New Years

Brandon and I usually pick out a movie trilogy and watch all three movies on New Years Eve. This year we decided to watch the first three Terminator movies. Several years ago I saw the last 45 minutes of third movie and I've always wondered what happened to lead up to what I saw. Brandon also saw the end of the 3rd movie. Right as the atomic bombs fell his brother accidentally lit off a fire ball in the kitchen - talk about interactive media.

We really got curious about the movie after watching the Terminator/Back the the Future Spoof on How it should have ended.com (Click here to watch the clip, and then take a minute and look around the site for more hilarious spoofs.)

Anyway so we rented all three movies and had a Terminator marathon. It was kind of like a history of cinima class. Each movie came out in a different decade so it was interesting to see what action movies were like in the 80's, 90's and 00's. The first one was the goriest. The second showed off it's state of the art special effects. The third movie was my favorite because it combined humor, action, and drama really well. The beginning chase sequence probably cost the same amount as the budget for the first movie.

At midnight we toasted the new year with an Apple/Cranberry Juice combo. We talked about what a year 2010 was and what we would like to do in 2011. Then we went to bed.

Brandon had to work on New Years Day so I took him to work and headed out to my parents house. Later that day I went to my Grandma's 70th birthday party. Here she is holding her first and second great granddaughters. It was a great way to start the new year.

About the girls

Charlotte and Lydia are doing well. They are also getting harder to tell apart. Lydia is still smaller than Charlotte, but she her face is filling out. She now has cheeks and a cleft chin that look like Charlotte's. Charlotte now fits newborn clothes. Lydia outgrew her preemie clothes, but she's not quite big enough for newborns so she always has extra leg room.

At night we will feed them and change their diapers and then leave them alone. They have learned that crying at night is pretty pointless so they usually go right to sleep. (Though there are nights where one or the other will cry- loudly) Overall we are starting to sleep very well. It is not uncommon for one or the other to sleep for about 6 hours at some point during the night. Now if only I could know when it would happen.

Lydia is in yellow and Charlotte is in pink in this picture. The girls are also starting to hold their heads up now. They look around like they can see us really well too. They are still pretty oblivious to each other.

I've learned how to use my chin as an extra hand. Here I am feeding Charlotte, talking on the phone, and cleaning the living room all at once.
Here is Brandon feeding both babies. Funny story about Brandon. At night I obviously will get up with the twin that is nursing. Brandon will usually get up with the bottle fed twin. The other night I heard a baby crying. When I got to the cradle I noticed it was the bottle baby for the night - Charlotte. I picked her up and started warming up her bottle. I went into the bedroom and asked Brandon if he would mind feeding her. I could have done it, but I figured Lydia would be up in a minute and I would need to feed her. Brandon stumbled out of bed and I climbed back in for what I thought would be a few extra minutes of sleep.

Two hours later Lydia woke me up by crying. I noticed Brandon wasn't in bed with me. I found him laying on the couch with Charlotte next to him. I woke him up and told him to go back to bed. He put Charlotte back and them went into the kitchen. There in the bottle warmer was Charlotte's bottle. Brandon had fallen asleep while waiting for it to warm up. Brandon felt bad, but apparently Charlotte was fine just hanging out with her daddy. She woke up a few minutes later and Brandon fed her. Here's another funny Brandon story. The girls are going through the "period of purple crying" or what ever where they cry for no reason. It can be pretty annoying but we are getting through it. One of Brandon's coworkers asked him what it is like to be a parent. Brandon replied, "pretty good, but I swear a lot more. I say "Shhhhhhhhh it's okay" all the time."

Books

On Monday my sister taught me how to make a book. She took a class on how to do it so she had all the supplies like book board and binding paper.

It was really fun to cut out the cover and spine and then cover them with paper. I cheated and used paper that was already bound together for the inside. One day I'll have to learn how to bind the paper together. Emily and David also worked on books. It was a fun project.

I gave the book to Brandon for Christmas. He was shocked that I made it. He's going to use it as to keep track of his progress on his Goals for 2011.

