Roller Coaster Ride

Not a literal roller coaster, but man has it felt like it!

I am well over a month behind in posting an update, and the last blog that I almost finished but hadn't quite posted was a re-cap of our awesome trip to the beach back in the middle of May. I promise to catch everyone up on that, as well as the following weekend's trip to Atlanta to see family and to celebrate Emmy Cate's 2nd birthday. Both of those trips were so much fun, and deserve their own post and pictures, but I finally decided that it was more appropriate to do a full update of our crazy lives SINCE those trips, then back track so that I don't miss anything. Unfortunately, life has been too crazy for a lot of pictures, but we have captured a few fun moments on our phones, so I went ahead and scattered those throughout this update, just to make it a little more interesting!

Silly...

Willies...

The big news (that many of you know, but a few surprisingly do not) is that we MOVED!!  It's been a month-long process, and I have to say it's been pretty hellacious, for lack of any better terms to describe it.  However, we are FINALLY fully relocated.  I use that term carefully, since that does NOT mean that we're settled in...or even close to finished unpacking...but we are physically living in a new house and a new neighborhood.  We LOVE our new home, and are all very proud of the major remodel that Gary has spent the last 5 months managing.  We have a lot more space, a lot more room to get ourselves organized, and a lot of new "luxuries" (new appliances, showers, flooring, tile, etc).  It is AWESOME!!  Unfortunately, our spacious 3 car garage is still FILLED TO THE GILLS with junk...boxes and boxes of junk.  We may never get them ALL unpacked, but I'm hoping at some point I'll just accept the fact that I've survived without said junk for long enough that I can just throw it away...unfortunately, my inherited "Edna instinct" (thanks, Mamaw Childers), will most likely never let that happen! 

Breakin' in the new digs...before the furniture gets in the way!

We officially started our move on Memorial Day weekend...assuming that the timing was good for Gary to be around and I would be off work.  Little did we know that he'd be "ferrying race traffic" in the helicopter all weekend, and only had one full day at home.  Thanks to my wonderful mother, I had help with the girls all weekend, and, although I almost killed myself, I was able to survive.  My fantastic father put himself to hard labor as well, and between him, Gary, and a couple of helpers, they worked their butts off to move all of our furniture on Memorial Day.  At that point, we THOUGHT we were near the end...almost a full month later, we just carried over the last boxes yesterday...just in time for the renters to move in TOMORROW!  Oh my goodness, what a nightmare!!! 


Thrilled to have Marley over for a play date in the new play house!

Besides that, the weekend after our move, we were thrown for another loop when my mom was knocked over by her dog and ours, only to have her hip broken and land in the hospital for a few days and on a walker for weeks!  She has been in so much pain, and it's been pitiful to watch her suffer with not only the physical discomfort, but the agony of not being able to be there to help us or to really play with her grandchildren!  She's a trooper, of course, and will be back on her feet soon...and boy have I had a chance to appreciate all that she does for us on a regular basis!  (of course, Papaw has stepped up to the plate for all of us, and we've appreciated his help tremendously!)

Chillin in my cozy coupe

If all of this weren't enough, we've (probably more me...) been on an emotional rollercoaster.  Leaving the old 'hood was SO MUCH harder than I thought it would be!  We felt like we had truly outgrown our house there, and, as I said, are SO happy with the new house that we have.  We are supposed to be in an AWESOME neighborhood now (LOTS and LOTS of kids, family stuff, etc), but we LOVED our neighbors at Crown Harbor, and, of course, we were walking distance to the boat, where now it's a 15 minute drive...but, we do still have our friends, we have our boat, and I'm sure that we're going to "bond" with the new neighborhood, it's just a matter of time (which, hopefully we'll have more of now that we're fully moved). 

The emotions flowed much more heavily than I dreamed possible around daycare matters as well...since the new house is about a 20 minutes shorter commute for me to and from Charlotte every day for work, we were quick to start looking for a new daycare that was convenient and "in the way".  We found a place that was recommeded by friends, and we thought, after several visits, that it would be a good fit. Until...the day I picked up the girls for their last day at their old school, I just had this feeling that this wasn't the right thing...I never thought it could be so hard to do something like that for 2 pre-2-year-olds!  Crazy enough, I couldn't stop crying...for days!  I thought it was just my emotion about everything going on at once and everything would settle down...until the first week passed...and I felt worse.  The girls did ok at the new school, but I will say it wasn't an easy week...assuming we all just needed to transition, we waited another week...by the end of that week, I knew we had to "fix" this mess.  I was still a wreck about it, and, for several reasons, I just didn't feel like this was the right place for them to spend their days.  Considering how much guilt I have for working at all, it is EXTREMELY important for me that both us and the girls are HAPPY with their "accomodations".  A quick call to Goddard (where I expected to have to beg our way back in) was easily answered by the awesome director who was THRILLED to make necessary adjustments to work our girls right back in to where they felt at home.  They've been back for a week now, and, even though the drive isn't wonderful, none of us have had ANY doubt that this was the right decision for ALL of us! Taking the girls for their first day back to their old school was probably one of the most fun things I've done in a long time!!

