Grandma's Cereal

Owen loves it when Grandma comes to visit, because she shares her breakfast cereal (with milk!).  After breaking communication barriers at snack time this afternoon, I figured out that Owen wanted milk on his cheerios.  He was thrilled!  It's the little things, right?  Olivia wasn't as excited as Owen, but she still participated!

 I'm not sure anyone in our family drinks the milk after cereal.  Where did he learn this one?

Museum and Tantrums

My sister and I decided to conquer the world today and take all 4 kids to Wonderscope Children's Museum and out to dinner. 

Wonderscope is a great museum.  Each exhibit is in a different room of an old school.  Try explaining that to 20 month olds when they are in the first exhibit.  Hence, tantrum #1. And tantrums #2-5 for each of the rest of the exhibits.  They still had a great time!

And tantrum #6 hit when it was time to leave dinner and I wouldn't let Olivia carry her balloon outside.  Because of course she would let go and let it fly.  That tantrum continued all the way home, and then when we got home, she didn't care about the balloon anymore!  Ha! 

Do you think we are approaching the terrible two's?  They have such wonderful moments, and then they have total meltdowns!  Luckily we ended the night with some wonderful moments. 

Merry Christmas!

Hope everyone's Christmas was as magical as ours!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Morning!  Santa brought a train!

 

Christmas Morning - Grandma and Grandpa gave them a slide!

Christmas Dinner

Lola and her new camera

Tea Party!  Owen and Olivia's new table with Lola's new tea set

Full Time Parenting

I love our family's schedule.  I love that the kids are with Justin or I every day, all day.  I love our nanny.  I love that we don't have daycare. 

But, I don't love it when someone is sick.  When an adult is sick, then the other has to stay home to be with the kids.  Which means.....since November 15th....

I've missed 14 days of work.  Justin has missed 9 (plus had a week of vacation).  Our parents have missed work to help us. 

I'm thankful that we have wonderful jobs, that haven't even threatened to fire us in the last month.  Even when Justin missed work during Sweeps (TV Ratings period), which is certainly frowned upon.  I'm thankful that I still get a boatload of time off around the holidays to enjoy our Families.  And I'm thankful that Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are on the weekend this year, which means Justin will be home for both!!!!!


I can't wait for Christmas! 

First Ponytail!

Yes, I took a million pictures!  Every little girl needs pictures of her first ponytail!  I must say though, I am glad I only have one girl.  Fighting to even brush Olivia's hair is exhausting.  And we've already upgraded to curly shampoo and leave-in conditioner.  And her stylist suggested she use product.  I'm not quite ready for that!

Nephews and Niece

It's been awhile since I've mentioned our adorably cute and wonderful nephews and niece!

Isn't this the most perfect Santa picture ever?

Lola - age 3 1/2, Hudson - age 3 months

Mickey - age 8 months

If only the Santa hat wasn't blocking his awesome hair!

We can't wait to meet Mickey's little brother/sister next June! 

Playdate

We had so much fun with friends on Saturday night!  So glad we are back to feeling good and that means playdates!

3 boys on the slide

(Grady - age 3, Owen - 20 months, and Camden - 16 months)

Discovering the Train Set!

Olivia, Grady, and Camden

Owen and Cam whipping up some dinner

And also this weekend, Owen and Olivia have mastered the "fist bump".  Here they are mid-bump:

Olivia constantly walks around with her arm out saying "Bump, Bump, Bump". 

We're on the threshold of hell (my Christmas vacation part I)

In her last post, my wife invited some god of sickness to bring it on. I'm here to say get out! I'm on my Christmas break from work, I had a week of vaca to use, and this is the latest week I could. If only there was any snow in the mountains, I'd be headed west, or at least that would've been my plan.

Last week a head cold kicked me in the freaking face. Of course the kids have had snotty noses ever since. Needless to say, we've been a bit under the weather.

But today the other shoe dropped. That's the reference you use when there are literally shoes filled with vomit right? Ok, it didn't go quite that far, but Lindsay, Owen, and Olivia have thrown up a lot since Sunday.

So yes, this is an awesome vacation so far.

Bring it On

Dear God of Illness.  Bring it On.  We will win.  Eventually. 

As we are finishing up a week of colds, Olivia has kicked off the next round with a stomach bug. 

Here's our little setup for sick kids.  If only they would be still for more than a minute. 

At least Livie is never too sick for a little band practice....

Christmas pictures

Today we're working on getting Christmas card pictures.  Trying to wrangle the twins and get the picture taken proved to be a bit difficult.  I think we got a few good ones, but you'll have to wait until you get the card in the mail to see those.  In the mean time, enjoy the outtakes.  

No flash

A lot wrong with this one

Everyone just got bored and wandered here

Clearly she wants to go downstairs

First Haircuts!

Owen Before:

Owen After:

Olivia Before:

Olivia After:

Twins

Some days, it is just amazing to have twins! Please ignore my singing voice!

Cold day at the park

Sometimes you just have to get bundled up and go to the park!

Cold outside, baby

Even though it's quite chilly here in McPherson, the twins wanted to head outside, so we got bundled up and went into the cold, for about 4 minutes.

McPherson thanksgiving

Our sickly family finally made it to McPherson for thanksgiving. Lots of food lots of family.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was a bit trying this year. But we made it through. Owen was sick most of the day. Olivia's attitude wasn't great. Add to that Lindsay's stomach pain after her surgery and it was a wild day. But thanks to family we were able to keep the kids happy most of the day. Even Papa had to babysit until midnight, just in case. We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Update: Owen went to the doctor Friday morning. At first they thought it might be pneumonia. But he went to children's mercy for a chest x-ray and he's getting treatment now.