2nd Half of July, Beginning of August 2012 and Milestones

Our Texas Trip takes up our second half of July!  We drove 18 hours through the night and made it to Texas with 3 kids and only 3 stops!!!  We were so pumped about our timing and how quickly we made it- not to mention the trip was amazing and easy!  We got on the road at 4pm AZ time; M&M fell asleep around 7 PM right after we stopped for dinner at Dairy Queen; M&M slept until 8:00 AM; Shiloh slept from about 9:30 pm to 7:00 am and didn't have any bathroom accidents!!; we arrived in TX at 12 noon TX time (10 am AZ time)!  It really wasn't bad at all!!  (The trip home is a different story)

In TX we got to see so many friends and family!! It was GREAT!!!  We also got to meet our precious niece Alicia!!  The big purpose of our trip was to meet our beautiful neice! Seeing her confirmed that I do love being an Aunt!!

Here are pictures to chronicle our TX trip:

Dinner stop at Dairy Queen

Meeting Ali for the first time!

All Dressed Up for Church

All three matching

Ali's matching too!  Shiloh is so excited to "hold" her

 Oma and Pops holding M&M
(Oma with Zee and Pops with Lee)

Mike and all the Smith Granddaughters

Erin and Zee

With one of my best friends and her amazing family!!

We love Nino

Painting with some of my best friends

Hanging out with my mom, brother and his sweet wife

Wearing both girls for a walk

They still fit in the swing together... and they LOVE it!!

Here is Zee laughing while swinging

Lee laughing while swinging

Shiloh loving it too

Swimming with Daddy and Pops

 Sandwich making with Daddy

One of the highlights of my trip was this Wiggles Show!!!

(yes, I am a mom and yes, I did enjoy the show)

The Wiggles Show

Shiloh and My wonderful Grandma

My girls and their Great-Grandparents

(I am so blessed to have a wonderful Papa and Grandma who so sweetly love on my girls too)

Cousin McKellie, Aunt Lala, Nino and the Smith Girls

Shiloh, Emma and Rylie

Shiloh and Eliana

Lee, Zee and Leah

Shiloh and Andrew so sweetly playing together

He asked her to hold his hand... it was adorable!!

So cute

3 moms, two sets of twins and a total of 8 kids

Fun playdate buddies!

Lee and Zee

The first half of August has been a lot of fun too! We were able to rest from our pretty rough trip home. The girls weren't sick, perhaps carsick- I don't really know, BUT they threw up a total of 5 times. Each twin did it twice and Shiloh once. We had 7 outfit changes because of the getting sick, lots of crying, lots of unplanned stopping and several more hours added onto our long trek home. The drive home was exhausting and not too great.  Crossing our fingers that will be the only drive like that, BUT it was definitely the best feeling when we pulled up into our driveway!  I didn't think I'd be glad to be back, but I was!!

The Monday after we got home, Shiloh started her first Rythmic Ribbons class!! She absolutely loved it! I was a little nervous because the teacher told me that she has only one strict rule, if she has to call the students out three times, they sit down the rest of the class. Usually Shiloh obeys other people, but I felt like she would have been devastated to have to sit down. Thankfully, the teacher did not even have to call her out once! She obeyed everything the teacher said and had a wonderful class! Pics below.

Shiloh Ready for her First Rythmic Ribbons Class

Practicing Twirling

11 Month Picture

(Zee on the left and Lee on the right)

Outtake

Little Ponytails! (Zee on the left & Lee on the right)

(My sweet little teethers wouldn't part from their ice cubes for this pic)

Milestones:
Shiloh (2 years and 9 months)-
- she can identify most letters and the sounds they make; ie Mommy starts with "M"
- she can identify numbers 1-11
- she can count to 12
- she can write numbers 0, 1, 2, 6, 7, 10, 11 (mostly ones without curves)
- she can draw a circle and a triangle
- she can write the letters C, D, I, T (a few more but I'm not sure which ones)
- she can draw a person with a head that has eyes, hair & a mouth, a body, two legs with feet & two arms with hands (I was pretty impressed with the details!!)

