I love fruit-- Apples to be exact

There will be lots of pictures to follow but right now I am trying to get everything organized on my new imac!!! Merry Christmas to the Crawford's! Christopher's laptop has given us trouble since day one. We have had to take it in to the Geek Squad so many times that they finally suggested we use our lemon policy and just call it quits and use the mola to get something new. Well Chris knew that I had been drooling over my friend Reese's imac and how much I love editing pictures on a desktop so tadda he came home with an awesome Apple. We are in the process of transferring over all our files etc via external hard drive (my original Christmas present-- it just better not crash while I am transferring things!!) Between the imac the hard drive, the Kindle and point and shoot camera I got Christopher for Christmas, we feel fairly technologically overloaded. Sam and Liam like the technology they got from Santa (remote control Wall-E's) so everyone is happy! Hope your Christmas was as crazy fun as ours (lots more to come on that soon).

Christmas Eve and train overload

After Chris went into work for a little bit we headed to downtown DC to see the special train exhibit at the National Botanical Gardens. We drove right up to the front and were lucky enough to get a spot right infront of the doors. Honestly how often does that happen? I have to mention it because with three kids it is always ironic that we get horrible parking spots and then after unloading all the kids and stuff that comes with them, we will walk into where ever we are going and a person will be THEN pulling out of the front parking space. ARgggggh. Not today though and I knew it was an omen of good times to come. The National Gardens are RIGHT nextdoor to the capitol and the reflecting pool infront of the capital was frozen over.

We took the boys out to slide around on the ice, Abby hung out in the stroller, oddly enough I didn't want her strapped to the front of either of us since I figured someone was going to fall. What a suprise when it was Liiam- haaa

He got right back up though and loved saying "woah woah woah I fall down!" everytime he lost his balance even a little bit ;)

Sam was more reluctant. He wanted ice skates, which I was impressed he knew to ask for.

I snuck in this shot right before a policeman whistled and made everyone get off.

I just think it is so cool that we live that close to THE most powerful place in the world (well at least I think so-- China might disagree). Thankfully they had passed the healthcare bill and all gone home so DC was fairly quiet. We straped Abbers in and headed inside.

(I am so pysched about that head clip. I have a whole other post about that-- but wanted to give Kristen a sneak peak at what will be in here package!)
Once inside we found out why DC was so quiet... EVERYONE WAS IN HERE! It was nuts, but gorgeous! Sam loved the huge Christmas tree with the train going around in the main entrance

We had to wait in line to get into the exhibit. Luckily the nicest family was waiting in front of us. They were visiting from Pasadena and had two boys that were 14 months apart and a 4 month old baby-- but thiers was a boy (a big part of our conversation was how lucky I was to get a girl:)) It was great because both sets of boys beat up on each other while we waited and we chatted and were able to ignore all the disdainful looks we received from old people who apparently thought the "magic train" exhibit should be for adults only. The exhibit did not disapoint. Everything was made of natural materials with flowers and plants growing everywhere.
There was a huge castle in the middle

There were tiny little trains zipping in and out of little hide outs

And huge trains that zoomed around over head on bridges and through tunnels.

I was watching one go over head when Chris pointed out how cool it was that the capitol rotunda was right in the background.

There was a Santas Village and a place for the fairys to live. It really was magical. To conitnue in this fabulous day we head to China town and took the boys to one of my fav places, Potbelly's. I ordered my usual and we got the boys PB&J's. Wow, lets just say I stopped eatng my chicken salad sandwhich and polished off Liam's PB&J. Chris loves their sugar cookies so we indugled and even hid one in my bag for later. We had been wanting to take the boys to see the trees on the Elipse and although it was beautiful, it was cold. So Chris took the boys in the stoller while I hung out with Abby in the warm car. Sam loved watching all the trains going around, particularly the Thomas train. But his hatred of being cold was bubbling up. Chris made him make the horrible decision of staying and watching trains and being cold or going to the car and being toasty. He relented and they came back. After we got home they took a nice LONG nap. Woo hoo! When they woke up Chris and I let them open one gift. They were identical robots that walked and spun around and had swords. While the robots were plaed with for about 20 mins. the swords were played with the rest of the night... and then taken to bed! This is Liam the pirate who finished attacking the TV right before this was taken.

And then he put a bow on his head

We finished off the night taking neighbor gifts to the people in our building and of course stoping to play for a good hour at friends Tommy and Geoges house. The boys LOVE playing with their trucks!
Chris read the Christmas Story and it was off to bed. About an hour into "bedtime" I went in to find the two of them plopped infront of their TV watching the Phineus and Ferb Christmas special... I have GOT to remember to unplug their TV :) Santa made a call on the cell phone and let them know he wouldn't come until they were asleep. The both liked this and finally fell asleep at 10:45 PM. PHEW

We like Christmas ALOT

Chris growing up wasn't a HUGE fan of Christmas. I mean he enjoyed it well enough but wasn't crazy about it like me. Since we have had kids it has taken on a while new meaning. Kind of like Disneyland. When we went to Disneyland as part of our honeymoon with thought we had fun... that was nothing compared to going to Disneyworld with two little boys, now that is magic. It is the same way with Christmas. Sam and Liam have inherited their moms love of Christmas. I think that is why I am so sad that it has come so fast. I am excited though that each day brings us closer to our warm island home. Today was COLD and it is always a struggle to get our cuties in coats, shoes, you know-- clothes in general. I finally got Liam to wear a hat today and oh my gosh it was so cute! LUckily I got a picture before he ripped it off.

