The Cutest Little Snow Bunny

Of course I think my three darlings are the cutest kids on earth, but today, it was printed in ink! Abby won Cute Kid of the Week from MomsOutLoud.com

Check it out, click here!

Visiting Who-ville

On New Year's Day we decided to visit Gaylord (home of ICE!) and see their winter set up. The original plan was to just look at everything in the lobby and save our money on ICE! as it's SUPER expensive (even with all three kids free!!). However, as we were driving out there, I started to really want to visit ICE! and convinced John to go too. We looked around at the trains, trees and santas before we went in and then made the long walk to ICE!.
We went in the morning so there was NO crowds (everyone was sleeping in from NYE I guess :-). We walked right in and got to see everything right away. The kids were big enough this year to wear their own jackets. Although Abby was annoyed the sleeves covered her hands. I wore Lily and just got a large sized jacket to cover us both up. It was hard to tell she was in there at times and people would freak out if she'd move and they quickly discovered I had a baby hiding in my jacket.


Jake and his crazy hat. He loves that thing!
Not sure if you can tell from this pic or not, but his tongue is out. He kept licking the ice. We tried to stop him b/c I just knew it would get stuck and I was not going to the those parents people saw on the 6:00 news whose kid shut the ICE! exhibit down b/c his tongue was frozen to the ice!!

There were super short lines at the slides so the kids got to go down them. Although the pics are super blurry they had fun. The kids were a bit confused at first though as they made them lay down on their backs to go down the slide, not sit like a typical slide.

Awe - me and my crew.

I wanted to get a good shot of the twins sitting next to this giant reindeer, and while I did get a shot of them looking the same way at the same time, it's not at the camera! Oh well, take what you can get, right?

They loved looking at these fish. Abby fed them a leaf and we both thought they were going to jump in at some point. They kept getting closer and closer to the edge.

We had a blast and I only hope they do CARS next year!!

A White Christmas

I have several things to catch up on and hope to do that tomorrow when the kids return to school, but I did have a moment to get these up today during lunch when all three kids overlapped their naps (so rare!).

We were at my mom's this year for Christmas so we missed the snow at our house, but there was plenty at her house. My sister and her crew weren't coming over for the family festivities until the afternoon so after breakfast I bundled the kids up and headed out to play in the snow. Of course, being in Texas, I didn't have gloves or snow boots (I left the rain boots at home :-). Oh well, how often do we get a white Christmas!
The kids were excited and ran out to play in the snow. It was too soft to build a snowman, but it was fun to throw in the air. However, after just 15 minutes of running around in the snow, the kids started crying because their hands hurt they were so cold and wet, their pants and shoes were soaked too. We came back inside and had Grandpa start a fire to get warm.

Love this shot of Abby!!!
They loved making tracks.

And of course Lily didn't miss out on the snow. She didn't get to play in it, but just looked on from the patio.

Lily's 9 Months Old!

I can't believe it!!! She's getting so big and growing like a weed. She had her well-check yesterday and everything looks good. She's small like her brother, but super healthy (well, minus the runny nose she started in the morning :-).
She's FINALLY cutting her top tooth and she slept thru the night the last three nights (yea!). It's probably b/c she's getting sick and her body needs the rest more than food, but I'll take it :-).
Some of you know I've been concerned about her right leg and the pedi checked her out yesterday. At first he thought it was fused "funny" with how she was standing on it, but after an exam he changed his mind. She has full range of movement and other than being annoyed he was poking at her, didn't act like anything was hurting. So, we're off to physical therapy with Lily to see what they say. If she's still doing this at our one year check up or the PT finds something we'll then take her to an orthopedic surgeon to get him to check her out. Hopefully she's just stubborn like Abby was and we'll get her moving soon.
Here's her stats for those interested:
Weight - 17 lbs 1 oz (25%)
Height - 25" (50 - 75%)

Another Milestone

The week of Thanksgiving we finally moved the twins to toddler beds. I had wanted to wait until they were 3 to make the move since we had crib tents and I Lily was still little, but we were having big issues with Abby during nap time at school. So in an effort to do our part and help the school help our kids, we made the switch.

