Merry Christmas!

I love Christmas! It is a magical time of year--though Mom might tell you I am one of the most difficult people to find presents for in the universe. What can I say? I have expensive taste. (That's why I have twins. Sorry, you can roll your eyes at that joke.) Anyway, it isn't the presents that make Christmas so great. It is hearing from family and friends you don't get to see or hear from as often as you'd like, and seeing my neighbor shovel the the drive of the little old lady next door, and having perfect strangers saying "Merry Christmas!" The spirit of Christ seems more apparent during Christmas time.

I am grateful that America is a country that still celebrates Christ. During Christmas time, more people go to church and remember the Lord than any other time of year except Easter. People who know me well may have noticed that while I am happy to talk about religion generally, I rarely speak about my personal testimony of Christ. However, today I want to say that I love the Lord Jesus; I believe in him as my personal Savior, and I am thankful for his teachings. Living the teachings of Christ brings me happiness. Well, I should say trying to live his teachings because I have a disproportionate number of faults, but I do mean the statement literally. I really do feel that living the gospel of Christ is the way to peace and happiness. Merry Christmas everyone! May the Lord bless you and your in the coming year.

Now on to the boys, who have been inordinately good looking and charming today. Reid has come up to me several times (randomly in the middle of his normal playing) and given me a hug or kiss. If he really feels fondly, he will rest his chin on your face. Normally such a display of affection is only for Janine, but today he gave me some chin-on-face-love too. I've uploaded a video of some chin-on-face-love later in this post. I've also got some great pictures coming of Reid with his curling iron/galactic sword of destiny, and with him all spiffed up.

Gage has been practicing running today, which is really fun to watch. Usually his top half gets going faster than his bottom half (don't ask me how that happens), and he plops over. He is huge. We took the boys to the doctor last week and Gage is 28+ pounds and off the top of the charts for height at 34 inches tall. Reid is also, apparently, a big kid at 25+ pounds and 33 inches (85th percentile for height).

Anyway, we are excited to see all of Janine's family tomorrow. As for the rest of you, we miss you and hope you have a Merry Christmas!


Gager's bathtime hair extravaganza


































Reid and the Galactic Curling Iron of Destiny














COFL (Chin On Face Love)














All spiffed up













































More COFL

Tag

OK, I have to be honest--I've been "tagged" at least twice now, and I have been a slacker about responding. For those of you who haven't seen it yet, "tagging" is the cool new blog thing (at least lets tell ourselves that so we feel cool) where you list seven random things about yourself, and then request the same of others. It is the blogger chain letter--but more fun. So, here are my seven things:

1. I can survive on less sleep than anyone ever guessed. I used to assume I needed at least eight hours to function well. I have discovered that I can function on much less--either that or my definition of "function" has been changed. BTW, the boys slept really well last night, for the first time in ages. Maybe the teeth have broken through and we're done for awhile?

2. I really enjoy making Christmas treats...for about half the time it takes to make them. Then, unfortunately, I am ready for something new. I'm not a great finisher.

3. My internal body temperature never reset after having the boys, and now I am generally warmer than I was before.

4. My hair is super thin and breaks easily (apparently) so I always have a bunch of new hair growing in that makes me look fuzzy.

5. I miss teaching, even though the kids drove me nuts.

6. I don't enjoy cleaning, but iPods make it better.

7. In the past six months I discovered how fun and relaxing yoga can be. I wish I was more consistent, but it is really enjoyable.

OK, there you go. I'm not sure those were particularly anything interesting, but the tag is for randomness. Now I get to tag people (I'm not sure how many I'm "supposed" to do, but I'm pretty sure there are no major repurcussions for doing it wrong)
Laurel, Liana, Michelle, Chelsea, Stacy & Rachel. I would enjoy seven random things aobut you--but feel free to ignore!

Merry Christmas!

