Life on the Run

watwood kind of weekend

2012-02-14T15:57:00.013-06:00

with 3 kids & 2 active parents, every weekend is a whirlwind around here!! a fun whirlwind, but a whirlwind nonetheless!
we started on saturday (obviously) & sissy had softball tryouts. she is playing coach-pitch for midway little league & this has totally been her doing. we got a thing in the mail & told her about it, & she was game-on from there! sweet girl is not very competitive & has never really played softball/baseball, but after buying her some equipment & practices with daddy in the backyard, i think our little softball player is going to be just fine :). shane is going to be her head coach (surprise!) which i absolutely love. i know there will come a sport/day when he is not her coach, but at these young ages she has been playing sports i feel so good knowing she is under a coach who is gently instructing, praising, & making sports FUN! thanks daddy :). saturday happened to be about 35 degrees and sissy went last in the alphabetical line-up. apparently she spent some time freezing her booty off in the dug-out!

each player got 3 at-bats & sophie was 1 of only 2 girls to hit the ball 2 of the 3 times. shane took this on his phone real fast when she was booking it to 1st ;).
as soon as shane & sophie got home, i booked it to a baby shower with my mama. not just any baby shower, a super special baby shower for my very first friend ever & her TWIN BOYS!! her name is reagan & we have been friends since pre-school. she now lives in LA where she is a VERY talented jewelry designer & her twins are due in may. my mom & i put together baskets of things i LOVED when my twins were babies...aden+anais swaddle blankets, trumpettes socks, electric booger-sucker, etc! here i am with the expectant mama below & may i just say WOW! pretty unfortunate when you are 6 months pregnant with twins & looking like this, no ;)??
the second i got home from the shower shane was off to interview prospective deacons & basically it was one of those days where we saw each other for maybe 1o minutes. shoot.
on sunday my brother & his wife came to town with their 2 little boys (they live in austin). sophie is always thrilled to play with her cousins & (just like i said last weekend) everybody is always thrilled to spend the day at the mayborn. a little of what we were up to there...

liam letting the air-blower give him an awesome hair-do (not what it was intended for)...uncle brian giving culley a lift...

liam trying his hand at making a giant bubble...(and y'all can't you see TOTAL STINKER written all over this face?? sheesh!!)

sophie & sawyer (the cousins closest in age) cracking up together...

and some success in the bubble-making department!!

this picture is neither here nor there but it cracks me up!! i made some rice on sunday & gave cullen a little bowl of it. there was salt on the table & i was up doing something & he brought this to me. all of that white is salt & you can see his rice barely peeking through!! ha! (don't worry, we did not let him eat it :))

finally after the crazy weekend, shane & i got to go on a date sunday night. we were celebrating valentines day a little early & it was wonderful!! no one around to take pictures so a little self-documentation...
where did we go eat to celebrate valentines day?? jason's deli!! oh yes we did!! we followed that up with going to the movies to see extremely loud & incredibly close. i was very excited to see it with its all-star cast of characters and was SUPREMELY disappointed. disappointed as in, it was one of the worst movies i have seen in a long time. i was telling shane, there are some movies you go to knowing they will be dumb but you expect it (house bunny, can't hardly wait, dude where's my car, etc). but a movie about 9/11 with tom hanks & sandra bullock you expect great things from...so when it is dumb it is a supreme disappointment. and sorry to any of you out there that loved it :).
i guess our weekend technically ended on monday morning. my mom made these blankets for each of my kiddos so i wanted to show her a little bloggy love :). they have been using them constantly & i love their little bleary-eyes selves all cuddled up together!!
and lastly, what is a morning without shaving with dad?? please note that razor does not have a blade. ANY time cullen knows daddy is shaving, he is right there to shave too. precious.
nothing deep or personal, just little glimpses into our life. we are healthy, our kids are healthy, our bills are paid, God's grace is (thankfully) deep...a blessed life, indeed. happy valentine's day!!

fill-in-the-blank friday!! (way-super-late)

2012-02-10T08:07:00.007-06:00

1. I started my blog because...i wanted out of town family & friends to be able to watch sophie grow & to keep up with our fertility journey.
2. One thing I love seeing on other blogs: when people are real & honest. i can't handle blogs where the mamas are all la-la-la-our-wonderful-easy-perfect life. where they do a million crafts a day with their kids who were potty-trained at 10 months and cook an organic dinner every night while wearing full makeup and tall boots. but maybe that's just me ;)??
3. Something I love about blogging is...one, i love the blogging community. i love comments from people i do not even know & reading their blogs too! two, i love sharing about our life & then out of town friends or whomever being able to know what is going on in our lives, how our kids are growing, etc.
4. A favorite blog post of mine is shane's guest post. he did it last year & wrote about the challenges & joys of being a dad to his princess & his twinadoes :).
5. Something my friends in real life know about me that I've never before mentioned on my blog is that i CANNOT be quiet!! i try, i really do but keeping my mouth shut is painful & truly i cannot whisper. it tickles that little thing that hangs down in the back of my throat & makes me cough/need to gag. i am afraid i do not have a "gentle & quiet spirit!" :)
6. My favorite blogs to read are lots of my real-life friends--amy, becki, ginny, caryn, kate, stephanie, sarah. then there are blogs that i have just "found" out there in cyber-space that i love too--kelly's korner, praying for lucy, "EB"-ing a Mommy, & multiples&more.
7. Some things I tend to avoid doing on my blog are...being anything but honest. i want to encourage other moms who, like me, think motherhood is the hardest job they have ever done. the most rewarding, yes, but also the hardest. i want glimpses of our life to remind ANY of you that you are not alone in navigating your way through this life that sometimes feels like it does NOT have a road map! we are all going through it together!!
hope you all have a wonderful weekend!! ours is jam-packed, but with very exciting things!! talk to you soon :). xoxo!!

our saturday, watwood style!

2012-02-05T10:29:00.013-06:00

hmmm, what did YOU do on saturday?? my mom & i played with the kids all day while shane, um, RAN 50 MILES!! i am dead serious.

shane has been in a 50-miler before but it was called off about 20 miles in because of storming & lightening. he has been pretty close-lipped about this one because he did not want everyone to know about it if for some reason he was unable to finish. the race was in huntsville and he left waco about 3 am on saturday morning. i woke up to this text (right before the start):he said it was raining raining raining at the start but was not to be deterred!! this is what the trail looked like that he was running on--crazy!!

about this time my mom & i were loading up the miniWatwoods for a trip to the mayborn museum. i have said this before but i would die to know how many times we have been there since sophie was born. well into the hundreds. and amazingly...they are all STILL excited to go there every time!!

in the reading room i asked cullen to give me a smile...this pic KILLS me...ha!

sissy was also a perfectly happy little firewoman!! there are no words to describe the heart that Jesus put in this girl. she is perfectly innocent & perfectly happy to spend her saturday playing at the mayborn with two 2-yr-olds. she is not so awesome because we are awesome parents (ha! have you met our boys??) but it's just the spirit Jesus graced her with. i LOVE being her mama!!

i think about this time shane was running through more of this...

we headed off to the foreign country room where cullen continued cracking us up!!

sissy got in on the dress-up fun too!!

after the mayborn we headed home for naps. my mom was gracious enough to continue blessing us with her presence & we watched the baylor men score a W while the littles slept. we decided to go shopping when they woke up which was a BAD call!! the boys hate being in their stroller now but they have no choice, so they pretty much hollered for an hour while we scooped up some new clothes for them for an upcoming photo shoot & a new dress for sissy. then she was lucky enough to go to dinner & to see "gotta sing! gotta dance!" with lucy, lorelei, hollyn & their mamas. we had planned on taking the boys to the mall for dinner & playing, but we were d.o.n.e. chasing them & disciplining them & they needed to get out of the car too. so we grabbed a pizza, went to eat it at boppy & nana's, went home & called it a night.

and ALL THIS WHILE...shane was still running!! i think this pic was about halfway...that's one marathon in, one to go...

after all 3 of my littles were snug as a bug in their beds, i got a call from shane (about 9:30)...he was DONE!! HE RAN 50 MILES!! i teared up with pride when he told me.

he ran for over 14 HOURS!! and burned over 5,000 calories (which i am sure has not crossed his mind, but did mine...such a girl thing!). he had so much to say about his race! things like...

-the aid stations were stocked with food! at your normal marathon, you are lucky to get orange slices & jelly beans. at this race, they had quesadillas, breakfast tacos, doughnuts, pb&j's, trail mix, chips, chicken noodle soup, chips...all throughout the race!! obviously caloric consumption is important over 50 miles & they made it a very yummy task.

-get this--he DUCT-TAPED his nipples before the race!! i asked his permission to write that & he said sure ;). he had been told band-aids would slip & slide & come off (esp. in the rain) so duct-tape it was! he was worried (obviously) about the removal but said it was not nearly as bad as he expected (though did of course provide a little hair removal-ha!).

-he changed shoes 2 times & socks 3 times during the race. he said when you take your shoes off they steam...so much heat escaping! the shoes will now go in the trash. possibly after SEVERAL loads of laundry the socks will be salvageable.

-i was CRAZY nervous about shane running this race for some reason. NERVOUS. i so wanted to go with him but just couldn't swing it childcare-wise. i know his FIERCE determination & that he would not quit if he was bleeding & who knows what else. i could just see him stumbling around dehydrated in the woods alone...being put in some hospital in huntsville incoherent...with no ID on him. i made sure he had TWO types of ID on him & made him promise to call me throughout (he did). i was SO pleasantly surprised at how good he sounded both during & after. he stayed at a hotel there last night & drove home this morning. and seriously?? today he is FINE. sore & a little hobbly :), but fine.

and now...it is sunday & we are doing NOTHING!! i want a break from the kids & shane wants a break from his feet :)!! glory to God, forever...

fill-in-the-blank friday!

2012-02-03T12:34:00.009-06:00

hi friends!! it's friday...AMEN!! linking up with lauren again at www.thelittlethingswedo.blogspot.com for...

1. If money wasn't an issue, the first thing I'd cross of my life list is...i would buy a condo at the saida towers in south padre. yes that's a totally selfish answer, not a generous one but i would LOVE to do that!! it is close enough to go like monthly for long weekends, girls trips, life group getaways, etc. now charitably speaking :) i would like to anonymously fund people's IVF's. nothing breaks my heart like precious godly people wanting their own child & not being able to afford it.

2. Something I like that other people think is weird is...i think i am pretty boring in this regard!! i do always order sandwiches "plain & dry." no condiments or lettuce & tomato on my chicken sandwich thank you very much!! oh i know one that shane thinks is nasty...a cold hot dog weinie wrapped in a cheese slice. yum!! i do this before bed if i am hungry because the protein fills me right up.
3. If my life were a movie right now, the title would be..."welcome to the circus!" shane & i always say we should play big-top music at our house 24/7 because it is ALWAYS a circus!!

4. Three things I am looking forward to this month are...Valentines day with my big Valentine & with my 3 little loves too; shane having a 4-day weekend next week; shane starting (another!) new job february 13th!! details on that last one to come :).

5. My favorite song to sing in the shower is...usually whatever i have been listening to on the radio. i just asked shane what i sing in the shower & he said i sing a lot of drew greenway (he is our worship pastor), but is that awkward?? ha!

6. If I found out that the production of...phenergan &/or zofran...was ending this month, I'd go out and buy as much as I could tomorrow.
7. One thing I'll never grow tired of is...snuggling & kissing my children & spending time with shane. never ever ever!!

p.s. although the weather this week has been weird (warm & muggy in february??), i have loved spending our afternoons outside. here's a glimpse of our afternoon today...

*cullen* putting safety first on his trike...

*sophie* striking a pose (girlfriend loves to pose!) with her new softball equipment...(she is starting little league this spring!)

& *liam* being totally cute but totally mischieveous looking!!

blessed mama, indeed!! have a wonderful weekend!!

wordless wednesday

2012-02-01T07:55:00.001-06:00

keep the prayers coming!!

2012-01-27T12:49:00.003-06:00

happy friday!! a lot of people have been asking me how my sweet friend wren is doing so i want to let her words speak for her...

*Hi friends,Well due to a pulled muscle in my chest the doctor ordered a cat scan on my chest yesterday to make sure it was not a pulmonary embolism... which can happen during chemotherapy treatment. There was no blood clot so we now know that it is just a muscle around my lungs. The doctor saw Brian and I today to go over results of what the cancer in my lungs looks like now.... He gave us tough news that every spot of cancer in my lungs has grown significantly during the past two months while I was having radiation of my rectal tumor and a low dose of chemo. This was not what we wanted to hear. What this means is my cancer is very aggressive and grows faster than 'normal' colon cancer. So my month off to rest and recover is not going to happen. My final radiation therapy is Tuesday the 24th and I will go straight into the aggressive chemo treatment I was on before that started to shrink the spots. The treatments will be every 2 weeks with cat scans every two months until it shrinks the cancer away or stops works in which time we would have to switch treatments. This fight is a marathon and I have to stay strong to be able to endure it. God gives me the strength I need each day. I am praying that this is the last of the bad news doctor visits for me... I want to start seeing significant shrinkage at each scan from here on out until it is completely out of my body. I believe God can and will take this cancer completely out of my body so I can be here with my beautiful family. I need all of my warriors to believe so for me too and to ask God for it each day. While today feels like a setback we remember that God is so much bigger than cancer. This means no month off so vacation will look a little different for us. Brian and I decided we still need the getaway to change our surroundings and enjoy spending a quiet restful week together so we have the energy we need to face this. We will spend several days at a resort in the hill country the week after my first strong chemo. We know I could be sick and tired but still feel we can enjoy the time with each other and it will be good for us. Thank you all for continuing with us on this difficult journey. Father God thank you for sending so many to encourage and lift us up. Please bless them for the time they spend praying for me and my family and for the gifts they continue to send to us. Lord God thank you for the beautiful family you have blessed me with and for the sweet husband I am a lucky gal. God I beg you to hear our prayers and for you to remove every spot of cancer from my body so I can spend more time on this earth taking care of my sweet family. I pray all these things in Jesus Christ's sweet name. AMEN.*

so...she starts her chemo on monday. she is feeling pretty well right now & my friend lee ann & i got to take her for a pedicure yesterday. you would never even know this girl is sick!! she is beautiful & simply radiates the joy of the Lord. i am SO thankful the Lord brought the horn's to waco & that all of us at harris creek have had the privelege of walking alongside of them during this journey. ANY time i am feeling sorry for myself or am lamenting some dumb thing i am going through i think of the grace with which she is facing this adversity & am quickly humbled. i cannot think of 1 thing i want more in 2012 than to see God heal wren. i am going to leave you with a picture she posted of her gorgeous daughter so you can revel in the miracle of HER life & beg God to now perform one in the life of her sweet mama!!
darling, right?? i hope you all have a WONDERFUL weekend & revel in every breath you are priveleged to breathe!! God is good, all the time..

all-over-the-map tuesday

2012-01-24T07:14:00.012-06:00

we have 2 trouble-makers living here on tahoe trail. i will not reveal their identities. they are incognito.
#1:
and #2:

we are into something new every day. some(most)times it is exhausting, but also pretty amazing watching them explore the world & watching them find out that x2 they can accomplish/destroy/etc x2 as well!! daddy was vacuuming out the inside of my van & they got the BIGGEST kick out of the vacuum attachment!! sophie was always TERRIFIED of the vacuum so we were cracking up at their love of it!! here's liam showing culley how it sucks your hand right down...

liam finds it delightful!! (& apparently had just eaten/drank something orange??)

okay so the other night i was doing my very best to have dinner made by the time shane got home so the 5 of us could sit down & eat together. any mama knows, from about 3-5 pm is the WORST part of the day as littles are melting down, bigs are wound up after a full day at school, & mama is trying to pull the house & dinner together so daddy sees that something got accomplished that day. i think i was making some gourment sloppy joes or something and glanced over at the floor to see this:

since it's all white it's hard to tell but it's lots of white bubbles all over my kitchen floor!! upon opening my dishwasher (which had been running, i looked at the bottom of it & saw this:

tons more white foam! i firmly told the kids NOT to touch the bubbles so here's what cullen gave me: toe-ing the line as CLOSE AS POSSIBLE by blowing on bubbles but not touching them. ha!

he's trying to look at me innocently but his eyes give it away. he's the guilty party.

going over to the sink, i find the evidence.

empty. the boys open & close the dishwasher quite a bit & i don't really even notice anymore so apparently culley opened it & emptied it into the dishwasher. is there a gadget that childproofs your dishwasher?? i guess we need one of those too. heavenly days. (on the up-side, once the mess was cleaned up, my kitchen floor was EXTREMELY clean!!)

on a different, much more heart-warming note, the boys have been LOVING the Bible lately. we read them little stories out of it before bed & stuff but lately they are both hollering to sleep with their Bibles in their beds. it is hard to get mad at them when we are trying to hurry through their bedtime routine & they are hollering for their Bible!! so the other morning before school i go into sophie's room to see this:

cullen had taken his little Bible to sophie & she was reading it to him. sweet little muffins having their quiet time before school ;). talk about warming a mama's heart! moments you want to remember forever.

last night was my lucky night because i got to go eat yummy dessert with my friends at olive garden!! oh how we all need that down time with ladies who understand right where you're at...and never judge. ladies you can laugh with and shovel italian donuts dipped in chocolate down your throat with & escape being needed by little ones for just a couple of blissful hours. i have known these girls since high school & am better for it.

i must admit that i am guilty of thinking i need nights like that. that i deserve them, simply because i exist. i read this fabulous article that, in a nutshell, was saying the more we feel like we deserve, the less content we feel in our current circumstances. in my life, this is SO true. "i deserve a housekeeper. i can't be expected to take care of all these kids & keep a clean house!" but do i have a housekeeper? no, so i feel discontent. "i at least deserve 2 quiet hours of naptime in the afternoon. i am 100% occupied with these kids from 7am-6 pm!" but then liam only naps for 45 minutes & i am irritated with him & consider my afternoon a loss. here is the part of the article that spoke to me the most:

"I began to realize my happiness should not be dependent upon the hours of sleep I've gotten, the last time I peed without company or how often I get a girls night out. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. He is selfless and I was to have the same attitude in me that was in Christ Jesus. It was kind of hard to have that attitude when I was keeping tabs on the last time I had a break and trying to figure out when my next one was coming." (Gal. 2:20a and Phil. 2:5)

i will never say that maintaining a Christ-like attitude is worth it but i WILL say that the days i strive to do so i feel 100% better. there is no discontent in Christ. He is FOR us. He has gone before us, will follow behind. He hems us in. He gives us all we need. try to feel discontent in the face of such promises!! love to you this week, dear ones. xoxo :)

long time coming!

2012-01-21T16:35:00.014-06:00

if you know shane & i, you know we love to run!! it has always been our best couple-time activity & we have made thousands of memories logging miles together. over the last 9.5 years & 40 marathons (14 for me, 26 for shane), we have dreamed of running with our children. i ran a marathon while early pregnant with sophie, & we always said that was her first race. she loves to run short little runs around the neighborhood, but when she heard her school was hosting a fun run, she was IN!!

this morning dawned bright & early (not to mention COLD!) & nana came over to watch the boys so shane & i could focus on sissy & our first race together. she was not daunted by the cold one bit! we even got race bibs for running & we had to convince her that they go on your front, not your back ;). i think this is one of my favorite pics ever of me & my girl...fixing to run our first race together with her (way) out of utero!! we of course had to have a photo op with all of us!!

their PE coach led us in some stretches, though sophie & tyler (we also ran with her & her daddy) don't look much to be stretching...

here's a back view of mama & sophie running!! (eat our dust-ha!)

i love this one...she is charging ahead! funnily enough, keeping up with a 6-yr-old was not for sissies :). girl can sprint!!

sophie probably took 2 walk breaks, if you could call them that. they were just stop-and-take-a-deep-breath-breaks, then she would shout "bye!" and take off again. everybody got ribbons at the finish, & here are sophie & tyler proudly displaying theirs.

one proud daddy with his girl. he has been looking forward to this forever. what a special day.

after we finished, we asked sophie what she thought of her first road race & she had one word-- "awesome!" she can't wait for her next one so we will be finding her one very soon!! (& now that we know she loved it, it's time to get sissy some "real" running clothes!) we are so, so, SO proud of you, sophia margaret!!
of course when we got home, sophie got to put her bib on our "bib wall" where we collect all our race numbers. ours are on the bottom...#'s 187, 188, & 202 :).

a post-script to this post is that shane & i had a date night in last night and got this movie on red box...

i cannot say this enough...IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THIS MOVIE, PLEASE DO!! i do not want to ruin any of it for you but suffice it so say i spent about 2/3 of it in tears. it is THE most powerful movie i have seen in a long time. crying buckets was maybe not the way we intended to spend a date night, but i think any father--or really,parent--should see "courageous." running the race with sophie today was made even sweeter by this movie, as a dad running with his child was a poignant part of the movie. for real, see it. and have a great weekend :)!!

what i'm loving wednesday

2012-01-18T21:05:00.011-06:00

hi friends!! it's wednesday, & that means it's time for...

you might have to bear with me a while tonight because i am loving several things :). number 1 right now is...my new kindle fire!!

i got it for Christmas & i did not even know i wanted one!! it was a big surprise to me & the more & more i use it, the more & more i LOVE it!! i love stashing it in my purse for waiting rooms & my favorite thing is using it at the Y. get me on an elliptical reading a book i love & i will never want to get off!! totally, totally love my kindle.
2. i'm lovin' this new baby!! his name is mason & he was born today!! his mama & daddy mark & amanda are in our life group & his big brother myles is one of our boys good friends. i have probably visited 100 babies in the hospital in my life & holding a brand-newborn never ceases to take my breath away. we love you baby mason!!

3. i am LOVING this necklace!! my mama got it for me for Christmas. it is from http://www.vintagepearl.com/ & i HIGHLY recommend them!! their jewelry is sterling so it is made to last & she has so many beautiful designs it's hard to pick. for the quality, she is also very affordable!! i love wearing my babies names so close to my heart :).

