Duel Play - Way Back When-endsday

When: July 2009
Where: Our living room
Title: What one must do, the other must do also.

You don't have to have twins to play along with Cheryl's Way Back Whenendsday at Twinfatuation! :)

Way Back When-endsday! Family Pic

This was taken back in June, actually on the girls' second birthday. I just wish they would have smiled! A friend of mine put it well when she said it looks like their plotting. But plotting what???

For more Way-Back fun visit Cheryl over at Twinfatuation!

Way Back When-endsday! Daddy's Girl

Date: 6/6/09
Who: Anya & Daddy

We had gone into the garage to work on something and when we came back Anya was fast asleep on the couch. She was so tired she didn't even wake up to be taken upstairs. She's such a Daddy's Girl these days, so this picture really captures their relationship right now. :)

For more Way Back fun visit Cheryl over at Twinfatuation!

Way Back When-endsday! Is This the Terrible Twos?

When: 6/19/09

The girls turned 2 last month and we're already experiencing some of the "terrible twos". It's super fun! In this picture, Anya & Ziva BOTH want to be in Mommy's lap, but unfortunately they also want Mommy all to themselves. It's a common occurrence around here, if anyone has any awesome solutions to this problem I'm all ears!

For more Way Back fun, visit Cheryl over at Twinfatuation!

Way Back When-endsday! Grandpa & Great-Grandma

When: July 2007
Who: The girls with my dad & his mom

My dad LOVES babies! He seriously can't get enough of them. He's always the first one to notice the cute baby at the grocery store, and that weird guy who comes up to people to oogle at their newborn. So needless to say he was OVER THE MOON when he found out I was pregnant with twins. And he very much loves being a grandpa!

My grandma also had fraternal twin girls! (And oh yeah, at the time she had 3 young boys as well, all under the age of 5... I seriously don't know how she did it! She's an amazing role model for me!) So when she was scheduled for a trip down to California to visit her sister 6 weeks before my due date she made me promise, "Don't have those babies while I'm gone!!" Sorry Grandma! They were of course born the day after she left. She was gone for 3 weeks, so she wasn't able to meet the girls until she came back. And that's when these pictures were taken. Now every time I take the girls to see her at her assisted living home (she's gonna be 93 in August and is still up and around and sharp as a tack) she is VERY proud to introduce us to everyone, "This is my granddaughter Amy. She has twin girls, just like me!"

I'm the only one out of ALL my cousins (and in a large family, there are a ton of us) who has had twins. They all think it's super hilarious. I think they're just jealous. :P

For more Way Back fun visit Cheryl over at Twinfatuation!

Way Back When-endsday: Double Feedings

Approximate age: 4 months
Where: At our house on Hubs' lap

I thought this was a fun picture to share because it shows how Hubs often fed the girls. He'd set them both across his lap, and then bottle feed them with one hand.

This picture makes me VERY thankful that we're all done with those baby days! I'm definitely preferring toddler-hood!

For more Way Back fun visit Cheryl over at Twinfatuation!

Way Back When-endsday: Tiny Baby Ziva

Wow! Thanks so much to everyone who commented about my garden post yesterday! I had no idea people would be that interested. :P

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It seems to me like I've featured a lot of Anya pictures lately. I think it's because I'm a little bit jealous of the way she's become so strongly attached to Hubs lately. When Anya is upset, she wants her Dada. And no amount of Mama soothing will work for her. It can be pretty frustrating since Hubs is a day sleeper and usually it's me or nothin'. So Anya and I have had a difficult few weeks of her screaming and my hugs and loves not being quite what she wants.

As a result Ziva has claimed me for her own. I won't complain, she's extremely sweet. She's a great cuddler, when she isn't identifying body parts by poking me in places I'd rather she wouldn't (like my eyes for example). So it's really fun looking back to the days when all she would really do was gaze at my face and then fall asleep in my arms.

This picture was obviously taken in the NICU. I don't exactly know how old she is here, but we took them home at 2 weeks old so that gives you the approximate age. For some reason looking at this picture reminded me of Hubs and I sitting around in their room, me working on a jigsaw puzzle and him on his computer to pass the time between feedings. Every once in a while one of them would make a noise in their sleep, and we would play the game "which baby made that noise". It's amazing how quickly we became good at that game!

For more Way Back fun visit Cheryl over at Twinfatuation!

Way Back When-endsday: Anya's Sweetness

My mother-in-law took this picture of me and Anya, I'm guessing she was about 3 months old here. My mother-in-law is a very sweet lady, but a photographer she is not. So it's downright miraculous that we even have such a sweet picture of Anya. Whenever we think "what is the best picture of Anya" this is the one we think of. I love it so much!!!

