Still Catching Up, Part Two

Here is the rest of Christmas. It was a fun year because they were excited about the presents. They don't get that Santa brings presents yet but they like the presents. They were not into opening them at first but once Livy got started we couldn't stop her.

Rachel preferred to sit in her cardboard box and hold her already opened toys and then just piled her wrapped toys in the box too.

They helped daddy open some of his too. (The cupcakes they are holding are not his :) )

Rachel only wanted to open one if she liked what Livy got then she would get out of her box and say she wanted one too and then she would open hers. It was a great Christmas.

The next day my brothers wonderful girlfriend Michelle flew in from California to help us fly to NY. Thank you so so much Michelle!!! The flight went relatively smooth. We only had an hour delay on the plane. We got to NY on the 27th and stayed until the 7th.

Rachel and her Pop pop. Her BFF until daddy showed up and she was then his shadow. My dad can't get any work done when we are there because they always want to play with him. Usually Livy, but always one of them was having Grandma carry them around. They can't get enough of their Grandma and Pop pop. They don't really even want me there!

Grandma Rathgeber and Gilgo were there when we got there but left two days later so we didn't get much time with her. We had a packed house. All of us were there plus Erin's parents and Grandma. Wish you got to stay longer Grandma!

Mmy mom got Hannah and the girls matching dresses. They looked adorable but we didn't get one good picture with all of them looking or smiling. Danny is so happy in this one. He loved having everyone home. Rachel was his buddy again and always wanted to swing with him and feed him. Lots of toys for the girls to play with too. They were taking over the living room. Sorry guys. Hopefully it is not so crowded now!

She is eating the dot candy that is the sugar dots on paper that you have to pick off to eat. It was bribery for pictures. They ate the candy and the paper. Oops. They lived!

A nice day in NY. A little snow still on the ground but warm enough to be outside without coats just for a few minutes. It only snowed once while we were there on New Year's Eve. We bundled the girls up and took them out in it but they didn't like it. It was cold, dark, and windy. Too bad it wasn't nicer with the snow. I wanted to see them play in it.

Eric flew into NY on New Year's Eve. His plane was delayed a little from the snow so we got home from the airport at 11. We just hung out at home with Josh, Katie, Rich, Erin, and Erin's parents and played rook and watched the ball drop. Exciting. Don't be jealous. My parents were asleep already. We had fun though. And it was like 15 degrees out that night. So no we did not got to see the ball drop. I have had that question.

At a mall there there is a carousel and small train that the girls love. They rode each 3 times with Auntie Hannah. She is their favorite. They love to follow her around and play with her and copy her. Especially her jump roping. They love to pretend they can do it now because Hannah does it.

She was the wrangler and kept them in line and tabs on them. We cant wait for her to come visit us in February!!

Aunt Hannie

Rachel the wonderful babysitter. She goes to Geneseo and happens to be home from school most times we are there and watches the girls for us so we can go to the movies, out to eat, or whatever. And she is a great hair stylist! She did the most adorable french braids in Livy's hair.

Jjust hanging out. poor charlie and Michelle didn't have a room to sleep in because we were so packed. Actually Livy and Rachel had their own rooms-one in dads office so not really a room. We tried keeping them together and they woke up five times that night and extra early so they got separated again and poor Charlie and Michelle had to find a couch or air mattress. Thanks guys. Sorry about that!

Hours of swinging with Dan and by themselves. Rachel's favorite thing to do.

It was so fun to have everyone around and nice to have so much help! My brother Rich had knee surgery two weeks before so he was home with us the most when others had work. It was so fun to have him there and it paid off because he was their favorite uncle this time. Sorry Josh all that work in October! They were scared of Rich before and the first day or two but that was it. It is just so great having everyone around. I miss my family a lot. I wish I could live near them to raise our kids together. None of them have kids yet so maybe there is still a chance!

And of course my parents, leaving them gets harder every time. The girls were right at home there. They literally got out of the car from the airport said hi and went about playing and running around like we just walked into our own house. It was great. They didn't get it when we were leaving but when we got home they kept asking for them. Livy said, Grandma, Pop pop house all gone. Her best description. And they were asking for Hannah for a few days. So sad.

And what can I say about my wonderful mom. She was such a dream, always telling me to sleep in and she will watch them. Or giving them baths and everything else too. She even had Eric and I stay at a hotel one night and she got up with them in the morning. We all went swimming at the hotel with the girls. They had a lot of fun but only wanted to be in the hot tub once they discovered it. Thanks so much mom, your the greatest!

