Two big 3 year olds!

These girls are 3...how is that possible???!! Where did the time go??

 I feel like it was just yesterday that we were finishing up our thanksgiving dinner of peanut butter and jelly, enjoying our last day as a family of 4 and looking to our future with a bit of fear and trembling.

And, now, here we are a happy family of 6- dealing with newborn twins is a distant memory, our hospital stays are (hopefully) behind us, life has taken on a bit of a routine. we are getting into the rhythm of 4 kids- in fact some days it is downright easy...but, we still live on peanut butter and jelly and we still look to the future with fear and trembling...who wouldn't with 4 teenagers to come. :) 

3 years ago Korey and I were on our way to the hospital and I was in for the longest, but best labor of my life! I still can't really believe I made it to 37 weeks carrying these little buggers. I can't believe I was able to deliver naturally without any complications. It was all God. He just gifted me again and again with these two! In more ways than I could ever count. I know that Korey still considers the day we brought these two home from the hospital the proudest day of his life...I, on the other hand, will never forget the day I got home with two babies and for the first time in my life had to think about how I was going to carry two carseats into the house at the same time- or make the choice of who to take first and who to come back for. (Korey had stopped to get us dinner and pick up a breast pump for me) I will never forget the amount of tears that I shed over these two precious babies or how much God used them in my life to shape and grow me. I think I love them so dearly because I know how much they cost and would do it all again in a heartbeat. On the day I found out I was carrying twins my whole world changed. I cried- like all out bawled ugly tears in my doctor's office. The nurse gave me a popsicle and a tissue and was worried I wouldn't make it home safely. I lived in a fog for days, after that. Even just the thought of caring for two babies at one time seemed more than I could handle. But...after months of "house arrest" and weeks of bedrest I knew God wasn't gonna leave me stranded. Today, I can say that I'm not the same girl that sat in her doctor's office and cried over weaning her tiny baby so she could help her twins grow. I'm not the same girl who lamented the fact that she'd go to Target without make up or showering. Today, the day my twins turn 3, I'm stronger, I'm tougher, I'm older, I'm wearier, I'm more broken, I'm changed. And for that, I'll never be able to thank God enough. God met me in the weariest, most broken hours. It was there- in the days of little to no sleep- that God reached down, pulled me to Himself and helped me carry on. I've never needed God like I did when I had two newborns, a 14 month old and a 2 year old to care for. And, I love Him all the more because He was there when I needed Him. He was there when no one else could be and I know- 100% that I am alive and well- still smiling, hugging, loving and caring for my 4 precious kiddos because of the grace that God showered upon me.

 

There's just something special about these little self avowed "best friends"! They love each other so much- but will fight each other pretty much to the death for something that's theirs! We hear "I have to go potty" about 640 times a day. They love to eat lunch at school with hailey, but eating is only secondary- people watching and giggling is the real reason we all love to go...that and fighting over who gets to sit by hailey. Pink is still Macy's color and purple is elli's. I love that their colors are still theirs! 

Happy birthday my sweet baby girls!!