Halloweeeeeeeen!!!

A sneak peek at more pics to come....Janks Halloween 2010: Mama Witch, Big Girl Nice Witch, Buzz & Woody.

Birthday Letter to Abigail

My sweet baby girl,

Where to begin? You are the sunshine in my eye and melt my heart so quickly. You are a little charmer and at moments, I have to catch myself to not give in to your every whim. You and I have a very close bond that I pray never severs.

You and I are similar in many ways. You cannot get physically close enough to me...when we snuggle, you want to be nose-to-nose. Your favorite place is still on my hip! Your personality is vibrant and vivacious, full of spunk and fire. You are so passionate and take things with gusto. You squeal with a high-pitched shrill when you get excited, which is often!! You take control and report on what everyone else is doing, right or wrong. You are a social being; you love to play with same age peers and "big girls"--you love for Emma or Ashlea to carry you around! "My Georgie," as you refer to him, is your very best friend and you play very well together. You do not like to be apart from him and you are caring and nurturing with him. Yet, you love to play the "victim" role with him to get him in trouble. You want to be with people and have to know everyone's names. You amaze me with your memory, remembering people's names of whom you met months ago. Ms. Leah appropriately nicknamed you "Miss Activity Director" as you tell your friends what we will be doing and when. You are very strong willed and have met your match with Mama on stubbornness...

Your vocabulary is unbelieveable...you learned an adult vocabulary early and have been speaking in full conversations since you were 2 1/2. You are such a smart little sassy thing, answering questions correctly before anyone else has a chance to process the question.

And such the girlie girl....you're all about dress-up, dolls, purses, shoes, makeup (though I won't let you wear it even though you try to convince me that Grammy lets you do it), and playing "house". You love anything pink or sparkly!! But then you put on your tutu and play tools with George...you have a variety of interests!!

You have always excelled at physical abilities. You have started to learn to "pump" the swing on our backyard fort late this summer. And you love to climb and slide. Your new favorite game is hide-go-seek. You have strong dislikes, such as water sprinklers (though you love the pool) and spiders. You mastered the trike very quickly even though your legs were too short to reach the pedals. You zoom all over the place and ride as often as you can! You love to go to the park or ride in the bike trailer or go to new playgrounds. You recently began dance class and ballet is your favorite. You took to it very quickly and love to twirl and gallop. You love to dance and sing and twirl and jump...we had an indoor swing during George's OT and you would beg to swing every time you could!! The pink papoose and cacoon swings were your favorite...."it's my faborite mama!!"

Your stomach problems have been our family focus for many many months now. You have severe stomach cramping and gas every 1-2 days, mostly after awakening from your afternoon nap, and your stomach stays distended most of the day. Our Pedi GI is directing diagnostic testing and you are such a fabulous patient! You hold out your arm for blood draws, crawl up on the xray/ultrasound tables willingly and always remind them you get a sticker!! You accept when we say "Dr. Altaf says no" to your food requests and you say "oh-kay" to reminders of how certain foods make your belly hurt. You would be a perfect vegetarian as your favorite foods are fruit, veggies, and bean nachos. But since July, you haven't been able to eat those foods, so you've responded well to redirection to the foods on your new diet. You have your first surgical procedure tomorrow, an upper endoscope, where we will learn about your esophagus, stomach, and intestines as well as your gut enzymes. We are praying for answers as we all hate to see you in pain.

You potty-trained yourself at 2 yrs 2 months and haven't looked back. You loved earning M&Ms so it didn't take but a few days before you were fully potty trained, even during sleeping. You have been a huge cheerleader/motivator for George's potty training recently. But you must have separate potties as you don't like to share or wait and you love to read books together during your potty time.

Childcare....going to Ms. Amy's house was the only childcare setting that you were happy about...you idolize Ms. Amy and you love to play with Rachel. Even though you battle female dominance with her, you are still the best of friends. We have started dealing with bullying at a much earlier age than I ever dreamed, but it's a good life lesson for you in 2 y.o. moderation. You adore Gideon and all babies in our lives...you love to kiss them and make sure they are okay. Day School has been much better this year, you enjoy being challenged to learn letters and new tasks and love to tell me about your friends and what you did that day.

You love TV (Dora, Mickey Mouse, and Lawrence Welk are your favorites)..."are my dancing friends on?" When we drive around town, you love to read books and sing too; you love to listen to "Jesus Rock", country, sing-along kid music or rock-n-roll on the radio. You get so excited to hear the OU marching band!

