Grandma's visit

We have a Grandmama (my mom) and a Grandma (Jay's mom). Grandmama lives 15 minutes away and Grandma lives 12 hours away. So the kids get to see Grandmama more often. But they always get confused with the names. They call Grandmama Grandma all the time. Grandmama is always correcting them, "What's my name?" ;)
Grandma came down for a visit and is staying with us for about a week. Tonight we invited Grandmama over for dinner also. The kids enjoyed having both grandmothers over. And it was a constant confusion with names. Grandmama left to go home and we got ready for bed. Before bed the kids had a little time. Isaac watched a movie with Grandma. Noa played with her dolls and Elijah just bounced between the two. I was in the bathroom and Noa came in with her dolls. One in a carrier and one in a grocery cart. I told her she should go show Grandma her dolls. She said, "The new Grandma?" I laughed and said yes, the new Grandma;)

Then while laying in bed with Noa and Elijah, we were discussing our day and Noa was talking about going to the playground with new Grandma. Love it!!

Also Isaac loves to watch Grandma put on her makeup. So this morning we are getting ready for him to go to school and he's waiting all morning for Grandma to put on her makeup. In the last 10 minutes before we left Grandma puts on her makeup and of course Isaac was there to watch every application and get a little himself. So he goes to school and the first thing he tells his teacher is how he put makeup on with his Grandma. Then when I went to pick him up the first thing he asked me leaving his classroom was, "Tomorrow morning can we not be as rushed to leave as we were this morning." I said well we have plans to go to Kentucky Down Under tomorrow so we will be living pretty early for that. He said, "Well mom, it would be nice if Grandma had a little more time to put on her makeup. She had to do it so quickly this morning. I would like about an hour and a half instead of 15 minutes!" So funny!!

Funny Day

I decided I need to start blogging again. Too many great things happen and are said to not record this stuff. Today is a great day to start back.

This morning the roofers are at our house putting a new roof on. As we are leaving to take Isaac to school we pass the guy who we've been talking to about the new roof and working the deal through. We are leaving and Isaac said whose that. I said he is the boss. He says what's a boss? I said well its someone who is in charge and makes sure the job gets done and tells them what to do. He says kind of like what Grandmama is to Judy when they did our rooms!!! Hahahaha!!! Thought that was great!! I said no. Aunt judy and grandmama worked together. And tried to give him other examples of bosses!!! Haha!!

Then today at the gym I workout then go take a shower. As I'm finishing my shower over the intercom I hear "Courtney Youngs to childcare" Great!! I turn off the water. Luckily I had decided to take all my stuff in the shower area with me. I quickly dry off. Put on my workout clothes bc they are hanging closest. Can't get any of it on bc I'm soaking wet. Thinking what I the world could have happened. Are they ok? Finally get my clothes on. Throw the towel around my neck to catch my soaking wet hair. Grab my stuff and go to the childcare. She says they are fine, Elijah pooped and he will not let me change him. She said she tried several times and he threw a fit and said no mommy do it!!! Ugh!!! I'm guessing he had been poopie for a while!

And it's only noon!! What does the rest of the day have in store for me??

Noa and Elijah helping dad cut the grass!

Isaac took me to lunch at I Hop for mother's day! we had a wonderful lunch! dad hung out with Noa and Elijah.

Working Mom to Stay At Home Mom

So from January until April I went back to work at CMT. I was filling in for someone on maternity leave so it was just a brief period. It was a great experience for me! I think I really needed the break from the kids. A friend from church, Karen, kept the kids while I went back to work. She was great for them!!!
We learned that me getting home at 6:45 every night was not ideal for our family! It was hard on Jay because he got stuck with the difficult time with the kids. He had to pick them up come home get them fed and ready for bed. I would get home just in time to put them all to bed. I loved working but mainly for the social aspect of it.
I realized that a "working mom" and a "stay at home mom" are two completely separate jobs! They are both hard jobs and both have thier advantages and disadvantages! Being back home now really makes me appreciate being able to stay home!! I love spending time with the kids. I was thinking this morning it's nice to have the "freedom" to be able to do whatever during the day. Yes I have to drag kids wih me but it's nice to be able to run to the store on the middle of the day when no one else is there. And hang out with other moms as your kids run wild around you. And plan a day to the zoo with friends. Although working full time you do have all day adult interaction! Which is always nice so you don't feel like you brain is going to cookie mush. This also gave me a great respect for working moms. To find the balance between work and your family can be hard. Finding anytime to clean my house, cook, or do laundry was very hard!! So for me this break back to work is just what I needed. If anything it helped me to appreciate staying at home with my kids!!!

