Could you please pass the remote?

The girls are getting so good at sitting up with support. Sara loves playing with her hands, she is on the left and Emma is on the right.

"ARE YOU READY TO RUMBLE!!!!!!!"

One-Two-Three! and the winner is.....

I am trying to come up with some creative ways to engage the girls in tummy time to aid in their gross motor skills and I came up with the Twin Tummy-to-Tummy Time. They really like it, it kind of looks Sara has pinned Emma.

Emma is pinning Sara in this one!

Here Sara takes Emma down and still finds the time to suck her thumb!

Old Mother Hubbard-The Clark Cupboard

She went to the cupboard and it was... what are we having for dinner? Has anyone seen my black shoes? How do you make sourdough bread? All questions that have come up in our 10 years of marriage. I really started this blog to keep people up on the 3 girls and everything that is going on in our lives. I have other interests! I love homemaking, being frugal, and all things crafty. I wanted to start keeping a log of some of the great ideas I come across. If you get a chance plese visit The Clark Cupboard. I will be updating it often and I hope that you continue to leave comments and some of your own great ideas too!

Spring is here!

Here you see the ladies sporting the lastest spring fashions-Sara is in the hoodie and Emma is wearing the hat.

2 Bowling Balls, one with teeth!

Good news! I had an appointment at the doctors' office so I had them check Emma & Sara's weights. It is a sore subject with me because as any breastfeeding mother knows you have no real way to know how much your baby is getting, you have to rely on growth and weight gain to know if they are not starving. So I really try to celebrate growth, it helps me to feel more at peace and confident in what I am doing. Like, "I must be doing something right, after all they are growing!". I have to remind myself that babies cry for all different reasons--colic, gas, tired, hunger, overwhelmed, reflux, overstimulated, and other things. Plus when you throw in a child's personal temperment one may be more laid back and the other a little more 'assertive' in her views on the world.

Sara weighed in at 12 pounds 1 ounce, and Emma at 13 pounds even. Woohoo! The doctor was so excited! 12 & 13 pounds is what most people would bowl with. That is 25 pounds of baby! Emma (left), Sara (right)

We also found two teeth breaking through on the bottom in Emma's mouth last night and I am sure that Sara will be quick to follow.

Hannah's Campaign

There must have been something very interesting down on the floor that day when I took the picture because both babies are looking it at it.

Hannah is such a big helper. We have been very careful to make sure that her world didn't change too much when the girls came. We wanted her to still be a normal kid. After all she started this whole thing! About 3 years ago, it must have been after a Sunday School lesson on prayer, Hannah started this whole campaign to get a baby. It started out innocently enough--she first started off by asking Heavenly Father to "help Mommy have a baby" at bedtime prayers. She was about 5 or 6 years old when this started. She had always wanted a sibling. I, frankly, thought it was really cute when she would pray for it. I had pretty much given up, after all I had been praying to have another child for, oh, 7 years! I finally had closed a part of my heart off so that I could feel the sting of longing for another child.

Hannah's campaign started to branch out, eventually she would thank God for the food at dinner and throw in at the end "please bless mama to have a baby". She persisted. Eventually she got what she wanted last March I had been feeling like absolute garbage, so one afternoon I finally broke down and secretly took a home pregnancy test. Through all the years of trying, I had gone through the drill so many times, that I expected it to show a big fat negative. But it wasn't! I cried out "oh my gosh!" Hannah was playing in the other room, oblivious to what I was actually doing, she came running in and yelled out--"You're having a baby!" It was like the Holy Spirit whispered it to her before I had even decided to take the test. The next day I confirmed it at the doctor's office. We were all so excited! We broke the cardinal rule to tell people early and told everyone!

A week later I started to have a miscarriage. I was devastated. I felt horrible for letting my excitement out about the pregnancy and telling everyone so early. How would I break the news to Hannah. She was old enough to know that I wasn't going to have a baby, but still have the question of "why?"

