Joy to the World!

What a great day. While we started off a little intimidated by all that Santa and friends and family had left under the tree for this morning, we quickly gained our composure and dug right in!

Hopefully Santa brought everything that our hearts desired!

We enjoyed a day full of fun, happiness, family, playing with cousins, and singing happy birthday to Baby Jesus.

While it was still very cold today, we couldn't have asked for a more perfect Christmas Day!

As always, the blessings just never stop for our family.

Since we were so busy it is hard to tell what the hit of the day was. But the Leapster Games were the big request to keep at hand wherever we went.

It's Christmas Eve once again.

And I count every day of the past year with E&R a true blessing. They have given me a renewed purpose in life and have become more important to me than I could have ever imagined. All I want is for them to have the time of their lives tomorrow. That is all the gift I could ever need or ask for. I never knew how empty life would have been without them!

Sappy or not, it is true. I love you geckos!!!

Merry Christmas!!!!!!!

Our 3rd Birthdays!

Forgot to mention that in November we celebrated E&R's 3rd birthdays. They took 11 of their friends & cousins to McDonalds for 2 hours of running, climbing, eating, and FUN.

Everyone had a blast and our two little birthday children fell asleep in the car within 5 minutes at 6:00 at night! They were quite worn out but they still talk about it over a month later! While better food and cake has been had at many other birthday parties, it was a dream come true for these two!

The "Flushing"

Well, it's not a very timely posting but about 3 weeks ago we had our first "flushing" incident. Earlier in the year I believe we had an incident where some boy (not to mention any names) dropped his shoes in the toilet and got them wet. And we had an incident where some boy (again no names) was learning how to go while standing up and fell head-first into the toilet and got wet and pride hurt. BUT......we finally had our first incident that almost required a plumber.

One morning, I sent some boy (no names needed by now!) to the bathroom to go and then to come back into their bedroom to put his clothes on for the day. Mind you this is 7am in the morning and we need to leave by 7:10 so that I can attempt to get to work on time. I was assisting E in getting her pajamas off when I heard "mommy, mommy help, my underwear is stuck, my underwear is stuck". I then promptly heard the toilet get flushed 3 or 4 times.

I went dashing in there to see the pair of Incredibles underwear stuck going down the toilet. Just a little corner was sticking out of the bottom and I was able to get a pair of needle-nose pliers and snatch them out of the toilet before they were permanently lodged out of reach. Thank goodness, no plumber needed but I was late to work!

I can't hear my book!

Today while everyone was using the potty, I started singing Christmas carols to try and speed up the process. (good luck on that one!) E was sitting on the potty reading a book and in the middle of a good "fa la la la la, la la la la" on Deck the Halls she told me that I was too loud and she couldn't hear her book! Excuse me for singing! Hilarious!

R & I just laughed our heads off at her!

Where to begin??????

It's been nearly a year since I did my last blog posting....so much has happened since then.

The kids: turned(ing) 3 years old! Developing their personalities. POTTY TRAINED. Yeehaw!!!! Left the cribs behind and in toddler beds. Developing senses of humor. Love to play dress up, with cars, dolls, drawing, balls, swings, parks, sit n spins, watching Dora/Barney/Wiggles/Veggie Tales, had some outpatient dental work done, been thru normal kid illnesses (a LOT of them), got a new cousin, getting dressed on their own, becoming quite the personable and popular preschoolers!

The family: we passed our 1-year mark of being a complete family this past April. The kids have now been living with us for exactly 1/2 of their lives. Can't wait to say they've been with us longer than they were without us. We completely gutted and renovated our main bath and kitchen. Fabulous but messy!!!!!!

Daddy: still going strong at his job and learning to be a great daddy!!!!

Mommy: endured about 3 minor and 2 serious illnesses this year which is why the blogging came to a halt! Also made it through the merger at work in time for another one coming in 2009....will I survive this cut?

That's the 5-second wrap-up. More to come so stay tuned! I promise to try again to keep up on this......but life as a full time mom, wife, and employee is very time consuming and at times stressful!