{iPhone Rewind} :: May

Matching pajamas. I mean, come on! :)

Playing with the fun new toy Granny gave us

CUTIE.

Baby LOVES.

Such a daddy's girl :)

I want to always remember sweet moments like this.

Eli is a huge Sasha fan. She's warming up to him :)

Play time with my babies

Sasha is the forever optimist :) 

This little nugget rolled over in her sleep suit, so this was the last time she wore it. She actually transitioned really well!

This girlie LOVES it when her daddy plays the guitar and sings to her. Absolutely LOVES it.

Cuties :)

It's still a work in progress, but this is going to be a GAME CHANGER

Y'all. These eyes. These are the "I want an Oreo cookie too, mama. Please?" eyes.

They're just so. stinkin'. cute.

We had my brother over and grilled the dove he and my dad had shot on their last hunt. So good.

We had our first round of sickness! Poor buddy had a persistent fever and crazy snot bubbles :)

Maddie got some good time with daddy while I took Eli to the doctor. She LOVED her time with her daddy!

Photo Every Hour :: Mama's Day Off

Y'all, I love my babies and I love being a stay at home mama. I'm almost 7 months in, and I love being home with my babies. I am so thankful for my husband, who works so hard for us so that I can stay home with them. I realize that's a huge blessing, and I can't imagine our family unit functioning any other way. 

That being said...I am a true introvert. People drain my energy, and I need time alone in order to recharge and feel sane. As you might imagine, being a mama to twins doesn't really afford much alone time. While babies are not the same as hanging out with a bunch of people, they do require a lot of energy. And I have found myself struggling to fully recharge. I realize that's part of being a mom {of twins or otherwise}, but I think that mamas need to find ways to recharge so they can better serve their families and avoid complete burnouts.

So a few weeks ago, I submitted a request for a day off. I ran it by my bosses {Eli and Maddie}, got approved coverage {Daddy}, and made sure all loose ends were tied up before I was off the clock  :)

My amazing hubby tackled baby duty, and this twin mama enjoyed a day to myself!

seven.

At 7am, I was still in bed. And it was awesome haha. Mike got up and started getting prepped for the day, and I got to get ready alone. I was going to take my time getting ready {something I never get to do anymore}, but then I realized that seemed like a silly way to spend my day off. So I threw my hair in a ponytail, kissed my babies and hubby goodbye, and headed out the door.

eight.

First stop? Starbucks. I was able to enjoy a quiet morning with my coffee and Jesus. 

nine.

I decided to get a pedicure, and I am so glad I did! It was so relaxing, and I enjoyed reading my book while my feet got some TLC. It was fun to reminisce that the last time I had a pedicure, I was just a few days away from meeting Eli and Maddie. My poor feet {and belly} were crazy swollen, and we were waiting for the fun to begin :)

ten.

I decided to run a few errands. It was nice to get stuff done quickly and efficiently, without babies in tow. Random fact: I love turning my car music up pretty loud, so I definitely cranked it up while I was out and about running my errands. Not something I can do with babies anymore ;)

eleven.

Enjoyed my favorite lunch :)

twelve.

I decided to wander around Hobby Lobby just for fun. I was sad to see the FALL decorations already out...it's May. Aside from that, I enjoyed browsing through the craft aisles for a bit.

one.

Even though it was my day "off," there were still things that needed to get done. Babies still need wipes, so I stopped by Sam's to get a few things we needed.

two.

Happy hour! I do this a lot with babies, but it was still nice to grab a sweet tea for the afternoon. Plus, my parents asked for a selfie of me enjoying my day off :)

three.

And then I ran out of things to do, and it was way too hot to be outside. And because it was a Saturday of a holiday weekend, the crowds were starting to defeat the whole purpose of recharging my introvert self. So I decided to head home to my loves. I missed them, anyway! I got home in time for them to go down for a nap, so I was able to relax and catch an episode of The Office.

five.

We met Aunt Lindsay, PK, and Henley for an early dinner. 

I had a great "day off" and I am so thankful for Mike allowing me to get some time by myself. But I was amazed at how ready I was to get back to my babies. And I think the Lord knew I would need the time to recharge, because we spent the next few days with a sick baby. 

