My babies are not babies anymore

Where does time go and why does it pass so quickly after you have kids? The boys turned 21 months on March 30th...what? That is way to close to being 2 years old. How did this happen so fast? Surely there must be some mistake, they can't be this old. Insert simultaneous tantrum here.....weeeell....that pretty much sums is up. They are almost two:( It seems like it was just Christmas and we were rounding the corner to 18 months. They have changed so much since then. Not only do they not act like babies anymore, they are loosing that baby look:( I needed to have caught a tantrum or two on camera to complete this post. Not to worry, I am sure there will be plenty more to come. I did, however, manage to get the two of them to sit together at the same time for a 21month photo....OK well maybe I did catch a tantrum, or was it a hissy fit? As a matter of fact I caught a simultaneous tantrum/hissy fit/meltdown....just a peek into the life of twins nearing 2:)

Parker

Peyton

OK, if I give you the toys will you sit still?

and now for the grand finale...every good thing eventually comes to an end!

It's my toy, no it's my toy

Nope, now it is mom's toy!

Welcome to a day in the life of nearly 2 year old twins:)

You just gotta love 'em, tantrums and all

Boys, Boys, Boys

Thought I would share a few pictures of the 3 guys in my life. Obviously this was before Easter when it was actually spring outside! Oh yeah....we got our camera back:) Guess you could tell by the jump in posts we've had. It is good to be back in the world of technology!

Peyton and Parker love our beach chairs. They get super excited when we pull them out. Parker is in the blue shirt chillin' in the chair.

The boys have recently discovered sticks. As you can see Peyton (yellow shirt) has discovered the many things you can do with your sticks:) Parker thinks anything you place down your shirt will stay....nope, haven't quite got the whole gravity thing down yet. Notice the "Capri" pants below I was referring to in my earlier post... At least they are camo and look like boy shorts...err Capri pants:)

Parker, where are your legs?

There is nothing sweeter than watching your husband play ball with your sons. They want so badly to do it just like daddy does. He is so patient and encouraging with them. I am sure I will enjoy many more days of watching them play ball. I can only imagine them in uniform and on a real field one day. I feel richly blessed to have these boys in my life. All 3 of them mean the world to me and each hold a different piece of my heart. God has given me an amazing family and I am grateful for the time we have together. I hope and pray that the love Chris and I have for one another will be evident to the boys and that one day they will find love on their own. It is my desire for them to move on one day and have a family of their own. I am sure this is easier said than done. Chris and I pray daily they will come to know where the foundation for our love is. We hope one day they will come to know Christ's love...much more powerful and sweet than anything we could even hope to give them. We feel blessed God has entrusted their care and guidance to us. We pray we will be able to give them a glimpse of the grace and love He has to offer. A big load to carry, but well worth it and made easier with His guidance. Boys we love you and are honored to be your parents. We learn as we go and pray we are laying a great foundation of Christ's love for you to follow.

Peyton (yellow shirt) Parker (blue shirt)

Parker doing just as daddy showed him!

It's a good thing he has a diaper on:)

Parker (our little helper) making sure the tree supports are just right:)

As you can see below, their shorts aren't the only things a little big these days....

THE END

Making a mess....making music

Easter is on the way....with this comes some of my favorite candy! I live to buy bags of Robin Eggs every year. I eat so many it makes me sick and then I am good to go until next year. I also have come up with a great thesis concerning candy....Candy is best when bought in a particular season. ONLY buy candy that is marketed for the current said holiday, this ensures the best quality and freshness. Try it and see. By a bag of Peanut M&M's for Easter and buy a regular yellow bag...there is a BIG difference in the taste. The peanuts and chocolate are far better in the holiday bag. Snickers is another great example...the caramel is much creamier in holiday bags then if you were to eat a "regular" bag. In our house we buy only the current holiday candy as this is not so hard anymore because there always seems some holiday they are marketing a new bag of M&M's for. You do hit a bit of a lull after July 4th....all the way to Halloween and another lull after Easter until July. Clearly, the wait is well worth it! All this being said, the boys had their first experience with a fresh Reese's peanut butter egg...mmmm. they had just eaten a great supper of ravioli and needed a yummy dessert to finish of the day. It was a hit!

One of our favorite stores to wonder through is World Market...it has so many neat things to add to your home and they always have a great coupon out there. When we moved to Georgia we needed a table for our kitchen and we found it there. As a thank you they sent us some free bucks...the best kind...so we went to find some picture frames. The boys had a great time and found themselves right at home...making music:)

