Our twins turn 2 today!!

Natalie & Noelle


Watching Veggietales 3 inches from the screen again...
I can't believe it, but Natalie's almost 2 inches taller than Noelle.



Sampling the frosting, which was amazazing. So light and fluffy and easy to spread, and it didn't pick up any crumbs when I was spreading it. That was important because there were crumbly, cut edges on the cake from cutting out the shapes. It tasted exactly like marshmallow fluff. I just couldn't believe how easy it was.
Recipe is here.




A close-up of the cakes.



A shot of the carnage that ensued...


Check out Natalie's face as Brian shows her a birthday card...



It was also a baby doll heaven. They received matching sets of baby dolls three separate times. Good thing they're crazy about babies right now. They also received a play baby stroller for Christmas, so they load up with as many babies as they can manage.



I don't even remember when this video was taken and I don't know where else to stick it, but it's a wonderful glimpse of what the babies are like as they're turning two. They do this kind of thing every day, and I'm so privileged to be a witness to it.

And finally, a photo montage of the twins' first two years. I had so much fun (and spent too much time) making this! I especially love the first song, "Easy Livin," the lyrics for which are below the video. Don't feel like you have to watch the whole thing. It's LONG. I couldn't stop myself - I kept finding 'just one more' picture to include. It's mainly for us and the grandparents, anyway.

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Living for you is easy living
It's easy to live when you're in love
And I'm so in love
There is nothing in life but you

I never regret the days I'm giving
They're easy to give when you're in love
I'm happy to do whatever I do for you

For you maybe I'm a fool
But it's fun
People say you rule me with one wave of your hand
Darling, it's grand
They just don't understand

Living for you is easy living
It's easy to live when you're in love
And I'm so in love
There's nothing in life but you

Christmas Highlights

Christmas Eve was spent at Pap & Mam's house, and we didn't get home until 10:30. Of course, everybody was so hopped up on sugar, excitement, and new toys, so bedtime was extra challenging.

We told them it wasn't going to snow on Christmas, but probably rain instead. This is Clare & Theresa pretending to make mud angels. They kind of look like chalk outlines instead...

This is a short video of Noelle playing with a new toy. It has a revving engine sound, so I put it up on the table to put masking tape over the speaker, so it wouldn't drive us quite so crazy. I left it on the table, and I found her there a few minutes later.

Every time I tried to get her upstairs, she'd frantically cry "No! No! No! Pwaying! Pwaying!"

Once everybody was nestled snug in their beds, I got the stockings stuffed. If we hung them on the wood stove, they'd incinerate, and they don't have hanging loops anyway, so we settle for the couch.

Some of us wouldn't be opening our stockings until later in the day, so those stockings were placed safely out of reach.

The peaceful house on Christmas Eve.


Clare was the first one up on Christmas Day...
Yes, she's wearing the same dress as Christmas Eve. She slept in it. In fact, she's been wearing it for the past three days. The girl's got some Christmas spirit.

Let's see what I got...

Didja get anything good?

Ahhh...nothing like a ring pop first thing in the morning.
Somebody found the candy dish, too.

Guess who was up a little too late and a little too early?
Brian & Conor received mad awesome nerf dart guns. This is all I saw of them for most of the day... I can't tell you how many times I was ambushed by the little creeps.

Of course, no holiday would be complete without this treasured family tradition...

Yes, he really DOES chase them around the house with a naked, dead turkey. See? He's not a Big Mean Daddy ALL of the time!

Annual Christmas Portrait Misery

One way or another, Christmas Picture Day always turns out to be one of the worst days of the year. The only ones who are genuinely smiling in this picture are Sarah & Clare.

Scott just had a fight with his girlfriend. And no, he's not standing on a box, he's just getting that tall.
Brian and Conor were fighting.
Theresa hates all formal portraits, and started crying the second we told her it was picture day.
The babies only cooperated because we gave them candy canes.
Andy is disgusted with the house and family in general.
I just got finished crying because today I managed to screw up everything I touched.

I guess we're all getting much better at just sucking it up and smiling for the lousy camera, because we don't look like we all hate each other. Boy, the outtakes are something, though. Merry Christmas, one and all!

Crazy Babies

Snapshots of December

We were quite surprised to have Saint Nicholas drop by on his feast day...

Saint Nicholas with Conor, Clare & Theresa

Our television is on a ledge in the corner, and the twins seem to think the closer they can get to VeggieTales, the better...

Natalie, Noelle & Archibald Asparagus

The aftermath of a very messy sock battle...Mom won, of course.

9/10 of our family has been ravaged by the stomach flu for the past two weeks. This has been a common sight in our house recently:

Theresa, Noelle & Natalie passed out on the floor

As soon as we felt a little better (and the rain stopped) Daddy and the healthy ones went to get our tree. They picked a real beauty...Conor & Clare

And had a delightful time decorating it...Noelle

Theresa & Brian

Clare

And every day since then, the twins have been steadily un-decorating every inch they can reach. It's kind of like a reverse Pin The Tail on the Donkey - whatever they can grab is fair game. There's a sparkly silver disco ball just out of their reach, and they are so cute jumping for it, in an annoyingly mischievous kind of way. They haven't gotten it yet...they do know how to drag a stool over, so I imagine it's only a matter of time until they put two and two together. This is what the tree looks like now (and how I suspect it will look from now on).