Thanksgiving

This year Erik's 2 weeks for the Navy Reserve happened to fall over Thanksgiving so the kids and I flew to my parents for Thanksgiving - brave I know.  The trip there actually wasn't too bad.  J watched movies and the boys slept for most of the flight.  Once we got to my parents the fun really began.  That night C began throwing up and both boys had the runs.  By morning W was also throwing up and the trend continued for the next week and a half.  The last throw-up incident was when W threw up on my lap on the airplane ride home.  Needless to say, it was a long week for me and the boys.  J on the other hand only threw up once and had a great time.  She went to story time at the library with her Aunt Heather and cousin K, she had a friend come over to play, and she got to play with more of her cousins and spend lots of time with her Grandma.  She even got to walk around in what she called Grandma's 'Puss & Boots' boots.  She even wore these as she walked over to the neighbors house one afternoon.

C had a great time playing Aunt Toni's piano - but only when he got to do it by himself.  Toni tried holding him on her lap and he wouldn't play, but once she sat him down by himself he started pounding away.  This boy LOVES music.  Like his sister, he is always singing or finding someway to make noise and is frequently found dancing to the radio.

Here is a picture of my sick boys.  They started out each night in pack and plays next to my bed but usually ended up on the bed next to me.  On this particular morning, W was sleeping snuggled up to C. 

J decided to hid under a pile of toys, laundry and pillows while watching a cartoon at Grandmas. 

Here is J and her cousin K playing with some Halloween lips that they found in one of Grandma's drawers.  These two had lots of fun playing together everyday.

Overall we had a decent trip.  I'm thankful that my family was there to help entertain J while I took care of my sick babies.  My mom even took over taking care of the boys a few mornings so I could get some much needed sleep. 

Nov. Projects

Erik decided to take advantage of the warm weather in November and started pulling the weeds out of our lawn. J decided that he needed a little more motivation and was seen "helping him out".

This year, we decided to simplify Christmas at our house. Part of that process was to do homemade gifts. So I helped the kids make hand print pictures for their grandparents.

We made an extra one and put it in a hand painted frame for Daddy.

I made hopscotch/ tic-tac-toe mats for our family and for Erik's brother's family. (The hopscotch mat isn't finished here, this is only the tape/paper outline. This was all outlined and colored in with markers.)

I made X and O

and initialed bean bags for each set.

In my family, we were to give a gift to my little sister. I made her this denim pillow with yellow felt flowers and a rag wreath (which I somehow forgot to take a picture of)

Here's a close up of the flowers.

12 Questions every Stay at Home Mom should be allowed to ask her husband when he comes home and complains about a "hard day" at work!

1.When you walked into work this morning and pleasantly greeted your
co-worker Jim, was his first reaction to scream “NO! WANT JASON!" followed by an office supply being thrown at you?

2.Has a colleague ever climbed up on your lap while you were using your computer and slammed the keyboard with both fists until the up arrow no longer worked?

3.Do you have to lock yourself in the supply closet or bathroom on a regular basis in order to make phone calls?

4.Did you finish a complete thought at any time during the day?

5.When you went out to lunch with your fellow workers, did you have to pack a diaper/juice/extra outfit for them? Did you have to wipe their faces? Smile an apology and leave an extra tip for the waiter on their
behalf?

6.When a co-worker needed you for something, did she sit at her desk with her head tilted back toward the ceiling and repeatedly scream “SEAN! SEEEEANNNN! SEAAAAAAN!” until you came to find him?

7.When you needed a specific colleague, did you search all over for him, only to finally find him giggling in the cabinet under the sink? Did you also find six pairs of your church shoes under there with him?

8.Have you had to come to an associate’s aid because she fell off her desk after trying to climb on top of it using a rolling chair?

9.When you reached for the report a co-worker was handing you, did he snatch them away at the last second and scream “MINE!” while shoving you backwards?

10.Does your colleague lift up her shirt and pick things out of her belly button every time she comes over to ask a question?

11.While you are using the restroom, do various co-workers come in the stall and ask you to settle a disagreement or open a packet of fruit
snacks?

12.During a board meeting when everyone is present, do you notice a smell and then have to check all your colleagues’ pants to locate it?

In fact, at ANY point in your day do you have to deal with another person's feces?

