Big boy and girl turn 3...

We celebrated Lilly and Asher's birthday on Jan. 10th since their actual birthday was on Monday. Just had family and a few close friends over to have some cake with us. It's amazing how you can blow up a bunch of balloons, put them in a room and kids just think it's the greatest! No need for birthday games, just let them throw the balloons up and hit them around. This also causes excited high pitched screaming, so it was for sure loud! I should have known that the 5 dollar umbrella's I picked up at Walmart, at the last minute would be the biggest hit as far as presents go. Since Sunday, Lilly and Asher both have taken their umbrella's (rain or no rain) with them wherever we have gone. My babies are 3 now....they are fun, sweet, beautiful blessings. They make me laugh, they make me cry, they make me want to be a better mommy. I look so forward to seeing them grow this year and what new things they will do, say and learn. Lilly already talks like she is 10 yrs. old practically! They say things now that just amaze me like "I miss Simon" (our dog that we had to put to sleep about 6-8 months ago). They ask about God and Jesus and say He lives up in the clouds in Heaven and Lilly will also add "and He lives in my heart". Their favorite words are "why" and "because" and they will say them even when it doesn't make sense to say. It melts my heart when they say "I love you mommy" and I know it does Brad as well to hear "I love you daddy". Asher's giggle is infectious and Lilly's hugs are priceless. The 4 of us snuggle in Brad and I's bed every night before putting them to bed and watch some Nickjr. Most of the time we all end up laughing and wrestling around but it's nice when we are all just quiet and snuggled up to each other. I hope and pray as they get older, they will still want to do that... They had a ck up the other day and Miss Lilly weighs a whopping 24.5 lbs and is 35 inches tall. Asher weights 32.5 and is 39.5 inches tall. I love you my sweet 3 yr olds!

First big snow of the year...

Lilly and Asher were beyond excited to wake up and look out the window and see snow on the ground...after Christmas of course :( As a matter of fact, it was 2 days after Christmas on my birthday, so that was a nice surprise! I woke up to Brad, Lilly and Asher singing happy birthday and laying two presents on my belly. ...so sweet. Later we bundled them up to go out for just a few minutes because it was super cold that day. Asher ate the snow, which didn't surprise me at all and Lilly just giggled and tried to catch snowflakes on her tongue. It's so fun to see them so excited about something. I feel so blessed to have these two little ones in my life and have an amazing husband to help me keep my sanity! hehe.

Happy New Year!

2010, a brand new year and time for brand new goals. I had set a few for the babies (guess now that they are 3 I can stop calling them babies....neh!) one goal being potty training before their 3rd birthday! I'm proud to say, even though I waited until the last minute, Lilly and Asher are both almost completely potty trained! Lilly caught on in 3 days while Asher took a bit longer. Not that he didn't catch on as quick, he just flat out didn't feel like going on the potty. Let me tell you potty training two toddlers at the same time was a bit overwhelming the first few days. My sister stayed with me to help get started and by the end of the day we wanted to give up and wait another couple of weeks! We put them straight into undies, no pull-ups, so we spent the first day cleaning up accidents. Day two was better and by day three Lilly was doing both on the potty and has never looked back! Asher just started going #2 in the potty the last few days so I am really hoping this is it! They both do wear a pull-up at night, then undies all day....I'm so proud of them and incredibly thankful to be done with diapers! We are hoping to try and use whatever money we save on diapers to put them in preschool 1 day a week this spring....we'll see if the savings add up to be able to do it. We spend New Years with Grandma Chris and Papa Hoz, Aunt Shelly and Brennen joined us as well. We laid Lilly and Asher down for a nap at 4pm so they could stay up to ring in the New Year with us...it worked out quite well because I snuck off and took a nap too! Our little celebration started with pizza and yummy snacks Brad's mom brought. We got out the party hats and horns at about 10pm and had to hear Lilly and Asher blow those horns and say "Happy New Ear" for two hours straight...yes....they both called it "new ear". After ringing in the New Year it took them about 45 min. to settle down and be ready for bed....the good thing about a late bedtime means they didn't wake up until almost 11am the next morning! So here are a few photos of our New Years celebration and hoping this year brings wonderful things ;)

I have got some catching up to do!

Ahhh...Christmas...it was a really fun one this year with the babies being almost 3. They were very excited about putting the tree up and helping decorate it, talking and asking lots about Santa and singing along to the "Elf" soundtrack every time we got in the car! Brad and I got so sick of hearing that cd we once loved, we were happy to put it away for another year. We took them to see Santa at his house in the mall ;) of course on the way their they were so excited and couldn't wait to see him and tell him what they wanted for Christmas. They had both practiced it so many times...when asked...Lilly would say "I'm gonna tell Santa I want a barbie"! Asher would say "and I want Handy Manny"...seemed simple enough. As you can see from the pictures, this is as far as they got! Lilly didn't sit on his lap nor did she tell him what she wanted, instead she held onto Aunt Shelly for dear life and cried. Asher got as far as standing in line with daddy...he wouldn't even walk up to him, let alone sit on his lap! Oh well, maybe next year. Christmas morning was also lots of fun, Nana, Aunt Shelly and Becky and cousin Brennen all spent the night so we could all wake up together on Christmas morning. It was so cute to see the look on their faces when they came down the stairs to find presents under the tree, some wrapped and some unwrapped and to see that Santa had eaten his cookies we left out! Unlike last year, they tore open their presents with noooo problem and most importantly they were old enough this year to some what understand why we celebrate Christmas and asked lots of questions about baby Jesus too.