A Special Bond

As we wrapped up 2010... took down all the Christmas decorations and "rang in" the new year, I realized that it would be the last year for Reese and Tucker to be the only Tims kids in our house. While I'm excited about the new baby, it makes me wonder if it will change the special bond that the two of them have had for the past 2 1/2 years....

Sometimes they enjoyed snuggling up to each other for a much needed (on Mommy's part) nap...

 And other times they beat up on each other...

She could give Tucker the best "evil eye" ever!

They even went through the "no neck" phase at the same time. 

I've always loved it when I've caught them being sweet to each other.

As they've grown, it's been fun to see them really start playing together.. they love to wrestle and get into all kinds of trouble. They've become more than twins... they've become friends.

They've shared everything... birthdays, toys, snacks, fun times, sweet times, "kill each other" times, and have pretty much gone everywhere together.

Last week, Tucker was sick and had to stay home.  Reese probably asked me and Nana a hundred times where her brother was.  Even though they have their mean moments, they really do love each other so much. I hope that they'll continue to have their special bond even after the new baby arrives.

Christmas with the Fam

Since we aren't blessed to have all our family nearby, we rotate holidays.  This year we spent Thanksgiving with the Tims so we spent Christmas with my family.  Sometimes we travel to Michigan to be with the whole fam, but this year we stayed in town.  It was nice not traveling, but I have to admit I was pretty stinkin' sad when I heard how much snow they had up there this year.  The kids would have loved it!  Plus we wish we could have been with the whole family. 

We spent Christmas Eve at Mom and Dad's eating and making cookies for Santa.  Then went back on Christmas day for more eating, playing games, opening presents, etc.  It was fun to be together...

Chris and Amber hanging out before the gift exchange.  Yep... her belly's getting round.  Baby Easton will be here in March and we can't wait to meet him.

Amber's pretty much the celebrity in the family.  The kids just naturally gravitate towards her...want to spend the night at her house.  I think it's because she buys them candy and lets them stay up all night.  How can we compete with that?   

Nick, Caden and Drew waiting to open their loot.  Caden is getting ridiculously big.  He's playing basketball right now.  Of course, he's the best player on his team... takes after his Mama and his aunt. And he loves riding his dirt bike.  He's practically a teenager.

Caden and Emma both play so well the Reese and Tucker even though they are several years older than them.  The wrestle, give them pony rides, read to them... pretty much anything Reese and Tucker ask them to do. 

Emma just finished her second year of cheerleading.  She's sassy, loves to pretend and do all things girlie.  Don't misunderstand though... she can drive a mean four-wheeler too!   Oh... and she's brilliant. 

Reese and Tucker are both really lovin' them some Dana these days.  They ask about her and want to go to her house to play all the time.  Tucker informed her the last time they were there, that it was too cold to go swimming though.  They'll have to save that for this summer. 

This pretty much wraps up the Christmas posts for 2010... I'm not sure the kids can wait another whole year for Santa to come back.  They are still asking for him. 

Hope you all had a blessed Christmas with your family this year. 

More Than Excited

I realize it's been a month since that magical Christmas morn, but now that I can post pictures again, I have to go back and catch everyone up. So... just pretend that I posted this three weeks ago.

Well, we weren't sure that Santa was actually going to come to the Tims' house this year... due to the time-out filled, defiant week before Christmas that the kids experienced.  But I guess he decided to cut them a break since they were pretty good 99% of the year.  After all, Christmas wouldn't have been fun for anyone if they didn't have any presents to open.  And there were plenty of presents to open.  Note to self:  make sure the kids open the "non-exciting" presents like clothes, etc. first next year... it will eliminate a lot of "I want to play with _____, I want to play with _____ now, etc. etc. etc." 

Santa brought the kids a Bounce House this year. The suspense was killing them as they waited for Daddy to get it set up.  Santa knew they needed to open all their other presents first... otherwise Christmas would have been put on hold for hours of bouncing. 

It was a huge hit... even with Dad.  He enjoyed some good old fashioned bouncing with the kids.  We love it because we can use in indoors or outdoors.  And the kids love it because they can't get in trouble for jumping on this. 

We really got a taste of what's to come these next few years.  The kids were more than excited about Christmas this year which made it that much more fun for us.  We've started some family Christmas traditions that we'll hopefully continue for years to come. 

oh, and once again, I failed to get any family pictures on Christmas morning.  I promise Chris and I were there.  That's my New Year's resolution... to get pictures of the whole family.  I know the kids will appreciate having pictures of themselves when they were little, but I also know they'll be dying to see what Mom and Dad used to look like!

