Mess... Glorious Mess!

Aubrey loves when her big sister shares toys with her... but sometimes the "sharing" gets a little outta control...

"Look, Mommy! I shared with Aubrey! Yea Kenzie!"

This is what I get for doing my devotions while they were awake! Every single toy in their room was on that bed!! But they were so happy for 20 mins and so was I... I think it might have been worth the clean up!

This precious little girl is Jamie's Liv! Her hair was done by Moi... Jamie would never desecrate (her word, not mine!) her daughter's head like that! But Liv smeared cream cheese in her hair at lunch and I felt inspired to create this masterpiece!

"Look Mom! New Trick!"

I love this little girl's expressions!

They are starting to interact more... and they are really good at sharing with one another!

They made another huge mess together... but again the happiness is worth the clean up! I love how Liv and Aubrey both have something in their mouth in this picture! The three month age gap between them is closing quickly... they are doing everything about the same now... almost standing, putting everything in their mouths, saying Mama, waving bye-bye... it is so cute! What a joy to raise little girls with my life long friend!

Some Videos for Ya

Deutoronomy 6:6 says to impress God's Word on your children and this week we've been focusing on some very important verses from Ephesians...

Ephesians 6:1-3 "Children, obey your parents, in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and your mother. (This is the first commandment with a promise) That it may go well with you and you may live long in the land."

We've been working on these verses breakfast and lunch every day this week. Here's what we've got so far! I'm quite impressed with what her little mind can contain and her little mouth can parrot... I think we've got a long road ahead of us before these verses take root in her adorable little sin-filled heart! If you doubt that... just watch the way she treats her sister in the next video ;)

Life in Abundance!

Some pictures I was playing with. I printed them out to frame for their room, but I'm not thrilled with the contrast I put in Mackenzie's.

I really like Aubrey's though

I babysat for some of my friend Kim's kids on Thursday last week... Kenzie LOVES Joshua and "KLove" (Caleb)! Here she is dressing up for her handsome prince Caleb!

We had real live big sister's that day! Hannah and Emma did a great job dressing Aubrey up!

Here they are getting her on a princess chair!

I know it's not a great picture of Aubrey, but I think Hannah looks beautiful so I had to put it up! Hannah wore this outfit here all day... I love little girls!

Aubrey is so busy pulling herself up on everything! She can stand for a few seconds by herself too!

What keeps my children so entertained you wonder?...........................

Why "I Love Lucy" of course! Kenzie asks for it! What two-year-old asks for a black and white comedy?? The two of them sit enraptured for at least one episode! It cracks me up! For the record, lunch in front of the tv is a treat... for them... and for MOMMY!

I have to tell you what I love about this last picture: First off, I love that it is Jake... how can someone grow more attractive to you the longer you know them? We've both been noticing lines starting to appear on our faces and it makes me excited to imagine growing old together with him, he is going to be such a handsome old man someday! Then I love that it is a picture of him relaxed and reading a book. I love that he's got his favorite crackers in his hand flashing his wedding band. I love that our baby is capturing his eyes as she crawls sweetly in the background. It is just a snapshot of some of my favorite parts of life right now!

Our Valentine's Day

We started our Valentine's Day preparations this week when we made a "craff" (craft) for daddy. We decorated our whole house with hearts and talked about "love day" all week!
Today two of my teacher friends were off and we had so much fun having a play date together!


Mackenzie and Aubrey love their friend Maddie! Maddie and Aubrey were due on the same day!

Today during nap Mackenzie snuck out of her "big girl bed" and took out her "'puter"... I had to take a picture before I dealt with the sneakiness issue... it was too cute to pass up! It was one of my hardest mommy moments not to laugh when she started screaming, "No! No! I need to check my email! I need to check my email!!"

We postponed of V-day celebration until tonight. We got all dressed up for Jake and greeted him at the door in our lovely attire. I had beautiful dresses picked out for the girls months ago, but Mackenzie insisted on dressing herself for this occasion and I let her. This is what she came up with!

Jake saw Aubrey and he said, "There's my modest girl!" She looked adorable in the overalls and pink skirt her sister picked out for her! Here she is showing her daddy her pretty skirt and feeling ever so proud of herself!

While Jake got cleaned up from work, Mackenzie decided on an outfit change because she needed "heels" like Mommy!

We had a beautiful candle lit, heart shaped dinner!

I made mini heart shaped meat loaves, heart shaped rolls, pink mashed potatoes... and green beans (since I'm still a mom even on V-day!)

Our not so happy Sweetheart! She didn't like her meat loaf very much!

After dinner I put on the song "Cinderella" by Stephen Curtis Chapman and Jake danced with his girls... He is such a good sport about our fussing over him!

Aubrey's dance turned into a ticklefest! She would lean her head back so Jake could blow raspberries on her neck and she'd crack up and do it over and over again!

Afterwards Jake practiced his guitar and Aubrey helped him keep a beat!

Almost standing!

She did it!!

My handsome Valentine!

Jake and I have been celebrating Valentine's Day all week it seems... or maybe it's been the past 5 years ;) He is my best friend... I just can't get enough of this boy! He leads me so well, cares for my soul, listens to my heart, holds me when I need it, pushes me thru when I need it, counsels me, makes me laugh, and loves me and forgives me so unconditionally! I didn't think I could love him anymore than I did on our wedding day, but I DO... every conflict, every trial, all the laughter, memories, moments... everything keeps knitting us closer together and our love keeps going deeper and deeper! I'm lucky I'm in love with my best friend!

Our Finished Project!!

Ok... here is my bed all made with the beautiful bedspread my Mommom made for me... but in our ugly room...
We decided it was finally time to paint...


But before we got that far, we decided to get rid of the carpet. There were beautiful hardwood floors underneath!

Jake used a sander to smooth them out, then he restained them, and then did two coats of polyurethane making them all smooth, shiny, and pretty!

After we painted, we rearranged our furniture... giving us more than the little path we used to have. It's still a tiny room, but it feels so bright and cheery now that you don't feel so closed in!

All finished!

I know it is blurry, but Aubrey is quite the little mommy these days! She loves taking care of her babies with sister!

Grandmom's are the best...

Only a grandmother would buy a marshmellow lollipop as big as her granddaughter's face as a reward for potty training! The rule should have been that she had to eat it at your house, MOM!

There sure weren't any accidents today though with that lollipop as the motivation!!

More Snow!

Well, we thought we had the worst snow two months ago, but apparently this blizzard is the second worst snow beaten only by the blizzard of '96!! We have awesome neighbors that helped us dig out with their new snowblower and we are very grateful that we're not one of the 100,000 of New Jersians without power! So we are staying in, finishing a home project that I will post when it is finished, and trying to keep the girls occupied!

We've had to pull out the nebulizer again because they both have really bad coughs... Kenzie is so good at "being a dragon"...

Even though neither of the girls feel good, they are still being amazing! This is Kenzie "helping" me unload the dishwasher!! Whenever she helps it seems it takes me 10 times longer, but I love her heart! She came running to me, "Mommy, what color [spoon] do you want?" and I told her I'd like a pink one... she sorted out all the pink ones and came running to me again (she doesn't walk anywhere, she kinda skips/dances) and said "Which pink one?" I was so proud of her... she is always amazing me with what she actually knows!

Before the snow really set in on Saturday night, the girls and I headed out to Lowes to pick up some needed supplies for our project. This was Aubrey's first time sitting in a cart like a big girl!! She was so proud of herself she kept saying, "Yay! Yay! Yay!"