Duck

The other night at dinner Carly was sitting at the table and she had a little bit of gas. Well she let one out and said, "Ha - that sounded like a duck. My bottom said quack!" It was so funny. I had to control my laughter to not encourage talking about gas, but it was so funny. I love how they are so quick on their feet when describing something!



Side note: Please pray for our house! We have some people coming back into town who really liked our house the first time they came into town. The are coming this week and maybe they will come and look again at our house. They have nothing to sell so that is great!

Trophies or Teachers?

This was the title of the devotional in my Bible today. It was really interesting to think about. It posed the question, "Do you view your children as trophies or teachers?" Hmm. If you view them as trophies, you look at all their accomplishments and personalities and place them up on your mantel and take credit for all they have become. Kind of easy to do. It is natural to take pride in your kids! When they do the littlest things that make you proud, it is easy for you to hold them up and smile at what wonderful thing they have done. BUT, if we view them as teachers, then we will submit ourselves to the lessons we will learn from God at their hands!!! I have to admit, over the past 4 years, I have learned so much from my kids! For instance, prior to children, if I were sick or in pain, once it was severe enough I would probably pray for my healing. Yesterday Carly was not feeling good, and I stopped what I was doing to stand next to her at the breakfast table and pray for her to feel better. I have done this a lot for them when they have boo boos or when they are sick, they listen, but never really respond. Yesterday, after praying, Carly dropped her toaster stick, and bowed her head and prayed for ME!!! She prayed with her eyes closed and with so much compassion. She thanked God for the day and to help me not to get sick! WOW! She showed me that yeah she was feeling down, but there are other people that need to be prayed for! This is awesome to me! They can do the smartest things in the world, but them getting the connection that there is an almighty God who can do so much for them is the best thing in the world. They truly are amazing teachers if you let them be. I taught their Sunday School class a lesson several weeks ago about a man whose son was sick and he went looking for Jesus to come and heal him. One afternoon they were running around the back yard yelling, "Jesus! Jesus! Where are you?" Matt asked them what they were doing. They said, "Dad, Chloe is sick and she needs Jesus to make her feel better!" Do we often run to Jesus immediately when something is wrong? Or do we wait until it gets pretty rough before going to Him? These are just a few examples of what my girls have taught me about the power of prayer! I can say, I have definitely gotten a whole lot better at going to the Lord so much faster with my problems, but I have a lot more work ahead of me. So what a neat question to ask yourself - is your child a trophy or a teacher? What holds the best lesson in life - your child can cut a straight line or having your child grow in their love for God and that they praise Him with their lives? God gives us the little miracles called children - learn from them!

It's a ........

GIRL!!!!!

All you that voted, majority was wrong! I think most were convinced she was a he, but alas, the girls rule in this house! We don't have a name yet, but we should have it pinned downed soon. Poor Harper is completely outnumbered! Uncle Kris and Harper have to stick together in their world of 3 sisters!

First Flutter of Life

On Tuesday, (St. Patrick's Day) I got to feel the first flutter of life from our baby! We were getting ready to go to bed and I felt the very faint thump from within! It is so exciting to finally get to feel, and today maybe name our little bundle of joy. It is kind of sad, because that will be the LAST time I will feel the first flutter! I am trying to savor this pregnancy and love every little bit of it because it will be the last. (I do not savor the yucky feeling and the bathroom breaks at night!) Today has been so hard to not really talk to the girls about going to the Dr. I wanted them to take a good nap and not be excited, so I have had to control myself until they wake up. It is exciting to go into the second half of pregnancy. The first half is just the down feelings and the exciting thought of a baby. The second half you get to put a name to the baby and feel and get to know their personality. I can't believe we only have 23 weeks left until we meet this baby (well probably 24 weeks knowing the way my pregnancies go!)

