Christmas

Better late than never...

We had a wonderful Christmas. It was the very first Christmas where we have woken up in our own home, as opposed to the homes of our parents'. We set our alarm for 6am, so we would have time to shower, eat breakfast and open a few gifts before the boys woke up. We made our favorite breakfast (bagels, cream cheese, smoked salmon, lime, red onion, capers and mimosas - reminiscent of a trip to Napa years ago). Yes, mimosas. Our first unsupervised Christmas and we were drinking before 7:15am.
Meeting their new friends Brobee and Elmo - they were mesmerized by how they talk, move and dance!


Wesley wondering what this Brobee guy is all about. You can see that Win, on the far right, thinks it's funny. And Charlie, on the left, is doing the "more" sign for more Elmo!

Charlie and Elmo blowing kisses to each other

Our 5 children: Elmo, Wes, Charlie, Win, and Brobee

Yes, Win is standing on a present - apparently more fun that opening it!

Wesley takes a break and sits on the dog's bed. Yes, we gave them their own personalized comfy chairs, and he chooses to sit on the dog's bed.

After the boys opened their gifts, we headed over to Grammy and Poppy's. Jim, Mi Jung, Alexandra and Christian were up from Dallas - it was so special that we could all celebrate together.
Cousin Christian - he is exactly 7 months younger than the boys (and approximately the same size...)

Grammy & Poppy gave the boys a large piano - like from the movie Big. You can see from this photo that Wesley is fascinated with the speakers, Charlie with the pictures and Winston with the fire.

Alexandra, Jimbo and Christian

And then out came Twister


Winston helping Grammy with the spin wheel

Wesley and Charlie worked out on the trampoline while Jim and Grammy played Twister

Our family Christmas photo with the only child (Winston) that would sit through the 3 seconds it took to take it.

Merry Christmas!

Cookie Monsters

Brought to you by the color green and the number 3.

This morning, I stepped away from the kitchen for one minute to bring the laundry downstairs. When I returned, this is what I found.

The crime scene: two freshly iced cookies missing. Fingerprints visible in the remaining cookies.

One guilty Wesley with green icing and crumbs on his chin and shoulder and hands. (And therefore we now have green icing all over the chairs in the playroom from when he fled the scene...)

A guilty looking Winston, with a beard of green icing.

And a Charlie on a sugar high.

Let it snow!

We are in the middle of our first major snow storm of the winter. The snow started falling around 2pm yesterday and has yet to stop. I think we have over a foot on the ground already. After breakfast, the boys watched Daddy snow blow the neighbor's driveway.
Wesley, Winston and Charlie. Charlie's arm is around Winston, heads touching. How sweet!


They all turned around when they heard the camera!


We then had our dear friends Ellie, Kevin and kids Lucy and Owen over for brunch. They braved the snow - thankfully they only live 2 miles away! What a great day.

Boxes are better than gifts

I am not able to shop in stores (perhaps you've noticed we have triplets), so all of our Christmas shopping has been done online. Which means that our house is now filled with large boxes. And we have discovered that boxes are often more fun than the toys they once contained. It was so sweet to listen to their giggles as they played peekaboo with each other, or as they banged on the box like a drum while their brother was inside.




Charlie & Winston discovered the camera

Then the boys decided it was time to hug one another...Charlie & Wes

Win & Charlie (as Wesley hides in the box)

Photo fun

A friend posted this on her blog, and it looked like fun. So here goes!

Here are the rules:

1) Choose the 4th folder where you store your pictures on your computer.

2) Select the 4th picture in the folder.

3) Explain the picture.

4) Tag 4 people to do the same - NO CHEATING! (cropping, editing etc.)


Here is my Grandma, niece & God-daughter Alexandra and brother Jim celebrating Alex's one year birthday and baptism. It was such a wonderful celebration in Toledo. She is even wearing her own Korean hanbok for the occasion. My favorite part of the photo, though, are Jimbo's devil red eyes. Hooray for blue eyes! (Taken sometime around November 2005.)

