Last weekend we had our very first friend spend the night. Lille Brooks and her mommy Maci came to visit. We had so much fun! We watched movies and played with play-dough, tried to have a pallet party in the twins room, but that didn't work out!
There was lots of dressing up in princess clothes for the girls and Mahlon was a king or a wizard or a monkey!


On Saturday morning after pancakes Wesley took all 3 kids to the playground while Maci and I shopped for a few last minute baby items for little Gracie who will be here in a few weeks!
They all had so much fun climbing, crawling and sliding!


And by the end of their short stay I think Mahlon had a little crush!! Love this pic of Mahlon and Lillie Brooks giggling!!

We helped Ollie celebrate her 2nd birthday at Pump it Up! It was our first trip there and it was so much fun!! I'm not sure who was more tired the twins or mommy and daddy?!




Sweet friends Logan, Mahlon, Sara Beth, Kade and Ollie!

We love to paint at our house!! So when it was cold and rainy and icey last week we had an art day!

Ag Museum

We went to the Agricultural Museum last week to see the train exhibit. Mahlon and Sara Beth LOVE trains! And they had trains of all sizes for us to see!
They loved that they could push a button and watch the trains go through tunnels and stop and start.

We saved a little time for a few other exhibits including the catfish tank and a HUGE pig!!! They were a little scared of the pig...this was their first encounter with pig that size!



Our last stop was a drilling rig...just for daddy the oil man!

Just a little update on silly sayings, big accomplishments and new challenges in the lives of 2 1/2 year old twins!
Sara Beth:
*is officially potty trained!!!(since the beginning of December!)
*loves to dress up as a different princess everyday!
*loves to sing! especially the ABC's and Jesus Loves Me
*loves to eat anything with cheese
*favorite movie...Snow White or anything with a princess
*every night when we turn the lights out S.B. says "tell me question" she won't go to sleep without us asking her 1 or 2 random questions!
*she NEVER stops talking!
*she likes for Mommy or Daddy to say the blessing at dinner


Mahlon:
*I had to tell him they quit making diapers in his size...and a little birdie is going tell him they don't make pullups either!!
*dresses up as whatever S.B. wants him to be!
*loves to sing! especially E-I-E-I-O and He's got the whole world in His hands
*loves to eat PIZZA!
*favorite movie...anything Veggie Tales
*loves to play with his train set
*he wants to sing his blessing "God our Father..."
*got his first ear infection at 2 1/2!!

They both:
*love to play "Doctor"
*sing the alphabet as follows...A B C D H I Y, A B C D H I Y...if you sing it with them they know all of the letters, but if they were singing by themselves they have their own version!
*love to paint!
*love play-dough
*can count to 10...with the exception of skipping the number 2! Maybe when they turn 3 they'll realize 2 is a number not just how old they are!
*when they really want something they'll say "just one more" or "just gimmie one"
*they both sleep in toddler beds...still in the same room! No more cribs!!
*they have each claimed their own cat...Lucy is Mahlon's cat and Annabelle is Sara Beths, and everyday they look for "their cat"
*love to read
*pretend to be Mary and Joseph and push baby Jesus in the stroller
*pretend that Mahlon is a King and Sara Beth is whatever princess she chooses to be!
*love cheese puffs
*love to sing/read 5 little monkeys jumping on the bed

Two 2 1/2 year olds is quite challenging at times, but what a blessing! They are at such a fun age right now. And you never know what is about to come out of their mouths...they keep us laughing all day! We are so thankful to have healthy, smart, beautiful children that are so curious and keep us on our toes at all times!!

We celebrated New Year's Day in Madison opening Christmas gifts and watching bulldawg football with the Days(Daddy Day, Gran and Aunt Maggie)Although we were all still recovering from our "Christmas colds" the babies didn't miss a beat! They LOVE opening "prizes."

Mahlon and Sara Beth searching for gifts in Daddy Days toy bag!
...and still searching!


Mahlon's new favorite...MR Potatoe head!

Trying on her new princess shoes!

Wii!

Wesley got a Wii for Christmas so he spent a lot of his Christmas vacation playing! Mahlon and Sara Beth LOVE to play Super Mario cart. We let them choose who they want to be(Sara Beth is always the princess) and then they choose the vehicle and Wesley and I race! They love it!! They think they are driving or they sit and cheer go mommy go daddy! Too funny!

New Year New Bed!

We couldn't put it off any longer...we converted the cribs to toddler beds! The first night was pretty rough, they kept running to the door and opening and closing it, turning lights on and off, switching beds...I think it took 1 1/2 hours to get them to stay in their beds! The second night only took about a 1/2 hour! Things are much easier now...occasionally we'll go in to check on them and someone will be asleep in the floor or they will have switched blankets and pillows...they are a mess!! The next challenge is rearranging our house to make room for "real" beds. Mahlon is already too long for his toddler bed...at least he sleeps all curled up in a ball!

I have very few pictures without Sara Beth in some sort of Princess outfit. She wakes up every morning wanting to be a different princess! So here is Snow White giving bye-bye hugs and kisses to Aunt Lani and Un Brian


We ended up having 2 sick babies on Christmas day and for 9 days following that so I don't have very many pictures with happy smiling faces. There was a whole lot of lying around in Soso Christmas weekend...it did actually snow on the day after Christmas...not enough to stick, but it was fun to watch! The poor babies couldn't even go outside to see the cows because they were so pitiful and sick! We just had lots of cuddle time while we read and watched Christmas movies (and Snow White!)

Merry Christmas in Soso!

We had a wonderful Christmas day lunch with my family and after a short nap it was time for more presents!! The babies had so much fun opening all kinds of new toys and games!



With 8 people opening gifts the babies and puppy dogs were buried!


Sara Beth's favorite is her new Snow White dress and movie...we watched it more times than I can count!!

Our first Christmas morning in our house was so much fun! The babies knew it was Christmas morning, but hadn't quite grasped the entire concept of running out to see what Santa left them...think this is will be our last year of waking them up on Christmas morning! Next year they'll be the ones up at 5am!!Once they saw all of their surprises they lit up!



Mahlon ran over to his train table and yelled "Is this for me????" He was so excited!!

Sara Beth loved her new baby, diaper bag and stroller from Santa!



Wesley was thrilled to open his new Wii with the help of a little princess!
We had such a fun morning, and then packed up and headed to Soso!

This year was our first Christmas Eve in our own house! And we had a busy day! We woke up and decorated our first gingerbread house! What a MESS! But we sure had fun! I didn't read the directions that you were supposed to wait 3 hours after putting the house together before adding the rest of the icing and decorating...so we had a hard time keeping our house together with 4 little hands and 2 pounds of candy on the roof!! I did manage to snap a few pictures before it collapsed, then we had to rebuild it!!




After our first Christmas Eve service at Madison Heights we headed home to bake cookies for Santa and watch Christmas movies! Sara Beth was a big help rolling out the dough and cutting out the star cookie shapes.


Mahlon's favorite part was decorating with sprinkles and eating icing!! And we couldn't forget about Rudolf and friends...we left a little bowl of water and some carrots next to the cookies!

On the 23rd we headed to Canton to see the city of lights! It was a lot colder than we thought, but we had fun as long as we could stand it! We rode on a carousel, a choo-choo train, ate dinner and looked at lots and lots of lights! Something we look forward to every year!

Giving Santa a big kiss!
Riding our horses!
On the Choo-Choo!