Laney is 4!

Ok. Pretend this post isn't 2 months late.

We celebrated Laney Lou turning FOUR YEARS OLD with a small get-together at the pedicure salon and then walked next door to get some frozen yogurt. I think all the girls had a blast! I know Laney did. It's always such a busy time of year. We call it "fall frenzy." School starts, gymnastics starts, ballet starts, we do family pictures, Laney's birthday happens, Halloween happens, and then it's on to the big holidays. I'm going to have to get better at planning her parties earlier on. I'm just glad we got this on the books this year.

Just like last year, Laney completed a birthday questionnaire. Here are her answers at 4-years-old:

1. What is your favorite color? pink & purple (that answer has been a main stay)

2. What is your favorite toy? my unicorn beanie baby

3. What is your favorite fruit? apples

4. What is your favorite TV show? Dora the Explorer

5. What is your favorite thing to eat at lunch? macaroni-n-cheese

6. What is your favorite outfit? a turtle neck (Really?? I'm sure Dad will remind you of this in years to come.)

7. What is your favorite game? ring around the rosie

8. What is your favorite snack? chips

9. What is your favorite animal? an elephant

10. What is your favorite song? "my song" (Peng! 33 by Iron & Wine...another solid answer)

11. What is your favorite book? The Little Mermaid

12. Who is your best friend? Kiley & Gage

13. What is your favorite cereal? Fruit Loops

14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? jump on the trampoline

15. What is your favorite drink? apple juice

16. What is your favorite holiday? Easter

17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? "my duck, night night baby & all sorts of things"

18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? cereal

19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? cake

20. What do you want to be when you grow up? a police woman

Playin' Catch Up

Tap tap tap. Is this thing on? Hello? I'll just be honest with you. The perfectionist in me cringes every time I think about this ole blog and urges me to go ahead and delete the whole darn thing. The mommy in me, on the other hand, thinks, "Hey, at least you've got some stuff on there." I'm gonna go with the mommy Melanie.

So, since it's been a few centuries since I've written, here's some catch up on the rest of our summer and fall of 2013:

We wore a lotta matching outfits.

 We got to be a flower girl again and ride down the isle in a precious pink car.
That's right. A car.

 We figured out that ball caps are the coolest things ever.

We wore speedos all summer because we're too young to know we should refuse.

We laughed at our brothers. A lot.

We started our second year of preschool with Mrs. Neves as our teacher.

We dressed up as Cinderella and her mice for Halloween. Parker was Gus Gus.

 We had our first snow day and played outside for a fifth of the time it took us
to get bundled up to go outside. Totally worth it.

Ok. Now we're almost all caught up. And just in time for 2014!

I Love You

Brooks said, "I love you, Daddy" and "I love you, Mommy" for the first time at dinner tonight! Then Parker decided to join in and say it for his first time, too. And they've said it about 20 times since then.

My heart has melted into a puddle. Best night in a long time. Thank you, Jesus.

Baby Talk

The boys' vocabulary has been exploding lately. And most of the words they say are adorably incorrect. I know I'll forget these precious little twin-isms if they aren't written down somewhere. The only Laney word I remember is "troke-a-mote" (remote control) and that era wasn't even that long ago. What a bad memory I have. What was I talking about, again? Just kiiiidding. I'm here all week, folks. But really, I'm here all week.

Twin to English Dictionary

Putter = Peanut Butter

Nee Nee = Banana

Wah-wee = Water

Bar = Granola Bar

Poppy = Papa D

Lonny = Laney

Parper = Parker

Books = Brooks

Too Too Wain = Choo Choo Train

Car Car = Cracker OR Golf Cart

Ownt moke = I want milk

Ba Ba Ba = Yo Gabba Gabba

Ah-wight = Alright

Gwink = Drink

Wing = Swing

Bee Wuck = Big Truck

Adrenaline Junkies

Can somebody tell me when this happened? When did these babies get so big and brave?

We went to a little water park pool today and a blast was had by all. There was a huge slide.

Us adults were just standing around talking about who was going to go down with which kid, when we looked up to see that we weren't invited. They were off. And needed no help.

Their little bodies slid all over that slide! They'd start on their bottoms and end up head-first and on their bellies.

So funny. I'm so proud of these little fearless ones. I'm sure I'll wish for a little more caution as they age, but they are too fun right now!

Thanks for going with us, Grandmama & LaLa!

Our 2 are TWO!

Happy 2nd birthday, Parker & Brooks!

We had some pictures taken to document the occasion. I'm planning on doing a long post about how proud I am of our little boys individually and how far they've come in that past 2 years. But let's be serious. That may never happen. So I've got to at least get these adorable photos up on the ole blog for you to see. Brooks cried nearly the whole time, so we have very few of him by himself. And he wouldn't even touch the cake. Oh, Brooks. Luckily, though, the photographer was one of my friends and had brought her daughter with her. So she stepped in and participated in Brooksie's place. We're going to try to force them to get married one day so we can have cute pictures of them feeding each other cake at age 2 in the wedding slide shows. Is there a better reason to wed?

