Potty Training

On Friday I asked my Mom to come up for the day and help us do some intense potty training!

It's been a long 3 days, but...well worth it when you see this little girls smile! (at least that's what I keep telling myself) :) She loves her new potty chair- which she should, because she got to go to Target and pick it out all by herself!
while we were there we also picked out some "bribery" aka gum! :) Who knew that with a little packet of gum, a potty chair and TONS of patience you could accomplish so much in only 3 days?

Too bad for Jackson and I it has been a very long 3 days and we're both looking forward to being done and moving on with life! (him mostly because he wants to be playing with the potty chair instead of Hailey sitting on it and me because I am dying to get out of the house and be able to do something besides just watch for Hailey's potty dance) :) I'm hoping and praying and truly thinking we're on the home stretch, now...we had Nani, Unca Phil and Papa over today and only one minor accident and three successful attempts at using the potty chair.

Elmo sandwiches!

Korey had to work tonight, so Hailey and I decided to do something fun and exciting for dinner:

make Elmo peanut butter and jelly sandwiches!

we both had a lot of fun...
and didn't Hailey do a great job??!

I even made one for Jackson!
(without the peanut butter)

I guess life can be fun without Daddy around...shhhhh...don't tell him we do exciting things while he's off at work! :)

127 days to go!

Psalm 127

Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it;

Unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman keeps awake in vain.

It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late,

To eat the bread of sorrows, for He gives His beloved sleep.

Behold, children are a gift from the Lord,

The fruit of the womb is a reward.

Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one's youth.

Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them;

He shall not be ashamed, But shall speak at the gate with his enemies.

Mackenzie Jolene Glorvigen

My little brother, Michael, and his wife, Sarah, had their first child on Sunday morning! They were so excited throughout the pregnancy and it was just so fun to see them finally holding and cuddling their precious little one! My brother is going to make a great Daddy- he already is!! And, you only have to look at him to see how much he loves his little girl. I think she's gonna have him wrapped around her little finger in no time at all! :)

Hailey and her great grandma had a good time investigating Mackenzie and giggling over her little noises! It was a sweet and special time to be able to take Hailey to meet her first girl cousin!

I just love babies...holding them is probably one of my favorite pastimes! Plus, this little one is doubly sweet, so that makes it extra fun to hold her! :)

she's so tiny and so perfect!

I love how first time parent's are in awe of how precious and perfect their new baby is!! Mike and Sarah are definitely no exception- you can tell they are in awe of their new baby!

the Great Grandma's sure enjoyed their newest great granddaughter!

Hailey loves her Uncle Mike and since Mackenzie is his- she loves her, too! :)

w
e

these kids...

are just growing up so fast! I feel like I blinked and all the sudden my baby wasn't so much of a baby anymore...

he has an adorable little personality and does things "just to be funny"!

and, somehow this little girl figured out how to actually walk in high heeled shoes...not sure when that happened, since her mom still has issues with that! :)

And, Hailey figured out how good fresh, homemade bread tastes! (especially if you go through the work of making it yourself...isn't her little loaf so cute??)

Plus, she learned how to be show hospitality and care about others, since she made the bread and then wanted to take a loaf to each of the neighbors! It was probably one of the proudet moments that I've had as a Mom!

Jackson also realized that he can crawl into new and exciting places and find all kinds of new trouble! He makes clearning the dishwasher much more of a challenge, but it's amazing how fast I've learned to get the dishes put away that I don't want him playing with! :)

I just love these two kids and as much as they keep Korey and I hopping I'm so thankful that God blessed us with them! They are so perfect for us and I feel like our family just fits together so perfectly! Apparently God really knew what He was doing when He put us all together! :)

so much to learn...

I've learned so much in the past 6 weeks (or so) since I saw these two little girls on our first ultrasound and not just how to read an ultrasound like a pro, all the best "twin" blogs and books out there, how to tell the difference between fraternal and identical twins, the amount of diapers that you will go through with twins in the first year, the incredibly huge weight gain I should be expecting, the words bedrest, but better things like- what true hope looks like and what living out that hope looks like in real life!

A verse in our study this week really spoke to me about how I need to be reacting and thinking about my pregnancy-

1 Peter 3:15

But sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence.

