Christmas in the Village

We got to experience Christmas in the Village an entirely new way this year. Having 2-2 year olds with us made the usual seem surprising and new. We got to hang out with Grandma Linda, Aunt Brittany and Uncle Cory and do several new things with the boys. Pics and narration are below.

The boys were warm and bundled in their bunting bags. As Aunt Brittany got to experience, we get several comments on our stroller and the boys wherever we go. (hats courtesy of Uncle Ken and Aunt Neila from our Canada trip)


This was probably the boy's favorite part of the parade. They were so excited to see the train.

We missed the shot, but the boys got to give the United Way bear a high-five. Of course, at this age they are quite intrigued by the big animals.

Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus closing out the parade.

We didn't get an actual picture of the trolley we were on, but it ended up taking us on a tour of Zionsville.....unfortunately we thought it would just take us on Main Street. By the end Cooper was quite happy to exit the trolley.

This is Cooper at the beginning of the trolley ride with Gaga Linda. He was quite excited.....By the way, Carson seemed to have a worried and confused look on his face for most of the ride.
He knew something just didn't seem right being in a moving vehicle and not in a carseat.



It is hard to see, but there is a reindeer (elk) in the cage. The boys weren't sure what to think of him. He was HUGE!!!


And this was probably the best part of the entire day. The train was giving rides, so of course the boys wanted to participate.......


You'll notice Carson is sitting on his own. I thought the ride would be like the train I grew up watching in the mall that just went in circles. So, I put Carson in on his own (while not noticing Chris was getting in). I didn't know any better until the train took off and started going down the road.....at first I thought I would follow behind the train or walk beside Carson....that thought lasted for about 3 seconds (no way would I basically run by the train:)) So long story short, Carson got to be a big boy and ride on his own for the entire ride. You'll be happy to know he stayed completely still the entire time.

And yes, to top it all of, Cooper was that child that throws a huge fit when having to get off of the ride. He cried while I carried him away and continued to cry for about 2 blocks, until Gaga gave him a sucker to hold onto (thanks Gaga).

All in all it was a great day.

Carson flying

This is a video of Chris and Carson at the beach at Lake Michigan. Carson loves it when Chris tosses him in the air! (sorry I don't know how to rotate the video clip.) As you can tell from the sound, it was quite windy but it really was gorgeous fall weather the whole time we were there.

The Frog and Chicken

Just a quick little video of Cooper and Carson wearing their costumes. Cooper thought Carson was dressed up just for his pure enjoyment. He wanted to pull him around by the beak. In case you can't hear, Carson's costume is playing the Chicken Dance during the video. Don't forget to pause the music in the right hand side of screen.

Hi Aunt Jenny!!

As many of you know, Chris' youngest sister, Jenny, is studying abroad this semester. Since the boys have been unable to Skype with her, Chris took this video for her to see. Feel free to enjoy it yourself as well.

The crazy hour....

I thought I would take a video to have evidence of our crazy times that are experienced the hour before dinner. The boys seem to become all energized and ready to run a marathon from 5-6pm. This is just a small recording to share with everyone (and the boys when they are older and look through the posts).

Let the puddle jumping begin!!

We had a downpour on our way home from the grocery store tonight and thought we would have some fun. The boys (all 3 of them) got to play in the rain.

(again, don't forget to pause the music)

It must be innate...

It must just be an innate thing for brothers to pester each other. Carson found the following hillarious.....Cooper, on the other hand, did not.

By the way, this is their new toy they were just getting used to.

(Don't forget to pause the music on the right side)

In case you weren't sure....

Here is some proof, just in case you weren't sure if the boys were cute enough:)

We finally got more pictures taken of them. We meant to do their 18 month, but before we knew it 2 months had flown by, so there are their 20 month pictures. It was a little more challenging this time because they are quite active and love exploring, so all of the items in the studio were quite distracting for them. However, with these faces, it wasn't hard to get some good shots.

Summertime

The boys have been loving playing outside in the backyard this summer. No matter the time of day however, they seem to end up playing in their pool. Chris shot this video and I thought some on you may enjoy watching, nothing special. (Don't forget to pause the music in the side bar.)

Yes I am biased!!!

I thought I would share a cute moment the boys had today. Carson ran out of his room and ran right into Cooper. Of course this caused Cooper to fall down and he was devastated over it for some reason. Carson walked right up to Cooper and gave him this:

Isn't that the cutest thing you have ever seen? (hence the title)

Now don't get all cheesy, below is more the norm with them:

Cooper, Cooper, Cooper

I know, before you even say it......"it's about time!!!!". I'll address that in another post.

