Hello 2013 & Project 365!

The older I get, the faster each year seems to go by.  This past year has been a great one.  We watched our boys grow from barely crawling little babes to wild and crazy toddlers.  Over the past year, they have turned 1 year old, learned to walk, learned to talk (a few words, anyway), learned to hug, kiss, blow kisses, wave, obey simple commands, eat with forks and spoons, give high fives, shake hands, made new friends at daycare, ran (rode along) in 2 5Ks, and have went on a couple of road trips and plane rides.

I don't really have any new year's resolutions, but I am going to try my best to do a Project 365 this year.  Project 365 is taking 1 photo a day.  I'll be posting my photos to the project365 site, and I might do a once a week post containing the weeks photos on here also.

We had a good Christmas also.  I had to work Christmas Eve, so as soon as I got home in the morning we opened presents and then made a 6 hour trip down to Jeremy's grandmas for a few days.  The boys had fun actually opening presents this year, and have had so much fun with all their new toys.  They got a big play kitchen, a table and chairs set, some awesome superhero toddler underwear, a monster bowling set, a wall hot wheels track (and an innumerable amount of hot wheels cars that end up in the strangest places of our house), a play tent and a foam lego set (and a few other things).

New Year's Eve wasn't anything exciting for us.  We just stayed at home, had a friend over, watched a movie and had some champagne.  It will be much more fun when the boys can stay up late with us and celebrate with hats and noisemakers and such!  And today, neither of us had to work.  We spent the day all hanging out with each other : )

To start off my Project 365:

Day #1 - New Year's Day

Merry Christmas!

This is our Christmas card this year.  It blow my mind how much bigger the boys are compared to last year..  We didn't have it in the budget this year to get professional photos done, so I sat the boys down, gave them a string of lights, and started snapping photos.  Unfortunately I didn't have one where they were both smiling.  This one was the best I got, and I still had to merge to pictures together.  I made the rest of it in photoshop.  We were pretty happy with how it turned out.  I have to work tonight, and then tomorrow morning when I get off of work, we are opening presents and then heading down to Jeremy's grandma's in Macon, GA for a few days!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to you and your family!

The Best of 2011

2011 has been a crazy and exciting year for us, and as we near the new year, I can't help but think that every year from here on out will be so different and crazier than any of our past years.   We have made so many changes in our lives, including a new house and 2 precious little additions to our family!  Here are a few things from each month this past year that were especially memorable for us:

January:

We found out we were having twins!!  That early ultrasound had both our jaws to the floor.  Tears and laughter filled the room.  Never would either of us had expected that we would get pregnant with twins!  I often think back to my high school or younger self years and try to picture that girl, all grown up, and now with twins.  It completely blows my mind.  

February:

The month that I started this blog.  I wanted to start writing.  To somehow keep track of important events in our life, with words and not just pictures.  I wanted to write also about the emotions of all of it, which aren't always seen through pictures.  I wanted a "journal" so to speak, that others who were interested could share in with our lives.  It's been fun to blog so far, and I see it continuing for as long as my fingers have we have the means and my fingers have the dexterity to do so.  

March:

We bought our first house.  It turned out to be a lot better than we had hoped.  It was a fairly quick and painful process, surprisingly.  I love how we have made this house our home, and how it will turn into the comforting place where our kids will call home one day also.  

April:

As soon as we found out we were having boys at our Gender Reveal Party, we started working on the nursery.  We went with the theme from the book, The Giving Tree.  I painted murals and got tree/apple accents.  I'm very pleased with how it all came out, and love that it wasn't a theme that you could just easily buy stuff for.  It was original, and that made us have to be creative.  

May:

My belly keeps on growing and growing (and this pic is around 24/26 weeks I believe...it got much bigger!).  I never thought my belly would get as big as it did, and every week I would be amazed by how much it grew.  I just kept thinking, "I don't know how I can get much bigger", but it kept happening.  Big belly housed 2 little boys for 9 whole months!  

June:

All my sweet friends threw us a baby shower!  We were given lots and lots of neat and useful gifts for the boys!

July:

The most anticipated day of 2011:  the day our boys arrived!  Although the delivery was entirely disappointing, my boys were completely healthy and I could not have been more excited about their arrival out of my belly and into my arms.

August:

Our boys' first photo shoot at one week old.  A huge thanks goes out to Marissa French of Rylan's Riches Photography for photographing our precious little dudes.  She has also done their 3 month pics, and will also do 6, 9 and 12 month photo shoots!

September:

We took our boys on their firsts outdoor adventures, to both Percy Warner Park and Radnor Lake.  They very much enjoyed the gorgeous Tennessee fall weather, as did we, while toting them around in our carriers.

October:

The boys' first halloween!  They went as Thing 1 and Thing 2.

November:

We had some more photos done...the boys' 3 month pics and also some family photos!  3 month photos done by Rylan's Riches Photography, and family photos done by my talented friend, Lane.  This month was also the boys' first trip to Michigan, and first plane ride, which they did awesome with.

December:

The boys had their 1st Christmas, and we sent out our 1st Christmas card!  The boys had no idea that it was even Christmas, but we had fun with them, dressing them in little elf outfits, opening presents to each other and then taking them for a cold tour of Nashville's ICE! exhibit.  1st Christmas success for sure.  Man o' man do I feel old now, sending out Christmas cards and all!  

This year has been beyond amazing, and we are so unbelievably blessed to have these magical little boys in our lives.  Here's to many more great years full of bliss and excitement ahead.

