The Daveye

Happy Friday

2012-01-27T08:00:00.000-08:00

Have a wonderful Friday everyone. I'm in a blogging rut right now so I'll just toss some more photos at you.

Miles is honing his buckle skills, which means I'm usually finding him like this:

Every time he finishes one set of buckles he runs over to the other highchair to do that set. I unclip the straps whenever I'm near them so he'll have more to buckle back up. Definitely an activity loop going on in our household!

Bubble Storm

2012-01-26T08:00:00.000-08:00

I was going through pictures last night and came across these. One random weekend afternoon last month Miles was throwing a fit over wanting to use the bubble machine. We decided to motivate and go outside and make a moment of it.

Although it was a chilly day we ended up having a bit of fun. Sometimes it pays to actually listen to your kids, they might just have a good idea or two!

Time At The Library

2012-01-24T08:00:00.000-08:00

Now that we're back to "normal" (dug out of the snow and daddy's back at the office) we had a chance to start our regular rounds today.

The first stop was the library. We went to BOTH the Lynnwood branch and the Mountlake Terrace branch. I've been switching my pickups to Mountlake Terrace because we've been doing the toddler story times over there but the stack of the books I have at the house are checked out from Lynnwood. The good news is I got my FIFTEEN overdue books turned back in and I was able to pick up eight new items. The better news is that I can pick up from one branch and return to a different one so that will make my drop offs easier.

The Mountlake Terrace library is a little smaller and it was pretty quiet when we went in so I told the boys they could get out of the stroller and walk around a little bit. (They had to stay close to mommy though or we'd pack up and leave.)

The Mountlake Terrace library has a great children's section. TONS of books and even a little area set up for story times. There is a small table with chairs and puzzles, legos and bead sorters on it. They have two big baskets of board books that you can enjoy and check out. It was nice to have those baskets, no worries of the boys pulling books off the shelves or getting things out of order, they could rummage and I didn't have to sweat it.

The big hit of the space though was this.

When we wheeled around the aisle into the children's section the boys were first greeted with this huge crocodile sitting on the bright alphabet/number carpet. Miles rolled around on the crocodile and Graham crawled around in a circle shouting the numbers and even a few letters. It was pretty cute.

We sat on the floor, read some books, talked about the library set up. A librarian came over at one point to do some shelving and Miles walked right up to her "Hi!" he said, book in hand, looking up at her. She was a little surprised and smiled saying hi back. I said "Miles, she is a librarian. She is working to put the books in the correct order so people can find them." Miles looked at me, then back up at her and said "BOOKS!" It was so cute. She laughed and moved on to the next section with Miles trailing behind her. I thought I was going to have to get up and retrieve him but Miles trotted back over to me and swapped out the book in his hand with a new one to look at.

We hung out for a little bit longer but when Graham ran off to the front door at one point, I had to run after him looking over my shoulder at Miles. Whew! Time to go! Miles had picked out one book and wouldn't put it down so I told him he could hold onto it if he got into the stroller and sit down. Once I had him strapped in and Graham was happily playing with the legos again I decided I could read the book to Miles one more time. Then I packed up Graham and still couldn't get Miles to put the book down. That got me thinking, maybe it's time for us to be able to check books out for the boys.

You should have seen the smile on Miles's face when I asked him if he wanted to take the book home. That meant Graham would need to pick out a book too. He found a book about dogs and I snagged a couple more that looked good.

We went to the checkout area and I talked the boys through how to check out books, taking them from their hands and then giving them back when they were scanned. We wheeled past the librarian's desk to exit and the boys both shouted "BYE BYE" to the people we passed. Graham and Miles clutched their books all the way to the car when I snagged this picture.

It's official! Graham and Miles are now library patrons! I've never checked out books for them before because they're pretty rough on books and with twins it's hard to sit down and watch them carefully. We'll see how they do with this set of books. Hopefully we can make it a weekly ritual.

A First

2012-01-23T08:00:00.000-08:00

Well I'm a daughter, a sister, a wife, a mommy and now? I'M AN AUNTIE!!!

Little Nora came into the world on Friday the 20th just before 6pm. My sister and brother-in-law are adjusting to being first time parents and my folks are down there helping out with chores and keeping the food coming. It makes me think of when I was a new mom and learning to breastfeed. I was SO hungry ALL the time.

