highlights

the year 2011 was a big one for the Konietzki family- with a lot of changes for everyone!
Korey and I celebrated 6 years of marriage- and, to "celebrate" we went on a weekend long "babymoon" and I got my first batch of flowers- ever!!

Hailey was potty trained!! Hooray!! :) (she also gave up her nukkie, learned to dress herself, put her own shoes on, buckle herself up, get herself a snack and lots and lots of other things)

my belly grew and grew and grew to extremely huge proportions :)

then, I "delivered" what I consider the greatest accomplishment of my whole life- twins, done all natural, only 6 minutes apart and a whopping 4lbs 13oz a piece!! :)

Korey still considers the day that we brought home our twin daughters and became a family of 6 the proudest day of his life! :) Guess that's why I love the man so much!! :)

our little baby boy- our little Korey clone- turned 1 year old this year!! (and learned to talk and walk and climb and screech and fight and all sorts of other things) :)

I hope and pray that you had as wonderfully exciting, but hopefully, a little less eventful of a year than our little family! :) (and here's to me praying for a slightly less eventful year come 2012)

5 weeks

our little m & m's are 5 weeks old, now, and here's a little bit of what they've been up to:

they love to sleep on their tummy's and I love to let them...mostly because it makes them happy and they fall alseep mostly on their own when they're on their tummy and I don't really have the time to rock them to sleep! :) (plus, you have to admit that a baby all scrunched up with her legs under her is a pretty cute thing to look at)

they're getting a little too big to fit in the swing or the bouncy seat together...although, I still can't resist putting them in there together- they're just too cute all snuggled in!

they are still incredibly loved by all of us!! we all, including Jackson, have a hard time keeping our hands off of them- they've found a way to squeeze themselves into all of our hearts! :)

these little girls are growing incredibly fast...almost too fast for me! I'm excited for them to get bigger and stronger and to be able to sleep through the night, but I'm definitely loving the snuggly baby stage, right now. They're so incredibly fun to snuggle with, right now, and I just am loving how well they both fit in my arms at the same time!

Merry Christmas!

this year we were incredibly blessed to share Christmas with Korey's brother- Will and his family! Their kids are almost the same age as ours and they had so much fun "celebrating" and playing together! It was just incredibly fun to watch them interact and play.

Jace is a year older than Hailey and Cole is 3 months younger than Jackson, so they really were able to have a good time together.

We spent the day after Christmas celebrating at my Mom and Dad's house!

our children were incredibly spoiled there and I was even able to take a nap on the couch while everyone else entertained my kids...definitely the most relaxed Christmas celebration of the year! :)

we even got the kids a few presents from Korey and I- nothing too huge or extravagant, but it was fun to see them excited about them, nonetheless!

Everyone enjoyed hanging out with Aunt Kelly! More than anything else I appreciated so much all the help that we got this year! I definitely would not have been able to handle Christmas as well if we had not had so many people willing to run after and snuggle with our children!

Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa K's was super fun, too! Hailey got to wear her new Christmas dress and she was incredibly pumped about it. When she got to put it on in the morning she ran around the house excitedly telling all of us how cute she looked and how much she loved her beautiful new dress! :)

All in all, we had some wonderful Christmas celebrations! :) We are so blessed to belong to two wonderful families that spoil us and our children!

1 month

I, honestly, can hardly believe that our babies have been here for an entire month already!!

Maysen is in pink and Maelle is in purple

aren't they cute little girls?? I just LOVE these little flowers...ok, huge flowers! ;)

Maelle Kay~ 7lbs 2oz

Maysen Ann~ 7lbs 2oz

the voice of love

a little update...

sorry to leave you all with the depressing post a few days ago...I guess I was having a very exhausting day when I composed it!! And, actually, that day my friend ended up not being able to come over and help out and it turned out to be a God thing! He does always know what I need and gives it to me when I need it. It was a great day for the kids and I to just relax and recharge our batteries- the girls were fairly well behaved and ate very well for me and the older kiddos really responded well to just having our "normal" routine back and not having anyone else in our house! But, most of all, it was the perfect day, because it was the first time since I brought the girls home that I had cracked open my Bible and spent some time with the Lord. It's amazing how hard it is to take some time out to read your Bible when you have another person in the house, it just seems to be busier than when I'm home alone. The Lord brought me full circle on Wednesday and brought me back to a verse that He had impressed upon my heart when I was pregnant with Maysen and Maelle and it, again, spoke to me and gave me the encouragement and the extra push to keep going that I desperately needed that day!

