the christmas tree hunt of 2010

bill, charlie and I set off on yesterday morning to find our christmas tree for 2010 from enzenauer evergreens. there are not any good cut-your-own christmas tree options near rochester and so we drive north and get a little bit more of a cut-your-own experience (still much different from what I remember doing as a child). 

father and son ready to find the tree. it was so sunny!

we were trying to find another fraiser fir tree because they hold their needles longer than most trees, but the choices at enzenauer were slim so we decided to hunt around. here is a tree that will probably never find a home…

charlie had to spend a lot of time on bill’s shoulders because he saw a tractor on his way in and only wanted to get back to the tractor. he kept repeating “ta too…ta too”.

we settled on this tree…a blue spruce. before we left I mentioned to bill that we should pick a smaller tree this year so our living room would feel spacious…guess what that didn’t happen. it is amazing how “small” the trees seem when you are outside and then once they enter your living room you realize how massive it is. the other thing we really didn’t know at the time about blue spruce trees is they are really SHARP! their needles have microscopic needles on the end with a bit of poison in them that leave your skin itchy and stinging for awhile after they poked you. bill and I discovered this after we were hauling this super heavy tree across the field (with bill having charlie on his shoulders and me holding onto lily and the saw) while the needles were poking into our legs. I wish someone had been there to take a picture of us.

charlie, lily and I posing with our tree.

charlie’s face was freezing so I wrapped my scarf around his face while he watched bill cut down the tree.

way to go bill!

we made it back to the main farm with the tree and charlie finally got to go on a tractor ride. he wouldn’t even look at the camera while on the ride because he was starring at the tractor the whole time.

my mom used to always pack hot chocolate along after we would get the tree. so this year we enjoyed some hot chocolate and marshmallows in the car before leaving. here is charlie showing me his marshmallows.

sipping some hot chocolate. this kid loves this stuff!

now for the best part of the day. on the way to the tree farm we saw a ton of tractors and farm equipment on the side of hwy 52 and we determined there might be a farm auction or something going on. we decided to check it out on the way home and thought charlie would love it. we were right! he was so stunned. we definitely stuck out…I was the only girl I saw there and we were the only ones not dressed in carhartts.

sitting on the smallest tractor there.

pointing at another tractor! “ta too! ta too!”

sitting in the cab of one of many tractors, combines, etc. bill said the smell in these cabs was a combo of “body odor, sweat, mountain dew, cigarettes”…mmm. every machine was running. the smell of diesel was totally overwhelming by the end.

then we arrived home and starting the process of getting the tree inside. here is charlie helping move around the tree stand.

we got the tree up while charlie was still awake and then while he was down for nap we put up the lights and ornaments. when he woke up from nap he was in awe of the tree. he kept saying “da da tree” (ie: christmas tree) over and over. the BEST thing about the blue spruce is that it is so sharp charlie won’t get near the tree or the ornaments. he stays at a perfect distance and points to all of the ornaments. he also says “wphout” (almost sounds like hot) with hand signals that start with his hands out in front of him and then fling backwards while saying “wphout”. it is so funny!

pointing at more ornaments.

reading christmas stories with dad.

charlie’s nativity scene set up. I have already heard and sung “away in the manger” 1 billion times, but it is so sweet to hear charlie humming it. I love having the house decorated and listening to christmas music. our big take away this year is:  when you have young kids buy the blue spruce so they keep their mits off the tree!

random pictures from november

charlie found my dad’s reading glasses and loved putting them on.

my parents came and watched charlie while bill and I went to florida for a few days (bill had a conference for 2 days so it was a quick trip!). we celebrated my dad’s birthday a few days early and charlie was “smiling” while giving my dad his card. how nice of him.

charlie tried on his colehaan super soft loafers that unkie jonathan gave him when he was born to see if they fit yet…we are almost there. these pictures were so cute of him checking out his closet in his diapers and loafers.

it has gotten cold here in rochester, but sadly we have not had any snow (just nasty cold rain). we had a bit of sun come out on saturday so we bundled up charlie in some of his winter gear and went outside. he did not know what to think of his gloves. he kept looking at his hands, but could not figure out how to use them. the best part was since he couldn’t figure out how to use his hands he couldn’t figure out how to get his gloves off so even though he was frustrated by his gloves at least his hands were warm.

charlie…looking at us like we are crazy when we tell him he can try to grab things with the gloves on.

now that charlie’s hair is growing he is having some serious bedhead issues after nap. love it!