Blasted Blogger

I've always wondered how many people actually read my little blog, especially since I only have 12 lonely followers.  But I have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised by the number of people wondering where in the world we've been for the last month. 

Long story short... I was hit by the technology curse once again.  I know just enough about Blogger to be dangerous and almost deleted all the pictures in my blog in one click.  Yep, it's possible my friends.  So... if you're a blogger, don't EVER consider deleting your Picasa Web Albums to free up more space for your online photos... even if you don't think you ever created a Picasa Web Album.  I got a little hasty in an effort to figure out why in the world I couldn't post pictures to my blog all of a sudden, and almost destroyed 2 years worth of memories. 

Anyway... it took me 2 weeks to figure out that all I needed to do was pay 5 bucks to get this baby up and running so that's exactly what I did.  Now I have room for 10,000 photos... way more than you want to look through. So... we're back.  And I'm not angry at my blog anymore, so I'll starting getting everyone caught up on the latest fun times with the Tims.

Biker Santa

I never thought I'd have biker parents, but I do.  I never thought my mom would wear leather chaps and a dew rag, but she does.  As crazy as I think it is sometimes, it is really great that they have something that they love to do together.  I hope Chris and I still have things in common after 35 years. 

Anyway, I also never thought we'd go see Santa Clause at a Harley Shop, but we did.  Grandma was wrapping presents there and invited us up, so we went to see Santa with Caden and Emma. Tucker was more excited about the motorcycles than Santa and Reese was more excited about the popcorn, but we managed to get them both on his lap without any tears.

Caden and Emma went first to show Reese and Tucker how to be brave.  Caden was a great sport... even though he's a little too cool for Santa these days. 



Tucker jumped right up on his lap of course... the boy doesn't know a stranger.  He was still more interested in all the bikes than telling him what he wanted for Christmas though. 

Reese took a little more coaxing.  She wanted to be in the picture, but stood as far away as she could.  She got a little closer when I held her and then finally said she wanted to sit on his lap.  She surprises me every day!

They were excited when Santa gave them each a candy cane and now tell us they want candy for Christmas every time we ask.  I guess we should enjoy that while we can.  In a couple years they'll be asking for Ipods and dirt bikes.  

Christmas Cookies

I've felt like a total deadbeat mom these last few weeks.  Instead of us going to see Santa and Christmas lights, we've been at home... not doing fun Christmas stuff.  I sleep when the kids sleep, avoid cooking and laundry at all costs, and want to do nothing but lay on the couch most of the time.  I really need to be through with the first trimester like TODAY. 

This weekend, we did manage to have a little Christmas fun by getting all snuggly in Christmas jammies and decorating cookies...

We're not "sprinkle happy" or anything.  Would you like some cookie with your sprinkles?  Reese didn't mind it... she thought it was mmm mmm good.

Tucker only agreed to mess with the sprinkles because I told him he could eat a cookie when he was done.  He would have been just as happy to let the girls do the decorating so he could just stuff his face.

Hopefully the teachers will enjoy these cookies for dessert at our tamale luncheon tomorrow.  I don't think they'll mind that they were made with little fingers. 

Next weekend I'm determined to get out of the house and really have some Christmas fun!

Christmas is Coming

"Christmas is coming."  I hear this from Tucker about 3 times a day.  I'm not sure he really knows what it means, but he loves to say it.  It's like he keeps reminding me that it's coming whether I'm ready or not.  And I'm definitely not ready.  By now I've usually done some shopping, gotten all the decorations up, made cookies, etc, etc, etc.  But this year, I'm moving a little slow.  We finally got the tree up on Sunday... the kids were excited and saying "it's about time" since grandma and Nana both already had their trees up. 



Tucker was very busy trying to fit as many ornaments on the same branch as he could.  I couldn't get the boy to smile or even look at me... he was concentrating on getting them all on there just right. 

I've said this before, but the kids really do make everything more fun.  Putting up the tree can be such a beat down, but this year it was really fun.  We listened to Christmas music and danced around the living room.  Speaking of Christmas music... Tucker is obsessed!!  He'll throw a level five fit in the car if I can't find Christmas music for him.  It's crazy - I've even tried to "pretend" that something is Christmas music to pacify him and he totally knows the difference.  There's no fooling this boy. 

Okay, so a couple hours after we finished decorating the tree, I came back and found this....  

I guess Reese thought she made a nice addition.  Crazy kid.