ramblings of the holidays '13

Life lately has been so happy!!! The babies are amazing. I can't believe how much they have grown the last few weeks and months. 
Oliver like on Thanksgiving had his two bottom teeth come in!! And now his top right tooth is poking through. Oliver loves to stand while holding onto someones hands and he can sit for long periods of time. Oliver can crawl but often prefers his "air swimming" to crawling but when motivated he shows us he can crawl...just selective on when.
Gwyneth just before Christmas has had her two bottom teeth poke through. She loves to crawl and her latest trick a few Sundays ago was standing in her crib. So we quickly lowered both their mattresses to the third and lowest position.

My life is hectic, raising two babies. But I would not change it for anything. I love Oliver and Gwyneth more than words can describe. And I know we will be a family for eternity. 

Our Christmas was fantastic!! This Christmas was the first that Nate's folks were in town since I have known them. We have had so much... we had an excellent dinner here at our house last Sunday, the Sunday before Christmas. Nate's parents, my mom and brother Chris and our good family friend Marye were here. We played a trivia game, sang Christmas songs (thank you Laurel for playing piano) and we had a dinner of ham, veggies, etc.  Marye made a toast to the twins first Christmas... it was all just so lovely.

Christmas Eve day was a lovely hike with Nate and babies, although pushing the stroller up a steep hill was not so lovely :)

Christmas Eve was a fantastic get together and meal at Nate's parents house. The chicken was so tasty and I already got the recipe to try. The twins got super cozy pajamas from their Grammy Laurel and also magformers... Grammy Laurels favorite toy to give grandkids.
Christmas Day was also lovely with fun presents and stockings in the morning, just the 4 of us... then off to my moms for more Christmas fun. Julie Domm joined us, and we all had a great afternoon. 

Well better wrap this up... babies will wake up soon and there is a house to clean and two friends coming over this afternoon!!! Oh happy life :)
Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday this Winter...

Portland trip Fall '13

Last fall we went to Portland for a long weekend to see Nate's sister Karen. It was a blast!!! I had the clever (which really was not so clever) idea to drive through the night to maximize our days. Driving through the night works when you are not a sleep deprived parent with 5 month old twins. Anyway, here is a picture from our drive to Portland! 

I was SUPER excited when Ollie and Gwyn set foot, okay I mean car seat, on another states land. This was the first time they had ever left California. It was sprinkling (common for Portland), but I didn't care, we needed an immediate picture of their grand arrival to Karen's house. 

We had a good set-up here. We brought a pack-n-play, and Karen had one, both in the family room. And then downstairs we had two that we borrowed from her friends so that we didn't have to haul them up and down. 

We didn't know what to expect on our first big road trip with the kids. But we learned a lot and had a great time. 

One thing I REALLY wanted to do in Portland was go to the pumpkin patch. This pumpkin patch was awesome. It had rows and rows of pumpkins, but we had to take a tractor hay-ride (which was way fun) to get to it the pumpkins. And of course when we got there, it started to rain so everyone quickly picked a pumpkin and we were off again back to the main entrance of the pumpkin patch. I would love to go here again when the twins are older because I think they would totally dig it. But I have to say it was fun putting them in the bjorns and toting them around wherever we went. 

We got to enjoy quality time with the twins 4 Portland cousins.

We definitely had fun relaxing. It was one of the rainiest rainstorms they have had in a long time, EVEN for Portland. It poured almost our whole trip. 

Oliver loved playing with his cousins and being in a new saucer (he LOVES saucers, although has pretty much outgrown them by now). 

The next two pictures are from visiting my cousin and his family in Washington. The drive to them was scary with the down pour, but we got there safely and enjoyed dinner and hanging out together. 

We did get in an outing or two to actual downtown Portland. Here is a picture of me at a burger joint called Little Big Burger. Nate's sister knows all the tasty places to eat lunch, and later we got dessert to take home from Salt & Straw. 

Well this was a long overdue post. But I wanted to blog about some of our adventures in twin-land. Eventually I will get to our Thanksgiving trip, our cozy Christmas with my mom, Chris and in-laws, and the twins big birthday bash this past April.