Happy Mothers Day 2015

Mothers Day. It always brings up so many feelings. I vividly remember when I was trying to have my babies. Mothers Day I simply dreaded. I hated going to church, I hated going out to eat. Mothers were everywhere, being celebrated and cherished, and I was just wondering if it would ever happen to me. 

Then it did :) and I'm a lucky lucky girl. 

On 2015, here are my thoughts on this Mothers Day. 

1. I think about those soon to be Mothers, who haven't yet been able to experience motherhood but want to so desperately. Please know I've been in your shoes and I know how lonely and sad you are today. I hope you get your dream soon.

2. I think about my sweet friends who have lost their moms way too soon. I know how hard Facebook will be for you today seeing all the mom posts.  And I hope you'll have a wonderful day thinking about your mom and cherishing your memories. 

3. I think about my mom and her fight with breast cancer this past year. When she called and told me she had cancer I never went to "that place" - that place deep in the back of your mind where you think about a world without your mom. I just couldn't. She is the most important person in the world. And she fought it bravely and with a smile on her face and a laugh in her eyes. She finished all treatments a couple of months ago. We are so, so thankful and grateful to God and her great doctors. 

4. I think about my kids, and how much fun it is to be their mom. Being a mom has certainly changed me. I always wondered the type of mom I would become. I got many different parenting traits from each of my parents. I got reasoning, patience, kindness and love of music from my mom. I got my silliness, "having fun with the kids like a kid", love of sports, and my temper, lol, from my dad. Both of my parents did a great job raising me and my sisters. We are as close as can be in light of all our dysfunction ;) 

5. I think about if I'm doing good as a mother. I have my good days and bad days. Some days are blissful, some days are a struggle. Some days, I feel like Mom of the Year, others a complete failure. I hope my kids will look back on their life and say I was an awesome Mom. When I decided a year and a half ago to stop working so I could stay at home with them before they started kindergarten, no one told me how fast this was going to go. Like- lightening speed. Here is it summertime, and they start school in August. I hope my kids have loved this time with me as much as I've loved it with them :)

6. I think about my mother in law, and how great it is and lucky I am to have her in my life. I think about my two nieces Olive and Sutton, and how great it is to be able to share this awesome "Mom Club" with them. And to be able to witness your sister and sister-in-law become "moms"is just pretty cool. You can explain it all day long, but once it happens to them it's just magical. 

7.  I think about my daughter Jules. I hope one day that she'll want to be a Mommy. I hope she will get to experience this wondrous joy as I have. And I hope Im around to see her become a Mommy, and look at her with her babies like the way my mom looks at me with mine. I hope she will be a great mom and take pieces of me and Jake with her, and shape her into this amazing mom. 

8. I think about this day, and as all days, how truly lucky and blessed I am. Happy Mothers Day to everyone!!! 

Thanksgiving 2014

We spent another Thanksgiving down in Waverly. I didn't take many pics, but did take a couple. Im blessed beyond measure!

Things I'm Thankful for in 2014:

1. My two blessings, Josh and Jules
2. My husband
3. My business, Le Petite Maison. (www.facebook.com/lepetitemaisonshop) - it allows me to...
4. Being able to stay home with my two littles - extremely thankful for that.  
5. Two nieces, Sutton and Olive
6. Great friends
7. My crazy sisters, mom and dad, and inlaws.
8. That's my moms breast cancer diagnosis was treatable (well, hopefully) and that her chemo is almost over! - radiation is next!
9. Our home in Brentwood. It was still one of the best decisions we ever made. We gutted it and turned into a forever home. And adding location and fabulous neighbors - it's wonderful
10. My new minivan - I know that sounds shallow, but MAN I love, love that thing
11. My health - I was hospitalized last week with extremely high blood pressure. I've always had it, but got taken off meds (but now back on them big time) it was pretty scary.
12. My kids and husbands health - I know too many people whose kids are sick, going through treatments, husbands with cancer, the list goes on and on. I am blessed in this area, and something that terrifies me.
13. My kitties Gus and Zelly (can't forget about them!)
14. Our life - we are able to do so much and go so many places, and live like we want to live. I think and pray all the time about other struggling families, and those sweet kids who don't get much to eat or play with, or even people to pay attention to them.
15.  Christmastime. Im so glad it's coming. The magic and spirit of the season just overwhelms me. And now that I have kids, it's just awe inspiring. I just love it, and love seeing it through their eyes.

