Christmas in Pictures: Christmas Day

A great big thank you to everyone that sent gifts to our family this year. The following is an onslaught of pictures of a few gifts and a few pictures of them opening gifts. If I had to title this group of pictures I would call them "The spoils of the Spoiled".

This year they received so many gifts, very few of them were from us, and they love every single one of them. Here is a list of all that they received, in no particular order. I'm probably forgetting something so don't be offended if it was your gift!

1. Trampoline

2. Kitchen

3. LeapFrog Alphabet Toy

4. Snow Hats

5. Clothing

6. Cleaning Trolley: Includes vacuum, mop, broom, dustpan and squirt bottle.

7. Gift cards and Cash

8. Basketball Hoop

9. Duplo Legos

10. Food to go with the kitchen

11. Ride-on Vehicle

12. Homemade Minky quilts

13. Sock Monkey's

14. Shoes and socks

15. A new Scentsy Monkey (Makaio has almost chewed the face off of his current one)

16. Tool Bench

17. Books

18. Boomophones

19. Movies

20.  Table and Chairs

Christmas in Pictures: Christmas Eve

I tried putting the gifts out on more than one occasion this year only to experience the same result each and every time...wrapping paper everywhere and two little boys squealing with excitement. They never really understood that what they were opening was anything more than a box but the box was just as fun as the toy inside. Here is a picture of one of the above described occasions.

Finally Christmas Eve came and in order to help them understand what we had been talking about the entire month, we let them help us put parts of the Nativity up on the wall while we told the story. It was hard not to fix the placement of each of the pieces but in the end it is the story of Jesus' birth that matters more than how our manger scene looked.

After we told the story of our Savior's birth we put the presents under the tree and this added a lot of excitement to their little lives. It seemed like Kekoa couldn't fall asleep after that and spent a lot of time running around his room screaming with pure joy.

After we were asleep (the boys and I), Sterling put a few things, by their shoes, outside of their bedroom door for the morning. I woke up to a bag of peanut M&M's by my shoes and Sterling had a few Rittersport bars by his.

I couldn't get far enough away from the goods and I don't have that handy panorama thing on my camera so here are the gifts in two separate pictures.

Christmas in Pictures: Decorating

Earlier this month we decorated our tree and let the boys help. They had such a great time putting up and pulling down all of the decorations. We had to put the decorations out of their reach but it didn't stop them from playing with the tree and getting pine needles everywhere. Makaio loved the fact that the pine needles kept falling onto the ground because that meant we could get the vacuum out (almost daily) and vacuum them up.

Here they are helping decorate the tree with Sterling. As you can tell, Kekoa was so proud of the work that he did.

Merry Christmas from The Sheffield's

Mr. Personality

Whenever people are around Kekoa acts like he is calm and well-behaved. Behind closed doors he is a completely different person. I love his little personality and sass. He makes me laugh so hard sometimes and I can't help but be grateful that he is such a goof-ball.

Here are a couple of pictures of him being himself.

Alter Egos

For Halloween this year we decided at the last minute on costumes for the boys. We thought it would be funny if they were alter egos of each other. So I introduce to you Clark Kent and Superman.

I love the picture of the two of them because of the look on Makaio's face and the way that Kekoa is looking at him.

On Halloween night we only went to two houses because we attended a Trunk-or-Treat at our church the Saturday before Halloween. Makaio didn't really care about getting candy in his pumpkin because sitting in the driver's seat of the suburban and playing with the steering wheel was too good to pass up. Kekoa on the other hand loved it! At first he didn't realize that each vehicle would be handing out candy so he kept going back to the same vehicle (about 7 times) before Sterling could convince him to move on. Once he realized that each person was going to give him candy he was in heaven.

Our First Pumpkin Patch

In college I worked on a farm that had a pumpkin patch and other festivities all during the month of October. I loved seeing families enjoy their time on the farm. I don't know if I ever thought that someday I would take my own children to a pumpkin patch but we did just that a few weekends ago and it was so much fun. The boys loved it and even threw a little fit when it was time to leave so I think we will make this a family tradition.

The boys especially loved the tire swings, digging in the dirt, looking at the animals (I didn't let them touch the animals) and the freedom to walk around and explore the farm. I wasn't sure if it was going to be a hit with the boys but since it was free for them, we couldn't pass it up. Here they are enjoying our family outing.

