Christmas with Grandparents

I love it when the kids are with our parents. I love seeing how Grandparents spoil and love on their grandkids. I miss all of mine so much. We extended Christmas as much as we could this year by doing Christmas with my family Monday and Ryan's family on Tuesday. This year we decided to spend the night at the house we were doing Christmas at the next day. By the time we get both kids up, changed, fed, packed and travel to the location, it is time for morning nap...so we just decided to make it easy for the kids (harder for us) and spend the night so they could wake up and be ready for Christmas! It worked our perfectly to be honest. Ryan and I both loved it! It allowed us to preserve our special family time on actual Christmas day while letting the Grandparents have their special "Christmas Mornings" too.

First stop was Gigi and Papa T's. We had extra fun b/c Aunt Robin and Uncle Brad spent the night too!

Papa T and Jenna both doing the "Jenna face"

Sorry we are so boring, Caden...

Someone got us this ridiculous Christmas Chicken that does the chicken dance. The kids love it and yell out for us to turn it on all the time. Im trying to find Mr Chicken a home...maybe in our black trashcan downstairs??? :)

Me and Sis...

Then we packed up and headed to Nana and Papa's house where Uncle Brent and Aunt Courtney spent the night! We missed Aunt Sarah and Uncle Jason and our Cousins...but they had to stay home in SC so Aunt Sarah can grow, grow, grow our twin cousins!!!! We are so excited to see them when they come sometime in Feb or March!

The twins always go straight to the door to see Titan, the Dog. They stand there and bark at him over and over again. It is actually quite precious.

***YES, that is Caden standing on his own! On Christmas Eve, he did it all of a sudden at Mema and Pape's house, then didn't do it for a while, then started up again! So proud of you sweet boy!

Nana and Papa got the twins mini-pillow pets. Jenna fell.in.love! She grabs hers all the time and it is precious!

Jenna understood what to do in the present dept! She could rip some tissue paper out with the best of 'em. Notice, one arm still occupied with holding Pillow Pet.

As I mentioned, my hubby took care of me big time this Christmas! Together with his parents, he got me the necklace I spotted and fell in love with. Its got the twins initial on a medallion and it also comes with a pendant of their birthstone. They were backordered til February so I can't wait for them to come in! I love it! And no, in case you were wondering, the initials dont stand for "Jesus Christ" like my sister thought :) I love Him very much too, but that is not the intent behind the initials :)

Precious picture!

This was taken with my phone but it shows Jenna hogging both Pillow Pets!

The next day we went to go see Ryan's Grandmother where we had his Mom's side of the family Christmas. We are thankful we got to see her and the rest of the family...its a large group so it is quite impressive when you can get most of them in the same town, same room together!


From the nursing home, we packed up and set off on our drive up to VA! We timed it so the first part was nap, then a stop for lunch, then some play time with mom in the back, then the rest of the time was Baby Einstein and Praise Baby DVD's with our new DVD players Gigi and Papa T gave us. PRAISE THE LORD FOR DVD PLAYERS! They are already worth 100x their price tag! The kids loved it and didn't make a peep for 2 hours!



We had such a good time with the Hudgins...we love them so much! The twins did great staying on schedule and playing with Cullen and Cursten. Even though it was cold, we got out of the house and went to Mount Trashmore and played on the swings and tried out the slides.




And from HERE, we tackled a 6 or 7 hour trip down the coast of NC to...our favorite place on earth...Oak Island, the Beach!!!! for New Years! More to come on that later!

Christmas Day!

Christmas Day started our twin-travel-extravaganza...some, or most, may call us crazy, but starting Christmas Day, we were gone on the road for 9 nights. We came home one night for a few hours it seemed and caught up on laundry and repacked for the next leg. I LOVED it! The twins were awesome, kept their nap schedules, traveled well, I was out of the house, had extra arms and help with the twins....pure bliss! But first...Christmas morning...so much fun! We joked how this might be our last year of "sleeping in" with kids in the house. We got up, loved on the twins, then attempted to read the Christmas Story from Luke like Ryan and I always do. They were so good last year and slept in their bouncy seats the entire reading...this year...you can imagine. Still we read on! We talked about how amazing it was that Christ lowered himself to be man. He crawled around just like the twins, he had to learn how to feed himself, pull himself up, communicate...astounding!




Then we went and had a special Christmas breakfast for the twins...waffles with nutella! This was the first time they had my beloved Nutella and it was a hit! Next we opened our presents as a family and enjoyed watching the twins explore and learn how to use their new toys.

That's right kids...learn how to put the ball thru the hoop!

