Coloring

I don't usually allow nuks during the day, but it's the only way to keep her from eating the crayons. And even then, sometimes after she finishes, her nuk is tinted red or orange....

And here is Adam's bristle-block "mixer"-- because the middle stick "goes round and round."

fun with babies

Happiness
is two funny, cuddly babies
and a warm afternoon to play in.

Nicole's first time coloring!

Big blue eyes, anyone?

sleep training

It's amazing how bad things can get without you realizing. Three nights ago, our son would keep himself awake by keeping his light on, playing, singing, whining-- anything, until we went to bed. Then he would sleep on our floor. He would not sleep in his bed; he insisted on the light on and the door open. It was pretty bad.
Well, I can make my peace with the door open, but the rest of that had to go.
So, we decided to cut all of it at the same time. We made him a new nighttime chart and got him a star nightlight. We make him sleep in his bed with his light off, and we're teaching him to put himself back to sleep instead of getting up in the middle of the night. We still have some screaming every now and then, but for the past 3 nights, this has been the result:


Glorious.

Merry Christmas!

We had a lovely Christmas, with lots of well wishes and many more presents than we expected for our two little ones! They thoroughly enjoyed themselves, and I think Adam even gets the concept of Santa Claus now. Nicole had caught Adam's cold and had the worst of it today, but she still seemed to have fun. She was just extra-shiny in the pictures. :D

Our living room looked like toyland!

Adam went straight for Nicole's present...

...and she went straight for the pile of presents wrapped in paper!

Playing Godzilla with the train set.

Rockin' on his guitar. :D

Their own little table!

Putting together his new puzzle.

A huge set of things that go "round and round"-- what could be better?!

We had a great time playing with our kids and calling different family members. If we didn't get to you, sorry, but the time difference makes it challenging! :)

We hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas, and had time to reflect on the real meaning of Christmas-- on Him whose birth we commemorate with this most special of holidays. Jesus Christ, who gave His life for us that we might repent of our sins and become clean enough to return to our Heavenly Father, is truly the greatest gift we will ever receive. May you feel His peace in your life as you remember Him and begin another exciting new year!

when life gives you lemons...

... get out some pictures of your kids! :)
Actually, life's not giving us lemons, just lots of stuff to do. This time of year, the schedules seem to fill up fast. Which is why I decided to take a minute and get all the pictures off my camera. These are the best ones:

Finally! They stay in!

Well, good luck to you all as you finish your holiday preparations, but remember to schedule in some down time to just be with the people you love. Spread the joy. :)

cuteness

Just wanted to show off the cuteness of two little babies, ages 1 and 2!



And a funny story about Adam-- he's getting a little too smart for his own good!
Steve told Adam to stay on our door mat if he wanted to watch his daddy carry stuff from the car. Steve was busy for a minute, then turned around. Adam had moved to door mat over to the energy meters that he wanted to look at, and was carefully standing on it.
This is not the first time he's been quite literal or even downright sneaky, and we know it won't be the last. :D

lately

We've been dealing with- you guessed it- another staph infection. On both of them. We did a round of antibiotics but it didn't go away... at least it's fairly small dots, for the most part. So they finally gave us this stuff to put in all of our noses so we'll quit passing it around. I hope it works-- my family's coming for Thanksgiving soon!

But there is still fun to be had:

Babies-in-a-box. Love it!

park pics

We've been to Meadowdale Park (the one I was telling you about) several times, but it's always been getting dark and my pictures don't turn out well. So we will do a better post on it later; for now, here are my faves from last time:

cute dress

This is Nicole in her cute little Sunday dress. She wore it once, and the next week we couldn't button it. I'd probably be a lot sadder if I hadn't gotten it on craigslist!


Yeeaahhh... this is what happens when you look cute around Adam. He likes to squeeze you.

self portrait

Adam was looking for something to do, so I told him to draw our family. He came back to me with this and said, "It's A'am!"

favorite phrase

Grabbing her up in a hug: "I wuv Cole!

Costumes!

I finished Adam's and Nicole's costumes in time for our Halloween playgroup today. Here they are:

Adam is Puff the Magic Dragon
(based on the children's poem Custard the Cowardly Dragon, not a drug- you can look it up on Wikipedia)

Nicole is Little Bo Peep (who has no sheep)

it looks cute without the apron, too




Now it's time to try them on!

Adam's is too short again-- I think next year I'm going two sizes up!

He didn't like it because it was tight in the legs

Nicole thought her sleeves were pretty cool- she went around flapping them

I tried the hat on her, but it only lasted about 10 seconds

it's hard to walk in this, Mom




So we went to playgroup:

Well, at least the pajamas have a dragon-looking print!

They had a good time, and we even got home in time to do lunch and naps at the usual time.

motley picture assortment

Here are some clips from our life that I found on our camera:

More Adam art: This is our family. If you ask him about it, he will tell you (from the left) it's, "Daddy, Mommy, A'am, and Ni-cole." Apparently Adam and Nicole are jumping on the bed.

This is Nicole in her winter coat. She thought the hood was great fun and ran around bumping into things.

This looks like a scene from the Bunny Football Playoffs.

Aw, here he is looking all sweet and innocent.

Meanwhile, Nicole is chasing Daddy-with-the-camera all over the house. These aren't flattering, but they do show off her (*gasp*) molars.

We have also found and fallen in love with a glorious new park that is close by. Pictures will follow as soon as we can go when it's not a) getting dark and b) too cold to stand still.

Howarth Park

We ventured out to Howarth Park, in Everett, right by the piece of the Sound that touches Everett. It had stunning views, lovely picnic areas, and interesting playground toys. We went in the evening, and it turned colder than we had planned, so the playtime was short. Adam and Nicole still had a good time:

riding the dinosaur together

this picture cracks me up!

deciding that they're having fun


look, mom, no hands!


a single-person "round and round"


i like this, but i'm cold....

an example of the gorgeous views to be had from the picnic area