Christmas Day

Let me tell you about Christmas morning!

Liam and Dash ate their stocking candies. Mm, chalk-ic!

And they drove cars all over the presents while we waited to begin the unwrapping festivities.

Then the festivities began! All the grandkids floated around; Liam was keen on helping everybody open their presents.

One of my favorite gifts was the handmade Quiet Books each twin received from Great Grandma Bradley

I've wanted to make some but knew I'd never get around to it. And they love them! They were a proven success yesterday at church, at least as far as keeping them busy if not so much quiet.

Plus they had their traditional Christmas morning cinnamon rolls.

Can't get enough!

Then Grey gave us a fun present- he rolled over for the first time! Belly to back. What a kid!

Merry Christmas indeed!

Snowfall

The fun thing about Colorado is that it snows. And when it snows, we play!

Liam has a Bigfoot vibe, don't you think?

We got special snow gloves for the occasion... there's a little room to grow.

Grey got to experience his first snowfall! But only for a little, he'd flinch hard everytime a flake landed on his face.

So we took Grey inside and I stayed inside to help Mimi with the babies, because they looked like this.

After we play in the snow, we must go into the hot tub. The twins now request it.

What a perfect place to try to catch snowflakes! These Texas boys sure like the Colorado winter.

Twin Cousins

These two kiddos were born eleven days apart. I think that makes them twin cousins.

What do you think? Can you see the link? Sawyer certainly has a narrower face than Grey and their noses are pretty different. But one thing's for sure, they're both wicked cute.

Colorado Cuddles

Christmas was, of course, wonderful. We're here in Colorado with the whole Bradley gang. And I do mean whole- all of Sean's siblings are here with accompanying family/future family. It's a full house!

The kids are getting lots of lovin'. I think my arm muscles have atrophied for how often Mimi holds Grey. Be prepared to see lots of Colorado fun!

Christmas Wishes

(hey look, we actually got a family photo to (sort of) work!)

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Burritoed

I try not to think about how three months ago, Liam and Dash slept until 7:30 in the morning and woke up in the middle of the night maybe a couple times a month, rarely needing us to come get them back to sleep. Nor do I try to think how last week, Grey would fall asleep when I put him down for the night instead of waking up every ten minutes for two hours.

Instead, I soak in their sweet sleeping bodies. I giggle how Dash will, when he's decided to sleep, put down his book, flip to his side, and promptly zonk out. And I smile how Liam just wants one more hug before he's ready to rest. And I sigh with contentment as Grey snoozes in his swaddle but laugh at how quickly and unexpectedly he sneaks out his arm. If that boy could have a binky in his mouth and a hand to hold, he'd be the happiest sleeper there is.

So sleep as long as you want, my sweet babies, you're pretty cute that way.

P.S. Remember when the twins looked like this?

Grey Right Now

Grey is a very chill babe. Here's a short list of things that make him upset: Sleepiness, Hunger, Vigorous Kissing (really, sometimes he cringes when his brothers come near), Very Loud Noises, His Car Seat when Awake, and Quick Descents (see next paragraph). Most of the time he's happy to look around, watch faces, and be awesome

What do I mean by Quick Descents? I'm talking Moro Reflex. If you lower Grey too quickly or go down the stairs too fast, he flings out his arms, mushes up his face, goes red, and then SCREAMS! Many a family member has discovered his sensitive Moro Reflex. He just has a healthy nervous system.

He's getting to the point where he can't just sleep through anything. If I move him in the middle of a nap, he'll now wake up and stay awake. It makes planning outings a little trickier. He's also in a bit of a rough patch for night sleep- he's having real trouble staying asleep. One night recently, he'd wake up every 5-45 minutes all night long. Hopefully he'll phase out quickly.

Grey's very favorite thing to do is stand. He just wants to show off his strong muscles and get a better view of everybody. Still doesn't keep him from spitting up all the time. He also gives such wonderful smiles and the cutest chuckles when you tickle him just right. Funny faces can do the trick too. It's a heart-melting experience.