Different Personalities

Today for lunch we had easy and yet not so healthy dinosaur chicken nuggets. However I like to think that I redeemed myself by having them eat cucumbers, applesauce and a slice of cheese as well.

Anyway, the point of this post is to illustrate just how different they are from each other. Kekoa played with his chicken nuggets as if they were fierce animals growling "ROAR" until he bit the head off. Makaio on the other hand took a few bites until it looked like a vacuum to him and then he pretended to clean his tray for the next 20 minutes.

So different and yet so very lovable!

It's What We Do

Since we have now entered the climbing on everything phase the boys no longer view their toy box as the thing that holds their toys but rather as a toy itself. It makes for a lot more cleaning up but as long as they are happy, I am happy.

Funny Little Ones

While driving in the car the other day I rolled Kekoa's window down and not Makaio's. Makaio looked at Kekoa and said, "Koa, close window!"

Makaio has started to touch his penis every time I change his diaper and I have been trying to teach him that he shouldn't do that. Tonight he did it again and I told him, "Makaio, don't touch your penis." He then replied, "Bye penis." Sterling and I started laughing which just made Makaio proud of his comment.

I was being lazy and so the boys and I were sitting on the kitchen floor sharing a bowl of Cream of Wheat. Kekoa kept standing up and I kept asking him to sit down. Makaio must have heard enough reminders because the next time Kekoa stood up Makaio said, "Koa on bum mom said."

Makaio's new thing is to say, "Daddy do it." The other day we were at the grocery store and I was trying to get him out of the truck and he kept saying, "No, Daddy do it." It was such a pleasant day.

Like Mom

In the last post I talked about how Makaio has started to imitate things that we do and how much I love it. Since then I have been really sad that I couldn't think of anything that Kekoa does to mimic us. That was until the other day when I heard him proudly declaring "glasses" over and over again. When I looked at him I found him sporting a pair of Mr. Potato Head's glasses just so he could be like me! That really made me happy that he wants to be like me but little does he know that wearing glasses isn't really all that glamorous. For know I will just let him enjoy the glasses because I enjoy looking at him while he wears them all around the house.

Watch and Learn

Makaio has started to mimic words really well and evidently actions as well. Here are some of the funny things he did yesterday.

1. I could hear him yelling (which is very rare for him) "Share" at Kekoa while they were playing in the toy room. I went in to see what was going on and Kekoa had a bowl that he wanted to play with. So in true mommy fashion he was repeating "share" over and over again hoping that it would get him the bowl. Sadly it didn't work but it was cute.

2. Yesterday after they woke up from their nap I came downstairs and Makaio wanted me to hold him. I told him that I needed to use the restroom but that I would hold him when I was done. He quickly grabbed my finger and walked me to the bathroom. I guess he really wanted to be held.

3. Background: Our pediatrician told us to have the boys watch us use the restroom so that they get the idea of what goes on in the bathroom. I have been doing this for the past month.

Generally the boys just try to unroll all the toilet paper or play in the garbage but lately Makaio has been getting a square of toilet paper and wiping his nose. Did I mention that I obsessively wipe their noses? Anyway, yesterday while I was using the restroom he got a square of toilet paper, stuck it between his legs and tried to wipe.

I can't believe how quickly they grow and learn. I love how they teach me what I shouldn't be doing when they mimic my bad habits. What will they do next?

DIY Because It's Cheap

The boys have really taken a liking to throwing things at each other and so I had to make a toy that they could safely launch at each other's face and cause minimal damage. Because teaching them not to throw toys is much too difficult which is not how I really feel. I figure that boys will be boys and whether I give them something soft or a rock they are going to throw it and more than likely it is going to be at me or the twin. So in order to save myself from another broken tooth or the boys from a black eye, I decided to make some bean bags a couple of weeks ago. The project was simple, I had a lot of fun doing it and in the end it was a lot cheaper than buying them at the store. Here they are and don't criticize them because they are my first set.

Then yesterday while the boys and I were taking a nap Sterling put his creativity to work and made them a "throw the bean bag at this instead of someone else" (that's the official name) toy. He used an old box and created something that the boys really like. Do they always use it for its actual purpose, no. Do they still like to play with it, yes. Here it is.

For the Family

This is the best way that I know of to let the family look at pictures and let me know if they want any prints. Don't worry if you aren't family, you can still peruse the pictures.

A little background, these pictures were taken a couple of days before the boys turned two. As luck would have it, they were both sick and puking but thanks to our amazing photographer we got some really cute ones!