Maybe tomorrow a banana split blizzard?

So we are having a real live blizzard here where I live.  It started Sunday night, and the warnings are in effect until Wednesday morning.  I LOVE the snow.  Love it.  I love the way it makes everything pretty, I love the cold air, I love bundling up to go outside, I don't even mind driving in the snow.  So this kind of weather is my kind of perfect. 

Except of course that other people have to go places.  DH had to go to work today and I worried about him all morning and all his ride home.  I wouldn't dream of trying to take the babies out right now unless we had to, and I really need to get to the post office.  It was kind of nice today to have a snow day where I wasn't worried about what we would have to do tomorrow to adjust. Technically, I guess any day can be a snow day for me, and I am taking another one tomorrow.  Mainly because I have an appointment in the afternoon, and every job that has popped up in the past few days has been for tomorrow when I can't do it.  Oh, and then the issue is that my babysitter might be snowed in. 

So all in all, I think tomorrow I'd like a blizzard from the Dairy Queen instead.  We have at least a foot of snow, that's enough for now. 

So the tree is up.  So far, it is interesting, but not something that should be taken apart.  They like to walk around and point to the ornaments that they can name "Oooh - Santa Clause, Baby, Mouse, Big Bird, Puppy, twinkle star") -Maggie.  "Puppy!  Beer! (bear) Mouth! (mouse)  Mommy (no idea)" - Ben.  They also like to walk around the tree touching things and saying "no!" because they know they are not supposed to touch it. 

I feel like I need to point out here that it's only been up for a day now.  How many days until Christmas??

December 6 - I know my last blog ended on the 6th, but since that picture was from the morning, I had to post this one of the night.  I had told Andy I wanted to take them out to play in the snow when he got home from work.  I had visions of these fun, pretty pictures of them in the snow, and had even tried to do some research on what kind of settings on my camera would work the best for the blinding snow we had outside.  Turns out, by the time Andy got home from work and we got them dressed in all the outerwear, well, it was dark.  So I gave up and just used the flash and maybe even (shudder) auto mode.  BUT, look at those faces.  They are cracking up because of the snowballs Daddy was throwing towards them.  I took a bunch of these pictures, but they all look pretty much the same.  Pretty much because they didn't move at all once we took them out.  Like little statues.  But their heads would whip around when the snowball went by, and they were giggling like crazy. 

December 7 - We had our NT scan, and got to see the rugrat squirming around, kicking, putting an arm over his/her head - fun!  It took a little while before they could get good measurements so we got to watch for awhile.  The only thing that seems weird to me is doesn't little bean look squished in there?  I thought I remembered the amniotic sac always being bigger than the baby?  Maybe I'm wrong?  Measured 12w1d, so still ahead of schedule, but the little buggar has slowed down a little.  We go back tomorrow for results, and I'm hoping all is well. 

Oh, and since I realized I never posted my "turtle" picture, here is the little bean at 9w1d.  Crazy how much they grow in just a few weeks!

December 8 - We took the kids to Portrait Innovations for their "official" Christmas pictures.  I know there are more that I would want to post, but you can settle for this - the one that we got the bazillion pictures of for the package.  I found almost everything they are wearing at secondhand stores.  Look at how well it turned out!  I couldn't have coordinated them better if I had ordered from somewhere fancy :-)   

December 9 - This is the night we went to pick out our Christmas tree.  This isn't the tree we ended up with, but it was the tree we got them to kind of stand still next too.  See Maggie's cute boots?  They need to go back.  There are multiple issues witht them, but my main thing is that I can hardly zip them over her calves.  Maggie's calves.  My peanut who isn't on the growth chart can't possibly have abnormally chubby calves!  Unless of course it's hereditary. . .

December 10 - Ben is going through a Linus stage.  He loves his Bs.  This night at bedtime, he dragged his blue B (what I think is the favorite), Ba and Beer into our room and set up like this on the floor.  Super cute.  He loves to tuck it over his legs to get snuggly when we read. 

12 weeks!

December 11 - We took them to see Santa at a place near us that does it that is not the dreaded mall.  We actually didn't really even have to wait!  I wish I had seen this picture my Mom managed to get before we paid for the package one.  Notice that it is a family picture, they wouldn't go anywhere near Santa on their own.  I totally had been picturing the screaming Santa photo which I would have found funny and been fine with, but this Santa was being totally nice and apparently the kind of Santa that doesn't want to traumatize the children.  So no Santa pic fail for us this year, it just felt like I would have been a bad Mom if I had just dumped them on his lap and walked away to get some funny photos.  Maybe next year. 

December 12 - Andy had put the tree up after the babies went to bed Saturday night, and put the lights on Sunday morning.  I wasn't paying attention to Ben until he started calling out "Ba!  Ba!" and I realized that he had started decorating without us.  

This is what happened when we tried to get Maggie to give Ben a hug so we could get their picture together in front of the tree.  Fail.  Nothing like a little loving choking. 

Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree. . .we hope you survive the season. 

December 13 - Today.  I was surprised to see this huge flock of birds landing on the trees in the backyard and then flying toward the house.  Bird mentality is just kind of funny, isn't it?  One bird flies over a tree, everybody else flies over to that tree. . .what are they all doing?  Anyway, so I relized that they were all landing on the back of our patio chairs.  I tried to get a shot of all 15-20 at once, but evertime I got close to the window they would fly away.  This is the best I could do.  The thing that was funny to me was how it would look full until another bird flew down and nudged the birds around him until they made room.  The cat also found this fascinating. 

And that's all for this week!  Suddenly at 12 weeks, I am more and more exhausted, and much to my hubby's delight, I was visited this week by the Boob Fairy.  I think that maybe is what is making me so tired?  Anyways, I'll try to come up with more before my next weekly photos, but don't hold your breath.  Somehow, with the constant vigilance with the tree, two doctor appointments this week relating to little Bean and of course the Christmas shopping and preparing we are still trying to do, it might not happen.  If you happen to be in the neighborhood with a blizzard of the ice cream variety?  Come on over!