SPECIAL treat!  A ride in the FRONT seat of Daddy's truck!

Whew...It's been crazy, we've had some tough days (emotionally and physically), and I felt, for our own "historical record", I had to provide some level of re-cap.  Although I've been very slack with pictures, we have managed to have a little bit of fun along the way, the girls have come to LOVE the pool, and they have just been wonderful about going with the flow through all of this and enjoying the crazy little adventures that have panned out because of it...and that's a lot to ask for 2 22-month olds!  Things are slowly settling down, though, and we all owe it to each other and ourselves to try to slow down and relax a little...in the end, it's still a beautiful life!!!  :)



Chillin at the pool

Learning to LOVE the boat!

Belated Mother's Day Wishes

Unfortunately the big Mom's Day came and went and I'm getting around to posting this a full week later...I had a wonderful Mother's Day that definitely ended "with a bang".

First, HAPPY BELATED MOTHER'S DAY to all of those wonderful mothers, grandmothers, and aunts in our lives.  We love you all and thought about you all throughout the busy day!  I am SO thrilled and blessed as I celebrated my own 2nd Mother's Day too!

Now to re-cap...Unfortunately, Gary had to fly the night before and didn't get home until 3am...so, rather than having a leisurely family morning, I got up and got the girls ready for church and we headed on our way.  He felt bad and didn't want to completely leave me hanging, so he kindly came to meet us at church.

After church, we met Mamaw and Papaw at a new restaurant for what turned out to be the longest lunch ever.  Apparently the "newness" hasn't worn off yet, and service was terrible...which is bad enough, but add 2 toddlers to the mix and it was a long couple of hours!  Luckily, we were able to spend some time looking at the fish and ducks outside, so that really saved the day!

After lunch, we went home for naps and then headed to our friends Josh and Abby's house for dinner.  The girls were thrilled to get to play with their buddy, Taylor, and we all had a great, relaxing evening...until...just as we were leaving (already late for bedtime, I might add), Makayla took off running actross the living room to tell everyone "bye-bye"...she managed to trip over her own feet and landed straight on her nose on the window sill...after a LOT of lost blood and watching her little nose quickly bruise and swell, we decided that we weren't going to take chances and headed to the ER.  Thankfully, Josh and Abby were able to keep Macy until Mamaw and Papaw were able to step in to pick her up to take her home to bed.  We're so grateful for such supportive friends and family!

It didn't take us long to begin to loathe the ER process as much as everyone else who's always talked about it.  We were there for 3 full hours, had 3 x-rays, and were ready to pull our hair out.  Finally we were able to see the doctor around 11:30, only to hear that at this age, noses are mostly cartilage and it's virtually impossible to break them!  Man, it would have been nice to know that 3 hours earlier!  Makayla was SUCH a trooper, and, of course we were happy to hear that there was nothing to worry about, and extremely happy to finally make it to bed that night! 

Prior to that chaos, the girls and I had a fun day on Saturday.  We started the morning with a jog in the nice cool weather, spent an hour riding around on the golf cart with some friends, then I packed up a picnic lunch to share at the park.  There was a spring festival being held down the street from our house, and I took the girls, not really knowing what to expect.  It was small, but perfect for us!  They had a petting zoo with baby goats, pigs, a big rabbit and duck, and some PRECIOUS baby sheep!  The girls LOVED the animals and could hardly stop pettting them long enough to eat lunch!  After eating a quick bite, we went over to the ponies...knowing how bashful my little ladies are, I didn't expect there to be any chance that they'd ride...much to my surprise, I was able to get Makayla on, as long as I held onto her tight.  After a few rounds, of course, Macy was not to be outdone, so they both rode together for another cycle.  It was so much fun for all 3 of us!  I wouldn't call us cowgirls just yet, but it's so fun seeing how much the girls LOVE animals!

