Leah's Funny Words

I posted a few of Colin's funny words that we have to translate and couldn't think of any that Leah has.  Well, we have a new one!  She has a cute little pink toy poodle that she calls her "noodle".  She also calls wasps "waffles".  Leah also can't say her "L's" or "R's" so when she wants something she "wee-ya-wee wee-ya-wee wants or yuvs it".  I love it.  It is so darn cute I will not be the one to correct them and I hope they don't outgrow these words anytime soon!

Favorite Words

So Colin has a couple words that are code for other words that I love hearing him say.

"waffles" = wasps
"han-i-tizer" = hand sanitizer <- catch="" i="" might="" on="" p="" really="" think="" this="">

Jesus Take the Wheel

Colin and I were playing with his trucks the other day.  He had three and asked me which one I wanted to play with.  To help with my decision, he said "Jesus is driving this one, Joseph is driving this one, and Spider Man is driving this one".  LOL.  I picked Jesus to drive for me! :)

Our Nanny

So Colin and Leah have the most wonderful, terrific, awesome nanny ever.  Her name is Naomi and we met her through a friend at church.  She started out just watching them one day a week and then 3 full days and one afternoon and now she is full time when they are not at their mother's day out preschool program which is two days a week.  They absolutely love her and she does them too.  She is like their big sister.  It's the sweetest thing ever.  She takes them to movies, splash pads, the mall playground, the zoo with other friends they know from church, all kinds of fun activities.  They used to be able to go with her to our church since she worked there two days a week buuuuut the rules changed and since they're not blood relatives they weren't able to go anymore so she quit lol.  She is just wonderful and we don't know what we'd do without her!

Terrific 3's

Well the 3's are definitely an awesome age.  They are just full of personality and this has been such a great year.  Leah is sweet and sassy.  That girl has att-i-tude!  I am so looking forward to the teenage years with her since we already argue about what she's going to wear out in public....no Leah we cannot wear a bathing suit everywhere ;).  Colin is my big helper.  He apparently takes the being oldest by 3 minutes thing very seriously because he is such the "big" brother.  He is a little bossy but more just in charge in general.  He is my right hand man when daddy is working late especially with our foster baby who is now 11 months old.  We are both potty trained.  Colin wears a pull up at night but that's it - yay!! 

We recently went to Disney World!!!  Oh my gosh that was so awesome!!  I can't wait to go back and the kids ask about it frequently.  Definitely needed more time to see everything but we had a great time while we were there and it was also nice to enjoy some beach time after Disney.  We bought a minivan (which I swore we'd never do) and took it on vacation and love it.  Like literally cannot imagine life without it now.  Crazy.  We were looking at it and talking about cargo space and automatic sliding doors...um when did we get so old?

We've managed to have a few nights for just mommy and daddy thanks to Meemaw and PaPa :).  Last weekend we went to a wedding for my friend, Tarrah, in Columbia.  As in Columbia, Missouri.  Yeah I was a little nauseous walking around all the black and gold and tiger paraphenalia all weekend.  The jayhawk in me wanted to run but the wedding was beautiful as was the bride.

Brad works a TON of hours so it's me and kiddos a lot.  It's amazing at 3 what big helpers they are already.  They are such good kids which leads me to prayer time.  I think bedtime is my favorite time and not just because they're getting ready to go to sleep.  They each get to pick a book that we read and then read some stories from their Children's Bible and then they each take turns saying prayers and we give hugs and kisses and then they go to sleep (well sometimes the last part about sleeping is delayed but that's always the plan at least).  They say the SWEETEST prayers.  Leah is always thankful for the beautiful flowers, sun, rainbows, and other items in nature.  She is also often thankful for the beautiful princesses, Mommy, Daddy, Colin, our foster baby (can't name names), and our new puppy Belle.  Colin is thankful for everyone as well and also thanks God for things like the new lock for our gate, his toys, the beautiful blueberries, the sun, and asks that everyone has a great night of sleep and a great day tomorrow.  Love love love bedtime prayer time at our house.

