Family is Bliss

I know we aren't suppose to be envious of others, however I have told De many times that I am jealous of the fact that she lives right next to her sister/best friend, her mom and dad live in New Braunfels and her in-laws moved here when Paisley was born. Almost her entire family live within 10 miles from her...how blessed!

Family time:

We were lucky enough to have Michael's mom, Christina, Noah, Caitlynn, and Shelly in town two weekends ago to celebrate a late b-day for the twins (they were not able to make it for their bday party b/c they were moving) and my mom, Jamie, Russell, and Reid were here this past weekend. Of course it wasn't long enough but we cherished every moment we had with all of them!! Anytime all of our family wants to move to New Braunfels we will help pack ;)

Cindy arrived on Friday just in time to allow us a date night. We went out to eat and actually went to a theater to watch a movie :) Saturday the rest of the crew came into town and we watched Cindy cook a another wonderful meal and put the babies in the activity pool.

Noah, Jax, and Kai

Noah is pretty cool ;)

 We had a great time that night playing Apples to Apples and Tabo. Cindy won the first game and Michael and Christina kicked our butts in Tabo. Please come back again soon!!



This past weekend my mom arrived on Friday right when the girls were waking up from their afternoon nap and right when De brought P over for us to watch while she finished up work for the day. We loved having all three babies here (my mom especially). We decided that it was pool time after snack so we got the girls ready and headed out.

unfortunately Jax discovered her dislike for ants AGAIN! within seconds of her crawling out of the activity pool (one of the million times she did) her arms were covered in little red ants. Since it had not rained in a LONG time the ants weren't making their homes mound up like normal so we had no idea there were ants anywhere near us. I grabbed her and threw her into the pool to wash off the ants...long story short, she was bitten around 80 times. She is not allergic, thank God, so after she recovered from the shock of being thrown in the water she was fine and never acted like the bites bothered her after that.
 This is one of those times where growing up with a grandmother who knew everything and took care of our every discomfort comes into play. The first thing I thought of was "rubbing alcohol". Nanny (my mom's mom) always put alcohol on our bites (and growing up in the country there were a lot of those) and I remember her loving touch like it was yesterday. Thank you Nanny for loving us to pieces and always making sure our pain was short lived. I miss you dearly and hope that you can see how much you are still apart of our lives. I only wish you were here so we could watch you love on our babies too. 

Later that night Jamie, Russell, and Reid arrived to begin our weekend full of babies, lots of gabbing, and cherished moments to be remembered. I also got a chance to love on my baby boy without my big girls around (they seem so big when he is around them).....love him to pieces!!
Saturday I woke up to Michael cooking pancakes and the voices of all my favorite people in my home <3
After breakfast Michael had some "manly" projects he wanted to work on with Russell's help and the lady's supervision so we got after it.

Two more flower beds around our trees in the back yard was one of his projects for the weekend. We still need to add our flowers, but it looks great and I thank you both Michael and Russell, oh and Jamie too for her supervision ;)

We decided to ALL go to Gruene for the afternoon to shop around stroller style and eat. After the little one's last nap of the day we loaded everything up and headed to the historical Gruene. Surprisingly enough it all went really smoothly and we were able to hit up a few shops and eat at Adobe Verde with all three babies in tow.

Jamie and Russell at Adobe

I have to add here that we are finally at the point where we can take the girls and kinda wing what they will eat for dinner....yippeee! As you can imagine it gets a little crazy trying to take them somewhere much less take them somewhere when they will need to eat. I have always made their food so we always loaded it up too. Since they are no longer eating mush we can just cut things up small and feed them whatever is around :)) big milestone for us!!!
We adults enjoyed some time together after the babies went down and actually got to watch it rain!! Its a miracle how God works, I was just telling Michael the other day that the rain water we catch is getting the lowest it has gotten all summer b/c we haven't had rain in so long. He must have heard me b/c he sent a good rain on Saturday night that filled up our trashcan!!
Sunday morning arrived too soon. We very quickly got ready for Church and arrived a little late, but arrived nonetheless. Our girls are a workout in church at this age, but they arent noisy at all so we are grateful for that. Reid sat precious as a peach the whole time and we survived!! Loved filling up the pew with my family!! Glory to God for a wonderful weekend ending in praising you!!

