30

Saturday I entered a whole new decade! I wish I had 30 wise life lessons to impart to you, or something like that, since I think I always expected to be 99% wiser than I likely am by the time I hit 30, but alas. I don't have much time to post today, so a picture recap will have to suffice. 

Melissa (who took this picture) set up a lovely birthday tea for me at Chez Phillipe! It was the perfect way to celebrate turning 30 (or any other age, for that matter!), and we had a wonderful time. I feel like I should tell you that there is a good reason for my hair's utter frumpiness: it was an insanely hectic morning leading up to the tea. I had several errands to run, and it's kind of a wonder I didn't wind up wearing sweats up there, as crazy as it all was!

For my birthday gift from Chris, I ordered this rug for our living room. (You know you must be 30 when you choose to order a rug for your birthday.) However, when it came in, it was abundantly clear it did NOT match our living room decor. I tried and tried and tried to love it, but it just wasn't happening for me.

While I felt like I was cheating on my new rug, I talked Chris into running me to Target ("just to look around," you know), and I wound up finding this one instead -- for a much better price! It just matches everything in our room WAY better. Now, sadly, we are left with the rug above, because we bought it at a final-sale price and so it is non-returnable, so if it happens to be the perfect rug for you, just let me know! We'd LOVE to sell it ASAP!

While I was having tea and scones and other wondrous delectables at the Peabody, the girls were hanging out with their Daddy and Granddaddy enjoying the hot summer day from the comfort of their new pool!

Swimsuit babies and their Daddy on Sunday afternoon

Getting her SPF on, while hanging onto her wagon

Evie ripped off her sunglasses the second I put them on her, but Glamour Tams left hers on the whole time.

T's selfie. She thinks this picture is the funniest thing ever, and she laughs hysterically whenever I show it to her.

T found my shoes and kept saying, "Walk! Walk! Walk!" 

Giggly girls

DADDY'S HOME!!

E models her new big-girl PJs

My lil sis Beth from my sorority days who has truly become like a little sister to me sent me this sweet gift in the mail. It's a journal that she has filled with quotes about friendship.

She's been working on this for me ever since the day I lost my Grandma. Her friendship is such an incredible blessing in my life!

Carissa also managed to find the perfect card to sum up our friendship! I am so richly blessed to have such dear friends.

I haven't shared any videos in a while, because it's not the easiest thing to do on Blogger -- but I thought these were well worth it! :)

Here's Evangelyn and her Daddy having fun in her pool:

Here are the girls with their Daddy right when he came home from work one day this past week. He gets a royal welcome every time!

Evangelyn's interpretation of Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus:

{ARGH, it's not letting me upload it. I'll try it on a separate post.)

Tamsie's interpretation of Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus:

And last but not least, Tamsie's rendition of Baby Faces:

Quick update

So things have been rather busy around here, as I had mentioned they would be. This post is so late in coming, mainly because I have been using my naptime breaks to actually take a break! Imagine that! Since I am quite determined to get this post up before I turn 30 (how's that for a goal?), I'm just going to post what I have with some captions! I'm hoping to post something a little more substantial later, but this will work for now -- just to empty the pictures off my phone, if nothing else! :)

Proof that great twin minds, while very different, can still think alike: We had taken them out to eat and were giving them kiwi bites to keep them happy until their meal came. At some point I noticed that E had picked up each bite and put it in her drink holder... 

... and then I looked over and realized T had done the same thing with hers! 

Enjoying a nice meal al fresco. Once again, many of the pictures I have these days are of them in high chairs, simply because that's the only time they sit still enough for a picture. Please observe how eerily similar T's face looks in this one...

... to her daddy's face in this one! I posted this picture on Facebook in honor of our 5th wedding anniversary on the 14th. While we had dreams of going somewhere exotic and magical for our 5th, we just couldn't handle the thought of leaving the girls behind just yet. (And let's be honest -- it's probably safe to say our bank account couldn't handle it either.) But regardless, we had a lovely dinner at Pasta Italia to celebrate five wonderful years! I am so blessed to be this man's wife!

VBS was last week, and it was a blast, as we knew it would be! The girls had a disastrous first day, as their little schedules were thrown off entirely, but I left a little early each day the rest of the week, and everything was just fine. The hardest part was keeping them awake on the way home, because if they get any sleep at all in the car, they just go ahead and count that as their nap for the day. Other than that, it was wonderful! I worked with some precious 1st graders and a terrific group of leaders.

Out running errands last weekend. You know this kind of thing has to present all sorts of confusion to a mirror-image twin.

Tamsie was very fascinated by the whole thing.

And here is one of the many reasons we love Costco: twin baby seating arrangements in the carts!

Somebody was ready to go home though.
Actually I think she was playing peekaboo, but they both look pretty tired and run-down at this point in our shopping excursion.

I think Chris had a good Father's Day, as did my own Dad. Sadly, this is one of the few pictures I took on Sunday.
I'm still terrified to cut the girls' nails, so I'm glad Chris doesn't mind it! 

Sisters holding hands

Tamsie is now holding her Daddy's hand. They are such Daddy's girls!

E's face here = classic!

The wagon is a huge hit these days. This was actually my old wagon!

Of course my girls would have a Pantone Colors book.

I love all the swatches that go along with each color!