A Beautiful Mess

Things have been rough lately. The twins are hard. They've started biting. Mother's Day Out is over for the time being. The laundry continues to grow exponentially while my ability to do it continues linearly. I haven't showered in 48 hours. I didn't brush my teeth until 2 pm yesterday. A random family caught the boys before they ran out into a parking lot at the splash park today when I wasn't looking. I find myself looking around and thinking,

What a mess.

I long for a day off. Just a day to go walk around Target. Or browse random antique stores for junk I don't really need. Or watch a trashy Lifetime movie. Or go eat a meal without a child on my lap or while driving with my knee. I just feel tired.

Then I feel guilty for feeling sorry for myself. Because I'm so lucky to have all of this:

I got to see Laney be a flower girl for the first time last weekend. She was stunning.

She chased and crushed on the ring bearer all weekend long. This would have been adorable if he wasn't her cousin (I guess we should explain that soon).

The boys got dressed up and Parker immediately started posing. Such a ham.

Brooks clung to Daddy (in true Brooks fashion).

And some nose-picking ruined my only shot of a picture of the boys together.

Our life really is just a mess. A beautiful, beautiful mess.

Are We Toddler or Are We Dancer

I've pretty much been looking forward to dance recital time since I found out that Laney was a girl at her 20-week sonogram. And it finally came around! I have such wonderful memories of ballet, tap, and jazz as a little girl and can't wait to do it all over again (in a very non-Dance Moms type of way, I swear). I'm so glad she loved this first year of ballet. I'll never make her do it, but I can't promise I won't cry real tears in my closet when she stops. I wish I was kidding.

Her favorite part was wearing makeup. She got to wear lots of make up. And was looking way too much like an 18-year-old for Marshall's liking. But all the lipstick, sparkles, and glitter were a dream come true for her.

Her class did a dance to the "We Are Siamese" song from Lady & the Tramp. I use the word "dance" hesitantly. I don't think any of them were doing the same move at any time. But it was absolutely adorable. And I'm sure you're shocked that she had an entire fan club in attendance that thought she was the star of the show. Thanks, family! It was wonderful waking up to a house full of her flowers this morning.

Snapshot In Time

I just finished sewing a bow tie order that was looking SO good. I was thinking the whole time, "This may be my best one yet!" Then I noticed I had sewn something on backwards at the very end that couldn't be corrected. Darn that Law & Order for distracting me! Anyways, I don't think I can deal with starting all over right now without crying, so I'm taking a break to blog. HA!

I never write down the cute things that my kids do and say because I just can't imagine that I could ever forget it. But I've been discovering lately that I have a really terrible long-term memory. For instance, my mom and I randomly got on the topic of high school homecomings the other day. The conversation went something like this (NOTE: names have been changed to protect the innocent...or guilty...whichever):

Me: "I honestly don't really remember having class wars in high school."

Mom: "Seriously? You're telling me you don't even remember that homecoming when you and your friends spent the night at Sally's house and ended up in a huge war with the girls a year older? And Jane launched a frozen canteloupe at you and bruised the entire left side of your body for a week. And somebody's dad ended up chasing people off the property with a gun in hand. None of that?"

Me: "No."

You think I'd remember something that traumatic, right! Needless to say, I should probably start documenting this stuff. So here's a snapshot in time.

LANEY
-loves clothes; especially any "party dress"
-still calls breakfast "brepast"
-finds a way to say "actually" or "definitely" in every sentence
-has a huge vocabulary
-is a social butterfly
-gets in trouble at school more than I'd like
-always wants to be the bad guy when playing
-loves Spongebob Squarepants (I know...I'm an awful parent)
-can't tell her brothers apart
-doesn't know why you would ever need/want to tell them apart
-scolds anybody who is mean to those brothers

The Boys
-love turning lights on/off
-love opening/shutting the garage door
-love Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
-love Barney
-say TAIN CHUUU (thank you) all the time
-think Laney is the coolest human ever
-love Mother's Day Out
-find a slide to go down anywhere we are
-do not like diaper changes
-love granola bars
-give kisses with mouths opened wide
-kiss eachother when they fall down
-fight quite a bit

Parker (I list him first because he's a minute older. It's only fair.)
-thinks the more blankets you have the happier you are
-HATES having his face wiped
-loves carrots
-holds Laney's hand when going places
-signs "please" so cute and vigorously
-dances a lot and has great rhythm

Brooks
-wants me to carry him everywhere
-is sensitive and sometime very serious
-always wants to hold mommy's hand when going places
-rarely dances (so it's adorable when he does!)
-is a very good eater of most things

Derby Darlings

Yesterday we went to our little friend Palmer's Kentucky Derby themed first birthday party. It was precious. And my kids looked precious, too, if I do say so myself.

