Anderson and his dollies

Since I ordered the American Girl Doll for Claire we get catalogs from the company all the time. Anderson loves to look at all the girls and their baby dolls in the catalog. His excitement is very entertaining! He really seems to like books and magazines. He will often sit with a book, flip the pages, touch the pictures and laugh for up to 5-10 minutes at a time. As a Kindergarten teacher I'd say that is a pretty good attention span for an 11 month old!

More Reminiscing

Fort Myers in January 2006...the FINAL vacation before I became pregnant with the bubbies. It was a decompress after 2 surgeries in 3 months vacation.

My favorite vacation memory...a beautiful waterfall in Grenada with crazy tourists jumping off the cliff into a virtual puddle below.
Ahhh, sleep! You never know how good you have it till its gone.

At Epcot during our week in Disney with the McBrides.

Niagara 2005

When we were single..

Fort Myers Beach
Captiva Island
Caves in Barbados
Somewhere on the Atlantic...
Kevin climbing a rock wall on a cruise ship.

Kevin and I always joke about the time before we had the boys as "when we were single". Although we LOVE our new life we have fun thinking about our former life. We traveled tons, although now we want to kick ourselves for not having gone to Europe, slept alot, and did a whole lot of nothing. I laugh now and say to Kevin, "what in the hell did we do with all the time we had?". I can't believe back then that I thought I was "busy". I guess it's all relative.

Claire Turns 7 pics

Anderson and the b-day girl

Mostacoli Monster

Even Anderson seems shocked by the mess he made.

Helping Claire open gifts.

Claire's gift from all of us!

Claire Turns 7

Anderson, Claire, Jake and Grant

My handsome bubbies

Daddy and a smitten Jake

I love this one! Grant looking at Kevin and Jake looking at Grant.

Jake and Grant

Today was Claire's birthday party, our little Claire Bear is turning 7 tomorrow! The boys had a great time at the party. Many people at the party had not seen the boys since May so they were surprised at how much they have changed and grown. Anderson and Jake enjoyed mostacoli, mozzerella cheese cubes and bread. They did great eating their "big people" food but JEEZ can they make a mess! No cake for them but I did bend the rules a little and let them have a taste of some frosting. I am proud to say they were totally unphased by it. I'm working hard to limit their sugar intake since I have been such a poor eater my entire life.

Anderson helped Claire open her gifts. He bit a nice hole in each package so she would have a starting point for ripping off the paper. Jake waved a couple of times to different people so I was super excited about that. Anderson waved for one day a couple of weeks ago but hasn't really legitimately done it since. Jake also pulled my hand towards him and was trying to turn it over and I couldn't figure out why he was doing it. When I turned my hand over for him he started to laugh and give me baby five! I couldn't believe he initiated that himself, I was excited about that as well.

It was a very fun day and the boys were so well behaved. I know they are just babies but it makes Kevin and I feel so good when people comment on how happy they are and what good tempered babies we have. Of course we think they are wonderful but it is nice when other people take notice as well.

More Friday pics

Forget Penguins, Anderson is on to computers.

Jake likes it too!
Butts and Boots
Anderson James

Jake Thomas

Visit with Santa

Waiting for Santa to arrive.

Here he is and he is locked out of his house.

Jake (L) , Anderson (R), Santa (M) :)

Jake looks slightly frightened but it wasn't from Santa. It was from the 6 of us making crazy sounds to get the boys to smile.

Dreaming of the big red suit and long white beard.

We took the boys to the Village in Rochester today to meet Santa Claus. Cousins, Grant and Claire, joined us because we couldn't have gone without them. It just didn't seem right. Santa is in a sort of a glass enclosed gazebo so you have to wait your turn outdoors. We got there a few minutes before Santa arrived so we were first in line. Unfortunately Santa's elf brought the wrong key to unlock the gazebo which meant Santa had to socialize with us and the other family that was there for 10 minutes while the elf hunted down the right key. Santa was gracious enough but I think it was a little awkward for all....especially Santa. Poor guy deserves a raise!


When we got inside it was nice and warm and the boys watched Grant and Claire tell Santa what they wanted for Christmas. Of course they got all shy and forgot the hundreds of toys they had just told us they wanted. Let's face it Santa, they'll take anything. Then it was the boy's turn. They communicated to Claire they wanted a bounce and spin Zebra and she was their spokesperson to Santa. Jake pulled Santa's glasses off and Anderson stared at him in a trance. We finally diverted their attention from Santa for a split second and got a picture of them looking at the camera. Afterwards we all had a nice lunch together and then parted ways. Grant and Claire were off to a party and Anderson and Jake were headed for a nap.

Thanksgiving 2007

My Little Turkeys

So on my 31st Thanksgiving I really understand "thankful" on a new level. I am so thankful for the joy that Anderson and Jake have brought into our lives. I am thankful that I am the person that cleans their little bums, wipes the spit up off their chins and feeds them 42 meals and 56 bottles a week. It is a pure privilege to be their Mommy, there is not a day that goes by that I take them or this experience for granted.

