'Twas The Week Before Christmas

..And all through the house, Not a creature was sitting still-especially not the mouse.

 

Yes, now that the boys are 'skilled' walkers (been walking for about 3 1/2 weeks), they have figured out how to DESTROY our house.

 

We haven't put any cabinet locks in our kitchen- we don't really see the need.
They boys Love to pull all of our tupperware out and play with the pots and pans - besides the occasional pinched finger, there hasn't been any issues, so we will let them have their fun!

 

Since last week was such a busy week with appointments and play dates, I decided to keep this week pretty lazy and enjoy time in our house before the Holiday craziness begins.

 

 

Sunday we had breakfast with Grandma & Grandpa! They boys are such good eaters that it is so easy to take them out to eat with us now!

They sat for over an hour and ate an entire Pancake, 1 scrambled egg and 1 banana!

 

Granpa and his boys :)

 

 

This week I have an order of 15 Pumpkin Rolls!

As of right now, I have finished 10 of them.

 

Our plans coming up::

 

Friday night Brad and I are going out! We are celebrating his Momma's Birthday! So my momma will be babysitting :)

 

Saturday is 1 more day of relaxing- finishing presents and making our dishes to take to our christmases.

Sunday is Christmas with Brad's family.

Monday is Christmas with my family.

Tuesday is Christmas in Ohio

then Friday night we will be driving to my extended family Christmas for the weekend!

 

It's going to be a LOooong 7 days- but I can't wait for the boys to open their Christmas presents from 'santa'!!

 

Blake hasn't been taking his morning nap these past 2 days.  He seems to think he is all grown up :)

 

It's nice that they are capable of staying up for 6 hours without a nap, but I'm already missing the time to get stuff cleaned, made, and taking a shower!!

 

Well, it's lunch time for the boys!

 

<3

 



Doctors and Dinosaurs!

 

Another week has passed and what a FUN week it has been!

 

 

Sunday we took our 'formal' Christmas pictures!

 

They turned out good! The boys look SO handsome in the outfits their Aunt Suz got them :)

 

 

 

Monday we had our '9 month' Doctor appointment (Yes, we are 10 months old)

 

Here are the stats::

 

Eli is 

 

21 lb. 1 oz.

29.25" long

45.5 cm head circumference

 

Blake is

 

21 lb. 2 oz.

29.25" long

46 cm head circumference

 

So basically, they are identical. Again. :)

They are in the 60th percentile for weight and height (meaning they are taller and weigh more than 60% of boys their age)

And they are in the 85th percentile for their head size!

 

Everything looked great though and the doctor was shocked they were walking so well and drinking from sippy cups so well.

 

They got 2 shots -

Hep. B

Flu Shot

 

That was a rough day for them- we had to skip their morning nap because of when the appointment was scheduled, and with shots on top of sleepiness= not happy babies.

 

But really, they did great and within 2 minutes of driving down the road, they were asleep!

 

Wednesday...well. it was AMAZING.

 

The boys and I met Steph and Maylee at the Children's Museum!!

I have never been before- but I knew the boys would love it.

We met there around 11am- Steph has a membership to the museum and was incredibly kind to let us come with her for FREE.

We had such a great time with those girls!

When we got to a room that our kiddos could play in, I took the boys out of the wagon and they both RAN in opposite directions.  I was shocked.

I thought they would stand still for a minute to take it all in- or they would stick together so they would have some comfort in each other... I.WAS.WRONG.

 

They wanted to run, play, chew and watch EVERYTHING.

I was having a blast just watching them explore!

 

 

Just a few shots of the boys exploring with miss Maylee :)

Gosh it was such a fun and amazing day!

We really can't thank Steph for letting us go with them!

 

 If you look close, you can see that little boy running away from me!

 

 

Some other funnies from this week:

 

Mommy filled up the pack-n-play with balls!!!

 

Blake has learned his first word!!!

"Hot"

 

We kept saying 'hot' when he was trying to touch outlets and christmas light bulbs and the oven..ect..

So now he says 'hot' a lot!

We went to the library tonight (thursday) and a little girl was playing there. Blake walked over to her, sat down right next to her and said 'hot'.  HAHAHA  

He loves to say that word!! It's so cute and so amazing listening to your baby understand and speak to you! Melts my heart and makes me smile so big.  <3

 

 

 



Deck the Halls

 

 

This week has been so much fun, and it's only Wednesday!

Turning 10 months old seems to have 'clicked' another switch with the boys.

I have been reading a lot on naptimes as the boys get older.

I'm pretty sure they are starting the process of cutting out their morning nap.

