Feb 09
Everyone,
Is it bad that I JUST TODAY uploaded my pictures from December from my camera? Please lie and say it’s fine! Happens all the time!
{liar}
So…ahem…here’s what we did in December!
Every year we make a gingerbread house. This year was no exception.
We did add one two things. First was our friend Lavender joined us for the candy placing. And this year we had extra frosting on hand. And we did the best thing we could with it.
Then there was the trip to the Washington DC Temple to see the lights. Twice. Because I forgot my camera the first time.
And the great hunt for the missing glove.
Christmas Eve brought us Chinese food. So naturally, Santa got a fortune cookie for his cookie plate.
(Which said, “You will make many changes before settling satisfactorily.” I thought that was very fitting.)
Christmas was a blast!
And on Sunday! So the kids looked so so cute in the afternoon!
But before that, there were presents to open.
And bikes to ride in the house.
And we always go to Mt. Vernon the week between Christmas and New Year’s. We saw the sights:
The house.
The Gingerbread House.
The River.
The Gardens.
The Pardoned Turkey from Thanksgiving. (Professor just laughed and laughed when the turkey gobbled.)
Aladdin the Camel. (Which Professor kept a HUGE berth around. I guess camels are “scary”.)
A Distant Relative (aka my Great Aunt!).
So in answer to my above question, it IS okay that I just uploaded my pictures. And it IS okay that it took me 2 days to do this post. You enjoyed it right? That makes it okay!
Safire
SafireChristmas 2011, Christmas Eve, christmas tree, Ida, Lavender, Mt. Vernon, Uncategorized
Nov 26
Everyone,
We got out all the Christmas stuff today and actually put up our tree. Remember last year when I had a tree freak out? Well, this year we just bit the bullet. Our tree is up. With lights on it. And ornaments on it. Nothing really old, just enough to make it look festive. And this year’s ornaments too.
Our first decorations up this year were our window lights. The boys sobbed and sobbed over them. They were horrible! They didn’t look nice! Daddy don’t put them there! Put them on the tree! The tree!
Excuse the picture quality on this one…it was overexposed and I tried to fix it. Eh.
Once Juice explained that there were other lights to put on the tree, they calmed down. Now they are enchanted with the tree. Butterfly has started praying for the tree again. I am wondering how long that will last this year. (Last two years she prayed for it almost every prayer for months after.)
Yay for Christmas!
Safire
SafireChristmas 2010, christmas tree, Chrsitmas prep Christmas
Dec 30
Everyone,
Tonight Juice and I decided to take down the Christmas stuff. Normally I’m sad when the tree goes down but not this year. I was ready for it to be gone. Probably because we got several big presents for the kids and I’m feeling a little over stuffed with stuff.
So Juice pulled the tree down with the help of all the kids (that guy has the patience of a glacier sometimes!) and started wrapping it up in the sheet we store it in. As he was putting the last sheet over the tree, Pirate started screaming. Then he started patting the tree and crying. It was so cute. He did not want to see the tree go away.
While the tree was up, Professor used to bug us to turn it on all the time. He would drag us over there (which he now does, it’s very cute/annoying) and say, “Tee! Tee!” Once the tree’s lights were on, he would drag us to each window and make us turn those lights on. “Liie! Liie!”
I think the boys had a great Christmas. I know Butterfly is already asking when Christmas will be here again.
Safire
SafireButterfly, christmas tree, Pirate, Professor
Nov 28
Everyone,
A virtual Christmas card.
Hope your Christmas is as happy and bright as ours!
Pirate, age 1. Butterfly, age 4. Professor, age 1.
For those of you who would like a real in the mail kind of Christmas card, (different picture included!) please leave a comment or email me.
Safire
SafireChristmas 2009, Christmas cards, christmas tree
Nov 27
Everyone,
Today was the day we pulled out the Christmas decorations! There aren’t a lot, but it’s enough to get me in the Christmas spirit. We didn’t get everything all up but we’ll do some more tomorrow. What we’ve put up: lights in the windows, the stockings, the Christmas card holder (with 2 cards from friends! Man they are on top of things.), and the tree. Still to put up: the little tree and the ornaments.
Juice was very good and pulled everything out of the attic, hurt and all. His hand was very swollen this morning. He went to bed early with a seized up neck. Poor guy.
