OYW

One Year Wednesday: January 30, 2012

Learning how to smile! Some of the most precious open mouth baby grins...

Entertainment

My kids make me laugh. Not only are they cute but they are quite entertaining!

Mason LOVES to shake his booty. He will balance himself and then shake that tiny little thing to any fast music. He also does this on command, just say "shake your booooty" and enjoy a good laugh!

Mallory can sing and shimmy her shoulders. She will just bust out in her high chair or car seat. Hilarious.

Masons new obsession is pulling Mallorys paci out of her mouth and putting it back in. Or if he finds one, he will pick it up and take it to her "gently" shoving it in her mouth.

Mallory is in love with her lovie Ellie. It is sweet watching her cuddling it and carry it around while she plays. Mason, however, doesn't share the same affection. He likes to sleep on his Pupper but thats the extent of it. I brought it out after nap the other day and put it on his chair. Mason went to sit down and threw it on the floor out of his way. I thought Mallory was going to pass out. She gasped and looked straight at me with huge eyes and exclaimed "uh oh!" Bubba had committed the ultimate lovie crime! Haha. She rescued it and it became Ellie's new friend for the day.

Oh dear. Never a dull moment in our house with these two monkeys!

Stinkers

Someone has been training my babies. Today in the car I rolled my tongue making funny noises and both babies rolled their tongues, "lalalalala". I clapped my hands and said "yayyyyyy". Again, both babies followed my lead. I popped my tongue on the roof of my mouth and the twins began popping their tongues in sync with me. I then said "mama, mama, mama, mama". And without a second thought they both replied "daddy, daddy, daddy, daddeeeeee!"

Ahemmmmmm, they're lucky they're cute and usually sweet!

Now if only I could get somebody in the house to choose me as their favorite. Yeah, I know, good luck... ;)

OYW

January 23, 2012

Bye Bye Bottles

Two weeks ago I started weaning the babies off bottles. They have used sippy cups for months now for water, but the few times I tried giving them milk in them it did not go well. Honestly, I wasn't in too much of a hurry to do it either because I feel like it was the last "baby" part of the kids routine.

But, why delay the inevitable. My friend Lacye gave me a cup (Nuk Active Cup) that she used with her son because I knew that Mason would have the hardest time with it and she had success with this particular cup. The bottle is a source of comfort for Mason. I knew Mallory would transition smoothly as she does not drink as much milk and also has her paci for soothing.

So we stopped cold turkey. Two meltdowns from my little man on the first day and that was the end of the bottles. It's bittersweet. But mainly sweet because I no longer have a million bottle parts to wash and keep up with. And I am no longer cleaning Mason's milk "drawings" up off my wood floors. But bitter because it is a daily reminder of how quickly my tiny buggies are turning into big kids. I am thankful, but sure wish they would slow down just a tad...

The Little Things

It's the little things my kids do that make me love being a Mommy so much. Ok, so really it's everything they do, but the little things sure make my days brighter.

Mallory will wrap her arms around you, lay her head on your chest and say "ahhhhhh" while gently patting your back with her tiny little hand. It will seriously turn you to mush!

I will make eye contact with Mason throughout the day and smile real big at him while saying "hi big boy" as I have to him since he was little bitty. He lets out the biggest grin and puts his chin down on his chest like he's shy. oh. my. word. He has me wrapped around his little finger!

Mallory loves to play peek a boo. She will use her lovie "Ellie" to cover up her face. We will say "where's sister" and she pulls it down fast and giggles when we say "there she is".

Mason enjoys having his back scratched. Whenever he is just hanging out in his diaper I will scratch his little back and he will stop whatever he is doing, shrug his shoulders, tilt his head back and sit completely still and relaxed. It is hilariously cute!

You see, between the fights, the dirty diapers, the timeout sessions, and chasing these two around, the days are filled with these simple moments. The ones that are going to be lasting memories I will always cherish.

Water Bugs

We LOVE bath time in our house. Music playing, space heater running, tub toys, splashing, and lots of giggles is what you will find from our crew at 7 every evening!

OYW

One Year Wednesday

January 16, 2012

One of my favorite pictures from the early days. I needed to get out and run a few errands and this is what I came home too. Everyone snoozing so peacefully!

Mason and Daddy also had their first trip to Home Depot.

And Mallory Grace all peaceful and cozy!

What's Up

We have been incredibly busy the last week! Since I have not felt like nor had the time to blog recently, lets play catch up shall we!

New year, new routines, new motivations... Dusty and I have decided to start eating better and getting back our pre-babies bodies! Ha! I needed something practical to do for working out while home with the kids. My sweet mother-in-law lent me her treadmill so I could run while the kids played. My parents had this awesome play pen setup at their house but no longer use it so gave it to me to put to use. Project garage transformed to workout room/baby pen complete! We LOVE this! I have been running everyday since I got it all set up last week. The babies have so much fun out there playing and eating breakfast while watching me run. It has been great for all of us. With the exception of the part where the twins began throwing mega bloks at me while I laid on the floor attempting an ab workout. Thanks guys. I will translate your odd obsession with hurting mommy as a satisfactory effort to motivate me. ;)

The garage/storage/workout/baby play set up. My husband officially has no space of his own in our house anymore! :)

The kids laughing as they throw blocks at me! "What a fun game Mom!"

