I took a bunch of pictures for our Christmas card this year. Here are some of my favorites!

The bottom three were on the card.

Happy holidays from Mike, Carrie, Sophie, and Michael!

Why, yes, I am a domestic goddess.

That's the thought that was going through my head as I started taking pictures like this one today:

It all began when Mike woke up not feeling well enough to hit the gym before work. Being the remarkable guy he is, he got our grocery shopping done at 6:00 a.m. instead. Knocking that out in the morning rather than after work made it possible for me to bake a double batch of marbled biscotti today (needed a few ingredients).

Mike headed to work, and I gave Michael and Sophie a couple of toys to play with in their high chairs after breakfast to buy myself some time to mix the dough. Melted chocolate, orange zest, toasted hazelnuts--no scented candles needed today!

Once Michael and Sophie were down for their morning nap, I assembled the biscotti loaves and did the first round of baking and clean-up.

When the babies woke up, I found that Sophie had a fever again (it keeps coming back--teething ?). I gave her some Tylenol, and we all played in the living room and playroom.

When it was time to cut the loaves into cookies and lightly bake them again, I was nervous about how it would go between Sophie not feeling well and Michael's desire to put his crawling skills to use at every moment. I was pleasantly surprised when they sat happily in their Bumbos in the entryway by the kitchen entertained by rattles. I sang and danced for them as well while I worked and couldn't help but think how their giggles have trained some reasonably cool adults to behave in very uncool ways. Michael and Sophie will surely regret this in their tween years.

We played some more once I got the cookies back in the oven, and when the timer went off to take the cookies out, I put Sophie in the Exersaucer and made sure that Michael was engrossed in sucking on and banging blocks together. I grabbed my camera and headed to the kitchen.

I was feeling pretty proud of myself for juggling mommy duties and not completely screwing up my baking project as I took a few pictures of the final product.

Then I peeked out into the living room to check on my little buddies and saw this:

Never a dull moment!

I was thinking that "Double Batch" might be cute name for this blog...if only I had more time to bake!

Christmas, here we come!

With a lost voice and snow on the roads, I felt it was time to take a day off on the Friday one week before the holiday break. I captured this little video knowing it was how my weekend and my upcoming time off was likely to look for the most part.

That Sunday we woke up to major snowstorm. It was Michael and Sophie's first glimpse of a significant snowfall, so Mike and I bundled them up in their snow suits. For obvious reasons, our time outdoors didn't last long.

Poor Soph! I love how Michael is looking at her.

I was thrilled to cap that weekend off with an official snowday on Monday. Four days home with Sophie and Michael was glorious...and a major teaser!

After a few days back to business as usual, the babies' child care center had a Christmas party on Friday evening. Sophie and Michael sat with Santa for the first time, and the center gave us a photo in a keychain (not their best picture, but no tears either!). The center also gave us two children's books, a healthy dinner, and their caregivers--I mean, Sophie and Michael-- gave us adorable framed pictures of the babies in angel wings. Mike's parents joined us for the whole occasion and back at home for the babies' dinner and some play time. The evening was a nice start to our real break!

Ahhhhh, this is good stuff....the thought of these two weeks got me through the last 20! I'm not getting much wrapping or baking done so far, but such is life. And life really is good.

8 Months Old!

Every month I mistakenly think these pictures are going to get easier to take, but it's quite the opposite! Oh, well. Here's the best I could do!

Where's Sophie?

Michael and Sophie have been enjoying blanket time lately. We all play under one like a tent, and they giggle the whole time. Just bringing a blanket out to play with makes them smile with anticipation.

After playing like that a couple of days ago, I noticed Sophie lifting the blanket up covering her face as if she was trying to build our little fort by herself. After repeating "Where's Sophie?" a few times and saying "Peek-a-boo!" every time she showed her face again, we had a new game. Maybe I'm a little biased, but this struck me as pretty smart and independent of her!

She and Michael both tend to freeze up when they spot the camera, so I had to sneak up on her to catch this on video.

Michael has been a milestone maniac lately, scooting on his belly, getting into a sitting position from laying down, pulling himself up on furniture to standing, and now crawling! I haven't caught these tricks on video yet. I have to work on my sneakiness!