Just an Update

It's so hard to believe that the girls will be 14 months old this coming Sunday. They are growing like little weeds and are learning new things every single day. It amazes Michael and I how quickly they are picking things up. I know that every parent thinks that their child is a genius and we are no different. :) But, I'm convinced that we have two geniuses on our hands. :) Abby is running all over the place now. She has no problem just pushing people out of her way. She is also our little mountain climber. She will climb on anything... anywhere. I walked into the living room this morning and she was standing on her Little Mermaid push car yelling at her sister. She has started climbing our bookshelves. She likes to lay in the second shelf up on our tall bookshelf. I couldn't believe it when I turned around the other day and she was just laying there looking at me at about thigh-high (on me) on the bookshelf. She loves play chase with her Daddy and sister. Today, she picked up one of her stuffed dogs and started chasing Rory around the living room growling at her. She's too funny!! Rory talks ALL THE TIME. I mean, that child wakes up talking and doesn't stop until she falls asleep at night. She picks up words so fast that it is scary sometimes. She loves clothes... especially shoes. She loves to say "oh, pitty (pretty) mama" whenever she has on a new dress or shoes. When she wants to put on her shoes, she will get them out of her closet and follow me around saying "soooes (shoes), mama.... sooes." She also has started twirling around whenever she wants to show off her clothes. She will pull up the corner of her dress/pants/shorts/diaper and twirl around saying "pitty... pitty... pitty." She also likes to try and take care of Abby. I walked in the room the other day and Abby was laying on the floor and Rory was trying to take off her sister's diaper to change it. She will feed Abby animal crackers (which doesn't always go so well). I think that she is going to be our little "mother." There are so many things that they do every day that it is hard to put it all down.

Michael and I are doing well. We have decided to buy a new house because our house seems to be getting smaller and smaller as the girls accumulate more things. We have put our house on the market and have already found another house. We are just praying that we can sell our house before too much longer. It's stressful, but we know that it will all be worth it when we get moved into our new house.

I'm still staying home with the girls full-time and I still love it more than I can express!! It is so much fun being with the girls from the time that they wake up until they go to sleep. I love playing different things with them and watching them learn!! We have special times where the three of us will read books and sing together. I couldn't ask for a better job!! I have recently joined the Amarillo Area Mothers of Multiples group. It's an awesome group made up of women who have multiples from 2 months to 25 years. It's great to get a chance to socialize and get tips from other mothers of multiples. Not to mention, Michael and I want to find other sets of twins that the girls can get to know. We think that it's important that they have at least some friends who can relate with them being twins.

Michael is doing wonderful. He is still teaching Latin. He is probably going to take his certification test this spring to be able to teach History at the middle school level as well. His principal would like to have him teach a few history classes along with a few Latin classes. Since his Master's degree is in History, I think that he will really enjoy teaching these classes. Right now he's happy at the middle school level, so I think that he's planning to stay there for a while. I'm so proud of everything that he does. He is such a great husband and awesome daddy. The girls adore him so much (as do I)!! We couldn't ask for a better husband/daddy!!

Well, that's pretty much what's going on in our house right now. Michael and I are running to keep up with two toddlers on a daily basis (some days we succeed in this endeavor more than others). We look forward to the joys and challenges that every day brings!!

Fun in the Snow

Mommy and her girls playing in the snow
"Umm... Daddy... this is fun and all, but I'd really like to get down now." ~Abby

"This is soooo much fun!!!" ~Rory

"I'm not sure about this at all." ~Abby

"Look. Daddy's up high in the playhouse!!!" ~Rory

The sun is so bright and really brings out the red in Rory's hair

Abby playing in the snow

My family!!

(Notice that I caught Daddy in the act of making a snowball. Guess who that was intended for)

"Hmmm.. What exactly do you expect me to do now that you have put me in so much snow I can't walk?" ~Abby

Rory having so much fun!!!

"My bottom is cold" ~Abby

"Hmmm... I'm not too sure about all this cold white stuff" ~Rory

Walking in the snow

Knee high drifts

The snow didn't stick around very long

Much to our surprise and delight, today turned out to be a beautiful day despite the nasty blizzard yesterday. By the time we got up this morning (around 8:30 am) the snow had already started to melt off. By noon, most of the snow was completely gone off of the roads and we were able to start seeing grass in our front yard. It was a little bizarre to see all that snow melting off so quickly. After the girls' nap this afternoon, we decided to take them out for some fun snow time. They weren't too sure about the snow at first, but really got into playing in it after a few minutes. Daddy and Rory were even tossing snow back and forth at each other before we came back in the house. Abby liked to sit in the snow until she realized that her little backside was getting cold pretty fast. Then, she was really keen for Mommy to carry her around. Because of Abby's recent ear infection, we didn't stay out very long, but it was a lot of fun all the same. Both girls got a chance to go up in our tall playhouse with Daddy. Rory thought that was a lot of fun and Abby just wanted to get her feet back on the ground as soon as possible (I'm with her). After our fun outside, we all came back in and warmed up. It was such a fun treat to play in the snow with the girls!!!

Blizzard Day!!!

Horsey rides on Daddy's back
This is fun!!!!

Abby checking out the cold snow. She didn't think it was too bad at all.

Rory diving into the snow Daddy brought her from outside

Michael braving the blizzard to ensure we had a means of leaving if necessary. What a wonderful Guy!!!