Cereal Princess

Leah would eat dry cereal for breakfast, lunch, and dinner if we would let her.  Literally it's all the girl wants to eat now.  It's not (always) the unhealthy stuff either.  She loves mini shredded wheats especially the strawberry ones.

The princess part comes in like this.  I believe this was my mom's doing but it's super cute.  When you ask Leah how to spell princess, she says "L-E-A-H".  Oh geez :).

What in the world?!

This is Colin's new favorite saying.  When we were at Disney World, Colin was laying in bed with me one night and I was rubbing his back before he went to sleep and this is our conversation:

Colin: "Mom, is that you?"
Me: "Yes, it's me sweetie."
Colin: "What in the world are you doing?"

Brad and I of course busted out laughing so needless to say sleep time was postponed...


My mom got a new car and brought it over yesterday and when she took Colin and Leah outside to go for a ride, Colin once again asked "what in the world?!"  That kid cracks me up.

Sleep talking

Naomi, our nanny, just texted me and said Leah fell asleep on their way to the zoo and when she sort of woke up out of nowhere she said "I don't poop in my pants".  Well no you haven't done that for a long time!  LOL.

Best Friends

Night before last Colin sat down by Leah on their little couch while Leah was doing her breathing treatment.  He said "Leah, I'm your best friend" and she just replied with a simple "yeah".

It was SO precious.  I love little moments like that.  Hearing them say they're friends and love each other and give hugs and want to sit together when one is in time out or hear them talking after they've gone to bed are just a few of the many many things I love about having twins.

Ladies Man

Our nanny, Naomi, aka "Naomeet" aka "Nomi", took the kids to the playground at the mall last Friday and said some girls got in the little stationary car next to Colin's and smiled at him.  He turned his head and slumped down in his car.  Smoooth...Eyes for mommy only though which is fine with me :).

3 Years

This is only 2 months late but better late than never :).  So here are a few things about my growing kiddos I want to jot down before I forget!

Colin -
You are such a rough and tumbly little boy but have the softest heart at the same time.  You can wrestle and fight with your sister but no one else can touch her as was evidenced by a little event at preschool.  We always ask how your day was and what you learned and you told us that you pushed a boy that had pushed Leah.  While I had to refrain from telling you "great job" and making it seem okay to push, it was one of my proudest moments to hear of you standing up for your sister (who is about 10 pounds smaller than you at this point).  You are so tender with our foster baby boy and tell us often he's "your baby" or "your friend".  You are such a good daddy to him and your babies.  You have quite a sense of humor and say the funniest things.  I will have to do a better job of writing them down because you really do crack us up pretty much all the time.  You love to do anything with your daddy especially if it involves going out in the garage or going outside.  You and Leah helped him carry in firewood for a good half hour from his truck to the back patio last winter.  You are very tall for your age and talk like a 6 year old.  We joke that you're 3 going on 13.  You are very independent and want to prove you can do anything yourself.  You're proficient at getting dressed, putting your shoes and socks on, getting things out of the pantry or refrigerator, and love to "read" books to us and to Leah.  Your favorite book is "Pete the Cat" which you have memorized along with several other books.  You love to sing and play your guitar.  You and Leah love to put on "The Castle" skits that you learn at church.  You are our funny little man and I can't imagine life without you.

