Daddy is...

Soooooo PRETTY!!!!!!

Dress up dIvA!!!!

The girls turned 16 months yesterday and refused to pose for a picture so I'll try to get that this week.
I did want to share this:

At 15 months Cosette was digging through her sisters dress up box and getting out several different outfits for me to put on her.
Remember last post with Elizabeth and shoes? Insert dress up and Cosette and it's the same thing. I really think this girl is too funny!
Dress up at 15 months?
Girly girl to the core!

Miss Goodie two shoes

Someone else is working on her own accessory line.
If I leave shoes out, she will find them.
If she finds them she will want them put on.
If she can't do it by herself she will find me.
If I don't do it fast enough she will get upset.
If they are put on she smiles.
If they are on for more than 5 seconds, she will take them off.
If they are off her feet, she will hold them up to me to be put on again...
...repeat..... :)

Having it all together

Ladies,
This one is for you.
Today I saw a sweet friend in the parking lot of The WalMarts. Now I don't see her all the time, but I did run into her last week at Lowes too. I was with John the other day and he had some of the girls and today I had them all by myself. She commented how big Gianna was, how she hadn't seen me with all of them by myself, and how it seems when ever she sees me I seem to have it all together.
Y'all I laughed out LOUD!
All together. Ha! Boy do I ever have her fooled.
I told her, "You know that's not true and we can't say that about other women."
She laughed and agreed. I then told her about my trip to Michael's yesterday. About how I got everyone dressed and out the door before 10 o'clock. I shopped and looked at what I needed to and went to pay. I had a nice discussion with the checker about getting to use both coupons- the whole reason for going to the store. Then (Do you know where this is going?) I put my hand in my purse to get my wallet and guess what? It wasn't there!!!!! I about lost it at myself. I had given myself a little mommy high five after I even got sippy cups for everyone. But no wallet to pay! HA.
So my point is this, We HAVE to stop comparing and holding ourselves up to this invisible incredibly impossible standard of perfection in mommies. I'm using my sin and failures to tell my girls that I'm not perfect. I need forgiveness and Jesus just like they do.
I actually did try to strive to have it all together. I thought that was what good mommies had to do. Then I had twins.
And Jesus showed me that it's OK to let someone help hold the door. It's OK to "borrow" a snack because you forgot to bring food for your children. It's OK to just be. It's OK to ask forgiveness from your three year old because you hurt her feelings yelling at her about something that wasn't her fault.
Here's what Paul said:

2 Corinthians 12:8-10

⁸Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. ⁹But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. ¹⁰That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Thanks to all my friends who do share and laugh and help me. We are in it together- this sisterhood of mommydom. We need each other as perfect examples of how to fail.

The Girls' bathroom "all together."

Did you Celebrate?

Did you know today is national Day?
We celebrated this morning. YUMMY

Craft Time

Gianna and I have craft time just about everyday. Last week we decided to have it in the morning. Elizabeth and Cosette decided to join in on the fun and create some masterpieces of their own. We all had a good time. I did, however, have to separate Elizabeth and Cosette very shortly after this photo was taken. It seemed that not only did they want to share crayons, Elizabeth wanted to draw on Cosette's paper. Cosette was NOT a fan of this and let ALL of us know about it. It's has been a little challenging to keep three little girls occupied in the mornings now that the babies have dropped their morning nap. And it seems that Elizabeth has decided to give Cosette extra "love" touches. "Soft hands" is a phrase that gets said a lot in our house these days! Along with the ever popular "It's OK. You are OK."
They have come along way since May- the last time I was brave enough to let them try it. This time they colored and really did it for a while until they ate the crayons. We used the first crayons from Crayola. They are super fun to use and they are washable (read if you try to eat them they leave a color trail all over!)
Elizabeth liked to try out her new teeth and take chunks out of her crayon. Cosette just liked to suck on hers. She had the orange crayon so a couple of times I was sent into shock as I glanced at her mouth at what I thought was a baby emergency.
Always a party with the Ludlow Ladies!

MmDonals

Today I took my 3 little ladies to McDonald's- alone. This is not a feat I usually attempt by myself, but between a playgroup down the road, and dentist appointments for John and I, it was a necessity that had to happen.
Since Elizabeth and Cosette we busy big kid watching, I had some time to just listen to the sounds of the McDonald's playroom. I just thought I'd share with you some things I overheard while I was there:

Anything else?
Can I help you?
Mine are independent now.
Wow, you have your hands full.
You have to keep your shorts ON!
No taking off your clothes.
Mom, he's bleeding.
You are so brave.
Dial it down a bit.
There was a lot of kids right there.
I don't like the Batmans.
I don't know how you do it.
Mmmmmmmm
Shhhhhhh.
Watch over your brother.
No shrieking.
I like my special drink.

