Lucy and Ellory are FIVE!

Lucy and Ellory are 5! It's so fun to talk with them about my pregnancy and their arrival now that they can understand more. Time with them is slow and fast all together. I can't believe it's been five years, but I also want to move slowly and savor their sweetness as they are growing so quickly. (Don't talk to me about kindergarten next year yet!) I spent a lot of my pregnancy wondering why God chose us to be twin parents and worrying how we would do it, but He has been so faithful. Lucy and Ellory are such a good gift, the best double blessing and twice the sunshine. 

While we were in Des Moines celebrating our super late Christmas, we also celebrated Lucy and Ellory's birthdays! My mom made them these fun cakes!

They are so excited for their birthday and it's the cutest. For all of our girls, my parents have given them a Bitty Baby for their first baby, and then an American Girl doll for their 5th birthday. What a special tradition! They have played with their dolls so much and they are definitely a favorite!

Lucy and Ellory were so excited to have preschool on their REAL birthday and bring treats and get their birthday crowns. We went to Kinderzone (a new indoor playground in our town) after preschool for a bit to play, went to the bakery after picking up Norah for a snack, and went out for supper with Papa, Amma, and Great Grandma Shirley. What a fun day! They opened new scooters, which we will use a ton as soon as it warms up!

Holding up the big FIVE!

Love our sweet girls!

Celebrating together is a treasure.

They all loved getting birthday milkshakes!

Happy 5th birthday, Lucy and Ellory- you are deeply loved! I'm so thankful to be your mom.

Schut Christmas 2021.

We finally got to celebrate Christmas with the Schut side in Des Moines! This was the latest Christmas we've ever had due to my sister's nursing schedules, brothers work travel schedule, and then a covid setback derailed our initial celebration, but we did it! Glad we could all finally be together and celebrate. I didn't do my best job of getting pictures, I wish I would have gotten more, but this is what we have. 

Sweet cousin Averie! She's one and so fun. She recently learned to walk and she'd pretty fawned over, in the best way. 

Even though I didn't get a lot, we got the best- whole family shots! :)

Hope you all had a wonderful time celebrating Christmas. Probably two months ago like all the normal people, ha. ;) So thankful for family!

Will's 3rd birthday and Lucy and Ellory's 5th family birthday supper/activity.

A favorite family birthday tradition with just the five of us for our family celebration is to let the girls pick where they want to eat supper and what they want to do for an activity. Lucy and Ellory are turning five soon, so for their choice they picked Drop Zone and Red Robin. Technically, they picked Olive Garden for noodles and breadsticks, but that was an hour and forty five-two hour wait time, so we went next door to Red Robin instead and waited 15 minutes, much better! The girls were easily persuaded to switch when we told them they could get a birthday milkshake there. :)

Fun at Drop Zone! It was a little different this time because Norah had to be in the big kid area (5+), and Lucy and Ellory had to be in the little kid area since they weren't five yet and they wouldn't let them mix areas. We knew that was a possibility when we went there (it said the ages online but I couldn't get ahold of anyone on the phone to ask before we went), but we still had fun! Kley and I traded spots watching each location and it went fine. We even splurged for a few arcade games at the end to really live up the birthday treat and they got smarties and suckers with their tickets. They thought it was amazing!

I looked at them while they were playing and was once again in awe that we have TWINS! Sometimes I forget that they are twins as they age and become their own person more and more. They have such a special and sweet bond. Twins was the best surprise we've ever got! Happy 5th birthday, sunshine girls. A whole hand! We love you both so so much!

We also got to have a little construction birthday party for our nephew Will turning 3 a couple weeks ago! Happy birthday Will, we love you!

Trying to hold up 3 fingers. :)

Valentine's Day 2022.

 Happy Valentine's from the three sweetest girls we've ever known!

Great Wolf Lodge.

For Christmas this year, we went pretty small on the gift side, and told the girls for their big gift that we were going to Great Wolf Lodge! Norah had heard about it because her and Kley watch this family on youtube who vlogs and they went there, and we showed them some pictures of it online, and they were so excited! They counted down the days and prayed about it frequently. Especially Ellory, she prayed everyday! It was the sweetest to watch their excitement. 

Overall, our time there was so wonderful and I'm so glad we went. Kley and I already said we want to do a bigger experience gift for Christmas every year! It was the perfect winter weekend getaway. We got to swim in the great waterpark, climb the rock wall, bowl, mine for gems, play this magic came, arcade, try the ropes course, and have donuts in the morning and ice cream at night! The girls were so brave in trying new things! They all did better at the rock wall than I thought they would. Norah and Ellory didn't love the ropes course, but so proud of them for trying it and being brave. Lucy loved the ropes course. I think the entire family favorite was the tube waterslide ride that we could all go on together. Ellory was scared to try it at first, but the second day we got her to try it once and then she loved it and went four times! It was so much fun and a family highlight we will all remember forever!

Zack, Karlie (my sister), and Averie live close to where we were, so they got to come for lunch and for a couple activities. A big win we could see them too!

The waterpark was so fun! Thankful for a great weekend. There are good and bad things about each stage, but one of the highlights about the parenting stage we are in now is that travel and activities like these are a bit easier. The girls are getting older and can try and do more things, and they will remember this trip. So special and so grateful we could do this together.