This posting is all about Cooper. I thought it would be nice for the boys to hear different individual stories and updates about themselves. A lot has gone on in the last 2 months, too many first to remember off hand, but I will try to list as many as come to mind at the moment.

1. Cooper is turning out to be a tree hugger.....

2. Cooper is quite creative, he can always find ways to entertain himself when there is nothing going on (please refer to using corn on the cob as a phone). This was his first time having corn on the cob by the way.

3. Cooper has honed in on his climbing skills. He has gone to new heights and fast (falling) lows. I have found out that boys are natural climbers. Before long, he'll be looking for those trees to climb. Of course, I really don't have pictures of him climbing because I am usually running to grab him before he falls, one day I may get lucky to catch it on film.

4. Cooper knows "The b-i-b-l-e" song. He was repeating b-i-b-l-e and phrases close to it over and over again one day in his highchair and it finally hit me what he was singing. He was so happy when I started singing it.....what a smart kid. Yes, I am working on getting a recording of this, but for some reason I just can't get him to perform on command:)

5. He is also a great helper, he now knows to go grab the blanket on the back of the couch and lay it on the floor when I tell him it is snack time. (For those of you that have no clue about the blanket, we have a special snack blanket.) Also, for lunch one day he went and got both his and Carson's cup and put them on the highchairs for me.....I know to the normal eye this wouldn't be a big deal, but to actually have some help after 19 months of doing it all without them helping out, this is huge.

6. Cooper's new favorite place to sit is on my feet. Whenever I stand still or am sitting on the couch, he will come and squat down on my feet...unfortunately, I haven't been able to catch a picture of this because I am not able to actually run and go get the camera while he is sitting on my feet.

7. Cooper has become an expert builder with his blocks. He could spend an entire day carrying around the "towers" he builds and continually rebuilding them. He loves to sit at the table and build his "towers". This is also because he knows he is safe from Carson knocking over his towers up there.

Those of you that have had to pleasure to witness Cooper in action know that there are many more fun and unique things Cooper does, feel free to share in the comments if they come to mind. I can't seem to remember all of them......imagine that!!!

Catching Up...

I seem to always be "catching up" since we have been blessed with the boys. I know everyone wanted more and more photos, so here are a few I found on Chris' phone from a couple of weeks ago.

Carson playing intently with his phone

Cooper pulling the dog (between his legs) his own way....of course.

Carson trying to figure out how to step on the bowl to climb up on the ottoman.

This is Cooper running straight toward the camera at high speed.

This is Carson figuring out how to go down the steps on the deck.

As soon as we get our desktop running (Chris is overhauling it), I will get Easter photos downloaded and posted.

A Whole New World

I know it has been forever since catching everyone up. We have had many chances in the last couple of months to experience a "whole new world".

Grandma S. went several weeks where she would take a boy for 3 days a week. This gave Chris and I some one on one time with each boy. It was amazing how different they were when they were alone. Things are so different with just one boy. Things like bedtime, going out to eat, going to the park and meeting up with friends take on a whole new meaning. It was great getting to experience that "new world" for a while, but we are always happy to have our boys together and with us.

Below are some different pictures of the past few weeks that we have been able to capture.

The boys have now learned to use these bean bags for new exploration (on top of couches, into TV armoires and onto cabinets)...

Cooper in his "comfortable" position for sleeping.

Cooper eating his first apple.

Carson showing Cooper how to get the job done.

The boys learning how to walk on the sidewalk and stay on the sidewalk.

One crazy "twin" dinner!

As most of you have experienced at our house, dinner with twins can be quite interesting. They tend to show each other new and exciting things to tryout. Sunday night Chris and I found ourselves speechless just staring at the boys in amazement.....most of you know for either Chris or I to not speak, something weird must be going on:)

Below I listed all of the different things the boys did in the matter of 25 minutes (length of dinner):

* We had Indian wars (each boy made his own Indian sounds trying to do better than the other)
* Cooper decided to start sprinting in his highchair. His upper body looked nice and calm but when you looked under the table his little legs were going as fast as possible.....that was a new one.
* Carson proceeded to take pieces of food off of the fork we were using and keep dropping them on the floor so he could say "uh-oh". (at least 40% of his food)
* Cooper thought he would help clean up his tray by wiping everything off of it onto the floor (repeatedly). Granted, this was not even close to the end of dinner.
* Both boys decided to see what it was like to chew up their food and then let it fall out of their mouths (again repeatedly).
* They clapped for each other as these peculiar things were all going on.
* There was a dancing session when both boys spontaneously started dancing in their chairs and giggling.
* They decided to play peek-a-boo with the bibs they had one (they have scoops to catch food on them). They tipped the bibs up to hide their heads, with the bibs full of food (see the 5th point).
* Carson was determined that he could take a bite out of his bib.
* Carson tried to squirt everyone at the table with his water bottle (again repeatedly).....I know, this one is my fault for teaching him:)

This is all I can remember. I caught myself thinking that I should write down everything that was happening at the moment, however I was so taken back and entertained by everything going on that I didn't want to stop watching. I hope you all get to experience a dinner like this at least once in your life.