Our Christmas Day on December 28th

Back when Brandon and I were dating he wanted to make sure I could handle being married to a pilot. The way scheduling works in the aviation industry is that the lowest seniority pilots get the last pick for when they work. That means that as a pilot he would probably be working Christmas Day for several years. I told him that was fine with me since Christmas Day is usually pretty boring after the first hour anyway.

Well Brandon isn't a pilot yet, but he is working in the aviation industry right now and he was scheduled to work on Christmas Day. We figured that since Brandon helped families be together on Christmas Santa would let us have Christmas on another day. Santa made his appearance at our house on Tuesday December 28th.

Even though it wasn't the "right" day it still felt like Christmas. We had a great time opening presents. My favorite gift this year was the 4th book in the Anne of Green Gables Series, Anne of Windy Poplars. Brandon buys me a Anne book every year. Brandon says this was the only paperback Anne left at Borders when he went Christmas Shopping. He was so happy that it was the exact one he needed. Santa must have been looking out for Brandon.

I mostly gave Brandon tools. They are always a guaranteed pleaser. Plus he uses them to make things for me. This year he made me a shelf out of an old desk that someone was giving away.

We gave the girls baby back pack carriers so they can get out of the house with us on walks. I'm looking forward to the next nice weather day.
After we opened presents we made a huge breakfast. This has been our tradition for several years. It's our way to make Christmas Day last longer.
We had Egg McMuffin type sandwiches with bacon. We also had sausage, hash browns, orange rolls, and cranberry juice. All that food combined with candy made me sick the rest of the day. But it was so worth it!
We spent the rest of the day watching movies and reading Indian in the Cupboard. It was such a nice Christmas.

DVD Christmas Card - 2010

Every year for the past several years my family has put together a DVD Christmas Card. The tradition started because we were involved in so many performing arts. It was easier to show people what we did during the year than to tell about what we did.

This year we still did the Christmas Card, but it is on You Tube. We all made our own videos except for Billy who is on his mission.

I thought you all might enjoy seeing what my other family members have done this year. Here are links to all the different videos.

Mom and Dad

Valerie and Brandon

Lindsey and John

Emily and David

Billy

Hillary

Christmas Eve

Our pediatrician told us that we shouldn't take the girls to any parties until the end of RSV season in March. So originally we weren't going to go to the annual Christmas Eve party at Brandon's parents house.

I just couldn't imagine us sitting at home all by ourselves and missing the party so we changed our minds and decided to make an appearance for 45 minutes in the middle of the party.

Then we found out that the party would be the only chance for Brandon to see his brother Bryan who was coming up from Arizona. So we decided to go early to the party and see him, his wife, and their 4 month old boy.

As soon as the other guests arrived with their kids we put the girls into a back bedroom to keep them away from any germs. They fell right asleep and stayed asleep for the whole party.

The cousins were allowed a peek at the tiny new babies.

The party was so much fun. It was the only Christmas Party I went to this year so it was awesome to be there. I wasn't burned out from Holiday cheer. I had a blast talking to everyone and eating all the wonderful food.

As always my favorite part was the chimes. This year the chimes went really well. The little kids are getting old enough that they can do the chimes without much help.

I also enjoyed our tradition of holding hands and singing carols as we dance around the Christmas tree. This will be so fun to do with the girls next year.

All too soon the party was over and everyone started leaving. The girls had been so good the whole time that we decided to stay late and talk to Bryan and Kara. We were there until 1:00 in the morning. It was fun to hear Brandon laugh and joke with his brother.

I'm so glad we could spend so much time with family at the wonderful party.

Announcement

Here is the birth announcement for the girls. The footprints are their actual footprints -just not actual size.

Do you know how hard it is to get one good picture of two 7 week old babies? It took over 60 pictures to get the one we used. Here are some of the not so great pics.

One baby would be cute and the other would be crying.
Brandon was standing above the girls and they kept looking at him.