Your blond ("yellow hair" as you say) soft curls are precious...your hair is past your shoulders now and we've decided to grow out your bangs...we'll see how that goes since you don't always leave bows or barettes in your hair for long.

Your face looks just like your Daddy...your baby pictures are carbon copies of his. Your features mirror his, yet your expressions are like mine. You inherited my long waist, blue eyes, and short little legs, but they don't slow you down as you NEVER stop!!! Your metabolism must be sky high as you are so wiggly and full of energy constantly!

You awaken each morning asking for breakfast and would eat continuously if we would allow it.

You don't require as much sleep as George and you are gracious to quietly leave your room to allow him to sleep in. You sleep about 11-12 hours at night and about 1 1/2 hours during nap. You are a bear if you don't get your rest. Your beloved Monkey, Boomer Puppy, and Quilt all accompany you to sleep, and I don't think you have slept a night without Monkey since you were about 2 months old.

You are my beautiful angel and I cannot wait to see how you grow this coming year. You are dynamic and full of life, and I cannot wait to see where that takes you. You are a natural leader and I pray that you will continue to show compassion and beauty towards others. I love you, my "sweetheart". Happy 3rd birthday, Abigail Bess.

My big 3 year olds!!

forgot a few things

Editor's note: I forgot to mention a few things about G, so I made a few additions. There's so much to say!! He's a funny fabulous little guy!!

Birthday Letter to George

Dear George,

Cliche but it's true....tears fill my eyes when I think about you and how you've grown in the past year. To think that you have overcome mild torticollis (no head tilt lately or left sided weakness!), battled chronic ear infections (got 2nd set of tubes and tonsil & adenoidectomies this past June), and were on the "late" end of reaching physical milestones....now you outrun your twin sister, hop repeatedly on one foot, throw football spirals, bat a pitched ball, and turn somersaults like they are no big deal.

You have the sweetest little deep man-voice and since your surgery, talk in full conversations and show great compassion, insight and problem solving abilities through words and actions. You are so determined and passionate and energetic and rambunctious about things you do. You frequently help Mama with chores; vacuuming and sweeping are your favorites and you are a stickler about wanting everything picked up and put into its place. You even take dishes or cups to the kitchen counter without being asked!! You are slow to warm up in crowds and new social settings, very cautious and observant. You love all things "boy": sports, tools, trucks, body-pinning Abigail to the floor, watching sports on tv. In your quiet play, you have a zest for reading, playing with cars, and using fine motor skills for turning screwdrivers or cutting precisely with a knife (supervised of course; might be a budding chef like your daddy?).

You adore your Abigail, though you usually call her "Sister" . You are one of the few that Abigail allows to call her "Abby". You want to know where she is at all times, and truly miss her when she is gone. You love to hug her (though sometimes a bit too hard!), kiss her, and play with her. She is your very best friend.

You are slow to awaken, just like your mama, and you take a while to get going in the morning. You still love your sleep, thriving on two hour naps and at least twelve hours at night. You snuggle with a pile of sleeping friends in the corner of your bed daily, with favorite "Bunny" and "Blankie" always in your clutch. You excel in routines, especially our bedtime routine of bath, brushing teeth, reading 2 books (you pick one, Abigail picks one), saying prayers, thanking God for the day's blessings, and singing "Jesus Loves Me". You just started singing about 6 months ago and in typical George fashion, waited to make a peep until you knew the song perfectly.

You just graduated from OT to tackle some sensory defensiveness. You resisted wearing woven shirts, shoes other than your favorites at the moment (Crocs or blue or brown tennis shoes), brushing your teeth or hair, eating new foods, wearing hats, or dressing yourself. With great interventions such as brushing, deep pressure, crashing, and assistance with modulation, you have mastered many of those issues. You wanted to wear new baseball cleats all on your own, wore a 3 piece suit for Ms. Texas Amy's wedding without a fight, and eat whatever I ask you to eat. You brush your teeth much better now, and love to wear your new Texas Longhorn hat!!

You recently mastered riding your tricycle full-speed ahead! You were so proud this weekend when you rode all the way down our street! You still love to be outdoors more than anything, including going to the park, hiking or searching for bugs. You love to help with grown-up projects, whether it's weeding the flowerbed or watering the plants or using tools with Pop. You are not such a fan of coloring, but you love music/ marching bands (drums, violin, and trumpet) and painting and play-doh. You are definitely a lefty, using your left hand for everything! And you have to have your daily "pb sam-ich". Unfortunately, you got your mama and daddy's incredible urge for sweets...you love chocolate anything, ice cream, and cake!