Almost Christmas

It's almost Christmas, and I am excited to head to Ohio to see family (Janine's side). There is one little catch. Flying with two 16-month old, wiggly, whining, teething, boys is going to be a challenge. I don't know how to share the apprehension I feel about this, but I'll give it a shot. Imagine being forced to watch Walker Texas Ranger for four hours without being able to mock the crappy dialog, cheesy premise (who thought Wrangler jeans and karate kicks were a good combination?), and terrible acting, while being strapped into a sticky, body-odor-smelling, seat. Ok, I'll stop whining. For those of you who love Walker Texas Ranger, I'm sorry. I mean no offense. If it makes you feel better, you can mock me for liking to watch almost any Jackie Chan movie (I know they have all the same drawbacks as Walker, but I think the stunts are cool).

Reid wasn't excited about the hat, but he looks cute here.














Reid is running in this picture, a skill he hasn't perfected yet,
but the tongue out gives it some extra flair I think.














Gage looks so much like his mommy (and her family) it kills me.
Look at those enormous eyes and pouty lips.














Gage has learned to rip off his diaper, which he is working on in
this picture. We are less impressed with this skill than he is.

Christmas Trumps Cleaning

I decided that even though we are disorganized etc., etc., I would get ready for Christmas, and make all the fun little things I want to make, to the relative exclusion of other, more practical things. It is a good thing Nick is not real upset by the occasional messy house day (week, month). Two of the best things about Nick: he eats leftovers, sometimes for days in a row without complaint & he is pretty chill about how well or not well I keep the house. These are blessings.
This is going to be a short post because I am trying to get the boys down for the oft-skipped afternoon nap, and they are fussing. Thing is, they aren't taking a long enough one nap for them to survive until bed time without major trauma. It is all pretty frustrating.
Reid this week discovered that the coolest thing in the house (aside from the forbidden cell phone and blow dryer) is mom's curling iron. I don't think he's ever seen me use it, so I'm not sure that he know what it is, but he loves it. He carries it around like a mini light saber. It is pretty funny.
The boys are getting really pretty good at sharing. Oh, it is mostly stealing and then substituting with a different toy (like Mommy does when she takes a toy away--they take the toy from their brother and give him a different one) but several times this week they have waited pretty patiently while one had his turn with something particularly desirable. This new sharing skill does not include the curling iron--some toys are just to special.
I tried to get some Christmas pics the other night, but Nick wasn't home to help so it didn't go so well. I'll post what I've got and you can use your imagination to see what it might look like in the end.
Love to all!

Reid and his curling iron

Aborted attempt at a Christmas photo

This is just a random video, but I thought the boys were pretty cute, just being themselves

Teething

Nick and I were gratified to find little teeth nubs breaking through the boys' gums today. It is always exciting when the babies hit some new milestone, but this time we were especially glad because it confirmed our suspicions that the reason the boys have been nearly unbearable for the past few weeks was, in fact, their teeth. I always feel a bit like I'm making it up when I say that the boys are cranky because of teething. It is sort of like being pregnant and claiming any and all psychological/physiological symptoms are due to the pregnancy. Teething is a catch-all: if you can't explain why, they must be teething. But, this time it turns out to be true. Both Gage and Reid have cut two new teeth, and finally today are starting to be a little less cranky. Seriously, they have been unbelievably difficult for the past few weeks. It was especially good timing with the move and all.

Speaking of the move, I don't have any real pictures of the house to post. In fact, due to the aforementioned crankiness, which in turn has led to an absence of both sleep and time during the day, we only had a few things on the camera at all this week. I suppose it happens sometimes, that even when you have the cutest kids in the world, there are weeks where you don't much want to take their picture.

We bought a shovel yesterday because of the beautiful blanket of snow that fell all day. It was a very home-ownery thing to do. Actually, it was funny because it caught us off guard. We are continually remembering things we have to do for ourselves now (shovel snow) that we didn't while we were renting. Luckily, I like to shovel--although Nick did it this time. I should qualify that statement: I like to shovel when it is sunny and not too cold and the snow isn't packed down with ice.