Just before Mother's Day, Gary and the girls threw me an awesome Mickey Mouse birthday party, complete with ice cream cake and balloons!  It was actually a pretty busy night and we didn't get a lot of pics, but I did get one of my 2 favorite party girls!

Spring to May

Life just doesn't seem to settle down for us, and although it's all very positive activity keeping us busy, I'm finally confident to say that I may never catch up on this blog!  However, I don't want to miss anything, so I'll continue to back-track, and hope that at some point I will finally get caught up!
Several weeks ago, the girls were THRILLED to have a visit from their cousin emmy-CATE (emphasis theirs!  :)  On Friday, we all really enjoyed getting to see Emmy, Uncle Nathan, and Aunt Lauren, and the girls got to play and hang with Mamaw and Papaw while the mommies and daddies went for a quiet dinner by the lake!  The girls enjoyed their second sleep-over...with much less sleep than any of them are used to, and we started Saturday bright and early as soon as Macy woke up enough to realize that Emmy Cate was IN HER ROOM!!   HOT DOG!  :)

After everyone got woke up enough, we went to grab breakfast and paid a visit to one of the girls' favorite spots, Lazy 5 Ranch!  After walking around saying "Hi" to the smaller animals, the girls were ecstatic when we put everyone in the car only to see that they didn't even have to sit in their seats, but instead, they were able to sit in the cargo area of my car with each other, Mamaw, Aunt Lauren, and mommy!  We somehow "acquired" 3 full buckets of feed, and the first few minutes of the ride were spent, not looking at the animals, but moving feed from one bucket to another...with just a little bit actually going in the bucket and the rest going in my car...thank God for my cargo mat!  Once they finished counting all of the food pebbles, they realized there were some pretty cool animals outside, and they actually got into throwing food at them...until Macy decided just to dump the rest of the last bucket on the back bumper.  They loved all of the animals, and were far less freaked out by the zebra and llama heads in our car than we were!

After leaving the ranch, we were really short on time so we headed home and PRAYED that the girls would catch a quick nap before we stuffed them into dresses and took them to their first wedding for our cousin, Erin.  Luckily, they were tired enough that they had little choice but to comply, and we had to wake them up to take them to church.  Poor Macy and Makayla were fed a PB&J "lunch" in the car while I pressured them to be careful not to drop jelly on their dresses...for the first time in their lives, they ate like pros!  Once we arrived, we took seats at the back of the church, since I was pretty sure we wouldn't make it through the ceremony...however, I had also brought along a few snacks and books, and aside from a little bit of "quiet chatter", they made it through the full ceremony and did GREAT!  We did cut out the communion part of the service so the girls could get to the lobby where they could expel some energy!  I was so proud of all 3 of them...and, of course, so was Papaw!

After the wedding, we went to the reception at the Statesville Country Club, and the girls LOVED playing with Mamaw, Papaw, Emmy Cate, and many other aunts, uncles, and cousins!  They were thrilled to cheer for the bridal party when they finally made their entrance, and were complete troupers until far past their bed time!  Unfortunately, since it did get kind of late, we left before most of the festivity got under way, but we were happy to share in at least some part of Erin and David's special day!

The next day, we went to church then went for one more quick visit with the family to celebrate Mamaw's birthday.  The girls got ballons and helped Mamaw open her gifts, then sadly said their goodbyes to their cousin, aunt, and uncle!  It was such a fun weekend, and it's so much fun watching the girls bond with their cousins!  We can't wait to see Emmy, Haley, and Noah again next week when we head to Georgia for Emmy's SECOND BIRTHDAY!

Easter, where did you go?

In my last post, I promised to come back with an update on Easter...I fully expected to be able to accomplish that in less than 2 weeks...and I'm proud to say that I did it with more than 48 hours to spare!

