you said it babies

well maybe

a little. people always comment to us how they think Rae and Ri look just like Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen when they where on Full House. I don't know after looking through pictures I'd have to say not as much as you'd think if you just go by memory. I use to get that a lot when Kenna was a baby, never with Chloe. Which is really funny since the babies seem to look more like Chloe when she was little then Kenna. Hmmmm......

that's a wrap

the first week of school, over already. I can hardly believe summer break has come to an end. I feel like this summer has gone by in the blink of an eye. I love love love fall but I'm just not ready yet! The girls have loved their first week of school and all of the new things. Chloe loves her teacher and I think I'm gonna too. She is very sweet. I think Chloe is gonna have a great year. Makenna loves her teacher(s) and especially is lovin' all of the perks of a being a 5th grader! Her school was just completed last winter so it's brand new and might I say very nice. We're talking plasma tv's in the lunch room nice. Smart boards in the classrooms and her personal favorite her very own locker!!! So to honor this special event in my little missy's life we blinged it out. We found the cutest locker decorations... jewels, mirrors you name it! So we made it through the first week we'll see how they feel once the homework starts kicking in. I still can't believe how quick my "babies" are growing up.

Kenna's second day of school, things were so crazy around here we didn't have a chance to get the first day of school picture. :0(

Kenna walking into school with her friends and our neighbors. I told Josh to get a picture of my girl in front of her school. I guess when you're in 5th grade that's probably not so cool. So this is what I got but I'll take it.

Here's my little Chlo-Chlo she starts an hour + later than Kenna so we did get her first day of school picture. I can't believe my baby is in SECOND grade!!!

riley small fry-ly

Little Riley...officially the baby of our family by 6 minutes. Riley is our little spit fire! She may be little but she is mighty. Riley is a fighter...if she wants it, look out cuz she thinks it's okay to take it. Riley knows right where time out is in our house. Actually, she really doesn't mind time out. It's almost as if it was worth it. Don't get me wrong she's a lover too. At times Riley is more willing to give hugs and kisses then Rae. Riley will say/sign sorry too. Rae prefers to just give a kiss and move on. That's the rule in our house once they get out of time out. They must say their sorry and give their sister a kiss. Lately the twins have been getting a long much better. It's so nice. I can't remember the last time I saw teeth marks on one of them. OH wait yes I can it was yesterday...OOPS. It's definitely getting better though. Reagan and Riley play together all day while their big sisters are outside playing or at school. We love to sit and watch them interact. They absolutely crack each other up. They feed each other, and rub each others back, adorable. Riley loves to do mama's hair. Usually, once I have finish doing her hair she will grab the comb and fix mine up all nice and pretty for me. It usually hurts, we need to work on that ;0). Riley is talking extremely well and just like Rae will tattle tell in a heartbeat. Riley is so sweet, she loves to cuddle, she loves baby dolls and blankies. She loves to walk around carrying a play purse or diaper bag and a bottle for her baby. Ri will also walk around saying..."mama, shhhh (while holding her finger to her mouth) baby sleeping. She says it over and over and over again and seriously I'm not even talking when she tells me shhhhh. She also says it if tinkerbell our dog is sleeping. Of course, she doesn't say it in a quite voice. Something else Riley likes to do is while we are in the van going somewhere she likes to call our names...mommy/daddy and then she says boo-boo while she points at her knee. She will call me until I turn around to look and then she points at the place there once was a boo-boo. This can go on and on until my neck hurts from turning to see what she wants. Riley loves her big sisters so much. She asks about them all of the time as well as daddy. (Riley) "Mommy, where daddy go?" (Me) "Daddy's at ...." (Riley) "Oooooooo". Riley is pretty tiny. When we are out in public I get asked all of the time how I tell them apart. Riley is definitely more petite. She is hoovering around 21 pounds and she'll be 2 in less than a month (which is CRAZY). We call her small fry. Ri has the cutest little smile but it can be devious. She sometimes flashes it after doing something she's not suppose to do...turkey! Riley uses her sign language daily, this i love. It is so cute. Her favorite foods are grapes, bananas, oatmeal, gold fish crackers, mac and cheese, cheese sticks (Colby), and pretty much anything mommy and daddy are eating. Her favorite sign is candy! Go figure. They hardly ever have candy but she knows what it is and will beg for it. Our neighbors name is Andy and Rae and Ri always call him Candy and they sign it while they say it, so funny. Josh and I never imagined in a million years we would have four children two of which would be twins and although we are exhausted we wouldn't change it for anything! Our babies may have been a huge surprise but we feel extremely blessed. I wish I could keep them small. I love all of their new stages I just wish I could slow them down! I'm going to try to post a video soon so you can hear their sweet little voices.

