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!