Olivia's new Bow

Okay, so I got Olivia the "new style" bow and I just had to take a few pictures to show you how cute!!

PICNIC DAY

When I woke up this morning it was just a tad on the cold side....okay who am I kidding, it was in the upper 40's ...and let me assure you, for us Floridians, that's freezing! However, there was not a cloud in the sky, a slight breeze and as the sun came up a little more, things began to warm up. It seemed just too perfect a morning to pass up cramped inside. So we loaded up the goods set off for a picnic morning.

When I started unloading the kids at Island Park, I was afraid I had made a mistake. The air was espcially cold right on the bay, but as soon as we found a sunny spot in the grass, we warmed right up! I brought McDonalds, a football and frisbees...and of course my camera. The kids all loved it.

I'll tell ya what, after yesterday, I needed a "relaxing" morning like this. We managed to avoid any major meltdowns when we left and now the kids are worn out and all tucked in for a nice little nappy nap:)

Christmas 09'

TOO...ti-red ......2.....write.......Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas at Mimi and Papa Frank's

Last night we had a great dinner and evening at Mimi and Papa Frank's house. Mimi made turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, home made biscuits, salad, cranberry sauce and cookies for dessert. We all sat around in the living room and stuffed ourselves. Even the twins joined in! I'm afraid it may have spoiled them though. They are going to turn up their noses when I offer them their measly little jarred food:) After dinner we all opened gifts and boy were Maddox and Jaxon surprised! They got a racecar track, remote control car/airplane and art boards. They immediately wanted to play with all their goodies. Ty and Olivia had fun ripping at their paper ( especially Ty, who was actually pretty furious while tearing at it ). The twins didn't know what to do. I think they were overwhelmed that they had new toys to play with. ..... Rather mesmorized. Anyways, we had a perfect time. I couldn't have asked for a better night. And as you will see in the pictures, Olivia's lip is almost completely healed:)

My Poor Sweet Olivia:(

Olivia fell down the two steps into our garage today and now she has a big ol' lip. ( Picture Angelina Jolie! ) Poor little thing :( Aside from her lip, she is doing fine. I had pictures of her lip up, but my mom said they were too sad and to take them off, so if you want to see them I will e-mail them to you. I didn't think they were too bad, but then again that may be because of what I do!

Christmas.... Express Delivery

Seriously? Less than a week before Christmas already? I think I must have hit my head in the beginning of the month and just woke up, because December has flown by! Being such a traditionalist, I am having a hard time with the speed of the season.

I've given up on the idea of getting a real Christmas tree the week after Thanksgiving. Along with being a traditionalist, one of my new hobbies is attempting to be a realist also. ( Although Arik may disagree :) And I have to say, I am getting a little sentimental with our little 4 foot Christmas tree that we have had set up together every year. After all, it was also the tree that we had our first year with Maddox. Each year when I pull out the pieces of the tree from the tattered white box, the scent of "storage" hits me and it immediately reminds me of the year before. Inevitably, I automatically think to myself, " Wow, I can't believe Christmas is here again!" Our ornament collection is steadily growing and will eventually outgrow our tree, forcing us into a bigger one anyways.

I finally got it set up last Thursday. I kept putting it off with hopes that we may be able to have a night of Christmas music and hot chocolate as a family, but with Arik and my schedule clashing , we just couldn't make it work. The boys were with my mom for the first half of the night while I cleaned the house a bit and I forced myself to turn on Holiday music to help me get in the spirit. It really did help. When it got down to time to set up the tree, I had to use my cell phone to shine light in our shed because we don't have a flashlight! Thank goodness everything that I needed was pretty close to the front. I was certain that a roach or spider was going to crawl across my arm, or worse ...jump on me, so I anticipated what it was going to feel like. But, I got the boxes without a problem. However, we apparently have a bit of a shed ant problem. I opened up the box and carpenter ants scattered out. Most of the ornaments were well wrapped and they couldn't get to them though. My mom suggested I set the tree up on our table this year and seeing how Olivia is into anything and everything she can get her hands on, I thought it was a great idea!

Speaking of Miss Olivia...the princess of the Smith house, she is a little drama queen/talker/Miss animation. She epitomizes a little girl already. When I say Drama queen let me emphasize dramatic. Her little world crumbles if you walk away from her and she wants you. Yesterday I was attempting to move stuff inside after our yard sale and she pitifully followed me around in her walker crying at me. I went into the garage and she sat at the door screaming. I finished what I needed to do and came back to her, immediately she stopped crying and calmed down. On her less dramatic side, she is starting to recognize words. I can ask her where my nose is and she will grab it. ( Arik didn't believe me, he said if I held her in front of me and said poop over and over she would eventually grab for my nose....I had to prove him wrong...and I did:) I'll let you get the visual ) She is ready to take off. I can hold her hands and she will take a few little steps with me. She does really well balancing and trying to hold herself up.....Ty on the other hand.....not so much, poor little chunky monkey.