It is amazing the wide range of attitudes, expressions, and "well wishes" we've gotten from people concerning our pregnancy with the twins and I have been very convicted that often my response is very related to what I hear from each individual person. And, I have come to realize that not only does this response not help me with my attitude and doesn't glorify the Lord, it doesn't allow me to capitalize on the great opportunity that I have been given to introduce the world to the ultimate source of my hope- Jesus Christ! In the twins I have been given a great and wonderful opportunity to show everyone I meet what a life completely and utterly reliant on the Lord looks like and I need to capitalize on that opportunity! I often like to "justify" my lack of a good attitude in this pregnancy with statistics on twins or some other reasoning that I think makes some sort of sense, but in reality (I'm going to borrow Kristina Duran's words again)

"can we really be hopeful about anything temporary? It is critical that we set our hope FULLY and UNCHANGEABLY on Jesus and the grace to be brought to us at His revelation, and when we are doing that, the hope within us will radiate out to the world and will cause them to question. And when those questions come, we should be ready to answer them with gentleness and reverance."

I know that the future grace to be given me- heaven- and the grace that God gives us in this lifetime are my one and only reason for making it through any situation, but I often fail to make that a reality in my talking with others!
Pray with me that I will be more bold and more purposeful in sharing my hope with all the people I come into contact with!

Korey and I decided on Sunday that we have chosen a "theme" verse for our pregnancy (and probably the rest of our lives) and we're contemplating having it painted onto the wall of our family room so that we never forget what it is! :) (just kidding...we probably won't do that...)

It is 2 Thessalonians 2: 16, 17

Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace, comfort and strengthen your hearts in every good work and word.

God really is our only hope for making it through this life at all and it is a good reminder to me that when I feel like I can't handle my life or anything else that God says to me, "Hope in Me, Jenni, Hope in Me!" And, I am so thankful for His grace in giving me the ability to hope in Him, because on my own I don't even have the ability to not freak out and worry and have hope- I just can't get beyond my own fears without the Lord's grace!

These little girls have been life changing for all of us at this house- in the best way possible and even if we never get to meet them in person I thank God that He allowed me the incredible opportunity for growth and maturity in my walk just by being pregnant with them!

1/2 way there!!

wow! can you believe it?? We're halfway to our projected due date! I can hardly believe it myself...these last few months have been flying by. And, I'm pretty sure that's going to continue for the next few!!

I'm really happy to report that, along with being halfway there, my attitude is more than halfway there in terms of getting excited to meet these precious little ones! I don't know if it was the shock of finding out we were pregnant, the shock of finding out it was twins, the extreme sickness, tiredness or a combination of them all, but up until a few weeks ago I would have had to say that I wasn't too excited about this pregnancy. And, as far as a turn about, I'm not sure if it was all the prayers that have been uttered on our behalf, finding out the gender and finally being able to give our little girls names, or the fact that I have been working extrememly hard at actively and purposefully puttinng my hope in the Lord, but whatever the reason I can honestly say that, despite being petrified out of my mind and exhausted just thinking about it- I can't wait to hold my precious little girls and bring them home to meet their big sister and brother!

Every night before she falls asleep Hailey kisses (my belly)her sisters goodnight and says, "goodnight Maelle, goodnight Maysen. Love you, big sister Hailey"! It's probably one of the most precious things that she does these days and it melts my heart each time! Maybe it's the pregnancy hormones, the lack of sleep from getting up three or four times a night to use the bathroom, or maybe it really is just that cute, but I am almost reduced to tears each night as I leave her room!

Well, just in case you missed it and were curious- our names for the girls are:

twin A- Maelle Kay (pronounced M(long i)L)

twin B- Maysen Ann

Our mother's middle names are Kay and Ann, so the girls were named for each of them, but their first names really have no meaning- other than the fact that Korey and I heard them and fell in love with them! :)

(forgive me for not putting a picture of my face on here...it's been a long day, I have bags under my eyes, my make-up has worn off and my hair is up on the top of my head in a ponytail and no one wants to see me like that, so consider it a favor that I'm doing for you all!) :)

they're....

...I'll give you a hint- I bought these today at Walmart:

they share a placenta...

