The end of an era

Anyone who's been around our house lately (the last 6 months or so) has noticed something missing. An empty spot at the dinner table, a newspaper left unread, laundry piling up, and a cold pillow on the bed next to me.

David has been putting in long hours and yesterday finally realized the fruits of his labors from the last 6 months and the past 20+ years of building XOS. XOS has officially merged with a company that is a division of Danaher. Most people haven't heard of Danaher, but have heard of one of their many subsidiaries like Techtronix, Fluke, or Beckman Coulter. It looks like it's going to be a great place for XOS to continue to grow. XOS will continue on at it's current location, with it's current employees and management. David's Dad, and co-founder of XOS, would be very happy with the merger.

The picture below is David signing the final merger agreement on the back of his in-house attorney (apparently there wasn't any open desk or table space left available in the legal department with all the contracts and paperwork flying around).

They took the picture without any thought to the background. The project was code named "Project Saratoga." There's a Saratoga racing picture in the background. (For you non-New Yorkers, Saratoga Springs is a town north of Albany that hosts horse racing every summer.)

When I asked David how he feels about having a boss for the first time in 20 years, he said, "I feel sorry for THAT guy". True. Very, very true. I hope his boss can keep up with him, his employees barely can.

Everyone keeps asking David what he's going to do next. I think it's pretty obvious to anyone that knows him that he's an entrepenuer at heart. For now, he's committed to making sure XOS makes a smooth transistion and continues to grow. He will continue with XOS for as long as it keeps him excited. Who knows what the future holds or what venture or adventure will be next for us. Stay tuned...

Christmas Eve at the Farm

We celebrated a good old fashioned Danish Christmas this year surrounded by lots of family.   Christmas Eve we went up to David's Mom's farm for an early dinner followed by Risengrød, a scandanavian rice pudding.  David found the hidden almond and won a nicely sculpted marzipan pig.

It's not a Christmas party until we dance around the Christmas Tree and through all the corners of the house singing Nu Är Det Yul Igen (Now it is Christmas again).  We usually do it around the small tree instead of trying to move the big one out in the open.

 Then it's time for presents.  This year's theme was family presents.  Kadence caught on to the whole unwrapping thing pretty quickly.

We figured out that there's room in a box for Kadence...

...or Austin...

...but not Kadence and Austin.

 

Austin was sure he could squeeze in.

Then home to prepare for Santa and get a good night's sleep.

Wishful thinking

Someday Kadence will have hair and as I'm combing out the tangles or trying to figure out how to get the gum out, I'll wonder why I ever wished for her to have more hair. But for now, I'm clinging to the hope that SOMEDAY she will have hair. Today, though, she had a lock of hair big enough to put into a little tiny pony tail.

I know, it's pathetic. But honestly, it's probably a blessing she doesn't have more hair because she finishes every meal with wiping her hands all over her head. Plus Austin would have a better grip on her head when he wanted to hug her, that would not be pretty. He's such a hugger. Poor Kadence.

Nurse Dorothy Graduates

She did it! Dorothy graduated from Sage College with her Bachelors degree in Nursing. She has been an RN for years and decided to go back and get her Bachelors and Masters Degree.

We were able to attend the "pinning" ceremony where Dorothy was pinned with a non-traditional "Nurse Minnie" pin.

It was all made possible by Grandma and Grandpa Gibson's generous support. David and Grandma were glad they could celebrate with her on her special day.

It's not so easy with twins...

So with having twins you have to come up with routines for things that people with one child at a time don't worry as much about. For instance getting two babies up a set of stairs. Do you carry both? That doesn't sound safe. What if you slip? Who do you drop? Leave one at the bottom, take one to the top, leave the one at the top and go get the other one? Works ok until they're mobile. From the time Austin and Kadence could crawl up on their own, they have been. They think it's fun and it's safer for me to follow them up than to try to carry two squirming babies.

Another one is how to get two babies out to the car and into car seats. It was so much easier when they were in the infant seats and you just buckle them in and get them all settled in the house, put on the diaper bag backpack (with wallet and keys), take one down the stairs and leave them safely buckled in their car seat while you go up and get the other one. Then carry them both to the car, set one in their carseat at your feet while you set the other one in the base. Leave that door open (with twins you always leave a door open when there is a baby in the car for fear you will lock them in), go around and snap the other carseat and baby into the base, open your door, throw the diaper bag to the center console, close both back doors, hop in and you're ready to go. Whew!

But now that we have converted them to the bigger carseats, it's become a little harder (if you can imagine). The babies have to be carried to the car at the same time wriggling and squirming which means you can't carry anything else except the diaper bag backpack. If I try to let one walk, he'll take of in the other direction, usually toward the road, so that's out for now.

So the routine looks more like this right now. Put on coats and hats. Put on the backpack. If I'm lucky the babies will go down the stairs themselves, otherwise I carry one and coax the other one to go down on thier own. Then I pick them both up and head out the door. Once we get to the car, I set Kadence down on the floor by the van door where I strap Austin in while carefully blocking Kadence so she can't fall or climb out. Then I leave his door open and go around to strap Kadence into her seat. Open my door, throw the diaper bag in, and close all the doors.

