What no one could tell me about Motherhood...

I remember thinking, "why did no one tell me how horrible this is?" as I rocked my screaming newborn at 3 am to no avail.

I always knew I wanted to be a mom.  I remember playing with my dolls, dreaming about having babies, putting pillows under my shirt, and talking about my future twins (a boy and a girl--named Emily and Ty). Motherhood was a magical thing that I couldn't wait to be a part of someday.

And then I was pregnant. It was surreal. Pregnancy is so exciting. I mean, you are literally growing a tiny human inside of you. It's such a miraculous and unexplainable thing. My husband might not describe it as nicely as I wasn't always the sweetest pregnant woman, but it was exciting nonetheless. Preparing a nursery, buying tiny clothes, and being showered with love and gifts by wonderful mothers that have gone before you. Everyone says, "you'll never know love like this" and "it's so worth it". I would always smile and nod thinking, of course it's worth it and I know I'll love him....silly moms.

Enter Knox. My world was turned upside and backwards in the blink of an eye. I never anticipated the way I would feel once he was born.

 

Courtesy of Caroline Jurgensen Photography

My husband and I were no longer fun-loving, do what you want when you want it best friends and partners in crime, but two very tired people who signed up to take care of a baby all.the.time. I immediately grieved the loss of my old life, and quite frankly, kind of resented my little baby for taking away my husband's attention. I no longer had his sole attention, not to mention, I still looked 6 months pregnant, had a massive hole in my stomach, and couldn't control my post-pregnancy hormones.

No one tells you that you will cry. A lot. And all the time following baby. I thought I was crazy, and probably actually was a little. I cried when Knox was sleeping. I cried when Knox was awake. I cried in the morning. I cried in the evening. I had no control of my emotions and I had never felt that way before. It is scary.

This is only compounded by social media posts of other new mommas saying, "this is the best thing that's ever happened to me" and "my heart is complete in this little man". I knew I loved my little man, but I definitely didn't like him for seemingly ruining my life.  

I have personally struggled with anxiety for most of my adult life. Adding a baby into the mix of a type A, anxiety prone woman with a plan and a schedule is  rough. I was anxious about being anxious. Sayings like, "sleep while the baby sleeps"only added fuel to the fire of crazy....

For weeks, I struggled with this anxiety and "mommy guilt" from my ill feelings towards my new life, for having a c-section, for giving my baby formula, and for not knowing how to make him stop crying. Whether anyone else is judging your new parenting skills or not, the weight of the world is on a new mom's shoulders.

Week by week, and little by little, the new normal set in. Many wonderful friends and family stepped up to support us and tell me it's "normal" to feel this way.

We are now the golden 3 months out and looking back, it was the hardest 3 months of my life. No one and no mom could have told me or convinced me that these would be my feelings before baby came. I wouldn't have understood and it wouldn't have mattered. With hands wide open, a lot of prayer, and a little help, we have survived and started to thrive in this little situation called parenthood.

 

Courtesy of Caroline Jurgensen Photography

I love Knox more than I can say and I fall more in love with my little human everyday as he looks and smiles at me, as we snuggle on the couch, and as he stares and babbles intently at me.

Motherhood is not what I expected. It's an amazingly hard, tiring, and stressful but it's also wonderful, rewarding, and fun. I'm very thankful to be a mother. The Lord has entrusted me with a little soul and I can't wait to learn more and more about him as we teach, discipline, and love him in this life.

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. - 2 Corinthians 12:9-10

 

Courtesy of Caroline Jurgensen Photography 

See the full birth story @ http://didyoueverthinkthat.blogspot.com/2015/02/a-birth-story-knox-edition.html

How to survive colicky twins

The first three weeks of the twins life was hard but they were pretty sleepy. And then it went from hard to "the days that shall not be named." We still shudder when we think about it and a newborn cry sends shivers down my spine. I actually just had a twitch thinking about it.

The first three weeks, sleepy city. Creeper photo courtesy of iBaby camera. 

Early on, we split the babies and assigned Camille to RD and Maisie to me for most nights so that if one baby decided to stop crying at least one of us would get a wink of sleep. I was actually sleeping on a pallet on the floor in the nursery and the mental image you have is as sad as it was. Fortunately, we took a crib out and put in an inflatable bed. By the way RD is a sleep training magician so maybe he'll do a guest post on how to get your baby to sleep. Genius I tell you. ANYWAY. This is what got us through those 5 weeks of intense colic, and the aftershocks that came in the months to follow.

