Alex

My Mom tried to get "Alex Faye" to stick as your nickname, but I just couldn't handle it!!





The baby of the family and you sure do play the part. You believe that you are a real live princess, this is your world and we all just live in it. You have the confidence that I wish every little girl could have (including myself). You don't care what everyone else is doing or what's popular, you just do your own thing.

You only like to take pictures if you are the only person in the picture. You don't like your sister to touch you and you DEFINATELY don't want her in your room.

You amaze me every day with your drive for success. If your teacher tells you to learn 2 Bible verses, you learn 5. If your teacher gives you the next 5 weeks worth of spelling words, you go through and learn all the difficult ones on the first night. You strive for excellence and you make me proud.

You are the only princess that I know that can still throw on her tennis shoes and play sports.

Your favorite colors are pink and sparkly. You love peace signs and dresses and you LOVE to read.

Your favorite thing to do lately is to watch a movie alone in your room.

You have something against pajamas and like to prance around the house with no clothes on when I let you, even if it is freezing. At bedtime, you want all the lights out, the closet door open, and about 10 blankets on you (since you don't have on PJs). You call me into your bedroom all the time after I think you have fallen asleep already. You once even called me into your room about 30 minutes after lights out just to ask me a question about the wedding.

You are a big thinker, who likes big numbers, big words, and is not afraid of a challenge.

You don't let anyone or anything intimidate you. I will never forget watching you walk right up to the teacher in gymnastics on your first day, ignoring all the little girls that had been there since they could walk.

You are boy crazy, and I NEVER stop hearing about the boy at school that you like! NEVER EVER!

I pray that you never lose your confidence, I pray that you confide in me all your life. I pray that even though you never need my reassurance on anything, that you will still need me in other ways. I pray that you never stop playing sports and getting dirty just because you are true royalty. I pray that you find a VERY VERY rich husband one day who can buy you lobster and shrimp (your favorite) and build you the castle that you talk about, and I pray that he can afford the wedding that you have been talking about since you were 3. I pray that you become everything that you want to be.

I love you Alex Claire Steppe!!! Pin It Now!

Katie May

                                        Never did we intend to call you Katie May but somehow it just stuck.





My oldest daughter, you are what your sister will look like in 9 minutes. You are the first person who made me a mom. You paved the way for your sister by coming out with two black eyes. Alex was older the whole time I was pregnant but at the last minute, you became first in line to enter my life.

You have the kindest heart, the sweetest intentions.

You love your sister so much that you can't ever get enough of her. You beg her to let you spend the night in her room or for her to sleep in yours. You always want her to play "friend" with you, but you will usually give in to whatever it is she wants to play.

You need hugs, kisses, and lots of reassurance that I love you more than life.

Ever night you make me leave your closet light on, but your closet door shut. And sometimes you still get me to check under your bed, you are so sure that there is something there that honestly I am a little afraid to look.

You love sports, playing outside, and getting dirty. You are exactly like I was when I was little. You LOVE to help in the kitchen, baking cookies or whatever I let you help with.

You always give me a smile when I drop you off at school, and you always tell me how much you love me.

You have perfect handwriting and you write your spelling words over and over again each week until you get them right.

You have your own style that fits your personality perfectly. Skinny jeans and your Converse sneakers is your go-to outfit for now.

You make THE goofiest faces I have ever seen just to make me laugh, and I have yet to find a song on the radio that you don't know every single word to.

You are boy crazy, and I mean you got it bad. I hope you grow out of this although I am not crazy enough to believe that you will.

I pray that I never stop being your best friend, I pray that you confide in me all your life. I pray that you reach every goal that you set for yourself, and I pray that you set your goals high.

I love you Kathryn Paige Steppe!!! Pin It Now!

Bella the Elf

Guess what?? Bella the Elf is back in town! The girls came home from their dad's house on Sunday and she was sitting under our Christmas tree on top of a toy horse! She always gets into mischief when we are away. She brought the girls each a pair of Christmas earrings and they were so excited to see her!







Then we woke up this morning to a mess! Bella discovered their lipstick on wrote on the mirror!! Kate quickly cleaned it up so I wouldn't be mad at Bella....







The mirror says "I'll be watching for Santa. Make sure you two don't get on the naughty list!"

Side note: I know this seems like a strange Christmas tradition, but I can't even begin to tell you how much better the girls act when this little Elf is in town. I'm seriously considering having an elf live with us year around, well at least one that didn't cause so much mischief!

Bella has been known to move our car and even put underwear on our tree! I can't wait to see what she gets into this year....





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A typical conversation

Tonight at subway, I took this picture:



And had this conversation:

Me: Kate, do you not think that (the boy who Alex likes) is cute?

