Family Pictures 2010

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Because the boys always have a birthday at Christmas, it works well to get professional pictures taken for everyone. We were very happy with how our family picture turned out, but as you can see from the pictures, Joel was not very pleased with the entire process. Unless he was sitting by us, he would not cooperate. It was a very frustrating time, but now seeing his picture just makes me laugh. We'll use it as incentive for next year! It did make it easy to choose since the boys had very few that even turned out!

Christmas Cookies!!

The 3 kids rolling and cutting dough
Joel very intently working with his dough
Caleb rolling out a batch...Bakers hard at work!



Notice how much decorating is being accomplishedLove that frosting!!!


Since we have already been to WA, we are enjoying spending Christmas at home this year. It's been nice to not be rushed and to create some traditions at home together. One tradition I decided to try with was to make shape cookies with the kids this past week. Kiera and I have done it before, but I wasn't sure how the boys would do. Boy did they love it! I was impressed with how well they did and of course the decorating was the most favorite. I will admit that we will not be serving these to anyone as they may have been loved and patted a little too much! Anyway, we are enjoying them!

Happy 2nd Birthday Caleb & Joel!!!

Caleb is in light grey, Joel is in dark blueCaleb was really good at blowing out the candles...Joel had no interest.
I love Caleb's face here...he is such a clown!
Celebrating birthday's with twins is always a challenge. You want them to have their own special day...but they always celebrate with someone else. We wanted to get an individual picture of each with their cake...but Joel did not want that. In this picture he is so upset because Caleb isn't in the picture too! We had to finally put Caleb in the chair next to him, just out of the picture and then he was fine! Too funny!

Caleb loving his cake!
Gotta love John Deere green!!!

Playing with their new dry erase table from the Van Hulzens.

Enjoying the Little People nativity


It's hard to believe that we have made it through year 2 with twins! What a lot of work but such a wonderful blessing they have been. It is so fun to see their personalities develop and the strong bond they have. They only time they are separated is when they are sleeping. They love each other so much and bring so much joy to our lives!!!

Because the boys love tractors so much, we decided on a tractor cake. We thought we would just do one since this may be the last year we can get away with one cake! They loved the cake and made quite the mess eating! We had Ryan's folks and sister & kids over for pizza and cake Saturday night. The boys loved opening their presents and having people over whom they love very much. Today is their actual day and we are enjoying being home together just playing and relaxing. We hope you enjoy the pictures of them celebrating their special day!

Thanksgiving

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For the past 3 weeks, we have been in WA celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas together. I did a very brave (or just plain stupid) thing by flying out with all 3 kids by myself. The trip out wasn't so great, but the trip back went perfect. Ryan was able to fly out for the week of Thanksgiving which allowed my entire family to be together for the first time in 3 years! We had an awesome time seeing my new niece and nephew, playing hours of Settler's, celebrating birthdays, hunting for the perfect Christmas tree up in the mountains like old times, chatting, eating out, shopping, witnessing baptism, and spending hours visiting together. It was so nice to be with my family and be spoiled by all! I could go on and on about our visit, but just know that we had a great time, the kids had a blast, and I enjoyed a very relaxing visit! How thankful I am for the family God has blessed me with!

A Cinderella Story

Once upon a time there was a princess named Cinderella...



Her evil stepmother kept her from making friends. But that did not stop her. She made friends with the little mice in her tower room...

Joel (the thirsty mouse)

Caleb (the sleepy mouse)

One dark cold night, they decided to visit the towns people for some candy...but the mice did not want to wear their ears...
After much whooping and hollering by the step-parents and quick footwork and picture taking, they managed to get these shots...


(notice Caleb's tail and he's stepping on his cheese tie)

Then they all went out in the night to get their candy.


They returned with much loot and very full of sugar. Then Cinderella tucked them in bed and patted their heads and said; "Sleep well my mice friends for tomorrow we snack!"


The End

Fun at home

I was trying to play my new piano music I purchased this weekend...somehow I was pushed off the bench!
I discovered the kids all sitting on the couch while Kiera read to them...cute! I think Joel is holding a flashlight in case he can't see the pictures well enough....
Those ridiculous binky's....
I took this picture and they both said "eese" and acted all goofy!
Not sure where Kiera went, but they took full advantage of her disappearance!

A picture is worth a thousand words...

We need some creative captions for these pictures...(Caleb left, Joel right, and Kiera way in back)


What happens when Kiera is doing school???
They were so proud of themselves at learning how to blow these party favors!

Harvest Festival

Our family picture on the hay ride...fyi, Joel is in blue, Caleb has green boots.





How about this one mom?

One of the few where everyone is looking.
Caleb arrived in a funk and it took him a bit to get in the spirit!

We took the kids to the local Apple Orchard on Saturday for their Harvest Festival. They have hay rides, train rides, a small petting zoo, pony rides, inflatables, and lots of food. We took a hayride out to the pumpkin patch to get a pumpkin (they were rather expensive, so we got one for the experience) and had fun watching the kids wander through all the pumpkins. We let the kids have a train ride and then just walked around looking at everything. I think their favorite thing was the stack of hay bales they had to climb on. It was so nice to have a fun family day and a relaxing weekend!

September

Kiera really enjoys Lego's and she's learning to build sets on her own.
This is what the boys were doing while daddy was watching the Vikings...watching Einstein.
3 of our neighbors have repaved their driveways this last month. The boys (and Kiera) have LOVED watching all the machinery. It entertained them all morning! I think the workers got a kick out of them.
Pushing their monster trucks while watching the cement truck...
Still watching....


Here's a video of the boys and their cars. They were making such cute sounds and very intent on their driving!

I can't believe another month has gone by and I haven't posted! We have been really busy with preschool and I guess life just gets busy! We finally were able to drain tile our basement and get everything back in. We ended up getting new carpet, so we learned how to install that on our own. It is definitely nice to have the basement back! I spent another week preparing for a garage sale and once we opened, we made about $30. It was quite disappointing to have put in all the work and then have few people come. I wanted to have it mid-July, but since our basement flooded, our garage was unusable. Oh well. We'll try for April when our area has their garage sales. At least all the hard part is done (the pricing). Ryan has been super busy getting our church ready for reopening. We added on a gym and tons of classrooms etc. We've been meeting at the Christian school for church and it was nice to be back in our building this past Sunday. At one point I told Ryan to put a cot in the locker room because he was hardly home! (: Now that our church is usable all the programs are starting up again. Kiera is super excited for Story Hour to start tomorrow. I will be teaching her class for the year. We had fun last year and are looking forward to another fun year. We just hope the boys are much healthier this year!
The boys have been their busy little selves, learning to bite, hit, and wrestle. Thankfully we seem to have the biting under control. They still love their cars and anything that Kiera is doing. They are finally starting to try talking and we are enjoying getting them to say things. They definitely keep me busy. I need to be watching them constantly as they are always testing the waters and getting into things. Silence is never good in this house!
Well, we will try to update more frequently, but can't make any promises!