I am having major attacks of the crafties. In other words, I want to spend all my time baking and making little Christmas presents/decorations. Unfortunately, Nick feels that we should finish unpacking at some point. I know, what a scrooge.

The solitary picture I took this week was from one afternoon when I went in to check on the monkeys who weren't napping as I had told them to. Usually (I believe I've mentioned this before) it is because they have pooped. I think that was the case this day too, but the reason for the picture was that Reid had renewed his interest in chewing the paint off his crib. I was just at babies r us and noticed rail guards for cribs, but I pretty much felt it was too late. I thought he had chewed off most of the available paint. Apparently I was wrong.

Speaking of Reid, he newest stunt is to launch himself out of his crib. He has successfully done this on two occasions. I find him crawling across the floor after rushing into his room upon hearing a loud "thud." I think he lands on his rear as opposed to his head because he never has any bumps, and he seems to be happy pretty quickly after. So, anyone have any suggestions? We've built a landing mat, which we took a video of, but I need to get going so I'll post it later.

This is a long and rambling post, but I think I was making up for lack of pictures. Hope all is well with everyone! We enjoyed seeing the crowd in Idaho last week & look forward to Christmas in Ohio!

Reid's paint eating habit

A Lot of Help & Thanksgiving

We moved this past week, as I indicated in our last post. Fortunately we had a lot of help from Joel and Maribeth, and due to their help we are somewhat organized here. However, with everything going on we didn't take very many pictures. Anyway, I give my gratitude to Joel and Maribeth for sacrificing their week of vacation and working like machines here. Thanks. This move would have been so much harder without your help.

Thanksgiving was really nice. Janine and friends made a sweet meal, and Janine put together a fantastic looking Thanksgiving spread (i.e. table setting, decorations, etc.). Then on Friday evening we went up to Idaho to see Mom/kids and Tiffany, Cody, and Tea. It was great to see them, and we had a lot of fun. Little Tea is so cute and smart it kills me. Of course we forgot to take our camera to Idaho, so we'll have to get everyone else to email us some pics for our post.

We hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving. Take care.


Reid was just chilling with Joel on the couch.














The Thanksgiving spread in the new dining room.














The boys being silly.

Quick Post

We moved this weekend and don't have internet set up at the new place yet. So, there won't be any post this week. Sorry.

P.S. Reid has learned to walk and stand up unassisted.

Better late than never...

I realize that usually we post on Sunday night, but this has been a crazy week, and it will be followed by two more (I think). So perhaps one might not want to hold ones breath for the posts to be on time, as it were. Anyhow, hopefully we'll be close to on time. Michelle and Jeff were here this past weekend, and I must say, who could have better friends?

Actually, it has got me to thinking. Dangerous, I know. Michelle and I have been friends since she moved into my ward when we were both thirteen, I think. We could have been twelve. And now we're both 28, and I still think she's my best friend. What is even cooler is that our husbands are really good friends as well. Sure, there have been periods--years--when we didn't keep in touch well. But, since the summer we were in Phoenix (2005) we have really renewed our frienship. I don't have anything really profound to say about all that, except that I feel really blessed to have them in my life. As I get older I realize how special it is to have friends like them. They have served us and saved us more times than I can count. And I know my boys will have an extra Aunt and Uncle forever. How wonderful it is!

I am going to post as many pictures as I have the patience to upload from their visit. Note the one of Reid trying to eat the apple through the plastic bag. He's a nut.

We are moving on Saturday, so next week might be a bit dodgy for posting. We'll try to have things up and running, but if it takes an extra couple days, don't be alarmed.

Eating Apples Through the Bag

Gager's New Cheeser Grin

Jeff Reading to the Boys

Gage pushing Reid in his stroller, and Reid feeling like it deserved some spitting action:

Happy Halloween

Gage has learned to walk, and can finally stand up without any assistance from a chair, wall, etc. [see the following video for further details].