4. i am loving our magic bullet! is that the corniest thing ever?? maybe, but i love it!! shane's mom got it for us & once we busted that baby out we haven't looked back!! i can make a mean smoothie & my kids love them, too. i also have used it to puree banana for banana bread & have plans to use it to make chicken salad tomorrow. i have also heard it makes a mean guacamole!! if i had babies still on baby food, i would have to think it would be stellar for that too. you may want to get yourself one :).
5. i am loving that shane & sophie have daddy/daughter slumber parties!! they had one last night & i snuck in and took a pic. except the flash may have disturbed shane a bit. you can see her portable DVD player nearby because they fell asleep to little mermaid & daddy is even holding her hand. i could NOT be MORE thankful for shane setting the bar so stinkin' high for any future suitors that may come miss sophie's way!!

6. i am even loving that i have boys & that the bathtub looks like this when i pull the curtain back to take a long, leisurely soak. shane had bathed them a couple of hours earlier & this is what i find: 2 basketballs, 2 halloween pumpkin candy baskets (???), a straw (please tell me no one was drinking bathwater!), a toothbrush, & many, many other various items. i died laughing!! this is what happens when you have a (wonderful) big kid of a daddy bathing 2 crazy toddler boys. ha!

that'll do it for tonight!! i am loving a lot & would love to hear what you are loving, too!! xoxo :)

a day through shane's eyes...

2012-01-12T09:52:00.009-06:00

okay so shane just got a smartphone & is constantly snapping pics on it. so while they are phone-quality pics, they crack me up!!
we never really set an alarm because liam consistently has us up by 6:30. sunday morning shane woke up a little after 7 sort of panicked because we had not heard from the kids. he went to the boys room, the door was shut so he went in & heard muffled laughter. he opened their closet door and...look out...

so sophie had heard liam when he woke up & went in there to be with him. cullen woke up to so apparently they all went in to play (& destroy!) the closet!! you can even see that up above cullen's head the rod you hang the clothes on is missing?? and cullen looks perfectly delighted!! we were pretty happy about the extra sleep though ;).
okay so after a diaper change shane is out & about in the house and comes back in...CHECK OUT CULLEN. heavenly days. when i tell you these boys are AMAZING climbers & amazing at finding something to get into wherever they go, I MEAN IT!! (and yes he did get to the top. and yes shane was right there to catch him as he watched him scale the shelves. and yes we now have to have one of those doorknob-thingys on their closet door so they can't get in. MERCY!)

then daddy decided to make some pancakes for breakfast & had 2 little helpers :). he always lets the kids pick what color they want their pancakes! he is SO good about letting the kids help in the kitchen.

and lastly a pic of cullen. we went over to boppy & nana's & my mom had some rotel cheese dip in the fridge. the boys had never had it before & this was cullen long after we were "done" eating it-ha! he was scraping every last bit of rotel out of that bowl with those chips. he is my good eater!!
that's just a glimpse into our life! for how hard those boys are though, let me promise you my heart is BURSTING full of love for them. never for one second do i wish i did not have twins or did not have boys! i just need a really good night's sleep every night :). someone sent me this the other day after my post on fear & i want to leave you with it. laugh without fear today!! xoxo!!

living in 2012

2012-01-10T08:14:00.011-06:00

hi friends!! happy back-to-school week to you mamas of school-aged kids :). i have a post ruminating in my head. first i want you to read this sermon by kyle lake. he was the pastor at UBC here in waco that was electrocuted during a baptism in 2005 & passed away. this was the last sermon he ever wrote. i have put it on here before, but read it again ;)

"Live. And Live Well. BREATHE. Breathe in and Breathe deeply. Be PRESENT. Do not be past. Do not be future. Be now. On a crystal clear, breezy 70 degree day, roll down the windows and FEEL the wind against your skin. Feel the warmth of the sun.If you run, then allow those first few breaths on a cool Autumn day to FREEZE your lungs and do not just be alarmed, be ALIVE. Get knee-deep in a novel and LOSE track of time.If you bike, pedal HARD… and if you crash then crash well.Feel the SATISFACTION of a job well done—a paper well-written, a project thoroughly completed, a play well-performed. If you must wipe the snot from your 3-year old’s nose, don’t be disgusted if the Kleenex didn’t catch it all… because soon he’ll be wiping his own.If you’ve recently experienced loss, then GRIEVE. And Grieve well. At the table with friends and family, LAUGH. If you’re eating and laughing at the same time, then might as well laugh until you puke. And if you eat, then SMELL. The aromas are not impediments to your day. Steak on the grill, coffee beans freshly ground, cookies in the oven. And TASTE. Taste every ounce of flavor. Taste every ounce of friendship. Taste every ounce of Life. Because-it-is-most-definitely-a-Gift."

i love love love this sermon & it challenges my socks off every time i read it. let me tell you a secret about me. i think what stands between me & consistently enjoying abundant life is FEAR. that's the fastest way satan can steal my joy & prevent me from experiencing life to the fullest. not that satan can prevent me from doing anything, but the fear prevents me. i fear throwing up. i know this is CRAZY but i do & it prevents me from doing things i want. i FEAR shane dying before me. i am scared every day during his commute & hate him going on business trips. i hound him all the time about having plenty of life insurance because that is one of the things i fear...him dying & me having to find a job & send my kids to daycare & being broke. i fear something happening to my kids. i don't know if i could go on. i fear shane being out of a job & us not being able to pay our mortgage. you get the idea.

i know that i know that i know that a life of fear is NOT what God wants for me! Scriptures flood my mind..."fear not, for I am with you"..."i will uphold you with my righteous right hand"..."fear not, for I have overcome the world." my fear is HUMAN but thank God He is not!! i have seen on several blogs lately a challenge to pick ONE word for 2012 to live by. one word that you can write down & continually put before you to challenge you & re-center your day when you need it. so mine is...

LIVE!! y'all, i will LIVE in 2012!! my babies are growing up fast & i want to soak the marrow out of every ounce of it!! there are places to GO & cookies to be EATEN & friends to MAKE. there are days made to GO outside & PLAY with my children & give them my undivided attention. there are sandwiches to make & diapers to be changed (not for long!) & laundry to fold & even THAT i will strive to be thankful for because it means i am ALIVE!! my sweet friend wren has taught me so much this year, just by example. in the face of an illness doctors deemed "incurable"--y'all, you should see this girl LIVE!! she loves her babies, has a big fat smile on her face, encourages others...and LIVES every single day. what have i to fear??

i can think of 4 precious, priceless reasons to live my life to the fullest...
yep, it's shane, sophie, liam, & cullen! and yep, they are enjoying a chicken 'n' dumplins picnic :). love you, friends!! thank you for walking through 2012 with me. live alongside me, won't you?? xoxo, meg

fill-in-the-blank friday

2012-01-06T07:58:00.008-06:00

okay friends, it's friday...AMEN??? we have kept soooo busy this week to finish off this Christmas break & i think i am officially READY to all get back in our routine next week of school & PDO!! i can honestly say i have loved all this time with sophie & the boys ADORE having her here all day but school is a good thing too :). and since it's friday, i am linking up with lauren at http://www.thelittlethingswedo.blogspot.com/ to fill in some blanks!!
1. One of my favorite things to do when I have free time is...check my pulse to see if i am really alive because this NEVER happens. ha! it actually does happen SOMETIMES & when it does i am the happiest person alive. i think my favorite thing to do would be to get a pedicure while reading a trashy magazine & drinking a delicious drink :).

2. When I have free time I tend to...have all sorts of aspirations about getting things done & then end up being pretty lazy. mamas...what is more blissful than being in your own home ALONE?? can i get an AMEN?? so usually i just do a bunch of nothing :).

3. If I had an entire day completely to myself I would...start off with breakfast at panera. a cinnamon crunch bagel with hazelnut cream cheese, if you must know ;). i would take my laptop & eat lesiurely & try to sit by the fire. then i would go running at baylor & maybe grab some chick-fil-a in the SUB for lunch when i was through. next would be a nap in my bed & a long bubble bath. if i had to have dinner alone too i am thinking i would do take-out...maybe chinese food & catch up on my DVR. then i would like to snuggle up in my bed with a good book & maybe some junk food :). gosh how can we make this happen???

4. I would prefer to spend my free time (alone or with others...) I totally want to spend my free time with shane. i feel like we never ever ever get enough alone/free time together & i would swap it up in a heartbeat!!

5. Most of my free time happens...i know you mamas understand, but it just doesn't happen. if it does it's at night after the kids are in bed, but then i always have in my mind all the things that need to get done...cleaning, laundry, dishes, etc. sometimes on the weekends i take a few hours to myself to go shopping with my mama or something.

6. The best thing about free time is...having nothing you HAVE to do. it is just good for the soul to not be obligated to do ANYTHING!!

7. The next time I have free time I should...attack my closet!! it is full of bags of things to donate to goodwill, purses, clothes that i don't wear, etc, etc. it needs a good overhaul & a little organization!! maybe, um, tomorrow?? certainly not right now in my free time, no??

~i hope you all have WONDERFUL weekends & try to squeeze in a little time just for YOU!! xoxo!!

happy 2012!!

2012-01-01T16:16:00.011-06:00

hi friends!! it is 2012!! and that is soooo hard to believe. i'm gonna show you what we have been up to on NYE/new years day and throw in a few more...
on thursday, obviously, we were busy watching the alamo bowl. i hated HATED that we could not be there in person, but it just wasn't in the cards this year. luckily my friend susan (who is also my boss & the children's minister at FBC hewitt) had us over for a little watching party so we got to watch with friends. that is susan in the middle in this pic & my friend tracy on the left. susan also bought us these shirts to watch the game in. so fun!!

sophie & tyler were our cheerleaders for the evening. they would come in intermittently & lead us in cheers. ha!

here's our clan fixing to head home. and don't ask about the boys red sleeves under their jerseys. i did not dress them ;).

on friday i went to the chiropractor for a migraine. i have said before that he goes to our church & i love him. well, friday i took sophie & she thought it was the funnest thing ever!! he gave her smarties, & then when he turned the lights off in my treatment room he gave her a flashlight & beanbag & toys & told her to pretend it was a camp-out :). i am so thankful for good doctors who don't make me feel like my children are an imposition! see sophie with her flashlight??

this is a really random picture that sophie took yesterday but i wanted to include it because, um, whose child is this?? those eyes & that fair hair?? i asked shane if he was POSITIVE he had his eyes on him the whole time from birth to NICU admittance & he said he is sure cullen is really ours ;).

okay so last night (NYE) we got to get all dressed up & go to the barkin' ball. it is a huge fancy fundraiser for fuzzy friends here in waco & my sweet friend amy burchfield was one of the co-chairs & invited several couples from church. i seriously cannot remember the last time shane & i got dressed up like this, but i know it was pre-kids! sad. all 3 kids also spent the night with my mom & dad which was a HUGE blessing to wake up leisurely this morning! here we are fixing to hit the town...

here are some of my sweet girlfriends from church. from left it's teresa, stephanie, amy, me, & carly.

one last shot before heading home. and just a little note about my dress (which you can't see much of in these pics but i really liked it)--it is BCBG & i got it at amelia's (a local consignment store) for $14!! i LOVE a bargain & i am not proud ;)!!

we had to leave the barkin' ball a little early because shane had plans today. plans that included waking up at THREE A.M., driving 3 hours & running 26.2 miles!! yep, folks, shane ran a marathon bright & early this morning!! that crazy man (who i happen to be totally in love with). he texted me this this morning (while i was still snoozing in my warm bed...)

i am ready to get a move-on with 2012!! i look forward to what it brings us as a family. if God is for us, who can be against us?? blessings!!

LOTS & lots o' Christmas fun!!

2011-12-29T14:57:00.044-06:00

well well well...

I have been working on this forever. this blog post has been a labor o' love for this mama!! lots of pictures off of lots of cameras from lots of events...but we certainly can't just skip over Christmas, can we?? i realize that allll of these photos will probably not be interesting to anyone but family but i am going to share them all just for our family archives anyway...
okay so sophie did not get out of school til last thursday, and she had a class party that day that i got to go to. i have said this before but MY mom came to ALL of my school stuff like that so i have ALWAYS wanted to be at all my kids school stuff too. if i have to find a baby-sitter or re-arrange stuff or whatever...if at ALL possible, sophie knows, mama will be there!! (or at times daddy!!) her class party on thursday was a big hit. look how excited she & 3 of her little besties are...

little first grade princess...

okay so after school thursday (i got to take her home with me after the party at 10 a.m.) daddy called her with a proposition. did she want to go to dallas with him to go ice-skating with him at the galleria?? well, here was her response... an aside: last year shane surprised sophie ON A SCHOOL DAY to ask her if she wanted to skip school to go to dallas and ice-skate?? and what did she say?? NO! she did not want to miss school!! she has regretted her decision ever since & has been wanting to go ice-skating. this was the PERFECT sweet daddy/daughter day for my 2 loves!!
sister knew how to pose even on ice skates!! they also got to visit the REAL santa (who knew he lived in dallas?) & eat dinner at panda express (sophie's new favorite-ha!).

and at the end of their whole day?? wiped. out.

i have to admit i was pretty jealous i did not get to go to dallas, but this needed to be a daddy/daughter thing & the twins at the galleria sounded not so fun. so instead we braved wal-mart in the rain (where i picked out some sub-par Christmas gifts just to get the heck out of there) & then mcdonalds with an indoor play area. usually fun, except...there was a BIRD in there (way up top) & the boys would not THINK of playing or leaving the table so really we just ate very quickly and left ;). when i got home though i put the boys right to bed, made some cider & wrapped gifts while watching "four christmases." it was so peaceful & redeemed my night :).

the next morning we left for round rock to celebrate Christmas with shane's mom & his sister & her family. sophie LOVES getting to play with her cousins & it is a real treat when we all get to be together!! out of about 50 attempts, this is the ONLY pic we got of all the cousins not moving-ha!! her older cousin is natalie (she is 8) and her younger cousin is olivia (who is just a few weeks younger than the twins).
sophie & natalie were GAME ON all weekend. i feel like i barely saw her! they play together SO well & sophie looks up to her tremendously.
this picture of shane & his sister sonja cracks me up!! i wonder if that will be sophie & liam in about 30 years ;)??

the kids all got to sit together & eat...aunt sonja's mac & cheese was everyone's favorite!!
then it was time for gift-opening!! culley got this little fire truck & was riding it everwhere. it was NOT meant for riding-ha!

the ONE gift the boys were asking for this year was thomas the train pillow pets. they got them from grammy & were THRILLED! they kept saying they were from santa though santa did not come to grammy's (it was not Christmas yet) but what they don't know won't hurt 'em-ha!

shane & i were busy trying to take nerdy pictures of ourselves. i'd say we succeeded!! bahaha!(p.s. see the scar on his nose from the shopping cart incident?? bless him!!)we went home on Christmas eve to do Christmas in waco. first up was our Christmas eve candlelight service at church. i did not get to actually attend the service because i was working in the nursery. last year there was no childcare at the Christmas eve service & it was impossible with the twins & i promised our children's minister that if she had childcare this year i would work it...so...the nursery it was!! i was with the itty-bitties & loved every minute of it :). after the service though we all ran back in the sanctuary for a quick pic...

then it was off to MY grandma's (my dad's mom) for our traditional Christmas eve dinner. we were bumping up on the twins bedtime but they did wonderfully!! here's daddy helping li-li with a gift...

along with her "real" gift, my grandma gave sophie this wooden doll bed. she has had it forever & thought sophie may like it...boy does she ever!! thanks grandma!!
after grandma's it was back to boppy & nana's for sleep. we had been tracking santa all night & once sophie knew he was in the united states she was anxious to get to bed!! no risking it for this girl!! the "big" gift sophie wanted from santa was a bike. santa wraps his gifts at our house so after she went to bed mama wrapped it-ha!! pretty obvious what's under the paper, no??

sophie ripped right into it!!
culley was busy opening his puppy & loved him. liam got a matching kitty. in real life they are PARALYZED by fear of cats & dogs. sad!
i love this pic of my twinkies in their matching jammies waiting on daddy to help put gifts together!! my 3 sweet boys :)this box IMMEDIATELY became the hit of the day. funny how that always happens!! you can tell liam was fixing to head-dive into that box...& he totally did!

even sophie got in on the box fun!!

we always get a picture of our family of 5 on Christmas morning & it's always ridiculous :). love that in this one the boys do not have any clothes on (?) & that liam has something black in his mouth (??). it may be a crazy life, but it's OUR life...:)
"dear Jesus, happy birthday! and i'm sorry i ate your birthday cake with my finger when i wasn't supposed to. amen."

well, folks, that wraps up a watwood christmas, 2011! i pray 2012 brings you much joy!! xoxo :)

holiday happenings...

2011-12-22T07:50:00.017-06:00

happy thursday!! raise your hand if you can believe Christmas is in THREE DAYS?? how did this happen?? and no i am not done shopping and no i am not done wrapping and yes i have to have it all done by tomorrow morning when we leave for round rock :). so maybe i should make this quick so i can get a move-on!! i still stand by this being our most fun Christmas season yet. i am NOT ready for it to be over!!
yesterday was our last day of PDO for the semester & boy was it crazy!! good crazy, but i don't think i sat in my chair once all day!! the kids had a little music "show-off" so the parents could see some of the stuff they had been doing in music class all year. the boys class showing off was pretty hysterical! we lost about 3 kiddos due to crying fits, & most of them sat stone-faced the whole time (even though i had seen them singing their little hearts out just that morning!). i had to include one picture though so you could see how cute my boys looked all decked out in their Christmas sweaters (though culley cannot get that thumb out of his mouth!) & so you could see that they are each sitting next to a hugendubler twin!! there are 10 kids in their class, so it is made up of 40% twins!!
while the boys & i were at PDO, sissy & daddy were at her school at a gingerbread house-making party! this is a party that ONLY the first-graders get to have & she was SO excited about it!! daddy snapped a pic of her getting started...(and let me promise you i DO brush her hair! i wash it, condition it, put it neatly in a headband/clip/bow & she always comes home with it a MESS??)

here's another shot of all the fun. the lady at the head of the table in the white sweatshirt is her teacher mrs. fortenberry!!

this holiday week has also included making one of my favorite holiday treats...red velvet cake balls!! i make them every year & it makes a giant mess but the process seems to be a hit with 3 certain someones :). this picture makes my heart swell with love!! all 3 of my sweet loves who LOVE to play together & LOVE to help mommy in the kitchen. will i cry in 10 years when they are 16 & 12 & want nothing to do with each other or mommy?? probably. but this picture & these memories will always make my heart smile :).
and after you make red velvet cake balls, your clothes are so messy you have to take them off & help mama do dishes ;).

on monday of this week at PDO the classes had pajama day. well, sophie LOVES PDO and when i told her about it she was all over me wanting to come. since she has not missed ONE day of school all semester and makes straight A's consistently, i let her skip school & come to PDO to be a "student teacher" :). her favorite part of the day was getting to meet her teacher mrs. fortenberry's little twin granddaughters who go to PDO, allyson & aubree. she actually got to stay in there & feed allyson (?) a bottle! look how precious!! does this girl need a sister or what ;)??

another one of our favorites this week has been driving around looking at Christmas lights. there is this one street in woodway that goes ALL OUT, and the kids want to drive up & down it over & over & OVER. this house was i think their favorite-SO clark griswold-ha!!

hot bubble baths are ALWAYS fun when it is cold outside!! check out the bottle of bubble bath over liam's shoulder--EMPTY!! they dumped that thing over so fast when they got in the tub shane could not salvage any of it!! talk about a bubble bath :). (and do you notice li-li's little red eye here? last week both of the boys battled pink eye.)

lastly, just a picture that makes me giggle. that is sophie & our carpool buddy, tyler. when i pick them up after school we frequently go get a treat that is something like a drink at sonic happy hour. one day i did not have the twins with me & look how we ended up!! at a fancy, girly place eating pink cake off of glass plates :)! this place is called "the mix" & they begged me to bring them here!! how much do i love having a girl who wants to dine on strawberry cake in a boutique at 3 o'clock in the afternoon??
sophie finished school today (thursday) & while i type this is on her way to dallas with her daddy to go ice-skating at the galleria!! he surprised her today by asking if she wanted to do this & the answer was an enthusiastic YES!! mama is a little jealous but 4 hours in the car + the galleria 2 days before Christmas with boys who are not allowed to ice skate like big sister is NOT sounding so fun!! so instead i get to go brave wal-mart for some last minute stocking stuffers & wrapping paper ;). i pray each of your Christmases are filled with the joy that only JESUS can bring!! love, love, LOVE to each of you!!

T -10 days...