As stated before, the girls got to spend just a little bit of time with Aunt Melissa and Uncle Whit, and got AWESOME flower watering cans and garden tools from Aunt Miss for Easter...so adorable!  Along with those guys, Mimi and Papa were in town for the first part of Easter weekend too, and the girls LOVED the attention and became GLUED to Mimi!  Luckily, she was able to accompany us to our first real Easter egg hunt on Saturday morning!  The girls were thrilled to carry their baskets into the park and to show up to find all of their neighborhood friends to play with!  After some time on the Sings and Sides, it was time to see the main man.  As usual, from a distance this bunny looked pretty cool...but, as usual, that's all fine and good until he gets TOO CLOSE!!!  We tried our hardest to get some cutesy Easter shots, but the girls were having none of that!  The bunny was finally able to sneak in a few high-fives, but they did a great job of monitoring his activity so as not to let him get too close!  I've never seen them maintain such a focused attention span!  We did a little bit of egg pickup (couldn't really classify it as hunting), but were quickly bored by that game, and the girls mostly spent the time enjoying their first Tootsie Pop, compliments of the bunny of the hour.  I never realized how STICKY lollipops could be!!  The girls had a great morning, and I was glad that we went, since we almost passed it up due to the early morning rain!

That evening, the girls were very sad to see Mimi and Papa go home, but were EXHAUSTED, so we made it an early evening and prepared for the real bunny visit to come! 

Easter morning came bright and early for all...I had decided the night before that I was way over-due for a run, and thought watching the Easter sunrise as I jog might be an awesome way to start my day...little did I know that the girls had the same idea!  When I realized that they were up and not going back down at 6:15, I felt too guilty to leave them for Gary, so I quickly decided to pack them up and put them in the stroller.  It was a chilly morning, but we bundled up and headed on our way!  While it wasn't the quiet "me and God" time I had expected, it turned out to be an awesome jog...I was able to see the beautiful sunrise over the lake, spend some quiet QT with my babies, and just allow myself time to soak in all that God has provided for me and this wonderful world...and, of course, to think about what he did for me when Easter began.  I am so blessed!

After our run, we came home to wake up Daddy so that we could see what the Easter bunny dropped off.  The girls loved their Easter baskets full of simple goodies, and had a great time playing with thier eggs...then, it hit them...these eggs are filled with something...could it be...CANDY!!!!!  It was funny that the way we realized that they were really onto it was when we found a few Hershey Kisses unwrapped on the floor...turns out, chocolate isn't their favorite and they're pretty partial to gummies!  :)

If this hadn't been enough excitement, the day was just getting started, so we all quickly got ready and headed to church. Our hope was that we could hit another egg hunt right after, but when we picked up the girls from nursery, we quickly knew that it was time for a nap! The girls IMMEDIATELY fell asleep, so we headed to Mamaw's where we met Mamaw, Papaw, Mamaw Eunice, Shawnna, Jonathan, Curtis, Diane, and Barbara for lunch.

We took some photo ops, hunted a few more eggs, filled ourselves full of delicious lunch, and spent some time with family.  After that, we headed home and FINALLY undertook the task of dying the eggs that I boiled 2 days before.  The girls thought this was the coolest thing ever, and were so disappointed when all of the eggs were done!  We hid a few, Daddy ate a few (the girls would have no part in that), threw a few, and cracked a few together...it was pretty entertaining!

It was a beautiful day and by the end, we were ALL beautifully TIRED!

Spring Flings

We've been SOOO busy over the last several weeks, and I'm SO far behind!  Where to begin...

Several weeks ago, I accomplished the unthinkable and managed to pack up a lot of  the girls' "baby stuff" to sell at my Mothers of Multiples group consignment sale...it was one of those strange phenomenons where I was so happy to get rid of the clutter, but found myself crying these strange and mysterious tears of motherly nostalgia!  Teeny-tiny little clothes, swings, gliders, etc that we will never need again!  Fortunately, I brought home some major booty from the sale myself...2 little rocker toys that the girls can't get enough of!  Unfortunately, they rock so hard that they throw themselves over the front occassionally, but so far no missing teeth! :) The girls really got into the cowgirl action by trying on their pink cowgirl boots that Mamaw and Papaw gave them at their baby shower!  On another note of nostalgia, I remember thinking it would be AGES before they were able to wear those things!!  My how time flies!

The following weekend, Mimi and Papa came to town and the girls enjoyed some quality time with them.  We had a great time hanging out, and spent several hours on swings and slides at the park!  We also attended the first birthday party for our friend Coleman who lives down the street.  The girls were obsessed with the "new" toys that Coleman and his big sister Anna have, and mommy and daddy were able to relax a little bit with friends!

Later that week, the girls got yet another package from Great Grandma and Grandpa Wibbenmeyer!  We were quite surprised, since they had JUST gotten another card and piggy money a couple week or so before!  These guys are so good to us!!  THANK YOU, Ma and John!  The girls LOVED their Easter gifts, and were so excited to open the package and the cards!  It's so fun to watch them get into the action!