I wish I could be there to give my sister a hug and smell sweet little Nora's head. I'm thankful my folks are able to be there and I'm happy to have the modern conveniences of texting and email so I can get updates as they have time to give them.

Being on this end of the new baby news makes me re-appreciate all the family and friends in our own lives. We had so much help in the beginning with Graham and Miles. We are so blessed! And our friends are all so patient. I am so anxious to hear any kind of update on how my sister is doing and it makes me realize how little I talked with my friends in the first month after Graham and Miles were born.

How did you do it!? How were you so patient?

Well, I'm thinking of you today my dear friends and if it's been a while since we've gotten together let's plan something soon.

Welcome to the world little Nora! Graham and Miles are already practiced up on saying baby Nora. Miles says "No La" and Graham says "No Na". I think that's the first word where they clearly have different ways of pronouncing it. So cute!

2012 Decluttering

2012-01-20T08:00:00.000-08:00

I'm happy to report that my 2012 house de-cluttering is going really well. I've been doing easy projects so far but I've been keeping with my calendar and it's full of check marks so far.

I think the key to success is to pick small tasks to do each day. Break it down into things you can do easily and quickly. Don't let yourself get stalled with a huge task. I like things to be able to complete while the boys are down for a nap. But what I've found is my 10-15 minute tasks just fuel me to want to do more! If you like to organize than go for it. But if you are really dreading this in your own home then keep it simple.

For example I had my kitchen cupboards broken down into sections each day. One day I did the left two sections shown below and the next I did the right section.

Hubby found a great quote about cleaning and de-cluttering:

The important part of simplification isn't the throwing away, it's deciding what stays.

For these cupboards I pulled everything out shelf by shelf. Wiped down the shelf. Then put everything back organized. Anything that I don't use, doesn't fit into our "daily vision of the space" or anything that's time to let go of; went into a box to tote off to Goodwill.

I finished off the rest of the kitchen by doing the baking cupboard one day, another set of cupboards the next, a few more sections over a couple more days and then whala our kitchen was de-cluttered.

The next couple days were the hutches. I pulled all those old flower vases and mis-matched wine glasses, making room for the things I really wanted to display. Now the dishes have room to breathe.

And then the coat closet. I now have space to keep my purse in the closet instead of on the stairs where it had made home ever since the boys became mobile. We already had the baskets but I went through them and sorted by gloves and hats in one and scarves in the other. Anything that was worn out was pulled.

I've also done our linen closet, pulled all expired medicines, moved our cleaning supplies up to a higher shelf and moved towels down so the boys can't get into our chemicals. And my dresser top is now cleared off, which it hasn't been since Thanksgiving.

I only have one more section in the living room and our main floor (we have a tri-level) of the house will be finished. Up next is a week to go through all the dresser drawers, closet and bathrooms. After that we'll be on to the DUN DUN DUUUUUN Office and Garage. We haven't had the office in a decent usable form since the boys were born and we haven't parked in the garage since I don't know when.

It's only January and I'm rocking the big 2012 de-clutter our home challenge!

The Boys

2012-01-19T14:57:00.000-08:00

Earlier today I asked Graham if I could take his picture...

"Graham? Will you smile so I can take your picture?

This is what I got.

And again when I asked if I could take another picture.

It still catches me off guard whenever they respond to what I'm saying. I talk to them like they are "normal" little people who know what the heck I'm talking about and yet still, it surprises me when they react to what I'm saying.

Not related but just as cute.

Here's Miles sharing a snack with Thomas and Sponge Bob.

That boy sure loves his cars and trains! (Different day, same spot and activity)

Graham meanwhile is whipping through the alphabet puzzle almost as quickly as the number puzzle.

And while this is happening outside...

We're staying inside (mostly) and keeping ourselves entertained with whatever I can think up next!

The Snow Continues to Fall

2012-01-18T08:00:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday it was another day of fun in the snow. Daddy was home from work (and probably will be again tomorrow) so we made a habit of getting out at 11:00 for a family tromp in the cold. This time our friends Amy and Else were home too so we took a walk to their house for a chilly play date.

It began with a ritual layering of the winter clothes.

I don't know what it is about these color combos but the boys just look like little ski bunnies to me.

We walked over to Else's house and Graham started singing her name in the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. It was really cute.

We tromped through their house in our snowy shoes and clothes and made it into their fresh backyard. Amy and Else suited up and joined us for a walk in the snow.

