Cinderella

There is a new song out by Steven Curtis Chapman titled "Cinderella". One of the lines is "all too soon, the clock will strike Midnight...and she'll be gone". Both girls have quickly learned this song and sing along with it. Tonight, on the way home from Awana, Katie told me what that line meant. "Mommy, that means that the little girl will grow up and won't want to dance with her daddy anymore". Pretty insightful for a 5 year old...then I learned that her & Grammy had discussed the song. I also told them that it is a song about little girls growing up and how that makes their parents (esp. daddy) sad. I told them that when they grow up they might move away from us...Alex quickly said "No Mommy, we won't ever leave you!". A few minutes later Katie informed me that her & Puppy (her future husband) will build their log cabin in our back yard! I laughed and said that I hope we are in a different house then because there wouldn't be any room to build a cabin. "That's okay Mommy, we don't need a big yard, it will be a small log cabin". Bless their hearts...but we do pray for wings to fly away at the right time.

Bye Bye & AH-CHOO

Too cute to not show you...

Nap Time

Unless the twins are extremely tired, they tend to play when they are first put down for naps. I will hear them giggling and talking with each other before they finally drift off to sleep. When I went to check on them today, I had to run and get the camera. Poor Will, he must have been bored out of his mind. I have learned that I can't leave anything too close to the crib (just like at a zoo!) or they can reach through and grab...notice the diapers all over the floor, in & behind the crib. Also notice that the mattress is naked too...

Lunar Eclipse

Tonight, we were fortunate enough to witness a lunar eclipse. Matt, being the wonderful father that he is, decided to give the girls a quick lesson on lunar eclipses and has told them that they can stay up to watch it in its entirety. Yes...they usually get to bed around 7:30...tonight that will be 9:30! I asked Matt if he was going to stay home with them tomorrow? Either way, they are very excited and I think they feel that they are experts on the eclipse now...Here is a picture of them watching (notice the moon through the window).

Potty Time!

Matt & I are SOOOO looking forward to the day when we will have no more diapers! With Maddie & Will both in diapers, we go through @ 50 diapers a week. I had planned on waiting until the spring to start potty training the twins, but Maddie has taken an interest in the bathroom. Yesterday, after her nap, she ran to the bathroom and pointed. I put her on the potty chair and when I picked her up a bit later there was a bit of potty inside (I didn't even hear it!). Today she did the same thing and she actually went quite a bit! WooHoo! I guess our time frame isn't always Gods, huh?

Katie's prayer

Katie volunteered to pray for dinner tonight (while at Mom & Dad's). The meal was ham & potatoes. She has declared that she doesn't like meat anymore (I didn't realize that she DID like meat at one time). While praying she said "Dear God....You know I don't like ham....Amen".

Mom could hardly tell me as she was laughing too hard.

A One Day Getaway

We were very fortunate to getaway with 4 dear friends today, the Wilsons & Welshes. We dropped our children off at my parent's house (thank you Mom & Dad)first thing this morning then met up with our friends. We have tried to head to Galena, IL (a beautiful touristy town nestled in the bluffs of northern Illinois) every year for a getaway with our small group from our former church. In past years we have stayed over night, done lots of shopping and even more eating! So much fun! This year, we decided to make it a one day trip though. We ate at our favorite restaurant, Vinnie Vanucci's, then tried to walk off our lunch. We were blessed with a few surprises! While eating we saw the Buehlers from Homewood Church...then while shopping, we ran into Walters, Devries, Sebens, Flores & Ms Delane from Harvest! Wow - we knew half of Galena's population that day! Amazing how God works, huh! We drove two hours to run into our dear friends! Thanks God!!!

Monkeys & Alligators

Alex was singing this song at the table a few days ago and it was so cute that I had to tape it! Remember that Alex is our shy/reserved child. If I were to ask her to sing a song in front of anyone, she would hide behind me and say no. I catch her all the time singing to herself...when she thinks no one can hear her. It is very endearing.