Isaiah 41:9,10

"You whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called from its farthest regions, and said to you, 'you are my servant, I have chosen you and have not cast you away: fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with my right hand.'"

I know that my attitude had not been right about mothering my beautiful little brood of children and that verse was just the reminder that I needed that God chose this for me and He would not forsake me, but would help me and give me the strength to complete the task set before me!

In fact, yesterday, He gave me the grace to figure out how to tandem nurse my two littlest girls and that has been a huge time saver and given me a little bit more of my life back ;) (plus, it wears them out- as evidenced by this picture...)

I just threw this picture in because, how can you resist two little girls all snuggle in a bouncy seat?? :) both of my other two LOVED this bouncy seat, but neither of the girls really seem to like it...they tolerate it as long as they're together, but otherwise they don't really care much for it!

snuggle time!

more snuggles...just love times like this when I get to take a time out and just snuggle with a few of my kiddos! :)

since mommy has been so busy caring for the twins, lately, Hailey and Jack have really "bonded" (if you can call it that, when one minute they're snuggling on the chair and the next one of them is screaming and crying, because they're fighting...I guess I'll take what I can get) ;)

God has truly been gracious to our family and the transition to 6 has been a lot easier than I had been thinking it would be...yes, there are days where I want to throw in the towel, but there were days that made me want to quit my job as a mom before I had the twins and, yes, life here is crazy and chaotic (and noisy, if you ask my mom ;)), but I kind of like it! I don't even think I'd know what to do with a completely quiet house and I just might become bored if I didn't have so many little ones to chase after! (hahaha...ok, that might be a slight exageration, but it could happen...) :)

today...

is the first day that I have to rely on a friend to help me out with the kids, rather than Korey or my sister and it's a little scary and a little humbling!

there have been a lot of humbling things happening to me lately...so, I guess this is just par for the course, but it's just so hard to accept help sometimes! I like to be the kind of person who can do it all myself, I like to put myself out there as someone who can handle it all- I don't like to admit my weaknesses or just admit that I can't handle it all.

I think that is why God gave me 4 little tiny kids!

Korey went back to work on Monday and I almost cried, but life was too crazy to have time for that...my sister left yesterday afternoon and I went for a walk with the dog and cried...I think I cried because I was tired, but selfishly I cried because life around here is just a lot for me to handle on my own!

there are moments like this- where I get to snuggle with one of my kids...

(like when my mom and sister are here holding the other 3) but there are more moments when I am just running in 4 different directions, have 4 little kids needing me, crying or whining, begging for my time and there's only so many arms, a mom has only so much room on her lap, I only have so much time, and there's definitely not enough sleep to go around!

Last night Korey stayed up for a few hours with Maelle, who was just crabby and not wanting to sleep, and it did wonders for my body and my mind to get some actual sleep. I so appreciate him and am so thankful that I was exhausted enough to just sleep regardless of how guilty I felt with him up and me sleeping, because I did need it and it was good that I got some rest in the night, because at 3 Maysen woke up and decided to be cranky, so I was well rested and able to take care of her! It's amazing how much more time and energy it takes to care for the twins than it did for Hailey and Jack! (and, I know that it's not just me forgetting how much work the other two were...it, honestly is more work!)

