Phone dump

In honor of my new iPhone, and the ease at which in can upload to blogger, here is a quick phone dump post of our week post Vacay! Actual Vacay post in the works!

Crib silly time!

Love those horsies!

Zoes new "glare"

See!? 

Sweet pea on her horsie playing a few tunes.

Grapes are our fav!

Sissy is finally up.....thank goodness, mommy is boring!

Cool chicks! 

Lounging.

Dinner this particular night was a lesson in dipping chips in guacamole! Hence the blanket & only bc mommy was already in nasty scrubs! 

 This is why I can't give up this night time bottle! Precious, perfect moments. But I WILL this month!! Their toes stick out of the sleep sacs too. I think it's time we shed some baby garb. Tear. 

Because some nights I sneak in and take pictures.

I just can't help it!

Nora being quirky & Zoe demanding "nanas"! Love!!

Late night bedtime stalling!

Worth it? Yes! 

While mommy looks away for.....

6 seconds! 

"Hi there little babies!" 

She got this red face syndrome from mommy.

Because they love each other!!

On our way to mops... My sweet pea!

That face. 

In the time it took me to load Zoe. Don't worry these naked vagabonds weren't getting out of the car. 

Trying to make mommy react by doing things she knows annoy me! Oh Zoe....life may be hard for you! :)

There's our week!

Always an adventure!! 

"Me time"

After becoming a mommy I heard a lot of this term. "Me time". I guess when you become a mom it becomes apparent that this sacred alone time is pretty much gone. When I worked, I didn't have much "me time" until 5pm, and then I suppose it was all about me until I walked into my office the next day. However, as this mommy thing goes on I have some thoughts on this whole..."I just need some me time" thing.

My days with the girls are so full. So fun. So wonderful. Things are kind of crazy and my house is a bit atrocious, for real. But I have found that I feel fulfilled and content with this mommy job. I have been so blessed by adopting this new idea that "me time" doesn't necessarily have to mean time away from the girls. It doesn't have to be a daily search to find a minute away from them or a girls night out every week. These things are good and necessary. I mean, I will NOT pass up a margarita and bowl of queso with friends if I get the chance and will sprint out this door and not look back. Let me assure you.

But I have been feeling convicted lately that I can include them in my "me time". We can find things to do together that make us all happy. They are only 15 months old, so I know what you are thinking. But I am talking about handing them a book and practicing all the animal sounds while we all drive through starbucks, or finding the children's story that lines up with what we are studying in our small group and reading it to them or singing songs and dancing to iTunes while I cook and they munch on grapes.

Now that I am looking for things that make us all happy, I am finding I am less stressed and worn out at the end of the day. It's not all about them but it's not all about me either. In this season of life it is about "us" and I am so happy it is! I think as mommies it is so easy to get so bogged down in the daily grind. The diapers, and fussing, and crying, and finances, and runny noses and trips to the doctor.

But I am noticing that when I am making a conscious effort to look at our days together, look at what makes us ALL happy, and try my best to not just survive mickey mouse club house, and cooking and cleaning, but actually enjoy it, I can go to bed and smile thinking about the day to come as opposed to wanting to curl up in a ball and wish a magical fairy would swoop in and be mommy for a day.

Just my thoughts today. :)

Gone are the days where I sat propped up dictating recipes to people to cook for me, water on my belly, remote next to me! But maybe I can find a happy median in this whole "me time" thing! Ha!

(found this and had to post....I was one SPOLIED pregnant person!! And, whoa there are lots of patterns happening in this pic!)

Baby selfies

How did I live 28 years without this little selfie loving face! Love that little mug!

Third & final homestudy.

'Today we updated our homestudy and as I suspected, it was no big deal. Aside from the lovely check that always seems to accompany any adoption related endeavor. 

The girls were perfect. Like, strangely perfect. They were just bouncing from inside to outside flashing big smiles and waving. They would come in sit in our laps and just smile and munch on snacks and then hop down and play on the floor. They weren't scared of the social worker and weren't trying to get her to leave assuming she was a babysitter. The women complimented them several times and even said, "Wow you are very blessed!" Yep, yes I am. 

