We're BACK!

It's been forever since I've been to the blog. But I'm back!

We had a great time in LA and got to see a lot of family and friends. The babies did quite well on the airplane each way. But they both are suffering from colds and poor Libby gagged herself and threw up alllll over me on the way home. It was awful. The flight attendant was so helpful in handing us like 1 napkin. Thanks. And since we were in the back row, a man waiting in line for the bathroom offered to help, too. As I was covered-- all over my shirt and pants (yeah, but none on the seat or wall whatsoever-- just all on me), I looked at him as if to say, "Thanks, but no thanks." Poor guy was only trying to help. And I saw him with his wife and 3 kids at baggage claim. So at least he could relate to throw up. Luckily, Darrell carried on a fleece zip-up jacket, so I wore that as a shirt home. I looked great.

Now we're back to work and to our routine and all is going well. Drew has been going through some strange moaning and whimpering at night. He just wants to make sure we're still here. As soon as you enter the nursery and stand by his crib, he stops. Wierd. And so not like him at all. Guess he's realizing just who we are! But I'm sure it will pass.

I'm still a little nervous about them not sitting quite yet. They are 9 months old tomorrow and most babies have done it by 6 mos. I know my siblings and I all sat late, but still. It will be so much easier to sit them down to play! That sounds horrible-- like I want them to do it for my own selfish reasons. Ok, partly true. They can both sit for about 30 seconds and then PLOP on their face, back, or side. Not even trying to catch themselves. Their sitter Brenda says not to worry since they're getting better each day. She practices a lot with them, so that's good.

Gotta run and do a few Cayenne Paper orders, but have already posted some of the 500+ photos we took over the holidays. By the way, we LOVE our new camera. We got the Nikon D40 (thanks for the recommendation, G and P!) and it's great. I feel like the paparazzi since it's so fast. Much better than our old digital camera. It was tooo slow and we never caught those quick moments you see with babies.

Christmas 2007

Sorry it took so long to post some photos, but I had to sort through about 550 of them! We had such a fun time for the babies' first Christmas and got to visit a lot of family and friends.

Mr. Mischief

After dinner tonight, I went to the sink to rinse the caked on green beans off of me. I turned around and saw this-- my little rascal had taken off his sock and put it in his mouth like a dog. I don't know what was funnier-- the sock being in his mouth or that goofy smile he kept on his face for about 2 minutes. He is a little ham, I tell ya. Then I looked at Libby and she just stared at him like he was crazy. They certainly keep me entertained!

Christmas Portraits and Card

We had portraits taken last week, so I thought I'd post a couple of cute ones. I used them for our Christmas cards, too. I just love how Drew is sticking out his tongue. His funny personality is really coming out lately!

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas!

We went to see Santa at Cox Farms down the street on Saturday. It was a very cold day, so we bundled up! The babies didn't mind sitting on his lap, but we couldn't get them to both look at the camera for the photo. We had some hot cider and kettle corn and went to buy our tree. I know we looked foolish having someone take our picture, especially when Darrell and I were looking so rough. But it's now documented that we went together to buy our tree for their 1st Christmas.

Now my house looked like Santa and his elves came in and just threw up everywhere. There are boxes and boxes of decorations, lights, ornaments, and the like in every room. I look at all of it and suddenly become overwhelmed. It literally took us 4 days to put a few lights on the house and the wreaths on the windows. Neighbors probably thought we were crazy. One day, there was 1/2 strand of icicle lights, then 2 wreaths on random windows (missing the 6 others), then garland on 3/4 of the door... you catch my drift. Am I crazy, or does every year it seem like you have to go to Target, Michaels, Lowe's, etc. about a zillion times to buy the same thing you had last year? We put garland out last year, but suddenly this year, we're short. What the heck?

We finally finished outside. Although, I'd like to put more lights out, but D doesn't find it amusing to climb up on our roof to have the icicle lights hanging from our gables 3 stories up. "But Clark Griswold did it every year and he had it much worse," I say. Not amused.

Then we move inside to the decorations. I put up as much as I want this year. But then I spend time rearranging over and over. Now I look at them and want to start all over. I think I want all new decorations. Can't decide... then the tree. We had it soak overnight and now it's in the stand. Yay! That only took 2 hours. I'm excited to put the lights up. But wait, someone's crying, then it's dinner time, then bath time, then bedtime. I come back downstairs and look at our sorry tree with one strand of lights covering about 1/8 of it at the bottom. And they're still lit. It took all of my might to put the rest of the lights on. Oh, and about 3 more hours as I multi-task Cayenne Paper orders, etc.

Now it's Monday night and we have a beautiful tree, but still with just lights. Pretty, but lights and only lights. Think the babies will notice if we stop there? Only kidding, of course. I'm slowly realizing that this is how life will be for a while. All that free time I had before to spend an entire day decorating. Now, it's just lights.

Did I tell you I have a Dept. 56 village with about 10 buildings and a zillion accessories? Yeah-- it's still in the box.