Brady and Owen Turn 1

We had an amazing pirate themed birthday party for Brady and Owen a month ago.  They had lots of their friends come to play with them and even enjoyed some cake!

Happy New Year!

I know it's been a while since my last post (sorry Grandma and Grandpa -- and the NICU nurses) but I won't offer any excuses.....except maybe we were sick all of November (not coughing sick but barfing sick!!), Brady and Owen turned 1 (can you believe it!), our first Christmas home and as family and now we are starting a New Year!

I'm excited to start 2012 and can't wait to see what blessings are in store for us.  Here are a few pictures of the last couple months to tide you over.  I won't have many birthday pics because I  wasn't the photographer of this amazing event but I will have a better post for that soon.

They are my "little helpers" around the house...

We discovered how to open the cabinets!

Owen Loves the bathroom....toilet paper rolls and playing in the toilet water is FUN!!

Is Brady going to be my laundry helper??  One can only hope!

So sassy already!

Happy 1st Birthday (preview only)...they had a bunch of friends over, played games, had cake and got some awesome presents!  Mommy and Daddy bought them a pirate rocking horse which they seem to enjoy quite a bit.

Christmas was really great this year!  It was our first time to have everyone home so we savored every moment.  I actually got out the tree and some decorations.  Brady especially loved to look at the tree and all the lights.  We would walk by it every night before bed and talk about some of the ornaments and we would just stare in amazement.  Owen just wanted to grab the branches!

Opening our first Christmas present.....the book exchange at school.  This is really the only gift they were even remotely interested in opening....go figure!

"Reorganizing" Grandma and Grandpa's bookshelf

My little Irish gangster :)

Christmas morning with my new towel!

Brady and Owen got some new push toys for their birthday which have been quite fun!  The boys are moving like crazy all around the house.  It's only a matter of time before Brady takes his first step. They both cruise all around the furniture and love rearranging the kitchen chairs.  We have moved around the furniture to make more room for walking...which all it really does is give a bigger area for messes to be made!

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!  We are so excited for all the new adventures that await us in 2012! 

A Great Visit and the Pumpkin Patch

OK - so I admit that I'm a little behind on posting some really fun stuff that has happened over the last couple months but that's just how it goes.  In September Rodney and I went on our first trip together sans babies!  Grammy and Papa watched the boys (including Ike) and we had a great time in Napa which is where we got engaged 5 years ago.

The week before we left my grandparents and Uncle Larry came to visit from Minnesota.  It was the first opportunity for the boys to meet their Great-Grandparents and Great Uncle.  I got kinda sentimental while they were here and enjoyed all the family time we had during the week.  Here are a few pics from their visit.  We even managed a picture with all 4 generations and all 5 of the great-grandbabies!

Rodney and I took off a Friday a couple weeks ago and met up with Grammy, Papa, Aunt Rachael and all the boys for a trip to the pumpkin patch.  Rachael and I took Max when he was 6 months old so it was really exciting for us to go with the 4 new boys!  We needed to bring reinforcements with us this time and even with 5 adults and 5 kids we probably could have used a few more hands.  The boys enjoyed the pumpkins, watching Max run around and even their first hayride.

8 Month Pics

I've been waiting on these pictures to come in!  We took these amazing shots at a historical (and apparently) haunted bridge not too far from our house.  Apparently it's the oldest bridge in Denton County and a man was lynched on it so you can see his ghost protecting his family if you go at night...NO THANK YOU!!!

Other than the creepy story that Rodney found, we loved this location.  The boys were sitting up really well and enjoyed playing outside.  These were done in August during the awful heat wave!  It was over 90 degrees at 9:00 am so the boys enjoyed playing in the water.

I hope you enjoy these because they certainly made me smile.