The Sickel Twins Are A-growin'

I do feel the blog has become less about writing to you all. Although, I obviously do. And more about writing down the parts of Max and Harper's life that I don't want to forget. The blog has become the baby books that are sitting in their closets collecting dust.

But somehow believe I have written in their baby books more in the last year than here!

Max and Harper are thriving. They are the most beautiful, intelligent humans. (Biased much?) I know I am nearly 3 years into this Mommy gig but some days I still can't believe that I am their mom. I get to be their person.

Their sweet voices when they say "I love you, Mommy" or being woke up at the side of my bed when they have had a bad dream. All they want is me. I relish in those sweet, tender moments. I love them so much it hurts.

However, there are moments that I forget that this Mommy job is the best ever. Two year olds are frustrating little demons sometimes. (In the best way possible, of course!)

Harper refuses to get dressed for Jeremy and it is a struggle with me too. She is so independent. Every morning the struggle is real.

Max loves to now poop in his pants. He has been potty trained since September. Harper---no accidents ever since November-ish. Max hates poopin on the potty at school. Doesn't mind it so much at home. We are SO over this regression. But his teachers are doing a great job at school of encouraging him and he is making improvements week to week.

Both are amazing little sleepers. They have been going down without fights and staying asleep in their beds all night, except for the occasional "bad dream" that they tell me about.


We have had lots of different adventures over the last few months. Here are just a few to share with you:

Park time 

Princess Harpy Harps

Jammy time

Our 2nd dentist visit

Woo-hoo! Shorts!

We love the Spring weather in the winter! 

Nothing says St. Patty's Day like a good ole booger

Valentine's Party

All of my mom's grandchildren

Visiting Grampa

Ready for Opening Day for our hometown Royals!

Hiding in the closet together!

Nonnie and us on Easter

Easter cheesin'

Perfect end to the day.

Christmas And All

Time escapes me.

I make lists of how I will spend my afternoons after work, my days off, the weekend, and somehow...I never accomplish anything that I set my mind to doing. This includes blogging or heck, even logging into Blogger! Needless to say, I am in the process of reading and catching up on a month's worth of blog posts. I have only managed to read the last two weeks of blogs so far.

I am getting together all of Max and Harper's old clothing, shoes, and toys to sell in another consignment sale. I did one in August and we made some really good money. So, hoping to make even more in this February sale. The only problem is that these sales take a lot of my time and energy. I spent last Monday and Tuesday of my Christmas break gathering and tagging everything. Daycare really saved me on that! They were closed Wednesday through Friday last week so I knew being productive the rest of the week was impossible. I love those two munchkins...but I can't do anything!

Let's see...Christmas was fun. To see their faces and smiles, to hear their giggles, and to see them play was fantastic. However, two 1 1/2 year olds are exhausting. Naps were missed. Tears were shed (they cried some too), baby fights were had, and food was thrown. But we survived. One thing to be thankful for at the moment is that neither have caught the nasty influenza that seems to have infiltrated the area. Gosh! I hope we don't have to face that illness!

Here are some Christmas pictures:

Opening gifts in his SuperMan cape, of course!

She got a Frozen cape

He was loving the whole paper 

She loved strutting around showing off her presents. 

Playing in their kitchen Santa brought them

We kept our tree in our basement so they really didn't get to see it much! 

We bought a potty. This is in great hopes they may be ready soon!

Just chillin'

Loving the chair

Santa brought us Frozen! So why not eat breakfast at our new table and watch it for the first time?! We have now seen it about 5...going on 500.

So...here is this story: We lost track of  Max for a few minutes on Christmas morning. We found him behind a closed master bedroom door and then behind a closed master bathroom door. He was taking baby powder from under the sink and shaking it all over his head. 

I wish I got a better picture of  his dapper outfit that day!

Baby cousins are so much fun!

I love this picture of reading time before bed! It is one of my favorites we have ever captured.

Waiting to see Santa

They were so happy...

Until we set them on the big guy's lap!! (This picture is priceless!)

Really great family picture...

A tad better! All in our corny matchy-matchy KC shirts!

Although, sitting here Sunday night after a crazy last 5 days...it is easy to say that this Christmas was a crazy and stressful one. It really is a blessed time to realize that our dream of being parents at Christmas time has come true. I have felt overwhelmed and like an angry mom lately. But I just need to stop and enjoy this time. Yes, they are crazy little humans. But these crazy little humans will only be this little and this crazy for this short amount of time.

I am working on a couple other posts so hopefully I will get those marked off my list this week. I go back to work Friday...we will see!

I hope you had a very happy holiday spent with those that love you and that you love.

-Lisa-

Happy Thanksgiving!

The holidays are upon us and this gal couldn't be more excited! I just love Thanksgiving and Christmas. I love the hustle and bustle of buying gifts, wrapping presents, large meals with family, watching friends and family open gifts, baking cookies, making candies, decorating the tree, and the love that everyone shows for each other.

We have always had our own traditions as a married couple. I am so excited to now see how we will introduce the holidays to Max and Harper. I can't wait to start FAMILY traditions with them.

For example, they both helped decorate our tree.

Sweet Boy

What? I am just helping Mom.

Hanging out...you know.

Big Girl.

Finished.

We know that they won't know what's going on this year but it isn't stopping us from trying to make the holidays great for them. We already got one of their gifts and are going to put it together for them now. They love their jumper at daycare so we got one for them when they are home.

Last weekend, we took their holiday pictures for our Christmas card. Of course, as soon as we got them dressed their smiles disappeared. They are still precious, of course. We probably should have got a professional to do them but thought we could handle a couple shots. Here are a couple outtakes we didn't use. We did some good ones for the card. I will post that when they are done. 

Not interested

It is so much fun to put my hand in Sissy's mouth.

No smiles.

Are we done here?

I am in the process of baking for Thanksgiving. We have THREE, yes three locations to be in one day. We start off at my in-law's house (they live a mile away) for a brunch at 10am. Then we drive an hour to my parent's house by 12:30pm. Then we drive another hour and a half to my husband's whole family at 4pm. So...we are crazy! I think we will discover that days like that are too hard on the babies. By next year, we may have to cut down our visits for sure.

Here is my Pinterest dessert find. It is an apple cranberry crisp. I am also working on cranberry sauce and cheesecake pops.

Thanksgiving is so much more than driving all over the place for WAY too much food. But it is about being thankful for what we have. We are so blessed. Last year, we found out that we were pregnant the day after Thanksgiving which was 11/23. Our BETA was 45 at 12dpiui. We were so surprised and even more thankful that our doubling times were amazing. 15dpiui it was 351 and then 17dpiui it was 943.

 I finally peed on a test 14dpiui...even though we knew were pregnant, I was afraid of pee sticks!

I wish all of you an amazing Thanksgiving filled with love and family. 

-Lisa-