My Birthday Girls

I find it incredibly hard to believe that one year ago today, this adorable bundle of baby was placed in my arms for the first time. I remember thinking, the first time I saw her, that she was one of the prettiest babies I've ever seen. I still think that.

Her labor was pretty short and sweet. I did my typical "am I in labor...I don't even really know?' routine in the middle of the night before she was born. We went to the hospital just to be safe. She was born not long after that with barely even one push. (Knowing her as I do now, it was totally fitting her personality. She has places to be and things to do...don't get in the way or try to slow her down.)

She spent the next few months of her life SCREAMING like a maniac over her acid reflux. Praise Jesus that is just a memory now. But the screaming still carries on. I think she got accustomed to screaming so much during her infant days that she just decided why bother with being quiet? Amaryllis is, in a phrase, pedal to the medal. She screams when she's happy, screams when she's mad...screams all the time. (You can't hear these pictures obviously, but she was screaming in most of the shots, as well.)

She is intense, doesn't like to sit still long enough to snuggle, and will put you in your place...even if you are a 40 pound 3 year old named Jericho. But she is also intensely happy...her squeals of laughter fill the house (and pierce my eardrums) and my heart. It hasnt been easy, mothering this wild baby...but I love the little spitfire that she is. People always say of their daughters that "daddy will need a shotgun to keep the boys away"...I like to think that Amaryllis wont need any help taking care of herself and will be the one telling future boyfriends how it's gonna be.

As intense as she is, our love for her is just as intense. We are so grateful for her, and how full of life she is. There are times when I look at her precious face and imagine, wonder, and weep over the part of her, and the part of our hearts, that we lost back not too long ago. Milestones like this 1st birthday I feel the loss of her twin sister, our Charis Eden, so vividly. Amaryllis is, and always will be, enough all by herself...but that doesn't mean we won't feel the loss. I'm sure we always will.

It's also not every day you decide to be born almost on your big sister's birthday...just for fun. Tirzah wasn't a fan of Amaryllis the first few days of her life. I'm not sure if it's because she tried to steal the birthday show, or if it was just weird for her to have another girl in our family. Tirzah spent the first few days of Amaryllis's life pretending she didn't exist. She wouldn't look at her or acknowledge her at first. As time went on she warmed up to her, though. And now, our other birthday girl, heaps what we call "Tirzah love" on Amaryllis to the point of making Amaryllis throw one of her screaming fits in self defense.

Tirzah is in the same category as Amaryllis when it comes to intensity. (I have NO idea how I ended up with such intense, emotional daughters. Nope. None.)  She feels things in a big way...it's like her feelings are way too big for her little body and they just explode all over the house and any bystanders. (#tearsofshae, anyone?) It's something we are working on, but I do hope that she always has such big feelings. I think life if better when you feel it, and Tirzah definitely has all the feels.

She is one of the most loving people I've ever met. She loves to love people. She loves pretty much everyone but her brothers. And even them sometimes. ;) And as much as she loves, she can also do a pretty good job of putting 40 pound 3 years old in their place as well. She is no pushover, and holds her own in the middle of that brother sandwich. She loves to spend time reading and writing and drawing, but can also be found in the middle of a pile-up wrestling with her brothers. I love the complexity and depth of her personality, and pray that she never stops being who she is.

She is so smart, and misses nothing. (I can sometimes pull the wool over the boys' eyes, but nothing gets past Tirzah.) She is witty and surprises us constantly with the things she says and understands. I can always count on her to keep us all straight. While her birthday isn't until tomorrow...I wanted to take this chance to celebrate both of my girls' and their special days. So close to each other, but yet still their own. I think it worked out just right.

I love watching these two beauties grow, and hate it all at the same time. They are beautiful inside and out, and I cannot get over the blessing I have in being a part of their lives. Watching them from the start is going to make seeing the women they become even more precious. I just hope that I'm able to guide them and instill in them a deep sense of just how much they are worth. They are irreplaceable, and I cannot imagine my life or this world without them. Happy birthdays, precious girls. You make this world so much more colorful, and we love you so much!

Hooligans Island '15

We are all back safe and sound, with no shark bites, from our trip this past week! It was SO much fun...way better than I was anticipating with 4 kids. Amaryllis wanted to nap at all the wrong times, but it usually worked out that we were all able to get to the beach or pool together without nap-time interrupting. She is pretty flexible with the naps....she may scream like a banshee, but she is great at naps.

