Is this January?

Today, the weather was beautiful and the high was in the 70s. So, what do we do on a nice warm Friday in January?

Collect rocks from the rock garden.

And put them in our bucket.

Pose with your sister for Momma

Dance on the patio

Wear hats and act silly for lunch!

Yoga for Mommies

Tonight, I did my first ever presentation on yoga to my twin mom's group. I talked about how we are stressed out and what our bodies do with that stress. I was nervous but I think it went fine. I took them through a bit of breathing and then a short meditation. It was really fun and I think the ladies all liked it. I had a ton of questions from the group and the best part was that I could answer them all! Yay for me!

It felt good to share what I knew. I hope it really helped them.

Little Girls Love to Play!

My little babies are getting to be such big girls. I love hearing them play together. Lately, they have really been into princesses. They love to dress up and we have watch Tangled every.single.night.this.week. Last night, Nana took them to Beauty and the Beast. They loved it!

Princesses on the swings

Why yes, these princesses are wearing cowboy boots

They also love to "cook" and play restaurant. They are so funny when you hear them playing. For Christmas, the girls got an Olivia dress up kit with hat and apron and a play pizza set.

Lizzie "serving" Gracie pizza.

The "Chef"

The "Customer"

When Daddys Sick, Its No Fun

This is a picture of Daddy sick. Last Saturday, we went to visit Nana in her temporary home in Arlington. As soon as we stepped in the door, Wes doubled over in the worst pain he had ever had. Wes and I jumped in the car to head to the hospital and left the girls with Nana.

We get in fairly quickly and find out Wes has a kidney stone. Four hours later, we head home with a prescription to be filled. We pick up the girls and head home. By now, it's midnight and it's hard to find 24 hour pharmacies.

Apparently, there is a big population that fills prescriptions around midnight because the first pharmacy said it would be an hour and a half and was very rude. The second said it would be an hour and only slightly rude. We dropped it off, I took the Wes and the girls home and headed back. I got home at 1:00 am. Fortunately, we had Nana come back with us and she let us sleep in on Sunday.

Wes felt cruddy all week. He passed the stone on Tuesday or Wednesday but still felt awful the rest of the week.

It was rough for the girls and I too. We really are a team and when one man is down, we all suffer. The girls were so worried about Wes and wanted to love on him but he felt so icky they couldn't be as rough. Needless to say, we were all short tempered and impatient.

Wes is recovering and will hopefully be back in the game soon because I need him to be or I'll be crazy!

Birthday Parties

We attended a birthday party today for our friends the Lezon triplets. It was a fun party and the girls had a blast. While we were singing happy birthday and got to the "dear ......, happy birthday to you", it got me thinking about the issues that come up with birthday parties for multiples. Even though the girls birthday is 6 months away, I have started thinking about it.

One of the first issue is sharing a party and finding a theme. For the past three, I could come up with the theme and they were fine with it. Now, they are getting their own personalities and may want different things. That means two themes in one party resulting in a mixed cake or two cakes, figuring out invitations, and decorations.

Singing "Happy Birthday" is another issue. You either sing happy birthday twice (or more depending on the number of kids) which may be awkward or singing all their names in one song. Usually it gets to "dear....." and there is a small pause while everyone tries to decide who goes first. Then the parent ends up directing people on how to sing. I usually announce ahead of time whose name is first and feel like a dork.

I know some of these issues aren't limited to multiples. My sister's and my birthday are six days apart so we shared many parties together. My mom was very creative and planned games that would fit for both our age groups.

Right now, we may be having a Hello Kitty/Strawberry Shortcake Birthday, but we still have a few months for them to change their minds.....

New Year's

For my entire life, my dad and his siblings have gotten together the weekend after Christmas and meet up at a hotel. My dad has 3 brothers and 2 sisters (only one sister still living) so its always a lot of people and kids and their kid's kids. My grandparents Cox have been gone for over 30 years and the kids still get together. It is always a blast.

Anyway, this year did not disappoint. We had a ton of fun and so did the girls. The girls played with their second cousins while the adults talked. The kids even fit some swimming. After dinner, the kids opened presents and then we did our annual gift exchange. The rule always is you remain a "kid" until you graduate college. They you graduate to being an adult and being in the exchange.

Moma forgot "swimming shoes". So the little Texans wore their boots

Swimming with the kids

Mom, Dad, and Uncle Tony (the girls suspect he may be Santa even though we tell them his isn't)

Grandma and her babies after swimming

Yay! Someone took a family picture for us!

My aunt Betty. The girls love her!

Some of the "kids". Big kid Amber was really sweet with all the kids.

Kassidy mixed in. She was being silly

Cousins!

Sydney and Sam were so great with the girls while we were visiting. They took such good care of the girls and played so well with them. They would even take them to the bathroom and help them wash their hands. It is so fun to watch them interact.

Sam with the girls

Big kid Sydney with her new Ipod

Sydney and the girls

Wes teaching Sam about video games. I fear he may become addicted.

Ipod and Iphone games for everyone!

Sydney, Sam, Lizzie and Gracie

Love these sweet kids! They are getting so grown up!