Breaths of Heaven: September 2012

The girls are walking!!

Jaxyn is efficient and Kairyn started to a little bit in Forth Worth when we were visiting my dad and step mom (more on that later) and did nothing for about a week and has since taken to the whole walking thing. Here is Jax walking:

Here is one of Kai walking and Jax having a fit (more on that later also).

This is bitter, sweet. I am so excited for them to be able to walk and me or Michael not have to carry them everywhere (however my arms are looking good from having to do this ;) but I know with this freedom comes consequences.

Paisley turns 1!!

The girl's BFF turned one and had a wonderful birthday party! The girls got to swim in the pool and meet lots of other kiddos. P was such a doll and loved every second of her celebration! We are so grateful to have such awesome neighbors that have turned into friends. My hopes are that the girls will share many more birthdays together :)

beautiful one year old discovering cake :)

So in honor of P turning one we took the party bus out that night and got a sitter for all three! Haha Love them!!

De and I on the bus :) <3 her!

Trip to Fort Worth/Granbury

A trip was planned a few months ago with My Dad and Sis to go to Lafayette, LA to watch A&M's first game and possibly do some gambling. The plans were to go up to Flower Mound and drop the girls off at Alan and Louann's and leave with Dad and Barbara to LA on Thursday and meet up with Jamie and Russell (who were driving from Columbus) and tailgate and then go to the game. Plans were to do whatever after that until Saturday morning when we were to head back to Flower Mound to pick up the Flower Mound Motl's and all head to Granbury where Michael's step grandma (Louann's mom) lives to spend some time with her until returning home on Monday. Well all of that went up in smoke when the tropical store Irene decided to rear its ugly head. Some not so smart people decided that the game needed to be rescheduled until October therefore, plans needed to be altered. We decided to head up to my Dad's on Wednesday as planned and spend a few days with them and then meet the Flower Mound Motls in Granbury on Friday afternoon.
I hate when things don't go as planned. I am a schedule freak (just ask the girls). So when this curve ball was thrown I was upset for many reasons. 1) We weren't going to get our little adult vacation that we needed 2) Were weren't going to be able to see My sis and bro in law on our adult vacation (we haven't all been together without kids since the girls were born). 3) We were not going to be able to watch A&M kick some booty. 4) The Flower Mound crew were going to be cheated out of their time alone with the girls.
Of course I got over myself and decided to make the best of it! I was very excited that my Dad and Barbara would get to spend some time with the girls and it was wonderful!! The girls got to play in the sprinkler, ride the gator, and eat homemade ice cream. We adults got to do the same and play dominoes (women won again I might add)!!

Bebe feeding Jax

Jax

She was determined to figure this out

"sis how does this work?"

Kai is a very serious driver

Loving the homemade ice cream Grandpops made

Grandpops and Kai

On Friday afternoon we loaded all of the 4512 things that go on our trips and headed to Grandbury to Judy's home (Louann's mom). We spent Friday there with Judy (Mimi) and had a relaxing meal and the girls got to bathe in a sink again (Judy had the only tub removed).

On Saturday Alan and Mary showed up around lunch and we all watched the babies play in a blow up pool on the back porch. Shortly after Louann and Amalie joined the group. The girls are so blessed to have so many people love them to pieces and I know they do because we get to watch from the sidelines and it is one of the most amazing feelings :)

Mary reading to Kai

Hes a little too big for the pool but they loved dada in there playing

Kai

Mimi playing

Kai

so fun!

one of the best places to be...Grandpa's lap

Auntie Am and Aunt Mar ...they love their aunts <3

Kai with Mimi's cup

Meme telling Kai all of life's secrets

Jax

Kai

he's so funny!

one of my faves!! Daddy and Kai

Later that night we all went to visit Aunt Julia and Uncle Dean and Brady. We all had a blast visiting with family we don't get to see enough.

snack time

Kai loves to point these days

Jax

Julia, Michael, and I playing with the girls

As you can tell the girls were three different kinds of fans this weekend.

Aggies on Friday
Saturday morning they were Bobcats

Jax

Kai on left and Jax on right

precious baby blues :)...Jax

And Longhorns Saturday night...busy, busy fans!!

