Consider it done!

This morning I made my first attempt in preparing the twinkies food on my own, and it was SUPER EASY! I chose to start with bananas, and the babies gulped them right up! All you have to do is peel the bananas, cut them into chunks, puree (or liquefy) them in a blender, and serve them right up!

For some reason, it makes me feel accomplished when I make them their food rather than buying it premade. In a few hours, I’m off to the grocery store to stock up on squash, carrots, apples, pears, and sweet potatoes. It looks like I can mark this one off my bucket list. Consider it a success!!! :)


YUMMY!!!



Perfectly Pureed!!!

Here goes nothing!


"I'll have seconds."


The most perfect little toes...



For those of you that don't know, Brooklyn owns the place. :)

Goals for the week

What are your primary goals right now? You can tell a lot about a person by what their current goals are. I’m thinking more in terms of short-term goals rather than the long-term ones. There is a significant difference in the two.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said the following about goals: "To achieve happiness, we should make certain that we are never without an important goal." It’s simple. But it’s true.

I’m not one for making lists (Sorry-I could be halfway done with the task at hand before I get my list prepared) but I do like to have a few short, attainable goals in mind to keep me motivated and moving forward. I like to sense that I am progressing in some type of direction and that there is meaning in my every day routines. The most important thing to me is having several “mini-goals” so that I feel I can actually achieve them in a short period, and don’t talk myself out of being able to do them before I even get started….

This week I have two main goals: 1) De-cluttering our home and 2) Learning how to make the twin’s baby food on my own. Earlier I said you can tell a lot about a person by what their goals are. Does that mean I have a not-so-perfectly-clean-home on occasion and could possibly be wanting to save a little money? Maybe. Or maybe not. :) I must say it is amazing to me how fast our home can get messy. When we wake up on Sunday to a mostly clean home and we get the babies ready for church, then leave and come home, I’m a bit embarrassed to say the house is typically a whirlwind of scattered bows, baby shoes, nightgowns, soggy diapers (Major EWW), half-finished bottles, leftover breakfast…you get the idea.

But they say it takes 21 days to break a habit, so does that mean I have 21 Sundays to go in keeping a clean home before I can achieve it? Whew that’s close to half a year! Better luck next time Lindsay! But I would say I am about 65% to my goals for this week, which is impressive to me since we are not quite halfway through the week…so here is to a super-clean home and delicious homemade baby food that the babies just can’t resist!!! :)

Being a stay-at-home mommy

So, I realize that basically all of my blog posts are about my sweeties, but at the same time, they are what consumes my life.

Being at home with them and watching them grow, interact, and develop new skills is such a blessing.

Sometimes I forget how nice it is that for the most part, my worries don't stretch beyond these four walls.

Last Saturday while we were at Freed for my sister's graduation, I started thinking about how much I appreciated not having to think about Monday and what a work day would involve.

Now that the babies are six months old and we are starting to slow down (just a TAD bit) into some form of a routine, I am taking time to evaluate my life to ensure my priorities are in order. The first three years of a baby's life are what impact them most, and I want to do everything I can to help them grow into Godly, well-rounded, gentle, confident individuals. Don't we all? But I know that in order to do that for the babies, I have to be able to do it for myself. And there is a certain weight that I feel with that responsibility.

I can't say that being a Stay-at-home mom is any easier than working full-time in the "real" world. My shifts are of course 24 hours, but my independent shift is 16 hours. I get help with 3-4 feedings a day, but I do anywhere from 8-12 on my own. I try to sleep when the babies do, but from 12:00 AM to 9:00 AM I still am getting up anywhere from 4 to 15 times depending on the night. No matter how tired I may seem or how pale I may get from lack of sleep, I can honestly say I truly enjoy it all. It is so nice to be needed, to see a smile come across one or both of the twins faces when I peer over their crib to check on them...I can tell how much they trust and appreciate that I am there in a matter of seconds.

I have realized it doesn't matter how dirty the diapers are, how messy the solid food feedings get, how all over the place the house may seem...what matters is the number of smiles the babies give throughout the day, the number of giggles I can prompt, two full bellies and two (somewhat) clean outfits...

Next week I will celebrate 3 years of marriage to my sweetheart and my best friend. In July, we will be together 5 years all in all. It has all went by so quickly!

Before I head off to bed, here are a few words of gratitude to the love of my life. I love you babe! You are the greatest!

My dearest Billy:
It's hard to believe that we have already been married for three years, and together for nearly five years! Like everyone always says, the time has absolutely flown by. I still remember meeting you for our first date...taking extra time on my hair, wearing a green shirt to "hopefully" accent my eyes (HA!), feeling a bit nervous, and of course...the double clutch hug. Who could forget that? Certainly not you. :) I always knew we would marry. Months before we even went on our first date, and when we had only probably said a handful of words to each other, I knew you were the one. You came into my life at exactly the right moment, and you have made my life both feel and be complete.

