finished!

so i knew the end of my blogging once-a-day was coming to a close because, well, it's the end of the year, but i have to say it crept up on me, which sounds ridiculous, since new year's eve is a very important and looked-forward to day. it's not like it really "crept up" on me. as i was trying to decide what to blog about tonight, i realized, "whoa, this is THE last post!" maybe i was in denial that the end is here. well, not the end of everything (the mayans were wrong, for example), but the end of my goal to blog once a day until the end of the year.

i started this journey back on july 30, which means 155 days of posting. i missed one day (christmas eve), but i posted twice on three different days: september 10, october 9, and december 27. that means i posted 157 times since july. well, that's not entirely true. according to my quick count, tyler posted 5 times for me (thank you, tyler!!), which means i posted 150 times. but still. i don't think i posted that much in all the previous years combined. ok, that might be an overstatement, but i'm sure it's close to true.

that being said...wahoo!! i did it! i actually really enjoyed it. don't get me wrong, there were days where i crawled into bed (much later than i should have, i might add,) and remembered that i hadn't blogged yet, so i'd get myself back out of my comfy, warm bed and sit at the computer to blog. other days i was on the ball and had it done before the kids went to bed! i'd even blog ahead of time when i knew i'd be out-of-town; i'd save a draft and post it from my phone from where ever i happened to be. most days i had a hard time deciding what to share with you, but in the end, i love all of my posts and i'm so glad i made this challenge for myself.

but not to worry! it's become such a habit to blog that i will continue to do so, for sure. probably not every day, but maybe. i think it's become some sort of a ritual for you and me; i think we both look forward to the daily blogs, and it's fun! we'll have to see how motivated i stay in 2013.

and so, i bid you all adieu. it's about time i settle down to watch the ball drop. here's to hoping your 2013 is grand!

christmas cousins

weidmer cousins on christmas morning! zac, reagan, and austin. austin and reagan were supposed to be in their jammies, like zac is, but austin decided to dirty his jammies with a little #1 action. oh well, at least they're all in christmas attire.

lol. i think it's funny austin and reagan are having a hard time sitting up on the leather couch. i guess it's too slippery. after i finished taking pictures, reagan completely took out poor zac by sliding down on him. he fared just fine, however; he weighs about as much as she does! :)

best. toy. ever.

austin and reagan got this toy from their great-grandparents on the jeffs side. they LOVE it. it is the best toy ever! we got the idea a while back...when we went to jaker's in springville to pick out pumpkins for halloween, a family with triplets was there, and the mom was pulling the triples around in one of these wagon trains. it looked so fun we couldn't pass it up. when we need it (which will NOT be soon), we can buy additional cars and a caboose storage.

why god created children

(and in the process, grandchildren)

tyler got this on his mission. so funny!

to those of us who have children in our lives, whether they are our own, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, or students, here is something to make you chuckle.

whenever your children are out of control, you can take comfort from the thought that even god's omnipotence did not extend to his own children. after creating heaven and earth, god created adam and eve. and the first thing he said was "DON'T!"

"don't what?" adam replied.

"don't eat the forbidden fruit," god said.

"forbidden fruit? we have forbidden fruit? hey eve...we have forbidden fruit!!!"

"no way!"

"yes way!"

"do NOT eat the fruit!" said god.

"why?"

"because i am your father and i said so!" god replied, wondering why he hadn't stopped creation after making the elephants.

a few minutes later, god saw his children having an apple break and he was ticked!

"didn't i tell you not to eat the fruit?" god asked.

"uh huh," adam replied.

"then why did you?" said the father.

"i don't know," said eve.

"she started it!" adam said.

"did not!"

"did too!"

"did NOT!"

having had it with the two of them, god's punishment was that adam and eve should have children of their own. thus the pattern was set and it has never changed.

:)

it's time

*sigh*

i really haven't been wanting to do this, but i think it's time.

this blog's gotta go private.

i've got people from russia, mexico, ukraine, spain, argentina, the netherlands, and taiwan looking at my blog. problem is, i don't know anyone from any of those places (except maybe spain in a round-about way). that kind of worries me. a lot.

but i want all of the friends i do know to keep reading, if you'd like!

pretty please leave me your email address (or email me at wilke.way {at} gmail {dot} com) and i'll send you the private blog invite. i'll give ya one week to do so...january 4th, this blog is going private.

thanks everyone!

bum bum

last night was bath night. we bathed the kids in the bathtub (we don't bathe them there often) and let them play with the bath toys aunt karen got them for christmas. this, obviously, is a "pre-bath" shot.

