Snow Fun in Utah

January 12, 2017 by

On Christmas, we woke up to a winter wonderland and Samantha, Amelia and Meredith spent the rest of the week begging to sled and play in the snow… for about twenty minutes at a time. I have no idea how families who live in colder climates deal with this, because the effort it took just to get all the snow gear on wore me out for the rest of the day, not to mention the cost of all the gear that will only fit them this year and maybe next. I couldn’t imagine this being a daily reality of just getting to school! We were happy to get our “snow fix” and then return to home to the warmth where we only deal with rain jackets once in a while!

There were absolutely zero options for snow gear around where we live, so my mom shopped around locally for some cost-effective options and the house looked like a department store filled with snow gear by the time we got there. This bunting for Meredith was the only practical option that fit her, and worked well, even though we were not excited about the navy color! Poor Meredith transformed into a boy for our sledding adventures, but still managed to look cute.

Grammy with a bundled up Amelia, 2013:

After narrowing down some finalists for clothing, and after 45 minutes of tugging and squeezing clothes and boots on, we were ready to go.

That picture of the girls going down the stairs reminded me of one taken a few years ago, with Uncle Mike holding on for dear life with Amelia down the stairs!

Samantha and Amelia fought over who got to hold Meredith for their epic ride down the hill. Meredith looked slightly terrified, but didn’t complain.

WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME?

HELP.

2013– the twins’ first encounter with snow:

Meredith is normally wiggly and high-energy, but the snow seemed to have a calming effect on her high octane personality. She was totally mesmerized and just lay flat on her back in the sled, almost comatose!

Timber!

The girls had to try out the frozen playground.

Sammy with icicles hanging down her hat.

After making fun of Jake for collapsing after his fiftieth round as head sled dog, he gave me the reigns so I could see for myself what it was like pulling 95 pounds on a flimsy sled. EASY.

It was actually pretty grueling. I didn’t even make it up the hill once.

Peekaboo, Meredith.

The girls were fascinated with the concept of snow angels. Later in the week, they went on a walk with Grammy and she said they had to stop in every single neighbor’s yard to make a snow angel.

The last time the girls played in snow was in 2014 when they were not quite three years old, so they didn’t really remember what it felt like. The freshly fallen snow was too powdery for making snowmen this go around.

Loved Samantha’s circa 1985 snowsuit!

The girls couldn’t get enough of tasting snow. We educated them about yellow and brown snow just in time.

  

Jake attempted to teach the twins about how to have a snowball fight, but they were completely uninterested and instead took the snowballs he made them and carried them around in their sled, pretending they were “their kids.” I overheard them asking each other how many kids the other had and then each would practice counting their little bundles of joy. Such girls!

Despite Daddy pelting them with snowballs, the girls didn’t fight back.

More sledding with Samantha guiding the sled.

Amelia takes the reigns…

 

Sledding into the sunset.

The poor snowballs sat unused until the twins decided to eat them instead of throw them.

More snow fun included Jake and I going on an anniversary date to Sundance for some skiing (we also spent half the time relaxing in the lodge for lunch and hot chocolate). We have both snowboarded for the past fifteen years and I hadn’t even been on skis since I was a kid; although it felt very different from snowboarding, it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. When we put the girls on skis, I’m sure they will be better than me in about five minutes because they have no fear, whereas I kept freaking out and tried to reduce my speed at all costs.

We can’t wait to be entertained watching the girls learn to ski next time… is it mean to start laughing while imagining them doing the splits on skis?

Lots of love,

Signature

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Christmas 2016

January 9, 2017 by

After surviving the airport and plane ride to Utah, and shell-shocked by the chill in the air, we made it to Grammy and Grandpa’s house for Christmas week. We received a lovely early Christmas present from the city of Lindon in the form of a Boil Order hand-delivered to all the residents the day before Christmas Eve! Apparently, a routine water test taken a few hours earlier that day, had tested positive for E Coli!! Cue my complete nervous breakdown and panic.