The older three hooligans did GREAT in the water. The older two were doing great with learning to swim, and were swimming short distances above and under the water before the week was over. So proud of them! Jericho spent a lot of time bobbing around the pool in his float taunting people, but that's to be expected from a terrorist. When he wasnt doing that, he Amaryllis even loved the water, and splashed and squealed whenever she was in it. Sand wasn't her favorite, but she handled it without any fancy meltdowns.

What was I saying about naps? She naps like a pro, and even fell asleep in the middle of the beach, in our huge crowd of 45 people, on several different days. Jericho fell asleep on me one day as well...but I have so many weird tan lines from running that I figured what is one more weird Jericho-shaped tan line going to matter? I came home a lot more tan, but still managing to rock my runner's tan. I'm pretty sure as long as I run outside I'm going to look like I'm wearing a pair of white shorts around.

The kiddos definitely seemed to prefer the pool to the beach, I think it's much easier obviously for them to play in the water at the pool, but towards the end of the week they were spending a lot of time playing in the waves. (While I anxiously watch for shark fins in the water like any good mother who is petrified of sharks. I don't blink when my kids climb the side of a beach cottage, but get a shark involved and I'm over-the-top.)

We did other fun things like go out to dinner with almost all of the family, eat too much ice cream, play volleyball and spikeball, fish on the pier (or watch our cousin fish anyway), and build various sand castle-ish creations that Jericho made his business to stomp on. It was a really fun time, and I'm glad we were able to get away as a family after two years of no vacations together. The kids are all tan and exhausted...which I think is probably the best way to end a beach vacation. Till next year, OBX!

Happy

This coming week we are going to be enjoying some much needed R&R as a family. Even Billy is going to be taking a "break" and will only have a few meetings during the week. ;) This will be his first "vacation" in two years, so it's much needed even though he is still going to be working. 

I'm going to attempt to "rest" myself...if that's possible with 4 kids. So this blog will also be taking a vacation for a few days. But I can assure you, I will do as little laundry, dishes, and general mom-type activities as possible. Well, other than playing with some ridiculously cute kiddos. If a picture is worth 1000 words, I think this picture does a good job of expressing how excited I am for some down time with the fam. 

Lat and Lo

I'm not usually a big jewelry person. When Billy asks me what I want for a birthday/anniversary/Christmas or whatever, it's usually some type of gadget or clothes or something. Jewelry isn't usually top of the list. But I have recently seen these bar style necklaces, they have different things on them, but some of them have coordinates inscribed on them. I thought that was such a cool idea that it beat out "gadget" when  asked what I wanted for our anniversary. (You know, besides that dream trip we are so thrilled to be taking in August.)

This one particular company, called Lat and Lo, is where Billy got this necklace from. You can obviously pick whatever coordinates you want put on the necklace, so Billy had the coordinates for Bora Bora put on the necklace. It's always been the place we've both dreamed of going, so it's a fun little reminder of what's to come, and will be an even more special memento once I've actually been there.

So, over the next 62 days, I've got this to remind me of what's to come. And after that? It'll serve as a reminder of what's to come as part of this team I'm half of...dreams and hopes not yet lived but looked forward to. It'll also be a nice reminder on these long Summer days with 4 hooligans, when I think I won't survive another second if I don't get a vacation.

Nutsy

While that term technically describes our local baseball team's mascot, I think it also applies to the shenanigans involved in taking a bunch of hooligans to see said baseball team play. After Merrick got into baseball this Spring and loved it, we really wanted to take the kids to see an actual game. Not like they actually spend much time watching as opposed to asking for cotton candy, kicking various baseball fans, falling down bleachers, and looking for the mascot who REALLY needs them to hug him.

They actually lasted through the whole game though! I think it was helped by the fact that some of their favorite friends were with us. They kept each other entertained...it's always more fun to fall down bleachers with your friends, right? ;) Which means I actually got to sit and watch of the game. They ate plenty of snacks and drinks, hugged the mascot (he definitely needed it), and were thoroughly disappointed that no one hit them a foul ball. Next time, guys.

This season playing baseball was surprisingly more fun than I thought. I was always like "please not baseball...just any other sport", because of all the sitting. You just sit there for so long and watch kids throwing dirt. But I survived, and Merrick had a blast (and improved a lot! so proud of him!), so it was definitely something I'd do again. Apparently Merrick has his eye on Fall ball...so maybe I'll be doing this again sooner than I thought.