Christmas Highlights

1. Spending time with all 3 of my siblings. Spread across 4 states and 2 time zones, we can't get all together very often, so this was a special year!

2. Snacking on Christmastime goodies. I'm eating the last of mom's caramel cashew corn and drinking the second to last Vernor's and eggnog as I write.

3. Four Christmas parties in 24 hours! That must be some kind of record I think!, especially since Santa visited two of them. M LOVED it and was right up there chatting him up, N was watching from a safe distance (no WAY was he getting a photo taken with that guy!) and C was unphased.

4. Ordering a bridesmaid dress and suit for Hubs' siblings spring weddings! We are so excited and happy for Aunt L, Uncle D, and their fiancé(s)! What a fantastically wonderful year 2013 is going to be!

5. Worshipping two Sundays at our home church, Christian Celebration Center. We receive a warm welcome from old friends and the boys LOVE Power Plant, the kids' church.

6. Watching the cousins play together. My kids are numbers 5,6, and 8 of 8 grandchildren for my parents. They love hanging out with the "big kids" (there are 3 5 year olds!) and following them around. We all spent half a day at a nearby water park last Thursday. My boys were like little fish in a big pond there, but they loved every second of sliding, splashing, and squirting!

7. Going on a hot date with Hubs while the kids stayed with Grandma. Free babysitting at its finest!

8. Reflecting on our many blessings in 2012 and looking forward to an exciting 2013 as we celebrate New Year's Eve with our families tonight. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Here are a few random pics from my phone...the 3 and 5 year olds demolishing Hubs on Christmas Eve, me and Steve trying on wedding clothes, and my Mother in Law's mantle this year-Aunt L and I had to make 4 new stockings for my C, the fiancé(s) and A, J's son! Wowzers, what a lot of stockings!

The Long Drive

Merry Merry! We made it to MI with 3 munchies in just 13.5 hours, which must be some kind of record, especially since the fellas did NOT sleep all night like I expected.

I talked Hubs into letting me drive the first leg, and when he said yes, I jumped at the chance. After keeping the boys up all afternoon in hopes of them falling asleep early, as well as packing up the suitcases and the van, I was ready for him to have a turn with the fellas.

While gassing up and filling the tires, M had a bit of a freak out when he understood we were about to drive. "I wanna fly in the plaaaaaaane!" He cried.

We stopped two hours in for Culver's, but N refused to finish his butter burger. A mom with 4 teen age sons saw our crew, smiled and told me, "you got off easy having three," I laughed, because I saw their family nearby and wondered how many burgers I'll have to buy in ten years. Two hours later, when we thought the boys were sleeping, we heard much crinkling of wrappers. N was eating his ice cold burger.

After paying $13 in tolls going through Chicago (why?!) we had the home stretch back into Michigan.

All in all, not bad, could've been worse, just glad we're here. Tomorrow morning begins the festivities!

Christmas Photos

I know you've all been dying to see our families' Christmas photos from my amazing Nikon, and I finally got around to uploading it this afternoon.  I've been busting my tail all week unpacking 7 pieces of luggage, washing countless loads of laundry, organizing a multitude of toys, grocery shopping and of course, trying to feed my family.  There are times the blog has to take a backseat, I know you understand.  Without further ado, in no particular order, here are a few of the 250+ pics:

Uncle A teaches the boys to play "Don't Break the Ice"

N eating a piece of candy, I'm sure, from the look on M's face!

M cuddling with Papa Santa

As close as N would get!

Fun snuggles with Mommy

S teaches the boys how to use a remote control car

Aunt M was very excited about the New Year's lobsters!

N thought they were cool

M was terrified!!

Group shot of our New Year's "feast!"  Look at the boys' smiles!

N is a pretty pretty princess

We tried forever to get a cute family shot in front of the tree, and this is as good as it gets.

Yeah, a harmonica and a recorder.  I'm totally getting paid back for buying my nephew a marshmallow shooter.

I'm going to make you crazy with this, mom!

N and M helping cousin E open some adult's gift!

M was thrilled with these "Cars" cars!

Another shot of the boys opening someone else's gift - grandma's TV.

They spent a lot of time driving their new cars together.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, my friends, from the great green state of Michigan.  We did not have a white Christmas this year, but that's okay.  It's actually in the 40's and quite nice! 

We are having a grand old time with our families and the boys are in love with all of their presents.  In fact, M has a favorite and insists on schlepping it back and forth between the grandparents' homes.  We could barely pry the die cast metal Charger out of his hands for bedtime last night!  They hardly quit playing to eat, sleep, or allow us to change their diapers. It's fun to see them so "into" Christmas for the first time.

