3.5 and Loving It!

Coming down from the high of the busy and exciting Christmas season, straight into the winter doldrums, I’ve found it hard to come up with anything compelling to blog about. We’re going a little stir-crazy, battling sickness about every two weeks and freezing cold temperatures (32 degrees is cold for this area!). But life is still good and we’re thankful that there is spring to look forward to in a couple of months!

Seth and Sam really do an amazing job of entertaining themselves (or each other for that matter). I was recently telling some friends how I was doing a bit of early spring cleaning by rearranging all of our closets, and they asked, “When do you have time to do that?” I replied, “In the middle of day.” “What are boys doing?” they asked. “Playing,” I replied, realizing how blessed I am to have twins that play constantly with one another and don’t rely on me for attention! They spend their days deep in imagination land, constant conversation with one another, and building with blocks and legos. I’ve been trying to do little activities with them as well: play dough, “cooking” with rice, learning to cut on the lines, watercolors, etc.

Here’s little Seth; I’ve decided that I might be one of the worst parents at actually washing their kids faces. Oh, well. There are worst things to fail at! Notice the mark under his left eye—it’s a burst blood vestal and a great way to tell the boys apart!  Sam is so much more photogenic and willing to smile for the camera than Seth. He’s got a pretty good bonk on his noggin if you look closer. The newest football gear; note the two beanies. One is the helmet, and one is the face mask that much to the boys’ chagrin I insist cannot pulled over their entire face while they play.  (They insist they can see well enough out of the holes…I do not believe them!) Seth’s camera smile Cute picture of Sam!

One of my favorite recent memories (and a moment in which I wish I would have had a video camera in my hands), perfectly illustrates the difference in aggressiveness between Seth and Sam. Ben and Nathan were on their hands and knees on our living room floor playing football with the boys. Nathan gave Seth the ball, which he held lightly in his hand and stood still. Meanwhile, Sam charged full speed across the living room, wrapped Seth up in perfect tackle form and plastered him to the ground—hard. We were all stunned, laughing, and proud of Seth for not crying, and proud of Sam for his great tackle. It was hilarious. Now when the boys play football with one another, when Sam has the ball, a tackle happens. When Seth has the ball, he tosses it in the air, falls down before contact is made, and claims he got a “touchdown.”

Wesley turned two in January, and Seth and Sam are very excited that he’s now able to do “two-year-old things,” (whatever the means?) These three are hilarious together, and we’re so thankful to have Wesley in our home. The boys referred to him as their “brother” the other day. So sweet.

Snowman

I’m thankful for daddies and aunts and uncles, so that when a cold and wet snowstorm hits, they can take Seth and Sam outside to build a snowman…while I reside inside by the window with no screen and take pictures. And although this post is overdue, and the pictures weeks old, it is worth sharing, because they really do build an excellent snowman in the end.

Now if this picture of Seth doesn’t make you laugh, not much will. Hilarious!

The boys borrowed scarves from their Grandma. It is impossible to tell them apart when only this much of their face is showing. Thankfully Seth remembered that he had the pink scarf on, so Seth is on the left, Sam on the right.

Sam and Daddy

    Seth and Uncle NayNay

Because Nate and Ben both took a boy and rolled a snowball at about the same pace, a bit of a problem presented itself: how to get the equally large middle snowball on top.This is a picture of Nate and Ben counting to three, and the snowball not moving an inch. Then Nathan got the brilliant idea of pushing the middle snowball so hard against the bottom one, that it would eventually roll on top. Miraculously it worked—and I even got a video of Nate slipping as they starting pushing it up (I’ll save him the embarrassment of posting it). They did it! Sending the boys off to gather rocks for the face. And the finished product. LOVE it! (Also love that Sam’s scarf is positioned so that you can’t even see his face.)

Ruda Christmas 2012

Christmas was wonderfully full. Here’s a quick recap: Ben came home Friday night, officially on vacation. He brought me a Christmas bouquet (which I had been dropping HUGE hints for) and my gift: a Kindle Fire. I’d been thinking about using my babysitting money to buy one, because it would be much more convenient to use in the kitchen for all those allergy free recipes I’ve been trying. It was a great surprise and I’ve been having a blast with it! (Favorite App I discovered last night: wunderlist…I’m in list heaven!!)

Saturday we went out to lunch with Grandma Luscombe and then my parents came in shortly after that to stay with us through Christmas. Sunday we went to church as a family, my mom and I went out shopping, and then Ben and I went on a date to Andina and to watch the Hobbit. Christmas Eve we hung around home (while my parents spent the day with Katie and her kids), and then hosted them for a tri-tip dinner and went driving to look at Christmas lights with the boys (as we drove around, Sam was VERY concerned that we were weren’t going in a clear direction, and wanted to make sure over and over again that daddy knew the way home—it was very sweet).