And MmDonals is how Gianna says McDonald's right now and I just love it!

Swing Time

We have great trees in our new house. Just not the kind that have low branches to hang a swing from. So my creative wonderful, crafty husband, went all out and figured out how to hang TWO swings on the back porch.

Enjoying the swing time!

Get high with a little help from my big sister!

Embroidery Night 2010!

I had the most fun last night hosting a few gals over for Embroidery Night 2010.
(I do so hope you said that in your head with the same voice as the Monster Truck rally commercials. You know-"Sunday, Sunday, Sunday. Come see the Big Monster Trucks." If you didn't happen to use that voice, could you go back and read it in your mind in the monster truck voice? It will make you smile when thinking about ladies drinking iced coffees, sewing and monster trucks all at the same time!)
I just wanted an excuse to have fun with the gals and use my monogram machine. I made a Lemon Blueberry Bunt cake, and a Chocolate Cake with Truffle Icing! Oh my, was that good! We had some iced coffee (105 degrees does not cool off much at night) and lots of fun fellowship. I enjoyed bribing my friends to hang out with me! We had a blast and just a fun excuse to hang out on a Tuesday night.


Chatting it up!

Having Fun in the wet bar.
It's John's Man land and he was quite upset that I put pink flowers in there. Sorry dear. It was for Embroidery Night 2010!!!!!!



(You said it in the monster truck voice that time didn't you?)

UGGGGGG

Cannot get a video to upload. Rest assured that I have some cute videos and will by golly, get them available for your viewing pleasure.
In the mean time Talk amongst yourselves.
Here I'll give you a topic: I have lots of other obsessions along with school supplies.
I have the need to have about 100 rolls of Toilet paper in the house at all times, along with 3 FULL containers of dishwashers soap.
Anybody else want to come clean with their over buying ways?

Would you like to wish on a star?

I had read about the meteor shower and thought it would be fun to see it. Last night John and I just went outside and had a mini date.
We lay on the front sidewalk and just looked up in the sky and we were awed.
We actually saw the skys move. It was really cool. We saw a few and we have a street light at the end of our drive way. It was really really really cool. Just to look up at the heavens and know that the Lord God created it all. A-Ma-Zing.

Psalm 33:5-7

⁵ The LORD loves righteousness and justice;
the earth is full of his unfailing love.

⁶ By the word of the LORD were the heavens made,
their starry host by the breath of his mouth.

⁷ He gathers the waters of the sea into jars ^a]">[a] ;
he puts the deep into storehouses.

Sweetness

Hot

No new news for you fellow Texans. It's HOT here!!!!!
I had to laugh a bit at myself when I looked at the car thermometer as it said 90, and I thought to myself, "90 is nice. It feels cooler today."

We had a play date at a fellow mom of twins house this morning and had a good time. We all went outside for about 5 minutes. Elizabeth was sweating all over her head and Cosette was turning pink! One of the other girls said, "I hot. Go inside." So we did!

The babies have dropped their morning nap. After a busy week in the nursery at VBS they decided that it was more fun to play than nap so I obliged them. It's been a little different adjusting to the new schedule. Bye bye forever my morning email/blog check/get a shower and get ready for the day time. But hello to new adventures and more fun time together! (read that as, "Hello to mommy running more morning errands! Hurray!!!!!")

And August always means the start of the year for me. I think that it's really when you should celebrate the new year. New things start. New changes. Summers doldrums and oppressive heat are finished and fall just celebrates the harvest and the promise of what's next. Yay Fall.
I've also decided to officially stop shopping for crayons and markers. I have more than enough to give to Operation Christmas child, keep two toddlers and a preschooler well occupied and more than enough to start my own crayon supply store.
Anyone else have a school supply addiction?

accessorized

This girl knows how to work an accessory...

Baby Steps

Friday Cosette AND Elizabeth took their first steps.
Cosette took a couple of steps three different times. I got this one on video.
And not to be outdone, Elizabeth decided to give this stepping thing a shot too. She took her first two steps on the SAME day! It was her only attempt and no visual recording was made. But oh how fun that they both took their first steps on the SAME DAY!