1st Birthday

We started November of with a bang - or at least with a party. The boys turned 1!! Can I just say that the past year with them has been crazy, tireing and something that I don't care to repeat ever again, but I'm so glad to have these two little miracles in our family - for they truely are my miracle babies and we have been very blessed that there seems to be no lasting effects from their tramatic birth.  Erik had a busy work schedule the week of their birthday so we just had a small family party with his parents on Sunday evening.  We got the boys a couple of packages of CHUCK cars so that they could have some sort of boy toy to play with (these are the first ones in our house).  Here is W trying to figure out what to do with his package.

And C was too busy stareing at the camera.

J finally opened their gifts for them - they loved the cars and love to roll them across the wood floors.

Then came the fun stuff, the CAKE.   Here are the boys anxiously waiting (or at least curious as to why they're in their seats again, we'd finished dinner not long before this).

Here are the before shots of the cakes. J decided that C needed the Cars one and W the Toy STory one. 

We were brave parents and actually lit the candles while we sang Happy Birthday.

Then J helped to quickly blow them out before we had burnt fingers.

Then came the "what am I supposed to do with this?" expressions.  Here is C testing the waters.

W was just as confused curious as to what he was supposed to do.

He had to inspect the frosting before trying it out.

However, once they got a taste of it, there was no stopping them.  Here is W up to his elbows in frosting.

Here he is realizing that he got caught trying to reach over and steal some off C's tray.

Notice how C is a littler messier?

Here's why. 

So proud of himself.

Needless to say when they were done, the boys went straight to the tub, cakes to the trash, and trays to the sink.  I think we were washing frosting off the hairchairs (and chairs) for the next week or more.

W's 1 year stats:

Weight: 23lbs 8 oz (60.56%)
Height: 29.25" (31.64%)

C's 1 year stats:

Weight: 23lbs (52.92%)
Height: 29" (24.47%)

Halloween

For Halloween this year I wanted to do a "twin" costume for the boys, but didn't want to do the usual Thing 1/Thing 2 that everyone does with their twins.  I googled twin costumes and found a great idea of doing salt and pepper.  We just bought the boys white and black sweats and put felt letters on them.  It was amazing how many people didn't get their costumes and when we told people they were salt and pepper most people thought of the music group rather than the condiments. 

Being the awesome mom that I am, I made jack-o-lantern pancakes for breakfast on Halloween.  J thought it was pretty cool. 

For Halloween activities we went to our ward trunk-or-treat where J won this goldfish. We put it in a gallon sized mason jar for now - Erik and J think we need to go get a LARGE fishtank for it and some more fish friends.  I quickly vetoed the idea since I would be the one stuck taking care of it. 

We also went on a hayride/trick-or-treating with the Smiths (the same family we went to Schlitterbaun with).  It was fun, but got a little late for the kids and they started to get grumpy towards the end.

J was a butterfly for the ward trunk-or-treat and a cowgirl for the hayride .  Here are our attempts to get pictures of the kids in their costumes.  It's not easy to take pictures of mobile (almost) 1yr olds. 

Random October

For Daddy's birthday we met him for dinner (one of the benefits of him working close to home now) and the kids wore these shirts (it says Happy Birthday Daddy).  He thought it was awesome.

Here is W attempting to throw something down the stairs, that and throwing smaller toys through the railings are one of the boys' favorite pastimes these days.

C didn't take a very good morning nap and was so tired that he fell asleep in the middle of lunch. 

W likes to sag his pants, guess he's trying to fit in with the "in crowd". 

C (in the blue) is a fairly clean eater, W (in green) on the other hand likes to get messy.

J likes to play in my bathroom, and one day got into my makeup and covered her face with foundation.  Doesn't she look lovely? (we now have a lock on our bathroom door to keep her out, she used almost the whole bottle).

Sprinklers

It has been a fairly warm October and we haven't gotten a lot of rain so on one of Erik's days off we were doing a bit of yard work and he turned the sprinklers on only to notice water bubbling up in the corner of the lawn.  Being the handy man that he is, he went right to work trying to fix the problem.  Of course the boys, being boys decided that they needed to help Daddy.  C (in white) was right there to help dig in the mud and splash in the water. 

After he was done helping Daddy, he joined W (in blue) in testing out the other sprinklers elsewhere in the lawn. 

This one works well.

These two are just like their sister in that they LOVE all things to do with water, and LOVE being outside.