Christmas!

Christmas eve we had a fun night. I wish this first picture wasn't so blurry...I put it up anyway because it is so cute. Cesar was pulling the girls around in the basket and they were all cuddled up together laughing hysterically.



We gave them a special treat before bed on Christmas eve. They LOVE eating whole pieces of fruit, but it is very messy...and wasteful, so we don't usually let them do it. BUT...we let them sit on the couch and eat them while we read "Twas the night before Christmas". (Sorry for Bella flashing everyone...she doesn't like to have her pjs fully buttoned!).

Christmas morning at home. The girls and I got up normal time and played for a few hours. Then, after we all took a nap, we woke up to find snow falling outside! So..we went upstairs and woke up Daddy so that we could eat a family breakfast together and start opening presents! Here is a picture of "before" present time. The girls had already gotten into a gift by the time we got over there.

Leah trying to share her gift with us!

Learning how to open presents. They weren't too sure at first.

But..once they figured it out, they really got into it.

Time to open Grandpa and Grandma Vikki's gifts. Leah LOVED the box!!

Leah is SO sweet. She has learned how to give real kisses (as opposed to the normal open mouth baby kisses). She loves to give Daddy her sweet kisses. Here he was trying to get her off the box and she leaned in and gave him a big smooch. SO CUTE!

Not sure if she is happy about her climbing tool being taken away

But...eventually, Leah decided opening the box was SO worth it. Isabella is still trying to decide.

Eventually, they were both so excited about ALL the gifts they received! Grandpa and Grandma Vikki sent so many goodies! Mommy was SO grateful for the PJs that they sent because I was a total slacker and didn't get the ONE thing I really wanted to get for them (the PJs) and the ones they sent were perfect!

After our little family time in the morning, we headed over to Aunt Gaby & Uncle Jim's house. I wish I had more pictures but our STUPID camera broke after this picture was taken and needs to be sent BACK to Nikon to be fixed AGAIN (can you tell I am annoyed??). SO...hopefully, Gaby or Santi got some good pics from the day and I'll post them later.

I was hoping to have more pictures to post of the day after Christmas when we had time at Grandma's house with that whole side of the family. Unfortunately, Leah woke up on Sunday morning with a nasty cough. So, we decided it would be better not to expose cousin Kai (and all the other people that were going to be there) to our germs. We missed seeing everyone (and wearing our dresses again) but hopefully Leah will get better soon (and Baby Hudson will wait to come out) so we can get together next weekend!

Christmas with the neighbors

The Saturday before Christmas we had our annual "Old Colony" Christmas party. We didn't get too many pictures, but here are a few. I LOVE these dresses :) Cesar thinks they look like little strippers, but I think they look ADORABLE! We wore them to all of our Christmas events so you will likely see them again :)

 No..we weren't feeding the girls plants. Leah was just shoving her face right before she went over to play with her sister!

Daddy and Leah

Isabella snuggling up on Grandma's lap

The girls were very excited to touch the tree. We have the ugly gate around ours, so this was very exciting!

"I'm SO beautiful Mommy"

My little beauties getting ready to go to the party

Leah

Isabella

Transparency

So, I read a post on a MOM (mother of multiples)'s website last week titled transparency (I wish I could remember where it was because I would give her credit and let you go there to read the post!). She was basically trying to be transparent by showing how her house is a disaster most of the time and she wanted to share it with the world. Here is my adapted version of what she wrote about.

