Our Christmas weekend :)

We hope everyone enjoyed their holiday as much as we did! This was probably one of our best Christmas's yet! It was a lot of fun! The kids, especially Brodie, had a wonderful time!! We missed some family and maybe next year everyone can come up for Christmas :)

The kids got SO many gifts, our living room looks like Christmas exploded. haha! :) Christmas Eve we didn't have a chance to bake any cookies and leave some out for Santa. Brodie was up until about 1am so we had to hide the gifts "Santa" left for them until he really went to bed. He also opened three gifts on Christmas Eve, we caved ;)

Christmas morning Ben and I dressed the kids and brought them downstairs. They both looked so cute in their Christmas outfits!!



We passed out all the gifts to everyone. Ben and Auntie Eden helped Brodie open his gifts and Nana helped Naomi. The kids got SO much, it's incredible!!

We also made a nice meal for everyone--turkey, ribs, potato casserole, mac & cheese, cornbread, deviled eggs, and homemade Sangria! It was SO good!!

We watched Christmas shows and the Disney Christmas parade. It was very nice and relaxing.

Sunday, Nana's birthday, Nana, Grandpa, and Auntie Eden had to go back. Both Grandpa & Auntie Eden were sick and throwing up. They may have caught our bug or caught a different one. We were able to give Nana her birthday gift though.

When they left my mom, sister & her partner came over. They spent the day at the house with us. They brought gifts for the kids to open. Bro was asleep when they got there, so Nomi opened her gifts first :)

Later that afternoon my sister, mom, and I went shopping. Got some good deals on some of the items we got. It was nice spending time with them.

The whole weekend was a lot of fun! My heart is very full of love and happiness. Seeing how much our children our loved makes me so extremely happy. We have been blessed with awesome kids and amazing family.

Love love love :)

Christmas time is upon us :)

Well, from the last post Nana stayed for a week to take care of us. Which we appreciate more than we could ever express.

She left Tuesday morning and dropped the kids off at daycare with Ben. She'll be back (hopefully) tomorrow with Grandpa and Auntie Eden for Christmas.

We've been OK without her, but you don't realize how nice of a "break" it is sometimes with an extra person around helping out. Got too spoiled I think ;)

Anyway, so the Christmas shopping and wrapping and preparing is pretty much done!! We still need to go grocery shopping for our Christmas feast Saturday. We'll probably do that tonight. Very excited to cook for our family and to bake cookies tomorrow night for Santa!!

Speaking of Santa, the kids went and visited him last night! There were no tears only smiles. We went to Bass Pro and they had a Wonderland all set up. It was wonderful!! There were little stations to keep the kids entertained while we waited to see Santa. There was a coloring station (which we were at for awhile), a station to play with a race car, a station to play with a remote control monster truck, and some shooting stations. Great-Aunt Rita was there working too so it was great seeing her too!

At the coloring station we wrote a "Dear Santa" letter and colored a picture for Aunt Rita. :)

Then, FINALLY, it was time to see Santa. Brodie was SO excited!! He would look at Santa with a big smile on his face and then he'd point at the display around Santa and smile. It was very cute! Naomi, she's still too young to really know what's going on. I was VERY proud of both our babies and how they didn't cry. Santa then gave Brodie a mini-candy cane :) It was SO fun!! Ben had to work last night so Auntie Tuyen met us there and helped me wrangle the two little ones. :)

Here's the kids' picture with Santa Claus. I love it, even if Brodie is making a silly face ;) hehe



We are SO excited to start our own traditions this year with the kids. Tomorrow night we're going to bake and leave out some cookies for Santa, with a glass of milk and carrots for the reindeer. Then Christmas we'll bring the kids down and see what Santa left them. I cannot wait to see Brodie's little face Christmas morning! Then we'll feast and relax.

We hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!! We love you all and cannot wait to share the pictures with you! :)

4 months old.

