Lilly and Dad

Daddy sure does love his little girl..

And I think she might like him a little too!!

SOLD!

Our house is sold!

Saturday morning we had three showings in a row, so we hung out over at my mom's and hoped that someone would love it enough to make an offer. Lo and behold, Saturday afternoon one of them made and offer and we counter offered and they accepted! So as long as everything goes through, pretty soon that will be a done deal. On the market less than two weeks!

That's the good news..

The not so good news is that we can't find a house we like. I find the perfect floor plan in a horrible neighborhood or a beautiful looking neighborhood full of brand new houses with floor plans that make absolutely no sense to me. Oh well.. trying to stay excited about finding the perfect home that is in our price range! It's out there somewhere.

In the mean time.. mom, please empty out a room for us. The Griswalds may be coming to stay with you!

"Excuse me, Boys!"

I forgot to add this tid bit to the post about the doctor's office visit. We had both babies in diapers and I was walking Lilly around outside of our little room to avoid further melt down, when a polite nurse looked at my pretty little GIRL and said "aren't you handsome?!" Poor thing. I guess I should paint a bow on her head or something!

Anyway, it reminded me of a funny story that makes me laugh every time I think/talk/write about it!! One summer when I was little, my older sister and I were at Vacation Bible School at our church . We both had really short boy hair cuts and we were dressed casually (in shorts), waiting by the door for my mother to pick us up. In walked an older gentleman and seeing that he almost hit us with the door he said "Excuse me boys!" I don't remember exactly what happened, but I remember crying when my mom came to pick us up and to this day my mother will not accept the fact that the man thought we were boys. She thinks he was kidding!

Yea, real funny, old man.. real funny. Emotional scars aside..

13 Months Old!

Nate and Lilly turned 13 months old yesterday, July 22. I can't believe their first birthday has come and gone and a whole other month has already flown by too! What's new this month? Let's see.. they are both trying to talk more now, but not quite using any recognizable words. Nate says "ba!" for ball, and Lilly says "da!" for pretty much everything. Me: Book? Lilly: da! Me: Ball? Lilly: da! They love music and are becoming quite the little dancers when the right song comes on. Then they look at me like "C'mon mom, you dance too!" It's too cute.

I don't see much of the front of them anymore, as they are too busy crawling away to the next adventure every second of every day! They may stop for a few minutes to enjoy a book or play with a toy, but not long! They are walking along the table and couches, and with their walker toys, but no steps by themselves yet. They are both eating table food and drinking whole milk- no more bottles!

Now for the best part- pictures! I have no idea where this face came from, but Nate was doing it yesterday every time he saw the camera!
See..!

A few more days of gummy smiles!

This is pretty much my view all the time now..
Official 13 Month pictures in our jammies.

13 Month Stats

We finally got Nate and Lilly in for their "one year" check-up this morning. I guess my doctor is busy because I had to schedule this appointment almost two months ago! The appointment took FOREVER and we were in this tiny 2X2 room for over an hour holding wiggly babies who wanted to get down on the floor with God knows what else crawling around down there.. eeeww. Anyway, by the time the big bad vaccine lady came in, Brian and I were almost as fussy as Nate and Lilly! Poor things, these seemed like the worst shots yet. One shot on each arm and one on each leg! Ouch! They were soooo over it!

Ok, so here is what we got for stats:

Nate the Great:
Height- 29.5 inches
Weight- 22.4 pounds
Head Circumference- 18.25 inches
(overall- 50th percentile for boys)

Lilly Goose:
Height - 29.75 inches
Weight - 22.2 pounds
Head Circumference- 18.5 inches
(overall 75th percentile for girls)

Fortunately, Nate is catching up to Lilly (even passing her by two ounces on the scale) but he is still a little small compared to other boys his age! Oh well- 50% sounds just about right to me! Crawling has definitely slimmed them down a bit.. and me too! PHEW! It is a work out!

And how could I forget- he said Lilly had three teeth about to break through (one on bottom and two on top) and Nate had two more on top about to come in! So I guess Lilly won't be "gummy" forever after all.

These pictures are a couple weeks old, but I can't write a post without pictures!!

Control?

So I googled the words "Bible verses about stress" this morning and read through a lot of verses that I liked a lot. One of my favorites was the following:

"In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength." (Isaiah 30:15)

We just put our house on the market. We don't know where we want to be, but know this is not the right place for us anymore. It has been a great starter home, but we outgrew it very quickly after the arrival of Nate and Lilly. Everything is up in the air, and I have no idea how it will all play out. Will anyone want to buy our house? Will we find a house that we like, or more importantly, that we can afford? Will it be the right choice for our family? Will the timing be right? Times like these make me anxious, because I have no control. But they also remind me that we never really have control, we only perceive we have control. I have been thinking a lot this morning about God's will and trying to remember and trust that He will put us right where we need to be, even if that means we have to stay in our current house. He had His own timeline for our precious babies that because we didn't understand, caused us a lot of grief and tears. Had we only seen a glimpse into our future, known how happy we would be when all was said and done, not one tear of sadness would have ever been shed. I am trying to focus on that now, when I want to throw up from worrying. He is in control and He knows exactly what will happen, even if we don't. That makes me feel a little more at peace. I know that if not being able to sell our house or not being able to find a house to buy is the worste of our problems, then we are really lucky.

