Scenes from Christmas

Our Christmas 2008 was a fun one - for 2 obvious reasons!! But it was even more enjoyable when compared to last year. For just a minute, we'll wander down memory lane to Christmas 2007. We were awaiting the arrival of our little bundles of joy, but not quite ready to meet them when I was struck by the dreaded stomach flu on Christmas Eve Eve (12/23). Now any of you who have had the stomach flu know how hard it is on the stomach muscles, but can you imagine that combined with a 7 month pregnant belly full of 2 babies?? Needless to say, it wasn't a pleasant experience and the dehydration caused the start of contractions that had us a bit worried. I was admitted to Bromenn for hydration and monitoring for 24 hours. Thanks to IV fluids and some anti-contraction medication, things calmed down and I was released to finish recuperating at home. Needless to say, this Christmas was much better with no end of the year hospital visits and 2 very energetic 10 and 1/2 month olds to entertain us with their antics!!

We started out our holiday celebrations with the Leman clan. Good food, time with family, and presents were enjoyed by all! One of the Leman traditions is to spend time singing Christmas carols, and the music is quite beautiful. It's one of my favorite times of the evening, and Brock and Kyle seemed to enjoy it, too. They danced and "sang along" almost the whole time we were singing. So cute to watch!!

Here they are, opening some of their many wonderful presents from their Grandma Leman, aunts, uncles, and cousins. How grateful we are that they love our boys so much!!

Aunt Ruthie and Brock. Isn't he handsome with that Santa hat??

Daddy and his boys.

Madison and Kyle. "Do I have to have a turn with this hat??" Kyle is definitely not our hat boy. He's much better at taking them off than he is at leaving them on!!

Christmas Eve found us at Grandma and Grandpa Martin's celebrating with Arlys, Arlene, and the Iowa Uncles. Again, good food, time with family, and more presents made for another enjoyable evening!!

Brock was in awe of the Christmas tree. It was much bigger than the little one that we put up on top of our book shelf, but the boys had less time to work on taking it down at Grandma's. She also had it in a room with a door that we could shut to keep the boys from removing and eating all of the tinsel within their reach when we weren't around:).

Brock and Grandma Martin - "I just can't get enough of that tree!! Daddy, can WE get a real Christmas tree next year?!?"

Grandpa and Kyle - opening yet another toy that makes noise!! Playing at our house is no longer a quiet experience, but boy do they love all of the lights and sounds that their new toys make!!

The biggest hit of the evening was a big box that Arlys and Arlene's gift came in.

It was big enough for one to sit in.............................

..................and even 2 if we squeezed real tight. This made for a fun ride around the living room!!

We spent the night with Grandma and Grandpa, and wouldn't you know it, they had more presents for Brock and Kyle on Christmas morning (and a few for us, too:). I think that they had a lot of fun getting ready for Christmas this year!!

Here are Grandma and Grandpa with the boys.

And here's a picture of our little family on Christmas morning. Hope you all had a blessed Christmas season!!

Is this not too cute??!!??

It's the everyday things that are so hard to catch on film that make life with twin boys the best. But, this morning, I was actually able to capture one of those great moments so we can remember and treasure it always.
Lately, the boys have been holding hands while in their high chairs. It doesn't happen all the time, but we catch a glimpse every once and awhile. It's so cute and warms my heart. I'm so glad to have been able to get this shot - for them and for us!!

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!!

Brock and Kyle had a VERY successful first Christmas. They ate good food, got lots of presents, and were loved on by lots of family. Thanks to all of the grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins who made it so special. We love and appreciate you all!! Merry Christmas!!

Martin Cousin's Christmas

Early in December, the Martin family has a tradition that we all look forward to - the annual waffle breakfast at Arlys and Arlene's. The waffle breakfast was started as a way to keep the cousins connected, as it had become increasingly difficult to get everyone together at Christmas time. All cousins know to keep a Saturday early in December open, before much of the Christmas chaos ensues. There are waffles aplenty, presents for the kids, and time to talk and reconnect. It is a time that many of us treasure and look forward to each year. Brock and Kyle got to experience their first waffle breakfast this year and seemed to enjoy it, even though it was nap time. They had plenty of cousins to play with (or watch:), and got lots of cuddles and kisses.

This is only part of the pack of little boys at the breakfast. They all had such a good time playing together:).


Kyle was too tired to play and preferred to cuddle with Aunt Arlene and watch all of the action.

Here are 3 of the 5 sets of twins in our family!!

Brock and Kyle share the same February 8th birthday as Andrew and Elizabeth - just 10 years apart. What a cool connection for them to share!! I feel a big birthday party coming in a few months:)!!

Tashawn says "Babies like to sit on my lap!!".

Kyle need a nap, and Tiff's lap is a good place to snuggle:).

Here's Kyle hanging out with my cousin Alan. I remember being scared of Al as a little kid (I'm not sure why - he's perfectly nice:), but Kyle wasn't scared at all. In fact, he seemed quite comfortable!!

Here's Brock - perfectly delighted with his new CD's!!

Kyle and Mommy - "Could someone please find me a bed to lay my little head??"

We spent the night at Grandma and Grandpa Martin's the night before the breakfast. Here are the boys playing on Grandpa's chair. I should have used the video feature to catch them jumping around on and off of the chair - the picture just doesn't do it justice.

Brock showing Grandma and Grandpa his new skill - walking!! He loved to walk towards the bean bag and then fall face first int0 it. Finally, a soft place to land!!

Play Date

Several of Rob's co-workers had baby boys in the same month as us and they've enjoyed comparing stories as the boys grow. We decided to get them all together for a play date to see how they interacted. They all did great, and a fun time was had by all.


