... and babies make four: Our life with twins. : Under the wire...

My last blog post was August 19th - I started school on August 20th. I don't think it is a coincidence. My life has been insanely busy the last four months with class time, homework, work, and keeping up with the kids. I took my final on December 11th and I vowed that I would get a blog post out by the end of this year, so here we are on December 31st at 7pm. :) I struggle with the balance between the kids and school each and every day. My only goal for next year is to spend more quality time with the kids - not necessarily more time as school is going to get even more difficult - but to make sure that the time I do spend with them is focused. Mom guilt on the top of the stress of school can be exhausting, so I want to put an end to that. I am going to do the best I can with the time I have and remember that I am enough.

Over the past four months, the kids have grown and changed. We have seen strides in their handwriting, reading, and letter recognition. They love to sing and dance together and play games. They create these imaginative games and will take turns with the roles. Today they were playing a game and taking turns being the kitty and, since they are electronically advanced, they would set up a time on the google home to facilitate turns. Right before Thanksgiving, they started asking Google anything and everything, so we bought them their own to keep upstairs. It came in handy as it got closer to Christmas as they would use google to call Santa several times a day. They really enjoyed themselves this year for Christmas. They loved looking at lights and all the activities at school and in the community. They were able to sign their own names to their letters for Santa, but they needed some help with the requests. They didn't get everything they asked for, but I think they are happy with what they did receive. Landon got a voice activated robot and then spent several hours playing with it on Christmas day along with the neighborhood boys. I loved the fact that it was a beautiful day outside and there were so many kids outside playing. Some of our amazing new neighbors invited us over for dinner that night, so it was a wonderful day of lazily playing with toys and socializing with friends.

Riley started a dance class and she is in love. I was able to watch her class a few weeks ago and she was so proud to show me what she had learned. She practices at home sometimes and is excited for her performance in May. Riley loves preschool and her teachers. She has shown some progress with being able to write her name and she is increasing her patience as well. Riley has struggled with her ability to focus and stay on task. She gets frustrated and gives up easily when she can't figure out how to do something. She loves to draw and craft and paint! She brings home multiple large paintings each week from school and I am going to have to take stock in paper with as much as she uses. She still loves to snuggle and demands some snuggle time most mornings. She hates when I leave for school and has made that especially challenging and heart breaking when she attaches to my leg. She was so happy to find out I was on break from school and started making plans for us involving the aquarium and Carowinds. She absolutely loves Carowinds and is completely fearless- she wants to get big fast so she can go on the big roller coasters with her daddy. It shouldn't take her long to do since she is eating us out of house and home. There are days where I swear that she eats all day long. She loves blueberry muffins, cottage cheese, cheese sticks, cereal - basically anything. She loves to read and have books read to her. She has a few books memorized that she is able to read to me and she is starting to be able to recognize words. Her favorite show is still Teen Titans Go and her favorite past time is making up songs.

Landon is funny - at least he thinks he is pretty funny. He likes to shout at words that he finds funny and then laughs at himself, for example " macaroni eggplant racoon." His current favorite word is macaroni and I happen to hear that word a lot lately. He loves his toys, especially ones that transform or move. He got several different remote controlled items for Christmas and we are not committed to buying a ton of batteries. Landon enjoys the social aspects of preschool and has made several friends. He has learned to write his name and will now write it on anything that he does, one day we will get him to write a lowercase a. He currently write his name as LAndon. He also wants to be able to ride the big roller coasters, so clearly neither one of these children is mine. Landon is a few inches shorter and several pounds lighter than Riley so he has a longer way to go. He is also a much picker eater and is basically sustained on cereal and poptarts. His most requested show is also Teen Titans Go. He finished several weeks of Speech Therapy and has improved his skills. We just have to remind him to slow down and whisper in able to pronounce all the letters. He also loves to do crafts, but mostly enjoys cutting and is another major source of my need for paper. He has cut up every paper in the house into small pieces. He loves to play video games on his tablet or play games on the TV with his daddy. He loves to play games and read also. He can read the entire book "Toot" and it is his current favorite - he is a boy afterall and farting is a hot topic in our house.

If I am going to be honest here, I don't have a whole lot more to say. The first semester of school was stressful, but we all survived and were able to have some fun. We spent some time at Carowinds, the aquariums, camping, playgrounds, story times, looking at Christmas lights, pumpkin patches, and about a million other things. Here's to making the next year just as much fun. :) The following pictures are in no particular order, but they did help to remind me that I was able to find some time away from my textbooks!