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.

HALLOWEEN FUN

This past weekend was Halloween.  Chris, the boys & I started out early on Saturday (Halloween) to visit Bishop's Pumpkin Farm with Grandma Diane & Great Grandma Norma - our third (and last) pumpkin patch of the season!  We originally wanted to visit Apple Hill but decided the crowds would be too much of a hinderance with Great Grandma & babies!  Bishop's was highly recommended as a pumpkin patch and more.  We decided to leave early in an effort to beat the crowds of people we were warned about.  We arrived at Bishop's just after they opened and decided that everyone was at home making costumes on Halloween instead of visiting the farm.  We had a front row parking space and   They had things for all ages: pumpkins (of course), a Cider Mill, a cute & festive store full of holiday knick-knacks, a petting zoo, animals galore, a wooden train, rocking horses, a real (miniature) train & pumpkin tunnel, corn maze, gold panning, antique tractors, food pavillion, fudge store, and much more!  It was the best pumpkin patch I've ever been to!  We'll definitley be taking the boys back as they get older, hopefully next year.  Thank you Grandma for a wonderful day with our punkins :)  Here are quite a few pictures of our day:

Me & Jack, Chris & Nick

Grandma Diane

Me, G'Gma Norma, Chris

Grandma Diane, Me & the boys

The adorable wooden (stationary) train

The real miniature train that goes around the patch

Bishop's Pumpkin Farm Line - Choo Choo!

Thanks Mom, Dad, Gma & G'Gma - we had a BLAST! :)