We are going to try and JAM as many fun holiday activities as we can tomorrow, the national tree, wreaths at Arlington, drive through lights. Its a christmas blitz!!

Did you know we have twins?

Yup here they are:

Sportin' their beloved Brazilian "soccer jammies". (How many Crawford kids have worn these Jan?)

People are asking me more and more if Sam and Liam are twins. They are playing soooooo well together (knock on wood). I have never ever been more grateful that we had them SO close together. I am telling you if you are thinking about it-- DO IT! It will totally pay off in two years. Of course you have to get through the first 2 years :) I am just so grateful that no matter where we go in the world they will have their self proclaimed "best friends". I love these two!

PS if I wanted to have a sibling that close for Abby I would get preggers in a month! Hello no way! Haaa

"I A Pincess"

Last night we had a fun evening eating and playing games with our friends the Gibbs while Sam Liam and Sylvia ran around their house wrecking havoc. I don't know if it is because they were playing with a girl all night or what but when we got home and the boys in their jammies, Liam grabbed my ostrich feather headband, put it on, looked at Chris and I in all seriousness and said "I a Pincess". Then crawled up onto Chris's lap and snuggled in. Chris just looked at me scrambling to get a lens on my camera (we need a point and shoot BAD) and rolled his eyes.
This is a pretty bad shot but I had to get the "pincess"

Mamas Girl

Abigail is a HUGE mamas girl and I have to admit I love it. If I am not holding her (a rare time indeed) she will track me and cry when I go out of sight. Chris thinks it is hilarious. It is like a light switch. Chris will be holding her and she can be throwing a huge git but the second he gives her to me she stops. How do they know? With all the pictures of the boys I didn't want people to think she was being photographically neglected, we just don't take her out in this frigged weather. Today I had to get some pictures of her in her new outfit. I just couldn't pass it up when I saw it at the GAP-- that is a dangerous store, it is just best I stay out of there.




You can't see it in this picture but she has the cutest little polka dot leggings and an adorable Denim skirt that was handed down from Lucy! (Lovin the hand me downs Kristen!) Believe me this girl gets her picture taken A LOT. I figure between the amount of time she spends with me on shoots, sitting on my lap while I edit and having her picture taken herself she is doomed to be a photographer!

Fourth time is the charm

Sam loves the snow. The entire day today we would come in, take a little break and then he would beg to go back outside. It was so cute because he wouldn't really do anything, he just loved walking around and eating snow, falling on his knees every now and then and making lots of snow angels. On our third trip out I really wanted to do some pictures but it was crazy snowing so I put my camera in a garbage bag to try and keep it dry.

Just a few steps out the door he plopped himself down and made a snow angel.

I hid by a wall trying to avoid the majority of the gusts and Sam came over and did the perfect model lean (Felicity: "It looked like he was leaning")

He has kind of a goofy forced smile when I tell him to smile so I said Sammy look serious, apparently this is serious:

It looks like he is thinking "Seriously?"
Thankfully we had ONE pair of snow boots. When I went out yesterday ALL of the snow gear was gone at both Target and TJMax. The shelves were cleared it was nuts. Sam still fit in the boots I bought him for Christmas last year:

It was a fun challenge shooting in the snow. My camera had a hard time deciding what to focus on, the snow or Sammy :)

Even when he is blurred though I think it is pretty cute.

Sams favorite thing to do is eat the snow.

I am always worried about this so he would hide behind trees and sneak it

When I would say "I see you" he would just laugh and run.

Before when we came out there were LOTS of kids but this time there was only one cutie. She came up and asked if I wanted to take a picture of her! How cute is that I love girls with confidence

She showed me her "snowball" and told me it was a snow pile haaa!

The fourth time we went out Liam joined us and actually had a lot of fun. I didn't bring my camera that time because I knew I would spend the majority of the time helping Liam. We made lots of snow angles and attempted to make a snowman but holy cow my hands were sooooo cold I couldn't do it. While meandering around our apts we heard the fire engine siren. Here in Falls Church if you hear an extended siren it means the fire truck that has Santa on the back is coming around. Since we missed it last night I tried to make the boys run to see it. Bad idea. I picked up Liam and started running. I reached the top of a long flight of cement stairs and wham! totally fell on my back and slid to the bottom. Liam thought it was hilarious and wanted to do it again. I on the other hand prayed the firetruck would come and get me an ambulance haaa! Sam scooted down on his bum but we had already missed the firetruck so we just headed right back up. Of course more than once Liam's boot fell off once right into a puddle and filled with water. He demanded he walk home in it though and I had visions of frostbitten toes and amputations-- after all it is Liam we are talking about. This little guy fell into the wall three times today, every time tripping on nothing. When we got home we had yummy hot coco and grilled cheese for Lunch. Sam then fell asleep in the couch and didn't wake up until 7:45pm! That's what playin' in the snow for hours will do to yah!

