happy mothers' day

Happy Mothers' Day! As I've been thinking about celebrating my first real mothers' day, and all that motherhood has entailed thus far, I keep thinking to myself, "wow, I have a lot of help. I don't know what I'd do without all my help..." So, thanks to everyone who is a part of these kiddos' lives. I really appreciate you.

In particular, I want to thank my mom, blake's mom heidi, and my friends jackie, brianne, and danielle. the kiddos see these wonderful ladies EVERY WEEK. you think I'm exaggerating, but I'm really not.

My mom comes over every Tuesday so I can go to work for half the day. She shows up at 9:30, I say hi, and then head out the door for work. I come back home around 2:30/3:00 and she stays while I pump. Sometimes she even stays until blake gets home. Other days I sometimes go to her house, or she'll come over for a few hours just to see the kids and hang out (and help me out). The kiddos both definitely love when she sings B-A-Bay to them. Or the mexican hat dance, that's also a fav.

Heidi (and usually Bruce too) see the kiddos every other Monday so that I can go to work. But the Mondays that she's "off" Heidi often visits anyways! Or we'll see them on the weekend or they babysit so that Blake and I can do something fun. I think they probably do evening babysitting more often than anyone else. Lately we've been taking the kiddos to Bruce & Heidi's when they babysit on a Monday (and then they take them back to our house in the afternoon so that I can just come straight home from work - it's great).  The kiddos are always happy to see them when we arrive, especially if one of them is holding the red bowl. Yes, the red bowl holds their special toys that are just at Gramma and Grampa's. Many of them make noise, and it doesn't get much better than that. :)

Jackie is one of my wonderful friends. (She was in my wedding and I was in her's - that's the wedding we brought the kiddos to at less than two weeks old.) I can not tell you how blessed I have been to have Jackie around. After she got back from her honeymoon she continued her grad school studies, and that has meant that she didn't have class all day ever day. Yes she had lots of homework, and a part time job sometimes, but despite all that, there were several months when Jackie came over ever Friday to hang out with me and the babies. Now she's all graduated, but the perfect job has not yet found her, and so she still finds a Dana-day in between her interviewing and volunteering. She is very good at reading the babies "The Barnyard Dance" often complete with motions and noises and the kiddos think that's very fun. Like me, Jackie has two younger brothers, one of which is 11(?) years younger than her, so we get to swap memories of changing our brothers' diapers and such. It's been an extra little blessing that Jackie is so comfortable with the kiddos because she has been able to come over and watch them during the day so that I can go to the dentist and a couple other appointments. And she and Dave even babysat one night so that Blake and I could go out with my parents!

My friend Brianne does have a full time job but... her office is only about 3 blocks away! So whenever Jackie comes over, we invite Brianne over for lunch! (Sometimes she comes over on a non-Jackie day too). Brianne also sews lots of things for the babies too - she made covers for their carseats that we get comments on all the time when we go out. Currently she's sewing covers for our DDR mats so that the kiddos have a padded place to play and yet Ethan won't eat the cords!

Danielle was coming over once a week during the day for a bit too when her firm cut them down to 80% time. Then I was silly enough to suggest that she work part time at the church and now, between the two jobs, she's fully employed again, so we don't get long days with Danielle anymore, but between all the times she comes over to take pictures, or drop off little gifts that she's made or bought for the kiddos, or to play games with Blake and I, I think those kids probably still see Danielle about once a week!

So thanks, thanks, thanks, to all my kiddos' "other mothers." Raising twins is hard, but you guys make it great. Thanks for all the extra hands and all the extra help, thanks for the individual attention you're able to give my kids. They would not be as well loved without you, and neither would I. happy mothers day. :D