Great dinner, great article!

Scott and I decided to go out for dinner last night at Carolina Ale House. This is a favorite restaurant of ours, however we've not been since the twins were born. We loaded up the car, and prayed for a decently behaved dinner.

Turns out, the kids were the most well-behaved children that we've ever seen in a restaurant. I don't know what the deal was, but nobody cried, threw anything, or knocked anything over. The twins were content to sit in their high chairs and eat their food without event. Emily had the best manners, and say quietly and patiently while we waited for our food. All in all, it was an excellent time for us all.

On another note, I noticed the headline on a newspaper box as I exited the restaurant. I didn't fork over the buck to buy the newspaper, but did come home and find the article of interest on-line. I thought this was very interesting.

I've often encountered this type of issue with other moms. I was once in a Chick-Fil-A with the twins, and Eli was asleep in his baby carrier with his head slumped over. (His head was ALWAYS slumped over, despite the best efforts of Mom, Dad, and Grammy!)

A lady walked over to me and said, "I know you're busy eating, but if I bring his baby carrier to you, would you PLEASE fix his head from flopping over?!"

I was furiously angry, and responded, "He likes his head like that. I would fix it, but he'd put it right back in the same spot, so no, I won't but thanks for your concern!"

I know moms all have stories like this. I thought this article did an excellent job discussing this issue.

Family Devotions

I've always complained that one thing that frustrates me about public school is the way our government makes social problems the responsibility of the classroom teacher. Many social problems in recent history have resulted in legislation requiring schools to teach children about the issue, thus making schools responsible for teaching what I believe should be taught at home. Some examples are sex ed, dietary habits, and very recently, financial planning.

Now I totally understand that many children aren't fortunate enough to have families that discuss anything together, much less difficult issues. And I realize that its better for children to be taught these things in the one place where they are together and all will be reached, which is the public school.

But I worry that it takes the load off the family from doing something that I think is its job. I don't want to have the attitude of, "Well, the school teaches our kids how have healthy eating habits, so we don't need to worry about it."

So now that I'm off my soap box, here is the issue that I'm having: I feel like the church and the family have this same relationship. I believe the church's job is to HELP the family teach their children about Jesus. I want our kids to learn about Jesus primarily at home. And while I know that modeling daily living and conversations with our Emily are effective ways to teach, I also wonder if we should be doing more. We read her toddler Bible to her, we've gone through the whole thing over the past few months. Its a great little kids Bible that has just about every story from the old to new testament. We've gone through a nightly devotional with her, but when it was over, I never found anything to continue with. I want to make sure we're not relying so much on our church teaching our kids, that we've given up the responsibility to do so at home.

Now I'm looking at family devotionals, and talking with Scott about implementing them during our evenings. I've had a few different ones that looked interesting that I need to look more closely at, and we need to find a protected time each night that would allow us to do this. Does anybody have any advice about how their family devotional time works in their house?

Strangers

I haven't posted a good Emily quote in awhile, and thought it was high time.

A week or so ago, I sent Em out to get in the car for preschool. She walked out the front door and saw a man in our front yard, and immediately started talking to him. At first I totally freaked out until I realized that it was just the meter reader, and he probably just wanted to get back to his job.

Once we were all buckled in the car and backing down the drive, I explained to Emily that talking to strangers like that could be dangerous, and that it is not safe to go up to men in the front yard and talk to them. I tried not to be too scary sounding as I explained that there are not nice people in the world and that Daddy and Mommy want Emily to be safe. She told me she understood, and I told her I loved how friendly she was.

Well, this morning we were doing our grocery shopping at our favorite grocery store. The bagger walked us out and loaded up our groceries while I loaded the babies in the car. (This is why its my favorite grocery store... they always help me load my car!)

As the bagger turned to walk away, he asked Emily, "Are you always so helpful to your mommy?"

She just stood there.

Knowing that she wasn't a quiet kid after he just witnessed her talk endless in the check-out line, he assumed she must not have heard him, so he repeated himself.

She continued to stand there, and actually turned her head away.

For the life of me I couldn't figure out how my normally polite young lady could be so rude! I told Emily, "Honey, the nice man just asked you a question. Tell him how you are always so helpful to mommy!" (I'm sure there as an edge in my voice!)