Baby its cold outside

The storm hit! So much for the three photo shoots I had today.. That means its playtime instead! I bundled the boys all up, put Liam in the wagon and we headed down stairs. Liam was not happy, he literally said to me "Momma I not happy" and it showed

It wasn't even one minute and he cried to go home.


Poor Sam was having a blast

When we got into the elevator I asked Liam if he was okay and he told me "I not talkin a you". Wow... he was mad at me for making him cold :) Sam headed back down with Chris to play with about 30 other kids on the slides at the park and little sledding hills they made. I was really looking forward to doing some photo shoots in the snow but it is so dangerous to drive out here in snow because DCers are not used to it and they only have so many road plows. I thought I would be able to get some good shots of the boys but between Liam being mad at me, demanding to go home and then putting himself to bed for a nap (I kid you not) and Abby being super cranky it just didn't happen... bummers.

What happens when Daddy gets a night off

Chris has really wanted to see Avitar. We got a sitter and tickets to a late showing and then realized DC is getting hit tonight with a MAJOR storm. We are talking possibly more then 2 feet of snow. (No one in DC knows how to handle this people today were shopping for food as if Armageddon had been announced for tomorrow) I thought it wouldn't be a good idea for both of us to end up stranded at the movie theater away from our children if it does get horrible, so I stayed home and Chris and his friend Tom, we always call him "Tom as in Tom and Meredith" even though he is the only Tom we know, headed to the theater. Well the boys know I am a HUGE push over so the second Daddy left they were out of bed and "helping" me with laundry, which they pretended was snow and rolled around in for the majority of the time. Then Liam pretended he was drowning in it and we had to save him... over and over and over. We fully intend on going out and building "snow castles" with Sam's buddy Ryli tomorrow so I had pulled out their snow gear. Liam loved his hat and Sam told me to take a picture so of course I did:


I love that he is wearing Jammies that say Sam. Mainly because I know years from now I will look at this picture and say I swear this is Liam but his jammies say Sam.

Sam then wanted me to take a picture of him but when I told him to open his eyes he opened his mouth instead.

Things get a little crazy when it is late and Daddy is gone :)

Ya'll ready for this...

I have been neglecting both of my blogs but holy cow it has been busy 'round here! But now the kids are in bed, Chris is at Avitar and my 9 loads of laundry are folded (I am not joking I did 9 loads of laundry today) and all my photo sessions are done with post processing, so I have no excuse. This past weekend was so much fun! I did an event photoshoot in the morning so chris had the cuties. He picked me up after and we headed up to the B&O railway museum. When Sam saw these painted on the walls next to the museum he knew it would be good:


It was so much fun. Sam was begging to get out of the car the minute we got there, he even helped find a parking space right in front of a diesel engine.
When we got inside Sam immediatly ran up to the "douglas train" and stared in awe.

Everyday there are different groups displaying their model trains. Sam and Liam could have spent hours watching all the different trains going around

We literally had to drag them outside for the train ride with Santa. Once we handed them their tickets they got pretty excited. I kept asking Sam to hold still and let me take a picture but he was so excited it was just blurry picture after blurry picture :)

The conductor came by and took care of the tickets.

Liam loved saying choo choo!

I thought the boys might be afraid of Santa but they were excited to see him.

Abby had fun for the first little bit

But by the time we started going back and Sam found out unlike the polar express in UT we would not be having hot coco and cookies, everyone was ready to get off. Including Abbers

We said goodbye to Santa and head to Anapolis!

Chris had heard about the parade of boats in Anapolis and we both have wanted to visit the city for a while so it worked out perfect. I immediatly fell in love with this city. It is gorgeous! The down town consists of beautiful, small streets with little shops and old architecture. After I saw an adorable childrens boutique across from a cupcake store I decided I wanted to move there! In the city square there was a decorated tree.

We got dinner at an adorable hot dog place called Pips. The boys meals were called pip squeeks!


While driving around I fell in love with a wall and chris indulged me in stopping to take a picture:

Who wants to drive up there with me and let me take pictures in front of this wall?
The boats are decorated with hundreds of lights and float down the river.
The boats were all lined up and ready to go. We just need to become friends with one of the owners haa!

It was freezing cold so we enjoyed the lights from the car then headed home!
The next day we took the boys to the DC temple to see the lights. They LOVED it. Sam has been begging to go back to the temple. And although I know it is because of the lights I love hearing him say "Mom can we PLEASE go to the temple?" He also really wants to go inside and woke up and told me he had "grown bigger so now I can go to the temple!"

The fog was gorgeous!



It was a fun crazy weekend!