Thanksgiving

I returned home from the most fantastic visit with my sister, her husband and their new baby boy, only to realize that I have a million things to do before Christmas!! There's shopping, projects to be completed (or started?!), wrapping, decorating, baking, traveling... and blog posting! Yikes!!

Anyway, I have a series of photos from our Thanksgiving celebrations with both sides of the family. The boys had a blast playing with aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents and a great grandpa, too! They love all the attention they receive in big family gatherings and they can't seem to get enough of their cousins!





Great Grandpa has such a fun yard for running and exploring. The boys adored collecting leaves and stones, playing tag with Grandpa and investigating pine cones with Great Aunt Lou ... Dex even thought it would be a good idea to make a bed of stones.



Jax loved walking outside with Great Aunt Lou and eating Sonja's popsicle!


"Uh oh! Looks like we've been caught...."

The boys had so much fun exploring Great Grandpa's house!! There were so many fun things for them to look at! Mostly, I think they loved all the attention their uncle Jonathan and cousin Sonja gave them. With a house full of people, it's nice to know they're always with someone who loves them!

Jax and Gramma, hiking back home after a walk down the hill.

Playing in Grandpa's candy drawer was a huge hit.

Hooray for sippy cups!! D.R. gets a good cuddle with Reese, Jax and Dex...
Enjoying the sunset with Gramma (holding Jax) and Daddy (holding Dex).

Yipee!!!

We have a new nephew!! My sister gave birth to her first child this morning (afternoon?). I have yet to receive any details other than that he's gorgeous (as though I expected anything less!) and has a full head of dark, dark hair, dark beautiful eyes and the roundest and rosiest of baby cheeks. He's been named Isaiah Ollie and I am so unbelievably anxious to see him and give my sis and her hubby the biggest of hugs.

Of course, I'll be posting more on this later!

Holiday Treats

Though they may have been tentative, at first, the boys have a new favorite treat... krumkake! D.R. was sweet enough to give me a whole day of baking (undisturbed!!)... and the above are some of the fruits of that labor. I got together with a girlfriend and we had so much fun that I think it will have to become an annual event! I think the boys are hoping it will be a weekly event, as our supply of krumkake has disappeared. :)

More cuddles and giggles

Dex relaxes with Daddy after a long day of playing with his brother. Daddies are SO cuddly!
Jax snuggles up with his woobie... sometimes it's fun to just relax...


Jax had a blast trying to share his rocking chair with one of his friends. Of course, she looks a bit traumatized... The boys are so used to sharing each other's space that sometimes it's hard for them to understand that other little people don't always have someone sitting on/by them, poking/patting/hugging/kissing them. Most of their little friends have gotten used to their enthusiastic greetings and playstyle, though!! :)

Jax and M share a friendly gaze over the piano keys while Dex gets the ride of his life on C's shoulders!

Oh, How We LOVE Auntie T!

Yes, in recent days, the boys are cuddling more and more... though, they've been notorious busy-bodies and it is SO hard to convince them to sit still long enough for a good cuddle! Lucky Auntie T got to rest with Jax for a good 10-15 minutes! UNBELIEVABLE!! I'd be a little jealous if they weren't so darn cute together! :)

Storytime is so enthralling when Theresa is reading to us! (Jax-left; Dex-right)

Dating already?!

The boys had a chaperoned double playdate last week with the adorable twin girls that live next door. Seriously, how lucky are we to have a set of twins that live next door? The boys love having little playmates and I don't know what I'd do without their wonderful twin mommy! Who else could ever truly understand those twin moments that seem to fall straight out of the sky, right when you least expect them? You know, you're maneuvering two toddlers and four bags of groceries up the two flights of stairs to your apartment when, as if orchestrated to happen at exactly the same time:

- One twin starts to tumble down the stairs
- The bottom breaks in one of your groceries bags
- One twin catches the falling groceries, only to attempt to chew his/her way through a plastic produce bag
- You go to reach for the tumbling twin, when you run your hand against the old banister, getting the nastiest of splinters
- As you're rescuing the tumbling twin from a two-flight fall, squinching from the pain of the splinter and reaching your second arm back to stop the other twin from choking on plastic, you hear your car alarm going off and realize that, in all the chaos, somehow the alarm button got pressed on your car keys
- Then, as you are contemplating what to pick up first, your now crying twins (because one REALLY wants to chew through the produce bag and the other was scared out of his/her mind at the prospect of plummeting down the stairs) or your groceries, which have managed to scatter themselves throughout the entire apartment coreway, you smell the dreaded dirty diaper... and then, realize it's not one you smell, but TWO! AAGH!
- As you (FINALLY!) get through your front door, with two needing-to-be-changed toddlers and several arms-full of smashed groceries, you look at the clock and realize it's only 8:30 am and you still have nine hours to go until Daddy gets home! :)

My point is, it's great to have them as neighbors and we're loving the double playdates!

Dex goes down the slide

I took this short video several weeks ago. Today, both boys can climb up the stairs, walk over to the slide, get in position and slide down, all by themselves... all I have to do is wait at the bottom and cheer! I wish this showed Dex's face, because they just get so excited as they slide down!

Notice how he pushes his way down the slide, all by himself. They have never had any fear (except of the vacuum cleaner, but that's another story!). Of course, the landing is a little rocky... but adorable, nonetheless.

Seriously, last year at this time, they were little tiny bundles of baby, unable to even sit up! This year, they're tromping all over the place and going down slides! It just goes so quickly...

Gobble, Gobble

This is Jax, enjoying a morning snack. Yum-yum.