Luckily, before we even heard about the Boil Order in Lindon, Grandma Celeste in Ogden had heard it on the news and had called Jake about it while he was driving home with the twins from visiting. He stopped to pick up the very last of the bottled water on the shelves in town! The city workers toiled non-stop through Christmas weekend, but the Boil Order was not lifted until the day after Christmas, which meant we drank only bottled water, had to wash our hands with bottled or boiled water, boiled the bottles and dishes, and sponge-bathed the kids with boiled water all weekend! We ate off paper plates, cups and silverware to minimize the dish boiling and postponed Christmas dinner for a few days. We felt like we had gone back in time to the 1800s… or to a third world country! Costco lasagna was our Christmas dinner this year! At least we didn’t have a huge party or relatives coming from all over the place that weekend, as did some of the angry souls posting livid comments on the city Facebook page.

Our precautions were probably overkill, as we ran into some city workers testing the water across the street from the house, who told us our block was fine, but that they had to shut down the entire city’s water as a precaution. It was better safe than sorry. Despite the annoyance, it definitely made us more grateful for safe running water and gave us a small slice of what other people around the world deal with on a daily basis. Nothing like a mini disaster to teach us a lesson on gratitude this Christmas!

Onward to Christmas Eve… (Boil Order in effect, me freaking out, and everyone else chilling and making do with paper plates and plastic silverware!)

The twins made cookies for Santa and Elfie and left some reindeer treats as well. We had to cordon off the Christmas tree with furniture, as Meredith was attracted to that giant sparkling tinderbox like a moth to a flame, but she still managed to wiggle over there and knock down ornaments like she was having the time of her life.

Our Christmas caroling attempt pretty much sums up our life on a daily basis… chaos! And a few sweet notes.

Christmas morning! The twins thankfully didn’t wake up earlier than normal, but leaped out of bed and ran downstairs in excitement the moment they awoke. Santa had left footprints leading out from the fireplace, which Samantha and Amelia quickly deduced were fakes. “This feels like chalk!” exclaimed Amelia after investigating. “And it doesn’t melt!”

Touché.

The girls’ favorite presents of the day were probably their stocking stuffers. Glow dough, reindeer noses, nail polish, bouncy balls, necklaces, kaleidoscopes, candy canes, chocolate oranges, and little eggs that hatched into animals when you put them in water… who could ask for more?

Got your nose!

Mommy was obviously not in the room for this:

Our Pinterest attempt at Christmas breakfast: reindeer pancakes and candy cane pastry.

The girls opened a few presents before Meredith had to go down for her morning nap, and were amazingly patient waiting another hour and a half for her to wake up so we could open the rest.

Samantha and Amelia cleaned baseboards and completed other family responsibilities early in November to earn money to be able to buy Christmas presents for their siblings. I took them individually to the store to pick something out and it was interesting to see what they chose for each other. Amelia picked out a matching number locks game for Samantha, which was a smash hit, while Samantha’s gift for Amelia, a shapes brain game, may take a while to warm up to! While at the store, I tried to point out different things I thought her sibling would like, but each girl turned up her nose at my suggestions! So independent.

Samantha picked out some sensory pokey balls for Meredith, while Amelia gave her a fire truck. Random, but Meredith loved all her gifts!

Amelia had asked for a Vet Kit, and Samantha a castle from Santa this year, and the fat man delivered, apparently overlooking all the painting catastrophes, candy-swiping, and tattle-telling that went on this year.

The girls loved their Utes necklaces, wooden people painting kit, personalized stickers of their favorite people (themselves), and the aptly titled, “Chaos Reigns” photo calendar Aunt Sarah gave us.

Meredith mostly got clothes, but was only interested in the wrapping paper this year.

I love my first Christmas!

  Jake gave me something I’ve wanted forever– my blog in print! The other years of the blog are currently in the works, but Jake gifted me a tome of 2015– made in Belgium and 600 pages long! As much as I love having everything clutter-free and in the Cloud, it was immensely satisfying to hold a real live book of our writings and pictures from last year! Loved it!

My mom gave Jake what he always wanted as a kid– RC cars! Meredith spent the better part of our vacation chasing them around.

This Christmas thing is exciting!

Grammy cuddles.

Amelia’s favorite gift was the kitty that came with her Vet Kit from Santa. Kitty sat by her at every meal, went sledding with us, and still sleeps in her bed at night. Jealous at her lack of kitty, Samantha asked to “borrow” the super cuddly, soft Jellycat kitty Meredith received. I have a feeling they will be begging for a really kitty soon.

I’ve been looking for a good poetry book to read with the girls for ages, and all the ones we have are too long or old for the twins, so I decided to make my own. I collected a bunch of my favorite classic, age-appropriate poems and commissioned Grandma Celeste to do the drawings. Her watercolors came out totally adorable and I am in love with our new book!

