A Year of Blogging

Tomorrow, on the girls' 15-month birthday, Sugar 'n' Spice Twice will be a year old!! I'm actually rather shocked/proud I've kept it going this long!

Sleeping Beauty Evangelyn on 1/10/12, two days before I started the blog!... going with the sleeping beauty pics here because I wanted to find what the girls looked like exactly one year ago (yes, I am OCD like that), and these were the only pictures I could find from 1/10! But let's be honest -- who doesn't love a good sleeping baby pic?

Sleeping Beauty Evangelyn on 1/10/13... post-SwingWean 2012, of course! ;)

Sleeping Beauty Tamsie on 1/10/12... already kicking off her socks! And in case you're wondering (because I know I would be), those are my creepy fingers holding the swing still so the picture wouldn't be blurry!

Sleeping Beauty Tamsie on 1/10/13. Around the house, we hardly bother with socks anymore, because she apparently hates them so!

I know the blog still has a long way to go, and it hasn't really happened because the free time I would have allocated to researching how to make it better, adding buttons, etc., generally goes to just putting up posts. And I am in no way tech-savvy, which I'm sure you've picked up on long ago! But I have hopes that it will progress at some point, when things aren't quite so out-of-control busy, or when a friend who is maybe more knowledgeable in bloggy things has time to help a sister out!

Mom brought this monkey by earlier this week, and Evie has barely put it down since.

I'm not sure that I've ever really addressed the WHY of the blog in any of the 104 posts I've done up to this point, really, but here's a little list of reasons why I decided to get this party started a year ago:

Tamsie makes this hilarious face we call "the face." You could kind of see it in the last post, but no picture I've ever managed to take does it justice. This is the best I could get this time.

- I love writing. It's one of those things I always just assumed everyone enjoyed, but the further along I went in school (and life, really), the more I realized that God has given me the gift of enjoying writing! Not everyone likes to write, but it is definitely a much-needed creative outlet for me -- as it always has been. I majored in mass communications in college (primarily because I love writing so much but didn't want to major in English) and minored in art. Seminary gave me no shortage of opportunities to put my writing skills to use, and even my art skills at times (thanks to Dr. Allison's systematic theology class). Before that, I was a staff writer for a corporate publication, and before that I worked in public relations for a non-profit. So now that I'm home with the girls, it makes sense that I would want to cultivate my writing abilities when possible -- and the blog has given me a great way to do that!

Gigi, this one's for you - here's how I found Tamsie enjoying her puppy pillow a couple of days ago: sitting on it and giggling! 

- God has brought us through a very unique set of circumstances to get us to where we are right now, and He has sustained us through all of it -- to Him be the glory! I am reminded of what Paul said in 2 Corinthians 1:3-4: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God." Whenever I check out my blog statistics, it's not uncommon to find that someone has discovered this blog by googling TTTS. I hope that my story serves to encourage others who are going through similar things, and I kind of feel obligated to share it in some way since I do enjoy writing so much.

They spend their days walking around constantly.

- I take tons of pictures of the girls, and lots of people, especially friends and family far away, ask to see them. I don't want to be "that girl" on Facebook who plasters approximately one million photos, status updates, etc., about her babies every hour... and I truly hope I'm not already guilty of that! But the way I see it, if you want to know what's up, you can come to my blog. If you don't, then don't! Ha! That way I'm not dominating your newsfeed with my proud mommy-ness, and that way I still keep friends and fam updated on what's going on with us.

Evie knows how to find the right shapes and stick them in their spots on the house now!

- It keeps me from pulling my hair out when I've put my girls down for their regular nap, and they are doing ANYTHING but napping! ha! (Can you tell that's what's happening right now?)

Having a ball... or two! har har har!

- People actually read this thing, even if they don't always comment. I have been SHOCKED by the numbers of people who show up at this blog post after post!

- I have high hopes of making this thing into a book to have as a keepsake, since I've done a poor job of documenting things anywhere else.

- It's fun! I LOVE it when a friend tells me she read a post and it brightened her day! In fact, I think everyone should blog, but right... not everyone loves writing! But if you do want to start a blog, by ALL means, do NOT start one with Blogger. So often I wish I were on WordPress, but at this point I think it's too late to move over! Also, back in college, I loved keeping up albums of pictures with captions, showcasing everything I had been up to. This is kind of like the now version of that concept, I guess!

Well just for fun, I decided to figure out the top 10 posts of 2012 based on page views alone. Here they are, in case you missed any of them:

10. Announcing... I think this one has had so many views, because I put up a status on Facebook saying that I had a big announcement to make on the blog, and I think a lot of people were scared I was going to announce that there were more Vafi babies on the way! haha! Thankfully, that was not the case, and instead, I was announcing that we would be moving to Memphis! :)

9. Decking the Halls -- This is a post I devised for a link-up at Kelly's Korner about decorating for Christmas. Really I should have been ashamed to link up to something like that, looking around at all the Martha Stewarts and Nesters out there who TRULY know how to decorate, but I thought it would be fun -- and it was! :)

8. The Backstory, Part 3: Second Trimester and Feeling "Swell!" I think this one speaks for itself.

7. 366 Days: This one was about how we celebrated the girls' first birthday, pre-party.

6. The Backstory, Part 2: First Trimester, Cont'd.

5. The Backstory, Part 4: Third Trimester, Ready or Not, emphasis on not!!

4. The Backstory, Part 5: And Now, the Rest of the Story! I see some people must have been skipping ahead! ha!

3. Happy Almost Halloween! For this one, I also linked up with Kelly's Korner. The topic was Halloween costumes.

2. The Backstory, Part 1: The BABIES are OK!!!

1. My Little Twincesses - This was the original link-up with Kelly's Korner for a Show Us Your Life about new moms. Believe it or not, this post has been seen 1,270 times!!!! What?!

And there you have it. A year of blogging. Here's to hoping I keep this project going a little longer! :)