Race Day!

I ran a 5k today! I started running in September, have spent a lot of time on the treadmill (thank you, winter) and FINALLY ran a race! The best part was that I got to run with my sister Megan. She started training a few months before me and has already run a few races. Her Christmas present to me was a trip to Pennsylvania so we could complete my first race together! (Read her account of our race here.)

About to head to the start. See the fun shirts Megan made for us? C.E. MAJor, Inc.
was a "business" we started in our playroom circa 1989. We answered phone calls,
wrote checks, made signs...helped us become the women we are today. :-)

It was a little chilly before the race started; can you tell I am wearing four layers? But it was a beautiful sunny day (sunshine! too rare in western PA) and we were plenty warm by mid-race. We trekked an hour and a half north of Indiana for our race, to Cook Forest. The course ran alongside a river with trees and hills all around. So scenic.

When I started a couch to 5k program in the fall, my goal was to be able to run an entire 5k, no walking. And we did it! We do not have an official time yet but we're thinking it was in the 32:30 range.

Appropriate signage!

The only thing that could have made today better would've been having all four of my kids there. After we got an email on Thursday with some details about parking, the possible need to take a shuttle to the start,  etc. we determined that it would be really tough to take the twins. So we hired our beloved Miss Anne to babysit. But I was thankful to have Zach and my two oldest babies there to cheer us on.

Look at this great sign! It made me cry a little when I first saw it.

Nearing the finish line, coming in to give my kiddos a high five. Sure we're a
little blurry...we're running FAST! Well, sort of fast. :-)

Pretty girls in pink at the end of the race.

It felt pretty amazing to complete this race. I'm not sure I had cumulatively run a mile in the decade preceding September, and today I ran 3.1 miles with a smile on my face. So I can say it: I'm a runner! I am 32 years old, have four little kids, and am in the best shape of my life. Feels good! Thank you, Zach, for supporting me through all the time I've spent at the Y. Thank you, Megan, for coming so far to run with me.

I've spent a lot of time pondering this new identity I've made for myself as a runner. You see, this is the last thing I would have imagined myself becoming. Back in high school, I was a complete non-athlete. Orchestra, Scholars Bowl, and French Club were more my thing. One of the happiest days of those four years was when I walked out of P.E. for the last time knowing I would never have to take the class again. But thankfully we are not locked into our high school identities for life!

Tomorrow is Easter. A day for celebrating new life. A day to celebrate that because of Christ's death and resurrection I can have a new identity that is so much more than being a runner or a mother or whatever else defines me. Thank you, Jesus, for this new life!

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature ; the old things passed away ; behold, new things have come. (2 Corinthians 5:7)

This Week's Adventures

This weeks's adventures, as documented by my iPod camera.

Pirate treasure hunting with a buddy who came over after school. I hid necklaces
and bracelets, they searched with sword in hand. Fun stuff.

Grocery store trip with the three littlest. I have been doing my shopping alone
on the weekends but with Zach busy with work last weekend and out of town
this weekend, a mid-week trip was a necessity. Thankfully the boys can sit up in
a cart now. It's like this cart was made for twins, huh?

Joshua's first cheerio

Jude's first cheerio. He makes this face with every new food. I pulled out
the camera just because I knew he would. :-)

"Finger painting." Except a certain child doesn't like using his fingers (too
messy?) so we use brushes. This was just the beginning; we now have two
VERY soggy pieces of paint-covered paper.

Three Months of Moments

My big kids are my snugglers.

We love our grandparents.

Book sharing

Do you know who's who? (Answer: Jude on the left)

Girly-girl mechanic :-)

First time sitting up for a bath (It's Jude)

Laughing with Joshua

Apart from the food on her face, am I right that Esther looks awfully grown-up
here? Where is my baby?!

Missing Pictures

It has probably seemed like I've given up blogging. Truly not my intent. And last time I tried uploading a picture I was told I'd met my storage quota, I'm not down with paying for picture storage online if I can possibly get it free, so blogging went by the wayside. But then for some reason today I decided to research storage options during a spare moment and my google account told me I'm only at 19.99% of my quota! Did they increase it sometime in the last three months?

