Christmas 2007

First taste of presents at Grandma and Grandpa I's house. Stuart politely looked at me after he was done opening and gasping at the beauty of his wood fruit and said, "More wittle presents Mommy?" Ever since, he's been quite taken by presents. It's really the first time they have opened their own presents. Even at their birthday, they would just point at the colorful gifts and say, "Open! pweease!" Stuart stumbled into Santa Central days before Christmas and came out holding a little 4x4 present. He proceeded to carry it around by its little gold bow for the next 4 hours.
It is so fun visiting Vegas in December. This is a sunny, fabulous park right near my parent's house.
Visiting with my friend Lauren and her twin girls, Becca and Alexis, and 2 year old Maile.
When we got home we went in search for Christmas lights. We went to this place, which is a complete riot. We parked and let the kids come into the front seat with us to see the light show. They LOVED it.

On Christmas Eve morning, Rachel made my kids reindeer cupcakes. At 8:30 in the morning. Thank you Rachel. Which made the night before the last decent thing my kids ate until today.

We spent Christmas Eve at Grandma and Grandpa P's house. The uncles all wore their Christmas best. Daddy thought he was pretty festive with his Christmas sweater but clearly he was out dressed.

(Disclaimer: Aric doesn't always look this goofy. I should have cropped his head.)

Alison looking suspicious.
My sweet Alison loves to take pictures. She comes and sits by me, cheeses it up and tells me to take Mommy and Ali picture. Most of the pictures I'm in are like this, with my head cut half off, funny angle, and my arm outstretched in the bottom corner.
Gavin was happy to be in our company. He's grown so much. He smiles and makes little conversation noises.

Wondering when the program will be over and the presents will be opened.

Alison got a dress up box from Darren and Sierra. She really liked it. Purple wings is all she's ever wanted.

I need to upload a video I took of the twins putting cookies and milk out for Santa and carrots out for the reindeer. Hopefully in the next few days. They were so excited about it all. When Alison woke the next day, she walked out of of my bedroom--where she had slept, fitfully, because she is quite sick. I followed her out knowing she wanted a drink of water because she had slept with her mouth open. I asked her if Santa had come and instead of stopping at the presents, she raced to the cookie platter and exclaimed, "Santa came. Drink milk. Eat cookies. Reindeer eat carrots!!!" We opened gifts at the house. I didn't take many pictures because, well, don't these two look thrilled that Santa came to visit last night? (they got in bed 3 hours late the night before and are sick)Alison did get a sling and cloth diapers and wipes for her baby. She loves them, which makes the person that made them with lots of love (cough cough, that's me) very happy. The only problem is that her baby pees a lot. Like 22 times in a hour. And sometimes she still needs a little help remembering with part of the diaper is the back and which part is the front. She makes me come over, but refuses to let me touch the diaper. Just wants me to guide her through the process. If I get too close, she yells, "No Mommy! No Mommy! Ali do it. Ali change dirty diaper!"
Stuart got a basketball and hoop. He is crazy about it. I'll have to get pictures sometime soon. Here he is with his stocking. It took them an hour to get through their stockings. They had to stop and play with the toothbrushes, and the play dough, and the flashlights, and eat every single PEZ before they could go on. I know there is more in there.
Christmas day couldn't have been more perfect. A storm rolled in on Christmas Eve and dumped fresh white snow. Here is Alison and Stuart enjoying a wagon ride thanks to Daddy to enjoy our white Christmas scenery.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Cards

Here are the parts that got cut from the Christmas Card. We love sending our cards out. I know I missed people this year. I had every intention of coming back from my vacation in Las Vegas and sending the last ones out (Crookstons, Amanda & Katsu, few others) but it didn't happen. Next year.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Martin Robert

Tis the season

The advent calendars are back this year. They handle the only one a day concept much better than last year.
We've been eating Christmas sprinkles on everything.

