Santa Baby

This year Mark and I were determined that Harper and Henry were going to meet the "REAL" Santa.  We had our audiology screenings today in Memphis, so we decided to stop on our way home and meet Santa.  (We got great reports, by the way!)

As you can see in the pictures below, Harper and Henry didn't seem to like meeting this strange man...

 Harper got so upset she started holding her breath.  There are just a few pictures, so it looks like they sat in his lap for a while, but I promise they were only there for maybe 3 seconds.  

Once Harper's little arms starting reaching out for me, this photo shoot ended.  She held me so tight and would not budge from my chest until we left.  Henry did Mark the same way.   

And of coarse, I had to throw in some pictures from last year.  Since we weren't getting the babies out last year, my dad dressed the part.  As you can see, Henry wasn't too thrilled with Santa then either.  It's so fun to look back at these pictures.  So much has happened in a year.  

19 months

So, I'm not sure what's been going on with the blog.  I tried to post from my phone every Thursday in November, but it would not allow me to post.  I guess whatever was wrong has finally been fixed.  Anyway, more importantly, Harper and Henry were 19 months old yesterday.  It's so hard for me to really believe that my little 2 pound and 3 pound bitty babies are now 19 months old!  They are so much fun, and I know I say this EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. I post an update, but I really wish I could slow down time.  It's going by so fast.  

Harper,

At your 18 month well visit  you weighed 23 pounds and 14 ounces.  You are 33.25 inches tall.  You are running and laughing all the time.  You know your name, too.  I'll ask you, "What's your name?" and you'll say, "Ha Pah!"  You pat your chest when you say it and you sound like the sweetest little southern belle.  You are such a good eater, too.  You love your veggies and oh my word, you could eat your weight in fruit.  I can't keep enough in the house.  You and Henry eat a lot healthier than your momma and daddy.  But, you're still a normal child because you can eat a hot dog like a champ!  In fact, you sometimes scream, "Haaaah dog" when I say it's dinner time.  I think your favorite snack right now would be veggie straws, yogurt raisins, and chocolate milk.  Just like your momma, you are a creature of habit.  I think you could eat that same snack every single day.  A lot of weeks you do!  

You are such a sweet child.  You don't want momma to hold you anymore, (I'm trying really hard to change that) but you love to sit next to me in our rocking chair and read books.  We read the same book over and over again.  You can be a little bossy to Henry, but for the most part, you are a really sweet sister.  When Henry is crying, you will walk over and pat him.  We've really had to work on what a "gentle pat" is, though.  I love you so much, Harper girl.  Your little laugh and sweet smile just make my world.  I hope and pray that you never lose your spunk! 

Henry, 

At your 18 month well visit, you weighed 23 pounds and 13 ounces.  You are 33.75 inches tall.  You are a NO FEAR little boy.  I am finally realizing what all these boy mommas have been talking about.  I can't take my eyes off of you for a second.  You are constantly climbing on things just so you can jump off of them!  Just in the past month we had to have an emergency visit to the oral surgeon.  I was just sure that you had knocked your two front teeth out.  Daddy was in Iuka, so Uncle Edward sent us to an oral surgeon.  Turns out you gave yourself a frenectomy.  A week after that, you fell right into the edge of the coffee table and gave yourself a horrible black eye.  But, you seem to be tough as nails, so I guess your momma is just going to have to toughen up too.  

Just like Harper, you love to eat!  The only thing that you don't like are carrots.  You despise them.  You talk all the time, but unfortunately, mommy just doesn't understand what you're saying.  You can say momma though, and I understand that just fine!  You are OBSESSED with Mickey Mouse.  You scream, "bye bye Gicky" every time I turn the tv off.  You're a not one to want to be held, but almost every day, right after you wake up from your nap, you let me hold and rock you for about 10 minutes.  Sometimes, when I'm sitting in the floor playing with you and Harper, you will walk over and just kiss me on my cheek, or give me a big hug.  It absolutely melts my heart.   You are going to be a charmer, young man!  I can already see you charming your way out of trouble when you're older.  I love you so much!  I wish I could keep you little forever, but I know I can't.  I pray that you will always be the sweet, gentle spirit that your are right now.  

