our birthday girls...

1, 825 days 

of pure joy, unconditional love, and giggles.

or

FIVE YEARS

of living with two twin girls named Mia and Maddie.

Our little ones are 5 on Monday.

March 22nd.

 It's such a monumental age -

 the baby stage is way gone,

the toddler stage now over,

the preschoolers soon behind us,

and now...the kindergartners will soon arrive.

I specifically remember the excitement of creating this picture to send out on a mass email announcing our news. I was just 5 weeks pregnant when our first ultrasound showed us not one, but two babies on the way. We were leaving for Costa Rica the next day and my doctor ordered that I not go. Well, I went anyway. I knew that he was afraid of miscarriage, but I thought if it's going to happen, it's going to happen. And in reality, I knew with twins on the way, I would not see any type of vacation in the near future -- 5 years later I am correct on the assumption (although we are taking our first family trip here in a few weeks!)

So no one, not even my protective doctor, could take that Costa Rica trip away from me.

Those of you that are thinking I am nuts for ignoring those orders, let me get off track here and show you THIS is where I got to take my daily baths...

and THIS is the view I had from our rainforest cabin while I rested and read on the bed while everyone else went hiking.

NOW DO YOU THINK I AM NUTS?

It was a relaxing and peaceful trip and all went well.

Back to these twins of mine...

I went from being presentably-pregnant

to "take me to a park in a wheelchair so I can at least see the outdoors" pregnant.

78 pounds people!!!

these little ones added a whopping 78 extra pounds to my body.

ok, so I did more than my fair share of eating for three, but I was quite big!

Well worth the 78 pounds and discomfort because I soon had these beauties in my hands...

We went in to the surgery all prepared to bring home our Cooper and Caden, our twin boys, but here came two little girls. We didn't find out ahead of time what the babies were, but we always assumed that since I was a tomboy and my sister had already had three girls, that somehow I would be the mother of boys.

But how blessed to have two little girls.

Our Sweet "Moo-Moos" and "Meezee-Peezee"

We have loved every day with you and look forward to the next 5

...and the next

...and the next.

...and so on...