(and are laying head to foot on top of each other)

yup, they're identical baby girls!!

we're definitely thinking pink and ruffles here at our house, now!! :)

my "hope pie"

This week in our bible study we are talking about what things that we set our hope on and the author/leader had us make a "hope pie" of what we have our hope set on. As she promised, it was a very eye opening experience for me. I like to think that I have it all together, that I have my eyes set on the prize of the coming of Jesus and that my real hope is set on Christ, but she showed us through this little exercise how we can't have our hope resting on Jesus and something else- it has to be an all set on Him or we aren't truly focusing our hope on Him at all!!

Here are a few of the things that I have been setting my hope on:

not getting the baby blues when the twins come, my friends and family helping me out when the twins come,

Hailey not freaking out like she did when Jackson was born and being a good helper, me being able to handle all 4 kids!

Kristina said in our study, "when we hope in that which is temporal, our hope will be dashed" And, she is so right- if I'm hoping in the fact that I won't be depressed and won't cry when the babies come I can probably almost gaurantee that's gonna be a failure- what mom who's running on zero amount of sleep isn't gonna cry at the drop of a hat?? If I'm hoping in the fact that my friends and family are gonna help me out I will be sorely disappointed, because as much help as they can offer- it will never be enough, because I am the mom to these four kiddos and I'm the only one who will be able to fill that role! If I'm hoping in the fact that Hailey will be good that will, too, be dashed, because she's only 2. That's too much to even expect from a child that age! And, if I'm putting my hope in the fact that I will be able to handle four kids at once I know that will not work out, because there are days when I can't handle the two that I have- let alone two more!!

Kristina, again, says it better than I can,

The goal that God has for us is that our hope pie has one large piece and that piece is Him....Hoping in Him is all there is!

As, these truths, and the truths in my heart have been revealed to me this week I have been trying to hide some more verses in my heart, so that when I am tempted to place my hope in something other than Jesus and when I am plagued by the thoughts of doudt and anxiety and worry about my future and my children's future I can quickly bring to mind a verse to combat those lies!

My two new ones are:

Isaiah 25:1

O Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done marvelous things, things planned long ago.

Hebrews 10:23

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.

I'm praying that you are all hoping in Jesus and His future coming this week, just as I am praying that I am and will continue to!! :)

Little Jack

Yesterday I dressed Jackson in his new shoes and a cute little outfit and Korey and I both thought that he looked so much like Korey that we just had to take some pictures!

what do you think??

I don't really know what about this outfit makes him look like Korey- you'd never catch Korey dead in plaid anything! :)

Too bad Korey wouldn't pose for a picture with Jackson- he worked outside and was all sweaty, so he refused to get in front of the camera- so we have no point of reference, so you might just have to trust me on this one! :)

"mini-vacation"

Korey's Mom and Dad watched our kids overnight on Friday night so that we could get away and do something fun- just the two of us! While we were gone I realized that I hadn't ever been away from Jackson, for a whole night!

10 months was definitely too long to go without spending some quality one on one time with my favorite man!

We definitely had a great time! We only traveled a few hours north- to Korey's favorite fishing spot- the Flambeau River, but we found some nice R & R in the little town of Park Falls! I even managed to fall asleep early while Korey was watching the Brewer game! :) (I know it doesn't sound like much of a vacation...but, these twins exhaust me and just getting an extra hour of sleep would have made the whole trip worth it!!) :)

We did do other things, though! We ended up getting up rather early- go figure- I think our kids have ruined us ever sleeping in again- and were on the water fishing by about 7:30 and fished for 1/2 the day, before heading home to pick up our kiddos. It wasn't a super long time, but we both managed to get picture worthy small mouth bass and Korey's great accomplishment was that he got me to hold mine for the picture- apparently after having babies and changing diapers and catching throw up with my bare hands holding a fish just didn't seem like that big of a deal, anymore! :)

I truly just enjoyed the chance to catch up with Korey and spend some actual "downtime" with him! It seems like we tend to just run and run and run when we're at home, so it was great to be "stuck" together, with nothing else to do but talk while we were driving and fishing! I didn't even read one part of the book that I bought just for the occasion- we just fished and talked the day away! :) We even managed to talk about something other than the twins for a few hours of our trip- pretty amazing, considering they have taken up a considerable amount of both of our "thinking" time lately! :)

Thanks, again, Mom and Dad for taking our precious babies for us! We love you and appreciate you!!