She very timidly said, "Yes, I'm helpful to mommy." And the man turned to go.

After I got in the car, and before I could get any words out, Emily grabbed my shoulder and said, "Mommy. You really need to make up your mind about this stranger thing. I'm really confused right now."

Ahhh. So THAT'S it. I felt like such a doofus. And once again I was reminded that my five year old is smarter than I am.

Front Porch Conversations

The evenings have been just gorgeous lately, so each night Scott and I have been enjoying them on the front porch. We have an adult tasty beverage while we listen to music and talk. It has quickly become one of my favorite times of the day when we get to enjoy some time together after the kids are in bed.

Its also the time when we get to seriously talk about life. Lately I've sort of dominated the conversations with all things job related. Will I go to work next year? What if I really, really miss teaching? Does that make me a bad mom? Why can't I have both things: teaching, and stay-at-home-mommy? What if I don't find a job? What if I stay home another year or two?

Let's just say... Scott is patient. And has tremendous faith. I worry about things out of my control, and Scott relies on Him bigger than us all. I still try to control things.

So the other night I sort of came to the realization that I felt I hadn't learned much lately. I haven't attended conferences, been involved with cohorts, read professional literature. And I told Scott I missed this learning.

He looked at me said that I needed to start valuing the things I HAVE learned this year. And when I stopped to think about it, there have been some great things that I've learned. I've learned how to save crazy amounts of money with coupons and menu planning. I've learned to can, make jam, bake bread, and all sorts of new recipes. I've made my own baby food, used cloth diapers successfully for over a year (with twins even!). I've made a household calendar and learned to manage the tasks around the house in a way that keeps me sane, and allows Scott the most time to spend with the kids when he gets home from work.

Sometimes moms don't stop to think about all the things we "learn" when we stay at home, or the things we teach to our kids on a daily basis. It was good for me to hear those words of encouragement from him, and I thought it may be good to pass it on to other moms who also may need to give themselves credit for the every day happenings around the house, however mundane them may seem.

I don't know where God will bring me next year. I may be at home with my twins, I may be in a classroom with students. But no matter what happens, I will remember to value what I've learned at home.

Our Tough Girl

The recreation department does a "Mud Mania" day every year. I showed Emily pictures on the internet, and she said she would like to do that. So this morning Emily dressed in yucky clothes, and we headed off to the park to watch Emily conquer the muddy obstacle course!

Elsie and Eli were her biggest fans! Here is Elsie giving her awesome big sister some "good luck" smooches!



Here she is going through the obstacle course:





Emily wasn't quite sure about the kids getting mud all over their heads. This was about as muddy as she got!






When the kids were done playing in the mud, the fire department sprayed them off with a fire hose! It was quite the set-up!

Kitchen re-do

We've lived in our house for almost five years now. I have mentioned many times that I absolutely abhorred the wallpaper in the kitchen. But truth be told, there wasn't much in the kitchen that I liked. But the wallpaper was certainly the worst.

We never really did anything with the kitchen because one project seemed like it would snowball in to another with no end.

Before we moved in, the home inspection revealed a slight mold issue with the floor leading to the back door. Well, we were told the owners "replaced" the floor. And they did. They replaced the 4' x 1' strip of floor where the issue was with 12" tiles, and framed it in. Yuck! But what were we going to do? We realized this the day before closing.

So then, the sliding door broke. We couldn't pop it out to adjust or replace the rollers because that would mean busting out the tile, which meant replacing the floor, and since the carpet was horrible in the living room, shouldn't we go ahead and replace it in there and in the dining room as well?

You can see where I'm going with this.

But finally, this past month we've done some great things to our kitchen. Our counter tops (which for my CA friends, are Formica... gross huh? Everybody has Formica, except in the super expensive houses where they have granite.) were painted and sealed, forever removing the mauvey-gray grossness. The cabinets, which were previously a "pickled maple" (I just called them pink!) were painted and then glazed with a brown-sienna color, the entire downstairs was replaced with laminate wood, the wallpaper was removed, and the walls painted, and a plaster backslash was added.