19 weeks

we had another great ultrasound this morning, which is such answered prayer! the girls are growing evenly, their fluid levels are equal and their anatomy looks perfect. all such blessings from our Lord. I was so delighted that the girls looked good (I was quite nervous for this appointment) I really didn’t get too many stats on the girls from the ultrasound tech (who was my favorite – yeah for fast, good, and friendly sonographers!).

here is what I remember….the girls weigh about 8 ounces and measure about 18 weeks and 5/6 days (which means they are basically 19 weeks).

the pictures are getting harder to get because they are moving and bumping into each other a lot. baby B is basically laying across baby A, but we did get a few profile shots of baby A, which is a first.

Baby A’s profile. what I like about this shot is that you can see baby B’s belly is coming into the picture (upper right corner) and baby A’s arm is blocking her face. I think she will spend a lot of her time inside with her hands protecting her face.

here is another shot of baby A with her hand near her mouth.

baby A’s sweet feet pushed together.

baby b’s face (straight on). what is funny is I think these pictures are scary looking, but the sonographer’s always say “oh cute…baby B’s face…” and I think “cute? seems alienish to me!”

this is a family picture from before bill and I went to our last ENT interview dinner for this year tonight (a HUGE thanks to laura who has come down to watch charlie for all the OB appointments and ENT dinners). 

what is a family picture without “yiyi”. love charlie’s fake smile in this one.

me at 19 weeks….this is from after our dinner tonight so it shows the belly. in the morning, most of the belly has sunk back into my deep deep pelvis until mid-day when it decides to start falling out again (which I prefer because it gives my guts some relief!).

how many times...

can you get gastroenteritis while pregnant? the answer for me is currently 4! i had it once while pregnant with charlie and in these short 18 weeks of carrying these girls i have had it 3 times!

the first time i was about 7 weeks pregnant (no clue i was having twins) and was staying in hudson over labor day weekend and was out of commission for 2 days.

the second time (the worst) i was about 13 weeks pregnant and with in 5 hours had lost every bit of fluid in my body and couldn't keep anything down. so i went into labor triage to have iv fluids so i could recover.

the third time, was yesterday morning, the morning bill and i were flying to florida for an ENT conference. charlie was sick with a stomach bug on thursday and i thought bill and i were in the clear....not so fast. i went to bed feeling sick (thought i ate too much pizza) and was up at 1 am puking. bill and i were both up at 4:30am to get ready to leave to catch our flight to florida and both were sick. as we were getting in the car, i ran back inside for one more puke session. then we prayed i would be able to keep fluids down so i could go on the trip. thankfully, my parents came and were staying with charlie because if he was supposed to go on this trip i would not have made it. by the grace of God, we didn't have any airplane accidents and got to our destination in tact. glad i have 2 days to relax here before going back on a plane.

i am hoping that was the last bug i have to deal with for this pregnancy.

17 weeks

i am 17 weeks and can't believe i am almost half way done with this pregnancy. since i will most likely carry these girls until 36 weeks my half way point is next week. i have a lot of growing yet to do!

thankfully my crazy pregnancy cravings have died off, but we are definitely eating out way more than normal.

we are having 2.....

GIRLS!!!! we had another ultrasound this morning and found out we are having girls! they looked great and their fluid levels were perfect. our doctor said we didn't have to have the entire growth ultrasound as long as they looked good so that was nice. instead our ultrasound tech just checked out the babies and it was so reassuring when she would check out different parts and say they look perfect. praise God! i will be 17 weeks on sunday and my next appointment will be in about 2 1/2 weeks.

it is so hard to get a profile shot of baby a so instead we have a picture of her feet.

baby b is easy to photograph so here is her profile.

our little giraffe

for halloween we went to a friends house to hang out. charlie and addison were the only kids there and they were a cute pair. sadly, we didn’t get that many pictures of charlie actually in his costume because midway through the night bill kept mentioning that his costume smelled musty. i didn’t think anything of it until he said it for the 4th time and I said did you check to see if he pooped? well that was it! needless to say, charlie went into his pjs for the rest of the night.

on the way to the party I heard charlie saying “hi” to something. I looked back and he was saying “hi” over and over to his head of his giraffe.

a picture from when he first got the costume from nana.

I loved it from behind.

charlie and addison playing after ingesting lots of kit kats, puppy chow, candy corn, you name it. they both were up until about 10ish and did great.

me and nicole consoling our children after they collided while running in circles. I am surprised it didn’t happen a few times that night.

more favorites

charlie is all boy. he does not do anything quietly or gently. he is really enjoying rocking his giraffe, which he no longer rocks gently. as you can see he prefers extreme rocking. fyi - he doesn't have pants on because it was almost bath time.

extreme rocking take 1. i wanted to record his extreme moves before bill got home.


extreme rocking take 2. thankfully, bill showed up to witness it for himself and help spot our adventurous child.

get ready to laugh

this is currently one of charlie’s favorite activities. he/we stack up the cups and he runs into them with his lawn mower. however, he does not always hit them square on and this video catches that. i laugh so hard every time i watch it and i hope you do too.