Abby holding onto Daddy's scarf while he gets ready to shovel the walkway

Rory rolling in Daddy's coat

Abby showing off her somersaults

Visibility was not very good for a very long time

Rory was so tired from playing so hard with Daddy, Mommy and sister all morning that she fell asleep in her high chair during lunch

Abby watching it snow outside

Daddy and Rory taking in some early morning cartoons

We were all surprised by a late March blizzard in the Texas panhandle. We knew that the weather man must be serious when the Amarillo Independent School District canceled school. I'm not sure if the students or the teachers were more excited, but I do know that I have a husband and two little girls who were elated that school was out and that we were snowed in together. The blizzard started early Friday morning and lasted until very early Saturday morning. I think that the final totals were somewhere around a foot of snow for the Amarillo area with 40-50 mile an hour winds. Needless to say, we stayed tucked in for the whole of Friday and had such a fun time together! The girls couldn't have been more excited to have their Daddy home all day. They all three played on the floor for a good chunk of the day. The girls also got a real kick out of watching it snow and "drawing" with their fingers in the ice that formed on the inside of our glass door. They both panicked when their Daddy braved the weather to go out and shovel our walkway and make a path in our driveway (we didn't really want to be completely blocked in case of an emergency). The day included cuddling (all four of us together), playing on the floor, cartoons, watching the snow, white chocolate mocha (for the big people only), snow ice cream and James Bond movies (once again for the big people only). We couldn't have asked for a more special treat!!

Spring Break Fun

Beautiful Rory smiles!!

Uncle Duane, Rory, Braxton, Aunt Bennie and Abby

Uncle Duane, Rory, Aunt Bennie and Abby

Uncle Duane and Abby having fun together

Abby is not a fan of Mommy taking pictures while she is trying to eat


Rory looooooooooves spaghetti

Abby has figured out the trick to eating spaghetti

Rory blowing spaghetti covered kisses

"You wanna fight? Then don't touch my hat!" ~Abby

Rory's hat is falling off

Soulful Abby

A two-for-one picture: Abby's new hat and her fishy face

"Look at my pretty pink hat!!" ~Rory

We have had an amazing spring break so far this year!! The girls are absolutely loving having their Daddy home all day long every day (I'm pretty fond of it as well). Michael has two little shadows that follow him everywhere. The girls want to show him everything and get so excited when he plays with them! It's going to be so hard when he has to go back to work next week. I am not looking forward to the tears that I know are inevitable. We got a chance to go to Lubbock this week to visit some relatives of mine. My great-grandfather's brother and his wife live right outside of Lubbock. It was so good to get a chance to see them and introduce the girls to them!! They graciously invited us into their beautiful home and spoiled our girls rotten. :) While we were in Lubbock, we took the girls shopping. Michael found a little baseball cap for each of them that are just their size. Rory likes to look at hers and chew on it, but Abby is attached to hers. She wants to wear it all the time and doesn't really like for anyone to touch it at all... especially her sister!!! Abby has always liked wearing Michael's hats, but this one is hers and no one is going to take it from her!! It's too cute!!

Our Anniversary

Michael and I celebrated our third anniversary yesterday. Neither of us can hardly believe that it has already been three years since we were married!! We would have never guessed three years ago how very different our lives would be by now. It has been an amazing journey so far and we look forward to many, many, many more years together!!

Big Steps

Beautiful Abby smiles!!!!!
"Look what a big girl I am" ~Abby

Abby is so proud of climbing on the couch all by herself

Rory "protecting" her toys

Rory "allowing" Abby to have a couple of toys from the toy baskets

My Toys

Abby found Mommy's Texas A&M cap and has no plans to return it any time soon

Back in the Toy Box again

The girls have now turned 13 months old. It just doesn't seem possible!! They are doing more and more every day and it gets a little interesting around here some days. I used to joke about when they started walking that I bet one would go in one direction and one in the other, but it's not as funny now as it used to be. That's exactly what Rory and Abby do for their mommy at least a hundred times every single day. One will go one way to get into something and the other will head in the opposite direction. People laugh when they come to our house because everything keeps migrating to higher and higher shelves. The girls are growing so tall that it's hard to keep things out of their reach! Both girls have also learned how to climb. Abby is so proud of herself because she can get up on our "big" couch all by herself! I can hear her giggling from the other room and I know what she is up to. She will climb up on the couch and roll around and laugh. It's too cute! Rory likes to climb into their toy baskets. That way, she has control over all of the toys. She will hand Abby a couple of toys and then sit on the rest of them that are in the box. Silly Rory. This last Sunday at church, the girls moved to a new class because they have completely outgrown the newborn nursery. Whenever the babies start walking really well, they move them to Nursery 2. We've held off on having them promoted as long as possible, but it was definitely time. The girls adjusted better than I think Michael & I or their old Sunday school teacher did. They both waved "bye-bye" and blew Miss Bessy kisses as they went to their new room. Our precious little angels are growing up so fast.

These are a couple of home videos showing some of the fun stuff that the girls are up to now days. Both girls are walking very well. Abby takes it a little slower than Rory, who seems to run everywhere she goes now. Abby is cautious around Rory because Rory has no problem running Abby over and keeping right on going. It's amazing how much the girls are doing now!!