Our first of how many?

Have you ever stopped to think of how many pieces of pizza you have eaten in your lifetime? The boys got to enjoy their first homemade pizza on Saturday. Of course, they loved it and proceeded to shovel pieces in their mouth. They each ate 2 big pieces and would have eaten more if we would have let them. I'm sure they will go on to eat hundreds, if not thousands of pieces in their lifetime. We thought we would share their "after" pictures with everyone. It wasn't as bad as we had suspected.

Why not a shower?

I just sat down from finishing my "daily chores" after I got the boys to bed. Chris is gone on Tuesday nights, so I get more "reflection time" while doing my chores on Tuesdays. Below is a list of everything that I did within 1 1/2 hours....
* 2 loads of laundry
* made 20 pancakes for breakfasts
* washed all bottles and sippy cups
* cleaned up dinner
* put away load of dishes that were clean
* filled dishwasher with dirty dishes
* got boy's meals ready for tomorrow
* made iced tea
* mopped floor
* checked email

As I was unloading a load of laundry, it dawned on me: If I can multi-task and do all of these things, why is it that I can't find time during the day with the boys to fit in a shower? I woke up late this morning and kept thinking (I'll just take a shower when they go down for a nap), but that didn't happen. The day just seems to go by with so many things to do that time just slips away.

For those of you that are scared about the no shower thing, don't worry, I will fit it in before I go to bed:)

If any of you experienced moms have any tips, I would love to hear them. Hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day and enjoys the rest of your week. Please keep the boys in your prayers. They have been quite sick this week (with nebulizer treatments), however they seem to be on the mend.

Who thought cereal could brighten up your day?

I was thinking that I would blog today during the boy's nap but wasn't sure what to write about.....then when we got home from the gym and I was taking Carson upstairs for his nap, I grabbed a couple pieces of cereal sitting on the kitchen island for him to snack on while going upstairs. I didn't think anything of it, I just thought he might like it. You would have thought I just gave him the world. His eyes lit up and he got the biggest smile on his face. Of course, when taking Cooper upstairs, I had to do the same thing. Cooper just looked at the cereal in his hand and started laughing hysterically. He put all 3 pieces in his mouth and continued his laughing while hugging my neck.

If only we could get that excited about all of the small little surprises that happen in our daily lives. It reminds me that I need to slow down more often and just enjoy what is happening in the moment......maybe I will give Chris a couple pieces of cereal on his way up to bed tonight and see his reaction:)

Have a great Valentine's Day!

Our first sledding adventure!!!

It is official, the boys were made for outside sports. I don't think Carson quit smiling the entire time we were outside. Chris pulled them around on their sled (borrowed from Grandma P.). Then they got to go up a big hill and each of them road down the hill individually with Chris on the "real sled". Carson, again, loved eating the snow. He laid down and put his face directly in the snow and loved it. The boys loved laying back in their sled and chillin' while Chris did all the manual labor. The snow had melted enough that they were even able to run around in the snow. I'm sure we'll have a couple more chances this year to go out, but we will always remember our first sledding experience.

Good Samaritans do exist!

Well, it is official.....we are now bloggers!!

Having said that, I found it ironic that on the day I was going to get our family blog started there was so much to reflect on. First off, today is my father's 65th birthday. Just 2 short years ago he passed away.....it seems like a lifetime. So many things have changed since then. Our lives have been filled with great sadness and even greater joys. He would have been overjoyed with his 2 grandsons. I know someday the boys will be able to meet their grandfather and until then, they will get to hear good stories about him and how much he loves them. Now, onto the "lesson of the day". The boys and I went grocery shopping at Marsh today and unfortunately there were no double strollers. This isn't a big deal because we just take 2 carts around the store as we shop. A lady stopped us and asked if she could follow me around and help out by pushing one of the carts. It was a simple gesture and tremendously appreciated. On our way home I was thinking about all of the bad emails of people offering to help you but not to let them because they are going to steal something or hurt you. I have found myself wanting to help people out before but hesitant because I don't want to make them feel uncomfortable. The "simple" gesture this lady made to help us out made a big difference in our day and added a reminder that there are still good Samaritans out there willing to help out just out of the goodness in their hearts. I want the boys to grow up being willing to stop and help strangers out, not being concerned about the bad stories that go around.......it was just a little "eye-opener".

Have a great day.