Merry Christmas 2011!

I have to say this was the most exciting Christmas that we have ever had as Gracie and Bailey were fully aware that Santa Clause was going to leave surprises. We have the tradition of having Preston's parents over to watch the twins open their presents and to join us for Christmas breakfast and mimosas. The twins ran down the stairs and immediately say the gifts that Santa had left. They were so excited about their new toys. Gracie got a doll house and "real" tea party set and Bailey had a new tricycle and truck that talks. They honestly would have been happy with only one present as all they wanted to do was play with each present they unwrapped. We had to talk them into opening more presents as they were so into each one that they opened. They loved helping Daddy put together their new stroller for their Bitty Baby twins that Grammy and Daddy Bob gave them. One of their favorite toys has been their Mr. and Mrs. Potato heads. My sister, Mary Ellen invited us to Christmas dinner at their house and the twins were so excited to visit with their cousins Lauren and Andy and to see what Santa had left for them. We had a blessed day watching our little miracles enjoy the festivities of celebrating Christmas!

The Night Before Christmas

We celebrated Christmas Eve by first attending a 9am church service. Gracie and Bailey had fun in Waumba Land learning all about the Birthday of Jesus while Preston and I enjoyed the service. We came home to put the twins down for a nap but Bailey was too excited to nap. I was trying to get done a million things and it was not the time for him to refuse his nap and so I turned off the monitor so I couldn't hear him playing in bed. When I turned back on the monitor I could hear him singing "Happy Birthday to Jesus." I found it hard to continue to be upset with my little guy for being so excited. We then headed to Preston's parents home to celebrate with his family. We have the tradition of retelling the Christmas scripture, opening presents and then enjoying a yummy dinner. The twins were absolutely spoiled by their Grammy and Daddy Bob and they opened about a million presents. They had fun helping to be Santa clause and handing out all the presents. It was fun to see all the cousins interacting as this was their cousin, Baby Mary Elizabeth's very first Christmas. After the fun Christmas Eve night we headed home to leave out cookies for Santa and his reindeer.

Pancakes!

This morning I asked the twins what they wanted for breakfast and my Bailey said "Pancakes, Mom please, Pancakes!" I couldn't say no to my sweet boy and so pancakes it was for breakfast. I pulled up two chairs to the counter for my little helpers. Gracie and Bailey loved helping out with the process and it made a sweet memory that I will always think of whenever I eat pancakes.

Happy Birthday Jesus!

This week we stayed busy celebrating Christmas with our family and friends. We started the weekend with decorating Christmas cookies with our cousins, Lauren and Andy. The twins loved decorating the cookies and of course sampling the all of the toppings. We also attended a Happy Birthday Jesus Party that was hosted by Gracie and Bailey's friend Joshua. The party was so much fun. The kids made Birthday cards for baby Jesus, decorated an ornament, played a Nativity game and celebrated with their very own Happy Birthday Jesus cupcake. My friend Amy was so sweet to invite all the kids. The party was a great way to help reinforce that the big day really is all about the birth of our Savior!

Daddy's work Christmas Party

Each year we look forward to Preston's work Christmas party. He party is held at his CEO's home and they invite all of the families to attend. It is so nice that they include the children and have activities for them like a visit from Santa Clause. Gracie and Bailey were both just starting to get sick so they were not 100% into Santa. Santa gave them both a special present and he also gave them piece of chocolate which Bailey is still talking about. Every time we mention Santa now Bailey says "He gave me chocolate!"It has been fun this year watching twins celebrate Christmas. They love to rearrange the ornaments on the bottom of the tree and it doesn't bother me a bit. The Christmas tree really is for them to enjoy so why should it be off limits. We did have one instance where an ornament was broken "one of my favorite ones" but it was a perfect opportunity to talk about forgiveness and true reason for the season. Gracie loves playing with their Little People nativity set and she rearranges all the people on a daily basis. We are doing lots of Christmas art projects and the handmade ornaments that they have been bringing home from school are priceless. Both Gracie an Bailey can answer the questions of "where was baby Jesus born" and "why did God send us baby Jesus." I love seeing the magic of the season through their eye's and I can't wait to continue with the holiday fun.

