Merry 1st Christmas

It was a Christmas of firsts.  We celebrated our first Christmas with Jack & Nick!  They were surrounded by friends and family that love them and even got to see Granny & Grampy Fields on the web cam Christmas Eve :-)  I prepared my first holiday dinner - on my own anyway, I've made holiday dinners before with my mom or with my grandma but this was the first one I prepared by myself - for a Christmas Eve celebration with my dad, my uncle (dad's brother) and Cat, my uncle's significant other.  The boys were on their best behavior and slept while we ate and opened presents!  Cat & Wes brought the boys the Little People Bath Boat.  The love it ... especially the Nemo squirty fish that came with it.  Granny & Grampy Fields sent the boys adorable blue knitted sweater vests and Grandma & Grandpa Marconi had super fun trucks to play with at their house on Christmas Day.  They were also spoiled by Auntie Cindy, Unky Andrew, Scott, Bella, and Jacob who brought new outfits & an interactive/musical/talking doggy toy.  Super fun stuff!  Here are some pictures of our holiday festivities:

Scott, Bella & Jacob visiting the boys on Christmas Eve

Jacob showing Jack his new toy

Jacob, Bella & Scott opening their gifts from the boys

Christmas Eve dinner with my dad, Uncle Wes, Cat & Chris

Nick (l), Jack (r) in front of our tree on Christmas morning

Nick (l), Jack (r) playing w/ their new trucks from Gma Diane

Playing at Gma Diane's on Christmas Day

Attack of the twins!  Just a fav of mine from Christmas Day

We hope your Christmas was merry and that you were surrounded by love!

First Visit With The Big Guy in Red - SANTA!!

The boys unexpectedly met Santa at the Galleria Mall in Roseville on Saturday, 12/19/09, while they were out Christmas shopping with me, Bella and Auntie Cindy!

I was very pleased that Santa's beard was real - and that we got a picture without the boys throwing a fit or being scared of the jolly Santa.  MERRY CHRISTMAS

Picture Post

The boys have been so cute lately & I have luckily had the camera ready!
Our Gerber (Puffs) Babies - N/J           

Ready, Get Set ............GO - J/N

                   

N/J - Ready for shopping

Jack resting his head on Nick :-)

Jack fell asleep drinking his bottle!!

I checked to see if Nick had a tail ;-P

Nick Has A Tooth!

Younger brother Nicholas got his 1st tooth today - 8months / 8 days old - exactly one week after Jack.  Granny Margie called to check in on everyone & asked if Nick had gotten a tooth yet or if Jack was still the only one.  I mistakenly said Nick was still toothless but since he was sitting right next to me I stuck a finger in and - voila - there was his bottom left tooth!  Same one that Jack got in first.  Maybe that is how it happens since they're identicals.  I'm not sure - maybe I should look that up - but in any case, it was there!!  Thanks for asking Granny Margie :-)

I should have checked sooner because the night before last Nick was up most of the night - which is exactly what Jack did right before his tooth came through.  They were happy, just awake & playful at 4am for no good reason!  Well, OK, maybe for good reason - depending on how you look at it!!  I guess in my exhaused haze I didn't even think to check again today.  I just kept giving him his teething rings, teething pacifier, my rubber spatula, Gerber Puffs & teething biscuits to his little heart's content while he sat and watched me in the kitchen today preparing for our Christmas Eve dinner tomorrow.  All the while a little tooth was making its debut!

Jack Has A Tooth!

FINALLY!  Jack's first tooth popped through :-)  We've been checking and checking and re-checking for months now so I was surprised this morning when I went to give him teething tablets to feel something sharp scrape my finger!!  Yay.  His first tooth.  It's the bottom left (his left) tooth!!  Wooo Hoooo  Seems right on track since he is 8 months ... and 2 days ;)  Now we'll have to watch for Nick's first.  They are both fussy enough right now to be getting a full mouth all at once - and drooling a lot!  I will try to get a pic soon.

The Sweetest Sound

This is the sweetest sound to my ears & the cutest faces I might add ;)

Playful Boys

Jack and Nick today - my gentle, playful boys:

Christmas Memories & Traditions

This year I’m finding that Christmas celebrations and traditions have a new excitement to them. They’re different than ‘before-babies’ and a little more special to me because I want them to be special to our boys. There are certain traditions from my childhood – and hopefully some from Chris’ too – that I hope to carry over for our children, as well as some new ones I hope we make as a family.