Sniff sniff cough cough

Our family of 5 has spent the last week+ sick as can be. Thankfully it did not effect our tummies or give anyone fevers, but there have been many runny noses, coughs, lost voices and all around exhaustion (yet sleepless nights). There is nothing worse than being sick and trying to care for your sick children - and not being able to give them any medicine! But thankfully we're all on the mend.

In spite of all this, the boys have provided a few moments of comic relief. We sing the boys Christmas carols at night. We were singing "O come let us adore Him..." and Charlie points to the closet and says "DOOR!". We couldn't continue the song, we were laughing so hard.

Because we have been housebound, I have been trying everything to keep the boys amused. I brought out a bag of cardboard boxes (the ones that look like fake bricks), in different colors and sizes. Without any hesitation or argument, the boys divided the blocks. Winston took all the large red blocks and stood on them like he was surfing. Wesley took the medium yellow squares and would stack them and carry them into the kitchen. And Charlie took the small blue blocks and stood them all up on their ends, creating his own little Stonehenge. It was too funny to watch them!

We are so blessed!

Wesley, Charlie & Winston

Nanna & Poppa!

We have had a wonderful visit with Nanna and Poppa. Life will (unfortunately) return to normal after they leave tomorrow. The boys will miss their playmates and Rob and I will miss all of their help!

One of the many highlights of their visit was going to see the How the Grinch Stole Christmas musical at the Wang Center in Boston. It was a joy to watch the actors and truly celebrate their talent. And apparently we sat in the Gallagher seats where all the special effects fall right on your head (but not two rows in front or behind you). All the 5 year olds were jealous. And no, we didn't bring the boys.

I was able to run some errands today, and when I returned Nanna informed me of a new development. Winston received a 2 minute timeout for hitting. And while he was in timeout, Wesley purposely hit Win in order to join him in timeout. Apparently they don't like to be apart!

Attack Nanna!

Attack Poppa!

Wesley is smiling because he stole Nanna's shirt - it was the greatest toy

Win - look at all those teeth! Their eye teeth are now coming in.

Well, well, well...

Wesley getting Poppa kisses

Nanna, Winston and Charlie

Winston and Poppa

The Green Pond Gang

We had the pleasure of a quick afternoon visit from a few members of the Green Pond NJ Gang (also our next door neighbors in Maine). Jennifer, Scott, Hayleigh, Brayden and Colby came out to see the boys while they were in MA for Thanksgiving.
Nanna, Colby, Wes, Win, Hayleigh, Brayden and Charlie

Hayleigh and Winston

Charlie and Brayden

Winston, Nanna & Wesley

Stoney grabbing the camera

Chucklie

Weserley

Happy Thanksgiving!

This is the first time we hosted Thanksgiving. To celebrate, the boys invaded the boy-free zone with Nanna, Poppy and Poppa to watch their first football game. (It was the Cowboys, in honor of Jim and Mi Jung's new hometown, so that made it okay...)

Poppa & Winston, Poppy & Charlie, Nanna & Wesley

The boys watching the game in front of the fire...not a bad life...

The feast with Grammy, Poppy, Nanna and Poppa. Here we are openly mocking the boys by doing baby sign language for "more please".


We had a wonderful feast that included turkey (brined, courtesy of Alton Brown, of course), sausage and cranberry stuffing, mashed potatoes, sauteed green beans, creamed onions (one of my family's traditions), maque choix (Rob's specialty - cajun corn pudding), cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie and kentucky bourbon pecan pie. YUM!

No more bottles (for the boys)

Tonight was the first night that we didn't give the boys their bedtime bottle. We have slowly reduced the number of bottles they take each day over the last few months, as they have started perfecting the sippy cups. We have held onto the bedtime bottle in the routine because they had not been big milk drinkers during the day. In a lot of ways, we still thought of them as preemies that had to drink enough to grow. But in reality, they are big boys now! They are still not huge fans of milk, but they will happily get their calcium from grilled cheeses.

So we celebrated this milestone with a bottle of our own - a bottle of champagne.