Lots of game playing. This is their new game table int he living room. Richie and Erin are expert sequence board makers now. That is our favorite game, sequence. Even Hannah is great at it now. She wanted to hustle Eric and had me tell him she was no good and he should play her!

We had such a great trip and enjoyed lots of great pizza. Eric finally got to a few excellent Italian restaurants and can't wait for more. Thanks so much mom and dad for all you do for us. You are the most amazing parents. I miss you guys and I can't wait to see you in February!

playing catch up, part one

i know i am way behind on my posts and i dont have enough time before the girls get up to do it all at once so here is part one. it is from chritsmas but not all of christmas. anyway, here we go.

the table, one of their christmas presents. they like using the table but rarely sit in the chairs. and yes they are almost two and i know they shouldnt be using a bottle anymore but they wont drink their milk other wise. but i told their doctor they were done with bottles already so i wouldnt get yelled at :)
christmas at grandma and grandpas house with all the cousins. the two babies arent in the picture but here are all the big girls! we can never get one of them all looking never mind smiling!

livy and rachel got a horse from grandma and all the kids loved riding it.

this was christmas eve. erics family has a christmas eve tradition of having pizza and singing christmas carols. so this was on the way to grandmas to sing. the kids didnt care about it too much. it was more for the adult kids!

ok i know this wasnt much but i have to run. lots more to catch up on soon. the rest of christmas and trip to ny.

Christmas so far

These pictures aren't in order so I will just talk about them as they come up. I didn't get a Christmas card out this year so sorry in advance for that. This christmas season has been great and as much fun with them as I was hoping for. They love seeing lights on everyones house and the trees, snowmen (blowup ones of course), and "neigh neighs" on everyones yards. They still wont call them reindeer. I am so excited for Christmas morning I can't wait to see them so excited when they get some goodies.

Ii was trying to get them to stand in front of the tree for a picture but she was way too close and getting tickled by the pine needles. Livy wouldn't participate at all. She was off doing her own thing. They love having the tree in the house and seeing the lights everyday. Eric has a train that goes around the bottom which is there favorite but we don't get to do it everyday. But most of all they love ripping the ornaments off the tree. From their heads down as you can kind of see in the picture, there are no ornaments. They have pulled them all down and pulled the ribbon off many times. The ribbon we put back up but the ornaments are in a pile under the tree. Randomly there are headbands and necklaces hung where they can reach. But they are enjoying it!
This is from our pajama story night at Kevin and April's. We all wore our pj's and read Christmas stories, sung a few songs and then had hot chocolate and cookies. It was a really fun night even though the only one who listened to the story was Halli. The others kind of ran around in the living room. This is Grandma the jungle gym/corral. She held as many as she could to keep them contained! We got all the girls but Katelyn in this bottom picture (and baby Blake). Sad but that is the best we could do.

 And for all of you outside of Houston I don't know if you heard the exciting news but we had snow! Eric was very excited if you can't tell by this picture! There was just enough for him to get both of the girls with a snowball. Livy enjoyed it kind of and Rachel was just crying when he got her! Eeryone in TX was excited. Eric hates when I make fun of TX but honestly if you have ever lived anywhere that it snows you would make fun of them too. The news casters make it sound like a blizzard. And I quote "It's really coming down out there and it's sticking" to a picture of a tree with two tiny patches of snow under it! I get a kick out of these Texans. Mmaybe one day I will be so thrilled with a small patch on the ground!

Cold cute Livy.

 Livy feeding her babies. Maybe she just thinks that is how it is, two babies always. ?

Hugging. Rachel does like to hug her too. I don't know why every time I get a picture of them hugging Livy looks so aggressive, like it's a tackle almost.

 And high fiving. They love to high five. Rachel calls it a "pack". I am guessing she gets that from patty cake? Either way it is really cute. And Livy finally started calling her paci a paci she used to call it a blah blah. Strange but kind of sad to see it go.

 Santa hat photos.

 Livy loves wearing this flashing Rudolph nose. My Grandma got it for all of us years ago. When she is done on her nose she puts it on top of her head like a headband.

Ii wish the girls understood a bit more so I could explain more about Christs birth and the true meaning of Christmas. I feel guilty just giving them present and having them experience the worldly side of Christmas without the spiritual side. I have tried a tiny bit but whoosh, right over their head. They know who baby Jesus is though. They love playing with my manger scene and calling all the wisemen Daddy.