McKenzie (10 months)
- she can take up to 7 steps
- she can stand by herself
- she can get to the standing position by herself from the ground
- she can stoop and stand up
- she can say "Mama" "Dada" "All done" "More"
- she can dance
- she can climb up stairs
- she is trying to figure out how to climb down stairs, but attempts to go head first and I have to catch her

McKinley (10 months)
- she took her first step just a few days before she turned 11 months
- she can stand by herself
- as of VERY recently she can stoop and get back up
- she can get to the standing position by herself from the ground
- she can say "Mama" "Dada" "All done" "More"
- she loves to bounce
- she can climb up and down stairs (so well that I don't get too scared when she does it)-- she goes down the stairs by sliding herself backwards

My personal milestones:
My goal lately has been to cut preservatives out of our diet and learn to cook better.  Since we've been married (4.5 years), I have learned a LOT about cooking and I've really enjoyed all of it. 

I was never very interested in cooking growing up because my mom and my grandma were/are amazing cooks.  I had a wonderful dinner and afternoon snack cooked for me everyday.  When I was at Baylor, I realized that I did not know much about cooking at all, and I did not want to take my time to do it. 

Once I got married, my wonderful family tradition of having every meal cooked began to return.  Since then, I've made it my goal to learn to cook as much from scratch as I can and I've learned lots about what shortcuts I can take.  A few things I've been doing lately are:
- making bread (no more store bought for us)
- making chicken broth from boiling chicken
- making cream of chicken soup
- making whole wheat pizza dough from scratch
- making homemade chicken nuggets
- trying to use as much organic fruits and veggies as possible

Tips/Tricks I've learned lately:
- Costco has a GREAT frozen fruit and veggie section. I have bought frozen stuff in bulk and thawed it based on what we should use for the next few days.  This way I don't have to thaw everything for every meal.
- Costco now sells premade tortilla dough in the refridgerated section!! It is PRESERVATIVE free and very easy to make.  We've been buying these and making our own tortillas.  My next goal is to make them from scratch, but for now buying the dough will have to do.
- I have been drinking more water (healthier)
- When I buy fresh fruits and veggies, I use a wash that supposedly helps them last longer (and I really think it works)-- my wash is 10 parts water to 1 part vinegar and some drops of fresh lemon juice (occasionaly) I will make one batch and wash all of my fresh produce in it.  I don't mix the produce so I wash each bunch individually.  Next I will strain it, rinse it, set it out on a towel to dry and lastly bag it up and stick it in the fridge.
- We have lived without using vegetable oil in our house since February.  Depending on the recipe, I will either substitute yogurt, apple sauce or as a last resort butter.
- For as many meals as possible, I make 1.5 to 2 times the amount we will eat.  I will put enough of the left overs immediately in the freezer to make up another meal, and then whatever is left after we eat will be leftovers for that week. 
- We do sandwich/quesadilla meals at least one night a week.  I am so proud of Marc, who knew pretty much nothing about cooking when we got married, because he is in charge of this meal each week!!  This is my cooking night off!
Other milestones... I've been able to run a mile and a half at my goal pace!  I have been working on getting a faster pace than I used to do, which has been quite the challenge.  My goal is around 9 to 9.5 minutes a mile.
- I've been doing a little more repurposing items around the house and a little more spray painting of picture frames and decorating a bit here and there.  Anything that involves house decorating is out of my comfort zone, but I am trying!!

Upcoming goals:
- Make pumpkin dresses for girls... I'm sad to say that I haven't had any time to sew lately.  I've spent much of my free time cooking and preparing meals.  I need to wedge time in their for improving my sewing skills.
- MY BIG GOAL is to learn how to sew these Anthropologie curtains.  I finally found curtains that I am just in LOVE with but they are WAY too expensive.  I've been reading tutorials on how to make them, so we'll have to see.
- Get or make some more wall decorations
- We have a few things that I need to hang up
- Continue learning about cooking.  Make a few recipes from Julia Childs cookbook
- Home made jam
- run 2 miles at my goal pace (and 3.5 miles just running at any pace)
- lots more, but that'll be it for the rest of August
- start sharing recipes and tips on my blog

First Half of July 2012

Praise the Lord for a wonderful July!! We got to welcome our niece, Alicia Smith, into the world, spend time with her and spend half of the month in Texas.  Seeing our friends and family in Texas was an exciting break from our calm life in AZ!