We decided on Sunday to do this with the girls and Reid:

 
This how they turned out:

They had to bake theirs at home so we think bc they waited too long to bake it it cracked more than ours.

You are suppose to do this every year and use them as stepping stones, but I'm not sure how durable they will be so I think we will just use ours are garden decorations.

You think these two are related?

Kai

Reid

Some more pictures from the weekend:

 

 In other news:

I have been reading a book De passed along to me called "Push".

This is a book of  Brooke's blogs during a very difficult time in her life. At the age of 34 her husband passed away leaving her to raise 10 month old twins on her own. Needless to say I cried the first 8 pages straight pretty much. She is a wonderful writer, writing exactly how she feels and she has really made me feel even more blessed than I already do. Its very hard to read at times because of the sadness behind her story, but it is really fitting things into perspective for me. Too often I worry about little things with the girls and the house. I don't often think that I could one day wake up without my partner in life. I often put fun things off, thinking we don't have money for that. I don't every consider that I may not have tomorrow with my family to do some of the things I want. I am loving this book, 1. because I can relate being a mom of twins and 2. The rawness of her feelings on display is something to be cherished and learned from.
It gets better....She lives here in New Braunfels and is friends with another mom of twins I met on Facebook. I have contacted our mutual friend about meeting Brooke and her angels and I think we are going to be able to have  little twindate!! I don't know about ya'll, but I have never gotten to meet and have a play date with the author of a book I read so I am super excited to get to meet her and hopefully become friends :)

I will leave you (what was suppose to be a short blog) with pics and a video of Jax laughing at me when I was trying to calm her down after a fall.

Kai is too excited at Lowes

my driving babies :)

One last thing, One of my favorite holidays is right around the corner and I am sooooo ready especially when I saw these that one of my co-workers (who has an etsy shop) makes...how cute are these??

http://www.etsy.com/shop/GreenJazzFace?section_id=10812693

  Love,

Parent's of Breaths of Heaven

They make everything fun!!

So this is my attempt at posting more blogs more often :)

I had a special day with the girls today. I only had to see one pt. in the afternoon so after Michael left for work we had a fun little morning. We weren't in a rush for the first time so the girls "helped" make the bed AKA we played a lot in the sheets and on the pillows...I say this a lot but they are so fun (especially when they are in a good mood). They are laughing at everything and they turn all our tasks into fun games (that's the job of a child right?).
We went on a quick walk and then it was nap time. After nap time we ate lunch and I attempted to put my make-up on on the floor by a window. The girls, of course wanted everything to do with this! I gave them each a tube of something and started to apply make-up to my face with two babies crawling over me. This was a sight to see I'm sure. I could do nothing but laugh at my foolish idea I thought might work. :) At one point Kairyn looked at me with glittery eye liner in one hand and the other hand on my shoulder, knitted her brow and put the eyeliner to my cheek. Cutest thing ever. She wanted to help me put my make-up on. I will cherish that little moment forever!!!
I did tell them what I was doing the entire time but also added in that they were beautiful and they wouldn't need "mascara" (or whatever it was I was using at the time) for a LONG time. It was a fun morning to say the least. After fighting over the mirror, eye liner, and bronzer (its hard being beautiful;) we were all ready for a nap (too bad I didn't get one).

While I am here....I will tell you that Jaxyn took two steps yesterday!! We didn't video because we are waiting for a "real walk" lol when she takes three we will count it and tell the world!! Kai will stand by herself for awhile but leans forward without moving her feet to get to me/dad. Until next time!

Have a great weekend!!

Playing Catch Up

First I'd like to apologize for taking so long to do another blog...however, I do have 3 excuses, Kairyn, Jaxyn, and Michael ;) This is a really long one so get comfortable and grab a snack to hold you over ;)
 

*Reid Michael Stewart*

 Our nephew, Reid was born on May 2, 2012 at 8:28 a.m. weighing 7.6 lbs and 21 inches long. He was precious for the moment he arrived and I fell in love with that baby boy the first time I laid eyes on him. I can't wait to watch him grow and witness this special little boy's life. Here is a video of Reid from when he was born until now:

After Reid was born a group of us hosted a "Sip and See" to show him off. It was so much fun to have all of the people that were eager to see him come to my mom's house to celebrate him! Thank you to all the hostesses that helped put together a great party!

beautiful family

Ryan and Charlotte working hard on the sip and see quiz

10 Months old!!

Since my last blog the girls have turn 10 months, 11 months and 1 year old.....geez I'm a slacker :/ 

 

 

11 months old!!!