1. NOISE CANCELING HEADPHONES - Best decision ever. We read every book and watched every instructional video on calming a "fussy" baby to no avail. Our doctor said, "you just have to put in your time." Enter noise canceling headphones. Maisie was fed, burped, dry, and snuggled into my arm, screaming, while I alternated between standing and rocking and sitting and rocking while I binge watched New Girl and 19 Kids and Counting.

RDs on double duty. 

2. SNACK BAR - Ain't nobody got time to sit down and eat with a colicky baby or two. We set up a snack bar, created by my sister Claire on the kitchen table. Bowls full of snacks we could grab a handful of and keep moving or be punished with another hour of crying. Nuts, fruit, and wintergreen mints was our diet for a couple months. Bonus if your sister can make amazing snack boxes.

3. FRIENDS AND FAMILY - This is obvious. But it's key to survival. Say yes to every meal, every offer, and never say no. Never say never. Let them hold the screaming baby because as much as it hurts to be mom and not be able to calm the baby, it will help you. My sister and I had a heart to heart after I kept saying no to her helping with the night shift, I felt like I had to do it, I was mom. But I was hanging on by a thread. She took over the night shifts and reminded me that she gets to go back home and sleep. And every meal delivered was perfection. No pictures were taken of meals because they were consumed immediately. :) Below are the brave souls who helped us conquer the days that shall not be named. Saints. All of them.

4. CUTE OUTFITS - It helps. It really does. Play dress up (which by the way boys can too, I'm referring to Jenn's valentines photos of Knox). In the mornings sometimes the thought of the day quickly overwhelmed me but then I remembered I had two little dolls to dress up. And let me tell you there is nothing quite like babies wearing cowboy hats and boots to reign in the crazy and just take it an hour (or 5 minutes) at a time.

We played a lot of dress up. We still do :)

5. STATIONS - Once they were around 4 or 5 months, we were out of the 3-4 hours of crying woods, but they still weren't super "relaxed" or "calm" babies. We'd start in the exersaucer station for 5-10 minutes. Then I'd just switch them, get another 5 minutes or so. We'd go to the mirror station and stare at ourselves for 5 minutes. During summer we looooved the front porch station to watch cars drive by. We had the photo station, book station, mobile station, etc. It helped me having some "structure" instead of frantically trying to entertain them and keep them from getting fussy.

Photo Station

6. HAPPIEST BABY ON THE BLOCK - It's not that it took the colic away but we do think it helped to lessen the intensity at times. The video on Amazon was a lifesaver as no one had the brain capacity to re-read the book that we faithfully read before the girls were born. The 5 S's, we're all about it. They are so trained to sleep with the sound machine that if it ever accidentally goes off our hearts momentarily stop as we race in there to restart the machine before their rustling turns into waking.

Getting our swaddle and swing on while shushing.

So there you have it. I never thought we would have "colicky" babies, I even skipped over the chapters about it in Babywise. While Camille and Maisie will never remember it, RD and I live to forget it. Just kidding. Mostly. 

You Win You Always Do

YWYAD: You Win You Always DO... When toddlers and babies get what they want.... 

Wipes

Wipes. Previously a prohibited item. Well today Maisie and Camille you win. You put up a extremely convincing fight that proves to me by playing with the wipes you really will be happier, fulfilled, and as a result grateful to your mama who gave in like a sucker. You know what though it really did put you in a better mood. So while I'm out 100 wipes x 3 cents each it was definitely worth every penny for my sanity. 

Q-Tips

Same story same ending. 

Bachelor Predictions

Emily's POV:
What a season. The episodes started out rough as usual, with one clear front runner (Britt) and a lot of crazies (Ashley S). But now we've made it all the way through home towns and await Chris' final decision. Who will it be?! I do wish they vetted the contestants better but I guess 25 women who genuinely want to make a life on a farm might be a bit of a snooze.

Jenn's POV:

This season of the Bachelor has kind of been a wash for me. From day one, the girls the show picked weren't exactly the cream of the crop (pun intended)...and seemed a little too much via the fake nails, lashes, and other body parts, to be a good match for the farmer from Iowa.

Fast forward to this week, I'm slightly more invested and I'm always a sucker for Neil Lane and a good ole fashion Bachelor proposal.


