Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! What a great year it has been. Christmas will never be the same, now that the boys are here. It was like this last year-don't worry! So bittersweet to have two beautiful, healthy, absolutely amazing boys in our life. I couldn't picture it any other way. 

Christmas Eve we hosted 11 people total, 13 if you include the boys! We had a late dinner and we ended up keeping the boys up a bit later so Grandpa Lang could see them. They did really well too seeing how they are sick, not napping well, and went to bed 90 minutes later than usual. 

We had the boys open their presents before we had dinner to get it out of the way. They were REALLY cute about it! Anthony is just like his daddy in that he LOVES opening presents! He sees a gift and charges toward it to open it! It's really cute. Nicholas likes the paper more than the unwrapping. Once he gets the paper, he starts to tear it apart, and apart, and apart! It was funny because say Nicholas is opening a gift and Anthony is as well. Well, if one sees more of the other gift than their own, they drop their gift and go to their brothers gift! Go figure! LOL! It was pretty much spend a minute or two with each gift, then they were off onto something else. They got Elmo Live from Auntie Meredith which was a hit(maybe moreso for the adults!), and Zia Jennifer got them the Little People's Airplane, BIG blocks, a sweater/shirt, and a puzzle. Grandma and Grandpa Lang gave them lots of toys as well-Curious George, a Winnie the Pooh, an Elmo CD player, a book... An endless list! They made out like bandits and Santa didn't even arrive yet! 

And the biggest news? I haven't even mentioned the biggest news yet...Anthony is WALKING! That's right! My boys pick BIG days to start really walking! Nicholas walked on October 4-which was their First Birthday Party. Anthony walked on December 24-Christmas Eve! Now he has been taking steps here and there-so we knew he was close. And then all of a sudden on Christmas Eve-he just really started walking more and more. Now-he's not doing laps around the house or anything just yet! But he feels more secure now on his feet and will definitely take a few steps-to get to someplace he can hold onto. If he falls down in the process, well-he's down and out and crawls! He's a smart cookie! But he definitely is doing a lot more of it! Such a big boy! He's an amazing kid, he really is. They both are of course! 

Christmas morning was nice and relaxing until we had to really get moving to go to Uncle Robert's in Marblehead. The boys opened a few presents, not all-as they have no clue. There are still quite a few under the tree... Tony and I exchanged presents as well. He really had me quite perplexed this year! He ended up getting me a popcorn popper(I HATE microwave popcorn), some popcorn, monogrammed comfy slippers, an ornament that reminds him of me reading to the boys, and a necklace that signifies motherhood. He did a good job! Really though-he always does! I gave him FIFA 09 for the XBOX, as well as a new controller(which he does not need), and the ipod thing for the car. He has one-but it's crappy. This one should be better. It better be at least! 

We drove off to Uncle Robert's at 9:40am. We arrived at around 12:15pm. Why so late? Nicholas got sick in the car, JUST as we were getting off the highway. The poor kid. I felt so bad for him. Not to mention-I really didn't have extra clothes-and he was COVERED-so he HAD to be changed. Thank goodness I brought their pajama's to change into otherwise-I would have  been SCREWED! The poor kid got changed in the back of the car and it was FREEZING. He was SCREAMING like when he was an infant and cold. I had to clean up the carseat and daddy changed him. We ended up changing the seat around and hope that helps it. I certainly hope so! 

After that-the rest of the day went very well. We hung out with my mom, brother, sister, sister in law, and my niece and nephew. They all opened gifts which were all a huge hit. The boys got some really nice blocks and this cool frogger jumping ride on thing! Hard to explain-but from the looks of it-Nicholas is going to LOVE it! We had a delicious dinner, wonderful dessert, and then we were on our merry way! The boys slept almost the whole way home-they were beat! They did great though all day with NO nap(Nicholas did 30 minutes on the way, and Anthony did maybe an hour) and they are sick. We got home at 7:30pm and they were in bed by 8pm, with no fight at all. My little boys are beat! 

All in all it was a great Christmas. It's amazing to think of how next year, it's going to be SO different. I wouldn't have it any other way! Motherhood is the best gift one could ever be given. 

Merry Christmas everyone! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!

We want to wish Daddy/Tony a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Unfortunately he is not home with us. He is in Atlantic City for a seminar for work. He should be driving home tonight, however, our first storm of the season just dumped about a foot of snow on us, so it was best he stay one extra night than get stuck driving in crappy weather/conditions. We can't wait until he gets home tomorrow to give him his gift and hopefully go play in the snow for the first time! :) 

As for the boys and myself... We have just spent the last 3 days-ALONE! And guess what? We survived!!! It really wasn't that bad. In all honesty, it was an extra two hours in the day I was alone with them. They were great as usual. They really were. Not too fussy and all around happy. I think Nicholas might be coming down with something or he's teething. In any event, I did give him a little bit of motrin tonight. Two nights ago he woke up a lot, which made me think teething then. Who knows. Nonni came over for a bit on Wednesday, then my mom came over yesterday. Today before the storm, my mom and his mom were both here for about an hour give or take. So I did have visitors and a little help while daddy was gone. And surprisingly, I am not all that exhausted. Wonder why??

As for Anthony-he is taking more and more steps! It's crazy! He is going to be walking in no time. Scary. It's like he's not a baby anymore! And he is si proud of himself! Each day he takes another step alone...You blink and you will miss it! He really is such a joy. They both are. How did I get so lucky??

As for #3, I swear I felt him/her move yesterday! I have had a headache since Monday that comes and goes. So I bought some coca-cola and was drinking that-along with some gummi bears! ;) I sat on the couch and felt a constant twirling sensation in my lower left stomach-which is where the baby is. I felt that same sensation tonight again. So-MAYBE!!! I am 14 weeks and 2 days pregnant. My big u/s is scheduled for January 16! And NO-we are not finding out the sex at the appointment and I am beyond excited to not know! 