Thankful for my babies. Thankful for my hubby.

Weekend Getaway :: Oklahoma

This weekend, we took Eli and Maddie on their first road trip! We wanted to try out a somewhat close-to-home trip, sort of as a practice run before we attempt the trek to San Antonio. Mike's brother's in-laws have a cabin in Oklahoma, and they were sweet enough to let us use it for our experiment.

We loaded up and headed out on Friday after Eli and Maddie woke up from their morning nap. We decided to grab a quick lunch on the way out of town, so we made a stop at Rudy's for some BBQ. 

First family road trip!

Eli was SUPER excited about Rudy's. And really wanted the BBQ sauce.

The drive was only a couple of hours, and babies did great! We weren't sure how they would do in the car, but they napped on and off and were generally pretty happy. We had timed it just right to arrive in time for them to eat again and go down for an afternoon nap. Which allowed Mike and I some time to read and relax.

Happy to be at the cabin with full bellies :)

Probably the only "down" time we had the whole weekend

We knew it was supposed to rain overnight, but we had NO idea that we were going to get crazy storms. It was unreal. The lightening alone was something that neither one of us had experienced. Mike said it was like all the lightening he had every seen in his entire life was condensed into a few hours. There was more lightening than not; it was almost like a strobe light was on. We were also really worried about tornadoes. But that's where the lightening came in handy, because it allowed us to watch the trees and how bad the wind was. We had spotty cell phone service, so we were able to get a few texts out on my phone, but couldn't get our phones to update the weather. I got a bag packed with the basic essentials for babies, in case we had to grab them and head to the basement for shelter. I wasn't feeling great, so that didn't help things either.

Needless to say...it was a rough night, and we didn't sleep much. Mike and I were trying our best to monitor the storms, and we are so thankful to Ben and Bryan for staying up and keeping us updated. And babies? Slept through it all. Seriously. Not a peep the whole night! We are so thankful that they slept well, but we were so tired that we decided we would make it a one night trip and head home in the morning.

But when the sun came up, we were met with a surprise. The river behind the cabin had flooded, and the water level had risen really high. It was so crazy how fast the water had risen. The night before, Bryan had told us that if there was any water running over a concrete bridge that we passed over to get to the cabin {our only way in/out}, we shouldn't try to cross. Mike went to check on it and came back with the sad news that we were not going anywhere that day.

So we spent the morning on the porch just watching the water rush by. Thankfully we weren't due any more rain or crazy weather, so we just had to wait for the waters to recede.

The dock {out by that second tree} was completely submerged.

Watching the water carry a bunch of tree logs and debris by...

Front porch sittin'

Later in the day, we decided to take a walk out to the bridge to see if the water was receding at all. It was a good distraction for babies, and it helped us gauge how long we might be staying at the cabin. It was definitely receding, but it was going to be awhile.

That light patch at the top is the other side of the road

Loving our family walk...not loving that we are stuck.

Eli's face when we told him we would have to stay another night haha {and sister's hand trying to comfort him}

There definitely could have been worse places to be stuck. We had power and our babies were still as happy as ever. So we just went about our day, spending a lot of time checking the water levels. After babies ate, we would make the walk down to the river to sit and watch the water go by.

Super tired, but making the best of things!

The water actually receded fairly quickly, considering how much it was and that we were being told to expect to stay until Monday. The sun came out in the afternoon, so we were all happy and hopeful we would get to head home Sunday.

Back down to a normal level and speed, but we discovered that part of the dock had washed away

Saturday night was uneventful weather-wise, but babies woke up a couple of times for random reasons {go figure}. It was certainly an adventure of a weekend, and we were so glad that babies did so well outside of their normal routine. But Mike and I talked about how it was just hard to be somewhere other than home with little ones. It was all the hard parts of having two babies, only magnified because they were out of their routine. They were fine, but mama and daddy were exhausted. I definitely understand now when my mama friends would tell me that they are called family trips, not family vacations...because there's still so much work :)

So our experiment was successful, just with a little bit of an adventurous twist. And now we have our first family road trip memories in the books! :)