I love babies in diapers

I know, I know, they're hardly babies anymore.  But I couldn't resist snapping a picture of them playing in the sink (a favorite past time).
 

New House!

Ok, ok, here are some pictures of the outside of our new house.

The view from the driveway (Austin running down the driveway).

A view of the front door (yes this house is loaded with skylights, the maximum allowed to still be an energy-star-rated house)

This next picture is a view from up above the front of the house. The banks of windows you see on the left side of the house are 1st floor and 2nd floor 3-season rooms (one of my favorite features of the home - yay! David's favorite features are the 40 acres including 3/4 miles of riverfront and an island!)

And the picture below is the view from the back.  The top three windows are all the kids rooms.  The middle level windows from the far left is the garage window out the end of the house, then there is a sliding glass door off the master bedroom, the 4 vertical windows are the dining room off the kitchen, then there are 2 sliding glass doors that are off the family room.  The lower level windows are a sliding glass door for the guest room on left, and the rest is family room area.  It's fantastic!

You don't get to see the inside of the house until I have some before and after pictures.  I'll give you a preview, though.  {WALLPAPER}!!!

There's snowman I'd rather be with!

We got outside for some snowy fun.


Austin is a good helper!

So is Kadence.

Our little snow princess.

She named her snowman Kadence.

 

 

 

Snowmuch fun!

Sick Day

My poor little guy isn't feeling well today.  He's been fighting a fever for the last 24 hours.  So we set him up on the "sick couch" and he's watching his favorite show, Dora The Exporer.  This is the first time in his life he's had the benefit of having mom's full attention to his illness because usually Kadence is sick at the same time and mom gets split between the two.

Feel better soon, little guy!

A day out with Mom and Dad

The babies love everything Elmo, so we decided to take them to see Sesame Street Live since it came to Albany.
Pre-show popcorn.
 

 

 

Intermission

 

 

Mom and Dad tolerated it, but Austin and Kadence loved it! 

Oh, Snap!

McKay had a little difficulty negotiating the steep hill coming down from his friend's house in the snow.
 

No harm done.  McKay is fine, the car was pulled out by a tow truck, and McKay drove it home. 

When David got off the phone with McKay when he called us for help, David said, "I'll get a rope, you grab the camera, I'll meet you at the car".  There's just not many evenings that start off with a statement like that around here.

Thanksgiving

Hannah stayed with us over the Thanksgiving break and it was so much fun.  Among other things, she got to read to her little brother and sister.

We went up to Alice's for Thanksgiving dinner.  I had to get a picture of the babies on Grandma's rocking pig.

 

Gathered with the family after dinner.

Friday night we had everyone over for a bonfire at our house and made baked apples over the fire.

 

Love the holidays!

Turkey Trot!

I'm just catching up a little (lot)
In preparation for the big day, the babies have been busy disguising themselves as turkeys.  Cutest turkeys ever!

We have been participating in Turkey Trots for years now with David's daughter, Dorothy, and this year was no exception.  Up bright and early Thanksgiving morning to register for the race is David, Dorothy's husband, John, and Dorothy (in the hat).

 

This year we went to a different turkey trot and they actually had a Turkey!

And the race begins.

Mid race.

Finish line.

The wierdest thing happened during the race.  I got a text from David updating me as to where on the course they were.  Then another, and another.  And I wasn't the only one he was texting during the race!  He's such a multi-tasker.  I wonder how many e-mails he answered? 

Then we went over to Dorothy's house for brunch.  The babies thought the dog crate was set up just for their entertainment.

Nope.  It was apparently for all our entertainment.  Hannah should know better than to dare her Dad to do anything.

Or Bryson.

Then we were off to David's Mom's house for a nice turkey dinner.

Slight Miscalculation...

So the babies are over 2 and it's time to start thinking about transitioning them to toddler beds, right?  They haven't tried climbing out of the cribs yet, luckily, and I don't want to wait until they can get out of their cribs and we don't have a choice but to make the switch.   So away we went.

Luckily the cribs I got on craigslist came with extra sides to turn the crib into a toddler bed; which is fantastic!  We installed them and the babies had a great time climbing in and out of each others' beds and marveling at being able to get in and out of their beds themselves.  They loved it.  

On to the bedtime routine, kisses, and good night.  It didn't take long before we heard rustling in the room.  We looked in and Austin was climbing into Kadence's bed.  Austin!  Back to bed, good night.  More rustling and giggling.  Austin again climbing from one bed to another.  After about an hour and a half, they finally settled down.  Night 2 wasn't much better.
What was I thinking?  It's a slumber party with their best friend!  After consulting google I realized how naive my expectations were.  Twin parent lesson #724: Don't even think about transitioning your twins out of their cribs until 3 years old.  If they start climbing out, it's a crib tent, separate rooms, or every bedtime is a nightmare for the next few months.  Lesson learned.  Just when I think I'm getting the hang of this twin parenting thing, they throw me a curve ball.  Luckily I hadn't taken apart their cribs and given them away, yet!
For now, Kadence is staying in her bed for the most part, so she gets the low rail.  Austin needs to stay confined, so he gets the regular crib rail.  Wish us luck!

It's not my fault!

For once.  

Dorothy (aka "Crash") has been in a fender bender and, for once, it wasn't her fault!  Don't fall off your chair in shock.  It was bound to happen sooner or later.  And would you believe the person who clipped the side of Dorothy's almost brand new car just drove off?  So what did Dorothy (aka "Roadkill") do?  Chased her down, of course.  Followed her into a parking lot only to find out it was an elderly woman who had no idea she hit anything.  That's a little scary.  Everyone is fine and the repairs will be made and Dorothy (aka "Fast 'n Furious") will bask in the fact that it wasn't her fault...until next time.