Fun in the Snow and Snow Dogs...

At our house, snow is anticipated as much as Christmas is. Even when there a tiny little flurries floating around outside and not hitting the ground, there are squeals and giggles and begging to go outside and then moaning and gnashing of teeth when I point out there is nothing to play in. I mean they can sit on the lawn if they really want to, but the neighbors may think they're pretty strange or that I've banished my children from the house (something I would NEVER do.......*cough*)
But I digress....
Snow is like Birthdays and Chuck E Cheese and the dollar store all rolled into one. So this year when the snow first stuck to the ground....whenever that was.....does anyone know? Cause I don't.....
Anyway, we bundled the kids up and sent them outside to play.
And while they were at it could they shovel the walks please? Thanks...
(good thing I bought those little snow shovels...they need to start pulling their weight around here...)

Here they are, finally glad to be outside, see how happy my children are? Oh and check out the snowman. Now he's very happy...

Andrew I guess has a bit of a tude and will NOT smile. See? Check it out, he shakes his head. He starts on one side...

And it goes...

still going....

Ahhh.....finally finished.And here is the snow dog. Why do my children make snow dogs? I have no idea....wishful thinking I suppose. I told them they don't need a dog, they just got baby sisters, which really is the same thing. Right? RIGHT???

We'll just keep making snow dogs, they are easier to clean up after.
I'm all about ease these days....

Trim up the tree with Christmas stuff, like bingel balls and Who floo fluff!

I think it was about the second week in November, when we realized, "Hey, we have a whole Sunday with nothing to do! Why don't we avoid the after Thanksgiving stress of putting up the tree and do it now instead?"
My inner middle child resisted as I am a "strictly celebrate Christmas after Thanksgiving kind of girl". However I was too tired to protest and was holding too many babies to stop them.
The tree got put up and the decor scattered around and there you have it. I have to admit it was very nice to "celebrate" Christmas a little longer this year, and to not have every thing so squished together. It was also fun after to listen to Christmas music and drink Hot Chocolate and just admire our handy work.

The kids just picked a spot and only put decoration in THAT spot. I usually fix it every year after they go to bed, but I decided to find it endearing this year and left it as is.

"Mom and Dad are letting me stand on the furniture! Boo yah!"

Maddi's response to "SMILE!"

I even got in on the action
Maddi got the stool and they turned off the lights to admire the tree
Sigh.....
Hot Chocolate and Babies!!!

Chatty Cathy...

Alas, this was the scene of the crime. Maddi, sleeping over at Grandma's, in my old bedroom, talking Laura's ear off and keeping her up all night. That girl can talk and can tell stories like you wouldn't believe. Well....you all know that because of THIS story...

Christmas Eve...

Christmas Eve is always a lot of fun. We usually spend a few days at my parents house playing games and making yummy food. Since the twins aren't sleeping through the night yet, we decided just to go up the morning of Christmas Eve this year. Maddi was pretty sad. So after consulting Grandma, she hitched a ride with Rebecca and she was able to spend the night with her aunts and Grandparents. Jesse had to work on Christmas Eve, but luckily he was able to leave early, come home and help me get the kiddos all loaded up. We watched some old movies, made some food, I took a nap, and we played a lot.

The Cast of Characters:
Bacon wrapped waterchesnuts, Crab Ragoons, Spinach and Artichoke Dip with pita chips, Teriyaki Meatballs, Sausage stuffed Mushrooms, and Little smokies. Earlier in the Day we had Clam Chowder from Market Street Grill. It was amazing as always.

Cherilyn holding Emmy

Getting ready to open presents
She was so excited!

Oh my GOSH what IS IT???
Playdoh and Books!!
Mater Blue!

It's Mac from Cars!
He LOVES it!
Grandma made a Tepee that they LOVE! She also made the twins some quilts but I didn't get a picture :(
We also got a leaf blower (YES!) and a Cuisinart with some canning supplies. I can't wait to try them out! We had lots of fun, THANKS!

Christmas Morning!

Christmas this year was FUN! I thought it might be more crazy, what with us doubling the kid population and all. But actually it was quite relaxing. Every year we have to wake our kids up so we can hurry and open presents and then rush out the door. This year we let our kids wake up whenever and then took our sweet time opening presents. SOOOO nice! The twins were still sleeping so we just let them sleep and let them open their presents later.

The night before we put out some cookies for Santa and some carrots for the reindeer. However, Maddi was mortified in the morning when she realized we forgot to set out some milk for Santa. Hopefully he will forgive our faux pas, and was able to get some milk at someone else's house.

We did the majority of our shopping before Thanksgiving and we wrapped them over a course of a couple of days. So much better than staying up late Christmas Eve!

Opening Presents!

Andrew opening his Lightening McQueen Look and Find book
Some Elves put together a Marble Maze (or Narble maze as Andrew says) We could hardly get Andrew to stop playing with it long enough to open his presents!

Maddi opening her Tinkerbell Look and Find bookAndrew opening up Mater! That thing was possessed. Santa had turned him off, but he kept coming back to life!! AHHHHH!!!!


And for the sake of journaling purposes, here's what we all got this year.

The kids asked Santa for a Wii. And he was nice enough to obliged. They also got a new step stool, and They might be Giants "Here come the 123s, ABC's and Science".

Maddi got an outfit, Super Mario Bros, some books, some markers and Andrew gave her some Tinkerbell walkie talkies.

Andrew got a Cars Wii game, some clothes, some books and a Mater Shake and Go car. Maddi gave him a small Mater car and some other little cars.

Elizabeth and Emily each got some sleepers, some hooded towels and some clothes. Maddi and Andrew gave them some toys to hang on their carriers.

Nana and Papa gave them some clothes and a Trampoline! They are VERY excited for Spring to come around! I'll be doing another post about Christmas Eve with my family.

I got a sewing machine and Jess got a PS3. Yeah, I'll never see him again.

After presents we had Egg Nog French Toast and then played Wii all day until going to dinner at my aunt's house. It was fun!

We had such a great Christmas this year! We hope everyone had a Merry Christmas too!

Twin's Baby Blessing

Since the babies were preemies and there was a lot of flu going on, especially of the swine variety, we decided to bless the babies at home. We first spent a lot of time on the phone trying to coordinate family schedules and finally settled for Oct. Maddi and Jess then got Swine flu. So we delayed it, but then people couldn't make that one either, so finally getting around to actually blessing them took some time. We could tell we needed to just do it when different members of the bishopric were making the same joke every time they saw us. (by the time we bless the twins it'll be time to baptize them, hardy har har) Yep, we were a hot topic at Ward council apparently. So we FINALLY blessed them the second Sunday in December. It was a very intimate and special experience to share with our families and it was nice to be able to thank everyone for helping us so much. And Jesse did a great job with the blessings. Here are the pictures:

Emily and Elizabeth

Elizabeth

Emily

Family
Family
Us and the babies

Ok, here we go....

Gentle People,

With it being a New Year and all, I decided to make some resolutions. Yeah, yeah the whole lose 10 pounds is always on there, but this year I decided to do something new. Since I missed most of last year, what with being on bed rest for the better part of it, I decided I needed to do some seriously catch up! So in order to do that, I'm going to post something EVERYDAY for the entire month of January. You heard me! I've gone crazy!!! I know what you're thinking! It can't be done! But I have birthdays and holidays and so many other things to put on here, and I don't want to just let it go. So I will start with Christmas and work my way backwards through the year. After I have posted everyday in January, I will then attempt to post at LEAST once a week for the rest of the year. I KNOW, I've completely lost it! But hopefully I can do it. So stay tuned for some GREAT posts courtesy of my cute kiddos !!!