Happy to be home

What a crazy week!
We got to spend the first part of the weekend with Grandma & Grandpa P. They left on Thanksgiving and stayed with our other cousins for the rest of the week.
Thursday, we came home to just play with our new toys and enjoy a little downtime before we got to go see our other Grandma & Grandpa. Friday, we got up and played with our toys and left in the afternoon to go see Grandma & Grandpa S & Angie. We were so excited! It was a LONG drive, so by the time we got to Grandma & Grandpa's house we were anxious to see them. Saturday we got up early to play with them and Angie, then we got in the car (again) and drove to a wedding. We got to see our cousins Lauren & Ben there, and lots of mommy's cousins. The wedding was nice (we were quiet because we got to sit on Grandpa & Angie's lap) but we had a blast at the dance! We were so sad to leave, but we fell asleep and don't remember anything until we woke up early this morning! (Noah said he heard his cousins so he got up early to greet them. Unfortunately it was Cheyenne making all that noise in the kitchen - not Lauren & Ben.)
We went to Great Grandma's to eat today, so we got to see Lauren & Ben again and play with a lot of kids our age. It was fun, but it wore us out. After we had Grandma's birthday cake (MMM! Cake 2 days in a row!), we got in the car, picked up Cheyenne from Grandma & Grandpa's house and headed home. We were so tired, we fell asleep shortly after we left Grandma's and didn't wake up until we were almost home. It was a fun weekend, but we're happy to be home again.
We are bummed that we didn't get to spend more time at Grandma & Grandpa's house. The weekend was just so busy! Hopefully, we can go see them, Angie, Dani, Jason, Lauren & Ben and get to just play with them instead of running all over the place!
We hope you all had a happy thanksgiving.
Now that it's almost December, we're seeing less bobcats & tractors around our neighborhood. (We really get excited when we see a Bobcat now!) But, we're seeing lights and Santas and looking forward to Christmas coming soon!

So far we've had a very eventful week!
We stayed home from daycare on Monday & Tuesday to hang out with Daddy, Grandpa & Grandma. It was fun to see Grandma & Grandpa since we don't see them often.
Tuesday, I pooped in the potty! I go potty on the toilet sometimes, but it's not on a regular schedule. I still have to wear diapers, but Daddy was so proud of me that he gave me a candy bar!
Tuesday night, Grandma & Grandpa brought out presents! We were so excited to get presents that we jumped and danced around. Grandma & Grandpa wanted to see us open our birthday & Christmas gifts since they won't get to see us that week. For our birthday, Hannah got a bunch of dolls with dress up stuff. I got four Cars with a carrying case so I have room to carry more. I love Lightning McQueen! Then, they gave us Christmas presents! Hannah ripped into hers and was SO excited to see that she got a castle! Her dollies fit in there perfectly. I carefully opened mine and all I found was a Target bag. But Mommy opened the Target bag for me and there was Thomas the Train! I got a train and 2 sets of tracks so we could set up a circle track and make Thomas go with the remote control. We've played with all of our toys quite a bit since we got them.
Wednesday we got to go to daycare for the day. It was so fun to see our friends again! Then, when we got home our cousins Michael & Michelle were at our house. They played with us until it was time to go to bed. Today, we got to play with them for a little while before Grandma & Grandpa took them home, but we went to their house for dinner! We had some yummy food, but more importantly, we got to play with our cousins some more. We were exhausted when we got home. We took our baths and put on new Mickey Mouse Christmas Jammies. It's been a full week!
Happy Turkey Day! (Happy Thanksgiving is too hard to say, so Sue taught us to say "Happy Turkey Day!")
Noah

Good bye Nukkies!

This week marked a huge milestone for us!
Noah has not needed his Nuk to sleep for some time. He has, however, requested it because Hannah is INSISTENT on having a Nuk when she sleeps. Wednesday night, Hannah decided that she is a big girl and no longer needed her "Nukkie". (OK, so Mom & Dad helped the process a little by slicing a small hole in her soothie pacifier and making that hole a bit larger every few days. Wednesday the slice had turned into a small hole, so the pacifier apparently no longer what she wanted.) As she had for the past few nights, she told us her Nukkie had a hole in it. As we had told her for the past few nights, she had to either suck on it as it was (with the hole) or throw it in the garbage. We didn't have any more for her. So, after a week of telling us it was OK with a hole, she told us that she was a big girl and didn't need her Nuk and was ready to throw it in the garbage. Mom took a picture, although it didn't turn out to be a great picture for such a momentous occasion in Hannah's life.
Over the spring/summer, we decided to ONLY give him his Nuk if he asked. Hannah asked every night. Noah asked occasionally - less and less lately.
So, our big kids have visitors this week. Grandma & Grandpa P came up from Arkansas to visit. They brought cousin Alex up to visit his mommy (who lives up north), so he visited for a few minutes then left. We will get to hang out with Grandma & Grandpa P. for the week until we go to visit our other grandma & grandpa on Friday.
Have a great Holiday week. Happy Thanksgiving!

