Still here

It's been some time since our last post. Between a long visit from our good friend the flu (who made sure that every member of the family felt it's wrath) and trying to continuously keep up with everything (and everyone! We officially have a 'walker' but more on that later) computer time has been sadly neglected. So a quick recap:

Thankgiving Day: Patrick and I spent the day (and majority of the weekend) on clean up duty. One child after another, after another, alternatively vomiting is not the way we envisioned the holiday but we got through it and as of two days ago everyone is back to feeling great. Big thanks to Grandma Nelson, Tia Irene and Tia Sonia for all the yummy leftovers! It got us through a otherwise unpleasant few days.

In honor of "National Day of Listening" we interviewed Sophia on our DVD Cam.  We hope to continue the tradition and interview all the kids each year the day after Thanksgiving to document the changes through the years. It'll be interesting to see if next year she's as excited about The Backyardigans andWOW! WOW! WUBBZY as she is this year.  The boys even managed a few "MA MA MAs" and "DA DA DAs" on camera.  

Christmas Project: Through all the muck of last weekend we did attempt our Christmas pic and decorating for the holidays around the house. Sophia was very proud to help with the tree this year  and although it turned out beautiful we've had to enclose it behind a fortress of baby gates to prevent the boys from bringing it down or eating the ornaments.  Despite our best efforts they have managed to work as a team a couple of times to bring down the gates and grab a few goodies of the tree before being caught. Luckily they haven't managed to knock the whole thing down but it's only been up a few days. I give them till the end of the week.  

 The family Christmas pic was an adventure all on it's own.  We had honestly been avoiding it because of the work that we knew getting the kids into their "christmas outfits" and in front of the camera would be. Unfortunately getting three kids SICK with a stomach flu dressed and in front of the camera is much worse but we needed to get the cards ordered by early this week. Needless to say just minutes before we took the pic all three kids were crying and screaming and Patrick and I were not too far behind them. We managed one good shot with all five of us looking in the same direction and semi smiling.  When you get this year's card excuse the greenish tint of our skin. We were all nauseous that day.

Ten Month Birthday:

Alex and Max turn ten months today! Life is so much better than it was 9 1/2 months ago!! They are both such wonderful, fun little guys. Alex officially took his first couple of independent steps yesterday (Patrick joked that he wanted to go on the record as having walked at nine months) and Max is not far behind him. Max is the climber of the family and has now scaled much of the furniture in our house including the kitchen table.  I expect he'll be found on top of the refrigerator next. The both LOVE to chase after and tackle Sophia and have discovered it works much better when they team up to bring her down. Poor little girl doesn't stand a chance! 

Finally a pic! Patrick recently devised this makeshift train out of diaper boxes (something we have more than enough of at our house.)  Who needs battery operated toys when you have a talented Daddy?