But Brooks didn't think so.

Which is weird, because he was all about that shirt when he wore it for Easter.

I guess he was mad that I decided to omit the bow tie this time. His motto is erring on the side of being over dressed rather than under. Point taken, Brooks.

And we got to stay at the party for an entire hour before making our signature exit. You know, the one where Marsh and I drag out 3 mad, crying kids with snotty faces while everybody looks on at us pitifully and makes some comment about us having our hands full. But, like a said, we stayed A WHOLE HOUR with all of them! Things are getting better every day!

The Darndest Things

Me: "Hey do you need to go tee-tee?"
Laney: "No, I already did last year."

Me: "Ok let's all go wash our hands."
Laney: "Hold on...I have to watch eleven shows."

That's pretty much my day. Lucky doesn't even begin to describe it.

Reasons My Son is Crying

http://reasonsmysoniscrying.tumblr.com/

If I had a Tumblr or knew another way to follow people on Tumblr, I would follow this guy. But I don't. So there's that.

I'm glad to know my kids aren't the only ones who cry for ridiculous reasons. Marshall swears they'll stop by the time they're 16. But I just can't even imagine getting that lucky.

My favorite one is "we wouldn't let him drown in that pond." Hilarious.

That's My Baby

Laney has a very bold and dominant personality. This surprised me at first because Marshall and I are both very go-with-the-flow and were actually both pretty timid and shy children. I just wasn't expecting her to be the little spit fire she is.

But I love it.

I don't want to break her spirit or stifle her true personality. I know they're going to serve her very well as she ages. It's just hard to wear those big pants when you're 3. Or I guess it's actually just hard for me to know when and how to reign her in appropriately. I definitely don't want to be one of those moms who lets her kid get away with being mean and blames it on a "strong will."

Most of the time, though, she just cracks me up. Like today at the park. An older kid (like so old that I was wondering why he was playing on the playground) couldn't get through a pathway because Brooks was in the way. He said, "Ugh...I can't get by because of this baby." Laney marched right up there, looked the kid in the face, and sternly said, "HEY. That's my baby."

Now, she can't even tell them apart and has no idea which of her babies it was. But it was her baby. And nobody was gonna talk to him like that. Big sisterhood suits this girl.

Style Crisis

OK that title, including the word "crisis," is a bit dramatic. Everything is quite fine over here. And maybe that's the problem.

Every time things get good and relatively easy, I start looking around my house and feeling unsatisfied. It's like my psyche knows to not even go there when there are real trials and tribulations that need my full attention. But when things are good, it goes there. Often.

I'm realizing that I'm quite random when it comes to home decor. And I'm OK with that. For now. I don't think I really know what I want our house to look like. When Marsh and I married, it was such a whirlwind. Graduating college, moving, getting pregnant right away, moving again, living with our parents for stents, living with Janson for stents (ha), starting a teaching job while being 6 months pregnant, leaving my teaching job to be a full-time mom to 3 kids under the age of 4...wow. Home decor took a back seat. Not even a back seat. It's more like it got thrown out the car all together. We basically just ran to Dillards or Bed Bath & Beyond in the spare seconds of our sanity and picked up a bunch of stuff to fill up our home as fast as possible. It's not bad stuff. It's just not me at all. So now I'm working on phasing it out (while also being on a tight budget).

The problem is, I'm not really confident I know what I want to replace these phased out items with. I want a house like Jones Design Company, but more color. Industrial undertones, but soft and frilly, too. Oh ya...and some mid century modern stuff. Ya confused yet? Because I sure am. I can't decide which of these styles I can seamlessly mix and which will just look wrong together. Sigh. #WhiteGirlProblems, right?

So I'm starting with something that I know I want to do. Paint these cabinets. These perfectly new and functional cabinets that have nothing wrong with them (cue Marshall's dirty look), but everything wrong with them.

They're so...builder's grade. And boring. I'm hoping that throwing some white on them will give the kitchen just the shockingly refreshing change I need. Can I even hope that they'll look as good as Jones Design Company's? I think I'll just stick with hoping that I don't totally botch them up. I'm nervous!

More details to come soon :)

Lions & Ladies

Well, as you've probably noticed, my blog just got a little make over! My friend that designs the prettiest things made the header for me. I'm in love. And there's even a little button that links to my new Etsy shop called Lions & Ladies. I think I mentioned before that I had started a little business. It's been so fun. I make bow ties for little boys (and even some for big boys men). I also keep swearing that I'm going to list some headbands for baby girls but haven't gotten around to it quite yet. I do make them, though.

