Christmas Time in Lufkin

Those of you who know me, understand my passion for Christmas. I love everything about Christmas. The giving and receiving of gifts, parties, food, decorations, time away from work, etc. makes the season absolutely amazing. This Christmas was especially memorable because it was our first with the boys.

I left work for the holidays on December 14th. That meant I would have almost three weeks away from work to hang out with Jennifer and the boys. Let's just say that I was really excited and ready to get away from work and spend that many consecutive days with my new family. Jennifer and I started the holiday here in the Woodlands. We spent that entire week, just the four of us, getting the boys on the most amazing schedule. They were still waking up to eat during the night, but that is expected because Jennifer is still breastfeeding. It was usually only once and compared to the amount of sleep we were used to, only once is a welcomed occasion. The only kicker is that if the boys stagger it just right, then it still feels like you are up all night. But again, only once is a welcomed occasion. Our days start @ 7 a.m. regardless of how the night before went. During this week we were getting them up at 7 and then playing for about an hour and a half before we put them down for the "morning nap". Those of you with children know the morning nap and love it for many reasons. If they were good the night before then you can use this time to attack your chores for the day. If the night before sucked, then you just curl back up in bed and get an extra two hours sleep. My first week at home we had the morning nap lasting about 2 and a half hours! After the morning nap is when we would run our first errand for the day. This included trips to the mall to see Santa and finish up some shopping as well as trips to the grocery store, home depot, etc. All you had to do was make sure they were home within 3-4 hours so you could feed them again. Once we got back home, we would put the boys down for another nap that was lasting almost 2 hours. Upon conclusion of that nap, off we would trek again. The list of destinations was the same. We would get home from our second outing and put them down again for what we refer to as a "SNAP". That is parent talk for "short nap". During this nap was when dinner would get started and preparations were made for the evening. Let's just say that it was one hell of a week. We were both well rested and looking forward to our time in Lufkin with family and friends.

If you want to "f" up a newborns schedule, the quickest way to do so is travel with them. The boys are now in that stage where you can really see their personality starting to show through and they are also more aware of their surroundings. Before they kinda just sat around and didn't let the activities around them affect their way of doing things. Now they become engrossed in their surroundings and will not, for whatever reason, sleep through anything. Some babies will just close their eyes and go to sleep if they are tired. Mine force themselves to stay awake and look at everything that is going on. I think they get this from their mother. This means that the importance of nap time is multiplied exponentially because if you have ANYTHING to do, then you better have a good nap before hand or they will make the experience much less enjoyable. Well, when you travel with a newborn, then everything is new, so they DON'T sleep. We were in Lufkin for three days and did not have a single nap that lasted for longer than 45 minutes. Remember that we were having 2.5 hour naps just a few days before. That would have been bearable if we were still only waking once during the night. They both averaged about 3 times per night while we were there. Let's just say that sleep was definitely not the them for Christmas 2007. However, the theme was definitely "Family and Friends". We got to see so many people that you just can't see very often because of distance, family commitments, jobs, etc. The best part was that not only did we get to see them, but so did Cooper and Caleb. Jennifer and I have plans to keep this tradition alive, so just go ahead and plan on us coming to visit soon. They may not sleep while we are there, but we will get some good pictures.

The original plan was to come home on the 26th, but once the Christmas activities were completed on the 25th we hightailed it our of Lufkin back to The Woodlands where schedules can be very easily maintained. Sure enough, once we got home, they settled in for about an hour and half nap followed by a night of only a single wake-up. Then today the naps started to get longer. Let's just say that it is going to be a long time before we travel again!

All that being said, Christmas was amazing. Thank you all for the gifts, well wishes and time spent coming to visit. We look forward to sharing future holidays with all of you and if we cannot keep checking the blog to see how they went.

Famous People Who Wear Helmets!

Well, we went to see Dr. T again yesterday and our suspicions were confirmed that Cooper would require a helmet to fix his flat dome. Even though Dr. T works for the UT Physicians, I thought he was really nice. My guess is that some parents have issues with the concept of a helmet. He made sure that we understood there is NOTHING wrong with Cooper, his dome just needs a little help getting round and not the triangular shape we have going on right now. Just let me say that I have no issues with the helmet. I have already started researching stickers and themes to decorate it. As you may expect, it WILL be Aggie themed!

