"Do you hear that noise?"

That was the question that Joseph asked me last night when we got out of the car on our date! Yep, you heard correctly I said date! We left all the kids with Angela and her hubby (they are amazing!) and went to the theme park in our area to ride roller coasters. Earlier this week we gave the girls their first bottle (and it was formula!) and they gobbled it up as though they have been drinking formula their entire lives. I have been saying that I am going to do this for months now, but for some reason I just couldn't do it and I have no idea why. "It's not crack, it's formula - just do it!" That's what I kept telling myself. Well, when Joseph got back home he kept strongly encouraging me to give the girls a bottle so that we could go on a date and I could get a break. (Nursing 2 kids without supplementing is exhausting although I must saying that they are getting more efficient so it is getting much better!) I finally worked up the courage and Joseph and Caleb fed the girls their first bottles! With no problems. So we scheduled a date night. I was nervous (bedtime is CRAZY around here), but I know how important it is for Lovey and I to have time by ourselves without our delicious children. And we do love to go on dates!!

Anyway, back to the question. Joseph asked me, "Do you hear that noise?" So I stopped and was listening and didn't hear anything so I replied, "What noise?" And that was just his point. There were no kids (belonging to us) that were fussing, asking a million questions, laughing, fighting, running in the street, asking for a drink, having to go to the bathroom, needing to eat, screaming...it was just us - by ourselves - on a date! And we had so much fun!! We rode roller coasters, ate junk (not on the diet plan) and watched a show. We talked without being interrupted and got to ride all the rides we wanted to where you have to be at least 48 inches tall. It was refreshing!

And then when we got home all was quiet at the Mad house. The kids were all in bed and Dan & Angela were watching TV on the couch. They said it got crazy for a while (it always does at bedtime) but they had no major problems with anyone. (Angela did ask for another swaddling lesson.) Frosting on our wonderful cake!

To keep with the cake analogy, the girls put little snickers bars on our frosted cake by sleeping 9 hours last night!! 9 1/2 hours of totally uninterrupted sleep!! I awoke at 7:15 am, feeling panicked (and MORE than ready to dump some milk) so I went to the living room where Joseph was studying and asked him if he had checked on the girls. He said that he was worried when he woke up and realized we hadn't heard from them all night so he went in to check on them and they were sleeping peacefully! I have no idea how much longer they would have slept this morning, but I was in pain and needed to feed them so I had Lovey wake them up at 7:30 am.

"Oh what a night!"

**side note**
Lovey and I started Weight Watchers a week ago and it has been painful. I sabotaged Joseph off the plan. It's really annoying to hear a skinny person ask how many points are in an apple. I've already lost 5 1/2 pds. but the goal is 35 pds. Long way to go. So if there is a lot of talk about snickers bars and frosted cakes - bear with me.

**side note**
On our date we talked a lot about the kids (probably too much) and decided that we feel so blessed to have them. They have added so much joy, laughter & love to our lives. And we really appreciate them more when we get time alone together.