2011-12-15T12:49:00.006-06:00

until CHRISTMAS!! holy moly!! i hate that i have gone so long without blogging, but darn it all, i LOST MY CAMERA!! i don't even want to tell you how dangerous it is to be a camera in my house :/. so today's update will be more chatter & less pictures, sorry!!
*last saturday sophie took her first trip "out of town" without her family!! it was her boy BFF hudson's 6th birthday & his parents took him & several friends to the rainforest cafe in dallas!! i am pretty sure when i was 6 i would not have gone to bellmead without my mama so i am not sure where my girl gets her bravery?? but i am SO glad she has it!! i am sure it helps that sophie has known hudson's mama (my BFF kylie) since birth. hudson is one of the very very rare friends sophie has had since the womb & i would not have it any other way! she had a BALL at the rainforest cafe & now wants her party there, too. except 3 weeks ago she wanted it at sharkey's cuts for kids so i think we'll need to wait til a little closer to the actual birthday :).
*shane gets 2 weeks of for Christmas at his new job. 2 WEEKS!! we did not know this until he started & let me tell you, we could not be more excited!! i do not know the last time shane had 2 weeks off of anything. maybe Christmas break when he was in grad school?? there is NOTHING in the world i like more than time at home with my family of 5!!
*i started going to a chiropractor that goes to my church for my migraine headaches & so far it has been sooooo helpful!! i have gone 3 times in the past week and not ONE migraine!! my insurance covers 80% of it so my adjustments are $11!! best $11 i could spend.
*last year in kindergarten sophie was the luckiest little girl ever & had a student teacher from baylor named sarah (mrs. langhoff to sophie!). we have stayed in close contact, she has baby-sat for us a couple of times & we have gone to lunch with her & she moved to dallas last week. but before she went, look what sophie got to do...
sarah invited sophie over one saturday to help "baby-sit" so sophie got to go without mama to mrs. langhoff's house! she felt SO big & had the best time!! she also cried big old tears when it was time to say good-bye :(. we could not be more thankful for this godly student teacher who has meant SO very much to our girl!!
*i think this has been the very best Christmas season yet with the kiddos!! the boys are just now starting to "get it" a little & LOVE all the lights, decorations, etc. they know where some of the blow-up decorations are in our neighborhood & are always asking to go "see Mickey" (mouse), "see penguins", "see snowman", etc. sophie has of course written her letter to santa & talks about him so matter-of-factly. she thinks it is so cool he always knows to come to boppy & nana's ;)! i am really sad thinking that we probably only have a couple of years left of her believing in santa :(. do y'all remember how old you were when you quit believing in him?? i hope we have a few years left!! it just puts so much magic into Christmas!!
*i just took all 3 kids to the post office (about 4 p.m.) & about died. i am not kidding. the boys were running around screaming, slinging the mailing envelopes they have for sale there, & generally just being RIDICULOUS. our old children's minister was there so i couldn't yell or threaten spankings quite like i wanted to ;), but i did apologize LOUDLY to the entire post office for their behavior. sophie of course was perfectly well-behaved. motherhood is so humbling.
*shane's new job is going great!! he has SO much less stress & a less-stressed daddy=a happier household!! i will say, though, how much i took him taking sophie to school every morning for granted. he leaves at 7, so from 7 til about 7:45 is asinine getting everyone dressed, breakfasted, lunch packed, everyone buckled in carseats & out the door!! a big HUGE thanks to my friend ann who has been taking her on mondays & wednesdays when i work. such a blessing!!
*i said it in my last post, and YES ROBERT GRIFFIN DID win that heisman on saturday night!! and i will not lie that i had big ole tears running down my face during his acceptance speech. his humility could teach all of us a lesson. loving baylor like we do has had SO many ups & downs. we have been through so many football coaches, had that basketball scandal several years back, & have listened to umpteen million people complain that we do not belong in the big 12. let me tell you that our football team finished ranked #12 in the nation & that our men's & women's basketball teams are ranked #7 and #1 in the nation, respectively. not only that, but all 3 of the aforementioned teams coaches are total CLASS ACTS that have the utmost respect in our community. i have never, ever been more proud to be a baylor bear. "baylor we are, & baylor we will always be..."
*God is totally doing a work in shane's & my hearts right now & i am so excited to share more of it with you as it unfolds!!
that's all i've got today, loved ones!! my mom is coming to sit in a bit so shane & i can go out to dinner with GROWN-UPS! no kids menus or high chairs or anything :). love to each of you!!

what i'm loving wednesday :)

2011-12-07T22:02:00.006-06:00

hi friends!! i hope you are having a great week so far!! shane started his new job on monday & so far has been having a really good week!! i will be honest, the last couple of days have worn me out. my boys are just MONSTER mess-makers & with Christmas stuff out, there are only more messes to make!! while i am busy cleaning up mess A, they are busy making messes B, C, & D!! and let's not forget the screaming, the crying for daddy every time i discipline them, & the hundreds of "no, mommy!" i hear hundreds of times a day. i was SO happy to go to work today in a nice (mostly) quiet office for 5 hours!! i know you know i would not trade any of this, but in the spirit of honesty, please know that my mommy-sanity is hanging on by a very thin thread right now!!
SO...what am i loving this wednesday that brings me smiles amidst the chaos??? hmmm...
*i am loving that today, after the very worst day i have had in quite a while, i got to go Christmas shopping with my mom & then go to starbucks with her & introduce her to my beloved salted caramel hot chocolate all while shane watched my very crabby children. it was EXACTLY the night i needed!!
*i am loving this picture & the memory of that sight!!
the twins are obviously in the picture but the other darling boy is actually their triplet, clark!! okay not really their triplet ;) but i swear he is more like liam's twin than cullen is!! we were at clark's house for a playdate & i think his mommy katy & i noticed that it had gotten VERY quiet. we went into their yet-unborn baby girl's room to find the above sight!! this bed had also had bedding on it but they stripped out every stitch of it & threw it on the floor. HOW IN THE WORLD DID ALL 3 OF THEM GET INTO THAT CRIB?? i guarantee you it was not built for 100 lbs of boys to be bouncing in it!! to top it off...all 3 of them had simultaneously pooped their diapers & were happily jumping around in their poop!! oh, the joys of having boys...
*i am loving this picture too. this is sophie & her dallas BFF reagan. reagan was in waco for her birthday and sophie got to go celebrate with her at a family birthday party!! we gave her this baylor shirt & you have to agree they look DARLING in them. they both LOVE baylor so much & want to room together at collins (both of their mommies old dorm) one day!

*i am loving this guy right here. you know who he is, right?? if not, you will after saturday.

it's robert griffin III & he is baylor's AMAZING heisman candidate. i have been a baylor fan my
whole life, through bad football seasons galore, & this has been hands down the most exciting year in baylor football EVER!! this man is amazing!! and what's even better, he is not only an awesome football player, but an awesome PERSON. he is crazy smart (graduated high school early, finished his undergrad in 3 years & will finish his masters in may), loves the Lord & is so unbelievably humble. he has done baylor & the entire waco community proud. for baylor to even have a heisman candidate is amazing but i am telling you...he is going to win that darn thing!! and i will get all teary-eyed when he does!!

*i am loving that the harris creek women's cookie swap was last night. yesterday was a rough day too, & to end it by chatting with a bunch of my favorite women whilst eating delicious cookies was exactly what i needed. if you don't have a church full of women who bless your socks off, FIND ONE!! they help make the bad times bearable & the good times great!!

~okay, dear ones, this is all that's coming to me this frigid wednesday night!! even just sitting down to compose this list has reminded me of how much i have to be happy about :). talk to you soon!! and until then,

fill-in-the-blank friday!

2011-12-02T19:55:00.005-06:00

hi!! happy friday AND happy december!! i think december is such a happy month :). and since it is friday, it's... i am linking up with lauren again at http://www.thelittlethingswedo.blogspot.com/. let's fill in some blanks!!

1. The holiday season is a time for...spending time with people you love!! Christmas decorations & Christmas music & warm drinks in Christmas mugs. finding a way to serve or give to others in need. taking time to remember the Reason for the season & being sure your children remember it too. wearing cozy pajamas & watching lots of Christmas movies on TV. i love ALL of it!!

2. Snow makes me...blissfully happy. obviously we do not get a lot of it but the past 2 years we have gotten a significant amount & it has been so, SO fun!! there is something so peaceful about watching it fall & i love sophie's excitement to go out & play in it!! we also like to make some good snow ice cream :). please oh please oh PLEASE let it snow this year!!
3. The best comfort food to eat when it's cold out is...hands down, SOUP!! it's a toss up for me between chicken & dumplins or baked potato soup. probably chicken & dumplins because sophie loves to make the dumplins for me :).

4. Winter is the best time for...cozying up in warm clothes & putting all 3 of my babies in sweet footie pajamas!! all of the littles love to drive around & look at Christmas lights too & we love to do so listening to Christmas music.
5. I can hardly wait for...Christmas morning!! once you have little kids, it is pure M.A.G.I.C. in my eyes!! i don't even mind waking up early :). it is so fun to get so excited about Christmas morning all over again!!

6. When it comes to holiday gifts...we don't really go overboard but truthfully one of the reasons is we really can't afford to. i do love shopping for other people though & i love searching out a good bargain!! my parents still go overboard (especially for my kids) but honestly, it is so fun. i love all taking turns opening our gifts at my parents house on Christmas morning.

7. If I were to rate my excitement about the holiday season on a scale from 1-10...i would say i'm a 10 this year. i honestly am. sophie's excitement about it really lights my fire, shane is the biggest Christmas lover eVeR, & even the twins are getting more into it this year. the season always goes too fast!! i want to savor it!!

and now, i leave you with this...
bahaha!! can i get a SIC 'EM BEARS?!?! i am feeling a big WiN tomorrow against the longhorns!!

one super-long holiday post!!

2011-11-27T18:13:00.028-06:00

hi friends!! we are coming off the high of one FANTASTIC thanksgiving break!! i was one happy mama to have shane AND sophie home for 5 days. definitely one of the most fun turkey days we have ever had!!
let me start you off with a pic of where liam put his bag of pretzels... yep, the POTTY!! ew ew sick sick SICK!! needless to say all pretzels were promptly disposed of. and now when liam sees this picture he says, "ewwww, YUCKY!!" yucky is right, bud...
however, because of snuggles like this, this little man still has my heart captured completely...

we spent thanksgiving day at my parents house & after we ate headed to the park with our kids, my brother & SIL & their kids & my mama. the weather was beautiful & all the cousins had a great time playing together! and #1, liam is darling & #2, he looks seriously SO big in this picture i cannot stand it. where is the pause button?

speaking of darling, this little guy is the cutest. such sweet little features & the front tooth he chipped on the bathtub :)

sophie wanted me to take a picture of her too, only she really knows how to pose. are we taking rush pictures here?? who teaches girls to pose in trees?? again, let's slow this time train down...

i hate this water fountain at poage park. it usually does not drain well & is full of stagnant water. i usually try to keep the boys away from it, but look how daddy showed them to get a drink...

apparently we are raising monkeys around here ;)...

then we attempted to get a good family picture. attempted being the key word here. this one is actually not too bad, other than culley's apparently delicious thumb and a, well, completely disinterested liam.

however, that one was better than this one...ha!! although this one is probably a more accurate picture of our life :)

bright & early friday morning we headed to grammy's house in round rock. think black friday deals at the outlet mall, a pantry stock-full of yummy food, & a grammy who wants to baby-sit while mama & daddy shop & go out to dinner...yep, BLISS!! liam & cullen got to sleep in a real "big bed" & i could not resist this pic of them in their sweet Christmas jammies with daddy reading them a book...sigh...it's moments like this you want to bottle up & save.

sissy opted to sleep in a sleeping bag on grammy's floor. although in the middle of the night she ended up in grammy's bed. i'm pretty sure grammy didn't mind :).

two of my little sillies. i know we always say sophie looks so much like liam but in this pic i think she looks a LOT like cullen. one thing is for sure...we better start saving up for THREE sets of braces!! ;)

this is how the kiddos spent a bunch of their time. playing games on grammy's computer under her watchful eye. shane's mom has her doctorate degree & is a very professional, hard-working woman; however, throw in the grandkids & she is the most fun, playful grammy around! my kids are so beyond lucky to have 3 such WONDERFUL grandparents!!

the highlight of the break (& maybe my fall) was the baylor/tech game on saturday night. they played at texas stadium in arlington & we were fortunate enough to go & take sophie along. i have not been to a baylor game since a pre-season one last year as it is really too expensive to get tickets & a baby-sitter, plus shane has been working at them this year, so this was a huge, HUGE treat!! texas stadium is pretty amazing. i also was sitting just yards away from 2 of my chi-o friends that i do not ever get to see--bonus!! i love this pic of the 3 of us just minutes before kick-off...

have i ever mentioned how much i love this girl?? 'cause i do!! the older & older she gets, the more & more fun this girl & i have. we have discovered it's pretty fun being the only girls in our family!!

here come the fightin' baylor bears...

sweet sissy & daddy. notice sophie's nice sparkly lips?? she definitely needed some lip gloss for the picture :).

the game was winding down here, & mama was pretty happy!! in the background here is the children's minister at FBC hewitt (where i work). we sat with her & her family & had the best time! i am afraid i may have bruised her arm a little during the game as i was hooting & hollering & yelling!!

one second left & baylor wins 66-42! i am pretty sure i have never been to a football game before where over 100 points were scored!! i was just sick when they had to take RGIII out & was so so proud of nick florence for stepping in, giving up his red-shirt & leading the bears to a WIN!!

here's my girl singing "that good ole' baylor line." she may not know all the words yet but it won't be long!! i seriously remember my dad teaching me that good ole baylor line with a teddy bear that sang it when i was probably about sophie's age!we're about to head home but how about one more "sic 'em"?? i LOVE how my girl loves baylor!! we did a thankful tree at church today & that's what she said she was thankful for (never mind God, mama, her brothers....she said BAYLOR! ha!). gotta train 'em early!!

a few quick pics of our Sunday school class. shane & i teach the kindergarten & 1st grade class & we combined the girls & boys today. i took a few "regular" pics of them too but this "silly" one just captured their personalities better :).

every year at harris creek we collect toys for mission waco & a Christian motorcycling group comes to pick them up. the kids know to listen for the roar of the motorcycles & get so excited to go help load all of the unwrapped gifts into the trailers. i LOVE the lesson this teaches our children as they see all of the awesome toys & then willingly give them away. here are sissy & some of her friends going to help load the trailer...just a few of the motorcyclists who came to help!! it brings us so much joy to give them hot coffee, donuts, & a big THANK YOU as they bike around the county doing the Lord's work!

one last shot of the kiddos loading the trailer! this coming weekend we actually go to volunteer at the mission waco toy store that they set up to sell all of these toys to needy families at 80% off. it is one of my favorite saturdays of the year to help these hard-working parents select toys for their children!! it truly keeps us in perspective during the Christmas season!!

i can't thank the Lord enough for what a wonderful break we had. with the craziness that has been this fall, our family really needed a chance to be together & ENJOY each other as we go into a hectic few weeks. shane has 2 (!) days left at AHP & begins his new job next monday. it is definitely exciting but also always a little stressful to learn new things, meet new people & get situated in a new place! we watwood's may be tired, but we are NEVER BORED!!!!! have a wonderful week, friends!!xoxo!!

wordless wednesday (on a monday:))

2011-11-21T15:46:00.001-06:00

food for families + frou-frou fun!!

2011-11-19T08:34:00.012-06:00

this year at sophie's elementary school my long-time friend ann kennedy & i were in charge of "food for families." i vividly remember my mom being SO involved at my elementary school when i was growing up & i have always wanted to be there like that for my kiddos too. FFF ended up being a BIG job but a really, really fun one!! yesterday was the last day & the busiest by far. i did not have a baby-sitter for the twins so they got to spend the better part of the day at spring valley elementary with mama!! as you may imagine, they were a HUGE help ;). here's cullen workin' on his janitorial skills...

the boys spent a good part of the morning on this table. they had calculators that doubled as phones, papers to scribble on & cans to stack. what fun!!
here i am with my sweet friend ann. she is another midway/baylor grad i have been friends with for a LONG time! she has a son sophie's age that i think sophie may have a little crush on. she is also expecting another sweet baby boy early this spring & is seriously the cutest little preggo ever!! the shirt i have on here says "my kids rock" & i LOVE it! they really do rock :).

just a picture of a *tiny* amount the food we collected. we collected over 6,000 POUNDS!! sophie's class won last year & she took 50 pounds of food on friday to help her class win, but alas, they did not :(. maybe next year!!

then yesterday after school sophie went to the birthday party of her sweet friend avery, who is turning 4. avery is the daughter of my BFF kylie & sophie truly loves her like a little sister. the party was at sharkey's cuts for kids (new here in waco @ the central TX marketplace) & it was RIGHT up sophie's alley. the mamas left for about an hour while they got the girls all fancy, then everyone returned for a little fashion show. they each took their turn on the "runway" while an announcer told the audience all about the little girl. this was during sissy's turn...

i caught a little peek of her "backstage" & just think she is so beautiful. i am definitely biased but even if i wasn't i would think she was exceptionally pretty ;).

when it was avery's turn on the runway she was feeling very nervous & wanted sophie to walk her out. sophie was honored & they were adorable!!

all of the beautiful princesses posing! sophie is insistent she wants her next party at sharkey's!!
we definitely had a busy friday!! but a GREAT one!! i am so so very excited that this is thanksgiving week & that shane will be home with us on wednesday, thursday & friday!! i love doing some of the turkey day cooking & sophie getting time to play with her cousins. all we need now is cooler weather!! happy thanksgiving week to you!!

God is doing a new thing...

2011-11-16T09:50:00.017-06:00

"Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland."
~ Isaiah 43:18-19

it has been a long time, friends!! i hate going a week without blogging; let's not let that happen again!! i love LOVE that Scripture up above. in shane's & my prayers for our family over the last few months we have both been feeling that God is on the verge of doing something new & exciting in our family. we agree that we have felt like we don't know WHAT that is & it may not LOOK like what we think it will, but we know He will follow us on our journey & will use it for His glory. this pic is of the twinsies at the birthday party of their fellow twin-friends ethan & evan burchfield. i don't think we or the burchfield's could have either imagined what the journey to our families would look like, but boy oh boy oh boy oh boy (literally :)) did God use our journeys for His glory & for our greater joy!
well, daddy's got a brand-new gig!! and we are excited and we are sad. it is always sad to close a chapter in your life. when shane started at AHP (his current company) i was about 34 wks pregnant with the twins. he got to work from home those first few wks before the boys were born & i look back at that time with SO much fondness. he was SO excited about his new job & all he was learning & we were also of course full of sweet anticipation for the babies' birth. and his job has (for the most part, like any job) been great! it advanced his career & he has made a few VERY close friends. it is also like 5 minutes from our house so he is here with us every morning & takes sophie to school every day & comes home for lunch (which i LOVE). a while back shane got a call from someone who had basically found him & wanted him to interview for a job. he went in & they realized he would actually be a better fit for a bigger, "better" job! after several interviews & reference checks they made him an offer, and after some negotiations he accepted! his new company is called "royal seating," which vdsvi think sounds like they make potties :) but it is actually school desks, tables, feeding tables, etc. he will be their "private label project manager" & i can tell you nothing about what that entails :). the "bummer" (if there is one) about this new job is that it is in cameron, which is about 40 minutes from our home. i know people that live in big cities drive that long to get to work ALL the time but it also means that he will not be able to take sophie to school, come home for lunch, etc. regardless of that, we both just know that this is an offer the Lord has provided for shane right now & that God wants to do new & exciting things at this new job. coincidentally at the same time a company from corpus christi was in contact with shane & shane did a phone interview for them. when he told the company in C.C. he was accepting another job they offered him a SUBSTANTIAL amount of more money, but we just can't imagine relocating our family to corpus christi (or anywhere else) right now. grandparents, school, church, etc are all here and we feel like while our kids are little you can't put a price tag on that. SOOOO...monday, december 5th shane will start his new job!! even with the job, we feel like God is teaching & readying our family for new things & we are praying for clarification as to what this looks like for us. the boys are going to have to start getting up a little earlier for their morning shave with daddy :). monkey see, monkey do!!

i am just so so proud of my husband. i am sure 99% of you feel like you too have the best husband, but i am positive i have the best husband FOR ME :). he has had 3 jobs since getting his MBA & has excelled at every one. he will work until his fingers bleed to do his BEST. i know at work he is serious & driven & very business-like & i giggle to think what his co-workers would do if they saw him being the silliest dad EVER at home :)!! he is somehow able to leave work at work and walks in the door ready to PLAY until bedtime. i wish you knew how much his boys adore him. sophie of course does too, but the boys are glued to him pretty much anytime he is home. sometimes it hurts my feelings (like when i walk into their rooms in the morning & they CRY & say "no mommy! mommy go. DADDY!) but man, if there is anyone i want them to look up to it's their daddy. if they grow up to be like shane i will be the proudest mom in the world!! this pic is the way the boys get to bed most every night. liam holds daddy, culley holds liam & daddy goes very slow ;).our lives here are ANYTHING but dull. i feel like God has pretty much kept me OUT of my comfort zone the last several months but i am in a place where i am okay with that. i want what HE wants for my family & have no idea what this looks like, but i know that He will fill us with peace as we follow Him.

i cannot believe next week is THANKSGIVING!! yahoo!! the holidays are truly 3x more fun with 3 little ones :). little ones like this turkey...

and his twin brother...

and their spunky sister...
holy moly i am a blessed mama! a tired, busy, sometimes frumpy (but always thankful) blessed mama!
p.s. YES WE ARE that house that put up Christmas lights last weekend!! i used to think "those families" were a little nuts-o but now that i have 3 babies that LOVE it, bring it on!! i love this pic of culley sucking his thumb & admiring the magic :)

i hope your weeks are wonderful!! go be a blessing to someone!!

what i'm loving wednesday

2011-11-09T16:14:00.013-06:00

hi friends!! i hope everyone's week has been good so far!! if not, friday is really close ;).this week i am going to partake in a blog hop from
http://littledaisymay.blogspot.com/ called "what i'm loving wednesday"!! it's a totally non-deep, non-mushy post for me, & sometimes we all need that :)!!

so, what am i loving this wednesday in november??

1. one thing i LOVE right now is fage yogurt!! love love love. i haven't tried one yet i DON'T love. i like the 2% a little better than the 0%; they ALL blows yogurts like yoplait out of the water!! and at about 12 grams of protein, it keeps you full a long time!! 2. total broken record i know, but starbuck's salted caramel hot chocolate. in this cold weather i have been craving it!! like, i think i will go get one tonight!! a tall, non-fat no whip only has 240 calories, 10 grams of protein & 30% of your daily calcium, so it's not really a bad little afternoon "snack!"

3. when it's chilly, my lips are inevitably chapped & i seriously will use no other lip balm but this. it's bath & body works mentha lip shine. it makes your lips SO shiny, & it has mint in it to give you fresh breath which also makes your lips delightfully tingly!! i still naively try other lip glosses or carmex or burt's bees or whatever, but i always, always come back to this. (i think it's $7 & lasts a LONG time. they are also buy 2 get 1 free right now!!)

4. i like to listen to audiobooks when i run & this is the one i am listening to currently. it is AMAZING!! this little boy was critically ill & got a glimpse of Heaven & all i can say is WOW!!
i am not ready to go right now but our time here is such a blink compared to eternity & it was so awesome to see what God showed this little boy (who was not yet 4 at the time!).

5. i am loving FLATS! i have never quite hopped on the whole flats train, i felt like they made my legs look a little stubby & didn't quite finish off an outfit as well as, say, a boot or a wedge. this fall, friends, i have embraced the flat! SO much comfier & in fact, quite cute. i have this exact pair from target & they were $14.99...you should definitely get a pair!!
6. this CD!! "glorious" by drew greenway. drew happens to be our worship pastor but even if he was not i would still LOVE this CD!! it makes me want to raise my hands in praise every time!! you can buy it on i-tunes or i can pick you up a copy at harris creek :). FAB!!