So, on Halloween night we were in the church parking lot at the trunk-or-treat, and the boys were pushing around their strollers. They originally started pushing around other peoples strollers. Unfortunately, those strollers had other peoples' kids in them. People didn't like that much. Hence, we gave the boys their strollers to push. Gage, as stated/seen previously, is already walking. [see Gage pushing the stroller in the following picture].

















Reid, however, is not 100% on the walking and standing yet. So, while Reid is pushing, he trips and smashes his lip into the asphalt. Mommy to the rescue [see picture of Janine and Reid below].




















Actually, it was both mommy and daddy to the rescue. Literally, we both looked at Reid for 15 seconds. Then, when I turned to find Gage . . . missing. So, Janine stayed to clean the blood off of Reid's face [see the following picture of Reid's fat lip].















Meanwhile, I went looking for Gage. After a couple of minutes of searching, Janine joined in too. A minute later, we were getting pretty nervous. Fortunately, I finally found him. He had scooted through a wall of people and cars, and was in an empty area of the parking lot pushing away at the stroller [illustrated by the following picture].

















This little experience led us to the conclusion that those toddler harnesses they sell in baby stores are a good idea. Hence the monkey harness Reid is playing with in the following video.



You can see from the video that Reid feels good about the harnesses too.

Don't worry, I wasn't standing around taking pictures while Gage was dissapearing. All the Halloween pics are from earlier and later in the evening.

Survival

Well, we made it. This was one of those weeks that make people with twins roll their eyes everytime some well-meaning person expresses a desire for twins. After all, there is nothing charming about two sick fourteen-month-olds who assume that not only is it my fault they don't feel good, but that to rectify it I should be more than willing to hold them all the time. Especially, I should bounce them to sleep. At one, two, three and four am. I should definitely NOT sit and/or recline while I hold and jiggle them to sleep. This is all well and good, although exhausting, when they are wee little tots weighing a mere 14 or 15 pounds. But, Reid and Gage took the whole growth thing seriously, and let me tell you it is no mean feat to jiggle 25-28 pounds of baby around all night. They were thoughtful enough to stagger their bad nights, so that I didn't have two screaming insomniacs to deal with at a time. This is a skill they have apparently learned over the months, as they were not so thoughtful last year. The whole situation was eerily reminiscent of last October, when I would spend the better part of the day nursing, bouncing, patting, etc. while the boys screamed. I am not actually sure how we survived like that for so many months, especially considering that this one week almost did me in.

In other news, Reid has decided to be the master of what food does, or does not, enter his mouth. At the moment, the only food he will reliably eat are grapes. Sometimes, he eats hot dogs, Cheerios, bananas, yogurt and applesauce. Once he ate eggs. So, if anyone has any tips about feeding picky eaters, I could use them. He usually refuses to eat something I present to him until I sneak a taste onto his lip, where he can lick it off and decide if it is worthy. Regardless of what it is, if you force something into his mouth he gags and spits it out. This is going to be fun!

I am posting a video of the boys in their crib. Nothing really special in this video, but I thought you should all get a peek at nap time in our house. After I put the boys in their cribs things can go on like this for up to an hour. There is a whole process they go through, which usually includes changing their diaper (Reid saves up so he can have a dirty diaper and get out of the crib. They both do, actually) and going in two or three times to calm them down. Seriously though, could you stay mad at such cute faces? And they are so excited to see me everytime I open the door. Even on a week like this, life is pretty great.

My Late Post

The boys are for the most part feeling better, so I'll post just a couple of pics and a video. I hope you enjoy.

Reid likes to try and break through the baby gate.














The boys did this little human pillow thing spontaneously. It was really cute.














This video cracks me up because Reid is laughing silently at one point.

Sick Twins

Congratulations Chelsea and Josh! Adra looks adorable. We hope you are all doing great.

The boys are sick and we haven't slept much, so this is all the post I'm going to do today. Sorry about the lack of pics and video. If I get motivated, and if the boys get better soon, I'll try and post mid-week.

Team Tiger

We bought the boys tiger outfits for Halloween. They look so cute wearing them. We will post a video of them in the outfits soon, but for now enjoy the pics. The twins are so funny when they crawl around in the outfits because the little tails swing back and forth as they go--a video will obviously catch that sight better than pictures.