 

Every morning they have been staying awake for 3- 31/2 hours!

They are taking a much later morning nap, and shorter (Of course, we can't miss our meal times!!hahaha)

 

Speaking of meal times::

 

 

 

Last night we FINALLY got our tree set up!

And it isn't even our original tree!

We took a quick trip to Goodwill and Brad found this beauty!

 

It was a $200 tree- 7 1/2ft HUGE tree. Goodwill was selling it for $30!!

The picture below is how we have it set up- we took the back half of the branches off and the entire bottom row, and it is still this big!

 

 

Blake wasn't a fan of the 'pokey' branches

But Eli loved it! :)

 

 

So today I tried to snap some 'official' 10 month pictures of the boys!

They are just too darn cute!

 

Here is our 10 month update.

(We have a doctor appointment on Dec. 10th- so I will be getting updated numbers on their height & weight then..)

 

--We have switched over to Size 4 Diapers now!

-I have cleaned out their clothes and packed up all of our 12 month Onesies

 - we are now totally in 18month onesies and shirts! *We are still in 12 month pants and will be for a while- they have such broad shoulders and big bellies- but tiny waists!!*

 

--They are completely walking now! It is very rare that they crawl anymore.

--Walking = BIGGER MESS. Now they can carry all of their toys everywhere with them! So all of their toys end up ALL over the house!

 

--Because they are walking, they can wear jeans now! As you can see in the pictures above, they look super cute in jeans! We have avoided jeans up until now, because jean material is so tight that when they would try to crawl, it would restrict their movement too much. They would end up sitting on the floor crying because they couldn't move.

So we can wear jeans now!!!! I love it!

 

Along with walking, Blake can now stand right up without having to hold on to anything or use an object to pull himself up! He puts his hands on the floor and sticks his booty in the air - and BAM! He's standing up and off running!

 

It is so amazing watching them walk. It is also amazing how much they love each other.

All they do is follow and chase each other around all day.

They are always together. It's so great that they have someone to play with 24/7!

 

 

 

It feels like so much has been happening this week in only 3 days! I am having so much fun watching them grow and playing with them everyday!

 

<3

 



Cookies and Santa!

Yet another week has flown by!
This week the boys turned 10 months old!

Hard to believe! As it feels like we just brought them home from the hospital! (I can remember those hours like it really was yesterday.)

 

On Saturday, I hosted my first 'Cookie Exchange Party'!

I have been planning it for about 1 1/2 months and I was SO excited about it.

 

We had a great turn out of 10 people.

Each person brought 3 dozen cookies and we went around testing their cookies and everyone voted for whose cookie they thought was the best.

I had Hor D'ouvres out for everyone to snack on

-Bruschetta

-Pin Wheels

-Sun-Dried Tomato and Basil Cheese Spread & Crackers

 

Along with those we had;

-Hot Apple Cider

-Hot Chocolate Bar

-Coffee

-Wine

 

At the end of the party, everyone got to load up their containers with 2dozen assorted cookies from what everyone else brought!
They were all so delicious!

 



It was a HUGE sugar rush-- I think maybe next year, we will set the cookies out and allow everyone to 'snack' on them- but not have to try each one to pick a winner. That was just a little too much sugar (I can't believe I just said 'too much sugar!')

 

It was really nice hanging out with friends and meeting new ones!

 

 

Today,Sunday, the weather had a high of 62-ish . We figured it will probably be the last decent/warm weekend this year, so we took advantage of it and made plans to go to Christmas At The Zoo!!

 

I have never been, and Brad hasn't been since he was a lot younger- we were so excited to take the boys to look at all the lights!

We were definitely blessed with the weather! The boys didn't need to wear hats, gloves..ect.. and Brad and I barely needed to wear jackets! Gorgeous night!

 

 

 

Can't tell if they boys are looking at the lights or the Flamingos in the background!

 

 

 

Daddy pulling the wagon :)

 

 

Blake and Daddy looking at the Reindeer!

 

Oh Yes-- That is a BIG tiger.. and the boys LOVED him! :)

....Let's find Santa!!!

 

 





This is the 'Official' Picture from the Zoo photographer.

He was such a great Santa! He sat there and talked to the boys and asked them questions and tried to give them a candy cane and chocolate...haha. Tried.

 

**Oh and the beard was REAL!**

 

 

Such an amazing weekend! But it just went too fast. I needed 1 more lazy day ;)

 

 

 

Here's a fun Sunday night 'trivia' game::

Who is Who????

 

 

BONUS POINTS TO WHOEVER GETS IT RIGHT!

 

<3