You love to be on-the-go. You spend most of our time in the car noticing things we pass, searching for fire trucks, tractors, and construction vehicles. You love our childcare setting at Ms. Amy's with Rachel and Gideon (both whom you adore) and NorthHaven Day School with your new favorite Ms. Abby. You enjoy going to church, playing at the mall, going on playdates with friends, and roadtrips to visit family and friends. "No home Mama!!" is what you tell me often! But then again, you enjoy being in our safe space with all of your things...

Males in your life are still significant. You adore your grandfathers, begging for horsey rides on Grandpa and "working" with Pop. You love to shadow/copy anything Cliff does, wrestle with Caine and Hudson, be silly and scream with Asher and Cache, and watch any other big boys playing! But there's a tender side to you too, as you love on and gently care for Gideon and the many babies in our lives.

You wear 2-3T clothes, skinny and tall. You recently started paying close attention to clothing, wanting to wear shirts with your favorites, such as sports ("Oka-homa or Longhorns"), Thomas, firetrucks, diggers, or animals. You just mastered putting on tops and bottoms by yourself though you still have difficulty with shirts going over your head. You began potty training this week. You had to come to it on your own terms in your own time and now you are finding success!! You love to wear underwear and think it's great to have the choice of peeing outside or inside. You have taken great pride in this and all accomplishments.

I love to stare at your sweet face, stroke the back of your hair, kiss on you...all the things I know that I have finite time to do because you won't think it's cool in a few years. You are stingy with your hugs and kisses with everyone; it's a real privilege when we get them!! I love it when you see me and say, "Mama, you so booo-ful (beautiful)". You have a sweet or sneaky, sly smile and a contagious laugh that fills the room!! You love to say, "Smile, Mama!" as a reminder when I get caught up in tasks at hand or discipline. You love life, and love to be happy in it. You brought tears to my eyes when we were out for a walk/run tonight and in response to thanking God for the sunset, you said "God is in my tummy, um, my heart!" I pray that you always know how blessed by God and loved you are, my precious son! I am blessed to have you in my life. I love you Georgie. Happy 3rd birthday, my big boy.

Two more birthdays right around the corner!

My sweet babies will be THREE next week. They are not babies anymore...not even close. They are talking in full conversations, showing complex reasoning abilities, understanding consequences, having very definite opinions about everything, and are the smartest little boogers on the planet. They are the most beautiful, precious creatures and I adore them.

We had a fantastic summer and because we've been traveling so much, it's been hard to find time to post anything. Here are a few images from our adventures.

Riding the Heartland Flyer Train part of the way to Lubbock--first train ride for G&A!
The Martin Mob @ Ranch Weekend 2010--tons of fun riding the mule (ATV) all around 1000 acre ranch, swimming daily, Kirby learning to ride motorcycle, riding "4 liters" (as G calls them--four wheelers), looking at beautiful west Texas stars, family walks/runs, and meeting the newest Saffle, 4 mo old yellow lab Fagen. Best Ranch trip yet!! Thanx for your amazing hospitality S&D!
Visiting the cool Science Spectrum in Lubbock--they loved it!!
Celebrating their birthdays a bit early with Grammy & Grandpa- hiding from the sun indoors using her fancy new parasol.
Swimming in our backyard pool with G&G & Boomer...


Doing a little hammering in her new ballet leotard & tutu.
G testing out his new hardhat and tool set...he is such a "boy!"
Celebrating Monique's and my birthday weekend in Shreveport--had a fab time hanging out at Mom & Dad's, waterskiing, visiting SciPort, playing in the sprinklers, swimming for Sonny Kirby's bday and loving on Coll & Drew's clan too! Isn't my sweet godchild Ellis precious??
Ellis
Stinky kids after sprinkler play in the yard
G's first tractor ride with Pop.

We start our "fall schedule" this week, complete with my new work schedule, back to NorthHaven Day School, and we start their first extracurricular activities of ballet/tap class for Abigail and percussion for George. I am ready for cooler temps, college football, routine, and structure to our lives. Welcome Fall!!

Lots of sweat and tears!

From extracting tonsils to catfish noodling to training for a triathlon to witnessing two precious loves join their lives in our beloved Texas Hill Country, our summer has had its share of heat and tears!!!!