July started out with M&M turning 10 months old!!  I cannot believe that their 1 year birthday is rounding the corner!  Mothers always tell me that time goes too quickly and I cannot help but agree.

Shiloh also caught my attention quite a bit when she discussed her prettiness (last blog post) and got me thinking about ways to more intentionally teach all of our girls that they are precious daughters of our Wonderful Creator. 

A few changes Marc and I have made with our girls (mostly Shiloh right now) to help instill this fact are - He tells all of them every night as they are going to sleep that he thinks they are beautiful.
-When I complement Shiloh, I let them her know a character quality that I admire as well as thank her for the action or behavior she just did (I don't do this every time but I try to do this several times a day).  For example, "Shiloh, thank you very much for hugging your sister when she was crying.  That shows compassion- did you know that Jesus shows us compassion in the same way.  By acting like Him, you are not only making Mommy and Daddy proud but also God our Father who created you. Thank you for being compassionate to your sister!"  That may be a mouthful, but for how many time-outs she gets in one day, a lengthy compliment is probably necessary.
-I've also created a bible study plan to do with Shiloh for the next year!  I'm so excited to begin it!

I've also been working on a preschool curriculum for Shiloh.  A few blog posts ago, I mentioned that we have been living on a pretty strict budget.  I've realized recently that a Mother's Day Out program just isn't in the cards for the next year, but I want to make sure Shiloh is learning as much as possible while she's spending time with me at home; to help me make sure I am teaching her, I've made a curriculum for the next 6 months/ish depending on the subject (some things like bible study, math and reading I've got a year plan but for others like science and writing I don't).

At first the thought of making a lesson plan seemed a bit overboard, BUT I get so distracted every day.  I want to make sure I am preparing Shiloh as well as playing with her.  I also have to admit, that because I love a clean house, I can get VERY distracted with keeping it up and will not spend as much time with my girls as I would like.  With my lesson plans, I will give Shiloh my focused attention, which she loves, and teach her subjects in a really fun way. She will never even know she's learning and she will get some great one on one Mommy time.  (When M&M get a little older, they will get in on the fun too)

I have spent several weeks preparing my lessons for our "start of school," and I am so excited for it to begin!  The third week of August we begin Mommy school.  My goal is to treat it like a MDO program- we will take pictures on the first day and have a special breakfast!

Pictures from July:

Mischievous M&M (Zee in pink, Lee in purple)

Sweet girls "helping" with the dishes

10 month Pic (Zee on left, Lee on right)

Playing in the Rain

Zee loving her pasta

Lee loving her pasta

Shiloh's 1st Braids!!

 Showing them Off

Texas trip and milestones- next post :)

I'm Not Pretty Anymore

Reflections from a mother of a daughter:
Tonight I heard a comment that no mother ever hopes to hear from her daughter much less her almost 3 year old.  Shiloh walked up to me and said "Mommy, I'm not pretty anymore."  I looked at her astonished and a little shocked... where in the world would she have ever heard a comment like that and why in the world would she have a thought like that.  I quickly recovered and told her as meaningfully as I could, "Shiloh, you are more than pretty; you are beautiful and by that I mean VERY pretty."

This small conversation got me thinking:
- Could Shiloh have thoughts like that because ME, her own Mommy has felt that? 
- Have I ever made comments in front of Shiloh about not feeling very pretty myself... yes, I have. 
- How can I, a women who fears the Lord, teach my daughter that beauty is inner as well as outer?
- How can I teach my daughter that she is fearfully and wonderfully made... and yes that she is pretty?

I remember reading Captivating  in college and seeing that every woman in the core of her being desires to feel beautiful and knowing with all of my heart that is a very true statement... at least for me I know it is.  For my friends daughter Rylie, who at 18 months looked at me twirling her little dress and said "Am I pretty," this comment is true.  And for my very own daughter this statement is true.

So back to one of my questions: How can I teach my daughter that she is pretty? To touch on that, I have to mention this first,  Marc and I were talking and I asked him why it is that every girl has moments where she doesn't feel beautiful and why those moments could even start under the age of 3.  His response got me thinking even more. 

