Our House...Is a Very, Very, Very Fine House

My sister had given us a gingerbread house kit that she wasn't going to put together. We had intentions of all of us putting it together when her and Mike were in town for Christmas, but didn't get around to doing so.

So, the other night Greg, the kids and I put together the house (I think this was my first Real Gingerbread house kit as well as the kids). I took out the hard candies and luckily had some m& m's and hershey kisses from the kids' stockings to use. They had a great time unwrapping the kisses and then eating them. They also enjoyed the m&m's and a couple of times tried to sneak just one more after we said, "NO MORE CANDY!"

The house was having some structure problems in the beginning, but we frosted the heck out of it on the sides and it ended up sticking together. It's not the most beautiful/elaborate gingerbread house, but it was fun! Maybe next year we can have Baby Cora help.

Thanks Mandy and Mike!

Little Leah

We have confirmation that Leah was indeed sick and teething over Christmas Break. Her tooth has now come through (appears to be her canine tooth?) and Greg took her to the doctor on Monday and she is getting over Bronchitis. She has been sleeping SOOOOOOO much better within the past two/three days. Sleep pattern seems back to normal. She has been going down at night around 8pm and sleeping until 7/8am (which is a little better than normal). Her appetite is starting to come back around as well. Glad to have my Little Leah back ;)

Another Christmas has come and gone

This Christmas was full of fun, laughter and tears. On Christmas Eve I always have my mom, dad, sister and brother-in-law over for brunch and then we exchange gifts. Evan and Leah really enjoyed opening gifts this year, rather than sitting on them like last year. They did very well opening the gifts and tore into them like pros. Mike and Greg played the Wii/Playstation 3 like they do every year as Mandy and I ventured out into the rainy weather to the mall. In the evening, we always head over to my Uncle's house and catch up with out of town family members from Texas. I got to see my cousin's little girl, Olivia, for the first time. She is an absolute doll! My other cousin, Keith, has twins Mia and Maddy that are almost 3 years old. Evan and Leah had a blast playing with them as always.

This is where the tears come into play... my kids, I thought, were a little too rambunctious and having Leah be fussy and whiny all night really started to get to me. The kids fought over the toys, etc. Evan drew the last straw for me as he kicked applesauce all over my uncle's couch as well as my sweater. That was it for me. I broke down into tears of embarrassment and rounded up the kids and we headed home earlier than expected. (Let me back track a little and also say that earlier that night as I was making a dessert and an appetizer to bring over, I realized AFTER I already poured the Bailey's alcohol into the chocolate mousse for my dessert cups, that it was a tad too runny. What could have gone wrong? Come to find out, I poured four times the amount of Bailey's that I was suppose to! The appetizer also ended up a tad runny. ) So, my kids and my food-gone-wrong all added up to a stressful and tearful night for me. When we got home, Leah fought sleep and we realized she is most likely cutting another tooth/getting sick and we ended up letting her sleep with us-after Greg and I both took turns for about an hour trying to get her to go to sleep by rocking, etc.

Christmas morning was nice and peaceful. Evan woke up around 7. He and I ate breakfast together, watched the snow fall and had a few laughs rearranging pieces on his new Mr. Potato Head. (This is a memory I will always remember fondly). We ended up being over at Greg's parents' house by 9:30 am, proceeded to open up presents and had a great time visiting with family from Texas and Oklahoma. We usually go over to my dad's side of the family in the afternoon, but with the kids not getting enough sleep over the last couple of days, we decided it was best to head home and let them get a good nap in.

The kids received many great gifts from family members and we thank everyone so much!
I look forward to next year as my niece will then be 11 months old and Leah and Evan will be 3.
I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and we wish you all a Happy New Year!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Christmas Cookies

This is pretty good

Here are our cookies!

Mom and the babes

Actually got everyone smiling!

I knew this year was going to be a little more difficult decorating Christmas Cookies due to the fact that both kids are wanting to be more independent and do things THEIR way! We had them sit up on the counter and I let them pour in the ingredients; which they did very well. I did the food coloring for the dough (hands are still stained a little ;) ) and then let them roll out the dough with the rolling pin. They loved doing this. They liked picking out their cookie cutters. Sometimes the cut-outs would overlap, but we fixed them. Leah impressed me as we were making candy cane shaped cookies. I had her roll the dough with the palm of her hand to make the one strand and she did a great job of keeping the dough in a log shape. However, when attempting to have Evan do the same, he just rolled and pressed the dough into the table.
The wonderful "independence of a toddler" came when it was time to use the sprinkles! Evan kept telling Greg, "No, no Daddy. I do it." Finally, we compromised on pouring the sprinkles into their hands and letting them then put it on the cookies. We all enjoyed a cookie as we watched some snow fall outside. What fun and great memories!

Breakfast with Santa

This year's Breakfast with Santa (through the Mother of Twins Club) was a lot of fun. We visited with our friends and their twins, ate pankcakes, visited with Santa and enjoyed some games and craft projects available. We let Evan and Leah observe Santa and get a little more comfortable looking at him before we asked if they wanted to go get their pictures taken with him. They did well walking up to Santa, but when they were right next to him, they both turned around and jumped into our arms crying. After about 10 minutes of trying to get Evan to even stand beside me (which I was next to Santa), the photographer's assistant grabbed two presents from under the tree and handed them to Evan and Leah to hold on to. That seemed to get their minds side-tracked for the picture.
I think next year, they will be ready to sit in his lap. Speaking of next year, we are hoping that Jackie, Greg, Peyton and the Thies twins (due to arrive June) will be joining us along with Kyle, Rachel, Drew and Blake for Breakfast with Santa! WINK, WINK- Jackie!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Deck the Halls

I couldn't wait to get my Christmas decorations up. I love the house when it's all decorated for the Holiday Season. We debated on putting up the tree at all this year. Last year, we thought it would be too much of a hassle with the twins, so we put up my little mini tree. We decided to go ahead and try for the big one this year. The kids have been really good about not taking any ornaments off of it. They touch some of them occasionally, but have been better than expected as far as "getting into the tree." Evan, we found out, has a love-hate relationship with Santa. He talks about Santa, asks to go see Santa, but when he sees him at the mall, he starts whining. The Santa I have in the picture above is one he carries around EVERYWHERE in the house. That Santa has been in a stroller, in his bed (he puts Santa down for naps sometimes), in the kitchen to eat, etc. What a great purchase for a couple of bucks at a garage sale last year!

The kids were pretty funny decorating the tree. As you can see from some of the pictures, most of the ornaments ended up being placed at their eye level.