Spring is here...

So I put my little ones to work:)

Christmas

FINALLY!! I am caught up with pictures from December! Here are some from Christmas. This year was so much fun as the kids were really getting into everything Christmas related.


A few days before Christmas they were enjoying a candy cane after baths and decided Vaughn needed the reindeer ears. Vaughn being the best dog ever, patiently sat with the ears on for a picture. So cute!

It was simply perfect that it snowed on Christmas Eve. We got just enough during the day for Elaina to make a snowman with Daddy...
And then to go for a little ride on the sled. She loves the snow and was especially proud of her snowman that faced our window and she closely watched until it melted.
Opening the Advent calendar each night after dinner was a big event for the kids. For a few weeks after Christmas, Skylar would still ask for "calendar" after bath.

Getting treats ready for Santa and his reindeer on Christmas Eve. Elaina insisted that Santa needed chocolate milk (something she learned from watching a cartoon).

Reindeer cookies, sugar cookies, carrots, and chocolate milk....we are ready for Santa to arrive!

Presents, presents, and more presents!

Elaina was up around 5 but she patiently waited for Skylar (and Daddy) to get up before even asking to open her presents.

Waking up to even more snow on Christmas morning.... the view from our back patio.

The keyboard was a BIG hit (and the first present to be taken away because they were fighting over it!)

Skylar with his drill (aka his "hair dryer").

Trying to get a picture of Elaina and Olivia, they fell backwards onto the presents but didn't even seem to notice. Oh and this is round 2 of the tree being completely surrounded by presents! We had already opened all the other ones from the previous picture.

Skylar's new Tonka police car was a big hit!
What a surprise, Elaina has no shoes on (surprisingly she still has on her tights). One of these days she will stay in the entire outfit I pick out for her!

After presents and dinner, ending the evening watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas with Grandma

Cookie Decorating

It isn't Christmas without some cookie decorating! We had my friend Erin and her daughters over to decorate cookies (well just her oldest, Ryanne, since her other daughter is only 6 months!) We have been getting the kids together since they were about 9 months and it has been so fun to watch them grow. Cookie decorating with 3 year olds is something you can't take too seriously. They spent more time eating the icing and dumping out the sprinkles. Still it was a lot of fun!

We made the sugar cookies before our friends arrived. A good idea since Skylar lasted through the dough rolling for about 10 minutes. Elaina on the other hand LOVED the process.


Skylar with a mouthful of mini M&Ms.

Hard at work and if you look close, you can see the green frosting on her mouth.

Skylar's work of art (yes, there is a sugar cookie under there!).

3rd Birthday

As most parents say, it is hard to believe how fast time flies and how quickly your children grow up. But at the same time, you can't remember life without your children. We have been blessed to have Skylar and Elaina in our lives for 3 years now and it just gets more and more fun. Their personalities are very different but they are the best of friends. The bond between siblings is wonderful but the closeness of twins is just amazing to observe. We choose to have their party at a place that would suit both of them...Creation Station at the Museum of Transportation. Filled with trains, dress up, puppets, a pirate ship, a kitchen area, and more we knew it would be the perfect place for them and their friends to explore. As you can see by the smiles on their faces, it was a success!

Someone is watching

Have you heard of the Elf on the Shelf? Well, the story behind him is he watches over the children and reports back to Santa each night. He never ends up in the same spot so it is fun for the kids to look for him. Elaina couldn't decide if she loved Buddy (what she named him) or wanted him to leave and never come back. She cautiously said good night to him but eagerly greeted him in the morning. More than once we might have said in desperation "Buddy is watching you!". Skylar was oblivious to Buddy. Didn't care either way about him for the most part. We will see how he feels next year about that!

A post...finally!

I know I have been an absent blogger over the past month or two. The holidays, family in town, and lots of sickness (for me not the kids) caused me to not write. And it is easy get out of the habit once this starts. Well, today I received something so cool in the mail. I bought a Groupon a few months ago to a website that turns your blog into a book. I finally used it at the end of last month and the finished product arrived today. It was so fun to have all my entries (well from 2008 at least) in a book. Seeing the book motivated me to get back to blogging more. So I am not going to say I will blog daily, but I do plan to blog at least once a week. So many memories will be forgotten if I don't take the time to do so. Over the next few posts, I will catch up on the things I should have been writing about! Here are a few pictures from the weekend after Thanksgiving when we always put up our Christmas tree. The kids helped for the first time and loved looking at all the ornaments.

Moms of multiples are freaks of nature

Yep...been asked many of these questions!