Houston's Children's Museum

The last weekend of March, we drove to Houston to spend some time with our friends The Laus. We spent one day at the newly re-done Childrens' Museum. They have a WHOLE floor just for toddlers! The kids had so much fun, especially when it came to sitting in the car. Once they found the car we couldn't get them away from it. When we finally did get them away from the car we discovered FlowWorks! FlowWorks is a huge outside water learning/play area. It was chilly, threatening to rain, the kids were soaked and they absolutely loved it! Here are some pictures from that day.

Sam and Charis Lau (they also had do-it-yourself face paint)

Firsts

Their First Dance

and

wait

for

it. . .

Their First Kiss!

First Haircut

On February 28, we took the twins in for their very first haircut. Luckily for both, they have not completely taken after Madelyn, who did not get her first haircut until she was almost 3 years old. We were told by several people that for the 1st hair cut we needed to suck it up and pay the outrageous price for a kid friendly place and boy did we, pay that is. We took them to Cool Kutz, which had a nice play area and cool cars to sit in and videos to watch. I don’t know if that was worth a total of $50.00 but oh well. After asking several moms of multiples we decided to have someone else join us for pictures so that we could each comfort/console as needed in case they both freaked out. Our wonderful friend Jessica met us there and took pictures and video. As you can see the kids were not happy about the experience, I’ve never seen Dylan that tense, but no major melt downs. Kiera was very scared at first but the more the lady combed her hair the more she relaxed and was even able to somewhat enjoy it. We got close to Dylan enjoying (maybe too strong of a word there) it until the lady brought out. . . the clippers! That is when he REALLY wanted out of that chair no matter what was on TV or what pacifier was in his mouth he just wanted O – U - T! The only way he would stay in the seat was to hug Mama and she would hold his head still for the dreaded clippers. Over all they both did REALLY well. They constantly amaze us on how well they do in strange/scary situations. Here are some pictures of the experience.

Suuuuper Dylan!!

Dylan has 2 new outfits he loves to wear. Here are some fun and absolutely adorable pictures of Dylan being a super hero and saving the world, even in our backyard. We couldn't let Kiera get all the spot light from the last post.

Even super heroes need a milk break

Cute Video

Four 1 1/2 year old friends laughing.

Kiera and "Mama"

Kiera loves to call Todd, "Mama". She'll walk up to him and call him "Mama" and laugh. The more he corrects her, the more she laughs. If we randomly say "Dad", "Dadda", "Daddy" or any variation she might latch on to, she immediately says "Mama", so we know that she's relating the two and isn't just using "Mama" as a term for both parents. Also, if Madelyn tells her to take something to Dad, then she does. Again, she knows what she's doing. Then what's even funnier is that she'll walk up to him with a book, turn her head to the side in that oh-so-cute way, smile really big and say "Dadda" to get him to read to her. She's already using charm to get what she wants!!

Who is who?

Several months ago Dylan started smiling with what Todd and I could only describe as a 'flat grin'. It is so cute but we could never figure out where it came from. One night while we were putting Christmas decorations up, I discovered this picture and at first glimpse I thought it was Dylan and had to take a double look because something was not right. Well I figured out what wasn't right, the picture was of Todd when he was 2 1/2 years old. It is that same smile! We have never been able to get a good picture of Dylan's 'flat grin' but this is as good as we could get. You may not see it but to me these pictures look very similar. I love my boys!

Dylan August 2008

Todd August 1978

Christmas Travels

Here are some pictures of our Christmas trips to Livingston (Todd's hometown) and Bella Vista, AR (Madelyn's grandparents).

In Livingston to visit Todd's family

Dylan enjoyed opening the gifts

With Great Grandfather Derrel



A family White Elephant exchange that went wrong (Craig got a leopard print wallet)!

In Arkansas to visit Madelyn's grandparents

Great Grandpa Bud reading to the twins

Dylan would open the tin, take the paper out, replace the paper and the lid and clap for himself. However, he wouldn't clap for himself if he left the paper out!

Cuteness!

Dylan got comfortable watching television

We stopped at the "4 Star Diner" in Roland, Oklahoma. It presumably gained its name through some sort of an ironic twist, like a fat guy named, Slim. It looked pretty bad, but we didn't want any more fast food, so we stopped. Surprisingly, it was much cleaner on the inside than we expected. Once inside, we had a blast. We've seen the twins share things before, but this was a first. Kiera started feeding her food to Dylan. She'd stick her hand up there with food, and he'd lean in and take a bite. He was distracted and watching some other people at one point and she even tapped him on the shoulder to get him to turn around so she could give him more food!

The 4 Star Diner

Santa Picture

They both were scared, as you can see. But NO crying!