Leah -
You are our little princess.  You are a girly girl and love to dress up and wear anything with ruffles.  Your favorite color is pink, followed closely by purple.  You love sparkles and jewelry and shoes.  We often go round and round about what you are going to wear out because you don't understand why I don't agree with some of your interesting combinations of clothes, shoes, and accessories.  You love your black patent "tapping" shoes you wore at Christmas and want to wear them most of the time.  You love Minnie Mouse and Dora.  You will be one tough girl with all the wrestling you and Colin do.  You are very independent and perfectly happy sitting down by yourself to look at a book or play on your leap pad 2.  You also love to play outside and love animals.  You got "The Little Mermaid" for Christmas which is your favorite movie (mommy's too).  You were fascinated when I could sing along to all of the songs.  I am treasuring this as I know someday it will take a lot more to impress you!  You are my shopping buddy and night owl.  You are almost always awake after Colin goes to sleep.  You are very quiet though and sometimes I come out to find you have snuck out of bed to read a book in the living room.  We rarely have to get onto you and when we do you're very sensitive and hate to get in trouble.  You are very stubborn though and hold a grudge.  I have no idea where you get that from ;).  You love to sing and play the keyboard and love to put on skits with Colin of "The Castle" that you have seen at church.  You are our precious princess and I can't imagine life without you.


You both are so cute when we pray before bed.  There are always random prayers - for the milkman (daddy brought milk one day but you didn't see him), your toys, the neighbors' dogs, and random people will pop in your heads.  It's so sweet and I love that you thank God for so many different things!

What's that sound?

This is now Colin's favorite question.  Anytime he hears any sound (even one he knows) he asks "what's that sound?".  I guess living in Oklahoma he has developed a little bit of a southern accent or maybe it's just the way it sounds as his speech develops but whatever it is, it is HILARIOUS! 

A few other favorite sayings of his:

-" I don't laaaack it" (I don't like it).  This one really brings out the southern drawl.

- "No, I full."  He says this anytime he doesn't want something whether or not he's really full.

- "Open door."  This could be a door, a ziploc baggie, a bag....anything that needs opened is a "door".

Colin is definitely a talker and can put together 4-5 word sentences now and string a few together for full thoughts.  He tells us exactly what he's thinking and doing all the time which can be pretty funny!

Some of Leah's funny sayings:

"Neckwass." (necklace).  Yes, it's simple but we hear it all the time.  The girl loves to accessorize.  We seriously have to have multiple necklaces, bracelets, and bows on at all times.  She knows we take them off before bed but that's about the only time she isn't wearing her jewelry.

"Bear poop".  Since we are potty training, her small care bear also is potty training so when she goes poop the bear has to go poop after she's done.

"Raff".  This is what she calls Raffi.  My parents bought them a cd and dvd of Raffi, who I loved as a kid.  It's so funny the memories it brings back listening to Raffi....and singing along :).

"Bow shoes".  Oh the bow shoes.  They are red mary jane shoes with a red with white polka dots bow that I bought to go with her Minnie Mouse outfit for her birthday.  We now have to wear them ALL THE TIME.  I draw the line when we go to church and do put her in matching shoes and I will admit I do hide them sometimes just so we can wear matching shoes when we run errands.

Some recent pics of our crazy kids!

Our trip to the zoo last weekend.  I think we had more fun on the playground than we did seeing the animals! :-)

Potty Training

We have been potty training the last few weeks.  It's mainly been Leah as Colin is not quite there yet as far as bladder control and understanding the concept goes.  I've heard it takes longer with boys though and I'm not pushing it on him.  Leah started holding it at naptime and bedtime so we started putting her on her duck potty right when she woke up in the mornings and after naptime and she did great so we started taking her every 30 minutes.  She's been doing GREAT!!!  Seriously the kid is a potty training machine.  We went to KC and had to stop at pretty much every bathroom on 71South and I-44 between here and KC but she went dangling above gas station toilets as I held her.  She still has the occasional accident and doesn't tell us yet when she needs to go but she will hold it and go in the potty so we're definitely excited about that.

It's so sweet because Colin cheers for her when she goes and is so supportive.  I was afraid he would feel bad but doesn't seem to be bothered and is just very excited for "sissy".  Speaking of cheering, since we cheer for Leah when she goes, she now cheers for me if she's in the bathroom with me.  It's definitely hilarious to hear her say "yay mommy - you potty!".

