Merry Christmas

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas. I have lots of pictures that will have to be posted when I have more time. We have been so lucky this year to have such a wonderful family and to be able to be home and spending time with them.
Have a safe and happy new year too!

Our Texas travels

Whew we are here and well. We were to fly out at 8:30 am on Saturday but our flight crew got in at 2 am so they had to rest before taking off again. Then there were a few engine problems, then bathroom problems. Eventually we got in the air around 11 am. The best part is when the pilot came on and said we are still having bathroom problems so if you have to go #1 that's ok but the other one will have to wait. We got into Newark and thought we missed our connection but it was delayed so it worked out perfectly for us. We caught that flight and arrived into Houston at 7:30. Let em just tell you there were lots of people in the Newark airport that didn't have flights. I hope they all make it home for Christmas. It's stressful being in the airport with no flights and small kids.
We had some issues at the rental car place when they tried to fit our family of 5 with luggage into a Rav 4. Seriously? We were given infant seats instead of convertible car seats. About 9:30 we got it all figured out and headed to my sisters to finally go to bed. Very long day!
We have had a blast and been on the go since we got here. Sunday we did Christmas at my brother's with my most of the family. Monday Aaron and Ashley went to the mall and the babies and I met up with some friends to hang out. Later in the afternoon we headed to Louisiana. We are here now eating some good ol cajun food and spending time with the family.
It makes me realize how much I miss home.

What a day!

I did a little packing yesterday and got caught up on ALL the laundry, thank god because today has been one of those days. We had our Christmas last night so the babies stayed up until about 8:30. We had so much fun! We had a huge pile of boxes, wrapping paper in the living room the babies crawled in and out of it and played with their new toys. Ashley got all she ever wanted she was very surprised, so that is good. She got clothes, perfume, a docking station for her Ipod, robe/slippers, shoes, Betsey Johnson purse, books plus she has more stuff in Houston that I shipped there. It's so hard to shop for a 14 yr old let alone surprise them. Aaron did very very well this year with my gifts. He has really surprised me not only last night but in the past few months too. He got me a chocolate brown diamond ring, Wii fit, PINK Ipod, and a Kitchen aid mixer. I got him some clothes, PS3 and the Dark Night on Blu Ray. The babies got books, chairs, kitchen and a few clothes. I didn't go all out for them since I know they will get more stuff in Texas. Ok so that was our night. Our day whew...... we ate breakfast, Preston did not want to eat so I just let him down to play. After I cleaned up the house from last night we played with their new stuff and things were going great until Preston screamed out. He was pushing the box from my mixer across the floor and it came out from under him and he face planted right into the floor. He was gushing blood and of course I freak out and start bawling. I pulled his lip up and it looks like when he fell he smashed his top gums with his bottom teeth. I gave him a frozen teether to suck on and some Tylenol and he seemed fine after about 45 mins. Boy did it scare me though. I didn't realize how much they bleed from the mouth.
Once the excitement from Preston settled down Lily decided it was her turn for the spotlight.

Take a look...........

Picture perfect

I have been pretty busy the past week trying to get laundry done, clean house, wrap presents and get ready to leave for Texas. Not to mention we are doing our Christmas tonight for the kids, Aaron and I.

Lily stuffing her mouth with her new favorite....... marshmallows!!

He makes the silliest faces!!

Some snow pictures Ashley took a few nights ago.

This one is pretty cool.

Meal time is always a fun time at our house. I am wondering why I left their clothes on?

After lunch we went to play in the snow. Preston was NOT amused!

Lily threw a fit when it was time to come in.

Christmas memories

A few of my favorite one liners from some of the best Christmas movies:

Christmas Vacation-

-WORSE? How could things get any worse? Take a look around here, Ellen. We're at the threshold of hell.
-Oh, Eddie... If I woke up tomorrow with my head sewn to the carpet, I wouldn't be more surprised than I am now.
-Where do you think you're going? Nobody's leaving. Nobody's walking out on this fun, old-fashioned family Christmas. No, no. We're all in this together. This is a full-blown, four-alarm holiday emergency here. We're gonna press on, and we're gonna have the hap, hap, happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tap-danced with Danny f***ing Kaye. And when Santa squeezes his fat white ass down that chimney tonight, he's gonna find the jolliest bunch of a**holes this side of the nuthouse. (had to clean that one up)
This is my favorite Christmas movie of all time. Chevy Chase is friggin hilarious.

Christmas Story-

-Fra geee ley, that must be Italian.
-He looks like a deranged Easter Bunny.
-You'll shoot your eye out
-It's a leg

This movie never disappoints I watch it over and over during Christmas. In fact there is a station that shows it none stop for 24 hours, good times.

I can't wait to grab a drink, some desserts and settle in for a night of Christmas movies.