16 weeks 5 days

Never before have I been so "in tune" with how many days pregnant I am! And, never before has a pregnancy gone by so quickly for me! It's strange that the two of those can exist side by side, but this pregnancy is definitely flying by- almost too quickly- and I feel like each day I'm poignantly aware of how many weeks and even days I am pregnant! (and, conversely, how many more I have to go- 2 weeks and 2 days until I'm half way there...kinda nice to be able to shave off two weeks right off the bat, huh?!)

We had our first real doctor's appointment yesterday and it was so great to see the babies kicking around and covering each other up. The energetic one kept covering up the one that was just sort of hanging out...it made me giggle- even in the womb they have different personalities! I guess with each appointment that we have we're going to do a little in office ultrasound just to check on the little ones and see how they're doing, which will be kind of nice. There's just something reassuring about seeing your babies and seeing their little hearts beating and their little legs moving!! We learned a lot more about having twins, yesterday, too...a few things that surprised us and a few "disconcerting" things, but mostly just really exciting and fun things! :) One of the things that our doctor did tell us to plan for was some sort of bed rest- even if it doesn't mean just laying in bed, we should at least have a back up plan for sometime around the middle of September on to give me a break and get me off of my feet for a few hours a day! I think that was definitely a shocker for me...I was expecting that at some point I'd have to start taking it easy, but that was a lot early than I was anticipating...along with that was the revelation that I am going to be looking like I am 40 weeks pregnant around that time, too, so that didn't help me feel much better about the situation! I knew I'd be bigger, but it didn't really hit home how much bigger until I realized that, right now, I am measuring at 20 weeks and in only a few short months I will be measuring at 40 weeks, but then will have a whole nother 2 months to grow before I get to deliver my babies! Yikes...it does sort of make me wonder why I complained so much with Jackson at the end...and want to take it all back! :)

But, on the happier side of things- I did learn that I should be able to do a natural birth, just like the other two, so that took care of one of my biggest worries or fears. And, our doctor, who has a set of girl/girl twins said that his are 5 years old and they went on vacation for the weekend and he was actually able to say, "wow! that was really fun", so we know that there is hope and that there will come a day that we can say that we will enjoy spending time with our kids and a day that we will actually want to/be able to take them all on vacation! :) (hopefully it will come before 5 years from now, but if it takes that long I'm willing to ride it out to get to the good part!) ;)

Thanks for taking this journey with me! I'm so thankful that I have such great support from my family and friends! It makes having twins so much more exciting and enjoyable to know that I can share all of my news with people that care!

Fun Fabulous Fourth of July

We had some friends over to celebrate the 4th of July with us, yesterday, and we all had so much fun! In fact, the kids got completely worn out- not that you can tell from these pictures or anything, though... ;)

Korey wanted the kids to have some "fireworks" and I told him he should get some "safe" ones...apparently sparklers are now considered safe- in a Dad's world, anyways! :)

good thing the kiddos enjoyed it and Hailey even took the "careful" idea pretty seriously (after she put it above her head and had an ash fall on her ear, that is) ;)

isn't this guy just a little "ham"?? He truly enjoyed his first 4th!

(yeah, that is a mosquito on his head...oops! poor baby Jack did get eaten alive yesterday)

One of the guys that Korey works with had horses in the parade, so he allowed the kiddos to take a little ride around on one of them! I think that was pretty much a highlight for both of them- and, poor Brielle felt so left out...she wanted to ride one so badly!

waiting for candy at the parade!

Hailey and Jack playing with their toys before the Bretl's came over!!

I can't believe how much more fun celebrating holidays are now that the kiddos are big enough to enjoy them! Even Jackson loved watching the fireworks and it just made it so much more enjoyable to watch them enjoy it all!! Makes me wonder how fun next year is gonna be with two more little ones- the more the merrier, right?!

I do feel like sometimes we get so caught up in "living life" that we forget the reasons why we have the 4th of July! I'm so thankful for the freedom we have as Americans and am incredibly thankful for our founding father's who fought for that freedom and created the backbone for this amazing country that we live in!!