Fun Weekend with Santa and Trains!

As of lately, things have been a little topsy turvy around here. Two weeks ago, Neal's poor dad fell and broke his back the day of his arrival. He's been in the Hospital and then a rehab center ever since. It was very sad and we hope that he gets better soon. And because Neal was at the hospital so much on his vacation :(, we had to change up our schedule too due to some vehicle arrangements. Then, of course, it was Thanksgiving! The holidays were good to us, but unfortunately it was just Granddad, GG, the boys, A-Lo and me. We were missing some key players so it felt a bit empty. Oh well. Not much happened besides the yumminess of it all, but it was good to dedicate a day to thanks.

So, this weekend seemed like the first time in a while that things seemed to be back to normal. And thankfully, my friend Sheryl from KVIL, invited me and the fam to have breakfast with Santa and ride the North Pole Express. That was a big...DUH! We were so excited and with Neal out of town and sick (bad combo, poor thing) Granddad and GG filled in with enthusiasm.

It was so much fun, and with the boys' recent fascination of trains (anything basically that moves is awesome in their book) it was great timing.

Here we are at the breakfast prior to santa's arrival. Great pic of the grandparents with the buds. At the table behind us was another set of 5 year old twin boys. And then there were also a set of twin gals...all fraternals oddly enough! We just can't seem to shake twins! They're everywhere these days.

After the breakfast, we were ushered off to the pre-North Pole Express show. This was basically a warm up Christmas singing goof led by an obnoxious comedian wanna-be and his adorable little back up dancers. Jake wanted nothing to do with it for the most part, but Jonah was into the show!

Adorable little back up dancers.

Here we are getting on the train! It was really old but super cute...kind of like a rideable antique!

Me and the boys before the train was in motion. Oddly enough, the boys were very sweet and almost quiet on the train.

And just as we got started...we were joined by a surprise visitor!

Surprise Santa!

Sweet photos.

Sweet Jakie

Precious Jonah

The rest of the weekend was pretty great too. The boys had a great dinner later this evening with the grandparents. They even got excited about going to the church nursery. And yesterday afternoon, we made some homemade playdough. That proved both messy and a good filler of about 30 minutes, which in toddler time is awesome.

Good weekend!

First Hair Cuts, First Road Trip and First Wedding!

After I fiiinally convinced Neal that I could not and will not cut the boys hair anymore and subject them to further scrutiny, we got our hair cuts by a professional!

The girl was great, very patient with suckers on standby and a cute little beany cow to moo away the tears. The boys weren't as receptive to it as I had hoped. So, they sat on my lap. I didn't mind having a front row seat to this first haircut. Jonah was first up! He was all about the sucker, and the cow wasn't too shabby either. So, it went ok. And like everything, the further into it we got the more his fears subdued.

Hold still Jojo!

Seriously thankful for that sucker.

Coooolllll! I think he knew how awesome he looked. He was workin the new do.

Jacob was even more skiddish than his bro, which I thought was interesting since he seemed to watch the who show on his dad's lap. I figured he would be ready to go after seeing Jojo was ok. Nope! He took a little longer because he was veeery reluctant to turn his head...could have made for a very odd cut.

I'm so lucky Jakey loves his mama.

Sweet do Jake! He was workin it as well. Couple of future heart breakers on my hands.

A few days later, we were off to our first wedding. I was honestly genuinely surprised when the bride asked if the twins could be the ring bearers. I thought she was crazy...two rambunctious 20m old toddlers at a wedding ceremony!?? But I agreed...even though they had to wear hunter camo jackets. Noooot my cup of tea, but hey, what the bride wants...

The boys did ok during the 3+ hour car ride out there. Luckily, my whole family (minus daddy, he was working) went along. So, it was a family affair. The guys did better than expected at the hotel. I was surprised how easily they went to sleep in a foreign room and foreign beds. But, the excitement of it all probably just wore them out! Although, I will tell you that Jojo woke Aunt Lo and mom up the day after the wedding b-e-f-o-r-e 6AM. You're lucky we love you so much buddy! And he had a total melt down on the way home, but thankfully, Granddad was there to calm my nerves. Phew!

All in all, a pretty good wedding experience for being so young. I was exhausted at the end of the evening because I literally ran around all night chasing them in 3 inch heels....ouch! And, I thought it was hilarious at the end of the night the wedding coordinator told me they were so well behaved for their age. HA! She obviously wasn't paying any attention to them. (which was good!)

Mom & Jonah walking down the aisle.

Aunt Lo and Jake

I kept reminding Jake that he already had a girlfriend (one of the Murray twins) but he was in LOVE with the flower girl, Zoe. She was a sweet heart and Jake just kept saying her name over and over...Hi Zoe, Hi Zoe, Bye Zoe and again and again. Yes, I'm gonna have to watch out for this little flirt!

Mom & Jonah

Jake decided to yank Aunt Lo's hair...stinker!

Too many cute photos

My boys were the cutest astronauts ever! I was so glad I found these costumes. They fit them perfectly and you could tell they loved wearing them. I think we may just have to find a reason to play with them again sometime in the near future.

Friday mom and I took the boys to a PAMOM costume party at the mall. Wheee! Lots of twins and triplets all dressed up in their cute outfits.

We started out in the play area, then had a parade and then stopped for cute photo ops.

Jojo looks like such a big boy here.

The boys with one of the Melker Triplets.

Busy boys.

Then, of course it was lunch time!

"GG, it's time to put the camera d-o-w-n."

So...a couple of weeks ago, I turned another year older. See my excitement:

Anyway, the boys threw me a lil surprise party with my fav Italian take-out. As you can see, Jake liked the pizza.

And Jojo was all over the chicken parm. Yum!

Party Jakie!

And Jonah is clearly in party mode (yes, that glass is empty).

After all the sickness and the rain, we FINALLY made it to the Pumpkin Patch. It was a soggy mess and there were hardly any pumpkins left, but we managed to try to have a good time. Jonah tried to pick up the pumpkins, not sure why but I guess it was just something to do.

Jake wants to push his wagon everywhere. I don't know why but he throws a fit if he's not pushing it around. Stinker

Daddy 'n boys.

Cuties.

Mommy n boys.