Weeks went by, Hannah kept up her campaign of prayer to have a sibling. Eventually "things" did not get back to "normal" so I took another test at home, and it was positive again. This time I kept my mouth shut. I did call Nathan, to which his response was a matter of fact, "huh?" We went together to have the test confirmed at the OB, they wanted to do an ultrasound to check for a heartbeat right away to make sure that they hadn't made an error in assuming that we had miscarried earlier. We found out that day that it was a new pregnancy, it looked like it was about 6-8 weeks along, and there were TWO HEARTBEATS! What???? After all of these years and a miscarriage, to have two heartbeats-twins, we were, understandably so, over the moon.

The lesson I learned from all of this is how close children really are to God. Hannah set her mind to this. It took her complete faith, but it happened. We adults have so much to learn from children.

If you are tired, please raise your hand!

Me! You may be wondering why I am up at 2:07 am blogging when I hardly get any sleep. Here in lies the problem, my fragmented sleep schedule is catching up with me and I am now suffering from insomnia. I get into bed and lay there after getting up to take care of the girls for 30-60 minutes. I lay there and think about EVERYTHING! My husband can't figure me out, he is one of those people that can be woken up out of a sound sleep, get up to do something for 3 minutes and then fall back to sleep in a matter of seconds. God bless him! I, on the other hand, think about why someone said "that", or what should I have done, or what should I make for dinner, or Oh that's right I need to call so-and-so, or do you think the babies need to move to size two diapers? Just everything, so much so that I decided this particular morning to sit down for a second and just get some of it out and then go lay down. (you are getting very sleepy, very sleepy) Mother's day is just around the corner and I am really looking forward to it. I went from being a mother of 1 to a mother of 3 in such a short time. (you are getting very sleepy, very sleepy) I prayed, hoped, and waited for this blessing for so long, 8 years, and now I finally have it. (you are getting very sleepy, very sleepy) I am very blessed, both to be a mother and now to be sleepy....(yawn) Goodnight...

It has been a while! Birthday Party Madness!

Sorry I haven't blogged in a week or so, things have been absolutely crazy around here. Maybe it is because it is spring and it is that time of year when everything seems to be bursting out! Hannah is excitedly planning for her birthday party for friends from school, choir, and church. It is going to be a pool party at the community center. She is very excited. Last year we had a big sleepover at our home, it was crazy. 9 little girls painting nails, watching movies, playing inthe backyard and that was within the first hour. Hannah told me the next morning "Mom, I don't want to have any more sleepovers. I didn't get enough sleep!" (I secretly thanked God right then and there.) I actually like the idea of having someone else worry about the set-up, entertaining, and clean-up. I know I would spend at least that much money and time on dinky decorations for the house.

When I was a kid my mom did a variety of things for birthdays. I remember having McD's b-day, and also birthdays at home. Did anyone else play that game where you stand on a chair and drop clothespins into a jar? As I got older there was the roller rink, and the bowling alley, but I had my share of homespun birthdays as well. No one can tell me that kids these days don't have it easy. It isn't too bad to be a parent either.

Early Morning Talks with God

When I was a kid I honestly though my Grandma Krueger never slept. I got to visit my grandparents a lot when I was a kid (like Hannah's age.) I swear whenever I would wake up in the morning she would always be sitting at the kitchen table with all of her prayer books out, the bible and her Rosary beads. I am talking like 3-5 in the morning, because they milked the cows at 5am. When I was younger I used to think that she got up that early because that is when God was listening, you know less call volume at that time of the day. Now being a mother to three I realize that she probably didn't get up that early because that was when God was listening, but that was when she could really listen.

It is amazing what your heart can hear when it is 2:43 in the morning if you only listen to what He is saying to it.

Happy Birthday Ellen (observed)!

A few years ago a few of my closest friends were out to dinner and we had a vote and decided to change Ellen's birthday. You see Jamie's birthday is 2/16, and mine is 3/17, Ellen just came eight days early. (If you know Ellen you know she has pretty much done that her whole life, potty trained by 17 months, graduated from college 2 years early, and so on.) So we decided if Ellen was a real friend she would have been born on 4/18 to keep the neat number thing going. "All in favor say, aye!" and so it was--Ellen's new birthday at least for our purposes was 4/18. If the presidents can do it, why can't Ellen? Trust me she will thank us when she turns 40 and gets those extra 8 days!

Here's to you Ells!