Because Hubs' family and my family live just 11 miles apart, we have multiple celebrations to attend on Christmas Eve and Day.  At the first party (below), the boys were digging into the gifts while we were all still eating, despite being allowed to open one of their own to keep them busy.   They had a blast helping pass out the presents, then as we all opened our exchange gifts one at a time, they moved from person to person "helping" them open it up! 

Grandpa and Grandma S. with the grandkids and the greats who are LOOKING at the CAMERA and SMILING!!

I supposed we inadvertently trained them that that's just what you do at Christmas - because they decided to continue passing out gifts and opening them for everyone at the remaining 3 parties!  Fortunately, no one seemed to mind, probably because the boys didn't care what the gift was once it was opened...it was time to move onto the next!

I warned you that my blogging was only going be as good as my technology this week, so I must tell you that my Nikon's memory card doesn't fit into my mom's laptop, so all of my beautiful pictures (once Hubs changed the shutter speed for me) will remain there until we get home, so you'll have to make do with what I can pilfer from Aunt L's facebook page! 

On a side note, I have to tell you a funny story.  I spent an hour or so on Thursday cleaning out and meticulously repacking the boys' Thomas the Train backpacks, each with diapers, wipes, snacks, DVDs and a player and its charger.  There was going to be a chance that Hubs and I would have to separate and each take a boy on a flight alone.  We fly standby and every now and then, especially at the holidays, the flights inexplicably fill up and we have to change plans at the last second.  As we unloaded at the airport, I disconneced a DVD player from the van, and asked, "Where's the Thomas the Train bag?" (to put it in). 

A look of horror of recognition flashed between us as we both instantaneously realized

WE LEFT THE TRAIN BAGS AT HOME.

The fellas know now that the train bags are for flying and that there are special treats and toys in them.  They were half packed and sitting on the kitchen counter charging the DVDs most of the day, but the boys have learned since our last flight that it's possible to drag the dining room chairs across the floor (eek!), so after hollering at them to get out of there several times, one of us who shall remain nameless, removed the bags and put them up high on a shelf.  Where they remain, perfectly packed, for our next flight. 

Those snacks are gonna be stale.

The good news is that our iphones were fully charged with "Lunchbox" aka Monkey Dance and we had one DVD player with one video and most of a charge, and we all made it on the same flight just fine.  Whew!

Merry Christmas, my friend.  May you find much love and peace enjoying Christmas with the ones you love.

Lost Boys, Er, Photos

Just kidding about the Lost Boys.  It's more like Lost Photos.  Through the gracious gifts of both goods and services, in a year's time I've acquired both a beautiful new Nikon camera (you've heard me speak of it before) and the installation of Picasa 3 on my desktop, which is the best photo thingy that ever was invented, according to our wonderful techo savvy installer friend - and he would know - no, for real, he would!  He's really really smart when it comes to both photography and technology.  The problem is, my BRAIN is not the best it ever was, so I'm STILL having problems with my "new" technology.  I keep trying to take photos with the Nikon, which does take MUCH nicer pics than our old Sony Handycam, but the problem comes when I need to upload, oh, about 900 PHOTOS at a time because I've been procrastinating.  What?  You?  But you always have such cute up to date photos on the blog!   Yeah, because I use my old Handycam, the piece of...uh, equipment...that I know how to operate.

So my new year's resolution this year is to learn how to use BOTH the Nikon AND the Picasa 3 AND figure out where the pictures go when I actually DO accomplish the upload AND how to get the photos from that mystery location onto Blogger. 

Before Three is born.  So I know how to get you good pictures of him. 

I think that's a much better resolution than a clean house or losing the baby weight, because you and me both know that's not gonna happen!

So here are just a few of the efforts of nearly a day's worth of labor....pictures from the Nikon.  Make that recent pictures.  Enjoy!  We are just hours away from our annual Christmas vacation, so Merry Christmas!  Enjoy time with your loved ones and I'll be back soon, depending on how my technology works for the next week or so. 

Last Saturday Hubs and I had Christmas with the boys, just the four of us, complete with homemade cinnamon rolls, a fire, and pj's all morning (yes, we all changed by afternoon).  There was even snow on the ground...just wonderful.

M gobbles up cinnamon rolls for Christmas breakfast

N with his first hot chocolate the night of being a snowplow with Daddy

M helps decorate Christmas cookies

N decorates cookies, too

One for me, one for me, one for me, NONE for you!

Christmas "Eve" night they only left Santa one cookie!

N loves those cinnamon rolls!

Merry Christmas!

Clothing Battles No More

We've been having clothing battles in our house for quite some time.  What?  You?  Your kids are dressed every day, though!  Yeah, and I have the scars to prove it.  Some time ago, oh, around a few months of age, I decided that we should all get dressed every day to learn the difference between night and day, regardless of whether we leave the house.  (Translation: I needed to snap out of my postpartum slobbiness!)