I've been HACKED!

If you have "subscribed" to this blog and have recently been receiving some weird emails from me, I apologize.  I received a text message tonight from a friend who got an email from the blog about buying drugs!  I can assure you that I did not send that email.  I checked my email, and then Mark checked my spam mail, and I had over 50 emails sent to me from my blog.  Anyway, I have reported it to Blogger, and I am hoping that they can fix the issue.  In the meantime, if you receive any weird emails from me, I am so sorry.  Please let me know if they continue.  My email is bjmazurk@gmail.com.  Because this blog has been hacked, I have had to change the way you leave a comment.  You must now type in a word verification before your comment will post.  I hope this doesn't mean I won't receive comments anymore, but this blog is a family blog.  I post about my children and our daily activities, but the thing that is most important to me is our safety.  Thank you so much for understanding.

Election 2012

_{“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” Romans 8:28}

_{Before anyone reading this starts to misconstrue the purpose of this post, let me first say that I am not about to endorse a candidate or give my personal political views here on this blog.}   

_{It has been said that this presidential election is the most crucial and important election of our time.  Having friends on all sides of the proverbial political fence, I have learned to keep my political views private.  Well, private in the sense that I’m not going to post them here!}

_{We have less than 48 hours before this election comes to an end.  I am urging my friends to please take these next few hours and join me in prayer.  Over the last few months, I have seen some of the meanest, hate filled rants on different social medias, from both sides, and It just makes me think that instead of a balanced budget, or job creation, what this country needs most right now is Jesus.  So, please join me in praying that God’s will be done, and that God will heal our nation.  I was reminded this weekend that the results of this election will not be a surprise to God, so let us rest in knowing that we can trust in the Lord, and lean not on our own understanding.}

_{Can you imagine what life would be like if we, the body of Christ, were as publicly on fire for HIM as we are for the political candidates we endorse?  Or the football teams we cheer for?  I pray that we can put our differences aside, and love like Jesus.  That is my prayer for this country.  Will you join me?}

_{“This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”  John 15:12}

Thankful Thursdays

How in the world is it already NOVEMBER??  I feel like it was last week when we went to the beach.  Time just isn't slowing down.  October was great, but we are ALL ready to make the big (and final) move to our new house, so I feel like October was spent on making "house" decisions.  Not that it was stressful or anything, but we are wanting November to be different.  I feel like so many times, especially for me, we get so busy with life that we don't stop to appreciate the many things God has blessed us with already.  So, for the month of November, every Thursday I am going to post just a few things that I am so thankful for.  Starting today, I guess.

I think it goes without saying, but I am so thankful for these two little monkeys who continue bless me and bring Mark and me so much joy!  I am so thankful that God chose us to be their parents.  It's the scariest, hardest, most wonderful job I've ever had.  I am also SO very thankful that I am able to be with them each day.  There are days when I really do miss being a 5th grade teacher, but I am so in love with my new job that those days don't really occur that often.  I am thankful that this year we got to dress up for Halloween and actually go somewhere.  We only went to my parents' house, but still, it was a BIG change from last year.  What are YOU thankful for this Thursday??  

My mom got them Star Wars toys and they were over the candy!  I thought Harper was going to sleep with hers.

She was SO mad at me for putting her in this costume.  

Henry tried all night to get this headpiece off.

This sweet little pig was GLUED to my hip last night.  

 Farmers and their WILD animals!  (Mark and I are anything but "too cool," so dressing up with our babies was so much fun!)

Still, no smile! Ha!

He finally got it off, and was much happier without it!

Just a little flashback from last year...

So much can happen in just a year!