Due to the negative connotation that helmets may have in our society today, I decided to point out two very powerful, successful and developmentally sound individuals who proudly wear helmets.

Peyton Manning

This 10 year NFL veteran has proudly worn the helmet of the Indianapolis Colts for all 41,220 yards and 303 touchdown passes during his career. This New Orleans native attended the University of Tennessee until he was selected first overall by the Colts in the 1998 NFL Draft. Peyton's crowning achievement was his victory over the Chicago Bears in the 2007 Super Bowl where he was named the Super Bowl MVP. Cooper is proud to share the distinction of wearing a helmet with Peyton and hopes to one day achieve accolades similar to those of Mr. Manning in whatever avenues Cooper chooses to pursue.

Lance Armstrong

This 7-time Tour de France winner exemplifies the importance of wearing a helmet. Throughout Lance's long, illustrious career his helmet has saved him from serious injury on numerous occasions. Oh, and did I mention that each of Lance's Tour de France wins came after surviving a battle with cancer! Again, Cooper has chosen to take the example set by this individual who wears a helmet and use it as motivation to succeed in his endeavors. I am certain that one-day I will be writing about Cooper's successes and remember the role-models he chose based on their similar choice of head-gear.

For those of you wondering about Caleb, Dr. T said that while his head is starting to show signs of flattening, there is no need to proceed with a helmet at this point. This is really good news, however Caleb has chosen to model himself after Peyton and Lance as well. In fact, the selection of these individuals was a group decision made by both Cooper and Caleb. After the Doctors appointment, Jennifer and I sat down and talked to both of them about the importance of this decision. Peyton and Lance were unanimous decisions based on hours of deliberation!

One Crazy Day

The holidays are always a crazy busy time of year. The shopping, christmas parties, family responsibilities, etc. can get pretty stressful and overwhelming. Taking all that into account, just think of how much more difficult it all becomes when you have twins! We may have come to our wits end today as you will soon see. The act of getting out of the house is quite an ordeal, but necessary to maintain sanity. After the morning nap, we ventured out of the house to have the boy's first picture with santa taken! Would you like to see a picture? Too bad. Our copy is going into a bank safe to be released when the boys turn 25 because it must be made of gold. As we walk up and see the INSANE prices, we notice there is an option to just buy a cd with the ONE picture on it for 20 bucks or so. (Keep in mind each picture is around 15 bucks) So of course we go with that option. Thank goodness Matt Seely had the foresight to inquire about a photography release form so we could have them printed at Walgreens. Santa's elf informed us that there was no release, no photo institution would print the picture, and this was just an option so that you could look at the (one) picture on your own computer. What? Ok then....we will take the two 4x6 and one 5x7 for 30 dollars, please. So lesson learned. Next year, ask Santa for a gift certificate to visit him at the North Pole. Are you reading this, Gran? So, until the picture is released from the vault, here is a picture of the boys on the way to see santa. Can you feel the Christmas Spirit?

So when we get home, we take the boys in for their nap and I go pick us up some sweet tea. I get home and the car has every door open and the trunk is popped. I panic and think we have been robbed. I run inside the house only to find everything is ok- he just forgot about all of that. Well, we decide to venture outside again and head to walmart. Of course, we walk out only to find everything still open on the car and animal prints throughout the ENTIRE car. After I make Matt Seely search the entire car for rabid animals (I am picturing a Chevy Chase Christmas Vacation-esque squirrel situation driving down the road) we head on down to Walmart. Of course, Caleb hasn't pooped in 2 days and decides to do so driving down the road. So I take him into the walmart bathroom only to find he has pooped all over himself. His legs, tummy, back.....everywhere. Oddly enough I am not the least bit agitated since I have been waiting on this poo for a while. He then puts his foot in it and manages to spread it all across the changing table. Oh well. It's a changing table in walmart. I am sure this isn't the first time this has happened. We go on to have an enjoyable trip to walmart and proceed home only to find that we LEFT THE FRONT DOOR OPEN. Not unlocked, WIDE OPEN! Again, poor Matt Seely is sent in to make sure there are no rabid animals lurking in our home. Check back in for an update on our Christmas Tree that made it up tonight!

