New Year's Eve

I can't believe that my baby boys will be 1 year old tomorrow! Time has certainly flown by in the blink of an eye. As I put the boys to bed tonight I got a little sad thinking about how fast they are growing up and it's weird to think about not having a baby in the house anymore. We survived an amazing year getting to know these amazing little people!

My Own Bed

I have been gone for almost 2 weeks and I am looking forward to sleeping in my own bed tonight. I will expand on the trip details tomorrow!

Heading Home

Tomorrow morning we are packing up and heading home as soon as everyone gets finished eating breakfast. We are planning on driving straight through all 7 hours to Pennsylvania and only stopping when the kids need to eat. I am hoping that the trip will not be too painful especially since Wyatt only has one song that he likes to hear over and over and over again when we are in the truck...The Wheels on the Bus. I can say from experience that it doesn't matter if you pretend not to hear him yelling "Wheels...wheels...wheels" he will dramatically add the gestures to his yelling until you finally decide that listening to the song can't be any worse than him yelling and madly gesturing from the back seat for hours on end. Packing the truck tonight was a monumental task for John and I. We were forced to make decisions like "Which can we live without for a while... Tickle Me Elmo or the toy microwave?" Then I began having conversations with myself like "Well, the microwave does entertain Wyatt for a long time...but he accidentally closes the boys hands in the door sometimes...but Elmo takes more batteries......but the microwave can be used to cook more than just pretend food... Wyatt can put his animals in it... should I really be encouraging him to put animals in the microwave...did I leave a jar of baby food in the microwave after dinner...I'm hungry...I think that I am going to go have a piece of birthday cake." Then John would say "I found room for both Elmo and the microwave" and I would say "What? I'm eating cake" Thus went our packing. I'm sure that we will be forgetting half of what we arrived with, but we are hoping that it is not essential stuff like the Wheels on the Bus cd because that would be a really long 7 hour trip!

Snow Day

We enjoyed a nice big Michigan snow today!

Happy Anniversary to Us!

We celebrated our 10 year anniversary today! Sammy decided that he needed to fall asleep for his naps next to me in my bed all day today! Let's hope that this was a 1 time thing!

Pizza Man

We ordered pizza tonight from a local pizza place that is a favorite of John's family. As it turns out, it is apparently a personal favorite of Wyatt's as well. He seriously ate 3 pieces of pizza like it was a magic trick and he had some stuffed up his sleeve...only he didn't! Tomorrow is my and John's 10 year wedding anniversary. We will be spending it at the annual Rodgers Christmas party which is kinda fitting since they all spent the day with us ten years earlier! So we will not be spending our big 10 year anniversary on a cruise or some fancy vacation, but we will be surrounded by family...I can't think of a better time than that!

Merry Christmas

The boys had a great Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa Rodgers, Great Grandma Rodgers, cousin Triston, Aunt Mari and Uncle Marc! Dinner and bedtimes were a little hectic, but we managed to get a few cute shots of the kids before everyone melted down!

Christmas Eve

We opened gifts this morning, went to church, and then drove to the West side of the state. We got a picture of everyone at church tonight visiting Baby Jesus in the manger before church started.

Hard Hat

I should have bought Jonah a hard hat for Christmas. He is at that age where he has more bumps and bruises on the front of his head than he does hair on the top! I remember when Wyatt was at that age and I felt like I could never get a picture of him without some kind of purple or blue mark on his face. Jonah is not walking yet but he gets injured a lot when he is cruising on furniture. He lets go of one piece of furniture to lean to another and move along, but often he miscalculates when he should be letting go. If he happens to get it right, then Wyatt will push him over or bump into him and he always manages to land on something face-first. It will be a miracle if he makes it to age 2 without some kind of brain damage! We are doing Christmas here tomorrow with Grandma and Grandpa Davis and then leaving to go visit Grandma and Grandpa Rodgers on the other side of Michigan tomorrow night. I always enjoy driving across Michigan on Christmas Eve. We have done it for 9 of our last 10 married years (except for last year because the boys were just about to be born) and it is kind of magical. We say goodbye to my parents, get packed up in the car, play Christmas music on the radio, and drive across Michigan. We have had some really snowy scary drives on Christmas Eve where we weren't sure that we would get there easily, but then we got our truck with 4 wheel drive and ever since then we have never driven through Michigan on Christmas Eve in the snow. Funny how those things work huh? John's parents are always waiting up for us and this year will be special because we didn't get to see them last year for Christmas and this year we have 2 more little guys to enjoy! I am hoping that we have a few more Christmas' where we can travel with the boys before they want Santa to come to their own house. Right now it looks like there is a big storm moving across West Michigan tonight and tomorrow with high winds and ice so we will be traveling very carefully tomorrow night and praying for a safe and uneventful Christmas Eve trip.