We caught falling snowflakes on our mittens, held snowballs and watched how the snowballs would make big dents in the snow when we threw them.

The boys started to get a little fussy so we deemed it time for a snack break.

We parked a seat on the deck and snacked on graham crackers and raisins.

After catching up with our friends it was time to trek back to our house for lunch and to warm up.

There's snow on everything!

A final stop in the front yard for snowball collecting.

NO BA!!!

It was another great day of enjoying the snow.

The Pom Pom Dash

2012-01-17T08:00:00.000-08:00

The Pom Pom Stuff It activity has been floating around on Pinterest and I've had it pinned to try it out with Graham and Miles. I bought an assorted bag of pom poms at Hobby Lobby a few months back so I was half way there. Well when we were struck with a day inside because of the snow we had time to fill. AND with Daddy at home we had an extra set of hands to help out. I didn't have a container prepped yet but we made do.

I gave Hubby the purple ring from our Plan Toys cone sorting set. It matched up perfectly with the large pom poms. Then I grabbed the blue, red and green storage bins Grandma just snagged us from IKEA.

We sorted the poms into the three colored bins and then showed the boys how to push the pom through the ring Daddy was holding.

And they were OFF! Running from the bins to Daddy. I'd toss the poms back to the bins (or wherever they'd land with my bad aim) and they'd run back and forth. It was hard getting a good shot of the action, they were so quick!

Daddy would announce the color of the pom pom as the boys pushed it through.

They were giggling the whole time. Running back and forth and pushing the fuzzy pom poms into the ring, waiting to hear daddy say the corresponding color.

A good little take on the pom pom stuff it activity. Perfect for a day stuck inside when you need to burn off some energy on two little boys and a great introduction to colors and matching.

As the boys get older they'll be able to do the color sorting themselves and when I get around to it, I'll get my containers prepped and we can do the original pom pom stuff it activity.

SNOW DAY!

2012-01-16T08:00:00.000-08:00

We had a weekend of staying in and exploring the snow with the boys. On Saturday the snow started at about 10am and I was headed out that afternoon to a bridal shower. I made it to the party, grocery store and back home just fine but with the snow continuing to fall we knew we'd be in for the rest of the weekend.

I got home to the report that Graham hadn't started his nap until 3:30 or 4:00 (when usually they sleep around 1:30). Miles had a late nap but not that far off the normal time so of course he was up when brother was still sleeping.

That meant he got a special snow excursion with just mommy and daddy!

We suited up, grabbed the baby monitor to keep an ear out for Graham and headed out.

He was so funny, standing, pointing, babbling about everything he saw.

We pointed out at his feet making foot prints in the snow and he walked around for a while after that. Stopping every few steps to turn around and examine his tracks.

More pointing and talking. BIG TRUCK, WHEELS, LIGHT, SNOW. He was just taking it all in.

Miles and I walked out to take a look at the street light that Miles talks about every night when he looks out his window. LIGHT! LIGHT! LIGHT! It was really hard to get him to come back from that venture.

Finally it was time to come back inside for a warm bath and to talk about our snow adventure.

And a quick spike before a final rinse and getting ready for bed.

The next morning I got up with the boys (Joel did Saturday morning, letting me sleep in) and we had a nice french toast breakfast and watched the next batch of snow falling outside. We played around a bit, danced to some music and read a bunch of books.

Oh and had a good kashi snack on the couch.

But mostly it was waiting around for it to be late enough to go running upstairs to jump on daddy and talk about the snow. Graham says snow like NO so when he is excited about the snow he's pointing and shouting NO NO NO!

So we held off until 9:30am and then I opened the gate and let the boys tromp upstairs and onto sleeping daddy.

WE WANT TO GO OUT IN THE NO NO NO! Or as Miles would say ACKING NO ACKING NO (walking in the snow).

We suited up in a billion layers.

And went outside.

I left the camera in the house to enjoy the weather with the family but the boys had a great time watching the neighborhood kids sledding in the street and throwing snow balls. We introduced ourselves, talked about the boys and then played in the snow. We built a mini snow man in our front yard but the neighborhood boys demolished it pretty quickly when we said they could play in our yard as we were going in for lunch. Miles loved the whole thing and probably would have stayed out there longer. Graham was a little more hesitant. I think his boots didn't fit him well and he didn't like how it was more difficult to walk in the deeper snow. Plus I tossed a friendly snow ball at him and of course aimed a little too high and hit his chin. He was stunned and then not impressed by the whole snow thing after that. After a little walking and forced snow ball holding he wanted to be held and then started for the house.