... and, sometimes, I just want to gobble them up! Can you blame me? I already can't get enough of these two little boys, and yet, they just keep growing on me! How does that happen? Is that just one of the little secrets of motherhood? Just when you think it's not humanly possibly to love someone more, you take one look at them, and BAM-- you love them more!

The boys are turning into two serious little cuddlers, which makes me oh-so-happy. This morning we played Tackle Mom/Tickle the Boys for ages... and ended in a giant ball of Mom and Boys, rolling around the living room. How did this become my life and how did I get this lucky?

Mama's Monkeys

Dex-left, Jax-right.

Yes, the chairs were on the kitchen table in the photo below. :) I have two little boys who can't seem to find enough furniture to climb! The kitchen chairs were becoming a bit of a safety issue, so they've been temporarily relocated. The boys were using them as stepping stones to higher and more dangerous locales, as well as standing on them backwards and rocking them. My goodness, imagine if the chair were to tip over! Yes, my heart has nearly stopped so many times I've lost count!

Now, you may be asking yourselves why I don't just teach the boys not to climb on chairs?

Try to imagine:

I'm working in the kitchen, when out of the corner of my eye, I see Jax climbing onto a kitchen chair. I race over to him, lift him off, look him squarely in the eye and firmly say, "No, Jax. No climbing on chairs."

By the time I've set him back down on the ground, I find Dex standing on another chair, rocking away to his heart's content. I scoop him up and repeat my firm rule. Before I can even set Dex down on the ground, I see Jax grappling to climb his chair again, anxiously trying to beat me to the punch. As I'm holding Dex in one arm, I reach out to grab Jax in the other. Arms full with two monkeys with one-track minds, I'm facing a quandry.... do I really want to spend the rest of my day (and believe me, I've done it) playing kitchen-chair defense or shall I remove the desired objects? Decisions, decisions.... :)

The Show Must Go On

Well, after four days of another family quarantine, we seem to be pulling through! I won't share the grisly details, but let's just say it was no fun. Lucky for us, the boys and I seemed to get sick all at once, with D.R. waiting a good day or two to join us. This means, we could take full advantage of Dr. Dad. Dr. Dad loves us SO much.... something we know quite well... but it is ever-so-evident in moments of sickness. True love is changing the crib sheets/jammies three times in one night, bathing sick babies, bringing mommy ice chips, soothing little guys in the middle of the night and providing all the moral support needed to make it through Family Sick Week-end (not something we want to make an annual... or umm.. repeated event).

So, we're all on the mend and the boys are rehearsing CONSTANTLY for new adaptations of their ever-popular, "The Dex and Jax Show." Above, Jax has discovered how much easier it is to reach the piano keys when there's a lovely couch cushion to stand on. Why didn't we think of that earlier?

Percussionists on the Prowl

Jax- left; Dex-right.

We've been savoring a string of unexpectedly beautiful fall days. Every night I fall asleep convinced I'll be awaking to a world covered in glistening frost. Instead, I've been waking up to lovely weather reports and 70 degree (yes, that's right folks... we pulled out the T-shirts today) weather! So, until winter decides to start freezing our beloved outdoors, the boys and I will continue to spend as much time as possible exploring, discovering and enjoying...

These photos were taken last week-end. Dex and Jax get such delight out of the sounds items make. In the top photo, they're gleefully patting the swing-set pole. It makes a ringing sound that absolutely thrills them. When do we stop taking pleasure in such simple things? :) We also have an outdoor "piano" that the munchkins can play. Of course the boys can never seem to get enough of this, as they can bang away to their hearts content. See how fast Jax's hands are moving in the photo at left? Hee hee. Do we have two little percussionists? Absolutely!

I had to post these photo of Dex. He looks like he's on the the prowl. What a goof-ball! Both boys walk with their hands and arms in the air, at times. It must have something to do with improving/maintaining their sense of balance... and it's absolutely adorable.

Bed-Head

One of the great advantages of having D.R. home more this year is the opportunity to spend some one-on-one time with each of the boys. Jax and I ran errands together last week-end, just the two of us, and it was so special! Forget the double stroller! I had the luxury of getting to hold one little guy in my arms while we leisurely looked for some new yarn for next year's sweaters. Please don't misunderstand me... I LOVE being a twin mommy. But there was just something so remarkable about being able to devote ALL of my attention to one child. Meanwhile, Daddy and Dex got to watch a little football together back home, which was equally meaningful for them.

These photos are of Dex... with a little bed-head. While Daddy and Jax played in the other room, Dex got his own personal photo-shoot with Mommy. What fun!

Daddy's Pair-of-Aces

The boys thoroughly enjoyed their second Halloween last night! We had to cancel our open house, as the boys had both had high fevers the night before. They seemed fine yesterday, but I just didn't want to risk having a house full of toddlers... you know, the whole sticking everything in your mouth toddler craze makes it SO easy for germs to spread! Anyway, the boys loved watching with excitement each time we opened the door to hand out candy. They especially loved trying to escape through the front door each time! Lucky for us, they only managed to wiggle through once... and it was so cute, we just had to let them run around our outdoor hallway for a few minutes. The delightful squeals were just too adorable...

Dex was the ace of hearts (except in the above photo... somehow they switched costumes mid-evening!) and Jax was the ace of diamonds. They were pretty proud of themselves in their little costumes! I discovered that using foam, as opposed to cardboard, meant the boys could squish and bend the costumes all they wanted, without the risk of damaging them!


To wear or not to wear... that is the question!

Yes, we are definitely hot stuff!

Just one more dance before we settle down!