7. this is a ridiculously teeny picture but i am loving me some boogie wipes!! every single one of my kids has had a runny nose for what seems like forever, & i picked up a pack of grape-scented ones at walgreens on sunday. they smell awesome & will wipe off the crustiest of booger noses :). they make my boys not fight getting their noses wiped quite so badly!!

these are just a few things that are making me happy today!! and shane & my babies of course ;). what are YOU loving this week??

miscelleny monday

2011-11-07T15:28:00.014-06:00

hi friends!! i hope you had a wonderful weekend! we did & i am just now slowing down enough to compose a post...some this'n'that, if you will!!...with some yet un-posted halloween pictures thrown in too :)

*time change, once you have little kids, STINKS. it has thrown us into a big ole loop at the watwood household. the boys were up on sunday at FOUR FORTY-FIVE!! that would have been 5:45, which i would have left them in their beds at least an hour if they woke up that early, BUT...

*the twins are officially in toddler beds!! ahhh!! i am not all sappy that they are not little babies needing cribs anymore, i am upset that the one missing side to their beds has caused such a HUGE disruption in sleep habits!! they started climbing out of their cribs at 17 (!) months, so we added crib tents. about a month ago they learned how to finagle around the crib tent, so we turned their cribs backwards so the tall part was on the outside (if that makes any sense). well, then they (or at least liam) figured out how to climb out from the inside) facing the wall!! these boys are BRILLIANT when it comes to things like this!! finally we bit the bullet and converted their cribs into toddler beds. it. has. not. gone. well. they are up chasing us out the door when we leave & making a GIANT mess in their room. we have the doorknob turned around so we can lock them in (no judgement please) & we have to clear anything out of there they can make a mess with (wipes, baby powder, crayons, etc). i think liam has slept on the floor right up next to the door every night. same with naps. you know how they love to go to bed at 6:30?? one night liam was still up screaming at 10:30. come quickly, Lord...*liam spiked a fever yesterday so my mom & i took him to urgent care. he has an ear infection & i am PRAYING this is not the start the start of ear problems again. both of the boys tubes have fallen out & i will die if we have to get tubes again. i don't even know if the last sets are paid off!!
*i got a MUCH-NEEDED pedicure last week & my toes look fabulous. i wore open-toed shoes to church Sunday morning even though it was cold because i could not bear to keep them under wraps!

*i got my pedicure while drinking a salted caramel hot chocolate from starbucks. with no kids around. and the pedicure was a gift. easily the most heavenly hour of my week.

*i cannot help my daughter with her math homework. she gets frustrated, i get frustrated & i CANNOT explain it to her. she knows, daddy helps with math.
*my friend that i switch baby-sitting with is watching my boys from 9-1 tomorrow & i am giddy about it. i am thinking cinnamon crunch bagel & a good book at panera for starters, no???

*have i mentioned that time change stinks?? and i hate toddler beds??

*i am so so ready to break out the fall wardrobe for good!! sweaters, tights, skinny jeans, boots...BRING IT ON!! (p.s. i love skinny jeans + boots but for ME...they have to be worn with a shirt plenty long enough to cover down to about mid-thigh. my thighs touch & always will & that's not so cute in skinny jeans! ;))

*i would not trade my early-rising toddlers, generally non-pedicured toes, math-homework hating, thigh-touching life for all the money in the world :).

~i think that's about all of the miscellaneous info i have to share with you this uncommonly warm november monday morning!! hope your week is wonderful & that you see God's blessings everywhere you look!!

fill-in-the-blank friday!

2011-11-04T08:07:00.004-05:00

it is friday again & i am linking up with lauren at www.thelittlethingswedo.blogspot.com for fill-in-the blank friday!! 1. My favorite thing about this week was/is...i have 2 things. #1 was halloween & dressing the kids up & watching them run around & have a blast at trunk-or-treat. #2 was life group on wednesday night. we have 7 couples in our life group & this past wednesday was just a really sweet time of sharing & praying & being in the Lord's midst.
2. Colder weather makes me...really happy when i am inside & bundled up & drinking hot chocolate!! but a little grumpy when the car is freezing & the windows are fogging up & i can't fit my babies into their carseats in their big puffy coats ;).

3. Three things that make me terribly happy as of late are...#1. my job. it is NOT always wonderful but i know without a doubt it's RIGHT where i am supposed to be & i can totally see the Lord working through it. #2. my new (old) van. we got a toyota sienna & i just really really am loving it for my "minivan mom" stage of life. #3. the "friends of the waco library" book sale is this weekend! it is a HUGE, cheap book sale that shane & i very nerdily look forward to every year!!

4. If I could only wear one kind of shoe for the rest of my life, I'd choose...flip-flops. i would say maybe boots, but boots in the summer would be a real drag. flip-flops in the winter are do-able :).

5. My personality type is...definitely more of an extrovert. i do not get shy very often (if ever) & am perfectly happy to talk to strangers.

6. I have a serious problem resisting...diet coke. specifically a 44-oz. one from the fountain with just a splash of real coke on the top & bottom. i have one almost every single day & have no desire to stop.

7. My favorite color to wear is...black. i know that is so boring but i just love it!! you can totally accesorize with a lot of color & some bright shoes. always my fave!

join in and fill in some blanks with us this chilly friday morning!! have a wonderful weekend!! xoxo, dear friends!!

wordless wednesday

2011-11-02T10:09:00.003-05:00

i just found a bunch of these on our photographer's website & i cannot resist...

weekend o' celebrations!!

2011-10-30T20:03:00.016-05:00

i am tellin' ya, october at the watwood household has been HOPPIN'!! this weekend started with this: mommy's birthday!! and sophie made, decorated & iced (except for the sides) that entire cake by herself!! and it was YUM-O. i turned 33 (gulp!) & am fully convinced that 33 is going to be a WONDERFUL year!! i love this picture of me & all 3 of my babies blowing out my candles. i know it's not great picture quality but WHAT could i love more than this visual reminder of how ridiculously blessed i am??

saturday morning dawned with a birthday party for one of our favorite 2-yr-olds named myla. while i was too busy chasing toddlers to take many pictures, i did snap a cute one of minnie mouse & dorothy (aka tyler & sophie). sophie looks SO tired here but they are such sweet friends! tyler is our carpool buddy :).

shane took this picture saturday afternoon. he told the boys to go to the bathroom & wash their hands & i think they were a little too quiet-ha! nothing like a little fun in the bathroom sink :).

after naps for all, we headed to a WONDERFUL party at the "cooney pumpkin patch"!! some of our friends from life group have this huge party complete with dinner, hay rides, smores, & a real pumpkin patch to choose a pumpkin from!! it was seriously one of the most fun nights i have had in a long time. the weather was perfect, the children adorable and the company divine :). and how did we dress up our twinsies this year?? well, let me show you... AND

cute right?? we actually got the monkey costumes for $12.50 each at old navy & then my mom did the lettering. i LOVE dressing the boys up at halloween!! look at that dumplin' little monkey with a banana in his pocket!!

and this hyper little blue-eyed monkey munchin' a caramel apple!! ha!

the kids got to go on a hay ride & sissy rode with cullen. liam was not so into the idea (shocker!) but cullen braved it as long as sophie was along for the ride. they LOVED it!!

during the hay ride, liam & clark just hung out by the campfire sucking thumbs. i am not kidding these 2 boys look SO much alike!! totally more alike than liam & cullen. clarky is our little watwood triplet (and is going to be a BIG BROTHER in february!).

a final shot of our dorothy gale. somewhere she lost her socks & her basket with toto, but you still get the idea that she looked super-cute :).

lastly, tonight at the watwood casa we carved pumpkins. this was the first time we have done it as a family of 5 & we had a blast!! the brothers weren't into touching the pumpkin "guts" much but once they got spoons went to town with it. and before you look at this entire series of photos...PLEASE excuse the messiness of my house!! with our whirlwind of a weekend not a lot (okay none) of our cleaning got done. it's the important things in life, right ;)?? here are the bubs working on their pumpkins grown right in the cooney's backyard!!

and sissy proudly showing off the interior of her pumpkin...

li-li used an ice-cream scoop & thoroughly scraped out his lil' pumpkin!

and oh-please-don't-look-at-the-condition-of-my-living-room but i HAVE to show you this picture. if you know sophie well, please study her outfit. do you notice what she is wearing?? JEANS!! real, button-at-the-waist, non-jeggings blue jeans!! you must understand sophie has not worn blue jeans since she was about 18 months old. they were "too tight" or "itchy" or she would just cry and try to get them off. once she was about 3 they were "not beautiful" and "for boys". we have spent 4 years wearing dresses in the summer, dresses with leggings in the winter, skirts & tights & jeggings but absolutely, positively NO JEANS!! apparently the fashion police called and told sophie jeans were very in style because she decided she wanted a pair!! she looks so darling in them & i must admit they made me & shane a little nostalgic. our little toddler would never wear jeans. our big 1st grader wears jeans. my girl is growing up!!

okay friends, have a wonderful week dressing up your babies or changing diapers or going to work or cooking dinner or whatever it is that you're doing!! every hour we get is a blessing!! so thankful for all of you. xoxo :)

whirlwind weekend!

2011-10-25T14:57:00.013-05:00

hi friends!! i hope everyone's week has started off fabulously!! i have had a wonderful day...remember last friday when i said i was keeping a friend's 2-yr-old for the morning?? well today she kept the twins for the morning, & it was GLORIOUS!! first i went running at baylor, which is a HUGE treat for me. i love to run around campus, take water breaks in the SUB & do a few sets of stairs in draper. things even SMELL the same...i ran by collins (my old dorm) and someone opened a side door and it smelled JUST like 14 years ago!! i was wonderfully nostalgic all morning. then i went by amelia's (a local consignment store) to spend a little birthday money & got an awesome pair of like-new 7 jeans for $31!! i am telling you, red-letter day!!

we had a great weekend by oh MY it was busy busy!! i know it is just a taste of years to come for us & it was all fun stuff but we were rarely home!! but first, a funny pic of liam who went around the side of the house in the backyard...daddy went & found him like this!! oh my!!saturday afternoon was sophie's elementary school's fall carnival. last year at the carnival she ALMOST won the cake walk (something she has always aspired to do) & so that's all she had been talking about regarding the carnival this year. well, check out sissy...oh yes she did win!! she was the happiest kid at the whole carnival!! next up was a birthday party for a little girl in her class this year named sam. it turns out i went to high school with sam's mom & they have become fast friends this year. here are the 2 sweet friends:

sam's birthday party was at a local gym & i am telling you right now i could NOT get cullen off of the trampoline for anything!! he LOVED it!! my funny little buddy bounced & bounced until i was afraid he was gonna throw up his cake :).

this picture kills me! see the foot coming at liam's head?? i was just snapping away & happened to catch this right before that foot smacked him in the face!! poor brother never saw it coming!! (he was not hurt too bad :))

on sunday we had another birthday party at jumpin' party, then off to the "county fair" at FBC hewitt (where i work). again, sweet culley found something he did not want to leave...the side of the SHEEP :)!! liam was totally scared of it and cullen wanted to spend the whole night by it's side-ha!

i think this was labeled a hay ride but there was no hay so i am thinking it was more like a train ride?? at any rate, this time liam had a ball while cullen was totally scared (& in daddy's arms yelling to go back to the sheep!). sweet sissy's always along for the ride...

what's a county fair without fritos??

crazy bub in the bounce house!!

to round off our weekend we did some shopping at carter's with nana. all sophie wanted in the whole store was these pajamas!! she has not slept in footie pajamas in YEARS & we kept telling her we did not think she would like them. well, look who loved them!! she has slept in them both nights since (even though it's not cold out at all). shane & i think she looks ridiculously cute in them & it kind of tricks us into thinking she is our little toddler again :).

so...that's what we've been up to over here on tahoe trail!! i am LOVING fall & am getting increasingly excited about the holiday season!! xoxo :)

a friday hallelujah!!

2011-10-21T07:50:00.013-05:00

nothing SPECIFIC to hallelujah about this chilly friday morning, just wanted to wake up & give a shout of THANKS because it is friday!! we are embarking on a very busy weekend...for some reason, our october has been hoppin' this year!!
our week has been good! i pulled sophie out of school for a couple of hours yesterday so we could go get her flu vaccine & have a little girly lunch with our very special friends sarah & brynlee langhoff. today one of the boys little friends from school is coming over for the morning, & his mom is returning the favor to me next week. so this morning i will be chasing around THREE 2-yr-olds boys--holy moly!!--maybe i will realize my twins are easy :). speaking of the twins...
oh how i love this skeleton outfit!! it is actually pajamas but i deemed it cute enough for every-day wear so they wear it out & about. we had a set like it last year & for some reason i just LOVE it!! something about seeing 2 chubby little skeletons running around makes me giggle :). they wanted to pose for me 1 at a time for pics...so here is my silly cullen...and my big boy liam! (he looks like SUCH a big boy here...bye-bye baby...sniff!) last week at school sissy had "pajama day" where she got to wear her pj's & slippers all day!! i am thinking PDO needs to do this & the director gets to wear her pj's too, stat :).sissy brought home a "progress report" yesterday showing all of her current grades in all of th subjects. she has straight 100's & a 97 in math!! we were SO proud, because we knew this meant she had been trying her best!! last year in school sophie got no color changes, which meant she had perfect behavior. we were obviously super proud of this but this year she has turned that into wanting no color changes, perfect attendance & straight A's. sooooo...we are working on emphasizing to her that all we are really worried about is her doing her best. if an 85 is her best, great!! if she is still talking to a friend & her teacher says be quiet & she gets a color change, THAT IS OKAY. i don't want my little angel stressing herself out in first grade thinking she has to be perfect!! have you met her mama ;)?? so NOT PERFECT!!!!last week in Sunday school we talked about "making your mark" & finding out what God has gifted you at or given you a passion for & pursuing it. well, it struck a nerve in sissy & she has decided God has designed her to be a teacher!! you go, sophie!! she has always LOVED playing teacher but now we are playing it CONSTANTLY (which is fine with me). she has discovered she can use these windows as a make-shift white board!! up above she is in daddy's work shirt instucting her very obedient (ha!) class of 2-yr-olds, and here is her class at naptime :)...lastly, just a pic of culley that makes me smile!! he is such a dumplin Jesus gave us to keep us smiling (and occasionally pulling our hair out :)). have a wonderful weekend!! xoxo!!

just-a-few-words wednesday

2011-10-19T13:41:00.006-05:00

i just came across this picture of me & my loves & it took my breath away. i sometimes still can't believe that God has blessed us so.

fill-in-the-blank-friday

2011-10-14T07:45:00.006-05:00

hi!! it's friday (hallelujah!!) so i am linking up with lauren at http://www.thelittlethingswedo.blogspot.com/ for...

1. The most selfless thing I've ever done was...um, this is a hard & kind of awkward one to answer. shane & i do talk about a lot that when you have a kid you pretty much totally "die to self." what you want doesn't really matter, if you're tired it really doesn't matter, if you want to eat lunch & the baby's crying...you get the picture. i buy things for my kids before i buy them for myself, arrange my day around their schedules...so i'm going with motherhood being the most selfless thing i've done.
2. When it comes to working out...first & foremost, i am (or like to think of myself as) a runner. i go to the Y to work out a few times a week & that's fine, but running is what brings me the most joy. i am not really a fitness "class" type person, i prefer the down time just to myself & a pair of headphones or a good book or whatever.
3. A woman should always...again, hard to say what a woman should ALWAYS do! womanhood is SO much different now than it was 50 yrs ago!! i think women should always respect other women. if you choose to work, great, if not, great. you can nurse your babies or formula-feed or have kids or not have kids or WHATEVER, but i wish women would respect the choices of other women more instead of all the back-biting!
4. I wish I could magically know how to... do it ALL!! how to balance being an awesome present mom, work for hospice, keep my house clean, go on date nights, etc, etc...
5. A best friend is someone who...shares her zofran :). and loves you unconditionally, & celebrates when you celebrate & cries when you cry.
6. I can't get enough of...for a surface thing, diet coke. i love it & wish i could drink it ALL day.
for a heart thing, snuggling my kids. all of them. in a few years they will not want to snuggle with me anymore & that breaks my heart!! so for now, i will take every snuggle i can get.
7. This weekend I am going...to round rock to visit my mother-in-law with the rest of our party of 5. i can also promise you can find us at the round rock outlet mall :). and i will be cheering on my baylor bears as we (please Lord let it be so) beat A&M!!
~have a great weekend, friends!! xoxo!!

(not-so-wordless) wednesday

2011-10-12T21:00:00.002-05:00

this is shane & shawn circa 1976 (with the rest of their family obviously). i just HAD to post it because i think they look SO crazy much like liam!! even down to the big block feet!! and now 35 years later raising his own twins...

oh BROTHER!!

2011-10-11T17:59:00.013-05:00

this morning was one of those that was exactly how i dreamed it would be when i grew up and had babies and got to stay home wih them. it was nothing special, & it was everything special. i was with my boys at the park & there was absolutely no one else there but us. we were silly & we explored & we played & we laughed. at times i was right there in the thick of it with them, but at times i stood back & watched and was keenly aware of their brotherhood. they need me to meet their needs, but while during the day with sophie at age 2 i was her playmate, they don't need me for this. they've got each other. i know this is a random little picture of their shoes but ever since they were little the sight of 4 little shoes always kinda takes my breath away. and being that they're boys, it's 4 little tennis shoes filled with sand at the park...and i love this.
they were watching a squirrel in the tree in this picture, but i love how they are on a big long bench yet are standing RIGHT next to each other. i feel like they have been all up in each other's business since the womb & they are most comfortable this way.

"there's no other love like the love FOR a brother. there's no other love like the love FROM a brother" (terri guillemets).

a whole playground full of toys to play on, but all they wanted to do is play in the very dirty stagnant water at the water fountain (which i know is yuck, but i am more & more accepting of yuck as a boy mom). i love how they are head to head, checking it out together...

i can't say how much i love these little feet. while the rest of them looks more & more big boy, the fat feet still look like baby feet to me. dirty little feet and camo shorts...who knew they would melt my heart like this??
"sometimes being a brother is even better than being a superhero" (marc brown).

how precious is it that they stopped playing just to give each other a hug?? oh how mommy loves her sweet boys.

it's such a privelege to watch their relationship unfold. i hope they are always keenly aware of how blessed they are to be twins, just as i feel so crazy blessed to mother twins. i always tell shane i think God giggled while He made them, thinking about what little turkeys He was knitting together to come rock our worlds :).
"there's two to wash, two to dry; There's two who argue, two who cry

There's two to kiss, two to hug; And best of all, there's two to love!!"

sunday snapshots

2011-10-09T20:32:00.010-05:00

hi friends!! we have had a wonderful, rainy, lazy sunday around here. i have to admit it made me a little nostalgic for the pre-kids days...when we could lounge around ALL day in our pajamas, watching (non-kid) TV, maybe go out to dinner, take long naps. in 18 yrs i will have PLENTY of days like that...and i sure do love my babies :)!!

sophie has been playing soccer again this year & it has DEFINITELY been her best year yet!! she is not aggressive or competitive, but a switch flipped in her this year & she has been loving it & playing MUCH better. one game early this season she was NOT playing defensively at all & shane went to her & asked why she wasn't trying to get the ball. she said, so sweetly, "but daddy, i did not want to make the other kids mad by trying to get the ball when they had it!" that is just her sweet heart. i love LOVE the spirit Jesus has instilled in her! after shane promised though that no one would be mad she picked up her game quite a bit :). i need to take more pics of her this season, but here are her & daddy before their game on thursday. i am CRAZY biased but she is the cutest soccer player ever!! only sissy makes a unisex shirt into such a girly uniform! i thought maybe she could just play in black or white soccer shorts but oh no, she went to academy & found a red soccer skirt, red socks & a red and white bow!! she knows the important things in life...if you can't be the best player, be the cutest one :)!! and of course she is picured with her faithful coach, daddy. BFF lorelei is on her team & her daddy is the other coach! these pictures were taken this morning at church. the elementary kids meet in the "theatre" for worship & a time of learning before we break up into our small groups. this morning sophie got to go up front & help lead worship with a couple of other kids. she loved it & i love this picture of her with her arms up singing "glory to God forever." i pray over her constantly that this is what her life would be...bringing glory to God forever.

shane & i teach the kindergarten & 1st graders every sunday morning. there is obviously something on my lens here but here are some of our other babies learning how to praise God. i know it must bring His heart such joy to see His precious children singing their hearts out to Him!! it is my heart's cry that we are raising up a generation of godly children to take a stand for Jesus in their school & with their friends. it humbles me & scares me to think of the charge i have been given as a parent.

and this is just sissy & cullen being silly after church!! cullen has been shutting his eyes like this when you ask him to "see his pretty blue eyes" & it cracks us up :). he was wanting sophie to carry him everywhere this morning & sweet girl totally obliged even though he is a heavy load for her 6-yr-old self!

speaking of sweet siblings, all 3 of my kids wanted to play & cuddle in cullen's crib the other day & were in there for a good 30 minutes together!! (the bite marks on his crib rail make me giggle because he used to chew on it ALL the time when he was teething). i was talking to a friend yesterday who just had her second child about what a gift it is to give your child a sibling. i do not take it lightly at all because we prayed SO long & hard to give sophie a sibling & i know that God's answer could very well have been "no." all 3 of them love each other like NO one else!! of course the boys have a very special relationship with each other, but the love they have for sophie is IMMENSE!! they love her, cuddle on her, comfort her, check on her, & ask for her all day long. i know there will be years when they probably don't get along so well but i PRAY when they are grown they remain close!! i am so glad they all have each other!!

and on a 100% different note, i just wanted to show off this onesie!! i think it is TO-DIE-FOR cute!! it is a shower gift but one of my sweet college friends made it & it just makes me smile. the booty says "sic 'em bears," too!! last but not least, my poor liam BIT the driveway thursday night & scared us to death!! he fell out of shane's car head-first onto the pavement :(. the sound as he hit was sickening & i just knew he would be bleeding all over the driveway when we picked him up. he actually did not bleed too bad but swelled like crazy!!
the swelling does not look AS bad here here but i wanted to show you what a tough cookie liam is!! he literally cried hard MAYBE 10 minutes and then broke out his smile again. he is for sure the toughest of my 3 kids & it's a good thing because i am POSITIVE he will get the most injuries of my 3 kids too!!that's all i've got, folks!! we're all home from school tomorrow & are looking forward to a 4-day week. keep praying for wren, she has chemo tomorrow & we are praying for minimal nasty side effects so she can enjoy her babies!! begging that she would be COMPLETELY HEALED!! so thankful we serve a God who is Jehovah Rapha, a God who HEALS!!

fill-in-the-blank friday

2011-10-07T07:56:00.006-05:00

okay so lauren over at http://thelittlethingswedo.blogspot.com/ hosts a friday blog challenge called "fill-in-the-blank-friday." my brain's a little too foggy this morn to come up with my own blog posts but i think i can fill in a few blanks. without further ado, it's

1. Something popular that I can't stand/just don't "get" is... needing to be online on your phone all day. i get that it's handy but i spend plenty of time online as it is & when i'm out & about i want a break from connectivity!

