Christmas Morning

The kids were pretty excited with all that Santa left them. They spent a few hours before breakfast playing with those toys waiting on Grandma Pam and Jim to get here.

The kids got a slide.

And this here very dangerous, terrible horrible no good very bad truck. Bad choice, Santa. After several falls and countless red marks this toy has been removed from rotation.

The kids also got Mega Blocks, they were a hit with both kids and adults.

And of course, stockings.

Christmas Eve

OK, so I've finally loaded all of the christmas eve pictures onto the computer and because of my compulsion to shoot so many photos it looks as though it will be several posts to get it all in.

Let's begin with Christmas Eve. The X-man's daycare was closed so he got to come and spend the day with us and Grandpa Tony and Great Grandma Betty. The twins love their cousin, they followed him around everywhere, it was pretty cute.






Here is a picture of the tree on Christmas after everyone's gifts were here. Don't let it decieve you, usually we put gifts under the tree in the family room but we couldn't do that this year with the twins getting into everything and the big boxy tree stand doesn't allow for many gifts to go under the foyer tree.

Coop looking up to his cousin.

Apparently, Elves brought me these flowers. I think Todd did, but he never would come clean, they were just here when I got up to make the coffee and breakfast on Christmas Eve.

Breakfast. We got a late start and it doesn't look nearly as good as it tasted.

That evening we had people over for mexican food. A few year's ago when we were in Arizona for Christmas my sister-in-law Heather made delicious refried beans. Now every year since we make them near Christmas and everyone comes over for Mexican Movie night. This year was "Rudolph" for the kids. It was their first movie ever. We made it 11:28 before we had to turn it off because all three kids had lost interest. Oh well, maybe next year.

Next we exchanged gifts with our friends who had come.

X-man wanted everything!

Bailey in her first Christmas Eve p.j.s.

Coop in his.

Then we all went to bed so Santa could come. I couldn't sleep and I snuck down after 2 a.m. to see if he had come and sure enough he had. I was so excited but I managed to get back to sleep until the kids woke up.

He left us a ton of stockings. Some we even had to deliver to people who don't even live here. Santa is so generous.

Headbands and Hairbows... apparently not for any of us

I thought I had taken more photos from the Christmas party we had the weekend before Christmas but apparently I just had pictures of our kids, oops.

We usually have gates everywhere but we took them down for the party. The entertainment center and Christmas tree were open territory and the children flocked to them.

When Taste Is Not Relevant

Last Saturday we had our Christmas Party. During the day while we were cooking and decorating I dressed Bailey in 'indoor clothes' because we were staying in. Even though we weren't planning on going anywhere Todd still had to point out that Bailey has never looked sillier. In my opinion, he just really hates the headband and bow.

Her shirt says "My brother is the naughty one".

Before the twins were born we got two sets of robes as gifts. Robes are more an inconvenience when it comes to infants and toddlers. We put the kids in them the other day just because we didn't want them to go completely wasted. Bailey had a good time walking around in nothing but a diaper and her robe.

Cooper gave up his robe but he wanted to show you all his cool comb over that his dad gave him. In preparation of his future I guess.

Oh What Fun-Dirty Face-Pants On Head

Yes, I know, you all want to see pictures from Christmas but first I have a few posts pre-Christmas that I never got the chance to post. First, a few days before Christmas Cooper decided to try out a new fashion technique-what do you all think?

I kept expecting him to take the pants off his head but he seemed to be pretty content. I did however, wash his face...eventually.

Cookie Baking

A few weeks ago I told Pam, Todd's mom, that I would like a copy of her sugar cookie recipe because I have never found a recipe that turned out very good cut-out cookies. She told me that she would give me a copy of her recipe but that she would also come over and help me make them one day. She even took the day off to come and bake cookies with us.

Here is Grandma Pam working on the cookie recipe that has been handed down from generation to generation. I love stuff like that.

Not quite ready, we needed A TON OF FLOUR!!!

The baking didn't take as long as the decorating but the decorating was a lot more fun. I can't wait to do this next year when the kids can be more involved in the decorating and eating of the cookies.

She brought along these little cute icing pens but I wasn't very good with the writing.

The one batch made over 5 dozen cookies. That's a lot of decorating.

But they were very yummy, notice the missing Hollyberry Tree.

Thanks Grandma Pam for coming over and making cookies with us, it was a lot of fun and we look forward to doing it every year.

Beaver Boy

Whenever I go in to get the twins after naptime they are always standing up in thier cribs waiting for me. They aren't usually crying and I only know they are awake because they are 'talking' and laughing back and forth between their cribs. The other day I decided that when I went to get them from their nap I was going to throw open the door (which I normally do, which induces a huge smile) and snap a picture (of the huge smile). So my plan went ok and I got Cooper's big smile as I opened their bedroom door, but then I noticed something...

He seemed to have something dark on his face, especially around his mouth.

To my dismay it appears he has been chewing on his crib. I don't know for how long but they usually aren't in their cribs for very long before or after they are asleep, I don't know how he got all this damage done, if it was just that day or if he'd been working on this surprise for days, working a bit at naptime and at bedtime.

The damamge:

These were beautiful cribs that were supposed to be able to convert into toddler beds and then double beds. They weren't cheap. Now I'm really wishing I had gone the Jenny Lind $109 crib route that you can buy a $10 crib teether bar for. What was our solution? The only thing that would fit, a Fireplace Guard from Burlington Baby Depot.

So far it's worked and I haven't had any more wipes that looked like this:

Bailey's crib, it has no signs of damage and thus has no need for the silly looking Fireplace Guard.

First Visit To See Santa Claus

This was the first attempt, taken immediately after the kids were sat on Santa's lap. Then the lady asked me if they would smile, and I told her 'yes, usually', she begins to ring bells, but not very enthusiastically and Bailey looked up at Santa and lost it. I had to take her back from Santa and thus, this is their Santa Photo for 2008. No smiles, no fun. I have actually never seen Bailey so unhappy to be held by someone, I think it's because her father went around that whole day saying, 'we're going to see Satan Claws today Bailey'.

Yep, I don't think that helped.

Our Toddlers

Cooper has been walking for a little over a month, but his first few weeks the steps were few and far between, only in the last week has he been walking almost everywhere clear to one end of the house and back again. Bailey took her first steps on Thanksgiving Day, almost three weeks after Cooper, but I stopped being worried over their physical differences and abilities months ago, trust me. But she can walk just as well or better than Cooper now. Just this weekend we started to notice her walking to and from pieces of furniture without our goading her into walking and yesterday and this morning she has been walking like a pro. She did basically the same thing with crawling, she didn’t crawl until Cooper had been crawling for weeks but as soon as she did start she seemed to catch up with him in skill in a week or less.

Just A Teaser

In mid-November I wanted to go ahead and begin work on our Christmas Photo Card but Bailey mauled her face and then it was Thanksgiving and then we had family in...

Anyways, Bailey's face looks a lot better so we got everything and everyone together Saturday to do the photo session. It was less than ideal.



Here is a great example of what we were able to get over the day.

I was, after much distress, able to assemble a card which is in route to my house and then shortly in route to each of your houses.

Next, Big News From Bailey.