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