Sick again... & gift opening videos!

We were all healthy over the Christmas holiday! Hooray!

But two days later that quickly came to an end as the babies started getting fussy and not sleeping at night again. So, we're dealing with another round of the twins being sick. Rocco has bronchitis... again. And, Matteo has an ear infection... again. Dang. It's been a tough road for us since September. I'm guessing Gabby brings home a lot of germs from preschool and that's how the little guys are catching the viruses.

We'll get through it. The sleepless nights are tough (mostly for daddy & mommy). The daytime fussy babies are hard to handle. BUT... cold and flu bugs are nothing in the big scheme of life, right?!

And, Miss Gabby must have crossed that immunity hump because she's been healthy since last winter. And... I just knocked on wood. ;-)

And because we like happy blog posts... I'm including a few clips of the kids opening Santa presents. This was a special request from Gammy. Enjoy, Gammy!

HOLIDAZZZE!!

The 2008 Christmas holiday was fabulous! And, I think I've been in a complete hoilDAZE ever since.

This was Rocco and Matteo's first Christmas, and Gabby's fourth.

Gabby's excitement about Santa having visited our home filled the house on Christmas morning. She was surprised and excited and kept asking "But how did Santa fit the Barbie house in his sleigh? How did it get here?" Very smart little monkey! So... we told her that Santa has a VERY magical sleigh that can do anything he wants it to. Santa's quite the lucky guy, isn't he?

Rocco and Matteo really liked the trucks Santa brought them and their new Diego sippy cups. They had zero interest in opening presents... so luckily their sister actually likes opening presents. They also got a big wagon, which Dan built today. Hopefully we can get them out for a ride in it together sometime this week. Rocco rode in it today a little bit and loved it... freedom from the stroller at last!

Here are some photos of the kids with their stockings and favorite Santa gifts:

Our family; and our family with our au pair, Julia (from Germany):

Our Christmas Day dinner table set for 14 adults:

Photos below of Grandma Leo and Grandpa Kenny; Barbara, Kirk and Clint; and Trish, Todd, Courtney and Tori:

And, below is a quick flashback to what I looked like at this time last year. It looks like I swallowed Santa! I look at this photo and my skin begins to itch... I could not stop scratching my belly because my skin was growing and stretching so fast.

And, because I'm usually the one behind the camera... I had to post photos taken of me with each of my angels over the 2 day Christmas holiday. After all, someday this blog will be turned into a book for each of them. And, they've all grown SO BIG! Except Dan, of course... he's pretty much the same. ;-)

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2008!

Merry Christmas!

We aren't able to be with a lot of our family this year... but know we're thinking of and missing you lots!

















Here are two photos from last night. We went to Trish & Todd's for dinner. We got home around 9:15pm with two babies sleeping hard in their car seats. It was then a mad dash to get the babies in bed, and everything out of the car and unpacked. Then, Gabby chose the treats for Santa... even giving him one of the treats from her Halloween basket (lucky Santa!). Gabby carried the cookie plate and glass of milk to the fireplace all by herself. She sounded very confident that Santa would be coming... even though mommy & daddy did have to call the North Pole's administrative assistant a few times in December.

We're hosting Christmas Day dinner today... so it will be a very busy day here!

Happy Holidays everyone!

Let's revisit the dishwasher...

So... let's revisit the dishwasher magnets.

Here's new footage of them being busted... please disregard my talking!

Holiday get-togethers... GREAT times!

We had two really fun holiday get-togethers recently.

Last weekend our good friends Sara and Brad (& Leo) hosted a dinner party for us and our other good friends, Kathleen and Michael (& Livy and Maddy). It was a great time... super yummy food... lots of wine... and ROCKBAND. Yes, we all ROCKED OUT. It was a blast.

We've been getting together as a group on a regular basis since early 2006. The kids are sort of growing up together and it's so fun to see how they've all changed over time.

We try to take a photo of the kids at each get together... although, we often forget. But, here's one of the first photos and then the photo from last weekend. The group is definitely growing!

And, a few weeks ago one of my very best childhood friends just happened to be visiting the Bay Area because her husband grew up here and has family that still lives here. It's kind of crazy actually. Two small town girls from Minnesota end up marrying two guys who grew up in neighboring cities in the Bay Area. The plan was to take a photo of Jara and I with our kids. But, by the time we remembered to pull out the cameras... all the kids were VERY ready for their naps and a photo opp was IMPOSSIBLE. I tried. Trust me. So... I will leave you with the photo we took back in February. The twins were about 5 weeks old. All the kids were again ready for naps. And... Jara and I were laughing uncontrollably at all the chaos.

