Christmas in Wichita Pictures

On Christmas Eve, Grandma Ruth came over.  We got out the puzzle the girls had gotten from Granny and Grandpa Vogts. 

Kayla, Grandma, Megan

We had a peaceful evening together, until I tried to drive Grandma Ruth home. I thought it was too windy and snowy for her to walk through the yards. Little did I realize how big of a snow drift there was right in front of our driveway! We got stuck when we backed into it. We later learned there was a sheet of ice beneath it, so we were doomed from the start. Luckily, with a great deal of effort and the help of a kind neighbor, we got back into the garage and our neighbor drove mom home. (Thanks, Ian!)

If only Santa had come earlier, I'm sure the girls would have been happy to drive Grandma Ruth home in their car!

Megan

Kayla

The don't quite have the hang of it yet, but the did enjoy it when daddy helped them around the living room!  At the end, Megan did push herself backwards a little, so with a little more practice, they'll be driving like race car drivers!

Santa also brought them a "Choo Choo Wagon".  No longer in production, these wagons are treasured among parents of multiples.  When you have a double stroller, the kids are seated close together -- and the one in back inevitably begins kicking the one in front.  And grabbing bows out of her hair, in our case.  If you use a side by side stroller, you take up entirely too much of a walkway.  Put them in a big wagon, and you still have a shared space. 

Megan and Kayla

But with this wagon, each one has their own car (with seatbelt)! Each one can see more easily than in the stroller, too! Great for trips around the neighborhood or the zoo! But now I'm turning into a commercial for a product you can no longer find except on ebay and other used merchandise outlets!  It won't replace the stroller, but we're looking forward to using it this summer and taking them on their first trip to the zoo.

The girls did get the hang of unwrapping presents!  Aunt Karen, Uncle Carl and Cousin Nathan used pink and purple dotted paper - in keeping with our pink/purple theme for the girls. Kayla tore right into it!  No stopping them now!

Kayla

Later in the day, we changed into clothes -- and Aunt Karen loaned Megan her Santa hat.  Megan found a Wii remote, and was ready to play!

Megan

Uncle Carl loaned his Santa hat to Kayla, who had found another Wii remote to play with, and they sat with Grandma Ruth!  But getting all three to smile and pose at the same time proved to be a challenge, so I picked one where the girls were closest to ready.  Sorry, Grandma!

Megan, Grandma, Kayla

Cousin Nathan played the Wii, while Kayla just thought she was helping...or was she?

Mike, Nathan, Kayla

Uncle Carl and Megan had a nice talk.  We're not sure anyone understood what Megan was saying, but she was definitely engaged in the exchange and enjoying the conversation.

Megan and Uncle Carl

And finally, the girls proved the age-old fact, that kids like the box best of all.

Kayla, Megan

Merry Christmas!

Christmas in Canton in Pictures

It's always fun at Christmas time, to go to Mike's parents' house in Canton for our family celebration. It's even more fun now that all the kids are old enough to participate!

We shared a few videos in earlier posts, but a picture brings back memories in a whole different way.

The girls were wearing their pink and purple Christmas dresses to Granny and Grandpa's house.

Kayla

Megan

The girls couldn't wait to get in Granny's lap for her to read to them.

Megan, Granny, Kayla

Megan and Kayla both got pink KU Jayhawk caps for Christmas -- and even figured out how to put them on themselves, for the most part!

Granny and Kayla

Megan

Kayla wasted no time occupying herself with a puzzle Granny and Grandpa had given them.  She'd lost one of her slippers by then, though--but it didnt slow her down one bit!

 

Kayla

Jalen decided Great Grandma Vogts should hold all his presents, and nearly buried her in her chair!

Jalen, Great Grandma Vogts

Grandpa helped Jalen and Kayla with a little snack.

Jalen, Grandpa, Kayla

I think everyone enjoyed the evening.  While everyone appreciated the presents, the fun was definitely in the company and watching the cousins and grandparents interact.  When all four cousins were lined up on the couch, it was a wiggly giggly time for the girls, and the boys were an encouraging audience.  Maybe next year the twins will be as good at sitting still for a picture as the boys!

