Bailey and her apron

For Christmas this year, Bailey got an apron, handmaid by Aunt Sue.  Bailey loves her apron.  Loves it.  Wears it to cook in her kitchen obviously but also wears it to restaurants, to Target, to bed.  If she has a diaper change it’s ‘back on, Mommy’.  Same goes for a bath.  It is constantly getting tomato sauce and ketchup on it because she wears it to eat.  I have to pry it or sneak it away to wash it. 

She even wears it on snowy Saturday mornings when she’s doing her keyboarding lesson.

Cooper shovels.

Cooper shovels.
Originally uploaded by cookiecrazee

We are getting set to welcome the first snow of the year. Well, I'm not sure what we'll be doing is welcoming, but it looks like we're getting the snow whether or not we want it. The last snow lasted five weeks (or at least parts of it did). Of course at least now we have extra hands to work on snow removal.

Five Months Old Already!!!

Sean is amazing! I can't believe he has already been in our lives for five months, the time is flying by. He is full of smiles and loves to 'talk' almost as much as his sister. He is rolling over and I don't think it will be long until he is crawling and holding his bottle on his own. They grow to fast these kids, they really do.

Talking, talking, talking.

The twins vocabulary seems to be increasing by leaps and bounds every day. They seem to repeat most of what we say to them and surprise us often with things we didn't even know they had heard or learned, they know for example who Elmo is even though they have never seen an episode of Sesame Street.

Bailey woke up this morning and said "I want to get out of bed." By the time we got downstairs she had said no less than five times "Happy Birthday, Anya" getting louder each and every time she said it. Anya's birthday was last Thursday.

We had lunch at Olive Garden with a friend of ours who is expecting a little boy in six weeks or so and we had just sat down when Bailey started hollering, using no voice suitable for any indoor environment, much less a restaurant, "I WANT salad. I WANT salad."

'Want' may just be her favorite word next to her favorite phrase, "Mine, Cooper, mine." Apparently, everything belongs to Bailey from her little brother to her big brother's thirty train cars.

Bailey can recall her ABC's if you say them ahead of her and she can sing the chorus to Vampire Weekend's 'Cousins'. Phone is 'pone' and shirt sometimes seems to have an almost silent 'r' but overall she talks very clearly.

I am sure that it is because I spend most of every day with her but she talks more than any other toddler I have ever known. However, I am loving it. For now. Ask me again in six months and I may have another answer.

Birthday Week Recap

The twins turned two last Tuesday and we spent the whole week celebrating. Tuesday we had a special birthday dinner and a train cake. Grandma Pam, Tyler and Jordan came over and we let the twins open their big birthday gifts from us. Then on Saturday we went to Chuck E. Cheese in Roanoke with Tyler, Jordan, Dani, Erin, Chris and Xavier. I will say that is was a wonderful visit, busy but perfect for our kids age. Then we went to Build-a-bear thanks to Uncle Scott and Aunt Heather and their girls and made a Polar Bear named Goliath for Cooper and a Bunny named Thumper for Bailey. Then Ed and Charlene met us for some shopping and dinner at Red Robin. But the weekend didn’t end there. Sunday we had a birthday party and lots of Bailey and Cooper’s friends were able to come to their Monkey Party. I will try and post some of the pictures from their party later, but for now here are some from their actual birthday.

In no particular order...
Partaking in train cake. They were topped with candy pieces. Cooper really liked the M&M's which I think was the first time he had ever had them. They didn't melt in his hands but...
Getting ready to sing happy birthday twice.
Birthday dog. Max really, really wanted some cake.


Eating their birthday dinner that actually happened before cake, even though I know they would have liked it the other way around.
The train cake. It was actually a bunch of cupcakes. I was hoping to make it look a little more like Thomas the Tank Engine but I am more a baker than an artist so this was what they got. I also made a butterfly for Bailey but it isn't too pretty.
Two years old!

Happy New Year.

We hope all of you had a happy and healthy holiday season. We had a happy but truly very busy one and I for one am happy to see things beginning to slow down around here. We finally took the trees down yesterday and today I am putting away stockings and wreaths and trying to find room for all the wonderful things we got for Christmas. I have a ton of photos to post from Christmas but I am trying to find a way to make the file sizes smaller because posting pictures at the current file size is taking too long for our busy lives. But for now, our children on New year's day:

Sean, who is four months old already, rolled over on New Year's day from his back to his stomach (he had already tackled stomach to back rolling). He is drooling like mad but no teeth yet.
Bailey, who got a kitchen for Christmas and lots of wonderful things to stock it with, will be turning 2 tomorrow. Boy time flies. (And yes, we like to get as much wear out of the Christmas pajamas as possible.)
Cooper. Oh, Cooper, makes me laugh, laugh, laugh. He'll be two tomorrow too. He got not a train or car too many for Christmas and wakes up every morning crying that he needs socks on. I think that might be my fault but it could be worse.

Hope you are all having a good new year!

Love, The Thomas'