3.30.2015

Ashton Kate: 17 months and counting...

17 MONTH STATS:
Height:
Weight: just over 24 pounds
Clothes: wearing mostly 18mo but some 12mo still as well!
Shoes: size 3 in sea wee sandals; 4 in Keds
Teeth: 10 with 1 more molar coming in
Dear MISS INDEPENDENT,
I’m not sure why that is your name these days because you are simply a wee one still, but alas that has become your new nickname and fits you to a T. You are fiercely independent and make that known to anyone you encounter. You think you are big enough to do anything , big enough to eat anything, and big enough to handle it yourself. Right up until the point where you need help. =) I had forgotten that this stage fits the age…now the memories of your twin sisters are flooding back in. But with this age also comes the indescribable JOY from all the cuteness you exude on a daily basis. You are simply adorable! We absolutely love watching you learn so much each day, try to speak so many new words, test out new territory, be adventurous, live such a FULL life, and giggle with delight! It’s seriously THE CUTEST so we are trying to soak up each day of it! ON the flip side, it is SO bittersweet to see our teensy tiny baby of the family turning into a little toddler with a real personality! You do way more little girl things than baby things these days and we could tear up at just how fast the months have flown by. We CANNOT wait until you begin to understand the things of God. Your big sisters have such a huger to learn and know more of His word and you aren’t quite there yet but one day soon you will be! Until then, we will keep sitting you down in the mornings for “worship time” and let you bang away on your instrument and try to “sing” like your sisters! You imitate everything they do that’s for sure! =) Goodness, we couldn't love you more if we tried. And we praise God for the sweet gift of your life that you are-feisty or not. =)
Love you so much baby girl!
Mommy & Daddy
Milestone and Memories from 16-17mo:
-Still our best sleeper in the family (maybe besides daddy! =) and we could not be more thankful for that gift to us on a regular nightly basis!
-As far as eating goes, we have officially entered the “I now have an opinion about what I eat” phase…you certainly know when the pantry doors open and you aren’t about to get what you want. The rest of the neighborhood might be aware too, who knows? J You have definite opinions now and although you are still a pretty good eater, and far better than the twins ever were, but vegetables are next to impossible to get in you now unless its back to pureed form in a squeeze pack…so that’s precisely what we do and I’m totally fine doing it. You love most fruits still and surprisingly you eat meat pretty well. You also love yogurt, applesauce, and cheese so those are natural go to’s every day! You discovered the art of dipping things and so now you will eat most chicken, meatballs, hamburgers, hotdogs, lunchmeat well just so long as you can “dip” it. We held out for as long as we could before you saw your big sisters doing it! When you are done eating you still stack it up for us on the counter beside your high chair or put it all in a pile in the corner of your tray…how sweet of you! =) And the best food in your eyes is any bites from what mommy is eating, most specifically cereal. You walk around like a bird with your mouth open waiting for your next bite. Pretty cute! And then no lie, one of the funniest things this month has been watching you yell MA, MA, MA from your high chair to get my attention. It is loud I’m telling you! You will do it when you want more or when you want to be done but it is hilarious and so loud no one can talk over you. =)
-Your happiest place on earth is still to be OUTSIDE…it’s so crazy but you yearn to be out there all day every day. It’s almost like we have a little boy on our hands…the twins were never this into going outside at this age! You bang on the door to be let outside in the back yard about a minute after you finish breakfast. Later on, you cry buckets of tears when we have to come in and even more tears if we pass the laundry room door to the garage or the front door and you aren’t taken outside. It’s quite hilarious to watch and sad all at the same time, but you are literally devastated if you have to stay in. So all that to say, you LOVE LOVE being outside and wandering free! You love walks, playing in the cul-de-sac, going down the slide, the sandbox, and playing in the house.
-Words you have added to your vocabulary this month: unbuckle/buckle (need to get this recorded it’s so stinkin’ cute!) plus it’s probably your most used word other than mama and now you added these mid-month: let’s go & here we go (3/18), gone gone, all gone, all done, down, out, and lots of others I’m forgetting. Bottom line: your little vocabulary is at the stage where it’s just exploding and so much fun! You follow all kinds of simple commands and directions and seem to understand everything we say to you-praise the Lord!
-Things you are doing these days: attempting to be fiercely independent! You also no longer are content being carried around or put in the Ergo-you want to be down to walk, explore, push elevator buttons, run, and chase your sisters. You love to play hide and seek and chase (although it is a mix between squeals of being afraid and squeals of delight!) and you also will squat low and peer around the corner when looking which is quite adorable! You’re not very good of sharing (to be expected) but you are exceptionally terrible at stealing toys from your sisters or screaming so loud until they give in and give it to you! We’re working on this each day =) You love to scurry behind things to hide from us and think it’s just hilarious (esp the rocker in your room and the leather chair in the den); when walking up sets of stairs, you will reach your hand up for us to hold, when you are hurt-you lean in for kisses from us! You still cry big crocodile tears when we drop you off in the nursery-like the kind where we have to make sure you don’t turn blue and you take a breath to breathe!  A really cute thing you’ve started doing when walking is to put your hands on your thighs or slightly behind you and walk quickly like you’re on a mission-it’s so cute! You have learned most of your body parts this month, give high fives to people, shake your emphatically yes or no, and are the queen of giving the best hugs and kisses when your sisters are sad! You love to try to make them feel better by giving them affection! It usually does the trick!