Wedding and Pumpkin Fun

This past weekend, Mark and I spent most of our time celebrating with our family at my sister's wedding.  It was a beautiful weekend, and I can't wait to post the pictures once they come in.  Mark and I were both in the wedding, and that meant that we didn't get to spend much time with our two little pumpkins.  Since Mark is off on Mondays, we decided to spend the day doing fun stuff with the babies, which included a stop at the pumpkin patch on Main Street.  

A local church in our town is hosting a precious pumpkin patch, and all of the proceeds are being given to Oasis Medical Center.  I've spoken about this ministry before on this blog, but anytime there is an opportunity to do anything to support this wonderful ministry, we are all about it.  Harper and Henry had a blast.  In true Harper girl fashion, she was all over the place.  Going from one pumpkin to the next, trying to pick up the great big ones all by herself.  Henry was very curious, and he took his time examining each and every pumpkin.  It was too cute.  We had so much fun.  I must say that the little baby pumpkins they picked were two of the cutest ones I've ever seen.  I picked out a big one for us to carve later this week.  I'll be sure to post pictures.  That should be very interesting.  

 I had to include a few pictures from the wedding weekend.  Above, my mom, sister, and I spent Saturday morning getting our hair and make-up done.  We had so much fun!

My beautiful sister and her bridesmaids

She had never seen pumpkins before.  She was so excited!

 Trying to pick the perfect pumpkin

 Sweet Henry taking his time picking out his pumpkin.

 Taking a family picture is getting harder and harder.

Just checking in...

Well, while I'm watching the debate tonight, I thought I might post a little update on the blog.  We have been quite sick here at the Maz house.  We have been hanging out and having a lot of rocking chair time.  This morning we went back to our pediatrician.  Henry started his series of RSV vaccines today.  We were very excited that he was approved for them again this year.  Since Harper is doing so well, and her lungs are healthy, she was not approved.  We will go every 28 days for his shot until the RSV season is over.  I'm already looking forward to Spring.  Ha!  When we got home I took a few pictures of the kiddos.  I'm going to try to do a better job of documenting our lives since this little blog is my only "baby book" for my babies.

 Having a little snack.  If you look close, you can see where Henry fell at school last week and busted up his little face.  He is such a little dare devil!  

 Really working on the whole "sharing" thing.

 Sweet girl is finally getting some hair, y'all!

First Family Vacation

We spent our first vacation as a family of four at the BEACH!  We had such a wonderful time.  Mark and I decided on the twins' birthday that we really wanted to go on a vacation.  After the year we've all had, we wanted to make sure that our parents were with us to celebrate.  We decided to go in September because for one, the rates are SO much cheaper, and two, we felt like we had the whole place to ourselves.  Destin is like a ghost town this time of year.  Our only stipulation for a place to stay when we began planning was that we HAD to have a pool.  Well, to our surprise, the babies LOVED the beach.  We didn't go to the pool once.  Go figure.  

During the week, Mark and I said several times, "Think about where we were this time last year!"  God is so good!  He has brought us so far and we are so grateful!  Now that we're home, however,  it took exactly 4 days for Harper to get sick.  Last night was one of the scariest times we've had since bringing her home from the hospital.  Her fever was so high.  She is finally fever free, but guess what, Henry now has fever!  Thus, the life of twin siblings.  We are praying that this passes quickly for them both.  I thank God for our pediatrician.  She always "talks me off the ledge" because I just lose all rational thought and reasoning when either one of them get sick.  So, this weekend, we're having a lot of snuggle time.  I absolutely hate for our babies to be sick, but I sure don't mind them wanting me to hold and rock them.  I'm happy to oblige. 

 The crew minus Grandaddy

 We built a LOT of sand castles.  They LOVED the sand.

 It's getting harder and harder to take a family picture.

 Dinner out.  I'm pretty sure we have a lifetime ban at Louisiana Lagniappe!

 Harper and her sassy self

 Fascinated with sand

 Harper LOVED jumping the waves!

 Sweet baby

 Henry loves to give kisses.  I think this picture is precious!

 Judgi and 2 little monkeys

 We had a ball riding the train around.

We are ready to go back!!