sweet little Lilly...

I was rocking with my Lilly the other night (yes I still rock with them and love it!) holding her tiny hand and kissing her head while I said prayers for her. I can't imagine her little sweet hand not being that tiny forever. I wanted to freeze time and have her stay my little girl forever and not get any bigger. Everyone told me it would go fast and I knew it would, but I guess it didn't hit me until this night. There is so much I want for her and sometimes it can be overwhelming to be a parent. I constantly wonder if I am being a Godly mother to her. I pray that God prepares her even now for what He has in store for her. I want her to stay little so I can always hold her and protect her. Lilly I love being your mommy more then you will ever know. I pray that you live your life passionately and that you love Jesus. Always know that you are beautiful inside and out.

Never a dull moment...

After getting back home from Florida and being away from the babies for almost a week, my sweet boy stuck his tongue out at me! How do they learn these things? It has become his favorite thing to do when seeing people now. The first few times it was funny, but now it has to stop! He also developed a new fear of the washing machine...It seems like I do laundry all day long and he has never mentioned the sound the washing machine makes. Now all of the sudden he is terrified of it. I have had to pick him up and open the lid and show him what it's doing. I told him that it's giving all our clothes a bath to get them clean just like mommy gives him a bath. So now when he hears it and asks what the noise is, I tell him mommy is doing laundry and his reply is "I'm scared of laundry" and I say, mommy is too honey! Crazy boy!

Growing like weeds....or maybe blooming like flowers!

Lilly and Asher LOVE outside! As most kids do I'm sure. Lately our days have consisted of playing in the yard, blowing bubbles, picking flowers (or dandelions, whatever Lilly can get her hands on) and eating popsicles. Soon we will get out the little pool and I'm sure we will never be able to get them back in the house again! They will be two and a half in July and it's so hard to believe. We still have a few goals to tackle this summer, although they are paci free which is very exciting for me and Brad! No more searching the whole house for paci's when it's nap time and bedtime. No more making sure we have them when we leave the house or hearing Lilly ask for hers a thousand times a day! aahhhhhh.....relief! I still find one here and there around the house and pounce on it before they have a chance to see it. It really wasn't a bad process and Lilly only asked for it a few times after the first night and Asher didn't seem to mind at all. We still have potty training to go but I am in no hurry! I probably should be a bit more concerned about it, but from what I have read 2 and a half to 3 is an ok age to start. I also read not to start before you think they are ready and once you start them in undies to never go back to diapers because it will only take longer. So, we mention it to them every once in a while and have the potty chair in the bathroom. They sit on it when they want but have never left us a surprise yet! Another thing I am waiting on is toddler beds! It's cribs for these two until they can get out of them! I have been lucky in the fact that neither of them have tried to climb out of their crib....yet! I seriously can't imagine switching to toddler beds yet because there is no way Lilly and Asher will stay in them! Anything to get out of going to bed, so that will come in time as well. For now I am enjoying being their mommy and taking lots of pictures of my two beauties! Here are the latest...

First trip to the Indy childrens' museum...

We wanted to go to the children's museum while Brad's parents were here but quickly ran out of time on Saturday with all the Easter fun. Since Brad had a busy week/weekend at church he decided to take Monday off and we took the babies then. We had heard that it was great and lots of fun, but wow, we had no idea! First of all, it's huge and took us the whole day to explore everything. The babies actually did pretty good for having to walk so much and skip their nap. I think both of their favorite things to see were the dinosaurs. Although Asher was scared and wanted held while we walked thru he can't stop talking about them still! Lilly was a little more adventurous and actually asked to touch one! I think mommy and daddy had just as much fun as the babies did, just being able to watch them explore and experience something new and see how excited they were was amazing. They also loved the toddler area with the water and sand area. It was hard to get Asher out of there, that was his first meltdown of the day. The second would be when he had to get out of the race car for the other kids to waiting in line to get in. We walked away carrying a screaming boy saying "my race car, my race car!" The Backyardigans were also there that day and as soon as we saw them Lilly said "I want to say hi to them"! So we waited in line with two little excited babies to meet them Backyardigans and you will see the picture we waited in line to get! As soon as it was our turn Lilly decided she was scared of them and cried. It was a perfect day (an expensive day, but perfect!) Next time grandma and papa are here we will for sure make time to go again because I know they would love going with the babies as well! Here are the pictures...