The past few days have been so nice - 40's and 50's during the day with some sunshine! We've been lucky enough to play outside at daycare a few days this week.
Yesterday (11-14), Hannah wanted to go outside after naps. (Yes, both kids took naps, although they were only a couple of hours long), so we went outside and brought Cheyenne to the backyard. Hannah decided she wanted to ride her bike and she did a really good job pedaling on her own power! She often got stuck and needed a push, but if Mom had her hand on Hannah's back, that gave Hannah the confidence to push herself and Mom barely had to push. We pedaled up and down the sidewalk (from the garage to our new cement steps in front of the house) and back to the alley. We went all the way down the alley to the north, around to the front of our block and to our house on the street. It was a long bike ride, but Hannah did really well.
After church, we went home and got ready for a party. Dad wanted to get there early, so he asked if Noah or Hannah wanted to go with him or Mom. Both kids said they wanted to go with Mom, so dad left...but Noah stood by the window as Dad drove away yelling "Dad! Wait! He's leaving! NO DADDY!" Noah cried and cried when daddy left; he was sure happy to see Daddy when we got to the party 10 minutes after him! Noah & Hannah got to skip their nap to play with their friend and their cool toys. (It's always fun to go to someone else's house to play - especially when they have a set of Thomas the Train toys!) They even watched a movie, but Hannah didn't watch if very long because she said the Polar Express was scary.
Have a good week!

The other night we were talking about how God gave King Solomon anything he wanted, and King Solomon chose wisdom. We asked Noah & Hannah what they would want if they could have ANYTHING they wanted.
Hannah said "Cereal!" and Noah said "Milk!"
I guess Christmas will be easy this year!

Our household is sad. It has been over a week since Noah has taken a nap at daycare or at home. Hannah is still spotty - she naps some days, but not all. It will be unfortunate to lose naptime as a time for Mom & Dad to get things done in the middle of the day! Hopefully we can figure out a way to make him relax and have an hour or two of quiet time to unwind.

The kids are very good at telling us what sounds letters make. (Noah's favorite song is "every letter makes a sound!" Thanks, leapfrog.) We have started to show them how to sound out simple words (mom, dad, toy), but they didn't really catch on. They really enjoy being read to. They're a little young to read themselves, and it's fine that Mom & Dad read to them. Hannah loves to draw and Noah loves to build with Legos.

We had so much fun yesterday! It really made up for kind of a crazy week.

Hannah was home sick on Monday & Tuesday - and we even had to sit at the Minute clinic for over an hour just to get Hannah's ears checked on Tuesday. But, we tried to be good, so Daddy and Mommy took us to Burger King and let us play on the play area slides. We had so much fun.

Friday, we had our party at daycare. There has been a lot of energy and buzz around that place, and we had fun exchanging treats with our daycare friends.

Yesterday we got up and Mommy let Hannah dress in her Minnie Mouse dress and Noah in a Mickey Mouse outfit. (Normally, Mommy won't let us eat when we're wearing costumes, but we got to wear them as a special treat because it was Halloween!) Hannah took a short nap in the morning and Noah didn't want to nap, so when Daddy got home from volleyball we went out to play in the backyard. Daddy raked a big pile of leaves together and we got to jump and play in the leaves. YEAH! Then, we went down our slide and Mommy raked a big pile of leaves for us to land in when we got to the bottom of the slide.

At 5, we got our costumes on and went trick-or-treating around the block with our neighbor, Yoda. (AKA Griffin). Noah really liked trick-or-treating. He went to the door, knocked, said "Trick-Or-Treat" (whether the residents had opened the door yet or not!) and held out his bucket. He was so excited he forgot to say Thank you a lot, but Mommy reminded him and said it for him. Hannah was too cold and too shy to be a very good trick-or-treater. Mommy had to carry her around the block because she was cold, and she buried her head in mommy's shoulder when she should have said "thank you."

After we went trick-or-treating, we went to McDonalds to eat! Yummy! Then, we got in the truck and drove to a few friends that Mom & Dad play volleyball with. We got to see Anika, Piper, Dion, Ben, and we stopped to play at Trevor & Dylon's house until WAY past our bedtime! It was fun, but we were so tired that the last thing we remember is getting in the truck. The next thing we knew, we were home in our beds. We were so tired we slept until 9. We slept so late, we almost missed Sunday School!

Mommy thinks we're getting really good at manners and being polite, despite the fact that we do naughty things to each other. We are two, and just can't help but push or hit each other, or take toys away from each other. But we still have to sit in a time out, apologize or go to our room when we're naughty. But, we also say "Thank You", "Please" to mommy and Daddy, and always say excuse me when we burp. "I'm sorry" is still hard to say, but we'll work on it.

We also can recite some books and songs and videos that we hear often. Noah likes to sing the Leapfrog "Every letter makes a sound" song, so he knows what sounds every letter in the alphabet makes. Hannah knows most of the letters but sings more fun toddler songs like "take me out to the ball game".

Have a fun week!

Noah & Hannah