Gingerbread

I have wanted to learn to make Gingerbread house pieces for years and I finally got around to it this year. My Great-Aunt Kae was the one that started it all. She used to come over to Circleville with parts for 20-30 houses and enough powdered sugar to fill the town and all of the cousins would gather at Grandma's to make gingerbread houses. It is one of my favorite traditions and one that I wasn't willing to let die. I want my girls to be able to do it too. It was a ton of work but so much fun to do-especially when my whole family was here. I even learned how to do her 'stained glass windows'!

My brothers and Stef were super into it so that made it so fun. In fact, we laughed for hours at Jade because at one point, his roof was breaking and he shouted, "Oh No! My Gingerbread"! 

Shad thought that sounded funny coming from an 18 year old boy and we all kept repeating it and laughing. It was so much fun!

 After we made our houses (and we were all sticky) we sent the girls to the shower-unsupervised. They came out a while later (Madi and Saige had washed Mia and her hair) wearing bath robes. They were giggling in the bathroom forever. They have so much fun together. It is fun to watch.

PS-to all my Dalton cousins...

I have the patterns, recipes, and notes from Aunt Kae if any of you want them. I am hoping that next year I can come home for Christmas and we can make them together again!

DISNEY!

We wanted to take the girls to Disneyland for their birthday. They really deserved to have some fun-they have been really patient with us and the babies the last 6 months. We were so lucky that Grandpa & Grandma Dalton, Stef, Shad, Mia, Chance, Kenzie, Jade, and Bailey were able to come with us. We all had so much fun together.

 Everything was decorated for Christmas and it was beautiful!

 It was difficult being at Disneyland with two babies but they did so great. I had to eat a lot of words though. On our previous trips to Disney I have said things like, "who would ever take a baby to Disneyland-those people are crazy"! 

 Mia is very into Princesses so it was fun to be there with her.

 Trying to have a nap.

 Saige on one of the rides (can't remember which one)

 Madi, Stef, Katie and Trevor behind me on Splash Mtn.

 This is how I found my girls when I went to bed at the motel-Funny!

 Tuesday morning I stayed at the motel with the babies so everyone could have fun and so that the babies could take a morning nap. I was trying to get the three of us ready to go to California Adventure and while I was feeding Dalton, Sydney fell asleep on the bed!

 Mia LOVES her mother.

 Stuck in the stroller again!

 My parents waiting to go in to Bug's Life. Dalton LOVED everything. Syd hated it and had to leave. She also HATED Pirates of the Caribbean. She cried the entire ride. I felt bad for all of the other people on our boat-she was super loud.

 These are my favorite pictures from our whole trip. Look at Mia trying to do what Madi is doing with her hands. SO FUNNY! She wants to do everything like Madi and Saige.

 Love those cheeks. Don't you just want to suck on those?!!!

 The girls are tall enough to go on almost everything (Madi was 1/2 inch too short for California Screaming). Saige rode it and held her arms up the entire ride. They loved Tower of Terror and Space Mountain

I can't wait until the babies are old enough to enjoy the magic of Disneyland. We will probably have to get season passes when they turn 2 so we can go a lot before they turn 3 and we have to pay for them!

Book Worm

All of my babies have loved books. Probably because there is only one of me and two of them (both times) so I can't just sit and hold one baby. I put them in their bouncers or on the floor and we read books several times a day. Sydney loves 'Mr. Brown'. She kicks her legs so hard and fast when I show it to her. She likes to hear me make funny noises. They are at the stage now that they don't want me to read it to them-they want to hold it themselves. They yell at me until I hand the book to them. Sydney thinks that books are hats because the first thing that she does is puts it on her head. It is so cute! She does it EVERY time.

 Look-one hand!

I gave her a book today and then went out to the garage to get something from the car. When I came back this is how I found her. She is so stinking cute and I can already tell she is going to have a fun personality! 

Our child is a NAUGHTY GENIUS!

The stockings were hung...

The rest of the house is a disaster but the fireplace is done and we are very excited for Christmas!
Isn't it a little funny that Dalton and Sydney have the biggest ones?
A very nice lady in our ward made stockings for all our kids. And the red and white ones are the ones we put madi and saige in for a picture when they were babies.

Messy messy messy

A few days ago Brett brought home a 20 lb. bag of yams. One of the guys he knows on one of the dairies gave it to him. He said, "what are we going to do with all of these?"
I said, "we will make baby food, of course"!!
Sweet potatoes were madi and saige's favorite baby food so I am hoping these twins like it too! It took me ALL day (mostly because i had to stop and feed babies every hour) and my kitchen was a sticky nightmare by the time I was done but we now have a BIG supply in the freezer! Let's just hope he doesn't bring home anything like that again for awhile!
It will soon be all over my kitchen again as I try to feed it to some very messy babies!

Equipment

Just thought I'd post a picture of the equipment it takes to keep twins entertained! I didn't pose this stuff for this pic. This is just what my living room looks like all of the time. Not pictured are the two swings-one in our bedroom and one in the living room.