Monthly Archives: December 2011

year in review: 2011 in pictures

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What a year it’s been!  2012, bring it!  Looking forward to what’s in store.

Christmas recap part 1

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Didn’t get a chance to blog all our pre-Christmas festivities with all the potty-training (and they are definitely potty-ers now, woohoo!)… so here are some pictures I want to remember.

what we’re up to…

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Yep… POTTY TRAINING. TWINS. {whew, I’m tired even typing that!} We finally decided to take the plunge. Because Jeff’s going to be off work for 2 weeks and I won’t have to try (and I’m guessing fail) to train two at once by myself, which kind of sounded like a minor form of torture. They seemed ready, but I was not going to claim it was happening until we saw how the first couple of days went.

They’re actually doing pretty well, I think (a little brotherly “competition” helps!) – but if you have any advice or tips to share (or just some encouragement to persevere!), we’d love to hear it!

Eyes on the prize… two kids out of diapers! at once! no daytime diapers for the foreseeable future!

…until then, pass the wine. 😉

Christmas with these two…

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Getting this ornament out of the box took me on a trip down memory lane…

As wonderful as that Christmas was – and at the time, it was 100% the best Christmas ever, in spite of squeezing in gift opening & Christmas dinner in between nap schedules and nursing and all that comes along with two babies – last Christmas was even better.  And I just know that this Christmas is going to be even better.  Christmas with our children is just so much better than the ones before–even though it starts about two hours earlier, I can’t sit at the table long enough to eat as much turkey dinner as I’d want, and I spend a good portion of it cleaning up behinds, chasing, & disciplining.

Their excitement for Christmas is contagious.  Everything is so exciting – “CRIMMAS TREES!” “CRIMMAS LIGHTS!!” “CHRIMMAS TRAIN!!!” I can’t help it – it makes me so happy.  I’m so much less stressed {okay, maybe this is partially because 2 mornings a week of preschool has helped me immensely in gift shopping, card sending, & holiday party hosting… I’ll admit it!} because who can worry when STOCKINGS! PRESENTS! BABY JESUS! O-NAMENTS! are so incredible?!

And then… the most important part.  Obviously we get to teach our children about the Lord daily–but the other day, as I sat with the boys putting a set of “nativity” window clings up and telling them the whole story of how Jesus came to earth as a baby to save us… it hit me.  What a privilege.  I get to teach my kids the real meaning of Christmas – I get to tell them about Jesus.  My own children… two of my biggest blessings… what a blessing to get to tell them about my Savior.  Thank you, Jesus. {I may or may not have teared up–yes, that’s probably quite sappy, and no, I don’t care.  Hi, my name is Lauren, and I’m an emotional mama now.}

So even though this season is busy & crazy – I know I’ve got to take time to remember & be grateful for why we celebrate it.  Whenever I forget, these two little boys remind me – Christ came to save me, and he’s blessed me far beyond my wildest imagination.  Thank you, Jesus…

school pictures… kill me with cuteness.

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I give you, the boys’ first official preschool picture.  Lock up your daughters…

You should’ve seen their individual ones, too… ooooh my. Those were ridiculously cute enough, but then they did THAT.  Put them together holding hands?  Yep, just go ahead & open my wallet for me.  Silly me for thinking “Oh, I just had professional family photos taken, I won’t buy the school pics” because then they come back all adorable and official-looking and you just cannot resist!

I’ll close with my favorite outtake…

Man, I love these boys – and I love this little memento of a year of preschool that they love so much!

oh christmas tree… (& a prayer request)

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Well, the annual “pick out a Christmas tree” night was a little anti-climactic this year… we went the day after traveling home from Ohio and the boys were exhausted – and promptly fell asleep in their carseats after about 5 minutes.

So… Jeff stayed in the car, and I walked around the lot until I found the winner.  Then we tried to wake the boys up to see the trees for a few minutes & take a picture (they are obsessed with Christmas trees) – they just wanted to go back to sleep.  Ha. So things didn’t go quite as I’d imagined it – but as Jeff wisely reminded me, that’s life with two 2-year-olds: unpredictable.  Just gotta roll with it.  So we did – and after putting the boys straight to bed early, he and I had a fabulous night decorating together, drinking eggnog, & listening to Christmas music.  Maybe next year they’ll find out what they’re missing out on… 🙂

Lane's little grumpy "why did you wake me up?!" face...ha.

sweet sleepy snuggly boy

They perked up when they saw the "GIANT!"

stud.

big boy!

They LOVED the decorated tree when they woke up the next morning.  We weren’t sure how two active, curious boys would do with the tree at this age – but they’ve been awesome!  I told them they can touch any ornament, just only with one finger (and clearly I put all sentimental/breakable ornaments at the top-& wrapped the hooks around each branch tightly!).  They seem to be more into turning the lights on & off with the step button (and C wants the lights on at ALL times – just like his mama).  So far… no ornaments have been broken, knock on wood!

We also wanted to ask for prayer for our sweet friends, Nick and Natalie, and their precious baby boy, Theo, who was born last week.  The doctors found some pretty serious issues with his kidneys about halfway through Natalie’s pregnancy.  When he was born, he had a very hard time breathing as well.  Thankfully, his breathing is completely normal now (praise the Lord!) but he has a long road ahead of him, as he just started dialysis because of kidney failure.  We know how hard the roller coaster ride of the NICU can be… so if you’d be praying for the three of them, we’d so appreciate it.  Here is their blog, Our Little Theo, so you can follow along.  Thanks so much!

thanksgiving in pictures.

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Apparently we’ve been too busy to post much… but here’s some of our Thanksgiving trip to Ohio (before it’s so late it’s actually Christmas).  We had a nice trip – got to see lots of family, eat way too much good food, and even went to the ZOO!  Grandpa & Grammie took us the day after Thanksgiving & the boys LOVED it.  We had so much fun.