Birthday Cousins!

I'm behind a couple of weeks as usual, and we've been busy!!

Both Haley and Noah have celebrated birthdays over the last several weeks, and we've made a couple of weekend trips to Georgia to celebrate!

The first trip was for Haley's FOURTH birthday party, and the girls were thrilled to check out Haley's "NASTICS"!!  Last year the party was in the same place, but the nap deprived little girls were too groggy and bashful to really "dive in"...this year was a whole different story!!!

The girls LOVED jumping, sliding, and rolling around the gym...

Then, of course, they got to finish off the party with CUPCAKES!!

Of course, that's about like toddler heaven!  To top it off, after the party, we all went back to Aunt Sabrina and Uncle Clayton's house for the "afterparty", where we enjoyed pizza and a visit from Uncle Nathan and Emmy Cate!  The girls could not have had more fun with their cousins, and they laughed, ran, screamed, and played until they literally just about DROPPED!  We attempted to plop them all on the couch to "relax" and drink milk in their jammies, hoping to settle everyone down a little...

As would be expected, there wasn't a chance of that happening! It's so much fun to watch them enjoy themselves like that! And best of all, they're finally to the age where we can sit back a little and just watch!!

So cool to have such close cousins!!

A couple of weeks later, we made the trip back down to celebrate our little guy Noah's FIRST birthday! 

The party decorations were adorable, and Noah really got into his new trucks!  Unfortunately, like his cousins, he didn't get too excited about the cake itself, but he was happy to share and let all of the big kids invade every ounce of "his space"! 

Besides the awesome cake from Aunt Sheryl, Aunt Sabrina made a fun Ice Cream Sundae set up complete with dirt (oreos), worms (gummies, of course), and mud (chocolate syrup).  Unfortunately, I think Daddy scared them silly about the worms, so they wouldn't go near those, and weren't too crazy about the dirt either...but we finally convinced them to try the ice cream with the dirt on the side, and that went over VERY nicely!  :)

The girls loved their time with their cousins, and enjoyed their first "real" sleepover when they actually got to sleep in Haley's room!!  SOOO exciting! 

Both weekends were really fun, and the girls REALLY love their cousins!!  Now we're all just looking forward to seeing everyone again for the holidays!

More party pics here - http://s937.photobucket.com/albums/ad218/mandyernst/H%20and%20N%20BDays%20-%202011/?albumview=slideshow

Just Trying to Listen

Sometimes I am amazed at the mere act of parenting as I stumble through it.  Now that I've finally gotten over my selfish pity party over the "difficulties" of my life (I know, I wish I was kidding), yes, I do realize that being a twin mommy is the HARDEST thing I've ever had to do (hugs to my BFF, Melissa, who's in the throws of that as we speak...), it's also, by far, the BEST and MOST WONDERFUL and MOST AMAZING and MOST REWARDING and EXCELLENT (OK, I ran out of words...but hopefully you get my drift...and Melissa, I MEAN IT) thing I'll EVER experience in this world.  As the girls get older, it becomes so much easier just to take it one day at a time (no more feeding on a 3 hour interval, breast pumps, bottles, purees, or acid reflux), and just ENJOY those precious "normal life" moments that can truly sweep you off of your feet...if you'll let them!

Tonight was one of those...and it has sent me in a tailspin of "deep thoughts"...so bear with me while I just spend one unusual, rambling post.  Hopefully it will at least be somewhat uplifting, and I promise, I'm simultaneously uploading a whole new set of pictures of my little lovebugs so that the next post will be more of what you really want to see...PICTURES!

First, I AM SO BLESSED (Thanksgiving appropriate concept, right?)  I could NEVER put into words how lucky I am.  I've got a wonderful family, a magnificent husband, a dog that drives me nuts (but loves me as much as anyone I've ever known), and two precious little GIRLS (not babies anymore...sniff, sniff)  I am just baffled at how much they really just seem to "get it"...the compassion in their hearts amazes me.  It's the main reason why Macy won't hug Papaw right now...it's not as much that she's scared as it is that she just feels bad for him.  She HATES for anyone to be sick or sad!  Today Gary is in St Louis to be with his family in the sudden loss of his Aunt Debi (may God bless her soul), and Macy and Makayla don't even really know that part of the family, but just know that we've been praying for Uncle Kevin "because he's sad" and both girls just want him to feel better (and they're convinced Daddy will do the trick! ;)

