Three!

Three, another milestone, and you're growing up so fast Noah!

You have a very distinct personality and you are very independent, but still want to snuggle Mom all the time.  You are my little helper and always so concerned when someone gets hurt.  You have a very tender heart. 

You're getting better at staying with Nana and Papa and not being sad, but you'll always be my boy.  You even sometimes want me to do things for you rather than Daddy.  I think it might be because I have to give so much attention to your sisters.  But you know I love you and you always tell me back, I love you too, Mom.

You are by far the loudest one in the house!  We called you our "loud lemon" for awhile, but you are getting a little better at listening when we ask you to talk quietly inside.  Although you would much prefer to be outside, even for a few minutes while I get sisters loaded up into the car.  You are off fighting the "bad guys" with your sword or the bat.

You love going places, especially to church, and must wear your "special" shirt, pictured here, since everyone else does.  Not even a collared shirt is good enough, it must have buttons!

You've just about figured out how to get yourself buckled and un-buckled in the car, which is helpful sometimes, as long as you remember not to do it when we're driving!

You like music, but not always in the car, and especially not too loud in the house.  I guess you want to be the loudest one around!

You got your own special Lego kit this year and are having so much fun with it!  You are even learning to follow the directions with some help.  Pretty impressive for a three year old!

You can dress yourself and put on your own shoes, although sometimes you'd rather have me do it.  And we're having pretty good success on the potty too.

You want to do everything that big brother does and get sad when he is gone.  I sometimes forget that you're "only" three because you do so much on your own.  You're built a little differently than he is, but still just about as big!  38 pounds and 39 inches tall wearing size 11 shoes!

You know a lot of your letters and are starting to write your own name.  You like to paint and play with playdoh and pretend all kinds of things.

It's still occasionally hard to understand you, but your words are getting much clearer and the few things that you do mispronounce are pretty cute anyway!  You can say all the sounds just fine, but you switch letters in words, lots of things get T's in them that aren't normally there!  You also reference baby sisters as "she" for everything.  As in, "I woke she up" and "I fell into she's car seat".

You are so caring about other people.  You love to sing Happy Birthday to anyone, even on the phone.  And you always want to talk on the phone, no matter who I'm talking to!

You are so fun loving, my little blondie - I can't wait to see what life brings your way!

Happy Birthday Little Man!

One!

I've been sitting here for a week now, trying to figure out how to put into words... a year with twins.  But I'm not really sure I can express it so here's all the new info about them.

First and foremost, three days before her birthday, Joy started walking!  She's toddling back and forth across the room now, but this was the first night when she started walking.

Joy Walking from Krista on Vimeo.

Hope will take a couple of steps and then usually do a major face plant.  She hasn't quite figured out how to really stay up like Joy has.  But I'm sure it won't be long!

My great aunt sent the girls some cute shirts and of course they were more interested in playing with the tissue paper...

Both girls have really started climbing as much as they can.  Here's Hope, standing on the heater to get a better view out the window!  And just the other day the boys turned up one of the cushions on the couch and that was just low enough for Joy to climb right up and sit on the couch.  She was quite proud of herself!

Woo hoo, birthday picture time!
Waving on command!

Since they love to climb into this basket and sit/play anyway I figured I might have more luck containing them for pictures if I just put them in it to begin with.  It sort of worked... I took about 120 pictures that day and these are the best ones!

In all these in the purple Hope is on the left and Joy on the right.

Mr. Bunny is still quite interesting since he's not a regular toy for them.

Out?

And this one is my favorite!

The girls each got one more tooth, on the left side, Hope on the bottom, Joy on the top.  I expect the matching right ones will come in soon...

They had a doctor's appointment a few days before and while I'm not sure these are entirely accurate here are the current stats: Joy 17 lbs 9 oz 28 1/2 inches - Hope 17 lbs 15 oz 29 1/4 inches
They are just now wearing all their 12 month clothes although sometimes they will crawl right out of their pants.  I think maybe we haven't been feeding them quite enough so we upped that and while their tummies are fat after eating they don't seem quite as fussy right before the next meal time either.  It's hard to know!

At the very least I'm glad they're not as big as the boys were or especially their cousin William so I can still carry both of them at the same time around the house.  Cuts down on the wailing when one gets picked and the other doesn't...

Birthday Girl!

Hope

Joy

Joy really loves books.  She will turn pages - before you're done reading - and always seems to be the one found sitting with a book on her own.  She has brought me one to read a couple of times.  Still favoring the ones with real babies in them.

She is also the sock queen.  I have to put shoes on her even if we're just going in the car to pick up Cory or she will pull off her socks and chew on them.  I can't fold laundry on the couch when they're around of they "help" me by pulling it all off onto the floor.  And Joy will go for the socks there too, anyone's socks!

And we are done taking pictures... here we go out of the basket!

Oh wait, maybe I want back in...

They are sometimes really jealous of each other, especially when it comes to me.  Hope is kind of a bully it seems, always taking toys out of Joy's hand.  She is slightly bigger.  But they both hit each other randomly and I don't think it's entirely intentional.  They just don't understand yet that it hurts the other person. 

It has finally been warm enough a few days to go outside.  This is a really typical picture of their personalities... Joy gets upset easier and all she wanted here was for me to pick her up, not take pictures!

They are not so great at communicating yet.  We're working on the sign language and they will wave their arms around when you ask if they're "all done", but half the time they will just keep eating so I don't think they know what it means.  They make sounds that sound like Mama and Dada, but so far no real connections there either.