We have had a wonderful year as a family. We have gotten to visit NY 3 times so far and go again after Christmas. We have been blessed with wonderful parents and siblings who we love very much and are so grateful for. I feel truly blessed to have so much loving family close by and all over the country. It may sound silly but, I am so thankful for inventions like the internet, email and blogging to keep us all connected. I know I am closer to much of my family because we have these things in our lives. We will miss you all and wish we could all be together for Christmas. Eric and I got to serve together in primary this year. We teach the CTR 8 class and are really grateful for this opportunity. We have had so much fun together doing it and are really gonna miss our class. They are great kids. And I couldn't ask for more from Rachel and Olivia. They are tiny adorable funny little people. Not babies anymore, sad, but great too. They are wonderful. I don't know how many times a day they make me laugh and they are so sweet. I love seeing them play together and how much they want the other one near them. Sometimes yeah, I could do with a little less whining but that is a small price to pay for healthy growing beautiful girls. They are so much fun and talking more everyday. We are so blessed to be their parents. Ii am also grateful for my husband. I know he works so hard for us and is a great dad. I am thankful to have someone Ii can lean on and who puts up with me. We are grateful for all of the blessings of safety, protection, work, health, healing, and comfort that we and our families have been blessed with. We are so grateful for our Father in Heaven and all that he blesses us with. We are grateful for our Savior who was born on Christmas day and that we get this chance to remember that every year. What a wonderful gift. We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a happy new year.

cooler weather

hi everyone. well the weather since last week has been a little cooler here in tx. i wont dare say cold because i know all the people in really cold weather wont believe it. we are enjoying getting to wear warmer clothes and new coats here. the girls love the lights that everyone is starting to put up. they are just a lot of fun. i finally don't want them to get any bigger. its sad. they are talking more each day and it is adorable but it will be gone soon. i really don't want them to get any bigger. they are adorable right now and think i'm the best! this is such a fun age to see the way they play and pretend. that's all for now.

rachel busy with her baby. she burps it and it is so cute. always wrapping it up too or telling me the baby is cold and makes the burrrr sound so i will wrap it for her.

livy before church. eric won that turtle out of the vending machine at a pizza place and she loves it. carries it everywhere with her much beloved duck.

walking their babies

giving each other hugs


rachel loving walking her baby. she loves her baby and is always carrying

getting ready for our walk

rae rae and her daddy. she is a mommys girl all day but when he walks in the door its all daddy. which is nice. as soon as she hears the door crack she says "hug" and runs to hug him.

livy's first braids. im not very good at them but it stayed in for a little. it looked so cute.

when i started this blog i said i was not going to be a super blogger but i guess that has been forgotten because i am being hounded, i mean encouraged, to post more! thank you because i know i need to.

the girls are doing really good and we are just enjoying the great weather around here. excited for thanksgiving and good food and planning a trip to ny after christmas. i think they girls will love christmas this year, well all the lights anyways.

my other big feat is that i cooked every night last week. ok, for those of you who know me well you know i don't cook so that is a big deal for me. i know not really a big deal but for me it is. but i guess it wasn't a whole week because i did go out to eat one night when eric and greg were working late. jamie and i and the girls went to get bbq. but i did make homemade spaghetti sauce and meatballs that day so that counts still, right? it took long enough so it better! and of course we ate out friday and saturday. that counts as a week for me.

feeding the ducks with kylie and savannah. ky ky and nanna is what they call them but mostly just ky ky. i think that rolls off the tongue easier so both of them get called ky ky. poor nanna.

stealing some of the ducks food. they definitely eat more than they throw. if jamie and i weren't there too i don't think the ducks would really get fed!

livy saying cheese. not a great pic but i needed one of her in here too! she turns the tv on and off by herself now. she pulls her little car over and stands on it to reach the power button. she also saw where i put some christmas presents and i caved and gave her one early because she was pounding on the closet door crying for her piano, my piano my piano. just a junky keyboard but she loves pianos right now. she would pretend everything was her piano. it has some buttons that play beats on it so she pushes them and dances/bounces to it. but has a small problem sharing! she is getting better and rachel is quick to remind her to share. she crosses her arms and says, no, share.

i do. that i rachels favorite statement these days. she wants to do everything herself. i do, i turn and i carry you are the most popular phrases. it is really cute to hear how much they are learning and speaking.

