Deck The Halls

First, an admission: we're not very good decorators. At least I'm not. Carrie's pretty good, but even she would tell you our living room looks nothing like an Ethan Allen catalog. With that said we started the big task of Christmas decorating the other day.

Our big fake tree is ridiculously heavy, and a pain to put up. Just picture me digging this huge box out of the back (I mean way back) of a basement closet where it's sat dormant for the last 10 months, hoisting it up the stairs, and slamming it on the living room floor. "Alright it's upstairs, I'm ready for a nap," I say out of breath. But then Carrie politely asks me to put it up. And since she's carrying my twins and all, I comply.

So I get it out, and slap the three big sections together. The tree has lights already on it, but you have to connect the plug-ins from one section to another. Let's just say it's the hardest thing I have to do every single year. That might be a bit of an overstatement, but the plug-ins are green, the tree's green, branches start looking like plug-ins, plug-ins like branches, I start feeling dizzy, you get the idea.

Once I got the tree up, Ellie was all pumped up to get the ornaments on. She took them all out of the packages and was so excited to get them up. She didn't care where they went of course, just that she could see her reflection in the shiny ones. Then once we had the tree up, the ornaments on, the snowman figurines displayed on the end tables, Ellie says, "Is Christmas over now Mommy?"

Ellie's had a good time playing with the Nativity scene too. We didn't know Dora The Explorer was present at the birth of Christ, but evidently at our house she was. The Dora figurine plays with Baby Jesus, who is also apparently a girl according to Ellie. Who knew...

Notice Dora at the feet of Joseph. She's got a snowsuit on. I'm guessing it was cold in Bethlehem, she just wanted to be prepared.

Good News, Good Times, Good Eatin'

We'll begin with the "Good News." I don't think I've posted about this yet, but a couple of weeks ago our doctor had a little unsettling news for us about the babies. She said they had spotted some cysts on the kidney of "Baby B." (It's the one on Carrie's left side if that matters.) So naturally we were a bit concerned, but it seems the doctors weren't. "They almost always go away on their own," was the word from every doctor we talked to.

Now here's the good news, today Carrie had her latest ultrasound and appointment, and the ultrasound tech said she couldn't find any cysts, and that the initial report didn't even indicate any. So we don't know what to think, but we're just thankful that at this point they say everything's OK.



Meantime the babies continue to grow ahead of pace. They're both measuring at over 2.5 pounds, which is just a bit more than they should be, and that's great news. So it seems that everything is going as planned at this point. We continue to ask for your prayers as we go through this unbelievable time in our lives, and pray that those babies come out big, and perfect!
The "Good Times" and the "Good Eatin'" sort of go hand in hand I suppose. Carrie's parents were down for the Thanksgiving weekend, and we had a blast. We had a ton of turkey, and everything else that goes along with the holiday. It was a great time.

Then Friday, Grammie and Ellie, along with Ellie's best friend Mariana, headed for our "Black Friday" trip to the Lewis Drug store a block behind our house. That's about as adventurous as we got as far as shopping on that day. That night we went to a parade of lights in downtown. Those are the night pictures below.


We got all bundled up and stood outside for
about an hour, but it was a great time.

This was Grammie and Papa's idea...rolling on down the hill. The little girls couldn't get enough of it either. And they wanted to squeeze together in a tiny cart at Lewis. They didn't stay that way too long though...a bit cramped.

Sad, But True

With the impending arrival of our twins, and the undeniable fact that we already have a 3 year-old, we broke down and have became proud (well, not really so proud) owners of a MINIVAN!

For years I've been in denial. Many have said, "You'll do it, everyone does at some point. There's just no getting around it." But I thought I would be different. I would buck the trend of parents before me. "I shall resist," was the phrase I lived by. But alas, I caved. "We got a good deal," Carrie says, trying to comfort me, "It'll be so nice to have the extra space," she says in a soothing voice. But I say to myself, "A Chevy Yukon has a lot of space," or things under my breath like, "A Suburban would be roomy, right?"

But the whole, "It gets better gas mileage" argument wins every time. So here it is, a 2001 Honda Odyssey. They say it's the best van around, so we've got our fingers crossed that it lasts us awhile. I've asked Carrie if I can wear a ski mask when I drive to hide my identity. She calls that "childish" for some reason...

So maybe in a few months after our boys get here I will have come to grips with the fact that we're in the Minivan stage of life. Or maybe not...

Birthday Bash

It's still another two days until Ellie's birthday, but we had another Big Birthday Bash on Saturday to celebrate the momentous occasion. We had a bunch of Ellie's friends over, ate some pizza from Dora The Explorer plates, drank juice from Dora cups, and even wiped our mouths with Dora napkins. We pulled out all the stops...

