Sissssssy

I like to blog in spurts. Clearly.

Actually, I really do like to blog in general, but I just sometimes forget.

Kate and Grace love each other, a lot.

I was really blessed to grow up with a great brother and sister.

Side story about my brother...

 Growing up, my mom always told us that she didn't need to know what was going on unless it was immoral, could cause us physical harm in someway or life threatening. I told on Brian a lot. Like the time he sprayed axe (the obnoxious cologne that middle school boys decide to cover themselves in) in the house and then lit it on fire. He was mad at me, but i felt like my life was in danger. I'm pretty sure he got in trouble for that.

Anyways,

A few months ago my Sister moved to Chicago. Check out her blog here. It has been wonderful, I love my sister so very much. I also love that Grace and Kate get to spend so much time with her. I find that the hardest part of being in Chicago is being away from my family.

I know my sweet girls have a special bond. One of their first words was "sissssssy!" If you ask them where their sissy is they grab hands and try to get close to each other. If they have a hard time finding sissy, things get sad. I mean,how would it not. This is the person that they have really never been separated from.

Most days it's a struggle for them to take a nap or go to bed. How would you handle having your best friend over for a sleep over every single night. They just giggle and giggle and talk and talk. They are hysterical.

Well, it's hysterical after they take a nap or go to sleep. But, they just love each other so.

Seeing them with each other really makes me question how anyone gets through life without a twin.
In elementary school I had a serious obsession with Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen, I wanted to be a twin. Life as a twin just looked awesome. Now, being a mom of twins, I have to say I'm pretty sure it is as awesome as it was in my head as an elementary school girl.

I mean, how are you supposed to constantly feed yourself. You need a twin to feed you when you get tired.

When you are lonely, you need a twin to snuggle with.

Or, when your paci falls out, you need a twin to put it back in.

How about a back scratch. You have a twin for that.

I just an not sure how we have all managed to survive.. But somehow we did.

I am so thankful for the special relationship my sweet girls share and the love they have for each other!

The Park

There are few places that Grace and Kate love as much as the park.

Living in downtown Chicago, we don't have a yard, so when we are ready to go outside to play the park is where it's at.

I feel like every time we go to the park, I see the girls grow. They get bigger and braver every time. The girls are definitely no longer babies, but it still breaks my mommy heart (and makes it happy at the same time) to see them showing the park who's boss!

Tonight, it was a perfect Chicago night in my mind. You know, the type of night that Chicago fall is made of. The type of night that all the tourists come to Chicago, and we had the park all to ourselves! It was too good to be true!

So tonight, I just wanted to share with you some of our sweet family time.

Family time is the best :)

Here is a video of the girls sliding together :)

This gives you an idea of how big they are getting

Here is miss Kate

Here is Sweet Grace

Now, if that isn't video overload...

At the same time, we think they are the cutest things ever and can't get enough of them! We love this age!

The Meanest Parents EVER.

Austin and I often joke that we are the meanest parents ever. 

It's a hard job, but someone has to do it. 

Tonight, Austin and I took away the girls bottles for good. It's okay, go ahead and judge us. 

I know, the girls are 18 months old. I know they don't need bottles to go to sleep. And, I know we have waited too long to do this.

Truth be told, we are just exhausted.

That's why we have waited until now. I am always so (truly) happy for parents who have babies that sleep good. Really, I am. But, Kate and Grace don't sleep well at all. They never have. Most nights i feel like they never will. But, I know these long sleepless nights will only be a memory when they are teenagers (HA. YEAH RIGHT, we will never let them sleep in ever just as revenge. Just kidding :) ) We just tend to think that they like to be around us, that is why they get up multiple times a night. 

That being said, bottles are easy at 1:00 in the morning, and 3:00 and 4:30 and 5:45, well you get the picture. 

The other part of taking away the bottles is that the girls have figured out how to unscrew the bottle cap and pour the entire contents of their bottle onto their cribs. I think we may have some future engineers on our hangs. 

If you can unscrew the bottle cap, you don't need a bottle. 

So tonight, we were reminded about how mean we really were. For our next mean feat, we will take away paci's. 

Don't worry, we are only doing one mean thing at a time :) 

We would love to hear any tips on taking away bottles/ paci's/ ect.