Monkey Joes

Today we went to Monkey Joes with Sarah and Preston. The girls were so excited to go today and practiced jumping all morning. We had a few surprises while we were there, but they didn't break down too bad. First one was they had to deflate one of the jumpers to clean it (someone either got sick or had an accident). Well, this worried them so much! We were at a fall festival once and the one there deflated while kids were in it and they have remembered that from when they were 2. So they do NOT like it when inflatables are down. So we went to the toddler section until the inflatable was back up - they refused to get on that one and probably will never again get on it. Also, Monkey Joe made an appearance and they are TERRIFIED of big dressed up characters (Disney World is definitely out for this family for a long time), so they wouldn't come out of the jumper they were in because I told them he couldn't fit in the hole!

Here are Carly and Chloe in the toddler section (the only slide they will go down and it is only like 3 ft. long)! Preston would not get in the pic with them, but he was around.

Here is Harper with some girl he befriended. She took him through all the big kid jumpers! Notice my 1 1/2 yr. old is going down the big slide - usually he went by himself, but this time the girl decided to hold him. He had so much fun with her and they did alot together. It was nice for me! I didn't have to do a thing! Harper loved making her go alot - she kept telling me, "he keeps saying again and I don't know about him but I'm getting tired!" She was so cute and she loved taking care of him.

Showings

We have had 2 showings so far and hopefully now that it is getting nicer again, people will start shopping! The first showing was a no go. The second showing (Saturday) the people said our house was their favorite out of 7! They did call our realtor on Monday asking about the neighbors and the sewer here (our realtor is our neighbor - their house is behind ours). So, we will see what happens with that. Please pray that the right people come by and want our house (the girls pray for this very often - they want a house with stairs!). I am getting ready to move now. I was very hesitant at first thinking if we sell, we sell. But now I am ready. This keeping the house cleaned thing is for the birds!! I mean, I always clean but keeping up with the toys isn't the funnest! But the girls do tend to clean a little better if I tell them someone may come look at our house and want to buy it so we can go to the house with stairs! And I would also like to bring our baby home to a new house and then we can get settled as a family and start our new chapter! The neighborhood that we want to move to is called Fieldstone Farms. It is like 5 or so miles from our house now. It will be closer to my parents and to our church. So we aren't going far. The neighborhood isn't our 100% favorite, but the house plan is and our lot backs up to trees and a creek (this is Matt's dream to live near a creek). Of course the people next door have dogs - UGH! - but I don't think I can ever get out of that. At least they have a fense (if you don't know - I HATE animals!!!!!!) - sorry Nichole (my sister the vet tech), but I can't handle the obnoxiousness that they bring! Anyways, just wanted to give an update on the homefront!

Dinner

Here are my children waiting for dinner tonight (yes they are in their pjs - it was raining and 40 degrees today, a most definite pj day!) The girls look like they are on death row - their stomachs were hurting so bad! Harper is just being cute and in on the action with his sisters. Notice how the girls are laying. They laid like that when they were tiny babies in the crib together, that is why I think they suck opposite thumbs, so they could look at each other.

It finally came!

Oh the spring weather finally came!!! I absolutely love the spring. It is by far my favorite season. I love seeing everything bloom, our Bradford pear tree in the front yard looks so nice. It just makes you feel great. Friday began the warm up and it is sad that today is the last of the nice days, hopefully just until next week! I think I have done everything I love to do in these 6 days! We grilled out steaks with Sarah and Tim then played games Friday night. Saturday we played with Connor and Kaitlyn at my Mom's and then took the kids to the park. Sunday we laid out and I got burnt - nice lobster arms! We also grilled out burgers. Monday we played in the backyard all day and had a picnic. Tuesday we did the same. Today we went to the indoor pool, had a picnic, and a campfire. Of course Matt took the hammock out too so I took a good nap in that too! I feel so nice and relaxed it is not even funny! My family loves being outside and we have taken several walks in the neighborhood (the girls love picking the flowers along the way).

