Dada

Standing at the window saying his only word he knows, "dada, dada, dada, dada..."  I'm so proud he loves his Dada!  I say, "Mama", and he replies, "Dada".  Makes me smile every single time.  Love all my boys!

10 months and counting... just gets busier and more fun!

The boys keep growing closer and playing together more and more each day.  The grin they share when then first wake up and see each other is priceless.  I can't wait to see what is coming up in this next month!

 

I just love their tiny feet... bare or in their little shoes.

 

Space is beginning to be fought over... and objects... and Daddy when he gets home from work!

 

He grabbed his back roll!

Benjamin was sitting so well until he leaned forward just a tad too much and took a spill. Sweet thing cried but not for long! He's so tough!

Abraham still is our emotional little guy. I love each and every tear!

 

We call him "hammers"... (AbraHAM), and he can be such a ham! Ken and I both did this nose scrunch as babies.

Benjamin fell off his chair and bonked his head on this hard tile floor. Mommy mistake but he was so tough and was back playing in no time!

He has been standing quite a bit the last week and I got to capture about a five second "stand"! Walking in no time!

Quality control!

‎"See my block, momma?"

Space fight again...

Sweet Tubba Love you!!

 

Oh hammers! I love you!

Chewing on our wood furniture is a big hit at this time in their lives... we don't mind. We actually smile when we see their little chomp marks!

I can remember when he just laid under this and couldn't even grab the toys!

 

...and Hammers used to sit in here and spin the red mirror over and over with his little pointer finger.

 

Sorry it's leopard... they don't mind right now but they probably will when they're older!

LOVE to all!

Mandy

New Year...

I'm tired.  What a busy year.  From pregnancy to having these beautiful twin boys, businesses growing and changing and adding/moving locations, adding a second home in Fort Worth to travel to and from, (with boys in tow, including our Palmer)... packing and unpacking, packing and unpacking, packing and unpacking,  buying and re-buying thousands of diapers and hundreds of formula cans, kissing tiny noses a million times, soothing two million cries, feeding hundreds of Mum Mum snacks, looking under the bed for passies, changing crib sheets-- (COULD SOMEONE PLEASE INVENT SOMETHING THAT MAKES THAT EASIER AND IS ACTUALLY SOFT NOT CRUNCHY SNAP ON SHEETS?! ESPECIALLY FOR ROUND CRIBS!), TRYING to take a nap a thousand times without success, getting to nap twenty times, riding ON the console in the back seat of the car for hours while traveling and making funny faces to entertain our precious boys, taking thousands of pictures, forgetting a million things including my lists of things not to forget, smiling at tiny teeth marks in our wood furniture, kissing my hubs a couple million times... laughing five millions times,thanking the LORD and depending on Him each minute of each day to help me handle all these things... whew, what a busy year.  It was filled with blessings, faith, fun, hope, thankfulness, appreciation, challenges, success, new loves, joy, changes, forgiveness, but most of all, love; love for all these things and each day and each person we got to spend it with.  Sometimes I am not able to show my feelings as well as I wish, or say things the way I really mean, they often get stuck inside or misinterpreted, but hopefully as the time passes I get better and better about this.  Writing this blog is such a fun things for me to get to do and I am hoping for more time to do it... but not counting on it.  :)

There is only one picture with this blog, which I robbed from my sis-in-law's Facebook page, because even though it was on my list, I forgot to pack my camera battery and card reader so all my Christmas pictures are stuck on a tiny piece of plastic in my camera at the moment.  We will head back to FW soon but for now are enjoying this country time with the trees and silence and space.  We are thankful to have the opportunity to have it.

I wish a wonderful new year for each of you and may your  biggest dreams come to pass!  "Divine order", (term from Oprah-- I  know, I know, but I think she IS a very wise woman) happens each second of each day and if we look for the signs of what and where we are to be our Lord is showing it to us each step of the way.  Listen to the tiny voice that is sometimes disguised as your own, as it most likely is His.  Ecclisiastes 3:1-15, "¹ Everything that happens in this world happens at the time God chooses.

 ² He sets the time for birth and the time for death,
   the time for planting and the time for pulling up,
 ³ the time for killing and the time for healing,
   the time for tearing down and the time for building.
 ⁴ He sets the time for sorrow and the time for joy,
   the time for mourning and the time for dancing,
 ⁵ the time for making love and the time for not making love,
   the time for kissing and the time for not kissing.
 ⁶ He sets the time for finding and the time for losing,
   the time for saving and the time for throwing away,
 ⁷ the time for tearing and the time for mending,
   the time for silence and the time for talk.
 ⁸ He sets the time for love and the time for hate,
   the time for war and the time for peace.
 ⁹ What do we gain from all our work?¹⁰ I know the heavy burdens that God has laid on us.¹¹ He has set the right time for everything. He has given us a desire to know the future, but never gives us the satisfaction of fully understanding what he does.¹² So I realized that all we can do is be happy and do the best we can while we are still alive.¹³ All of us should eat and drink and enjoy what we have worked for. It is God's gift.
 ¹⁴ I know that everything God does will last forever. You can't add anything to it or take anything away from it. And one thing God does is to make us stand in awe of him.¹⁵ Whatever happens or can happen has already happened before..."

Here's to a new year and all that it has to offer... and to time!  (and to more babies!)

Love to all,
Mandy!

Too many things to be thankful for!

Merry Christmas everyone!  Enjoy this special time of the year!

 

Month 9... and the love, (and entertainment), still grows!

A little nine month old Santa and Rudolph came to play on this nine month birthday!  Wow, nine whole months have whizzed by!  The fun we have each day is limitless and we are cherishing each moment... even the challenging ones that involve dog food and repetitively going back to things we have said "no" to.  They are getting more independent and we are proud of that.  We encourage them to do and explore anything they want and if they fall and bump their heads maybe they won't try it that exact same way again but explore a different way of going about it.  Benjamin is in twelve month clothes now and Abe is still hanging on to some six month but a lot of nine month ones.  I think we have a great pair containing a full-back and a receiver.  Love them so much and still look into their eyes or watch them sleeping and stare in awe that they are ours- each their own person but more-so God has granted them to us to raise and love on.  We are so blessed! 

 Love love love that belly!  That's from a ton of Banana Nut Cheerios, a favorite of his!

 Benjamin has a matching big belly to Abraham's from all his yogurt he loves!

 Rudolph was in the back getting handfuls of dirt out of our tree and throwing it on the floor.

 

Busted! I tell them all the time they are lucky they are so cute with all their rolls and fat cheeks or they'd get in A LOT more trouble! 

 This little nine month old Santa has a bag of tricks! This is his signature move, gravity defying!

 

 Their curiosity is at it's highest these days!

Crawling, mastered (Abe is still a little shy of "mastered" but getting better everyday)

Pulling up, mastered

Tasting dog food, mastered

Tasting Palmer's dog litter, mastered (this was a repulsive moment-yuck!)

Throwing a fit because we took a toy away, definitely mastered

Giving us hugs, mastered

Communicating with us, better

Four teeth, mastered
Abraham's stranger-danger anxiety, better

Lay down for naps while awake and putting selves to sleep, mastered most days

... and many many more accomplished and in the works still!

Love to all, and many blessings to everyone this Christmas!

M

Walking, oh walking... we'll see what happens in this month!