Tales of a Hummingbird

Monday, December 26, 2011

keeping morale high

my husband is doing his part to keep everyone's spirits up this week. he's apparently let the top of his hair grow quite long (in typical aviator fashion) but has taken a razor to the sides. remember, he generally is wearing either a battle helmet or cover of some type so its not often it is viewed in its full glory, but when it is....well, its quite stunning. love it, babe! xoxo

Sunday, December 25, 2011

christmas, part I

we woke up to a christmas morning phone call from wonderful reid and pete agreed to a nice long snuggle in bed this morning before investigating what santa had delivered (very likely the last year i'll get away with that stunt) so we could wait for everyone else to wake up and participate in the fun. betsy came down to my room with a big grin and joined us in bed for half a minute and then we were all off to check out the stockings. unfortunately, bumpah was too sick to get out of bed and then deedee confessed she was sick too but she was going to tough it out to watch the stocking madness unfold. the babies were delighted with all the goodness st. nick delivered. pete was most excited about his giant digger and his airplane candy stick. betsy was definitely in love with her new kitty and her bangles were a hit, but when she discovered that she too had a whirly twirly candy stick, she was pretty into that as well. the poor grandparents spent most of the rest of the day in bed. so, when it came time for little lady bug to nap, i thought i'd give them some space and try napping her in her real big girl bed in pete's room. she was exhausted from missing a nap yesterday and went right to sleep and took a perfect nap. in the interest of letting her sleep, i let pete just watch a movie for his downtime (after a trip to the only store in town that was open on christmas day for 7 up and chicken noodle soup for the patients). it was almost 80 degrees today so once b was awake we went for a walk to the playground and dog park. pete brought his awesome digger along to do some excavating in the sand pit at the playground, but when we got there he informed me, "mommy, you missed something, you forgot my dump truck." and he was right, of course i had overlooked the fact that he needed something to put the material his digger was digging after it had been dug. nevermind the fact that this digger is huge and took up the entire top canopy of the double bob. i promised him we'd try to remember next time we came. pete walked the entire trip home from the dog park, pulling his digger behind him proudly. now i know its physically possible for him to cover the distance, i am less worried about having a double jogger and three babies in a few months. :)
anyway, we are hoping a good night of sleep and another 12 hours will be enough that the grands will be feeling a little more spunky tomorrow and we can open our packages and maybe go out into the world to do something fun together.
in the spirit of giving them a good night of sleep...both babies are sleeping in one room tonight. oh my heavens i can hardly believe its true. so far so good (knock on wood). betsy is loving her real big girl bed and is delighted with the room sharing. i think pete is onboard with it too, although he seemed a little confused about it all at bedtime and when we went into his room to put him to sleep he asked me a few times "is betsy in here?"....hoping they get a good night of sleep too!
merry christmas, every one! merry christmas, to my darling husband. all of you "over there" are on our hearts and minds always, but especially at christmas. we love you so much and look forward to hearing from you again soon. xoxo

christmas tree coffee cake and scrambled eggs breakfast while skyping with the nannen family in hopedale

bad photo quality but this is the best one of my attempts to get them to sit together and take a christmas morning picture. i'll try again tomorrow on christmas part II

wearing her "vintage" apron and bangles from santa (deedee said she had an apron JUST LIKE that one when she was little. :))

putting her fox and kitty babies on top of her lady bug pillow....and then she laid down on top of the whole pile, lol

little boy heaven with a giant digger and a giant dumper in the dirt and mulch. and he's already requested a field trip to the beach for more quality digging. will have to be while the grandparents are here if we are bringing all this heavy duty equipment along. phew!

Saturday, December 24, 2011

wild animal park

accompanied by deedee & bumpah AND team conklin with their grandma along too, we hit the wild animal park today. we were blessed with sunny weather...and were all overdressed, as the temps neared 75. the tram ride through the park was a hit, but truly for our three year old kiddos, the favorite part of the park was playing at the playground and running full speed along the trails. deedee was today's hero pushing the double stroller up a lot of steep hills. she may need to ask santa for a massage in a last minute emergency e-mail. i love LOVE having our friends here because well, i love them - but i really LOVE seeing our littles play together. its magic. thanks for sharing a wonderful christmas eve day with us!

a definite favorite :)

family photo yay!

show me your muscles!

getting his goat ready for the 4H competition ;)

Friday, December 23, 2011

in the nick of time....

we had a double-dose of wonderful today: our best friends AND my parents! loving having family and friends-who-are-family in town. we met shan & greg and their awesome babes in solana beach for a park play date before devouring some brunch at naked cafe. the kids had a ball at the park but both my littles started to fall apart the minute we sat down at the restaurant. there is teething and an ear infection involved with little miss, and poor p is just "off" this week with no specific symptoms that i can nail down, but he's extra tired and had an extra early bedtime tonight as a result. it was wonderful to play with our friends, as if they still lived here, but it made my heart ache how little we get special time like this together (although twice in 2011, its been a great year for us!). now that our boys are older and can play together (ie: tackle each other endlessly), its even more special. once little p-funk gets a bit older, i'm sure she and the lady bug will be two peas in a pod. we are looking forward to spending more time with them this week!
after lunch, we whipped down to the airport for a special arrival: deedee and bumpah are here! the rest of the day was a busy blur with cookie frosting and a trip to the dogpark highlighting our activities. i'm sure this week, even more than normal, time will just whiz by with all the fun we'll have.