January 2012

New Year's Eve when you have three kiddos 2 and under means something very different than it used to!  This year Marc and I were not even sure if we were going to be able to make it until midnight!!  We decided to spend the evening on our respective computers doing our own thing... and it was perfect!!  We watched the clock and when it turned to midnight we gave each other a kiss, said Happy New Year and went and got ready for bed.  I was asleep by 12:03 am!! 
Life has changed so much but I am absolutely LOVING this phase even if New Year's isn't this huge celebration like it used to be!  One thing that I love about a new year is that it gives me a chance to look back at the previous year and evaluate where I want to be at the end of this year.  I am thankful for a time to reflect and evaluate :)

Instead of doing resolutions, Marc and I made predictions for the upcoming year.  We guessed how many kids we were going to have (or be pregnant with), certain milestones for the kids and where we'd be living.

Here are our predictions.  In 2012...
Our family size will be:
Marc- 6
Reci- 5

Shiloh will/will not be using Suzy:
Marc- will
Reci- will

McKenzie will be walking:
Marc- Yes
Reci- Yes

McKinley will have x words:
Marc- 25
Reci- 10

We will be living in TX:
Marc- no
Reci- "I really don't know.  Marc will not like my answer, but I honestly have no idea.  I am, however, excited to see what the Lord has in store for us."

Favorite moment of 2011:
Marc- getting to know Shiloh's personality
Reci- meeting McKenzie and McKinley for the first time

What are you looking forward to in 2012:
Marc- watching the twins begin to crawl and walk
Reci- growing as a family of five, watching Marc father 3 girls and watching the sisters (all 3) relationships develop

Here are some fun pictures from January:

Walking with our fun neighbors Jon, Sami & Evie

McKinley & McKenzie

Tummy time

McKenzie & McKinley

For my birthday, we had a girls night at Patriazo's

Melissa, Becca, Jackie & Sami

Tiffany, Abby, Andrea & Susan

All the girls!!  These girls gave me are amazing women of the Lord!! Thank you so much for the wonderful gift of friendship!  For my birthday, Jackie made a scrap book in which all the girls wrote sweet little notes or bible verses that made them think of me.  I felt SO loved!

Yep, it was warm enough in January to go to the zoo!!  Here are Marc, Shiloh and a giraffe :)

Life with twins!

Daddy teaching Shiloh to cook potatoes

Sweet sisters; McKenzie & McKinley

Having a twin moment- McKenzie & McKinley

Lunch in a big box- this upgraded me from a cool mom to the coolest mom :)

The Dallas Zoo with Nino!!  We had a GREAT time!

Post bath time :) McKenzie on top & McKinley on bottom

At On the Border after church- Shiloh loves going to restaurants

Connie holding McKenzie and playing with McKinley so Marc and I could have a date day

Marc and I celebrating my 27th birthday!

One morning all three girls were in a great mood so I snapped pictures :)

 McKinley

 McKenzie

 Shiloh's first driving lesson

 Shiloh wanted to wear her princess dress to go on a walk with daddy

 McKinley & McKenzie at the Dr. office for their 4 month check up

 McKinley waiting for the Dr. to see her

McKenzie while the Dr. was checking her out... clean bill of health for both girls :)

After Shiloh saw me put her sisters in the double stroller, she has decided that she likes to ride in it.  To go on walks, I usually wear one M and push Shiloh and the other M.

Ready for church one Sunday; McKenzie & McKinley

 One morning Shiloh let me straighten her hair!  It looked so cute :)

Cooking with all 3 girls (McKenzie in the high chair)

January Milestones:
me- I am so excited that I have been able to nurse the twins for 5 months (I'm typing this in February)!!  In January, I had a little hiccup, and I had to supplement about 3 feedings with some formula after nursing M&M.  I was so disappointed that nursing the girls might be coming to an end because my goal is to nurse them 6 months and ideally a year.  I begin to take fenugreek, an herbal supplement that is supposed to help with nursing, and I have been trying to intake some more calories daily.  Both of these things have helped and it looks like I will be able to keep nursing the girls!!  I've got ONE MORE month to reach my big goal!!! 

Shiloh: Her comprehension level astounds Marc and me. 
She can:
- count to 12
- identify almost all of the letters from the alphabet
- identify the numbers 0-9
- recognize her name when she sees it spelled out

McKenzie:
- At her 4 month check up McKenzie weighed 10 pounds 10 ounces and was 24 1/2 inches, which was a great growth rate.  She is still in the 3-5 %
- On January 25 she rolled over from back to front.  In December she rolled from front to back, so now she can do both!
- She loves to smile and laugh at us!!
- She loves to look in the mirror and use her hands to grab things

McKinley:
- At her 4 month check up McKinley weighed 10 pounds 10 ounces and was 24 1/2 inches, which was a great growth rate. She is still in the 3-5 % (She caught up to McKenzie and now they weigh the exact same and are the same length... SUPER IDENTICAL)
- On January 9, she rolled over from back to front.  In December she rolled from front to back, so now she can do both!
- She loves to smile and laugh at us!!
- She loves to look in the mirror and use her hands to grab things

In M&M, we've noticed a few differences!!  It seems like McKinley likes to roll around, coo and talk a little bit more and McKenzie likes to smile, giggle and look around a little bit more.