The boys still can't stand up without using a support (i.e. wall, chair, couch, toy, etc). This unlearned skill is keeping them from dedicating all their time to walking. They can both walk several steps, however, and when they do it they get so excited they nearly wet themselves with glee. (They probably literally wet themselves for all I know.)

The video is Reid playing peekaboo with the curtains, and intermittently showing us where his head is located. I think the really funny part is when he points to his head while it is behind the curtain (you'll see what I mean).

Bigger and Bigger

The boys are getting bigger and more capable everyday. Today, for instance, Gage was sharing one of the dvds he had pulled out. He did that by whacking Reid across the head with the dvd case. Reid didn't whine about the minor concussion he received, but was happy to have a new dvd case, which I thought was the mature way to look at the whole situation.

The video I've posted is another example of recently learned concepts. Hope you enjoy the pics and video this week.

Late, late, late...

We try to get the post up on Sunday night, but somehow...I'll be honest, we were playing games. Then, the witching hour (9:45) hit and we were neither one very coherent. And thus we arrive at a Monday morning post. The boys have had runny noses this week, and Reid ended up going to the doctor because of his excessively stubborn cough. We now think it is related to his legendary reflux, and he is on an antacid and an inhaler. He actually is super cute about the inhaler--he has a little mask he has to breath it in with. He thinks it is a game. I'll get pictures next week. The big news this week is the walking. Neither one has quite figured out how to stand unassissted (although Reid will sometimes put his head down like he's going to do a somersault. I think he figures he can get on his feet that way--he just can't quite stand upright. It is very funny) but both are taking steps. Gage especially is pretty proud of his walking abilities. He can do seven or eight steps...sometimes more. He is pretty sure he's a genius. Jeff came to see us yesterday, and it was enjoyable. I'll post a pic of the boys (minus Gage) chillin' on the couch.




We have a few other cute videos of Gager walking that I'll try to post later.

Weekly Update

Gage is getting really close to walking. He has taken his first step, but fell right after. He practices standing without holding on to things and moving along the couch without holding on carefully. He should be walking any day now. Naturally we think this is all very exciting.

Reid has not shown as much interest in walking, but he is getting to be a clever climber. He uses boxes and toys to help him push off. He can nearly climb onto the couch without help. Today he used me as a step to climbing onto the back of the couch. It was pretty funny, although he accosted me in the process.

I hope you enjoy the pics and video for this week.

The boys like to relax at the door for some reason.














Reid is working on his escape plan in case of emergency.














Reid's climbing skills in action.














One of Gage's favorite games right now.

To Michelle,

The boys are stinky,
church is long,
the post is coming,
Keep your pants on.
;)

Nick's an Old Man

Yesterday was Nick's birthday, and I must add, a fine time was had by all. Because he is The Organizer, Nick planned his own party (at Red Robin) and did all the inviting. Of course, it seems like it should have been me doing all that, but historically Nick hasn't been overly happy on his birthday, so basically I figured he was happy to plan his day exactly how he wanted, and I was happy to let him. He did a great job. The only small blight on the day was the BYU game we watched at the end. Let's not talk about that.

The other day I gave the babies a piece of cut-up french toast with a little brown sugar on it. Mostly, I am constantly trying to find "real" food that they will eat. I don't know if they get tired of foods, but I am tired of feeding them applesauce. So, we attempt new things. Reid though, is very suspicious of anything that he hasn't tasted a few times before. Sometimes, he's suspicious even if he has tasted it many times before, but that's another story. Reid grabbed the new food with eagerness, but almost immediately he dropped it with an appalled look. Then, he began shaking and wiggling his fingers, as if his hand by itself was having a seizure. After a moment I realized that he was unappreciative of the sticky/grainy texture that the brown sugar made on his hand. Perhaps those of you who know Nick well will not be surprised by this little quirk.

Heaven help us.