They are getting big!

I haven't posted in forever!! But they did something really cute today (which actually they do often, but today I just decided to write it down!) They were holding hands while drinking their bottles. Elijah was holding Noa's hand. At one point Noa was trying to let go but Elijah had a strong grip. You could tell she was trying to break free. They are so fun to watch!!
Not sure what I posted last but Noa is walking now. We declared her a walker before she hit 10 months!! She walks all over the place. Her big thing right now is to carry something and walk. The first time we notice this she was carrying a diapers box. It was empty but about the size of her. Elijah is a really fast crawler!! He has started taking a few steps to keep up with his sister. He is now taking about 4-5 steps at a time. But I think he realizes he can get places a lot faster by crawling!
Isaac turned three and we are learning how horrible the threes are!! I finally got rid of the paci!!! I threw it in the trash can. One morning he was fighting with Noa over it and being mean to her so I said that's it! And threw it away. We watch the trash men come get it and everything! He has had a hard time with it but is starting to get over it. We talked about how the trash men took it to another baby who really needed it and their mommy washed it for them. :)

Today...

We had a great day today!  We got out around 10 and were planning on feeding the ducks by Granddaddy's house but when we got there there were no ducks.  Noa and Elijah were still sleeping so Isaac and I decided to go to the park in Mt. Juliet.  We had a great time!

Isaac played on the monkey bars, played in the sand, Noa and Elijah played in the sand for the first time and ate it, and decided it didn't taste very good.  But yet continued to eat it!  I finally had to take them out of the sand!  YUCK!

They all got to swing!  Noa and Elijah shared a swing!  First time swinging.  I actually was able to take some pictures of it all too!

We then walked to Sonic to get lunch.  Isaac asked why are we going to Sonic and I said because Mommy didn't pack our lunch, why mommy? because I didn't think we would be out this long and I didn't really have time to pack before we left I was just thinking about getting out of the house!  Isaac - Oh! :)  We have officially entered the "why" stage!  Everything is "Why" now!  My favorite saying is "Why, Because" he answers himself I guess:)  We had a great lunch.  It turned out to be a little longer walk then I had thought it might be in my head...  And of course no shade...  I think they all enjoyed it more than getting in the car and driving there.

Afterwards we went over to my parents for a little bit.  Isaac took a nap in the car. (Don't worry the air was on and we have monitors so when they wake up we hear them:)!)  The twins were good entertainment while we were there!  They are getting to a great stage!  They kept fighting over toys.  Well mostly Elijah would take everything Noa had.  At one point Noa was entertaining herself by going back and forth between two toys.  It was great entertainment for us all:)


Today I have been thinking a lot about our friends' brand new baby.  She was born Saturday and they took her home and had to go back to the hospital last night.  I don't know many details at all, I just knew two things: to pray!  and that she was not breathing on her own.  This had me thinking back to what we went through with Isaac when he was first born.  I was thinking today that it is amazing how much you can love someone who you have only known for a few days, or even just a few minutes!  I remember when they were telling us all the bad news about Isaac how hard that was!!  Then I just started thinking about all the crap we had/have been through together.  How before Isaac was born I went through so many health problems and then Isaac was born and he had problems and then we were given twins... ?  And Elijah had trouble with his lungs in the beginning.  Then I started thinking about what a blessing they are and how perfect they are all now!  The twins are hard.  Very hard! But I just started thinking that God gave me two when I only expected one.  He entrusted two lives at once to me!  I was given two more children to love and watch grow when I was only expecting one.  And I'm pretty sure that it would have only been one more!  But God knew we needed two more!  That just makes me feel so special!!  And to think of all the stuff we went through to get to this point where we are now, it really seems like nothing.  Yeah in the moment, it was horrible, unbearable, but looking back now it has brought us to where we are today.  And who we are!  One bible verse that I have held on to over the pass 5 years is Jeremiah 29:11 - "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." This sure has played out in my life!  Boy did he prosper me:)  Not sure my reason for blogging all this.  I think mainly for myself, so I can remind myself that life isn't about the day to day its about the lifetime of memories and where you end up!  Sometimes we get so caught up in the day to day we forget to look at the big picture!  We got word tonight before dinner that the precious little baby I had been thinking and praying for all day today, is doing really good.  They have taken her off of the ventilators, and they said all their prayers have been answered!  We still don't have many details but we are still praying for this little girl and I just keep praying that she turns out as perfect as my three who all came into this world as miracles!!!  God is so GOOD!!