So, in we went for lunch. The boys had a great time watching the busy neighborhood kids from the window.

So we set up their luncheon facing the window.

We stayed in for the rest of the day and Kerry made it over for a visit. Unfortunately the boys were just going down for their nap when she arrived but we "talked" her into staying long enough to watch football on tv and then play with the boys for a long while once they were up.

It was a great weekend and with any luck we'll get to keep daddy home for a real snow day on Monday.

Head Colds in 2012

2012-01-13T08:00:00.000-08:00

The four of us all continue our coughing and blowing noses, trying to get rid of these colds. We've been keeping good spirits though. Grandma and Grandpa gave us some mid week relief, catching us up on laundry, healthy meals and other chores. AND we got to trek to IKEA which means we have new hats!

Miles the lion

Graham the Jester

Happy Friday everyone, have a good weekend and if you're in the Seattle area - get ready for some snow!

Christmas Recap

2012-01-11T08:00:00.000-08:00

This Christmas was a time for enjoying family, relaxing and watching the boys have fun. We flew down to San Jose where my sister and her husband live and survived our first flight with the boys.

Armed with twenty pounds of snacks and our go-go babyz travelers we were set.....

Which was a good thing because we had to endure AN HOUR DELAY on our outbound flight. Luckily SeaTac has a good baby play area.

The boys got to stretch their legs and play for a bit.

And slide.

The flight went okay, but boy were we relieved to see my mom waiting to pick us up when we got off the flight.

We highly recommend go-go babyz car seat attachments if you're traveling with a toddler or younger... it clips right on to their car seat and we gate checked one seat and had the other on the flight with us (we had three seats for the four of us).

After getting settled in at their house our first official Christmas activity was opening our Wonderballs. I wanted to try out this activity for the boys and thought we could all give it a whirl, perhaps making it a new tradition. We drew names out of a hat at Thanksgiving and everyone was in charge of that person for their wonderball. The idea was to pick up little trinket or stocking stuffer type gifts and wrap them in yarn, making a ball. Then as the receiver unwraps the yarn the gifts are revealed.

The wonderballs I made weren't exactly round though... it's hard shopping for men!

My ball had candy and chocolates inside which was perfect!

I think Curtis had the most yarn to unravel, I was determined to make his round.

The boys are still a little young for this but we had a fun time watching them pull on the string and help Grandma unravel her ball.

They had some new cars and treats inside their balls, here's a little video of Miles getting into his:

I could see making this a tradition, but definitely using fatter yarn is the way to go.

With so many family members to help with the boys we all got some great one on one time with them (as well as time for napping).

And the weather was so wonderful (it's California after all) we got plenty of walks out in the fresh air.

One walk took us to the neighborhood sandwich shop ... which was amazingly delicious. We even managed to get a family picture while we were in the booth.

Well sort of.

Miles was more about eating than smiling.

But a family shot all the same.

The big meal for Christmas was held at my Aunt's house an hour drive away from sister's house so we made the trek and spent a night over there. It was a great time to see some of my cousins I haven't seen in a while and for them to meet the boys for the first time.

Hubby bought the boys and I new lounger pjs for Christmas and boy are they cozy!

Sis and I on Christmas morning.

The boys got a pretty good haul of toys and (of course) everything was a hit. We took the morning slowly and let the boys play with each toy a bit before moving on to the next gift.

Eventually we needed to stop for a breakfast break.

Then it was back to the toys!

Hubby snagged a pretty good nap after the morning excitement, right next to the beautiful tree.

We had plenty of time to just hang out with family and play with the boys and their new gifts.

And during their nap we got in some time on the Ticket To Ride board.

My Aunt has a long hallway, perfect for chasing boys.

The official family christmas picture did NOT go over well.

So it was back to shoulder rides.

And one more try at pictures.

Lounging with Uncle Curtis.

We started sitting down for the big dinner and I gave the boys some toys to play with. This picture cracks me up because Miles whipped this one together in a flash, opened his arms, said TA TA and then immediately started signing our word for bread. BRAAAA? I guess he was in "Will do puzzles for bread." mode.

Grandpa and the boys (and the turkey).

We trekked back to Jeanie and Curtis's house and the next day Miles got in some good bonding time with their cat log pillow.