My favorite Christmas memory / tradition was always the candle light Christmas Eve service at the church I grew up in – the church my dad still attends every Sunday! The candle light service began at 11:00 p.m. with a Christmas message, usually a sermon about the birth of Jesus. There was just something so magical and spiritual to me about the service. Following the sermon our entire congregation would make a circle around the pews of the sanctuary. We each held a small white candle in our hands and each person passed the flame to their neighbor’s candle until all were glowing and illuminating the entire room – all while we sang Silent Night! It is always my favorite memory of Christmas. I haven’t been to that service in many years but I will always remember how much I enjoyed it.

Chris’ favorite memory / tradition of Christmas from his childhood also happened on Christmas Eve – opening one gift from under the tree! He also remembers being allowed to drink eggnog during the season – a sweet treat for him that meant Christmas was coming to town!!

Those are the types of memories and traditions I hope to pass along to our children; the type of traditions that evoke heart-warming emotions and happy memories.

I’m looking forward to our family making new and special traditions together in the years to come. I don’t know what they’ll be and that is part of what makes it fun – doing it together and figuring out what is special to our family as we grow!

Christmas Preparations

I’ve slacked on the blog recently because I’m tired, but also because December is a busy month … Christmas cookies to bake, Christmas cards to send out, Christmas shopping to get done, Christmas decorating to do … it’s usually all about Christmas for me and this year is no different – maybe even more so since I’m not working. Plus, I’m a mom now and I’m looking forward to making Christmas a special, magical, spiritual, tradition-filled time of the year for our boys – even if they won’t remember these early years. I have such good childhood memories of Christmas and the anticipation leading up to it that I want the same for our boys! We have the tree up & decorated, I baked 6 dozen cookies for my best friend’s annual cookie exchange, I made one batch of Gingerbread Biscotti w/ Apricots so far – and plan to bake another batch it was good, and my Christmas cards are signed, sealed and delivered thanks to my friend MJ’s annual Christmas card night! Phew!

Now, I’ve still got some Christmas shopping to do, many Christmas gifts to wrap AND I’m hosting a Christmas Eve dinner for my dad’s side of the family (I’m really looking forward to that actually). Oh, and we still need to get the traditional 1st picture with Santa! Christmas Day we will be at my mom & stepdad’s house with immediate and extended family for a delicious meal and our super fun gift card exchange that has become a new tradition in our family! I just love Christmas – I love family. I love friends. I love the comforts of home. I love giving. I love games and good cheer. Most importantly during this time of the year, I love Christ & celebrating His birth. I just love Christmas!!

Where Does The Time Go?

I really can’t believe that December is almost half over! Where does the time go? I have been thinking about the blog lately and even jotted down some stuff I want to post but I’ve been sooo tired and foggy-brained lately that I couldn’t even muster the energy to make an update. So now, even though I think I’m getting a cold, and even though I don’t feel like doing anything except sitting on the couch while the boys nap, I figured I could at least sit on the couch w/ a computer in my lap to catch up on the blog. :-)

Jack & Nick are still working on their crawling skills. They mostly just scoot on their hands & knees and then do a face plant. They are starting to pick up their arms and put them in the air but haven’t figured out how to coordinate the hand & knee movements. I’m OK with that. I’m so excited for them to meet their next milestone but I’m not so ready for them to be able to go wherever they want, whenever they want! Chris and I have been talking about – and going back & forth about – baby gates. Do we need them? How many do we need? Where should we put them? Could we do this instead of that? Oye. I didn’t think these would be such debated topics!! I keep thinking that if we decide to go one way we’ll wish we would’ve gone the other way … I know this is vague but my post would be 5 pages if I elaborated on all the things we’ve discussed!! LOL Who knew baby-proofing would be so overwhelming!? It seems like just yesterday we were bringing them home from the hospital. Where does the time go?

The boys are becoming so much more interactive with each other lately. They are kleptomaniacs – no doubt in my mind! It doesn’t matter whether they have 50 different toys around them – all of which they love to play with & many of which we have two of – they HAVE TO HAVE the toy that their brother is playing with! And pacifiers. They steal each other’s pacifiers! They even go as far as plucking the pacifier right out of the other baby’s mouth. Ruthless! I have captured at least three instances on the camera of them stealing toys from each other over and over … and over … and over! It’s so cute but I’m wondering how long it will be until I’m breaking up a fight over who gets to play with the set of keys. Yikes. How soon do I have to teach them to share w/ each other instead of giggling and running to get my camera for pictures? How soon until it’s not so cute anymore? Because right now, it’s so darn cute!!

