Animal Party...

We had a lot of fun celebrating Isaac's birthday (for the third time) with his friends yesterday! We held it at our church building and had a zoologist come with live animals!! I think the kids had a lot of fun! :) Here are just two little sneak peeks from the day (more to come SOON):

Good Days and Bad...

 Some days look like this...

And others (like when we accidentally miss a dose of reflux medicine) look like this...

There are no words to describe the pit in my stomach...the aching in my heart...when my sweet baby girl will not allow me to comfort her. With her body completely stiffened and fists clenched, she screams and screams and screams and...well you get the picture. Sometimes I just have to give her a kiss, whisper "I love you," into her ear, and lay her in the crib to scream it out alone. I am only human. And after a few hours of constant screaming in my ear, and the heartache and stress of not being able to comfort her, I just need a little break. I love her to pieces. And I am SO over this newborn/colic stage of life. Bring on the cute baby stage!! :) Every day does seem to be getting better and better. But then we have days like today, that nearly set me over the edge. And the edge of what, I do not know. Perhaps sanity? ;) But she's sleeping (albeit somewhat fitfully) at the moment, and there is peace in my home again. Life is good. And I wouldn't trade it for the world. :)

More things to never forget...

We keep thinking of more things that we hope to never forget...

~The way Isaac and Naomi imaginative play "babies" and "doggies" together...complete with the most ADORABLE high-pitch voices of their characters. ;)

~When they begin demanding certain things or whining about what they've been given, we all laugh as I sing the same thing every time, "You git what you git, and you won't throw a fit!" :) Basically...a fun reminder to be joyful with what you're given and not complain about it.

~Naomi changing clothes about 30 times a day (and I am not even exaggerating...it may be more!).

~SHOOGIES! (pronounced like boogies) We enjoy pretending like there are these imaginary things (little pieces of sweet sugar, if you will) dripping from their skin. If I am overcome by their cuteness or how much I love them, I just HAVE to get some shoogies, which looks like me kissing their little faces off! Hehe. :) Lately, Isaac has taken the fun a step further by pretending to stuff all of the shoogies into his mouth and telling me that there aren't any left for me! :) Sometimes I steal them anyway! ;)

~moments of cuteness like this one taken last night...

From this season of life, I hope to never foget...

~How much we laugh.

~Me asking them, "Do you know how much I love you?" And them answering with a giggle, "SO BIG!" Then me tickling them while correcting them, "NO! So MUCH!"

~When they get frustrated trying to do something, I'll begin singing, "Just keep trying, just keep trying. No use in crying. Just keep trying...just get it done!" They start laughing as they work through their frustration and do what they originally thought was impossible.

~Isaac reminding everyone and telling us when someone has "made a bad choice."

~After taking their baths and getting wrapped in their towels, they like for us to cover them up in their towel entirely. Then we carry them in a ball to the other parent, saying, "Hey...I have this big load of laundry here for you." Then they pop out and surprise us with LOTS of laughter! :)

~Tickle bugs. "They're gonna get YOU!" And they run around screaming.

~Naomi saying she wants to do a "crap" (aka CRAFT). Or saying that she wants some more graham "crappers" (aka CRACKERS)! Haha!

~When they have a run-in with an inanimate object (like a door, a chair, wall, etc.), we playfully yell at that thing and I tell it to stop hurting my precious children. They get a good laugh out of it, and it helps to distract them from the pain they are in.

~Their love of singing and dancing. Every. Single. Day. They LOVE running around in just their undies while worshiping God. Totally undignified! :)

~The constant state of learning and growing they are in! They both ask LOTS of questions. Isaac's lately have been getting pretty abstract...asking about what's out there beyond the sky or what is under the ground we walk on or where the water goes after we flush our toilets. :) He's beginning to discover that there is more to this world than what his eyes can see...and his curiosity is contagious. ;)

~Their innocence...and purity.

dreaming...

{dreaming of warmer weather}

I just can't stop...