A month or two before the switch I got the bedding picked out and ordered. We were set. The kids went to school on Monday that week so while they were gone we converted their cribs to toddler beds. John had the week off so we were ready to tackle any issues together. They came home and were super excited about their new beds. At bedtime, we read our stories then climbed into bed. We kissed them good night and told them we'd see them in the morning when the light turned green (Their little alarm clock...it's the coolest thing, it glows green when it's okay to get out of bed. There's an "alarm" in the morning at and then a nap setting too. Jake totally has it down and stays in bed in the AM till the light turns green.). They were a little confused at first and we watched the monitor nervously. Jake got out of bed, walked to the door, then walked back to bed, climbed in and cried for a few minutes before falling asleep. Abby kept laying down then setting up and looking around, laying down then setting up and looking around. She did this for 30 minutes then fell asleep too. That was it? Wow!

The second night Jake climbed into Abby's bed to sleep. When I moved him back he said he was scared. I told him there was nothing to be afraid of and he's slept in his bed ever since.

Bedtime has gone way better than we ever thought. I was really worried how I would chase them back into bed while nursing Lily and putting her to bed, but we rarely have issues.

Nap time on the other hand is a battle. The rule is they must stay in their room and lay in their bed for 2 hours. I'd love for them to sleep, but you can't force that. They must however, have some "quiet" time. The first nap was horrible. They played, ran out of bed, pulled on the curtains, etc. for an hour and a half before falling asleep. Some days are better than others and they nap better when Daddy's home. However, there have been several days they don't nap when it's just me. Nap times are tough for me alone as Lily gets up when the twins go down. When she gets up she's hungry and ready to nurse and have lunch. I would also like to eat. However, many times, I'm chasing the kids back in bed with her on my hip. Thursday last week was the worst and I finally turned the monitor off and just let them run wild in their room - Lily and I had to eat and their "quiet time" was up in 30 minutes. When I got them out of their room, they had emptied their dresser. Socks, pajamas, sheets and underwear were everywhere! I looked at the mess and didn't say a word. Instead I grabbed some socks, their shoes and loaded them up in the car. I'm not sure what Abby thought was going to happen but she cried all the way to the car. We just ran to Walmart (a two minute trip) to get a few things. I sure wasn't in the mood after that to hang out at the house with two cranky toddlers and a super cranky momma. When we got to Walmart, Abby was asleep in the car . I woke her up and put everyone in the stroller. Half way thru our shopping, I noticed Jake was asleep sitting up in the stroller. Ugh! Why couldn't they have napped in their room.

We ended up going to bed half an hour early that night, but could have done it sooner I think. The kids started asking to go to bed at 6:00 that night! The next day at school, the teacher said Jake fell asleep in 5 minutes at nap time. The quickest ever for him! He was still tired from the day before.

On a good note. Abby has done great at school during nap time since we switched. Jake however has become more challenging (and we didn't have issues with him at nap time before :-). Oh well, they like to keep life interesting!

Of course Jake had to have firetrucks. Abby got butterflies and flowers.

They both LOVE their beds and want to play in their room a lot now. They read books and play with their toys on their beds all the time.

More Holiday Pics of Lily

Abby isn't into pictures at the moment and while Jake is, I didn't have any holiday shirts for the twins this year. I just hadn't had time to go get some and when I looked yesterday I couldn't find their size (that's why we weren't in our holiday gear with Santa this weekend :-). However, I did find a cute outfit for Lily and figured I'd just grab some of her since it's her first year. I loved the twins' first xmas pics and so this morning I set out to grab some of Lily. They turned out great and she was such a great model.

I may try to grab some pics with all three this weekend if I can convince the grinch to help out. Well see. He's coming down with a cold so help with a photo shoot may totally be out of the question. :-)