check out those cute bums!! :)

in sync

tyler had the kids playing with some of their christmas toys this morning and he got some really great pictures. (i may or may not have been sleeping while this was happening.) the thing tyler and i love most about these pictures is how the twins have exactly the same face in all three photos. so funny!

the "what was that flash?" look...

the "ooooooo, what am i sitting on? it looks fun!" look...

and the "wahoo! this IS fun!" look...

love these two! hard to believe they will be ONE in less than TWO weeks!!

merry, merry christmas!

my sincerest apologies for not blogging last night. i'm sure you can forgive me given the holiday season, but i must point out that it is THE only day i've missed the entire time. (and i've blogged twice a couple of days, so that counts, right?) only one more week to go for my goal of blogging until the end of the year! and to think we started this journey back in august...

on christmas eve, we had a big weidmer christmas party. it was really fun to see everyone on my side of the family. it was also the first time all four great-grandchildren were together. we had four generations of weidmers present!

this is the only picture i have from the event, but it's a priceless picture.

from left to right we have kaeli with keira, karen with zac, and me with reagan and austin. everyone is laughing (especially me, so hard,) because reagan would NOT get her finger out of her nose. every time my uncle mark took a picture, reagan's finger went straight into her nose. everyone watching was laughing so very hard, and so were we. :)

my personal favorite aspect of this picture is zac. look at that face! what on earth is he doing? my first thought was that maybe he was putting a twosie in his onesie, but i'd have to ask karen to see if that's what went down. either way, his face is unforgettable.

i'll have to see if i can get more pictures from the party from my uncle mark. we took a huge family picture and i would love to see it.

i hope your christmas was as merry and bright as ours was! 

deck the mantle

every christmas, i tape the christmas cards we get to our mantle. this is the first year in our five years of marriage that the cards have spanned the entire mantle! and just in time - we probably won't be in this house next christmas. i'll have to find a good place in our next house for christmas cards to call home.

it's the most wonderful time of the year!

whew-ee! things have sure gotten busy around the jeffs household in the last couple of days. but i love it. i love being busy! and i LOVE christmas!

probably my favorite busy-thing as of recent is this:

we got to meet zac! zac is my nephew and the twin's cousin. he lives in oklahoma, where his daddy is going to dental school. austin and reagan love playing with zac. and zac is a cutie - he smiles easier than any baby i've ever met!

grandpa and grandma weidmer have been enjoying lots of grandchildren time. i think we may have them sufficiently worn out by the time the new year rolls around. :)

cute mugs

pictures from grandma

my mother-in-law is really good about sending me pictures of ...everything, really! i realized tonight that i am terrible about downloading them to my computer, so that's what i just spend the last 30 minutes doing! here are some of my favorite pictures that have been patiently waiting in my inbox...

from spain. i can't remember if this is the high-speed train or not. oh, how i miss sleep. sleep? what is sleep? :)

technically from the UK - the rock of gibraltar at the southern tip of spain. the monkeys were cool!!

back in spain. the alhambra in granada. denise (my mother-in-law) is especially good at capturing my "better" side. i should do a blog post about that. she's got some really (un)awesome pictures of me.

baby shower last december. i was posing like one of my nieces.

general conference at the cabin back in october.

this last picture is funny because now austin is the one who climbs all over reagan. silly boy.

so there you have it! some of my favorite pictures from my inbox. thanks denise!!

Quickie

Christine's out on a twin-less hoo-rah and has yet again left me to post.  I'll save you from my ranting and make this a quick post.  A few month ago we got an IP camera to use as a baby monitor.  An IP camera is a camera that is wirelessly connected to the internet and allows us to view the kids in their bedroom.  We can also move the camera via an interface to see different areas of their room.  One really cool thing about the camera is that it has an infrared capability that allows us to see in there at night.

Sheesh! and I said I was going to spare you from my rantings.  Anyway,  to make a long story short while I was on the train this morning to work I took a peek in on my kids and this is how I found Austin.