On the 11th Nomi Noms turned 4 months. She's been out here with our family for four months now. It's hard to remember what it was like before she was here :)

She's growing up so fast, smiling SO much! Her smile is probably one of the sweetest ones I've ever seen, next to Brodie's :)

Ben took her to her four month appointment today and to get her couch checked out. Her cough, as the doctor said, everyone has it and there's nothing they can give her for it. Figured as much.

And this is why I don't like Ben taking the kids to the doctor for their monthly appointments, he doesn't get all the information. haha! She's 14lbs and ??oz, 25" long, and he didn't tell me her head circumference. She got two shots and a liquid mouth shot.

She can start eating baby food now too! Ben said the doctor said she can basically eat anything, that doesn't require you to have teeth. And with Brodie, we didn't start baby food/solids on him until he was about six months. Ben said something to the doctor about that and he said that he was just over in Germany and they did some studies or something and said that it doesn't really matter when -4 months vs 6 months- to eat solids/baby food. So, we'll be trying that out with her and see how she does.

She's doing great though. No major issues. She loves to talk. Talk talk talk talk talk, way more than Brodie did at this age. It's so cute!! Sometimes she'll get a really serious look on her face when she's in her swing talking to the bee and her Winnie the Pooh & friends. :)

Naomi Maxine is such a joy in our life! Love her so much!! :)

All of us sickies...

Well, since the last post at the the beginning of the month, we've all got it. The sickness. Brodie is started to get better though-thank goodness! Yesterday when I picked the kids up at daycare his sitter told me that he actually ate some lunch (fish sticks and bananas) and had fruit snacks! Then when we got home he ate some peaches and candy!

Naomi had started getting a little congested, but it wasn't so bad. Well, yesterday when Brodie starts doing better she starts doing just a little worse. Her cough has gotten a little more croupy and her nose is running a marathon! We're always suctioning her nose out--but I've tried to make a little song out of it so she won't hate it too much. "Gotta get the snot from your nose, snot from your nose..." She loves it. Smiles and laughs.

Nana came down last night to come help take care of us, such a wonderful woman she is. I was sick all day Sunday with stomach pains and throwing up, and Monday too-stayed home from work. Ben got it too. Today, we're both a little better, just coughing along with throat and chest pains. But, we got Nana here to help us and she's doing a great job! Getting lots of cuddles in with the kiddos too.

Not sure how long she'll be here, but it doesn't matter. She's here now and we thank, appreciate, and love her. :)

Brodie update

Well, things have been kind of hectic in the Gwinner household. Brodie has a terrible cough so I took him to the doctor on Monday. The doctor checked him out-he wasn't running a fever, didn't sound like there was anything in his lungs, and was running around playing. He just had a cough and that was it. The doctor sent us on our way. Didn't give a prescription for Bro or anything. Oh, but they did give Bro his second flu shot.

Well, it is now Friday and Brodie has thrown up twice since Monday. Poor guy, and his cough has not improved. It sounds like it's actually gotten worse! :(

Last night Bro slept with us in our room because he woke up a couple hours after we put him down just screaming and crying. Ben goes in there and our little boy puked all over! All over his pillow, all over the sheets, toys, himself. Luckily I was half asleep cleaning up puke so it didn't bother me as much. Ben gave Brodie a bath.

After the bath Bro and I went and laid down on our bed. I left the TV on and honestly I have no idea when he fell asleep. But around 2:30am this morning when Noms woke up to feed, it woke Bro up. Who was startled and didn't want to be in our bed but get off and go into his room. I think he was a little disturbed because he didn't wake up in his room but ours and may not have known where he was for a second. But, Ben saved the night by going downstairs and getting Bro's pillow from the dryer, some milk for him and a bottle for sis.

Our poor little Brodie boy, makes me so sad when he coughs. Might have to make a trip over the weekend or on Monday again to the doctors. He doesn't have a fever though, so I'm sure they won't do anything. :( We want our little boy to be better!

Oh and Naomi has developed a cough now too. It's not anything like Bro's but we've been keeping an eye on it. We'll keep everyone updated on both kids.

PS-Sorry I haven't uploaded any Thanksgiving pictures yet, just haven't had time. Will do when I get a chance though!! :)