This book is really helping them learn their colors. Before we got it, if you asked E what color something was, she'd just say pink! Now she's at least getting it right a little more often! :)

April came to visit this past week! She is one of my dear Sunday School girls from back in the day who are now all grown up!

Out for a walk/wagon ride

Any time I turn my back these days, T has climbed onto something random. Better this than the top of the bookshelf downstairs, which is where I found her while I was washing dishes last week!

Uncle Alex came to visit. The girls are obsessed, and they haven't stopped randomly saying "Uncle Alex!" ever since.

Today Mom took off work to get my 30th birthday started right! We met up with Gigi and took the girls to La Baguette for a delicious lunch (where they were far more interested in my lunch than the one I ordered for them!). They were a constant blur of 20-month-old activity, so this is the best picture I was able to get. 

ARGH I must be getting old because it's not even 11 and I'm not even sure I'll be able to stay up to ring in my 30th year! Goodnight, y'all!

Weekend Update: Oh So Busy Edition

This weekend turned out to be one of those that's so busy it just calls for a weekend recap. But first, here are some pictures from our past week:

Tamsie's checking out her future fellow OBU Tigers in the Ouachita Circle that came in the mail.

Sweet E smile

T and her bottle of milk from her grocery toys. I'm asked approximately 40 times a day either to open or close this thing for one or the other of them! :)

Missing the point of the corn popper....

Thursday night a friend from my discipleship group had an adoption fundraiser at Chic-fil-A, and the girls were more than happy to go do their part to help out! They LOVED Chic for the first time ever! Success all around, I say!

Same expression

E is wondering where her ice cream is!

FRIDAY:

* We met up with Carissa, Roy and Cliff to go to the Germantown Charity Horse Show, which was tons of fun! We couldn't believe that it had been a whole year since this picture was taken at the babies' first horse show: 

L to R: Evie, Tamsie, Cliff

and this picture too:

A better picture of Cliff from last year :)

When it comes to babies, what a difference a year makes! Carissa and I tried to get a picture of Evie and Cliff (Tamsie was with Roy and Chris) on a tractor at the horse show, but alas. They are two wiggly worms, so these outtakes are the only photographic evidence I have of our time at the horse show this year. But you know, this encapsulates what life is like with them right now, so I'm OK with that! You should also know that Cliff was steering like a wild man, and Evie was heartbroken that I wasn't holding her at the moment.

Just imagine how different our pictures from next year's show will be, with 2-year-old babies! Oh how we love special times and shared memories with Roy, Carissa and Cliff! 

SATURDAY:

* We started off the morning with a visit to Overton Park for their Day of Merrymaking festivities, where none other than Melissa, AKA Aunt Mo, was working the photo booth! Naturally, the girls had to pose:

 While there, we had some truly delish items from those magical food truck things I keep hearing about but had never before experienced. Now I see what the fuss is all about! Yum! However, T and E weren't too sure about the mac and cheese we got them... I'm guessing because it was homemade and not from a box? Sad, is it not? Well they got home just in time for a nap, and when they woke up, guess who came to visit!

It's Cousin Chris!!! The girls are rather obsessed with him. He stayed with my parents for the weekend (after driving to their house for the second time ever -- licensed now, y'all!!) while his parents were out of town, so of course he came by our house for a visit. Here Tamsie is telling him all about the wonders of escalators, which entrance them just about as much as fabulous food truck fare is currently entrancing their mom. Which is to say they love them. Tamsie also brought him all manner of random toys, including her toy turkey (from her grocery basket, of course), which amused Cousin Chris to no end! Also, at one point early on, she pointed to Evie and said, "That's Evie!" -- as if to let Chris know who she was. Because I'm sure he was wondering and all. ;)

 * Later Saturday afternoon we went to Sara's parents' house for her surprise 30 and Flirty birthday bash thrown by her sister Jessica and her husband Matt! It was SO much fun!!!

I may or may not have reminded her that I'm still in my twenties.
Yeah, I know, for less than two more weeks. But still!

SUNDAY

* We went to church and then stayed late to decorate for VBS. The girls went to church with my parents, which they have been doing for a couple of weeks now in order to make it through the rest of the day without turning into wooly bears. (The parents get out of church way earlier than we do, which means they can be blissfully in nap mode by the time we get home! Double win! Otherwise, they refuse to nap, which, believe it or not, is not as much fun as it sounds.) Then we had to leave early from decorating so that we could make it to...

* My friend Kimberly's bridal shower!! Kimberly is one of a very, very special group of girls that I used to teach in Sunday School. I had them for the vast majority of their time in high school, and I can't even begin to describe how much I love each of them. They have grown to become beautiful and godly young women, and it is just such a blessing for me to watch His plans for their lives unfold! God used my time with them to help me realize my passion for ministry -- which is how I wound up in seminary, studying women's ministry! AHH I'm gonna cry just thinking of it all!

Well, I'll leave you on a funny and not teary note this time, but first I have to give you the background behind this video. As I noted above, the girls love to bring me play bottles of water and milk to open and close. They also love to sing their ABCs as best as they can. Well, here is Tamsie starting off the ABC song, and then Evie takes it over and gets pretty far until she surprises herself by opening the bottle all by herself -- and then she stops singing the song and starts running around saying, "I did it! I did it!" I love these silly girls.

* Sure, E randomly skips over some letters to get to the good part of the song, but she gets bonus points for her pronunciation of "R": "arr-uh." Ha!