The lights with a little bit of tree

Steve and I put the Christmas tree up during the evening hours of Saturday, November 28th. The cubs were bright eyed Sunday morning when they saw the tree with it's 950 lights on it. Yes, that's right...950 lights. Nearly 1000 lights adorn our tree to mask the fact that it lacks Christmas ornaments. It is by our choosing though...as another twin mom observed, this year's theme is "unbreakable".

Not quite sure what to think.:

One light down, only 949 more to touch.:

Emily doing her best Vanna White impression.:

Fascinated by the lights.:

Pool progress

I can't believe how fast the pool construction is progressing. The gunite, coping, and rock waterfall were put in right before Thanksgiving. They are now working on the decking.

View from where the diving board will be.

Standing in the deep end.

Rock waterfall construction.

I love the tile we chose. Can't wait to see the finished product.

Thanksgiving weekend

We had a great Thanksgiving holiday. Reinforcements arrived on Wednesday in the form of Grandma and Grandpa Bear. Woo hoo! They cubsat for us and Steve and I went to the hockey game (with a detour to Dave and Buster's on the way). The Stars lost in a shootout but we still had fun. Thursday morning, Grandma Bear, Steve and I started all the cooking and by mid-afternoon we enjoyed our Thanksgiving "feast". The cubs weren't that impressed, but all the adults at the table looked pretty stuffed. I want to thank my parents for traveling here and keeping the cubs for us so we could enjoy a little adult time. The Christmas tree went up on Saturday night while the cubs were in bed and the lights were lit when the cubs came out on Sunday morning. We got an "oooh" out of Emily and Zach couldn't wait to dive right into the tree and yank on all the lights. So far it is still in one piece though. It does look a little sad since we only have lights on it. Little curious hands and travertine floors aren't a good mix with glass ornaments so we are holding off on the ornaments until next year. I will post pictures soon!

Never say never

Update to my post from November 8th, "No turning back". HA! Well, we turned back. The whole toddler bed experience did not go so well. I will say that Emily did really well going to bed at night. However, she was waking up way too early in the morning. The first morning around 5 am, little fingers were tapping me on the shoulder. Not really a big deal if I could bring her up into bed with me for snugglies, but she would have none of that. In her little mind it was time to play. The next morning, I woke up around 5 am with this strange feeling that I was being watched. I opened my eyes, rolled over, and there she was sitting in her daddy's place, looking down at me. Who knows how long she'd been there. No snugglies then either, just a little trampoline play. The next morning around the same miserable time, instead of coming into our room, she went into Zach's room and woke him up. This made for a very unpleasant day. She also refused (REFUSED!!!!!) to take her naps in her toddler bed. I don't see what the big problem was...it is her same bed with the front rail removed. Twice she finally fell asleep on her floor, the remaining days she went sans nap, which is not good for mommy. Nap time is the only precious time I have to get things done. So after six miserable days I convinced Steve to put the front rail back up and now everyone is happy again. She is sleeping until 7 am, taking her naps again with no fuss, and the earth has been realigned on its axis. Thank goodness!

F-35 Family Fall Festival

Last Saturday was the F-35 Family Fall Festival for Steve's work. We weren't able to stay long because it was infringing on the cubs very important and necessary nap time. Steve and I ate lunch (the cubs were too busy to sit down and eat) and then the cubs spent the remainder of the time playing on the slide before we headed home for naps.

Dancing to the music of the live band.:

Taking time out for refreshments.:

Slide time.:

Our little man with his injured paw....on the mend, but it sure doesn't slow him down any.:

Slide racing.:

FYI...That is a slide loving smile right there.:

Weeeeeee!:

The two cutest cubs ever!!!

Pool progress

The pool installation is in full swing. They broke ground bright and early Tuesday morning and worked until the very last light of the day. Then they were back at 7:30am on Wednesday morning. Lots of progress has been made in two days. If all goes well, the gunite should be in tomorrow, but we're keeping an eye on the weather...rain predicted...never fails!

The before picture:


Breaking ground:

Little supervising cubs:

The end result of day 1:

By the end of day 2:

The deep end:

Our view from the patio. That's a LOT of rebar.