Izzy & Seth say "Merry Christmas!"

We are winding our way down on Izzy and Seth's first Christmas.  They really don't know this day is different than any other except for the extra attention they got with daddy at home and Poppi Breen, Uncle Kev and Uncle Drew visiting for the day plus the insistence their crazy parents had on getting pictures of them together in their Christmas shirts. The kiddos were visited by Grandma Rinehults on Christmas Eve and received some cool toys and clothes.  All in all it was a great first Christmas spent with people we love.

Am and I are going with the "crazy" concept of not giving the kiddos presents from us for Christmas.  Our plan is to use the Christmas season to teach them to bless others without the need to receive a ton of presents for themselves.  We want to try to use this as a way to further place the focus on it being Jesus's birthday and less on it being about us. This is a big stretch for me as I am naturally a gift giver and absolutely love that part of Christmas but we are going to try to redirect that passion of mine to reach out to others.  A lot of the inspiration comes from a blog that Am reads that is written by the author of One Thousand Gifts.  It is worth a read:  http://www.aholyexperience.com/2012/12/the-grateful-christmas-project-7-ways-to-have-more-grateful-kids-this-christmas/.  I am not sure how this will play out in the years to come but we are praying God will give us wisdom in developing kids that desire to use what they have been blessed with to bless those around them (both near and far).

We did manage to get the kids into their Christmas outfits and side-by-side without screaming.  They both have an amazing ability to sense when a camera is near and the smiles and laughs always seem to cease.  This really drives their photo-happy father nuts!  But they semi-cooperated below in a resigned effort to wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

Izzy Rolls Over Video

Let it be known that on this the 14th day of December at the age of 2 months and 23 days, Izzy Kate rolled over for the first time...twice!  This is one of those monumental moments where you can't help but rejoice despite the knowledge that your life is about to get a whole lot crazier!

Izzy & Seth at 2.5 Months

It has now been over a month since my last blog update.  It is amazing how easy it is to get out of the habit.  And once you miss a couple weeks, there is so much to update that it is easy to just continue to put it off longer and longer.

The kiddos have continued to grow well and now weigh in at over 10 pounds for Seth and over 8 pounds for Izzy.  Just in the past two weeks they have both hit the point where they smile and laugh often.  While it can be extremely stressful taking care of twins 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (and here I am talking about Am and Momma Breen as they are taking the brunt of it - I get work breaks and don't take as many night feedings), it is rewarding to see that we have two happy babies...most of the time.

We set out this weekend to take some Christmas pictures of the twinsies.  The plan was to put them both under the tree in their Christmas outfits.  Challenge #1 was finding a time when they were both awake and fed.  We finally accomplished that this evening.  Challenge #2 was getting them both under the tree while still smiling and happy (they don't particularly love being put down).  In that we were definitely not successful.  We got Seth under the tree without incident but when Izzy joined, she wailed...which made Seth wail.  We never recovered.

Fortunately we did get some trial shots of Izzy sporting some cool hats and we have some shots of Seth under the tree while waiting for Iz.  So operating under the belief that something is better than nothing, here you go:

Seth says "Merry Christmas everyone!"

Little Man posing in front of the Christmas Tree.

Our Christmas Angel.

Iz in her reindeer hat.

Little Miss Sunshine.

 Seth is in place waiting on Izzy.  So close...and yet so far away!