Has it been 5 years already?

From this.....
Lilly



Drew




To this....




We have come a long way since the NICU days at Sutter Hospital. That first year was barely survivable in lots of ways, but the memory of how far these twins has come gives me that warm feeling inside like hot chocolate does coming off a ski slope. I am happy to report that Lilly has officially broken the 30 pound mark at 5 years old (can you hear the applause in the background?) , climbing the charts in the 2nd percentile. Drew is growing like a weed (which bugs Lilly to no end) and not looking like a little kids anymore. I have to admit sometimes in the littlest moments I get choked up when I look at these two. They are normal, fighting siblings, but they are sweet, rambunctious, good hearted, larger than life personalities for 5 year olds. I am blessed that God chose me to be their mommy.

As we approach their 5th birthday on Oct. 18th, I write this post in the middle of the night because I am too excited for what the next days will hold.... DISNEYLAND!!!! I can't sleep and the butterflies are present. But to paraphrase a favorite quote of mine, "Butterflies are a good thing...the key is to get them to fly in formation"


What can I say about Drew at age 5? What do I want him to know when he is old enough to read this about himself?
Drew.....my inquisitive scholar with a thoughtful and truly kind heart. Drew is beyond his years in lots of ways. He talks lots about heaven, God, forgiveness, and concepts that most kids breeze over. He is our encourager, and gives compliments out as easy as I eat a half gallon on vanilla ice cream. At five years old, he obsesses over Star Wars and at the current moment...Pokeman. The kid literally has like 200 pokeman cards and he knows all their names, powers, and what each number means on the card.

Drew is our early riser. He doesn't sleep in much, but despite the fact that I am tired and not quite at his energy level at 6am everyday, I still enjoy our time together as I get ready every morning. He tells me about his dreams, what day it is and what the next day will hold for us. He does math problems and tries to come up with "really really hard ones" for me to figure out. He climbs up in our bed (Todd has already been gone for an hour at this point) with some books and giggles and laughs to himself. He is working on his jokes. Right now every joke is about bathroom humor. Does it ever get old?? I am guessing not.

I love that I can have real conversations with Drew. That on long car rides, he and I talk like friends and he is reciprocal with the questions. It's not a one way street. It's in these moments that confirm how much I like this age in comparison to the earlier years, and it's also the time I think in my own head- I want to stop time and live in these years.... right now......permanently. Deep inhale, slow exhale.

Now onto Lilly....my spunky little Lilly
Lilly is going to be a botanist when she is older. Or maybe an geologist? Her love and interest in flowers, rocks, dirt, and nature is like none I have ever seen. Lilly is usually dirtier than a construction worker and doesn't care. She is not tidy, or well kept in lots of ways and I waved the white flag in that department a long time ago unless it's a special occasion.

She is my strong willed, sensitive, stubborn type. Kind of a weird combination but so so true. Lilly can light up a room with her comedic timing and she always cheers up Drew if he is upset. I think she might be related to the 3 stooges (look them up Lilly) with her physical comedy. In some areas, she is more like a girl then ever. For example she is nosey. Wants to know who you are talking to, what they are saying, and how she can get involved. One of my favorite lines she says is "What you said?" Another girly factor is how much she loves to dance. She gets that from me :) She adores music and grooving in the car and around the house. She is in dance class now, and asks to go every day even though it is once a week. I hope that trait stays around for a long time.

The best gift we could ever give Lilly was given to her this year in August. I mean really...I don't think I ever really understood the meaning of all those Hallmarks cards with little kids and dogs side by side, but Lilly's closest and most dedicated friend is our dog Kuiper. She simply adores this dog. Despite the fact that his brain is half the size of a pea, he has no eye sockets, and he runs full speed into glass doors, Kuiper gives Lilly more happiness than we could have ever hoped for. Lilly is very into her friends and even more importantly....who is her BEST friend. For example, we go to many parks throughout a week and play and meet new people. It never fails when we get in the car to drive home that Lilly asks, "mommy...who was that girl in the red shirt that I was playing with?" I respond by saying, "Her name was Violet sweetie. She was nice, huh?" Lilly then shouts at the top of her lungs, "YES, she is my BEST FRIEND!! That girl is my best friend mommy. What's her name again?" I swear this never gets old to me because every day (sometimes every 10 minutes) Lilly has a new no-named best friend. Maybe you don't need to know a person's name to be best friends? :)


I think deep down though, these two know that they are each other's true best friends.


Happy 5th birthday you two...We love you so incredibly much.

Disneyland awaits.

Birthday festivities

Well, we woke up to lots and lots of rain the day of the Lilly and Drew's party at the(outdoor obviously) pumpkin patch. Little concerning for us, but thanks to weather tracking hour by hour, it appeared that the rain would stop by mid-day, so we were not shying away from a little wetness and mud. I mean...really, kids love getting dirty and wet in the mud, so we knew things would be fine.