I just love it!

Here are some before and after pictures. These before pictures were actually the pictures we took of the kitchen before we bought the house, oh so long ago. Sadly, it was still the way the kitchen looked (with our furniture of course) up until a few weeks ago when the renovations began.

My new mission

One of my best friends is getting married! Scott and I are totally excited for them as their Sept. 18 date quickly approaches. Emily will be the flower girl (how excited is she?!) and I am a bridesmaid.

Very exciting, however this event has spurred what I like to call the, "Get skinny before Amber's wedding" mission.

So far so good, as I've been walking/jogging three miles out of the neighborhood and back around. A few ladies from my neighborhood are joining me, and we leave at 7:40 every other day or so.

Now as a swimmer, I've always held to the belief that "swimmers don't run." And often times when my knees are aching this phrase come back to me. But the one thing that makes it so much better is where we go walking/running.

If you have never been to South Carolina before, you're really missing out on what I think is a really beautiful place. EVERYTHING is green, and the woods are filled with not only different types of oak and pine, but also magnolia, birch, and cedar. Between those trees there is such a variety of vines and foliage. So much so that you couldn't just "stroll through the woods" because you'd be accosted by all sorts of greenery that would block your path. And along the roadside where I run there is honeysuckle in bloom everywhere. It smells so wonderful. And between the honeysuckle are tons and tons of wild blackberry bushes with the beginnings of green berries that will be ready to eat in a few weeks.

The road we go down has very little traffic, only a few houses, and woods on either side. The trees meet in the middle, and it is simply gorgeous. At the end of this road is a small alfalfa field that has just been harvested, so there are huge round bales of hay every so often in the field. Beside this field is an old barn, and a horse stable with a half dozen horses.

Simply gorgeous.

So while I probably will never enjoy the "running" part of my mission, I'm so thankful for the beauty that I get to see each time I go. Maybe one day I will think to drive down this road with my camera to show you just what I am trying to describe.

Strawberry Picking

One of our favorite things to do is to visit the Pick Your Own farms in our area. If you've ever wanted to find a place near where you live, a great website to visit is this website.

Strawberries are at their prime right now, so our family trekked out to Lever Farms this afternoon to pick our fill. We returned with nearly three gallons of beautiful ripe strawberries, and three very red children!
























I'm pretty sure there was never a pair as happy as the twins! I brought their little mesh eating tool (you put food in it, and they suck it through the mesh bag... no choking!) and they ate a TON of strawberries. The only part they didn't like was when Mommy had to refill it. Eli, who is still developing patience, screamed every time until I could get a new strawberry loaded in his mesh bag.
















Needless to say, we had to strip the twins down to their diapers before loading them in the car, and all three kids went straight from the car to the bath tub. Now its nap time for the kiddos, and Scott too.

And when Emily wakes up, we're making strawberry jam!

I love days like this with my family!

Nap Time Shenanigans

Nap time is always such an elusive time. Some weeks go by with perfect nap times where all three kids sleep at the same time for at least an hour. Other weeks, well... it just doesn't happen that way!

Its funny to me that Emily is my best napper. She goes down fairly easily, and sometimes will actually put herself to sleep if she's particularly tired. Her naps are consistently two hours long. Just as the sun rises, Emily takes her nap. And yes. She is five.

But the twins? Well, that's a different story. We haven't had a good napping week in awhile now. Their morning nap is quick, at just one hour. And their afternoon nap is a little more than an hour too, but not at the same time.

Imagine this: I put both babes down in their cribs with their blankie and paci. I turn on the white noise, and slowly leave the room, closing the door behind me. Then for the next twenty to thirty minutes I hear them babbling to each other. Not fussing. Just babbling back and forth, with the occasional outburst of giggles. Its seriously the cutest thing ever.

But eventually, Eli gets tired, and lays down to go to sleep. This really makes Elsie mad. She stand up in the corner of her crib (the closest she can get to him in his crib) and she yells. She looks right at him and just tells him off! This goes on for about ten minutes straight, and Eli sleeps through the whole thing. Then Elsie begins to cry. She sobs and sobs and just can't figure out why her partner in crime left her.