The best husband

My husband is so sweet. I had a massage scheduled for today at 5 pm. Around here you take whatever appointments you can get even if it's at 5 pm. *Or family pictures done at 10 am on a Monday (yup I checked Ashley out of school to take pictures)
So Aaron took off a little early today. I went and spent the evening getting a much needed massage. If you have never had a massage ladies this is something you must do for YOURSELF! After that I headed to Michael's to shop with me, myself and I. When you have kids you forget what it's like to go to a store without a diaper bag, stroller, kids, teenager........ it's pretty nice I must say!
So the massage therapist told me I have some pretty bad knots in my back that I need to relax more. She said I should try and stretch a few times a day. Relax with a book or take a long hot bath. These are things I never do so I am setting a goal to start doing more relaxing things. She even suggested just sitting for a few minutes, deep breathing and rotating your shoulders to loosen things up.

Snow in the south

Yup that's right snow in Texas and Louisiana. We thought the weather here was strange....... ha, yesterday it snowed down south. Here is a snowman that my in law's made in their front yard. We haven't even had enough snow here to make a snow man. Our snow melts as fast as it comes...... for now!!!

Christmas crafts

Now that I am all done Christmas shopping and making my cards I am itching to do more crafts.
I am currently working on gift card holders and a little something for the little kids in the family. I have been scouring the internet and blogs to find some cute things. Even if I don't do any of these this year I have lots of ideas floating around in my head for next year. Just look at some of the crafts:
Skip to my Lou she has alot of crafty things for all holidays and I especially love this family tree. Next year I will have to start thinking about Christmas in September just to get all my crafty stuff done.
We did manage to get our family picture taken this week......... they will be in the day AFTER we leave to go to Texas. Oh well at least we got them done. They turned out really cute too. The lady that took them had a great way of making the babies look at her and laugh. Some of them I had to say no to because we were cracking up at the babies and looked really goofy.

**Links are in white. Fixed.

More snow today

This morning right before we were leaving to go to a Christmas party it started snowing really bad. Just look at it. We decided to head out and slid a little coming out of our neighborhood. Boy am I glad I wasn't driving, Aaron said it was because it was fresh snow. I can see I will be staying inside alot this winter.

A few from the Christmas party.

Poor Lily, I am sure she is thinking didn't we see him already.

Updates

Well the snow came and went. There is no more snow and it hasn't snowed since Wed. According to my thermometer the temp right now is 33. Hopefully it will snow this evening since we are planning to go to a local park to the lighting ceremony. Ashley has her school Christmas ball tonight so stay tuned for pictures.
The babies are great. They are doing really well with the tree and decorations. We haven't put the play yard around it yet. We let them help us put up the tree and let them touch all the ornaments and play with the stockings. I guess now it's lost it's luster the way I see it if you keep telling them no they will WANT to keep doing it. The stairs are a different story I am not ready to let them hike up the stairs just so they won't want to do it anymore.
I am also happy to report they are on 100% whole milk. The nurse said to give it another try when they reach their original due date which was 12-2 since they were 5 1/2 weeks early. I tried last week, eventually went to 100% and it stuck. No turning back now!!!
No bottles or formula ahhhh the freedom.

In case that snow comes back......... we're ready!

Preston mitten...... it's going to be hard keeping these together. I might have to buy more.

Lily's mittens

Stand up big girl!!!!
Did someone say TACO?

Snow! Snow! Snow!

Yup that's right on my way home from getting my hair did I drove through snow, lots of snow. Well in my mind it was lots. The cars already showed signs of build up so it's definitely sticking. Yipee I am so excited!

I have been a little video happy lately

With all the new things the babies are doing I have been trying to get lots of video, here are a few.

Lily standing


Preston bouncing on the duck.

Just a cute one of them dancing

Turkey goes out, tree comes in

Well not the case this year since we didn't cook a turkey or even eat turkey on Thanksgiving. It's pretty sad that this Thanksgiving was probably the first I have not had turkey.
Any who now that Thanksgiving is over we started our holiday tradition of decorating the house. On Saturday we put up our tree, hung our stockings and got the Christmas season started. Our day started just like it does every year. We get out all of the Christmas boxes, light all the smell good candles and put on some Christmas music. This really gets our family into the holiday spirit.
On Sunday we went to brunch with our Houston friends then to downtown to the Santa parade. It was surprisingly long, lots of floats, bands and high school cheerleaders and dance teams. We had to bundle up a little but it was really fun!

Aaron showing Lily the star....... notice the half lit tree, gotta love the pre lit that half the lights don't work

Preston and Lily playing with the ornaments they dumped out

she sat for about a second with that hat on

helping decorate?

No it's not Preston's first hair cut. Ashley put the tree skirt on him!

Finally Ashley wants to be in a picture

Ashley's snow man she decorated.

Notice NO HANDS!!

