My new BFF (and more...)

Meet my new best friend...one of our many projects during Ryan's time off for the holidays was buying and putting up this gate. I have been searching for a gate wide enough for the opening of our family room for a while and finally I found the answer. This extra-wide gate retails for 50 bucks but we found one new and in the box off of Craig's list for 30. This thing is a miracle worker, it keeps Carver out of the kitchen and bathrooms and not a moment too soon - I am already starting the pregnancy "waddle" and I think Carver is now faster than I am. And as you can see, the kids love it... Just so you know, I spend most of my time in the cage with them, I just happened to run and grab some laundry to fold and came back to 2 frantic kids.

Kaydree moved up to the Sunbeam class at church and she is loving it. Here she is singing the song, don't let the camera-shyness fool you, she belts it out at the top of her lungs on a regular basis. And yes, she is saying sunBEAN...

Finally, a quick pregnancy update. I went to the doctor on Monday and had an ultrasound. Baby A is vertex (head down) and sitting very very low in my hips, and Baby B is breech (head up) and very very high in my ribs. So basically, maximum discomfort for me. The doctor was a little concerned with how low Baby A is, thinking all that pressure might cause me to go into labor early. So now I'll go in every 2 weeks so they can watch me carefully and do some extra tests. I was a little freaked out at first, but after reading up on it a little bit I think it's all pretty typical twin stuff. Anyway, here is my 23 week picture...

And a Happy New Year!

I haven't posted any of my Christmas pictures yet, so here it goes. Christmas Eve day our friends the Brocks had a bunch of people over for a potluck lunch and ginger bread house decorating. It was a lot of fun, it was nice to have time to get together with friends on Christmas Eve.
Later that night, we ordered Chinese take out (our own little tradition) - we tried that place in Roanoke by Walmart (great wall or something) and it was pretty good. Then we tried doing our own little nativity, it was pretty funny - Kaydree was Mary, Carver (who refused to wear a costume) was Joseph, one of Kaydree's dolls was Baby Jesus, I was a wiseman along with Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, and Ryan was a lone shepard. Oh well, next year we'll have a couple more participants.
I surprised everyone with matching pajamas this year, which they definately weren't expecting and neither was I. It was no easy task trying to sew without Kaydree or Ryan knowing about it - thank goodness for preschool. The poor pjs got worse and worse as I sewed them - the kids turned out pretty well, mine were okay, and I told Ryan his were disposable. I'm just glad they made it through the night in one piece.
I love this picture of the kids, it shows how wired and excited they were the night before.
I didn't take any pictures Christmas day, we were too preoccupied with the camcorder. Here's one of the night before, we had so much fun playing Santa and putting out all the gifts.
Kaydree acted so surprised at each little thing that she opened and often said "Oh, it's just what I wanted!" Carver was a great age for his first Christmas - it's so fun to watch him push his cars around and play like a little boy. We had a great Christmas and we're pretty excited for all the new things that 2009 will bring!