Where Memories Begin...

Our trip to Disney World was magical and we definitely made memories. We left from Tampa on the Friday after Thanksgiving and stayed in Orlando for a week. We stayed at The Marriott Royal Palms in a villa that we shared with my parents. My sister, Mary Ellen and her family had already been in Orlando for a couple of days when we arrived. We visited the Magic Kingdom two times along with Epcot twice and we also went to the Animal Kingdom. Preston and my Dad spent one day at the Kennedy Space Center. We read books and talked to friends about taking our little ones to Disney in order to prepare for our trip. We went with our Mommy and Daddy intuition and decided to take the twins home each day for a nap and I am so glad that we did. They were simply exhausted and it really seemed to allow them to enjoy the experience. I was shocked at how well they did as they never complained about having to wait in line to ride the rides. Gracie absolutely loved all the characters and she knew how to pose just right for pictures. Bailey wanted nothing to do with the characters and he would start clinging to us when they came near. However, by the last day of the trip he was reaching his arms out to touch the characters during the parade at Magic Kingdom. I loved seeing his little face light up when the characters stepped out the the parade to touch his hands. Both of the twins loved the rides and they would stand in line saying "it is my turn." After the rides they would beg to go again and again. Poor Bailey threw the biggest fit when it was time to get off "It's a Small World" because he loved seeing all the dancing dolls so much. We enjoyed breakfast with cousins Lauren and Andy at Chef Mickeys where we received lots of special attention from all the characters. We were very thankful to have Granny and Grandpa with us to help hold hands, guide strollers, wipe bottoms or whatever else was needed. Part of the twins favorite experience at Disney were the different modes of transportation. They loved riding on the tram that went from the parking lot to the park and they were fascinated while riding the monorail. Each time they would sit down to ride they would yell "All aboard." Gracie and Bailey became little travelers on this trip and would ask questions like "Where are we going next mom" and "can we go to the vacation house."I was so sad to leave such a magical place but it did help to brighten our spirits that we were headed home to a decorated house for Christmas. We are hoping to return to Disney in two years but for now we will always hold tight our magical memories!

The Twins Third Thanksgiving

I can't believe that this year was my twins third Thanksgiving! Wow, where does all the time go? This Thanksgiving I was thankful for my wonderful husband, our healthy family, our children learning to love God, and that I am able to stay home with my children. One thing that the twins reminded me of this Thanksgiving is that I am especially thankful that they love each other. Preston and I have really worked hard to teach them to care for each other, to share, and to help each other. Of course we always have our moments of jealously, fights over the same toy and episodes of antagonizing one another but for the most part, I believe that Gracie and Bailey really love each other. It is hard to explain but their relationship is very unique and I love watching them interact on a daily basis. We have shared with them their story about being born early together and fighting together in the NICU to get strong. This Thanksgiving we traveled to Tampa to spend Thanksgiving day with my Aunt Debbie before heading to Disney World. While traveling the twins did the best that that they have ever done in the car on our 7 hour road trip. One thing that I brought with us to keep them occupied was their 1st Birthday video that shows pictures of them from their birth to first Birthday. They loved watching the pictures of themselves as tiny babies. The video brought tears to my eyes and reminded me of their fight together. On Thanksgiving day I loved watching them hug, hold hands and play together. I hope that Gracie and Bailey will always stay close and truly love each other. I am one very blessed Momma this Thanksgiving and I am so excited to be heading to Disney World with my family of four!

Enjoying the lake together in Tampa, FL

Bailey and the orange tree!

Gracie loved her cousin Khloe's four wheeler!

