Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone.

Just thought I would attempt a little update on our lives this last year in a quick Christmas letter. We weren't on top of things enough to actually send out Christmas cards or get a Christmas photo taken. We have tried some photos with the kids and trying to get them all to look and smile might pose a problem. So here we go with the digi-card :)

We are so thankful for all that God has given us this past year. The biggest this year was surviving the first year with twins. I would say after the first 6 months, things have gotten progressively easier. Not that it is easy or anything, but much much more manageable and enjoyable. Rachel turned 2 in August and then the twins had their first birthday in October. That year looks like it went super fast, but I know it was full of long days and nights. The kids are all growing so fast. The twins are walking and saying a few words each now. Both are learning some sign language about what Rachel did at their age too. Meanwhile, Rachel is imitating everything we say and do. She is loving playing with her manger scene. Everyday she says, "Good News, Baby Jesus was born in Bethlehem!" She is so excited.

Dana continues to love being involved in the police department. This past year Dana's shift allowed him to be home with me and the kids all morning. What a help that was and a joy for him to get to play with the kids and watch them grow so much over the year. Next year will be a new change for us in that Dana will be working a day shift, something he hasn't done since we were married. This will free up our evenings to get more involved with our church as small group leaders this year and enjoy dinner together as a family. Hopefully I can survive all day with the kids this year. We will be making many play dates I think.

Overall, I am so thankful for the blessings of love from our family and friends and for the good things God allows us to have and experience and His mercy for us.

Praise the Lord.

Love
Dana & Trisha
Rachel, Lauren, & Elizabeth

Thanksgiving

Lately I have been trying to transition all of us back to normal. After vacations it seems almost that I need to get back to normal more than the kids it seems. I love vacation because I get so much extra help with the kids, then when it is back to reality I seem to get overwhelmed. Lately, I have been in pretend world forever. I got out the Christmas "little people" nativity scene for Rachel and all she wants to do is play Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus. I love it that she is learning about Jesus and all, but living in play world is a little trying for me. It will be nice when all the kids play together. I have liked to see how much Rachel learns when I do play with her, because she is learning so many new words and phrases. It is amazing what she says and how she uses it. Today I was telling her something and she wasn't totally understanding me so she said, "what are you talking about mom?" Just like a little adult. It seems that she is learning a lot, but also trying me in her behavior too. She has started into really whining. I had been trying to "talk" with her when she does it to get her to use words to figure out what is upsetting her. But I have seen that is futile, so I have started doing timeouts. It seems to work and she ends up behaving better. Especially at lunch. She hasn't been eating well at lunch time if at all. So in the beginning if she whines I am putting her in time out right away no warning, and she is doing much better. Even so, it is so hard to keep it up. I totally know that other moms are feeling it too, especially as winter approaches. I am also wondering what next year is going to hold for us. Dana's shift will be during the day mon-thurs. So instead of having help in the morning, Dana will be there for some of dinner and bedtime. Hopefully I can get showers in there sometime.

Someone just rang our doorbell and woke up Lauren and Rachel form their naps!! Ugggh...

Video montage

Hey all

Here is a video montage of our family over the past two years. Wow we grew fast!

http://www.onetruemedia.com/share_view_player?p=76bcb98907bb8487da3f75

Just copy this link and paste it in your browser.

Enjoy!

Flip!

Hey all, just thought I would post a super cute video of mainly Lauren. Lately I have been brave and I let the twins climb up on the couch while they are playing downstairs. I think Elizabeth has learned how to get down the right way, but they both love to topple off onto the little couch we have for them. I took a video clip of them one night, because they kept doing it over and over again and were laughing so hard. So in this video clip I actually caught Lauren doing a somersault off the couch. It was her first one ever, and I caught it on camera. Amazing! Anyway, the girls are doing well. They are fully transitioned to taking just one nap a day. Lauren was/is a little tougher to transition. She just doesn't take to change very well I think. Anyway, during the kids nap today, Dana and I cleaned out the garage and were able to pull the van inside! Wow, three years and we have never kept a car in the garage. I think I will get the garage until the new year when Dana starts going to work at the crack of dawn. That will save him time scraping. I will just not go anywhere until the sun melts my van I think :)
Anyway, we felt productive today, which is good. Typically we feel like we can't get anything done with all the kiddos. So this was a good day! Well enjoy the video!

Update

Hey all. Well just a little update. Thing is that from day to day I realize my life is pretty much the same. I have started writing down what options I have for meals for the kids and me and Dana, just to not get stuck in a rut. It is so easy to do. And this morning i called my sister thinking she was off work, but in the middle of my voice mail message to her I totally stopped and started asking what day of the week it was. I guess I have been not working at a job for a long time, since I am forgetting what day of the week it is.

Anyway, this weekend was great. We got some great outfits for the kids at their Dedication, which are posted on here too. I thought it was a great opportunity to get some pictures taken of them. We ended up not getting the option to have them available online, sorry, but we got portraits of each individual kiddo, and then I got a compilation of me with each of the three and then one of all four of us girlies together.

This week we got a little package from my mom. She made a little ladybug costume for Rachel's baby. She was a ladybug for Halloween and now her baby can be one too. :) Here is a pic!

The kids can walk!!

Just wanted to up date you all with a couple videos of the girls walking this weekend.

Halloween!

Well the Halloween evening was a success. All three kiddos got in their costumes without fussing. Rachel absolutely loved being a ladybug. Thankfully we tried it on the day before so she was ready for fun Halloween night. The twins really didn't care too much as long as they didn't have to keep the hoods on. But they were cute :) We went to our church's Halloween party called Slime Time. It was a lot of fun. Rachel tried a lot of the games even though they were geared a bit older than her. All three kids got their faces painted with little hearts. That was really cute. Rachel got some candy (that I ate most of already), and all three of them got play-doh, which is cool. We went with our neighbors who have a little boy close to Rachels age. He was dressed as super man. They were cute.

Earlier in the day the twins decided to start walking! Basically both of them have taken several steps by themselves. Lauren really took off. She took about 7 steps by herself. Crazy. I am really thankful they are starting to walk, it will definitely keep their clothes cleaner now that they are up off the floor. Anyway, I will add some pics and sign off.