3.28.2015

A FROZEN Celebration for the Birthday Girls!

How can you two be possibly be turning FOUR years old already!?! Seriously need time to slow down...in so many ways it truly feels like yesterday when we were gathered around with friends and family celebrating your 1st birthday and praising God for his goodness and grace to bring us through that first year of life with twins and now here we are...three years later. One thing hasn't changed. We still praise God for his absolute grace and goodness through these little years. To love you girls with a sacrificial love. To cherish the days we are given with you here on earth. To live each day truly to the fullest. To capture your cuteness on a daily basis. To point you to Christ. To model a life that draws you to your Savior. Those things have remained the same and what has changed is our realization of just HOW much we need Jesus to do the work in our hearts and your hearts too. We are humbled to be your mommy and daddy and what a joy it was to celebrate YOU BOTH today surrounded by so many dear friends and family!
So of course our chances of having a warm, beautiful day near your birthday is usually pretty high-what we didn't expect was to have record low temps on the morning of your outdoor birthday party. We chalked it all up to living up to the "Frozen" theme well and much fun was had by all. Thanks to the beautiful sunshine, we were able to have a fantastic time! You two had an aboslute ball welcoming all your friends to your party-jumping, playing, eating, and then a surprise visit by Kona Ice for snow comes made for a perfect party for two adorable princesses! We love you both so much! We love seeing your joy in the little things and we hope you felt loved and celebrated today and everyday!
Even after four years, neither of you are big fans of being sung Happy Birthday to-you looked like little turtles crawling into your shells...=)
So thankful for dear friends and family who made you feel so special today!
Yay for some sunshine to warm everyone up...that and some jumping and running around with friends!
We thought snow cones would be the perfect "Frozen" treat to make these princesses smile!
Their favorite part was picking out as many flavors as their hearts desired...
Brrr....not sure if it was the snow cone or the 50 degrees, but either way these two were chilly!
Goodness you two had THE BEST time! And us mamas and dadas had a pretty good time with each other too! So grateful for sweet friendships here in Auburn! Finally feels like home here!
Missing a few friends, but happy to capture as many of them in one picture as possible!
Cute bunch of children for sure!!
Safe to say we had two pretty worn out princesses by the end of the party! =) 

3.26.2015

About Time for a TWINSIE Update...

