Frustration

Today, the kids have pushed my buttons. Sometimes I think about how incredibly frustrating and infuriating it is when they don't listen, don't obey, throw fits, and are down right defiant. I mean, the things that I am telling them NOT to do, or am asking them TO do are for their good and their benefit.

And then a little voice reminds me that HE deals with my defiance and rebellion and refusal to obey when He obviously always has my good in mind. And He's always patient with me.

So...I guess I can be patient with them.

Plus, they're two and I'm nearly thirty...so what's my excuse?

Feet Smell Gooooooood!

The other night we we'd finished bathing the kids, and we were all being silly. Sometimes we'll smell their feet and tell them how stinky they are. But since they were clean, we were saying that they smell "goo-oo-oo-ood!" Alec thought that was hilarious. But then sometimes we'd say, "uh, this one is not so good" and he'd get sort of offended and well...here's a video. :-)

Caterpillar Sprinkler

One of the gifts that the kids received for their 2nd birthday was a caterpillar sprinkler. The arms/legs and antennae squirt water around. It was finally hot enough on a weekend for us to use for the first time. At first, Alec and Emma didn't know what the heck it was or why it was spraying cold water at them...but when Daddy and I started running through the water with them, they started to warm up to it. We ALL had so much fun. Here are a few pictures.

It's a Castle

I found some MegaBloks at the associate store a few weekends ago. For those of you who have no idea what that is: it's a store for Walmart employees and spouses only, that has overstocks and sample items. And things are usually marked down to half off. I've been wanting to buy the kids some MegaBloks for a while, but really didn't want to pay $20 for them. So, when I was able to get them for $10 at the asst. store, I was stoked. The kids have not stopped playing with them since I brought them home. They love to build towers and castles and robots (Josh and Daddy taught them how to do that. All I can really do is stack.) Anyways, here's Emma with one of her masterpieces. She topped it off with a toy snake and a birthday noisemaker. Nice.

A Nice Surprise!

Emma just peepeed on the big girl potty! BIG happy dance!

It's just the beginning, but we're stoked!

STEAMROLLER!

This post is kindof dedicated to Titi V. Apparently, I used to steamroll her a lot when we'd spend the night together in jr. high, high school, and maybe even college. For those of you who are not familiar with the steamroller, it's when you roll yourself over another person's body. It's a great way to wake someone up! Anyways, we've had a lot of dreary, rainy days here...and at times I've been at a loss as to how to keep my kids entertained (since we haven't been getting to the park so often.) So, I pull the mattress out of Emma's crib sometimes and lay it on the floor and let them jump. No, it's probably not the safest thing in the world, but I play lifeguard. The other day, I taught them how to steamroll. They don't roll over anyone...just across the mattress and into a pile of blankets and pillows yelling "steamroller!" Here's a video for you V.

Bows, Bows, Bows

This weekend, Emma asked Daddy to put all of the bows and clips that we own in her hair. She does this from time to time, and then asks us to hold her up to the mirror to look at herself. Very cute. Here is Emma completely covered in bows.

ABC's

I got this video on Mother's Day. Emma was singing through her ABC's over and over again. I wanted to try to get the whole song. She decided that she would sing it, but that she'd keep one hand on her face squeezing her cheeks part of the way through. You can hear Alec giggling in the background because of her funny face.

We tried to get Alec to sing it too...but he didn't get all the way through. Emma is better at singing the song. Alec is better at identifying letters that you show him. The last time we went through the alphabet book, he only missed about 5 letters. Emma is pretty accurate...but sometimes, she'll just look at a letter and say the first letter that pops into her mind.

Mother's Day

Sunday, I celebrated my 3rd Mother's Day. Aaron and the kids gave me some beautiful cards, a gorgeous bouquet of flowers, and a package of 3 massages at Massage Envy (which I am so super pumped about!) I had a fantastic day with my family that included church, Chinese food, and relaxing at home.

I do wish that we could have been with our mothers, though. The older that I get and the longer I walk through motherhood, the more I recognize, appreciate, and am awestruck by the realization of all that our mothers have sown into our lives. There are many things that are touch and go as a new mom, and instinct does kick in often...but how would we ever know how integral and influencial we are unless we remember how much the love, patience, kindness, teaching and correction of our own mothers was to us? Aaron and I have both been blessed with fabulous moms. They are some of the most selfless people that I know. They know how to love, how to be a friend, and how to pray!

As I navigate my own road as Mommy, I am completely filled with gratitude every day, because there was a time that we didn't know if we'd even be able to have babies. Things that don't come easily, that come only through perseverance, prayer, and faith...are the things we treaure the most. I am baffled by the love that I have for my children, and moved beyond comprehension at the love that they show me. Parenting isn't easy. It can be downright messy, frustrating, and push one to the absolute limits of their patience and sanity. But as my mother always says, "It's the toughest job you'll ever love!" And I do love it. I take the responsibility to love and raise my babies (er...toddlers) very seriously. Nothing that I have accomplished in this life has ever come close to bringing me the same joy.

