Happy 3rd Birthday Hope

Hope is very excited about her ABCs this year, so I had fun with an ABC theme for her party. I made cupcake piks for mini cupcakes with each letter of the alphabet. I hung pictures of Hope for each I made various signs for the snacks like "L is for lemonade" or "P is for pasta." I found some ABC pasta. We cut sandwiches into the letter H for Hope. Our activities included making necklaces or bracelets with letter beads to spell our names, stamping with letter stamps, fishing for magnetic letters, and "puzzle walk" that had one letter of the alphabet for each puzzle piece to make up an alphabet train - when the music would stop, each child got a puzzle piece to hold on to in order to put the puzzle together in the end. After cake and presents I read "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" and then we did some dancing and twirling to some alphabet songs. Overall, a very fun party!

Happy Halloween

For those of you that haven't checked out my FB pics, here's some Halloween pics we took of the girls. I planned to try and take pics at the pumpkin patch, but the twins fell asleep and I forgot my memory card, so that flopped. Instead we did a quick backyard session. Hope had fun keeping the pumpkins away from the babies, the babies enjoyed crawling over each other. Altogether, I think it was a success.

(yes, that's Joy putting Grace in a headlock)

I put together a video of things that the twins are doing right now - they're definitely crawling, they're almost sitting up (Grace more than Joy), they eat solid food...sometimes they're even coordinated enough to grab food and get it into their mouths and so much more. We're still not sleeping through the night, but they're enjoying so many other things...so what's a little lost sleep, right?

Twain Harte

We had a nice visit to Twain Harte this summer. We enjoyed being lazy by the lake, miniature golfing, dipped "cones," roasting marshmallows - all the favorite pastimes. Jim and I both celebrated out birthdays there (thank you, Maria, for the birthday crown).

Jim and Angela, August Birthdays

Grace chilling in Hope's float

Grandma Linda and Joy

Hope enjoying her float

Grandma Linda and Grace and Joy - we're so glad she came to Twain Harte too, she was a tremendous help!

Seattle and Family pics

I can't believe how fast time flies. I started this post, and then some babies probably started crying and I never got back to it. Having two little babies can be demanding - I love them so much, but it's exhausting and some days I feel like I'm either holding them or feeding them all day long. Hope is so patient and very helpful as a big sister. She loves cuddling them and laying down with them - she can hardly wait until they really can play more interactively with her. I feel like the babies are good for the most part, but they take turns being colicky or gassy.

Last month we went to a beautiful wedding in Portland for my high school friend, Margie. So we debated the different methods of traveling there and ultimately ended up driving for its cost-effectiveness. Going there was pretty simple, we stopped every few hours to feed the babies and it went pretty smoothly. After the wedding we drove the remaining few hours to Seattle to visit our friends, the Lewis'. Vicki is a very talented artist and photographer, and it was generous of her to offer to take our family photos. A few of my favorite shots are below. It felt like old times (before kids - other than the struggle to get the two-year-olds to bed that disrupted our evening) as we chatted and played games with them and we had a really great visit. The Lewis family is a good example to ours and we're happy to have kept in touch with them. We naively decided to take the return trip in one jaunt and had a much tougher time on the return. I think we were all more ragged from the journey and the final three hours of the trip we all just wanted to be home. We definitely want to go again, but maybe we'll take two days each way for traveling.

I know, I know...

So, now this has become somewhat like my personal journal-keeping...I get behind, and so much has happened that I feel I should try and catch up and then I don't write the current stuff and becomes so far behind. In short, the babies and I are doing well. I only keep my sanity through the generous support of family. My mother-in-law makes sure we're fed, my mom comes once a week for a couple of days and is an immense help with the twins. Joy and Grace are doing well, starting to be more expressive at nearly 10 weeks and enjoying more awake time. Not to say they haven't had their moments (which seem like hours if it's both of them crying at the same time), but overall we feel very blessed.

I have managed to venture out of the house - sometimes with help, sometimes not - and it's kind of fun the attention that twins draw. Who knew it was still such a novelty that you feel like a mini-celebrity with the looks that you get and all the people that stop you.