Kaitlyn

Emily: I don't get it. I really don't. It's a glaringly obvious reality that there is NO WAY in bachelor nation that this girl will EVER make a life on a farm in Iowa. SO WHY even take her to the final??? Is the show grooming her to be the next Bachelorette? She's got that Ali Fedotowsky vibe with a cool personality, pretty, and career... wait I have no idea what her job is, but she's ready for love. She said so herself on Instagram recently which is again reason to believe she's in the front running for new bachelorette.

Jenn:
Funny but dirty. Speaks her mind. Inappropriate. She's pretty forgettable to me. I in no way see her in Arlington, Iowa raising babies in the farm house either. She's fun, a little edgy, but I don't see her in the final two. Not much more to say, she's gone this week.

Whitney

Emily:
I want to like her. I really really do. She's obviously sweet and pretty... but something about her I don't trust. I really feel like she is trying hard to be the next bachelorette. And that's NO fun to watch. I want to see Chris fall in love not take girls on dates who have no intention of living on his farm in IOWA! Arghhh ok. Plus her career, I know she's going to give the "I want to be a mom" schpeel, but she is not ready for farm life case closed.

Jenn:
OMG if she covers her face with her hands one more time I'm going to lose it. Standard sorority girl. I think she's got this in the bag though. She is one of the only girls with a career so I commend her for that and I do see her happy as a clam being a stay-at-home momma to millions of Chris babies in theory. She's sweet and I think she will be able to fit into the lifestyle the best of these three girls....for 4-6 months....I think reality will then set in. She will drink and online shop her way right out of Arlington, and perhaps we will get an on air special of the breakup, and how they are still friends and love each other deeply.

Becca

Emily:
Pretty. Kind. Not super memorable. The perfect option for farm life in rural Iowa. She's kind of the Chris Siegfried of Des' season. She's right under his nose and I'm afraid he's going to miss it for greener pastures, or someone "more dynamic". But I think she would make him happy and she seems to be willing to actually live in Iowa genuinely. She's not pining for the bachelorette position and if she is it's not obvious so I appreciate that. Although the only red flag is she's from Louisiana and home girl has no idea what winters north of the mason-dixon are like. Bless her heart if he chooses her. They're only 2.5 hours from me so I might drive over to offer some winter counseling in the form of wool socks and wine.

Jenn:
Sweet. pretty. down to earth. She's a catch and he should not let her get away. She's also a virgin. We haven't heard much about the reasoning behind it, but I choose to believe she's s great, Christian woman with a brain and morals. A rare find in the Bachelor world. The thing is, Chris is a man. A man with seemingly few convictions and an eye for the party girl. Becca doesn't fit his "my wife needs to be hot and blonde and maybe a little bit simple" category. She will make a great wife to someone and I agree with Emily that she's spot-on for the next Sean Lowe type Bachelorette where she will renew her hope in love and decide to become the Bachelorette only to find 25 not-so-special guys battling it out to win her. I hope Chris doesn't pick her, she doesn't sign up to do the Bachelorette, and reunites with her high school youth group boyfriend to find love and marriage.


Emily's Prediction: Kaitlyn gets eliminated. Final two is a toss up but Chris goes with Whitney and Becca is left heartbroken but has the Sean Lowe nice girl just wanted love appeal and that will propel her into Bachelorette stardom and begins filming her season in Louisiana in late Spring.

Jenn's Prediction: Whitney wins (but really loses) and Becca is well on her way to a personal trainer, a new set of bikinis, and the most shocking season in bachelorette history!

My biggest Pinterest project of all time: The Wood Wall

My biggest Pinterest project of all time. Well, my husband's biggest Pinterest project of all time. It actually wasn't that hard. 

1. Buy very thin sheets of wood from Home Depot. They will cut them into 6'' boards for you there for free. 

2. Stain the wood with several different colors. I wish I can stained them more than these 3 colors but I had this idea 6 months pregnant so this is what we got. 

3. Puzzle piece the wood together on the wall to your liking. My husband made sure each board was level and he did the random cutting of the pieces to fit together on the wall. Thanks, John. 