A little tease for daddy

I often tease Chris that I am going to dress the boys up as girls so I can see what it would look like to have girls for a day....you know, the ones that sit and read books, cuddle on the couch, have quiet tea parties, play nicely in the corner with their toys (one at a time)..... the ones that don't climb on their play tables, throw their trucks across the room, take swigs of their drink only to open their mouth and let it drip all over the floor (as Parker just was doing before I put him in time out), clearly girls don't spit mouth fulls of yogurt just to make their sister laugh....oh to have girls for a day. I have relented to not dressing them up, to enjoy the fact that they are rambunctious and full of energy and somewhat accept that they enjoy exploring their little worlds in different ways than little girls. I do love my boys and all that make them boys. I love the fact they get so excited over trucks and planes and I am preparing myself for a summer of dirt and bugs. They are 100% boys and with that, "on" 100% of the time they are awake. All this said..... I thought I would tease Chris a bit with the following pictures. I had the boys dressed up in their cute summer "outfits"... a smocked Jon-Jon....he gracefully allows me to dress them like this for the time being, they are only young once. He claims they are going to get beat up at school or church....no such luck, there are plenty of other little boys donning these adorable outfits...he claims his sons don't wear "outfits".... they are cute non the less! All dressed in their cute "outfits" we went to deliver a present to a friend of theirs...little Emma just had to have this present as she has two sets of friends that are twins. I captured a picture of Parker giving it a test drive:) te-he-he. Chris thought it was "great". Not to worry, more adorable Jon-Jon outfits to come....it consumes their summer wardrobe seeing that their legs are so short (we are talking 5th percentile in height...21 months and still wearing 12 month pants) that shorts look like Capri pants on them:) Clearly allowing them to wear Capri pants is much worse than the Jon-Jon. Not all are smocked (oh how I love being back in the south), much to Chris' delight...my mom has made some casual ones as well:) Enjoy!

Isn't it the perfect gift for BB ma (Emma)?...a twin stroller for her baby dolls! Parker loved it:)

A little boys dream come true... a real life TRUCK!

Parker, trucks in hand, standing for the longest time watching the mixer truck.

Can you imagine waking up from your nap and realizing that your dream was a reality? How cool would that be! Well, I guess if it was a good dream that you were enjoying. One day the end of March this is exactly what happened with the boys. You may wonder how I know? Clearly they told me so....ha ha ha. You see this is funny because they don't actually talk to us in English except for a word here and there....but TRUCK is the one thing they clearly say that we understand and we know they are speaking to us. The rest of the time they have their own language they speak to each other in...no kidding. So you see, I can infer that since they talk about TRUCKS all day long and everywhere we go... then they obviously dream about it every time they sleep and it just so happens it came true this very day in March. As you see below, they awoke to not one but TWO mixer trucks outside our home. The excitement was too much to contain. For a brief moment they were speechless. Notice I said brief....it was Truck, Truuuck, Truuuuuuck all the rest of the day. It was so neat to see them so excited and in their element. They even got a "honk" from the truck. Insert big eyes and a mouth shaped in an "O" form here:) Enjoy the pictures. They may be a little grainy because I took them with our cam corder....little did I know that the package I signed for 30 minutes prior was our camera being returned.....how ironic.

Peyton standing in awe of the 2nd truck...




Peyton pointing: "Look, mom a truck!"



Peyton



Oh so sweet, Parker giving brough "sugar"

Brough is the name they call each other...translated, brother



Two little boys so excited



It honked mom, it honked at us!

A summer day in March

The weekend of the 24th here in Georgia was just like a hot June day. Warm enough to play in the water but not miserable and humid like the days July and August are sure to bring. Daddy needed to wash his car, (yeah, brilliant idea....the yellow dusting started the very next day) so we pulled out all our summer treats to enjoy this day....water and all. Maybe we will get our camera back soon. Only 1 picture left on the disposable:(

Peyton helping daddy wash the car.

Parker "drinking" some water

Mmmmmm, popcicles. Thanks mom!

Parker taking aim at Peyton with their new Elmo sprinkler

Peyton trying to spray mommy and daddy, oh such fun!

Back to the dark ages...

As you may know, our camera has been on the blitz and is at the shop:( Our main reason we have not blogged lately....excuses, excuses. We had a small group social coming up (March 17th) and were planning an Easter egg hunt for all the kids....and I do mean ALL the kids because by chance there are 3 sets of twins in our group. Five couples, all on their first round of kids, 8 kids! So... I wanted to take pictures at the egg hunt. I broke down and bought a disposable camera and quickly realized how spoiled we have been with our digital camera and it's "see it now" availability. All this to say....we only had limited pictures and no way to tell what we were getting. I can only hope our camera will be back for Easter. Of course we practiced with the boys waaaay before the big day...and they were a hit! They knew exactly what to do...we were so proud:) I do believe they are WELL advanced for their age...intelligence that is, not height! They were on a roll until Parker discovered if you shook the eggs they made noise and if you opened them....oooooo (pronounced like you are saying moo but without the m), M&M's. Yep, it was all downhill from there. Hope you enjoy the pictures. We didn't manage to get a group shot of all the kids... 1 year-4 years, who were we kidding. It was beautiful warm weather all week and of course it turned cold for the cookout:( The boys had to trade in their spring shirts....but at least they got to wear their fun spring pants! For all you So Cal people keeping us with us....yes it was a REAL cookout...hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill. It was NOT a barbecue as there was no pig being cooked are eaten:) Oh, and by the way...we were eating supper!






Peyton (grey), Parker (blue), Olivia (standing) and Charis/Ansley(sitting)....uhhhh, I have no idea which one this is, they are identical girls one month older than the boys





Look bro (pronounced "brough"), they've got rocks...eggs, what eggs?



Parker discovering M&M's for the first time....yep, his hunt for eggs was over!


Peyton trying to figure out why all the kids were hunting HIS eggs...."when we played at home I just had to beat bro ("brough")?"


Our attempt at a family portrait...ha, ha, ha!