Sunday we went to church, had a wonderful lunch and packed up to head back home. It was great to get some quality time with everyone! Thank you for allowing all of us and our things to take over your home for a bit and for moving your schedules around to accommodate the change in plans.

Things I have learned with traveling with the entire family:

1) everything revolves around the girl's schedule.
2) feeding them yogurt for their snacks on long trips can get interesting, but is so much fun ;)
3) I have never heard so many different kinds of kid's songs in all my life, even working at daycare!
4) we will do just about anything to calm down an irritable, "I want to get out of the car" baby.
5) seeing new places and new people are stressful on all of us but totally worth it
6) I have to remind myself that not everyone has worked in daycare, picked a career working with children, and had twins so they don't always know how to respond to two babies trying to communicate their wants and needs.....breath Natalie!
7) We need a bigger car that can accommodate two car seats, a lab, and a yorkie in a kennel while Mom climbs back and forth making sure everyone is happy.
8) In the mist of all the craziness we still feel blessed beyond belief!
9) one more, vote Obama out so gas prices will go down :)

What the girls are up to:

Besides walking the girls are making so many different sounds and try often to mimic us. They bark like a dog anytime they see our pups or one in a book or one on TV. The same for monkeys. They have learned mom dad's "uh uh uh" when they are about to do something they aren't suppose to. Its so funny because they also use that to tell on the other one. They are definitely starting to get irritated with each other and attitude rears its ugly head. Taking toys away and swatting at each other are there favorite pass time events when the mood strikes them. I would swear they are 3 or 4 year olds the way they fight sometimes. We know this is part of the learning process and Kai is learning to defend herself ;) but, of course we don't like to see them act this way. We tell them often to "be nice" and I think they are starting to get annoyed with that as well. We believe the tantrum phase is starting to set in. Everything is the end of the world when it happens and we get lots of tears and heads to the floor (see video of Kai walking). They are signing a lot more. They are now signing "more" (they try to say "more" more than they sign it), "all done" and sometimes "cookie". They blow kisses along with their "Hi's" and "bye's" and are starting to realize what it means when mommy or daddy leave :(.
They still LOVE to "read" and be read to:

I can't remember if I have already said this but they also do hand gestures when we sing songs like "the itsy bitsy spider" and "patty cake patty cake". It is so fun to watch them learn and imitate!
I know I said I would keep two naps as long as possible, however, I spoke with a good friend who gave me the little nudge to try the one nap thing. I started this on Monday and we have now had three successful days of one nap at 12!! After thinking more about it I did decide that this will be a lot easier to schedule around. They will now be able to shop with Cece and I :))

Its That Time Again!!

Our house is officially decorated for Fall/Halloween!! Today was actually cool in the morning and it felt that much more like fall!
We have also gotten the girls Halloween costumes in the mail so we are set! We will reveal them when it gets closer to the big day :) Love, Love, Love this time of year! Scary movies, cold weather, drinking coffee without sweating, football season, holidays...and so much more.

<---This is our front door entryway :)

Here at the pics after adding flowers to our newest flowerbed:

This bench is a bench for the girls that Aunt Linda and Uncle Gregory got them for their bday! so cute!

Lots of busy Storks in March 2013

I am happy to announce that my best friend Kendl and her hubby Brian are pregnant and due mid March!!!
I am so so so happy for them and can't wait to share more memories with their growing family!
That's not all...Our sitter, Ashley and her husband are also expecting beginning of March!! Lots of prayers for her please. She has a high risk pregnancy and could really use as many prayers as possible.
Amongst these two wonderful momma to be are about 5-6 more people that I know of that are having babies in March 2013. Hanna and Andy, our neighbors are also expecting!! Two friends I work with will be holding bundles in March as well! Kendl's sis, Amber who has almost 3 year old twins is also expecting two weeks before Kendl...eeek so much excitement!!
Congrats all of those families that will be holding new additions to their families come March!! I can't wait to meet all of these angels!!

Recipes!

Since the girls can eat pretty much everything we eat (besides Tabasco, dad is working on that ;) we have been wanting to plan our meals out weekly and all eat the same thing (much easier on me). So I am asking for any easy, quick, kid friendly recipes you all might have. Please email them to me at nathill_8@hotmail.com, it would be greatly appreciated!!

And again I will leave you with some more pictures: