5 Things...

I am such a cry baby!  I read Erin's post about her little girl and got all mushy and weepy.  Of course it made me think about my own little goobers and how desperately I wish I could push pause on the rest of my life and just BE with THEM, you know?  Just be Mommy instead of Mommy+Tiffany+Maid+Chauffer+Cook+Secretary+ChaosControllerPerson+Etc.+Etc.+Etc...

{SO}

Indulge my emotions for a post and let me share with you 5 things I love about each of my girls.

{Madison}

I love what a perfect mix of me and Clint she is.  We only had the opportunity to bring one child into this crazy world and how lucky are we to have been blessed with one so beautiful?  She has SO much of EACH of us in her {random things that not many people know about} and everyday we see more of us come out in her.  It's so much fun to look for those little things that make her Clint and Tiffany's daughter.

Her smile.  It is SO hard to capture her sweet smile on camera because she does this goofy little imp-grin for pictures.  But even when she's being silly, and that adorable-dorky smile is all I can get out of her, I love all 3 dimples that speckle her face.  Her smile makes me happy.

How she randomly tells us "I love you.  You're the best!"  I could fill a giant pickle jar with all the warm fuzzies I get when I hear her say that!  :0)  She is such a big helper and always trying to make us happy {you know, except when she's the world's biggest turkey!} and will do all she can to bring a smile to our faces.

How she is too smart for her {or MY} own good!  She can figure out almost anything!  You should see some of the predicaments she gets herself into because she figures things out on her own instead of letting us help her.  She loves puzzles and can DO a 63 piece one with little help!  She wants to know how everything works, why it works, can she make it work, can she learn it...  It's always been amazing to me to watch her learn something new: when she learned how to crawl, learned to wrap her tongue around new words, and now...?  She begs me to teach her how to write letters and play board games with her.  I only have 2 years before she starts kindergarten and already she is SO STINKIN' SMART!

Her tender spirit.  Madi loves church, loves her Savior and Heavenly Father, loves to read "scripers" with us... I could go on and on.  She may be spunky, but she has a soft side that really shines around Keahi.  She is the best big sister I've seen in a small child, which is amazing to me considering how spirited she can be.  I absolutely love this beautiful girl and am so proud to be her mom.

{Keahi}

Oh, my coconut.  She truly is our miracle.

I love how eternally happy she is.  What a good baby!  She can be royally cranky but the moment she looks at you, BAM!  She's all smiles!  I was so sure that our house would be total chaos adding another kid to the mix, but she has brought with her the sweetest spirit which has actually calmed things down more so than before we brought her home.  I love how happy she makes everyone around her - especially Madison.

I love her chunks!  She weighs in around 17 pounds nowadays, putting her bigger than Madi was at 7 months; she's 3 1/2.  I love her multiple chins, her bubbly thighs and her Buddah Belly {I realize Buddah doesn't actually HAVE a belly, but I don't know the name of that fat Chinese statue and you all know what I mean when I say "Buddah Belly" anyway!!}.  I could kiss her chub all day!

I love how she talks, sings, babbles, yells, growls and blows raspberries.  She has quite the little set of lungs on her and is NOT afraid to belt it out when she so feels the urge!

I love how much she loves her big sister.  She has every right in the world to get cranky when she sees Madi since Madi doesn't really respect "personal space bubbles", but instead she grins, wiggles and squeaks.  She laughs when Madi plays games with her, and turns her head when she hears her talk, trying to find that big sister of hers.

I absolutely love that even though I didn't have the opportunity to give her a body, I truly feel that she is our daughter, just as much as Madison is our daughter.  I know that she knows I'm her Mommy, Clint's her Daddy and we can feel her love for us every time she looks at us, grins at us, snuggles on us or tenderly grasps our fingers.  Hopefully we'll know in the next month or so when we can finalize and take her to the Temple to join our family for eternity.  What a blessing that will be.  I absolutely love this beautiful girl and am so proud to be her mom.

We have been blessed, and I hope that I can take enough time every day to turn off the TV, shut down the computer and lay all other distractions aside and just BE with THEM.

Love the pain...?

Kiki and her mom came for a visit today.  It was so nice and relaxed, they got to meet Riley, Michele and Clint's Grandma, and we just kinda vegged and hung out all day.  Well, kinda.  We took a trek to Wal-Mart and tortured the girls... Yeeeeeah, we pierced their ears.  I was SO nervous and scared the whole time, I almost changed my mind!  I was about to cry (those of you who really know me realize this isn't a surprise!  I HATE needles and I HATE watching my babies cry!), and Kiki and Mich were making so much fun of me!  "You're about to cry!" they teased.  "You're more upset than they are!" they said.  "Just calm down, it'll be ok, they probably won't even cry!" they told me...  Ready for the irony?  I was so brave and THEY both cried!  :0)  Glad I waited to do this with them so now they can't make fun of me!  :0)  But off us, how did the girls do?  Um, they cried too.  Madi tried SO hard to not show how upset she was, she covered her mouth and the tears slid down her cheeks until I squeezed her (she was already on my lap) and told her it was ok to cry.  Then she let it all out, poor kid!  I won't put any of the crying pics on here, cuz looking at them is making me cry, and I'm so nice I don't want to do that to you, my dear reader.  Then it was Keahi's turn.  Mich held her cuz I was comforting Madi and Kiki was taking pics.  I'm not sure what part of "on three" one of the ladies didn't understand, cuz she went on four.  PLUS she didn't push it through all the way and it came out of the gun so she had to push it through the rest of the way by hand!  (Kiki was balling her fist, ready to throw punches!)  Poor baby screamed for about 30 seconds then whimpered for another 30 and was done.  But when she started screaming, Madi kicked it up a notch.  SO... we had two wailing kids and lots of people looking at us like we had just committed a crime.  Good thing Keahi won't remember this by next week cuz she certainly got the short end of the stick on this one.  Fast forward 2 minutes - both girls are fine and happy, "Mom!  They don't hurt, they're just pretty!", Kiki and Mich are still teary eyed and I'm thankful the whole thing is over and ready for that ice cream I promised Madi!  Both Madi and Keahi slept just fine and woke up not even noticing the holes in their heads.  I'm glad we did it, they look SO DANG CUTE with their sparkly heads, but really hope I don't have to do it again!!!  :0)  (Of course, that doesn't mean we'll say no to another girl, I'll just make Clint go next time!!)  ;0)