Here are some other good ones:

"Your Father knows what you need before you ask him. So do not worry, saying 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Today's trouble is enough for today." (Matthew 6:8b, 31-34)

"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." (2 Corinthians 12:9)

"Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!" (Psalm 27:14)

"Be still, and know that I am God." (Psalm 46:10a)

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight." (Proverbs 3:5-6)

Happy Birthday Mom!

I am a little late, but my mom had a birthday last weekend! My sisters and I ditched our kids for the day Saturday and headed out to the Weatherford Peach Festival . In a word, it was.. HOT! We didn't get out there until almost noon and we walked around downtown and looked at all the cool vendors and antique stores in the square. It was really neat, but hot (did I mention it was hot)? It was the first time we have been together without kids in a LOOONG time! We always keep each other laughing. It was good times.

Mom, I love you! No matter how old I get, "home" will always be wherever you are.

I mean, seriously!

You tell me. How could anyone have a bad day when it starts out with these faces??

My babies first thing in the morning..

Black and White

No, not the Michael Jackson song.. just more fun with the July 4th photos..

Cutest boy ever..

Tell us how you really feel, Nate!

My angel.

Updates!

Lately our evenings have been so crazy, that by the time the babies are in bed my body and brain are all but paralyzed and I don't have the energy to put my pajamas on, let alone all the housework and everything else I need to be doing. I don't know what is sucking all of my energy (I'm sure the TX heat is part of it), but the babies have been a lot more high maintenance than usual, and since they are crawling I am just following them around all over the house removing them from rooms, putting stuff they have pulled out of drawers back, trying to find ways to entertain them so they don't have time to get bored and fussy. It seems they are so tired/hungry/thirsty/bored from the time we get in the door at 5:30. Why are babies so fussy around dinner time? On the weekends and when we are together all day, it is the same- they seem much more mild tempered all day and always get fussy around dinner time! I cherish that time with them in the evenings, but it has been a little rough lately!

In other news... Lilly's fever went away, but no tooth yet either! That sucker has been right there on the surface forever!! I would take her to the doctor if she had any sign of something being wrong, but she is perfectly fine- just fussier than normal!

We now have forward facing babies! Brian turned all of our car seats around last weekend. I love that I can just look back and see them and they can see me! I could have left them rear facing longer, but my husband is very tall and was having a very hard time trying to shove himself in my car and his truck. Nate and Lilly have always loved the car for the most part, so I don't think they mind either way! They seem to like looking forward, but yesterday I saw Nate trying to look out the back window, like "wait, I am used to looking out back there!".

One more thing- these one year old babies have officially been off formula since their birthday and drinking good ol' Vitamin D-filled whole milk! I put most of the bottles away but still use them at night every once in a while. The rest of them will probably be put away this weekend. I was so relieved to not have to wash the 5 piece Dr. Brown's bottles anymore, but now I am washing 3 or 4 piece sippy cups! What's the difference?!? AHH!

After all is said and done, at the end of the day I have these chubby cheeks to squeeze and kiss all over so I can't complain too much!

Lilly.. before and after

Here is a before and after shot of Lilly that I took of her sitting on the bridge by herself. This is the only one I have had time to edit so far. All I really did was change some of the coloring because I think it was overexposed (I guess?). I could do a lot with the shots I took if I only had the time! More later..

Speaking of Lilly, she has been running a low fever last night and today. I hope it is just her tooth coming in. It looks so painful. She has no other symptom of anything being wrong. No runny nose or cough and she is eating and sleeping just fine. Here's to hoping that tooth comes in QUICK!!

Happy Independence Day!

Happy July 4th everybody! We made an attempt at pictures, but it was just too darn hot so I didn't want to spend too much time outside. I need to see if I can edit these photos and get them looking better. I'll do that with all my spare time this weekend.. haha.

Twin babies.. pregnancy and the early days!

About four months pregnant in February 08

20 week ultraound-Lilly

Nate

Easter- getting pretty big!

Registering for baby showers with sisters
Baby shower my sisters threw me in April!

Friends baby shower at Ashley's- SO FUN!

Work shower thrown by my great friends at work- it was a SURPRISE!

The next week, on May 21- I was put on bed rest because Nate was ready to come meet us to early! I was only 31 weeks.

Going to the doctor to check progress-35 weeks- thanks for staying in there, babies!

A few days later, it was time! Babies were born very early June 22. Nate came first.Lilly followed about 15 minutes after.

Three weeks old
Eight weeks old