I particularly like the video this week. Not because it is the most entertaining, but because it shows the boys working together. They work together all the time...usually their goal seems to be to drive me crazy. Or, they just want to make sure the other isn't getting into something cool. The sight of them crawling next to each other into a room is one of my favorite things. So, I thought I would show them "sharing" their toy. They will sometimes spend up to half an hour pushing and pulling this particular toy around together. In baby time, that is like a full day.

Gage, and his giant smile:


Naomi and Reid, playing in the baskets:

One of the many places Gage finds to lay down:


Reid's up-to-something face:

Back To Our Regularly Scheduled Programming/Blogging

I know our posts were inconsistent last month. In our defense, we went on two vacations and had web hosting problems. However, now we are back on schedule.

Reid has six teeth now, four on top and the two on bottom. He's been pretty good about the pain, but has been waking up a lot at night--we assume teething is the cause. Gage has four teeth with one in process.

We took the boys swimming at a kiddie pool recently. It was one of those zero entry style pools. The boys had a great time crawling in and out of it; they also seemed to enjoy charging straight into the deeper part. More than once we had to pull them out after they had crawled in until the water was up to their foreheads. Every time we pulled them out/saved their little lives they were smiling their heads off and coughing out water. I know you are thinking, why didn't they just keep them from crawling in that deep in the first place. Three reasons: (1)They are stinking fast crawlers now and I have to run [only a slight exaggeration] to keep up. (2)You have to remember that we are playing two-on-two. We aren't running a standard two-on-one zone defense. (3)We kept thinking their little neurons would conjure up this thought, "Hey, nearly drowning isn't that fun!"

Another note on the swimming. Reid flirted with every sunbathing teenage girl out there. He kept crawling up to them to get their attention, acting like he was shy, crawling away two steps, and then turning to revel in the "aaaawwwwww, he's so cute" exclamations. Yes . . . we fear the future. Sorry we don't have pictures of all this swim action. Again, I remind you of the two-on-two/man-to-man situation.

I have posted a video of a new game the boys made in the tub. We hope you are all well.

Back from Texas!

We just got back from visiting Collin & Liana...along with the Allen crew, Mom & Dad, MB, Joel & Paul. It was pretty fun! We got to meet Lily for the first time (what a good baby!) and see Joel who has just gotten home from his mission. It was great...even if we did have to fly with the babies. I tell you, trying to hold a squirmy 25-pound little person on your lap for two hours at a time isn't really a fun way to spend a day. But, it was worth it.

Our camera battery died about day 2, so we are again dependent on others for a majority of our photos. So I'll just post a few of the pictures we do have, and then we'll do a longer and more detailed post later.

Trying to get a little nap in before we board:


Gage decided he really loved Uncle Joel. He showed a definite preference all weekend:


Nadia decided that Reid was her favorite. At one point she was making Reid laugh, and she told her mom she was making "this Reid laugh, not the other Reid!" (poor Gage).


I just liked this picture of Reid

Family Pictures

Sorry, we ran into another snag with keeping this website up, but hopefully all the issues are ironed out now.

We had family photos taken on the boys birthday. It was an arduous process, but worth it in the long run. I've posted one of them below. I've also put a link to the rest of them if you want to see more.



Click this link to see the rest of the photos

Besides the Birthday

I wanted to throw up a few pics apart from the birthday stuff. Some of them are a couple of weeks old and are from Michelle and Jeff's visit. The videos are all recent.

One Year Old!

We survived one year. People often say that time flies by when you are super busy, but I think people who say that are wrong. That was the longest, most challenging year of my life. Still, looking at the cute birthday pictures I've posted below makes me smile. Reid didn't like cake or frosting much. Gage thought it was ok, but didn't eat much of it either.

I've also posted a picture of the boys looking at Tina. I know they will miss her now that she has moved away. (Reid was already mad at her for being gone just a few weeks; it took him a couple of days to get over that betrayal.)

I'm putting up two posts today. Sorry about our blogger malfunction several days ago.