XX vs. XY

This is an example of what it looks like to have a boy and a girl who are the same age at the same time...

I don't think I've ever even heard Harper attempt a fire engine noise out of her mouth and although Hudson has been intrigued enough to watch Bella Dancerella a time or two, its funny to me that he's never seemed interested in actually doing it. And I love how they are still right next to each other even though they are doing completely different things. It's hard to break those 2 up!

I like watching their little differences come out and seeing who they are developing into. It's so fun!

The Whole Picture

My friend Amanda and I worked together at WHPC from 2005-2006. I actually met her when she volunteered to go on a mission trip with us for Spring Break 2004 while she was still in college. We spent a magical week together in Corpus Christi with about a million 7th and 8th graders. While working at the church together, I was blessed to work alongside her and watch God work in her life as she and her boyfriend, Brian, got engaged and then married in 2007. She and Brian now live outside of Houston, so we don't see each other very often, but our friendship has reached a deeper level as she is now walking the hard road of infertility. So you should read her blog and join me in praying for a baby Joiner to join (pun intended!) them soon.

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago Amanda wrote this blog post that went along with some other things God has been showing me about how He knows all things from beginning to end. Nothing surprises Him. And sometimes we get a glimpse from the past that proves His infinite knowledge and it's so comforting. That's what her post was about and it inspired me to share this story along those same lines:

In April of 2009 Scott and I were getting ready to have a garage sale. I was reluctantly cleaning out all of our junk in all of my free time, which was sparse with our not yet 2-year-old twins. One afternoon as the babies were napping in the next room, I started cleaning out our bookshelves in the office. As I was pulling out books to add to our garage sale pile, I quickly discovered that Scott had left bookmarks in most of his books that I deemed appropriate to remove before selling them. These "bookmarks" were funny because they were so random: a grocery list from college, sermon notes, a 10 year old to-do list.

As I flipped through one dusty book checking for scraps of paper, the book naturally fell open to the bookmark and the words Kaimey Julia Hammerle jumped off the paper into my now intrigued eyes.

There were many phrases written in list form. Some read: left-handed; parents-John and Pam; Hobbs, NM; Jan 21st-bday; likes green-flavored candy...

Since Scott admittedly doesn't have that great of a memory he writes everything down. Apparently, he was really nervous on our first few dates that he would forget something he should already know about me, so he kept this little list to remind himself of things I had told him. Some were basic things and then some were little things I liked, the green-flavored candy for instance. I thought the then 5 year-old list was so cute and endearing and was really enjoying pausing from my cleaning to read little things my almost boyfriend didn't want to forget about me.

So here's where this long story gets good. One of the things he had written down to remember about me in the early dating days of 2004 were the words, "wants b/g twins." I probably would have screamed upon reading this, if it weren't for the sleeping boy/girl twins down the hall.

Crazy, right? For one, I never remember telling him that. Even though I have always thought it would be so fun to have twins, I didn't know I had ever vocalized a specific desire for boy/girl. And I would like to think I was smarter than to tell a guy I had just started dating about my desire to raise multiple children at once. Apparently I'm not. Thankfully, he stuck around.

And it's not like it just said "wants a boy and a girl" or "wants 2 kids" or even "wants twins." It's such a specific desire for me to throw out there. And a random thing for him to write down to remember. It's not like he could go out and grab me some boy/girl twins to surprise me like he could the green-flavored candy. It makes me wonder why he cared to remember this information at that point anyway.

I love this little slip of paper with those 4 little words. It's such a sweet reminder that God knows our desires and cares about them. And that He has a plan. And that He can accomplish anything. Even specific things. Obviously, on our first few dates, we had no idea we were approaching marriage. And definitely didn't know we would walk together through all of our fertility stuff and wonder if we would ever get pregnant at all. But in God's infinite knowledge and seeing how the whole scene would play out, I know He allowed us to have that conversation at the very beginning and then write it down in permanent ink to now serve as a symbol of His glorious work in our life.

It's such a comforting thing to know that we don't have to get to see the whole picture at once. Even when we desperately want to. We have a God who goes before us and holds our desires, our specific desires, in His hands.

Fondue Family Fun

You may recall from this post that Scott got me The Melting Pot cookbook for Valentine's Day. Well, for Mother's Day I became the proud owner of a new fondue pot, which makes the cookbook so much more useful.

I couldn't wait to try it out because I truly LOVE The Melting Pot's entire menu (that I've tried) and was eager to see if my culinary skills could bring a taste of the treasured dinner night out into our everyday reality.

We've used our new pot three times for three different recipes, and I have to say it I did not disappoint.

Here's some pictorial evidence of our Fondue Family Fun! (And I apologize for the low quality of the pics. I just grabbed my phone each time to snap a quick picture before we dove in.)

Appetizer: Traditional Swiss Fondue

Scott and I were both big fans of the swiss fondue, but it was a little strong for the kids. Probably because its just straight swiss cheese and wine. Maybe I'll try a cheddar recipe for them. Or they even have a mac 'n cheese recipe too!

Entree: Mojo Cooking Style with Chicken and Broccoli

Sorry about the undies. I'm noticing a pattern that my kids are rarely fully clothed at home. I'll work on that.

This was probably my favorite one so far. We get the Mojo at the restaurant every time because its SO GOOD I'm afraid I'll be disappointed if we deviate from it. The broccoli cooked in this pot of heaven might be the most flavorful thing I've ever put in my mouth. And I don't even like broccoli that much. I was a bit nervous our at home version would not compare. Like the cookbook holds back the secret ingredients or something. But it truly did taste exactly how I remembered it. Delicious! 

We only cooked chicken breast for our first time. I didn't want to ruin a good steak or seafood. But Scott and I both wished we had done a variety of meats to try them all. Next time. And maybe I'll even feel brave enough to branch out to another cooking style.

Dessert: The Original Chocolate Fondue

The chocolate was really good. I made the original because I already had all the ingredients. Its basically milk chocolate and crunchy peanut butter. The bananas were really good dipped. And Harper was a fan of the marshmallows as you can see. I really want to do The Flaming Turtle. You pour liquor over the top of it and then set it on fire. Maybe I won't let my kids sit on the table for that one. And I may have to get over my irrational fear of fire first.

So we're fully in: we're fonduers. It's really fun and hopefully one of those things our kids will grow up with fun memories doing together. My only complaint is that I may have a hard time enjoying the restaurant so much now. But I doubt it.