2. Something unpopular that I secretly love is...friday nights with NO plans. sophie spends the night with my parents, shane goes on a long run & i watch DVR from the week when the boys go down at 6:30. i am usually asleep by 9!
3. When I've had a bad day I...get OUT of the house when shane gets home. i usually go to books-a-million & get a drink & ready trashy magazines, or maybe to get a pedicure if we have the extra funds :).
4. I'd prefer a...house full of kids to a... childless life any day.
5. Something that makes me nervous is...thinking about what i will do with myself once all my kids are in school. it excites me too but thinking about re-entering the real world makes me a little jittery!

6. Something worth fighting for is...your marriage. especially once kids are in the picture it takes a LOT of effort to keep it top-notch but it is SO worth it! i've said it before, but in 16 years or so all of the kids will be out of the house & it will be just me & shane again. i don't want to look at him & not even know him anymore!
7. When people think of me, I hope they think...that i love Jesus & i love my kids, and that i am kind. this is what i HOPE they think, not what they DO think! they very well may think i am a scatter-brained crazy mom of crazy kids & well, that is true too :).

~hope all of you have a wonderful friday & a fabulous weekend!! my van did end up being totaled so shane & i are headed to dallas today to add a new (used) minivan to the watwood fam. blessings, friends!!

wordless (i-took-this-pic-on)wednesday

2011-10-06T10:21:00.003-05:00

aren't you glad this cutie will fight for your freedom?? :)

celebrating LIFE!!

2011-10-01T20:41:00.012-05:00

with all that has been going on lately we have needed to CELEBRATE!! with all that has gone on surrounding wren's diagnosis we have a constant reminder to celebrate each & every day, big stuff & little!!
i have some pics of our "official" celebration but first a couple of pics of my day-to-day life...
here are my RG III & RG IV helping daddy make cookies. he is the BEST dad when it comes to stuff like this. i do not want the boys to touch the dough & pretty much want them to actually do as little as possible surrounding cookie-making. as you can see, daddy handed the beater right over & i am pretty sure cullen is eating dough straight from his fingers :) i think shane let them flour that baking stone as well?? hee hee! and i wonder why they like him better ;)??

the twinadoes strike again. actually this one was pretty much all cullen. i had gone to help sophie with her goldfish in the bathroom & came out to this. cullen digging in the eucerin...

and having a blast being picasso on the wall! WHAT am i going to do with these boys?? there is not one one ONE thing in this house that is safe from these boys unless it is under lock & key. it is a good thing Jesus made them so cute :)!!

now onto the celebrating!! i don't have but a few pictures because i was too busy, um, celebrating but WHAT a wonderful time we had today!! we had a baby shower celebrating the life of miss grace elizabeth horn right in her own home :). we brought the shower to wren & grace & truly had the most wonderful afternoon together. in about 30 minutes flat we transformed the horn's home into a pink-filled, food-filled baby shower extravaganza!! here we are trying to get the gift table ready...

and putting finishing touches on food! i tell you, the ladies of harris creek can buy girly gifts & make shower food like NO other!!

here is wren opening a really really cute bib & burp cloth set. she kept cracking me up because she has 2 sons & she could not believe all this cutesy stuff for baby GIRLS!! i am thinking her sons never had these minky-soft-frou-frou bibs & burp cloths :)!!

does she not just look wonderful?? it was so fun watching her open her mountain of gifts!! girl stuff is soooooo cute.

this on her arm is a robe that was a gift for her & she then put it on & modeled it for us. luckily SHE got some nice stuff too so she can pamper herself a little bit :).

here are most of the hostesses after the shower with miss grace in her mama's arms. grace was out with us being held by wren's mom during the whole shower and was a DREAM baby. she ate & rested & got to get a sneak-peek at all the cute stuff she will be wearing in coming months!

do you want a close-up of the little miracle herself?? 'cause i do!!

i am so thankful the horn's opened their home today to let us celebrate the life of baby grace & also to celebrate wren. grace is a living, breathing testament to a God who can & does perform miraculous works!! i know it is an honor for each of us to call the horn's friends & to pray for them & with them for the healing of wren. He is able!!

my favorite season...

2011-09-25T18:57:00.013-05:00

there is a blog i LOVE called "multiples & more." they have links to hundreds of multiples' blogs as well as relevant interviews, product reviews, etc. their question of the week is "what do you love about fall??" and, i have to say...what do i NOT love about fall?? i love everything about it!! but to be specific...here are a few of my favorite things...

1) halloween & all related activities. our church sponsors a trunk-or-treat that i love, i love buying & carving pumpkins, & i love going to the pumpkin farm with my family. there is one locally (the kaska family farm) that has so many fun fall activities for the kids that is our FAVE. check us out here wearing our wondertwins just a couple of years ago... 2) football season!! especially baylor football, ESPECIALLY when baylor football is good!! even if it's not baylor...having college football on TV, reading the sports section of the newspaper, even hoping my midway panthers win...i love the feel of football season!!

3) turning off the A/C & opening the windows. the smell of cool fresh air in my house instantly calms me down.

4) burning yummy fall candles...particularly pumpkin-style ones!!

5) going running on a nice cool morning. those first few runs where you are not sweating & you notice all the beautiful leaves turning...glorious!

6) hot beverages! i am not really a coffee drinker anymore :( but i still love a good hot beverage. starbucks salted caramel hot chocolate is my fave. obviously high in caloric content but definitely doable once in awhile!!

7) fall foods. shane makes some DELICIOUS pumpkin-spice muffins (that he & sophie are baking right this second as i type), & gingerbread is fall-ish to me too. i also am a soup LOVER & in particular are ready to make some split-pea, chicken tortilla, & chicken-n-dumplins!!
8) fall CLOTHES!! so ready to break out my jeans and long sleeves and scarves!! i will look nothing like this loft model below in my jeans but she still looks super cute :).

9) routine. now that we are a month into school, we are settling into a nice routine. while i love the lazy days of summer, i also crave a little routine & a little knowledge of "who's doing what when." i like the earlier bedtimes, getting homework done right after school, soccer practice, wednesday night church, etc...all lined up neatly on my big dry erase calendar!

10) the PARK! now obviously my twinsies can't fit into the same swing anymore like they used to (see picture below...& just LOOK at culley's silly face!), but the park is still a watwood family fave! sophie loves it, the boys love it, mama & daddy love it. it is MUCH easier to let my boys burn off energy outdoors at the park as opposed to indoors in my living room :). we are all so SO ready to start spending LOTS of time at the park!

i hope YOU are enjoying YOUR fall, too!! happy monday, friends!!

one rough day

2011-09-23T07:42:00.004-05:00

we watwood's had a rough thursday :(.
sophie had early release from school, so we had a girly lunch planned at olive garden with our friend sarah & her new baby, brynlee.
so...we are driving down hewitt drive & at the warren stoplight the cars were stacking up pretty fast. TOO fast for this mama who SHOULD have been driving more defensively so she could have stopped in time.
but i wasn't. and i blammed into the (beautiful, expensive) mercedes in front of me. hard. and my airbag deployed.
have you ever had an airbag deploy?? cause it's pretty scary. it is LOUD & there is some smoke/powdery stuff after it happens.
sophie was in the way back & crying but thankyouFatherinheaven was all buckled up in her booster seat & was totally fine. no injuries for mama either, other than some scratches on my arms from the airbag & a stiff neck today.
i had sophie's folder on my lap (she had just handed it to me) & the airbag blew it to smithereens. it was blue plastic & there were little blue plastic pieces everywhere. she tried to convince me she could not go to school today without her folder, but that one didn't go over too well :). i also had one of my full 44-oz diet sodas in the cup holder next to me & it blew up too...and, well, 44 ounces is a LOT of soda ;).
i called shane & he came & the police came & the lady i hit in the mercedes was so SO nice. the police did not issue me a citation & then the tow truck came. shane snapped a pic with his phone of the ole minivan fixing to be pulled away & today we wait to hear if it will be totaled out or not (the damage was worse than this pic shows...the front doors buckled & were difficult to open, the airbag, etc). the obvious is...thank you Jesus that sophie & i are totally fine. but--it was a pretty stinky way to spend a thursday afternoon!! just for the cherry on top...
we all pile in shane's car to go get the rent car. i propped my feet on the dash board and then just extend them out to stretch my legs out. and my foot broke shane's windshield!!

good-bye, thursday.

please pray!!

2011-09-20T08:17:00.003-05:00

i know it is time for me to do a blog post, but i can't bring myself to post about my family today. a few posts ago i asked you to pray for my friend wren, & last night we received this news:

Friends and Family,
I know many of you have been faithfully praying for Wren’s appointment today, and the Horns asked me to write an update so we could get the word out as soon as possible. After doing a full body PET scan last Friday, the doctors have determined that the cancer is advanced stage 4 cancer. This means they found evidence of the cancer in a number of places in Wren’s body, including in her lungs. Wren was set to start chemotherapy and radiation treatment for the colon cancer tomorrow, but the doctors have decided to cancel this treatment because the cancer is so advanced. This is obviously very difficult news to hear for all of us. As you might imagine, Wren and Brian are having a tough time processing it all.
At this point, I would ask you to pray for the Horns. Truthfully, I’m not really sure even how to ask you to pray. I believe this is one of those moments that Paul talks about in Romans 8 and 2 Corinthians 5 where we are simply groaning and asking the Holy Spirit to interpret our prayers made in desperation. I do know the Horns would appreciate your emails, calls, support, and prayers.
Wren and Brian will meet with the oncologist on Wednesday to determine possible treatment options and what’s next. They do know that Grace Elizabeth is set to come home in the next week, so they are excited about her progress and getting her home. The next few days will certainly be difficult for Wren, Brian, and their family. Please keep them in your prayers and continue to support them through this difficult season. Thank you in advance for all of the love and grace you will continue to show them.
Let me close with a word from Scripture. I can’t help but turn to the book of Lamentations in this moment to see how our forerunners in the faith have handled situations like this. The famous verses in chapter 3 come to mind when it says, “I will never forget this awful time, as I grieve over my (suffering). Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: The faithful love of the LORD never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning. I say to myself, ‘The LORD is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!’” It is in these moments that we must remember that our hope is in Christ alone.
In Christ,
Brady Herbert Lead Teaching Pastor

please, please, PLEASE...flood the gates of Heaven with us in prayer for wren!! it is a situation my heart is having a hard time accepting. i kept waking up last night hoping it had been part of a bad dream. shane and i were talking about it last night and we kept coming back to 2 things:
*material things are WORTHLESS in the big picture. the granite countertops i want & the dent in my minivan i loathe?? who gives a flying flip!! these things make NO difference.
*our hearts were truly designed for eternity. it's the ONLY promise we have. i can break promises, our spouses & friends can break promises. we are not promised tomorrow or november or 10 years from now. we are not promised growing old with our spouse or watching our babies graduate (THOUGH YOU BETTER BELIEVE I AM PRAYING FOR IT FOR DEAR WREN!!). ultimately--all we can cling to is eternity.
i just wish this perspective shift had not come at this high price :(. join us in praying to a God who is HEALER, a God who is ABLE, & a God who can move mountains!! move, Lord Jesus, move!!
p.s. you can go to http://www.harriscreek.org/horn-updates & go read about the horn's journey!!

blog your heart!

2011-09-14T10:21:00.006-05:00

i have a friend from college named stephanie, & she is doing a blog challenge today called "blog your heart." i really really really encourage you to go read stephanie's blog. any day i am feeling sorry for myself that i have it so hard, all i have to do is read her blog & think about how gracefully & cheerfully she mothers her 4 girls & i feel a lot better :).
the purpose of "blog your heart" is to, well, blog your heart. when i started my blog i promised that i would always blog "like it is" because i get tired of reading blogs that make it look like so-and-so's life is perfect. i can't handle feeling like other people's lives are perfect because mine, well, is so not. so, what's on my heart??
1. i totally feel like i want a 4th baby. shane is on board with this. i think about it a lot & i pray that if it is not to be that the Lord would remove that desire from my heart. one of the big issues is timing, which is particularly hilarious for shane & i to think we could time when we would have a baby. it definitely would not be in the next year or year and a half. and we don't even know IF i could get pregnant. there are a ton of if/when's regarding this issue, but i really do want another! (however, if this is not to be i am so SO very thrilled to have my 3 beautiful children! i do not feel incomplete or anything like that!)
2. i feel like my heart has been craving material things & "creature comforts" lately, & i have really been praying for satisfaction in all i DO have (which is plenty). with the chaos that surrounded us this summer and the continual reminders of how uncertain this life is, i think it just sparked a want in me to be totally comfortable. are my kids fed? yes. do they have warm beds to sleep in at night? yes. do i want a bigger house & an i-pad & to buy some new clothes at the loft? yes. so right now i just pray a lot for contentment. the things i do have...love, my husband & babies, salavation & abundant life...money cannot buy.
3. i struggled with my body image for many, many years, & right now i am happier than i have ever ever been. i weigh what i pretty much consider my "happy weight," which is what i weighed when i got pregnant both with sophie & the twins, but i am so much happier with it this go-around. i know so many of you women understand...you try to restrict what you eat, say, during the week so you can indulge on the weekends, & i just got sick of living that lifestyle..."i shouldn't put that much creamer in my coffee, i want to save those calories for saturday night," etc, etc. when i was pregnant with the boys i was initially told to aim to gain 50 pounds. well, i felt so sick the whole time that all i ate was whatever sounded good, & as soon as my hunger was satiated, i stopped eating. once the twins were born, i was nursing 2 babies so of course i ate whatever i wanted then too! i got so used to just eating what sounded good that i never put any food into an "off-limits" or "bad" category--it was all just fuel for my body. so now--i just eat what i want, when i am hungry, & stop when i am full. that's pretty much it. i do LIKE healthy foods & do not buy much junk food, but if i want a cookie or pizza or whatever i will definitely eat it. and i do exercise. but i no longer feel the need to restrict some days so i can indulge some days or not let myself eat homemade cinnamon rolls with the rest of my family. my body grew & birthed & fed 3 precious babies & looks such, but i am so proud of what it's done. i had over 12 lbs of baby in me at one time; my skin cannot look the same. BUT--i do not want to bemoan it; i earned it!!
4. it overwhelms me a little and yet excites me a little to think of what i will do with myself once all my children are in school full-time. do i want to go back to school?? part of me really wants to go to nursing school. work in hospice again?? i sure loved that. keep doing what i am doing now? look for a job at baylor so my kids can get tuition reimbursement? i don't know...but i think it will be a fun time (although one i am not ready for just yet ;)).
5. i am convinced this is the best time in life. my children are little & love me with all of their hearts (read: they are not sassy teenagers). i am still young enough that my body feels great & has not been afflicted by age. my parents are still young enough to be super-involved with my kids lives & are in great health. i wish i could freeze all of this just so!
6. all of the 9/11 stuff really affected me this year. i DVR'd a ton of it & have been watching. the 20/20 special got me the most; it was a look back at the kids & families & where they are now, 10 years later. they did a segment on the children whose fathers died while their moms were pregnant with them, so they had never met their dads. they talked about how much they knew their dad loved them & how they loved them too, even though they had never seen them. they showed pictures of these now-9-yr-olds next to their dad's pictures & they looked startlingly alike. then they talked to the wives of these men who had died, many of whom had remarried. they had found joy & happiness & love again & seemed so, well, happy. after i finished watching i went & found shane in the backyard & told him if anything ever happened to me, he must re-marry. he looked at me so confused, but i explained & he agreed.
...so, there ya go, folks!! i blogged what's on my heart today, & if you want i encourage you to do so, too. happy wednesday!!

grandparents day

2011-09-12T12:28:00.012-05:00

did you know grandparents day was yesterday?? in honor of that, i wanted to do a post on my kids three wonderful grandparents.

if you asked me my favorite thing about living in waco, i'm pretty sure that living in the same town as my mom & dad would be at the top of my list. i can PROMISE you that sophie would agree!! i can still remember telling them that i was pregnant with sophie & the looks on their faces. she was their first grandchild and they could NOT have been more excited!! from the time sophie was born until she was 2, she spent every tuesday with her boppy while i worked. that's right...my dad took care of an 8-wk-old by himself & loved it, because it was his granddaughter. he would carefully write down for me exactly how many ounces she drank at what time of day & what time he changed her diaper. he was one of the very only people she would take a bottle from. these years of tuesdays was the start of a relationship with her grandfather that i feel very few little girls are priveleged to have. she would rather go on a playdate with her boppy than anyone in this world! i promise you if she called him at 2 in the morning and asked him to come over and bring her a dr. pepper, he would hop in his car in 2 seconds flat. that's just the kind of relationship they have!!

sophie loves her nana every bit as much as her boppy. while she wants to play with boppy for hours on end, when it's time to snuggle, she wants her nana. she & her nana like to GO and have fun!!

they go out for donuts together, go clothes shopping together, get frozen yogurt together, go to garage sales together--you name it! just yesterday she came and got sophie after nap to take her to books-a-million to get some new books & then back to her house to make brownies. sophie has spent EVERY friday night with her boppy & nana since she was probably 18 months old. every one. she looks forward to friday all week and will skip anything on friday nights (football games, playdates with other friends) just to go to their house.

don't think the twins got left out of this grandparent-love-fest, because they are smack-dab in the middle of it!! when cullen was in the NICU, my parents were up there all the time with him. some of my best memories are of when the boys were newborns and my mom took a month off of work to help me care for them. i would see her white avalon pull up at my house in the mornings & would want to yell for joy!! she helped SO much & made what was hard work so much more enjoyable. i think my mom was supposed to have twins. while i think the twins would stress a lot of people out, they don't even faze my mom. my dad loves to hunt & fish & i am so excited for him to get to pass this on to my sons as they get older.they LOVE going to my parents house & love seeing them come up the walk at our house too! my mom comes over EVERY wednesday night to watch them so we can go to life group & they can keep their normal 6:30 bedtime ;).

shane's mom is the kids' grammy & they love her so!! she lives in round rock & has been hostess to many-a sophie sleepover!! sophie loves going there so she can shop at "grammy's mall" (aka round rock outlets), wash grammy's car, swim in grammy's backyard, etc, etc. i know it is a treat for her to go there without her brothers and get doted on! grammy has also come to waco many times to watch our kids when we need her to & they love to talk to her on the phone. grammy has her own twin boys & i know our twins are near & dear to her heart :). i can't imagine the deja vu of seeing your twin sons' twin boys!!

i was telling shane just last night--we may not have the most money and the boys may have to share a room for a really long time and we may wear a lot of clothes from smarty pants :)--but my kids are so, so loved. they have lived lives knowing nothing but love and safety and security and hugs and kisses and that is worth more than ANYTHING in the world. so--happy grandparents day, boppy, nana, and grammy!!! thanks for showing us more love than we know what to do with!!

wordless wednesday

2011-09-07T15:38:00.004-05:00

(it's tough having a big sister...)

a real LABOR day post :)

2011-09-05T20:07:00.002-05:00

maybe i am a little weird but i love other peoples labor stories. that is what i always want to hear when i visit people at the hospital after their babies are born. today i am linking up with kristen at http://www.wearethatfamily.com/ for the telling of labor stories!!

HOW LONG WERE YOUR LABORS??
sophie: i was induced at 8 am & she was born at 4:30, so 8.5 hrs?? not too long for a first labor. i was pleasantly surprised at how quickly it went!
liam & cullen: i was induced at 8 am & they were born at 10:02 am & 10:07 am, respectively. i only THOUGHT sophie's labor was fast!

HOW DID YOU KNOW YOU WERE IN LABOR??
boo...i have never gone into labor on my own! i so wanted to both times but for some reason my body has never gotten the message. so at 40 wks, 4 days for sophie & 37 wks, 4 days for the twins, my doctors scheduled inductions.

DID YOU RECEIVE ANY PAIN MEDICATION:
YES! with sophie first i just had some demerol, but all that did was make me really loopy & still in pain. one epidural later, i was a happy camper with a pain-free birth! with the twins i jumped straight to the epidural, but it was too late in the game to take effect and, um, i did NOT have a pain-free birth.

C-SECTIONS?
no, though while delivering the twins i did beg for one! ha!

WHERE DID YOU DELIVER??
i delivered sophie at providence & the twins at hillcrest, both here in waco.

WHO DELIVERED YOUR BABIES??
my wonderful OB dr. bagnasco delivered sophie, & i always had a total married crush on him (does anyone else feel strangely drawn to their OB's??). due to an insurance change i had to switch dr's for the twins, which was initially devastating but worked out just fine :). so dr. rister delivered my boys, & luckily is one of only 2 or 3 OB's in waco that will deliver a breech twin sans c-section!

even though the twins labor & delivery was a little traumatic, i still big puffy heart LOVE the day of delivery. there is nothing NOTHING like meeting your baby (or babies!) for the first time. while i obviously adore having twins, i am a little sad that i only got to do the whole L&D thing twice. it is so crazy special & i truly look back on my children's birthdays as MAGICAL days!!
here's the day i met my sissy (july 1, 2005):

& the day i met my wondertwins (july 24th, 2009). my 1st baby is 4 and the baby is liam :).

share your labor stories too!! i love them!! xoxo!!

thursday randoms...

