You Asked for It!

Every now and again I like to post some more wrestle mania pictures. I forget that, though around here this kind of thing happens every day, not everyone gets to witness the joys of sisterly love. At least, that's what we think it is. Either way, it makes the girls laugh hysterically and we can't help but join in.


Londie has made a hobby of jumping out of hiding to give her sweet little sister a hug. Either that or body check her, but we are pretty sure it's affectionate. And as surprised as Maddie may look, her reaction is always a little giggle....


but she dodges Londie's other hobby- the kiss, fish pucker style-


This one was a shocker. Maddie was crying and having a tantrum that took her all the way to the ground, and Londie jumps on her WWF style to try to cheer her up!


It worked! And they are quickly distracted by something on tv...

Earth Day and my Birthday

Ryan and I have been playing a lot of speed scrabble lately and it paid off in his ability to create birthday messages with limited letters.



So my 26th was a pretty good one, and a pretty old one at that. The last time I remember dreading my birthday so much was when I was nine turning ten and worried about being a double-digit number! Who knew I would see the day when I am closer to thirty than twenty? But as my wise friend Maddy says, at least I have something to show for it! A couple kids, a loving husband, I would say I have done all the things I set out to do back when I was still in the single digits...
Saturday my parents invited us to their house for pizza and cupcakes, oh and Zoe showed me how much she appreciates me by biting me for the first time ever (you'd think only having 2 teeth would work to her disadvantage!)
Ryan let me sleep in Sunday, made me a fabulous cake and dinner and invited our friends, the Smiths over for my birthday request: croquet. It was raining so we had to settle for -the train game- which I may or may not explain the deathly fate of in another post. But for now I will leave you with curiousity and mystery....
All in all, I would say it was a fabulous day.

Madelyn's BFF

....And we all thought it was LONDON! These days, Maddie has abandoned her bully of a big sister in favor of someone she can bully herself. He is fuzzy and red and his name is Elmo. Elmo is a great playmate for Madelyn because he doesn't body check her and/or pull out hair and scratch. Qualities of a friend for life, I would say. Plus, he goes anywhere she wants to. Yep, I would say these two are attached at the hip. Meals are no exception.


Show us your new friend! As you can see, Elmo is a picture of safety, sporting a helmet and elbow pads for his roller blades.




I busted up laughing when Maddie started feeding him her peanut butter and jelly sandwich! Then I realized she was actually using Elmo as a fork, eating the sandwich off his face. Hey, I would say anyone who is willing to be a makeshift kitchen utensil makes a pretty good friend. I think we'll let him stay.

Rainy Days

Lately, London and Maddie have been spending a lot of time outdoors. I sometimes think it would be wise to set up some sleeping bags and a campfire and some snacks so they don't ever have to come back in. Even today while it was raining cats and dogs, London still went to the door, as she does first thing every morning, and said, "bubye? bubye?" I guess that's 'outside' in twin language. In any case, we let them do their thing and play outside for a few minutes. I don't think they noticed it was freezing, or even that it was raining. Ah, to be young again!


Our little drowned rats stomping on all the puddles.


Maddie decided to do a little rain dance, while London makes her way to the grass.



We pretty much had to drag them back inside to take a nice, warm bath. Both were dripping wet, completely soaked through their socks. But at least we left out the popsicles this time. Or maybe we just WERE the popsicles. :0)

A little off the top

Sometimes when I need a large change and sky diving is not an option, I guess I take it out on my hair. I have probably cut a foot plus off since December. And here is what today's visit brought. I wanted sophisticated and disheveled, whatever that means! I would like to thank my hairdresser, Amy for her good taste and good eye in giving me a mixture of the several pictures I brought. She is one in a million, girls. Especially when you are as picky as I am! Now we can all stop wondering what I would look like with this short of hair. Because I know we were all wondering.

