So lucky :)

Growing up I always wanted a sister. Someone to play barbies with, goof off with, tell secrets to, talk about boys with, grow up with and have families together....All of those wonderful things sisters do together. I am sure part of this stemmed from the relationships my mom had with her "little" sisters. They were all friends for life, no matter what differences they had, or how far apart they were. They were sisters and nothing could change that!

Don't get me wrong. I love my big brother, he is great! We had our YEARS of tormenting each other but we have grown past all of that and are great friends. I know I can always count on him and he's always there. I also have a life blessed with many great girlfriends throughout all ages and walks of my life. From the special ladies that I grew up with who were like my sisters, to the ones I have met over the past decade and have grown close to. All of these women have been fantastic and I can't imagine my life without them. But none if this is like having the REAL thing.

I am so happy that these two sweet girls will always have each other. They have a built in best friend for the REST of their lives, how awesome is that!!??! They have a pretty special big brother too who will always love and protect them I'm sure. We love to watch them play together each and every day. They already have their own little language and special giggles reserved only for the other. Hearing them chase each other and giggle down the hallway is so funny and brings smiles to mine and Lucas' faces. One of my favorite times of the day is when they are going to sleep or waking up at nap time. They talk up a storm with each other, stand up and swap paci's and blankets :) SO sweet, if only I could sneak up there with my camera! But they usually catch me after a few minutes. They are SO LUCKY to have each other and I hope they will always be the best of friends.

Thanksgiving Fun

Here is a look at the fun we had over Thanksgiving. Yes, I am well aware that it is almost Christmas but you know me- better late than never! I loaded the picutures for this post on Dec. 6th, so sad....
Speaking of Better Late than Never, that statement also applys to:

1) our holiday cards- I can't seem to call them Christmas because well, they won't make it out people!!! So New Year's cards it is for us again ;) It's fun to get mail after the Christmas holidays have passed too, right?
2) the girl's birthday invites- holy cow! How in the world did this sneak up on me so fast? Well I had grand intentions of "making" them- being all crafty and creative like I love to. BUT...I am my mother's daughter and like every other working momma of a brood out there other things kept popping up...so...Evite it is! Call me the slacker of the century, I know...but it is the "green" option ;)
3) SO many people I want to catch up with. I have been so out of touch recently with so many wonderful friends and well, I just hate it. I am a victim if the rat-race of life, and feeding schedules, and nap schedules, etc. So much so that I feel like I have missed out on so much over the last year but unfortunately that is how this family of five has had to work for now in attempts to keep us sane. You should see me when I try to take all three of them to a MOP's playdate AM...HA! So jealous of the mommas that are there with just one getting that one on one time. That is another post entirely ;)
But I am looking forward to what is on our horizon and the changes that having 2 One year old's will bring- mainly more flexibilty- I am hoping! ;) So enjoy these and I WILL be back with more much sooner...

Enjoying their first Thanksgiving meal :)

Sweet cousin Kellen playing in the ball pit

Buds having a great time!

We TREID to get a kids picture but needless to say, the girls were DONE!

Will, Kellen, Lucas, Peyton, and Kayleigh Take 2...

Our best attempt at a family photo

Cousins making their own mini cakes! Note that Justin's was a VT football and we still love him ;)

and eating them :)

look it's Rudolph!!!!

Fun videos from the last month....

Here is a peek at the fun we had around here in November....
Lots of laughs, some tears, another little crawler (look out world!), and a busy month topped off with Thanksgiving fun. These are a few videos I took of the kids. Hope that you enjoy :)

Peyton showing us how you "really" use a bouncey chair!


Lucas playing with the "geezer"- we love you Uncle John!!!



The girls playing in the hallway just after Kayleigh started crawling.



A little taste of what is to come for Lucas ;)

15 days later....

Are you wondering just what our cuties were for Halloween?

Well here you go!

This was actually post trick-or-treating and look at those grins! Love it! :)

Can you guess what these two were? Yep- Spaghetti and Meatballs courtesy of momma. I had fun making them for these cuties.

Peyton

Kayleigh

This was the original design, but as you can see...they didn't "dig" it as a hat. so we went with the alternative. It became a vest! I think that was some pretty great ingenuity on my part ;)

As for Lucas, I think his costume speaks for itself. Although he could have used some kryptonite and a tall building to leap off of... I take that back we get enough of that around here on the furniture!

Our favorite Superman :)

Don't mind the decapitated Spiderman, that was going to be his costume so his bucket would have matched but he switched it up on us last minute. Thanks to Ne-Ne for the sweet bucket though, he LOVED it!

Flying Superman

Don't you wish you had those abs? ;)

Hope you all had a great one too!!!

Balance....

This is something that is a work in progress for me...


Prior to having the girls I had been told that having multiples is like getting on a rollercoaster ride and not having the option to slow down or get off. Others told me stories of friends that were still just trying to SURVIVE day to day and the constant struggles and tears. I heard all of these words and thought...I am sorry that they are going through that but I don't think it will be that way for us. We see these two as a blessing we have been giving, and God would not give us more than we can handle.

Well I still believe that wholeheartedly, BUT looking back now, I see where these wonderful women were coming from. I cannot believe that 10 months have gone by SO quickly. Actually the last year....It was just a little over a year ago that I spent a weekend in the hospital followed by 11 LONG weeks on strict bedrest to assure that these little angels were going to stay put, cookin' as LONG as they needed to. Our rollercoaster ride started last October and seems to be slowing down, some.

