Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all of our friends, family, and loved ones!
We have lots of pictures to share, but for now, enjoy our wishes for Christmas cheer.

The Story of Our Tree

Here's a little message from Mommy:

As the past year has been exceedingly difficult for our family (headache surgery, near-death pregnancy, seizure for Elyse, tree through our kitchen, etc, etc), I have been especially nostalgic and thankful this Christmas. Our little family has been through the ringer (or so it seems), and yet we have so many wonderful things to be thankful for, not the least of which is Charity's healthy arrival into the world.

While decorating the tree, I found myself sweetly reminiscing about all of the wonderful memories we've made over the years and realized that our tree tells a pretty great story of a blessed family. This was particularly surprising to me as I privilege ornaments that go with our gingerbread/candy cane theme over ornaments that have sentimental value. I know, I know; how awful is that? But really, I like a tree that has a theme and there isn't going to be any changing that. Thankfully, I have relatives that respect my Christmas-tree-theme-angst and gift me both meaningful, theme-oriented (or at least coordinating) ornaments.W ithout further adieu, I give you

The Story of Our Tree

Once upon a time there was a little girl who loved to play with dolls and stuffed animals. She had names for every single one of them and took their care very seriously. One day, she'd grow up to have little girls of her own who would treasure their dolls and bears in the same, sweetly imaginative way. She will try to never forget how to have fun playing like when she was little.

The little girl also loved to read and as she grew up, she went to school for many years to read, and read, and read. She loved books so much, she taught others how to discover them, love them, and learn what the Library of Congress also knew to be true: that books are "the delight of the soul."

While she was at school, reading more and more, she met a nice young man who convinced her that she should definitely trust him, because after all, he was going to be a lawyer.

Not only did the girl trust him, but she fell in love with him...those sneaky lawyer-types. They were married and spent their first Christmas together at a BIG football game. Oh the romance!Mr. lawyer and the girl moved to Denver where he worked very hard in his first official lawyer job. Little did they know that after 9 long, bed-ridden months later, they would be blessed with not one,

but TWO bundles of joy. This caused their lives to be filled to the brim with equal parts of love and insanity.

And if their lives were not already taking a particularly speedy turn with chasing after little ones, Mr. Lawyer got a job in Washington DC. The girl thought it wasn't such a terrible idea because if the city was good enough for George and Martha, it is good enough for them.

The happy little family enjoyed frolicking in the big city. Mr. Lawyer had to work hard and the girl was busy with twins, but their Christmases together were very special.

Then, as if the twins' arrival was not surprise enough, along came another little bundle of joy. Although the girl had a long, arduous pregnancy, she knew that all of her sickness had to lead to a special baby. Certainly, a star was born that year.

And because the littles running under foot would not be little for long, the girl cherished the memories and joys of her babies' first Christmases.

With joy in her heart and a twinkle in her eye, the girl knew that with baby #3, their family was complete.

Who knows what the next adventure will be
for the girl, Mr. Lawyer, and their littles (yes, there are three).
So for now, with the Christmas of 2010 already here,
they will celebrate the blessings of family throughout the coming year.

More Christmas Fun!

Today we had our first official Christmas party at one of our favorite Moms' groups called Mom2Mom. We just love our nursery/class there and had so much fun playing with our friends while Mommy enjoyed brunch and a **quiet** Christmas celebration. It was splendid for all of us.

Mom wanted to catch a pic of our Christmas attire (one of many outfits this holiday season), but we were too mesmerized by the tree:

Charity: I successfully sleep through most of my sisters' raucous insanity. Mommy certainly can't blame me for not being able to get a good picture of all three of us!Charity: Oh sure, ladies. NOW you're going to look at the camera for a picture. My cuteness must be so distracting for you, that you just don't want to look at the camera when all three of us are together!

Christmas is Here!

First, let this picture serve as a hug from us to you. We love Christmas and want to send all of our friends and family a Merry Christmas hug from DC!

Hugs can quickly turn into choke holds, so watch out!

Even though we have all of our Christmas decorations up and are in the holiday mood, it sure doesn't feel like Christmas where we live. I'm just practicing wearing my new faux-fur coat because I certainly don't need it here!

I'm so excited for Christmas when I get to see my cousins and all of our family!

In preparation for Christmas fun, we helped Mommy and Daddy decorate the day after Thanksgiving. The best part was getting out all of Mommy's Christmas stuffed animals. We had so much fun decorating and playing:

We also made a gingerbread house that day.
Elyse: Hey there, Felicity I saw you stealing my candy. Hands off, bucko. Hands off.