Notice the concentration, notice the increased score....

I'll take responsibility for those big, beautiful eyes!

The story behind this picture is this: the twins did AMAZING not touching the Christmas tree all month. We had 5 minutes of "no touch" teaching the first day we put it up and that was all it took! On Christmas morning, Caden got a little testy..he went and touched the ornament. We told him "no touch" so he went and got the ball and touched the ornament WITH the ball. Are you serious? We already have a thinker on our hands...couldn't help but laugh!

Elefun was a huge hit! It is still the first toy they run to.

My husband gets 5 stars for Christmas this year! He took care of me big time! He (all by himself) picked out the perfect purse I was thinking of, got me some personalized things for the house with the twins AND...is having our blog printed! We are just doing the pregnancy up to their 1-year Birthday Party...i'm already almost crying thinking about it...what a treasure to share with them one day! (little did I know my real favorite gift was coming another day!) Ryan's big gift was his French Press I got him...yuuum coffee!

Then we headed to a drop-in with Nana and Papa since our technical Christmas with them was not until Tuesday. The twins got to open one gift each early and LOOOOVED playing with them!

They loved showing off for Mema and Pape!

Next stop was my Mom's side of the family Christmas. By this time, the twins had slept a little less than usual, we had all overeaten and the night was still young. I"m so proud of the twins though...they did great and loved all of the attention!

This is our attempt at a family shot....might as well call them the out-takes...

Bringing in the Penguin to try to help...not so much.

The Family Shot...only took 2 tries!

By the time we left my Aunts house we could no longer see out of the back of the Pilot. I texted a picture to my friend who is way to pro-minivan :) knowing she would get a kick out of this "i told you so" moment. :) We pushed on though like car-packing champs!

A December to Remember!

Sorry all. While everyone has moved on to fun New Years posts, the poor Little's are just now in a state where we can upload our Christmas pics. We just got home Monday night after 9 consecutive days of being gone away from home (minus a few hours one night for laundry!). So it has taken some time to recoop.

We had a great December starting some traditions with the twins. The month flew by way too fast but we tried to soak it up and enjoy it around here! We started by going to our first annual "Glolithariffson" Brunch. This is a group of friends we have remained close with since we started going to our church about 6 years ago. The twins slept the whole time which was fine with us...we got to talk and eat!

Apparently, Caitlin (far right on the couch) is fascinating! Look how Caden, Jenna and Kailyn are all staring at her. too funny...

Then we went and saw Ms Emily play in a basketball game like last year. I guess this c an't be a tradition since she is graduating this year:( We had so much fun watching all of the action and Caden spent his fair share watching the cheerleaders....hhhmmmm. Check out the difference from last year to this year!

2010

2011! Eating like a big boy and girl

They share a special bond as you can tell.... :)

Back to a "tradition" now, we had to celebrate Gigi's birthday! This year we enjoyed yummy On the Border. Ryan went to change Jenna's diaper in the back of the car and when he didn't come back in 20 minutes...I went to go check on him and Jenna Girl. Turns out it was a bad one and clothes had to be taken off. I didn't have any spare outfits in the bag, (my oops) so Ryan improvised. Bless her heart...what does this teach her about modesty! haha



Yes, this was her little sweater she had on top of her onesie. Apparently, the onesie was destroyed so Ryan did what he could! Bless her heart....


One night, we bundled the kids up and headed down the road to a neighborhood near us that has 2 houses DECKED OUT in lights complete with a synchronized radio station. What? Its chaos. But the twins LOVED It....hello free entertainment! Their eyes almost popped out of their head...not a peep, just in awe. Very fun tradition...





Then mommy needed a "grown up girl" day so my friend from college, Sarah, drove up to Raleigh and we baked and baked and sampled and sampled and talked and talked...perfect:) We tackled and mostly conquered Cake Batter Balls (the clear winner!), Cookie Dough Balls, PB Marshmellow and White Chocolate Rice Krispies, Oreo Fudge (our oops), and PB balls. oh my! Try not to lick your screen here...




And THEN...ooo still so excited...Aunt Robin came over and helped me with the "Handprint" project for this year. I decided last year that I would do a handprint project each Christmas to show how big my babies are growing..maybe til kindergarten or 5 years old or something like that. Last year they were still so itty bitty that I made these reindeer photos with their hands being the antlers.

This year, we made a wreath...family style. I got the idea from my beloved Pinterest. Jenna is the left side, Caden is the right side and the red dots are me and Ryan. That part wasn't going too smooth using the twins' fingers, so we quit that project real quick and me and Rhino just went to town :) I Love Them!



I miss Christmas already!