He was so funny, tugging and hauling it around and then rolling on the floor with it.

It wouldn't be a good week without a few bubble baths with brother.

And stealing raisins out of Uncle CoCo's oatmeal.

As well as snacking with Auntie GeGe.

And just like that the week was over in a flash, we were back on a plane and back home. Complete with growing head colds and coughs. We're just now (fifteen days later) starting to feel better. How is it possibly half a month into the new year already???

My Spa Day

2012-01-10T08:00:00.000-08:00

Back in August for our anniversary, Hubby gave me a gift certificate for a day at the Olympus Spa. I'd been holding on to it, waiting until after the holidays to use it.

With last Monday being a holiday for hubby I took advantage of the opportunity to have him be a stay at home daddy and took off for a day of pampering.

It was BLISS!

I spent five hours doing NOTHING. I soaked in the hydrotherapy pools (they have four different temperatures) and spent time in almost all of their heated rooms. You can lay on canvas in sand or salt and detox in the charcoal room. It was really crowded but still renewing. One gal commented that she comes to the spa often and that it was the busiest she'd ever seen it. I'd love to go another time and experience it less crowded.

They have massage rooms as well as a nail salon. I got a full body scrub and a pedicure. You do have to leave your inhibitions at the door - the pool room is no clothing or suits allowed. So yeah, I saw a good thirty women walking around naked. As was I. And the body scrub was a completely naked treatment. You lay on a water table and the scrubber has mitts on and, well, scrubs you. I don't think I've EVER had such soft skin. It was so heavenly. After the scrub she applied lotiony soap with the largest luffa I've ever seen, it was like the size of a cheerleader pom pom. I felt like I was going to float away on the cloud of suds it made.

When I was all pampered and zenned out I took one final shower and tried out their different shampoos, conditioners and washes (they had four different fragrances) I think the lavender mint was my favorite combination.

If you're looking for a treat for someone in your life or if you're a stressed out mom who needs some personal time this is a must do recommend from me!

The Change-Up

2012-01-09T22:09:00.000-08:00

Actually a pretty funny movie to me, The Change-Up was a good end of the weekend veg flick. It's the typical Freaky Friday set up but I got a kick out of the twin baby cameos and senarios. Oh man... the line about your kids being perfect and precious... if they do anything wrong it's because they're tired or going through a stage if another kid acts up then it's due to indulgent and horrible parenting. Hilarious!

If you're looking for a good movie to veg to, this one is light hearted and full of plenty of toilet humor to keep you on your toes.

And the reason I've not blogged yet this week!

2012, The Year to De-clutter

2012-01-05T08:00:00.000-08:00

I typically don't make new years resolutions. If I get the inspiration to do or commit to something I just do it, I don't wait for the new year to go for it.

Well this year my big inspiration just so happened to come at the end of the year so I guess it's officially a new years resolution. I was browsing pinterest and came across the Declutter and Organize Calendar posted over at My Simpler Life. I pinned it and kept it in mind.

I have declared 2012 the year to de-clutter in the Daveye household. We have an office that was taken over by my relocated crafting supplies when the boys were born and then we moved the craft table out to use it for hosting Thanksgiving. That means the extra bedroom is now the dumping grounds for all our extra stuff. We also haven't parked in the garage in two years or so.

Both of those major areas are going to get whipped into shape this year but I also just want to do a sweep through the entire house and clear out the clutter. There's little stacks everywhere and it's time to stop stepping over stuff! I like the calendar and how it breaks out tasks into bite sized chunks but I wanted to customize things for our house and our rooms. I thought about creating an electronic calendar and modifying the one posted by My Simpler Life. Then I was at the dollar store the other day and snagged a couple things to help me in my quest.

For a dollar I picked up a monthly planner and will use it only for this task. I've thought through each room and divided things into tasks I can complete in 15 or 20 minutes and put one task on each day. I've left the weekends free and built in overflow days to make sure I don't stack the deck and expect too much of myself. I could have made and printed my own calendar and not spent the money but for me, the dollar was worth the time saved to get going on the task.

That's one check so far for the month! Today while the boys were napping I went through our dishes cupboard and pulled things to send off to goodwill. I wiped down the cupboards and put everything back organized. Yahoo!

The other thing I snagged at the dollar store was a weekly magnetic notepad. I'll use it to plan dinners for the week. I used to plan a month at a time and shop at the grocery store weekly. That routine has long gone by the way side when the boys came along. I feel like now that I'm a little more in control as a stay at home mommy it's time to bring back some of these money saving methods.

