Snapshots of our Jackson Hole vacation

I have been wanting to write about our vacation to visit my parents in Wyoming for weeks now, but have felt overwhelmed by events and the amount of things I wanted to share.  Because of this I have decided to share some snapshots of the fun times we had and will work on posting more details soon.

When we first arrived it was cold (as you can tell from the coats and hats).  It even snowed.  We went out walking around down town and had a nice lunch at the Wort Hotel.

Here we are swinging at the bottom of a mountain.  Behind us is the bottom of the ski lift.  The girls loved to be outside so we went to the park a lot.

This is really the first time they crawled around on play equipment, and they loved it.  The stairs were their favorite, as they were too little to make it up the tunnel.

There is a great children's museum in Jackson that the girls loved.  They had a a special room just for toddlers with a slide and stairs

They had these really fun chairs that Emma loved to sit on.

Jackson has this great square in the middle of the town where people can sit and enjoy the outdoors.  E and C loved crawling around and playing in the dirt.

It was so fun to spend time with my dad and see him spend time with my daughters.

C felt comfortable on the grass and tried out a head stand.

E spent over 20 minutes playing in the bark.  She loved running it through her fingers.

We went to my grandparent's house for dinner one night and took family photos in their backyard.  Yes, this is their backyard!  It is so beautiful.

With Grammy and Grandpa.

I just love this picture of Charlotte.  I think that her face just looks so happy.

The sun came out!

Here are E and C with my grandpa and grandma.  It was so important to me that they were able to spend some time together.

The whole gang (minus my uncle Gerry who left a little earlier)

Again, such a sweet moment.  My dad helping E to walk in the grass.  The background is amazing too.

Here is C and her dad practicing walking also.

My mom, my husband, the girls and I all went to a local burger place to eat lunch.  Here is Charlotte drinking from a straw.  It was probably the highlight of lunch for her.

My mom and I.

Our family in front of the famous elk antler arches at the Jackson Hole town square.

This was a daily occurrence.  C and E love to help unload the dishwasher.

On my birthday (and the last day we were there) we went to a gymnastic gym and let the girls crawl around for a while.  They had a great time sliding, bouncing, swinging, and climbing.

Daddy helping E down the slide.

Daddy helping C down the slide.

My birthday cake!  It was a white cake with maraschino cherries in the batter, pastry cream in between the layers, and chocolate ganache on top.  It was an amazing cake.

Overall an amazing trip.  Well worth the three plane flights to get there.  We are already planning our next trip.  I think we are going to try and drive it next time.

A sweet moment

I went into the playroom this morning and found both E and C sitting together laughing on this chair. It was really sweet and was a special moment in a busy day. E has taken some steps and C is not far behind, so things are about to get challenging.

Look where I have been!

My alma mater!! What a treat it has been to be able to walk down memory lane and visit the place that was so important to me just a couple of years ago. My husband and I had the opportunity to walk around and reminisce about the days when our love was new. I met my old roommate and dear friend here this week. I had not seen her in over a year. We had a fun morning walking through campus showing our children where we used to live. Hurray for old mizzou!

I am still here!

Gosh, I have fallen behind on blogging. This partly due to the fact that we went on a long trip, and partly due to the fact that I now feel overwhelmed about blogging about said trip. It will happen, but in the mean time I will share with you this funny picture. We went over to a friends house this morning to do some crafting. There were a lot of kids there and so C and E roamed around playing with them. All of the sudden E crawled in with these ice cream cones that she had found and was making a snack out of them. I was so embarrassed but everybody there laughed. We are entering the stage where they are wanting to get into everything and throw a fit when they are told no.

What I have learned from fire ants

The last couple of days have been really rough. I feel like it has been one of those times that as a mom I really had to dig down deep to find the strength to keep going and get what I needed. On Wednesday I accidentally stepped into a nest of fire ants when getting out of the car at a friends house. The ants hurt when they bit, but the bites didn't get bad until Wednesday night. They were so excruciating that I couldn't sleep and continued that way until today. Benadryl and cortisone cream were not helping. What made this even worse is that my husband is out of town. I made it through Thursday but after another sleepless night I knew I needed to go to the doctor. I felt overwhelmed at asking others to help me, but came up with a small list of people to call and was able to find someone to watch the girls. The doctor immediately looked at my foot (with its 10 swollen bites) and said "these are infected, I think it is a staff infection." No wonder they were hurting so badly. She took a sample to get tested to find out for sure, and sent me on my way with antibiotics, steroids and painkillers. Tonight I can already tell the steroids are starting to work. I am not limping as badly and the swelling is going well. So... here are something that I learned from fire ants.

1. Wear sandals outside in Mississippi at your own risk.

2. When in doubt, go to the doctor. I wasn't sure if I should go or wait it out, and I am so glad that I did.

3. Being a mother is much hardest when you don't feel good, and it is hard to take care of yourself when you have others to care for.