Just being DELICATE?!

It was day 3 of Dan's business trip and I was tired. I was fresh off of 2 nights with 5 hours of sleep or less. Not so much because the babies haven't been sleeping... but because I can't fall asleep if/when they DO wake up during the night. Yes, I've got major sleep problems.

5:05pm: I arrive home from the office & change into mommy clothes. Julia is scheduled to work until 6:30pm, so maybe, just MAYBE I can get a few things down before then, right?!

5:15pm: I head off to the grocery store to pick up food to make for dinner.

5:58pm: I arrive at Gabby's school... 2 minutes before they close and a per-minute late fee starts adding up.

6:10pm: Gabby and I arrive home... I begin unloading groceries. I put a pot on the stove and throw some minced garlic and oil in it... I'm going to make a easy, but yummy tomato pasta sauce.

6:15pm: Julia starts feeding the babies their go-to-bed meal. I get Gabby set-up with some dinner because the pasta won't be ready for a while. Grocery bags are still strewn across the kitchen floor. We're all tripping over them.

6:30pm: I bring the babies upstairs one by one... to feed them their bottles and rock them before laying them down for bed. Love this quiet time with the babies. Good hugs and snuggles.

7:05pm: Babies are down. I put groceries away and open a bottle of wine. And, start chopping onions, tomatoes, mushrooms and browning the meat and sausage.

8pm: Pasta sauce is ready. YUMMY! Julia, Gabby and I all eat pasta. Then, somehow I miss Dan's call... he left a message saying he'll be arriving home closer to midnight due to weather delays. Ugh! I was so looking forward to seeing him NOW!

8:45pm: I do all the dishes and put leftovers in the fridge.

9:30pm: I'm tired. I begin the go-to-bed process with Gabby. I prep her bedtime "drinkies" and get a new stack of books to bring up to bed. PJs are now on and teeth brushed.

9:50pm: Just as I get Gabby all snuggled into bed with books... Matt wakes up crying. Then Rocco wakes up crying. Ugh. You're kidding me. Seriously? Can't they wait until Dan gets home?! ;-)

9:55pm: I go down and fix a bottle for Matt. I feed him the bottle downstairs since I can't bring him back up into the rocking chair while Rocco is screaming in the bedroom.

10:02pm: Rocco cries himself back to sleep. Matt finishes his bottle. Sheesh.... I'm tired.

10:15pm: I walk into my bedroom... exhausted. I walk back into the master bath and find Gabby dumping my contacts down the drain. They're gone. Lovely. I explain to her (I'm sure with a tired and stern voice) that she is not allowed to touch mommy's contact case and that it holds my very important "eyes". She must not open and dump them down the drain or I will have nothing to see with in the morning.

Gabby looks at me and says, loudly, "Jodi, I think you are just being very DELICATE!" This was the official diagnosis by "Dr. Snow Princess Gabby".

Honestly.

It's just not possible to make this stuff up

CIRCUS or ZOO? Tuesday - December 23, 2008

Sometimes I feel like my home has become a small circus... or a zoo. Every single day seems to have some sort of chaos involved.

Last week's circus drama included (just the highlights, of course):
* Dan was on a business trip from Tuesday morning to Thursday night. And, I went into the office three days instead of two. Two very busy work schedules = exhaustion for the at-home parent... me.

* Rocco cut his eye-lid open just at the crease above his eye. While playing on what? The dishwasher, of course. Minimal bleeding... but it left a nice black and blue and red bruise. He cried hard. Poor baby! Thank the Lord it wasn't his eyeball.

* Matteo managed to get his two fingers stuck in a kitchen drawer. He was playing in the plastic container drawer. They shut automatically when they get close enough to being closed. I was upstairs getting Rocco out of bed and heard a shrill scream. Poor baby! I'm happy to report all fingers are still working properly. It probably hurt quite a bit, but scared him more than anything.

