Ball Pit Fun

Auntie Nicole gave the boys an inflatable ball pit for their birthday. It only came with 30 balls, so we have been waiting for today when 200 more showed up in the mail! Even with only 30 balls, at times we thought that we may have to let Andrew sleep and eat in the pit. Now, with 230, it is even more fun! Here is a video only a few minutes after the initial dumping of 200 more balls. 

Andrew is in the light grey, Patrick the dark grey

First Birthday

There is so much emotion involved with your babies turning one. Already, only a year later, you start to forget so much of what has happened. My clearest memories are of these past few months as they have learned to crawl and walk, which have definitely been some of the most rewarding moments.  At the same time it makes me so sad that memories escape me. I wish I could hold on to this first year forever.

With that said, I don't think it is possible for a parent to ever put into words properly the joys of seeing your children discover and explore the world. Sometimes it's hard seeing your children throw a tantrum, or cry because they bumped their head, but even those moments have their own reward as you see them learn from mistakes and figure out their boundaries. I am so excited for what this next year will bring. I just think it might take me another month to process the fact that my children are in fact one year old going on two years old.

Here are a ton of pictures from their 1st birthday party!

The setup (thanks to Nicole for doing almost all of the cooking!)

Yay presents! (Andrew)

Patrick, left; Andrew, right

Auntie Nicole, and their Great Grandma (GG) waving in the background

Yay drumsticks.

I said, I wonder how long it will take them to break this...I guess the answer was 10 minutes.

Look at me! I can stand on a box! (Patrick)

Blowing out the candles!

Andrew, left; Patrick, right

Andrew

Patrick

A picture with GG. Andrew hadn't made it back into clothes after cake yet.

We love MegaBlocks!! (Andrew)

The morning after the party, and they are obsessed with their new ball pit!

Patrick

Andrew, left; Patrick, right

Photo Montage (for Nancy)

A little birdie told me that a person I happen to know named Nancy has been disappointed with my lack of recent pictures. Therefore, this post is specifically for Nancy. Here are a bunch of pictures from the last month!

First attempt at playing in real snow, not a success. Andrew, left; Patrick, right

Our first fort! Could barely sit still with excitement.

Andrew 

Patrick making his cheese face

I love my mommy's homemade sweet potato fries!

Patrick, left; Andrew, right

I see you Patrick!

Daddy's glove is a little too big for me!

Look at how huge this glove is dad!

Patrick discovered daddy's shoes are a little too big too.

Andrew wanted to return the shoes to daddy.

Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year! I hope that 2013 will be as wonderful for everyone as our 2012 has been for our family! 

Lately, Andrew and Patrick have decided to go down to a single nap each day. I thought I had at least another month until this happened, but I am going with it. The beauty of it, is that they play so well now, and are much less demanding. It gives me an opportunity to make their breakfast, or lunch, or bottles, after they are already awake and moving around. It used to be that they pretty much needed something the instant they woke up, but now they happily continue playing while I can prepare food or drinks.

I also will gladly have them go down to one nap, because it puts an end to small half hour naps! They finally are going down for at least an hour again, and it was almost two hours yesterday for Andrew! Yippee! Time to actually accomplish things around the house! 

They are more fun than ever to get to watch too, so enjoy this clip of our little men really starting to walk!

Disclaimer: No babies were injured in the making of this video. You may cringe at one point, but I promise Patrick is not injured. Patrick is in the "Bear bottom" or red pjs and Andrew is in the "Moose Caboose" or brown pjs.