Christmas 2013

This was our first Christmas on our own, no parents in sight. Except Sean and I, of course. He was originally scheduled to work on Christmas day but another resident switched with him! A miracle!


We all opened lots of great gifts. Fresh playdoh was a fav, now constantly out on the table, along with some new art toys, activity books, a winter coat for me, a woodworking book for Sean. On top of it all, we found out we're doing a family trip to Destin with Sean's family in the summer!


How perfectly perfect are these hand-made hats by Mimi? Such lucky boys- Batman, a shark, and an owl.


Then the yearly wrapping paper fight!


Grey thought it was the best thing in the world.


Liam laid in the middle and let the chaos surround him.


After, we looked at our new treasures (or watched videos of ourselves) and were sweetly sweet.


It's been a fun holiday season. Liam and Dash were so so so excited for Christmas to come and had fun with all the Christmas decorations. They loved the idea of Santa- I've lost track home many times Liam has corrected Sean: "not Sanna, it's SanTa." Pronunciation is key. And, obviously, they liked wrapping paper.


Now the twins have never been big into singing but with all the Christmas music playing this month, they've joined the club. They like to sing the songs for real (like Dash here) and a silly version (like Liam here). I often heard them singing, "Sting Cheese is coming to town!"


Another sampling. They also quite enjoy Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

Every day it snowed they'd say, "it's snowing, it's Christmas!" and I'd have to remind them how many days were left. That day when they visited with Santa and he asked what they'd like for Christmas, I'm pretty sure they both quietly whispered "mommy," which is so sweet and probably confusing for Santa. Sometimes they would pretend they were baby Jesus. Ah, Christmas is a magical time of year, made even more special with the best kids in the world!

Twinkle Lights

I always looked forward to the light show in Vernon Hills each Christmas.


Snuggled warm in roaming car, beautiful lights dancing about, it's the perfect little touch of Christmas magic.


Good news, my kids like it too! (Except this time it's Saint Paul's version).


P.S. Sunday was Liam and Dash's last day of nursery! They're SUNBEAMS next week! In PRIMARY! Blows my mind. (Thanks for the photo, Shara!)

Twelve Snippets

Mulched leaves in the yard makes for dirty snowmen. Also, it's hard to take pictures at night.


There's a video in the Children's Museum featuring the Blue Man Group that my kids have just walked on by in the past. This time they watched it three times and the finale (one of the Blue Men conducting sillily) repeatedly left them in stitches. My kids' laughing cracked up everyone else nearby.


Gentle brother wrestling.


Me encouraging Grey to walk which one of the twins caught on camera (I love that).


Grey likes to flop onto anything that's soft.


Some sort of grandson/grandfather greeting. (My dad looks good in a beard, right?)


Naps only come about once a month these days and they come in the funniest of places.


Grey is getting more and more playful and Liam and Dash LOVE it.


We found the Mary Tyler Moore/Mary Richards statue! I drank in classic television on Nick at Night as a kid, seeing this made me think I'm gonna make it after all! (bah dah da daaaaaaa DAH!)


GORGEOUS sunset while the boys watch our landlord break ice dams off the roof.


Grey woke up SO happy to see his brothers. Laughter like this is the best part of my day.


Went to the library to find they were making "Gingerbread" Houses! Pasting graham crackers onto little milk cartons works just fine in my book. Such crack-up smiles.

Kids and Cookies

We've made a heckalota cookies the last few weeks. It's harder to include Grey in the process but while we were making sugar cookies, he just snatched that rolling pin out of my hands and went to work. He was good, too!


Liam and Dash are magnificent helpers. Though no photos of the cookie decorating, when Liam poured half his red frosting over a Santa head in what looked like a Christmas masacre. And once Dash helped me crack an egg then accidentally put a finger in his mouth. We talk a lot about how we need to wash our hands after cracking eggs, so when Dash realized his mistake, he was convinced he was going to get sick and insisted he carry a throw-up-bowl with him everywhere. Oh, it's fun baking with kids.

Holiday Hop

Our little town had a cute little downtown party last weekend. Some of the shops were sponsoring fun activities so we went after the kid-friendly options. There was a Santa walking the streets but we only ever saw him from afar, we could never catch up to him. Quite fitting.


First Stop: the Pharmacy for some face painting. Dash was proclaiming, "I'm Santa!" from then on out.


Liam has been smitten with Frosty, lately, so a snowman cheek was perfect.


Grey observed. A shame, really, to waste those plump cheeks.


My goofballs.


Next stop: the pizzeria for gingerbread man decorating!


And eating.


Headfirst.


The crew who hung out together. Seeing half of the kids faces- that's a success still, right?


Final stop: the dentist where the kids rode a pony-driven carriage!


Grey was cool at first but not at last. He had an early departure while Liam and Dash finished it off. Fun morning adventure and no one got frostbite!

Bright Christmas

Christmas time is merry.


Christmas time is bright.


Christmas time is magical.


Wishing you a Christmas full of happiness and light!

G&G Christmas 2013

My parents came for one last visit before they moved and we had a little Christmas gift exchange. Grey's less excited about the new pants (I was very excited!) and more excited about snagging his brother's milk.


Dash and Liam were excellent gift openers, extremely excited for all presents, even pajamas!


Dash made my parents a little Christmas tree.


Liam made my parents a big Christmas tree.


Their big gift was an awesome tool bench.


It's a giant hit and they've played with it every day since!

Changing and Watching

My parents are retired. The house in which I spent the majority of my childhood now belongs to someone else. Mom and Dad pulled an all-nighter packing it up and now they're in Florida, ready to make the transfer to the new house when the truck arrives. Things, they are a'changing.

But the snow continues to fall, so let's just take a sit-down and watch for a while.

Kid Couch

How many emotions do YOU see represented here?

Boys Decorating the Tree

(I didn't get a picture of Grey and I have mommy guilt)

Thanksgiving 2013

Well, something's going on with my computer that I can't figure out. None of the virus/malware scans have found anything but it's moving horribly slow, I can only have one or two things open at once and it's constantly freezing. It's taken me four days to edit a few photos and get them onto Flickr, so pardon my lateness!

You'll recall that we all got sick around Thanksgiving. This is what we each looked like when it was our turn:

little sickie.


But that did not stop Thanksgiving from happening. My parents came up and we had lots of delicious food. My favorite was the butternut squash puree.


Lucky Liam was well enough to eat some of it.


Unlucky Dash mostly abstained. (and we'd just woken him up from a five hour nap. Sers)


Grey was ill as well but cutely so. He even managed a few nibbles.

So much for my first time hosting Thanksgiving. Perhaps next time, eh?