Canton Cousins Picture

Taking the annual cousins picture in Canton...

Christmas in Canton 2009

Christmas in Canton

2008 vs 2009 - The Cousins

Christmas 2008
Kayla, Megan, Jordan, Jalen


Christmas 2009
Kayla, Megan, Jalen, Jordan

Christmas Morning

Christmas Morning with the twins!



The Choo Choo Wagon!

Twin Challenge

Can you tell who I am?









Now can you tell who I am?








What if I show you my sister?






I bet if you see us both together you can tell!



It's Megan on the left, and Kayla on the right!

The Twins That Stole Christmas

Last night, we enjoyed an evening with Mike's parents, Grandmother, and sister Linda's family. (We'll share more in a later post.)

The cousins were all playing with a play nativity set throughout the night. Evidentally, when we were packing things up, the girls decided to continue their play at home. We're sorry, Granny!

They stole Joseph and the cow.

Scenes in a life

For whatever reason, we seem to have a lot of random, girls doing something silly pictures saved up on the camera from the past month or so.



Not a whole lot going on recently, we're sort of just in a holding pattern waiting for the holidays. Had Thanksgiving of course, though I was stuck in town, due to being on call for work. Nice dinner with Ruth that day though, and some relaxing.



Girls have been doing good, though all of us have been sort of bouncing between sick and well since the first of November. Girls have both had bouts of pink-eye, or pink-eye type symptoms anyway, as well as the typical colds/runny noses.



Girls continue to be very active and inquisitive, of course. We still have them corralled in the living room for the most part, but this may soon have to end. They're definitely not happy to be left there most of the time, and are always happy to be allowed to explore other areas of the house. We still have to go to the "No No" once in a while, as seen with the chair, and also when getting up on the fireplace ledge, but it seems like this has been less frequent lately. Perhaps they're just instinctively being good for Christmas.



Learning continues as a frantic pace as well. Girls know what's going on when told it's time to get something to eat for supper, get nightly bottles, change diapers, and go to bed. Ironically they're always eager to walk down to their rooms at night when told it's bed time, only to be shocked and saddened when we put them in their crib. I suppose at some point they start running the other way when told it's bedtime though, so we should enjoy it while it lasts.


Girls have also learned to give hugs and kisses to each other, as well to mommy and daddy as well. Megan, as always, loves to be held at almost every opportunity, but lately has taken to reaching her arms up almost to the point of dislocation, whenever someone gets within 10 feet of her. Of course we cannot resist.



That's all for now, see you later!

This Is How We Roll

Saturday, the girls and I went back to the craft show -- this time, with my mother. We had a good time! Mom made it out without buying anything, but we enjoyed the afternoon with the girls.


That's Kayla in front, taking off the last shoe. Neither of the girls wanted to wear their shoes, but Megan won the shoes-off race today. I was able to sneak their bows onto their heads. They lasted for the whole time at the craft show. Amazing!


(My mom likes to push the stroller, I don't make her do it.)
We still dress them alike at times -- but the preferred style is matching pink and purple. Here they're in their matching jackets, getting ready to leave.

Underneath those jackets, they were matching little Jayhawk cheerleaders. Cheerleaders that refused to leave their bows in their hair!
Daddy took some pictures before we left the house.


They just don't pose like they used to! They're a lot quicker these days.


If you look closely, one pink bow and one white bow -- Megan stole them both and took off. Kayla wasn't happy about it!


Sometimes the girls try to put them back in their hair, as Kayla demonostrates for us.

Before we go, Megan starts reading a book to Kayla.


But Kayla wanted to finish reading it on her own, right side up.

It was a busy holiday weekend, but we all enjoyed it!

A Big Day

Today I went to a craft show with my friend Tricia and her mother in law, Julie. We had a fabulous time! I can't talk about what I purchased, because I shopped for Christmas gifts!

After the show, we went to lunch at Chili's. The girls had taken a nap that morning, but I woke them up to go shopping. By the time we got to lunch, it was about time for their afternoon nap. They're never good at napping in the afternoon, but maybe today they would have been.

