Gearing up for Christmas

This is the third year in a row that we have taken Vince to the Trans Siberian Orchestra!  He really loves it, and talks about it all year.  Dominic really wanted to go and we were hesitant to take a 3 year old, but he did really good.  He got a little antsy at one point, but was able to make it through the whole thing.  One thing that Dominic was nervous about was the dragon in the show.  Vince has talked about it and he knew it would be part of the show, so until that happened he was a bit on edge.  He thought the dragon was going to be real.  It is hard to explain to a 3 year old that dragons don't exist when their brains are set on it. :)  We also had the pleasure of going to the Spina Bifida Christmas party.  They do such a nice job with all of the events they put on.  It was at the same place it was at last year and Santa came again.  Santa brings a present for each child, even the ones without SB.  Dominic would not go and sit with Santa, but Vince did this year, for the first time ever, and was pretty chatty.  They both were pretty excited.  We stayed in a hotel in Grand Rapids since the two events were on two different days, so we all got to go swimming too!  I think Dominic is ready for swim lessons, he really likes the water.

 I think Dominic was more excited about the candy cane than the present

 They both got games, Vince got Guess Who, and Dominic got a sports matching game

 Vince and Santa

 So not the worlds best picture, but it will work :)

 Not sure why they posed like this, but I will take it.  Notice Dominic's shoes, he had to wear his "wedding" shoes.

 Dominic was pretty done at this point.  Vince is always ready to smile though

 The boys also decided that they had to wear their suits to the orchestra.  This was them being excited about going

We tried again, but Dominic was not feeling it this time either.

At the show!

Babies

We have had a few ultrasounds with the new little ones and so far they have gone pretty well.  We do not at this point have any reason to think there is any problem or issue with either of them.  We are going to go to the cardiologist in the next couple of weeks just to check everything out.  With the history we have, the doctors have been pretty cautious with us.  For the most part the care is the same for twins.  At 32 weeks we will start having two appointments a week, so that is way different, but a normal schedule up to that point.  We still do not have any names picked out and it might be a while.  We seem to be having a hard time coming up with ones we like, but we still have some time left.  I will include some pictures of me growing too.

Oct 21st - 14 weeks

Oct 28th - 15 weeks

 Nov 4th - 16 weeks

 Nov 11th - 17 weeks

 Nov 26th - 19 weeks

 Dec 3rd - 20 weeks

  Dec 12th - 21 weeks

 Baby A - he was really active, so was hard to get a good shot of him.  He seems to be more of a morning person

 Baby B, he is more of a nigh person

 Baby feet

Other than diapers and wipes, the only things we have bought so far.  Priorities!

Winter?

Apparently El Nino is having a pretty big impact on our weather pattern this year.  We have not had very much snow, and on Wednesday this week it is supposed to be 63 degrees.  That is crazy for December 23rd!  The two times we have gotten snow we have been able to enjoy it.  The first snow was back in October.  We went up north in mid October to take out the docks and there was a real snow storm one the way up.  There was about 3 inches of snow on the ground in the Graying area and they were using plows and salt and sand.  We were pretty surprised by it.  The second storm my parents were down to celebrate Thanksgiving.  It was the weekend before and they had quite a storm to drive through on the way down.  In total we got about 10 inches of snow.  It did not last very long, but it was fun to play in while we had it.

 On our way up north

 This year the dock was the only thing put in, so it was a pretty easy year.

 Beautiful sunset

 The weekend before Thanksgiving.  We had a bon fire

 Always good to eat the fresh snow!

   Snow angel

Halloween and Teeth

The boys got to pick out their costumes this year and neither choice surprised me.  Vince opted to be a pilot and Dominic opted to be a race car driver.  Dominic is convinced that he will be a race car driver when he is 25.  We have told him that he can not be one until he is that old and he seems to be ok with it.  :)  Vince has loved plane's for a while, and I would not be surprised if he wants to fly someday too.  We will see.  The other big thing that happened was Vince lost his first tooth!  He lost it on Nick's birthday, November 5th.  Up to the first tooth being lost we have has a lot of conversations about what happens when you lose a tooth and the tooth fairy.  Vince decided that he was not comfortable with the tooth fairy coming into his room, so he decided it would be a good idea to have the tooth fairy just go to the mail box.  It worked out really well.  Vince lost his 2nd tooth on Thanksgiving.  We ended up going to Amy and Eric's house for Thanksgiving and he was sitting on Amy's lap when it happened.  There were 19 people at dinner and he went around and showed everyone there.  The tooth fairy also went to the mail box that time.  He does not have any more that are super wiggly, so I don't think he will be losing any for the up coming holidays, but you never know.
 

 First tooth gone!

 Tooth #2

Pumpkins

 Looking good!  It was not too bad of a night.  A little rainy, but we have had worse. 

Nick's Birthday

5th annual Stroll N Roll

Once again we did the stroll n roll and the turn out was great.  I believe that a little over $20,000 dollars was raised again this year for Spina Bifida!  It was at Fredric Meijer Gardens again and the weather was not horrible.  We have had better, but also worse.

 One of the highlights of the event is the big hill at the end.  All of the kids go up the hill and run or roll down.