The weekend after that, we took a trip to Georgia so that we could see all of the cousins!  We started out by meeting the group at dinner, where the girls got to see Haley, Noah, Aunt Sabrina, Uncle Clayton, and Mimi and Papa!  They were thrilled to hang out with everyone after such a long drive!  The next day, we were able to sneak in lunch with Emmy Cate, Uncle Nathan, and Aunt Lauren, but, unfortunately, had to cut the visit shorter than we'd have liked.  Luckily, we get to see these guys again this weekend, so we're really looking forward to that!

After that, we met up with one of Aunt Sabrina's friends, Corey, who is practicing photography and took a few shots of the girls...unfortunately, they were a bit tired from all of the excitement and weren't the best posers, but Corey still did a great job! 

 

We finished the night at Mimi's for dinner, and were able to spend more time with Haley and Noah the following day.

This past weekend we were able to start off spending some time with Aunt Melissa and Uncle Whit, followed by another visit from Mimi and Papa.  The adults started the weekend at the Jimmy Buffett concert while the girls hung out at home with Mamaw and Papaw...The next day, the girls were overwhelmed by being able to hang out with Mimi, Papa, Aunt Miss, Uncle Whit, AND Mamaw and Papaw all at the same time!!   Daddy, Papa, and Papaw spent 2 days putting together the girls' new swingset...it's not quite done, due to the rain, but very close...they have NO IDEA what is coming!!   They are currently OBSESSED with "sings" and "sides", so I can't wait for them to realize that they have their own!!  The guys also FINALLY put together the girls' play house (from Christmas, for crying out loud - thanks, Mamaw and Papaw) and the girls were able to play with their toy car from Nathan, Lauren, and Emmy!  We've been "hanging onto" these things mostly due to cold weather, then the fact that we decided to just wait until we moved the items to the new house for them to play...and boy were they pleased!!  We felt a little guilty, but it sure was nice for all of us to have such awesome NEW gifts!

The rest of our Easter adventures deserves their own post, so more to come!

Randomness

We haven't done anything all that extraordinary over the last couple of weeks, but we've had a good time doing it!  :)  The girls are at an all-time high for silliness (which I expect to continue to increase as they get older) and we are LOVING it!

A few random pictures of our  latest mis-adventures...

• Here's a pic with "the other" grandparents...since I did a whole post with Mimi, and usually don't remember to take pics with Mamaw and Papaw, I did snap a cute one last week, and wanted to give them their fair share of PR...

• One of my favorite things is when the girls sit on the counter by me while I cook dinner...WHEN they're willing to enjoy it.  Some evenings they're just too hungry/tired/impatient, and it's disastrous...other nights, they really get into "helping" me cook, and I love being able to provide a good meal for the family and not sacrifice precious quality time with them after work!  Here, Macy is preparing a little treat of her own while I whip up something for the main course...she seasoned and stirred while I cooked an entire meal!

• Right now both girls (ESPECIALLY Makayla) are obsessed with airplanes.  They LOVE pointing them out in the sky, seeing them on TV, and looking at pictures.  The other night after dinner Gary was looking at an airplane and helicopter magazine and Makayla sat in his lap.  She looked at every picture in the magazine, I think, and sat there for at least a half hour doing it!  Even Gary was "over it" at that point...and if he stayed on the same page for too long, she'd say "other one" until he flipped the page!  It was so funny!  Macy joined in on the fun for a little bit, but she was quickly bored like her mother!

• On a recent trip to Lowes (of which, we make MANY these days!), Makayla picked up a bag of flower seeds and Gary decided to buy them and let the girls have a little plant project.  They LOVED filling the planters with dirt, sprinkling in the seeds, and watering them!  Gary and I just have to remember to let them water the seeds each night so they'll get a final result that's worth their time!

• The girls got sweet cards from Great-Grandma and Grandpa Wibbenmeyer, complete with the usual assortment of Mickey and Minnie stickers and piggy money. The girls loved sporting their stickers to daycare, and don't even realize yet how full their piggies are getting from their Ma!  THANK YOU GUYS!!

• In addition to the most recent loot, the girls also got PJs from Ma and John as part of their Valentine's surprise.  I didn't get pics when they opened the presents, but it was finally warm enough to wear shorts and t-shirt to bed (which they were thrilled about in and of itself!) They LOVED their Disney jammies and were happy to strike a couple of silly poses to show them off!

HAPPY SPRING!  We couldn't be more thrilled about its arrival!