Breaths of Heaven: Picture and Video Blog!

After some technical difficulties I can now present to you 1 blog containing 5 months of our lives.

Sooo in order to catch everyone up and do so quickly this blog will be made up of mostly pictures and videos (no extra elaborate write up of our daily lives ...sorry ;)

The rest of Christmas that didn't get posted before:

Christmas at my Mom's

Jamie and Reid :)

They loved opening presents this year

We finally have a group of children at our Christmas now..warms my heart!

See my mom, I mean Santa must really love Michael ;)

Christmas at our house with the Flower Mound Motls:

Jax

They love their bus/slide ..Santa is good!

Fun Christmas for us!


A visit to NB isn't the same without a trip to Gruene

Christmas in Brenham with all the Motls:

precious moments

Amalie and Louanne <3

this is what happens when its too cold to go outside

always a fun time with this group

Jaxyn/Rudolph

All of us! Jax with me and Kai with Michael

Kai/Santa

Jax

New Years at the Ranch:

We joined De, CJ and Paisley's family at the ranch to ring in the New Year!

Best friends coloring/eating crayons/watching Barney

My Birthday:

Okay, I have to type a little here to brag on my husband and friends! I turned 30 this year and my husband managed to arrange a bus load of friends to help me celebrate without me knowing and not only did I not know but I thought my birthday was going to be us and four other people and I was feeling sorry for myself....little did I know that some of my friends were pretending to be busy that weekend so they could surprise me.... Thank you Thank you thank you to everyone who helped! My 30th was the best birthday yet!! Yay for getting old and having great friends and a great Husband!!

Love you all!!

18 Months old!

Jax on left and Kai on right

Farm Adventure:

We are a part of a small play group that gets together once or twice a month and one of the moms had a great idea to take the kiddos to a farm. It was a lot of fun watching the them explore...

Kai ate that entire carrot before we got home

Kendl, Brian, and Grey's Shower:

Kai

Jax on left and Kai on right

Cutest sets of twins ever!

Jax and Michael

Kai- she was very accident prone for about a month

Such a wonderful time celebrating our best friend's first child :)

Love Your Heart Run:

Friends from our play date group with the Spurs Coyote

Lacey and Jaxson...love our new friends!

Valentines Day:

My valentine angel babies ...Jax on left and Kai on right <3 (of course Elmo had to make an appearance)

They never get sweets so when mom gave them brownies this was the smile I got :)

First time making heart shaped, strawberry, pancakes..they turned out really yummy, this will be a tradition now :)

Michael turns 29!!

They love their dada and they love him even more when there are bright candles and cake ;)

Baby Grey is Born!!

He is finally here!! I am so proud of Kendl and Brian...it wasn't easy, but they did wonderfully and now they have a gift straight from God! I am so happy I got to be there when they welcomed their first born into the world! Welcome baby Grey! We can't wait to watch you grow up!! Love you!!

Grey Andrew Leatherwood born on St. Patrick's Day 3-17-13 weighing in at 7.13 lbs and 20 inches long

Brian and his brothers, proud dad and uncles

first time to see him

Amber holding her new edition, Silas, born a couple of weeks earlier <3

Very proud Great Grandma and Grandma

Eyes!!

My St. Patty's day angel baby

and then I fell in love! Hi precious!

Easter 2013!!

deviled eggs with an Easter twist :)

The girls discovering what the Easter Bunny left

Jax finding and ELMO egg!

Kai was a pro at hunting Easter eggs

"I can have this one too?"- Jax

Grady loves helping the girls (Grady is the son of friends of ours that are new(er) to town and the girls adore him!)

Kai showing off her prize eggs

my favorite!

I have a feeling this little boy is going to give me problems one day ;)

After Mass and hunting eggs we headed to Round Rock to see Cindy and her clan :)

Nini and all her kids and grand kids :)

grand babies/teen

Cousins looking at 2nd cousin :)

So much fun at the park!

me and Kai

my heart

Bluebonnet time!

Jax on left and Kai on right :)

Congrats to Geoff and Bethany!!

Michael's cousin and our good friend Geoff got married on April 6th! Michael was a groomsmen and we were both so happy to finally see our match making skills pay off. You see we put Bethany and Geoff together to walk down the aisle at our wedding because we thought they would be a cute couple (shot in the dark right?) turns out they are a wonderful match made in Heaven!! We are so happy for you two and we wish you many years of happiness and lots of babies!!

(these pictures were stolen from Facebook due to the fact that we were juggling toddlers the entire time)

The girl's first time staying in a hotel...so fun!