4. Stare proudly at your new wood wall. 

Little Recipes: Cheesy Broccoli Quinoa

Ingredients

2 cups vegetable or chicken broth

1 cup Quinoa

1 tbsp butter

As much cheese, broccoli, and peas as you desire :)

(you can add any vegetable, I've done cooked red pepper too. I made it with mozzarella cheese once as that's what was on hand and it didn't have as good of a flavor as with cheddar cheese)

Melt the butter in a large skillet, add quinoa and coat with butter just for a minute or two. Pour in broth, cover and bring to boil. Once boiling turn to low and let simmer until all the liquid is absorbed, around 20 minutes. Once the quinoa is done, remove from heat and add the cooked vegetables and cheese and give it a stir! 

There are tons of possibilities to this recipe depending on what you have on hand and taste preferences.

Camille the sous chef

They LOVE it. 

Little Recipes: Favorite Instagrams To Follow

This would be Maisie and Camille looking for crumbs after stuffing their faces. I promise I feed them plenty. They'd also just rather have the freedom to roam and eat as they please. Unfortunately, I do have have some rules in this house.

Anyway, most of my baby recipes, of which I'll be sharing favorites here, are inspired from people I'm following on instagram.

Here's some of my favorites:

@weelicious

@emily.eats

@kiwiandbean

@blwideas

The last one is by far my favorite and where I found the other three. It helped me SO much after the girls moved on from rice cereal when I needed some fresh ideas.  Introducing solids was SO much fun and continues to be a lot of fun as they try and react to new foods.  I know they're young in their picky toddlerhood but so far they are willing to take at least one bite everything!

Throwback to first meal, rice cereal and avocado! 

A Birth Story: Knox Edition

I was the last of my good friends to have a baby. I'd heard story after story of pregnancies, births, and life with a baby. Most of my conversations throughout the week were about babies. For heaven's sake, I work in a NICU holding and feeding tiny infants all day long. I knew about babies.

But when it was my turn to have a baby, everything I "knew" about babies went out the window. I had a scheduled c-section for my giant baby and small, oddly-shaped pelvic bone situation. I didn't have the excitement of going into labor and running to grab the hospital bag, screaming for my husband to get the car keys like on tv. We very deliberately woke up at 4 am (who am I kidding, I didn't sleep that night) and casually walked, well limped, into the Labor and Delivery Ward of the hospital. Oddly enough, I didn't ask many questions about my scheduled c-section and as I'm being wheeled into the OR, I decided I probably don't want to have a baby that day. I burst into tears in the anticipation and sheer terror of a brightly lit, freezing cold room, where at least 15 medical personnel were waiting to pull a tiny human out of me. I lean over to my surprisingly calm husband and whisper, "am I spread eagle on the table?" Even though I was pretty sure I already knew the answer.

28 quick minutes later, after hearing "man, we should have made the hole bigger", Knox was born. The rush of emotion hits like a freight train, tears streaming down our faces, as we hear OUR baby cry for the first time. A c-section is tough because you can't exactly hold and love on your little one immediately. He was whisked away and ended up needing a little extra oxygen support for a couple minutes, followed by a quick wipe-off of birth yucky, and then shown to me. He was swollen but perfect. It felt perfect in the moment.

I then had to be sewn up and John headed to the nursery with our little man. The next 5 days were a complete blur of tears (and/or balling uncontrollably), pain, drugs, and minimal sleep.

And so it begins...

Tackling the new skill of breastfeeding proved especially difficult, almost unbearable. Being a Speech Therapist, I've seen a lot of breasts, and assisted many mammas in attempting breastfeeding. I've heard time and time again how important breastfeeding is and that establishing breastfeeding in the early days is crucial. However, figuring it out yourself is a totally different story. I immediately noticed Knox had a shortened frenulum (the piece of skin attached to the under side of your tongue) which can negatively affect feeding. I asked Lactation Consultant after Lactation Consultant as well as my Pediatrician if it seemed short. I kept hearing no and that I just needed to keep trying (or try harder or don't be so paranoid as their eyes stated). Two days later, over a pound of weight loss for my little, and open wounds for me....breastfeeding wasn't going well. We had the dreaded "formula conversation" which for whatever reason was the worst possible thing you could say to me in that moment. I cried the whole time I gave my brand new perfect baby the poison called formula. He however wasn't so alarmed, lapping it up without hesitation and never looking back.

I, on the other hand, felt like it was my duty as a Mother to provide milk to my baby. Long story short, I tried to breastfeed for two more weeks, making only 10-30 ml from both breasts while my giant baby pleaded for 4 ounces, and supplemented with the dreaded formula. I cried or scowled every time I looked at my "medical grade" pump that was supposed to stimulate more milk... 

