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!