Finn in his birthday suit.

The Sprouts have completed their first trip around the sun!

A busy new year

First of all, we want to say that we feel absolutely terrible that we haven't posted to our blog since before Christmas. We don't have a very good excuse except that this family of four has been very busy!

Christmas morning was absolutely wonderful! It was Kai and Finn's first Christmas, as well as the first Christmas in our new house. We dreamed of having a Norman Rockwell-type Christmas morning, but we also knew that it probably would be far from it. In reality, it was about as close to Norman Rockwell as you can get! We had a wonderful time getting up on Christmas morning, opening presents, taking a break for breakfast, and opening more presents. It was pure joy!





Afterward, we packed up the car and headed for Grandmother and Grandfather's house in Houston...more presents, and the first Christmas with Uncle Tyler! We're very thankful that he's a part of our lives.

Christian and I rang in the New Year at home with friends, cocktails, and a fabulous board game called "Ticket to Ride." The babies slept through the whole thing.

Apple eating

About a week after the boys returned to the Early Childhood Lab, they came down with hand, foot, and mouth disease. Really not fun. Then I contracted the disease right as they were recovering from it (it's pretty rare for adults to get it). As if that weren't enough, immediately following hand, foot, and mouth, the boys contracted RSV, which can be a very serious respiratory infection requiring hospitalization and breathing treatments. Luckily, they escaped all of that. However, they're currently suffering from the normal cold, and Finn has an ear infection. Our friends tell us that things get much better once they reach 2-years-old. I'm hoping that's true for the boys.

January was also a big month for Christian and me at work. Christian was having to conduct business at the Art Center without phones or Internet. It's a long story, but after crippling along for a month, Christian finally has phones and Internet again. As for me, a co-worker of mine was fired after making work a miserable experience for a lot of people. Now that he's gone, things are finally back to normal.

So, we hope you can forgive us for not posting to our blog sooner. Things have been crazy around here, but hopefully we're turning a corner. We're setting our sights on Kai and Finn's first birthday next month. We can't believe they're almost one-year-old! It's bittersweet for us. We love seeing their personalities develop more and more each day, but it's all happening so fast.

Kai and Finn on Christian's Birthday

Feb. 12th: 4" of snow fell on East Texas!

Happy Holidays!

The sprouts want to wish everyone peace and happiness this holiday! They are officially home on winter vacation until the ECHL reopens on January 4, 2010.

Kai and Finn gave their teachers, Ms. Melissa and Ms. Abby, gifts of hot chocolate, cider, and holiday sweets today. As it turns out, Ms. Melissa and Ms. Abby had something for them, too! The boys came home with two tumble ball toys. Super cool!

Kai must have had a full and active day today. He conked out at 7:35 p.m. after gulping down 6 oz. Finn is still hanging out and refusing his bottle, babbling "ie, ie, ie," and wanting to bounce on Daddy's lap or anywhere else he can spring off of.

Mommy and Daddy are hoping to enjoy a pizza and a glass or two of cab-sav with no creatures stirring, not even a baby. There are gifts to make and packages to wrap!

Tree hunting

This week was a bit of a whirlwind for the both of us. TGFTW.
Thank Goodness For The Weekend.

Santa welcoming visitors to the tree farm.

Today we went hunting for a Christmas tree. Since we are in "Texas Forest Country" here in Nacogdoches, it was only appropriate that we cut our own Christmas tree! We explored our options, avoiding the tree farm with the genetically modified trees, and ventured out northwest of town to the Diamond K Christmas Tree Farm.

Sarah drove the boys in the Versa, and I took the old pickup to handle the tree. When we arrived, we put the sprouts in Moby wraps and ventured onto the farm. As it turns out, the farm owner knew us. The owner is also the co-owner of the real estate company that represented our house when we bought it. Small towns can be scary like that sometimes!

Finn and Kai ready for a tree hunt!

After a thorough search of the farm, the sprouts decided on the perfect tree for our first house.

Finn and Kai examining the trees.

Watching Daddy cut the tree.