And then finally, when Eli has been sleeping for about forty minutes, Elsie nods off to sleep. Eli sleeps for maybe another fifteen minutes and then wakes up, which leaves me with a whopping fifteen minutes to myself.

Just like a girl to talk a boy to sleep, huh?

The twins are 1!!!

Eli and Elsie had a fabulous backyard bash on Saturday to celebrate their first birthday. We had friends and family over for some dinner and cake and ice cream. I'm sure neither of the babies knew what was going on, but they both had a great time!

Here are some pictures of the event:

































































































































Some milestones associated with their birthday:
Eli-
- Pulling up and cruising along tables and other furniture
-Crawls over to where I am and pulls up on my leg while whining "Mamamama"
- Is now drinking out of a sippy cup after months of hitting out of my hand whenever I brought one near
- Loves to swing in the backyard, and loves to dip his feet in the pool.
- Loathes diaper changing. All I have to do is lay him on the changing table and he begins crying "Neh neh neh." (No No No)
- Gives big wet open mouth kisses.
- Points to each member of our family when we ask, "Where is ______ ?"
- After he wakes each morning he loves to crawl in the bathroom and pound on the shower door until he gets daddy's attention. Then he breaks out in to the biggest smile of the day. I think he believes Daddy is playing hide and seek with him, but just isn't a good hider.

Elsie-
-Just began crawling for the first time on her actual birthday after being reffered to a physical therapist by our pediatrician only the morning before. (I've since canceled the referral.)
- Has a grin that rivals any, and isn't afraid to flash it to ya!
- Cranes her neck in the grocery store to gain the attention of strangers, and when they grant her their attention, she grins widely and kicks her feet. I'm pretty sure this brings joy to even the meanest customers.
- Makes kissing noises as she kisses. Especially loves to kiss her white "Merry Christmas" bear.
- Has rolls that cover her knee caps.
- Cocks her head to one side and waves, just like a southern belle should.
- Gives her brother and sister hugs.
-Loves to eat all foods, and makes "mmmm mmmmm mmmm" noises like she's savoring every bite. She especially loves cottage cheese.

Hard to believe these two beautiful babies are already a year old.

Plans to look forward to

Saturdays have a way of filling up fast at our house. Each week we talk about what we want to do on the quickly approaching Saturday, and by the time the day finally gets here we have to pick between many things. I like it this way.

Today Emily has soccer pictures, and then her soccer game. After her game, we're heading out to the Sparkleberry Fair. I'm not sure what to expect, as I've never gone, but Emily and Scott went last year and Emily is totally looking forward to going again. Last year I was as big as a house and on bed rest. They went without me, and while I was certainly grateful for Em to have some alone time with her daddy, I remember being bummed that I was by myself and couldn't go.

That said, I'm sure we'll have a great time today.

Oh, and next Saturday is another big event: The twins' FIRST BIRTHDAY! Can't wait! My mom flies in on Friday morning, and we haven't mentioned it to Emily. Our plan is for me to drop Em off at preschool and then pick up my mom from the Columbia airport. Then when I go to pick up Emily my mom will be in the back seat to surprise her! Sounds like fun, right? Just ask my mom how many times she's almost blown it while talking to Emily on the phone! :)

UPDATE:
No sooner than five minutes after I clicked "publish post," it started to rain. No joke. I guess that's why its good to have many potential plans for a Saturday. Oh well. And I also forgot to mention that this Saturday morning was especially fabulous because Scott got up with the twins at their 6 am wake up time, and when I woke up an hour and a half later, I came downstairs to coffee, pancakes, bacon and eggs. Now that is what I call a good husband with a fabulous plan!

Remember this book?

A few months back, Katie posted about a great book that allowed her to enjoy fresh bread every day. You can re-visit her post here. I thought this sounded like a wonderful book, but wanted to check it out from the library to make sure I would use it before making the purchase. Well, apparently the book is very popular because I was put on a huge waiting list. Finally it was my turn, and Scott picked it up from the library for me on the way home from work yesterday.

I tried my first recipe this morning, and will let it rise and chill all afternoon before baking the first loaf this evening. I can't wait to see how it turns out.

