The Lord's Prayer

Are ya ready for this????

Prepare yourself for some all-out sweetness.

Here she goes...

And Lincoln.  

Our precious Lincoln...

A Little Bit of Everything

THIS JUST HAPPENED!

My sis + I are in a picture together {without children} for the first time in forever.

This pic was taken on the way out of Disneyland day #2.  

We were tired.

Our feet were sore.

I'm sure we were hungry.

We were feeling tremendously blessed.

It's still my dream that one day we will be next door neighbors.  

I want to take boot camp classes with her, carpool with the turds, 

come over for last-minute dinners, 

take in a concert or game with her + Rus, 

walk into her kitchen and know where everything is...

the list is endless.

In the meantime, I'm happy for fabulous times like these. 

In other notes of randomness--

We have been having so much fun cheering for our local teams with the twins.  

This was last Thursday for the Seahawks game. 

 It ain't easy being a fan of a Seattle team.

Not in the least.

We figure it's better that they learn that lesson while their young.

Last week Brian told us all to get in the car after dinner.  

We were going out for ice cream!

Can I be honest???  (Don't hate me!)

Ice cream isn't really my thing.  

I could go a very long time without the urge to eat it.

BUT the other 3 Swishers, who are NORMAL, love it.

And so sometimes, Brian declares it ice cream night.  

For no reason at all.

And  of course I have some too.

Because I want to be a part of this fun tradition Brian has created for our family.

The kids obviously just hate eating ice cream.  

Tonight after swimming class, the kids wanted both mom + dad to play in the pool for a bit with them.  Even though Brian + I had really long days, 

and the cold YMCA water wasn't something we were extremely excited about, 

we did it.

And we had the very best time.

And after we showered and all put our sweats on, we went out for pizza.

Sometimes simple nights like these make me happier than you can imagine.

My sis sent this pic to me from our trip.   

 The L's still nap, {THANK GOD!}, and so after lunch on these days they were a little sleepy.  

On this day we were waiting in line and sissy asked me to hold her.  

Within 60 seconds she was asleep.  

For about a 30 or 40 minutes I was able to hold my sweet little thing in my arms
just like I used to when she was a baby.  

And even though I was sweaty, and it hurt my back and my biceps were sore for 2 days,
I would do it again every time.
I sure do love my Lila Pearl.

This guy. 

I can't get enough.  

And his eyes--

...I love how in pictures I see my own.

It's weird really, but there is something kinda special about seeing a feature of your own on your child.

I used to kinda hate my puffy eyes in the pictures of me as a child.

But on my boy, I melt for them.  

It makes me love those puffy eyes now.

 And this guy--

I love him so.

Even if he thinks pictures like this are ever so funny.  

The weather guy just said we are having a warming trend in the next few days.  

It might warm up to the mid-50's.

Might.

Ready or not Karla, the next 8-9 months are gonna be rough.

Rough and wet.

Hair

 Let's address the elephant in the room...

Lila's hair.

When we were choosing a name for our yet-to-be-born daughter, 

I immediately fell in love with the name Lila.  I remember visiting

 California when I was about 8 weeks pregnant chatting about baby names with my 6 week pregnant sister.

I came across Lila, and I just knew that if I had daughter, that would be her name.

The first meaning I read for the name Lila was dark-haired beauty.

I thought that was ever-so-sweet.

And it became ever-so-fitting.

9 months later, out came this sweet duo.

The week before I delivered the twins, an ultrasound tech said that Baby A (Lila) had a tiny bit of hair.  

And out Lila came with a head full of the blackest hair I ever done did see.  

So dang much.

And it grew and Grew and GREW!

Quickly.

Just after her 1st Bday...

And at 2...

And now at 3.

She's had 3 haircuts.  

The first was when she was about 10 months old.  

We cut the wings she was growing behind each ear.  

And then after her 3rd birthday, we cut several inches off.  

Mostly because it was getting stuck in her pants.

And then this summer we cut another couple of inches.

Kelsey had/has this head of hair.  

I was jealous of it my whole dang life! 

It is my dream hair. 

I, on the other hand, had the stringy/baby fine/ doesn't-want-to-grow-past-my-shoulders hair.

I would have never dreamed my daughter would have these locks.

Lucky little lady.

However, it has always made her look older than she is.

And I have always disliked that.

She just loves it long, but I do wonder when she'll want it all gone.  

It's heavy.  

And hot in the summer. 

And it takes forever to dry.

But nonetheless, I do love it so.

On another note, what happened to my roly-poly little girl?!  

She is longer and leaner than ever.

Ugh!

Watching them grow up is mostly exhilarating.

And a little bit heartbreaking.

Rare Air

We had the opportunity of a lifetime a couple of weekends ago.  

A good friend of ours, who just happens to be a pilot in the Air Force, gave us a private tour of a C-17.  

Can I just tell you that plane is the daddy of all planes.

My.

Headed up with the big dog.

It was really amazing.

