Will's a sneaky little boy!

So lately Will has been climbing on everything that he should not be climbing on.  Here are a few of the places that I have caught him when I've had the camera close at hand.

These do not include the few times that I have not had the camera close by to snap a few shots. For example, climbing on the window sill in the playroom and onto the dining room table to swing the chandelier back and forth with Reese! Do I dare say, "Boys will be boys?" 

Christmas '08

Olivia sang in her very first Christmas Eve service at church this year.  She is in the Cherub Choir and they sang 2 songs at the family service.  She did such a good job. She sang real loud and almost had all the words right!  Here she is in her Christmas dress before going to church.

The kids had a fantastic Christmas spending time with family and opening presents! (Reese loved the idea of opening gifts and said all day long, "More presents peas!". They were able to spend the day with both sets of grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.  It really was a fantastic day.  

Santa brought Reese a trampoline since she is obsessed with jumping.  She LOVES it! Eventually it will go in the basement, but for now it is still upstairs so she can jump anytime she wants.  (The picture is a little blurry - will try to post a video soon.)

Santa brought Will several Geo Trax sets.  He loves playing with the trains and using the remote controls.  It was perfect for him since we took down our train under the tree - he'll still have his own train to play with.

Santa brought Olivia her own digital camera!  She loved taking her very own pictures all day. Unfortunately I forgot to put in the memory card and she could only take a couple of pictures on the internal memory!! Oh well.  She's already looking forward to taking pictures and putting them in her very own photo album.  Santa also brought her an Easy Bake Oven.  She received lots of mixes for cakes, cookies, and brownies-all of which she is making for daddy!  

We hope you had a wonderful Christmas with your families!  

Reese Did It!

Hmmm, what did she do you ask??  

She went to the potty for the FIRST time tonight!  

Oh, how excited I was when she said, "I go potty mom mom" (yes for some strange reason she calls me mom mom!) and proceeded to walk into the bathroom like a big girl.  

This is not all though. After she went, I began to put on her diaper and she informed me that she had to go number 2 as well.  And low and behold, we went back to the potty and she did!  

I have no idea where this all came from.  Lately she has been dry at naps and I have asked her if she wanted to sit on the potty, but she always said no. After going through potty training already with Olivia, I am not about to push it with Reese and Will.  Deep down I also know that this is probably a fluke and she won't go on the potty again for a while.  

Oh, but did we do the potty dance afterwards.  We also celebrated with M & M's!!  I was such a proud mommy!  **smile**

Waaay Back When-esday!

As Christmas draws near I try to think back at Olivia, Reese, and Will's first Christmases.  It's funny how most of Reese and Will's first months are blocked out of my mind, until I see a picture! Enjoy these blasts from the past. 

Date: December 2004

Olivia's age: 5 months

(For some reason, Reese is in the blue seat and Will is in the purple seat!)

Date: December 2006

Olivia's age: 2 years 5 months

Reese and Will's age: 2 months

Head on over to Twinfatuation to check out more Way Back When-esday posts!

Creating the perfect Gingerbread House

2 great friends + lots of icing and candy = the creation of the perfect Gingerbread house!

Tis the season for parties

2 Christmas parties in one week! 

The first was the Twins Club annual Christmas party.  It was such a fun evening hanging out, eating great food, and having a "Yankee swap" gift exchange.  It was crazy with gifts being stolen left and right. I lucked out and ended up with a Starbucks gift card.  How perfect for me! :)  Here I am with my good friend Renee.

The second was the hubby's work Christmas party. Again, we had great food and drinks!  Here we are before leaving the house.  

The Polar Express

My friend and I took our kids to the local train station for a Polar Express train ride. To prepare Olivia for the event, we watched the movie and read the book.  She was very much in to the story and couldn't wait for us to go to the train station.  When we arrived, we went into the program room and listened to the story.  After the story a special guest appeared in the middle of singing Jingle Bells.  It was Santa and Mrs. Claus.  He lead us to the train outside where we listened to the conductor yell, "All Aboard", and we boarded the train.  On the train we had snacks and took a ride - almost all the way to the North Pole.  Mrs. Claus let us know that we couldn't go all the way because the elves were getting our presents ready and if we saw them, we wouldn't be able to get them on Christmas.  Good thing we didn't see anything!!  Olivia really had a good time and thought the train ride was super cool. :)

Bumper Car Fun

We really have found the perfect toy for the winter to keep in our basement.  When Olivia was little, we bought her a bumper car.  She LOVED it.  Her favorite thing to do in it was to spin around in circles until she was dizzy.  When Reese and Will were old enough to understand how to navigate the bumper car, we bought another one so they would each have one.  The funny thing is, they also love to spin around until they are completely dizzy.  (It must be a kid thing!) Here is a short video of them in the bumper cars.