Katie- Are there any "must bake" recipes that you and John love most?

Mornings at our house

On preschool mornings we are forced to follow a rather rigid schedule in order to get Emily to school on time. Basically the schedule starts at 6 a.m. and doesn't stop until we're out the door at 8:30. Its the only way to get everybody changed, fed, dressed, and not leave the house in a tornado!

However, Tuesday and Thursdays are non-preschool mornings and I enjoy these mornings very much. Here is a brief insight to how our home looks as my three kiddos enjoy each playing with each other.







Notice that Elsie is in the play room while Eli is in the kitchen. If he makes enough noise, she becomes interested and leans over as far as she can to see what he's up to. She still has very little motivation to crawl as nothing he does is quite THAT interesting!

Twins update

I haven't posted updates in awhile regarding what the twins are up to these days. I figured it was high time.

I will start with Eli:
- He is ever increasingly aware of his sister... what she is doing, what she wants to play with. On more than one occasion I have watched him stop what he was doing to just sit and watch her. Sometimes when she does something he thinks is funny, he will giggle and smile as he watches. I'm pretty sure this means he loves her very much, which overflows my heart with joy.
- He crawls. and crawls. and crawls. I keep thinking that all this chasing around should make me skinny. He certainly keeps me on my toes! He often crawls over to where I am am pulls on my legs, whining, until I pick him up.
- He is also pulling himself to standing. Whoa. Not quite cruising yet, but its sure to follow for sure!
- Eli loves the front storm door. With the weather being so gorgeous, we often have the front door open to see out through the storm door. Eli loves to walk over to it, pull himself to standing, and bang while he watches the goings on outdoors. The door sometimes doesn't close all the way, which presents a hazard. One day last week I was walking through the living room and saw him sitting on the welcome map on the front porch, looking at me through the storm door with a big proud smile. Needless to say I was scared out of my mind. We now keep the storm door locked.
- He loves outdoors. Anything outdoors is his favorite.
- Eli (and Elsie too) pretty much thinks Emily is the coolest kid on the block. There is nothing that she does that isn't fascinating. They both look at her in awe as she sings, reads, or plays with them. In their eyes, Emily was born first to be the provider of entertainment.

Cute Eli story: While on the beach Elsie and Eli were getting tired, so I put them in our little beach sun hut so they could sleep. Eli wasn't having it, so he sat up and watched me as I patted Elsie's back. Elsie was very tired, and just stayed laying on her tummy. After awhile of patting her back, Eli reached out and gently began patting Elsie's back too. It was simply precious!

Elsie is next:
- Elsie is the most social baby I have ever met. No clue where a child of mine could be so social?!? :) For example, last week we were at the grocery store and I had one of the big carts that has room for two babies to sit in. (LOVE that about Kroger!) I was looking at cereal, all the sudden this lady down the aisle started laughing out loud. She told me that Elsie smiled really big, and craned her neck until the lady caught her eye. When the lady smiled back, Elsie waved her little hand. So cute to see this little girl bring joy to people she doesn't even know. Reminds me so much of Emily!
- She loves to eat! I pretty much give everything we're eating to the babies now, with exceptions for high allergy foods of course. Elsie puts food in her mouth and literally savors her favorite foods. She loves cottage cheese, and rigatoni. She eats all sorts of vegetables with green peas being her favorite. We all love to watch her eat.
-She doesn't move. She literally sits in the same spot until I pick up. She doesn't like to lay on the ground, she like to sit, and that's what she does. She plays with the toys around her, and can reach forward, bending almost in half to reach things in front of her. But no toy is motivating enough to actually try and crawl. She is just too content to sit.
- Elsie's hair in completely out of control. It stands up all over, and the top is much longer than the back and sides, which creates this massive tuft of hair that blows in the wind. And she LOVES when her hair blows in the wind which makes her a huge fan of the ceiling fan!
-Elsie is still very fascinated with textures. Her favorite books are those with different parts to touch and feel. However, she absolutely abhors the grass. Touching the grass is awful, and she throws a massive fit if just one of her toes touches the stuff.
- She is my morning girl. She wakes with a happy grin on her face the moment she wakes. I'm sure she will grow up to annoy her college roommates with her 6 a.m. zest for life, just like I did to my college roommates.