All Done

Today I officially finished all of my Christmas shopping. I don't usually wait until the last minute, but this year I still had some stuff to finish up. I did get some really good deals at the last minute though, so it was all worth it! Wyatt is still enjoying the train (even though it "falls off" the track more than it stays on it with the help of little feet and hands). Grandpa even got him and Wyatt matching conductor hats to wear! It's hard to believe that this is actually Wyatt's 3rd Christmas...I can hardly remember Christmas without him!

Daddy's Here

John got into town today and everyone was excited! He seems to think that Sammy has grown since he saw him on Monday. Actually he does seem a lot bigger lately, but Jonah is also pretty small so I never really know if my perspective is just off. Tomorrow I might get some weight and height measurements and plug into my online growth calculator to check out their percentages. Here is a funny picture of Wyatt enjoying his bath with some extra bubbles!

Bouncing Around

Happy Birthday Kathie!!!!

I didn't take any pictures today and it's not because there weren't any photo-worthy moments mind you! I could have taken a picture of Wyatt throwing a royal fit at REI and throwing himself down on the floor in the store and rolling around, or one of him leaving the house in his jammies to go feed the ducks in 10 inches of snow, or one of him asleep in bed for the night at 5:40 pm because he didn't nap a wink at all today, but I will spare you the trauma of seeing those kinds of photos and post a cute picture of Sammy and Wyatt that I took last week. I have high hopes that tomorrow will be lovely with beautiful pictures to accompany the commentary...after all tomorrow is another day. Happy Birthday Grandma and give us a call when you get your present in the mail!

All Aboard

The boys had a lot of fun playing with the train at Grandma and Grandpa's house today, but I think that Grandpa is exhausted! I will add the pictures tomorrow when I figure out how to use Grandpa's new computer!

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

We celebrated Grandpa's birthday with him tonight and are leaving for Michigan tomorrow morning.

Rocking

Sammy has finally taken the tiniest first step in learning the crawling process. He still has one leg (and a giant head) that gets in his way, but I am seeing progress at last!

10 Days of Christmas

Tonight we had Christmas with Keith. He got the boys some really cute clothes and animal flashlights! Based on everyone's reactions, the gift opening may be really exciting this year! I can't wait!

Clepto

I went to the dollar store today to get stickers for a little craft project that I am working on with Wyatt and when I left I loaded up Jonah and Wyatt in the truck then when I lifted Sammy out of the shopping cart a purple candle fell out from under him. He stole a candle from the Dollar store! There was no way that I was going to load the other two back into the cart to return it either, so we now are in possession of a candle that is hot. I guess that he takes after his Aunt Allison....

Onion anyone?

My favorite smile!

Posing 101

Apparently this is a standard pose at our house when you are almost one year old. This would be super cute if they were in little miniature karate outfits with the caption "wax on....wax off" under it, but otherwise totally useless as a necessary baby skill or talent!

Dad's Vote

This picture is being posted per John's request. Nuf said!

Left Out

Wyatt was feeling left out today when I was trying to get some good shots of the boys, so he insisted that I get some pictures of him!

Aunt Christina

Sammy had a crush on Aunt Christina and didn't want to leave her side at Thanksgiving. He has good taste for a baby huh?

CMOM Christmas Party

The Annual Family Party for the Mothers of Multiples was today. I worked with one other girl and we were in charge of the whole party (except we got some help today from a friend of mine who was awesome). We hired Santa, rented a hall, ordered food and cakes, planned crafts, and got presents for all 99 PEOPLE that RSVP’d! It was a lot of fun and a huge success in my opinion. I got several comments from kids and parents alike about how this was “the BEST party ever”, which left me feeling very satisfied with all of my planning efforts. I think, though, that some of the credit should go to Wyatt. He helped end the party with a big surprise when he pulled the fire alarm and the fire truck showed up! The firemen were very thoughtful and let all of the kids get on the truck and look around (after they realized it was a false alarm) which was the perfect ending to the perfect Christmas party don’t you think?

Peeping Tom

Test Shots

I took some practice shots of Sammy for the birthday picture today and got some good ones, but here is my favorite that didn't make the cut!

Tub Time

This has been an easier way to give the boys baths lately than individually in the laundry tub. Plus they have so much fun together!

White Christmas

Looks like it is going to be a white Christmas this year! We shoveled for the first time today!

The Smile

Lately it has been difficult to take a picture of Wyatt smiling. As soon as he sees me with a camera, he hides his face or runs away. I figured out a little tip today that seemed to do the trick. All I have to do is say "Wyatt don't look at Mommy and smile....don't do it" and presto, I get smiles like this! I had no idea that reverse psychology could work on somebody so little, but I was wrong!

Cookie Monster

Wyatt helped me bake some Christmas cookies today. He was in charge of the sprinkles, so obviously I have to scrub my floor tomorrow, but it was a lot of fun!

A Vote

Which outfit is your favorite choice for the twins 1 year picture? I bought doubles of all three of them, but I can't decide which I like best.

Banana on the Cob

This is how you eat banana on the cob!