wordless wednesday

through a mother's eyes

today after church we took the girls to do some last minute school shopping and as we approached one of our favorite shopping malls i was glancing out the van window. the cemetery where my sister is buried is along the route to the mall and i mentioned to Josh how i would like to stop and show the girls and tell them a little about their aunt. it's really a sad story, one that now that i am a mother touches me far more than it did as a child growing up. you see my sister diana lynn was born premature, nowadays she would be considered a micro-preemie. thirty six and a half years ago there wasn't a lot that could be done for a baby that needed so much medical care. my sister passed a way when she was just four days old. i wasn't born yet actually i was born just a little over a year after her passing. i can remember going to the cemetery with my dad and he would recall how he came to know his baby girl had died. his sadness even so many years later was so apparent. he would tell me how my sister was transferred to a different hospital than where my mom had given birth and how that day he called the hospital to tell them he was on his way to see his tiny baby girl and they told him (over the phone) she had passed away. my dad had to go tell my mom who was still in the hospital recovering that her baby girl would not be coming home. he would talk about the funeral and how tiny she was...like a baby doll and that she had a head full of beautiful black hair. i could almost imagine what that day must have looked like. it breaks my heart to think that when i was younger i believed that it must have been easier to deal with a loss of a newborn because they really didn't "know" her yet. i saw the sadness on my dad's face and heard it in his voice but never in a million years did i really understand. today at the cemetery my heart was broken. i know diana lynn is in heaven but it brought tears to my eyes and an overwhelming sadness to my heart to think what my parents must have gone through all those years ago. today i wondered what diana lynn would have looked like, would she have been married, had children, would we be close? even now as i type this my eyes weld up it's so different when you look at things with mother's eyes. i love my sister and have decided to make more time to visit and remember her.

You're a beautiful soul

ah my chloe...our little lover. so full of hugs and kisses. she is such a sweet little girl the perfect big sister and little sister. chloe is a little mommy to her "twinnies" as she likes to call them. often times i can hear her lovingly disciplining them. i usually don't even say anything because it is so sweet and she never does it with anger. she will do anything for her babebers (another name she has given them). she'll get them sippy cups, get snacks for them, change their clothes, let them play with her favorite baby dolls/toys, she also loves to help get them out of the tub and ready for bed. they love her so much. the last few nights after i've put the babies to bed rae has cried "i go nite-nite with chloeee", or when i walk in the room and she is screaming she'll say "mommy where chloeee?" it's so cute. chloe also adores kenna, so much so that she drives her crazy. when kenna has a sleepover at a friends house chloe misses her so much. chloe loves her special time or cuddle time as she likes to call it with mommy and daddy especially her daddy. it seems as though my little chlo has grown up so quickly. she went from my baby to my sweet little girl (although always mama's baby) to a SECOND grader! chlo-chlo, peanut, pipsqueak, toe head...just a few of your nicknames. please continue to grow and love with all your heart the way you do...you are truly an amazing little girl! chloe is a little smartie too...she learned to tie her shoes at barely 3 years old...she was a flier in a competitive cheerleading team at the ripe age of 5 and just starting kindergarten. chloe loves to read and is very good at it...she is currently a brownie girl scout with the best leader there is...okay it's me ;0), she is in gymnastics and is working on perfecting her back handspring, she loves the Lord and is such a polite little girl. the Lord has blessed our family by giving us chloe mariah, our very own angel!!

4 miles

so i haven't been running as much lately...still running at least 2-3 times a week but with races coming i know i've got to pick it up. this morning i am happy to report i ran 4 miles. it was tough but it felt great...once i was done ;0). anyhow, i have several races coming up. a four mile race on sept. 13, this one is in the evening. it will still be daylight but i'm really excited for this one. the next race is sept. 27 and it's a HALF marathon. i sure hope i can do it! and then the BIG one...hopefully i will have the opportunity to run in the Disney's Princess Half Marathon. we were already planning on a disney vacation with some family and dusti and i along with our girls are so excited to plan our vacation so that we can participate in this race. it is so neat, even my girls and their cousins allie bari and abby can run/walk/ or crawl in the race. i've also signed Makenna and Chloe up for a kids fun race with me when i do the sept. 27th race. it feels so good to be out there running...i do absolutely love it. here's a little gross fun fact...my pretty toe nails that i didn't want to clip for the florida 5k are officially dark purple and i presume will be falling off. yuk! next time i will definitely listen to my brother he warned me ;0). anyhow, i've decided to pick up my running schedule to a minimum of 5 days a week. i'm also eyeing a 5k on sept. 1st.

shampoo, rinse, repeat

Rae decided since she is the "big" sister she was going to give Riley a bath today. Surprisingly, Riley let her. I love it when they show their love for each other, it's so sweet. Notice Rae has an outie belly button. So does Riley. It's funny to me that they are so similar. They also both have a crooked tooth on the bottom...same exact place except opposite sides. I think they are mirror twins because their hair patterns are reversed, even though I always part their hair the same direction. If they write with opposite hands then we will know for sure...right now it's too soon to tell. Anyone out there with mirror twins?...supposedly it is very rare.

a girl and her shoes

I always figured with having four daughters at one time or another they would raid my closet. Uh-huh just never figured it to be so soon :0). Rae and Ri have been loving Mama's shoes lately. They must get this from their big sisters because Kenna and Chloe's new thing is trying on shoes when we are shopping at my stores. I love my girlie girls!!


She was actually walking pretty good in these. What can I say she's a natural!

Wordless Wednesday

that's my girl!

Fun Times

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Twinsburg...

Twinsburg Twins Festival Aug. 1, 2, and 3, 2008

5k race #2

was awesome! I have 200+ photos from this years twins festival...crazy. I'm gonna try to get them uploaded and make a slide show to share with all of you. I'd love to meet some of my multiple mama friends in Twinsburg one day. This festival is for all multiples...twins, triplets, quads and more. It's a great time you've just got to experience it first hand. i also ran my second 5k this weekend, i didn't make my goal of under 30 minutes but I did improve my time from my first so I'm happy with that. I did it in 31.52 minutes...not too bad considering there were lots of hills we're talking Amish country folks! I'll post pics soon PROMISE!