Christmas 2006

Christmas this year was very special for us as it was the first Christmas celebrated in our new home. It was also the first Christmas that Eugene and Olivia were old enough to enjoy opening and receiving presents.

Every year we have my entire family and Gene's family over to our house for Christmas Eve. This year was no different. The thing that has become quite different, however, is that we went from a large family gathering with no little ones to having four little ones present within the span of a year. My two closest cousins each had a child of their own within six months of the twins being born. Lindsay is six months older than the twins and Mason is six months younger.

Here are some shots of all of the munchkins opening their gifts...

Lindsay (in the green) and Mason (in the stripes)...

Here are some pics of Eugene and Olivia opening their gifts from Santa on Christmas morning. Eugene is opening his most favorite gift of all... Dusty the Vacuum (who he affectionately calls "The Mower"). He's been obsessed with Mommy's "Mower" so we thought he should have one of his own.
Olivia got twin (boy/girl, of course) babies and a stroller to push them in from Santa. I don't think she really cares about the babies but loves to push the stroller around the house right along side her brother with his "mower".
And what toddler would be complete without their very own Doctor kit?

Now that Christmas is over, the twins have spent the week keeping very busy with their new toys. And Mommy has been kept busy trying to reorganize the playroom to make room for all of the new toys!
Olivia modeling some of the new accessories that she got from Oma and Grandpa. This girl LOVES to play dress up!
And of course looking your best (right down to the Elmo slippers) is a necessity for cooking dinner in your new kitchen from Grandma and Grandpa!
And Eugene is still "mowing"...
All of this playing sure can make you tired. Breaks are necessary from time to time!
And what day would be complete without a little bathtub art before bed?? This is one of the shots that will have to be saved to embarrass them when they're older!

Eugene and Olivia: 20 months

It's been quite a while since we've provided an update on the twins. Many of our friends and family have been asking for a posting so I thought I should take advantage of this Christmas break and get to work.

Eugene and Olivia turned 20 months old on December 11th. It's hard to believe that TWO is right around the corner. They've transformed from babies to toddlers virtually overnight. It's hard to believe how fast our little ones are growing up. I now see a little boy and little girl when I look at them.

Their relationship with each other seems to have transformed overnight as well. They went from basically ignoring each other for the first year of their lives to becoming playmates. It must be really cool to be a twin and have a built in buddy. They chase each other around the house and laugh all day long. They truly love each other.

Don't get me wrong, fights (especially over toys) happen several times a day. But, they're short lived and the laughing and playing resumes just as quickly as it stopped.

They are learning and developing at such a rapid rate right now, too. I'm amazed everyday at what they know and have learned. Olivia surprised me this week by counting to 15. I never even knew she could count to three, let alone fifteen! They're doing really well with their language development as well. At last count (which was when they were 18 months), Eugene had 60 words and Olivia had 30 words. That was two months ago and I've now completely lost count. They are both also saying small sentences of three to four words. Now that the communication barrier is coming down and they can tell us what they want, it makes life so much easier for everyone.

Here are a few pictures that we had taken two weeks ago:

Our New Home

If you've been wondering where we've been lately, we can sum it up in one word: MOVING. We moved into our brand new house last month! The idea of moving came up just about as quickly as the move itself.

Our old house, which was Gene's Grandmother's house, had been our first home. We love that house and were very sad to leave. It's a great house for a couple or single occupant but with only two bedrooms upstairs, it was not ideal for our expanded family. Plus, it's on a very busy street and the traffic made me nervous with the twins becoming more and more active and adventurous every day. So, we started house hunting in September, signed a contract on the house in October and moved in over Veteran's Day weekend in November.

The house we bought was just finished the week we moved in. It's in phase one of a new development about a mile from our old house. The development is slated to have about 100 homes by the time it is finished. We absolutely love the neighborhood and the house and are very much looking forward to Eugene and Olivia growing up here.

Our good friends, Mike and Brooke, moved in across the street the same weekend we moved. It's so great to now call them neighbors. The rest of the neighbors we've met so far have been very welcoming and we're looking forward to getting to know everyone a bit better once the weather is nicer and everyone is spending more time outside.

Here's the house when we saw it for the first time in September:

Here's the house on our last visit before signing the papers. The grass was coming in well at this point.



And finally, here's the house about three weeks ago after moving in and putting up some Christmas lights.



There's nothing like balancing unpacking an entire house while trying to decorate and prepare for Christmas. Needless to say, the Heyman clan is exhausted and thankful that we're finally settled in our new home!