"love"

I really can't get over how much our older kids love our younger kids! It just blows my mind and makes me incredibly thankful. I don't think I begged God for anything more than to just have Hailey and Jackson not be jealous and angry when the girls came home, and God graciously answered "yes" to that prayer!! They not only aren't, but they are as in love with Maysen and Maelle as we are! :)

(yes, that is Hailey wearing a Packer jersey under a princess dress...we don't even bat an eye when she comes up with her own outfits anymore) ;)

Even Jackson is really in love with his sisters...he's always wanting to help us burp them and feed them and hold them! It's definitely a little "dangerous" for our girls and keeps me more on my toes trying to keep him from hurting them on accident, but I just love it, anyways!!

Thank you, Lord, for giving all of our children a love for one another!

Great Grandmas

our little girls are blessed to have been born into such great families...and one of the biggest blessings that they have had is to meet three of their Great Grandmothers!

my Dad's mom is on the left and my mom's mom is on the right!

(I think both of them are happy that we finally have enough "babies" to go around...one for each of them- no fighting this time...hehehe)

4 generations of the "Breit" family- this is Darlene's mom with all of our kiddos!
Not only are Maysen and Maelle a huge hit with their great-grandma's, but I'm pretty sure that Maysen and Maelle love them as well! Everytime they're around the girls just snuggle into their arms and sleep the day away!! :)

the devil comes in 2T

so, I guess it's a good thing none of our kids are wearing size 2T, right now!! ;) hahaha...on some days I'm almost convinced that the devil does reside at our house and, to be perfectly honest, I'm not sure it would be much crazier if he did...

Thankfully, a dear friend loaned us her swing, just in time for some really crabby little girls and...they love, love, love it!! We just snuggled them in the wraps that she also loaned us and squashed them into the swing and it worked like a charm!

Thankfully, for Korey and I both, not every day is like today at the Konietzki house! Somedays are downright pleasant...

like the day Hailey and Korey got matching tattoos ;) (aren't they adorable?!)

and, the time we were able to snap this cute picture of all 4 of the kiddos in front of the Christmas tree!

and, when Jackson was nicely petting Maelle...that's always rare when he's not trying to touch her face, poke his fingers in her ears, touch her eyes or in some other way show her a little bit too much love! :)

or this time, when Maelle was sleeping so nicely as Maysen licked her face!

somedays Korey can even sit and bottle feed one of the babies without having to run around and chase after two other kids- break up fights or in some other way play referee!

a few times Hailey and Jackson have even sat nicely and eaten their lunch or supper at the table while Korey and I feed Maysen and Maelle!

and, on really great days the older kids even play nicely (aka- they aren't fighting over toys or trying to kill one another) while we feed the littler girls!

I'm so thankful that God did bless us with Hailey, Jackson, Maysen and Maelle...there was a time in my life where I honestly didn't know if I would ever have kids and I begged and pleaded and prayed to God for a baby and I'm so thankful that He answered that prayer with a yes! But, to be perfectly honest, I do often find myself wondering why He had to answer that prayer so quickly... ;) But, since he did I'm extremely thankful that He also gave me a husband like Korey! I feel like together we can do anything and we can handle anything- without him, though, I'd be lost and unable to handle all of this craziness- he keeps me laughing and brings some sanity to my life!

Christmas time is here again...

and, thanks to our great neighbor, Terrae, we were able to go pick up a Christmas tree with Hailey and Jackson this afternoon!

even though it was super cold outside we all had a good time
we searched and searched for the right tree and each time Korey or I picked one out and asked Hailey what she thought she'd say "no, not this one" :)

luckily, we finally did get her to agree on one!

Jack and his daddy

Hailey loved helping her Daddy pull the tree out

I love my little "older" kiddos! :) They're so much fun!

when we got the tree home we set to work decorating it! (well, after we fed the babies and ate dinner- everything takes a LOT longer these days) ;)

Hailey had a good time putting ornaments on it and Jackson...well, as you can tell he had more fun pulling on the tree skirt and ripping ornaments off of the tree than putting them on! :)

This morning Korey and I were saying that we just didn't really feel like it was Christmas around here, so hopefully having the tree will help with that!! :) At least it smells a lot like Christmas around here!