Cute Elsie story: We went to this obnoxious tourist restaurant while on vacation (there is seriously a whole other post that needs to come regarding this restaurant). It was a buffet, so I tried to find things the babies could eat. I brought back a plate and cut up some rigatoni for Elsie and Eli. Elsie thought it was the most splendid food ever! She loved the ricotta cheese. But Eli didn't really care for it as much, and began tossing some of his food on the floor. Elsie didn't mind when he was tossing the green beans on the floor, but every time he tossed a piece of her beloved rigatoni on the floor, she would whine and whimper at the tragedy. She kept looking at me to make it stop, and got upset at Eli for wasting such a yummy item. I couldn't help but laugh!

Myrtle Beach

Hi friends! Yes, we're still here, and no nothing is wrong. I guess I just let blogging get away from me for a few weeks. Have we been busy? Yes. But hasn't everybody? No excuse really. But I will try to update some of favorite things about the past few weeks by blogging every day this week to catch up!

But first of all, I have to tell you about our fabulous trip to Myrtle Beach. While we've been in South Carolina almost five years, we've never been to Myrtle. I guess we're such big fans of Charleston and Edisto Island that we never consider spending our time in Myrtle. However, Scott went to a conference there last fall and he said he thought the kids would love it. We were gone for three days, which was plenty enough time. It was the perfect chance for us to spend time on our family, just connecting and loving on our kids. Simply perfect!

(before I go any farther, I must admit that I have more than a couple loads of laundry waiting for me, a dishwasher to unload, and a hungry husband. Can you say... procrastination? But I was just so excited to share the pictures from our trip!)

Here are some of my favorites from the day we spent out on the beach. Notice the pictures of the twins before the water touched them, and after. They liked to sit and watch the water more than they liked being wet!
















And I have a funny Emily story that must be told:
Emily came running up to us saying she needed to to pee. Scott explained that she should just pee in the ocean, to which Emily responded, "Seriously?" So off she went, only to return a minute later. "But everybody will see me going potty! That's just ridiculous!" she said. Scott told her to just sit down in the sand in the water, and nobody would ever know. So off she went. She returned one more time, told us we were ridiculous, and then went out for a final time.



I guess Scott and I were busy giving crackers to the babies, because all of the sudden I look up to find Emily, and I see her pulling off her swim suit, right there in the ocean!?! I RUN towards her, yelling at her to stop. She took one look at me, and knowingly said, "I told you this was ridiculous!"

I still don't think she understands that we meant to leave the swim suit on, but whatever. The damage was done. I am still giggling about it!





Lots of fun times on this trip. And I feel so lucky to have three kids who travel as easily as these three! Emily has always been an awesome traveler (did she have a choice?) but to have twins who sleep so well in a hotel and act so well at restaurants is truly a blessing. More than one person told us they would have waited a few years before going on vacation with little ones, but we just shrugged it off and remembered to be thankful for their good car behavior, sleeping habits, and eating routines. Now I guess I just have to get that laundry done, and figure out what we're eating for dinner!

Oh, and the new picture on the top of the blog was taken after breakfast one morning. With early risers like ours, breakfast is before seven. We'd go down to the awesome hotel breakfast, and then take a stroll with the kids still in their jammies. It was a fun way to start the day!

Tired Mommy needs a nap

Today we went to the library for story time, followed by lunch at Chic-fil-a. That sounds simple enough. But nothing about it was simple. Not that we didn't have a great time... because the entire trip was fabulous (except that I got a parking ticket.)

However, even though it was very fun, it was also very tiring. And while I normally don't make it a habit to sleep during the day I thought that this day deserved an exception. I couldn't wait for the three kiddos to fall asleep so I could take a little siesta.

I went in to check on the twins, and this is what I saw:






A very awake Elsie, pointing her sweet toes, kicking, and sticking them in between the crib slats. She didn't fall asleep until well after Eli and Emily. So by the time she fell asleep, I only had twenty minutes before the other two woke up. Oh well.

But those sure are some cute toes!