We put out decorations, have lights outside, and even splurged on an artificial tree this year! I feel guilty about how much I love the fake tree. I am a bit sad that the twins won't have the magnificent experience of trudging through several tree lots, remarking about how stupidly expensive trees are, in the bitter cold, with the wind and snow beating on them, unwrapping tree after tree after tree and shaking them, only to purchase one that only has one small bareish spot, to take it home, and get sap all over the car and house, and needles, and worry about getting a fresh trunk trimming, and standing it up strait, and making sure it isn't getting too hot and has enough water, and then putting on all the silly lights, and the needles, and worrying about the water being that close to the hardwood floors, and then having to take it all down, and the needles, and the sap, and finally figuring out where to get rid of it. It was really pleasant to stand it up and put ornaments on though I do miss the smell terribly. I'll get some fresh garland. Alison and Stuart loved helping decorate it. As do I. So many of our ornaments have special memories--places we've been, adventures we've had, the blissful days of being newly married. We only had three ornaments get broken, which I thought was a fabulous record. One was broken a few days after the tree went up. Stuart forgot that these balls aren't for throwing. I suspect we may lose a few more. Alison loved to have her ornaments put up, "too high Mommy!" which doesn't actually mean I'm putting it up too high, just that she would like this ornament to be placed at the very tippy top of the tree. She doesn't use too properly yet. She also says things like, "this too pretty," when she's drawn something exceptional. These two ornaments she insisted be so close they touched. She told me, "Mommy, match! Fwriends."

I love our house this Christmas. (I loved it last year too, but it is even better the longer we live here.) It is starting to feel like we moved in. It helps that we finally put stuff in the front room. Yes, those are drapes!

Stuart the Monkey

I always felt that I was pretty lucky with Stuart. He hasn't been a huge climber and therefore hasn't fallen off many things. Well, lately he's trying to make up for it.

He gives Alison great ideas too.

The other day I hear, "Stuart, you are going to kill yourself! We can't do that!" I ask Ryan what he's done. We recently got a new endtable next to the couch. Apparently Stuart views it as a type of fancy diving board. He climbs up on it and does graceful swan dives onto the couch below. Yah!

Alison and Daddy

Alison really loves her Daddy. She doesn't always tell him so. Sometimes she wipes off his kisses and cries when he tries to snuggle her in the morning. But when I see her doing things like this I know she knows how lucky she is to have a great Daddy.

Happy November

November was full of important tasks.

Alison was practicing for Christmas wrapping....and learned to sort things by color, which is very helpful when she is helping Mommy sewing.
Stuart and Alison experienced Pop Rocks for the first time. They liked them.


Stuart worked hard on refining his puppydog face.
Alison's baby was very VERY hungry, all the time.

Maybe because she only ever gets a very appetizing meal of sea salt and water.

We also learned a lot about gravity and a bit about characteristics of eggs. (BTW, they crack. EVERY. TIME.)
We had family home evening in the bathroom this month. Complete with sippy cups full of root beer (I know, I know, that is great parenting there, eh?)Reading material. Check.

Panties around ankles. Check.

I actually have to say I was impressed with their abilities to use the potty. After the said FHE, Alison woke up the following morning and announced she was wearing panties and she did. The whole day. Even during her nap. I actually came rushing downstairs hearing, "Mommy! Poop in potty!" and found that Alison had indeed pooped in the potty all by herself, with no complications. They were both admiring it and Stuart was her own personal cheer squad. We called Daddy at work. The next morning I asked if she wanted a diaper or panties. She opted for diaper. I'm totally cool with it. I like diapers. So convenient. Plus, Stuart views using the potty as a personal invitation to be naked all the time which consequently leads to pictures below. Clearly, I can't expect a boy to pee with a shirt on. He must be COMPLETELY naked. Also, I have to tell you another funny experience about the potty. (Maybe I should have warned you about all this potty talk before I commenced.) I was listening while doing the laundry outside the bathroom door to my two year old saying, "Stuey, hurry! Tuck your penis inside!" Way to go Alison! Don't let him pee on my floor from his throne. I just thought of one other favorite part about potty learning. It doesn't matter where Alison is, when she decides she needs to go she drops her panties and then runs to her potty. And it doesn't matter how many times I see it, I always laugh when I see her doing the Ihavetopeepenguinshuffle down the hall with her panties at her ankles. And--this really is the last potty story--as much as I try to not make Stuey a bit sissy--the twins call Stuarts underpants 'panties'. Not that it matters much, since he doesn't wear them. (see above explanation)

And just because I thought this was worth sharing. This is how you know you aren't the favorite.