Kai on the left and Jax on the right...such fun babies

 What are the girls doing?

Well since it has been 3 months since my last blog the girls have done A LOT!! they started crawling well right after my last blog so probably around 9 months. Needless to say they are efficient at this now and are almost ready to walk. They aren't confident enough to let go of the furniture too much but it will just be a matter of time before we have 2 walking babies in the house ....eeeek!! They are sooooo much fun!! Their personalities are really showing and they love to laugh and play peek a boo. Michael caught this on his video camera....
click to see: peekaboo


Jax first time crawling:

Jaxyn is always taking stuff away from Kairyn and poor Kai just lets her (for now).

  "Sharing":

This summer has been soooo hot so of course we got the girls into the water. We have a little pool in our yard and my mom got an activity pool for her house. They have also been in in-ground pools in their little floats (best things ever).

Kairyn Mae

Jaxyn Nicole

We have definitely had to cover outlets and keep all doors closed at all times. Baby proofing the house hasn't been too bad, but keeping them away from my house plants that sit on the floor is another story. They hear "NO" often and Kairyn has even started to say "Na" after we tell her "no". They both say "hi" and wave and Kai says "bye" and waves. Michael and I of course think they are baby geniuses :) They amaze us on a daily basis and are growing sooo sooo fast. At their one year check up Doc said they are doing wonderfully and even bragged on us parents a little bit :)

They can eat foods that aren't blended, but Jaxyn still prefers to have her's blended a little bit so she doesn't have to do that much work ;)  We are trying new foods with them all the time so we see some interesting faces. I am still pre-making their food because it is easier for us for now, especially for lunch. Soon they will be eating pretty much what we eat for breakfast and dinner.
They still get two naps a day and will for as long as I can help it hahaha. Not only do they love their naps, but Ashley and I do too. We eat dinner at 7 and they go down around 8 leaving Mommy and Daddy some much needed time to relax. Breakfast is at 7:30, lunch at 12, and snack at 4:30. We are done with formula!!!! woohoooo!! The girls only drink cow's milk, water, and water mix with juice now!

Watching them learn about the world around them is a special treat and we are so blessed to get to watch two of them and get to see how they are becoming best friends.

1st Birthday Party!!!

We had their first birthday party at my mom's house in Cat Spring and it was a great success! Family and friends joined us for some hot dogs, a puppet show put on by my dad, and water fun! Thank you to all of the people who made this day so special (you know who you are!)

1 year:

Kai on the left and Jax on the right

silly girls

my big 1 year olds :)

The same weekend we celebrated the girl's birthday we baptized Reid Michael into the Catholic church...annnnnd...Russell and Jamie asked us to be Godparents!! We are super excited to be Reid's spiritual guides (aside from mom and dad of course).

What Have We Been Up to?

Wow this summer has been very busy (like every summer, I am starting to figure out). We have had graduations, weddings, surprise birthday parties, vacation for a wedding, and a new family member.

Mother's Day

We spent Mother's Day with Cindy and fam..(Michael's mom). It was so good to have everyone at our house celebrating moms...Where would the world be without our mothers? I am blessed to have a mom who is my best friend and a step mom that has meant the world to me. I am also graced with two wonderful, loving  mother-in-laws that I can stand to learn a thing or two from. 

Mother's Day at our house:

Matt Graduated!! 

YAY!! Matt (Michael's cousin/brother he never had) graduated from UT in May, majoring in Advertising. 
We loaded up and went to Austin to watch him walk across the stage as we all hooped and hollered for him. After the graduation we were all treated to a wonderful meal at Buca Di Bepos (Congrats to you as well LJ and Ronda!!) He is currently interning at Ryan Sanders Entertainment. 
Way to work hard and succeed Matt!! I support and love you even if you are a TU grad... I mean UT ;) 

Grandma and Grandpa Motl

Matt with is oh so proud parents, LJ and Ronda

Michael took this photo with instagram...I will say its a pretty good pic

 Cindy Sronce turns 60!! 