I apologise for my loud high pitched excitement mommy voice.

Play room Redo!

We finally have painted a room. Not the crackle one, but the playroom. I know you are disappointed but I really look at the playroom color ALL. DAY. LONG. So something had to be done. So we did it. We took the benefits from our garage sale and spent it all on paint! We went to our NEW Lowes only seconds away from our new house and got the paint and all the supplies we would need.
We decided that we would go in stages and do a little bit each night. It was more effort cleaning up every day, but it really helped not being so tired and we took our time on each wall.
I wanted to get in a paint war with John but he was all "Let's get to work" and "Let's do this right."
He did the rolling and I did the edging. I could get into a whole analogy about how that is a metaphor for our marriage, but let's just leave it at that.

The before:

It looks a little more orangeie here, but it's more of a terra cotta color.




Day one


The halfway


Ahh finished! And, oh look- lived in too. I'm still working on that "magazine" look. Anyone got tips on how to train the children to look at the magazines and keep the playroom clean?

The warm part of your heart

When this girl tells me. I love Jesus Momma. It just warms the whole heart.
When she tells me she likes to share with her sisters, I rejoice!
When she tells me I love you Momma. I hug her close.
When she says, "I like Bacation Bible school," I smile from ear to ear.

15 months!!!!

I cannot believe that my babies are 15 months old. They turned 15 months on the 29th of July.
SO BIG now!!!
Cosette weighs more that Elizabeth. No one is walking yet, but they both are cruising everywhere.


As good as it gets with my camera folks. They are just too fast!

Elizabeth you now have FOUR teeth, Your top two teeth are growing and have finally broken through. You like to walk with the walker, and will sometimes let mommy walk you while holding your fingers. You like most food, but rally LOVE strawberries. You are content to sit and play for long stretched at a time. Daddy is your favorite person by far right now. You still are our cuddly bug and I love to sit and cuddle you. You only like to be held while standing up and mommy gets tired of that, but Daddy will do it for longer. You love to point. And boy of boy do you LOVE your lovie. You so enjoy splashing and bath time. When someone takes something away from you you will let them know by raising your voice or wiggling angrily. You are really good at using your fork and spoon. And any cup that is within your reach you will be drinking out of it. Especially your big sisters' ones.


Cosette you have two new teeth too. That brings your total up to 8! Your hair still sticks straight up but you have become a lover of all hair accessories! You can say the word bow and when you see one you "request" that it be put in your hair. You also like to point. You point at bows, balls and dogs. You seem to overnight get over your fear of dogs and now really really like them. You call dogs a ball. You like to put your plate on your head when you are done eating. You still like to put your dirty hands through your hair too! You do not like to walk with mommy's fingers and much much much more prefer to be held by mommy. Your favorite person is mommy and you will monkey hold on to me to not be passed to anyone else. You like to make noise. Loud noises! You will shriek and bang on things. The louder the better. You are a fun chatter box!

I love you my babies. Keep growing!
Psalm 1:3
She is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever she does prospers.

VBS

VBS 2010 A week long excuse for adults to have a toga party!


Our Market Place crew


My little shop- Mosaics
This group especially loved the glitter!

I LOVE VBS. I do for so many many reasons. But one that I always remember was my first one that I can remember. Mrs. Beaman loaded up the neighborhood kids in the station wagon and we all rode (without seat belts I think!) to her church. I don't actually remember anything about that VBS. There was no cool coliseum or aqueduct there, but I do remember her kindness in taking us and how I thought the wordless book was SO cool. I see kids at our VBS and am reminded that OVER half of Christians today made decisions to follow Jesus in their childhood. And VBS is a huge part of that.


Thanks Mrs. Beaman.

Friends Romans VBSers....

It's Paul and the Underground Church this week for VBS. I'm in the marketplace making mosaic picture frames.
I'll have more pictures tomorrow when I actually remember to bring my camera!
Today was so great and fun. It was rushed as we helped 400 kids with crafts! Pray that these kiddos would hear and receive the gospel.
But I have to say the morning was a little dampened when right before I went to leave the house I look in the trunk for our stroller. It was not there. No worries John may have cleaned it as they went to the park and Gianna fell into the pond yesterday. "I was too close Daddy." Next time "I be very very careful."
So he was a little distracted. He got all three kiddos in the van but not the stroller. Major bummer!
Thankfully we have a great community and know lots of twin moms who are willing to lend their strollers. If you see anyone sporting a new orange twin stroller let me know!!!!!!