Grey has this incredible ability to stare right through my eyes into my very being and just explore who I am. It's actually jarring for the first second. But then I feel comfort as my soul is laid bare and he accepts it all. He makes me feel good to be me.

Love my GreyBabe

Dash Right Now

Dash likes to pronounce his name "Dath" or "Das." He too knows his name starts with D. In fact, both boys know the first letter of lots of people's names.

Dash has moments of seriousness and moments of extreme silliness. Sometimes he's calmly going about his business and then the next minute he's flopping around the room like a fish.

Dash can be very easy to soothe (as long as he's not tired). If he has a little booboo, a kiss with quickly fix it.  A bigger issue requires a long hug and some crying but he's still happy to become happy again.

Dash is sometimes hesitant in new situations and gets nervous sometimes. Two stories: the boys have always been scared of the vacuum but one day I needed to clean the stairs and thought I'd try it while they were awake. I had them on either side of me and turned on the vacuum. I looked at Liam and he was slightly nervous but okay. I looked at Dash and he was all the way down the hall, hands flailing above his head, fleeing for safety. Also, we once wandered into a Rainforest Cafe shop and when Dash saw the fake snake winding down from the ceiling, his face became panic-stricken and positively dragged me out of the store.

When Dash is in his silly moods, he likes to scream. Just short bursts of a shriek. I think he likes to hear how loud he is.

Dash is a really good imitator. He likes to mimic sounds a lot. Sometimes he mimics Grey and it takes me a moment before I realize it's not the baby. And he likes to recreate the faces he sees in pictures. Oh, and my favorite thing he says is "ohhhh myyyyy goodnehhhhss!"

Love my Dashi!

Liam Right Now

Liam likes to say his name, "iam." But sometimes he throws the L in there for good measure. He should because he knows his names starts with that letter.

Liam can be an uber goof. Making funny faces and wiggling all silly. He's very free with his laughs and usually puts his whole belly into it.

When something upsets him, his reaction is always at the same, high level. Be it a thump on the head or dropping a grape off the table, we always hear about it loud and clear. You can even see him force it out, opening his mouth up extra wide, yelling with extra umph. He's not quick to soothe.

As always, he really likes to be involved. Which I think goes hand in hand with wanting to please people. He's very agreeable to suggestions and willing to try new things. So many times throughout the day, you'll find him answering, "yes," very carefully pronounced and coupled with very deliberate head nodding.

Liam has an excellent whine. Almost every time he asks for anything, it's in his highest octave and in a way that makes you think I've already said no to him. Is he trying to score pity points?

He really really likes hugs. The thing I hear the most from him is, "mommy... huuug." Then he'll wrap his little body around my torso and snuggle. He's the sweetest little sweetie.

Love my Leemer!

By the Light of the Tree

Even though we were only going to be home less than a week to enjoy it, we put up our tree.

We put it up and turned out the rest of the lights and put together puzzles by the tree's glow.

It was terribly cozy.

I asked them to look at the tree (so I could take pictures of sparkly eyes) and this is the face Liam gave me.

And here's Dash's. They're such goofballs.

Not Cooperating

Sorry for the delay, I couldn't get internet on my computer until now.

Speaking of not cooperating, here's an attempt at a family photo:

Photo-taking isn't always a boy's favorite thing.

Santa Clause, He Done Came!

The boys met Santa and it was a [moderate] success!

Okay, let me tell you about that day, first. Our church primary made this Breakfast with Santa activity. The bishopric made a pancake breakfast, then we did Christmasy crafts, followed by meeting the big guy himself.

I was in charge of running the Christmas Tree decorating station and then was to take pictures of each kid sitting on Santa's lap. I was happy to oblige... until I found out Sean wasn't going to be there. He was flying back from an interview that afternoon. So I had to do all this while caring for all three kids. Thankfully and miraculously, one of the older girls took a liking to Grey and took care of him the most of the time and her mom pretty much ran the craft table whenever I had to do something for the kids. Then she held Grey the whole time I was taking photos (and Liam and Dash danced on my legs). They both got spit up on- he does that to his favorite people.

