Christmas is almost here!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

I LOVE Christmas! It really is my favorite holiday--I love everything about the season. I love that we celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. I love that it's a time for family and friends to gather together. I love listening to Christmas music; O Holy Night is my favorite. I love cooking and eating Christmas dinner. This year I am especially loving doing all these things and seeing them through Ryan and Evan's eyes. Of course they don't understand any of this--yet. I see them take in all the sights and sounds, though, and I feel like a kid all over again. Evan loves our Christmas tree--Ryan, not so much! He won't go near the thing. But he does love Christmas music. Dare I say our boy is musically inclined?!

Fallon took our Christmas picture when she was here. I'll post it once I get our Christmas cards mailed. All I gotta say is, you have no idea what it took to get that one picture! It was crazy 'round these parts!

I don't love that we won't be able to go home for Christmas, but I am looking forward to having a quiet Christmas with our little family of four. I can't wait for the Peas to see their gifts on Christmas morning. I must admit that I have gone overboard, though. I really had no intentions of doing so, but I can't help myself! I started early, so it hasn't felt like I've been shopping a lot. I sit and think about what they have and what I still want them to have, and yikes! Somebody needs to stop me!

No new pictures this week. In fact, I realized that my camera has been sitting down here in the office. I'll make up for it this week. R & E are doing well--still making their parents insanely happy. Still taking our breath away with the beauty that is them. Still making us know every second of every day how blessed we are.

Here are a few new things they are doing:

Evan repeats repeats almost every thing we say. Some new words this week: light, star, Gabba Gabba (the boy is addicted to this show) He can say cup, he loves saying yes (which is strange since he hears "no" so often!) He has recently started a love affair with one of his push-to-walk toys that we converted into a car. He loves riding on his car now! He's climbing into and onto everything. There have been a few falls this week, but this one is tough I tell you. He shakes 'em off, and does the same thing again. Nanny J recently told me that, "Evan is very defiant." Uh-oh!

Ryan has been repeating words too. He greets the nanny each morning with a "Hi, Jackie!" I finally got to hear it myself. SO cute! He loves to count. I'll say one and he'll say two. We're still working on the rest. He's a climber too, but is more likely to stop when asked. I recently downloaded Christmas music on his My Pal Scout. He loves Scout. Sometimes he even has his and Evan's going at the same time! Both boys can say Badger, but Ryan would rather not deal with the dog. At. all.

It seems that they are adding new words each day. I'm sure that I'm forgetting some of them. They seem to be growing up so fast! On one hand I love it! They are smart and funny little boys! On the other hand, I miss my babies! We have toddlers now! What a year this has been!