At any rate, I am sure I will regret the lack of blog posts in the last three months when I someday attempt to complete the twins' baby books. (Which I have actually purchased!!! Finally!) But I'll tell you right now, if I ever finish them and you ever have cause to see them, there will be a lot of probably-not-accurate, Mommy's-just-guessing info in there when it comes to things like when they first smiled.

Perhaps I will try to do some catching up in a later post, but for now, here are some pictures I intended to post when I wrote about things I love about Esther.

Like father, like daughter?

My Favorite Missing Phoneme

It is fun to hear Esther talk just about all the time, but my favorite thing is when she says words that start with s. Because often she doesn't actually say the s and the results are adorable. How do we like our doughnuts? With "pinkles." How would we describe salsa and other peppery foods? "Picy." Things that are dear to us? They're "pecial."

But just about the best example of this came tonight when we were practicing the catechism questions we've been learning with the kids. The question asks about the three persons that make up the one true God. Esther mumbled through the Father and the Son but then: "the ho..ho..hosy parrot!"

Smile. I love these moments. Little girl, don't grow up!

Couldn't Help But Smile

As much as I hate to admit it, Esther seems to be starting the long process of dropping her nap. That's in sharp contrast to her older brother, who napped daily til past the age of three and a half and still occasionally (like today) falls asleep during his afternoon "rest time."

About an hour after I put Esther to bed today I heard the sounds of a little plastic piano being played upstairs. I went up and found two things: Esther with a poopy diaper and evidence of almost every toy in the room having been played with. I changed the diaper and sternly told her to stay in bed. A bit later I heard more noise from upstairs. This time when I opened the door I saw her pulling wipes out of the container and wiping her baby doll's bare bottom. "Purple baby was poopy; I change him" she told me seriously. I just had to laugh.

She's downstairs with me now, looking at catalogs while I blog about this sweet memory I want to hold on to. Sure, she needs to learn to obey mommy and stay in her bed, but it's hard to be too upset when she gets up to do such adorable things.

Ten Things I Love About Esther Today

A little note: I had some pictures I wanted to put in this post but I am up to my storage quota, apparently. So no pictures for now; we are deciding on a solution.

1. Esther loves necklaces, hair clips, "pretty dresses," etc. Even though I am not a super girly girl, it is so fun to have another female in the house to share in these feminine things.

2. Esther loves to role play. "Pink baby" and "Purple baby" are her two babies and she feeds them, takes them for rides in the stroller, wraps them up "so snuggly" in her arms, and puts them to bed in their little crib with cozy blankets tucked around.

3.Esther is not limited to traditionally girly roles: yesterday she requested a screwdriver so she could fix a (really) broken toy truck. I got out the toy tools and she spent twenty minutes fixing that truck. I love this girl's imagination--I could watch her play all day.

4. Esther randomly announces things like "I a cat! Mow mow!" or "I a el-phant!" {insert elephant noise--how do you spell such a thing?}

5. Esther does things like put on the tiny yellow glasses and say "I Misser Tato Head gasses!" It's just so cute.

6. Although she is quite comfortable going up and down the stairs, Esther prefers to hold my hand.

7. Esther asks "Where Austin?" a lot while he's at school. After I tell her where he is and that he'll come home at lunchtime, she goes around the rest of the morning saying "Austin come back" (meaning Austin will come back). I love that she misses her big brother!

8. Esther is just as much of a bookwork as Austin. She looks at books on the floor, on the couch, in her bed, and she "reads" them out loud. Her attention span is pretty remarkable for a two year old, I think.

9. When Esther sees the TCU logo (which is pretty often around here) she reads "T-C-U" and then automatically says "Go Frogs!" We're training her up young. :-)

10. Esther often smiles and says "My mommy!" when she sees me, like when she wakes up in the morning or when I pick her up from the playroom at the Y. She is the most snuggly of my children and often burrows into my lap when I'm trying to change her diaper or her clothes. She says "I love my mommy" a lot. I love my Esther a lot, too.

Ten Things I Love About Austin Today

1. Austin loves his family and is very affectionate. He has not yet outgrown sitting in my lap, snuggling against me while we read, or giving random little boy hugs. He shows equally enthusiastic affection to his siblings, who may not always appreciate it, but I think his intentions are good.