Taking pictures of these kiddos, that is! Not sure what it is, but my heart has been overwhelmed with gratitude lately. I just love these little people more than I ever knew was possible!! :)

{love this one too}

 and just one more...

{even super heroes need a little break}

Well hello there, beautiful!

{LOVE this sweetie pie!}

Potty Trained.

So you know when people say that every child is different? And that you can't expect the same things to work with every child? I have loved watching this unfold recently in the realm of potty training. I have chosen to take a very laid back approach to this whole potty training thing. Isaac began pooping on the toilet when he was two...and never looked back. He remained in diapers and pull-ups, though, until well after his third birthday. I would always ask him if he wanted to go pee on the potty, and he just wasn't interested. We spent a weekend last May to officially "train" him to pee in the toilet. He did great and has been in underwear full-time (during the day) ever since. He is just now wrapping up his time in pull-ups at night, but has regarded them just like undies and has only had a couple of nighttime accidents over the past several months.

Naomi has been a different story. We tried "training" her during that same weekend last May before her 2nd birthday. She just didn't get it...having had a difficult time reading her body's cues when she was about to go. And she wasn't bothered by having wet or dirty diapers. She has gradually been more and more bothered by it, insisting that we change her immediately after peeing or pooping in her pull-ups. I knew she was definitely showing signs of readiness, however, I wanted to wait until after our Disney vacation to really buckle down and "train" her. She stayed dry and clean in her pull-ups throughout our entire Disney trip!! Since we've been home, she has INSISTED on wearing underwear. Naomi has more or less trained herself. She just decided that she was ready to wear underwear and has not looked back. She's had a couple of accidents from not making it to the toilet in time. But she is pretty much completely trained (day AND night)!! :) It feels really weird to have not done a single thing to encourage this from her! And it feels SO nice to have TWO potty trained kiddos! :)

Good Days...

Some days are tougher than others. And others seem to flow effortlessly and are filled with joy and peace. Today began rough. I've been up since 5:30am, and not by choice. :) By 9:30am, I hit my wall for the day. The kiddos were driving me nuts. And I was tired. But I began praying and asked to the Lord to meet me. I had to rely on Him for strength today. I put on their favorite worship DVD (a live concert by Jana Alayra). And we danced. We laughed. We worshiped together. And we had a lot of fun. The day has slowly gotten better. Sarah is having longer moments of contentedness (though as I am typing this, she is crying in her crib). She just does not like to be put down for any amount of time. She's discovered people. And she wants to be in someone's arms all. the. time. :) And since she's cute and I love her more than words can say...she gets what she wants MOST of the day. But my arms are tired (and so is she). So I'm letting her try to discover the beauty of self-soothing. Sadly, it's not going very well. But here are a few pics from one of her content periods today:

{can't}

 {get}

 {enough}

And these two spent the morning getting on each other's (and my) nerves. But after lunch, they played quietly and VERY well together. LOVING the peace in my home. :)

Here is a little video clip from our time watching/listening/dancing to Jana Alayra. Isaac's definitely got some moves! Wonder where he got those?? ;)

One last thing. As I am wrapping up this post, baby number three just SOOTHED HERSELF!! I can hear her sucking away at her fingers. Woohoo! What a clever baby! Praise God! :)

Naps...

Most days recently, we have been allowing the kids to have quiet times in their rooms (playing quietly) rather than making them take naps. They are both on the cusp of not necessarily needing naps. They seem to handle themselves OKAY without them, as long as they are in bed by 6:30 or 7pm. But a lot of days, this is how I find them anyway:

So maybe they do still need naps from time to time? ;) And on days like this when they happen to fall asleep during quiet time, they are up until after 9pm. It means less alone time for Kevin and me...but boy do I enjoy that nice break in my afternoon! :) Right now we're just taking it day by day. Some days they do wonderfully without naps. Others, I make them lay down because it's obvious that they need one. And yet others, I think they'll be fine without, but they take it upon themselves to doze off. :) It works for us. :)