He said, "People are always telling little girls that they are pretty, and little girls probably watch their moms question their own beauty.  In watching their moms, little girls learn to question themselves."   No, Marc wasn't blaming me... in fact he dismissed Shiloh's comment as a silly thing she just said; however, the fact that the thought even crossed her mind caused me to cry a little. 

I cried for several reasons.  I want to instill in my daughter a confidence that transcends outer beauty and physical appearance; a confidence that will give her the courage to say "No" to peers, "No" to guys and "Yes" to the Lord no matter the cost.  I cried that this confidence could even be slightly questioned when she is so young.  I cried because I believe that I, a pretty confident women, have already somehow transferred some of my self-conscience moments onto my precious daughter.  And lastly, I cried for the moment that she really believes she isn't pretty... a moment that I am now fighting against.

How can I teach my daughter the she is fearfully and wonderfully made... and yes that she is pretty?  I've got to start by believing it in myself.  I've got to know that I too am beautiful... even on days that I don't feel it.  I've got to trust in the Lord and seek him for my confidence... for when I am weak he is strong.  I cannot look in the mirror and find every flaw in myself... rather, when that starts to happen, I need to pray to the Lord and ask him to help me be the beautiful woman he created me to be.  This I need to teach my daughter by doing it myself.

That all being said, yes I work out.  I will continue to do so, BUT my motivation should be more than physical appearance.  It is to be in shape and to be healthy.  I like to be an active person and if I'm not in shape my lifestyle might not be possible.  I actually enjoy running races (10Ks and 1/2 marathons) and I love hiking... to do these things, I must be in shape.  I'm not going to lie, yes I like to look fit too; however, that need not only be my motivation to work out.

I challenge myself to know I am beautiful and I am the woman God has created me to be!  I challenge myself to instill this in my daughter. And lastly, I challenge every mother of a daughter to teach her that she is beautiful by believing it about yourself.

June 2012

June has been a wonderful and relaxing month.  We recovered from all our travels in May (22 days), and spent quite a bit of time together around the house, which was much needed.  I was able to do some more decorating/re-purposing things we already had, and that has made me love being home even more.  I really need to take pictures of our house and post them because it's mostly decorated now! :) (decorating anything is a big feat for me)

In the beginning of June, M&M turned 9 months old!! They are getting more and more interactive with Shiloh and each other which I love!!  They will occasionally fight back when she tries to grab a toy from them and then they will scream to let me know what's just happened.  I love that they will all play together (usually pretty well), and I think it's adorable watching them interact.

Lately, I've been wondering if M&M are starting to develop their own language.  I've heard of twins doing this, and it seems as though they are... but then I also wonder if I am just putting my thoughts onto their actions.  Here are two things I've witnessed quite a few times lately:
- They will be across the room from each other and facing different directions.  One of the girls will make a little noise, and then the other will make a responding noise.  After that, they will crawl to each other and then both crawl somewhere else together.
- In their cribs, they will make little noises back and forth and then proceed to bounce and giggle together.

M&M are so relaxed and happy that their disposition is often contagious.  I love spending time with my two bundles of joy and I have been so excited to see their personalities developing!  They are definitely very different, which is a concept that is sometimes difficult for me to grasp. 

McKinley is much more independent and content, while McKenzie usually prefers another person to be near and is not quite as content.  It seems as though McKenzie often tries to get McKinley, Shiloh, Marc or me to interact with her; although, lately McKinley has been super smiley at everyone while McKenzie seems to be observing everything a little more stoically.  That being said though, McKenzie still needs attentions a little more than McKinley.

ALSO in the beginning of June, Shiloh was fully potty trained... even at night!  All of the articles I read talked about potty training being easy if your child was ready, but I still wasn't sure if she was.  In retrospect, I can say she definitely was!  She was potty trained in 3-5 days and two weeks later we were able to stop using diapers at nap time and night too!!  The thought of potty training stressed me out way more than the act of it!! 

Lately our potty trained, big girl has been exercising her ability to test every limit and to tell us her opinion when we give her instructions.  In general, Shiloh has always been very active and attention seeking, but she has never really been too disobedient. It seems as though the terrible twos are starting to rear their face in Shiloh's direction; however, I have to say that she is still pretty obedient-- she is just into testing us a little more.
The other big change for our family is that we started using cloth diapers!  When I was pregnant with Shiloh, I never thought I'd want to use cloth diapers. My mind really changed when Sami started to use them for her daughter Evie.  I babysat Evie a few times for Sami and changed her diaper.  That changed everything for me... I realized that cloth diapers weren't bad at all. 