4. It is ok to feel disappointed about missing out on fun activities because you are not feeling well. It is important to take care of yourself and be realistic about what you can and can not do.

5. Even though it is really hard, it is important to ask for help when you need it. It is not fair to assume that people will just know when you need it. I don't know why it is so hard for me to ask for help, but I think it has something to do with not wanting to admit I can't handle something by myself or inconveniencing others. What I realized today as I relied on people to watch my children, bring us food and care for us, was that everything was so much easier and better with the support and love from others. I am extremely thankful that we have such kind friends and neighbors here.

Hopefully I am on the road to recovery and will be back to myself in no time.


Sent from my iPhone

Using the learning tower

C and E got this learning tower from my parents for Christmas.  What an awesome consignment find!!  The idea behind the learning tower is that it creates a safe way for young children to access the counter and sink.  C and E are finally stable enough when standing that I decided to try it out at the sink.  They are still pretty little but are able to reach the water to wash their hands.  They like being able to do it themselves and I am excited to see what fun things we can do with this as they get bigger.

* I look at these pictures and just marvel at how big my girls are getting!  It is exciting to see them doing things for themselves, but also makes me miss their tiny baby selves. *

We have been spoiled!

For the last week and a half my family and I have been spoiled by the wonderful visit of my husband's parents and grandmother.  They are so kind and loving, and we had a great time with them.  Here are just some of the ways that we were spoiled by their visit.

E and C got to take to two trips to the splash park in one week.  They had wagon rides every afternoon and lots of individual play time with loving grandparents and great grandparent.  I think both E and C got pushed around in the pink princess ride-on toy about an hour each day.

Here we are just about to leave for our date, dinner and a concert.

I was spoiled in many ways also.  I was able to do my hair and put make-up on at least four days while they were here.  I had help while my husband was out of town which made bed time so much easier.  I had time to run some errands, go out to dinner with friends, go on a date with my husband, and clean around the house.  We power washed our entire house and cleared out a lot of brush in our yard.  I played a lot of cards with my great grandmother-inlaw, which was such a treat as I don't get to play games very often. 



Over all it was a superb visit, topped off by a mother's day shared by three mothers. I am thankful for being able to be a part of this special family and all of the thing that they did for us during this visit. 

Water fun

It has been hot here already.  Yesterday was up close to 90 degrees.  This does not look good for the summer, but has allowed us to have some fun outside with water.  Last week we joined some friends at the local splash park.  I was really unsure about how the girls would like it, especially because they are not walking yet.  I also was nervous about the logistics of two tiny girls, only one mama, and lots of water, but it went really well.  After they got comfortable with the splashing water they enjoyed crawling around in it.  I am learning to relax a little and try things even though they might be difficult.  It is easy for me to say "I have one year old twins, this will be too difficult."  Sometimes that is true, but most of the time it is just an excuse.

We also went to walmart and purchased a small blow-up pool to use at our house.  We couldn't wait and got it ready while the girls were napping.  After nap we popped them in.  It is really interesting because again it took them a little while to figure out what they thought about being in the water and what they wanted to do.  They were not scared, just cautious.  I guess I keep forgetting that these are all new experiences for them.  They have never been to a splash park or sat in a baby pool before, amazing!  I am thankful that I get to experience these firsts with them.  What a gift.



A fun baby gift

I have finally had time to do a little crafting and actually finished a project that I have been working on!  It feels good to be able to be creative and I am excited to share the project on here.  Recently I found this really cute homemade baby toy on pintrest and thought it would be a great gift for a friend that was due to have a baby at the beginning of May.  I got started a few weeks ago with fabric and planning, but it was this UFO link party my friend was hosting that helped me to finish the project. 

I decided to make three smaller ones and use all three of the little boy's initials, HDD.  After picking out and prepping the fabric, black and white for the back because babies love contrast, and different fun patterns for the front, I needed to make my pattern.  Instead of drawing the letters out by hand, I printed them from my computer so they would be the same size.

Then I pinned the patterns to the fabric and cut those out.  I realized that I didn't allow for a seam allowance in the pattern so when cutting out I actually went out about a quarter of an inch on each piece of fabric.  Once I had fronts and back for each of the three letters, I got some cotton batting and used the pattern pieces to cut out batting to go in the middle.  I wanted to give the letters a little more form.

It was then time to pick out ribbon and pin the pieces together.  I tried to pick out ribbon that was different colors or textures to add more interest.  I laid the pieces with right sides out and pinned where I wanted to attach the ribbon.  I sewed around the letter about one fourth of an inch from the edge.  It was a little tricky to get the hang of making sure the ribbons didn't move and also being consistent and neat with the stitching.  I went around the letter twice so that it would be sturdy enough to stand up to a baby.