Fostering

We have started the process of becoming foster parents and are both nervous and excited about expanding our family.  It's something we feel like God has placed on our hearts and that He is leading us in this direction so we're following.  We are at the very beginning of the process and have just had our first home visit (which we passed woo hoo!).  We have to go get finger printed and await the results which take 6-8 weeks, take 27 hours of training, and have a minimum of 3 additional home visits.  We are only going to foster ages 2 or younger.  It is so funny because we totally thought we were done having children and that our family was complete so we gave away and sold through garage sales most of our baby gear so we'll be starting from scratch when we had both boy and girl stuff covered :-).

I know it will be hard which is what most people say when we tell them but if it's hard on us that's ok because our hope is that we can make it easier on a child.  After having Colin and Leah it absolutely breaks my heart to think that there are children out there without homes living in shelters because there are not enough foster homes.

Excited to see what God has in store for us.  Every time I start to doubt our decision, something happens to make me remember why we're doing it.  I know it's going to be tough but definitely praying for strength from God and looking forward to expanding our family even if it is temporarily.  We defintiely love kids so the more the merrier!

Sweet Stories

I've been terrible about blogging but there are two stories about my sweet kids that I want to make sure I write down and never forget.  They are just so precious.


Leah's Story
It's been a few months now but Leah was watching "Mack My", which means Mickey Mouse (they started calling him this when they first started talking and she still refers to him as this which I think is adorable).  Anyway, in the episode Pluto was sad because Clara Bell got a new puppy and Mickey was paying all of his attention to the new pup so Pluto walked out of the clubhouse with his tail between his legs sad.  Leah runs over to me saying "uh oh, uh oh, uh oh".  I have no idea what's wrong and then she starts say Pluto and starts crying.  It was so sweet and so precious because she was being so empathetic to Pluto's feelings and saw that he was sad.  Such a sweetheart.  I picked her up and told her Pluto was okay and comforted her and then sure enough Pluto was happy again by the end of the show and so was she :).

Colin's Story
This one I was not present for but my told me that yesterday they were watching Toy Story 1 which is their new favorite movie and the part where Buzz realizes he's a toy was going on and Colin said "Buzz sad?" to my mom.  Well I guess she explained to him that Buzz was sad but it was okay and that he found out he was a toy etc in the best way to explain to a 2 year old.  Anyway, Colin got down off of her lap and ran to get his "night night" which is his blanket and his most favorite "lovey".  Then he proceeded to try to give it to Buzz on the tv saying Buzz needs night night.  So precious!


I absolutely love that they have such sweet hearts and are so compassionate at such a young age.

Another cute thing since I'm catching up.  After we lay them down at night now, Leah more times than not is crawling into Colin's bed and falls asleep in there with him.  It's so adorable.  Night before last they both got their pillows and blankets and laid down on the floor together and had a little campout in their room.  Now they can definitely get into little scuffles but it's precious how much they love each other :).

1 Year Pictures

A few pics from our 1 year photo session.  We went with a grey and yellow theme for family pics :).

Big smiles for the birthday girl!

 His model pose

 Such a precious lil girl

 Our sweet boy

 These ABC blankets were actually my baby blanket that my mom cut in half and sewed new batting on - light pink for Leah and light blue for Colin.  I love love love them and so do the twins.  Made with love twice!



Been a long time...

Wow, so it's been 2 months since I last posted anything.  Crazy how time flies...Well, made it through the blizzard of 2011 in Tulsa.  Brad and I were home for 4 days.  I was able to work, he went in for like a few hours on Friday and Saturday but the roads were pretty much impassible for 3 days and still bad that 4th day.  Tulsa does not see weather like this...at least not until we moved here.  Since we moved 2 years ago, we've had 2 blizzards and each year I have wished for snow because I LOVE the snow and knew that would be one thing I would miss from KC.  Well, God sure listened when I prayed for snow and we ended up with 2 blizzards :).  I didn't mind it at all though because I got to work from home and stay in with the family for almost a week and you just can't beat that.

