Santa Success

Well we were finally able to see Santa on Tuesday.  We weren't quite sure if it would be possible.  We got there around 3:45pm and they already had the sign up saying that Santa would be taking his break from 5-6pm.  So being the non-rule followers that we are, we ducked under the ropes and got in line.  Five minutes later, Santa's little helper came to the end of the line, asked us how we were doing, and moved the sign closer to us.  Whew.

Ten minutes later, Santa's little helper came back.  Only this time, there were 3 more sets of people in line behind us.  She graciously told them that Santa would be back at 6pm and that they were more than welcome to come back at that time -- that we were the last people who would be seeing Santa before he took a break to feed his reindeer.

Fast forward another 10-15 minutes, she came to move the sign again and there was a mom and daughter in line behind us.  She told them that we were the last people in line.  After an hour and a half of waiting, we were finally able to sit on the jolly old man's lap.  I have no idea why Santa's helper was so nice to us.  I'm almost certain she knew that we were in fact *not* in line when she first put the sign out.  It's kind of hard to sneak a set of twins with a monstrous stroller into line.  Maybe she was in the giving spirit?  Whatever the reason, I'm so thankful she let us slide by.

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Patiently waiting in line.

Finally it's our turn!!

This is where I expected the tears to start...but they never did!

A look back at last year's visit. We were exactly 2 months old!

Visit with Santa - Strike 1

We took the girls to see Santa tonight and failed miserably.  We got there just after 4:00 knowing that Santa took a break from 5-6pm to feed his reindeer.  But we were told that the people they just let through would be the last to visit with Santa before he took his break.  And you can bet that the girls weren't going to wait two hours for the jolly old man to return. 

So we went to Sears to buy a new dishwasher instead.  Yeah, ours conked out on us about a week ago.  Darn thing was slightly less than 3 years old!!  Grrr.  It's been an expensive Christmas season for us.  A couple weeks ago we bought a treadmill as a gift to each other...had we known that we would then be buying a new dishwasher we may have passed on the treadmill.  Oh well, what can you do?

We're going to attempt Santa again, either tomorrow or Christmas Eve.  Unfortunately, we're not going anywhere for Christmas because I work bright and early that morning at 6:30am.  Such is the life of working for a facility that never closes.  But at least the time and a half will help pay for the unexpected expense of a new dishwasher, right?  Focus on the positives, focus on the positives.

Since I don't have any Santa pictures, here are some bathtime pictures instead.

By the way, we did celebrate Christmas with Nate's family this weekend but I haven't downloaded pictures yet.  I'll make sure to share them when I do!!  And then we'll be having a small belated Christmas with my family over the New Year...so don't feel too sorry for us!!  Fortunately, the girls don't know Christmas from any other day of the year just yet. 

We're making sleep progress

Well hello blogworld, it's nice to meet you again. I feel like I haven't written in ages! So much to do, so little time.

In the middle of my long work stretch, we had a 3 day span where both of the girls slept straight through the night!! Holy moly, are you kidding me?! It was fantastic. The past two nights, Adalyn's been up once and Alivia's been up once. Overall I can't complain. But I think they're finally catching on to this whole sleep business!

In more disheartening news, I give up. Little Miss Addi gets a nasty, nasty diaper rash every 2-3 weeks. No matter what we do or how fast we change her it rears its ugly head. That poor little girl. Makes me so sad for her that there's nothing we can do for her. This all started back in June and we've been dealing with it since. And it comes on so fast. At one diaper change she looks as clear as day. Just hours later, she's flaming red. Just breaks my heart.

On a brighter note, little Miss Alivia has become so good at mimicking what you do. If you raise your hand, she raises her hand. If you growl at her, she growls right back. And she loves playing peek-a-boo, being chased and hiding in corners. Their little personalities are really emerging (as you can see from the video posted of Adalyn).

Here are some classic pictures of Alivia. She's always trying to carry around more than her little hands can. So she's found another way...

What?!

Look at that smile emerging from that mouthful!

Even during a diaper change she was NOT going to give up her 4 nuks!

