Hungry, Hungry Hippos

There is so much to write about today - our first Christmas!!!!!

The kids woke up with a bang - tons of gifts from Santa and maybe one or two from Daddy or Mommy. They got elmo and cookie monster dolls, books, potty chairs, doodle boards, and special shirts from a Harley store!

Then it was off to Grandpa & Grandma Betty's house for brunch with them, aunt, uncle, and 2 cousins. TONS more gifts from everyone there too.

Today was such a beautiful day, that all the kids and grownups got to go outside to play. Wow what a treat after being cooped up inside for so many weeks now in the cold and/or snow! We all loved it, some little boy got their pants all muddy, but it was worth it!

After all that excitement, it was home for a quick round of naps and to gather up for the next stop at Grandma & Papa's. Again, more gifts and more playing with cousins, aunt, uncle and of course Jake the cat who loved every minute of it I am sure! What a great dinner and yummy cookies to finish off the day.

The most amazing thing out of today was R's obsession and LOVE of the hungry hungry Hippo game we got one of their cousins for a Christmas gift. I have NEVER seen that boy so obsessed and into something for as long of a time as he did today. I should have bought them one as well. It was absolutely amazing - he would cheer whenever his hippo got a marble and I think he also loved playing with his older cousin! E loved it too but was not near as into it or dedicated as R! I guess I'll know what will be on our next shopping list at Toys R Us!

It's Christmas Morning!!!!!!!!!

It is our first Christmas morning, and I am all abuzz with anticipation but our babies are still sleeping!!!!!!!!

We're going to have to go in and wake them up very soon if they don't hurry up.

I cannot wait to see their little faces over all the presents that Santa has left!!!!!!!!!!!

Let it SNOW!!!!!!!

Last weekend on Dec 15/16, E&R got to see, taste, feel, and witness their first snow ever!

On Saturday, the snow was wet, 3-4 inches deep, and perfect for getting outdoors to make snowballs, a snowman, and to explore what in the world snow is! So we did. They loved it and we were outdoors for about 30 minutes before I decided enough was enough and I was sure everyone was frozen solid so we headed in.

On Sunday, there was about 4 more inches of snow added on top of that. However, this was dry and powdery and ended up being almost knee deep on E&R so they did not enjoy this trip out in the snow nearly as much.

We did make one wimpy snowman which they loved finding things to put on him for eyes, ears, arms, hats, etc. I believe that was their favorite part of being out in the snow!

Cheesy?????? Yep!!!!!

Just a shot of a cheesy couple of kid smiles!!!!

We cut out snowflakes one day and colored them all. E&R opted to model a couple of them for the camera. I can't decide what they liked better, standing and hiding behind them or showing just how cheesy they can smile!

Enjoy!

The Christmas Tree

E&R have eagerly been learning all they can about this thing called Christmas!

We have introduced them to the advent calendar and wreath to help us count down the days to Christmas - or as we've been explaining it, Baby Jesus' birthday! For awhile, E loved to walk around singing at the top of her lungs, "happy birthday baby Jesus". It was too precious!

One day, we set up the Christmas tree and they loved it. They helped put the tree together and hang the ornaments. The ornaments have not been in any of the same places since, but that's why everything on the tree this year is either cloth, plastic, or some other non-breakable material!

We also took our family Christmas picture in front of the tree and got a few cute shots of everyone all dressed up for our Christmas cards.

Donuts with Santa

Our next big adventure was to see this person known as Santa Claus to start learning what the commercial side of Christmas means! Our church sponsored it's annual Donuts with Santa breakfast the first week of December. For some reason, I wasn't aware of it until the last minute (ok the day before!) but was able to squek out 3 tickets for E&R&I to go. We ended up with the best seats in the house: front, center, right next to the stage! What a prime view of Santa, the elves, and carolers.