This was the first year that Todd and I really looked around and felt like LIlly and Drew's friends were at the party( not just people the adults hang out with and force your kids to be friends with). They have developed friends over the last year at school, and it was so fun to see them get excited as they all arrived.


Jack is in the kids preschool class and they adore him. Such a sweet picture.


The Jumpy slide was a HUGE hit and that seemed to be where the kids spent most of their time. Thank you to who ever invented the jumpy slide because where would kids birthdays be with out it?




Close up of a slide for Lilly, so you can really see the happiness exploding out of her tiny body.


Time for ride to pick out the pumpkins. All the kids got to take home a pumpkin.


Drew was very attentive and careful with his selection of his pumpkin because he wanted an extra scary one, but really he just picked one that would not stand up straight with out leaning up against something.


Yay, remember what I said about the mud? Exhibit A-

You'll appreciate this when you two are older....

WOW. Four years old. Went by in a blink. What should you (Drew and Lilly) know about yourself on your fourth birthday? Well, here we go.

Lilly. Our girl. What to say about you.





Lilly, you hang with the boys. You are tough, but definitely have a sensitive side when you feel left out. But you always have strategy and that we commend you for. Your retaliation is to invoke teasing. You tease out of love though...true, deep love for wanting to play and you usually get noticed and "talk" your way into playing. You try so hard to play the boy games with your brother, and do light saber fights, car races, super hero games, and Drew loves you so much for that. You show signs of being a tremendous athlete with coordination and strength that comes from a 27 pound petite little thing. Which reminds me to mention that you still wear 18-24months clothes and you are 4 years old. You will show those boys who's boss some day and we can't help but smile knowing that.

You are working so hard on your speech right now, and your determination and dedication to learning new words and saying old words correctly make us(well maybe just your mom) tear up sometimes. You really do have so much to say, and your brain is saying it faster than your mouth can get out the words. We see you pausing, formulating the next words to come out, and then they come out with such expression and conviction because you worked hard to get those words out. And we better be listening or we are in trouble.

You say the phrase, "I am big now" like a punctuation mark at the end of your sentence. Sometimes you tell a story about a doggie in a park that was barking, and then randomly you end it with, 'I am big now. Super big."

You are seriously funny. Like for real funny. And you know what? You know it too. You study our faces and look for just the slightest sign of a grin, and soon as you spot it....you continue with your stand up act. You enjoy making people laugh, and understand how powerful laughter can be to change a feeling in a room. You have perfect timing with that and you are only 4...so wait until you are 20.

Dancing and singing are two of your favorite activities. We absolutely adore the way you have this inner beat that goes off whenever music is in the air. You hand starts tapping, your head starts bobbing, and your smile grows across your face like the Cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland, except your smile has that character building chipped front tooth. Its priceless.

You recently tell us as you are walking up the dark stair case by yourself, "I am not afraid because God helps me when I am scared" This makes us so proud, and also just reinforces our decision to send you to a Christian preschool. Money well spent..I digress.

Lilly....you have a way of drawing people to you.... this magnetic personality where people of all ages seek you out. You just can't ignore you. Maybe we can't ignore you at times because you are one of the loudest people I have ever met despite your size. It's deceiving. :) I think the loudness though really does come from your personality and how much life there is in your teeny tiny body. You love your brother more than your dumbo and pluto (and that speaks volumes) and whenever he is not around, you start calling, "Drew....Drew....where are you Drew?" Your love for your brother is one of a kind.



Drew. Oh our Drew.




You should know that you are truly a thoughtful, kind, and considerate boy with no shortage on conversation starters. You walk up to any baby, child, or adult and tell them about whatever is the newest and greatest toy in your life at the moment or thing on your mind. You ask their names, you be-friend them, and you make an impression.

We just soak in the fact that you reciprocate affection as it is given to you. If we rub your back, you rub ours. If we give you kiss on the cheek, you give us a kiss on both of our cheeks. If the closest thing to kiss is our arm...sometimes you kiss that instead our cheek. You touch our face with both hands on each cheek and don't really have anything to say, just wanted to make eye contact and smile.

You show maturity at 4 years old to say things like, "that's okay Lilly, you can be first, and I will be first next time(despite the fact that she races to be first every time) or " it's okay mommy, I will try again and not get upset" I mean seriously...things some adults can't say or do sometimes. Your attitude and out look on life is one that should be admired...especially with all that you have been through, and maybe that's what makes you such a sweet soul.

Even though we don't always feel like playing star wars, we never get sick of you being Darth Vader and stating very solemnly to your opponent, " I will destroy your destiny."

