14 Months

I'm afraid that my babies aren't babies anymore. Everyday they are doing something or acting in a way that seems so grown up. Everyone has always said that once you have kids, you blink and time has passed you by. It is so true. While I have loved every stage of their development, I have to say that this stage is SUPER fun! They are constantly doing things that bring a smile to my face.

Maddox

Right now, Maddox is doing lot's of new things. She has become an expert mimicker. She loves to mimic everything...from the words you say, to the sounds you make, to the inflection in your voice. She uses this new found skill to tick her brother right off. When Lukas gets upset and starts crying, Maddox starts mocking him and he gets SUPER mad SUPER fast. She then laughs at his pain....

I'm constantly amazed at the things she says and does. For example, if I start humming the Aggie War Hymn...she will go get her Reveille dog that dances and plays the Aggie War Hymn. If I say "I'm so Thirsty" she will bring me her pretend tea set so that we can play that she is giving me a drink. Both Lukas and Maddox love this pretend play. They offer me tea over and over and over and I say "Thank you" and pretend EVERYTIME. After we brush teeth before bed, we go rock in their bedroom and read a story. Maddox will go get a book and wait by the rocking chair after her teeth have been brushed....so sweet.

When asked Maddox will give high fives, clap, and raise her hands in the air. She can identify your nose, eyes, teeth and tongue. She is very chatty, despite the fact that we have no clue what she is saying half of the time.

Lukas

Lukas is his own little person and that person is ALL boy. He answers most questions and requests with grunts. He grunts in approval and in disapproval. It is hilarious. Sometimes you feel like you can have a complete conversation with him and his grunts. You ask him something like, "Lukas do you want more chicken?" he grunts a Yuh. It's perfect.

He doesn't identify things as much or go and get things like Maddox does. I think this is a difference between a girl and a boy as well as it really isn't a desire of his to point to my nose. He definitely does what he wants to do. He has also gotten very good and going limp and allowing his arms to dangle when you try to pick him up and move him somewhere he doesn't appreciate. He loves to play in dirt and put dirt in his mouth.

Lukas will give high fives and clap when asked. He can identify your nose and teeth.

That's about all I have for you right now! I'll try to update more frequently!

Toddler Foods

As most of you know, I decided to make all of the twin's baby food homemade. Before I was pregnant, I had never even given a thought to making baby food. However, once I realized how simple it was I was on a mission to make sure that I homemade all of their baby food. I'm pretty proud to say I started it and stuck with it and never had to buy one jar of baby food.

As my kiddos have gotten older, it has definitely become more challenging to make foods that are not only healthy for them but that adhere to their special needs such as: being easy to chew, not too tough, bite sized etc. It's also hard not to get into food patterns, where I end up making the same things over and again because A) it's Easy and B) a Lack of Options

At my shower, I was given a book called "First Meals" by Annabel Karmel. It splits the recipes up by Age from 6 months to 7 years, snacks & family foods. The author has become a favorite of mine when it comes to making L & M's food. I followed her book Top 100 Baby Purees and now I utilize my new book to make their toddler foods. I like that I can double or triple the recipes and freeze the extras in meal size portions. This makes it nice when I've had a busy day to set out the food for the next day. Ms. Karmel also offers neat ideas that not only make the food look appealing, but are healthy and tasty too! You can visit her website at http://www.annabelkarmel.com/ for recipes as well.

Here are some of the things that are Sarah tested AND L&M approved (not all are from this author):

• Colorful Diced Vegetables & Orzo
• Finger Lickin' Chicken Potato Balls
• Vegetarian Croquettes
• Pancakes with Bananas, Cinnamon & Maple Syrup(so good Cody eats it)
• Root Vegetable Chips
• Spinach Stuffed Shells
• Mini Veggie Bites
• Pasta Cartwheels with Cheese & Broccoli
• Pasta & Sauce with Hidden Vegetables (soo good)
• Bow-tie pasta with ham & peas
• Chicken Apple Sausage Snails
• Apple, mango & apricot muesli
• Annabel's vegetable fritters
• Homemade Spaghetti O's
• Scrambled Eggs with Tomatoes & Cheese

Some of the foods, I had never even heard of before making them but they all get the seal of approval from my kids. If you have any tried and true recipes that your kids love, feel free to post the recipe on my comments. I love offering new foods to the kiddos.

"No Man is a Failure Who Has Friends"

The title of this post is a quote from one of my all time favorite movies, "It's A Wonderful Life". Cody and I watch that movie every year around Christmas time and sporadically throughout the year as we see fit. I thought about titling it "Snow Day", "Snowlicious", or perhaps even "Snowtastic", but the true meaning of this post comes from the title above.

Last week, Cody was out of town for work for the entire week. This is the second trip that he is taken in the last month wherein he has been gone for the entire week. I feel very proud of myself that I am able to take care of my family/"hold down the fort", while my husband is away. We miss Cody tremendously when he is gone, but ultimately, "I GOT this".

This last week produced lot's of snow. I mean if you check Facebook, Twitter or any other social network that streams status updates you would see that everyone's post revolved around the weather. Where am I going with this? Let me tell you.

On Monday night, I snuggled into my lonely bed and went to sleep. I woke up to the sound of the power shutting off. Great! I move to the guest bedroom so that I can hear the babies (without the use of a monitor). Around 7:00 am the power is back on and the kiddos are awake, so I rush around to get breakfast ready. As I flip the handle to the water, I realize our water has frozen . After checking all faucets, I find that the bathrooms are only producing cold water, there is no water in the kitchen, and no hot water anywhere (and didn't have hot water until Friday).

Around 8:00 am the power is back off, around 8:15 am the power is back on, around 9:00 am the power is back off, around 9:15 am the power is back on....UGH. So in one of the many power outages, my heater quits working. At first I hear the fan going, but when I stand under a vent it is just blowing cold air. At this point, I try to shut off the heater to stop the cold air but it won't shut off. I tuck the babies snug into their rooms for their morning nap and plug in a nice warm heater in their room. I called a company, Air Squad, to come out and fix our heater. They arrived within 30 minutes and took care of everything.

How does all this relate to my title you might ask? Well, while trying to deal with all the little issues around the house, I was overwhelmed with calls of concern and support from our friends who knew Cody was away. Our neighbors and great friends, The Pauls, called me everyday to check in and make sure we were okay. They offered their home and any other thing that I needed to help out. I also received calls from people I work with and several other friends offering help! Also, my super nanny, Morgan, stayed the night with me every night so that she could let me get some work done and help me out with the kids.

I can't help but feel truly blessed to have such wonderful people in our lives. We sometimes feel very sad that we don't have family very close, but it is times like this that make us realize we have a wonderful set of friends that are like family to us.

So I want to say a special thanks to all those who called and offered help. You are greatly appreciated. I hope that we can offer the same kind of support whenever you are faced with adversity.

"One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother." - Proverbs 18:24

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo/video - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember forever for it is etched on my heart ♥