For Aunt Carol...

Here are some recent pictures...I'm totally pooped, so no commentary tonight. But I will come back and organize these and let you know what's been going on. Short story-we're super busy and the boys keep us tired. They're wonderful little boys who fill our days with laughter and wonder.

First trip to the zoo.

First visible boo boo...fell down while running and looking at airplanes at the same time!

Bobby wanted his picture taken too.

Random Updates from BabyBoatShoes

You guys.  Look at what we got for the boat:

A new fridge!  And it's seriously life changing.  A gallon of milk-no, two gallons-fits on the door.  And enough food for 5 days will fit inside, instead of maybe 2 days like our old fridge.  Seriously life changing.  Take a look at the setup we have now:

The small cube on the left is a dedicated freezer.  Before, our fridge was exactly that same size.  It looked nicer, but boy was it hard to live as a family of 4 with that small fridge!  I can't really begin to tell you how excited I am about this.  It feels so luxurious.  Ha!  I guess that's what years of living on a sailboat will do to you, right?

Speaking of living on a sailboat, we've made a big decision about our future.  Instead of staying at our current marina year round, we've decided to split our time between marinas.  Not only will we save a boat load of money (pun intended!), we will also be docked in a quieter location (read-less rocky because the tour boats won't turn around in front of us), and potentially more of a social life.  We also plan on sailing a lot this summer (every weekend we can), so we'll get built-in adventure. 

I will miss seeing our friends and neighbors though.  But we'll still live here during the winter, so it's not a total loss. (And we plan on "meeting at the islands" too!)

I'll also miss my million dollar view:

See those boats on the right of the picture?  Yeah...that's where we've lived in the summer for years...

Life with two babies is full of compromise and change.  Sometimes it's hard to wrap our heads around it, and sometimes it's downright hard.  But in the end, we'll always make the decisions that are best for our family and in the long run, our future will be better for it.

Life is also full of plenty of love and fun!  Last weekend my sister Lauren and her boyfriend Jeremy came to babysit the twins overnight so that Brian and I could have a much needed break.  We're having a bit of trouble finding a babysitter at the moment, so we haven't had a date since September.  It was so nice to get away, have time to ourselves, and, well, to sleep late! 

Us at dinner after a nice day of wine tasting.  We shared delicious fondue with bread and apples, ate lamb and scallops and shared sticky toffee pudding.  After we saw a movie, slept late and had breakfast in bed.  Wonderful!

 Our boys are growing so quickly.  While they aren't quite walking yet, they are climbing.  Climbing, climbing, climbing...it seems like that's all they do.  They other day I took them to a local play gym to try to get the climbing bug out of their systems.  It didn't work, but we sure did have fun!  It was a beautiful day outside, so we had the entire (inside) gym to ourselves.

Both boys love dancing, but Jack in particular has music in his veins.  They were happily playing with the ball and wrestling when all of a sudden, Jack heard a song he liked.  He stopped playing and started dancing...his trademark fingers in the air, swaying side to side dance.  Super cute.

Click the picture to make it bigger so you can see Jack's dance. :)

When they aren't climbing, they're reading.  The LOVE books so much that when family reading time is over, they break down in tears.

Poor babies...Mama only read you 5 books.

If I'm not reading to them, they "read" to themselves.  It's quite adorable.

So there you have it...a little bit of a life update from us to you.  I hope you're well, wherever you are, and that life is as wonderful for you as it is for us. 

Park Day

Sunday was so nice out, we couldn't resist getting outside for some fresh air and sunshine.  It was the perfect day to take the boys to the park for the very first time!

They mostly enjoyed it.  I say mostly, because Jack decided that he doesn't like swings so much right now.  He swung for a few seconds, smiled and giggled, and them promptly started crying.  Oh well...we'll try again another time!

 

We also took a stroll around the harbor before walking to a local restaurant to have lunch.  It was a perfect family day outside.

Winter ONEderland Birthday Parties

I've learned a lot over the last year, about my limits, my strengths, about being a parent of twins...and also when not to schedule a birthday party for those twins.  You know when not to schedule a birthday party for the twins?  On the weekend of their birthday, that's when.  Because these kids apparently really are blizzard babies.  And the snow their first birthday created made this past weekend a super fun, SUPER tiring one. 

So tiring, in fact, that I still don't have it in me to write a post to go along with the pictures I'm about to share.  Maybe I'll come back later and fill in the details.  Then again, I do have one year old twins...so maybe not.

First, in CT on their actual birthday:

This Saturday we threw the first real party for the boys, in MA:

And finally, Sunday the rescheduled party, back in CT.

Thank you to everyone who came to celebrate with us.  It means a lot to us.

CT Birthday Party Update (Not Cancelled Yet!)

I guess bringing the boys home in a blizzard should have tipped me off to the fact that we might have some trouble planning birthday parties for these dudes.  Maybe I shouldn't have called them my "Blizzard Babies" last year...I may have set things in motion with that name!

As you many of you know, New England and New York is on course to get our first major snowstorm of the season.  On Saturday.  When the boys turn one, and when the first of their birthday parties is scheduled.  Of course.  We've been watching the weather with baited breath, hoping the storm breaks up in time for us to celebrate with our CT and NY family and friends.   We'll make the decision on Friday afternoon and will be in touch with those attending.  If the storm does hit, it looks like the original snow date of 1/24 won't work out either.  If we have to reschedule, we'll update you on the new date too.

That said, earlier in the week Boston was supposed to get pummeled, and now they're saying it will most likely miss us.  Cross your fingers and say a prayer that it misses CT and NY too and we can still party like rockstars on Saturday!

In other news, I've been anxiously waiting for the boys to wake up from their last nap of the day because I have this set up:

We may have a small space, but we can still make it a fun space!  (It collapses.)  WAKE UP BABIES!

One Year Photo Shoot & Birthday Party Time!

I can't believe it.  In a week and a half, our boys will be turning one.  ONE!  How the heck did that happen?  Parenthood is truly the biggest time warp I've ever experienced.  That saying, "The days are long and the years are short" is totally 100% true.  I really can't believe it's been almost a year...

We're in the thick of it now, planning two birthday bashes**-one in CT, and one in MA.  Lots of craft projects and menu planning.  And this past weekend, a one year photo shoot.

Anyone who's ever paid a photographer for studio time knows it's not cheap.  In fact, most of the photographers I've looked at want no less than $250 to take photos of our family for us. They're gorgeous, yes, but we just don't have that kind of money floating around right now.  Because we really wanted formal pictures though, I decided to take matters into my own hands.  Instead of paying a professional photographer hundreds of dollars, I hired my niece Mariah for A LOT less to spend a couple of hours snapping pics for us.  I bought (on black Friday) a few yards of white fleece and a few strands of white lights.  I made a banner out of card stock, twine and duct tape and bought a bunch of balloons.  And then then we just spent some time taking tons of pictures to ensure we'd have a handful of keepers.  The results, while not professional grade, are amazing.  And I feel proud that I saved our family a butt-load of money (for diapers) and that my niece did such a wonderful job. It was a lot of work (we were all sweaty after the shoot was over!), but well worth it.  Take a look at the results:

 

 

 

**Jack & Bobby's wishlist can be found HERE. 

Santa's Elves: Week 45