Peace & Love to you in the new year!

Merry Christmas!

This year was a brand new Christmas for us.  It was the first in our new house, and the first with our new family.  Even though the boys are too little to really partake in anything or know what's going on, it was still fun.  When the boys woke up, we all came downstairs and opened presents (Ok, so Jeremy and I opened presents, the boys played under their playmat.)  Are we awful parents because we didn't really get the boys anything?  I feel pretty bad now that I'm thinking more about it.  With Judah's surgery, my work and family Christmases, we really just never had the time to go out shopping for them.  And they can't really open a present and won't remember this one anyway right?  So it's ok.  I think.  Their grandparents got them some new books and toys, so at least they have something new.  Although things like their feet and each other usually entertain them more than any toy we own.

What did I get for Jeremy?  Well, he got this crazy cookie jar, which matches absolutely nothing in our kitchen.  He got this cookbook, which I'm pretty excited about also, a red bow tie, and a James Bond PS3 game.  What did he get for me?  He got me this Wii game, which is super fun and makes me feel like I'm 10 years old for loving it so much.  He got me a gift certificate for laser hair removal which I'm pumped about (no more shaving my legs?!  Yes please!).  He also did some awesome renovations in our kitchen as a present to me, and I will post pics of those soon.

We had a worship service at church in which we sung a bunch of Christmas carols.  We then went to ICE!, Nashville's annual ice sculpture exhibit.  Each year, there is a different theme for the ICE! event, usually pertaining to a children's movie, book, etc.  This year's theme was "Merry in Madagascar", with characters from the movie "Madagascar".  It was pretty cool, although I don't think it was worth the touristy amount of money we paid for the tickets.  At least the boys were free.

This photo is the only one we got of the 4 of us, unfortunately the guy who took it was apparently shaky and didn't know how to center it : /

After the boys went to bed, Jeremy made us dinner.  From here on out, we have decided to start a tradition with our Christmas dinners.  Each year, we are going to pick a different nationality and put a Christmas spin on the said nationalities' food.  This year, we chose to make mexican, and made some turkey tacos (taqueria style) with cranberry salsa, and eggnog tres leches cake for dessert.  

It was absolutely amazing!!! 

chopped, sauteed turkey breasts, cranberry salsa made with apples, jalapeños, lime juice and cilantro, and minced onions and cilantro.  I know this sounds weird, but it's sooooo good!

Egg Not Tres Leches cake...soft spongy cake soaked in homemade egg nog....mmmm!

It was a great first Christmas, and now we're just relaxing while the boys are asleep, next to our fireplace, with drinks in hand and watching A Christmas Story.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Dear Santa

Here are some things that are on all of our virtual little Christmas lists...

For Judah and Foxx:

1.  Tube socks to protect our knees when we start crawling! 

2.  Airplane spoon!  This will make eating soooo much more fun.

3.  Mustache Pacifier.  Just because.

4.  Wooden guitar teether.  This will feel nice on our gums when we start teething.  And it's also a rattle!

5.  Grinch tie and suspenders onsie.  This is just awesome.

6.  Star Wars Cloth Diaper.  So daddy can begin the obsession early.

7.  Twilight turtle...he makes constellations all over the ceiling!

8.  Baby blocks.  With fun patterns!

For Jeremy:

1.  Real life Angry Birds.  How fun!

2.  TARDIS cookie jar.  Because he loves Dr. Who. and cookies.

3.  Star Wars Costume Hoodies.  Yes, he would wear these all the time. In public.  And I'd have to be seen with him.

4.  Alton Brown's cookbooks.  I swear he has a man-crush on AB.

5.  Bacon Chocolate Bar.  Every man's dream I suppose.

6.  Big Bang Theory seasons.  I would also enjoy this.

7.  Sheldon's Flash shirt.  Bazinga!

8.  Mustache Paperclips.  These are ridiculous.  But he would love them. 

For Myself:

1.  Measuring Spoons.  These are super cute!

2.  Pretty Coffee Maker...or just a carafe!

3.  Island.  Would love this for the kitchen...and I would put cute little knobs on the drawers!

4.  Candle Holder.  Love this.

5.  DIY shelves...Made out of old apple crates!  I must do this.  

6.  Coat.  This is awesome.

7.  Orange Converse Allstars.  I have them in a lot of colors, but I don't have orange!

8.  Chalkboard spice rack.  So cool.

Also, check out these Christmas Playlists...here and here.  They're awesome and have been playing constantly in our house!  

You can also listen to them here!

Vote for us?

It's beginning to look a lot like...

CHRISTMAS!

Our tree is up, and our house is decorated for the holidays (which, by the way, I need a lot more decorations to fill our house, but I guess that comes with collecting things over time! ). Christmas music, baked goods and movies are beginning to fill our home.  Now all we need is some snow.  Yes, I did just ask for snow.  I grew up in Michigan with snow every year, and I miss it now that I live in the south (although last year's snow was pretty awesome).  OH!  and our boys are now being sung to sleep with Christmas carols each night, and it's precious.  

Once they boys get older, I'm super pumped to make Christmas cookies with them, do fun advent calendar activities, and have the excitement that is Christmas morning.  

I have always found the Elf on the Shelf a little creepy.  But after seeing some awesome ideas for the elf on Pinterest, I'm totally going to get it for the boys.  Here are some mischievous things to do with the elf!  

Another super fun thing that I am excited to do for the boys is this:

They will have to break through their bedroom door on Christmas morning!!