Here's Joey, Corbin, Kyle, and Brock. Corbin was such a nice boy to share his toys. Brock and Kyle really enjoyed having some new things to play with, and Mommy and Daddy got some ideas of new things they might enjoy. Christmas is coming, you know!!

Kyle LOVED playing with the sing-a-long stage. Here he is sharing it with Joey.

And with Corbin:). As you can see, he spent a considerable amount of time playing with this toy!

Here's Brock sitting on the couch with Daddy. He's such a goof!! Look at that smile!

New Predicaments

Here are some of our funny predicaments of late. The stronger we get, the funnier they become!!


Here's the close-up - just so you can see the distress on his face:).

Once again, no babies were harmed in the making of this post!!!:)

Who cuts your hair?!?

Poor Kyle!! Well, we've decided. Barber I am not. Kyle's hair had gotten a little unruly around the ears, so Mommy decided to give him a trim. She had done this once before with no ill effects, but this time Kyle was not so lucky. It seems that she got a little over zealous with the backward motion of the scissors, and forgot to curve down around the ear. Luckily, he's so cute, hardly anyone will notice and hopefully it will grow back quickly. Brock got his first trim and things went much more smoothly for him. At least Mommy learned her lesson!!!

Here's the good ear.

And the not so good ear!! Glad it's winter so he can wear a hat. Now only if we can convince him to keep it on!!

This is just to prove how cute he is and that no one will stop to notice the hair cut!! (and to prove that he's not too mad at Mommy - he still smiled for the picture:). To all of you hair cutting mommies out there, drop me a line with any tips for cutting kids hair without botching the job!!

New Shoes!!

This is my first attempt at the video thing, so bear with me - I'm still learning. The lighting is not good, but you can still get the jist of the story. The boys have both worn Robeze which are soft soled shoes, but they have never worn real shoes until last Friday. Here are the responses I got from 2 very different little boys. The first video is Kyle and the second video is Brock. You also can see and added bonus on the 2nd video of a little drama that is played out every day at our house - pacifier wars:).

Christmas Card Outtakes

As I mentioned in the previous post, we finally have our Christmas card picture taken. I know that by putting these on the blog, we'll ruin the surprise for some of you, but after this picture taking experience, I just had to share a few of our ummmm, shall we say, not chosen pictures:). It was fun and trying at the same time, and in the end, we were very grateful for digital cameras. I can't imagine how much film we would have wasted the old-fashioned way!! But I'm also glad for these outtakes because they tell the everyday story of our life, shows a little of their personalities, and gives a glimpse into just how fun our 2 little boys are:)

Santa comes to State Farm

Last Saturday, Santa came to State Farm to visit, bringing gifts for all of the children!! We had signed the boys up for a visit (did you know that Santa takes appointments??) and were excited to see how they would do. We had high hopes of taking our Christmas picture there, as they have lots of cute picture backgrounds set up, but things didn't quite work out as planned. For all of you prompt people whose Christmas cards are arriving in our mailbox, I apologize. I can almost hear it now, "She doesn't even have the picture taken yet??!!??" Unfortunately, having two 10 month old boys has not cured me of my procrastinating ways:(. Poor Kyle had a bad cold/cough and was feeling pretty rough. Combine that with the fact that our assigned time was smack-dab in the middle of nap time and you get one little boy who could hardly keep his eyes open, let alone muster up a smile for the Christmas card!! We were planning on leaving him home until about 1/2 hour before departure time, but then got very sad at the thought of pictures of Santa with only little Brock:(. So, putting good sense and good parenting aside, we dressed them both up and away we went. Neither one was afraid of Santa or Mrs. Claus, and Brock actually had a great time. At least we got our first Santa photo with both boys and got some nice Christmas loot. Here are some pics of the day:

P.S. At the time of this post, the picture cards are taken, ordered, and hopefully on there way to us:).

Rewind to Thanksgiving

I'm in catch up mode, so we're headed back to Thanksgiving, as Christmas is coming fast!!! The Thanksgiving holiday brought us a 10 day visit with Aunt Kara. She came down the early in the week to give Mommy a break. Here we are having a snack with Aunt Kara after nap time. Thanks for the babysitting. We love spending time with you and Mommy appreciates the break.

Thanksgiving day was celebrated with the Leman clan. Lots of good food and good family time was enjoyed by all. I should have been more camera happy that day, but alas here's what pics I did get:

Cousin Betsy and Brock.

Grandma and Brock - yes, Kyle was there too, but somehow he missed out on all of the photo opportunities:).

After the Thanksgiving festivities, we celebrated Cousin Whitney's 7th birthday. Happy Birthday Whitney!!

Friday took us to Grandma and Grandpa Martin's house. Here's Brock waiting patiently on his 2nd Thanksgiving meal. Like the ancient highchair?? This used to be Mommy and Aunt Kara's!! Thanksgiving leftovers were what first prompted Brock to say "num num num" while he eats. Any time he likes the food, we here this little "num num num" coming from his high chair. It's so cute to hear, and we definitely know what his favorite foods are:).

Here's Kyle also waiting so patiently!! He especially enjoyed the introduction to pumpkin and chocolate cream pie that he received this Thanksgiving!!

"Do we have to do dishes at Grandma's, too??"

Aunt Arlene and Kyle reading books. This guy will take advantage of any book readers that he can find!!!

Grandpa and Kyle ready to call it a day. Too much turkey, I guess!!

Breakfast time at Grandma's brought another favorite - Arlys and Arlene's zucchini bread. This brings on the "num nums", too!!

Zucchini bread for Kyle.

All of that good food means that we need a bath. This is more and more common as the boys learn to really "get into" their meals!!

All clean with Mommy.

Kyle and Grandma Martin

Here's a shot of Brock enjoying the chocolate pie with Grandma and Grandpa. Thanks, Aunt Kara for all of the great pictures that you took!!