We ate donuts, drank chocolate milk, did the crafts, danced to the Christmas music, and finally walked up to Santa's sleigh for a picture! I didn't give E&R much time to look at or think about not wanting to sit next to Santa. Fortunately a good friend was there who offered to help us so while she took the camera and got ready to snap a photo, I scooped up R, dropped him down next to Santa, stood E up next to R who then started whimpering a bit and then Santa told me to sit down to and the picture below is how we ended up! No traumatic crying or carrying on this year......but hopefully next year we can get a hint of a smile!!!!!!!! :)

Our First Thanksgiving

For our first Thanksgiving, we were fortunate to spend it with close friends. E&R&mommy spent the night before Thanksgiving out at our friend's house in order to help cook and set up for the big day on Thursday! Plus we then got to play with our good friend Kaylie who was just as excited to see us as we were her!!!

On that Thursday, it was so cold and we got our first glimpse of sleet & freezing rain for the kids. They enjoyed the day - the special snacks, the pumpkin pie, the Macy's Thanksgiving parade, watching movies, coloring, and playing with all the friends that were there that day.

After the celebration at our friend's house was over, the kids & I also stopped by my boss's house to say hello to his family. E&R had just as good a time there too as they had a small dog and a new friend who tickled, chased, and wrestled with them. It was hard to pry them away so that we could go home and get into bed......

What a great day - and Daddy & I were deeply and truly thankful for the two best things that have ever happened in our lives. E&R!!!!!!

We're TWO!

Back on November 17th, we threw E&R their first birthday party here with us. Since they are obsessed with Barney, it only made sense to have a Barney birthday party!!!!

We had 8 of their little friends under 5 years of age over, along with 8 other people that were over 5 to take care of the younger crowd. :)

We held the party down in our basement. There were Barney decorations, a pinata (that we didn't break open since we just had Halloween), toys, running, climbing, screaming, crying, playing, laughing, and lots of pictures. E&R along with everyone else had a great time and tons of fun.

They dove right into their cake and ice cream just like any toddlers should. (See the pic's below!)

What happened?

OK, so I'm a little behind in my postings.....ok a LOT behind.
Things just kind of went crazy for awhile and when I can't dedicate a lot of time to sitting at the computer, things fall behind. A ton of stuff has happened since my last posting:

birthdays, Thanksgiving, learning about Christmas trees, 1st visit to Santa.....

I promise to catch up on everything very very soon. First, I have to get a few Christmas prep stuff out of the way for next week! I can't believe Christmas is only 1 week away.....where does the time go?

So sports fans, stay tuned and after a short additional time-out, we'll get back to the game!

Weekend Recap

This past weekend was very busy but a very special one! We celebrated E's first birthday with us. The kids & I went with our friend Karen & her son to a park and a special greenhouse garden that has tons of butterflies from all over. They were so beautiful!!! However, E&R didn't quite know what to make of it and then when one extremely large butterfly landed squarely on E's forehead, that was the end of the greenhouse tour!

Then we played at the playground nearby and stopped at Burger King for lunch and got a bonus in the fact that they too had a playground. Later that day we visited with two sets of grandparents and ended up at Taco Bell for E's favorite bean/cheese burritos for her special dinner.

Daddy & I finally finished the basement play area this weekend so now we have tons of room for running and playing. The 3 of us tested it out last night and they had a GREAT time.

Some funny things: E&R love to play hide and seek. Only there's no counting and then seeking - it all runs in parallel. E runs away and hides somewhere while R chases after to go get her. Sometimes they pretend like they don't know where the other one went to. They entertain each other for at least 15 minutes doing that.

They are also doing a LOT better learning how to trade toys to share. Now when they both have a toy, E goes "here!" then they trade toys and continue on playing. They did so well doing that, they played for nearly 15 minutes in the car quietly without me interfering - I was quite proud.