I just realized I had laundry to switch over/add, whatever. It never ends. However-here are some recent photos of my cuties! 

Nicholas fingerpainting/eating for the first time!

My big boy getting his FIRST haircut!

Look at those cheeks!!!! That is a banana the lil' monster shoved in                                                   his mouth!
Can we say troublemaker? Here he is...in a bucket! 

Daddy's future poker stars. 'Nough said! 

STEPS!

I have to post before I forget and get distracted. I have to make calendars on Snapfish tonight, so I probably won't have time to post a quick update on Anthony....

He took TWO STEPS yesterday(December 10, 2008)!!!! I was sooooo proud of him! And Daddy was able to see it as well! We went to Tony's office for lunch. We were locked away in his office while Nonno was in a meeting. Gina(cousin/secretary) knocked on the door. Anthony was right near the door. She bent down and he took two steps towards her-right into her arms. It was a proud mommy moment! 

So this morning-he took ONE step towards me!!!! He's going to be walking in no time! Then what am I going to do?!?!?! LOL! 

BIG NEWS!

I can FINALLY announce it...seeing how the one other person that reads this(minus the online community and my sister) now knows...

Nicholas and Anthony are going to be BIG brothers! Tony and I are more than thrilled. We are excited to be adding onto our family. It caught most people by surprise as we kept it a secret from everyone. My close friends knew we were cycling, as well as Tony's cousin-as she babysat the boys when we had the procedure. Yes, this was planned and NOT a big miracle. We did an FET on October 1. We met with the Dr back at the end of August. Tony and I had a date of late October/November to do transfer. She agreed, until she said I was on the cusp of being able to have some tests done-and seeing how I was there...why not. So we did! And that pushed our timeline up a whole month! I waited for my cycle to start-Sept 10-and the rest is history! 

Transfer was October 1. We had 10 blasts left from the cycle with the boys. I thought for sure they would have thawed a few. You just never know. I was quite shocked when we went in and found out they only thawed ONE! ONE! That is mind boggling to me-and even more so when that one TOOK! Whoohoo! I was a bit surprised myself. 

My beta was on October 10th, a Friday. I had cramping on and off from the beginning(like the boys). One night I woke up with HORRIBLE heartburn. OMG! And I NEVER get heartburn. And I was waking up to go to the bathroom-in the middle of the night. I don't do that either. And of course-the burping. It started again! On that following Tuesday, October 7th, I took a pregnancy test. I was semi convinced I was pregnant. I didn't feel right. There were too many symptoms! I took the test while Tony was still home. I was so excited to see two lines, I ran to Tony and showed him. I was shaking. Crying. We both were. But then....

After he took his shower, he asked if I was reading the test right. I wasn't. There needed to be THREE lines, and there were TWO. However, if you looked close enough...there were THREE. It took my FIVE tests to come to the absolute conclusion there were three lines! Tony was not amused! I finally took a digital test and believed it! My beta was on Friday and it came back a nice strong 105. I was impressed! That was crazy! And I got a +hpt pretty early on. This was a nice, strong pregnancy. I couldn't believe it. I was pregnant, again. 

And to think I didn't think I would be a mother. And here I sit, in 6 short months I will be a mother to three children all under the age of two. Crazy? No.

 Lucky. Unbelievably lucky.

Books! Shuffle! Books! Stand!

The newest thing in this house is books. Nicholas has taken to reading as of late. And it's not a wide variety of books. Nope. Not at all. It's one book. MAYBE I can say two books. Mostly however, it's one. And that one is.... "Five Little Ducks." I think I will be reciting that in my sleep tonight! Today whenever he saw the book, he would bring it over to me, HAND it to me, giggle and get all excited I was going to read it. So-I would read it. He even at times tried to mimic my hand movements of the ducks going, "quack quack quack." So cute! And once I was done reading, I had to read it again. And again. He LOVES that book! It is great to see such an appreciation for books in the boys, even if it is only one or two! ;)

Now we have some big news for Anthony! Yesterday was really the first day he did a lot of this. What exactly? Standing on his OWN! Can you believe it?!?! He did it before, but it was always pretty quickly. Yesterday? It was A LOT! And it was for long periods of time. Actually, Saturday was the first day that I remember him standing for longer than 2 seconds. And, he may have actually SHUFFLED those little feet of his and moved! I can't imagine him walking! You can tell he is getting ready. He wants to move those feet...he just doesn't feel QUITE ready yet. I say..by the new year, if not sooner. Gosh. Two of them walking? YIKES!

When Anthony wakes up in the morning with me, he is very clingy! So clingy that it takes about an hour for him to leave my lap! I love it though. I can't complain! 

Also-a big hit show the boys love watching-especially Nicholas, is Jack's Big Music Show. In the morning if they are fussy, or really any time of the day when they are fussy, I say, "Wanna watch Jack?" Nicholas gives a little giggle and looks right at the TV and waits. He LOVES the music and starts to bop up and down when it comes on. Anthony is just as entranced as well. I love Noggin! It's a great channel!

We have officially stopped the morning bottle. We could probably move onto the afternoon bottle. I just don't want to. I am afraid their nap won't be as long. Lately-they have been sleeping until 7am at least, and their last nap goes from 2-3:30/4 almost ALL the time. Why mess with that!?!? I need that naptime for my own nap! LOL! We'll see. I'll set a goal of January to be done. Wait, that's a month away. Well, we'll see! ;)

Our Christmas card is done. I will post it once it's in the mail to everyone! It's a great one! I LOVE IT! And I know everyone else will too!