Strength from Christ

I echo Stephanie, and Nephi in the Book of Mormon, and my father when I say: I am grateful for my trials.

I am plagued by them now, but I know - I believe, I have faith - I will overcome them. And just like Jeffrey R. Holland said in the video clip (taken from this talk), we may, in fact, be closer to our Heavenly Father & Jesus Christ during our trials than any other time in our lives. Pull strength from Jesus Christ and keep moving forward, and listen to Becca & Mary-Gail sing, "Just keep swimming; just keep swimming..." (from Dori from Finding Nemo).

Man, I love my daughters. They are a huge blessing in my life. HUGE.

Phoenix is Heaven

I never thought I'd use those two words - "Phoenix" and "Heaven" in the same sentence - but it is true. I am in Phoenix visiting my baby sister, and I am in Heaven because I am helping my baby sister care for her brand-new, baby twin girls. Who could have ever imagined that my baby sister, Carly, and I would share in the joy of twins...and GIRL twins. Amazing!

Here are the twins!! Twin B: Quincy Joanna (in the pink-striped blanket) &

Twin A: Tenley Magnolia (in the green-striped blanket)

Me and Tenley Magnolia shortly after I arrived Wednesday night - right on the girls' 4th week of life

(Tenley is smiling at me!)

Rows & rows of bottles ready to be heated up

Reminds me of my fridge 3 1/2 years ago. Only my bottles would have been much smaller (Carly's critter's are already up to 5 ounces every 3 hours!), and I would have had several liters of Diet Coke...and no MinuteMaide Limeade

This is one seriously-tired Momma

Me, Becca, & Mary-Gail (on the Boppy)

See Becca & Mary-Gail's bottles - they only held 60 cc (2 oz each)!

Lovey snapped this picture a few days after our girls came home from the hospital.

I kept complaining, "where is the girls' nurse? Who is going to take care to these girls?!"

This is one seriously happy - but still very tired - and more experienced w/feeding & burping two-babies-at-once, Aunt!

Quincy in my arms; Tenley (smiling) in my lap

Motherhood is so jammed packed full of emotions! And it's very difficult to feel like you're doing your best when you're so stinking exhausted. JoJo & I had a plan for when we came to help CarCar: we were on the night shift. Carly needed to sleep; no "if's, and's or but's" about it. My Mom was with Carly for the 1st week, and did her best helping with the girls, but wasn't able to do the night-shift alone. Then JoJo flew in and absolutely insisted that she take the night-shift for the entire week that Jo was here (and if you know JoJo, she not only did the night-shift each night, but she also fixed supper, did laundry, ran errands...). Then Carly was solo for 4 days & nights until Spencer's Mom flew in. Carly said, "Those 4-days/nights were the hardest to get through." But Spencer's Mom, like my Mom, wasn't able to do the night-shift, and so Carly operated on less then 3 hours of sleep each day until I flew in. And I, like JoJo (except for the "fixing dinner, doing laundry, and running errands" part of JoJo) have done the night-shift every night I've been here.

I mention this only because in these last two photos I was on the night-shift in both photos. But the different expression on my face has to do with sleep! I am averaging about 2.5 hours of sleep a night in both pictures, but I know that the mom in the 2nd picture (Carly) is sleeping! The mom in the first picture is not, is seriously sleep deprived, and is not enjoying this "thing" called Motherhood.

So what I know is that Carly will NOT experience the horrid torture of sleep-deprivation while I am here. I love being of service to her, and I love that CarCar trusts me to care for her baby-babes. But mostly I love that Carly knows that to be her best self, she needs to sleep. I wish I could have told that to the 1st-time Momma in the photo above - the one who would wear her eye-mask all day, hoping for one lousy minute to close her eyes and rest. I also know that when I go home, I get to sleep through the night...a full 8 hours...ahhh.

CarCar, you wear your eye mask tonight with style! I love you!!!

Visiting my best friend

I leave for Phoenix tomorrow night. I'm headed to Car's to see her and her babies, and to help where I can. Everyone keeps saying to me, "how did you do it? With Twins?" And I say, "How did you do it with one?"

Twins just seem so 'natural' to me - especially now with Becca & Mary-Gail approaching 3 1/2 years old. They are each other's best friends. Mary-Gail says all the time, "Ma, is Becca my best friend?" "Of course she is!" And Becca said to me the other day (when I was putting her in the corner for time-out), "...but you're my best friend, Mom." I knelt down to her, gave her a hug, and told Becca that she was my best friend too. BUT...she still needed to go to the corner.

Becca & Mary-Gail are so silly together - one of those "looks" to each other and they bust up laughing. Reminds me of me, JoJo, and Car. We can still give each other a "look" and laugh ourselves silly. I've said this before many times, but I can't help saying it again: a girl needs a sister! Girls just need other girls. Last time I went to Phoenix to see Car, I just laughed and laughed - seeing her pregnant was so funny. I mean, this was my baby sister, and she was pregnant with twins. Now, I get to see her holding and loving her twin girls; and I get to help her, just like she helped me. I'm thrilled to be heading back-in-time to newborn baby girls. I hope I can do it right this time, and not make as many mistakes.