* Rocco and Matteo managed to OPEN one of the securely sealed, fool-proof, baby-approved and tested (supposedly!), egg-shaped shakers that came in a "Parenting"musical instruments drum. WHAT?! I still can't believe this. I got a call from Julia, our au pair, while driving home from work. She said there were little pieces EVERYWHERE. I get home. I clean up the mess of tiny pieces. I call poison control. Yes... I CALL poison control because what if they swallowed some of these little things? For all I know.... the little pieces came from China and they're loaded with lead. Poison control recommends I go out and buy a lead test, which I did. Test was negative. Boys are fine. Crisis averted. Deep breath... I think to myself "For real? What's next?! No. I can do this. Dan will be home tomorrow night." Then, I try busting open the other egg shaker. I can't get it open. Amazing. These two little guys are unbelieveable. Teamwork results in amazing feats, doesn't it?

* Dan gets home approximately 3 hours late on Thursday night because of flight delays across the country (due to weather). I was SO happy to see him walk in the door. SO HAPPY!

* Then, to top off the already crazy week... on Sunday, Rocco decided to do his first dive off the top and backside of the sofa. I was upstairs helping Gabby get dressed. Dan was putting Matteo down for his morning nap. Dan heard a thump and a cry... ran downstairs and found Rocco on the floor behind the sofa. So this of course is our assumption of what happened. Now we either have to get rid of the sofa in the family room or make sure Rocco is secure in the playroom before he's ever left alone. So... I'm sure you know what our decision was.

Rocco walking!

Rocco is walking!

He's been testing the waters with walking for a few weeks now... but here is the long-awaited video footage. Of course... I never have the recorder with me when he walks for a LONG walk. But, here is just a taste:

It's beginning to look a LOT like Christmas!

I just LOVE the holidays! And, it's beginning to look a LOT like Christmas at our house.

We've got lights on the outside of the house, stockings hung, the house decorated, presents are under the tree.... and today we decorated the tree.

It was a bit of a blunder... the boys were busy trying to climb the sofa and dive off, and every once in a while it looked like fun to grab ornaments off the tree and bite them. Not such a great idea, right?
Well... the tree was finally decorated. Memorable moments included:

* Gabby (dressed in a princess dress, of course) hanging all of the ornaments she could get her hands on within a two-foot radius.

* Rocco ripping ornaments off the tree and being scolded repeatedly by Gabby.

* Matteo grabbing ornaments off the tree and trying to eat them... and then getting SUPER mad at me when I'd try to recover the ornament from his little hands.

* Gabby trying to take a bite of each ornament that looked like a gingerbread cookie. We recently made gingerbread cookies... so this made sense to me.

I am just LOVING this year's holiday season! It's so different from last year's high-stress holiday. Last year I was pregnant with the boys, on bed rest and doing everything possible to keep the babies in my tummy for as long as possible so they could have a healthy start at life. Making Christmas cookies was completely out of the realm of possibilities. Also, we were still living in a rental while our house remodel was approaching completion. The project ran over by almost 2 months... and I was starting go a little nutty on the contractors. Honestly... you really don't want to mess with a SUPER-pregnant mommy who is in full nesting mode with nowhere to nest. Just a tad bit stressful.

This year is just SO WONDERFULY! I have 3 healthy babes and a fabulous, loving husband. We're in OUR home. And, Gabby's excitement for the Christmas holiday is so much fun... and brings out a little bit of the kid in Dan & I. It's wonderful... wish I could remember each and every moment forever...

Christmas cookies and holiday hearts!

When I was a child... one of my favorite holiday memories was making Christmas cookies with my mom and her mom (my Grandma Leona). We would make a variety of cookies... and LOTS of them. This year I started the tradition with my daughter.

We cranked up the holiday music and made cookies! It was so much fun... and I'm not sure who enjoyed it more... me or Gabby. She just loves to bake and cook.

We also had lots of help from Julia, our au pair from Germany. And, Dan even helped put frosting on some of the cookies.

We made gingerbread cookies, holiday wreaths, chocolate covered peppermint and almond flavored cookies (red and green), and peppermint bark. We still have to do the cut-outs at some point... maybe next weekend.

SO MUCH FUN!!

The only difficult part was that I was EXHAUSTED after! Well... it probably didn't help that we started the whole cookie mess at 9:15pm on Friday night. Yeah... because I'm REALLY bad at sitting around not doing anything. I had a moment to sit and couldn't deal with it.... so I started baking. Yeah. I know. Stupid. Somehow, I always find a way to keep me up on my feet until midnight. Can you not tell in the photos that we all look a tad bit tired? But happy and having fun, of course!

Here are some photos: