My friend Britt recently wrote about precious moments. Sometimes they stop you mid step and wrap themselves so completely around your heart you almost want to cry. We had one of those moments recently.

Every single night since the babies were 4 months old we’ve had the same night time routine. The babies have their milkie while watching Signing Time, we brush their teeth (this part of the routine started when they were a year old), we read a story, and we sing our songs. The songs have changed over the months but we still sing two or three songs each night in the loft/playroom before bed. Current favorites are The Wheels on the Bus, Itsy Bitsy Spider, and The Ants Go Marching. We march all around the upstairs and BOOM BOOM on the doors. Most nights Jeff makes it home from work in time to help with the bedtime routine. The nights he does not are NOT fun. The babies are so used to the exact same routine it throws them off when it gets mixed up.

Our nap routine and night routine are the same. After we sing our three songs in the loft/playroom we let Heaten and Shenzie turn off the lights and say night night to everything they can think of. Night Night lights, fan, stairs, bed, pillows, big bear, and window. Jeff always rocks Heaten while I rock Shenzie. We stand with them and rock them while singing the ABC’s, Twinkle Twinkle, and Rock a Bye Baby. These songs have been the same for over a year now. It doesn’t matter if we were rough housing and acting crazy 5 minutes before. When we start singing these songs they immediately (most times) quiet down, rest their heads on our shoulders and get sleepy. After Jeff lays Heaten down we head to Shenzie’s room were Jeff sings her another 3 songs and lays her down. For naps since Jeff is not home I always put Heaten down first. I leave Shenzie playing in the loft and close his door. This is a tried and true method for me. If Shenzie is allowed in the room Heaten won’t settle in and get sleepy…he is too worried over what she is doing. So for naps I close his door, sing his songs, and lay him down. I then find Shenzie Bear and do the same for her.

On the nights Jeff cannot make it home in time for bed I follow the same routine as the nap. I close Heatens door for his songs and then do Shenzie. Tonight however Shenzie cried outside his door. I guess she was lonely or scared so I let her in his room. Heaten cuddled into me as I started singing and Shenzie started rocking back and forth standing next to me. I reached down and put my hand out. She grabbed hold of my hand and continued “singing” with me while rocking back and forth. I had Heaten Bear cuddled up against me and Shenzie Bear holding my hand. It was the perfect moment. The room nice and quiet with the glow of the nightlight (I cleaned all day so it was nice and clean too). It was one of those perfect moments that almost made me teary eyed with love, gratitude for my wonderful babies and husband, and total peacefulness.

In the seventh grade my family moved from St. George, Utah to good old Las Vegas, Nevada. It was a HUGE adjustment for me. I was a small town bumpkin and Las Vegas is a BIG MEAN city. I remember my first day of school…my Uncle Ray dropped me off at the front entrance and sat there honking his horn. Embarrassed beyond belief I began my first day of middle school. I remember exactly what I was wearing which is funny because I have the worst memory EVER. I remember wearing my bright yellow high top converse. My first pair of converse and I was hooked. I remember my good friend Denise and I would sit in class (this was high school) and draw all over our converse. We would wear them until they were ratty tatty and then we’d wear them some more! My good old yellow high tops ended up with polka dots all over them. Ahhh, to be young and cool again.

I own many, many pairs of low top converse. I have brown, tan, camo, pink/black tweed (one of my favorites), two pairs of black, and soon I think maybe plaid to match Shenzie Bears.

Yep, Shenzie Bear got her very first pair of converse. In fact so did Heaten. It was a proud proud day for Mama. Yes, I am a nerd….a nerd who loves her converse. I had a tear glisten in my eye when the babies wore their shoes for the first time. Ok, maybe not a tear, but you get the idea. The babies LOVE their new shoes…..now if we could only get Daddy on board….He has Hurley “converse looking” shoes….Sorry Daddy, until they say All Star you can’t be one of the cool kids!!!

Seriously, are they cute or what?!?!?

Our “family of Chucks” and one misfit Hurley.

The old ratty tatty black pair you see I will keep forever. The first time I met Jeff I was wearing those shoes. When he proposed to me I was wearing those shoes. And trust me, if I could have I would have wore them down the aisle. Ok, that is a total lie….but I did wear them on our honeymoon. =)

Beautiful Eyes Edition:

I am so excited I almost can’t contain the Yips of Joy!!! Coming soon to a Barr House near you:

The brand new Canon 50D in all of its wonderful, glorious, heavenly glory!!!!! Spoiled? Why yes, yes I am and loving every minute.

I have been debating whether or not to buy a Canon 40D when the Canon rebates come out this fall. I LOVE my Canon 400d (XTi), but am ready to advance to something a little more powerful. The minute I saw that the new 50D was coming out this fall my mind was made up. I have been saving all of my photography money so I’m ready and roaring to go. Yip Yip!!!!

I have decided to sell my XTi to buy this wonderful piece of equipment:

Sigma APO 50-150mm F2.8 II EX DC HSM

If anyone is interested in buying my Canon XTi 400d just let me know. I will sell it with the kit lens EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 USM, two Canon Batteries, the original box, manual, and all original software. Both the camera (and lens) has been taken very good care of. Camera will be available in October when I get my grubby hands on the 50D.

I always new my Mom was amazing, but I never realized how REALLY amazing she was until I had my babies. My Mom is Superwoman with a capital S! I can never express how truly special she is. Raising 6 kids all the while keeping her sanity = AMAZING. Growing up I always remember her as being patient, understanding, and loving. I feel that we were and are truly friends. Any time I need advice or simply an ear to listen she is there. She is not only there for me, but for all of us. My Mom is beautiful, fun, loving, funny, smart, patient, kind, understanding, warm, and the best Mother I could ever ask for.

Happy Birthday Mom! I love you!!

**Edited to add: Jeff is insistent that I do not post incorrect information so I must retract saying that their favorite words are stinky and ewww. The babies VERY favorite word is Daddy. Then stinky and ewww… coincidence? I think not. =) Hahah. Just kidding. Maybe stinky and ewww aren’t their favorite words, but I do hear them A LOT.

Much to Daddy’s dismay the babies two favorite words are Stinky and Ewwww.

The stinky and ewww go hand in hand. Anytime the babies have a dirty diaper (even if it is only pee) they come to me and point to their diaper….stinky (sounds like stee-dee). While I am changing their diaper they say ewwwwww. Jeff just loves that I taught them to say stinky when they have a dirty diaper. Hahahahah.

These photos were taken the other day at the park….the only thing they wanted to do was cry, cry, cry so we had to call the whambulance.

It only took almost two years, but I am proud to say the babies now say Mama!!! Since they were little babies Dada and now Daddy has been their favorite word. Everything was Dada including me. Now they know that I am Mama….the one who slaves….er, I mean happily does for them all day and now I finally get some recognition!!!!

Kisses through the window slider

Curly Sue Edition:

I really love all of Shenzie’s curls, but I have a fear she is going to hate them. You know how it is…the greener grass. If you have straight hair you want it curly and vice versa. Me, I have the ick in between hair. Not curly, not straight….nice and frizzy that takes FOREVER to dry and straighten.

It seems like almost every picture I take of the babies lately has some sort of missing clothes. Wth it being so freaking hot here we play in the water a lot so instead of getting all of their clothes soaked we opt for the diapers only look. Then there is the sand box My oh my, what was I thinking. The sand gets EVERYWHERE. And forget about trying to get it out of their hair. The babies new fun game…dumping LOADS of sand in their hair and then crying because it gets in their eyes. We spend a lot of time brushing sand off of body parts, out of hair, and even find it hiding in the diapers later. Ewwww!

And we can’t forget about The Great Clothes Rebellion of 2008. Shenzie Weather just DOES NOT like to wear tops. She is ok in shorts or a skirt, but forget about the top. She fights me to high heaven to even get it on and then spends countless hours trying to get it off or whining to me to take it off. And you know copy cat Heaten Grey has to follow suit. So although it may look like I’m raising heatens I really am just picking my battles at this point.

We won’t even go into why they are on the counter eating dinner or why their new favorite seats are empty water containers. Weirdos!!!

It seems at the old Casa de Barr we’ve entered a new world of clingy. I know there will come a day that I have to beg the babies to sit on my lap or to hold them, but those days are FAR in the future. For now we have constant clingy. This constant clingy holding leads to chronic back pain (and head pain). I wouldn’t mind so much except we have a few logistics problems. With two babies the same age with the same needs it is hard to sit cuddling one when the other needs something. They are not yet independent or old enough to do for themselves so poor lap baby always gets the short end of the stick. The bigger problem however is both babies want held. At the same time. But WILL NOT share my lap. Shenzie isn’t as bad as Heaten. Dude wants my lap all to himself and if he can’t have it then he goes into full tantrum mode on the floor.

Heaten has always been a Daddy’s boy. If Daddy is home Heaten wants held by him. No exceptions. Shenzie has always been pretty independent. Only lately does she want me to CONSTANTLY pick her up and hold her. The worst, by far though is after naps. They want held…but don’t dare sit down. They want held standing up….for A LONG TIME. And since they have very similar schedules you can imagine the screaming and crying that happens if they wake at the same time and don’t get their post nap standing cuddle time. Talk about grouch monsters!!!

So tell me oh seasoned ones…when will this clingy craziness end? Or will it ever end? I really, really love to cuddle, but I would rather do it all together while vegging on the couch instead of standing with one baby while the other writhes on the ground at my feet. *Let me clarify…we do cuddle together on the couch and watch a little of the old tele…so its not that they don’t ever cuddle together on my lap or sitting next to me. I’ll go with 60/40. 60% of the time they want alone Lesley and the other 40% they are willing to share.