Lilypie Kids Birthday tickers

Friday, December 28

Dashing Through the Snow...One more Stop

Grandma Linda and Grandpa Irv's Christmas Day

Drew looking through all his loot from Derek and Cassandra

Uncle Derek helping Drew put his matchbox car track together

Table and Chairs from grandma and grandpa!

With their names painted on the chairs


Oh yes, a smart phone!

Talking books from Aunt Tara. Kelsey also got her first "baby" from Tara,
a cabbage patch doll. I'll have to get a picture of her with it!

Thursday, December 27

Over The Fields We Go...To Another Christmas!

Stahl Christmas Eve


(Pardon the glare - his shoes are reflective! And they are not the shoes
he was supposed to wear but there are battles you just don't fight with toddlers!)

Showing my cousin Nick the play house!

Where'd he go?


All the snow up by my dad's.

Wednesday, December 26

Oh What Fun It Was

Bonin family - Manitowoc Christmas 2012!


Watching TV with cousin Braden



Kelsey interested in Ella's gift


Playing with one of the many new gifts from grandma and grandpa!

Friday, December 21

And It Begins

We are getting ready to head out and travel around the state to visit family for the holidays, starting tomorrow and ending Tuesday night. I'm making lots of lists and packing clothes, hoping I don't forget anything. We are excited for the kids to understand a little more about Christmas this year.

My sister was essentially snowed-in at our place the last 2 days. She lives an hour away and works in Milwaukee. Because of all the snow they were going to get/got at her place, it was safer for her to stay here and know she would get to work and not have to drive. We only have about an inch of snow; it was mostly rain. But that gave my sister and I some quality time drinking wine and hanging out, like old times.

Drew helping dad

They have recently started pulling the toys out of the toybox so
they can sit in it.

This is a "selfie" of Drew. He has figured out the buttons on the camera
and knows the red light means a picture will be taken. This was the best one!

 
Another pic of the family Christmas basement. My sister made the
banner and pretty snowflakes on the right.
 

Sunday, December 16

9 Days Til Christmas

Sometimes I think the good thing about winter is that you won't be awaken to the tweeting of birds at the crack of dawn. On the weekend. When you are *trying* to sleep in. BUT...if you live in a fairly wooded area, you might be woken up to the HOOTING OF OWLS! What the...is right. It was about 6 this morning. I actually thought it was Drew because he's been making this "Ooo Ooo" noise. Then I got up to go to the bathroom and the ooo's got louder. Weird, I thought. Then I started to wake up some more and realized there was a rhythm and pattern... and it was TWO owls hooting at each other! Well, now I was up and I listened to them for about 40 min. That's all I have to say about it - I thought it was pretty cool.

I don't have a lot of pictures of the kids...we've been incredibly busy and everytime I bring the camera out I get pictures like this:

 
The kids just want to play with the camera and are too distracted when they see it to "let" me take a nice picture of them! The rest of the pics are of Kelsey. I took her along with me to decorate my aunt and uncle's house for Christmas. The 3 traumatic and tragic deaths this year are all from the same family so we decided to do "backwards" Christmas (that's not actually the name, but I decided to make it "G" rated for the sake of the younger readers), take their favorite "colors" and use them to decorate the place we celebrate with that side of the family. 

Coloring

Holding mom's wine glass

Playing with baby Archar and Auntie Cassandra
 
And the finale - backwards Christmas could not be celebrated
without having an upside down tree! It is truly screwed
into the ceiling of their basement - decorated in purple for Sabrina,
red for Tom, and orange for my dad.






It will be a different Christmas where we all try to find a new "normal" without our loved ones. As we are still processing our own grief, I can't even begin to feel what is going on at the school and community in CT.



And here's my buddy eating a sandwich! He bummed around all day
with dad when Kelsey was with me. So smiley - he says "cheese" now
when he sees a camera.

Tuesday, December 4

We're Back

Of course it's been a long two weeks but Kelsey and Drew have been the bright spots in all of this. They have been champs as we spent a week up in my hometown by my dad's and the constant back and forth these past and upcoming weekends.


Couch potatoes


Lovin' the piano at my dad's. They were actually respectful and didn't pound on it.




This "toy" was a hit! My dad was going to give it to the twins at Christmas.
Early present for them - they spent hours in front of it. (It's a bunch of fish that
"swim" around.) Sad that my dad couldn't see how much they enjoyed it.

Another "toy" my dad was going to give the kids. This cool little trike has
a basket on the back so both kids can partake! (Late nights up at my dad's turned
into early mornings with toddlers which equals pj's for the kids until we were
awake enough to start the day.)

