~~Flashback Friday~~

With Christmas right around the corner, I wanted to "re-visit" a Christmas past. This is from Christmas day 2005. The twins were 18 months old. This was our first Christmas home. We did not travel anywhere this year. It was a nice quiet day. We stayed in our Christmas jammies all day! This is mommy and her babies! Jim took the picture with my prize possesion that year, my new digital camera!

~~Award Day~~

Today I got to take a trip to school for my first awards ceremony. Caitlin was selected to get a good citizenship award. Every month, the school counselor goes into the classrooms to discuss different traits that make a good citizen. Then the teacher picks students in the classroom who best represent those traits. This month, the trait was compassion.

Caitlin was surprised to see me there. I did not tell her I was coming. She was excited though. Unfortunately, that ended FAST! The children had to stand up and face the audience and recite the school motto. Caitlin did fine until she had to face the crowd, then shyness kicked in! She would not recite the motto and tried to hide behind her hand. Poor thing! So, for the rest of the ceremony, she was embarrassed and would not really look at anyone or smile. Then at the end, she did not want me to take her picture. I tried telling her how much her daddy wanted to see it since he could not be there for the ceremony, but that didn't help...so here are they best I could get! Silly Caitlin, but I sure am proud of her!!

She was so excited to see me there!

Caitlin and her "stage fright"

She was no longer all smiles!

Standing in line with her award

Her best "pose" with her award.

Flashback Friday~One day late~

Sorry, we are late for Flashback Friday since we have had sick kids in the house all week! (No fun!)

These are from the fall when the twins were almost 2 and a half. Jim was playing flag football and they wanted to be just like daddy! I don't think they realized you only put one set of flags on to play! They had a GREAT day though! Enjoy the flashback!

Family Pictures

The day before Thanksgiving, we went to get family pictures done. I knew we needed to do them before Jim left on the 3rd. We went to Sears. We had an appointment, tho I am not sure why. We waited over an hour past our appointment time and with four and half year old twins, that is NOT always a good thing! The kids were really pretty good. Picture time was frustrating, they wanted to play, not pose, but we managed to get some great pictures! I am very happy with the end result even if the process was painful! Hope you enjoy them!

A Visit With Santa

Jim and I took the twins to Mac Arthur center a few weeks ago before Thanksgiving. We wanted to see how they would do with Santa this year before we got them all dressed up and took them for pictures.

Mac Arthur was wonderful. They have their Santa display set up like the movie "Polar Express". Christopher and Caitlin LOVED it. There was a conductor for them to talk to who did magic tricks, they got to pull the train whistle and the brakes. (Caitlin was upset at how loud the brakes were!) Then they watched a little bit of the movie with "snow" falling down on them. Finally it was our turn to see Santa. They hopped right up on his lap. They talked to him and laughed with him! I was so happy! I think we have FINALLY gotten past the fear of Santa. So now, for the next few years at least, I think we can get some good Santa pictures!

We went back on Wednesday after school. We had to take Jim to the airport so we decided we would do Santa pictures that day. (I really wanted Jim to be there for them!) So here is the result. I am very happy with it. Now I just need to figure out where I am going to get a pink unicorn with purple wings!!

A Trip to Bass Pro Shop

Bass Pro Shop is one of the twins favorite places to go. They love to see the fish in the tank and see the "animals" (okay, so they are trophies). We often go there and just let the kids watch them feed the fish. Well, for the holidays, they have set up a winter wonderland complete with Santa. Every weekend, they have a different craft you can do with the kids too. So here are some pictures in the winter wonderland. They are from Jim's cell phone, so hopefully they look okay.

Flashback Friday

I am stealing this idea from several of my friends who are doing flashback Fridays. I love the idea of putting up some of my favorite pictures from the past of the twins.

So, here are today's flashback pictures:
Christopher at about 20 months

Caitlin in her first "Diva" pose at about 20 months

Just Like Daddy

For anyone who doubts that Christopher wants to be just like his daddy, here is a picture worth a thousand words! Christopher put on Jim's sweater and then posed for daddy! I just love this picture. He is so much like his daddy!

Hunting Day

The weekend of Thanksgiving, Jim took the day to go hunting. That meant a nice lazy day for me and the twins! We stayed in our jammies all day and played games. Here are a few pictures of the twins just being silly! And then posing with daddy when he came home empty-handed. (And I am always secretly glad he comes home with nothing!)

Our Thanksgiving

We stayed here in Virginia for Thanksgiving this year. We invited some friends over to share the "feast" with us. Jim made a deep fried turkey and I made an oven roasted one. There was so much food! We had a wonderful day. It was so nice to be surrounded by friends. And everyone took home leftovers! Hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving too!

Fun Fall Days in the Leaves

Last Sunday after out trip to get the stitches out, the kids played outside in the leaves! They LOVE this time of year! Playing in the leaves became a favorite thing to do two years ago when they "helped" daddy rake the leaves. Since then, they look forward to fall every year so they can play and jump in the leaves! Jackie's girls were over for "Football Sunday". So they played with the twins in the leaves. What fun!

Toss the leaves up high!

Handsome Boy

Pretty Girl

Becca and Caitlin after a "jump"

Playing in the Pile

Christopher

Christopher and Becca..his girlfriend??

Christopher, Hannah, Emily and Becca...his harem?

Caitlin and Becca...good friends!

Getting Our Stitches Out!

So...five days after the field trip to Williamsburg, it was back to the doctor to have the stitches removed. I was a little nervous, but figured Christopher would do okay. I headed up to Ft. Eustis to their Urgent Care facility. I was hoping that I could get in and out. What I discovered is that they have changed the way they do things. You now need an appointment to be seen at their urgent care and you have to be a patient there. So...off we went to Langley. (I hate going there! I have NEVER had good luck with urgent care there.) Today was no different. We had to wait for about an hour. (Not too bad, but longer than I wanted to wait to have three stitches removed) We went back and then it was pretty fast. The nurse came back first and then the doctor. Then the nurse came back with someone to "hold" Christopher's head. He was so good. They barely held his head at all. He stayed nice and still and continued to amaze me with how brave and calm he was. This whole experience has just shown me what a little man I have. I guess he really is growing up! I know he will always be my baby, but he isn't a baby anymore!

Waiting to get the stitches out


Close up after the stitches were out at home

Christopher's First Trip to the ER

On our field trip to Williamsburg, we had a little mishap. Christopher tripped and fell on the bricks. He had his hands in his pockets, so he could not break his fall with anything other than his poor face. He managed to split his head open pretty good. He couldn't decide if he was Jack from Jack and Jill..or if he was Humpty Dumpty.

So, off the the ER Jim and I went with Christopher. He was so brave and calm. I was so proud of him. He listened to the doctor and co-operated very well. He got a topical anesthetic to numb his forehead. (It was on a cotton ball) He thought it looked like a marshmellow and wanted to know why the nurse taped a marshmellow to his head. It was very cute. Then the doctor came in and got him all ready to go. He got to be a "mummy". (All wrapped up in a sheet to keep his arms down and out of the way!) She cleaned his cut with a "watergun". And he thought it was very cool! Then she stitched him up. Three stitches and he was all done. He was so brave and good.

So, we made it to almost 4 and half before our first trip to the ER. With twins, I am guessing that is pretty good! We survived our first stitches. And I know there will be more in the future, but I am pretty thankful this went so well!!

In the ER waiting room

Close-up

Kicking back waiting for the Dr

The "marshmellow"

My "mummy"

All done

Close-up

His "reward" surgical gloves