Time with the Little Ones

Those nine months that you are pregnant are the quickest & slowest of your whole life.  From that moment where you realize you are bringing new life into this world to the moment where you see that little face for the first time seem like an eternity apart. Those little butterflies that you get when you feel your baby move for the first time feel like they are never going to come. You just dream about the day when you will finally get to hold your baby in your arms and hear their little cries and see every nook and cranny on their perfect little bodies. However, those months come and go so fast. If you blink, I swear, you'll miss it.

Once you have kids you try to think about the things that you did before they came along but you just can't. You can't remember a time when they weren't around, weren't a part of your life. (which is perfectly fine with this mom)  Here is the first time that Hayley met her little brother Holden "Bubba"

A little piece of my heart breaks every time I have to drop Hayley and Holden off at my moms house. Don't get me wrong, I am SOO thankful that it is my mom who keeps them everyday (Chases mom too sometimes), but it drives me crazy that someone else gets to hang out with my kids all day! :) (I have visions of Holden taking his first step during the day over there all the time!) One of the BEST parts of being a teacher is having 3 months off during the year that I get to hang out with my babies. Those weeks over the summer are not worth trading for anything else. Plus all those holidays we get throughout the year as well. And of course the weekends, they take forever to arrive and go by far too quickly (just as kids do).
We have made a new routine of going to the gym on Saturday and Sunday mornings and it is a routine that Hayley has come to love. It's the first thing she asks about when she wakes up in the morning. But my favorite part of every day besides getting to wake them up, is putting them to bed. Hayley has her routine bath, book, song, bed. Holden likes to be part of this routine too (add a bottle in there though). Here is Holden holding himself up watching sissy get her nighttime bath.

He is crawling everywhere and getting into everything! He was crawling around Hayley's room the other night and tried to pull himself up on the wall and hit his nose, got a good little scratch. If you hold his hands, he will try to take steps. I can't believe how fast he is doing everything. I want time to freeze and keep him my baby boy. Until that becomes possible, I will continue to cherish all the little moments I get to spend with the two of them.

"Yes little one, I love you as the stars love you, constant and bright above you, giving you joy and peace and wonder. I love you as the stars love you, forever, and ever, and always"

xoxo

Why a blog??

There are tons of people in our lives that we love and cherish. However with the busy everyday lives that each of us has, it is hard to find time to share even a conversation. Don't get me wrong, with those people that I hardly get to see or talk to, we can pick right back up where we left off and it's like nothing ever happened and I hold that dear to my heart, trust me I do. However, I need to make more of an effort to actually speak to adults, other than those that I work with, other than my mom, other than my husband. For those friends and family that I hardly get to talk to, please know that you cross my mind at least once a day, and I love you and I miss you.
I wanted to start this blog for you, because you don't get to see Hayley and Holden and I want to share their milestones with you (and not just through facebook :})

My children are the two most important people in the world, Chase ranks a high 3rd :)
But I'm still trying to figure out how I got to be so lucky as to get to wake up to these two adorable little faces everyday...

picture courtesy of  Briana Klink Macon Photography

(check her out on facebook!)

They are incredible, and each and every day that I get to spend with these two little miracles I brought into the world is a good day in my book.

Hayley will be 4 May 19th, she keeps telling me "after my birthday, I will be almost 5 mom!" In my head I just keep thinking "is it selfish of me to not want your birthday to come?" Kids grow up much too fast. Even though I love watching her and Holden experience new things, it breaks my heart at the same time because they are that much closer to being little people and not my babies anymore.

Speaking of new experiences, Holden who will be 7 months old on January 23rd has been "hopping" around for a few weeks now, trying desperately to crawl. He wants to be able to keep up with his big sister. Well last week he officially stopped the hopping and started CRAWLING! 6 months old and crawling everywhere. As soon as I put him down, he is across the room, following Hayley wherever she goes. At this particular time he wanted to come and play with mommy :)

He also said "mama" twice the other day. He also says "hey" and "dada" occasionally. They just grow up much too fast.
I don't promise to blog everyday, not even every week, but I do promise to share whenever I can get a chance. My hope is that you can get some enjoyment out of me sharing these precious moments and milestones of Hayley and Holden.
I have decided that with each post I am going to leave my favorite quote from a book that I read to Hayley every night while I was pregnant with her and every night for the first year of her life (until she started wanting other books too) and now I get to read it to both of them. - I Love You, Little One (for those of you that have children and don't have this book, go out and buy it NOW!)

"Yes little one, I love you as the stars love you, constant and bright above you, giving you joy and peace and wonder. I love you as the stars love you, forever, and ever, and always"