Kayla tried to nap, on the table at Chili's.


That was my cue to take them home. They snoozed on the way home, and then had a second wind. If only we could've harnessed that energy -- we could have powered a small town for weeks!

Kayla And Megan Go To Work

Last month, I took Kayla and Megan to visit friends at my old office.

Kayla wasted no time in her attempt to take over. Her winning smile made it easy and she would have gotten away with it, but she couldn't reach the desk.


Megan made her move, and sat up tall, to avoid Kayla's mistake in her takeover attempt. But Dick was taller, so he maintained control.


Better luck next time, Girls!

Kayla's Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day

You know our girls -- if one does it, the other one either has already done, is about to do it, or is thinking about doing it!

Well, Kayla couldn't let Megan be the only one with pink eye! Yes, we thought Megan only had an infected tear duct. Now that Kayla came down with it -- in both eyes -- we're wondering what she really had. No one else around us or at daycare has had it. Odd!

But being the super parents* that we are, we learned from our experience with Megan -- and at the first sign of it, started treating Kayla. (*Mark this day on the calendar -- it's not often I feel we're ahead of the game!) So Kayla didn't get nearly as bad as Megan. (And of course, didn't have the rug-burned nose that completed the image.)

This is as bad as it got -- which wasn't bad at all by comparison*, but still, wasn't fun for poor little Kayla! She only showed symptoms one day. In the morning, her eyes were clear and not crusty. (*of course we don't compare our girls, you must have misread something....)

Megan's Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Week

A quick explanation of the above picture. Tuesday I believe I was watching the girls in the living room when Megan, playing like normal, took a tumble over one of the ride 'em horses. Looked pretty much like a normal fall, little bit of crying, but upon closer inspection we noticed her nose was a little red. Rug burn, which you can see in the picture.

Wednesday Jenn took the girls to daycare, but mid morning gets a call saying that Megan's eye is swelling. She takes Megan to the doctor, and the diagnosis is pink-eye (though no one else at the house or at day care had/got it, in retrospect we wonder if it wasn't just a clogged tear duct or a reaction to something in her eye). Doctor gives us some antibiotics and eye drops, and since at the time we think it's pink eye she can't go back to daycare, Ruth comes over for some middle inning relief help. I get home that night and find this sitting on Grandma's lap, happy as can be. Apparently it was much worse when she woke up from a nap earlier, almost completely swollen/crusted shut.

She's doing much better now though, eye's not swelling/crusting shut anymore, almost back to normal. Still, I couldn't resist the picture. Poor thing.

Aside from that little adventure things have been well. Girls are finally over their extended colds/flu's/etc. Jenn tried to get a picture of them in cute outfits the other day:



She took at least a dozen shots, and this was about the best one. Sometimes it just doesn't work out with twins.

Girls are really starting to test their independence, Kayla more so than Megan though, who still likes to sit on a lap drinking her morning sippie. Kayla also likes to test us, climbing up on the fireplace ledge and pulling back the "fence" protecting the TV, just to see what we'll do. "No" still seems to translate into "Aren't you clever for playing this enjoyable and entertaining game with me!" for her. Kayla is also into climbing things as well, to the point where she will try to stand on toys to gain height to reach something else, whether it's the chair daddy is sitting in, or the coffee table like she did this morning. For a while there it looked like Megan was going to be the adventurous one, but lately they seemingly have traded personalities. Or perhaps we just got them mixed up and don't realize it.



We like to "play rough" as well. Occasionally we'll get reports of the girls getting after each other from daycare, and especially in the evening after supper, they tend to like to run around, tackle each other, roll around on a blanket/pillows on the living room floor, etc.



TV is also starting to become something more than the weird noise maker in the corner. Wiggles and Yo Gabba Gabba are favorites, and here we see Kayla at the end of a spirited dance. The downside: No more Firday the 13th marathons. The upside: I may yet reach my goal of teaching them the difference between man-to-man and zone defense before the age of 3.

And finally we see a common site, both girls plotting against us.