All Fun 'n Games

This was our first Christmas at our house on our own, and we were determined to have a great day. And we did! Larkin's brother Jared and Jared's friend Anna-Lisa were good enough to drive from L.A. to join us for the holiday, and we've had a blast with them. Here are some pictorial highlights of our wonderful Christmas:

Examining some of the loot
Taking Teddy for a walk

Reading new booksEating breakfast crepes at their new table and chairs

Will's favorite Christmas present: "MATMAN!" (i.e., Batman)

Playing with his toy train
"Helping" Jared and Anna-Lisa get into their stockings

Anna's princess crown, mirror, and shoes added to her play dress made for Princess Anna all day long. She kept walking around holding her mirror one inch from her face; we warned her about going cross-eyed, but she was too cute to stop.

Larkin and I got Beatles Rockband for each other this year. Although I love Little Drummer Will, my favorite part of the picture is the lead singer, Anna. If you can click on this to enlarge it, I promise Anna's pose makes it worth the time.
Ethan came over after his kids went to bed that night, and he brought one of his Christmas gifts: a double-barrel Nerf gun. The war that ensued warrants a post all of its own.
All in all, WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS! Who wants to spend Christmas with us next year? I promise we'll have a great time!

We'd like to present a random sampling of life with Will and Anna. Here are our favorite moments, in no particular order:

When Anna couldn't get up on the new (higher) couch on her own:


Coming down the stairs together: (When they do this, Will is always quick to tell me that he and Anna are "friends.")


Singing into their "microphones" (a.k.a. camping chairs):


Will's culinary creations:
Dancing together:


Trying to have a serious photo shoot:


Is it any wonder why we love these kids so much?

We had our first Thanksgiving on our own this year. It felt different to stay home instead of traveling to be with my family in Ohio or Larkin's family in Idaho, but we were excited to start our own traditions. I was very nervous that I would ruin some key element to the Thanksgiving dinner, but I (with Larkin's help) pulled it off! Our turkey was a little dry, but holy cow, our gravy was amazing! I'll admit that I was most nervous about the gravy and had back-up gravy in a can in the pantry, just in case. We had a great meal followed by great naps for all of us.
My favorite parts of the table setting are the turkeys that Larkin made for me in his shop. I'm going to enjoy reaping the benefits of Larkin's job.

We capped off the day by enjoying a wonderful Le Sueur family Thanksgiving tradition with Ethan and Lindsay's family: a pie buffet! Yes, it was as wonderful as it sounds. Lindsay made the pumpkin, pecan, cherry, and key lime pies. I added the derby and banana cream pies and a dark chocolate mint cheesecake. It was heaven. Pure Thanksgiving heaven.

On Black Friday, when everyone else was out shopping, Larkin and I took the twins to the Houston Zoo. It was a free day, and even though tons of other people also took the opportunity to enjoy the zoo without paying, it didn't feel as crowded as we expected. We had a wonderful day! The twins LOVED all the animals, even more this time than they did when we visited the Hogle Zoo during the summer. They loved the elephants, giraffes, zebras, birds, etc. We "moo-ed" at some longhorn cattle that moo'ed back to us. We ate our leftover Thanksgiving turkey sandwiches in front of a fountain, and then we finished off our day at the zoo by visiting the animals that William had been asking for the whole trip - monkeys! He talked about the monkeys on the drive to the zoo and the whole time we visited all the other animals.

Once we saw the monkeys, Will's requests turned from "Monkeys?" to "MORE MONKEYS! MORE MONKEYS!" He toned it down a little for this video.

After we got home from the zoo, we put up our Christmas tree (with Anna's help)!In short, this was the best Black Friday EVER! I love our little family!

Will and Anna turned two this month! Their birthday was on a Sunday, so they got to have Mom and Dad with them all day. We had a party for them in the evening with Ethan, Lindsay, and their kids. One of Will's birthday presents was having his cousin Dallin at his party; he LOVES wrestling with Dallin! We had a birthday sign up all day. When Anna would see the sign, she would tell us, "Weel. Nana. Day!!!" (She would jump up and down while saying "day.") Here are the photo highlights of the day:

About a month ago, I was on BabyCenter: Momformation Blog and saw a giveaway contest for a kids play kitchen. All I had to do was give my name, email address, and a reason why I wanted the kitchen. Done and done. And then I promptly forgot that I had entered the contest.

About a week ago, I was contacted because we WON! That's right; after never winning anything like this before I had won a fantastic play kitchen for Will and Anna. I was so excited! It was delivered to our house yesterday, and although it will be a Christmas present for the twins, Larkin and I assembled it last night. I set it up with some food out on plates and pots on the stove. When Will and Anna found it this morning, Will went straight for the little stool by the laid-out food, and Anna went right into the kitchen and started "cooking" the food on the stove. It was such a boy/girl reaction that I had to laugh; the boy took the already-made food, and the girl went into the kitchen to cook.

Here are some pictures of the twins enjoying their AWESOME new kitchen:




Obviously this kitchen is for Will and Anna, but I'll admit that it is partly for me too. Doesn't it look like fun?! And it was free! Life just doesn't get much better than a free play kitchen for your kids. Who wants to come play?

I'll be the first to admit that I wimped out on Halloween this year. No cool group costumes for our family. As it got closer and closer to Halloween, I realized that I hadn't even started putting together our costumes, and it was quickly getting too late to start. So we'll save our cool idea for next year. Also, the twins are now old enough to decide what they want (and do NOT want) to wear. Will is getting to be very opinionated about his clothing. I thought I wouldn't be able to get him into any costume at all. Luckily, Playhouse Disney that morning helped. All morning, poor Will heard things like, "See, the Little Einsteins are wearing costumes, and they're getting candy in their pumpkins. You have to wear a costume if you want to get candy." "See, the Imagination Movers are wearing costumes. . ." "See, Mickey Mouse is wearing a costume. . ." He got the point.

Because I didn't plan ahead, costumes this year were "do-it-yourself." Thanks to Grandma Karen, the twins had a lot more to choose from. Also, thanks to Aunt Melissa for making such amazing superhero capes that the reverse side went perfectly with their "witch" and "vampire" costumes!