When I first found out Marc and I were pregnant, I had been thinking that I'd want to use cloth diapers; however, when we discovered it was twins, I quickly cancelled that idea.  The twins have been really easy to manage lately, so I had been thinking about cloth diapers again... then we had our budget talk and I ran the numbers.  They will pay for themselves in 4.5 months!!! 

Now I want to be the biggest advocate for cloth diapers!!  I LOVE THEM!  If any mommas have ever thought about using them, I say DO IT!  It's been really easy, and it's not near as gross or bad as I thought it was going to be at all... plus their cloth diapers are ADORABLE! 

I'd like to say that month one of our new budget went really well... we stayed underneath our goal and didn't feel too stressed about it. One of the many reasons I was nervous about our financial monthly goals centered around our cutting food spending over half way, which we succeeded at doing!!

Lastly, we ended June with a wonderful trip with Marc's parents to Flagstaff, AZ, another one of Arizona's amazing cities.  Flagstaff sits in the mountains, elevated over 7000 feet!  The weather was amazing as was the city.  Marc and I fell in love with Flagstaff... we will definitely be back.

While we stayed there, we also got to go to the GRAND CANYON!! I have always wanted to go, and it was as amazing as I thought it was going to be!!! 

One other thing that excited me about that vacation was how easily all our girls managed the trip!!  I am SOO happy to say that they can all sleep anywhere now!  We haven't experienced this in TWO YEARS!!  As long as I have pack-n-plays for the twins and a bed for Shiloh, we are set!

Pictures from June and our trip to Flagstaff/Grand Canyon:

McKenzie & McKinley Playing

All Dressed Up

M&M had their First Big Girl Bath (Lee and Zee)

McKinley

 McKenzie

M&M Playing together (Lee in bouncer and Zee outside of it)

 Shiloh let me straighten her hair

M&M 9 Month Picture- with Shiloh

Little Bitties Playing in the Dirty Laundry

Fun Aunt Shelly took Shiloh to a Princess Party

Flagstaff Vacation 

Grand Canyon

At an Animal Farm

On our way to Sedona

Hiking in Sedona



Here are M&M mischievously playing in the cabinets and their CUTE cloth diaper bottoms!

(Zee standing and Lee crawling towards me)

Milestones:
Shiloh:
- she is POTTY TRAINED!!
- she is beginning to identify the sounds that letters make, "b" makes the "buh" sound
- she is starting to identify that words start with certain letters, quoting her: "milk starts with the letter m because it makes the mmmmm sounds"
- beginning to color in between the lines
- she has turned into a little prayer warrior!! (This makes my heart so happy.)  She will randomly pray to God through out the day, quoting her: "God thank you that this wall is not too hot so that I can lean against it," "God, my tummy hurts, please help it to feel better"
McKenzie:
- At her 9 month check up, she was 26 inches long/tall and weighed 15 pounds 8 ounces- in the 25th percentile for height and the 3rd for weight
- can say "mama" and "dada"
- She seems to want Marc and my attention a little more than McKinley
- She will get VERY angry if you (mainly Shiloh) take a toy away from her and show you by screaming
- crawls VERY quickly
- pulls up and walks holding onto things
- opens cabinets and likes to pull everything out of them
- can stand up for about 15 seconds without holding onto anything
- LOVES food that she can feed herself
McKinley:
- At her 9 month check up, she was 27 inches long/tall and weighed 15 pounds 3 ounces- in the 25th percentile for height and 3rd for weight
- can say (or yell) "more" - she is really funny with this one- she will yell "more" at us when her tray becomes empty
- can say "mama" and "dada"
- she seems to be a little more independent and better at self entertaining
- She reacts by screaming about 1/2 of the time a toy is taken away from her, while the other times, she'll just grab another toy.
- crawls VERY quickly
- pulls up and walks holding onto things
- opens cabinets and likes to pull everything out of them
- can stand up for a few seconds without holding onto anything
- LOVES food that she can feed herself