Happy Thanksgiving 2013!

Thankful for so many things in my life its believable. I am very blessed and very happy. I have a great husband and friend of 11 years (wow). I have two amazing, special twins that I'm so glad to have fought so hard for. I have a great family on my side and Jake's. As dysfunctional and different as we all are I am lucky to have them. I am thankful for my new niece Sutton, and although in the NICU know she's a fighter. I have a very lovely home, and have more that we could ever need. I now am finally at home with my babies and am doing some work that I truly love, although I was/and thankful for the work I did at the AHA.

I'm in a great place in my life and I'm beyond blessed! Woohoo and Word.

Flashback Friday - Not Remembering

I haven't done a Flashback Friday in a while, and since I have a few minutes, I thought I would do one. I started looking back though my Picasa web albums looking through some old pictures of the babies. It honestly makes my breath stop because this entire journey has gone so very fast. And they are only two! I can't imagine them being 5 or 6.

So, I was looking back though all of these pictures and it just makes me sad. I might be alone here, but I don't remember most of anything. It devastates me! I remember them being little, and when they crawled, sat up, etc. But I don't really "remember it", ya know? I don't remember how they crawled, and what I felt, and how they smiled, and had baby giggles. I just can't remember it. It has just gone too fast. I am very thankful for all the pictures and the videos I took. I especially love all my videos. I can at least go back then through them. Looking at pictures isn't enough, because they are just pictures. I don't remember alot looking at them. I may be so weird here, and maybe it's because I have twins. I don't know. But, I guess that's why most people decide to have other babies, no? Because they want to relive it all again because they can't remember it much. It makes me sad to know I don't remember my babies at 6 months old, but I love my babies at 2 years old. They are fabulous, and every stage is just getting better and better.

But wow, it has just gone so fast that its hard to stop and remember that exact moment when I fed them cereal for the first time. I don't remember what it felt like to hold such tiny babies. I don't remember what it was like carrying them around in my Baby Bjorn. I don't remember dressing them in onesies every day and thinking THAT was a hard. I don't remmeber Jules and Josh having reflux. While I remember Jules puking all the time, I don't remember much about it.  I have pictures, of course, but it's not the same. Man, I feel blue now :(  Sigh...makes me love, love, love that I kept this blog up and running.

They look like little furry penguins here.

Jules in her infant bathtub. I don't remember ever using this! (ok, not really, but kinda)

These were his first "shoes" he ever wore. Little sweet slip ons from Janie and Jack

Me and Jules. Man, she was so delicate and little. But, I guess she still is, lol

This was July 4th at a friend's party. Jake and I were both sporting the Baby Bjorns

Baby legs - they were HUGE on them here. Now, Jules sometimes wears them as leggings with her dresses.

Baby legs here too. Look how huge they were! And teh babes would just fall all over each other, lol

don't forget to vote!


Linking up with Jen for Flashback Friday!

2011 a year in the life of the Fabulous Baby Striblings

I have seen this over at Mandy's Blog, and thought it was pretty neato, so I decided to copy it. Plus, it WAS a great year. My babies went from one to almost TWO!!! It's kind of neat that they use their whole year as their age year as well (they turn two on Jan 8).

Anyway, here is a look back at our uber fabulous year:

JANUARY
January was a fun month for us! We turned one, and had a super fun Elvis Birthday party. I ended our monthly pics (sniff), I made some New Year's Resolutions, and we played in the snow!

FEBRUARY
In February, I started doing Weekly Photo Projects, couldn't figure out what to feed my "now toddlers", had my peeps help me with what to do with all my pictures, and started getting super excited about consigment!

MARCH
March was fun! It was starting to get warm again! We started doing Mommy and Me Mondays (which I need to start back), I posted about consignment sales, celebrated St Pattys Day, and I did a DIY tutorial on photo canvases!

APRIL
April was Easter - yay! We met the Easter Bunny, and I did my first Steppin Out Saturday. We got our one year portraits back, we went to the Masters, and I did another DIY on Bow holders.

MAY
Shoo - I have a super cute little boy. I realized poor Jules will forever be my little mini-me :). I celebrated my "line-aversary", and  we celebrated my second Mothers Day!!