Thanksgiving Traditions

I love that our family has set traditions for holidays and one tradition is that my mom always celebrates Thanksgiving early with a house full of family and friends. We spend the entire day celebrating together with different events for everyone to enjoy. This year we started the day with playing cornhole in the backyard. The weather was beautiful and I will not brag that my team won! We then all enjoyed a wine tasting hosted by my sister Mary Ellen and her husband Brian. After sampling the wine our appetites were ready for a Thanksgiving feast. I think it is safe to say that we all stuffed ourselves. We finished the day with the annual bunco competition and ofcourse Thanksgiving desserts. It is a given that whenever our family gets together that we are celebrating a Birthday and this weekend we celebrated my sister Paula's Birthday. The twins always love singing Happy Birthday, helping to blow out the candles and of course eating Birthday cake. The cousins had a blast playing together and the twins seemed to fit right in with the big kids.

The Vacation Bug

So I have had some people tell me that I should put more hectic chaotic twin life stuff on my blog to not make our lives look so "happy go lucky!" I guess none of us really like to share the "ugly stuff" in life because it is just no fun. I love looking back and reading my blog and I do think it is good to share all the parts of our life because one day I will be able to look back and say "wow, we survived that!" I have blogged before about the vacation curse of our kids always getting sick when we go out of town. I promise our kids are never sick which is a huge blessing but you can pretty much guarantee that if we are going on a trip then one of the twins will have some type of ailment. So here the story goes for those of you who want to know what it is really like to have twins! We traveled to Macon for an early Thanksgiving weekend and as soon as we made it to Grandma's house Gracie said "my ear hurts." She has never had an ear infection so I really didn't pay it much attention as my kids can say just about anything. We go into grandma's house and she is pretty fussy but we get the twins settled into their beds and we hop into our bed. I turn to Preston and say "I hope this isn't a rough night since Gracie was fussy." As soon as we lay our heads on the pillow we hear her start to cry. After pretty much flipping a coin we decide that Gracie will sleep with me and Preston will sleep in the other guest room with Bailey's monitor. Gracie flipped around and cried on and off all night and so finally at 3:30 I went in Preston's room and said "I have got to get some sleep, your turn." Half asleep he stumbled in to swap places with me. I got about two hours of sleep until Bailey woke up. He was still adjusting to the time change and it usually takes about one night for him to get used to a new sleep arrangement. So I put Bailey in my bed with me. So we have Preston and Gracie in one guest room and Bailey and myself in another guest room and a nursery with two empty cribs of course. We all got up at around 7:30 and we were ready to enjoy an early Thanksgiving with family. At the breakfast table Gracie started pulling at her ear and so I knew we had to take her to the pediatrics after hours but we already knew where it was since last time we came to Macon she got an eye infection! My mom kept Bailey so we didn't have to expose him to any icky germs while in the doctor's office. After being weighed Gracie announced to the entire office "I am all better now, we can go home." She was such a good girl for the doctor and she didn't fuss or cry at all when the doctor looked in her ear which made us very proud. She brought her little bunny along and she played doctor with bunny while in the office which was so cute. We pretty much expect this scenario now when we go out of town. I think Preston and I work pretty well as a team and hopefully we can eventually stomp on this little vacation bug!

Happy Halloween to You!

Gracie and Bailey had anticipated Halloween night for so long. After carving their Jack o Lantern with Daddy they were so excited to put on their costumes to get ready for Trick or Treating. I worked at the Hospice IPU during that day and the twins did not have school so they spent all day with their Grammy. She told me that all day long they would tell each other "Happy Halloween to you!" When we arrived home from Grammy's we had to have a little lesson on trick or treating and on handing out candy. At first Bailey cried "no that's my candy" when I told him that we were going to give it to the neighbors. I guess that is just how a 2 year thinks. He felt much better when I explained to him that we were keeping the candy in his treat bag and that we had a different basket which we called the "share basket." When Daddy got home we practiced with having him knock on the door and Gracie and Bailey would give him candy from the share basket. We only took the twins to a handful of houses to go trick or treating as it was very cold and it was plenty enough of the experience for them. They had just as much fun handing out candy to all the neighborhood kids. Now it is time for us to start learning all about Thanksgiving!