Easter 09

I'm a little behind on my blogging but what a great weekend it was, Easter weekend! Brad's parents came to visit and went to our Good Friday service downtown Indy combined with several other churches. It was awesome! Brad led worship along with some other guys from surrounding churches and then about 6 different Pastors shared. It was a powerful service! Then Saturday we woke up and went to the Easter Egg hunt at church. It was Lilly and Asher's first and they were very excited. They caught on quickly and wanted to know what was in each egg right away. After the fun at church we had lunch and came home and napped (which is a favorite of mommy's on mornings like that!) We decided to give them their Easter baskets on Saturday as well since Brad has to be at church on Sundays way before the babies are even awake. I wanted daddy to be able to see them get their baskets as well. So after they woke up we told them the Easter bunny had come and put their baskets outside and they had to go find them. Daddy "hid" (in plain view!) the baskets and the babies went running out the door towards them. Grandma Chris and Papa Hoz had also gotten them a basket and two HUGE chocolate bunnies! It was so cute to watch them look thru the baskets and find all the goodies. It was also their first year for getting Easter baskets, we didn't do them last year because of the move and being busy with unpacking, etc. I was super excited for them to get their first Easter basket and went a little overboard! They will not be getting as much in their baskets next year! Sunday we all went to church and had a great Easter service and then enjoyed dinner with my family at my sisters house before Brad's parents left. Here are a few pictures from the weekend and I'm not sure where my head was because I totally forgot to get a picture of the babies in their Easter clothes and also forgot to get a picture of the babies with grandma and papa....I was so bummed when I realized it.

few more pics from our day at April and Kaylee's

Really?? let them finger paint?

We spent the day with my friend April and daughter Kaylee last week and decided to get adventurous! Her daughter has painted before but it was Lilly and Asher's first time. So April taped a big brown piece of paper to her wall and we just let them go. I was a bit nervous letting them do this in my friends house, now being at home and making a mess is one thing! Thankfully they were washable paints! I really didn't know how they would do or if they would like getting their hands all messy, but they loved it. Lilly especially. It was so fun watching them be creative and so excited. Asher did his hand prints all by himself, it was so cute! April and I decided we need to get together at least once a week and let the kids be creative and do a craft. I only got a few pictures of little Kaylee, poor girl, she ended up getting sick the next day along with mommy. I love watching the babies experience something new, it amazes me how fast they are growing and changing. Makes me want to stop time for a while. Here are a few pictures of our day with April and Kaylee...hope you two are feeling better!!

...some random thoughts because it's really late!

Lately I often find myself reading blogs really late at night. I love to read them but sometimes wonder how on earth people find the time to have such amazing, detailed blogs! I'm a bit jealous!! Lately my blog searches have been all about photography. It can be a bit overwhelming trying to take it all in. These blogs I have found have so much information on them and I desperately want to learn it all! My biggest thing right now is finding the time to do it all. I want to know the secret to taking care of twin two year olds all day, cleaning the house, cooking, checking my facebook, blogging, reading blogs, mastering photography, oh and did I mention taking care of myself some where in there? Fitting a shower in or even getting out of my pj's has turned into quite the luxury. I know others find the time to do all of this some how but I am having trouble and it's frustrating! Don't get me wrong I don't hate staying in my pj's all day...mmmm maybe not just every day! I find some blogs that are so fascinating, it almost seems like they would have to spend half of their day (everyday) blogging because there is so much information on them, not to mention the fact that they look amazing! I don't really want to be up at 1am catching up on some of my favorites or trying to type up a half way interesting blog of my own, but that is when I find a moment in my day to do it. Maybe I'm just not managing my time well or maybe it's because I have twin two year olds that demand my attention pretty much all day except for the hour and a half nap (I hope) they take. I could blog then or read blogs or practice my photography or clean the house or take a shower, or read a few chapters in the stack of books on my table I haven't gotten to... How do you fit it all in? What is the secret? Is anyone else as overwhelmed as I am? Ok....all that to say....while I was reading a blog this evening (well 12:30am) I found some really cool actions for photoshop and thought I would post a few pictures that I tried it out on of Lilly and Asher. The name suites it well....vintage. Isn't it cool? ok...no blog reading for me tonight, too tired.

I am determined

So lately I have been getting a bit discouraged about photography. Just when I think I am doing "ok" and maybe getting better, I see some really awesome photos others have taken. Instead of getting discouraged, I know I need to let it inspire me. I have a huge passion for photography at the same time a fear of not being good enough so it makes me hold back. I do have much more to learn about this art and am excited yet overwhelmed. I get plenty of encouragement from my darling husband and lots of compliments from family and friends though, so that's good thing. Thanks guys! ...I want to capture beautiful, interesting images for a living. That is my hearts desire, now if only my brain would catch up and help me understand all the technical stuff I might just take an amazing picture...in my eyes.