Daddy loves that he gets the privilege to tell you a new and original story every night, and that I get to come up with an original song that usually is requested to be about the same subject matter as the story Daddy told you minutes before. You don't for one minute lack imagination, and your world will always be filled with adventure, lasers, sound effects, hot lava, bad guys, and motorized vehicles.

You get up every night in the wee hours of the morning and open your door, but do not leave your room. You just hop back into bed and fall back to sleep. There is comfort for you when the door is open, knowing we aren't too far from you while you sleep. I know this won't be the case forever and I am sure there will be a day when there will be signs, saying DO NOT ENTER or PRIVACY PLEASE (let's hope it at least says please, right?) And in those times, we will remember when you were 4 and you liked your door open.



Happy 4th birthday...just wait until next year and we are in disneyland right this very minute.

WE LOVE YOU BOTH SO MUCH!!!

Practically a two week post birthday wrap up

So I was about to delete all the photos on my camera(I had already burned a disc)and as I was looking through the pictures, I realized that I had not posted about the kids birthday...so shame on me.

The pumpkin patch birthday is something I wish I would have done every birthday now that I have done it. Why not with October birthdays? The kids had a blast and have asked to go back everyday we drive past it on our way to Walmart.

My kids enjoyed the hay activities. Lilly preferred the hay maze. Her expression is one of pure joy, but the shadow makes it hard to see that.


Drew preferred climbing to the top of the hay stacks with cousin Matthew.


Uncle Matti flew into town for the big event and Drew spent lots of time with him.


Matthew is such an awesome big cousin. He hung out with Drew lots too.


Lilly could have done this single activity the entire two hours we were there. Feeding the sheep....


We all got to go on a tractor ride. That's not entirely the truth. Drew did not go on the tractor ride because he refused to use the port-a-potty(can you blame him really?) but he also did not want to pee in the bushes either, so Todd drove him home(less than 5 minutes)to use the potty.



This is what happened every time we sang happy birthday to the kids in a group setting. This was on there real birthday evening.


What makes me laugh the most is Drew's expression looking at Lilly, so puzzled as to why she is crying. That is what a confused Drew looks like.

They each had their choice for dessert. Drew went with the brownie and Lilly chose ice cream.

3 years in the record books!

So how does it go? Once your kids are one, there are not babies, they are toddlers. Once they are three they are not toddlers, they are preschoolers? Where has the time gone? Let's take a look back, shall we?

Can you believe I was 5 months pregnant with twins here? Not to mention probably the last time for a long time that we will be in Hawaii. Todd wanted to show how sun burn he got on the first day of vacation.



The VERY FIRST pictures of Lilly and Drew that were taken at approx. 3:40pm on October 18, 2006. I did not take these pictures(and don't know who did actually)due to the fact that the doctors were still putting my insides back in and sewing me up. Fun times.

Drew


Lilly


Drew


Lilly..this one is especially tough for us to look at, but it reminds us of how far they have come



Now today. They are strong willed, healthy, going to school, potty trained, telling stories, loving, rambunctious, sweet natured, thoughtful, sensitive, independent, full of the joy for life kids.




It was three years ago today that we were introduced to the bigness and the monkey and our lives have never been the same. We are so blessed.

Pre-birthday interview with Lilly and Drew

I asked the same questions to both kids.


Where are we having your birthday party?
Drew- "A pumpkin patch"
Lilly- "Pukin patch.....jump. jump."(there is going to be a jumpy house there)

What present do you hope you get for your birthday?
Drew- "A big big big monster truck"
Lilly- "chocolate cake"

How old are you going to be on Sunday?
Drew- "I'm going to be three."
Lilly- "Big Nemo"(I think she is confusing all questions with what are you going to be for Halloween?)

The early birthday gift

The gift that keeps on giving(have I done this blog title before..feels familiar)

There is nothing like a large over sized box to keep your kids entertained for days!


So many uses.....try it upright



Try it on its side


Try it as a slide


And of course the king had to try it too


What actually came inside this box was an early birthday present that will be talked about and shown on a different day

Let the bragging begin

I am honestly NOT a bragger, but I have to just let the world know about what an incredibly thoughtful and very well planned out husband I have. I know this post is tardy compared to when my birthday was, but better late than never as the saying goes. I apologize for the long post, but this is worthy in my opinion.

I woke up that morning(Saturday March 21st) thinking we were going to have a normal day besides a nice dinner out that night in San Fransisco. As I came down the stairs to Drew and Todd I find an envelope with a #1 on it. I think...oh my gosh, I have gotten chosen for Amazing Race and this is my first detour. Little did I know that there was a string of clues that was leading me on an adventure that day...but more like a spa-hair-make-up-good food-with friends type of day.

Clue #1 read:
Time to get up, take a shower, don't wash your hair, wear very little make-up and get downstairs(he thought he would be handing this to me in bed) It is very important that you have a big breakfast. Get up and get moving! Let's Go!