2011-09-01T16:59:00.009-05:00

hi friends! i hope you have had a great week! it has been a good one for us, & it's always better with a long weekend on the horizon. i am, like all of you other texans, incredibly ready for the weather to cool down. even like 80 would be nice. sophie had soccer practice last saturday afternoon when it was 111 degrees out!! i am having a hard time believing it is actually going to be cooling off here in the next couple of months. i would not be surprised if we were wearing shorts on thanksgiving!
we started our parents day out year this week, & i feel like things went swimmingly well. of course i probably jinxed myself by saying that! i have said this before & i will say it again, but i am SO BLESSED to have my job. i know i will always look back on this sweet time in my life when i worked 12 hrs a week with my precious babies 10 yards down the hall :). also...as i type my boys are running around diaper-less with their little plastic potties here in the living room & culley has tee-teed in his once & liam, twice! we are not hard-core potty-training yet but i think they may be ready?? i better hop on it...ugh i am kind of dreading :(!
i just have a few pictures from the week, but they make me giggle :). first up was painting one afternoon...truly, you may as well paint on the table...who needs a chair?? and do you notice the mean paint job liam is doing on his (ample) thigh? ha! it is actually not a bad painting! quite colorful! as cullen put a little of each color on the paper he would call out the color he was using..."boo!" "yeddow!" "geen!"

silly boys in mommy's bathtub. they always fight over who gets to sit up front & they love to drink out of the faucet! i think li-li's little tan lines look SO cute. also...it always grosses me out how murky their bath water gets!! blargh!!

my 3 sunshines reading together on the couch. this picture just makes my heart happy!! i hope they ALWAYS love to read.

um, i think someone got into the peanut butter. just a wild guess.

since i know more than just wacoans read my blog i really really want to ask you to pray for a sweet friend of mine named wren. we were SO very blessed this summer at our church when her husband brian came on staff and they moved here with their young sons (3 & 1). not long after they got here wren was diagnosed with stage 3 cancer, & complicating things was the fact that wren was 27 weeks pregnant with a daughter. she was able to do some chemotherapy while pregnant, & late last week it was determined that the tumor had not shrunk significantly enough with the chemo she had been doing & it was time to deliver her daughter. grace elizabeth horn was born late saturday/early sunday at 32 weeks & weighing 3 lbs, 10 oz. she is doing splendidly, particularly considering her gestational age. now that she is no longer pregnant, wren will be able to be treated much more aggressively so she can kick this cancer to the curb!! that said, she needs your prayers. not only does wren need your prayers, but please pray for her husband brian & their 3 precious babies. i am so grateful we serve a GOD WHO IS ABLE & for with Whom nothing is impossible. healing wren of this cancer is NOT too hard for God!! we are already praising Him for His glory yet to be revealed through this situation. if you go to the harris creek website (link on right) you will see over on the right side a section that says "horn family updates." they update it so you can follow along on wren's journey if you like!

i pray you all have wonderful loooong weekends with those you love!! be refreshed!!

what a wednesday!! (+ a very blessed thursday)

2011-08-28T18:20:00.013-05:00

wednesday was a very big day here on tahoe trail!! most importantly, it was the FIRST day of school for a very special FIRST grade girl!! i can't say how much easier it was to send her to 1st grade vs. sending her to kindergarten. i got a little teary walking out of the school (i suppose i always will), but it was nowhere near as emotional for me & it was MUCH easier on sophie, too! she went every morning with a smile & climbed into the car every day in a great mood. her teacher's name is mrs. fortenberrry & so far it has been a good fit for us! here's our traditional first day of school picture by the spring valley sign-- about that time, we saw our good friend tyler walking up! it was tyler's first day of kindergarten & she was so brave!! i am so glad these sweet girls are friends.

here's sophie by the door of her class. there are 2 sophia's in the first grade (she goes by sophia at school--her choice!) & the other one is in her class, too!

once sissy was safely at school, i had to head to the doctor with the wondertwins for their 2-yr checkup. 2 words: OH MY!! there are no words. we do not see a pediatrician, we just all see our general practitioner & it works really well for us. reason being, they do not see a lot of 2-yr-olds so when we get there they know us, fawn over the boys & most importantly HELP ME OUT!! shane could not get there for about 30 minutes after we arrived & there was literally someone by my side in the waiting room & in the room where they weigh/measure/etc the whole time to help corral these twinadoes!! once we were in the exam room, daddy arrived, but the chaos continued. i took a series of pics so you can be jealous of our morning :):
#1. the nurses brought us some crayons, paper, & clipboards. yes coloring on the floor at the dr's office is a bit disgusting but if it occupied them, we were all for it!!

#2. unfortunately, coloring only occupied them for about o.2 minutes. then liam climbed up on the doctor's chair & started rolling all around the room!

#3. cullen enjoyed turning the lights on & off. when they were off it was pitch black in the room & liam would scream! we curbed this pretty quickly.

#4. liam started digging in the drawers & pulling stuff out. i am fairly certain he is holding a feminine hygiene product in this picture.

#5. then cullen started pulling out kleenex & stuffing them in the (gross) trash. and we let him, because again, it helped occupy for a bit!

#6. finally, daddy resorted to the old faithful latex-glove hand balloon!! bahaha!!

luckily, the hand-balloons did prove a great entertainment until dr. martindale arrived. we apologized for wasting his kleenex & a few gloves but he was unfazed. i conveniently left out that liam had been digging in the drawer of hygiene products.
we got the boys 2 year stats and, well, holy moly!

LIAM: 36 inches long, which is in the 82nd %ile. he has been in about the 50th % for height his whole life so this is a big jump! and...35 pounds, which is in the 97th %ile!! holy big boy!! doctor m said we could switch the boys to skim milk now & to look for him to drop some of his baby fat when we do so. though i must say...i will miss it!!

CULLEN: 35 inches long, which is in the 59th %ile!! GO CULLEN!! at his 1-yr he was in the 10th % for height so he took a HUGE jump!! cullen weighs 30 lbs even--5 whole lbs less than liam. this puts him in the 71st %ile for weight. at his 1 yr he was 70th for weight also but at only 10th for height he was a total roly-poly!! now that he has gotten so much taller the rolls are gone.
on another note, let me introduce you to someone real quick. here she is...miss juliana grace james!! she was born on thursday to our dear friends scott & lee ann. is she not a beauty?

scott & lee ann walked the road of infertility for many years & endured several IVF's & a miscarriage on their journey to being parents of their 6-yr-old jonah & their 2-yr-old ainsley. seeing the grace with which they walked through their valley gave shane & i great hope as we walked a similar road. early this year, lee ann VERY VERY unexpectedly found out she was pregnant! i have never squealed so loud! they gave out letters at the hospital when juliana was born & i want to quote part of it for you:

"we managed to put such an unexpected miracle [conceiving a child without the aid of in-vitro] beyond His reach. so many doctors had told us we would never have children on our own...we somehow forgot to take into account the sovreignty of our Lord! this was not a case of lee ann's body 'finally figuring it out' or us 'not worrying about it anymore.' this is truly a case of the Lord showing His divine & unmerited favor."

i want to leave you tonight with that & with the knowledge that we serve a God who truly can make the impossible, possible. know that He is still in the business of performing miracles & can always do more than we ask or imagine! if you need a reminder of God's power, come back here & take a peek at miss juliana!! God is good, all the time...

south padre, the final installment

2011-08-25T16:56:00.026-05:00

as i said in the last post, shane drove the boys down on wednesday morning. they left waco at 2 a.m. because we (wrongly) assumed they would continue sleeping in the car until their normal 6:30-7 a.m. well, they went to bed the night before at 6:30 so by 2, they had had 7.5 hrs of sleep & were rarin' to go! shane said they were hilarious, drinking their milk & chatting until they got outside of austin-ha! they got to south padre about 10 wednesday morning. and very soon after, cullen (& daddy) did this: and li-li--no nap for him! he was much too busy exploring the condo. when just sophie & i were there with my parents, we stayed in my parents condo but when the boys arrived, we got another one 1 floor up. sophie continued spending the nights at boppy & nana's, though (shocker!). later that evening, we headed down to the beach. this was not our boat but liam would. not. leave. it. alone. the people it belonged to were super-nice & told us we could take it out in the ocean, which we did!

true to form, culley just really wanted to snuggle with daddy. he is 100% daddy's little shadow.

once in our condo, the boys did a lot of this. admiring themselves in the mirror. i love tiny white baby hineys!! call me crazy :).

the next morning we woke up & headed for the pool. culley-bug knows how to enjoy a vacation!!

sweet liam went over to give bubba some sugars! while liam can be full of spit & vinegar, he is also a total teddy bear. he loves to give sugars & always takes care of hus bubba.

liam had been uncharacteristically fussy since he arrived, & his ear was draining a foul-smelling fluid (yuck i know!). after a call home to dr. martindale, we headed to an urgent care in port isabel. luckily my mom went with me to entertain (and to fetch whataburger for lunch!). someone got ahold of a diet dr. pepper :). this is a TOTAL liam-stinker face!!

we also read a lot of books in the waiting room. and when you left the office, instead of giving the child a toy or sucker, they gave them board books. i love that!! (an aside: once we were in the exam room a nurse came in & did an intake with me. some of the things she asked me: how much weight did i gain when i was pregnant? did i take iron supplements? how long was i in labor? how many nights did liam spend in the hospital at birth? i know there were more, but a TON of funny questions like that! yes i took prenatal vitamins! will you look at my son's ear right quick? ha!)

once we were done there, it was definitely naptime for my 3 monkeys. this is where my boys slept every night, & sophie decided she wanted to join for naptime! they totally all slept 2 hours like that. the boys did great on this mattress at night. we were afraid they would fall off a bed & this was the perfect set-up!

we felt well enough the next day to go build some sandcastles!! that is a hugendubler twin by cullen & they came to south padre the same days the boys did & we got to spend some time together. i will do a post on that later!!

i love this pic of my little stud-muffins in their swim diapers! ha! we did wear our swimsuits down to the water i promise but for some reason i took them off?? these little dumplin' boys KILL me!!

look at this little hunk!!

on south padre there is a turtle rescue center that sissy LOVES. we have a video about it that we watched for WEEKS beforehand. unfortunately this is the only picture i have of the rescue center because with all 3 kids & just shane & i there we were running around ragged. we knew if the boys were not CLOSELY supervised one of them would pluck one of those little turtles right out of the water!! bahaha!!

one thing sophie REALLY wanted to do last year but didn't get to was climb to the top of the lighthouse in port isabel. daddy went up with her & she LOVED it & being able to look over the city & the ocean!

such a sweet self-portrait of my 2 loves. when they got down sophie informed me she walked up "111 stairs!--and it was easy!" impressive!

later that night shane & i got to go on a date (one of the many bonuses of going on vacation with grandparents!). we always go to blackbeards on our date night--we don't even ask each other. it is DE-LICIOUS & it was so so good to slow down a bit & reconnect!

after our date, boppy & daddy took sophie fishing at the pier. they light it up at night & play music & sell food. she caught ELEVEN fish, got to eat nachos & a candy bar & was out until 11 p.m.!! talk about a red-letter night for sophie!! can you tell she is a little bit hyper in this pic or what??

she had a ball!! there is boppy in the background. she slept until 9:45 the next morning. that is the latest she has EVER slept in her entire life!!

here she is back at the condo with her loot. some of them were pretty small, but daddy cleaned them anyway & we brought them all home! cooking them will probably take about 3 minutes :).

sweet cullen was interested too & wanted to touch. (liam wanted no part in this!)

i LOVE this picture of cullen with daddy cleaning the fish. see his little baby hand on daddy's?? OH how he loves his daddy!!

unfortunately the boys had to head home the day before us, but sophie & i had one last hurrah in us. that night we went to one of our favorite restaurants, d's pizza joint. we go every year & sophie always sits in this barber chair. it is a real barber chair & it is right next to a jukebox she loves. this place is full of memories for us!! i have for real been eating here since i was probably 10, & i don't think it has changed one bit!

after pizza, we got to do one last thing sophie had been wanting to do all week...go-karts! as you can tell, she was a fan!!

outside of the go-kart place is this big gorilla sophie wanted to take about 100 pictures with. i'm posting this one of her with boppy & nana, without whom this trip would not have been possible (or nearly as fun!). it was EXACTLY the week we needed. no matter what craziness this life has for us (and there is a lot of it!), i always have this family & for that i am most, most thankful. so for now...so long, south padre!! see ya in 2012!!

south padre part 1

2011-08-23T16:08:00.017-05:00

now back to regularly scheduled blogging!! we just got back on sunday from a week in south padre. actually, only sophie & i (with my parents) were in south padre for a week; shane & the twins were there wednesday thru saturday. we flew & the boys drove; we learned last year that flying with the twins + 2 carseats + double stroller + pack-n-plays was barely even worth the hassle. the trip was PERFECT this year, largely due to shane doing the lion's share of the work--thanks baby :)! here are sophie & i at the airport waiting for our flight out...
this is the very night we got into south padre. soph didn't waste a second getting that swimsuit on and getting down to the ocean! the water was as nice and clear as it has ever been while we were down there.
the next morning sophie was eager to go out on the banana boat! she had never done it before but i had told her about it & she was dying to go! we got all geared up in our life-vests and were ready to go.

this is us way out in the water. it goes out pretty far & is quite bouncy going over the waves & such. you know my girl is a DAREDEVIL & l.o.v.e.d. the whole thing!!

we are back close to the shore now & i am helping sissy de-board the boat!

then we went shopping at sophie's favorite souvenir shop--aptly named the "harris sea castle." she begged me for this hat & i had to oblige...isn't it SO cute?? we called her "sophie-bo-peep" in it! (and p.s.--she totally has mama's big melon! this is an adult-sized hat that easily fit my mom, too! but did it fit me?? nooooo!)

the next day was sophie's most anticipated...schlitterbahn!! they built a schlitterbahn on the island probably 5 yrs ago & it really is super fun. expensive, but super-fun! very clean & kid-friendly. i love this pic of her walking in with her boppy...

this pic is classic sophie at south padre to me. just lounging with a dr. pepper in her hand. she loves dr. pepper & doesn't get to drink it hardly ever at home but with her boppy--all bets are off. needless to say, there was plenty of dr. pepper consumed on vacation! (i mean, i don't watch what i eat on vacation either...it's vacation, right?!?!)

here is the harris/watwood clan fixing to leave schlitterbahn. we have a great time when it is me, sophie & my parents. i know sophie is their granddaughter, but she spends SO much time with him i feel like she almost has another set of parents. almost. parents that don't have to discipline & get her whatever she wants :).

this tube was sophie's schlitterbahn souvenir. it is a tube that you fill up with all sorts of different flavors of candy powder. she needed a little assistance from boppy to get it out!!

that night we went to dinner at shrimp haus, which is a really yummy restaurant above schlitterbahn. sophie had a great time posing for pictures there :)! and i am biased but she is darling.

and again...my little sophie-bo-peep!!

don't forget boppy-bo-peep!! ha!!

inside the restaurant there is a lady that sings (very well, i might add) with a guitar player. when sophie heard that if you get up & dance you get beads, she was all over it!! of course, mommy had to join her...and once we were up there, so did another little girl we did not know :). sophie is lucky her mama is a nerd ;)!

mama & sophie with aforementioned beads :)

the next morning our 3 favorite boys arrived & our trip changed gears a little!! post 2 coming soon!!

p.s. tomorrow i will have a FIRST GRADER!! not sure how that happened?? she is very excited & i pray wonderful blessings on the 2011-2012 school year for her & all your babies, too!!

selective reduction of twins

2011-08-22T17:15:00.002-05:00

hi friends! i am in the middle of a south padre post (we have been in south padre for a week, hence the no blogging!) but i just came across this new york times article and absolutely HAD to post it & comment!! i never use my blog to spout about politics or to debate anything conservative vs. liberal. BUT...i don't even think this article is debatable!! it seriously has me in shock!! the article is about the selective reduction of twins. i encourage you to read it. in the cases mentioned, it is twins that were conceived as a result of fertility treatments. SO THE MOTHER KNOWINGLY DID TREATMENTS THAT SHE KNEW SKYROCKETED HER CHANCES OF HAVING MULTIPLES, THEN CHOSE TO WILLINGLY END THE LIFE OF ONE OF HER CHILDREN!! in one of the cases the doctor was able to tell the woman she was pregnant with a boy and a girl, and the woman chose to abort the boy because she already had a son & wanted a daughter. the fetus's heart is injected with potassium chloride, which ends it's little life. usually the fetus closest to the entry point of the needle is aborted.

i know the longing of a mother to hold an infant in her arms. i know what it's like to spend thousands of dollars to try to conceive said infant. i can't FATHOM the same longing heart being able to chose to end the life of one of her babies. i can't.

my life would be utterly incomplete without EITHER one of my twins. imagining a liam without a cullen or a cullen without a liam is impossible. and i know that God created each of their little lives with a purpose and knew them intimately while they were yet in my womb.

so this article?? truly unbelievable.

summer is sailing away...

2011-08-10T10:56:00.014-05:00

do you know what today is??

it's our last day of PDO for the summer! that pic up above is liam & his sweet teacher ms. ashlie. the one at the very top is silly cullen, who is much too cool to pose with his teacher & would rather roam the halls with the doll stroller & party blower-ha! i have said it before, but sophie started attending here (first baptist hewitt) when she was 5 months old & i am fixing to start my 5th year of working here. it was a job i never planned on having, but one in God's providence that has been perfect for our family. it is a mile & a half away from our home, i only have to work about 12 hours per week & my kids get to attend for free!! doesn't get much better than that. as my PDO responsibilities have increased (i am fixing to start my 2nd year as the director), so has my love for this "school." i have become better & better friends with the teachers & know their hearts & their desires to truly love & teach our kiddos here. the children's minister here is bar none & wants more than anything for the kids in our program to know & love Jesus. kids like these crazy girls popping their heads into my office...(sophie, hailey, & lorelei)
this summer has been especially fun because sophie has been back with me here at PDO!! she, of course, has been here for so long she feels like she runs the place. it was strange for her to NOT be with me here last year while she was in kindergarten & having her here with me for the summer has been AWESOME!! we jokingly call her a "student teacher" & let her run errands, go to her brother's class to help feed them lunch, etc. she feels like such a big girl & i get to see her smiling face all day. win/win!! today was "water day" at school. i DIED when i went out there to find the girls like this...much too cool to play in the sprinklers, we'll just lay out & catch some rays, thank you very much! ha! (and don't you love sophie's purple shades?)

this next picture i took of cullen on august 3rd. august 3rd is a VERY special day for us because it is our "welcome home cullen!!" day!! it is the day he came home from the NICU in 2009 & i promise there will not be an august 3rd in my lifetime that i do not celebrate the precious life of my son!!

one summer evening just hanging on the playset...see li-li's little birthmark next to his bellybutton?? i think it is so cute! our kids go outside EVERY night when daddy gets home (mostly because mommy is too much of a wuss to take them out any earlier because of this heat!). for some reason, when they walk outside all of their clothes just magically fall off! ha! (the kids, not shane's! :))

sissy got the brilliant idea of putting the water sprinkler on the slide! have i told you the story of this playset?? one day i was walking out to my car with all of my kids & this older couple drives by. i had never met them before but they live one street over from us. they said they had a playset in their backyard that they did not need & they saw me on a walk with my kids so they watched to see what house i went into so they could come meet us & offer us their playset! i mean, WOW!! it is not brand-new or super-fancy but all 3 of my kids LOVE it. unexpected blessings like this are so fun!

and, this one's just because cullen loves potato soup :) :) :)

things in our lives have continued to be "heavy." i am not sure what other word to use to describe it. we have friends dealing with life-threatening illnesses, infertility, separation...all in our little "bubble." sometimes i think we as middle-class, comfortable Christians think we are immune to things like this and we have been hit in the face over & over & OVER this summer with unbelievable things (not for us personally, just for different dear loved ones). i find my carnal nature craving comfort & stability & protection from the world, yet i know that my God allows us to go through these things and does not prevent them from happening to us just because we are Christians. it has been a test of faith for us to praise Him & trust Him in what sometimes feels like a valley for us. what we DO know is that we serve a God of miracles & we will praise Him now for the work we KNOW He is going to do. it's just the waiting to see the glory that is tough...

we are leaving in a few days for SOUTH PADRE 2011!! we are doing things a little differently this year & sophie & i are flying down with my parents for a few days, then shane & the twins will drive down & join us. i know a vacation with 3 kids can be more like a "re-location" of our chaos from point A to point B but i am really praying this trip also serves as a time of refreshment for us. we need it. thank you as always for walking with us!

sissy swims! (& a sad good-bye)

2011-08-02T08:24:00.012-05:00

phew!! i do not think we have slowed down once this summer...& i know it won't be happening from here on out!! we leave for south padre in about 10 days, & when we get back it's time for school to start...& i will have a FIRST GRADER!! how does this happen??
one thing we had not gotten to yet this summer was swimming lessons. sophie has taken them every summer since she was 1, but of course those early years are just games & getting used to the water. she took lessons at the Y this year (our 1st time to do that) & i was soooo pleased!! and better...for members, the lessons were only $50 for 2 wks of lessons. bargain!! this is the first time i think i can really say sophie can swim. can totally swim, come up for a breath, swim in the deep...YAY!! now that we are so busy trying to keep the twinadoes alive in the water not having to worry about sissy is a BIG relief.
here is my little fish working her breast-stroke (and coming up for a breath while doing it!)... and this is her free-style...

and finally, my friends, the much-practiced, super-difficult...CANNON BALL!! :)

okay a few randoms...one of the twins favorite snacks is graham crackers with peanut butter, which they lovingly refer to as "cracker-butter." unfortunately, when they are through eating their cracker-butter, they have taken to opening up their little cracker sandwich and, um, sticking it on my wall!! GAH!!

recently my doorbell rang & it was a package for the twins. look what was inside!! backpacks with my boys!! they even have their names on them. here's liam's...

and cullen's!! a big huge thank you to my sweet sweet friend ginny for spoiling my boys :)

lastly, the least favorite part of our summer. we have a teacher at PDO named sheila who has been there since our PDO opened...9 years i think. when i first brought sophie to PDO as a 5-month-old, sheila was her teacher. sheila still teases me that all i brought to PDO for my 19-lb 6-month-old to eat for 5 hours was one 5-oz bottle! ha! such a silly first-time mom! anyway, sheila has her own twin daughters who are 11 now, and their names are megan & jessica. sheila was SUCH an encouragement to me throughout my twin pregnancy and then had my babies in her class since they were 2 months old. i was never worried about having my babies in her class--not once! she & her daughters are our very favorite baby-sitters & i CANNOT tell you how much my boys love all 3 of them. i had a HORRIBLE migraine a couple of wks ago & all it took was one text message to sheila...she was here, loading the boys carseats into her car & they were off for a day full of fun!! sadly, they moved to corpus christi last week and we had to say some sad good-byes. we know it's not a forever good-bye, just a "see you later"--but still, it was so so sad :(. the day before we left megan & jessica joined us for swimming at the Y & spent some time tickling the boys...

this is jessica with culley...

and megan with li-li!

they actually stayed in waco a little longer so they could come to the boys birthday party. here i am with my boys & their favorite 3 girls!! WE LOVE YOU BRUNER FAMILY!!

have a blessed tuesday!! xoxo!!

the last birthday post

2011-07-29T20:17:00.015-05:00

last night we had the twins birthday party at the mayborn museum. summer is SO busy & all of our kids birthdays are in july & we are leaving for vacation in a couple of weeks so we were tempted to just do our little family party this year and leave it at that. BUT--i just remember having a BIG party for sophie's 2nd birthday & i just could not handle doing that for her & then not the boys!! so--our party was fairly low-key, but still a lot of fun. we had it at the mayborn museum, which is one of their favorite local play-spots & i know all the other kids love it there too! our theme was "noah's ark"--we felt like it was sort of "twinsy." we had about 30 minutes to decorate & there is not a lot to work with, so the decor was minimal ;). the boys had really cute noah's ark shirts with their names on them off of etsy, but of course i could not get them to stand still long enough to take a picture of them. i think the most still they got was eating cake & ice cream...

culley can concentrate so well when he is doing important things...so cute!!

before the cake was cut, liam was fascinated by it!! we had to keep close guard because we knew he would thrust his hands right in in a bloody second!! luckily there were a few big sisters keeping watch...

the cake before it was cut. we got it from patsy's bake shop in west. she actually did our wedding cake & all of our kids first birthday cakes too. her cake is YUMMY & reasonably priced!!

just a couple wide group shots!! i don't want to forget who was important in the boys lives at 2 :).

i love all the teeny little kids at this table! i see miles, hannah, naomi, clark, sam, liam & cullen. they are so darling because they are just learning to sit at big tables like this & eat off plates & with utensils & such. my boys have been friends with each of these littles since infanthood. so sweet!!

after the party i have to say i felt really humbled. people are SO busy in the summer & have a million things to do every day. it meant a lot to me that all of these people would take time out of their busy schedules to come celebrate my boys!! i know they won't remember their second birthday party, but hopefully they will see pictures & know how very loved they have always been!!