The van broke down over the weekend and so we have a rental car for a few days. So after the pediatrician appt today the routine with the different car went like this. Carry out both babies and backpack. Unlock the car -it's not mine so I feel obligated to lock it which I rarely do with my cars. Put Kadence in the front seat (there's no wide open floor like in the van), toss in the backpack (I have to lean over to strap them in and the backpack gets in the way), toss the keys over onto my seat (which would usually be in the diaper bag), close the front door (because she'd fall out), take Austin to the back door just in time to hear Kadence click the door lock on the key that she saw me toss in and immediately went to investigate. Car loading process aborted, baby rescue initiated. Call David to get AAA locksmith on their way. Try to entertain Kadence. She was happily playing in the front seat for a while. She took off her socks and shoes, got her sippy cup out of the diaper bag and had a drink. Played with some other stuff from the diaper bag. All the while I'm outside the door saying, "Get the key, push the buttons" over and over. I didn't care if she pushed the unlock or the trunk button. Either way, I'd be in. Mean while Austin is getting more antsy to get down and walk around. We play peek-a-boo with Kadence. That's fun, but now she wants mom. By the time I get a call back from AAA, Kadence wanted out, Austin wanted down, and mom wanted a miracle. They said it would be 15-20 min. I told them we should probably call the police then. It didn't take long for the police to get there and the locksmith following right behind. The locksmith saw me standing there with a baby and said, "Oh you got it open?" "Nope, there's two babies, the other one's still inside." He got it open quickly and a little paperwork later we were on our way again.

I read this book about juggling twins and one thing they recommended was to make several extra sets of keys because you WILL lock a baby in the car (although, for the record, in this case she locked herself in the car). That's why I'm always so careful and leave doors open if the babies are in the car. This time I was foiled by a car I don't usually drive and a button-happy 15-month-old.

Happy Halloween!

It's Goldilocks and the Three Bears at XOS for lunch.

Kadence was hilarious with blond hair and Austin was so cuddly in his bear costume. 

Here we're at the Ward Trunk-or-Treat.  Yes, that's a recurring bruise on Austin's forehead.  I'm not sure how he got the first one, but just as it was healing up he walked into a corner of a wall in his bedroom and bruised it even bigger than before.

Bryson based his whole costume around having black hair and aviator sunglasses.  Not sure exactly who he was, but he ended up hidden most of the evening manning the fishing booth.

McKay had an idea for a good costume.

Austin spent most of the night pushing the stroller around the gym.  He must have walked half a mile.

Saturday we headed out to pick up a last minute pumpkin, and the snow storm was just beginning.

You can see the snow in the background of this picture the next day.
These are our Halloween babies!

Indian Ladder Farm with the Babies

We took the babies over to a local farm to see the animals  They had a great time.  Starting with feeding the goats...

And sheep...

We saw chickens and roosters and turkeys.

Then we went looking for pumpkins.

Austin was trying to lift this one up.

Then little miss climby started scaling the pumpkins.

I know the Great Pumpkin's around here somewhere...

Then the babies went for a ride on a horse.

Happy Trails!

Austin falls off chair

At David's birthday party yesterday, I was video taping the babies and their climbing on the furniture (although, we don't use tapes anymore, so I guess I was video digitizing, but I digress). For the record Bryson warned me that Austin was going to fall and I didn't heed his warning and take proper precautions.

Oh, and if you were wondering...just because Austin has a silver spoon in his hand as he's falling, does not mean he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. As a matter of fact this is the first time he's had a silver spoon (which were my Grandma Parker's that we bring out for special occasions) and if it hadn't been a party night, he would have had a plastic spoon because our dishwasher's broken right now and we've been using paper for 2 weeks so there aren't as many dishes to do.

Watch the video here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AETd_Wz_LUs

Babies' first birthday

We held the babies' birthday party while we were on vacation in Cape Cod with the family. It was also Mia's birthday later that week, so we got to celebrate with her as well.

We opened presents then dug into the cake (literally). I had a local bakery make a cake for each baby and one for Mia that the rest of us shared.

Kadence immediately began thrusting her hands into the cake and grinding it up in her fingers.

After she got a taste of the cake, she grabbed the whole top layer and pulled it into her body (probably trying to get it to her mouth) and smashed it to pieces.

I'm not sure if she had more fun mangling the cake, or eating it.

Austin, on the other hand, didn't have much interest in the cake. He was a little tired and cranky.

Good thing we got an extra cake for us, because Kadence wasn't going to have anything left to share. Not any that anyone would want.

What we didn't realize was that Austin was just waiting for the proper tools to eat his cake. Once he got a spoon, he was fine and dug right in.

David has been telling people how Kadence didn't leave anything on the cake board except little tiny finger streaks where she scrapped it clean. I thought he was exaggerating until I went back through the pictures and found the finger streaks.

Austin got into the action with his spoon.

All done!

Now to rub it into the back of his hair.

Happy Birthday Austin!

Happy Birthday Kadence!