We had the big tree unveiling with Butterfly this afternoon. She said, “Hello there! I missed you!” Juice and both laughed and she said, ” I wasn’t talking to you, Father. I was talking to the tree.” This coming from the girl who used to say good night to the tree every day and prayed for it for months later.
Juice didn’t want to pull all the branches down this year. I told him fine. We are not putting any ornaments on it so why bother making it look full? Now it looks like we have a really tall topiary in our living room though.
The boys were enchanted with it. Professor learned a few new words, “Lights! Tree! What’s that?” (sounding more like “liiii! Teee! Wasat?” Pirate knew exactly where it was and kept breaking out into a fit of pointing and giggling every time he thought of it. He even played peekaboo with it around the corner. What can I say, we have an awesome tree.
Hopefully we’ll finish up this weekend.
Safire
SafireChristmas 2009, christmas tree
Nov 18
Everyone,
I’ve had a rash of bad luck with the boys lately. Monday, while I was taking my shower, they decided that all of my clothes in my drawers needed to be pulled out. Six big drawers were emptied of everything. When I opened my bathroom door to see what they were doing (after the shower, I am blissfully unaware in the shower) they were rolling in the clothes and laughing. It took me an hour to resort, fold and put away all those clothes.
Tuesday they decided that they were going to turn on all the electronics in my room. My tiny TV that I use to do my exercise videos on, my cd player, etc. They actually got a cd out of the player and have lost it. I’ve looked everywhere for it in all the normal places; drawers, boxes, bathtub. This prompted me to put the electronics on a power strip out of their sight so if I want to use those things, I just have to flip the switch. Plus, it might also save us a tiny bit on our electricity bill.
This morning they found Butterfly’s markers and drew all along the bottom of my bed. My bed is in a big wooden box so they just drew on the wood. I was able to wipe it all off (thank goodness for magic erasers) but still!
To make it even worse, I did try to lock them in our extra room while I was in the shower but they somehow managed to get that door open before I even got into the tub. And then they wouldn’t go near it after that. It’s like they remember or something.
All of this daily destruction has really got me thinking. Christmas is coming. Christmas = tree. Tree = disaster! My house is tiny. I can’t put it in the main room and block it off. There’s not enough room TO block it off. And with what would I block it off with?! The couches they climb over, the chairs they get on, they are even starting to scale the toy cube thing I have.
I have ornaments from when I was a baby. We add to our ornament collection every year. You can’t replace some of these! I would be heartbroken if my old ones broke. Juice and I and my Mom (who was on the phone at the time for our weekly call) had a good time brainstorming some ideas.
- different rooms to put the gated tree in…not very practical
- not putting up the tree at all this year…sad!
- putting up the tree but putting no ornaments on it…feasible.
- hanging the ornaments/lights from the ceiling
- making a cardboard tree
- putting the tree in another room
- renting a house and putting the tree there so we could visit it daily
- cutting down a tree limb and putting it in a bucket in our living room like poor sad Charlie Brown’s tree
- doing an outside tree this year and not hanging up our yearly ornaments…still kind of sad.
- having a table top tree to hang this year’s ornaments on and putting it up out of the boys’ reach, hmm…best one yet!
I think what we finally decided on was to get a tiny tree to hang this year’s ornaments on, and set up our big tree with lights and tinsel and nothing else. Also, I intend to tie it down somewhere. Bolt it to the wall or something. I love our tree. I can’t imagine not having it out since it’s older than I am. This will be it’s 30th year.
I think it might be nice NOT to have to retire the tree this year because of certain someones in our house.
The ornaments will not have changed since last year. They will be the same next year. They are just going to get a year off. I think I’ll either get a tiny wire tree or a potted tree for this year’s ornaments. I’ll probably have to put it on top of the refrigerator to keep it away from curious fingers. At least, hopefully, this will let me keep my sanity!
Safire
SafireChristmas 2009, christmas tree, double trouble, life with twins
Dec 28
Everyone,
The boys are sick. Butterfly had this but it wasn’t too bad. But the boys…oh the boys. Pirate was up every single hour last night coughing. He couldn’t breath with his mouth closed which meant he couldn’t suck his thumb. Which meant he cried all night long. I was up rocking, nursing, soothing for hours. And then whenever I would get Pirate comfortable enough to sleep, Professor would wake up and be upset that he wasn’t being held. So he would scream and wake Pirate back up. Ugh. What a night.