"pillow fight!!"

Brian and I

Me and Daniel

Me and Kai dancing :)

What the girls are up to:

The girls are 21 months now and up until a few days ago I thought this age was going to be the death of me! They are in full blown toddler mode! I over heard Michael tell someone the other day that when its hard its doubly hard, but when its great and fun its double the fun and I could not have said it better myself. That being said, I will now give you a little idea of what shenanigans have been occurring in our home.

The "Not so cute and very often annoying. make me want to pull my hair out" things the girls do:

- Knock cups off their trays every time they eat.
- say "no" to everything you ask them.

- when they are headed towards something they aren't suppose to touch and you say their name they stop, without turning, and then decide its best to keep going faster so mom or dad can't catch you.
- Kairyn screams bloody murder every time you attempt to touch her or a toy she is holding when she doesn't want you to. (This is great in church)
- Whining, whining, and whining some more about everything! I wasn't sure, but did you know that everything is the end of the world in the eyes of a toddler?
- constant teething = whining and crying when you look at them wrong.
- saying "no don't do that" translates to them as "do it again and see if she's going to put me in time out again where I will sit and cry only to return to the same situation and do it again".
- fake crying in time out, stopping, then starting again when the timer goes off.
- wanting to be held if I'm in the room, if they don't see me they are fine (why do toddlers act normal around everyone, but their parents??).
I'm sure there are more, but these were the ones that popped into my head first.....the good news is that we have stayed pretty consistent with time out and discipline in general and have structured their days more so that they have alone time by themselves and with me/Chelsea/Michael and this seems to have made a big difference. They have gotten a lot better (if only for this week, I'll take it) about listening and being content.

The " Most fun, smartest, most adorable, craziest, did I say smartest? most loving" things the girls do:

- Squeal like teenagers at a Justin Beiber concert when we get home from work
- they give the best hugs and kisses :)
- they started identifying things in books around 17 months and can now label all of their vocabulary cards, basic colors, and basic shapes (we are working on counting and they can count to ten, when they want to of course). They know some letters from the alphabet too!

- they are almost always putting two words together and often say phrases like "where is it, max"? The speech therapist in me is thrilled with this! They also repeat everything so now is the time that we watch what we say.

- I will go ahead and brag on us with this one, they say "please" and "thank you" consistently and are well aware that if these words are included that things happen a lot faster for them.
- They love to pray and often yell out "AMEN" after the prayer.
- They know who Jesus is (in the most simple, yet profound way, they know that He is the man on the cross) and request to look at him and say good night after every night time prayer.
- They still love to go to sleep (such a blessing)!
- They have started to play with dolls (I am thrilled with this since I played house well into my teenage years ;)
- They say "I love you" and it melts our hearts!
- They teach us something new every day and continue to amaze us with what they are learning and soaking up.
They are truly the light of our lives and make each day so much better than the last. They are teaching us patience and showing us exactly how blessed we are. The tough times are hard, but the good times are great! A new adventure awaits us and we are thrilled to be their guides in this crazy and wonderful world.

Potty Training

We introduced them to the potty around 18 months ...here is how that went:

Jax

Kai

They will love me for this one day :) It does appear that Kairyn has it down, however we have had better results with Jax. This weekend we are embarking on a potty training adventure that I read about (the Babywise people of course) that requires three days of potty boot camp so pray for us!! Hopefully my next blog will say something along the lines of "we are almost done with diapers during the day!"

Other pictures and classic moments:

Kai

Jax

Jax is the sillier of the two :)

sitting in the stroller while mom runs is really tiring some days

Rhyme Time at the library on Monday mornings

They love their puppies

trouble with Paisley ;)

Reidy poo

About to go run in the rain with Grady

hat day, Kai on the left and Jax on the right

they love baths

Kai and Grady

Silliness

starting them early ;)

We are slowly moving most of their toys to their room and not in my living room :)

when Kai has a bracelet on the wrist must be in the upright position to make sure it stays put

Jax

Kai

Fun at Cece's on/in the play scape (Kai)

This is when having a twin comes in handy

sample of pic taken during family picture day with Meme

I love this picture!

My mice at their friend Jaxson's birthday party (Jax)

Kai

Michael and his girls

slides are the best

Okay maybe Popsicles are the best

With Cece

love my beauties

me and Kai

Jax is too cool for school

Kai at the park

Max is always watching them making sure he doesn't miss out on something (or some food)

Jax

book lovers

fun in the park