Anyhow, last weekend was my friend Misty's wedding. It was a beautiful day and I'm so very happy for her and Robert. Below is a pic of Hope that Stephanie took, and I felt it encompassed Hope perfectly right now. She looks all sweet and innocent, but you know, she just might be plotting something sneaky too. I'll try to be better about posting more regularly.

Ready or not...

Just wanted to add a quick post and photo. This past Sunday morning, Joy and Grace arrived. Joy weighed 6 lbs 3 oz and Grace weighed 5 lbs 8 oz. Big sister, Hope, is very excited to have two baby sisters!

Tea Party Shower

So, I've had mixed feelings about having a shower for a second and third girl. One the one hand, I do have plenty of Hope's clothes that will work just fine for Grace and Joy (have we mentioned that's what we're naming the twins?). But on the other hand, it's fun to celebrate the birth of any child. So, with another playgroup friend of mine, Mimi, that is pregnant too - we decided to have a playgroup tea party shower for each other. It was a small and simple shower, but mostly fun to just get together. Mimi did a wonderful job on the food, and I got to take care of the fun stuff I like to do anyway, like decorations and favors. Here are some pics from the occasion below.

Thanks to my mother-in-law for her fun teapot collection.I had a fun time coming up with and making these favors. Tea bags seemed the appropriate favor. I used a shipping label (since I have a bunch of extras) to make a tag for each of the tea bags, with a picture I came up with resembling Mimi and I. It said "Babies are Brewing" and then the whole Mimi and Angela's Baby Shower and the date, etc. Then I made these boxes out of scrapbook paper, I liked the idea I found online to cut a window in the front, and I taped cellophane inside so you could peek in at the tea bags.
Lily and Hope had fun with their own tea party.
This is Mimi and me (I must not have heard the "smile at the camera" cue) opening one of the essential presents - diapers and baby wash. (Thanks, Megan!)

Just in case you felt like you didn't get a good enough shot of my belly - I really do have one (an ever-growing one). I'm measuring about 37 or 38 weeks (depending on who's measuring)...and Hope was born at 39 weeks, so I figure I'm almost as big as I got during my entire first pregnancy.

Hope's Independence

I know, I know...I'm a slacker blogger. I'd like to blame it on pregnancy and my more recent pregnancy-related carpal tunnel syndrome...but really, I'm just a procrastinator at heart. I start on the computer for one thing, and might even think about blogging...but lately, I've been addicted to the abundance of creative blogs out there. I could browse around on them for hours.

Anyhow, lest you wonder if I'm still alive, I am. And I'm doing well. As usual, blessed with health and happiness and a home and what more could you ask for. I know those of you with kids are already so much in love with your own kids and amazed at how fast they learn and turn into their own little people. That's the way I feel right now with Hope. Every day it seems like something new - she's this little sponge just waiting to soak up whatever we offer her next. Last week I took her for a short walk around the block, and she took her baby doll in a baby doll stroller. Knowing we wouldn't be going at a fast pace, I grabbed my paperback and read and walked along behind her. Later that day, we went to Target, and as we walked in the store, she picked a book out of the dollar section at the front, and proceeded to read and walk around the store with me. Too cute!

I don't know if it's her body needing the vitamin D, but Hope loves to be outside. Andrew has been giving me a break and taking Hope for a walk to the lake whenever the weather is nice. They feed the ducks, pet the dogs being walked, and just wander around according to the whims of a two-year-old. She loves it. A couple weeks ago, she wanted to go for a walk and I said Daddy was sleeping but when he got up they could go. Instead I said she could play out back in our own yard until Daddy got up. I didn't realize we were mis-communicating until I realized I couldn't see her anymore, and went around the side of the house, and saw she had her baby in her stroller and had carried her over the rocks on the side of the house to the sidewalk that led to the front of the house. I went to grab my jacket and proceeded out front and she had already made it to the sidewalk in front of our next-door-neighbor's house. I kept following her, and she would turn around and tell me to "go away." I did catch up to her and explained I wasn't going away. We walked all the way to the Lake and did her normal lake routine. She's definitely got her own mind. Here's Daddy and Hope on their way to the Lake.

Flower Arranging

We recently learned a little about flower arranging from a sweet sister at church. Hope really enjoyed making her own creations. It was surprising just how meticulous a two-year-old could be with the flowers, but she had a lot of fun.

Our finished arrangements...okay, so I might have helped a little.