2 years with our 2 boys!!

2011-07-25T19:42:00.023-05:00

2 years with the wondertwins. 2 years of infertility, 2 babies. my heart is so full, and yes...mama is tired, too. but tired because of the most wonderful gift(s)!
i have not always been an exceptionally sappy mama. i think once we were pregnant with the boys & then they were born i just always felt it was the "last"...the last pregnancy, the last time we would buy newborn diapers, the last time we would use an infant carrier, etc, etc. SO--with the boys i have been ridiculously sappy. every time i walk into target i get so sappy thinking about how ridiculously happy i was to shop there for newborn stuff when i was pregnant. every time i drive by dr. rister's office (daily) i get so nostalgic thinking about how many times i sat in that waiting room waiting to hear my babies heartbeats. we have a curious george CD that kills me because sophie listened to it non-stop in my car when i was pregnant. all of those memories feel so very fresh...yet they were over TWO YEARS ago. how can it be?? it is a constant thing for me to just smile because those things happened and not cry because they are gone. but oh--for the last 2 days i have been doing some smiling!! we have been celebrating our twinadoes non-stop and they make us all so very happy!!
THE 2 OF THESE BOYS, at 2 years old: are both wearing mostly 2T clothes (smaller bottoms for cullen) and size 5 diapers. they both LOVE their milk & we just bought our last gallon of whole. neither are big breakfast-eaters, preferring their milk until their appetites wake up a little. both LOVE carbs & would live on them if we would let them!! favorite foods for the both of them include chicken, muffins, pancakes, grapes, shredded cheese, & donut holes :). they are SO attached to each other and worry about the other all day...liam asks for "cuddy" & cullen asks for "bubba." if you give one of them milk, they will ask for "bubba milk?" or a cookie--"bubba tookie?" last friday cullen spent the night with my mom & dad & liam was SO confused when he woke up, asking for "cuddy" & checking all of the rooms for him. i think one of my VERY favorite parts of having twins is watching their relationship develop & knowing they will never be alone. they have NEVER known what it is like to be without the other, even in the womb, & i think that is so cool!! (okay so technically they were apart 10 days when culley was in the NICU but i'm just glossing over that :))

they egg each other on & are exceptionally good at finding trouble to get into together. i don't think they would make NEAR as many crazy messes if there was just one of them!! their real mischief is always done as a pair. they are both in a CRAZY daddy phase right now. as soon as shane gets home they say "daddy no bye-bye?" because they want to make sure he is not leaving again. if i walk into their room first in the morning i hear, "no mommy! DADDY!" which warms my heart ;). the second shane walks in at the end of the day they run to the door & scream "side!! pockles!!"--which translates, let's go outside & eat popsicles!! which they do every day, before dinner, right away.

boys boys have definitely had a language explosion in the last few months, though they still are nowhere near where sophie was at 2 (not that i am comparing). we are pretty good at deciphering the things they say & they get frustrated when we cannot understand them! they still actually sign some too which still proves helpful. both boys sleep 12 hrs a night which is a HUGE blessing i do not take for granted. i think God knows i could not handle the daytime without a few hours with shane in the evening & then a good night's sleep!!

both boys LOVE all 3 of their grandparents & the feeling is mutual :). they get very excited when they can tell we are driving to boppy & nana's house. they love to go swimming and call it "fimming water"--they both wear puddle jumpers when we go & so far no one has drowned!! they are starting to like TV a little & favorites include mickey mouse, elmo, & thomas the train. i do have to admit they love watching strawberry shortcake--courtesy of big sister & much to daddy's chagrin--and will walk around asking for "saw-berry kate?"

neither boy will sit in a high chair (awesome) & of course they can both crawl out of their cribs so they have crib tents (which i would highly recommend). they are very VERY hard to take to restaurants, so we rarely do this. their separation anxiety seems to have ceased & they march happily into their classroom at school, church, etc. they definitely have friends they know & will ask for by name--miles, hannah & naomi, ethan & evan, clark, etc. they like to be on-the-go & once we are dressed in the morning say "bye-bye?," wanting to know where we are going for the day. they both also like to be sung "you are my sunshine"--and when i sing the ABC's they will say "no!" ha!

CULLEN, at 2: my "little" culley-bug!! when cullen was in-utero, the sonographer was concerned once because cullen's femurs were measuring in the 10th%-ile...& his whole life since, his height has been in the 10th%-ile (except the last appt, where he moved up to the 25th%!). he feels little to me & i love it :). culley has lost almost all of his baby fat & just looks like a little boy. true to his nature even in utero, cullen is the much more chill twin. however, when they were babies, cullen was much easier. now--not so much!! still easIER, but not easy :). he is VERY independent & gets very mad if you do something for him he wants to do himself. if something is HIS & you take it--forget about it! once cullen is mad or having a fit, it can take him quite a while to simmer down. "distracting" doesn't really work for him--usually a couple minutes in his crib does.

his blond hair has been significantly darkening all year, though those baby blues have remained. cullen has VERY sensitive feet & does not like to walk on anything scratchy, hot, etc, or have his toenails cut. shane thinks this may be because they poked his feet several times a day, every day in the NICU?? he has a chipped front tooth courtesy of a fall in the bathtub :). i love that his middle name is "harris" (my maiden name) because he definitely has a harris build (vs. a watwood one). cullen is the more coordinated of the 2 boys. he has the patience to sit & figure something out & can play independently for a bit. he likes to hop, gallop, hang from things, climb, & get into mischeif with big brother!! cullen is my more adventurous eater of the 2 (like he always has been) & there is hardly a food he will snub.

cullen is NOT a performer--if you tell him, "say_______," 99% of the time he WILL NOT say it. you can really tell he does not care what people think!! even when he was a baby it was really hard for people to get a smile from him, & they would think he was so serious (which he is so not!) culley is not a cuddle-bug unless it is late at night/early in the morning & he has just woken up. i still every once in a while go get him out of his crib & take him onto the couch for snuggles about 10 p.m. he never wakes up & it is the only way to get good cullen cuddles in!!

cullen harris,

i can't tell you the joy you have brought your daddy & me the last 2 years!! your name means "divine spark" & that is exactly what you are--a little spark of energy & light that spreads wherever you go!! God fashioned you so perfectly for our family to remind us to be silly & to remind us to take time out to enjoy the little things in life. we can't wait to see what God has planned for you--what you will excel at, what will interest you, the friends you choose--we believe you will always be able to do whatever you set your mind to!! always know that mommy & daddy love & support you, NO MATTER WHAT, & that Jesus loves you even more than that. you are my sunshine,

mommy

LIAM, at 2: just like cullen, he has stayed true-to-form since his in-utero days--ACTIVE!! big boy, big personality, high highs & low lows :). at last check liam was 3 lbs bigger than baby bro but i am thinking it is even more now. when shane's mom was at our house sunday she kept saying liam looked SO much like shane at 2 that when she looked at him, she even saw 2 different-colored eyes (like shane has). i've said it before, liam's BONES are big. his ankles are thick. his head is big. he has a barrel chest. i hope he always looks just like shane because i think shane is pretty handsome :). we just bought liam shoes in a size EIGHT wide; his feet are not really that long but a 7.5 double wide are pretty hard to come by ;). luckily for liam, those 2 sweet dimples will charm most anyone's socks right off!!

liam is kind of a 'fraidy-cat!! he does not enjoy anything that feels scary--being thrown up into the air, sliding down big slides, going fast, etc. he gets this really scared look on his face & kind of fake smiles. he tries to do the dexterious things cullen does--gallop, jump with both feet--but does it sort of clumsily. li-li is the more verbal of the 2 right now. he IS much more a performer than C...you can tell him to say a word or phrase & he will do so. liam is much more our cuddle-bug!! he especially loves to cuddle with mommy & a few nights a week will wake up at night around 10 crying. when he does this i get him & snuggle him back to sleep on the couch. i am sure he knows full well i will do this but i do not care one bit!! it is one of my favorite times with him!! (if it was like 3 a.m. that would be a different story. but 10 p.m. is fine! :))

while li-li may look like he loves to eat, he is definitely my pickier eater...again, true to form. this is the baby who NEVER EVER ate baby food. even common, yummy stuff--strawberries, watermelon, yogurt--is a no-go with liam. and he doesn't just turn his head away--he exclaims "UCKY!" and blows raspberries & kind of gags. oh my. liam does love kiwi!! liam also love, love, LOVES his pacifier (his "ba-boo") & i am SO SAD that we are fixing to have to take it away from him. SO. SAD. he is so loud & finicky & it is the perfect thing to shove in a loud screaming mouth when needed :). i said i would take it away when he turned 2, but now i am admittedly postponing until after our trip to south padre. shane is driving the twins down this year & he does NOT need to endure 8 hours in the car with liam without his paci. SO--hold me accountable--after august 21, we will be undergoing operation "remove liam's paci"!!

william jesse,

i am so glad God put you in our family!! your name means "strong-willed warrior"--and i know you will use that strong-will of yours for some awesome things for His kingdom as you grow!! there is never a dull moment with you & i am so thankful for the energy you bring to our home. i know being your mama will be one fun ride as you grow & develop, & i promise daddy & i will always be your biggest fans. always know, bubba...Jesus loves you most.

you are my sunshine,

mommy

do you know what today is??

2011-07-24T19:23:00.013-05:00

it's our twins SECOND birthday!!!! do you love the cake shane made them?? (and the pink cupcake was for sophie. he was afraid she would not want such a boy-ish cake. ha!) they each got their own half of the cake :). when the babies were born someone had told me to "assign" them colors & then get them everything in that color. since cullen was blue-eyed i assigned him blue so liam got green. the stretchy bands that go on their bottles/cups are color-coded, whenever we get ANYTHING colored (balloons, shirts, cups, anything) liam's is green & cullen's is blue. they know their "color" & so they never drink bubba's milk, never fight over balloons, etc. so--they definitely knew whose side of the cake was whose.

i am FULL of sentimentality but i will save that for their "official" 2-yr-post in a couple of days. this is just about documenting their very special day today!! i think my kids birthdays are more fun than my own & i LOVE celebrating them & their little lives. their "actual" party is later this week but tonight we just had grandparents over for pizza, cake & presents. here is sweet culley with his birthday balloon. the boys are OBSESSED with balloons & sometimes shane will take them to H.E.B. JUST to ride around in the car cart & get free balloons!! sweet mr. chuuby cheeks eating both cake AND a sucker!! sweet tooth, much??
my sweet mr. blue eyes!! i know i have said it before but none of us have blue eyes and i love LOVE that God gave them especially to cullen. 2 years ago today he was NOT in my arms & today he is and i am SOOOO thankful!!!!

big boys in big boy chairs using big boy forks!! the high chairs have officially been put away. no more babies at my house!! waaaaahhhh!! (although, if i ask liam "are you mama's boy?" he answers with, "no, i mama's BABY!!" makes my heart smile :))

blowing out their candles. i love liam's face here...this is his best blowing attempt!!

sweet little pizza-eating munchkins. their birthday party last year was the minnesota "twins" & i had some leftover supplies so we used that tonight :)

mama getting some li-li lovin'!! a year ago today he WAS in my arms and was my first breath of fresh air after years of infertility...

sweet daddy & his twins, wearing his "twins" jersey!! twins are the majority in this household (liam, cullen, AND daddy)--sophie & i are the lone singletons :). shane has special shirts he wears every year at each of his kids' birthday parties. he wore a red hawaiian print shirt at sophie's first birthday party (a luau) & has worn it at each of her parties since, & he wore this twins jersey at the boys first birthday party and wore it tonight & will wear it every year for them, too!! my dad does this too. i looooove this!! (oh and shane wore the same shirt on our kids actual birthdays too at the hospital!!)

there are no, no, NO words to describe our love for these 2 stinky boys. when the sonographer told us we were having 2 boys i think we were both a little panicked...2 BOYS?? and they melted our hearts immediately and we love them more intensely than i think both of us ever imagined. ABSOLUTELY having twins is hard, but it also brings SO many cool blessings & i feel like it is such a UNIQUE blessing. someone asked me once if i could have the same 2 boys but have them one at a time if i would, to which i said...NOT ON YOUR LIFE!! just like so many things in life...the hard is what makes it good. we love you liam & cullen!!

summer is great...

2011-07-18T15:44:00.019-05:00

summer is NOT just hard. summer is a lot of fun too!! summer is good for SO many things. let me tell you a little more about it...
summer is GREAT at the Y!! on tuesdays & thursdays they have kids zumba that sophie loves going to and then we follow that up with free lunch. the Y serves free lunch to kids ages 1-18 mon-fri & my kids so look forward to it when we are there!! so here we are enjoying our baked lays at the Y...summer is great for chips!!

sophie & her friends grant & tyler enjoying their free lunch. summer is great for picnics on the floor with your friends!!

while sissy is in zumba, mama is sweatin' it out on the elliptical!! summer is a great time to have a break from your kids while working out!! (and can i tell you how funny i know i looked taking pictures of myself on the elliptical?? ha!)

while sissy is in zumba & mama is on the elliptical, the bubbas are hammin' it up in child watch. i know i posted a while back that they were screaming bloody murder when i left them at the Y, but summer is a GREAT time for getting over your clinginess & playing in child watch!!

summer is a great time for a mama to lose her mind sometimes!! the other day i walked out of the house with my kids, locked the front door, buckled all the kids up, and COULD NOT FIND MY KEYS. checked the front door, the floorboards, EVERYWHERE. the kids were getting sweaty in their carseats but we could not get back in the house--it was locked--and we could not start the car. i was going to have to call shane to leave work & come help us when i glanced at the one place i had not looked...

summer is a great time to wear animal-head towels with your friends at school. i think culley's pretty sweet on that little puppy dog, myla :).

summer's a great time for twins to help each other out at the water fountain. that's a hugendubler twin helping out a fellow watwood twin.

summer is an AWESOME time for running through sprinklers with popsicles!!

heck, summer is great for popsicles, PERIOD. (the twins call them "pockles"--love it!!)

summer is a great time to do a little cleaning!!

and a GREAT time for looking studly in your swim trunks!! (and man cullen looks skinny to me here!! i know he is not skinny by any means but last summer he looked a lot like chris farley so to me he looks really skinny!! :))

summer is PERFECT for eating cheese puffs in your diapers, especially if you're snuggled up on a pallet at your boppy & nana's.

summer is a great time to feed elmo some oatmeal!! poor elmo doesn't get a lot to eat around here & i know he was grateful cullen took mercy on him.

summer is perfect for playing dress-up with your friends, big & little.

summer is a fun time to snuggle with your brother. y'all, she tells us she wants to marry liam & go on their honeymoon to great wolf lodge!! and i cherish every second she is so innocent & precious because in a few years i know she may want nothing to do with her brothers!!

summer is the perfect time to wear matching toms!! sophie's uncle shawn sent these to her for her birthday & we love to match!!

so, even though it's hard--summer is the perfect time for SO many things!! summer is a great time to make a lot of memories with all of the people that you love!! blessings, friends!!

lies, lies, lies

2011-07-13T11:04:00.002-05:00

hi friends!! i have to be honest with you today...my heart is a little heavy. it has been a hard week, both as-a-mom-wise & just in terms of some different bad news we have been receiving. i just have to say...being a mom is HARD. don't let anybody ever tell you any differently!! it's not that a bunch of specific things have been happening with my kids that has been so hard...it's just being in charge of 3 young children by myself for 10 hours a day. i've said it before and i'll say it again...NOTHING IS SAFE FROM THE TWINS!! they are at a stage where every room they go in they get hurt. yesterday cullen fell getting in his high chair and got a big goose-egg on his head. monday sophie's chest of drawers fell onto the twins!! not crushed them, but it did catch liam's leg and cut it & it shook them up quite badly. i feel like i need to be hawking over them at every second but that is not possible!! i have to use the restroom sometimes. i have to change the clothes from the washer to the dryer sometimes. so now, especially since the chest-of-drawer incident i am filled with FEAR. and satan is speaking to me that i cannot do this. i am not a good mom. maybe i should go back to work-full time so someone else can do this. satan has me in a place where he is trying to convince me that everything i do all day is so hard. loading the flailing toddlers into their carseats is so hard. sweeping the floor 20 times a day while they crush goldfish on it is hard. cleaning poop of the carpet that cullen smeared onto it is hard. dealing with a 6-yr-old sasspants is hard. etc, etc, etc!! i feel like it is so hard to be caught up...on housekeeping, laundry, relationships, cooking, etc...& i am constantly falling behind. not measuring up. not the wife that shane deserves. and let me say right now...
SATAN WILL NOT WIN!! HE WILL NOT HAVE MY FAMILY!! he will not have a foothold in our lives and he will not steal our joy!! i am convicted in needing to take captive every thought & make it obedient to Christ. to pray for joy in the mundane & for seeing every day as the miracle that it is instead of something to be trudged through. to call out every lie that satan whispers in my ear and call it as such!! i feel hard-pressed on every side...but not crushed... perplexed, but not in despair... persecuted, but not forsaken... struck down, but not destroyed.

4th of july (7 days late!)

2011-07-11T15:57:00.019-05:00

we love the 4th of july at the watwood household!! really sophie loves every. single. holiday. ever., but the 4th of july is a particular favorite. we got some shirts at i'm yours to start off the celebrating. and yes this is the best picture i could get of the 3 of them. and no cullen does not wear his hair like that on a regular basis.

the city of woodway has a parade every year; this was sophie's 2nd year to be in it & the twins first. my pictures are in reverse order so the after-parade pics are first! these are my twinadoes lookin' done done DONE! super cute though huh?

this is our parade route crew + everett (lorelei's little brother). i HATE that he did not ride in the parade with us but i did not even know if i was going to be taking the twins until the last minute & lorelei was just going to go along with shane & sophie. this is where all the kiddos grandparents sat & watched the parade go by!! it was a little hot out, but it was only 9 a.m. so it was still bearable.

BFF's. total BFF's. sophie has never been to PDO or preschool or kindergarten without lorelei & i hope she never has to!! and isn't it funny how much taller sophie is than lorelei?? i am 9 inches taller than lorelei's tiny mama mandy so we look just like this when we stand next to each other. ha!

shane & his little mini-me. i need to post some pics soon of shane & his twin bro shawn when they were this age because they look JUST like liam!! i love getting to watch a "little shane" grow up!!

again, li-li hanging on the fire truck. he is nowhere NEAR as adventurous as cullen and much preferred to be in the middle of the fire truck at all times (whereas culley loved hanging out the window!). i wish i could tell you how many suckers were consumed in the fire truck that morning! a LOT.

you can see here that liam was double-fisting the suckers & that lorelei was eating one too!! they think she is their sister too & LOVE when she is around!

this is what cullen looked like all morning. he wanted to hang out the window & throw candy like the big kids!! he could not throw it very far but it was not for lack of effort!!

3 of my loves waiting to throw candy. mama mostly just sat & fed liam suckers. ha!

okay so culley got a sucker too. he looks so old here to me! gah!

see, here i am doing my job! unwrapping candy for the little ones ON the fire truck. look how full our truck was!

when we got there that morning we did not know we were going to get to ride on a fire truck. sophie & lorelei were going to walk & throw candy & i was going to pull the twins in their wagon. well, since shane is a member of the woodway volunteer fire dept. they asked if we all wanted to ride. um, YES!! i love stuff like this. a 30-minute, small-town parade that meant the world to my kids. sophie is still talking about it & i am SO thankful she gets to grow up with sweet family memories like this!! these are most definitely the days...

dancing queen

2011-07-06T16:29:00.009-05:00

as i have been a little behind on the ole blog, i have some dance recital pics of sophie i have not posted yet. this was her 2nd dance recital to partake in and she had a ball!! while not always wanting to go to dance CLASS, dance RECITAL is soooo exciting...makeup! sparkles! fancy costumes! oh my.
18 little tap dancers...

and 18 ballet dancers too :)

i was a "backstage mom" for one of her 2 recitals and we had such a fun night!! basically me & 1 other mom were backstage with the 18 girls trying to keep them entertained for 2 1/2 hrs. no big thing ;). this picture makes me giggle!! we had sheets & blankets all laid out so they did not get their costumes dirty and they were doing all SORTS of things...coloring, watching movies, puzzles...like one big playdate :).

this pic though is my favorite of the group. all the ruffle-y little tutu hineys watching the portable DVD player!! ha!

this is sophie's friend from class ella. i think these costumes are SO beautiful!!

one gorgeous tap dancer.

she is the most beautiful 5-yr-old i have ever seen. and i am totally not biased.

sophie & another friend from class. merciful heavens i am glad she does not wear makeup on a daily basis. it was nice to get it all washed off & have her look like my little 5-yr-old again!!

sophie is now saying she does not want to take dance next year and would rather take gymnastics. i am secretly hoping she will change her mind, because i love love LOVE the sparkly glittery fancy girly-ness of dance!! i danced growing up and i secretly get jealous at recital that i cannot buckle up my tap shoes and head out on the stage too!! (oh my! would that be a sight?? a muffin-top-minivan-drivin'-mom-of-3- in spandex?!?! bahaha!!) whatever the case, so thankful for this year of memories & glitter with my GIRL!! i know i have PLENTY of sports-sweaty-stinky boy activities ahead (and i will be at EVERY ONE cheering!! :)).

super sweet six-year-old sophie!!

