The Birthday Party!

For the girls 2nd birthday party, I knew I didn't want to try and have it at my house again.  There just isn't enough space in my house to accommodate that many kids and adults and since it's cold in January, we couldn't have some of it outside either.  So, I began looking into some local places to have their party.  We decided on The Little Gym and I think it was a great decision!!  I didn't have to worry about decorating or cleaning up :)!  Another great thing was that they had staff who organized and led games with the kids and also took care of the food, cake, and present time!  We originally wanted to do Chick-fil-a, of course, but the party was on a Sunday so we decided on Pizza and fruit.  For dessert we did cupcakes from Sam's and cookies. A sweet friend that I met through another friend, Kari Beth (who made the girls bday shirts, she is SO super talented!!), told me about her SIL who makes cookies and so I contacted Holly and asked her if she could make the cookies for me.  She did and they turned out better than I even thought possible :)! I LOVED them!  She is also SO very talented.  They tasted great too.  For the party favors, I just made homemade number 2 crayons and put a blank notepad and stickers with it.


**Picture overload**

 Aren't these cookies that Holly did just the cutest??!!

 Baby Olivia Crow got to come :)!

 Sweet little friends: Jax, Micah, Hunter, Ava, Zach, Adeline, Noah, Kellen.  Also there, Annabel, Landon, Colson, Olivia, and Leah.  We missed Westin and Elsy Kate who were sick.

 Parker wanted to play with the balloon (shocker, ha) instead of open gifts, so cousin Hunter helped Payton

Once Payton opened these gifts she got a little distracted.  She was enjoying these :)!

Some of the "big kids".  We love our friends, so thankful for them!

How in the world I didn't get any pics of the girls with their grandparents is beyond me??  My mom was taking a lot of the pics and I'm just not good at remembering to take pictures...goodness.  But so thankful both sets of grandparents were able to come up.  It was a wonderful party and we are so grateful for the friends and family that were able to come and help celebrate Payton and Parker turning 2!  We love you all!

The Twins Second Birthday!

WOW!  I know I say it all the time, but seriously, where has the time gone? It seems like I was just in the hospital spending my days in the NICU just waiting to bring my babies home.  I'm so thankful that we were able to celebrate 2 years with our precious Payton and Parker on January 20, 2012!
We started the day off by waking them up singing "Happy Birthday to you" :)!  Then we let them run into the living room to see their present.  We got them a table and chairs, and of course I had to add a couple balloons.  These two are obsessed with balloons!! 

 Just woke up, dressed and ready to celebrate...

 Here comes Parker.  She spotted the balloons :)...

 And now Payton.  Sweet smile...

 I don't think they care one bit about the table :)

Next it was off to the donut shop for donut holes, yum!!  So happy that daddy was able to spend the morning with us!  After donuts, Daddy went to work and I took the girls to the library to look at books and put puzzles together.  There's not a whole lot you can do on a cold January day. 
Then we went home to eat lunch and take a nap!  We ended the day with chick-fil-a and birthday cupcakes!!  It was a fun day!

 Payton shoving in the whole donut hole

 Parker takes her time!  So happy about her donut holes :)

 Since it was their bday, I decided to let them try a chocolate glazed donut!  Payton loved it!

 Parker was a little hesitant at first, but she eventually ate it and loved it at as well!

All these from the library are taken from my iphone...

I love this picture of them just giggling at each other while "reading" their books :)

 Singing happy birthday to the girls :) (please excuse the Christmas and Easter PJs, sometimes that's just how things go ;)!)

 Payton trying to eat the whole thing at once, ha!

 What a mess!

Parker took a couple teeny tiny bites before she decided she liked it, haha!

Payton and Parker, you have no idea the joy you bring to my life!  I didn't know how in the world I would be able to be a mom to twins, but God knew what He was doing, and I can't imagine my life without you two sweet girls!  I have so much to learn, so I just keep praying that God will show me each day how to be the best mom I can to you girls.  No doubt we have our 'days' where I think I could pull my hair out, and yours ;), but I wouldn't trade it for the world. I want you to know that I (and daddy) love you more than you'll ever know, but that God loves you even more than that.  I love being your mommy!  I love you both so much!  Happy 2nd Birthday!

Christmas at Home and New Years Eve!

Christmas with the four of us was not what I had planned :)!  We usually do our Christmas before we leave town, but we were so busy that we just didn't have the time.  On Monday, the day after Christmas, we headed back home right after lunch.  That way we could get home and settled and do our Christmas.  Well, we had to run a few errands and we hadn't wrapped any presents so by the time we were ready to do our Christmas it was 8:30pm (which is usually the girls bedtime).  So we opened presents, kind of quickly, and then let the girls play 10min or so and then it was off to bed, for all of us :)!  We are taking advantage of the girls being young and not caring about how many gifts they get and grandparents spoiling them, that we got them just a couple things again this year ;).

New Years is a little different now that we have kids, but it's still a lot of fun.  Since New Years Day fell on a Sunday, Davin had half the day off on Friday and then all day off on Monday!!  Friday we didn't do too much, just got a few things done around the house while the girls napped.  Then that night we rented a movie.


Saturday we decided last minute to take a trip to a local State Park.  It was such a beautiful day.  Blue skies and high in the lower 60s!!  We packed up a picnic lunch and headed down the highway to the state park.  It was so beautiful!  The lake was so blue!  It was a little windy that day, but still great weather.  We had lunch and then let the girls play on the playground for a while.  Then we walked around and drove around checking it all out.  We thought for sure that the girls would be worn out and take their nap in the car on the way back...not so much!  We had planned to just take some back roads home and enjoy the scenery and let them nap, but they did not sleep!!  They were pretty good, only got fussy a few times, but did not sleep! 

 They got so excited when they saw this tree! They thought it was a Christmas tree :)

That night Donnie and Laura and their son Del were in town visiting family and we were so happy to get to see them before they flew back home to LA.  I hadn't seen Del and Laura since last Feb when Del was 2 months old, so he had changed a lot.  We had a good visit with them.  They also shared with us that they are expecting baby number 2 in late summer!  So happy for them!

I didn't stay up to ring in the new year this year:)!  Davin was up finishing up studying for his lesson on Sunday so he was sweet enough to come kiss me at midnight.  So even though I didn't see the ball drop I still got my kiss at midnight, ha :)!


Monday was kind of a catch up and run errands kind of day.  It was pretty relaxing.  We've had a great couple of months traveling, but I am glad to be home and get back to our normal daily routine.


I don't really have many new years resolutions, I just pray that I seek Jesus first in all I do!