Christmas 2014

Sigh. Christmas. Well it's definitely not been picture perfect. It seems like everything I planned or wanted the kids to experience was just a big ole mess.
I took Erin to the Nutcracker. Just her and I and I was so excited about it. She's still young and I was more than realistic about how much of the show she could/would sit through. She did well actually and made it to the second act. I want to do this again next year, maybe we'll make it through the whole thing!

The obligatory Santa pic. The wait was forever long but it actually was pretty uneventful.

Christmas morning I didn't really take a lot of pictures.  I tried to make an effort to just be in the moment and not worry about getting the perfect shots. Plus there was so much going on it was hard to focus on one thing! I can't imagine what it will be like when all four are tearing into presents at the same time.
Here are a few of my favorite pics.

The E's loved everything they got, it was squeal after squeal of delight and I loved every minute of it.

At my moms - love this pair! We decorated Wes' helmet for the holiday :)

Since Christmas day we have been hanging out and playing around. Lots of Legos, lots of playdoh and  A LOT less stress. 

"This is Supposed to be Fun!"

I may have yelled that phrase more than once over the following Christmas festivities but all in all it was fun. I'm learning that things like these need to be done after the babies go to bed. If they are still awake I can't give anything my full attention especially lately. They have been so fussy in the evenings it's hard to get anything done let alone baking and keeping little gingerbread houses from falling apart.

 They had a lot of fun decorating (and sampling the candy).

 They were super excited to make cookies this year, the each took turns helping me add ingredients to the dough. Erin even took it upon herself to add a couple extra tablespoons of flour while I was turning on the oven. They still turned out ok though.

 Evan and I had equal amounts of flour all over us. I'm not sure how Erin stayed so flour free.

 I think they did a great job. I mean there are LOTS of sprinkles on these cookies but is that ever a bad thing?

Oh Christmas Tree. Oh. Christmas. Tree.

Getting a tree was a bit of a let down this year. Last year I was pregnant and didn't feel like a tractor ride to chop down a tree sounded very fun. So Todd and the kids just picked up a tree at Home Depot. This year I wanted to resume our tradition of going to a local farm to pick one out and cut it down ourselves. The kids love it. We took the twins to my moms since, well about a billion reasons to not take them but the main one was it was cold. About 39 degrees.
We took the tractor ride to the field and were freezing! Erin seemed to have a blast though, she smiled and squealed the whole time.

Once we got to the trees we quickly discovered it was extremely muddy and the trees were all giant or tiny. There wasn't a normal 6-7 foot tree to be found.

So we walked to the next big bunch of trees a few hundred yards away. Same thing. So disappointed, muddy and freezing we went home treeless. The kids still had fun (they said), so I guess it wasn't a complete waste.

Todd and Evan later went to Home Depot and got a perfect size tree.
So tonight we trimmed the tree and it was not the picturesque experience I had hoped for. Both babies were fussy and wanted to be held most of the time. So mixed with the sounds of my Christmas music there was baby screaming from start to finish.
These were taken pre-screaming.

Post screaming.

Wes wasn't all that bad, he would take breaks at least. As you can see here he was in his 45 minute helmet break and nothing can ruin his good mood when that happens, even a screeching sister.
Evan and Erin got super into the trimming for a good 3 minutes.

Then it was all "I'm done" or "I'm going to snuggle Wessy"

I would say Evan put on about 5 ornaments and Erin put on 137, all on the bottom two feet of the tree.
I think it turned out ok though.
I love these stinkers and I wouldn't have it any other way. I'm so excited for Christmas even if things don't go exactly as planned.

Tick Tock

Here I go again. Dwelling and dwelling and dwelling on time. Time that seems to be passing way too fast and I can't do anything about it. Not only is it the twins who seems to grow inches every night but Evan is five going on twenty five. And Erin…sweet Erin. I remember rocking her to sleep like it was yesterday, YESTERDAY! Her babydom is so fresh in my mind and Audrey looks (and dresses) a lot like her so it's tough for me to let it go. Let go that she isn't a snuggly little baby anymore. 

I'm trying everyday to live in the moment and even when things get crazy to remember how very very blessed and lucky I am. 

 It isn't hard, really. All I have to do is take a look around. Of course I'm looking past the dirty floor or laundry pile in the corner, or breakfast plate on the table that should've been put in the sink three hours ago.

 Of course I have my moments. Last night for example Todd had to be at work at 4am so he was asleep. At 9pm it was the E's bedtime (catastrophe) and A & W were SCREAMING for some unknown reason. It was a lot. All at once. Erin wouldn't go to bed, and proceeded to meltdown in the hall causing all kinds noise which wasn't helping the babies crying situation. Evan wanted a drink and food. He barely touched his dinner so I knew he was hungry but we've had this discussion a lot recently about eating dinner and not being allowed snacks before bed so I was standing my ground.
Anyway, long story short I ended up feeding the babies and threatened the E's with the holy grail of threats - no iPad for a week. All was well after 20 minutes or so but it was so emotionally draining I went straight to bed after.
It's hard to not have much downtime. I think back to six years ago and I wonder what the hell I did with all my time? Now I get about 30 minutes a night to blog, online shop, pay bills, watch tv or whatever else I might want to do. Yes this 30 minutes includes housework. Pfttt!
But at the end of the day I wouldn't trade it for the world. I knew how time flies and a dirty house can wait, my babies cannot. I'll take rolling around on the floor with them over mopping floors any day.

So a rambling random post for tonight, pretty much how my brain works these days.