Who's that girl?

Olivia loves to dress up Reese.  Today's outfit was cute because Olivia wanted Reese to wear her Fancy Nancy outfit to match her Fancy Nancy doll.  Here they are together.

Noooo, Not Santa

This morning we decided to take the kids to see Santa at the Children's Museum.  I was preparing for the absolute worst scenario with Reese kicking and screaming with complete fear paralyzing her face.  But to be honest, it wasn't that bad.  Olivia and I worked on her letter to Santa yesterday.  She told me the majority of what to write and she wrote in the items that she wanted. I didn't sway her decisions with what she might want from Santa, I let her come up with ideas on her own.  She put the following on her list:

1.  toy dog

2.  games

3.  toy horse

4.  dolls

5.  picture frame (no idea where this came from??)

6. rocking chair

7. camera

When we got there, all of the kids were really excited.  They all had smiles on their faces and were jumping up and down.  As we got closer and closer though, Reese seemed to be getting a little stressed out. When it was our turn, we put Olivia on a stool in front of Santa and Will on one leg.  When Reese saw what was happening she started saying real loud, "NOOOO" as she turned her body into rubber. I couldn't pick her up off the floor to save my life! I told her that I was going to sit next to Santa and she could sit on my lap.  She didn't realize though that I was sitting her on Santa's lap and I quickly got out of the way.  Here is our picture.  

The funny thing is how scared Will looks!  He was so quiet that I thought he was fine. I focused on Reese making sure she wasn't going to try to slide off Santa's lap.  Poor Will - hopefully he won't be haunted from the experience!

Random Thoughts Tuesday

**Olivia was evaluated in gymnastics to see if she could join the Hot Shots class and she made it!!  I was so excited for her. We do need to practice a lot at home, but she should really enjoy this harder class.  (It is an invitation only class.)  The girls get matching leotards to wear and they do mini competitions.  

**Reese is getting better at talking.  She said the other day (very dramatic and with hand motions to boot), "I play church, throw ball!"

**Will LOVES our train under the Christmas tree.  He could sit for hours watching it go around and around. We just added another circle track and a new engine that has the conductors talking to each other - pretty cool.

**Olivia sang for the first time in church this past Sunday.  The Cherub Choir sang 2 songs.  It was so cute.  They even wear mini robes!  Here she is before her performance.  

**Olivia and I went to see The Nutcracker this past weekend.  We had such a good time.  We went for the first time last year and both times she loved the entire show.  She really liked that there was a story to follow along with and the fact that the girls wore pretty costumes and danced really neat!

**We took our Christmas card picture.  We decided to duplicate last years photo by having the kids wear Santa hats.  This year, we put them in their jammies and had them sit in front of the tree.  

**Going to visit Santa in a couple of days.  I am thinking that this year's Santa picture will be full of tears.  Reese will probably freak out and scream - we'll see.  I am sure I'll be posting the picture for all to view!

Enough rambling for now - 

Happy Tuesday! 

Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow!

Imagine my surprise when I woke up this morning and looked out my window - it was snowing!  I knew that there was a chance of snow, but I guess I was in winter denial.  I am a summer girl.  I love the beach, sitting in the sun, wearing flip flops, anything and everything that has to do with the warm weather.  I am not a winter girl.  I try to act excited for the kids but uggh, the snow, ice, cold, etc., STINKS!  

The kids on the other hand love the snow.  (Well, all except for Reese - she's my girl!!)  We got them all bundled up and went outside to play.  Greg took them on a sled ride and built two snowmen.  Will loved eating the snow.  Here are a few pics from this morning.

This is a bonus picture - you can see our Christmas tree in the background!

Reese didn't like the sled!

Yes, I know our snowman looks more like a bear!

Quick - Grab the Fairy Dust!

Our trip to Disney World was a blast!  A little chilly for Florida in my opinion, but we had our pants, long sleeves, and jackets.  Olivia loved riding Space Mountain and Everest.  We rode those rides several times - luckily it wasn't very crowded.  Her favorite ride, Tower of Terror, we rode 4 times!  She didn't much care for Mission: Space.  I think she was a little confused as to if it was real or not.  (We had just watched the space shuttle launch a week or so ago.)

Let me say though, this trip was a little different than previous trips.  When we were on the Magical Express on our way to our Disney home, the movie started playing.  We had seen the movie several times since we take the Magical Express almost every time we go to Disney.  I didn't think Olivia was paying much attention to it until she said the dreaded words. 