In case you can't tell he's sitting up, with eyes open, when he's supposed to be laying down, with eyes closed.

plastic

our fireplace is very drafty, and since the last time we used it we practically smoked ourselves out, tyler decided to cover it with a winter covering that his mom had gotten for us.

it's actually really cool stuff. you use the double-sided sticky tape that comes with the kit to hold the plastic wrap, if you will, in place. then you blow-dry it until it's nice and smooth! i guess you could kind of compare it to shrink-wrap.

in any case, it worked really well until the kids started moving. they love to go over and play with the plastic covering, and they've successfully pulled a portion of it away from the tape. i try to block them with pillows, laundry baskets, my aerobic step, etc...but this is what happens.

see? austin knows he's not supposed to be back there.

it's kind of hard to see the plastic wrap unless you know what you're looking for...look down on the floor by reagan. or anywhere on the floor, really. it's too smooth over the actual fireplace. the floor gives away the flaw; you can see we weren't able to completely smooth out the wrap, but that's because of the way we covered the fireplace.

the point? it works great! unless you have 11 month old twins. :)

(we used this over the kitchen window and it has helped a ton. and the kids can't reach it there, which is great!)

great in 8: results

remember how i told you i was doing a program called great in 8? (read about it HERE if you don't know what i'm talking about.) well...it's finally over! here are my personal results, even though some people did much better than i did.

in 8 weeks, i lost
- 11.5 pounds
- 8.75 total inches

i am a believer! yes, yes, i complained pretty much the entire 8 weeks, but now that it's over, i miss it.

i decided to let myself have a pig-out day today. a reward for a great 8 weeks. i had chicken fingers, onion rings, and soda - i haven't had these in over two months!! i also had some christmas sweets. and ya know what? i hated it. i feel awful. i was very surprised to find that the chicken fingers and onion rings weren't as good as i remembered. and candy...not so good either.

shocked? so was i!!!

but i'm glad. i'm grateful that great in 8 did this to me. i'm going to do my best to keep living what the program taught me. it makes me feel great! and next time my reward is going to be new clothes. :)

so, to my partner (denise!), my team (girl power!), and the 64 people who participated in this round of great in 8...thank you! it's been a great 8 weeks!!

* * *
if any of you (or someone you know) would be interested in joining the next round of great in 8, let me know! we'd be glad to have you!! we'll probably begin by the middle of january. i have all the information about the program, so i can email it to you really easily. don't think about it, just do it!

baby burritos

instead of putting the twins in their coats (which are a pain in the neck to put on) for the short ride to grandma's, we wrapped them up like burritos to keep them warm.

reagan didn't really mind,

but austin wasn't very happy about it. he was more accepting of it on the way home.

in fact, they both fell asleep quickly on the way home, snug and warm in their jammies, wrapped up in blankets, and sucking on their pacifiers. i wish someone would do that for me! (minues the sucking on a pacifier part...)

the christmas tree is fun

austin and reagan love the christmas tree. i think they think it's one big toy. before there were presents blocking their way, they would scoot to the tree and try with all their might to knock an ornament on the ground so they could play with it. and my, oh my, if they were successful in knocking one down, it was like nascar babies to see who could get to it first. which really didn't matter in the long run because i would take it away from them, and then i'd have two very upset babies on my hands.

aside from the ornaments, they like to pull the needles off my fake tree. they don't do this intentionally; they pull on the branches to get to the ornaments, and in the process, they pull the needles out. give it a few short years and my lower branches will be needle-less. adorable.

austin was particularly enamored with the garland and lights on my mom's christmas tree this evening. he repeatedly tried to bite the lights on her tree. and he pulled a good portion of the garland off. at least the lights on my tree are out of reach, as is the the ribbon "garland." (i've been meaning to take a picture of our tree and share it with you, but i guess i'll have to wait until christmas eve when all the presents are under the tree.)

in attempts to keep austin and reagan away from the tree before there was a present barrier, i used my kitchen table chairs. you can see in the last picture that reagan was not too happy with this. austin wasn't either, you just can't see any of his face. he was trying oh-so-hard to reach the ornament right in front of him.

i suppose i could take a lesson from wizened mothers and not put anything on the bottom portion of my tree, but i'm not ready to give up yet. so far the present barrier is working, and i get to enjoy my fully-decorated tree. (i suppose the present barrier won't really work once santa really starts making his appearances around this jeffs household. sigh.)

:)

what is it with babies and cameras?

austin especially loves the camera. every time i get it out to document the cute thing they're doing, he stops doing that cute thing and starts crawling towards me.

example:

so funny, but too bad! i don't get to capture the cute things they do. :(

mistletoe

a must watch! hahaha.

rudolph

addie and nana come to visit

my grandparents, whom we call addie (odd-ie) and nana, came to visit a few weeks ago. the twins were a little nervous of these great-grandparent "strangers" at first, but warmed up in no time. addie and nana live in california where i grew up, so we don't get to see them very often. i guess that means tyler and i will have to make a trip out to norcal sometime soon. shucks. :)

they're coming out for christmas, so we'll get to see them again soon. :)

tmj

when i asked tyler what i should blog about tonight, he said "me." so, without further ado, here is tyler mark jeffs at his finest.

love you!! :P