Why Lions & Ladies? Well, I'll tell you why. It's just some Iron & Wine lyrics. When I started this blog over three years ago, I titled it "Love and Some Verses." In my very first post I explained that I chose that name partly because it was a song title from one of my favorite artists, Sam Beam (Iron & Wine). His music is folky, dramatic, nostalgic, full of beautiful lyrics and imagery, and kind of depressing. Everything I love! Ha.

When I think about my life, it kinda plays like a movie in my head. And Iron & Wine songs make up the soundtrack. For example, if I was even 5 minutes early to a day in high school, you could find me sitting in my car listening to Such Great Heights from the Garden State album. During my first spell of homesickness in college, Sodom, South Georgia played non-stop on my iPod (which is weird because I'm not even from Georgia haha). When Marshall and I got back together for the final time, I was obsessing over The Trapeze Swinger. I listened to Love Vigilantes on repeat during those first few weeks of Laney's life when I was fighting the baby blues and learning what motherhood felt like. Peng! 33 is Laney's favorite song. It calmed her as a baby and is the song in the slideshow of her first year. Call Your Boys was the anthem of the summer right after Parker & Brooks joined us in this world. And Kingdom of the Animals is currently what L, P, B and I listen to in the car during our daily drives.

So, whenever I need to give something a name, it just makes sense to me to use these songs. No deep meaning or anything. And no real lions. Just songs that I love.

#Mexico2013

Speaking of my cup running over with blessings, here's another one. Marsh and I got to go to Mexico 2 weeks ago for FOUR DAYS! And what made it even better was that most of my favorite people in the world were there, too. It was uh-mazing. I hadn't ever been away from the kids for more than a night before this, so by the time we were flying back home, I was physically ACHING to kiss those three messy faces.

But I won't lie, it was a nice break.

We'd been looking forward to this since last year when my good, long-time friend Kate got engaged to Walt (aka Crazy Dub), the awesome guy she met while working in DC. That's right; he's new to the crew and already has a nickname. He wastes no time. And by "looking forward to this," I mean my friends and I had been obnoxiously texting about it and hash tagging everything possible #Mexico2013 for like 6 months.

And it lived up to everything I hoped it would be. Kate looked gorgeous while marrying the man of her dreams, I spent my days sipping frozen margaritas with my very best friends (minus a few who we're greatly missed), and there were no dirty diapers in sight. I even had time to reteach myself how to straighten my hair and apply make up.

Here we are in all our glory.

My Cup Runneth Over

Gah. It's blowing my mind these days how good God's plans are. His all-encompassing "plan" is good, but also his plan for ME is good. And even knowing this, my nature as a human is to beat my head against a wall and try to force my life to look like what I think it should and be miserable. But if I give up those endeavors, and just seek HIM, my heart is more fulfilled than ever before.

Right now, my cup runneth over. Actually, ALWAYS, my cup runneth over. But right now it's running over with happiness, joy, prosperity, and wonderful things in this world. I'm so THANKFUL for this season in my life. I want to document this season so that when it changes, I can look back and remember that His plans are good. When the season changes (be it tomorrow or 5 years from now) and I experience grief or loss or sadness or depression or disappointment, I can be thankful that not every season feels that way. And even then, my cup can STILL runneth over. With Jesus. And Grace. And peace. And hope. And eternal purpose.

This life I'm living right now is better than I could have ever dreamed it up to be. Praise God.

I'm having so much fun with the kids these days that I don't even have time to take pictures of it or blog about it. Ha.
And I opened an Etsy shop doing something I love. Go check it out! LionsandLadies.etsy.com.

But I'm having to daily remind myself not to get too obsessed with it (we know I'm quite obsessive haha). Because it's just a fun little blessing. It's not my purpose. It's not my prize. It's just another little thing to be thankful for.

Laney

Can you even believe she's this big? And says things like "totally," "enormous," and "actually?"

Sew Excited

One of the things I got for Christmas was a new SEWING MACHINE! I'm thrilled. My old one just flat out died. I think.

Y'all, this thing is crazy. It's not super expensive, but makes me feel like my old machine was from another century. Look at all this stuff, though:

Don't they know I'm too busy and lazy for all these instruction manuals? And this is even after I threw all the Spanish ones away. Great. I'll just spend all my free time (time in between cleaning hot dog juice off the floor and wiping hinies) over the next year reading these suckers and I'll be ready to start sewing come 2014.

Seriously, though, this thing better be able to sew my projects by itself while I'm sleeping.

But I'm not the only one who made out like a bandit this Christmas. Laney, Parker & Brooks got cars, trucks, lawn mowers, Lilly Pulitzer dresses, shoes, shopping carts, Dream Lites, microphones, and much much more. They also got to spend the holidays with 2 families that are down right crazy about them and would do anything in the world to see them happy. We are so BLESSED. It kinda makes me want to cry.