Ty is still just such a laid back little guy. He is content 99.9% of the time and give him food, he's happy 100% of the time! He is very giggly, and of the two he is easier to get a smile from. He prefers his excersaucer over the walker and when he bounces in it, it reminds me of how Maddox used to furiously bounce in it when he was that age. Ty is so far much more cuddly of the two. He will fall asleep on me or lay his head on me if I am holding him. He got me the other day with his two teeth. Clearly he hasn't figured out the strength of his chomp, or rather I haven't figured it out! After the Holidays, we are going to start doubling up on his therapy sessions and go twice a week. He still isn't where we would like to be at this point. I was talking to the wife of a guy I work with this am who just had twins. I told her how guilty I felt that I didn't watch his head and neck better when he was smaller. For the most part the torticullis is preventable. When he was little and his poor little head was lying crooked I should have put a roll on that side of the his head to position him straighter. I showed her a picture of him when he was about 2 months old and it looked like his head was lying sideways on his body. I just never realized how bad it would actually be for him. However, he is making progress. I am also going to talk to his therapist about a small cervical collar which my aunt and Grandpa recommend. My Grandpa can special order one if she doesn't feel it would be counterproductive.

Maddox and Jaxon are as good as ever. They really have become good buds and scheming buds. My gosh those boys tag team me already! I think they secretly meet up after hours and devise new ways to thin out mommy's hair! I really think that they are part rubber b/c those boys bounce off the walls. In their defense I think they need to run a bit more. Lately I haven't gotten out with them much at all. As you know, I usually like to take them out atleast once a day to run off their steam. Every night though when I go to bed, I look at their sweet little faces and think to myself, how could I ever get frustrated with those angelic faces. ...I think the night time messes with my mind a bit:) But seriously, I know one day they are going to call me weird for it, but I'll crawl in bed with them some nights and just watch them sleep and hold them. I definitely get a little more cuddle time with Maddox b/c he takes his naps in our room. He has held onto that snugly behavior and still wants to hold me to fall asleep and rub noses and have me tickle his face. As a result Maddox tends to be the more sensitive of the two. Jaxon needs his cuddle time when he wakes up and when he gets hurt, otherwise you may get a quick hug and kiss...if you're lucky. Oh! Jax is making good progress. He is now telling us that he has to go poop. Even out in public. I am so proud of him! Actually to be honest, he is a little better at telling us than Maddox. So two down, two to go! ( For the most part )

So there's an update. I don't have any good new excuses for not keeping up. I will be posting Christmas Eve and Christmas Day pictures though. I can't wait! ...But then again, I may not have to seeing as how fast this month is going by.

IT'S A RACE

So in Ty and Olivia's endless race to see who can do what first, Ty has briefly regained the lead. I saw that Ty is cutting his first two teeth! The front bottom two are already sticking out. I swear it had to be overnight! And in Ty's quest to parallel Maddox, those just happen to be the first two he got also. Anyways, that's all. Stay tuned for pics of them:)

MESSY DAY

I kept Maddox out of school today to take him with us to our Tuesday playgroup. Partially because he loves to go and mostly because I was just too whipped afterwork to get everything ready for his school day. Anyways, while I was getting the twins dressed the boys went out back to play. All I hear is the sweet music of laughter and play. And as any mother knows, those sounds are too suspicious when you have two young unsupervised boys. Turns out, they made a mud puddle and were litterally diving into it and smacking it with a bat giggling in delight as it splattered ALL over their faces. .... ( said with an expressionless face...."yeah: )

So we got to playgroup about an hour late, seeing as how I had to assembly line the boys through the shower first! We had a good morning hough. For the first time I was able to sit in a chair and set the twins in front of some toys while they played. There is such a range of ages that come, birth to about five years old.

Evrything was going great right up until we decided to leave. I was finishingup a conversation with another mother and I caught a glance of the boys at the finger paint table.....( another straight face...."yeah:" ) I was too late. The small white table had failed to attract the boys attention for over an hour and yet, we couldn't make it another 5 minutes. Maddox came grinning to me holding his palms out for me to observe his work of art....all over his body. Blue, green and yellow paint covered his entire shirt, pants arms and face. .....deep breath......ANNNND enter Jaxon....crying ....holding his tongue out and spattering in between sobs. You guessed....It was all inside his mouth on his teeth and all over his arms.

Now I'm just throwing this out there and I know I shouldn't expect anything. But a few weeks ago I quickly offered a little girl an apron as she went to dip into the paints and her father was no where to be seen. Granted he showed up a few seconds later, but he expressed his gratitude that I diverted a potential disaster. I'd like to think that one of the other moms would have stepped in, but on the other hand they were probably getting a kick out of it and saying, " Oh boy, somebody's not going to be happy!"

As frustrated as I was, Maddox made up for it as we were singing Christmas carols on the way home. He chimed in with the radio, " oh oh the Mr. Toe! " I had to smile and certainly didn't correct him and it brought a smile to my face cheering my drive home:)