One year... it hardly seems like it, but a year ago seems like a long time too, I just don't remember much in between...

One Thousand Posts

I feel like this post should have something to do with Arabian Nights... or maybe that's just my word association!

It's really hard to believe that I've been keeping this blog for a little over 7 years now.  Hard to believe that I've had enough to say to fill up 1000 posts.  I never could have imagined all the things that have happened in the past 7 1/2 years of married life!

From babies to travel, everything (for the most part) has been chronicled here.  I laid out, right from the beginning, the reason I was blogging and even when I discovered everyone else out in the blogosphere and now social media I think and hope I've stayed true to myself.  Not that I haven't learned a few things along the way!  I love sharing with 5 Minute Fridays and getting to read tons of new books for free is always nice!

But first and foremost this has been my online scrapbook.  I never knew it would be so important as I haven't had time to really scrapbook in over a year and I will never be able to remember all the things I want to without it.

It's funny because in light of the news that Google is doing away with their Reader on June 1st, I have also realized the friends that I've made through this blog.  So far only a very few have I met in person, but they are some of the most challenging and encouraging friends, sometimes even if they barely know I exist.  Getting to know someone through their blog, it allows them to speak into your own life too.

I'm thankful for blogging and I never imagined how THIS blog would change my life!

Here's to the next one thousand posts!

Rest...

I'm not sure what a mom of four under 5 has to say about rest... other than there's not a lot of it around here!

But it occurs to me that my life is not going to slow down much at all for quite awhile so perhaps I need to find a way to find rest in the meantime or go crazy in the process.

So what can rest look like in the middle of a busy and demanding life?

Perhaps it's a cup of tea and 5 minutes to read a good book.  Maybe a long shower while (most of) the kids are napping.  Hopefully it's time to be outside on a sunny day.

Somehow I think it's really finding rest in knowing that no matter how many things are undone at the end of the day, we have still done what was necessary.  Focusing on what's truly important and leaving the "rest" up to Him! 

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 
                                                                                               ~ Matthew 11:28 (KJV)

This is a post prompt from The Gypsy Mama. Join in?

Thankful Thursday: Spring!

I am so thankful that someone before me planted flowers at our house... they are the only thing that comes up consistently each year.  Nothing I've planted has returned!

I'm thankful that the weather is getting nicer and the boys can play outside now.  Lots of room to run around and burn off energy!

I'm thankful for different perspectives.  I tend to get stuck in a rut sometimes (just ask my husband) and even though I had to lie on the sidewalk to get the second picture it's almost hard to believe it's the exact same group of flowers.

Wordless Wednesday: On my nightstand

I'm wondering if I'm going to have to make this a regular feature on the blog after last week... things my oldest leaves on my nightstand for me to find after nap time... a super relaxed Gumby and a headless Lego man on my alarm clock.

It's Birthday Season!

Last week it was my mom's birthday.  So we had dinner and cake on Sunday.  And we brought the three ring circus!

Starting in February with my mother-in-law and then my sister-in-law, we have 7 birthdays in about 6 weeks time... and the other 4 are all my children... starting this week.

Hold me!

Home...

When I was in high school I spent a good portion of my summers working at a local church camp.  It wasn't as big as some, but it was big enough.  Big enough to feel like home.

There was one large lodge, one smaller lodge, and three individual cabins.  All told we were about 100 people every week, all crammed in for meals and shouts and singing all day long.

This is the place where I learned to do something with my faith.  To reach out and touch someone when they were hurting, even if I didn't have the words to say.  That's something I realized long after I thought I'd failed in my wordlessness.

But every Saturday the parents would arrive after lunch to pick up their kids and the staff would walk around picking up random things and cleaning the bathrooms, but it all felt hollow.  We could still be plenty loud as a staff, but there was something missing.

Even now when I go back for staff gatherings or random events it's not quite the same.  Home is that feeling when everything is right and you can't think for the joy of being that's running through your veins.  This was camp to me.

Home.  For a few weeks every summer.

This is a post prompt from The Gypsy Mama. Join in?

Ordinary...

Left on my nightstand

The days go by in slow motion. Cook and clean and do the laundry.  Change diapers, clean up messes, sooth crying babies.

Watch cartoons and fingerpaint.  Play with play dough and try not to step on the Legos.

The weeks and months go flying by and I can't remember yesterday because it was another ordinary day.

What did we eat for dinner?  Did I go to the store or not?  It's so hard to remember the details of things that are the same over and over and over again.

And yet, I don't want to forget.  The ordinary snuggles of a 2, almost 3 year old, who only wants to be held, even if I have to sit down so he doesn't break my back.

The oldest, who will much too soon be taller than I.  Who creates things out of Legos and wants to tell me all the details of the epic battles his father is waging on the Wii.

The babies, who will all too soon be walking and then running and I won't remember what it was like to watch them realize they could come to me on their own, and then do it.  Who are learning to feed themselves, but still think they haven't eaten unless I've fed them.

These are the things that happen every day until they don't.  And I will wonder when I didn't notice that they had stopped happening.

There will be other ordinary things by then.  Things to be noticed and then forgotten.

The ordinary goes on, but sometimes I want to stop and catch it, if only as a whisper in the palm of my hand. 

This was the prompt for last week's 5 Minute Friday and while I didn't have time to write it then I couldn't let it pass.

Wordless Wednesday: Basket Boy

Sisters were climbing in and out of the basket and I was (attempting to) take pictures of them.  So Noah decided he needed his photo taken in the basket too!