happy mother's day!

As I was sitting here thinking about Mother's Day and uploading some pictures, I realized that when I think about my precious babies, this is what I tend to see in my mind:

{will}

{emily}

Here's a little video of E from the NICU...just a couple of days old and so so tiny!

{caroline}

  

And a video of Caroline from the NICU...just so crazy how tiny she is compared to Matt's hand!

{little loves}

And of course, we can't forget this picture.  

total.game.changer.

But although I still think of these little ones as the teeniest of newborns sometimes, it turns out that my babies aren't quite so little anymore.  {Now, don't get me wrong...they are absolutely still babies!  Just....big babies who are turning so quickly into kids.}  And while the past couple of years have been undoubtedly crazier, busier, and more challenging than I would have ever expected life to be, I feel so very blessed to have been chosen to be the mother of these amazing kids.  I am in awe of them, and I can't wait to see what they will do next.

Love these three!

even when they're being a bit dramatic...

{my most dramatic one shown here...love you, C!}

    

I just can't get enough of these sweet faces.

And I love how they play together more and more these days!

Sweet kisses from Will

Honestly, I'm not sure if he was waving to me, or preparing to smack E on the head, but in the spirit of Mother's Day, we'll say he was waving.  ;)

So back to the point of all my reminiscing and sappy writing about my kids....we had a GREAT mother's day today! :)  We started with bagels and coffee brought home by Matt and Will, and then we spent the morning playing, watering flowers, and enjoying the beautiful weather.  Then I took a shower.  In the morning.  All by myself, and in no rush!  I even dried my hair, woohoo!  Then we had our family all over to celebrate with a cookout {and swim party, but the water was too cold for most of us to want to swim}.  I didn't take many pictures, but we took a few at the beginning:

And we can't forget the pinata.  Will had asked about pinatas for some reason a few weeks ago, so when Matt and I were at Garden Ridge buying our pool furniture, we saw this tiny little guy and had to get it for him.  And what better time to bust out the pinata than Mother's Day?!  Fun for all.

What a fun day celebrating our wonderful mothers, both of whom are so very loved by all of us.  We are beyond lucky that Mimi and Nana both live so close and are able to be such important parts of the kids' lives.  We couldn't do it without them!    

Happy Mother's Day!

lately

As I was uploading some pictures today, I realized that I have lots of pictures to share from the past couple of weeks.  These are mostly just day-to-day playtime and attempts at getting cute pictures of all the kids, but since we print this blog as our scrapbook, I want to make sure to include them.  So here's a little bit of what we've been up to lately.

These were just from a random day, but I loved the girls' outfits because their shirts say "one of a kind"...so we took some pictures!

Emily

{totally in a picture-taking mood on this day!}

sweet Caroline

And what kind of photo shoot would it be without a non-matching brother jumping in the middle?

{although I shouldn't complain about his clothes...at least he is wearing clothes this time!!}

peek-a-boo, Emily!!

Miss Caroline LOVES to stand!

    

 Actually, they both love it, and they're both officially "cruising" everywhere now!

ladies...

In other news, the girls are comfortable enough in the big bath tub for triple baths now!!  I need to get some more pictures, or maybe a video, of this fun nightly event.  Everyone LOVES it!

We celebrated Matt's birthday on the 21st, but unfortunately he was out of town for work....so Will took a picture wearing Daddy's crazy neon shoes and holding his birthday card.  Such a ham!

And on one of the warm days last week, the girls wore some sweet new spring outfits {thanks, Websters!}, which of course meant I had to take their pictures again.  Come on....chunky baby arms and legs were visible for the first time in months!!!  Who can resist?!

Caroline was more in the mood for pics this time...  

But I think Emily still wins the award for happiest baby at picture time!  :)

Later that same day, I still had the camera out and realized that I never really take pics while the kids are playing.  And I want to document that, because I know that soon these sweet days of playing all together will be replaced with more school days, older kids who are easier to go places with, more activities, and less time hanging out at home in the playroom.  It's bittersweet...because this phase can be tough on days when I need to get something done or run an errand, but I really and truly do love just hanging out and loving on these adorable children.  They grow up too fast, and I know I'll miss these slower-paced play days when they're gone.

The girls LOVE the play kitchen and food!

Yes, I put ridiculous bows on their heads that day.  But to be fair, they DO have hair...you just can't see it because it's exactly the color of their heads!  But I know...clearly still too early for clip-in bows.

They love standing at the lego table.  I think Will liked it better when they couldn't do this.  ;)

{C has the light pink bow and E has the dark pink one.}

Sweet Will!

cheese smile

tickle monster!!!

Does this girl look like she has an ear infection?  Moments after this gleeful game of naked peek-a-boo, the wheels CAME OFF.  But it was fun while it lasted!

And finally, some pics of the girls sporting their Rangers gear on opening day!

This one cracks me up.  It's a much more accurate picture of real life with twins than the ones where they both happen to be sitting up and looking at the camera! 

Caroline {on right} was way too wiggly for pictures, as you can see.

But Emily indulged me and sat for a few!

What fun!  We are excited for spring, nice weather, short sleeves and baby feet, long walks outside {which we did this afternoon!}, Rangers games, and some pool days in our future!