December 2011

In December, we experienced some unseasonably warm weather. I love this because it allowed me to take Shiloh and the twins outside almost every day and not be miserably cold!! No matter what the weather is though, December is always a special month because of Christmas!
Celebrating Christmas and going to Shrek the Halls, Gaylord's Ice Experience, were by far my highlights of the month!! I'll post some pictures of Shrek the Halls!

We are in Shrek's Outhouse (all made of ice)

It was 9 degrees in this room and Shiloh asked to touch the ice.  This is her reaction :)

For Christmas this year, we spent Christmas Eve with my mom's side of the family, Christmas morning with the 5 of us (I still love saying that!!!) and Christmas Day with Marc's family. All three celebrations were great fun; although, I cannot leave out the most unexpected part of Christmas this year, which was Shiloh's attitude Christmas morning.

Leading up to Christmas Day, I had been teaching Shiloh the real Christmas story and using a nativity scene to do it. I was excited about this because I thought it would make it extra special on Christmas morning when we read the story from the bible. Marc and I have decided that our family tradition will be to read the actual story from Luke and then exchange gifts. SO...

Christmas morning arrives and I was excited for Marc to read the story while Shiloh and I acted it out with our little nativity pieces. Unfortunately, Shiloh did NOT like that plan. She had been up way to late Christmas Eve and was in a horrible mood on Christmas morning. She did NOT want to listen to the story and was throwing a fit every time Marc tried to read it. In retrospect, it's actually rather comical, but at the time we had no idea what to do. Do you put your kid in timeout and potentially make her hate reading the bible out loud??? OR do you not read the story?? or what!!! That was what we were feeling...

3 timeouts later we completed the story and then exchanged gifts. Shiloh was excited to receive the tee ball and the bat from us.  It definitely took much longer to get to exchanging gifts than we expected.  We then went over to Marc’s parents’ house and read the story of Jesus’ birth from a children’s book with a different nativity and Shiloh loved it… at least she enjoyed one of them.

Although gifts are a wonderful part of Christmas, our goal is to make sure that our children know the reason we exchange gifts is to celebrate the ultimate gift we have been given, Jesus Christ.  Exchanging gifts to us is symbolic of that and I pray that we can instill that idea into our children’s Christmas celebration memories!! 

Here are some pictures from December and from Christmas:

Decorating the Christmas Tree

Sweet sisters sleeping (McKinley on the left and McKenzie on the right)

3 months old!  McKenzie on the left and McKinley on the right

Play date at the Galleria's indoor play park

Our play date friends; Melissa and Andrew and Abby (little baby in her belly) and Levi

McKinley smiles

McKenzie

McKenzie smiles

McKenzie on the left and McKinley on the right 

  

Shiloh Christmas morning... all that she wanted to do was dress up and play with her new zoo.  She did NOT want to listen to a story or play with her nativity. :)

Doing the Christmas Story with Oma

Fun Family Pic

Playing baseball with Uncle Mike

Pops holding McKinley and Panda holding McKenzie

Princess Shiloh showing off her dress and ring

tea party

McKinley & McKenzie

This is the first time the girls smiled at each other :)

 

Shiloh hadn't really shown any signs of being jealous of M&M until December.  She wanted me to wear her in the baby carrier and...

she wanted to take a bath in the sink like the babies

 McKinley & McKenzie

December Milestones:
Shiloh (26 months)-
- her vocabulary is growing exponentially
- she can hold a conversation on one topic
- she can jump off of things and climb really well
- she can bargain and be bribed :)

McKenzie & McKinley
- they can interact together
- they can smile and giggle
- they are starting to be more scheduled and appear to be moving to 3 naps a day
- they sleep 12 hours consistently at night

It's 2012 ... and we've got HUGE NEWS!

Although I haven't posted about December or January, I cannot start this blog out by merely updating it because I've got huge news.  We will be moving to Chandler, Arizona (outside of Phoenix)!!   I am really excited for this opportunity for our family, but I am extremely sad about leaving our Dallas life behind us!  I know that I am going to desperately miss the family that we have surrounding us here; however, knowing that this is the best decision for us allows me to be excited about our future in Arizona!
It is all happening so quickly, and here we are beginning to pack for moving tonight!  We also just got the house that we will be renting for the next year!  Whew, I am glad to be able to check that off of our list . . . we now have somewhere to live! 

This move has highlighted that fact that I am so thankful to be married to someone who shares different strengths than me!  The task of moving our entire family feels so overwhelming to me; however, Marc is great at planning each task and prioritizing which should be done first!  Thank you Lord for providing one of us with that ability!  With Marc's gameplan (I threw in some ideas too, but he wrote it for us), I no longer feel overwhelmed at moving.  We've made a list of what we are accomplishing on what day, and as long as we follow this list our transition will be as smooth as we can make it!  Again, I just want to thank the Lord for blessing me with an amazing husband who can empower me to accomplish the tasks set before me!! :)