Here's our summer to date:
Our rainy July 4th was spent indoors watching fireworks on TV following George's surgery. Took him 10 days, but he has finally recovered and we got the thumbs-up check up last week. Hearing has fully restored and tonsils are healing on schedule!!! PRAISE!!! We celebrated our national holiday with a cookout with Mom and Dad and our dear twin friends, the Pollans. The kids loved being with A&C and adore Ms. Leah and "Mita Casey".
Can we say four helpings of trouble???

We also enjoyed our nearly-daily visits with Nana Millie and Paw Mark (our neighbors)--they keep the kids filled with cookies! We had fun on our park date with the Stelzers and A has adopted Emma as her big sister. It has been so fun to watch the kids grow up together. A&G talk about Caine constantly--and Wade, if you're reading, they can't wait to go fishing with you and Caine!!

Every year that we have lived here, my dear sweet hubby has wanted to go back to my "Pauls Valley roots" and watch the catfish noodling weigh-in. This year, we spontaneously decided to drive south and see the 80+ lbs. creatures ripped out of their pond nests by some poor souls' bare hand. I think Abigail was afraid one would eat her. Best people-watching event in the state. Anybody wanna join us next year??
These were the ones I caught, and my hotties who carried them in from my truck...ha!ha!

Two of our favorite people got married and invited George and Abigail to be in the ceremony. We felt blessed and honored to be a part of their day and we love you Mr. and Mrs. M!!

Of course Little Miss A carried her flowers and her brother's ring pillow since he didn't want to...we weren't sure if it would happen, but Mr. G walked independently down the aisle following his sister, hand in the mouth the whole time, that sweet little boy!! G&A loved being in the wedding and precious moments were created!
Daddy tries to bribe A with skittles to be in the group photo...verdict: no go.

Memories:
~G called himself the "wheel barrow" because he couldn't say ring bearer.
~After our new therapy technique of brushing, G wore his adorable seersucker suit and suede bucks without a fuss!! YAY!

~The little princess was ALL about the dress, the shoes, the "crown", and the Skittles she earned for walking down the aisle!!
~G&A made a new friend at the events, and proudly announced that Katie was their new friend and they were happy because she didn't hit them!
~When I was dressed for the ceremony, G crawled up in my lap and said "Mommy, you look beautiful!" I almost cried...
~To this day, they still ask "can we go see Miss A from Texas? Can we go to the wedding?"

My sweeties at the rehearsal dinner...don't they look so grown up?
A glimpse of the loves of my life during prayers, what a precious sight and 3 blessings from God.
Love this one: taken before the ceremony. Can you tell G's mood by the photo? He was in the process of kicking his sister.
Where our friendship began...11 years ago under the eyes of Texas. Love ya Joan!

While in Texas, G&A had tons of fun at Grammy & Grandpa's house. On our family swim, Abigail swam by herself while wearing her lifevest and George is not far behind her! G loved shooting the airplane gun, watering the birds, and watching for the deer and fox. Abigail loved playing with Barbie "Mommy" and "Abby" and "George" and the fishing pole and plastic fish.

And the latest big announcement.... George went pee-pee in the potty with Grandpa!!

So we're re-entering potty training with kiddo #2 and he's been in underwear all week. We've gone through about 6 pairs of underwear per day and he's been successful in the potty once since home... it's a start!!! Potty training boys is a whole new world.

Mental notes for next post: VBS, Abigail's tummy issues, Tye-Die Tri

Tough Week.

G's recovery from tonsil removal has not been easy. The doc told us that it would be painful. He was not lying. George has been in incredible pain this week and living on narcotics round the clock to get him through it. Poor baby doesn't quite get it...he has shown the gamut of behaviors of lethargy to acting out and pouring medicine on the table because he didn't want to take it (our biggest challenge lately). We're back to sleepless nights...up and down every few hours. I thought this was supposed to end when they were out of infancy...snicker, snicker.

Mom and Dad have been here to ease the brunt of household and kid tasks but it has been really stressful. Little Miss Abigail's world has been rocked as she is not center-stage this week and had a rough transition in understanding that "Dorge is still sick". She rallied the past few days and played on her own quite a bit, loving all the TV time and snuggles. Supposedly Days 5-7 are the worst post-op for Mr. G so I'm praying we're near the end....

To explain the pic above: This morning, they were playing under the computer table and taking care of Abby Baby by feeding her and giving her medicine for her "sick ears and fever." Too precious. Unfortunately, they have seen a lot of that this week.