2. Austin loves to read. He is a little bookworm. Lately he and I have been spending afternoon time while (one or hopefully more) siblings are asleep reading Little House in the Big Woods. Then we research things we're not familiar with like "salt rising bread" and watch videos about how maple sugar is made. This is so fun and makes me look forward to more formal homeschooling next year.

3. Austin loves to learn. He and I have been slowly working through Phonics Pathways for awhile and he is starting to really take off as a reader. He points out words all over that he knows. I have loved watching him grow in this way.

4. Austin likes things to be organized. Just like me, not coincidentally. He helped me organize the pantry one afternoon a few months back and I thought, if he's this much help as a four year old just imagine the projects we'll be able to tackle together when he's older!

5. Austin loves to help me in the kitchen. This is kind of a love/hate thing for me, actually. It makes for slower, messier cooking, but I love to cook and bake and passing on kitchen skills to my kids is important to me. So I am learning to just relax and enjoy working with a little sous-chef.

6. Austin has become a really good eater in the last few months. It is so nice to make dinner and know that Zach and I will not be the only ones enjoying it. He is not a fan of spicy food but otherwise he'll try, and usually like, just about anything I cook.

7. Austin shares things with me, like candy from his Halloween treat bag. And just now I witnessed him offer Esther a bite of his Three Musketeers. He can be so sweet and generous.

8. Probably as a result of all the reading we do around here, Austin uses phrases like "to and fro," "it so happens that," and "in spite of."

9. Austin asks a lot of questions about God. Sometimes his heart seems so hard and I get discouraged, but then he asks a question, I do my best to answer, and I remind myself that God is at work and I must be patient.

10. Austin is learning to tell jokes. He likes knock knock jokes in particular because Gran and Pops have been texting new jokes to him every few days. He thinks he can take the beginning of a joke like "Knock knock, who's there, boo, boo hoo..." and then add any ending he likes, such as "why did you call me an owl in a tree?" Then he laughs hysterically. It is certainly funny, albeit not in the traditional way.

Ah, my firstborn! What a gift--a challenging, make-me-laugh, make-me-cry, beautiful gift.

Ten Things I Love About Zach Today

Okay, it took a few days but here is my second top ten-style post, inspired by Ashley. I realized when I read her posts how easy it is for me to focus on the challenging parts of my marriage and parenting when I'm in the middle of the daily grind. The old sinful self rears its head in complaining and dreams of a perfect easy life. But in reality I am blessed beyond measure by my husband and children and I think it's good to remind myself of all that is wonderful about them. So let's start with my dear husband of 10 years.

1. He is the one person on earth around whom I can be 100% myself. No putting on a front, no pretenses, just me. I hope this doesn't sound like I'm fake around everyone else--I think no matter how genuine you are, there are always things you hold back from people. But not Zach. Zach gets me. He's my perfect complement.

2. No matter how busy he gets with work, I find Zach up early at the kitchen table reading the Bible. Usually on his ipad. :-)

3. No matter how busy he gets with work, Zach finds time to spend with me and the kids. Family is a high priority to him.

4. Zach is good at playing little boy activities like cars, trains, and pretending to be bears. I am not so good at this so our sons are blessed to have him!

5. Zach tolerates my desire to have a neat and organized home and the purchases the pursuit of such a home entails. Like when I came home with a shoe rack for the front hall along with my groceries from Aldi, he smiled and assembled it for me. And now he puts his shoes on it every day.

6. He is a really, really talented musician. I am so proud to be married to someone so dedicated to his craft.

7. Zach and I have lots of interests in common when it comes to entertainment for our child-free time. Watching Mythbusters, The Amazing Race, even Jane Austen movies (this man is practically perfect!), doing the mental_floss quiz, or discussing the Sherlock Holmes we've read lately...all good stuff we enjoy. And he doesn't give me a hard time about not liking 24 or Midlake or Bon Iver like he does.

8. Zach does fun daddy stuff like making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches into the kids' initials. (True example from Sunday's lunch.)

9. Zach enjoys delicious food as much as I do. In particular, he has a sweet tooth to match mine. So he is always willing to indulge in a little dessert with me.