Blessings

I have been thinking a lot about blessings this past week...mainly because Pastor Rob spoke on this topic on Sunday. We are going through the book of James right now and we focused on chaper 1, verses 16-18. So as I sit here today...with two sick kids (stomach flu)...I am trying to count my blessings. I am so humbled by the many blessings that God (for reasons I can't understand!) has lavished on us. I know that it is easy to get down about things, but Pastor Rob had a good suggestion of having a "blessing book". A journal or notebook to write your blessings in. Make your kids a part of it too. It always amazes me what blesses their hearts. This journal will help change our perspective and it will make it easier to worship & praise our Father because we will see Him for who He is - LOVE. I do want to share a few blessings from today. 1)It seems that the "worst" part of the stomach flu has past. They (the twins) are now sleeping. 2)My parents took the girls for the day - hopefully to protect them from getting sick! And to give them some one on one time. 3)Matt worked a lot of overtime this weekend. From Friday - Sunday, he worked 20 hours! It was hard on Matt and hard on the family, but when we calculated how much he earned over the weekend...it was the amount that we need to meet our monthly budget since we still don't have a renter for our duplex! Isn't God the best! We prayed and He answered. We would love to hear some of your blessings! Share them in the comment section...it will spur many on!

If you are interested in listening to Pastor Rob's sermons on James, you can use the Harvest Bible Chapel link to the right and look under "Online Messages".

I came across this picture tonight as I was cropping pictures for scrapbooking. To our fellow letterboxing friends...this is what we look like after the kids have hit their wall! We had been walking for a long time and it seemed to get colder and colder as the afternoon went on. By the time we were ready to head back to the van, Katie (Skeeter) and Alex (Bug-a-Boo) had had enough. Who said that a double stroller was made for two??

A Party for God

The girls informed me that they are going to have a party for God tomorrow. To prepare for it, they were going to have to decorate the front room. Katie asked if they could put pieces of paper up on the (wallpapered) wall with tape and I told her no...she replied "Ok, then we can use glue". You can assume my answer! I told her that they could place the paper on the glass windows and the glass cabinet. They seemed to think that would work.

Fast forward a few hours. I was in my room working on the computer when Katie came in and told me that she was out of tape. I told her that was all I had and that would have to do. She then told me "that's okay, I will start using the glue stick"...uh...glue stick...Not on my windows, Katie! "But Mommy, Alex has been using the glue stick all along!"

"ALEX!!!"

Update on Matt's hand

I was updating some things on the blog and realized that we hadn't told you that Matt's hand is completely healed. Luckily God spared Matt & his hand from any major damage. It was really just a BAD skin wound. It was a pretty disgusting thing to look at...Now that it has healed, it is actually kind of funny. Thanks for your concerns and prayers regarding this.

All Boy

I just don't remember any of the girls ever doing this...

Snow Day

Yes, we were smacked with the snow storm Tuesday & Wednesday. Matt's office closed, so we were all home yesterday. We ended up with 6 inches of snow & ice (much more fortunate that those to the north (20 inches) and those to the south (tornadoes)). It has been a hard winter for our area. Most of the cities are very low on salt and will be using it sparingly. Of course, this makes travel harder. Our pastor joked back in December, "Lord, just one Sunday without snow!" It seemed we had a major snow storm hit us every weekend in December. We are ready for spring...

Dressing Oneself

I lose track of what kids should be doing at what age...esp. when it comes to comparing Maddie & Will to Katie & Alex. I was very surprised last week when I saw Maddie put on her own pants and her coat all by herself. I know that the older girls weren't doing that at 2, but I don't know if this is comon for other 2 year olds or not. Maddie is also my undresser. Most naps we will find her in a diaper or naked (if she has figured out how to undo the tape that I had to place around her diaper!). We were shocked one morning to find her still dressed - only to realize that her shirt was inside out and backwards and the pants were also inside out! At that point we realized that she knew how to dress herself.

Two year pictures

I got Will & Maddie's two year pictures taken yesterday. Wow - what a workout I got. The pictures don't show it, but as soon as I placed them on the beanbag, they went straight as a board and then limp as a noodle when I tried to pick them up to reposition them! Also, the blanket had static electricity so every time they leaned back, they would come up with static hair. Turned out pretty cute, all things considered!

Christmas Cakes

I found a Christmas cake kit at the grocery store a few weeks ago on a great clearance. Finally got around to making them with the girls this week. I don't know if they liked making or eating them better!