Last weekend we made a trip to Austin for the wedding of a beautiful couple! Stephanie, the gorgeous bride, is the younger sister of one of our good friends Brandi. Steph grew up around all of us and it is wonderful to see the woman she has become. We are so proud for her and her new husband Wes! The wedding was perfect and we had a blast hanging out with old friends! We stayed with Aunt Sandy for the weekend. We are grateful she is willing to open her house to our chaos. On Saturday morning we had lots of fun at Cabelas and then enjoyed lunch at the Salt Lick. Sandy watched the kids during nap while Dusty and I did some shopping at the outlets in San Marcos. It was a very busy but fun weekend!
 

Sister enjoying Care Bears...with one sock on of course.

Mal taking in the nature and sorting the butter at the Salt Lick. Yummmm!

Me and my princess

My little man was being SO silly. I think it was delirium setting in from no nap, but he was just being goofy!

Silly boy!

With the beautiful bride at the reception!

Passed out on the way home. They were exhausted!

Baby girl snoozing in the truck after a great weekend.

And just some random pics of my babes from the last week. 

Life is crazy right now but we are loving it!

Engrossed in Finding Nemo...all three of them! :)

Mal is such a happy girl when she wakes up!

Maser sleeping...feet out and "Pupper" under his head for a pillow!

Hope you're having a great week!!

OYW

One Year Wednesday

January 9, 2012

Sweet, sweet little things! Mallory's big bright eyes on that chubby little face and Mason's chill snuggly self...miss this! :)

Babies, Birthdays, and Buddies!

Over the weekend we made a trip to Lubbock to celebrate Maddox's FIFTH birthday. He is the first born of our sweet friends Brad and Lacye. He is an amazing kid. So smart, well mannered, and super funny! I just cannot fathom how fast time has flown by since this...

Me and newborn Baby Maddox

Dusty and Maddox at 1 year

The twins and Maddox at 5 years!

His party was a blast. It was at an awesome jumpy place in LBK that is accommodating for literally every age. We were so glad that we got to be there to celebrate! The birthday boy loved it and was so busy running from jumper to jumper with his friends he asked us later at his house if we were even at the party, haha! He's great!! Thanks guys for inviting us. I have never seen the babies have so much fun non-stop crawling!

Mal LOVING crawling everywhere! 

(This place was SO clean and they are very particular about the kids having socks to help with that. They even had me put socks on Mal who just had slip on shoes on, and she can't even walk! I didn't mind because I know that is how they are able to keep it from getting yucky! Wish we had something like this in our town.)

LOVE this picture. My big guy walked for a while. I am so proud of him! Then he decided that crawling was easier and faster, haha!

Clapping for himself after a mini walking session!

Mal and Daddy chatting with Lacye and Brad

Lacye and MGB. I swear Mal totally chills out around her Aunt Lacye, she has done that since the first time they met when Mallory was super colicky. If only we could get Aunt Lace around all the time! ;)

Maser in the 3 and under jumper, so fun!

Mallory trying to find her way out of the jumper, hehe!

My little daredevil girl LOVED the slide. Aunt Lacye took her a couple times so Mommy could catch her breath. Baby girl would giggle the whole way up the stairs and laugh so sweetly sliding down. Then she would scream when we got down because she wanted to go again. She is going to be fun at amusement parks!!

Bubba and Daddy getting off the slide that got a few grins out of my very laid back little dude.

Checking out the big basketball inflatable. Love these little babes! So much fun!

(Check out all the hair growing on the back of those two little baby heads!! Wahooo!)

We stayed in a hotel Saturday night and although having the babies in the same room as us did not go as well as I hoped it would, it was still fun and a success. Now that I have caught up on sleep I would probably do it again! The twins liked exploring a new space and Dusty and I LOVE hotels, really really love hotels! ;)

We also got some time to hang out with the Voda's at their beautiful home and all FIVE kids got to play. Yep, I did just say FIVE! Ha! I can't wait to read future blog posts about our future family vacations. I didn't get too many pictures because I was too busy keeping my two from invading every inch of their home, but this was the first chance we had to get pictures of the girls together. I pray they become the best of friends like me and my sweet Lace!

Love these sweet girls!!

Chatting about girl stuff don't ya know! 

(Honestly, Mallory began to awkwardly poke poor Harper's face and mouth but having girl talk painted a much cuter picture!)

Mason made himself a cozy little spot in Maddox and Paxton's tote full of cars. He is so silly!

It was a wonderful weekend filled with fun and friends. Happy Birthday Madd! We love you so dearly!