For a history/military geek like myself, it was super-awesome

Our friend, who pilots the C-17 was the very best tour guide.  

So good in fact, I was able to temporarily look past the fact he is a Cowboys fan.

Temporarily.

Future pilot in training.

The twins were fascinated and so very well behaved.  

Which I would love to attribute to our mad-parenting skillz, 

but in all honesty, I'm quite certain it was most likely due to their awe of the gigantic, mack-daddy plane.

Anyway your homework is to google the dude this plane was named after...Col Joe Jackson.

A real life hero/super-stud.

God Bless the USA!

On another related yet completely unrelated note.

VOTE PEOPLE!

VOTE.

VOTE.

VOTE.

Pumpkins

We made our annual patch outing with the cousins this past weekend.  

I'm not quite sure when all the turds became so big. 

 Trent will look me in the eye before I know it, Landon and I are pretty much in the same weight class, the twins can carry their own pumpkins 

and Carleigh's thighs have doubled since I last saw her.

Oh, TIME, you are such a son-of-a-gun.

My world.

Captured in one little posed picture at a pumpkin farm.

Oh yes, we did the hay ride.  

Brian's smile just seems to say, 'I'm living!' right there, doesn't it?!

First year doing the corn maze.  

And man, was I thankful to not have to do it again for another year.

We are the in-laws.  

(Da, da, daaaaaaa.)

And there is not a baby in the bjorn.  So that's interesting, no?!

And this lovely pic was snapped by Lincoln.

In the corn maze.

That I happily don't have to do for another year.  

(Did I already mention that?)

I love the pumpkin patch.

Even if it is our tradition that we always leave pumpkin-less.

That is what grocery store pumpkins are for!

Fair Fun

We hadn't seen my folks in a couple of months and they just couldn't take it longer, so they booked a semi-last minute trip to come visit.  

And it just happened to coincide with the fair.

I don't remember going to the California State fair with my family growing up.  

(Probably because it was too much money and way too hot in the middle of July.)  

So anyway, it was extra-fun to have them along this time.  

And we had nice weather!

I was more than happy to let Grammie and Pops take L + L on the swings that go round and round.

(Puke-city for me!)

And of course, they were more than thrilled to take them.

This dragon ride was one of the first we went to.  Lila wouldn't ride because she was afraid.

I just knew this wild little girl would love it, but she refused.

When we had only enough tickets to go on one more ride, I asked the twins where they would like to go.

Miss Lila said the dragon ride.

The dragon ride!!!

I was just so proud of her.

She overcame that fear on her own.

So we went all the way back to the dragon ride and without any fear to be found, she hopped on the ride so confidently.

And I am certain, that no child on that ride enjoyed it more.

That is the smile we live for as parents.  

Joy.  

Pure joy.

I sure do love these 2.

Rub a Dub Dub, 2 Turds in a Tub

Maybe one of my favorite pictures ever.

How fun to be a twin.

Gymnastics

The twins have started gymnastics. 

 Also swimming + soccer.  

Phew.  

We chose to wait one more year on preschool so instead we have been hitting up all kinds of fun activities.  

Here is the first day.  

Lila in here special leotard and Lincoln in his (self-chosen) regular gymnastics apparel.  

(The Dawgs shirt + Jordan shorts.)

Here is just a normal picture these days for our 3 year old stud.

 And the Pearl.

Awwww, don't they look so precious??? 

 They are of course taking each other out, but they look so very sweet so let's go with that idea.

Coach Billie is their favorite.  

Sometimes they cry when it's over. 

 I like it because this lady is amazing with little ones.  

And so very patient.  

But structured.

Man, I love structure.

It's very fun to watch your children try and learn new things.  

Very, very fun.

Excuse Me While My Heart Explodes...

Tonight I tucked our children into bed listening to Little House in the Big Woods.  

I need a moment.

Alright.  I think I'm good.

It's just that my heart is bursting with pride that our kids, our THREE year olds, are intently 

listening to a piece of actual literature.  

There are dozens and dozens of books that I just can't wait to read with the twins someday.  

And this book was certainly on the list.

I used to read it to my kindergarten classes each year.

We have been listening to the story together during play times throughout the last couple of days, 

talking about the story, the characters, the woods....  

They love it.

I just adore books.  

Always have.  

And I'm just ever-so-proud to be sharing these kind of treasures 

and a love of reading with Lincoln + Lila.

Baseball

Last night we checked another item off of our summer list and

went to a Tacoma Rainiers game. 

 Can I just say...

It was so much fun!!!

We had heard these games were super-family friendly,  

and indeed it was.

Check out Lincoln + Lila running the bases after the game.

And the weather was perfect.  

It was a steamy summer night watching our local AAA team.

Lincoln was very brave.

They had some baseball treats + 2 giant lemonades.  

We went to the bathroom 8 times.  

No lie.

There might have been a snow cone involved as well.

The twins sat through 9 full innings.  

We were so very proud.

We will definitely be seeing more games in the very (near) future.