Dear Santa

Last year, the boys were only one month old at Christmas so we didn't buy them any gifts. Even though they have no idea about the concept of gifts, I still had so much fun buying them a few presents for them to open this year!

They share everything, so we purchased them four combined toys: Hape drum, Tegu magnetic tram, Fat Brain Toys Spinagain, Mirari Pop! Pop! Piano.

I also got them the cutest personalized Santa bags that we will use to put their gift from Santa in as well as their stocking stuffers. They are these special delivery bags from Personalization Mall. When I received them, I couldn’t believe the quality! They are very well-made, HUGE & adorable. Not to mention, that price! Inside, they are each getting two green toys & a set of flashcards.

These are what are going inside of the bags:

// Recycling truck, tractor, helicopter, mini cars, 50 First Words flashcards, 123 flashcards //

Are you ready for Christmas? As always, I’m counting down the days!

xoxo

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Twins Birthday Gift Guide

Wyatt & Boden’s first birthday is just over a week away! I can’t believe that the boys are going to be one. This was the quickest, best year ever! We love watching them grow, they are the sweetest boys.

Shopping for the kids is so much fun! I find myself drawn to Montessori & Waldorf type of toys & also toys that are renewable & sustainable. For their birthday, Sean & I purchased them a few toys & also got them a bigger gift. Of course, they’ve already received their gifts from us because mama couldn’t wait ;) here is what they got!

Grimm’s Wooden Toys rainbow stacker & stacking cups. They enjoy stacking things, taking things apart, then trying to put them back together. These stacking toys are great! They are such good quality & I love that they are wooden.

Tegu magnetic blocks. The boys LOVE these blocks! They are starting to realize that when you place certain ends of the blocks together, they will “stick” to one another. These will keep them occupied for quite some time & I love that I can add to the block collection as the kids grow.

Nugget Comfort play couch. I had my eye on this couch for a long time before finally deciding to buy it. I can honestly say this is one of the best purchases we’ve made. It gets used every single day as a couch, teepee, fort…you name it! The boys love to climb & jump all over it. After seeing how much the boys loved it, my parents also got one! Now the boys can play with one at their house, too. :)

Some other things that I’d like to get them eventually include:

Green Toys trucks. I love all of the toys from Green Toys & I also love that they are made from recycled milk jugs. The boys are really starting to get into cars & trucks so I think they would like these!

Hape drum. Wyatt loves music & we’ve noticed that he has started to “drum” on different surfaces to make noise. I think a drum like this (or something similar) would be perfect for him!

Puzzles. These may have to wait until they are a little older, but I would love to get them some puzzles like this alphabet one & this number one when they start to learn letters & numbers. This shape one would also be good!

Books. Of course, books are always on our list! In my opinion, you can never have too many. I hope my boys love books as much as I did growing up. This set looks like a good one to help them learn their first words.

XOXO

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Apple Picking

We spent the last day of September & the last day of Sean’s paternity leave at a gorgeous farm on Mt. Hood picking apples. Although cloudy, it wasn’t raining or too cold which made for a comfortable walk through the orchard.

There were plenty of different fruits to pick from, we picked Gala & Golden Delicious apples. I’ve wanted to go apple picking for years & I was so happy to be able to go this year with Sean, Wyatt & Boden. The boys absolutely loved eating the apples! It was the cutest thing watching them hold apples in their tiny hands & take bites out of them.

It was the perfect way to conclude Sean’s leave, even though we really didn't want it to end! I hope this will become a new family tradition for us, as we pulled away from the farm I felt refreshed & happy. There is nothing in the world I love more than having precious moments like these with my boys.

I’ve already made the boys some apple sauce, it was a huge hit! Do you have any good recipes for Gala or Golden Delicious apples?

As you can imagine, we took about a million pictures! It was so hard to pick which photos to use for this post. If you are interested, you can click this link to view all of the photos from our day.

XOXO