Everything went well until sometime around age 2, when N (specifically) decided that he did not want to wear clothes.  He wanted to wear pj's every day, all day, and never take them off.  Some people are okay with this.  I, however, am not.  The blinds are busted, the bathroom is a mess, and my plants are always on the verge of death, but pj's all day is where I draw the line.  "Cozy pants" and sweatshirts, yoga pants and tees, whatever, I don't care - as long as it's never been sold as "pajamas." 

Neither punishments nor rewards worked well or consistently.  Many days, the only way I could get N dressed was to change his clothes in the living room while he was riveted to PBS shows.  Even then it was a hassle.  Most of the time, M is compliant, although he does like to copycat his brother, so some days it's a real chore.

Then a dear friend, a mom of four, gave me two giant bags of boys' clothes.  She said I could have them or they were destined for the Goodwill.  I took them but didn't open them right away because most were size 3T, still too big for the boys.

About a month ago, they must have had a growth spurt because suddenly their bellies were hanging out the bottom of their shirts, their sleeves were no longer ketchupy, and their knees were peeking out from their pants when I buckled them into their car seats.  I finally got around to stashing away all the 2T stuff and organizing their "new" 3T wardrobe.

A wouldn't you know it?  Our clothing battles are almost gone.  Since almost nothing matches anymore (my mom and MIL love to buy them matching and coordinating stuff because it's so darn adorable and I love it too) I allow them to choose their shirt almost every day.  And most of the pants are just some version of what we call "cozy pants" and they are all boy or neutral colors, so who cares? 

They LOVE to choose their outfits!  They have some favorites already, and most everything looks okay (but you must know I'm no fashionista by now) enough for our everyday adventures.  But every now and then they strike a combo that is just so....striking...it's...well....here's what N is wearing today:

"Keep your eyes open this time," "Aaaaahhhh!" he said!

That's a pea-green choo choo train shirt and kelley green sweatpants with a stripe down the sides.  It reminds me of an outfit that he once wore, a fleece top and bottom combo, what M called, "green bean" when he first started talking.  So he's green bean again today.

Here's what M chose.  For the first time, he wanted to wear his cousin's "Michigan" sweatshirt.  Maybe it's the first time I told him what it said, I don't know, but he's so ecstatic about flying to MI that he's been talking about it and making the "shooooo" airplane sound all morning.  And those are dragon jeans, and he's taking a picture of me with my beloved Razor phone, (may it rest in peace) the way we take pics of them with our iphones.

I also wanted you to see what a number they're doing to my tree.  It's really lovely with next to no ornaments on the bottom 2/3rds!  And to see how well N cooperated with the "let's take a picture of the brothers by the tree" idea I had in mind for you this morning.

Wordless Wednesday: Random Christmas Pics

Catch Up 1

Good morning, friends.  I greet each of you in the name of a steaming hot cuppa joe and two sleeping babies.  I'm painfully aware of how my blog has been lacking in recent weeks and my hope is to catch you up to speed on the fellas.

They are, how shall I say this?  BUSY!  Hubs and I wonder if other 19 month olds are this busy, if perhaps everything is exaggerated because there are two of them, or if we have a couple of wild men on our hands?  We are seriously considering starting them in gymnastics to release their pent up energy, but it appears we can't start them until they are two!

Both the guys were down for the count with an ear infection over the holiday "break," (haha, what mom gets a break, right?).  I try to post pics that depict how cute and brilliant I am our sons are, but I have to show you this one, above.  That's me and N (escaping, per usual) and M on Christmas morning.  Poor M is burning up with a fever of 101 and looked that way most of the day.  We dosed him up in Tylenol all day and took him to Urgent Care first thing the next morning.  (Did you notice they're eating Fruit Loops out of their snack traps?  They are decidedly NOT into special holiday foods!) The good news is that N is finished and M has just two more days of amoxicillin and they are both bouncing around like normal now!   

I mentioned we had a double birthday waterpark party, but I have no pics because my sisters and I have NO SWIMSUIT PHOTOGRAPHY agreement!  Taking the kiddos down the slides and splashing with them in kiddieland was a riot!  We did, however, have presents and cupcakes for the birthday girls afterward where everyone was fully dressed.

Happy 3.5!

I think "vacancy" adds a nice touch.

Happy 3 years!

Those are my only two nieces, who turned 3 - my next niece is due April 20, by the way!  They are modeling their gifts, hats made by Marigold Baby.

I hear one little guy "talking" upstairs.  I'm going to get him out while he's in a happy mood.  It makes the day go so much better!  I'll be busy for awhile, so I'm just going to post as is.  Perhaps I can put up a few more at naptime.