"Difficult times have helped me to understand better than before, how infinitely rich and beautiful life is in every way, and that so many things that one goes worrying about are of no importance whatsoever."

Isak Dinesen

Misbehaving

Anderson trying to pull down the drapes. Jake taking a break from causing havic.

Jake going after the strings to pull the shades up and down.

Anderson heading under the kitchen table to scavenge for scraps.

Lost: Two twin boys who are quite content sitting and playing with their toys. Put them in one place and find them in the same place 12 hours later. If found please return to their Mommy so she can shower once again and eat at least one meal a day uninterrupted.

Found: Two twin boys who constantly travel in opposite directions headed for every danger and accident prone area in the house. Likes to pull on door stoppers, drawers, stick fingers in outlets, eat threads(god knows what else) off the floors and never stay in one place for more than 10 seconds.

More penguin jammie pics

This is my penguin, jealous?

Jake practices drinking from a cup like a pro.

Awww, mommie's bubbies are being shy.

Pysch!

Anderson's new obbession

Check out my new penguin jammies.

Hey, I like these funny looking creatures.

I REALLY like these penguins!

More Penguins? I like Jake's penguins too!

Jake says, "Why does Anderson have to be so weird about these penguins?" Anderson (oblivious) just smiles in penguin bliss.

Anderson has taken up a new interest...PENGUINS. Grandma bought the boys the cutest penguin jammies and when we put them on Anderson he was totally enthralled with the penguins on his legs and chest. We called his name, dangled toys in front of him, but nothing would keep him from looking at and touching the penguins he was wearing. When we dressed Jake he then became interested in Jake's penguins. Jake and his penguins managed to escape Anderson by creeping to the other side of the room. Anderson didn't mind, he rediscovered his penguins and went back to touching those. Kevin and I had a good laugh.

Don't worry, he doesn't like girls.

Warning....this has nothing to do with Anderson and Jake!

I saw an old friend today that was once a very good and important friend in my life. We taught together back in the day, he changed careers.....and today he highlighted and cut my hair :) We were very close but due to sudden strange circumstances we lost touch after he stopped teaching. I think of him often and I knew he was a stylist nearby so I decided to surprise him and make an appointment to get my hair done.

It was just like it was 7 years ago, as if we had just seen eachother last week. We talked non-stop and at times over eachother trying to catch up on what the last 7 years has brought to us both. I knew I missed him but after seeing him I was really regretful that I let 7 years fly by without trying to reconnect with him. I vowed to myself that I will never be that stubborn again. And as for the hair....LOVE IT!

Awwwww, I'm telling Santa!

The first tear.

Anderson and Jake are digging in.

Jake can do it himself.

Going back for seconds.

As I was preparing the bathtub for Anderson and Jake I heard a bit of commotion. I had left them in the foyer playing and they managed to make their way into the den and find some of their wrapped x-mas gifts from Santa. I could have stopped them but I didn't want to. I love to watch them when something catches their curiousity and they are exploring or experiencing something for the first time. It took them awhile but eventually they figured out that the paper could be torn and would come off. Oh, so naughty but yet so, so sweetly nice.

F-I-N-A-L-L-Y !!!!

He finally did it! Anderson officially crawled today! For the past couple of days he has gone one or two coordinated steps but nothing to get too excited over. Today he finally started to cruise. This video was taken early in the day and by the end of the day he was able to crawl a good 6-7 feet before plopping back onto his belly. Yay bubby!!

Jake was not impressed and not to be outdone by his little brother. He hasn't crawled yet but he has mastered his army crawl and can get all over the place without a problem. His newest obbession is the heat register. He crawls across the room to touch it until Mommy takes him away and does it over and over and over and over and over.....

Old Man Winter

Anderson (L) and Jake (R)
Anderson isn't thrilled about going out into the cold....

....but with a little coaxing he gives up a smile.
Jake doesn't mind the big bulky coats and hats.

He likes it!

Getting the boys out the door has never been an easy task. With the cold weather here to stay it is becoming increasingly more difficult. We bought them winter coats shortly after they were born because who can ever pass up the clearance rack? Clearly we didn't buy them big enough so our great money saving idea has landed us paying twice as much than if we had waited till now.

We spent all day yesterday trying to find the boys a nice wool winter coat. We went to every baby store in the entire mall and left with nothing. Luckily we made one last stop on the way home for something unrelated and there on the rack I found the coats I had been searching for by accident. They are a little big as you can see in the pics but they will definitely fill them out in the next few months.


Anderson has developed an complex about the winter coats. Ever since they started wearing them a couple of weeks ago he becomes spastic everytime he sees me coming at him to dress him to go outside. He whines, screams and complains. It is so out of character for him but maybe it is just a side of his personality that we have not met.


The boys have become so much more mobile in the past week! They want to check out everything around them whether it be a thread on the floor or silk flowers in the foyer. It's the main reason I haven't posted much lately. I'm too busy during the day and I'm exhausted after they go to bed.