Also, they have become quite adept at making faces at each other and causing the other to break out in laughter. This is cute except when it happens during nap time for several minutes and I have to go stand in between the cribs in order to give anyone a chance of sleeping! Speaking of which, E hardly slept a wink at both naps all weekend for mommy, so today at daycare she'll probably sleep 3 hours……..not fair!

Snappy Dappy!

We had a great weekend this past weekend!!!!
We went and played with our cousins Saturday morning and had a blast including 3 of the 4 of them riding around in the wagon and everyone chasing balls out in the yard. Then Grandma L came over Saturday evening so D and I could celebrate our anniversary - 5 years!!!

Sunday found Aunt Jamey and K coming over to play with us! We again had so much fun!!!!! We showed K all of our toys and then took her outside to chase balls and climb and slide which she loved.

Monday, D and I took off and still sent the kids to daycare so we could completely clean the basement out. 2 overflowing trashcans and assorted boxes and other trash out by the curb later, the basement is much cleaner and nicer. We're setting up a play area down there for the long, cold winter months when we can't go outside to let off steam. It is looking good!

Sunday, E came up to D and I and just said "snappy dappy!". Not sure what that meant or if it was to mean something other than what it sounded like....but it is catchy and now we're all saying it!

Your cup is out in the yard.....

This morning, R decided to demonstrate one of his famous temper tantrums while going to daycare. We entered Fran's house screaming and continued to lay on the floor unhappy and kicking until Fran started pouring milk cups. She gave E the usual cup but for R, she said "R, you have a new cup today because yesterday you left yours out in the yard and now we can't find it." This immediately caused the temper tantrum to end and R sat up as quick as possible and had a look of complete surprise on his face! That snapped him out of it and was the start of a day full of surprises for these two.

Today is Halloween!!!!! The kids were excited because we brought their costumes to daycare where they had a huge Halloween party! Then we went trick-or-treating with our friend Karen & son then off to several other houses of some of our closest friends at church. They honestly were the two most popular trick-or-treaters out tonight in our neighborhood. Everyone loved them and wanted us to stop at THEIR house. :) After about 2 homes, E&R caught on to the fun and LOVED every minute of it and every piece of candy (especially suckers) that were dropped into their candy buckets. We now officially have enough candy to supply a complete grade school with treats........ok maybe not quite that much but it is a lot!!!!

I honestly don't know who had more fun, them or I. This was definitely one of the most memorable highlights in our short time together thus far! Unfortunately, daddy couldn't join us because he had to work the late shift today. So he missed out on quite a good time.

And now the Halloween pictures!!!! (yes, that's 4 full buckets of candy)

Whoa Cow!!!

This past weekend, Grandma W came & visited us! We had fun with her - played in the park, went shopping, read books, all kinds of fun stuff!

After Grandma left on Sunday, we went over to Aunt Shelly's. We put on our costumes and took pictures with our little friend K. They were all holding or playing with pumpkins and were so cute!

R has also started getting my attention by going "mommy, mommy, mommy!". For now, he is just as cute as E doing it.......give it 6 months and then it'll probably be driving me crazy! :) Also, he's been playing with the older boys at day care too much - he has taken to wrestling with E for a toy or whatever. He's getting more and more rambunctious!

E&R like to ride horsey on mommy's back. So I tell them "whoaaaaaa horsey". E then promptly responds every time: "whoaaaaa cow"!!!! When you think about it, makes sense. If you want to stop a horse, why not a cow too? Of course, maybe she's calling me a cow????? Who knows!

E's Busy Day

Today was a very interesting day for E. First she demonstrated all morning while we were getting ready that she has moved from grunting or pointing or whining to get attention to what she wants to going "mommy, mommy, mommy, MOMMY". I guess I've been telling them all along that if they want something to ask mommy so I guess she's taking me up on that! It can get pretty funny.

Then on the way to Grandma L's for the day (we do Thursdays there vs day care) she decided to join R & me in singing Wheels on the Bus. Not only does she know all the words and can pronounce almost all of them, but she knows the little actions I taught them to go with it. I was quite impressed to say the least!