Here is one of my bulbs that came up. I ran outside and took a picture of it before the snow last week. They are all gone now - of course my efforts at planting didn't go so well, but there are different ones coming up, so hopefully they will come out just as pretty.

On Sunday, we went to the lot that we like and put a sold sign up!! We put the house on contingency. It feels kind of weird to have put a sold sign up when we haven't had 1 person come look at our house (well tomorrow night we have a showing)!!! But it was fun taking the kids up there to show them where we could live.

The girls finally worked up enough courage to ask the next door neighbor if they could ride her power wheels Jeep. Oh my - they loved it!!! They both took turns driving - and I will NOT be teaching them how to drive when they are 16!!! I was chasing them up the street trying to teach them how to steer and stop. I would get to laughing so hard I couldn't even talk! I have blisters from my flip flops too so my feet were hurting so bad and my back was killing from bending down and grabbing the steering wheel. They did end up getting it and did a great job driving (providing they weren't talking and messing with the radio)! It was alot of fun. Carly was driving and told me she was doing it all by herself like Kendall and Kendall's mom doesn't go with her down the street. She looked at me and said, "Go back Mom, I can do it all by myself. I don't need you!!!" AGH! They are getting so big it is scary! Carly is definitely just like me. When Chloe was driving she would tell her to turn. At one point she even grabbed the wheel and turned for her. If you have ever driven with me, you know that I am a huge "backseat driver," so it was funny to see Carly taking up my roll in the twin partnership! Anyways, it was a great end to a beautiful spring week!

Girls

Here are some random things going on with the girls lately:

Carly: She is very into HGTV!! Her and I snuggle every afternoon after her nap (she usually wakes up first) and watch her favorite show. She sits and smiles and says, "Mom, I love this show!" She wants to decorate and paint in the worst way. I told her that she will definately be able to help paint when we move!! It is so funny how much she loves to watch this stuff. She is definately a mini me when it comes to this. I love to decorate too, painting I leave to Matt, but I do enjoy picking out the colors. She just may turn out to be a little interior decorator when she gets older. We took them to IKEA this week and she loved all the "beautiful things."

Chloe: Much like her Daddy, she has been into hiding things lately. All her favorite toys, she hides, and then she can't remember where she put them. So we have been going on massive toy hunts every day. The other day she couldn't find her little flashlight. I looked for a little while, but it was no where to be found. Later on that evening when going to the bathroom, out of the toilet paper roll (that was still on the holder) comes the child's flashlight. She shoved it in the hole and then couldn't find it. This is so like Matt it is not even funny. He always places stuff in funny spots or hides them (now he is big enough to find them), and Chloe is following in his footsteps. Oh, she has been doing very well with her thumb the past few days. She wakes up, gets her last sucks, then puts her glove on. She had to wear it to Target and to get Harper's haircut the other day because she might need sucks she said. She wanted to make sure it was all prevented! I am so proud of her efforts to try to quit, hopefully she will quit soon!!!

Could this be it?

Oh my goodness!!! The other day I had mentioned to the girls that pretty soon they would have to start wearing gloves so they will stop sucking their thumbs. Well all morning Chloe has been wearing one and she told me she was a big girl. Kind of shocked, but I knew when nap time came around her tune would change when she wanted to smell her beloved giraffe. So, I just laid them down and she came running to me and said, "Mom, look. I can just smell giraffe like this (rubbing his tail under her nose) and I don't need to suck my thumb!" I was shocked and said, "You bet! And when you are all done sucking that thumb you can have your manicure." They have been dying to get their fingernails painted, but I won't let them until they are all done thumb sucking. Well, 2 seconds later Carly is looking for her a glove. She said she didn't need to suck her thumb just like Chloe. So both are in bed, with a glove on, not sucking their thumbs. And the best part - I didn't have to do a thing!!! Now, the test is tonight and if they get hurt. But baby steps are giant steps in the thumb sucking area with these two!!! AWWWW MAN!! I just went to check on both of them to see if they did it. Chloe, the tough one, switch the glove and is sound asleep with thumb in her mouth!!! Monkey!! Carly is still awake with the glove on the correct hand, but not looking sleepy in the slightest. Well, I guess this post is praising their attempts and not success!!!! Carly could have success, but I doubt it after seeing her in there!!! Oh, well they are trying.