2011-07-03T15:50:00.015-05:00

on friday, july 1st my angel-girl firstborn sophie turned SIX years old!! six. more than the number 6 sounding so old (which it does), it's just sophie that is LOOKING so old lately. she is 4 feet tall (!), for crying out loud!! shane & i catch ourselves looking at her ALL the time lately exclaiming "she looks so old!" (and of course, "she is so beautiful!").
there is nary a birthday around here that does not get celebrated big time!! so 6-yr-old sophie got the full treatment. on her actual birthday we went out to dinner at olive garden & back to my parents for cake and presents. when asked for a pic, sissy was proud to flash us a happy "6"!!

her big gift of the night on friday was roller skates!! yes i know she needs pads & a helmet but i need her with me to get them...she has giant melon like her mama ;). we are still very much in the learning stages of roller-skating!! luckily she's got her 2 main men to support her...daddy & boppy!!

my mom made sissy a cake and she was THRILLED with it!! good as any bakery cake i tell ya :).

sophie got to choose her dinner destination and she chose olive garden. we have had olive garden take-out before and she LOVES it but has never eaten in the restaurant. she asked if it was fancy & i said yes, and she was sold!! the waiter served her dr. pepper in a "fancy"glass and made her feel very special :).

the week before her actual birthday sophie had her party with friends. she decided she wanted a slumber party so we let her pick 4 friends to spend the night. everyone made it through the whole night & everyone went home happy!! i think they fell asleep about 10:45 (after i bribed them with quarters) & woke up around 7. they slept in sleeping bags in our living room and i slept on the couch in there. i love this pic of everyone right before bed. everyone was wanting to snuggle a little-ha! and i promise lucy had a great time :).

before they went to bed, though, they played this game from lorelei. it is a version of twister with rings!

sissy & her best boppy. i say this every year, but these 2 have been best buds since july 1st, 2005.

sophie's big gift this year (thank you boppy & nana) was a barbie jeep. holy moly was she excited!! this has been a "pipe dream" of hers for awhile and she was beside herself!! here shhe was taking hailey for a spin. (and i know it looks super safe to let everyone peruse down the street like that! we were at the end of our cul-de-sac where there is barely any traffic & if we spotted a car at all they had to all pull right over! safety first :))

i love this pic so much!! sophie looks like she is having the time of her life, and you can tell lorelei is one safe little driver :). i know i am going to blink and sophie & lorelei are going to be cruising down the street in a REAL car. heaven help me.

this is when she first saw her jeep. we had it kind of hiding on our driveway & she went & jumped RIGHT in it!! i don't there is anything as fun as seeing your kids get REALLY excited about something!!

don't worry, there were plenty of other presents too!! opening some loot from her friends...

...and blowing out the candles on her darling princess birthday cake!

one last birthday pic!! we told sophie we would take them wherever she wanted, and where did she choose?? mcdonalds!! ha!! (not too hard on the pocketbook, though :))

i've said this before, but this is a really precious age. she is old enough to be really independent & easy, but is still in every way such a little girl. her and her friends don't catfight. no arguing over boys or fighting me to wear skimpy clothes or getting left out of the popular clique. her little mind is as innocent as they come, and it pains me to think it will not always stay that way!! her birthday was a little nostalgic to me because it was the first FRIDAY july 1st since she was born on friday july 1st 6 years ago. she also just lost her first tooth tonight!! and that makes me nostalgic too...i remember when that little tooth came in :(. in fact i need to hop off the computer to go get it ready for the tooth fairy!! hoping the tooth fairy has some cash in the old wallet tonight ;). it has been a wonderful week and a half of celebrating my girl!! she is the best kid i have ever met. we are humbled to think Jesus chose us to be her parents & are in awe to know He loves her more than we do. it is a privilege to watch His plans for her life unfold! we love you sophia margaret!!

two toddler trouble-makers :)

2011-06-30T08:04:00.014-05:00

hi friends!! i am posting this from my new laptop that is out of my boys reach :). i am still having a hard time editing and spacing photos on it while i blog so please bear with any weirdness ;).
i am not sure what to say but... TWO-YEAR-OLD BOYS!! and TWO of them at that!! i have (obviously) never had a 2-yr-old boy before but let me tell you...it is TOTALLY different from a 2-yr-old girl!!!!!!! and yes they are cute and funny and i adore them and love having twins...but they WEAR. ME. OUT. to the core. every day. recently a twin mom of a blog i read just asked on her blog..."when does having twins get easier?" and you clicked on 3 mos, 6 mos, 9 mos, or 1 yr. i had to leave her a comment saying "none of the above!" we are at 2 years and it is harder than it has ever been!! i have heard 4 is the magic age for boys?? not encouraging, friends, not encouraging...
onto some picures of my little mischeiveous, making-mama-gray, darling boys...
check out this face. a face only a mama could love. all wet & dirty. why all wet & dirty, you ask??

well, he had just been drinking tea OFF THE FLOOR!! heaven help me.

yes he did have an accomplice. mr. cullen harris watwood. the boys LOVE tea (and of course rarely get any) & there was a big pitcher of it on my island. i left the room to presumably help sophie with something and they pushed a chair to the island, dumped the sticky-sweet tea on the floor, & started lapping it up like puppy dogs!! it was a definite immediate-bath situation.

the boys are in a big HUGE man-phase right now. as in preferring daddy to mommy & loving their boppy too. i think boppy's helping them eat some breadsticks here :)

they also LOVE destroying the newspaper. love it. stalk it out and go to town on it as soon as it is left unattended. once we are done with it sometimes we just let them play. WHY do we spend money on toys for these boys??

like i said, we looooove daddy around here!! never mind the mom that grew, birthed & fed them...give me DAD ;). liam woke up hollering in his crib the other night, so shane got him. cullen got jealous & wanted daddy to, so he obliged. this was probably 11 p.m. shane is a sucker for these 2!! there is something SO precious about the stage though where all a baby wants is YOU. where they scream & scream and once they are laying on you, they are calm enough to fall back asleep. shane & i are both suckers for this. it doesn't last long, folks, it doesn't last long...

this would be naptime. we have JUST NOW broken the boys of their morning nap and our sleeper culley just can't quite make it through. here he just plopped down between daddy's legs and fell asleep...

on to yoga. the twins love yoga...who knew?? actually, they may or may not love it...but sissy does, & she loves playing yoga instructor too!! i love this pic of culley stretching out his legs...ha!

and this, as termed by sissy, is the "double down-dog"!!

OOPS!! mommy left the bag of splenda open and mr. blue eyes found it & dug right in!! he was licking his hands something crazy & going for more. merciful heavens.

(are any of you wondering how i leave them alone long enough to let this type of mischief happen?? well, moms of 2 or more may understand perfectly, but still. i do NOT leave them alone in the kitchen to say, go to my room & get dressed & do my make-up. it's more like, leave to go help sissy in the bathroom or go put the clothes from the washer to the dryer or answer the door. they get into things in 5 seconds flat!! and i always keep a camera around to record the moments :)).
this is a long, short hutch in my dining area that they love to crawl behind, onto, you name it. there is not ONE piece of furniture, cabinet, curtain, potty, etc safe from these 2!! cullen is taking a head-dive...(shane caught him)...

and liam taunts me...

and they both look sweet & innocent from behind!! and see those windows behind them?? YES LIAM DID break one of them with a stainless steel measuring cup. yes he did.

shane & i joke all the time that the big-top song that they play at the circus should be our family theme song! ha! there isn't a day that we don't laugh a ton, say "no" more times than we can count, and go to bed exhausted. ask me in 20 years, and i guarantee you i'll be bored.

big kid trip part deaux

2011-06-20T21:04:00.041-05:00

*i know the spacing on this post is totally weird!! after trying for too long to fix it, it's just gonna have to do :)!!*
last year, we took our inaugural "big kids trip" to sea world. our group includes me & sophie, kylie & hudson, mandy & lorelei, & carly & lucy. each of our kiddos is the eldest sibling in his/her family and this trip is a really special way for each of us moms to re-connect with our sweet first-borns. our kids have been talking about their trip to great wolf lodge FOREVER & to be perfectly honest, i was just as excited as sophie!! a weekend with ONLY one (almost) 6-yr-old & 3 of MY best friends?? awesome.

the drive to great wolf was much quicker than the one to sea world, & before we knew it we were pulling in to GWL!! the kids were beside themselves with excitement. we went into the lobby...

and this is what it looks like right by the check-in desk!! obviously there is a big glare from my flash but right out there past the kids is part of the water park. talk about making the kids anxious to get up & into their swimsuits as quickly as possible!!

after a "quick" trip upstairs to drop off luggage & change, it was time to hit the water park! i don't even know if i told any of the girls to pose here or to just smile for the camera, but i love that they are SO excited & SO uninhibited!! gorgeous little punkies.

no pictures inside the actual water park b/c i did not want to risk my camera, but the major portion of the park is indoor with also an outdoor area. i believe they keep the indoor pool water at 84 degrees which sounds quite warm but most of the indoor water was quite cool (which was rather refreshing considering it was 104 out on saturday)!

upon entering the pool we saw a couple of pretty funny signs...at least to us!! see the rule here in red?? sophie was reading it and did not want to say "pee" out loud :). hahaha!!

and then the last rule on this next sign is particularly gross. must they really print the word "diarrhea"?? couldn't they just say gastrointestinal upset?? hahaha...

before each child enters the park for the first time they have to get measured and get a colored bracelet according to their height--red, yellow & green accordingly. then different colors are allowed to ride different rides, with the "scariest" or biggest rides for the adults & kids with green bracelets (i.e. 48 inches or taller). well guess who is FOUR FEET TALL?? and still only 5 years old?? my sweet sophia margaret!! she could ride any ride in the place and believe me you she did!! actually, that is untrue...she could NOT ride any ride in the place. there were a set of slides for smaller children that she went over to go down with her friends (they all had yellow bracelets) & they told her she was not allowed to slide!! it hurt her feelings :(, but i know a rule is a rule. my girl is FEARLESS when it comes to rides of all kinds & it is really fun to get to do them all with her!!
after a few hours playing in the water it was time to go upstairs & get ready for dinner. ready to head up...

this little bear was right outside of a little "dessert shop" on the first floor which the kids were enthralled with at first sight. a quick pic & a promise to return after dinner, it was up to our room...

the girls, as always, loved the opportunity to shower together :). the mommies enjoyed their own showers though ;). our little bathing beauties...

after getting very minimally ready for dinner, we headed down. there are 2 restaurants inside of great wolf that are both kid-friendly, & we enjoyed our dinner very much. we treated ourselves to chips & queso, guac & salsa before our entree and enjoyed some grown-up conversation while our "big kids" were off in their own little world the entire dinner. it was SO NICE to not have sippy cups, food being slung around, & toddlers whining to get out of high chairs. just sayin'.

along with the kids meal came a complimentary pair of wolf ears. the kids LOVED them and were HILARIOUS wearing them, howling, and actually parading around our table in a howling little circle. we were dying laughing at their sweet innocent fun!! here's a couple of howlers in the middle, a sassy little curly-top on one end, and a little baylor bear on the other :).

at 8 p.m. great wolf lodge hosts story time down on the first floor. you are supposed to wear your pajamas so we quickly went & changed into p.j.'s after dinner. well, the kids did...the mamas just wore their regular clothes ;). this is in the lobby where story time is held...

and here our are little pajama-clad cuties...

although difficult to hear, they really did sit like this & listen intently.

after story time, the kids can wait in line to have their picture taken with the wolf. i LOVE that she is she still young enough to want to do this!! she was probably the only green-bracelet-wearin' kid posing with mr. wolf that night ;)!!

you didn't forget that dessert shop, did you?? well, neither did our kids (and frankly, neither did our mamas :))!! there was any kind of dessert there you could imagine...ice cream, cookies, cotton candy, a candy bar. initially sophie & lucy wanted to choose some candy at the candy bar, which you put into a *maybe* 8-oz. souvenir plastic cup. when carly & i saw the cup was EIGHT DOLLARS we quickly led them to another area of the store where sophie promptly chose a cookie as big as her face :)...

we then took our dessert outside to eat because there was supposed to be a fireworks show at 9 p.m. i say supposed to because the fireworks did not start until at LEAST 9:30, which would normally be fine but our kids were worn out and we were sitting in some sort of itchy grass. kids in said itchy grass...

it is very difficult to get a picture of fireworks going off!! this was the best i could do. a few minutes into the firework display the little sprinkler heads popped up in that very grass we were sitting in & started going off!! i don't know who screamed louder, the kids or the mamas!! we laughed SO hard & promptly found another spot :).

back to our room for sleeping!! we had a great room that was 2 story, with the bottom floor for mamas & the top floor for kiddos. the kids area had a big bed, a lot of floor space, a potty & a sink. since they all could not fit in the bed, we decided hudson & lorelei on the floor & sophie & lucy in the bed. guess who slept in the bed??

yep, NO ONE!! sleeping on the floor sounded like an adventure that no one wanted to miss out on!! sophie has never slept on the floor in her LIFE & i was worried she would not like it but little miss snuggled right up in between a wall & the bed and after a few minutes of whispering was OUT. sophie & lorelei all cozied up in their sleeping bags...

and hudson all cozied up in his. lucy was not pleased with her head placement at this point & was not wanting to take a picture :). we did get this issue all straightened out so all 3 girls' heads could be near each other ;).

the kids slept until about 8 and then enjoyed a breakfast in our room consisting of muffins & pop-tarts :). then back into our swimsuits and back down for water fun!! we checked out of the room early but you are able to stay and play all day after you check out. headed down for our final time...

saturday we played at both the outdoor water park as well as the indoor one. there was also a little place to eat lunch right there (i am thinking you could have packed your own as well). after a few more "last slides" it was time to get out, get showered off & head to (the girls, anyway...hudson was making a build-a-bear) the scoops spa!! (i love hudson's little head here peeking around the corner!!)

as you will see in the pictures, "scoops" is a little girly-girls DREAM place!! sophie had seen it on-line when we were scoping out great wolf & she talked about it endlessly. i will say that the pedicure was $49.99 with an "instant" 20% gratuity (!!), but they did get to keep the crown, the nail polish they selected, & the memory :). it was worth it.

here they are in their robes (these were not kept :)), their crowns & with their selected nail polish.

they got to sit on this little ice cream sundae while they got pedicured together!! i love this picture!! this is mama's idea of heaven too...a pedi with my besties!! i truly pray she has & treasures these friendships her whole life long.

i mean, this is the life. sissy is getting her legs scrubbed with an exfoliant at FIVE YEARS OLD!! sorry, daddy...i'm afraid we're spoiling her ;).

and...now we're done. they even had on those little disposable flip-flops!! they are starting to look a little tired to me here :).

the finished product!!

and now, after 2 VERY full days, it's time to head back to waco!! we are up here waiting for our cars and bidding great wolf lodge "adieu." i highly, HIGHLY recommend GWL as a family destination. the price is reasonable, the rooms are great, the staff is helpful...we had an all-around GREAT time!!

until next year & the installment of "big kid trip III"...

poor little blog...

2011-06-13T20:13:00.002-05:00

oh friends...what a 10 days we have had since i last posted. and i will warn you in advance...no pictures tonight :(. BORING, i know!! but lemme tell you...liam broke the ole laptop. yep...BROKE, and our new one is coming on friday. he could knock our laptop off of the couch 100 times and not do it that way again...it hit at just the right angle to break not only the plug but crack the side of it where the plug goes in. irreparable. i was so mad, i cannot even say. and the anger was not even really justified...he didn't know the laptop was expensive and had just been watching sissy play games. let me tell you this new laptop will be OUT OF REACH of toddlers at all times!!
so...i am on shane's laptop right now and cannot download all of our pictures on it. bummer. i will say we are about 10 days into summer and mama is pretty tired. we are also out of PDO right now so our days have not had a lot of structure. i usually go to the Y a lot during our downtime like this but right now the twins are HATING it, particularly liam. and i have always been that mom who tells other moms "just keep dropping off your screaming child over & over & they will get used to it. you are the boss!" and while i agree...when it's your kid(s)...it's HARD. liam literally lays on the floor banging his head & screaming bloody murder. flails when i hand him over. it's not that i feel so bad for him (he is really just throwing a giant fit, he knows that the Y is a safe place), i know the workers have enough kids to deal with and do not have the time to focus one my ONE child. i spend my workout hopping on & off the equipment until he stops throwing his fit & it is not an enjoyable phase for us!!
luckily the twins have FINALLY given up their morning nap & are both taking a much-longer afternoon one. even sophie will still take an afternoon nap probably 90% of the time! so as crazy as our days are, at least i have that little block of time of silence :).
our plumbing went out on saturday night and is STILL in the process of being fixed. let me tell you, you have not lived until you could not flush toilet paper (or the potty), or do laundry, or run the dishwasher...for a family of 5...for over 2 days!! wow.
i know this post sounds like a big old downer!! i really do not feel down right now we are just trying to find a new groove for the summer. we were all on a good schedule during the school year and it's only been a little over a week of all trying to adjust. sophie has had round-the-clock fun stuff to do at school for the last 9 months, so we're coming off that a little. we are fine...seriously...just a little mommed-out at the moment ;). it will pass, it will pass...
love to each of you, friends!! i will have a lot of fun posts as soon as we get our new computer!! talk to you soon!!

bye-bye kindergarten!!

2011-06-04T20:23:00.014-05:00

i know i have some issues with letting my kids grow up. it's just that, well, i don't like it. i agree that every new stage is fun & exciting & all that, but to me, every new stage is that much closer to the "i don't need you, mom" stage or the "i don't like you, mom" stage or, most dreaded to me, the "let's pack me up for college, mom" stage. and while going to kindergarten was hard on this mama, i didn't quite anticipate graduating from kindergarten to be quite so emotional. they filed in the cafetorium to "pomp and circumstance" and all i could think was, the next time i see her filing in to this song it will be her high school graduation. again, cue the michelle duggar wanna-be in me. when her kids grow up, she still has babies at home. i kind of like that idea.
i digress. sophie has been SO excited about her graduation and in particular to get all dressed up and wear "dangly earrings" :). a big fat thank you to my friend amy for watching the the twins for us because it would have been impossible to pay ANY attention to the ceremony with their assistance!! (amy has her own 1 1/2 yr-old twin boys so she had FOUR toddler twin boys all morning--anyone jealous?? ;))
i know the color is off on this picture but i want to show sophie's position during the performance...on the top row between the boys. also keep in mind she is one of the youngest in her class, still 5 and this tall! i was always on the top row of everything too growing up and she is proud to be so tall!!

sophie is a true performer and LOVES being on stage!! a few of the kids in her class had a speaking role and she felt so proud to be one of them. she practiced her line at home so as to do it perfectly :). patiently waiting...

and confidently saying, "just like our seeds, caterpillars, and baby chicks, we have grown and changed a lot too!" :) :) :)

again, terrible picture but standing in between her friends bill & carlton with her diploma:

(and may i just say i took a lot of terrible pictures that day?? i am trying to convince shane we need a better camera & he is trying to convince me it is "not a problem with the camera, it's a problem with the user." hmph.)
after the ceremony it was back to mrs. chapman's class for the last time to gather our belongings and hit the road! it was SO HARD to say good-bye to mrs. chapman. there are no words to say how perfectly designed by God it was that she was sophie's teacher. i just feel like a kindergarten teacher can totally set the tone for a child's outlook on school & education, and mrs. chapman was spot-on for sophie. it is a scary thing to in essence share your child with the world when they start kindergarten, and she has made us feel so confident leaving sophie in her care. if someone else had to spend 35 hours a week with my child, i am SO GLAD it was her. our beloved mrs. chapman:

in addition to mrs. chapman, sophie was crazy blessed with TWO phenomenal student teachers this year. her first one has a very special place in our hearts and sophie is just enamored with her!! she has actually baby-sat my kids since and is expecting her own bundle of precious this summer. mrs. langhoff:

there is one more woman who is crazy in love with this girl...her mama.

and, well, 2 grandparents who are pretty much smitten and would move heaven & earth for her...(you can tell she's pretty much done with picture-taking by this point ;))

the last picture is my sweet original watwood family of 3. i get kind of nostalgic when i think about the years it was just the 3 of us. my first little family of my own. the first time i learned to love selflessly like that. sweet years.

there is just something so pure & innocent about kindergarten. as i was watching her on stage with her arms around bill & carlton it just hit me. she doesn't care that they're boys, she doesn't care that they don't look like her...they are just her friends. it does not even occur to her that they are not just like her!! i know that in just a few short years it will start to matter who is popular, what boys have crushes on who, and cliques will start to form. i love this sweet time where they are all on the same plane. no one's different. no one's cool. so refreshing.
one more quick brag on my kindergartener. out of the 22 kids in her class, only THREE did not get a color change allll year long. this is what is used for discipline...green, yellow, red, etc. our sweet sweet sophie was one of the 3. it does not even occur to sophie at school not to obey her teachers. she was rewarded with going to make a build-a-bear after school!! i need to warn mrs. chapman should she teach liam &/or cullen that i fear a color change on the first day of school!! the old me would have prided myself that we were such good parents our daughter did not get one color change all year. the new, mom-of-crazy-boys me knows better :).
our sweet sophie~
we could not be more proud of how you did in kindergarten this year!! we know at first you struggled a little but you kept your chin up and EXCELLED. we know that with that attitude you will excel your whole life long. always remember...watwood's don't say can't :). we love you to the moon & back and Jesus loves you more!! be good, do good...
~mommy & daddy