What you can't see can't hurt

This is Adalyn's new "trick." Make sure you have your volume turned up. The video was taken this morning, so I thought I would post it to tide you over until I'm back among the living. I work the next 9 out of 10 days, so you might not hear from me for a while. I try not to be on the computer too much during my work days because I need to spend some time with the girls either before I leave for work or after I come home. So blogging is usually reserved for my off days (not always, but usually). Enjoy!!

Wordless Wednesday on a Friday *wink*

How'd they fit?!

Not much to say tonight. But I was looking through some pictures of the girls from when they were just a couple weeks old. And I came across this picture....

Two days before this picture was taken, Adalyn weighed 6lbs 3oz and Alivia weighed 6lbs 10oz - a grand total of 12lbs 13oz which was 2oz shy of their total birth weight.

I laid down on the recliner and Nate and I positioned the girls exactly like they were when they were residing in their mobile home. We couldn't for the life of us figure out how they fit!! I was pushing feet down to keep them at about the level of my ribs (where they would've run out of room if they were still in my belly), yet their feet were still too high. And well, Addi's head probably would've been fully birthed in the position she's at.

Hmmm. So yeah...how'd they fit?!

A sleep update

Yeah, so we haven't had anymore nights where they slept straight through the night. I knew it was too good to be true, so I didn't even get my hopes up. Good thing! But it hasn't been terrible either. In fact, I need to applaud little Miss Alivia because she has slept through the night the past 5 nights. She always has been our better sleeper. In the last 3 of 5 nights, Adalyn has been up twice. And the other two nights she was up once. We keep saying that one of these days she'll realize that sleep really is a good thing!

Here are some pictures of our little Packers fans. Adalyn was wearing Aaron Kampman's jersey and Alivia was going old school by supporting Frank Winters.

And on a little side note...someone tried to kill the possessed little puppy toy. This puppy starts singing songs at random times during the day when no one touches it or is even around it. Apparently one of the girls got sick of its shenanigans. I'm not sure which one is responsible, but I'd sure like to know!! Because I walked into the living room to see this by the toy box....

Vacation pics

The whole crew in Miami the night before we got on the ship.

The water in CocoCay

Our ship with the boats that took us to the island
Nassau, Bahamas

Nate standing in front of The Majesty of the Seas in Nassau

It was a little breezy on the pool deck at night!!

A view of the pool deck at night

The maze of stairs inside the ship

It's been a tooth explosion!!!

So in the last 4 weeks, we've gained 10 new teeth! And actually, in just the past 2 weeks, the girls got 6 molars! Holy cats! That's a lot of teeth in a short amount of time. Adalyn was the lucky recipient of 7 new teeth in the past month whereas Alivia just got her 3 molars. So the total tooth count is now up to 22 - eleven for each baby girl. Just one month ago we had been stuck at a total of twelve teeth for a few months. And then they just started coming, bing, bam, boom!

The odd thing is that they've been sleeping better than ever! Knock on wood. Knock on wood REALLY hard. In fact, just last night they finally slept through the night. What?! Are these seriously my children? I go on vacation, come home, and they're sleeping well? For several months now, if one of them would sleep through the night (which by the way, didn't happen all that often), the other one would inevitably get up at least once if not two or three times. But last night, they finally collaborated their efforts!! We'll see what tonight brings.

Man, I remember blogging back in September about a night we had where they were up a combined 8 times, followed by 4 times and then 5 times! And here we are, a restful night of sleep for everyone in the house. But like I said, we'll see if it continues. Our typical night has usually involved getting up an average of twice. Either twice with one baby or once with both of them...sometimes just once with one of the girls. And honestly? I can live with that. It's not ideal, but it's such a far cry from where we were just a couple months ago that I'll take it!!

Our vacation was wonderful. The ship was absolutely beautiful. The ocean was amazing. And the food was out-of-this-world-yummy!!! Because of the yummy food, Nate and I promptly began a diet upon returning home! Yikes. Overall, we had an absolute blast. Yes, it was tough leaving the girls, but the smiles on their faces when we came back home were absolutely priceless. I have some pictures to share but I need to download them first! However, I work really early tomorrow morning so I best be getting to bed! Good night.