I’m not the only one laughing these days either. They also make each other laugh. If they are sitting next to each other or somehow roll over and discover their brother is there next to them they will just stare at each other and giggle. They lovingly put a hand on the other’s face or shoulder and just give a smile to the other one. I love it. Another thing they tolerate – maybe because they are twins, maybe because they are brothers, maybe just because they are the same age – is when one grabs the other’s foot and uses it as a teething toy. They both do it so I’m more inclined to think it’s an age thing but it’s another cute thing I’m going to try to remember when they hit the stage of knock-down, drag-out fighting … and the times I think to myself, Where does the time go?

Besides being cute, they also know how to melt a momma’s heart - ♥ - my heart melts every time I hold them and they grab my face with both of their hands, pull their face into mine, sucking on their pacifier and making a cooing sound while smiling! It’s their hug and it’s how they tell me, “I love you momma”. Aw, I love you too Baby – with ALL of my melting heart!

I also love to see Chris play with the boys. That melt’s my heart as a wife, and as a mother. My favorite thing is when Chris gently buries his head into the boys’ chests or tummies and the boys give a big belly laugh. They love it! They laugh so much that they usually get the hiccups! I’ve tried to capture a video of these moments but, it just doesn’t do it justice. My boys LOVE their daddy – and so do I!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Yesterday was Thanksgiving.  This is one of my favorite holidays and, following tradition, we spent it with my parents in Sacramento.  My mom and I usually spend the day before Thanksgiving in the kitchen together but since I have two 7 month olds she would not let me do anything this year (or last year for that matter since I was pregnant w/ the twins).  She wouldn't even let me bring a pumpkin pie!!  Can you say spoiled!  In all honesty, I've missed our time together preparing the Thanksgiving meal, but, at the same time, I think it would be more of a distraction if I was there w/ the boys! So, when we got to her house we filled our bellies with turkey, green bean casserole - her best to date I might add, sweet potatoes, stuffing, brussel sprouts, mashed potatoes w/ gravy, and lots and lots of pie!  We had enough pie to feed the neighborhood.  Pumpkin, Pecan, Cherry and Mixed Berry!  Mmmmm  In addition to all the food, we enjoyed a movie together - Four Christmases - and took a bagillion pictures of the boys on their first Thanksgiving!  It was a great day.  We have so much to be thankful for - most of all our wonderful family!

I'm just now realizing as I add photos to this post that I didn't take any pictures of our delicious meal.  Sorry Mom!  It was really good and very much appreciated.  We missed many of the "regulars" - friends and family that weren't able to make it this year - but it was great to spend a calm and relaxing day with our family.  Happy Thanksgiving.

Jack Crawled!

Jack crawled tonight while Chris and I were playing with him on the floor before bedtime!  It was one single little crawl.  Half crawl really.  But he was up on his hands & knees and we both saw him move his knee forward.  And then I squealed and he dropped to the floor.  DOH.  Mom has to learn to contain her excitement!  :-)  I'm sure there will be much more to come about crawling but I had to document Jack's first "crawl" ... half crawl ... or whatever it was!  Yay Jack.

LETTER TO SANTA

I've always worried about our boys keeping up with the standard developmental curve since they were born five weeks early, however, I was really surprised - and quite proud, I must say - when I found a LETTER TO SANTA CLAUS, beautifully written in blue & green crayons!! ;)  I think Santa would agree with me about how brilliant they are!  Here is their letter I found - right by the exersaucer:

Dear SANTA:

We are so excited about our 1st Christmas!  We are growing, playing, babbling, sitting up, eating real people food (pureed of course, and Mom doesn't let us have any of the yummy seasonings yet!), and we're working really hard on crawling.  I bet if we were awake when you visited our house this year you could see us crawling around the tree (and making Mommy chase us in different directions).  We are really good boys, we're awfully cute & we're hoping some of the stuff on our wishlist below makes it under the tree this year :)

What's Inside? Toy Box

Silly Sounds Hammer

Learning Hands ASL Flash Cards

Rainforest Stacker

We will continue to be on our best behavior and take naps when Mom says that we need them. We know you are watching, making lists & checking them twice. We decided to keep our list short since you're very busy during this time of year. I hope you're looking forward to stopping by our house. Mom said that she is going to leave some yummy cookies out for you!