JUNE
In June, I posted about a "day in the life" with the twinnies, and decided it was time for a bigger car.We surprised Jake in his office for his birthday, which was fun, and we also looked back on his 30th birthday! Jules wanted to be a diva for lunch, and she is also a super cutie. We celebrated Father's Day, and I started having to think about outfits for their 18m photoshoot. Worst thing? My harddrive crashed and I lost everything that was on it.

JULY
I went to the super-awesome U2 concert, and discovered how awesome the Dollar Store is when you have 18m olds. Josh and Gus became BFFs, and we had a pretty fun 4th of July. I remembered when I was really cool and ran the Country Music Half Marathon and also blogged a bit about what it was liking owning your own business.  

AUGUST
We hit another milestone and moved up to big girl and boy car seats.I pondered if I was a photogaholic, and  the little blog was a favorite over at Circle of Moms! Jake's sister got married, and I flashed back to lots of pictures from my past. I also went to the beach, and also participated in another surprise wedding!

SEPTEMBER
Football season kicked off, and I had a birthday! I talked about how I am obsessed with Musical Theater, then wrote a bunch more posts about college football, which I'm sure noone really cared about, lol. I also looked back on my maternity fashion, and we got our 18 Month photos back.

OCTOBER
The Nashville Heart Walk happened, and was fun. Jules cracked me up. We went to many more football games. I did a tutorial on a DIY growth Chart, and looked back on my trip to Paris last year. We celebrated another anniversary, and I looked back on our wedding! I started posting about decisions I have made as a mom, and I also did another DIY tutorial on Tutus! Um, and the babes were Mickey and Minnie for Halloween, and super cute.

NOVEMBER
I traveled to New York and to Las Vegas in November, so didn't post as much. I was super thankful for lots of things, and also did a Holiday Home Tour of La Casa


DECEMBER
I started a 25 days of Christmas posts (although didn't quite make it, oh well) Among the fab ones were The DIY tree topper, the Advent Calender,The opryland Hotel, and  my Christmas Card Display. I also showed off my Christmas Cards. I also recapped on Christmas in these three posts. It was SO MUCH more fun this year with the babes!

I hope your 2011 was as much fun as ours was! Thank you so much for reading my blog and keeping up with the Fabulous Baby Striblings! we love sharing our lives and our journey with you!

Thankful

2011 has been a wonderful year. No huge surprises, no huge disappointments. Just beyond blessed.

Thankful for:

This guy. Although we have our ups and downs, and can make each other madder than anyone on the planet, he's my best bud. Love him to pieces and would rather hang out with him than anyone on the planet. He's a great friend and a great dad. So thankful for God for putting him in my life.

My little buddy. He's a warm-hearted, easy going dude. A typical little sweet boy, he will steal your heart in a second.

This girl. Boy, she is a spit-fire. And the sweetest, smartest, funniest, spunkiest little girl you will ever meet.

Other things that top my list this year:

My family:  I don't know what I would do without them. We are all alike, and each time we're together one of us is mad. But, that's how we roll. Love them.

My in-laws: couldn't ask for better people than Jake's family. They rock.

My job: I am blessed to have a job that I love and I know makes a difference.

My friends: I am the first to admit I am the worst friend ever. I get immersed in my life and forget to touch base and call and catch up nearly as much as I need to. My friends understand that, and call me. They get it, and don't judge me for it, and I love them for it.

My online friends: Formerly dubbed "infertiles", we are now a life-long group of sisters that have been through one of the most difficult trials we will experience, and now share the bond of motherhood.

Me: I thank God each day for the life that I have been given. I don't deserve most of it. The choices that I made going through life that I thought I would regret. Those decisions lead to other paths in life. I met Jake because we lived next door to each other in college. What if I didn't move there? I moved to Nashville. We have a wonderful house, do not want for anything, and have wonderful friends. I questioned him many, many times through the hell that was infertility. I now know everything happens for a reason. I know I was meant to have twins, and had I not gone though infertility, my life would probably be different. I would be different. I am thankful for the mother I have become, than I was sceptical I would become. And I am thankful for the Mothers around me past and present who have shaped me into the mother I am. Love my babies, love my hubs, love my family, love my life.

Thankful for your votes!!