Singing

I know I've mentioned that Cameron likes to sing...but she is getting a little out of control. She is constantly singing now...always singing, singing, singing.

This is after a bowl of yogurt...playing drums and singing...


And this is kinda like whistling while you work...

Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Our day was one full of friends, food and giving thanks. We had the joy of sharing the day with dear friends of ours, the Evan's and Busbees. Claudia did our lovely center piece (the grapes and oranges didn't last long once the kids spotted them), I did most of the cooking and Young carved up the juicy turkey after spending the day volunteering at our church feeding the homeless. And we were all thankful for Alexis who stayed busy playing with all the kids and keeping them entertained with crafts.

The big Thanksgiving photo...but where is Timo??...oh, over there playing with the crafts...we couldn't get him away from the coloring and sticker picture frames I got for the kids to put together.

After eating way to much...it was time for dessert! (I was super happy with my apple tart tatain) Johnathan decided on the pecan pie after he found out it was chocolate pecan pie.

A little ice cream for the kids and back to crafts with Alexis.

End of a long day...all ready to snuggle up and watch our traditional Thanksgiving movie...Family Man. The kids didn't last very long...they had a great Thanksgiving.

Box Fun

We still get hours of fun out of big boxes...


you can hear Timo saying "turn, turn" meaning it's his turn and then trying to hide and saying "where are you, where are you" just like his daddy has been saying.

Timo and His Trains

We have this little travel train set that I keep put away for our travels...so he wouldn't get board with it and not play with it on trips. I don't know why I ever thought he could get board with trains..silly me. So I broke it out a few weeks ago and it's basically all he plays with. I started out assembling the track in the classic figure 8 but he would quickly take it apart and build his own track. Now he takes his trains all over the house, building tracks, playing, taking them apart and building in another area...

Here are a few of his masterpieces...even one while sitting in a box!

Goodnight Moon

Kids still never get tired of Goodnight Moon. Their Daddy reads it almost every night before bedtime with lots of sound effects . The kids pretty much know it by heart by now, making all the sounds themselves. Their favorite is doing the "and the quiet old lady whispering hush..." and making the "shhh" sound with their finger to their lips.

Young is such a good daddy. What a blessing he is to me and to our children!

Vroom, Vroom!

I know I've posted about how much the kids love their little ride on cars but I'm still so surprised how much the play with them considering most of their toys are played with a few times and tossed aside. Without fail, they are zipping around the house everyday on these cars.



They got these hats as a party favor at a recent birthday party. They only put the hats on when they are on the cars but the hats are too big for them so they typically can't see where they're going...I guess that's what make it so much fun!

Vroom, Vroom!

Reading Time

Ah the life of a baby...just sitting on the potty catching up on some reading...life is sweet!

Lawn Mower

We were at the park the other day which is next to a baseball field. As we were leaving, the kids caught sight of lawn mowing tractor! Yes, a huge tractor mowing the lawn of the baseball field. Oh, Timo was in heaven...we ended up sitting on the park bench almost the entire 30min it took the nice driver, who would wave every time he circled around, to mow the grass.

We were there so long I pulled out some snacks and milk while we watched the show!

And to top it off, as we were walking down the sidewalk back to the car, we happened upon the mother all tractors...a digger!! This was Timo's lucky day. Right there by our car was a dump truck and a digger. The workers were so entertained every time Timo said "tractor", or "ump truck" that they let him get next to the dump truck. (didn't get a picture of that because Cameron was more interested in casing the leaves and I was chasing her). The digger's engine was running so Timo was a little too scared to get next to it but he throughly enjoyed just looking at them. What an awesome day to be Timothy!

Lights!

Light switches are big in our house. There is one right by the kids changing table that get ficked on and off about 100 times a day. The kitchen switches are just low enough to be reached by chair...so why not pass the time flipping on and off!

The Clearner

I think I've posted before how much the kids love to help "clean"...and I use that term loosely b/c it usually ends up just spreading the mess into a bigger area...but they try. Typically when I pull the brooms, vacuum or sponges out, Timo is right there trying to use them. The other day I was cleaning the bathroom and I gave him a sponge of his own. He went to town cleaning, or "leaning" has he calls it, all over the house. I guess Timo thinks our house could use a little top to bottom cleaning!!

who knew the floor vent needed cleaning??

