A Wonderful White Christmas

We have survived Christmas with our two 19month old twin boys. What a wonderful holiday season we have had with them. We took them to see Santa and both boys had a total melt down. The photo of the boys turned into a family photo with Santa. Natalie and Sean were true troopers for the photo. Pat and I held the boys and stood behind Santa so they would stop crying.

Our home has remained decorated and the boys have each meal sitting by the Christmas tree. One morning Colby was crying and wouldn't eat his breakfast. Heather and I were both trying to figure out what was wrong and he kept saying "tee" and pointing to the tree. We then realized the lights were not on. Once we turned them on he was very happy and ate his breakfast. Both boys will walk around the tree and look at ornaments and so far they are very good about not touching. They will sign the word pretty and try to pronounce it as well.

As you can see from the below albums we've been very busy. Natalie and I spent one full day baking goodies for the staff at the U of U NBICU. We as a family also made 40 goody bags for the parents of the preemies in the NBICU and made a special card letting them know we were praying for them and their baby(ies). We took the goodies up to the NBICU on Christmas Eve on our way to church. Our church had a wonderful Christmas Eve service and the boys were actually pretty good for most of it. There was a lot of singing so they enjoyed that part the most. We came home and got into our Christmas jammies and Pat read "The Night Before Christmas" for all of us. We let the boys each pick out a cookie from the O'Leary Cookie Store to leave for Santa. Sean made sure Santa had a cup of milk to go along with the cookies.

Christmas day started around 6:00am with the boys having their usual bottles and then moving into the room to see what Santa had left for them. Colby and Austin really enjoyed all the presents and soon were over stimulated which seemed to last all day and still continues. Natatlie and Sean were great about letting the boys go first and then of course it was their turn. They got a lot of really nice things to include new snow skis, boots, polls and season pass for Natalie and a new snowboard, snow boots and season pass for Sean. The biggest gift of all was our family trip to Cancun this summer. The kids each got a passport and a ticket showing where we were going. We are all very excited about our trip with my whole family. There will be 15 of us going in June.



Grandpa John got the boys a new table and chair set with a matching toy box. We worked today on getting in the chair and staying on our bottoms. Colby figured out how to get in chair almost immediately. Austin needed some "hep" as they say but soon figured out how to stand in his which resulted in him losing his chair for awhile.




I just had to show you in a better picture what Pat made for me from my 3 boys. They each had a sweet message on the back to me. Sean of course was able to write his own but since Colby and Austin aren't writing yet Pat helped type what they said. I was very surprised but happy that Pat took time to do something so thoughtful.


Now as the holidays wind down we look back at all the gifts, toys, cards, treats, and pictures and I am reminded daily about how blessed I am. I looked back at pictures from last Christmas and I am so amazed at how far the boys have come in just a year. I hope each you had a wonderful Christmas and we wish each of you a wonderful 2008 year.

So much to be Thankful for!

I know it's been awhile and there's been so much going on that I do need to catch up. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving in Arkansas with my family. We flew from SLC to Memphis through Denver and the boys were great. Even though we were the doctor's office two days prior with bad colds they either slept or played the whole way. They did get a little off schedule but that's to be expected. Colby ended up with an ear infection but with some antibiotics he was feeling much better the next day.

It was so good to see all of our family and friends since we will be Utah for Christmas. We even got Daddy's tree up before we left. As usual we had tons of food and ate way too much while we were gone. We've hit the workouts though since returning home.

We took the boys to the cemetary to visit their grandma and all weekend I had been trying to get Austin to show Aunt Anna how to say pretty in sign language because it's so cute. He never would do it. As we put the flowers in her vase Austin was standing there and totally on his own he said "pretty" and signed it as well. Needless to say my eyes welled with tears of pride and sadness all at the same time.

Last week the boys had their 18 month check up. They are doing great. We have been concerned about Colby's weight but Dr. Cox didn't seem concerned. He said this is not a big growth time anyway and if we didn't have Austin to compare him too we wouldn't be as concerned. He did say there are some tests we can have done to make sure everything is ok so I think we do plan to get those done.

Colby was in the one percentile on weight and height but the 90th percentile on head size. Yes, he has a big brain. Austin was around the 50th percentile on height and weight and about the same on head size. Colby was a little over 19 pounds and Austin was a little over 22 pounds. For those that have seen them lately there is a distinct difference in size. Austin is in 12 mo clothing and Colby in 9 mo some 12 months if they run small.

Yes, Colby is digging for gold.

We are gearing up for Christmas now with our tree up and house decorated. My favorite time of the year so I enjoy it as long as I can. We got a huge snow this weekend so I am glad everything is up outside or it wouldn't get up now. Pat and I have been discussing what new traditions we want to start with the boys as I know these are the years that they will remember. I want them to say "when are we going to do this or that?" I want them to look forward to certain things in our home with our family regardless of where we are for the holidays.


We hope you are all staying safe and healthy through this holiday season and we wish you a great holiday season.