Monday, November 19

...

My dad's obituary.

I don't have much else to say...we hope to find strength in all this pain.


Sunday, November 11

18 Month Appt

I know, it's late. The kids were actually 19.5 months at their check-up - you would not believe how difficult it is to schedule an appointment after 3 p.m. for twins at this doctor's office!
Well let's get down to the details...
Drew 23lb 10oz, 33.5 in
Kelsey 23lb 12oz, 34 in
I'm not sure if Kelsey *really* is taller than Drew, she was quite squirmy that day. Actually she was downright terrified of the doctor. She sobbed in my lap the whole time. She's so so so shy lately. And to top it all off, they had to get 4 shots. Oh man, I was not expecting that. Thankfully, I remembered to stash a couple Dum Dum suckers in my purse to help them forget the trauma. Poor little Drew's arms are all bruised up.

But let's get back to Kelsey being 92% for height! Clearly she is not getting that from her parents...although I feel I was always "taller-than-others" in school until I hit puberty and STOPPED growing while everyone else continued on. Which is why I have had a LOT of time to embrace my 5'3" stature:) I have to shorten most of my pants, I wear heels when I can, and prefer to stand in the FRONT at concerts!

We had a last blast of fall weather around here this weekend so I took the kids to their favorite playground for a good ole wearing-out. We played for a long time and they cried when I put them in the stroller and told them it was time to go home.


She's picking off the wood chips and throwing them, saying, "No" the
entire way up the steps. Maybe the start of a little OCD?


Kelsey is always on her tummy on slides; smaller ones she goes head-first
otherwise feet first, but rarely on her butt!

Trying to climb up it...

...then deciding it is easier to go down!


*Aunt Mary, I know you will read this...check out the kids' shoes. The birthday gift you gave them fits perfectly for this time of year - we love Croc shoes, fur-lined and cushion-y!


Sunday, November 4

Ahhhhh...November Already

I think Craig has finally raked the last leaves for the year. Of course there are a couple trees that have *some* leaves left but there comes a point where you  just have to give up! It feels like we've been working on leaves for 2 months.

Otherwise we had a fairly quiet weekend, which happens when I'm on call so we get to hunker down in the house. I was able to take time and clean parts of the house that haven't seen a vacuum or dust rag in a while. Always good to get that accomplished:)

We are also starting to do holiday planning...family visits, gifts, decorating, deciding how to do the tree-thing with toddlers! I think we are going to attempt a REAL tree and I guess we will see how it goes from there!

Just chillin', watchin 'toons.

Found Craig's Brewer "fist" and wouldn't put it down!

Making sure the winter hats fit

Fortunate enough to have pets that allow this!

Wednesday, October 31

Kelsey - 1 Halloween - 0

The score should actually be K -2, Halloween costume -0. This year these adorable kids were supposed to be Pebbles and Bam Bam. What better b/g twin costume idea for them, considering they look nothing alike so why dress them alike?

Well I found Drew's costume at a resale shop for $4. So I thought I would just buy some animal print/cheetah fleece and make a simple dress out of it for Kelsey's ensemble. Sunday afternoon I couldn't wait to put her in it! She had her brown leggings and white onesie on and it was screaming for the dress. I slipped it over her head and the tears started flowing! I didn't think it was the dress at first...she is getting her last teeth, painful eye teeth. So I thought she was just going to cry it out for a minute and be fine. I turned around and she was pulling at the collar of the dress. The material wasn't even touching her skin but she needed that dress OFF! ASAP! I thought the drive up to my mom's would calm her down, especially after a long nap...nope! She lost it again. And even if she walked by the dress she would take it and throw it on the floor. She has never dissed clothing before; I haven't ever had problems dressing her. So we called it a fail and decided not to torture her anymore with her Halloween costume.

(Last year, I wasn't even sure if  we would trick-or-treat so I didn't try too hard at their costumes. They were both some form of hand-me-downs and I wasn't quite sure what size they would even be in last fall. Well, Kelsey's was about 1 size too small and so we couldn't even really put her all the way in it! So yeah, 2 fail costumes in a row. Maybe Halloween isn't her thing...)


Loving it up! He had NO PROBLEM leaving his costume on.

Surprisingly she let us put the "bone" in her hair.

Sorry it's so fuzzy, but it's the only picture I have of them together!

Maybe wearing mom's shoes with a pumpkin shirt is as dressed up as
she's gonna get for Halloween.