We finally got a second opinion from an ENT who immediately clipped poor little's tongue. By that time, my sanity was hanging on by a thread, and by week three, breastfeeding was cancelled. Formula was my new best friend.

After making the big transition to formula, Knox decided to make it a little more interesting. Projective vomiting, diarrhea, and uncontrollably screaming now accompanied feeding. Add in sleep deprivation and no way to soothe your tiny human, and I was a puddle of crazy on the floor. A lot of Zantac and an expensive but invaluable milk protein allergy formula later, Knox is a healthy 15 pound 2 1/2 month old.

We've kept our tiny human alive (and thriving) for the last 3 months and counting....a huge blur, sometimes a disaster, and a quite frankly a triumph. 

A Birth Day: Twin Edition

A picture of RD because I think my exact words were "do not take my picture". (He did end up taking the worlds least flattering picture later as I walked to the OR)

We woke up at 5:00am on January 1st, 2014. It was dark outside, cold, and surreal. We were driving to the hospital to meet our babies! These tiny humans we felt like we knew from months of ultrasounds. We valeted the car and took the all too familiar walk that we’d taken dozens of times down the halls of St Mary’s hospital. Only this time we didn’t turn left on the second floor to head towards the maternal fetal medicine office. We turned right towards the birth suites. 

We spent 2 hours in the triage room answering questions and checking baby vitals, position, etc. The only delay came when a light bulb in the assigned OR went out and they had to prep a different room. As soon as I walked into the OR I got a little (lot) overwhelmed. The anesthisologist started right away with the numbing and the shot. At one point, I felt a reflex in my left leg and said “Ow my leg!” And he said “It’s a very small area we are trying to find.” Of course. While that's not something you should tell a patient, this is coming from the doctor who I'm fairly was checking his Facebook during the surgery. But he did his job because I went numb in just a few seconds. Everyone in the room seemed to have a hand on me, everyone was talking, putting shots in the IV, pulled up the curtain, Dr. Fok giving instructions, always someone saying check, or proceed, or some command. Dr. Fok asked how I felt and I said “nervous”, and he said, “You don’t get nervous until I get nervous.”

I was wondering when RD was going to come in. I heard Dr. Fok ask for the scalpel and RD still wasn’t there. They finally brought him in in his scrubs and he sat down right away and held my hand. I guess I started to look bad and needed a distraction because he began talking about how he wanted to be a doctor in the 4th grade, but the reality set in and it was meteorologist for a while after that. They said I would feel pressure and quickly after “there she is!” and a wave of complete emotion took my breath away. RD stood up to look and his eyes were so wide. I said “what does she look like? how is she? is she ok??” and he said “it’s not like the movies.” And a pause, “she’s so small, and purple.” Of all the first words from a man who I considered to be a great wordsmith could say at the sight of his firstborn daughter. :) Finally we heard a cry from Maisie which was an amazing relief. Camille came 3 minutes later at 9:20am. Once at the baby station Camille let out a big cry and we heard the beautiful chorus of two crying babies, which was foreshadowing of the next three (maybe five who's counting?) months. RD came back from the baby station with Camille first swaddled in several blankets. We asked a few times “is this baby A or baby B?” and after clarification they said it was baby B as her hat displayed "B" in sharpie. It felt incomplete though without Maisie. Soon a nurse brought Maisie, and there was our new perfect family.

Our awesome parents and Ryan came a couple times a day for a couple hours. I was on such a hormone crash I know that I wasn’t the most pleasant to be around. Bless family.

I look back on those 5 days though as such a sweet sweet time. The food was terrible and we just ate chicken fingers for every meal, well RD hardly ate anything besides goldfish. But we had our babies and just sat in bed all day and night. I took a lot of walks to get cranberry juice and try to keep the c-section recovery going strong. RD held both babies on his chest and in his arms. I took a picture every single time he did.

Sunday, the last day in the hospital, things were quiet as we were all done with tests and vitals and just packing up to leave. We had 37 weeks of a problem-free twin pregnancy with zero NICU time, thankful was an understatement. RD and I were alone with the babies, Maisie in a bassinet and I was holding Camille. RD read Psalm 139 out loud, walking back and forth from Camille to Maisie. That familiar Psalm resonated deep in my heart as if I was hearing it for the first time. To go on this twin journey with the babies, to see their first ultrasound at 11 weeks, the shock, and then twice a month at 16 weeks until 34 weeks, and once a week after that. We learned their personalities and saw them grow before our eyes. They were knit together and we had the privilege of really seeing it close up. We heard the ultrasound tech say “oh, there are wisps of hair!” and to know that God knows every hair on their head. God knit them together. God knows them. My hearts desire is that He would save them, that He would call them to Himself, now. That they were called in the womb, and it would just be a matter of time before they can verbalize that He is their Savior, their King. That their hearts would long to worship Him above all earthly things.