Amelia of Christmas Past:

Samantha:

The twins:

Our new addition, Meredith, of Christmas Present!

In between presents, I forced the girls into taking a few pictures before there were no more wrapped presents to sit on.

Amelia Christmas 2016:

Some of my favorite Christmas morning memories from the past:

Amelia now races that scooter through the neighborhood like nobody’s business.

Sammy, that little cuddlemuffin!

We had some mischievous elves at our house last year….

I just loved their haircuts last year!

This year, one of their other favorite gifts were their mermaid tale blankies from Meredith. Whenever we cuddle up to watch a movie with them, they flip flop on over to Meredith, give her a hug and say, “Thanks for the gift, Meredith!”

 

Please rescue me!

Yay shoes!  

Meredith ripped off her My First Christmas sticker for the photo, so we had to tape it around her outfit, just to get it to stay on. I think it gives it character!

   

There wasn’t any snow on Christmas Eve, but Christmas morning, we woke up to a world blanketed in snow. The girls couldn’t believe their eyes!

Meredith watched the girls build a snow fort from her cozy spot by the window.    

Samantha the snow beast.

The fun of twins… they can make it look like one of them has really long legs!

Stuck. Again.

The twins and Grammy ended their busy day with an epic Hungry Hungry Hippos tournament (their new favorite game).

Despite the water situation, Meredith’s 1st Christmas was full of sweet memories and it was solidified what Christmas was really all about. Costco lasagna and all!

Lots of love,

Signature

Filed Under: Christmas Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Christmas Festivities 2016

January 2, 2017 by

This Christmas season was pretty low-key compared to past years, (such as 2014 when I went insane and did 25 days of toddler Christmas!) Between Hawaii and Utah, we were gone half the month, so we really had to pare down the Christmas fun to the absolute essentials, which I actually preferred since we spent a lot of time at home relishing the true spirit of Christmas and didn’t drive ourselves crazy braving the crowds. We missed the annual Moms of Multiples’ Club Christmas Breakfast and a few of our favorite nativities this year while we were traveling, but in addition to the Christmas Train and Santa’s Village, we still made sweet memories with our family and friends. Sometimes simplicity is best.

I’ve been trying to make more of an effort to get individual pictures of Samantha and Amelia, but these two are stuck at the hip and always refuse individual shots. Here’s their morning dance party while getting ready for their Preschool Pajama Day (a.k.a. every kid’s favorite day of the year).

On Pajama Day, the girls enjoyed hot chocolate and were excited to chat with Santa, although they would never admit it in a picture.

Meredith was disappointed she didn’t get to partake in the hot chocolate and was bored while her entertainment was away at preschool in the morning.

f

This was the first year Elfie made an appearance at our house for the Christmas season. I was skeptical of the Elf on a Shelf craze in past years, but I must admit, Elfie was a huge hit with the twins and they would race out of bed in the morning and through the front door whenever we went somewhere to see what Elfie was doing while they were gone. Our boring Elf pretty much moved from shelf to shelf most of the time, but a few times managed to do something more creative, like having a tea party with dolls, hanging from the chandelier, or being frozen in a block of ice.

Elfie brought an early Christmas present for Samantha and Amelia– personalized aprons, about which they were ecstatic. We christened them by decorating eating all the candy on a gingerbread house.

I don’t even want to know what kinds of toxic food coloring and carcinogens were lurking in their candy.

Our real life baby Elf on a Shelf!

My friends, Sheela and Phi, hosted a holiday Favorite Things party, which was fun for the holidays because we all went home with some cute items and got great ideas for gifts in the future.

Aunt Linda and Uncle David visited to drop off their annual load of yummy cookies and fudge, plus presents.

Meredith couldn’t contain her excitement!

We’ve been experimenting with Jamberry nail wraps the past few months ever since my sister-in-law became the CEO. The twins love their Christmas designs.

Thanks to the girls’ preschool teachers, one of the best parts about the holidays this year was receiving some homemade gifts. Amelia gifted me a burlap banner with her foot and handprint angel and a glass ornament with her handprint, while Samantha made a Rudolph-inspired mason jar filled with muddy buddy mix she made herself. I didn’t get a picture of the jar filled with the mix because it was gone devoured in a flash. Art projects involving body parts and paint is not an easy task when you’ve got a bunch of preschoolers roaming around (I went in to volunteer with a few art projects in December and could barely handle one kid at a time), so kudos to the preschool teachers for their hard work.