The kiddos have been through a bout of sicknesses.  Colin had strep which was awful for him.  Leah was just finishing antibiotics from an ear infection so thankfully she did not get it from him.  We went to KC and they caught an upper respiratory virus that we've been battling for two weeks now.  We've had to do breathing treatments for Leah for a week and Colin was just a few days.  Colin's pretty much over it but Leah's still fighting her cough and congestion, poor girl.

Had a blast in KC as always.  It had been since last fall since we'd been there so it was really great to see everyone again and visit our old church.  It's crazy how much things change but still stay the same.  Picked right up where we left off with best friends and had a really great time.  We both took off Friday and came down Thursday night which was great.  Brad definitely misses it up there a lot and I do too but not as much since I love being down here with my mom and family.  We are definitely going to have to make more trips up now that it's nice out, no more blizzards to worry about, holidays and the twins' 1st birthday are over, etc.  Colin and Leah actually did great on the trip too.  Made it in 4 1/2 hours on the way back with the twins napping most of the time and only stopping twice.

So updates on the kiddos...they are both talking a lot more especially Colin.  He also knows when he's doing something he shouldn't be (like climb on the back of the couch and stand up...yeah he's all boy) and says "no no no no" letting you know that he knows I guess!  Leah is talking too and just getting so big.  They like to say dog/gog, out, uck, num num, yes, no, hi, and bye.  It's so much fun with them talking and trying to communicate.  I'm absolutely loving it and am so excited for them to learn more!

That's my pink pony, Colin!

With Kansas Grandma Patti and Logan

Love wearing Daddy's hat

They both love to put the shaped blocks in the bucket and are doing great getting them in the right slots!

Seriously a lot of snow.  We had plenty of food, no loss of power, and didn't have to go anywhere so I was loving it :).

Came home last week to everyone taking a nap.  So cute!

Colin & Leah's 1st Birthday - The Twins Winter ONEderland!!!!!

Well after months of planning (literally I started jotting down ideas and looking online right after Halloween), Colin and Leah's first birthday was definitely a HUGE success :).  There was lots of eye rolling by my adorable husband at my obsessive compulsiveness over the streamer wall and, well, every other little detail but he did admit today, after their party, that he was glad we did everything we did and that it turned out pretty awesome.

We went with a "Winter ONEderland" theme which was awesome for all the after Christmas sales.  We also made their birthday banner which I decided we were doing after looking on Etsy and then finding a how-to on making them.

We made it with 8 inch letters and the ones on Etsy with 5" letters for this banner were like $50.  I definitely did not spend that making ours and it was fun to pick out the backgrounds for the letters.  Yes, I'm kind of a control freak especially about minor details such as the giant birthday banner ;).

We also had a hot chocolate bar with "melted snow" (white hot chocolate), peppermint chips, mini chocolate chips, marshmallow, and whipped cream garnishes, "snowballs" (cake balls), and "icebergs" (oreo balls).

Oh the infamous streamer wall.  My plan was to make the wall behind the twins' highchairs filled with streamers for the background of their smash cake session.  After 3 hours, 2 rolls of tape, and 10 rolls of streamers, we pretty much had it.  Brad asked me if I was done beating the dead horse at 10:00pm the night before their party as I'm continuing to tape up streamers, but I was pretty darned happy with how it turned out.

Colin & Leah before their smash cake session. This was the only pic of them both smiling with their party hats on! My sister, Bridget, snapped it just in time!

The twins had a blast opening presents although Colin tried to escape the living room altogether a few times :)

 The grand finale....the cake smash session!!!  Their cakes were so beautiful (thank you Merritt's!) and I just loved their little smash cakes.  They of course had such a great time diving in.  Leah actually stuck her face down in the cake at one point and was also trying to sniff it, like up her nose.  Colin somehow made an icing beard on his face and looked like a baby Santa which was too cute.

Such pretty cakes I actually didn't want to cut their big cake hehe :)

The icing beard...