There's our fridge with our happy new addition to it!

It will be easy to see what's in fridge and freezer and put our meals on the pad. It will help us use what we have on hand, have less food waste and less meals out. All great money saving methods.

Are you doing anything new or improved in 2012?

New Years Eve 2011

2012-01-04T08:00:00.000-08:00

We have a running tradition with our good friends Jeff and Kristina that we ALWAYS spend New Years Eve together. ALWAYS! It's a tradition that kind of came about without thinking about it. Someone would be hosting a big party and we'd all be there, we all got married and kept on partying together, then as we got pregnant and had kids we continued to get together for smaller gatherings. The last couple of years we've ditched all our other friends and parties and just stuck to each other. And we've turned our double date parties into overnighters with them and their little one spending the night at our place last year and this year our quartet traveled down to Tacoma to spend the night at their new house.

We were tempted to just move in with them, they had a guest room and bathroom just for us and double pack n plays for the boys!

I was ready to party with my new necklace... my sister made it for me for a Christmas gift.

Their house has hard wood floors and a ride along train toy so of course Graham and Miles were happy.

At one point this happened, how many adults does it take to put a pack n play together?

Their youngest is about six months younger than Graham and Miles so the three boys were toddling all over the place and having a good time together.

The train was THE toy of the night.

Their older daughter went out with Grandma and some other relatives to the downtown Tacoma festival and after the boys were in bed we broke out the drinks (okay MORE drinks) and played Hearts until I drove everyone crazy with my quest to shoot the moon. (no I never succeeded and yes I lost).

We enjoyed all the best and favorite appetizers for our group and watched all the neighborhood fireworks. I lasted until about 12:05am when I said my good nights and passed out hard in bed. I guess three and a half drinks is my limit these days.

The next day we took it easy, had breakfast, took naps and ended up at Sonic for lunch before heading back home.

What a great way to bring in the new year!

Ready!

2012-01-03T15:06:00.001-08:00

Just a shot I snagged of the boys sitting at the door and ready to leave the house. My boys.

Fisher-Price Little People Wheelies Stand 'n Play Rampway

2011-12-31T14:07:00.000-08:00

Grandma and Grandpa gave the boys a Fisher-Price Little People Wheelies Stand 'n Play Rampway for Christmas. For those parents out there who want to see it in action, here's a video showing Graham and Miles playing with it.

There's additional movable ramps and sound effects you don't see fully in the video but I really like that it's two sided so they can both play with it at the same time and have their own space.

2011 Recap - Happy New Year!

2011-12-31T08:00:00.000-08:00

In some ways 2011 has felt like it has gone by really fast. But in looking back it was a pretty low key year, we stayed close to home and enjoyed watching the boys go through their milestones.

January

I was becoming a baby food making queen, and explored and decided not to do exclusively baby-led weaning.

The boys were tipping the scales at 20 pounds and Miles stood in his crib for the first time.
Graham was finished with his helmet at the end of the month!

February

We stayed in for Valentine's Day with take out Thai food and a movie.
We spent the day with family in Olympia for Joel's Grandmother's funeral.
Miles was crawling all over the place and Graham was doing his butt clunks to the ground (not bending at the waist when he was ready to sit down from standing).
Jeanie visited us for a weekend and we packed in as much as we could.
Graham started crawling!

March

Sink baths were becoming epic!
I discovered how easy making my own hummus was (and the boys were eating it fast).
We had our first professional photo shoot with the boys to mark turning 12 months old.
Our double stroller arrived making my solo trips with the boys so much easier.

April

The boys officially turned one year old and we celebrated with a family and friends party.
Another snomoms sale helped clear out our garage.
Jeanie and Curtis visit for Easter weekend and we make a trip out to the tulip fields, a first time for me.
We celebrate Easter with brunch at the Tulalip casino as well as lots of fresh outdoor time.

May

Miles takes his first steps!

June

The boys were in their first parade with our twins club and Miles worked on his parade wave.
I spent a good portion of the month with sickness and a cold. Ugh!

July

Had a week of paradise while vacationing on Whidbey Island with a huge rental house and both sets of our parents, hubby's brother and fiance and her parents for part of the time.
Graham takes his first steps!