Lastly (even though all of this happened before 8am) when we got to Grandma L's, she took a tragic tumble all the way down the stairs into the dark basement. Grandma L & I didn't even hear her go to the stairs (which usually has the door closed to avoid this issue) until we heard the thuds and scream. Thank God she wasn't hurt at all, just shaken up and all 3 of us were scared. We think she was chasing the cat and when he went downstairs, so did she. R was nervous too as he was the quietest I've seen & heard him be for 10 minutes straight! She went right to eating breakfast and then playing like crazy all day. So she's fine! But a bit clingy tonight which I can't blame her.

Poor R, all that happened to him today was a nip by Jake the cat for grabbing his tail too hard. Well, maybe that's good that nothing else happened!

Wheels on the Bus

Our favorite kid cd has Wheels on the Bus and Old McDonald Had a Farm. R loves to sing with me in the car to both of those. He may not know all the words but usually gets the last word of the sentence right: old mcdonald had a FARM, eieio. Actually any song that I make up as long as I repeat the same word a lot he loves to sing with me!

Today though, E started singing with us and she knows a lot more of the words she just hasn't chosen to show us that before!

Pig Tails Part II

We tried wearing pig tails to daycare today. And R along with his cohort at day care spent the entire day pulling at E's pig tails......our babysitter said whenever she heard E crying or screaming she knew what it was about! Those boys!!!

The bad news? We gave up and turned on the heat today after E&R cried like crazy because my hands and the wipes were cold as ice this morning getting them dressed! oooppppsssss.

Pig Tails!

This was a busy, fun weekend. We played in the park for nearly 2 hours with friend Karen & her son. Then we headed off to Grandma L's to for dinner and D's uncle & aunt from Ohio were visiting and got to meet E&R for the first time. E&R also had tons of fun playing with their 2 cousins.

Sunday found everyone going to the botannical gardens then for a bbq at Grandma L's. More playing with cousins and eating and treats. Then off to our first Halloween party at our adoption agency. We put on our costumes for the first time (official costume pictures will have to wait until Halloween......) and played with all of our friends there.

After all the action, we came back home to recover. So, E & I played with her hair and we did pig-tails for the first time. E looks SO cute and she loved having her hair done. We'll work on this more so maybe we can wear them on a more normal basis. Now that E finally has enough and longer hair, we can start playing around.

Well, tomorrow is Monday and back to the weekly routine. Whew, because we're all exhausted!

What fun we're having!

So I've decided it's time to enter the 2000's and start blogging, especially now that we have two special someone's in our family to blog about. Reading about what D & I do would be really, really boring......but reading about the things that E&R do?????? Now, THAT'S entertainment!!!!

It is hard to believe that as of October 4th, they have been home with us for 6 months. Unbelievable how quickly the time has flown. It is also so amazing at how far they have come in 6 months from bonding with us, learning a new language, catching up in development and height/weight, to starting daycare! They are two great kids that D & I are enjoying every minute of (well maybe not the 2-hour temper tantrum!).

Tune in regularly for updates on our Freeman Family Fun! Halloween is just around the corner and the kids have totally fallen in love with pumpkins. Everywhere we go, we manage to see pumpkins. We have two mini-pumpkins at home that they hold and kiss good night every evening before bedtime. Can we get more obsessed????


Fun things this week: E can now put both shoes & socks on by herself, R caught a large bouncy ball 5-6 times in a row by himself, we tried out a new grocery store cart that allows them to sit high up and face forward while I push (was a BIG hit), and now that it is cold, they love to wear their jackets all zipped up with hoods on and they REFUSE to take them off! Well, better than refusing to wear them huh? They are just toooooo cute in them. And yes, I am a sappy mother and they have look-alike jackets except E's has a pink stripe, and R's has a blue stripe.

Happy weekend!!!!


Loving the jackets!!!

















Playing in mommy's shoes.