10. Zach listens to me. A lot, because I talk a lot. And he's not just indulging me, he makes intelligent conversation back. He likes to tell me what's going on in his work life, too. His experience as a musician and growth as a teacher and my past experience as a (much more amateur) musician and as a teacher give us a neat set of overlapping interests. We enjoy talking together about that stuff, or just about anything else. We just enjoy life together.

Ten Ways to Tell the Twins Apart

Inspired by my friend Ashley's recent posts about her favorite things about her husband and sons, I think I will write a little series of "Ten" posts. I'd like to think I'll do one a day for several days in a row, but let's get real. I'll just try to do it by the end of 2012, okay? Attainable goals. I am busily pondering all the things I love about my hubby and kiddos and writing lists in my head for those later posts, but I'll start with something more concrete tonight because people ask about it all the time. Identical twins are, as it turns out, fairly identical. Our babies' heights are the same and their current weights are within four ounces. But as time goes on we are seeing more and more differences. So...

10 Ways to Tell Joshua from Jude

1. Jude has the giraffe paci, Joshua has the monkey. If their clothing has a giraffe or monkey on it, use the animal cues as well.

2. If one baby is dressed in blue and the other in pretty much any other color, Jude is the one in blue. (I follow this pattern as much as possible.)

3. Joshua has a red birthmark on his left side, Jude has one on his left eyelid. (They are less prominent than a few months ago, though.)

4. Joshua has a little freckle on his right ankle.

5. Jude's hair sweeps out to the left and right along his hairline more dramatically than Joshua's. Alas, though, I think Joshua's is starting to look more like Jude's every day.

6. If one baby is crying, it is probably Joshua. Really--by using this clue alone you could guess the twins' identity with about 90% accuracy.

7. As long as they're not crying (see #6) Joshua has a sweet, pleasant look most of the time while Jude tends to look concerned. Their faces do no match their personalities.

8. If the babies are asleep, Joshua is the one on his tummy and Jude is the one on his back.

9. If the babies are eating, Joshua is the one who spits out most of what goes in his mouth. (As of today. I really hope this doesn't last long.)

10. Um...can't think of anything else really good...so if all else fails, ask Joshua and Jude's mommy or daddy who is who. That usually works. :-)

Jude: sporting a giraffe bib, with a slight look of concern; if you zoomed in
you might see the birthmark

Joshua: sporting a monkey bib, looking pretty chill, probably about to spit
out some cereal

Pictures of This and That

This and that meaning my kids being cute, of course. Because that's what they do best. (Or maybe making messes is what they do best. Hmm....)

Esther likes to play with toys in unconventional ways.

Not supposed to be a riding toy.

Meant for babies of the non-real variety.

"Stickers are for paper," we say a lot around here.

Hey, this is pretty close to what the stroller is meant for!

 Austin does not usually amuse himself very well. A bit needy, that child. Unless you give him the big box that a highchair came in and license to do with it as he will. Forty minutes later...

My oldest and my youngest.

Grandmas's first morning here, so naturally the kids were checking out
all the goodies she brought. Esther tried on the big girl panties Grandma
brought her. (No, not potty trained yet. Maybe over Zach's Christmas break.)

Grandma and Joshua.

Jude got a little too comfy in Daddy's lap.

All dressed up for church.

Austin's class went to the pumpkin patch and we all went along. It was the
coldest day of the year so far but we had fun.

Grandma and I each toted a baby.

A four year old was used but not harmed in the taking of this picture. The twins
love their big brother.

Joshua close-up

Jude close-up

Grandma and Grandpa took the big kids to a park just to play in the leaves.
Our yard has no deciduous trees. Cedar needles are just not the same when
it comes to fall fun.

Grandma and Jude. You might notice a pattern...Jude is much more likely to
quiet down and fall asleep in your arms, the swing, etc, than Joshua.

The grandparents are attempting to brainwash our
children into becoming MU fans. It's okay with us. I
probably would have gone there myself if I wasn't a
small-school kind of girl. Everyone around here will just
assume the kids are wearing Steelers gear from the colors.

Last Warm Days

This has been a beautiful October week, a warm and mostly sunny break from the colder weather. With each warm day I think, is this it? Is this the last day of outdoor comfort before the long long winter? With snow forecast for next week I definitely wanted to get my kids out to run around in the backyard for awhile today.

