Sister Love!

Sisterly love is flowing in our house these days!

I walk into the living room, and I notice that Emma has given Charlotte her puppy. 

If she thinks Charlotte is cold, she covers her in a blankie.

Charlotte cries, and Emma runs to her side to make her laugh.

I can't describe the Mommy joy I feel watching these two bond every day--

Watching Curious George together this morning. Emma will ask, "Charly sit with me?" 

Charlotte only has eyes for her big sister!

And this is just for fun, my cool cat Emma girl wearing Mommy's shades. Stylin'!!

I love my girls!!!!

xoxo
The Twistles

Here Comes The Sun!

Hooray!!

We officially said goodbye to cold weather this past week, and have hit 70 degrees here in Utah. I am in love. Winter was long and cold this year, and I was sick of it!

On Friday, Emma, Charlotte, and I went outside for a walk in the morning, then came home for nap time and went back out in the afternoon for the rest of the day.

I cannot tell you how much I needed that sunshine! 

Emma loves being pushed around in the double stroller with her sissy Charly! (Thanks again family!!)

Spring and Summer are great! I can open up the sliding door and Emma just plays on her own on the patio for as long as I let her. I love to sit out there with her and watch her play. It just so happens, that I can get a lot more housework done while she's playing too! 

Deep in thought. When I asked what she was doing, she told me she was watching the cars drive by :)

Today, she helped wash off the grill and then noticed how dirty her car was, so that got a wash too. It was so dirty, that it needed about 6 refills of water and bubbles to get it clean! She kept coming back inside asking, "more bubbles pretty please?" Man, it must have been a dirty car! Look at that cute smiley face-- makes my day!

We've been going to a lot of parks too, and have found some really good ones that we frequent. Emma asks daily if we can go to the park, so we've been to many in the past few weeks! Our favorite so far is Coppertone Park. It's has large, adult trees with lots of shade, and a big playground! It's about 20 mins west of where we live, so it's perfect for us. 

I love this face!! 

Remember when we were kids and playgrounds had the HUGE truck tires? Coppertone park still has them! It's a rare playground item these days.

YAY for sunshine and warm weather!!! 

xoxo

The Twistles

One Park, Two Park, Two Park!

We live in a condo/townhome community, so within walking distance there are about 4 playgrounds near us. By walking distance, I mean it takes us 2 minutes to get from one playground to the next. Emma loves this, and after playing on one will ask, "two park Mama?" which means she wants to go to another park to play. Her counting skills really go up to two, because she will say "one park, two park, two park!" as she counts how many parks we have. 

Since the weather has been warmer, we have been going outside every chance we get. We go to every playground until Emma is ready for the next one. Charlotte contently sits in her carseat and takes leisurely naps as I push the stroller from one location to the next. 

Here's Emma climbing up the "rock wall" at one of the playgrounds, with Dad's help of course:

Being able to get outside has done WONDERS for Emma, and has brought back my sanity. I was going stir crazy being cooped up inside all winter, so just getting outside for an hour makes such a big difference! All the girls in the Entwistle house feel so much better when we can get some sunshine. Gotta love that Vitamin D!

I already posted these videos on FB, so forgive me if they are repeats. Today we did our park run, and on the last one we found Wall-E. Well, we found a Wall-E toy that was left in the dirt. Emma was completely beside herself, she couldn't believe Wall-E was at the playground! She proceeded to take his hand, and walk him all over the playground having mini conversations with him. They went down the slide, jumped off the edge, and she even caught him as he slid down the slide all by himself. 

We left him there, since I'm sure some poor child would come looking for their lost Wall-E toy... and luckily Emma was distracted by everything else that she didn't even think about him as we left. It sure was cute while it lasted, and so cool that we found him right after watching that movie in California! Perfect timing Wall-E.

xoxo
The Twistles

Twistle Road Trip!

Yes, we did it!! It was quite the adventure for Matt and I to take on, one that we will never forget!

Family of 4 fitting in a small compact car (and the luggage/supplies that go with)

Two unbelievably well behaved girls including a 2 year old that didn't complain once about being in the car so long

Car issues in Mesquite

A night's stay at Hotel Retirement Home (and the smell that comes with it!)

Lots of new Disney movies

Laughing with Matty

Countless memories made in California with people we love

It was a great trip and we were so thankful for the opportunity to be there, if you didn't follow all my pictures on FB I'll post them here. There are just a few...

Day of the road trip, we started off with eating some Frosty love

Road trip Matt and his stache...

Beast, Aladdin, and then Beast again...

Stuck in Mesquite and Midnight with two babies...

Back on the road! Isn't he handsome?

Death Valley

Almost there! Us girls were hanging out in the back

We made it! Happy and ready for the sun

Gosh, we had a great time! I wish we could have stayed longer, but the time was just right for our first family vacation with the four of us. I love California, Matt and I keep talking about how we'd both love to live there someday, even if only for a few years. Thanks so much to Aunt Mar and Uncle Kelley for letting us stay with you, and for all the good food and fun times! 

More to come!!

xoxo

The Twistles

A Day At The Park

The sun came out today! It was about 35 degrees this afternoon, and as cold as that sounds, it felt so warm! Such a gorgeous day. 

My friend Lizz told me about West Jordan Park a couple months ago, and we had yet to visit it until today. It is awesome! There is a really nice wooden playground, lots of grass to run in, and a little toddler playground as well. After running a few errands this morning, we stopped at the park to let Emma run around. She had so much fun! I can't wait for spring and summer to get here so we can take her to the park more often. 