This should go here.

Is it Christmas yet?

All done.

Bundled up for the parade

Stay tuned for lots of videos.

Thrifty tip

I was reading a blog and came across this terrific site <-----click, that gives you cash back on your online purchases. You just go to the website see if your store (over 900) is there and click on it. 4 times per year they send you a check or direct pay into your Paypal account. I wish I would have found it before I checked out on some of my favorite online stores but hey being in Canada I am sure there will many more online purchases. Be sure to check it out it really is cool and couldn't we all use a few extra bucks!!!
Now back to my online Christmas shopping.

Happy Birthday to......................

ME! I am the big THREE 3 1 ONE today. Thank you to everyone who called and emailed to wish me a happy birthday.
I can't tell you how thankful I am that this year nothing major happened on my birthday. Last year at this time was was the worst birthday ever a day I don't want to remember but will never forget.

Giving thanks today

I am so thankful for lots of things not only today but every day of the year. I feel like I am the most blessed person in the whole world.

Here are a few things I am thankful for:
1. My family. I wish everyone had the family I have. We really are a tight knit group and I think that has helped me become the person I am today. I only hope my kids will turn out the same way.
2. My husband who never asks where's dinner or do I have any clean underwear (he knows to check the dryer)
3. My kids who brighten my each and every day.
4. Being able to give back.
5. Getting to spend another year with my grandparents.
6. My dad's strength that helps him recover from his heart surgery.
7. Modern technology that helps us stay in touch with friends and family.
8. The friends we have made in Newfoundland for opening their arms to us.
9. Ashley's great personality that helps her fit right in.
10. Baby Einstein and playrooms
11. My creativity that I get from my mom.
12. Hot tea, yes I said it HOT tea. It is something you get used to when it's cold outside.
13. Lily's laugh, she has a way of making you forget all about your moment of stress with just her laugh.
14. Preston's smile, anytime you look at him he just gives you a smile that lights up his whole face.
15. Ashley's sincerity, she is such a sweet and caring person
16. Mom and daughter (Ashley) moments
17. Airplanes to bring us home
18. My husbands ambition to do more in life
19. Cameras that capture every too cute moment
20. This wonderful life I have been given!

bye bye bottle

It's official the bottle is gone!!!!! By gone I mean in a box in the basement so not easy to access. I thought it would be difficult to get rid of the night time bottle but it was no problem at all. I give them their cup of milk in their play room or bed room while we read then to bed. I can feel the baby stage slowly drifting further away.

Also it's worth mentioning that I think they have started to speak where we can actually understand them. I have started teaching a new item each week or every few weeks. We started with duck, next we will do ball. It has worked because they both now know duck and can say it. We were at a store and Lily looked at some baby pajamas and said "duh" there was a duck on them, I got so excited!!

So far they have said: duck (du), daddy, momma (momomo), Ash (Ah)
Lily says: that (dat) and points
Preston says: thank you (day do)

I promise there will be more pictures. I have been slacking lately.

Here comes Santa Claus

We took the babies to see Santa this morning. I thought for sure Preston would be the one to freak out but it was Lily. She sat on his lap and cried and cried. The photographer had me sit on a stool and put her on my lap. She did ok after that. We tried to talk Ashley into getting in the picture so we could use this as our Christmas card but she did not want any part of it.

Getting ready to go see Santa

Aaron and I all dressed up for his Christmas party last night.

Milk issue again

I forgot to mention that when we went for the babies check up I was talking to the nurse about Preston's milk/tummy issues. She said that I should go to lactose free instead of soy. That more than likely he isn't having an issue with dairy since he tolerates cheese, yogurt, ice cream and other things with milk. She said that soy doesn't have as much calcium and that soy isn't milk at all. I knew that but figured since they were on soy formula than soy milk would be fine. So we are going to try lactose free until 18 months then try whole milk again. She said sometimes babies born early can have stomach issues when switching to whole milk. Eventually I am sure he will grow out of it.

rain rain go away bring the snow today

I know I am jinxing myself but I seriously thought we would have snow by now. We got nothing, just rain. As everyone around here says "just wait"
Aaron was in Halifax for a few days and he said there was lots of snow on the ground. Everytime I watch the weather for the U.S it talks about the snow storms in the east. I guess it just isn't ready to make this far east yet. We are ready though whenever the snow may come.
Here is a video of Lily laughing at Preston:

1 year check up

I took the babies for their one year check up this morning. They did a developmental check and said they were brilliant!! No really she said they both look like they are right on track. Preston had a mysterious rash that popped up out of no where so they didn't do his shots. We will have to go back to get them done. Lily did really well she only cried for a few seconds. I can't remember where they are on the growth charts but they are 50% for height/weight proportion so that's good to me.
Lily:
weight: 8.35 kg/18.40 lbs
height: 70 cm/27.55 in
head: 44 cm/17.32 in

