Children and God Children!

Tonight we had a great visit with Daneya and Ed and their crew, Connor, Ryan and Zachary! It was so nice to spend time with them! Thank you for coming by during your busy Thanksgiving trip!

Macaroni

The boys are talking a lot more and it is cute to hear them say certain things. For a while Olivier said "sanks you". This is a short video clip form lunch today of Olivier saying macaroni, then Mason and Olivier say happy birthday, then they say love you.



We love you Anna, Olivier and Mason!

Hats!

The boys got these hats for their birthday! Had to share the cute photos!

Rufus!

The kids love Rufus! He is so good with them and he loves that Anna is now very interested in brushing him. She is making sure he "pretty"!

Olivier was having fun following Rufus around and laying down next to him.
Anna was giving Rufus big hugs and wanted us to take a picture. She still can't figure out why he won't shake, sit or lay down when she asks.

Happy 2nd Birthday Olivier and Mason!

Today we celebrated Olivier and Mason's 2nd birthday! Wow! We now have little boys! We had a fireman themed birthday party. I was a little worried because when they woke up they were a bit grumpy but after breakfast they cheered up.

I got this photo of Olivier right after breakfast and he was already wearing his fireman's hat and you can see the "fire" decorations!

After they ate we gave them their gift. It was a bit too big to wrap so we had it set up in the play room and left the door closed. Matt was waiting for them to come in and got to catch their reaction as they saw their birthday gift from Dad and Mom. Lots of fun!


And it was played with by all the kids. Here was a "slow" moment when only Natalie, Audrey and Andy were playing in the playroom.

When the call went out for cake time, all the kids came running! :-) Wish it was always that easy to round them up! Here is a video that shows how excited they were, especially Olivier! Look at those grins!


And here are the birthday boys enjoying some yummy cake!

It didn't take long before they really got into it!

And here is the larger group with Ryan, Connor, Andy and Julie.

And most of the adults that were on hand to help the boys celebrate!
Audry was being very silly!

Natalie liked sitting with Anna and Lina. And of course they were wearing dresses!

Our nephew Eli! Do you think he liked the frosting?
Ryan and Connor! Cheese!
Grandma Arnold helped Mason open his gifts.
And Daddy was helping Olivier.

Thank you to everyone who helped us celebrate these amazing boys with us today!

Look it

Matt and Olivier were on the road for most of the day on Thursday. It went surprisingly well and at one point they stopped and Matt let Olivier run around a bit and he got this video of Olivier trying to get Matt to look at something. Who knows what though! Silly boy!

New cat bed

Merlin chose a new place to make into a cat bed, Anna's pillow. She was so excited but made sure to tell him that he can't stay there because that is were she sleeps. Always makes me giggle to hear her explain things to the animals!

No way!

A quick post on what the kids are up to in the last few days!

Mason - he is talking more and more. I think my favorite new thing that he says is "No way". He doesn't always answer no questions that way but when he does, I can't seem to stop myself from repeating it. He likes to sit in the kitchen and watch us make dinner.

Olivier - he is now able to climb into his crib at bed time and thinks it is the best thing. He has started saying "Love you" which just melts your heart. When you ask him for a kiss he almost always gives you one and a hug too if you are lucky!

Anna - she loves her new preschool! She has been full of songs and made me worry for a few minutes when she talked about seeing dead animals on the walk they took. Matt filled in the needed detail that they went to see "stuffed" animals on display in the biology building. Whew!

And the count down is on! The boys turn two on Saturday!