• I am not perfect! I never was...but now that I am a MOM, I am even less so. I have a messy house.
• I have dust on furniture 99% of the time. I have a dead bug in my bathroom that has been in the corner for at least a week (eww..I know).
• I have toys EVERYWHERE, even though I feel like I do nothing but pick up toys.
• When I am cleaning one room...my kids are in another tearing it apart...I have NO idea how to catch up.
• My guest rooms are storage rooms right now. There is crap everywhere in both of them.
• I have had "clean out girls' closet" on my to-do list for 8 months.
• My fridge is always dirty, my freezer is crazy disorganized, my pantry was organized about a month ago for about three days and is back to chaos, my closets are a mess (except for my entry closet which got cleaned out the other day...obviously for the first time since the babies were born since I found dishes that belonged to a friend who brought food over when I was on bed rest).
• My basement looks like a tornado went through there. There are random pieces of furniture, luggage, and computer stuff piled up in corners.
• My bedroom is NEVER clean. Don't get me wrong..I try to clean it...every other night almost, but the next day there are clothes everywhere....glasses on the nightstands....random shoes covering the floor....books & magazines all over the floor (half of which have been torn apart), items from under the bathroom sink strewn all over the place, and a consistently unmade bed (most of the time with wet towels laying on it).
• My entry hall bathroom sink (guest 1/2 bath..whatever you want to call it) has hair in it much of the time because that is where I dry my hair in the morning so I can "watch" the kids while I get ready.
• There is ALWAYS laundry piled up somewhere. Sometimes it is in the basement waiting to get washed...or on the couch in the basement waiting to be folded, or in a laundry basket in the girls' room waiting to be put away, or in the laundry basket that we keep in the kitchen (since we go through THAT many baby clothes and "clean-up rags" a day), or on the floor in our room (sometimes it is just too difficult for SOME people to throw their clothes an extra five inches across the room into the hamper...not naming any names on THIS one..he he he).
• My house is a mess! Many days it drives me crazy. Many days I am not content with my house because I can't stand the mess and the clutter. Many days I blame in on how "small" our house is and think if we only had a bigger house, it wouldn't be like this (ha ha ha..yea right). Many days I wish for things that we don't have that would make the situation "better." Most days I try to cover it up as best I can so that anyone that enters my house doesn't think poorly of us. Most of the time I will only post pictures on this blog or facebook or wherever that don't show the mess that is our house. Most of the time if I know someone is coming over to our house I will do a quick "clean" and put up a front to make it look like I have everything "together".
• Well...guess what...this is my time to be transparent....I DON'T HAVE IT ALL TOGETHER. Not even close! I would love to be more organized. I would love to have a clean house. I would love to have everything perfectly in order and serene. I really would.
• BUT...I LOVE MY FAMILY EVEN MORE! I could spend the three hours that I have with my girls every night cleaning and organizing...but I don't. Instead, I spend time sitting with them on the floor, laughing and dancing to music. I could spend the two hours I have after they go to bed cleaning and organizing, but I don't (well...I do spend about an hour...but not two!) because I would rather have a small amount of time for myself at night...or even better...a small amount of time relaxing with the hubby. I could spend my weekends cleaning the house and organizing, but I would rather soak up every second I have with my babies and get to know them even better!
• My goal (not resolution because those never work) for 2011 (other than getting back into running shape like I was before the girls came and reading the bible EVERY day in 2011) for this year is to STOP beating myself up for the imperfection that I call a house. When I see a mess on the floor, I will thank God that I have two BEAUTIFUL and curious little girls that can walk around and use their gross motor skills to pull chocolate chips out of the cabinet for the third time in a day and dump them all over the floor! I will thank God that our lives are so fun and busy that the laundry may not get done for two weeks and when it does it doesn't get folded for another one. I will thank God that we have a beautiful house that we dreamed of for so long before we actually got it and thank God that the mess is a sign of Love, not failure!
• Don't get me wrong...I still want a clean and organized house...and I will still do my best at keeping it as good as I can....but I am going to stop trying to act like I have it all together and start being a little more transparent!

Here are two shots of what my kitchen looks like on a typical night after the kids have gone to bed! Ugghhh...embarrassing, but in the spirit of being more transparent...here ya go! I didn't get any shots of the other rooms...but I'll try to get some and post them. I will be more transparent and I will be OK with it! (Than sounded a little like a speech from an AA meeting or something!).

Santa Rocks!

Lauren sent the girls these outfits for Christmas! She made the tu tus and the hair bows :)
They just crack me up in these things. The bows only lasted a few minutes before they pulled them off of each other's heads!

Pics by Kelly!

So, Kelly has started taking pictures of the girls during the day. I LOVE this! Not only does she take awesome pictures, but it is so great to see all the fun things the girls do during the day when I can't be with them. Here is the first installment of what I am going to call "Pics by Kelly."

The Scowl!

Bella's Michael Jackson impression...Hee Heeee, Oww!

Leah and her fishy face!

See No Evil....

Speak no evil, hear no evil!!

Oh how I love this picture! It totally captures the joy that Leah exudes!

Typical Day

Just like a lot of our videos, this will probably be very boring to the majority of people, but I just love these girls so much that EVERYTHING they do is cute to me. This is a typical afternoon in our house. I just took a little 2 minute snap-shot of what we have everyday. I just can't imagine loving anything more than I love these two little ladies!!

Second Annual Cookie Baking Day

Well, this year's cookie baking day was DEFINITELY much more successful than last year's! However, we still were left saying "this will be better next year," and "we really need Grandma here to help with the kids!" Leah was still a little out of it/cranky because of her medicine and ear infection so she needed a little TLC and in general, the kids just needed attention. Geez...didn't they know we were trying to bake cookies. I mean, really...why can't they just play by themselves for a few hours. He He..just kidding. They were actually pretty good. Kai was awesome. He is such a big boy and really played well with the girls! He is so sweet. He tried to share, teach the girls how to play with his toys, and even hug them and kiss them when they were crying. He is going to be such an awesome big brother!! Matt and Deanna better watch out with baby #2...there is no way they are going to get TWO kids that are that good!! ;)

Kai and Bella playing in the toy room...they hadn't figured out that they could play together at this point.

Kai...just so freakin' cute!

Aunt Deanna has such fun toys at her house!!

And they are tasty too!

Bella and Kai stuffing their faces!

Ha Ha...I just love this picture :)

Mwahaha....I like this one even more! Isabella LOVED the lunch aunt Deanna made. I think Kai had four pieces to Isabellas 10!

Nice cousin that Kai is...trying to trip his poor cousin!

Kai showing Bella how to use his toys.

Leah is finally awake! She took a nice long nap while Kai and Bella played and ate lunch. Don't worry...Isabella didn't let her eat alone! She had two lunches!

What is Kai thinking here??

"Look at how big my feet are!!!"

Look at my little ladies stuffing their faces!

"If I only have one sock on, YOU are only going to have one sock on!"

Sweet boy!

And...the finished product! We got four batches of 7 layer bars, a bunch of melt-aways, and a few batches of sugar cookies done before we had to leave. A definite improvement from last year but we could still do better!

Can't wait for next year.....