Post Update: I went to get Carly out of bed after sitting in there wide awake talking to her gloves for 2 1/2 hours and she was passed out!! Take a look at her picture. She tried, I'll have to give her that!

Look how sweet she is! She tried so hard - that thumb just couldn't stay in the glove!

Vote

I added a poll to the left - make sure you get your vote in on what you think the baby will be. We find out March 19th! I would vote for the girls, but of course when asked, one said girl and the other said boy, so they just negate each other!

Frosty Day

We couldn't go outside today. The snow was just too wet, so I tried to make it fun inside while we looked at the beautiful snow. Here are the girls showing off their snowmen. They used buttons for the eyes and buttons. They chose which style hat they wanted then they glued it all together. Then we added the snow at the end. It was alot of fun.

Carly is working hard at lunch decorating her Frosty PB&J sandwich. I cut out the sandwich with a snowman cookie cutter and gave them some yogurt balls, raisins, and goldfish for accessories. We used Fluff for the "glue." They loved making them - they used the goldfish for mittens - I didn't even think of that! Below is Carly's final product.

Here is Chloe hard at work too. Below is her final product, well kind of. I took the picture and then she proceeded to load the entire snowman with stuff. So it was completely covered with junk and of course she ate the whole thing!

Big Kids Play Too!

Ok, I complain about the snow and then I let my husband coax me out into it! He was bound and determined to go out and make a snowman for the kids when they wake up! What a great Daddy I know! They have been wanting to make a snowman every time it snows, but it is never good packy snow. So this wet stuff we got tonight was perfect. So tonight at 10 pm, Matt was out rolling snow and I was collecting facial features. Luckily I had 2 big carrots, because every Frosty has to have a carrot nose (we made it 2 sided so the kids could see it from the window and people could see it from the street too). It came out very cute and I know the kids will flip out tomorrow when they see their big Frosty!

Here is Matt trying to roll his snowball!

It's Beginning to Look Alot Like Christmas

Well, I can't believe it. 3 snow days this year!!! It is 6:15 and I am just watching the flakes fall from the sky blanketing the outside. All I keep singing is the song It's Beginning to Look Alot like Christmas! I haven't had a white Christmas in over 11 years, but the sight of it makes me want to pull out the Christmas CDs and sing my heart out. Am I excited about the snow?? Hmm let me think about that one. Part of me says no way! I want spring!!! I have been cooped up at home for a while not wanting to face the frigid temperatures outside (I would have never survived back home in NY as a parent!) Yesterday, I noticed the bulbs that the girls and I had planted this fall actually bloomed!!!! I didn't even get to see them! I saw them from the window, but with all the rain for the past 3 days, I didn't go and look at them. They were purple and looked pretty as far as I could tell. I find poor Harper sitting in the garage in the dark in his riding car wishing to go outside and play. We just want to run around outside and play! Now, the other part of me absolutely loves snow! I just get so excited to see it! I guess it is because it only lasts for 1 day and I know it will be gone tomorrow (and is supposed to be 68 on Saturday). So for today, I am very much excited for the snow. I guess the call from my brother pumped me up. He was at work and he was so excited to have had to go outside and shovel! Then I started getting giddy and as soon as I heard the freezing rain pelt the kitchen window, it was all on! Now I have to lug all the snow gear back out of the attic, because I am sure the girls will have to go and play tomorrow. It's worth it - I love the snow and whats just one more cold day!!!!

Little Harper Banks watching the snow fall! He just got out of the bath and he has his toothbrush in hand watching the "No." He says, "no, white." Sometimes he adds cold into his snow statement.