Confession: I’ve been an absolutely no-good, awful, downright pathetic blogger this week.

Why?

Because the twins turned 1-year-old on Tuesday, and I didn’t make a single peep about it here. Or much of anywhere else, unless you count this grainy pic I tossed up on Instagram and Facebook.

I’m actually pretty embarrassed.

But here’s the thing: they were under the weather earlier this week (they’re better now), and both had fevers on their actual birthday. Believe me, if it sounds sad for a 1-year-old to be sick on her birthday, it truly is doubly sad when it’s twins (double your pleasure…double your pain). And I didn’t do much blogging that day for obvious reasons. Hence: no fanfare whatsoever for quite a momentous landmark.

I mean…seriously. 1 year ago, I gave birth to TWINS. At home. With no pain meds. (And it was my best birth yet).

(Ack! They’re so tiny. It makes my heart squeeeeeze)

And then I figured out how to feed both of them (they’re still nursing in case you’re just dying to know).

And I got kind of used to this:

We even managed to all get dressed at once and take pictures of it (I’m not going to say the process didn’t involve a mild nervous breakdown…or three).

They got cuter…

(and quite advanced…see Nola waving hi?)

…and cuter…

And I got pretty darn good at holding them both at the same time.

And then I mastered the art of grocery shopping with twins in my basket and a 7-year-old pushing another cart into my ankles behind me. And I got new crow’s feet and a slight crick in my neck from smiling and nodding at the 478 occurrences of, “You have your hands full,” and, “Bless your heart,” every time we went anywhere in public.

And they just kept growing…

And Growing…

…and GROWING!

They even tried their hands at a little blogging:

And you know what?

The process—this whole keeping-twins+3-other-kids-alive-for-a-whole-year business—it’s been amazing. Yes, some days are crazy hard. Or at least as hard as they can be for a mama with a grocery store 15 minutes away (they sell chocolate, after all), a supportive husband, a mama who takes her three oldest for a day every single weekend (oh yes, she does), and some of the sweetest kids on the planet. But mostly, it’s fantastic. I kind of want to make a t-shirt that says: “Everybody needs a set of twins. They make life more fun. (And harder too).” But that’s a bit longwinded for a t-shirt design, and I think anyone who hasn’t experienced it might think I was nuts (not that they’d be wrong). So, I guess I’ll just restrain myself to blabbering about it here to you guys. Because a whole lot of y’all have been here from the beginning, and I think you know what I mean.

To say that God has been gracious to our family is to that say that the sun is bright. It’s such a vague, weak little facsimile of the truth. As hectic and wild as much of this year has been, I don’t think I’ve ever felt more aware of His abundant blessing and love for me, a girl who doesn’t deserve a shred of it and who fails more times than she can count, every. single. day.

Praise God that his mercies are new every morning!

I don’t know what the future holds, but this I can tell you:

Today is very good indeed.

{I dressed my poor little feverish girls up in their birthday duds and took a—very fuzzy—picture for posterity. Some of them came out better than this, but I just love their long-suffering expressions here. They do a good job of humoring their goofy mama}.

And now I’m off to craft some various something-or-others for their party tomorrow and make a cake that I’m not entirely sure is even going to work out (but I guarantee it’ll taste good).

There’s no linky party today (sorry, guys!), but I hope you all have an absolutely LOVELY weekend!

Pssst…I’ll probably be posting sneak peaks of the party details all weekend on Instagram if you want to follow along.