Emma played on the playground, threw snowballs with Daddy, and swung on the swings. It was a good day!

Charlotte was soakin' up the sun in her carseat and being adorable as ever! I just can't imagine life without this happy little girl in our lives. 

Emma loved, loved, LOVED the swings! She did not want to stop swinging, and kept telling us to swing with her. 

We didn't get all our errands done, but stopping at the park was a great pit stop and I'm happy that we got to see Emma play. Sometimes it's good to put our "life to-do list" aside and just have fun like kids do. Not a care in the world. So much to learn from these little babes!

Happy Saturday everyone!

xoxo
The Twistles 

Love Languages For Our Littles

Okay, so I'm on a parental high today, and finding lots of great articles and videos on parenthood today,  sue me! (seriously, don't though.)

Matt forwarded this article to me today about the love languages of our kids. I'm sure you've all heard of the love language book for adults, but the same authors also made one for kids. Awesome, right?!

Read the article here!

This article talked about time and the love language for your children. Turns out, they have a love language too! It's up to us to figure it out, and stick to it. The idea of "all kids are the same" when it comes to parenting, is a fictional idea that should go away forever. Every child is an individual, and has individual needs and wants. 

Happy Wednesday!

xoxo
Rachel

The Waiting Is The Hardest Part

So tired. 

So ready not to be tired anymore. 

So NOT ready for my little Charlotte to be big enough that I won't be tired anymore... 

I just want to have my sleep filled cake and eat it too! Is that too much to ask?

On another note...

Have you ever had that anxious feeling when you are waiting for upcoming events? I feel like we have a lot of things coming up in the near future, but I can't prepare for them yet because it is still too far away. It is driving me crazy! 

We are waiting for our tax returns to come back, so we can pay off some much needed medical bills and debt. *tearful cheers* Grown up life stinks.

I am still in the process of planning Emma's 2nd birthday party, but need money from our tax returns to pay for it... so the planning has been stalled until we get the "dolla dolla bills yo."

We are heading up to Idaho in March to see my sister and her family, so excited!

End of March we are "going back to Cali" as LL Cool J would say, to visit Matt's Aunt Marilyn and his parents who are meeting us there. 

We are dealing with being desperately broke until Summer, when Matt's commission checks will hopefully pick up (More Waiting). Our time of struggling with money has overstayed its welcome, and I am looking forward to having sufficient for our needs soon! 

Matt has been a freaking Rockstar (much like my beloved beverage), by working his tail off at work, and dealing with pressure and stress that I will never comprehend to provide for us. I still pinch myself when I think that I am a stay at home Mom. It feels surreal, and it's all because of Matt that I get to do it. He's amazing. 

I am grateful for the struggle, because it will make us appreciate the time when we aren't struggling anymore. (Just wish it was over already... waiting, waiting, waiting)

Hurry up and Wait already!!

xoxo
The Waiting Twistles

4 Months Old (Almost)

Charlotte is the cutest little nugget, and gets cuter every day! When she catches our eyes, her face lights up with the biggest smile! I. Just. Can't. Stand it!!

So stinkin' cute. 

She mastered rolling over last month, and has now moved on to rolling over and holding her head up. She loves it. I walk away for a minute, and return to find her 2 feet away of her original position on her tummy passed out. When she sleeps on her tummy, she goes into a deep slumber that not even the screams of her big sister can bring her out of. 

She is an extremely happy child. So happy and content, that I forget I have a 3 month old in my living room sometimes. Talk about low maintenance! 

I've learned to go with her flow. In the past, I have tried to feed her because it had been 2 hours and she "should" be ready to eat, but she would just smile at me as she spit out her milk and let it slide down her little cheekies. She would look at me like,

"Mom I was totally fine, not sure why you're trying to feed me. I'm just chillin' quit harshin my mellow. "

The only times she gets upset, is in the middle of the night when she wakes up to eat. She is ready to eat RIGHT NOW. Unfortunately I have to wake myself up and hurry to the kitchen to make her bottle, which according to Charlotte, is wildly unacceptable. 

I hear her mad cry when I make it back to the bedroom, but once she gets her food she falls back asleep as she gulps down her milk. 

She also is funny when she is really tired. She will fuss/cry when she is really sleepy. Almost like she is agitated that she isn't sleeping. We will usually move her from the floor to her chair or vice versa, where she will quickly fall asleep. 

Yep. That's it. That is our angelic child. You have my permission to be jealous. Frankly, I don't know how we lucked out with two mild girls. GIRLS... aren't they supposed to be divas? 

Maybe that will come in their teenage years, and in that case I will enjoy my easy children while they are young in preparation for their wild and dramatic teenage years. 

Oh, have I mentioned lately that I love being at home with my girls? Sure, I don't always get out of my pajamas (or EVER), and it has been a hard transition from having adult conversations to asking Emma not to color on the walls for the umpteenth time, BUT I am grateful that we don't have to worry about the cost of daycare for both girls. I am ecstatic that we don't have to wake up the girls at 6:30 a.m. to take them to daycare so that we can get to work on time. Emma has gone from waking up at 7 a.m. every morning to 8:30 a.m. and sometimes even 9 a.m. each morning. 

The best thing? I get to watch every moment of my girls lives as they learn, grow, and turn into sweet little ladies. 

The next time you see Matt, give him a huge pat on the back (or buns, whichever you prefer) for working so hard for us and making it possible for me to stay home. It has made all the difference in our lives, and there is no way that I could leave our girls right now. Matty, you are my hero!

And now for your viewing pleasure, lots of pictures of our girls!!

Until next time!

xoxo

The Twistles