Carrying the tree back to the truck with Finn.

Cutting our own tree and getting the sprouts' photos with Santa are two goals for this Christmas. One down, one to go. When Santa arrives by sailboat at the Houston Yacht Club on the 20th, we'll be there!

...and the dish ran away with the spoon.

Finn with his Nana.

Thanksgiving weekend is coming to a close, and the sprouts are waving "bye-bye" to Nana and PaPa who drove all the way to Nacogdoches from Baton Rouge. We had a fantastic turkey dinner with all the trimmings here at our first house. Prue made the cranberry sauce and managed the turkey. Sarah prepped and cooked the turkey and made the green beans. I made the sweet potato casserole and pureed some turkey and formula for Kai and Finn ... they didn't like it. Fred mowed the lawn.

On Friday afternoon we ventured out for lunch and then went downtown for some culture at the SFA Cole Art Center (Daddy's work), Lyric's Decor and Gifts, and the Nacogdoches Antique Market. It wasn't until we got out of the car again that we noticed Kai received a five-finger-discount on a spoon from our lunch spot!
...and the dish ran away with the spoon.

This morning we got an earlier than normal start due to an early wake up call from two sprouts, who decided to go to bed early the night before! Thank goodness they're cute. Otherwise, 5-something a.m. wouldn't be so manageable.

Sitting up

Finn on Wednesday morning

A new development: the sprouts are sitting on their own! We attended a parent-teacher meeting last Thursday and were given the sprouts' current status according to their performance in the classroom. Both Kai and Finn are on track according to their age. This morning they demonstrated their ability to sit up on their own.

H, A, double L, O, W, double E, N spells Halloween!

Kai's first time in his Keekaroo high chair

Finn playing with Kai's leg on the play mat

What a wonderful day October 31st was! The sprouts were up at 7:30 a.m., a slightly later than normal time, allowing Mom and Pops to rest a bit more than usual. We did bottles, coffee for the adults, cereal for the babies, and were off to the Nac Farmer's Market. On our way to the market, the boys fell asleep in the car and continued to nap when we left the market to drive to civilization (ie. Sam's Club and Target) for essentials like formula in bulk, new pacifiers, and kitty litter. The boys woke up while we were shopping and fussed on the way home. However, once they had their lunch, a walk to the grocery, and a nap, they were ready for HALLOWEEN!
Skeletons!

At 5:30 p.m. we all piled into the car and drove over to see Great Aunt Leslie and Great Uncle Tommy. We also dropped by Scott and Kathy Robinson's house and Scott and Chay's before heading home to feed the children of Nacogdoches organic lollipops from Yummy Earth. Damn those lollies are good!

We were warned that our street was a magnet for trick-or-treaters of all shapes and sizes, but man were we in for a surprise!! Cars and trucks lined the streets from 6 to 9 p.m. Children from stroller age to teen swarmed people's yards. I have never seen anything like it! After the boys' cereal dinner, all four of us sat on the front stoop to greet the ghosts and goblins. Two wolfmen, a handful of punk rockers, a Jon Bon Jovi look-alike, one southern belle, and a kid with a Charlie Brown sheet-ghost costume were among the visitors last night. Afterward, we headed inside, gathered up the remaining candy, moved our spooky pumpkin indoors, unplugged the Halloween lights, and switched off the porch lamp. It was well past 8 p.m. and time for the sprouts' bottles and bed.

Today we're taking it easy. Hope everyone had a Spooktacular H, A, double L, O, W, double E, N!

November 1st morning

Booo!

Halloween is here, and the boys are ready! They've worn their "Frightfully Cute" ghost onesie and "Teething Bites" bat onesie to school a few times over the last few weeks, but today they get to go to school in costumes! Thanks to our friends Chay and Scott, the boys have skeleton onesies! Grandmother Cutler found them black tights, and I just finished their caps. They were so much fun to make! I used some white t-shirt material for the skulls, a black t-shirt from a now defunct scooter shop in Atlanta, and some random buttons we had lying around.