For more Way Back fun visit Cheryl over at Twinfatuation!

Way Back When-endsday: Bathing Beauty

When: Dec. 26th, 2008
Age of twins: 18 months
Who: Me & Anya

Obviously this was right after bath time and she was in such a good mood that we just had to take a picture! She was all bundled up in the handmade hooded towel that my mom's cousin made for the girls. I LOVE those towels!!! And I love this picture of my sweet baby girl.

For more Way Back fun visit Cheryl over at Twinfatuation!

Way Back When-endsday: Sick Days

This one goes Waaaaaay Back to 2 weeks ago when the girls were sick. Once my brain returned to it's normal state I realized that I hadn't taken any pictures of the girls all week long! I missed the shot of Anya sleeping on Daddy's chest.. :( along with a bunch of other cute/cuddly things they did that week.

But! I did manage to get a few shots of the girls sitting nicely together on the couch eating saltines!













After the above picture was taken I took Ziva upstairs for her nap.

When I came back down... I found this:



Awwwww.....

Poor pumpkin couldn't wait for me to come back down and get her.

For more way back fun visit Cheryl over at Twinfatuation!

Way Back When-endsday: Mmmm... Avacados...

I was trying to find our Easter pictures from last year... apparently they are on some other media card somewhere in our house... sigh...

Oh well, these are super cute! It's pictures like these that make me look twice at my toddlers... where has the time gone? The past 2 years have gone way too fast for my liking. Makes me hug my "babies" just a little bit tighter. Love them just a little bit stronger. Knowing that the next 16 years are gonna fly.

For more Way Back fun visit Cheryl over at Twinfatuation!

Way Back When-endsday: The High Chair Picture

This picture is one of my favorites of the girls. Some of you have seen it before because I have it as my profile picture on one of the sites I frequent. I have very few pictures of them at this age, right around 10 months old, because they were suddenly quite mobile and as a result were difficult to photograph. But thanks to high chairs (to strap them into place!) and a toy bunny (to tickle them with and make the experience into a game), I was able to actually get them to hold still AND smile at the same time! It was a miracle! As a result of this picture we often look at how they fit into their high chairs now to see how much they've grown. :)

For more way back fun (and a great site for all things twins related!) visit Cheryl over at Twinfatuation!

Way Back When-endsday: Anya Smiles

Just look at those teeth! It's hard for me to believe it's been nearly a year since this picture was taken. They've grown and changed so much, but it's also amazing to me how much has stayed the same. Her smile is one thing that really hasn't changed a whole lot over time, and I love that. :)

As always, for more Way Back fun head over to Cheryl's at Twinfatuation. For the webwide sharing of pictures we just can't stop talking about visit 7 Clown Circus.

Way Back When-endsday: This Morning A Year Ago

As always, for more Way Back fun head over to Cheryl's at Twinfatuation. For the webwide sharing of pictures we just can't stop talking about visit 7 Clown Circus.

A huge event happened in our lives exactly one year ago.

My husband was shot in the leg while on patrol at work.

The truth is, the person who shot him was pretty far away, so really, that bullet could have struck him anywhere.

I sometimes refer to that day as, "The day I almost became a widow." And really, that's not far from the truth.

So today I was thinking about all the events that have happened over the course of the past year. I was thinking about how things would be drastically different if Hubs didn't make it home that day. And I'm so very thankful that he did.



And it really really pisses me off that he and all the people who work as Marine Terminal Security Officers down at the Port of Portland are STILL completely unarmed and defenseless!!

Hubs and I recently worked together to draft a letter to all the local congressmen, to the Department of Homeland Security, to the higher ups at the Port, and finally... just yesterday we sent it out to the local media. The Port of Portland is an international port. There are ships that come and go from all over the world. All the other major ports on the west coast have armed guards, except Portland. Apparently Portland is considered to be low-risk. Well, I don't know about you, but if I were a terrorist, I'd pick the point of least resistance. (Anyone remember the Portland Seven?) And unfortunately there are no laws regulating the equipment used by the various ports, including the use of weapons. So we're hoping that this letter we sent will get to someone who is in a position to change that.

And since it seems like the general public isn't aware that their local port of entry is basically unprotected, I thought I'd do my part here to let people know. This doesn't just matter to me and my family, it should matter to basically everyone.

