2.26.2012

Family Day the Park

Some friends of ours gathered up a bunch of mommy's, daddy's and the kiddos for a picnic and afternoon at the park. We thoroughly enjoyed meeting new friends and spending time as a family outdoors! I do believe this might be the last chilly weekend in Birmingham as it is supposed to warm up quite a bit!

2.15.2012

Will You Be My Valentine?

Our first Valentine's Day with the girls couldn't have been any more memorable! Did it look a little different than in year's past? You bet! Would we trade it for the world? Not a chance. Thankful for our 2 new valentines this year! They make our world quite a bit "sweeter" for sure!

This is how we started out our day...heart-shaped pancakes (we skipped adding the pink food coloring for this year!=)



the much anticipated candelight dinner date with daddy...start them out young with this tradition in hopes that they will never be available to anyone else on this day, ha! More importantly though, we pray they know they are loved and cherished by their earthly daddy, but infinitely more from their Heavenly Father!




2.12.2012

G-U-I-L-T-Y =)

It's not unusual to see THIS around our house these days (despite the fact that Maddie Grace does not take a paci) which can only mean one thing...we have a little stealer on our hands!...looks like we need to get a jump start on reading Shepherding a Child's Heart a little sooner than we had planned! =)


again...taking Makenzie's food!



devising her plan...first, make friends. Lead her to believe you're on her side =)

2.02.2012

10 Months Old-Oh My!


Dear Miss Maddie Grace and Miss Makenzie,
My how you both are changing and growing both in size and personality with every day that passes! To God be the glory for the great things He has done in your life already! You are two healthy, roly-poly little munchkins! Your daddy and I were talking last night about how it seems like just yesterday we were bringing you home from the NICU and you were so fragile and tiny and we were afraid we were going to break you. Now fast forward 10 months and we are tossing you all over the place as you giggle in delight! Amazing to see the transition from birth until now and we praise our Savior for sustaining your lives and continuing to allow you both to meet major milestones by His sovereign grace alone! We are reminded daily of Christ's love for His children as we seek to love you girls each day! An overwhelming realization that the God of the universe, who fashioned each one of us perfectly as He saw fit, loves us, pursues us, and knows every finite detail about us and about each one of you girls as well. We know that apart from His grace in your little lives, that NO good thing can come from within you girls so towards that end your daddy and I pray earnestly! We pray He would capture your hearts and that you would both desire to do HIS will, not your own, and live for His glory and His Name throughout the world! We know we have a huge task of leading and modeling a love for Christ and we pray for God's grace in OUR lives as we seek to do just that! Thank you girls for letting us be your parents and for showing us how to be more like Christ on a daily basis. We love you both with a love we never knew existed until you two came along!
Love, Mommy and Daddy

Things you girls are INTO these days:

-love to bang anything and everything together and see how loud you can make it!

-LOVE playing with each other! This has by far been the biggest new thing this month and has been SUCH fun to see you two interact! You love to be near your sister and you make each other laugh hysterically which then makes mommy and daddy laugh uncontrollably

-Also new this month, laid back and usually sweet as pie Maddie Grace has begun to steal/take EVERYTHING from Makenzie's mouth or hands-paci's, food, toys, bath tub toys, you name it, she wants it, even if she is holding the EXACT same thing!

-started a little bit of "disciplining" this month-have been telling you girls "no ma'am" when you get into things you shouldn't or when you think it's funny to spit out/blow bubbles with your food/grunt or scream for more food, etc.-we know you don't totally understand yet, but you sure seem to stop and realize that we're not using our happiest voice with you

-started really eating finger foods-bananas, avocados, blueberries, sweet potatoes, waffles, puffs, veggie sticks, peaches, peas-hasn't been the easiest as MG gags/chokes on everything-usually requires the finger sweep once per mealtime and winds up throwing up =) Delightful, but part of the process. Makenzie LOVES feeding herself and has quite a good pincer grasp and does a great job gumming the food and swallowing without choking, yay peanut!

-Makenzie officially started pulling up/crawling and boy has she enjoyed her freedom! She goes anywhere and everywhere and can successfully pull herself up! Maddie Grace can now scootch forwards, rather than just backwards but only uses one hand to drag herself to her new location-rather funny looking!

-Maddie Grace babbles quite a bit while Makenzie isn't saying a whole lot-MG said "da-da!" which made her daddy's heart melt!

-First real sickness this month that kept us inside the house for over a week-bronchiolitis +RSV + ear infection for MG= NOT FUN for Mommy =(

-Hard to keep still while dressing you girls and changing your diapers-you hate being still!

-You both look for toys now/find blocks underneath the turtle lid

-love knocking over the tower of cups and enjoy it until mommy gets tired of building =)

-LOVE reading books and touching the pages-still working on gently turning the pages

-Both of you SMILE so big when you stand up/so proud of your accomplishment!

-Maddie Grace wiggles uncontrollably and laughs deliriously when she is tired at night/when thumb goes in we know it's night night time!