For about 2 hours before the friends came Ellie couldn't stop saying, "I'm so excited for my friends to come! They're going to come to my house!" So obviously she was looking forward to the day.


We ate cupcakes covered in strawberry fluff icing and decorated by Ellie herself. Of course they were displayed on our now famous cupcake stand. What a wise (insert sarcasm here)investment that was.

Ellie blew out "trick" candles that kept lighting after you blow them out. She had some at her other birthday party and just had to have them again.

She got so many wonderful gifts, new toys to grace our floors and hallways. They were
definitely all much appreciated. The only
problem is deciding which toy to play with. There's just so many.

Looking a bit dazed after a bunch of presents...










Enjoying the aforementioned cupcakes with strawberry icing...




























Wouldn't blow out her candles without her new "Ballet Barbie" in tow.















"Can I get a little help from my friends..." Mariana giving some assistance in opening one of her presents.

And this is the present in the picture above. A brand new princess outfit...complete with wand, earrings, purse, bracelet, crown, and you can't see them but she's got rockin' some snazzy high heels.
This present was from Mariana and her Mom, I think that's why she was so eager to help...

Biker Beauty

So Ellie got this bike from Grandma and Grandpa Studer for Christmas last year and ever since we get on it periodically and take a ride. More like Daddy pushes or pulls, and Ellie just rides. She loves it for sure, but has never really gotten the hang of the whole pedaling thing. But today after we got home she says, "Daddy, I really need to ride my bike!" And so we did.

To my amazement, she starts pedaling. She was pedaling like she'd been riding a bike for years. Granted, I still had to push her along a bit, but she sure has the pedaling rotation down. Now we just have to work on the whole "steering" thing. Apparently that's important...

Fire Station, Birthday Party, And More

Ellie the Firefighter to the rescue! While I was hunting for the weekend, Carrie and Ellie spent some quality time with Grammie and Papa (Carrie's Mom & Dad). Papa's a long time firefighter, and it was Ellie's first big trip to the fire station. She had a good time "driving" all of the fire trucks and playing with the hoses, but was never quite brave enough to sound the sirens.

Though Grammie didn't send us any photos of it, I'm told the trip included trips down the fire pole by both Papa and Grammie (wonder why she didn't want those pictures on the world wide web? Weird.)

Ellie's birthday is coming up this next week, and another highlight of the weekend was a little early birthday party. Great Grandma and Grandpa Eiesland were all smiles for the "Yippee Ellie's 3!" party! They had some cupcakes with pink frosting of course. Thanks to all for the wonderful presents, and of course the massive amounts of diapers you gifted us with for the babies!! We'll definitely put them to use!

Some new ponies from Grandma Studer!

The Marx Brothers also stopped by to wish Ellie a happy birthday!

Buck Slayers

We went home last weekend so I could go deer hunting and spend some time in the great outdoors with my big brother, nephew, dad, and some family friends. I could only hunt for a day and a half, but it was great to get out there again and spend some quality time with the guys.

Anyway, the whole "Buck Slayers" headline is a bit misleading. In two days of hunting my dad and I had each shot does, and I couldn't even find mine (ran away and the trail went cold). So no real slaying of bucks, but we sure killed the hotdogs we ate for lunch!

My big brother at about 5:00 a.m., awake and ready to hit the woods!!

My dad the morning after he shot his doe. Notice the massive gash on his nose from the scope "biting" him when he shot! We had some good laughs over that one!

Beautiful Babies

Never before have we seen such beautiful little boys. Look closely and you'll see some arms and hands sticking up beside their faces! The ultrasound this past Tuesday was pretty quick with just a few measurements and the like. Everything still looks perfect according to the experts with the ultrasound wand.
Carrie's 24 weeks at this ultrasound. They're telling us that each boy is measuring at 1lb 8oz...which is a bit ahead of schedule for 24 week twins we're told. So that's great news! Their hearts are sounding strong, and everything looks great. Carrie's doctor has recommended that she reduce her work schedule starting now. It's just a precaution and not due to any complications. She just wants Carrie to be getting enough rest now, so she can make it through the rest of the pregnancy. So she's going down to 6 hours per day, rather than 9 that she had been working. So she'll be able to come home and take naps with the rest of the family in the afternoons! So she's pretty excited about that.

Trick or Treat, Smell My Feet

Ellie and her best friend Mariana got decked out in their costumes again and took to the night in search of sweets on Halloween. Ellie wasn't much for actually saying, "Trick or Treat," and really didn't go up to a door without her Daddy in hand (which I kind of like), but she kept coming back to the van and saying, "Mommy, I got MORE CANDY!" So it was a good time.

We had a fun little event at our church that night too called Trunk or Treat. A bunch of cars and vans lined up with their trunks or back ends decorated in different themes. Good outreach to the community, and a good time had by all.