My mom is such a good sport when it comes to other people's parties (showers, birthdays, weddings etc.) and she does her part and more to make sure it is special, so we (Jamie, Bobby, Aunt Marilyn and myself) decided that she deserved a little attention herself for her 60th birthday. We got to work on a surprise bday party for her in Columbus at Aunt Marilyn's house. Man was this hard...keeping a secret from my mom/best friend was not easy for any of us. We also planned to get mom a puppy for her birthday so that was another doozey to keep secret (Bobby!!) We all managed to make it to Saturday without spoiling anything 
(well mostly ;) and she was very surprised!! Thank you to everyone who came and celebrated Mom and to Jamie, Bobby, and the Yearwoods for going above and beyond to make her day special!!
Unfortunately I did not get as many pics as I would have liked that night but here they are:

Bentley

Mom giving a speech :) sorry mom, best pic I had

The girls partying in Grace's Barbie Jeep before bed time

Michael, Jamie and Myself took this gem Friday before the party so we could have it blown up at the party (Jamie had shirts made that said "My Cece is Stylin at 60!"

Vermont!!

 Our good friend Travis and Kristen decided to get married in Vermont about a year ago. She grew up in the cutest little town (you Columbus people think Columbus is small?...you should have seen this :) in Vermont so of course she wanted to go back to get married where all her friends and family could attend (they are currently living in Austin). Michael was asked to be a groomsmen so we booked our trip months out and were thrilled to be able to experience the East Coast (somewhat). Alan, Louann, and the girls came down to watch the girls from Tuesday- Saturday and then my mom came up to watch them Saturday- Sunday. Thank you all so much for helping us and loving on our angels while we were gone. We arrived in time to help Kristen with wedding stuff and to explore a little. Michael flew into Boston with the boys and I flew up with Travis' mom, sister, and soon to be sister-in-law. We were both blessed to have met such amazing people to spend this vacation with....definitely made some new best friends...miss you guys!! Before we knew it it was wedding time!! Everything was so breathtakingly beautiful from the bride to the scenery. Thank you Travis and Kristen for including us in your special day!! 

 

Obviously some of these pics were professionally taken not by me...Rodeo & Co. Photography took the amazing professional pictures.

Shorty after we returned home from Vermont we found out that we were going to be able to adopt a dog from one of De's (our neighbor) clients. He is a tiny yorkie that was being left in a kennel for long periods of time because of the family's schedule so they loved him enough to want a better life for him. We gladly excepted and he has been a great brother to the girls and Colt. Thank you De for everything you did and for being such a kind person!!

Meet Max!

He is great with the girls

4th Of July!!

Every year (except last year, bc I was the size of a house and about to give birth) we go to my best friend, Kendl's parent's, Kevin and Tina Dorotik's home in Richmond to celebrate July 4th. It is always a great time to spend with friends, eating, karaokeing, and swimming. Thank you again to Kevin and Tina who put us up every year and show us a great time! 

Erin and Kai (?)

The girls in their outfit Cece made them :)

Cece and Grandpa Bobby came too!!

boys and their volleyball

Jax

Kai

Jax on left and Kai on right

love that ya'll came!

Amber and Jax

Identical twins is were its at ;) Kendl and Brian have two sets of identical twin nieces/God daughters <3

such a great photo, however ants had to ruin it ...poor Jax

Me and Kai

another great find by Cece

Brain made an appearance!!!

   

Summer weddings!!

Summer time is the perfect time for weddings :) I lost count of the number of weddings we attended this summer but they were all so wonderful and fun!! We love celebrating two people in love!!

Congrats to all of you newly married couples!! May God continue to watch over your marriage and may you grow closer through Him!!! Love you all!!!




Here is a video of all the pictures in between the the ones you have already seen (we don't like to take pictures of the girls ;)

 

Other Random Videos:

Kai started to do the sign for "more" for her sitter, Ashley around 10 months:

Jax and Kai will both do the "ah ah ah" part of the lemon drop song but I caught Jax this time:

Funny faces of the girls getting berries for the first time:

Annnnnd Limes:

Kai was Michael's puppet one night...oh the things we do when we get bored and have babies at hand ;)

The girls love to move to the music:

Sorry this one was so long but I hope you enjoyed it!! Next time will cover one month only..promise....Love you all and God Bless!!

Parent of Breath's of Heaven