I'm not sure I even have the words to type that would truly convey all that is wrapped up in these two precious personalities! To begin with, I would simply have to say that not much has changed in terms of JUST how different these two are and yet JUST how much they love each other. BEST BEST friends is what they are and what they share with each other. And now as they are approaching their 4th birthday, it's a joy to watch the Lord continue to mold their hearts ever so perfectly into tender-hearted Jesus loving girls. And people loving girls. And I don't mean center of attention, love to talk to stranger kind of love, but simply ones who have compassionate hearts and show concern for the less fortunate in the world. Ones who don't want to miss a night of praying for the little boys and girls who don't know Jesus. Ones who play baby dolls and pretend to travel to tell the other babies about who Jesus is and what He has done for them. Ones who want to learn their new "country" each night to pray for the people who have never heard the name of Jesus. Ones who are already asking when we are going to adopt those little children and ones who want to know when they can GO...oh how they teach us so much about obedience to the one true God! Oh how the Lord loves to use children to teach parents the ways of His word. And oh how the Lord continues to sanctify us (I pray!) through our children day in and day out if we are willing to hear what He wants to teach us through the trials and difficulties of raising children whose hearts have not been changed and whose hearts are sinful...
Maddie Grace, you remain our reserved, calculated, "quieter" of the two,while Makenzie is still our wild, loud, energetic, rambunctious one. Maddie Grace you are our perfectionist and one who loves to take pride in the work you do. Whether it is painting or coloring a picture, folding laundry or practicing tracing your letters, it will be done well, just like your daddy. Makenzie, you are our rush through it, hasty and move on to the next thing on the list kind of girl, hardly stopping to concentrate on what you are doing ever. You take your time Maddie Grace and you hurry and lose interest Makenzie.
Maddie Grace, you are our obey the rules most of the time kind of daughter whereas your sister is the break-all-the-rules and don't care what the consequence is little one right now. Makenzie, you are our peacemaker of the family, always wanting everyone to be happy. You will sacrifice your last M & M or your favorite baby doll/toy for the sake of others' joy. We pray that serves you well for the Lord's kingdom one day! Maddie Grace, you are not as quick to share (although you have really grown in this area lately!) and you can be quite stubborn. When it comes to discipline, Maddie Grace, you are usually our compliant one. However, when you are not, it is usually an all out battle and it breaks our hearts to see you out of control, throwing the biggest fit imaginable. And getting you to apologize it generally a battle of the wills. Makenzie, you are quick to apologize and just as quick to continue disobeying. Phew, you give us a run for our money and keep us on our toes.
You both love your baby sister with a fierce love. You might smother her but by golly you will not let her get hurt or cry for an instant. You both are kind and understanding beyond what we could ask of you and we're so thankful for that!
Makenzie, you are our mischievous one and you usually drag Maddie Grace along. She is quickly beginning to learn not to participate so she can avoid the punishment. The punishment never scares you away from what you are wanting to do Makenzie. =) Makenzie, you love well. You love people. you love making people happy, you are super easy to get along with, and you put others needs above your own typically. Such wonderful qualities. Maddie Grace, you have learned through having a twin, how to better give and take with others, although it doesn't come as easily for you. Maddie Grace, you have the most honest heart. You will willingly come to mommy and daddy to confess something you have done or not done. You can't stand to disappoint us and you can't stand to hold it in. You genuinely seem to feel remorse and have a deep conscience for right and wrong. What a gift! Makenzie, you are a little bit of a wild card in this area. You have learned recently that it is much better to tell the truth than to tell a lie, but you love being a "jokester" so much that it's hard to get to the truth with you at times. You tell us daily that you just love being WILD...and oh do we believe you sweet girl! And you bring out that fun side of Maddie Grace from the way the Lord has wired you.