In spite of that heaviness, tonight was one of those nights when everything at home just went RIGHT!  The girls were THRILLED to see me when I walked into their classroom at school, there were no tears because of those doggone confining seat belts on the way home (OK, Macy puked a little, but we're just kinda used to that by now), the girls ate great for dinner, and then had fun baths.  At the end of the bath, while trying to distract them from being cold, I just started singing Christmas songs (something I'm usually adamantly against until the 4th Friday in November ;)  It tickled me how they just kinda stopped what they were doing and listened to my (pitiful) singing.  After we got dry and jammied up, I continued my "series" of Bible stories around Baby Jesus.  This one was past the angels and up to his birth in the barn.  The girls listened with more intensity than I have probably ever seen.  After the story, I started singing Away in a Manger.  Makayla crawled close in my lap while Macy went and got hers and Makayla's babies and just started rocking them.  I can't really explain why it was so sweet, but just the look on her face almost took my breath away.  I kept singing and moved on to Silent Night, and Makayla just continued to hold me tight while Macy rocked her babies.  Again, there was just something in her eyes...I choked up before finishing, and that kind of threw her by surprise, but she just still seemed to "get it"...it was definitely "our moment"...mine, my daughters, and our God's.  It's been a while since I felt him like that, and man, it was cool!

So back to my tailspin, (if that weren't enough), recently I downloaded a few songs from a CD that I had several years ago, but somehow lost it, so it's been a while since I'd heard the music  There's a beautiful song on there called "Speak to Me"...this morning on the way to work, I listened to it...over and over.  It took me back to another time...about 4 years ago.  A very sad time in my life filled with infertility, Endocrinologists, shots...many, many shots...bloodwork, ultrasounds, hormones, patches, and about everything else you can think of in that "space" of medicine.  It was a 3-year heartwrenching process that took every ounce of energy out of me...but that song at that time said all that I needed to say..."I'm listening for you...and your still, small voice.  Speak to me O Lord, I need a word from you.  I'm broken and I'm nothing.  All I want is you."  During that emotional and difficult time, I was able to hear God's voice, and it was because of that voice that I made it through...and ended up being SO GREATLY rewarded.  Now, the broken part is healed.  Life is good...no, it's AMAZING.  We've had a pretty crazy year this year, and I've relied on just about everything BESIDES God to try to ease the stress, but in the end, I just need to listen for him to speak to me...and boy do I love the way he did it tonight!

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Tinker Fairies

I couldn't let a childhood Halloween pass by without its own full blog post...nor did I intend to, but MAN, time goes by fast!!

This year, Halloween fell on Monday...not my favorite option,  but it'll be a while before that happens again, so you make of it what you can, right?  We started the "festivities" with my first time attending one of the girls' daycare parties!  The girls were thrilled to have me there, and we partied it up with ALL kinds of junk food, then it was time to go home to get ready for our evening's adventures.

With a full plate of junk loaded in, dinner wasn't really in the cards for the girls that night, even though we had hot dogs and pizza ready to go.  Without the dinner distraction, it was all we could do to delay the costumes for just long enough so that we weren't the only people on the street.  Finally, we decided it was time to suit up and hit the road...since it seemed quiet on our street, we started with a little spin around on the golf cart...only to find that our street wasn't the only quiet one!  Coming from a neighborhood where tricks and treats start promptly at 5, I was a little surprised and disappointed when 6 rolled around and there was still no one to be found.  Given the fact that bedtime's at 8, and the fact that our girls LIKE that fact, we decided we'd just get busy, regardless of what anyone else was doing! 

As would be expected, Makayla ADORED her costume attire...wings, tights, "Sunday School shoes", the whole 9 yards...she played and twirled and just reveled in the fact that she got to be "so pretty"!  :)

As would also be expected, Macy was NOT a happy camper...about anything...except that her outfit was the color blue (her current FAVORITE), but that quickly diminished in comparison to the fact that she had to wear tights, frills, and you can forget the wings...oddly...and Macy-like...enough, right before we left the driveway, she announced that she needed her wings on, so I did a quick safety-pin job and off we went!