Merry Christmas Santa. Please give our best to Mrs. Claus & the Reindeer too.

Love, Jackson & Nicholas Fields

Amazing boys! I just think they're adorable - but that's a mother's biased opinion :)

THE BOYS ARE 7 MONTHS OLD!!

We had a very busy weekend!  Granny & Grampy Fields were here visiting, we made a trip up to Apple Hill, I learned a little bit more about sewing from my Mother-In-Law, Chris and I celebrated our 4th Anniversary ... and ... the boys turned 7 months old!  I'm going to make this a short post as far as words go because I think the pictures will take up enough room:

THE BOYS:

Jack (L), Nick (R)

Jack (L), Nick (R)

Nick (L), Jack (R) 

Nick (L), Jack (R) 

Nick

Jack

Jack (L), Nick (R)

Nick

At seven months old, the boys are babbling a lot more and we think we hear a few babbles that sound like words (specifically "yeah", "hey", "daddy") but I'm not convinced that they aren't just that - sounds - because I know for sure that their first word will be "mama"! They are sitting up unassisted a little bit longer each time, grabbing & picking up their toys, transferring said toys between hands and trying really hard to get their knees up under them to crawl. I'm predicting that I will be chasing after them (in different directions!) by Christmas :-) Nick is our little gabby boy; he is very vocal and talks up a storm - and cries very easily right now with loud noises, loud laughter and loud appliances. Jack is a little quieter, more observant & a little flirt! They are both sweethearts & we love them with all our hearts - oh, and they are totally worth the sleep deprivation!

WE BE DROOLIN'

I just wanted to share some of the cute teething pics I've gathered of the boys!  They are droolin' babies these days :)

YUMMIES FOR THE TUMMIES

I celebrated my first Mother's Day this year!  My gift from my mom, my mother-in-law and Chris was a Beaba Babycook (all in one steamer/blender) with a wonderful baby food cookbook, silicone freezing trays and baby spoons.  I was so excited when I tore off the Williams-Sonoma wrapping and immediately wanted to try it out!  OH, WAIT!  Our babies were only a month old!!  So, I put it on the shelf and patiently waited until it was time to introduce our boys to solid (pureed, really) foods.  Well, the time has come & I've been workin' that Beaba and making big batches of fruit & veggie purees for the boys.  I now know that it takes three steam cycles to cook an entire butternut squash, baby carrots cook just fine when put in whole & the entire unit is a breeze to clean.  I love it!  It's much easier for me to do a few steam cycles and have easy clean up than to break out a big water pot, steam basket, lid, spoon, blender w/ food processor attachments, etc. and clean it all once I'm done.  Plus, it uses MUCH less water.

The boys have liked everything they've tried so far: rice cereal, oatmeal cereal, avocado, butternut squash, pumpkin, sweet potatoes, green beans, sweet peas, carrots, prunes, pears, bananas and today we're trying peaches!  I've been feeding them two or three times a day, usually every other feeding time during the day.  So they get just a bottle in the morning and then the next feeding is a bottle and solids - then just a bottle, and so on.  Soon we'll introduce apples and we're going to practice with water in sippy cups.

Here is what the process looks like with the Beaba:

Butternut Squash

Sweet Potatoes (since I baked these & had four to puree at once I used my larger food processor)

Four sweet potatoes makes A LOT

A whole lot!!

Avocados (my favorite!)

Pears (this might be worth buying at the store! this is FOUR pears!!)

And then it goes in the freezer so we can have ready to go meals in just the time it takes to defrost (in the steamer of the Beaba!!)

Once frozen, the cubes go into plastic baggies so I can easily take as much as I need at a time out to thaw.

Besides the fact that I love to cook, and therefore really enjoy making these yummies for the boys, it really saves a lot of money when you think about how many servings you get for the cost of your fruits & veggies!  I haven't done the math (I failed geometry & didn't enjoy other math classes that I barely passed!!) but just one Gerber or Earth's Best serving is around .70 cents (a little higher for organic) and I'm guessing our servings are about .30 cents or less!  Awesome.  Thanks you three for such a great gift & useful tool.