I'm sure there are a thousand other ways that you all are different and yet compliment one another. We'll end on the fact that Maddie Grace sleeps through your screaming almost every.single.night Makenzie and has done it since the day you two were born. Maddie Grace can sleep through anything and sleeps soundly whereas Makenzie is worse than a newborn still...typically waking up 3-4+ times a night still.And the whole bedtime routine is miserable for mommy to do. Grr...but we love you still and we pray for grace each day to love you both well amidst your individual differences and weaknesses. We love you both to pieces and can't imagine life without you two!
 Things that I hope to remember about you two as you turn 4 in a few weeks...
1. You are pregnant all day every day and the number of babies you two have delivered in the past year is more than we can count!
2. You are excellent at learning bible verses and reciting them and worship songs back plus naming all the countries you have prayed for is pretty impressive as well
3. You love to play school with mommy and work on your letters, do crafts, etc
4. You play babies all day long. We could probably get rid of all your toys minus your babies and strollers/grocery carts and you'd never miss them...possibly!
5. You are the BEST big sisters ever! You will do anything and everything for Ashton Kate at the drop of a hat. You are patient with her, even when she messes your things up!
6. You enjoy taking walks and going on "adventures" as yall say. You love to collect things-flowers, pine cones, etc and you enjoy riding your scooters.
7. You love getting out of the house or having people over to play. You wake up asking what we are going to do today.
8. You seem to really enjoy CBS-the crafts, story, Ms. Stacy-so thankful you are learning so much there!
9. When you two play, you love to set up a house, build a train or airplane to travel in, or line up all your kitchen stuff. You love to pack bags and mix and match tons of different toys and put them in your grocery carts, suitcases,etc
10. You love dressing up-anything princess related is super fun for both of yall!
11. You're both pretty good eaters (MG better still) and your favorite restaurants are Cracker Barrel (because of the babies:), Jim N Nicks, and Chick-Fil-A.
12. You are both mommy's girls and you would spend 24/7 with mommy if given half a chance...which you're not far from achieving!
13. You still love reading books. You two would both sit in my lap all day long until my voice gives out reading books. It is never enough...just one more! And your favorites by far are The Berenstein Bears. Over and over again and you both never grow tired of them. A close second would be Arthur books!
14. You enjoy helping mommy bake in the kitchen. You are always willing taste-testers for muffins and cookies and you love helping add ingredients and help mix it up!
15. You both do a great job with your "chores"-making your beds, getting dressed, and brushing your teeth.
16. You love beanie babies and stuffed animals and love getting them all lined up and then treating them like real kids as you call them.
17. You love coloring, painting, playing play dough...really anything artsy.
18. You love playing with Ashton Kate if she's awake and love any and all attention/hugs/kisses you all get from her!
19. You both play SO WELL independently now-it's hard to drag you two away as you are so imaginative and creative in what you come up with to play. I simply love it!
20. You two are double trouble together. We hope we are moving past this stage but if things are quiet for too long, there's a good chance you are getting into something you shouldn't!
And lastly, everything yall do, you do together. You rarely split up from each other. You get along so well 99.9% of the time and on the rare occasion the other is on a date with mommy and daddy, you love to get home and tell the other one all about it. You would simply be lost without each other!