Thank you for being such a wonderful best friend, husband, and father to our children. I don't thank you enough for everything you do. For getting up every morning to go to work to make money to support our family...for setting your clock and making sure we get up for church every Sunday...for changing dirty diapers and feeding babies bottles the moment you walk through the door even though I know you must be tired from a long day....for never complaining when the house isn't so-so...I really do notice and appreciate just how amazing you are.

More importantly, thank you for our children. They are our biggest accomplishments and blessings in life. When we went on that first date, who would have thought that a few years down the road we would have our smiling Billy and peacock Brooklyn sitting in front of us already? God is so good. To Him be the glory. Thank you so much for working hard so that I can be at home with them. I know sometimes the lack of sleep may be tiring, or the constant feedings/rockings/diaper changes may be a bit exhausting, but I enjoy every single moment of being with our babies. Thank you for letting me be here to hear their coo's...to see their smiles...to rub their sleepy noggins... to rock them to sleep...to make them laugh...to read to them...to applaud them while they roll over or sit up...to feed their hungry bellies...to talk to them about God and how much He loves them...I don't take a second, minute, or hour for granted.

The twins and you have taught me to live in the moment. To appreciate each and every detail that may seem simple or monotonous to some, but to me are some of God's greatest gifts.

Like the saying goes, "We may not have it all together, but together we have it all." I love you with all my heart.

Love Always,
Linds

The luckiest

I always hoped I would have twins. It’s funny the kinds of reactions you can get when people realize you have/are having twins. I have gotten everything from “bless your heart” to “you poor thing” to “what a blessing.” I always take each comment with a smile, and a bit of reflection, because I know how lucky I am.

Billy and Brooklyn are my two biggest accomplishments in my life, and also my two biggest blessings.

And in case you didn’t know it, they are the two most beautiful children in the world. And I’m not one bit partial so there is no argument there. :)

Someone passed on an exciting article to me a few days ago that discussed mothers of twins. It stated the following: “Researchers at the University of Utah report in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B that women who have twins are more likely to live longer, have more children over their lifetime and have offspring closer together, compared with women who had singletons...So rather than directly playing a role in longevity, having twins may be a marker of some yet unknown factor that leads to long life. "It's not that you can go out and have twins in order to live longer," says Smith. "It's more that twinning is a reflection of an innate feature that we can't yet identify that leads to longer life."

Talk about exciting news!!!

Before I had children, I was incredibly nervous to hold or interact with other people’s babies. I viewed it as such a huge responsibility. To put it in perspective, before we had the twins, I hadn’t changed a diaper since my sister’s seven year old son was a baby.

But it’s funny how naturally some things can come to you, and for those things that don’t, just pay close attention to Netty and Nenny and you will catch on.

Billy and Brooklyn are constantly teaching me things about themselves, this world, and about myself. I have decided to start keeping a list, some are funny, some are sentimental. Here are a few starters:

1. Baby poop really can smell that bad. :)
2. Girl babies can in fact pee on you more than boy babies. That is a total myth about boys.
3. For a girl that use to have a serious issue with spit or drool, it’s amazing how quickly I’ll grab some off a chin and wipe it on my pants or shirt. :)
4. The best smiles are the sleepy, fuzzy-haired smiles at the 3:30 AM feedings.
5. I can in fact sleep in 45 minutes increments for days at a time while the babies go through growth spurts, are teething, or are feeling a little restless.
6. My singing voice must not be as bad as I thought, because I sure get some sweet smiles when I sing “Leaving on a Jet Plane.” :)
7. I have super speed when it comes to feeding two babies solid food at the same time-SKILL.
8. Some babies like to go to sleep to a bottle and a nice fast rock. Some babies like to go to sleep by simply being laid down.
9. Baby Powder and Baby lotion= Purely blissful and calming scents.
10. Puppies fascinate babies. Billy and Brooklyn have been following Boo around with their eyes and Billy recently starting laughing at him when he is nearby.
11. Babies are incredibly observant, and way smarter than we imagine.

In closing, I must say that there is nothing quite like holding your son or daughter while they sleep as a baby. I may not know who they may marry one day, what their favorite color will be, what their favorite flavor of ice cream will be, what they will want to study in school, or what sports (if any) they will play…but in that moment, I know that they are safe, secure, and in the one person’s arms that love them more than anything or anyone in this world (Sorry Billy- I know you love them as much :)). It is INDESCRIBABLE.