Kate: Kinda, but really I just wanna see him flip his hair.

Alex: I told you he flipped his hair like Justin Bieber, but back off. He's mine! Grrrrrrrrr (yes, she actually growled)

Kate: Doesn't look like yours to me!

These are the days of our lives.....never a dull moment and I love it!





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Thankful- Day #I'm not sure

I am still thankful each day.....I'm just a poor excuse for a blogger. I guess I could say that I am thankful that I have so much going on in my life that I don't always have time to sit in front of my computer and blog all day.....

Today, I am thankful that I haven't forgotten the true meaning of the holidays. I am anxious for Christmas, don't get me wrong. FH and I have already been pricing Christmas trees since neither of us have one. And I am anxious to put it up and decorate the house. And I have a list a mile long of things I want, more so that things I need. And of things the girls and FH want, more so than need. But at the end of the day, I remember that Thanksgiving comes before Christmas. And believe it or not, it is an actual holiday. And I remember that Christmas was not ever about just Santa Claus, and I hope to continue to reinforce this in my household. And just in case any of you were confused, Jesus was not born on "Black Friday", although I am pretty sure the day is more anticipated than the actual birthday of Baby Jesus.

So, today I am thankful for remembering why we really have the holidays. Pin It Now!

29 Days of being Thankful- Day 7

Today, I am thankful for my job. I love my job! Now, when I say LOVE, I mean I love it as much as one can love their job. Of course, I prefer to not work but if I can't be a stay at home mom, this is the next best thing!

I took a chance a couple of years ago. I had a decent job but I felt like I had no opportunity to grow. So I took a pay cut and went back to school. It was risky, but I was young and dumb and felt like it was the best move......AND I was right! Now I love my job and I don't work in Memphis anymore which I wanted to get out of. I also have government holidays and tons of benefits. I can take off work whenever I need to even if it is to just go eat lunch with my kids at school (which is about 10 minutes away) or if I want to go on a field trip with them.

Today, I am so thankful for my job!! Pin It Now!

29 Days of Being Thankful- Day 6

Today, I am thankful for Grandparents. Kate and Alex have been blessed with many great grandparents!!! They have my Mom and Stepdad, and my Dad and Stepmom. They have Tim's Mom and Stepdad, and Tim's Dad and Stepmom. They have both of my grandmothers, and now they have Michael's Mom too! I am so thankful that all of them love and care for my girls and I don't know what we would do without them. Pin It Now!

29 days of being Thankful- Day 5

Today I am thankful for the weekend! I love the weekends! FH and I have the girls every other weekend and we treasure each weekend we have with them.....and each weekend we have without them! Family time is great and I love when we all get to hang out, and FH and I enjoy having our alone time when the girls are at their dad's house.

Looking forward to these two work free days make it easier to get through the workweek!


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29 Days of Being Thankful-Day 4

Today I am thankful for my friends. I have the best friends ever.....so many in fact, that I'm wondering just how many Maids of Honor I can have! My friends have always been there for me when I needed them and I don't know what I'd do without them! Love my wolfpack!


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29 Days of Being Thankful- Day 3

Today I am thankful for my future husband. I am sure he is wondering why he is #3 on my list....truth is that I wanted to make sure that I had plenty of time to write my "thankful blog" about him so I put it off until Friday afternoon at work....yes, I should still be busy, but if I wait any longer then he is going to begin to think I don't love him! And he is my #1 blog reader.....

I am thankful for FH for more reasons than you could imagine. He is the most amazing man in the world. I prayed and prayed and prayed for him. He didn't get to me until a little later in life, and I already had a little bit of baggage, but just like everything else God does, it was timed perfectly. Had I met this man when I was young and dumb, I wouldn't have appreciated him the way that he deserves to be appreciated. He is absolutely, without a doubt, my best friend in the whole entire world. We share every secret, we talk about every life detail, we make fun of each other, laugh with each other, and cry on each other's shoulders. He is the rock that keeps me from screaming when I don't think I can take five more minutes of motherhood, and the man that makes me laugh even if I feel like crying. He loves my children as if they were his own and puts the three of us before himself. In many ways he is the complete opposite of me but in others he is the male version of myself. We share a love of some of the exact same foods, we both love our Taco Bell tacos with no lettuce, and we both grew up collecting Berenstein Bear books. He is the man that I cannot wait to walk down the aisle towards, and the man that I plan on riding around the country with in an RV once we are old(er). He is, and always will be, the love of my life.

I could go on and on and on about the amazing things he does.....he doesn't even leave the toilet seat up! He is a diamond in the ruff and I get to call him mine for the rest of my life. For that, I am thankful. Love You FH!! Pin It Now!