The girls were pretty skeptical about the whole process, but were brave little soldiers as they walked up to the first door.  It didn't help that the kid who handed out their candy was dressed kind of vampire-ish, but after they saw the candy drop, I'm not sure that they noticed! :)

As the night quickly darkened and CHILLED, it didn't take all that long before they agreed that they had enough loot and were perfectly content to head home to hand out candy to themselves!  Not too shabby of a set up, if I do say so myself!

 With all that they got, their favorite, by far, was these orange jack-o-lantern lollipops...these girls LOVE some lollipops!  I was actually kind of excited, thinking this would be much less messy than the chocolate alternatives...little did I know, the little black face on that thing had enough dye to color the ocean, and every bit of it dripped right onto their faces, hair, and white shirts.  Luckily, we were all cold enough that it wasn't a bad thing to call it a night, head inside in time for some unplanned baths, and hit the bed before too much passed the norm!

 Although the overall experience was pretty low-key, I think it was a pretty good night for a couple of 2-year-old fairies, and they're still LOVING every piece of their bounty!!  We sure had a blast too!!         (A few extra pics can be found here - http://s937.photobucket.com/albums/ad218/mandyernst/Halloween%20-%202011/?albumview=slideshow)

Fall Festivities

(As usual, I'll go ahead and apologize for the fact that I'm REALLY behind! I know it's time for Halloween pictures, and I've still got to back track to Haley's birthday party weekend, but I had this post almost done several weeks ago and wanted to go ahead and put it out there!)

Early in October, we made the fun yearly trip to the Pumpkin Patch!!  We made a LONG day out of it by starting the day out with the Susan G Komen race in Charlotte (which was COOOLD, so the only picture I snapped was back in the car while we were waiting for our friends to finish the race)
 

After the race, we headed for the Pumpkin Patch!  Given such a cold morning and a pretty long stroller ride, the girls handled the race very well, and we expected them to squeeze in a quick nap in the car...but, I guess they were just too pumped up by all of the excitement!

They were completely giddy as we headed into the farm!

 

They just LOVE sharing these experiences with a sister!!

Once "inside", the girls had a great time picking out pumpkins...

and checking out the fire truck with Daddy...

and they LOVED petting and feeding the animals!!!

But the biggest hit was the corn box...

it took them some time to warm up to the idea, so I had to "dive in" with them for a minute...

But before long...

They made themselves right at home!

After a while, they were TIRED...

So we hit the trail on our "tractor ride"...

Grabbed a few pumpkins...man they were HEAVY!!

And then it was time to hit the road...

HAPPY FALL!!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Yes, it sucks that I don't know how to use Gary's phone and took a video upside down, but wanted to share the love anyway!  We had a fun dinner at Outback followed by everybody's favorite ICE CREAM!!

The girls and I had trouble finding the right gift for Daddy in our crazy scavenger hunt on Sunday, and it cracked me up that they kept walking out of stores saying "Uh Oh...Somebody messed up!" with their hands out and shoulders shrugging.

We owe Daddy a few gifts, but we'll make it up to him, and hopefully our evening was fun enough to make it a decent birthday nonetheless!  Happy Birthday, Gary!  We Love You!

Just us Girls!

Early last week, Gary came home from what felt like an excruciatingly long trip to Dallas, Texas for training. Under any circumstance, I think this would have felt like a long trip, but due to the fact that it hit at a CRAZY time for work, it was a LONG couple of weeks! Between LATE nights of work, lots of rainy weather (which also equals LOTS of traffic) and enough of a cold so that Macy was just a little more grumpy than usual, it was not the easiest experience…however, we did everything we could to make the best of it, and I think overall we took care of ourselves pretty well and had a pretty darn good time!  :)

During the first weekend, we spent one evening with our Crown Harbor friends for Mr Chad’s birthday, and the girls are always thrilled to go play with their friends' toys!  Of course, it was an early night back home, and we rested up and hit the mall first thing Saturday morning!  I had a milestone day in that I think it was my first time showing up to a mall before it opened!  We hit the playground area first, then I managed to squeeze in a little bit of shopping where I was able to bribe the girls to hang on just long enough to get a few fall clothes for them, a couple of shirts for me, and then we headed back to the playground.  It didn't take long for the girls to spot the train that gives rides around the mall, so we were all excited to take a ride!  The girls LOVED the train!! 

