Thanksgiving in Pictures

Matthew and I ready to start on his gingerbread house.

Kristin helping Lucas with his house. See all those candies? He used them ALL on his house..and then some.

Joey getting some help from Matthew on his house.

Lucas is finished...so many decorations!

My attempt at getting a photo of all three of them in front of the tree..good thing I wasn't planning on using it for Christmas cards :)

Thanksgiving Day

Lucas standing in front of the tree in their room.

Thanksgiving Day was so rainy and windy this year! We started the morning by putting up the Christmas trees-the living room one and the boys' in their room. The one in their room is wonderful...in a kids decorated it, lots of kid ornaments, hodge podge sort of way. It's funny to watch them decorate it-they carefully place their Superman and Flash ornaments so they look like they're flying through the air. Matthew carefully placing the train at the bottom.

And they have some train ornaments that Joey and Kristin gave them a few years ago-they always get a spot at the bottom of the tree so the boys can see them easily. We finished the trees in the morning and had an easy lunch. Then it was quiet time and getting ready to go to Aunt Cindy's. We had dinner, and then the kids decorated gingerbread houses. Matthew and Lucas really got into it-I helped Matthew pipe the icing on his house, Matthew piping his icing on his house.

and he diligently lined up all his candies to look like Christmas lights. Derrick was on Natalie patrol, and Kristin helped Lucas with his. He wanted to use ALL his tiny colored candies and it took him quite awhile to do so. After they were done, we packed up and headed home. Lucas and Kristin working on Lucas's house.

I actually considered going shopping this morning, and even woke up at 3:30, wide awake. Had I been more prepared with my coupons and more of a plan, I probably would have, but online shopping took care of most of our gift giving this morning.

On the day after Thanksgiving (aka Black Friday), we went to the Hursts' for lunch. Our family on that side is getting so huge! Everyone, including Darragh now, has a boyfriend, girlfriend, or significant other of some kind. Devon made a fabulous turkey, and we played the Wii...rock band..and sat and talked and visited with each other. It was super cold, and the fireplace going made it so much more homey and comfortable. Happy Thanksgiving!

Christmas Cards

Remember my last post on our Christmas cards? It took me forever this year to make them...since I knew I was getting 50 free cards for posting it to my blog, I worked hard on choosing the right ones and the right layout. It took me longer than usual-and shutterfly had so many to choose from! But in the end, I love them and can't wait to send them out!

Seasonal Chic Noir Christmas Card

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"Homemade" Christmas Cards

Yes, homemade Christmas cards...no, I'm not a cardmaker or a stamper. Scrapbooking is about as creative as I get, so I make homemade Christmas cards the non-conventional way-on the internet. We used to send them the old-fashioned way-buy a box of Christmas cards, enclose a letter with our family happenings from the past year, and off they went. I always admired and looked forward to the photo cards
I'd get in the mail every year, and decided that I was going to make my own-after all, why not show off my super cute kids at Christmas? This year, when I sat down to begin thinking about and sorting through our photos, I couldn't decide which ones to include. THEN, I got on Shutterfly, which is where I make our cards, and they have so many cute designs this year, I can't even begin to decide which ones to use. I made about four the other day, using pictures from our Disney vacation, and some good ones I had of the kids. Then, since I couldn't pick out one really good picture, thankfully they have designs where I could include up to four pictures, make them black and white, or sepia, too. Choices, choices!

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Maybe Not......

We had parent teacher conferences for Matthew and Lucas on Monday. Mrs. Kinney said that she had never had a set of twins before, so she wasn't sure what to expect achievement wise, but she was shocked. Our district has a ridiculously low standard (as far as I'm concerned) that second graders should be able to read 5-10 sight words in September. By May, they should be at 180.

Matthew: 171, Lucas: 173 ......only off by two, and in my mommy mind, based on the standard, that screams OVERACHIEVERS!

On their HearingandRecordingSoundsInWords (or HRSIW), the expectation is 48...that means they can write down, correctly, words that are dictated to them.

Matthew: 58, Lucas: 58....exactly the same. I wonder if it was the same words they had correct/wrong?

BAS reading level expectation is that they are at a Level I....

Matthew: J, Lucas, J

Math Facts: They should know 25/100 in September....

Matthew: 43 addition/32 subtraction, Lucas 62 addition/41 subtraction

It was funny to see Mrs. Kinney so surprised at their similarities....and I was a proud mommy when I left the conference :)

A Year Ago

Here are two comparative pictures about a year apart. Natalie is such a different child...there is no comparing her to her brothers. She is getting to be so much fun right now. I love how we'll read a book and then she lays her head down on the floor and says "ni, ni". Like she's going to sleep, or as we call it having a "night, night". She's also becoming more verbal and better at telling us what she wants. She is preferring to walk, once she pulls herself up using furniture or something else that's sturdy, off she goes. Natalie is picky-she knows what she likes and what she doesn't. She loves on her babies, but refuses to push her stroller when she has a baby in it. Too funny. She carries her babies around, and hugs them so tight. She is very interested in what we are eating-eggs, chicken, noodles, cooked carrots...you name it, she wants to try it...even pizza. The minute the boys walk into the room, she completely lights up. She is so interested in what they are doing, and just sits on the floor and watches them push their cars, planes, or whatever they're playing with back and forth. She is finally mastering a better sleep schedule at night. We've moved to having her cry it out, and after about 15 mins or so , if she doesn't stop, then I go in. She's also getting good at mimicking animal sounds. If you ask her how a kitty goes, she'll say "meow"...and for a puppy, she makes the "f" sound...like at the end of "woof, woof". So cute. I'd forgotten how much they change in their first year of life....and she is getting cuter everyday.

They're Different

Yep, the title of this post definetly states the obvious, but it didn't become obvious to me until just "recently"....like in the last few months or so. Matthew and Lucas are becoming such their own little people. The other day I was discipling them for lying, and I was using the term "boys..." when I was addressing them. Matthew was distracted by this and said, "Why don't you call us by our names?" He was irritated about that. After this, I started to reflect on how much they really are different in a lot of areas-even simple and complicated differences.

Yogurt: Matthew likes Yoplait Orange Creme, Lucas prefers Go-gurt
Chili: Matthew will eat it, Lucas won't touch it
Cooked Carrot and Potatoes: Matthew LOVES cooked carrots and won't touch potatoes, but Lucas LOVES potatoes and won't touch cooked carrots.
Playtime: Lucas takes a break to suck his fingers and hang out with his jacket watching cartoons. Matthew, plays constantly and doesn't understand Lucas's preference to rest
Routine: Matthew gets out of whack when our routines are broken. Lucas is more flexible.
Helping: Lucas likes to help Derrick around the house. Matthew would rather play
Sports: Lucas is more athletic than Matthew (but not an Olympian by any means) and enjoyed going to the Blue Jackets game last week, Matthew prefers to do karate and not very partial to team sports or going to a sporting event.
School: Lucas's handwriting is great and he gets right to his homework and finishes it. Matthew's handwriting can use some work, and he dawdles through his homework and it takes him almost twice as long.

I"m sure I can go on and on and I'll probably add to this post sometime. But when I think about it, they aren't the "same" as people think they are. And I'm needing to be ok and adjust to that. It's hard being a twin mommy. Seeing them grow up, plus become different from each other at the same time is a double whammy.