Preston:
weight: 9.42 kg/20.76 lbs
height: 74 cm/29.13 in
head: 44 cm/17.32 in

So proud

I am so proud of my husband and Ashley. Friday the babies slept great. Aaron knew how tired I have been since the 2 days prior the babies didn't sleep. He got them up on Saturday morning and changed their clothes and got them fed. When I came down stairs at 9 am they were playing and the kitchen was all clean. It was so nice and relaxing. Saturday we went to Ashley's first stunt competition. Their cheer leading squad is separated into 4 stunt teams. Their stunt team came in first place. It was so awesome and I am so proud of her for finding something she really enjoys!
Sunday Aaron woke up and got the babies up again! I could really get used to this. We were invited to some friends house to watch football and eat chili. They just moved here from Sugarland, Texas in August. They have 2 daughters, 1 and 4 so that works out great. Their daughter A is just a few weeks older than the babies. So anyway they have this toy, Elmo Live, it's the must have Christmas gift but A got hers for her birthday. We were all sitting around playing, Preston was already kind of nervous so he was pretty happy when the toy stopped making noise and moving around. About 2 mins later Elmo throws his arms up and makes noise totally catching Preston off guard. He jumped back catching himself on one hand and screaming hysterically. I have never seen him do that so of course we all started laughing. He was truly scared of Elmo....... I can't wait until he meets SANTA!!!
Aaron noticed this morning that Preston has his 3rd tooth coming in on top. He was behind for so long and now he is passing Lily, she still has 2 on the bottom.

Tis the season to be nice

Today while I was out I noticed people being more nice than usual. For example I was at Costco buying a new sofa table since the box is huge and I have 2 babies and a cart full of stuff I asked the manager if he would have someone get the table for me and take it to my car. He did no problem but the guy not only brought it to my car he folded down my seat, loaded the table, all my groceries and asked me if I needed any help with the babies. Then I headed over to Michael's everyone there is always so sweet of course having the babies helps when the shopper's are mostly women. Anyway while I was loading the babies into the car with 3 of my doors and the back open to my car I noticed a lady heading for the car next to me. I said oh hold on give me a sec. She said no problem take your time the weather is nice I don't mind. Then she asked me how I was going to get the stroller in the car. I explained it folded nice and neat and has a permanent spot in the back. She even asked if she could watch, I think she was truly amazed. After I picked Ashley up we pulled over on the side of the road to take this picture. I love how still the water is and how the trees reflect into the water.

It makes my day when people, total strangers, are so nice. Maybe it's the season, maybe it's a sign of the times. Whatever it is I like it.

Why so tired baby boy!

This poor boy fell asleep in about 2 seconds while I was giving Lily her bite at lunch. The past 2 days have been horrible as far as sleep goes. I am hoping it's a growth spurt, milestone or whatever. My sister in law told me that when babies are about to hit a milestone they will start eating or sleeping differently.
Let's start with Wednesday. We had a playgroup so the babies didn't go down at their usual 10 am time. I fed them lunch around 11:30 since they were both fading fast. After lunch they went to bed and napped for TWO HOURS!! They were fine the rest of the day and I thought for sure bed time would be normal since it was 5 hours in between sleeps. NOT!!! So we put them down at their regular 7 pm time. They cried and giggled and blabbed until 7:45. I stayed up until midnight working on Christmas cards, Aaron played guitar. Why oh why don't I go to bed earlier? Around 5 am Preston started crying, not a whimper, an all out cry fest. I rushed in before he woke the almighty princess Lily. After a bottle, orajel, teething tabs I thought for sure he would go back to sleep. No way Jose it was party time. I put him in bed with us which we never do and now I know why. He jumped around, laughed, patted daddy's head. Around 6 am I put him back in bed and he went out like a light.
Thursday was a normal morning. The babies did not want to go down at 10 so I held off and fed them lunch then put them to bed. Once again long nap only an hour and a half. Bedtime, same thing did not want to go to bed. It was Lily's turn this time, she woke up at 4 am and I did the same exact thing I did for Preston the night before. She fell back asleep around 5 am. First I would like to say I don't know why I thought putting them in bed with us would work. They partied like it was 1999 and I can't help but laugh when Lily is lunging towards Aaron and laughing then looking at me wondering why he doesn't respond, it's called sleep sweetheart.
So today I made sure we stuck to our schedule of 2 naps. They did wake up a little earlier than normal so that was a great start. When I put them down at 10 I put Preston in the pack and play in the guest room and Lily in her crib. They slept so much better. We were on the road at 2 but they slept for about 45 mins. Let me just tell you they were begging me to let them go to bed tonight at 7. Hopefully they will not wake up. If they do it will be ok though because.....

I will miss these days once they are gone.