I just wanted to get some pictures on of our Easter dresses. (Well, not Ryan's, but he's handsome anyway.) London and Madelyn apparently stripped for the nursery, making the ensamble in the picture incomplete. These dresses CAME with pink and yellow sweaters. However, that doesn't mean we have to wear them. I also found the girls some matching ballet shoes. Pink for Londie and white for Maddie. Fun!
We had a great Easter. We left Mount Pleasant in the morning and made it home just in time for our church. We were so happy to attend the blessing of our friends, Dustin and Maddy's new baby, Mia! After church, we all had a nap and a nice dinner, and then we let the girls run around for awhile outside and eat jelly beans. We all needed the exercise because after the big hunt Saturday, we are left with a year's supply of candy!

Happy Hunting!

It is a little-known fact that there is an Easter egg hunt in Mt. Pleasant every year. This year, as luck would have it, we ended up spending a few days in Mt. Pleasant to visit Ryan's parents, just in time for the festivities. Here is a little re-cap of how we spent our Saturday morning.


London and Grandma Barlow made a great team! Syl even practiced picking up eggs with her a few minutes beforehand.


Maddie with good ol' dad. I think Ryan was actually in it for the candy more than the kids were...



We appreciated the special fenced in section, specifically for toddlers. If you look carefully, you can see just how many eggs were available. No toddler went home empty handed.


London was on a mad dash to see how many eggs she could collect...


While Maddie was most interested in the candy inside. We were thisclose to another tantrum. Oh well, who are we to force it upon her to collect the most candy possible!

Refreshing Spring Reads

I don't know about any of you mothers out there, but if you are finding that you often lock yourself in the bathroom and cry your eyes out (maybe it's just mothers of twin two year olds), help is here. I stumbled upon these two books by accident; actually they were given to us for free by Deseret Book along with about twenty other Mothers Day books. Yes, Mothers day came early for this household. Anyway, I was impressed with how rejuvenated I felt after reading both of these. Each offers a gospel perspective on well, marriage and motherhood, and ultimately, what I felt was a pep talk for each. I especially loved to hear from Jane Clayson Johnson, because she spoke at our college graduation three years ago! She gives her account of how she gave up her high-profile occupation to be a full-time mother. I appreciate her perspective on mothering: that instead of being "JUST a mom,""I am a Mother!" (hence the title)
The other book is about marriage and is definitely a must-read as well. I appreciate the author's sense of humor! The whole book makes you laugh one minute, and cry the next. It has definitely helped strengthen my appreciation of my hubby. Favorite advice from the whole book: "Dating is cheaper than therapy/Babysitters are cheaper than therapists." Oh and the one about "Your husband does not want to come home to a slug!"
I do have a waiting list for both copies, anyone is welcome to join but it could be awhile. Otherwise, they are available at Wal*Mart, yes, there is Ryan's free advertising for the week. I hope you find as much strength from these women as I did.

Jungle Jim's

Yesterday we celebrated the second birthday of L & M's friend Isaac! They were roommates together in intensive care for 1 day, and have been best friends ever since. Can you believe these kids are turning two? Anyway, L & M were so excited to be invited to a party at a place called 'Jungle Jim's Playland' with all the climbing they do these days. What a perfect little party for two year olds. Here are some of the activities...


London hanging out with the birthday boy. This was about the closest shot I could get of him (or any of the kids, for that matter.) They were all having way too much fun!


The girls weren't sure about the swings at first...


As you really can't tell very well, London (pink) is having a blast, and Maddie is crying her little eyes out.


Next was the roller coaster, which we thought Maddie would like because Mom got on it with her...But in the end we were surprised with how fast it actually went! Again, more tears.


We finally got the hint that Maddie doesn't like rides as much as London, so we let her go solo on the Jeep ride.


"You're not Madelyn..."London was later joined by a new friend Maya. This was right after they had a cute little exchange of "hi" "hi" "hi" "hi"...I don't think London has ever seen a girl her size who is not Madelyn.

After the Jeep ride, we found out the real reason Maddie wanted to sit out so many rides, as she emptied the contents of her stomach onto Ryan...Motion sickness, maybe? I felt like such a mean mom for making her ride that roller coaster. Oh, well. In any event, we had to cut the party short. But it definitely was a blast and we are lucky to have such good friends!