Hello! I stumbled upon Hellobee way back when my daughter was itty-bitty, and rediscovered it while I was on bedrest with my twin sons. I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to share snapshots into my day-to-day life, and tap into the collective wisdom of the Hellobee community.
My parenting journey has been an adventure so far! My husband is active-duty army, and over four years of marriage we’ve lived in four homes in three states, adopted the world’s cutest rescue dog, and welcomed three beautiful children. Home, for now, is in the high desert of California, and is almost three thousand miles away from my family, and a thousand miles away from my in-laws. My husband’s job takes him away from home about two weeks out of every month, so I’ve had to get pretty adept at handling the kids on my own. My three year old daughter, A, amazes me daily with her resiliency and optimism, and my four month old twin sons keep us all on our toes!
The original three during a post deployment trip to Disney World.
Living in such an isolated location, while also being so far from family, can be a struggle. On the bright side, having to drive over an hour to get to Target really keeps those impulse purchases to a minimum! The challenges associated with living here were thrown into sharp relief during my pregnancy with the boys. I’ll go into more detail later, but we found out we were expecting twins at twenty weeks, baby A’s membranes ruptured at twenty five weeks, and I remained inpatient on bedrest until the boys made their appearances at 31+3. After all that, the boys stayed in the NICU for seven and eight weeks, until finally coming home shortly before their original due date.
It took some time, but we’re starting to get our feet under us again. We love traveling, and we’ve managed several day trips around Southern California. We spent a weekend in the mountains a few weeks ago, and we’re planning a trip to Disneyland in the upcoming months. When we’re not traveling you’ll find me playing with new recipes, at the playground with the kids, binge-watching Netflix, or playing board games with my husband. I’ve also recently discovered that Amazon Prime includes roughly a million free kindle books, and I’m doing my best to work my way through them while breastfeeding the boys. My most elusive parenting goal involves trying to get a picture of all three of my kids looking in the same direction and smiling at the same time. I hope to accomplish that at some point before A heads off to college.
At the moment my parenting style can best be summed up by “survival mode.” I’ve found myself letting go of some long-held convictions in the interest of making it through the day. There’s more screen time than I’d prefer, and A is getting embarrassingly familiar with the menu at Starbucks. Everyone is figuring out what it means to be a member of a family of five, and there are certainly growing pains associated with the discovery process. However, there are smiles too. And laughs. And oh so much love. When I sit down after getting everyone to bed, those are the parts of the day I focus on, and those are the moments that get me out of bed the next morning. (Or at 2:00 am. Whichever comes first.)
guest
Wow! I’m so impressed you’re blogging with a 3-yo and 4-mo twins! Your children are beautiful. Can’t wait to read more!
guest
You are my new hero! I have twin toddlers and no family around, and I’m amazed that you are finding time to blog while taking care of 2 four month old babies and a toddler! I look forward to reading your posts
guest
Super cute intro! Can’t wait to hear more about your adventures!
blogger / apricot / 439 posts
Welcome! I am already in awe of you!
blogger / apricot / 482 posts
Welcome! Love your intro post and I’m super impressed with your survival skills We live three thousand miles away from our family too and it is hard (even without twins).
pomelo / 5866 posts
So nice to read your post today! I feel so much warmth from the ‘sun.’ Hope to hear more and see a pic of your in the future.
grapefruit / 4717 posts
Welcome! Can’t wait to read more.
blogger / apricot / 389 posts
Welcome! I am seriously impressed with your living situation as well, and am excited to read more! You have a beautiful family
nectarine / 2180 posts
Welcome, from one active duty Army spouse to another!
blogger / pea / 24 posts
Wow! Thank you so much for the warm welcome I’m so excited to be part of this community.
@mm – I always love to hear from fellow twin moms, especially when they have older kiddos. It reminds that I won’t be waking up with two babies forever!
@pancakes – It’s great to “run into” another active duty spouse! This life is an adventure, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.
@Mrs. Dolphin – I think the distance is my biggest challenge so far. There are so many days where all I want to do is stop by my parents house for dinner and help with the kids.
blogger / kiwi / 588 posts
Welcome!
guest
I feel like such a wimp when I start feeling sorry for myself for having to get up with one 4 month old, I couldn’t imagine having two! AND you have a toddler… BY YOURSELF?!?! you’re a superhero! how do you do it!?!? I am looking forward to more stories!
guest
Like the glass is half full POV. Those are 3 lucky kids.
olive / 57 posts
Welcome! I have a 4 year old daughter and 19 month old twins, so sounds like we have similar kid-worlds It gets soooo much better, hang in there! You have a beautiful family, can’t wait to read your posts!
guest
Congratulations, look forward to reading about you and the family, such a great way to stay connected. Love, Joany
honeydew / 7968 posts
Welcome! I have twin 4.5 year olds, a 2 yo and one on the way. It was hard with twins first, then one, but even harder with one, then twins! Good luck! Can’t wait to read about your adventures.
blogger / persimmon / 1225 posts
Welcome, welcome, excited to read more about your sweet family!!