Day Visitors and Loft Dwellers

This past week we were excited to see two of Aaron's family members that we hadn't seen in a long time.  Uncle Ralph spent two nights with us while working in the area.

  Aunt Margaret (and her friend), stopped in for the afternoon. 

Seeing them got me thinking about how often this house of ours has hosted guests.  We've only lived in Tri Cities for a year and a half and I don't believe an entire month has gone by that my children haven't gotten to have a visitor to play with.  Now our guest room is the loft space above our garage and it has a queen size bed,  a tv,  a half bathroom and a closet-  the best digs we've had to offer yet but visiting us means you have a lot to put up with, like....

You can't walk around empty handed.

 

You can't just sit around and watch t.v

There's no respect for your property...

 

or your food....

 

or your drink....

There's always somebody underfoot.

You have to share the toys...

and the newspaper...

And let's not even talk about how all the good snacks keep disappearing! 

A house full of talkers!

Before they turned two our boys had several words they would say and could tell you a variety of animal sounds.  Most of the talking we heard was asking them to repeat or say a word.  Lately their talking has exploded and they're both speaking sentences and making us laugh everyday.  Ben has a huge vocabulary and likes to repeat everything we say.  He often will elaborate on a simple question with "yeah I do," or "yeah go to park, yeah."  He sort of reminds me of the guy from the movie Rain Man.  Tommy is our outgoing talker and uses lots of funny expressions.  Lately he's taken to calling everyone grandma.  It started when he noticed we have pictures of our beloved grandmas on our picture wall.  He startled our neighbor who's only in her forties and just tonight I overhead Aaron,  while reading bedtime stories,  say "no that's not Grandma,  that's Jesus."

Some other things we've been hearing are:
Ben:  "What are you making Ben?"  "Soup"  "What kind?"  "Yellow!"
Tommy: "I want sowwa" This means share some of your coke with me.
Ben: "Ball Higher!"  This he says to Aaron whose supposed to throw it on the roof so it can roll down.
Tommy: "Mama's coffee ha ha"  Mama's coffee is hot...  I wish this kept them from trying to sample.  When I picked them up from the church nursery they told me they were talking about coffee!
Ben: "Boy oh Boy"
But by far my favorite is when you ask both of them what their sister's name is it's:  "BaaBEE"

Sentiments and Valentine's

Happy Valentine's Day.  As I write this I'm enjoying a few dark chocolates and a glass of 7 deadly zins.  It was the chocolates that prompted me to write this blog and dedicate it to my Valentine,  Aaron.  My dad always bought me a box of chocolates on Valentine's Day.  He usually ate half.   I was happy to share.  Aaron,  before I had this box open you were asking for one of the mint truffles.  I was happy to share,  though I have to laugh because you must have picked out two on purspose.  Maybe it's because I had such a good dad growing up that I chose such a good husband.  Though I suppose the bigger picture of life lies in the promise of Jeremiah 29:11.  This time of year always leaves me feeling reflective,  sentimental.  I appreciate and treasure how faithful, steadfast and fun you are.  I remember our first Valentine's Day,  2000.  I wore a dress for the first time for you and you told me I looked incredible.  Not a bad way to start....  Two years later,  after Valentine's day, I left my first job which at the time seemed devastating to me.  You were so calm and pushed me back into the professional world to look for another one.  I needed someone to do that.   I went on to love my career.  Living in Austin,  away from everyone we'd known you were truly my best friend.  Lots of great memories there.  Three years ago,  at this time,  finding myself at fertility clinic trying to figure out what was,  or rather wasn't, going on wasn't what I'd planned on.  I was ready to be called Mommy.....  you never wavered in your faith that we'd get through...we did- with twins!  The following year I tearfully asked if you could stay home from work with me because our slightly colicky baby and his brother felt like too much.  We spent Valentine's day eating lunch at a Panera Bread with two carseats crammed in the booth.  Now they're  happy, wild toddlers and we survived.  And that brings us to last year around this time we discovered there was going to be another one earlier than I thought I would have wanted.  You were happy and reminded me that this was a great, amazing thing happening.  If you haven't noticed she's beautiful-  and she SLEEPS good!  I love you babe.  Here's to many more Valentine's.

She's a smiley one!

Our Rachel is now three months old (it's gone so fast!) and has been smiling for a few weeks now but tonight is the best example that we've caught on film.  She laughed last weekend for the first time and has been easy to get laughing again.  Though it was Daddy that she laughed at first it's Mommy that gets the most smiles and laughs.  The boys are crazy about Aaron so it's only fair that I get one!

 

Here she is warming up.... 

 

Here's a good one!

 

Apparently she likes the song, "Here she comes, Miss America."

 

 

Hopefully we can get her dimples documented soon.  She shares a cleft in her chin, a DeYoung trait, with her brother Ben but she's the only one that got cheek dimples.