out for my birthday with friends tonight. This is EXACTLY how I feel. Awful I know, but honest. 

Is it 6 o'clock yet?

Home Sweet Home...

...has a new address!

Here she is, isn't she adorable?! We are so blessed to have this beautiful home, on over 3 acres, in town! It even has a play house that was built with the home in 1941, a potting shed, and a weather vane. Not just a weather vane, a horse weather vane. It's like waking up in a Country Living magazine. This house reminds me of a beautiful, classy lady ~ pretty to look at but very high maintenance;) I'm already praying for lots of snow this winter, can't wait to see her all dressed up in Christmas lights, and fresh evergreen boughs, and wreaths with red bows, or maybe gingham bows...

More to come when I can get my act together. In other words, don't hold your breath;)

Dear Diary

Ella loves to journal. She likes to write but she has terrible grammar, terrible spelling, and TERRIBLE  penmanship habits. Funny since she gets 100% on her spelling tests all the time, it's the practical application part that eludes her. Or maybe it's just that she's a free spirit, or that she's lazy. Probably a healthy dose of both;) But regardless, her little journal entries crack us up. She loves her sloppy little colorful notepads because it's the only place she can write where I won't make her correct her mistakes. So here's a journal entry that I copied down exactly as it was written, enjoy:) If only I had scanned the sketch that accompanied this entry...Maybe your imagination will suffice.

 "Molly Peters no one likes to be orown. Molly she picks her nose. no no Don't tuch me!!! 

the others shoted! of corse. oooo a booger. ah!

Dawson's Ditties

I told Dawson "it's your last soccer game today Buddy, so you need to really work hard and show us what you've got!" He said "but I can't, I have really sensitive skin."

It was a chilly morning and when Dawson went outside he said "it's so cold outside I'm vibrating."

The kids really, really wanted to keep the bunny that we found and was freeloading in our yard for a couple of weeks. But Todd and I put the kabosh on that and told them no {I know, we're mean}. So when Dawson got word that we weren't going to let them keep the bunny, he said this with scrunched brows and a rotten attititude "this world is such a disappointment!"

Dawson saw me painting my nails and wanted to try painting his own. I handed him the brush and he was deep in concentration, trying hard not to mess up. When he got nail polish on his skin he said "I give up, this is way too intense."

It was Saturday early evening and we'd just finished doing a Costco run, the plan was to get dinner afterward. Dawson really wanted to go to Outback but I told him I would ask Dad what he had in mind. A few minutes later Dawson asked Todd "so is Outback what's in your mind?"

As always, Dawson was being inappropriate, giggling and trying to push on my "girls" while I tucked him in. I told him that he's a big boy and he can't touch the private parts of my body. He said "they aren't your private parts anyway, their Dad's!" I'm not sure how he came to that conclusion but it's pretty accurate;)

We had moved all of our belongings into storage when we moved since our "new" house wasn't going to close for a month. We took a handful of trips between moving day and the official move out of our house 4 days later. Ella was bugging Dawson and he said "Ella's making me so mad I just want to drop her off at the storage unit."

Dawson told me that "Daddy said I can have Dr. Salt on my birthday!" I couldn't figure out what he was saying until I prodded more, he said "you know, the brown soda, Dr. Salt." Ohhhh, Dr. Pepper, now I get it!

Another night while lying with Dawson at bed time, he said this and I ran downstairs to write it down before I forgot! "I just can't stop kissing you cuz I love your slobber and your soft skin and the smell of you. I just wish we could have a sleepover. I WON'T touch your boobies but I just like to see your bra because it's pretty." I hope I'm the last girl he says this to until he gets married!

Dawson told me "Mom, your Dad is hilarious!" I thought it was cute that he referred to Papa as "my Dad."