Run Forrest Run!!!

I have recently gotten into running. I have been building up my time SLOWLY and I am really enjoying it. I get up at 5:30 in the morning and it starts my day out great! Lately, Kate and Alex have been begging to go with me. I NEVER thought they would actually get up and go so I told them I would wake them up yesterday morning. Well, yesterday morning, I woke up to rain. I am not quite hardcore enough yet to run in the rain so I decided not to, but I did go ahead and get up and out of bed. I decided to go wake up the girls to see what they would do. More to prove to them how early it was and so they would stop asking me to wake them up when I run. So I woke them both up and said "Come on, wake up, time to go run!" in my peppy morning voice. And yes, I am annoyingly peppy in the mornings......To my surprise, they both popped up and said they were going! I couldn't believe it....then I had to tell them we weren't actually going. I heard all about it yesterday, how I said I would run and then didn't.

So, this morning, it was up and at 'em at 5:30. I CANNOT believe the girls actually got up and ran with me. What 8 year old does that? I usually stick to my training schedule, which does 2 minutes of running and 1 minute of walking throughout the whole time. Well, I warned the girls that I wasn't going to slow down and there was no whining. They stayed together about 10 steps behind me and I could hear them talking. Here are some of the phrases I overheard:

-My face is froze!
-Mom, when are we going to walk again?
-Kate, can I wear your 'boggan?
-Alex, mom is so fast!

Kate gave in at 10 minutes. She said she was done and walked back to the house. Alex would not quit. She got up beside me when I was walking so she could talk to me. I asked her if she liked running. Her response: "yes ma'am. but I think I like it during the summer better than the winter" (couldn't agree more) I asked her if she was ready to stop at 20 minutes and she said she wasn't stopping. I could tell she wasn't going to quit until I did so we went on in. (Not that I go much longer than that normally!)

When we got back home, they both wanted to know how many miles we ran! I didn't have the heart to tell them that it was one at the most! Then, we all celebrated with doughnuts!!

We'll see if they are as anxious to get up tomorrow morning....... Pin It Now!

29 Days of Being Thankful-Day 2

Today I am thankful for the school that Kate and Alex go to. Our family sacrifices a lot in order for them to go there. I catch a lot of crap (excuse my french) for spending all my money on private school. We don't have a huge house or fancy cars or tons of designer things because I spend all my money on their education. But at the end of the day, none of that matters.

 My girls are in a great environment on a daily basis. They are surrounded by God-loving people. They have Bible class and learn Bible verses and can both name every single book of the Bible. And THAT, my friends, matters at the end of the day. I have nothing against anyone else's school, don't be confused, but this one works perfect for us and I am glad that I have the opportunity to send them there. My mom sacrificed in order for my siblings and I to go there so she set a great example for me. I hope one day the girls will do the same for their kids.

Today I am thankful that God is in my kids' lives every day that they walk into their classroom. Pin It Now!

29 Days of Being Thankful- Day 1

So many people are doing this.....I am not usually one to jump on a bandwagon, but consider me jumping on this one. But I missed a day (and will prob miss more) so as of today, this will be titled 29 (instead of 30) days of being thankful.

Today, I am thankful for my daughters.

My girls are hilarious. They can brighten the worst day of your life, make you giggle when you want to cry, find sunshine on a cloudy day, and make you want to pull your hair out all within a matter of moments. They are 2 of my 3 best friends. I cannot imagine life without them and I thank God daily for letting me call each of them daughter.

God knew what He was doing when He matched us up. They love sports like I do, eating like I do, talking like I do, giving everything 100% like I (try to) do.....the list goes on and on. We even all 3 share the same little short, fat toes!

Twins are a handful, any Mother of Multiples will tell you that. They take up for each other, and then five minutes later pick on each other. They fight like regular siblings, but they have a bond that started before they even came into this world. No matter how much they drive me crazy on a daily basis, I will NEVER EVER forget the little wave I get when I drop them off at school. It makes it all worthwhile. And everyday, Kate holds up her hand to her ear (making a phone) and says "Call me!"...never fails. I dont look forward to the day that I no longer drop them off at school because I know I will miss that special moment.

Love those kiddos and don't know what I would do without them! Pin It Now!

Pictures

Don't get me wrong.....I love the blogosphere. And if I had my wish, blogs could go directly from my mind to blogpost......we have been busy bees lately! And since a picture is worth a thousand words, this is my update.....

Baptism day.....





















Field trip......




























Halloween.....




















That pic of Alex and Michael is special......this was the first night that she called him stepdad. :-)




And proof that I have the sweetest kids ever:




Whew, now we're all up to date! Oh ok, I'll leave you with one more.....



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