they are getting so big. they pushed their own shopping carts at the food store the other night. they have child size real carts here. for those in ny, i haven't seen them there but maybe they have them now. anyway, it was a disaster because rachel gets distracted by any box that has a bear or dora or anything on it so she lets her cart go flying and livy will not let me help guide her cart. if i touch it she has to stop and push my hand off and then start again. but it was fun. livy crashed into a soda cooler going into the checkout line. it was seriously hysterical. the cashier couldn't stop laughing.

livy sitting on her potty. we are not going to start potty training for a while but we bought these when we went to ikea that other day and the girls love them. they have sat on them a few times without diapers but they didn't go.

they like using them for other things too, as you can see. and they like to carry them all over the house with them. lovely. at least they haven't used them yet so i don't have to worry about them making a mess. rachel was scared of it the first night and then the second time she did it with livy. livy loves it.

this is what happens when i don't give livy what she wants. or don't let her carry her potty around or in this particular case she wanted the camera. she throws herself on the floor no matter where she is. lovely.

rachel saw a picture of my grandpa fred on the fridge and immediately started calling him pop pop. then she wanted to hold the picture and was just smiling. it was so cute because she has never me my grandpa. he passed away before she was born. well, i should say she never met him here, on earth. he must have been her buddy up there in heaven before she came. this is her kissing her pop pop picture.

grandpa fred. both of my grandpas passed away before the girls were born. maybe grandpa george was livys buddy. we miss them both a lot. i really wish they could have met them. i am so happy to have both of my grandmas still. love you guys!

ny

we had so much fun in ny with everyone. my brother richie and his wife erin and josh and katie are living in apartments at my parents house so we got to see lots of family this trip and had so much fun. they loved playing with everyone. sad i dont have a picture of rachel with danny but she was his best buddy. she would feed him and say "hi danny" non stop when he was around. she always wanted to be with him when he was home. it was so sweet. and livy i scared of him. the pictures are out of order but you get the idea.

play time with aunt hannah. lots of that going on. hannah skipped three days of school while we were there and they had so much fun with their auntie! they ask for her everyday here at home.

tea time with grandma. grandma had tons of new toys to keep us entertained. we loved it there!

pop pop! it was great having so many helping hands there. we got to see my dad almost everyday for lunch and meet up to do something fun. we rode the carousel and train in a mall about 20 times one day. they loved it.

bff. too cute.

they had fun trick or treating with the older kids on the block for a few houses. they we walked home very slowly.

hannah, livy and rach were all dorothy. they were adorable. and here is livy in her most common form this trip. thanks to auntie becky for the awesome costumes! she sewed them herself! we will be calling for next years too!

clapping for m&ms.

at the farm feeding the animals. they liked it most of the time. rachel got scared of a few animals and livy liked it only if she could do it by herself. that is how it goes with everything now a days.

livy doing it on her own. she would not let anyone help her pull the wagon. she would remove your hand and tell you no. she is "strong-willed and independent." i believe that is the term i was told to use instead "brat or punk."

we had a great time. thanks so much for everyones help. we love you and miss you all! cant wait to see you soon. mom thanks for letting me sleep in! it was a great treat! and a big thanks to alan and brenda who conquered a flight from ny to tx with a wiggly baby on their laps! they were in ny to see their friend run the marathon so i flew back the same time as them but couldn't get the same flight so they had livy and i had rach. thank goodness is all i can say. one was enough for me for that night.

vegas

well we did it. our first trip away from the girls was a success thanks to josh and katie. i was worried about them but ok after i the first morning and heard that they didn't cry when they woke up without us there. they were good for them and had tons of fun. thanks so much josh and katie! you guys rule! and we owe you now! josh and katie thought that they would be the favorites in ny but unfortunately for them when we went to ny the week after vegas livy and rach were scared of them. they thought that i would go away again. sorry guys.

we had a great time just the two of us. lots of eating and relaxing. and i finally got into the twilight books. bad because now at home i just want to read instead of do everything i need to be doing!

we got to see my friend julie who lives in vegas. we were roommate at byu forever ago. she is a wonderful teacher and primary president and busy mom to adorable son noah. it was so great to see you julie! thanks for dinner!

eric at the bellagio. his favorite hotel. although that is not where we stayed. to expensive for us. we stayed at the mandalay bay and it was great. just a pain because it was a the end of the strip so we had a lot of walking. luckily they have a tram that helps just a bit.

and the best part of our trip was in and out burger. eric served his mission in vegas and loves, i mean loves, in and out. it was the first place we went once we got off the plane and we ate there at least 4 times i think. so happy he could enjoy his favorite meal again!