Becoming a working mama....

On Monday, I enter the world of the working mother. The thought of not working never really crossed my mind pre-pregnancy and thoughout. In fact, I never thought I would want to stay home, I love my job and I'm not good at being alone, not to mention barely keeping my sanity the first 6 weeks of this kid's life. If I could have held it together for more than 2 minutes, I probably would have put on my scrubs, handed my colicky-refluxing, not-so-happy baby to anyone who would take him, and walked straight out the door.

A quick 6 weeks later, I'm sitting here on the couch on the verge of tears, just thinking about leaving him. He's a little human now with a personality and laughs and smiles. I finally know what his cries mean, he sleeps through the night (mostly), and I'm feeling more and more like his mother, not his babysitter, every single day. He just started babbling, making eye contact, and finding his feet. He looks at me and I know he knows I'm his mother. How do you hand over your little to someone else? 

I now understand why stay-at-home moms want to be stay-at-home moms and why it's the hardest job in the world. In the end, I hope and pray that we find a happy balance between a career that I love and what works best for my family.

Meet Jenn

Howdy! My name is Jenn and I met this crazy girl named Emily almost 13 years ago. We were potluck roomies at Texas A&M University (whoop!) in the fall of 2003. We started out a little slow as friends, plastering our walls with our "real" friends from high school and reminiscing about how cool were once were. We couldn't be more different in some ways....I called her before school started to try to get her to color coordinate our bedspreads....and she definitely used a blanket as curtains on her side of the room....She took me out of my shell and I reigned her in. Best friends in the making. 13 years later, 2 weddings, and 3 babies later, we are still best friends even from 1,000 + miles apart.

I married the Best Man as the Maid of Honor in one of my best friend's weddings. We have been married for 3 years, have a lab/pitbull mix named Abby, and a brand new sweet baby boy named Knox. I'm a newly working momma, a Speech Therapist at a children's hospital. I love my job and have a passion of people with disabilities. I've traveled to Africa 4 times to establish a speech therapy program there!

Courtesy of Ivy Weddings

Courtesy of Caroline Jurgensen Photography

Courtesy of Caroline Jurgensen Photography

Emily and I have always joked that our lives could resemble sit-coms, so we decided to try to write some of it down. This blog is mostly for ourselves, for memories, and laughter. We hope you enjoy it!

Jenn

Meet Emily

Hi! My name is Emily and that up there is my family. Before there was my family there was that one fateful day at Texas A&M when Jenn and I met for the first time as potluck roomies living in FHK (you Aggies know). There was a moment, a brief second when we both stared at each other wondering if we would fall into the category of "worst roommate" stories. Turns out she was the best roommate for 4 years and also my polar opposite (disciplined, studious, had her life together, etc). We would have no idea that the next 10+ years would be full of classes, practical jokes, tears, laugh to tears, vacations, roomies again after college, weddings, and now babies. But I'm sure we will walk down memory lane a time or two here on this blog. 

(2003. Speaking of memory lane, our first picture together for our first fightin texas Aggie football game on our first dorm room balcony.)

(2007 washed up college grads)

Back to my family. RD and I met in Dallas playing frisbee. Fell in love and married in Austin on a warm December day in 2011. We moved to Madison, Wisconsin the summer of 2012 where RD works as a teaching pastor. On New Years Day of 2014 we met our identical twin daughters Maisie and Camille. (I'll go ahead and answer your curiosity- yes they were a spontaneous surprise, yes we can tell them apart.) I am a stay at home mom. Before my new career as Sherpa to Maisie and Camille, I put my marketing degree to good use in the business world. I worked at a small start up company in Dallas for three years that resembled The Office and then did one year of marketing in Madison before the twins were born. Once the twins are a little older, I look forward to volunteering in low income communities with women and children. My dream would be to start a program like GAIA Empowered Women. 

(Hyde Park Photography)

(Beky Smith Photography)

Hope you enjoy reading whatever it is that ends up on this blog. :)