August

Uncle Matt officially makes Suzanne an Aunt - they get married! Joel was the best man and I was a bridesmaid so we had a busy month with wedding preparations.
Joel and I celebrate eight years of marriage.
We packed in visits with as many people as we could; a 2nd birthday party for a Keller, picnic with Matt and Suzanne, a beach afternoon, and reunion with a college friend who was in town visiting family, she has twin boys too!

September

Graham had his first hair cut this month.
We held on to the summer weather as long as we could with a few dinners out on our back deck.

October

The semi-annual snomoms sale was a huge success for us. I tried some experiments with buying new babylegs and reselling them as well as getting close out consignment clothes and managed to turn a profit (albeit a small one) on my purchases.
The boys turn a year and a half, making it much easier to answer questions out in public about how old they are.
We dress up the family as a farm for Halloween with Mommy and Daddy farmers and a cow and rooster boys.

November

With the weather changing to cold we were packing in the play dates with our snomom friends.
Hosted Thanksgiving dinner after a few years off.

December

Annual cookie baking with Kerry, Tim and Zandra.

Annual gift wrapping get together with Jeff and Kristina.
We break the spell of no airplane trips since the boys were born by taking our little family on Southwest airlines for our first trip to see Jeanie and Curtis in California for Christmas.

Cheers to a rewarding 2012!

Helping Daddy

2011-12-29T15:02:00.000-08:00

We're slowly coming back to reality from being gone from home for the holidays. Our suitcases have been emptied and I'm working on getting everything put away. On Wednesday I was pretty frazzled with the bomb that had gone off in the living room. With all the new toys the boys got for christmas there wasn't a home for everything so it was just crazy town.

I've gone through their toys a bit better now and pulled things they don't play with any more as well as some things that can be put away for a month or two. Now things are settling back into a routine.

I'll get to more updates on our holidays but first, a little video showing Miles "helping" daddy with a wooden railing project they did while we were in California.

We had both Miles and Graham in the garage to watch but Graham pretty quickly was wiggling and was happy to go back inside. Miles was the opposite. He squirmed and fussed when we tried to take him back in the house. So instead, back to the garage he went, set up in his high chair so he wouldn't miss any of the action.

It was so cute watching Miles keep an eye on Daddy's every move. He'd look at the saw moving, then look at his hand on the railing. So sweet. Grandpa picked out a toy workbench for the boys for christmas, looks like that gift was timed just right!

Mommy and Her Boys

2011-12-21T08:00:00.000-08:00

When we had our cookie baking weekend there was one point where both boys were sitting on my lap. I made a comment about how sweet the moment was and would someone get a camera to take a picture. I don't have a recent picture of just me and my boys. Well of course as Graham and Miles heard me ask if someone would take our picture they went scurrying down my legs to get out of the shot.

My silly little monkeys.

Annual Cookie Baking

2011-12-20T15:01:00.000-08:00

A few years back we made an annual tradition with some of our really good friends. We'd get together one Saturday in December, bring cookie recipes to bake and then share our loot so folks could have a variety of treats to give out as gifts. It was always a great deal for Joel and I because we'd give baked gifts to our friends and take a couple plates of cookies to our family gatherings. And by making it a get together with friends we could share the work of doing holiday baking but have a lot of fun in the process. Year after year we've stuck to the tradition and we've discovered some really great recipes.

Things have evolved over the years; from everyone bringing one recipe and all the ingredients needed to bake to the year where we each brought two recipes because we couldn't decide on just one cookie. Following that year we said we'd keep it simple and just go back to a few recipes. There was the very first year where we thought baking five dozen sugar cookies to decorate would be an easy task. And last year when we swore we'd only make fudge the following year. One year everyone had a pick of a cookie that required chilling the dough so this year we said if your dough needed to be chilled then mix it before you show up and bring your dough ready to bake. That of course meant that only one person picked a cookie that required prep ahead of time. Actually hubby picked a chilled cookie this year too but we didn't follow instructions and had to mix up his dough and stick it in the fridge early in the day.

I'm so thankful to have my friends and I'm so glad that we've stuck with this tradition. I believe this is the sixth year in a row we've done it. And luckily this year we didn't get snowed in AND we were able to find our copy of the movie Elf to watch while we baked.

We did a gift exchange with the boys and our friends, Graham and Miles helped everyone open their gifts of course.

We got Kerry a cookie cookbook and Miles went to work on picking out a recipe for next year.