I hosted all the Ruda’s for Christmas here at our house, and it was a blast. Katie and her family came around 2:00, so we opened a few gifts and stockings with my parents in the morning. Christmas dinner was an allergy free feast (Katie’s husband and one of her daughters have food allergies, along with my mom, and the boys and I). It’s amazing how many different kinds of food God made—we had a wonderful meal even though we are combined allergic to so many foods!

After dinner the cousins played and played. The house was loud, messy, joyful and fun. The boys and their Papa had matching shirts for church. Ben had taken both boys shopping separately for gifts for one another. And then I helped them make a card for each other. It was very sweet and special to see them open gifts from their brother! (Seth in stripes) Love!  The boys and Papa Seth and Grandma We bought the boys each their own Bible—they were thrilled about their new “Bible book” as they call it We also bought the boys “Hungry, Hungry Hippos.” I was pretty excited about it, because I have very fond memories of playing it as a kid. It’s not as fun to play as an adult (what’s the point again?), but listening to your kids laugh and play with it is pretty priceless! Grandparent/Grandkid picture not a huge success this year. All the cousins received homemade hats from aunt Julie and uncle Tom! They loved them! Poor Papa didn’t have much to open because his gift from all of us was tickets to the Transiberian Orchestra in November Mom and Dad got both Nick and Ben smokers. What an amazing gift!

The great surprise of the day was that my mom and dad made all the grandkids their very own horse. They were amazing and the kids all LOVED them!  Clara and “Snowbell” (all the girls got unicorns and the boys horses…and each horse was named and given a history) Seth and “Ferdinand”

 

Sam and “Nakoa”, Aidah and “Black Beauty” Miriam and “Firefoot” Sam and Seth ready to conquer the world The attempts to get all the grandkiddos with the horses were not successful The oldest four did a bit better This one is pretty darn cute And this one cracks me up because Seth is looking a Clara like, “Huh, so that’s what a smile looks like?” And here’s the grandkids with their horses and handmade pj’s from Grandma And definitely my favorite—I love the movement!

That night as we put the boys to bed, we asked them if they liked Christmas. Amidst the “yeses” Seth told me with great conviction, “Yah! I got a horse!” All the grandkids wanted to sleep with them that night. A huge success with the horses and a wonderful Christmas day overall!

Merry Christmas!

I had this really cute “Merry Christmas” post all planned out, which I would post Christmas morning. Well, December 29th is close, right? The holidays have been delightful—and busy—around here. And then, because they were so busy, afterwards I took a lazy vacation from all normal and structured activities. Instead I’ve been playing with the kids and new toys, reading, shopping after Christmas sales, not doing anything purposeful.

So, Merry Christmas to all (4 days late):

(Sam in blue, Seth in white)

And to all a good night…   Seth Sammy

Love, the Morris Family

Morris Christmas 2012

Between it being our “off” year with the Morris’ and Caleb and Levi’s basketball games, last weekend ended up being the best time for us to celebrate Morris Christmas. It turned out wonderfully because we were able to watch Caleb’s high school basketball game on Friday night, Levi’s middle school basketball tournament on Saturday, and then all be together for the rest of the weekend. And it even snowed, much to everyone’s excitement! Caleb taught Seth and Sam all about free throws this weekend. We’ve been doing lots of free throws in our house now. Levi and Ben have the same cool Nike jacket. I LOVE this picture; what perfect portrayal of a teenage boys’ reaction to his mom’s hugs. All those handsome Morris men So excited for the snow! (Sam) SOOOO cold from the snow (Seth) Nice outfit Nate!

We opened presents on Saturday evening. But not until after the traditional “kid” picture

And Grandparent picture

   And the reading of the Christmas storyI caught Seth doing his “tired hair twirling.” I love watching him do this!  Now…time for presents. We had the boys open their basketball shoes from us first. Sam promptly put his on and showed us how fast he could run. Traditional hugs…can you believe how old Caleb is? Twin hug for Uncle Nay Nay—the boys have grown quiet attached to Nate! Levi looks so handsome in the new jacket we got him! We all pitched in and bought Ben a new scope for his gun. He was so surprised and thrilled! Sammy and Grandma Sam and Seth opened up wooden blocks from Grandparents and Seth exclaimed, “It’s just what I needed!” I got the warmest, fluffiest blanket from the Morris’ (which Sam is now obsessed with)

Sam, Mama, Seth

Sam and Seth’s night ended with books read by aunt Holly. The rest of the family stayed up late playing Wits and Wagers and Apples to Apples. It was a wonderful Christmas evening. (And I haven’t even documented the fun in the snow the following day, but didn’t want to post too many pictures in one post!)