That is really it!  Once I got the hang of the process with the first letter, the second two were much quicker.  I then just attached a link to them so that they can be attached to a play gym or stroller.  I had a lot of fun figuring out how to make these work and I think the finished product turned out pretty cute.

Here they are laid out.  It would also be great to add a layer of crinkly material so that they made noise, or a different texture of fabric to the back so that they felt different.  There are many ways to make these fun and interesting for babies.

Here is a picture of the back.  I really wanted to use black and white as babies can see that well and like the contrast.

I am linking this project with the UFO challenge that my friend at The Bean Sprout Notes is hosting.  She encouraged me to participate and I am glad that I did because I got this done in a timely manner!

A time to mourn

A little over a week ago I found out that one of my closest and
dearest friends had a miscarriage. I felt so sad and helpless and
upset about this. It brought back a lot of feelings that I had had
after we lost our daughters, and I also hurt so much for my friend. It
is hard being far away from people you love, especially when they are
going through a difficult time. When I found out that she and her
family were having a memorial for their son, I felt very strongly that
I needed to be there, even though they live in a different state. It
is amazing how everything worked out so smoothly.

I found out about the memorial on last Thursday afternoon. I
immediately called my husband who was out of town and told him about
it and that I would have to leave the next day. He agreed that we
should go but had a meeting on Friday, so it looked like I might drive
up by myself. I then called my husband's parents who live about an
hour away from where the memorial was to be held and found out that
they would be home and able to watch the girls. Next I called a couple
of people who supported my decision and listened as I explained how I
was feeling. I also talked to my friend who assured me it would be ok
if we were not able to make it but would like it if we were. I went to
bed that night before my husband got home, still not sure exactly sure
how I would get up there.

The next morning I woke up and my husband told me he had moved his
meeting so that he could travel with me up to the memorial. We packed
and loaded up into the car in an hour and a half. The drive was long
but extremely smooth. E and C did really great. The slept and played
and hung in there so well. We were able to stop at my husband's
grandmother's house and let the girls crawl around before we finished
the trip and arrived at my husband's parent's house. It was late at
night and the girls were very grumpy but went to bed pretty easily.

The next morning we got up and after breakfast we drove the hour to
where the memorial was being held. We left the girls with their
grandparents. This was such a blessing. I didn't have to worry about
them at all. I knew they were well taken care of and could focus
solely on the memorial. We arrived early and were able to give our
friends big hugs and words of condolence. The memorial was so sad and
meaningful. I was extremely thankful and honored to speak the 23 Psalm
as part of the service. The message that the pastor spoke really
resonated with me. He talked about why horrible things happen. What I
remember most was that he talked about fear and how grief is fear and
God can take you through that and is bigger than that. (The pastor
said it much more eloquently than that) It was really comforting and
hit home for me. I am extremely glad that I was able to be there.

After the service we went back to my friend's house where we had a
meal with her family. We also celebrated their daughter's first
birthday with songs and cupcakes. I enjoyed spending time with my
friend's family. It was such a comfort to all be together to surround
my friend and her family with love and support.

Pregnancy loss is such a horribly difficult thing. I remember feeling
so empty and angry and lost and lonely and like no one understood.
Being able to do something outward to remember and commemorate my
daughters and my friend's son was such a helpful thing through the
memorials that we both did.

On our way home on Sunday we drove through a rain storm which made the
travel more difficult. After we were through most of it the sun came
out from behind the clouds and the most beautiful double rainbow that
I have ever seen appeard in front of us. I really don't have too many
times in my life where I feel like God has sent a sign or spoken to me
directly, but this was one of those times. Rainbows have taken on a
new meaning for me in recent years. My daughters' room has two
beautiful rainbow quilts in it and their birthday was a rainbow
celebration. They are my rainbow after a horrible storm. So looking
at this rainbow on the way home I felt joy and peace and knew it was
confirmation from God that he was there with us and my friend and
would bring joy, beauty, and peace again. There were times after we
lost our first daughters that I felt so dark and helpless, but looking
around two years later I am amazed at C and E and the joy they bring
to our lives. This doesn't deminish the saddness I still feel or the
grief that we go through, but it give me hope to hold onto, and that
is a wonderful thing.

Playing in the kitchen

This morning we needed a distraction, so I pulled out a metal cookie sheet an some measuring spoons. It was a huge hit. E and C enjoyed the different noises the could make by banging and scraping. E them decided she wanted to sit on it and has been there ever since.

Trying something new

Today we went and had lunch with our friends at chick-fil-a to help celebrate their birthday. What fun we had. Charlotte and Emma both tried applesauce that came in a pouch for the first time. It was a hit. I think I will be getting these more often.