This Grandmom is 60!

My Mom turned 60 this past weekend.

60!

I'm not sure what 60 is supposed to look like, but Mom, you sure don't look it, and I have a feeling that these babies...you're babies, as you call them.... are going to keep you young for a long time!

This has been quite a year, Mom.  This time last year we were up around the clock feeding newborns...

trying to remember when we last changed our clothes...

referring to feeding and diaper charts to remind ourselves which baby pooped and which was the last one to be fed...

...but mostly I remember how you encouraged me and helped me through the horrors, I mean joys, of first time nursing.

You gave me the perfect blend of empathy, encouragement, and praise.  You cried with me and you celebrated with me.

You always made me believe that we'd make it through.  And we did.

And look how far we've come.  A year later, the girls are almost weaned and I'm in near disbelief that those days are a fading distant memory.

It's been a fun year raising these babies with you via Skype and all your visits.

It doesn't feel like you lived half a world away.

You are a wonderful mother and a wonderful Grandmom.  I love you!

And Happy 60th Birthday.  Nothing like a celebration as a move to Alaska.

Welcome to a life of getting carded as you take advantage of your 55 cent McDonald's Senior Coffee and your $3 discount at the movie theater!

Live it up....go hog wild.  Hmmmm, what do they say in Anchorage....go hug a bear....ride a moose...?

We'll have to work on our Alaska-isms.

Birthday Celebration Via Skype

Celebrating Caroline and Ellie's big day (translation: Blake's and My Big Day) continued throughout the entire day as we skyped with the rest of the family and let the girls open gifts that came from those family members.

The whole day was so fun for all of us, and at the end of it, Blake and I went to bed totally exhausted, hearts totally full, and a living room totally full of new things.

Lauren and Nathan gave them this shopping cart, and Caroline and Ellie can't get enough of it.  They LOVE to swish the toys around inside it and then one by one, toss them onto the ground.  This is the first thing they go to every morning when they wake up.

I'm going to be so sad when these ballerina tutus no longer fit them.  I can't get enough pictures with them in these things!

What a fun day.  What a fun weekend.  What a lot of Skyping, which we wouldn't change for anything.  Thank you to all our family for making it such a fun day for us even from so far away.

We love you all!

And Just Like That....

...Caroline and Ellie turned 1 year old on Saturday.  I just need to pause and take that in for a second...

...or maybe two since we are talking about twins here.  

To celebrate, we had my brother and two other families that we've become friends with over for breakfast out in our backyard.  

We had a cold front come in the night before.  We woke up with weather in the 60's, and just like that it felt like fall was in the air.  It was the perfect excuse to use our fire pit, that of course all the kids loved.  It was a wonderful morning to celebrate Caroline and Ellie turning 1.  

This was the first morning that the girls did not eat their oatmeal and bananas for breakfast...they got to eat pancakes, sausage, hashbrowns, etc like the rest of us that they scarfed up as if they were wondering why we've been holding out on them for so long.

I made each girl a little cupcake and they hesitantly dug in.  

After a couple bites, Ellie dug in and ate all the icing that she possibly could.  

She wasn't all that into the cake part, but the whole thing kept her occupied for a long time.  

Caroline, on the other hand, wasn't all that into it.  Blake and I were both really surprised because she normally attacks all of her food with both hands and shoves food in her mouth with each fist.  

I guess I'll have to remember next year to cover Caroline's cupcake in Cheerios and Peas, and then she might really go for it!  

Our next door neighbors that joined us for breakfast have a daughter, Annalee, that was also born on the 19th.  She turned 9 on this day, and so we also sang to her, had a little gift and had candles for her to blow out.  It was cute, and we think she enjoyed it too.  I asked her later if she had fun, and she said that maybe we could do this again next year and call it the "Triplet Birthday Breakfast Bash".  

How can you say no to that?

Caroline and Ellie did great the whole morning.  They seemed to just be observing all the commotion and they most certainly were not suffering from a lack of attention.  

We opened gifts out on a picnic blanket.  Our friends, the Snyders, have 4 kids, and their 2 year old, Annaka, is really into babies.  She gave Caroline and Ellie her full attention almost the whole time, and the girls loved it.  She helped us open all the gifts.  Totally adorable.  

They both sat on Rick's lap toward the end.  They love their Uncle Rick!

The whole morning, I kept thinking about the verse in Luke 2:19 after the Shepherds come to visit baby Jesus, and it says, "Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart."

This is how I felt.  

I'm learning that as a Mom, there is something so sweet and special about watching other people love on your babies.  I can't believe that a whole year has gone by....a year that the Lord brought us indescribable joy through our two beautiful babies.  

Thank you Jill and Jessica for you and each of your families being wonderful friends to our family.   

What a wonderful morning celebrating Caroline Kate and Ellie Rachel turning 1 year old.

A morning that Blake and I will never forget!