I love my birthday cake!

Definitely have to say a big THANK YOU to Brad of course for putting up with my craziness over having the perfect 1st birthday party for them and staying up late and getting up early with me to finish everything.  Also, to my mom who made the adorable treat bags (all 30 of them), helped decorate, and got up early to do all of the running we had to do the morning of their party.  Thank you to my sister, Bridget, who helped the morning of the party watching the twins, sewed my dress up (how did I not notice that spot that was torn when I tried it on?), ran to get ice for us, took all of the pictures, and was my right hand gal during the party :).  Last, but not least, thanks to my Aunt Peggy who also helped to decorate the house and treat bags, and serve the beautiful birthday cake so we could watch our babies eat their smash cakes.  THANK YOU and LOVE you all SO MUCH!

 HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY COLIN & LEAH!!!!  Your dad and I love you so much and agree this has been the best year of our lives!

Christmas

Christmas was a blast this year.  With the twins being old enough to actually kind of open presents and play with toys, it was such a fun time.  We did, unfortunately, have a few...."incidents" of sorts. 

Christmas Eve Eve, Brad was holding Leah on the fireplace and she decided to pull at the stockings and pulled a stocking hanger right on her little noggin.  At first we weren't sure if it hit her or not because of the delayed reaction but the tears came and so did a giant bump.  I was freaking out a little, okay a lot actually, and decided we would all make a trip to the pediatric urgent care.  After we got there, Colin peed out of the leg of his diaper and all over high pj's which they were already in.  Guess what?  Yeah no boy change of clothes.  We had one pair of pink leggings and a pair of purple socks.  So our little guy was in pink leggings, purple socks, and a blue and brown striped fleece jacket.  Let me tell you, he rocked those leggings ;).  Leah was fine and the bump was actually about half its size once we got to the urgent care and she acted as though nothing was wrong.  They basically said she was fine and to just keep an eye on her over the next 48 hours.

Christmas Eve we were at my parents' house and it was getting kind of late and about time to head home.  Just as I was going over to get Colin he fell into a low window sill...and bled and bled and bled.  Okay I was pretty freaked out over Leah's bump but seeing this much blood come out of my little baby boy, I was mega freaking out.  I seriously cannot believe that much blood can come out of one mouth.  Once we saw it was from a one big gash on the inside of his lip and 3 small ones from his teeth, we called the urgent cares which were closed and the ER to find out if they'd stitch it.  Thank goodness for my dad, the voice of reason, during all of this who suggested we call first because he did not believe they would stitch the inside of his mouth.  Well, he was right.  The ER called our pediatrician's husband (they own the practice together) and he said if it was the inside, no stitches, but if it had gone through they would.  So our poor baby has scar tissue and a small bump on his lip :-(.  This is one cautious mama around window sills now.

Christmas itself was great. The twins loved opening presents and Brad and I had a blast watching them. This was actually the first year too that I wasn't really sad the day after Christmas. I absolutely LOVE Christmastime so usually I'm a little bummed when it's all over and kind of wean myself off of the Christmas music but this year I was so excited for the twins' first birthday that I really didn't mind it being over.

Looking at Grandma's Dancing Rudolph and the Island of Misfit Toys

What are these things doing?

My goofy kiddos on Christmas Eve (pre-lip injury)

Christmas Day - We loooove our new Disney sofas!

It's the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse sofa!

Dad with the kiddos

11 Months and Leah's First Steps

Well, we knew it wouldn't be long until Leah took her first steps too as she was right behind Colin on crawling and was getting more and more brave about not holding onto things.  She took one step and then two but then realized she could just fall forward if our arms were out without taking any steps and mommy or daddy would catch her.  This became a funny game so no more walking yesterday which was also their 11 month birthday.

It is crazy to think about how much time has passed.  I can't believe they'll be 1 year old in just one short month.  They are getting so big!  Time definitely flies by especially once you have kids!