"Mommy, is that a real person in there?" (Referring to Mickey Mouse) 

I about died right there in my chair.  Of course I said, in a very dramatic way, "No that isn't a real person, that is Mickey Mouse!!" Unfortunately, that wasn't the end of her questions. The entire trip, she asked numerous "is that real or pretend" questions. Luckily most of those questions were directed to different parts of the rides, like fake rain or ghosts. 

Her grown up behavior didn't end there.  Her beloved princess Minnie Mouse that she got 2 or so years ago and has been on every trip we have made in those 2 plus years was left in the hotel room. Minnie has rode all of the rides with Olivia, watched all the shows, and ate all meals with us. This time though, after the first day, Olivia wanted to keep her in the hotel room!

Then, at the Bibbidi Bobbiti Boutique, of the 3 hair do's to choose from, she picked the one that looked the least like a princess.  Don't get me wrong - she did look cute, but it wasn't like a princess.  Speaking of princesses, she only wore her Jasmine costume the first 2 days.  After that, she didn't care much to wear it.  She just wanted her "regular" clothes.  This coming from a girl who begged and pleaded with us on all previous trips to wear her costume for the entire time we were there, including to bed!

I was in complete shock.  I was wishing Tinker Bell would have flown down and sprinkled fairy dust all over Olivia to stop her from growing up!  I do think, for the most part, she still believes in it all.  But I could tell this time that she is beginning to maybe see Disney through big girl eyes!  That's not bad, just a little bit different. 

It's the first day, she still has Minnie and costume!!

Ta da! Disney Diva at your service.

Who doesn't love a Mickey Mouse dessert?

Jasmine, meet Jasmine!

Decorating gingerbread cookies at our hotel.

Breakfast was out of this world!  We bought several different pastries from a pastry shop in France (in Epcot) and shared them.  Oh so yummy!

Disney, here we come!

T minus 17 hours and counting.  Yes, we have the first flight out tomorrow morning to see the big guy. You guessed it right - Mickey Mouse.  Olivia is super excited to go as she is wearing her Tinker Bell costume right now, putting on Mickey Mouse and friends stickers all over my shirt, and coloring in a Mickey Mouse coloring book.  Here she is this morning with her "1st trip" button, sticker, and light up Tinker Bell clips, ready to go.

She has reached another height milestone for this trip.  We will be able to ride Space Mountain, Everest, and Mission Space!  What trip isn't complete without a visit to the Bibbity Bobbidy Boutique and breakfast with the princesses? I am even more excited with her choice of costumes to wear. I have been waiting for my favorite one, and finally, she has agreed to wear it.  She will be Jasmine!  

Mickey Mouse ears - check

Pin necklaces - check

Minnie Mouse stuffed animal - check

Jasmine costume - check

autograph books - check

1 super excited mommy, uhh, I mean 4 year old - check!

Disney, here we come!

Who's a drama queen?

Lately Olivia has been acting like a real drama queen.  There is so much drama in everything she does.  Most of the time I just laugh at it.  I even found this cute shirt that says "Such a Drama Queen" and of course I bought it for her. 

Today she decided to wear it - she does look adorable!  So I was in the kitchen cleaning up from breakfast and I glanced into the living room and saw that Olivia was playing with Reese.  All of a sudden I hear Olivia say very loudly, "Reese, you are such a drama queen".  I almost rolled on the floor laughing.  I said to her, "Who's the drama queen?" Apparently it is Reese!

Uggghhh

All I have to say today is that it is FREEZING outside, it has rained probably for the last week straight, and now Reese and Will both have colds! 

Afternoon Fun

Our house is FULL of dress up clothes.  Olivia loves to dress up almost everyday.  It is really cute now because she is getting Reese and Will excited about dressing up. Earlier this week she decided that she would pick out their clothes and help to dress them!

Wait a minute, where's Will??

(Can you tell we have an over abundance of stuffed animals and dolls!)

We decided it would be fun if we all sat down to color some Tigger and Pooh pages. I'm sad to say, this is the real first time we have done this.  Reese and Will are just getting out of the "putting everything in their mouth" stage and would eat the crayons. I found it real interesting watching them and seeing how they "colored".  Here they are all sitting at the playroom table.

Reese was real particular with her crayons.  She would line them up and use the first one, then put it at the end of the row.  She continued using them in order until she was finished coloring.

Will on the other hand, had no method of coloring. He just grabbed whichever one was closest and threw it down when he was finished.