The mental journey I have gone on is unreal- from:

During pregnancy-Are these babies going to be healthy? Did I do something AGAIN to cause this?- I thought I was being so good, and taking care of myself... , I don't want to stop working yet!, let me just make it to 28, 30, 32, 34 weeks, I am going to be OK having a C-section...How can we support everyone with mainly just Todd's salary?, and so many others.

To...

After their arrival- How in the world an I going to take care of these three by myself? How can I possibly nurse two babies, what was I thinking- I had a hard enough time with one!? but I feel like a failure... I hate needing Todd to help at night but I can't do this alone, Severe sleep deprivation, dare I say colicky babies...twins can be difficult enough to bond due to the intense demand of two newborns, so when you throw in breastfeeding issues and very upset, uncomfortable babies-WOW! Does Lucas feel left out or unloved? How can I make cakes and take care of everyone? Will I ever make it out with all three by myself or will we be destined to just stay in solitary confinement at home? I could keep going but you get the point..
So the point of all of this is my life was thrown completely OFF BALANCE. In a good way but still, shaken to the point where I think I had forgotten so many things that were/are important to me.

Well I have very slowly learned that life NEEDS balance. And I am trying to walk that fine line. I need to balance my life in so many facets. I have to give enough of myself and my time to all of the kids, my husband, my work, my home, and MYSELF. I capitalize that because, well- as you other mommas out there know....This area tends to be the last on the totum pole and is most often completely neglected OR very seldom visited. If I don't take care of myself then I can't take care of all of the other areas very well either. I say this but believe me- it is a constant struggle to remember it. So I am trying to carve out time in the day for ME amongst the other things and I have found that I am a much better person for it. And other things-communication, blogs, facebook, etc. seem to take the backseat pretty frequently out of necessity. I wish this wasn't the case!

If you know me well you know that I struggle to ask for help or unload my thoughts-feelings-hurts, even when I am drowning- emotionally, physically, mentally...That is just a stubborn, independent quality I was born with. I know it isn't good, but it is me- I am trying to change that. I know that is not how God made us, we are to lean on others and ask for help, we were designed to live in community with one another. I am not sure why I function this way- maybe it is a deep hurt from my past. I dunno.... I do miss my friends and family very much and wish I had more contact with everyone more often. Phone calls are so hard to make during waking hours with the kids and taking out brood to someone else's place takes lots of effort and planning. We love it but sometimes I feel like a burden too...But things seem to work out.

So I am trying to achieve this overall balance and seem to be getting better at it as we approach the girls first birthday. Some days are great others, well- not so great...I can only hope that things continue to improve and I start feeling even more so that I am not just treading water but living each day to the fullest and enjoying all of the moments- even the crazy ones!

Wahoo Wa!

We took a much needed break last weekend and spent a wonderful day in Charlottesville with wonderful friends. Todd has always been a Cavs fan and I jumped in once we met as most wives do ;) And since Longwood didn't have football, we really missed out over the years on all of the fun! We made up for that in other ways but still, nothing beats tailgating for the afternoon followed by some good ole' football. We had a blast tailgating and cheering on the Cavaliers. I don't think we could have asked for nicer weather. Wearing the mommy and daddy hats consumes us most days, but I have to admit it was nice to relax and enjoy adult company for a few hours. :) The kiddos were back at home being spoiled rotten by Ne-Ne and Aunt Kristi so we knew all was well on the home front.

Heather and Erica
Justas and Jamie planning their next cornhole move...

Heather and Jamie

The Bryants

Todd and Erica

The Blacks

The rest of the gang including Susan and Justas

us girls enjoying the game

cheese!

It was a great day and we are looking forward to next season :) By the way, I think I forgot to post about this too..but can you believe we have been married 10 years already???!!! We can't!

It's the Great Pumpkin!

We ventured over to Ashland Berry farm with the kiddos after church a few weeks ago for a fun afternoon at the pumpkin patch. This and apple picking are two of my favorite fall family days and have been since I was a little girl. They are trips that I remember fondly with my family and hope that our kids will look back and enjoy it just as much! We didn't make it to the mountains for apples this year with our busy October but Grandpa was gracious enough to bring us some fresh apples back from Graves Mountain and even threw in some of our favorite- homemade applesauce!! Thanks!!!
Ashland Berry Farm is quite a popular spot around here so it was no surprise to see the LONG lines for the tractor ride out to the pumpkin patch...50 minutes total actually...

but for this little boy who is obsessed with tractors and machinery, we will gladly wait :) We found plenty to do to keep ourselves entertained....

Dig in the dirt and gravel (with one of the babies spoon) ;)

While the girls enjoyed their lunch in the comfort of their cadillac stroller

Who could ask for more?

We made it to the hayride and everyone jumped right in!

As always, the hay was a big hit!

Attempting to get a good family shot where EVERYONE is looking is near impossible these days, but some nice folks were gracious enough to attempt it and we were very grateful. This was better than me holding out the camera and trying to capture us all...

Lovin' the hayride!

picking out the perfect pumpkins for everyone, we ended up with 6- not too bad for two adults carrying babies, and a backpack, and a toddler?!?

Peyton and daddy

Kayleigh and mommy

finding the right one...

The girls were done at the end of it all, I think I took this one just in time, I'm pretty sure we had a major meltdown right afterwards. But I think they too enjoyed the outdoors and the great pumpkin adventure. :)

Another year with another great memory for the Bryant clan!