I now have a to do list this week that involves updating fingerprints, background checks, ordering the girls birth certificates (pretty sure we should have those but we don't), physicals, and notarizing about 10 things. But man, this is NOTHING compared to the pile of stuff we had to do first time around! However, I'm pretty sure it's going to be quite a week trying to get this all done. If you would like to come and watch my children this week I will welcome you with open arms and even order you a pizza. And if you like ice cream I'll buy your favorite. With hot fudge! ;) 

So once we get this homestudy finished and my week of "to-do's" behind me, we are just waiting on our immigration appointments to have those fingerprints redone....so many fingerprints....and then we are just waiting. We are pretty much just waiting now, since they know we are about to have everything updated so I think if the perfect baby for our family came through we would get the call. So we just wait. I suppose it could be in a week or 6 months. 

Curazy!! But so exciting. Below I linked a song that came on the radio a few months ago when we were really trying to decide when we would go through with the adoption and it touches me so much and spoke SO much truth! We are by no means changing the world here, but we are trying our bests to be a light where it's needed and be like Jesus. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3IrwujyAJ4&sns=em

And because what's a post without pictures, enjoy these of the girls today! 

Zoe at the Girods riding away on her little car! 

Nora was LOVING being Sully. She stayed in this forever until she was finally sweating so much we had to take it off her! She loves a good head covering! 

Family selfie after the social worker left. I think the girls are thrilled!! But really, I believe God was with us today because I have never seen them be so nice to a stranger in our home!

Nora's new favorite thing is to lay in the baby stroller and have us swing her around! 

They will crawl onto anything! Before we knew it they were both IN the water table soaked head to toe in their beautiful little outfits. I had to snap a shot as Lance rushed over to keep anyone from busting their heads open! 

Oh girls...you keep us on our toes!! :) 

Just a typical day

Lately the girls have been a handful of fun! They are exploding with language and are just little fellow humans living in the house with me all day. They are so sweet and getting along so well, unless they are tired and then they are borderline abusive to each other, and our days are sweet! 

Here is a glimpse into our fun filled, exhausting days! 

6:30am

Little Zoe woke up with a cold she had been trying to get for a few days. She was a pathetic little, sweet soul. We wait another 30 minutes and Nora joins the fun. We have their fav, sausage and grapes for breakfast! 

7:30a.m. 

Nora enjoying her new toy. She has a current passion for building blocks! 

8:30 A.M- drive to weight watchers and shudder as I step on the scale after a week that included the eating of hotdogs, cheesecake, and a couple margaritas. Only lost .2 pounds...but at least I didn't gain right!?

10am

Playing on the couch cushions with a moment of fit throwing...not sure the cause!?

Best buddies :) 

10:30 a.m- head to work for a couple hours....time for a quick breakfast in the car & a second of calm. 

1p.m

Snackin on the banana muffin badder. They love a good bowl to lick...don't worry no raw stuff in there! 

3:30p.m quick trip to sonic for happy hour to grab a gigantic drink! Always a good end of day treat! 

4:30p.m 

Finally in the bath after more days of no bathing that I'd like to admit! 

5p.m dinner for the little monsters while I cook breakfast for the morning 

6p.m

Now time to wait for Daddy to come home and pray he doesn't care that he is literally walking over couch cushions and piles of gluten free muffins that for some reason didn't rise and the girls just crumbled all over creation. 

7-8p.m

Bedtime, diapers, teeth brushing, which is usually a breeze but our poor little sickie had trouble breathing and took lots of rocking 

8:30p.m 

Dinner for us and then a good once over of the mess that we spent the day creating! 

9p.m

Ahhhh......sitting on the couch with the rest of my diet coke and a big glass of water while I watch DVR'd movies!! 

May seem like a long day & it totally is. But so TOTALLY worth it. I wouldn't have my days ANY other way!! I really can't help but stop about 100x a day and thank God for this beautiful life!!!  

And bonus....tomorrow is Saturday and I get to do it with Lance which means much less mess and a lot more rest!!