Happy Mother's Day to my mom, to Wanda, to our grandmas and all of my wonderful friends who share this amazing role with me!

Race for the Cure

I keep forgetting to post this. I borrowed this pic from my friend Carey's blog. It's me (looking like Forest Gump) running the non-competitive 5K. My time was something like 33mins. I'm not a speed runner, obviously! Anyways, I went out in the cold rain to run. Met up with my fellow twin mom, Carey. We pretty much rocked the 5K. :-)

Our family participates in RFTC every year because it is a cause close to our hearts. We know many breast cancer survivors. Aaron's mom is a survivor. And his grandmother is too. We are incredibly grateful that they are still with us and healthy today! Don't neglect your monthly checks, ladies!

Oklahoma City Zoo

The first weekend in May, we went to Norman/OKC. We needed to be there that weekend for our friend Kyle's wedding on Sunday. And since my mom and I have been talking about getting together in the city for a zoo day, this seemed like the perfect weekend to do it! Friday night, we drove in and met my parents and Kylie in the city. We took them to dinner at Abuelo's and all enjoyed a fantastic meal. We all got a kick out of watching Alec eat his weight in chips and salsa (seriously, he has to have his own bowl of salsa...and he will eat it all)! And Emma did about the same with the cheese dip and chicken fajita meat. A nice waitress brought the kids some balloons, which basically made their night! After that, I dropped Aaron off to play lazer tag with Kyle and some friends (kind of a bachelor thing)...and took the kids to bed at the Lee's house. The next morning we met my family again at the zoo. It was chilly and rainy, but it ended up being perfect weather later when it cleared up because it wasn't HOT! We did a lot of walking and saw a lot of animals. The kids all had fun, and so did we. We didn't get as many pics as I would have liked, but I'm posting a few that we did get.

Sunday, we went to the wedding at the train depot in Norman. It was a Native American ceremony. I'm sure it was lovely, but my kids wanted to run around a make noise...so we ended up walking around with them away from the ceremony so as not to be disturbing. I ended up taking them back to the car to watch a movie until it was cupcake time. By then, they were fine.
Congratulations, Kyle and Whitney!

Then we got to drive home. (oh the joys of road trips with 2- 2 yr olds)

Outside the giraffes

Man, they're big!

giraffes and zebras

Kylie and Emma (Alec was asleep)

lioness

Me and Emma at the lions.

This is Alec chillin' with Dave. I can't get this picture to move, so...we're a little out of order.

sea lion

orangutan

Drummers!

Alec and Emma love to drum. I have to say that Alec is more into it than Emma, but they both love to bang on things. They must have gotten it from their PaPa Jeff, who used to be a drummer. I feel like they are pretty good at recognizing tempo, rhythm, and dynamics in music. In fact, a few weeks ago, when we all went to church early because Aaron and I were leading worship that Sunday...Alec managed to make his way up to the drumset on the platform and started drumming. I walked into the sanctuary, having just dropped Emma in the nursery, not knowing that he was up there with Aaron, and assumed that Liz was warming up. I couldn't believe it when I saw my son at the drums! He actually sounded GOOD. And that's not just delusional mother talk! Pretty much everyone on the team was like "um...he's actually good!" They also love to play on the piano in the gym (I don't let them near the baby grand). So, I'm thinking that some music lessons are definitely in our future!

Anyways, they love to drum to Matt and Kim. This particular day, I set up a "full drum set" for them. I set out some tupperware, the pans and lids, a bucket and laundry basket turned upside down, and maybe some tambourines. I gave them their stools and some wooden spoons for sticks. They went to town!

Playing Catch Up

For some reason I have not been as diligent about posting to the blog lately. We've had a busy few weeks. The weather has been warm and nice, so I've been taking the kids out a lot to run errands and we've gone to the park pretty much everyday. They are BIG fans of feeding the ducks! And our evenings and weekends have been full as well. I'm going to try to catch everyone up on what's been going on. I'm just going through pictures to see what I should tell you about. Here are some pictures of Emma in pigtails. This is noteworthy because she is not really a big fan of letting me do her hair. She has gorgeous ringlets that don't really need styling...but it's getting long enough that I can do a variety of cute things with it (if she'll comply). Usually, she won't! She does like bows. She'll let me clip bows in her hair any day. But if I want to use a ponytail holder, that's the brakes! Anyways, this particular day, I managed to get some pigtails in her hair. I took pictures because I knew she'd scream for me to pull them out before too long. Just Emma...nakey with a diaper, a scarf, and pigtails. :-) Oh...and I threw in one of Alec cheesing out because it's just too cute!