Jake sat down with the girls and helped them make salt dough hand print ornaments for keepsakes as well. Meredith’s other homemade gifts included creating food messes.

I’m not sure if it was all the sugar, or the proximity to Santa’s arrival, but during the last week of preschool before the break, the excitement was palpable. The craziness culminated in a Christmas sing-along, for which the girls had been practicing at home non-stop (Amelia’s favorite was Jingle Bells, while Samantha loved Frosty), but were shy for the actual production. Meredith wiggled and giggled through the sing-along and was so proud of her sisters.

The 3-6-year-olds brought down the house!

The twins sang the Dreidel song all the time at home and Amelia was excited to announce she tried sour cream and like it when someone from her class brought latkes, applesauce and sour cream (not as good as Great Auntie Lynn’s latkes, but Amelia said they were still delish). They also played dreidel and the winners received Hanukkah gelt (chocolate coins). “I was soooooo good at spinning the dreidel!” exclaimed Amelia, happy about all the gelt she won when I picked her up. In addition to winning chocolate coins during the dreidel game, Amelia was also proud that she won Christmas Bingo too. I find it hilarious that the twins rarely follow rules when I try to teach them games at home (I refuse to play Candy Land or Red Light Green Light with them because they always cheat!), but somehow at preschool, they actually follow the group norms.

The twins started out strong and then zoned out for the rest. Samantha was a little overwhelmed by all the attention and threw herself, crying, into Daddy’s arms after the show.

By the time their grand finale of Jingle Bells rolled around, all the kids were restless and going crazy.

The kids sang a few other songs, but I was too occupied wrestling with a wiggly Meredith to capture the rest. I would be that every one of the parents’ hearts were bursting at the cuteness of all the kids singing (or staring off into space) together and the sing-along will go down as one of my favorite parts of Christmas!

Lots of love,

Signature

Filed Under: Christmas Tagged With: , , ,

Santa’s Village

January 1, 2017 by

After returning from Hawaii, and before we left for Utah, the girls had another chance to talk to Santa, in the hopes that their requests for a vet kit with kitty and doggy (Amelia), castle (Samantha) and fruity candy canes (both girls received some from teachers at school and from then on eschewed the peppermint versions in favor of strawberry) would be realized.

We went out to dinner with the Nguyens before seeing Santa, and the twins and Parker were in the silliest moods, bouncing all over the booth seats and having a grand time. It’s always a crazy time putting five kids five and under together in close proximity in a waiting/eating situation, but fortunately, we had great company. Parker has always been so patient with the girls, from the time they were 18 months old and barely talking, and it was fun to see them all chatting now that they are a little older and have the most random conversations.

Whatcha ordering, Maple? Mmmmmm…. shrimp pesto pizza sounds delish!

The aftermath from the babies:

This was our third annual time going to our local Santa’s Village with the Nguyens and Meredith and Maple’s first time there. Meredith kept wanting to pet Maple who looked like a cuddly bear in her adorable faux fur coat.

2014: The girls were not even two yet and still used their Wubs.

Last year, we ran into Michael and Parker, while Phi stayed at home with newborn baby Maple. The girls and Parker had an in-depth chat last year about how all the baby business was going since they were soon-to-be big sisters themselves.

Once again enjoying their hot chocolate, one year later:

Meredith was fascinated by Frosty and other interesting life-size stuffed animals. I would pay money to get inside those baby heads and see what they are thinking sometimes!

One of my favorite pics ever!

The twins miraculously didn’t notice the cookie decorating station this year… phew. Between parties, treats from school, baking at home, and Christmas festivities, we were on sugar overload this Christmas.

    

2014: Santa and Mrs. Clause smartly placated the terrified twins with candy canes for the picture.

No one cried and the twins were rewarded with candy canes from Santa. Meredith gave Santa a wary look at first, but stayed calm being held by Mrs. Clause.

Not every Christmas activity we’ve been to in the past is one we’ve turned into a tradition, but being local, free and simple, Santa’s Village is one that’s here to stay… at least while the girls still believe in Santa!

Lots of love,

Signature

Filed Under: Christmas Tagged With: , , , ,
« Previous Page
Next Page »