Uncle Tim gave the boys new puma hoodies, Aunt Kerry got them a new toy house and Aunt Zandra got them books, an alphabet puzzle and a set of train bath squirters (which Miles slept with that night).

Daddy and his boys on cookie baking day!

Checking out our new toys.

Let the cookie baking begin! We set up a gate to keep the little fingers out of the cooking process and everyone took turns reading books and giving snacks to Graham and Miles.

Kerry made these adorable melted snowman cookies.

I'm melting, aaaahhhhhhh.

Lucky for us, Kerry brought her KitchenAid this year, and it was awesome!

This photo was posed to recreate the one we took the year I was pregnant. I'll have to dig it up and post them side by side some day.

The boys had to check out the sounds coming from the kitchen.

Here's Graham telling Kerry all about Mitch (his mustache is wearing off so we might have to change his name soon).

Opening presents with Aunt Zandra.

And after a long day of baking it was time for baths and bed.

After reading books of course.

The next morning we even managed to get a family photo taken.

Well sort of.

Okay I didn't say a GOOD family photo, but here's the four of us all the same.

By the end of the weekend we had fudge, snowman cookies, chocolate gingersnaps, carmel apple cookies, brownies, peanut butter bars and crinkle cookies to share with our friends and family. Yum!

The Best Toys for Toddlers

2011-12-19T13:31:00.000-08:00

If you still have holiday shopping for little ones left on your list, don't forget to check out my recommendations for the best toys for tots in 2011. You can see my list right here. It's also on the right menu and will find a permanent home in our favorites page (see above) once the holidays are over. It's kind of fun to keep track of what toys the boys like as they grow. I have a feeling legos and remote controlled trucks will start to appear on the list!

Merry Christmas

2011-12-19T08:00:00.000-08:00

I hope you have a wonderful Christmas and take time to enjoy your loved ones and be thankful for the blessings in your life.

Merry Christmas from The Daveye!

It's Snowing in Seattle!

2011-12-16T08:00:00.000-08:00

The other week I had this brilliant idea that I'd like to take the boys down to Pacific Place in Seattle to see the indoor snow falling. They do fake snow every night at 6pm in the atrium during the holiday season. When Joel and I lived downtown we would make a tradition out of going and enjoying the snow.

So, during one of the weekly visits from my parents when I was ~~acting pathetic so they'd spend two nights with us instead of one~~ sick we had that as an outing.

First a picture of the boys reading with Grandma (have you noticed a trend in our favorite activities?).

We picked hubby up from work and drove over to Pacific Place. With some time to kill before the snow fall we took a walk outside and went over to Nordstrom's to see Santa in their window. (Miles would like me to point out he's wearing his gloves)

We had a bit of a wait for the snow, I guess I was anticipating more time needed for traffic, but better early than late (right? RIGHT?) so we picked a table to camp out at and Grandma bought the boys some snacks.

Daddy and Graham.

Mommy and Miles (we were dancing to Christmas music).

The snow fall lasted about five minutes and frankly was very underwhelming. They must have budget issues or complaints on the snow (or SOMETHING) because the snow fall was really not what it used to be a handful of years ago. I was pretty disappointed but we did have a fun time and even snagged a picture with Santa (who Graham "mooed" at, but that's a story for another time).

Afterwards we celebrated with dinner out at the Mexican restaurant on the top level. The boys did pretty okay considering we sat down for dinner at 6:30 and we're typically getting them ready for bed around 7:00. Luckily we were armed with books and crayons.

There was another family with a two and a half year old boy sitting right next to us so the three kids had fun saying hi to each other and it was a good distraction. It was also nice being next to a table that got the whole dining with kids thing and didn't give us a stare down when Graham started screeching.

Graham is plugging his ears in this picture, not exactly sure what that's all about. Perhaps he couldn't take ONE MORE reading of The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

It was a fun time and while I doubt I'll bother doing the snow with them again it was a memorable adventure!

This Time Last Year

2011-12-15T08:00:00.000-08:00

This time last year I was up to my neck in bottles, baby food and lots of naps. Oh man I wish for those napping days sometimes.

But instead we have play time ALL the time with puzzles, books, trains, books, balls and books. My boys are BOOK LOVERS for sure.

If you want to raise a book lover then I recommend hitting up your local GoodWill, Value Village and thrift stores to pick up books for pennies on the dollar. You'll want a big collection so you can rotate things out and not get sick of reading the same books over and over (you not them).