On Saturday we plan to take the boys over to a few friends' homes to go trick-or-treating. I hope they fill the sprouts' sacks with formula and baby food!
Skull caps!

Fun Saturday in Nac

Finn at the Nac Farmer's Market with his favorite custom onesie maker, Michelle Cox
Dr. Gregory "The Texas Cheese Man" slicing us some delicious jalepeño pecan cheddar
Holding hands on our evening walk

On the mend

This was a good week that followed a worrisome couple of weeks. Finn's and then Kai's sicknesses weighed heavily on our hearts and took tolls on our energy levels. On Wednesday morning we took Kai in to see Dr. Huggins. We were fit into her schedule because Kai's earache seemed to be very slow to clear. Kai was given a thorough exam and the thumb's up was issued! Kai could return to school! He's still a bit stuffy in the nose, but on the mend. Both boys seem to be finished with this round of sickness. If this is the way it's going to play out (one gets sick, passes it to his brother, gives it to one of us...) we have a rough road until kindergarten. Supposedly, kindergarten age is when kids tend to catch less or resist more.
Kai with Hannah Grace and Campbell

Ill baby and Threadless mystery solved

Good news first: James Hughes gave the sprouts their Threadless T-shirts! I contacted Threadless customer service and they contacted James. James, in turn, let us know via Facebook that he was behind the gift. Here's Finn in the arty monster T.


Bad news: Kai is sick. Sarah and I called the doctor yesterday morning when his temperature reached the scary level of 103.9! After a treatment of Motrin and loads of sleep yesterday, Kai seemed to be on the road to recovery. Last night, however, he was very fussy, feverish, and obviously in pain. This morning we called the doctor again, and she came into her office to see him. The doctor discovered that he has an ear infection and an ulcer on his throat. He's on medication now and napping. He's eating fairly well, but he's not drinking much at all. If we can't get him hydrated today, then we may have to check him in to the hospital to receive fluids.

It is so tough to see a baby in pain. They have no way of telling you what hurts, and when all the medication knocks 'em out and alters their mood, all you want to do is hold them... even if your arm goes numb and cold due to the weight!

Surprise package

Threadless T's

We received a surprise package this week! Someone sent Finners and KaiKai t-shirts from our favorite t-shirt company! But who done it? The packing slip had a note from the giver that reads:

"It might take a few more months for the boys to grow into these, but I thought maybe they could use some silly non-matching clothes. You know... to like assert their future identities as rockers/artists. All my best!"

Who sent use these AWESOME shirts!?

Picture day

Last Wednesday was picture day at the SFA Early Childhood Research Center where the sprouts go to school. On Tuesday evening, when we picked up Kai and Finn, the teachers reminded us that picture day was on Wednesday morning. That evening, after the boys' dinner, we got them ready for their baths. This is when we received another reminder about picture day:

Needless to say, we remembered to dress the boys for picture day! Kai and Finn wore their tie onesies, custom made by Michelle Cox of made-by-michelle. They looked so cute! Little did we know that the photographer was going to lay them down for their photo shoot. That was fine. Kai and Finn were two of the only infants of the infants, toddlers and other wee ones to not freak out in front of the camera and lights! Their photographer father is SO proud!
Top: Finn the playboy, Kai the goof.
Bottom: Finn: "Hey!", Kai: "I'm cute."

Overdue post about the sprouts!

We have been delinquent. There's no denying the fact that we have not posted to cutler.sprout in over a month. As Kai and Finn mature, so has their daily routine. They are sleeping less during the day and more at night. This is great for parents who need their batteries recharged with a decent night's sleep, but bad for finding time to blog!

News to report: The boys, especially Kai, have found their laughs! We discovered baby giggles in Houston over Labor Day weekend when playing with the boys. We'd scoop up Kai and raise him into the air over and over again. This produced strengthened hamstrings for Daddy and giggles from baby! Check out the video below of the boys' encounter with their babysitter's dog on the SFA Native Plant Center walking trails:

Bumping into the Robinson family on the trails

Recent portraits

Kai
Finn