So lastly, I urge you, contact your congressmen. Let them know that it IS important for marine ports to have regulated armed security. Feel free to tell them our story. Link this blog if you want. In this day and age, no port should remain unprotected. Currently at the Port of Portland if there is an incident the guards call 911, response time is anywhere from 5-15 minutes. That 5-15 minutes could be the difference between life and death for the guards, but also is plenty of time for someone to run and hide on this huge 400+ acre terminal. It's simply unacceptable.

And most of all, pray! I fully believe that God is in the business of changing hearts. Pray that these letters reach their intended audience, who are moved to make wise decisions for not only the officers at the Port of Portland, but for ALL of us!

Way Back When-endsday: Ziva One Year Ago

These were taken one year ago. She's changed and grown so much since then, but so many things about her are exactly the same. She still has that marvelous sparkle in her eye, her smile is the same, and her laugh is still exactly the same.

But thank goodness I've lost some weight since then! Gah!

For more Way Back fun you can visit Cheryl over at Twinfatuation. For those of you who just can't shut up about your photos, check out Wordful Wednesday over at Seven Clown Circus.

Way Back When-endsday: Tandum Play

This one goes waaaaay back to last week. lol

I could go on and on about the silly things my girls do in unison. It's so interesting to watch the twin relationship develop! Just last night I caught them both laying on their backs in the living room, both with their feet up in the air, both playing with similar toys and facing the same direction. So goofy! They don't do it ALL the time, but whenever they do it totally cracks me up. Whenever one does something that looks particularly fun or interesting the other must do the same!

The picture above was NOT set up by me in any way. The chairs were already there, that's where they usually are, but the fact that they both decided to sit and watch TV with the SAME bunnies in basically the same position is what gives me a giggle.

For more Way Back fun visit Cheryl at Twinfatuation! Or if you have a picture you just can't stop talking about (even though the picture says it all!) then feel free to participate in Wordful Wednesday with Angie over at Seven Clown Circus!

Way Back When-endsday: Sleepy Babies

The girls were 13 months old in these pictures. And they were so sweet and fun. I was finally starting to enjoy motherhood. Yup, took me that long to decide that I was actually having a good time. Before that I knew I loved them, I knew they were wonderful, but my life was hard and I was decidedly not having any fun.

So glad those really hard days are over! Although I'm sure there will be hard days ahead, they'll be hard in a different way, and for that I'm very thankful.


Would you like to participate in Way Back When-endsday? Then check out Twinfatuation. Or if you don't have twins and you'd still love to post and talk about your old photos you can check out 7 Clown Circus.

Way Back When-endsday: Such a Good Daddy!

Maybe I don't say it often enough, but Hubs is an amazing Daddy. When the girls were born, he was the one to change their first diapers in the hospital. He was the one to help out with feedings. He was the one who ran home every day to take care of our other babies.

I was the one stuck in bed with a c-section.

Come to think of it, he was the one having all the fun!

And he still helps out a lot at home. Most of the time I don't even have to ask.

So since it's nearly Valentine's Day I thought I'd honor him with this post.

I love you Honey, and I'm so glad we found each other and get to have this amazing life together!

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For more Way Back When-endsday fun visit Twinfatuation!

Way Back When-endsday

I specifically remember this day, because I think it was the first day that I decided to be brave and take the girls over to my parents house by myself. They were 6 months old, and yes, it took me that long to get brave enough to pack them into the car by myself. I think the only reason I was able to do it at all was because my parents were very supportive and assured me that there were 2 pairs of helping hands on the other side. Thank you so much Mom & Dad! You guys are the greatest!

If you'd like to participate in Way Back When-endsday, head on over to Twinfatuation!

Mark it on your calender! The first Mystery Spice Monday is this coming Monday the 9th!

My First Way Back When-esday

I told myself I wouldn't follow blogging protocol, but... I don't know, I guess I'm caving to peer pressure today.

Maybe it's because I ended up taking Ziva to the ER last night only to find out that I'm a paranoid mom who's kid only has some sort of virus. They kept asking me things like, "Does she have a fever?" "Only a mild one." "Does she have a hacking cough?" "Umm... not really." I felt like a total idiot... They sent me home with proper dosing instructions for Tylenol and the keep-her-hydrated speech.

Came home to a cranky sick Hubs, and woke up this morning to a sick and crying Anya.

So my day is headed off to a fabulous start, and I'm tired and praying I'm not going to be sick too.

As a result, it seems like the PERFECT day to join in on Way Back When-esday and think about happier times.

So here's the girls in their stroller and Baby Legs when they were about 13 months old. I LOVE this picture of them!




It was taken up at the lilac garden in Woodland, WA. My parents invited me and the girls to go with them, and I'm so glad I went! It was a glorious day, and the girls had a great time getting out, we didn't get out often back then!