So I of course ask a million questions that are not be answered and walk up stairs to get ready. I smell eggs, potatoes, and bacon cooking down stairs, and I think he was not joking about the big breakfast thing. There is a knock at the door and Amy and Summer show up with grins as big as they come to take me on the rest of my clues filled day.

Clue #2 I find in the car:
It's not the cottage where Froto lives; you go dream about Friday Nights. So up or down you'll look very pretty for our little date tonight.

So cottage was a dead give away along with Friday Nights because I get my hair done at the Hair Cottage and all Julie and I talk about is the show Friday Nights Lights(with next to the office, is the best show on TV) So the only hair style that sticks out to me of late is how Jennifer Aniston wore her hair to the Oscars this year(which is more coincidental than you might be aware of at this point)




After my hair is looking lovely, we get back to the car to find the third clue. I am really liking this getting back to car thing to find another clue pattern.

Clue #3:
You know how I feel, that less is more, but girls will be girls at this Plaza store.

This clue was slightly more challenging. I knew we were going to the mall....but was he hinting at Victoria Secret at that less is more comment? Joking Joking all parents out there. But the only time I hear Todd talk less is more is home decorating and make-up. And being that I wasn't wearing any make-up from the first clue I narrowed down my guess. So off to the mall we went where Amy handed me another card from Jen(love you Jen) who set up an appointment for me at Benefit to get my make-up done and 50 dollar Gift Card for products I might want to buy. I am thinking at this point what an awesome day and it can't get any better, right?




After make-up the next clue awaits in the car again.
Clue #4 :
Finishing touches are so very key, these next 20 paint jobs are for each of you, all three. Head east on this highway and relax at this spa. Kick your feet up, put your hands out, relax and say "ahhhhhh"



We all screamed with joy knowing Cold Water Creek was our next stop!! And Amy and Summer were getting to participate during this pampering stop as well.



After we enjoyed our pedicures and manicures, there was one last clue(as of now) that led us to lunch.
Clue#5:
Now take a short walk, it's time to eat. Go to Willie's new sister, lunch is my treat.

Seriously....how amazing is my husband? This was such a great day!




As far as I knew that was the last clue. I came home and hugged and kissed Todd and said I wish more people could see me "all pretty like this". I should have known something was up when Summer got her make-up done as well.....suspicious, but I was just enjoying the moment.

So as I walk down the stairs thinking we are leaving for San Fransisco(by the way, Lilly and Drew are having a "sleep-over" at Nana and Boppa's house that night)I step on another clue coming out of the bedroom. I yell, "Todd you said no more tricks up your sleeve" even though secretly I really liked it. I mean who wouldn't really.

Clue #6
Now one last stop to document your beauty. With someone else's camera....And nothing rhymes with Melody...

And that is how I ended up having one of the best surprises of my life. My husband had every single detail planned out. Even handing Amy a paper bag with my flip-flops for after my pedicure. He sent out a fake evite to through me off because I thought we were doing a BBQ at the park the next day. I LOVE MY HUSBAND. Way more than Edward...and that is one of the best compliments I could pay Todd.

More from that lovely birthday day....

Here are some shots for that fantastic evening. It was so special(trying not to be too cheesy here) to have everyone that I love and care about in one place. Not to mention everyone looking mighty fine as well.

To add more to my bragging list about my husband....he heard me say years ago how fun it would be for all our friends to get dressed up and "go to the Oscars" So realizing that going to the Oscars was just slightly challenging, he made the closest thing happen to that. The surprise itself happened at Sonoma Country Day School(beautiful school where my brother-in-law teaches and nephew attends)and how convenient for the auditorium to have a huge projector screen for us to watch a movie...see Todd brought the Oscars to us. No,we did not watch Twilight. But I made Todd watch it with me when we got home at practically midnight. Todd watching Twilight when we got home was just one last gift he gave me that day. I will stop bragging now...


My Twilight themed cake. The key colors being black, white, and red.


Nana and Drew. Look at his handsomeness with the tie....oh and please note that Drew takes Lightening McQueen with him everywhere(see his hand). It is almost like Drew only uses one hand since he got that car from the Disney store. He might really want a cup of milk, but if he has McQueen in one hand and a cookie in the other. He says no thank you to the milk.


Billy and Elissa. Elissa...my Twilight partner. Billy is a good sport, right Billy?


The hot girls in black...Amy, Summer, Tina, and Jen


My dear Jen and me.

More beautiful people....

Sadly...I don't have pictures of everyone that was there( I promise my family was there too) but here are are a few shots of the attendees.


Laura, Pam, and Matt(Todd's younger sister and parents)


Melody and Conan


Jason and Jasmin


Sarah and Danny


Amber and Mike


The photographer for the day was Summer from Summer Logue Photography-Studios :-)