3.02.2015

Our BABY of the family is 16 months old!

16 MONTH STATS:
Weight/Height: not sure this month
Teeth: 4 top, 4 bottom and one top right molar coming in (ouch!)
Clothes: wearing 12 & 18 month
To our sweet little in the fam,
Goodness we love and adore you! So incredibly much! And quite possibly it’s all this doting on that is making you become quite the high maintenance, wanna be held and picked up and catered to little girl around our house these days! You will realize it soon enough, but you don’t just have one mommy around our house, but two other little girls think they are your mommy as well. They watch your every move, remove you from dangerous places, love and kiss on you often, and tote you around like a big baby doll! It’s rather adorable but you scream to let them know you’re mighty uncomfortable! =) Daddy loves taking you to run errands with him and cherishes his alone time with you-and you, well you make a bee line for the door if you think he’s going somewhere…wonder where you inherited a love for “going” from!? It truly doesn’t seem possible that you are 16 months old already! It seems literally like yesterday you were making your grand entrance into the world and here we are with a walking, talking little girl in our lives! We feel like we were just at this stage with the twins and now you have arrived here too. Boy are we trying to soak up every ounce of each stage of the little years! It’s SO busy and we can’t take our eyes off of you for one second or you are climbing on top of the sandbox lid, a table, chair, or the stairs in an instant! But goodness our hearts are full each day! We are so thankful for you little bit. You add so much joy (and work too, ha!) to our lives but we wouldn’t have it any other way! We love you, are praying for your sweet heart to know Jesus, and pray for grace to love you and lead you to the cross in the years ahead! Oh, and if you don’t mind, will you stay just this cute and little forever!?
Love,
Mama
Milestone and Memories from 15-16mo:
-Nothing major has changed in your eating and sleeping habits-for the most part you are wonderful in both areas and we are SO grateful! You still sleep just about 12 hours each night. You are like clockwork for us-we rarely hear a peep from you until morning! GRACE GRACE to us!
-You still love food and especially and kind of “snack.” When you hear the words snack, milk, or bottle you come running signing please frantically! =) You have mastered the art of using a fork and spoon pretty well and honestly it’s not nearly as messy as I remember your big sisters being! You are not the least bit thrilled with the idea of having your bottle taken away and you cry so hard if you are handed a sippy cup instead….we’ll get there sweet girl! It’s time though! You do enjoy drinking sips of water out of mommy’s cup or a tiny little open rimmed cup-just not very interested in milk in a cup yet!
-Well it’s more than official that you are practically running you are trying to walk so fast. That toddling around stage lasted less than a week before you became extremely stable and proficient! You literally went from taking your first series of steps to a week later walking everywhere you wanted to go and rarely falling! Simply crazy!
-Your favorite place in all the world to be is OUTSIDE…you stand at the door and cry to go out. You have huge crocodile tears running down your cheeks if someone goes out without you and then you throw huge fits when we have to come inside. You love playing in the backyard and coming in and out the door. Have begun to enjoy the sandbox a lot and playing on the climber toys and little house back there too!
-Second favorite place in the world is with mommy. Period. You love to be where mommy is and you cry A WHOLE LOT when left in the nursery, when mommy leaves the room, if mommy runs upstairs to get something…you get the idea! Hopefully just a stage like all things revolving around little ones. Thankfully you do calm down in the nursery within a minute or two. You will run to mommy with your arms in the air when I return and it melts mommy’s heart!
-Words you can say: mama, dada, dog, bye, uh oh (2/4), thank you, amen, out (for outside) but I have yet to ask you something or tell you do something that you don’t seem to understand. That blows my mind to see the level of understanding.  You respond to all kinds of directions such as…let's go outside, put your socks on, bring mommy ____, let’s go get in your high chair to eat, do you want your milk, let’s go bye-bye, daddy's home, go get a book, let’s put your shoes on and go outside. And most of all, you can adamantly shake your head no when you don’t want something. Lovely =)
-Things you are doing these days: you love to read books and will grab a book off your shelf and then back yourself into our lap and sign please read book =) Adorable! You have started enjoying little art activities involving scribbling with crayons or finger paints. You have no problem climbing any and everything-bookshelves, little tables, onto the couch, the picnic table, up and down the slide and stairs at the park, etc, and you are awesome at walking up and down the stairs alternating feet while holding someone’s hand. You LOVE playing with the kitchen in your sisters room and anything involving baby dolls-you feed them, wrap them up, give them a bottle & rock them…simply precious! You can often be found toting a purse or bag on your shoulder or talking on a play phone. Seems like you enjoy working on puzzles, putting shapes into correct spots, and playing with lids and containers! You seem so lost if you are awake without your sisters-you will look everywhere for them if they aren’t around and you go bananas squealing with excitement when they wake up and come down the stairs or come home from a date with daddy! Pure joy on your face! And the cutest thing we’ve enjoyed watching you learn this month is the motions to the wheels on the bus, itsy bitsy spider, if you’re happy and you know it, and a few other nursery rhyme songs. So much fun!