I told them to run off some energy. Run they did.

Sometimes with a lawn mower.

Mom, do you see that Esther is playing in the dirt? Yes, yes I do. Go ahead
and join her. :) We made time for a bath while dinner was in the oven.

Jude watched the goings on from the bouncy seat on the porch.

Joshua watched the goings on from my left hip. Took a lot of tries to get a
decent shot, holding the camera out to my side as I was.

Milestones

We reached a few significant milestones at our house this weekend.

First, with the twins just a few days short of six months we decided to give them their first taste of cereal this morning. Although we haven't been good at all about taking videos of the twins, we did think to pull out the camcorder today. After watching it, I almost decided against editing and posting the video but then I figured, maybe some of you have wondered just what kind of craziness goes on in our house. Grandpa was manning the camcorder, Grandma was taking still shots, Austin and Esther were being their usual busy, let's-get-in-the-middle-of-everything selves, we were Facetiming with Gran in Texas...and oh yeah, we fed the babies. Just a day in the life. :)

The twins were a bit upset at first because they were hungry but they both settled down and ate pretty well. We weren't sure how they'd do since their adjusted age is only four and a half months but I'd call this first feeding a success. So--gulp--here we go with solids. I remember from my other kids just how much time it takes to feed babies in the early days of real food and that was just feeding one! I'll be spending a lot of time in front of those highchairs in the weeks to come!

So the second milestone: Esther climbed out of her crib. You could say she finally crawled out of her crib. We'd seen her swing one leg over the rail a few times but yesterday she finally got brave and went all the way. Austin came downstairs to tell Grandma about it during "naptime" (yeah, obviously not a lot of napping was happening) and then she and I went upstairs and made Esther give us a demonstration. And naturally today I had to get it on video. Austin never climbed out of the crib--Esther is actually getting a "first" all her own!

Zach pulled the toddler bed out of the basement this morning so Esther is upstairs in it now. I'm not sure if I can say she's upstairs sleeping in it right now; I have heard lots of noise from that quarter despite it being over an hour past her bedtime. But she has only gotten out of it once so far (that we know of). Not bad for her first night.

What a Difference a Year Makes

One year ago today we learned that twins were on their way to our family. In a moment we went from our assumptions that children would continue to join our family in an ordinary, approximately-every-two-years fashion, to the realization that we would have four children under the ago of five. Shocking and a little scary. There was no longer any discussion of having three or four children; four it would be.

This year has been the most challenging, crazy, busy, beautiful year of my life. From the six months I spent (knowingly) pregnant with the twins to the six months I've spent raising them so far, they have dominated my life. Twins are all-consuming.

But that's a good thing in its own way. I am so easily distracted by the things of the world. The temptation to neglect my family and pursue my own interests (think Facebook and fluffy reading material) is strong, but the simple matter of keeping the twins fed, dressed, and in clean diapers takes a lot of time. My focus has been rightly redirected toward my family since the twins' birth.

If I have grown one way in the last year, it is in my understanding of the sovereignty of God. Or perhaps I should say, in my understanding of the mystery of God's sovereignty. So many questions: why did He choose us to have twins? Why were our twins healthy when some suffer from TTTS? Why did He think I could handle four children so close in age? More recently, why oh why will they not sleep well at night? :) But as there are not easy answers, I've been learning to trust more and question less. To use some biblical language, He is the potter and we are the clay. Twins are how He is molding our life and I trust He will use them to make us more beautiful vessels.

Pictures to come soon. I have taken some but need to transfer them to the computer.

Sunday Pictures

Just a few more pictures. And Esther is included this time. :)

Getting better at smiling on cue. Man, I love this
kid more every day.

This girly does not sit still! She was up and down,
up and down, up and down the stairs as we took
pictures. Have I mentioned how much I love having
a daughter?

The "big kids." When I look at this picture I understand why people
are always telling me Esther looks like her brother.

This is how far we've come: Zach took this picture while I was out, I looked
at it for the first time this morning while he's already at work, and I will say
with complete confidence that Jude is on the left and Joshua on the right.
(Hint: look at their hairlines.)

Adorable pile of twins.

Jude says let's be fair; now it's my turn to lean on my brother. And Joshua smiles
anyway.