By this point, we grabbed some hotdogs and plopped down beside the carousel to eat a "quick" lunch before the girls were ready to pass out!!  Unfortunately, as usual, the girls eat SLOW, we spilled 2 waters, and a full diaper change was required before we made it to the car...God is definitely teaching me patience at this point in my life!  :)

Sunday was a typical day of church, then Mamaw came back into town after a weekend trip and took over long enough for me to hit the grocery store and prepare for the week!

The next week was as crazy as the first, but by Friday night I was happy to get away for a quick (grown up) Girl's Night Out!  On Saturday, we headed to the children's museum where we ran into several friends (it was quite shocking when I took a picture of the girls only to see their "third sister" BFF also in the picture!), then we headed home for naps.  Mimi and Papa came into town later that afternoon, and we enjoyed a nice dinner with them, fun play time, and then the girls loved spending Sunday morning with them while I headed to church! 

After meeting up for brunch, Mimi and Papa headed home, the girls took a nap, and then we headed to Mamaw and Papaw's house to celebrate Papaw's birthday!  The girls had a great time delivering Papaw's presents and helping to prepare his cake, and Papaw was thrilled at their rendition of "Happy Birthday"!

After a few more days, Daddy FINALLY came home! While it was a stressful couple of weeks, I have to say I wouldn't trade experiences like that for anything in the world! There's no better bonding than being "stuck" together with no alternatives, and I truly enjoyed my "girl time"! On our last night "alone", we hit the park and stopped for Mexican, and I got a chance to think about the fact that life really does go by fast!

Gooo APPS!

A few weeks ago we took the girls to Boone for their first "real" football game!  (They actually went to a game 2 years ago, but they were bundled up in Baby Bjorn's for the experience, and I'm thinking they don't have much recollection of the day! :)  Since we weren't quite sure what to expect or how they'd handle it, we kept it simple, didn't try to plan a large group experience, and grabbed Jersey Mike's on our way into the stadium.  It turned out awesome, and the girls LOVED every minute! 

We started with our simple tailgate of PB&J and subs, then we headed for the bookstore.  I've been scouring the web for months looking for the required "GO APPS" cheerleader outfits, but that has proven to be pretty much impossible...so we made the trek across campus and got suited up. We also collected some (overpriced) "Go App" (stuffed) doggies and kiddie chairs and we were on our way. 

After making it back to the car, the girls were engrossed in all of the tailgating action!  Everyone seemed to love to talk to them and admire our little cuties...which also meant that everyone wanted to give them assorted "treats".  Our girls aren't as used to sweets as some might be, so we tried to politely "ration" what was taken and consumed...not to deprive them of a fun experience, we did give them plenty...including brownies from the sweet lady next to us.  Unfortunately, it was a HOT day, their tummies were full, and...Macy couldn't handle it...so she got sick all over her new dress, and all over Mommy!!!  Eeeck!!

Thankfully, I had packed a couple of extra clothes, so I had a change for both of us...unfortunately, I didn't pack our school spirit, so we hit the game in random t-shirts, but at least they smelled fresh! :)

We made a trip to the Yosef club where the girls forund some playmates and met one of the old-school Yosefs...from back in the day when Yosef was a regular guy wearing overalls, flannel, and a straw hat, sporting a rifle!  This cool guy was still sporting his hat from the 70s! :)  At least I thought that was pretty cool!

We finally made our way into the game, and, to my surprise, the girls LOVED the action!  They were amazed by the band, the cheerleaders, the flags, the crowds, and I think they even thought the guys running around on the field were pretty cool!  :)

By half time, we decided that "the squirms" were setting in, and it might be best for us to cut out before things did turn for the worse. Boy did we have some TIRED little Mountaineers! They were asleep before we left Boone...which only takes about a second and a half!

We made it home in time to order pizza, and the girls were in bed in time for us to watch a few more games and pass out too! It was SO MUCH fun, and the girls can't wait to go back...if we can only find a time to make it happen! The season comes and goes WAY too quickly!