Ta da! The final product. Except for helping make the house stand up, Mom and Dad let us decorate the whole house. (And we may or may not have had a few yummy treats along the way. We'll never tell).

2 Months and Growing!

In case you can't tell by my pictures, I'm growing big and strong!
Here are my recent stats:

Weight: 8lbs. 12.5 oz. (5-10th percentile)
Length: 21 1/4 inches (10-25th percentile)

Our Thanksgiving Tale

Continuing a long-standing family tradition, we got up on Thanksgiving morning with anticipation for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade! We've been looking forward to it for weeks and were so excited it was finally here. As you can tell, we were ready for the fun, but daddy was, well, let's just say he was containing his excitement:We had front row seats for three hours of parade magic.

Our Thanksgiving morning tradition would be nothing without the classic caramel roll feast. We even got to eat in the living room! Yum, yum.

We helped Mommy set the table this year and even had a hand in making the place cards (ha, ha, ha!). If you can't tell, we fingerpainted paper, then cut out our hands to make little turkeys.

Speaking of turkey, here's Mom with ours:

We had to capture the moment when Mom made gravy from the turkey drippings and it was quite tasty. She went into the endeavor with fear and trepidation, but came out a champ!

Elyse: I think I'll just sneak a little taste...

Our neighbors were our fabulous guests and they brought one of our best friends along for the celebration--Juniper, their dog:

After spending a lazy morning in our jammies, we had to get all dolled up for the big dinner:

Charity also got dressed in her finest, even though she doesn't get to enjoy the fixings yet:

A family picture. It's not a disaster, but it is a circus. Just like every day at our house.

This is Nick and Laura, our new friends (and if you look closely, there's Juniper!). We just loved having them over and are so thankful for having great neighbors.

Happy Thanksgiving! We are especially thankful for our family, friends, and the fact that our crazy year is almost over!

Learning Life's Most Important Lessons

Charity: Some days I sit around just thinking how lucky I am to have such wonderful sisters in Elyse and Felicity. I mean, I do have a lot of time to just sit around and ponder things like this (what else is there to do?). They take very good care of me, love to hold me, and are teaching me all kinds of things about the world. For instance, I've learned that if you (the sister), take a toy from Elyse, what will follow is a shrill noise that will make you nearly deaf. The lesson here, I've gathered from Felicity, is to either not take Elyse's toys, or to pull the "grab-and-run" maneuver and avoid hearing loss. This is the kind of life lesson one can only learn from experience.

Another lesson I've learned from my sisters is that going to the doctor is an adventure rather than a chore. You see, with all of the times our mommy had to visit the doctor or go to the hospital, Elyse and Felicity have made the very idea of the doctor's office/hospital one big excursion (as it is one of their favorite pretend-pastimes).

Recently, I had to go to the same heart doctor Elyse and Felicity visit. They assured me that the heart doctor is great fun (he definitely has some nice toys and a very cool machine that takes a picture of the heart!). It's a good thing they like him because this spring they both have to have a little surgery to have their PDAs closed. We were all hoping that I wouldn't have a PDA and need surgery as well. The good news is, I don't! I do have a small VSD that the doc says will not cause me any problems and does not require surgery. Yippee!!

So now when my heart skips a beat, we can all rest assured it's probably because my sisters are stealing toys from each other and not from an actual medical problem. Good news, indeed!

Happy Veterans' Day!

The twins were dressed by the time Mom and I realized it was Veterans' Day, so we decided at least one of us should wear red, white, and blue to honor the sacrifices the military make for us every day.

Here's a shout-out to all of the veterans we know (from one cute, patriotic little lady).

Thank you for fighting for our freedom and our country!

How is Charity?

Mommy has been a little behind in updating you on my growth lately, but don't worry, I AM growing! I'm still a peanut, but I am growing nonetheless. Here are my recent stats:

One Month

Weight: 6 lbs. 8 oz (3rd percentile)

Length: 20 inches

Six Weeks

Weight: 7 lbs. 5 1/2 oz (still 3rd %)

Length: still 20 inches

Most days I just hang out with Mom and my crazy sisters and for the most part, I like to be mellow and relaxed. I really only cry when I'm hungry, which the whole family appreciates, especially since they all tell me I was quite a bit of trouble before I made my big appearance!