...and the door...

...and the TV stand...

...the wall...

...the TV...

Play Doh

We had a few rainy days last week so it was time to start trying out some arts and crafts for the kids. We've gotten a few containers of Play Doh from party favors but I've put them all away thinking the kids would just make mess. Let's just say I was right and wrong. One of my children loved playing with it and the other loved making a mess.

Cameron has the knack for creativity, I think. She loves to color and does a pretty good job at it. And play doh was no different. She played for over an hour! Both she and Timothy started out enjoying it and somewhat realized the concept of shaping and molding it, but Timo quickly grew tired of it and was picking it all apart throwing it on the floor. Cameron just kept going and going.

I got a few cutters from the kitchen for them to make prints in it as well as shaped some balls and snakes. But they had the most fun just putting it in the containers and taking it out, putting it in, taking it out...ah, the joys of repetition. And it didn't take long for all the colors to get mixed up but they didn't seem to mind.

Apples!

For some reason it's taken the kids a while to warm up to apples. I've tried giving them apple slices over and over only to be spit out. Then a few weeks ago Cameron kept asking for apples. I sliced one up and she ate almost the whole apple...Timo was still on the fence taking only a few bites. Then, just a few days ago, Timo started asking for "bapple" and now I have two apple eating toddlers. But wait, it only gets better...I noticed a few of my friends giving their kids whole apples to eat so I thought I would give it a try. Jackpot!

Party Time!

We have officially started the round of 2nd Birthdays for all of the twins' friends. We had one party last month and had Caleb Moy's party this month. I remember a few years back when it was an endless number of baby showers for all our friends, us included, then all new births, 1st birthdays and on and on. We are so lucky the the Lord placed us in the right place and time to have friends to share all these adventures with!

Back to the party...Caleb is one of Timo's buddies from church. They are both die hard Thomas the Train lovers and when I saw the Thomas party invitation I knew we were in for some fun! Caleb's mom, Anna, sure did set the bar high for birthday parties. Check out this cake and peanut butter & jelly sammies shaped like trains!!

Timo had so much fun with all the train tents while Cameron took a break doing what she loves most...eating!

They even had a Thomas tattoo station where Timo got his train tattoo. Let me just tell you how much Timo adores this tattoo. He wants his sleeve pushed up at all times so he can look at his train.


Happy Birthday Caleb...Timo looks forward to many more years of train fun with you!

The Library!

We took an outing to our local library last week and had so much fun! I went to the library all the time as a kid and used to work in the library through high school and collage. It's something I want to pass on the the kids and try to take advantage of all the public library has to offer.

I've taken the kids one other time about 6mo ago, our local branched had just reopened, for story time and it was a nightmare to say the least. Timo pulled almost every book off the shelf, I "lost" Cameron in the crowd of little kids and had a complete panic attack even though she was actually only a foot or so away from me, and Cameron kept trying to steal the storyteller's puppets while she read. Ugh, we left vowing never to return until they were at least 10 years old.

So, fast forward 6month and I thought we were ready for another go. When you first don't succeed, try, try again. What a difference 6 months makes! The kids have been doing really well as far as listening and following simple instructions such as "don't touch", "do you want to sit down", "come over this way", etc... And yes, there was moments of pulling a few random books off the shelves and running between the isles b/c they liked the sound the floor makes, but all in all it was a great experience.

We got there just a little before they opened so the kids could play on the new playground they just built. Of course Cameron preferred to climb up the slide...

Once inside the kid played in the kiddie corner for a while or on the puzzle table...that's where Timo spent much of his time.

Cameron was having a book overload. She kept taking books off the shelf, sitting and looking at them, jump up, get another book, sit and read, and repeat it over and over. I'm not sure if you can tell but the book in the second picture is in Chinese...guess pictures are a universal language!

Timo carefully picking out his books for Mommy to check out for him...we got a book on trucks (surprise, surprise)...

Once we picked out our books and a few DVDs on fish (Cameron's new fav animal)then it was outside for a snack and another run down the slide. We had a great morning and the best part was I didn't take the stroller! Yes, the kids walked from the car to the library and back to the car!!! What a vacation it felt like not having to lug the big stroller in and out. I can see many many more days of library fun in our future. Good job Cameron and Timothy, you are growing up so fast!