christmas in bulk

It seems like this year Christmas was celebrated a bunch of times! For the actual holiday, we drove up to Utah to meet the rest of my family to celebrate together. But before we left we celebrated with part of Justin's family at home. Clarke and Diane got Justin and me a cannon slr camera, which Justin might love as much as the boys (I'm still trying to figure it out). I love how much better our pictures turn out! So, if you can believe it, we actually did pack in the boys to drive to vegas and then to provo with lots of crying and screaming. It's clear that Crew does not enjoy long rides in his car seat, nor is it a good sleeping place for him either. But at last we made it and we were ready to spend time with family. Mike was nice enough to let us stay at his place in provo, i think we might have over whelmed him with all our stuff, but he never complained, thanks mike! Also a big thanks to Wendy and Jeremy who hosted everyone for dinner on Christmas Eve and Christmas day, everything was super yummy! Also big thanks for my parents, Katelin and Kris for being apart of baby hold 2009! So, without further adu, here's the photos:

When we came back we celebrated Christmas with the Ashton's extended family, which is always lots of fun! Diane got Clarke Beatles rock band for Christmas, so it was pretty much a week long jam session, so it was pretty fun! Justin's brothers stayed a few more days so there was lots of time to hang out with everyone. This was definitely our busiest Christmas, but we enjoyed seeing lots of family and hope everyone else had a wonderful Christmas too!

semester break

Well Justin's semester break started a week before Christmas, so we thought it would be a perfect time to get out and do some things as a family, we had a really fun week! Here's a few highlights:

We went to the natural history museum. We thought Brody would love it since he has a new interest in dinosaurs, however he quickly got bored and wanted to leave. After talking with him we realized he thought we were going to see actual dinosaurs at the museum, not just bones. When you think of it like that then the museum is sort of a bummer.

Justin and I went on a date to Santa Monica. We finished up our Christmas shopping (for each other) along 3rd Street and then walked along the pier and rode the ferris wheel, which has amazing views! It was such a relaxing afternoon!

Brody loves to eat other people's food. Even if we're having something he won't like he'll at least pretend he's going to eat it. This pic of him trying to eat sushi with chopsticks was too good to pass up.

I asked Justin to get the boys dressed, and tossed some clothes downstairs for the three of them. Next thing I noticed he was zipping up and buttoning Brody into his denim capris. WAIT, what?? No, those are actually Crew and Kade's 9 month sized jeans he's wearing! After realizing the mix up, Justin put Brody's own jeans on him.

The twins have been busy playing and trying to crawl, no success at this point, but check back for later posts!

good things come to those who wait

One December I snooped in my parents room to see if I could find what I was going to get for Christmas. I was super excited when I spotted the Teen Jazzie Barbie! Not only was she Barbie's pop star cousin, but she came with a mix and match of 15 different outfits, i mean what wasn't there to love! I of course told all my friends about my super cool gift. Christmas morning came and my sister opened her Barbie first, I was pretty confused when she opened teen jazzie. I mean why would my parents buy two? I then opened my barbie sized package to see that I had gotten beach barbie who only came with a bikini. What?! I was totally devastated! This Christmas Justin said he had a surprise for me, and you can only imagine my shock to open my gift and see teen jazzie! It's little things like this that help me realize what a total sweetie Justin is! I'm so lucky to have such a wonderful husband, and not to mention a super cool barbie!

sleepy play

We got a second entertainer toy for the twins, but this one also doubles as a jumper. Crew absolutely loves the jumper and constantly has a bounce going whenever he's playing. This video is of Crew and shows just how dedicated he is to jumping, tired or not!

the beauty of a big brother

Crew and Kade absolutely idolize Brody, every time he comes around -whether it's to hug them or tackle them- they have the biggest smiles on their faces. Now that they're a little bigger, they're starting to play together a bit, which is so super cute! I love this video of Brody and Kade, I can't make Kade laugh this hard for the life of me, but Brody just does it with ease!

more brody babble

The other day Justin and I were talking with Brody, trying to see what he thinks about having brothers here all the time, and the convo went like this:
J- Do you like brothers?
K-Brody do you like Crew and Kade?
B- YEAH!
J- Do you love mommy?
B- Yeah. I like daddy. I like french fries!!

So, clearly he had food on his mind and wasn't really into having a heart to heart at the moment, and who can blame him? We were eating lunch.

We've also started helping Brody say his own prayers which consists of him repeating each line we say. But every now and then he throws something different into the mix:
K-We love mommy and daddy
B- We love mommy and daddy
B- We love brothers, Crew, Kade
B-We love brothers, Crew, Kade
K- We love Jesus
B- YUP!
K-We love Jesus
B-YUP!

Thankfully he agrees! He's just a funny little guy!

halloween

Well my original costume idea for the boys fell through when I saw the price of the costumes I wanted for the twins (two at the price was a bit too much!) So after assessing what we already had (a bear costume) we quickly came to the conclusion that our three little guys could be lions and tigers and bears. I figured I had better act quick on the plan because there's only so many years one can dress their son up as a bear or lion without any protesting. So here's some pics from the trunk-or-treat at church:

Lions and tigers and bears and Justin's shirt said "oh my"

Crew, our lion, who LOVED wearing his costume!

Brody, our ferocious tiger.

Kade, our little bear.

Part of our trunk display, we had teeth with needle nose pliers, which were splattered with blood, some 'lost and found' dental x-rays, and a sign that read "free extractions and root canals, no shots needed". It wasn't much, but we only planned for 20 minutes.

Brody with his friends at the trunk-or-treat.

On Halloween we hit our favorite places to trick-or-treat: my grandparents, my parents, and Justin's aunt and parents. We tried to get a family picture from the night, but lets just say the twins couldn't adequately tell us their costumes were over their faces, and we didn't know until we looked at the pictures at home that night. So, instead of closing with a cute family Halloween picture, I close with Brody in his "pooky" skeleton pajamas.

I love that when you ask him if he's a spooky skeleton, he replies, "yeah, I pooky."