What's it like these days...and nights

I said to Guy a while back that I don't think the new year will ever feel like the "new year" for us, rather September will. For our family, September will always be birthday month, back to school and activities, and the preview to what is always a busy fall season. I LOVE the fall, but somehow again this year it has passed me by SO quickly I honestly think I blinked and missed it. We have been BEYOND busy this fall with birthday parties, my MoMs club fall clothing sale, our big trip to Florida, getting a new swing set, Halloween and now it's already December--we seemed to just have skipped November and where has the time gone. We've had some beautiful weekends to plant spring bulbs and play outside, but for the most part I've been so busy I feel like I rarely get a chance to catch my breath before we're into something else...literally these days for the boys. I am SO behind in blogging and it often begins to feel like a chore between it and trying to post all the thousands of pictures we take. So instead what ends up happening is I take less pictures, which still haven't been posted and do less blogging, which isn't really what I want.

But besides the craziness that our lives are we are doing well. Both boys are walking all around and Justin is in fact climbing, everywhere..including into his highchair where I found him this morning, I guess he was ready to eat before I was ready to feed. Abigail is growing like a weed and is my little chatterbox.

Last Christmas I saw a newborn onesie that said "All mommy wants for Christmas is a Silent Night" while cute and very appropriate last Christmas I passed on it. When I saw it this year again I thought how sad that this is STILL all Mommy really wants for Christmas...My boys are simply NOT CONSISTENT with sleeping making it very difficult to catch up on much needed sleep for both myself and Guy. I never thought we'd still be up during the night at 14 months. In their defense...it's NOT every night but it's often enough. The other night Justin and I had our worst night in a very long time, actually about a month-but then we were in Florida with lots of help. He and I were up for hours (3 at this point), the first few I listened to him cry, I changed diapers, I fed, I gave Tylenol all to no avail and then finally I brought him into bed with me around 3am...he slept so soundly, that I almost convinced myself that it was all worth it to cuddle with him like this and that it won't be very long that we have to do this. That is until he again woke up 50 min later and was up for another 45 minutes until he then screamed until I fed him again. So as you can imagine I was beyond frustrated and this is what eats at me and has been the hardest part of having twins is the sleeping issue and the lack their of. I don't understand why the boys are up, even when they are 99% of the time Guy deals with them and they are not fed, but they are still up. Some days we also don't take good naps, that ends up making for really long days, especially when I get NO down time. However on the other hand, then can sleep 12 hours at a time, yet again just adding to the frustration that they can and i don't know what makes one night a good night and one a lets say NOT so good night!!

So here's hoping for good nights ahead and more sleep, less frustration and more time to blog the here and now and hopefully back log all of the things that I don't want to forget and still blog about!!

Happy Thanksgiving

This year Thanksgiving seemed so easy...it was calm, wonderful, I did almost no work and there was plenty to give thanks for. The morning was great I FINALLY have someone who enjoyed watching the parade almost as much as I did. Abigail got so excited when she'd see a balloon of someone she knew and then of course even more so when Santa arrived!! Because Dad and Mom did all the cooking at our house the boys got two good naps in and we were able to stay put and have it be as close to a normal day as possible, which is always key. We also got in a good family picture, including Zoey which made it even more special. The meal itself was fantastic and Dad and Mom did a great job cooking as always. Abigail sat at the table for the first time and the table was full of food and surrounded by love. We shared the special day with Nana and Pop-pop and Grandma and Grandpa!! Abigail had a great time decorating turkey cupcakes with Grandma that came at just the right time as she was beginning to get bored and as always Hungry...

After dinner and deserts we started our new Elf on the Shelf Family tradition. It is this great book about an Elf, whom we've named Dani, comes to your house and magically every night flys to visit Santa and tell the happenings of the day--both good and bad. Then every morning when he/she comes back she's hidden in a different spot. I had a wonderful time reading the story to all the kiddos and look very much forward to this new holiday tradition.

Sitting wtih Santa

This is the first year we even tried to get all three kiddos picture taken with Santa. Last year Abigail had NO interest in Santa and so we didn't even bother. This year as we're getting in the car she tells me she's NOT sitting with Santa and that she doesn't care whether or not she gets any gifts or not but she's not sitting with him and then asks "is that ok mommy?" to which I reply, "we'll see..." So when we arrive at the mall and meet Guy she proceeds to tell him the same thing. He however took a different approach and decides to bribe her with Auntie Anne's Pretzels so she'll sit with Santa, sometimes I wonder, but it worked. When we arrived at Santa all three kids were wide eyed, when it was Abigail's turn to sit on Santa's lap she was very unsure but went up and talked to Santa and told him what she wanted while we sat next to him with the boys. When asked by Santa what she wanted she told him "a pillow, playdoh and FOOD" she wouldn't say anymore about what kind of food she wanted just food. Finally later in the day when asked again she said she wanted "bread, cheese and pickles" what child, who wants not for food, seriously asks Santa for food, is she THAT hungry?!?! Anyway we then handed the boys over to Santa and Abigail slid over for the picture. Abigail did great and was a great big sister, Ryan could have cared less, and then there was Justin, who to no one's surprise was NOT a fan of Santa. Needless to say we got a pretty decent picture and the memories were priceless!!