Bye-bye for now

We're leaving early tomorrow morning for our cruise. I'm so excited but I'm so nervous about missing the girls too much to really, fully enjoy myself. I know it'll be good for Nate and I to re-establish ourselves as husband and wife instead of just mom and dad. But man, it's going to be hard saying goodbye to my precious little peanuts!!

We fly in to Miami tomorrow. We get on the ship on Friday and our first stop will be Saturday morning in Cococay, Bahamas. Sunday morning we'll arrive at Nassau, Bahamas. And then Monday morning we'll be be back in Miami and flying back home that afternoon. So we're only going to be gone for 4 nights. I know that it's about time Nate and I do something together.

While packing tonight for the trip, I started thinking about the last big trip we took. We went to Disney back in May 2008. I was 16 weeks pregnant with the girls and my "morning sickness" had luckily just disappeared a few days before we left. I remember being in the airport walking to our gate and I told Nate that I was going to pass out (not the only time that trip that I felt that way!! click here for reference). So what does he do?? He summoned one of those little golf cart drivers and had the guy drive us to our gate!! Nate thought it was great and was waving at everyone as we passed them. For those of you that know him, you can definitely see him doing this. Me, on the other hand, I was so embarrassed! If only I had actually *looked* pregnant while getting this ride. Even being 16 weeks with twins, I still didn't really have a belly. So I just felt dumb. But that breeze in my face sure made me feel so much better!!

Let's hope I don't have any issues walking to my gate this year!!! Haha.

Fun with hats

The girls absolutely despise wearing their OWN winter hats, but apparently they like mommy's fuzzy hat. Nate took these pictures while I was at work the other day. They sure look like they had loads of fun!!

Halloween a little late

We didn't do much for Halloween this year. We just stayed at the house and handed out candy to the kids. The girls really enjoyed watching all the people come to the door. We didn't splurge this year and get the girls costumes. We knew we wouldn't be going anywhere, so there really wasn't a need for costumes. But we are full-heartedly looking forward to next year when we'll take the girls out Trick or Treating for the first time!

Meanwhile, I just tried to snap some photos of the girls in their Halloweeen outfits. Can I tell you that pictures are getting harder and harder to come by? Getting a good picture of just one of the girls is hard enough. But getting both of them in a picture? Almost impossible. They move...a lot. By the time you position one baby and reach for the second, the first baby girl is already gone. Grrr. But I try nonetheless!! That's the go-getter in me. Ha! Just kidding.

Ummm, an interesting little story. Alivia is afraid of pumpkins. In fact, she is afraid of anything that is big, round, and rolls. We actually noticed this a couple months ago when Adalyn decided to push our yoga ball out into the living room. I've never seen a baby crawl so fast to get away and then cry so hard. Out of curiosity, I brought a couple other balls into the house. Basketball? Afraid. (not good by the way, as mommy wants them to be basketball players!!!) Soccer ball? Afraid, but not terrifyingly so. Softball? She's ok with it. So anything larger than a softball produces high anxiety in my poor little girl. I can just see it now...she's going to be on the Maury Povich show because of an odd phobia of things that are big, round and roll. Remind me to DVR that.

Anyway, she was fine with the pumpkin for all of 10 seconds before Adalyn gave it a good push. Once Alivia realized we've got another roller on our hands, she wouldn't have anything to do with it! Though Nate and I put her next to it a few hours after the fact hoping to snap a couple quick pictures. She lasted for about a minute. Then she must've remembered she has a phobia. So yeah, there aren't really any pictures of Alivia with the pumpkin! Good thing I didn't bring ALL of them into the house!

Adalyn absolutely loved the pumpkin.

This is about as close as Alivia would get.

Little stinker screamed at me and then gave me this face.

Addi's trying to eat the pumpkin.

All smiles since the pumpkin is nowhere in sight!

These are the best pictures I could get of them together! I know, pathetic.