We took the kids to Baskin Robbins {Dawson thinks it's called Rad Robbins and Ella thinks it's called 31 Choices} and Ella was reading the ice cream descriptions to Dawson. He loves lime flavor and his favorite color is lime green, so he immediately zeroed in on a green ice cream. It was dacquiri flavored, and Ella read the description which went something like this: "so summery you can almost hear the ocean." So Dawson wanted to order a scoop but the girl behind the counter thought he should try a sample first. So she handed him a little pink spoon and he held it up to his ear and said "but I don't hear the ocean?" It was so precious, I love how innocent and completely literal they are at this age. I could've eaten him with a spoon.

Yipee for 3!

I'm so far behind on blogging, moving in has been kicking my booty, but I just can't pass up pictures of the twins' birthday, even though it was the end of June! Then I'll post some pics of the move and new house and I think I'll be caught up with the "big" stuff.
Mitch and Charlie are at such a fun age, I just can't get enough. Todd has always loved the 2nd - 4th years and I think I've always just adored the baby stages so much that I didn't fully enjoy this age until, well until there wasn't a baby around to distract me from just how fun it is! They are so stinking funny, so talkative, so naughty, so sweet, so affectionate, so busy, so needy, so independent, so MESSY. I love just listening to them talk, I wish I had all day just to listen to their conversations and catch all of their antics. Knowing that we are done having children has really helped me appreciate and enjoy them even more, and I'm desperately trying to soak it all in. It seems like the beginning of these two boys was really so long ago. The dream of them and the hope of them. Sometimes I can't believe after all our struggles and heart ache that we have been blessed with such a big, bustling family. Twins are hard, and you feel like you don't really get the privilege of enjoying them because you are surviving them! At times I have felt sort of ripped off to be honest. We tried for so long to have babies and then I felt like I didn't even get to fully cherish my pregnancy or my time with them, especially the first 2 years, because it is incredibly overwhelming at times to care for two babies at once, especially with a 2 and 5 year old to boot. But I can see it now, the light at the end of the tunnel! I think the hardest years are behind us and the glory days are just ahead. Time has gone by in such a flash that before I know it, they'll be independent and I'm sure I'll ache for someone to need me and want me and depend on me and whine at me. Well maybe not the whining part. But luckily I still get to wake up to their sweet faces, usually in my bed, and smell their sweet breath and snuggle their still slightly chubby bodies. It's still okay to slather them with lavendar milk bath after tubbies, they still wear diapers, they still need sippy cups. But not for long. It's going by way too fast, and my patience fails me way too often, but I'm trying to enjoy the ride, even though it seems like the screaming part of the roller coaster takes up the majority right now.
Babies, I love you with every piece of my heart and soul. What a beautiful thing you've done to my heart and my life. You have taught me that I can't do it all, not even kinda, that I desperately need God's help to do this Mom-of-4 thing. And what a gift it is to learn that it's actually letting go that helps me keep it together. You are so precious to me, my life is so much sweeter because you're in it. My hands are full, but really it's my heart that's overflowing. XO times one billion, and that's still not quite enough hugs and kisses if it were up to me.

Mitchy's brain is asking, "seriously, is this dumb hat necessary?"

 Mitch's favorite color is blue, Charlie's is orange. So I made cupcakes and frosting for each of them, I ate most of them.

 Charlie adores trains and was so happy to get a new train set from Ninny & Papa and us, 

I love this look on his face!

 Mitch is still majorly into tractors, monster trucks and cows!

 Dawson was so dear, all on his own he wrapped up his Angry Birds pig, one of his favorite toys, so Charlie's gift from him was one day with Piggy:)

 I love that Mitch won't take his eyes off his big rig, even for a picture. He hasn't successfully imprinted on it at this point so he has to keep his eye on it...

 More excitement about trains!

 These 2 blondies have always had a special bond, so sweet.

"Reading" his card from Ella.

 It's cake time, Baby!

 Mitch refused to let me take his candles off his cupcake. 

We had a very small little celebration, just us and Ninny and Papa. Perfectly wonderful.

 Charlie found a worm on his birthday and carried it around with him, and took it through the sprinklers a few times because he thought "wormy likes it!"

A look back....

Their Birth Story Part One and  Birth Story Part II

1st Birthday!

2nd Birthday!!