As for meeting Santa, it was a tamer version of last year. Dash flat out refused but Liam was alright with it. A little hesitant but he did it.

What I think did the trick for Dash was seeing the bag of candy Liam got after meeting Santa. Bribery always works!

See? Everyone's a little happier with treats.

Even Grey liked the man in red. Not enough to throw up on him, though.

Grey's Space

Grey doesn't get much space around here. Dash wants to kiss his head at every moment and Liam could hold his hand all day long. As you can imagine, they're not the gentlest two-year-olds, so some new rules have been instituted. Namely, no hands on his head (Dash was yanking it all over the place to bring it to his lips) and no pulling on Grey (which Liam would do to make Grey's hand easier to grab). At least Grey's loved, if a little worse for wear.

(And you know how I said the boys were done getting up in the middle of the night? Ignore that because it's not true. Sigh.)

Wrap it up

This is it, the last post about our trip back to Illinois. Once you're done drying your eyes, continue reading about a few funny/fun little things that I can't forget to mention.

Liam and Dash were so happy to fly on an airplane again. They react to flying very differently though. Liam's all excitement and loves to peer out the window. Dash gets a little nervous, especially the big noises and demands that the window shades be shut. My dad used to tell me to run in my seat to help the plane take off, so we tried that with these boys- Liam was all for it, Dash refused. They're not always identical, are they.

The older boys kept impressing me this trip. My parents have a "No Soliciting" sign in a window by the front door that you can see through from the inside, although it's backwards. Dash pointed at the first word one day and said "on." Well, "no" backwards most certainly is "on." Smarty two-year-old. Liam brought over a bottle of water and said "ice." I thought he wanted to put ice in the bottle until I realized he was pointing to a printed word "ice." No adult admits to pointing out that word to him. How in the world did he know that?

My parents bought the boys winter gear but the gloves accidentally got thrown out in the bag. So we taught them to put their hands in their pockets. Good idea until Dash walked onto the sidewalk, tripped, and sported a huge scab for a week.

We were in Illinois for three Sundays which means we went to church there three times which means I went to Relief Society three times. Serving in the Primary in our Texas ward, I don't think I've been to RS that many times in the last two years! Plus, Sean took Grey for that hour, so I was completely responsibility-less. It was so strange. Also, one week, Liam and Dash were the only ones in nursery. They really liked all the attention.

The back half of my parents yard is a hill that's covered in bushes- guess who liked to explore in that mini-jungle? My boys are such boys. They also discovered this little passage behind the shed and thought they were being sooo clever hiding back there.

Liam and Dash had a cold to start out the trip. So while we had been going without naps, often times they'd fall asleep in the car, so we'd just let them sleep more after we carried them back into the house. And then they would even fall asleep just sitting on my lap. I thought this was because of the cold but it kept happening even after they'd gotten better. So we've decided to reinstate naps and I'd say it's successful two out of three days. Ah, what a wonderfully complicated age.

I don't know what it is about Thanksgiving but I never take pictures to document it. But Sean snapped one with his phone while we were at the dinner table. I wish I could eat Jello with my hands.

I forgot to put this picture on the Township Park post. Mom was very excited to have everyone have a moment with the elephant. Can you see the little girl hiding in there? She followed us around for quite a while, friendly and as talkative as can be. Dash either ignored her or looked at her funny. Liam was a little hesitant but sometimes took her to be rather intriguing. That's exactly how I'd expect them to react to someone so uber friendly.

They made a habit of waking up so very very early, so we put a gate on the stairs to keep them from the non-toddler-proof house. One night, we forgot, and I woke up to Liam playing the piano. I went down to fetch him, looked around and determined it was just him and started toward the stairs... and then I heard a sneeze. After some serious hunting, I found Dash hiding VERY well and very quietly behind a sidetable. Another morning my dad found one boy stuck under the gate. And another morning he found one boy hanging on the opposite side of the gate. Well shoot, you're not supposed to climb it!

And that's all I got.