Juice finally took pity on me about 5:30am this morning and sat in the bathroom with Pirate and the hot steamy water running full blast. Pirate seemed to do better after that and was able to eat some and slept until about 8am. Of course, Professor was up at 6:30am to eat (normal) and then up chatting in his crib around 7:15am (also normal). But it means I think I got about an hour of sleep at a time last night.
Needless to say, we did not go to church today. I was sad because this was going to be Butterfly’s last Sunday in nursery. Next week she gets to move in with the big kids and be a Sunbeam. A Sunbeam! I can’t believe it.
Once everyone went down for their afternoon nap, I totally crashed. I slept for a good two hours and woke up to Juice and all the kids downstairs. When I finally staggered down there, he and Butterfly had taken down all the ornaments off the tree and were packing Christmas up. Sigh…I missed putting it away. I knew we were going to put it away soon because Butterfly had been a little too friendly with the tree lately. Earlier today she was crawling around underneath it and broke a red ball. No big deal, we’ve got a ton of those things but I was sick of being worried about it so I told Juice we should take it down. So he did. Christmas is gone at my house and it’s strangely sad.
I’m hoping the boys sleep better tonight so I can get some sleep too. Here’s a Sunday Picture for you:
Maybe Christmas is not gone after all. 
Safire
Safirechristmas tree, Pirate, sickness 2008
Dec 14
Everyone,
I have no idea what to say so here’s some pictures for today.
Safire
SafireButterfly sleeping, christmas tree, twin pictures
Dec 03
Everyone,
I’ve blogged about this before but our tree is old. (I first typed in very before the old but then I didn’t want Juice feeling very old since this tree is as old as he is.) And for this being it’s 29th Christmas, it’s looking remarkably well. It’s still full. The needles are not smashed or flat. It is a little rough around the edges, especially the top branch where the star goes, but all in all, it’s beautiful.
I was thinking about it today while I was staring at it, that some of my ornaments have hung on this tree for over 10 years. I feel fairly attached to this tree and until it breaks or something, we may never get another.
We had a great time decorating the tree. I always put up our yearly ornaments first. This year, Butterfly picked out the little people barn. 
Juice got Wall-E, the boys got matching first Christmas Winnie the Pooh ornaments, and I got my 20th angel. I have been collecting them since I was 8 years old. It’s the hallmark series that will never die. All 21 of them (they had a special one for 15 years and Juice got it) look great on the tree. They look so good next to all my animals and all of Juice’s big fun ones. He has a dancing mickey, letter to Santa that talks, an ark that moves, and several others. I love pulling out the boxes and seeing all of these things again.
Butterfly moved her barn to 4 different places before I made her pick a place and stick with it. She then hung the boys and lost interest to the little people nativity that we have and only play with at this time of year. Juice and I spent the rest of the afternoon reminiscing over what was going on in our lives when we got each ornament. Butterfly hung two or three more. The boys were most interested in them. Professor was more interested in the tree skirt but Pirate really really wanted to hold/eat/slobber on the ornaments. 
Every time we walked by holding one, he would kick and smile and get all excited like we were coming for him to hold what we were holding. They both stared at the tree for a long moment when Juice turned the light on.
We decided this year not to put any presents under the tree because they (okay, Professor but Pirate may learn this month) are on the move and the tree is out in the open. We moved it from behind our couch like we had it last year. I like it better where it is. We will put the presents out Christmas Eve.
And taking a picture with two infants on a timer is really pretty silly but still, we did it. Christmas cards are mostly addressed so they will hopefully go out by this weekend. It’s one of my better cards so I’m excited to show it off! Especially since my good friend Chef took all the pictures. I also have loads of extras since I could only buy either 50 or 100. 50 would not be enough, 100 is WAY more than I need. But I figure if worse comes to worse, I can always send them to doctors and dentists and people I don’t normally send them to. I’ll find a way to use them up. If you’d like one, please email me at safirecat {at} gmail [dot] com and one will find it’s way to you.
Safire
SafireChristmas 2008, christmas tree
