brotherly love?

S: I got him mom, I got him!

S: He's fine mom... I'm being careful!

O: please help me mom!

O: MOM!

S: It's okay Oliver, I'm just going to lift you up for a second!

S: Don't get me in trouble!

S: I love you Oliver... this is just what brothers do.

O: Really?

O: I guess he just loves me mom:) I'm okay!

something is burning!

I woke up at 1:30am and smelled something burning... a plastic burning type smell... I woke Ryan up and he smelled it too and went downstairs to check. I had used my wood burner and glue-gun yesterday and I thought I must have left one plugged in, but was pretty sure I'd put them away. Ryan came up and said I hadn't left anything out, but we could definitely smell something. It was pretty strong and I hoped it was coming from outside, but no such luck. I started thinking things like, "what if Cooper found my glue-gun and has it plugged in some weird random place" Luckily I checked my cupboard of craft things and all were accounted for. We checked the garage, outlets, stove, microwave, toaster, the kids bedrooms, furnace, fireplace... we were completely stumped! I was getting nervous we were breathing these unknown toxic fumes... what about the babies... we can't go back to sleep until we figured it out! We opened windows sat for a minute racking our brains and then I went to good ole Google to see what I could find. And sure enough I typed in "smells like something is burning in my house, but I can't find the source" and some wonderful guy named Jim made a comment on some site last February that included..."Kitchen suspects are a plastic lid in the bottom of the dishwasher." I went straight to the dishwasher (that I had started at about 10pm last night), opened it up and immediately knew I'd found the source... the smell was awful! This was the culprit...

It had fallen off the rack and had been burnt up- I guess on the heating coil thing in the bottom. I was SO relieved that I found the source (thanks to Google and Jim of course) and that the burnt bottle nipple was the extent of the damage. We kept windows open to air out the house and were finally able to go back to bed.

Tacky Christmas Sweater Party...

2nd annual Tacky Christmas Sweater Party

The above picture is blurry, but it was the best picture that showed that yes indeedy my Christmas tree sweater now lights up! I wore this sweater last year and thought I needed a little improvement... when I came across a pack of battery operated Christmas lights I knew just what to do! I tacked them on my sweater of course. I also had a nice little tree lighting count down with the kids (they loved it!) before I took off for the night.

We all met at a local restaurant (going out in public was key) wearing some very questionable Christmas sweaters and accessories. We exchanged white elephant gifts, talked, laughed, ate, received questioning looks from nearby tables and three special ladies received awards for their lovely looks...

3rd Place went to Adele who received a tacky (or at least I thought so:) ornament

2nd Place to Jill... it's hard to tell, but those flowers are out of puffy paint or something similar and we loved the fake collar... she recieved the lovely snowman headband.

~

1st prize went to one of these ladies...

The Sweater Vest gang... Emily, Robyn, Tiffany and Wendi... it was a hard decision, but the ponsettia lady, aka Tiffany ended up winning... we also knew she'd LOVE the 1st Place prize which was a Twilight 2010 Calendar!

I'm NOT a fan of wearing "Hello my name is" stickers, but thought it was appropriate for the tackiness of the evening!

Carrie, Wendi, Jill & Nadine

Katie, Deanna & Tran

Tricia & Stephanie

Katie & Emily

Kim, Me & Jill
Thanks ladies for a very funny evening!

O Christmas tree o christmas tree...

Guess what we're off to do...

If you checked out our shirts you probably know that we're ready to get our Christmas tree!

We're all bundled up and ready to go...

Off to search for the perfect tree at dad's fancy favorite Christmas tree farm... yep, you guessed it Home Depot!

we found the perfect tree...

(enlarge right pic if you want to see crazy Christmas tree man's face)

Oliver and me staying warm in the car while Ryan ties the tree on.

Saturday was the first snowfall of the winter. The kids NEEDED hot cocoa after playing in the snow (which really was more like slush) and we got out all of the Christmas decor...

Adrienne always ends up trying on the Christmas tree skirt...

this is Adrienne in the Christmas tree skirt when she was 3 in 2005

This year Cooper had to join in the fun!

We finished decorating the tree after church on Sunday...

Cooper and the babies wore matching shirts to church and Cooper was SO excited that he was now a twin! He happily pointed to each baby and said, "He's a twin, he's a twin" and pointing at himself with a huge smile on his face said, "and now I'm a twin." It was very cute!

It was a nice Christmasy/Family weekend!

Happy 1/2 Birthday Oliver & Sullivan

Today the boys had their 1/2 birthday... 6 months ago they looked like this...

when they were born

Oliver weighed 4 lbs 1 oz

and

Sullivan weighed 6 lbs 3 oz

They're both growing like crazy. Today at their 6 month appointment

Sullivan weighed in at 18 lbs 12 oz

and

Oliver weighed in at 15 lb 7 oz

At the doctors appointment we also found out that the babies have ear infections... I told the doctor that they'd had colds for some weeks and been waking up with gunk in their eyes. She said that that can sometimes happen when they have ear infections. She asked me if they had been cranky or fussy and I told her how they hadn't been fussy really at all and were sleeping through the night beautifully. She then checked their ears... not 1, not 2, not 3, but 4 ear infections?!

Two hours after arriving at the doctors office we finally left having survived a total of 8 shots, Sullivan spitting up all over the nurse, a room that felt like it was 500 degrees and a diagnosis of quadruple ear infections and headed for CVS for some antibiotics. Good times!

Pumpkin harvest, naps & mistletoe

Last year Adrienne picked out a cute white pumpkin at our annual trip to Homestead Farms. This year our October was so crazy we never made it to Homestead Farms... the kids missed the hayride and picking out their very own pumpkin and I'm still sad I missed my yearly piece of caramel apple pie. Anyway, that white pumpkin from last year disintegrated under our bushes out front last year and we were pleasantly surprised when we discovered pumpkins vines growing in September. There were several flowers and we thought we might get a nice little harvest. Little is right... we couldn't go to the farm this year, but the farm came to us in the form a very very small white perfect pumpkin and it made Miss Adrienne very happy!

We have had a wonderful November and enjoyed a week vacation in the Outer Banks of North Carolina over Thanksgiving (see slide show below). I have many things and people to be thankful for. One thing I'm very thankful for is pictured below...

Cooper is 4 1/2 and is still taking naps! He's getting harder to put to bed at night and the naps are probably winding down, but I don't know if I would have gotten through the last year without them! I couldn't resist taking a picture of Cooper today when I found him sound asleep with his toy weed whacker in his hand... funny kid!

DECEMBER is here! I can't believe it! The babies celebrated December 1st by breaking out some of their Christmas wears. They received some really cute Christmas clothes for baby presents and we'll be rotating through them for the next month... so fun! I love Christmas!

O & S