Uncle Mike's Big Day

As most of you know Uncle Mike is a big fan of education. So much so that he recently completed his third degree program from an institution of higher learning. We just found out recently that the ceremony was going to be this past weekend. Knowing full well the dangers of taking two newborns 40 miles down the road during nap time, we loaded up and headed to the festivities. Everything was going great until we pulled out of the driveway. I don't know if you have ever tried to get out of the Woodlands @ 12:30 on a Sunday, but the Church traffic is pretty bad. We first tried to go down Research Forest and quickly realized that was not th ebest plan of action. So we turned around and tried to go down 242. Again we were grossly unsuccessful. Cooper proceeded to scream bloody murder as we sat in bumper to bumper traffic for about 30 minutes. Keep in mind that at this point we are only about 2 miles from the house. We actually didn't get to I45 until almost 1:15. The ceremony started @ 2 in Downtown Houston. Once we got on the road it really wasn't that bad. Both the boys fell asleep and we made pretty good time. But we still had the fear of how the boys were going to handle the crowds and extended time between naps during the ceremony to keep us on our toes.

We made it to the Hilton Americas and into the ballroom where the ceremony was being held @ 2 p.m. exactly. Gran, Graddad, Great Granddaddy and Aunt April had saved us seats close to the door. We sat down as the faculty was processing in to the ballroom so we were just in time. The boys sat in their car seats for the first 15 minutes or so and did really well. We noticed they were getting a little squirmy so we pulled them out and put them in our laps. This was an ingenious move because now they could look around and they LOVED IT! Both of them were looking around taking everything in for the entire ceremony. At one point, Jennifer had Cooper laughing out loud so much that everyone around us was paying him more attention than the Dean and the key note speaker.

Once the ceremony had ended, the Law School had a reception for everyone that attended the graduation. This was one of the coolest things I had ever seen. There was probably 1000 people that attended and they had enough food and booze to take care of everyone. We couldn't stick around long enough to enjoy it, but I am sure it was well received.

Just a few pics to get you through the weekend

As I mentioned in my first post, one of the things I look forward to everyday is when Jennifer sends me pictures of the boys. Those of you who know my current work situation understand the lengthy commute I have. Normally that means I am up and gone before the boys wake up and don't make it home much before they have gone to bed. But don't worry, I get plenty of quality time trying to get them to sleep each night:)

Here are the pics that Jennifer sent today:

I mean seriously, how is that not the cutest thing you have ever seen. My plan is to have some serious posting material in the coming days because we have a big week planned now that Daddy is on Christmas vacation. Be looking for pics of the boy with Santa and plenty of pics of the boys with Gran, Granddad, Mema, Papa and the rest of the gang.

See you soon!

An Introduction to The Seely Family

Welcome everyone to the Seely Family Blog! As most of you know the past year has been pretty special for me and Jennifer. We have bought a new house and two new cars. Oh and in case you didn't know already, we were blessed with the two most beautiful baby boys God could have created. It definitely has been a pretty crazy year, but my plan is to use this blog to keep everyone up to speed on the day-to-day activities of the Seely Family!

Cooper and Caleb joined our family on July 17, 2007. They were born at St. Lukes Hospital in The Woodlands. The past few months have been crazy busy and I don't even know where to start. I really wish that I started this blog much sooner because there are so many things to share. No use dwelling on that because if the amount of pictures I have been sending over the past few months is any indication of the amount of posts I will be making you guys are in for quite a treat.

Right now our days are pretty standard. During the week, the boys go down around 7 p.m. On the good nights we don't hear a "peep" out of them until the next morning. I think we can still count on one hand the number of "good" night we have had so far. The thing about twins is that they both have to have a "good" night at the same time for it to really matter. Case in point, one of them is crying right now and I need to run in there. Hold on . . . Alright, I am back. They really are great babies. For about the past 2 months, they have been going down for good about 10 p.m. and we normally will have to get up at least once to eat.

The boys wake up at 7 a.m. everyone morning. Normally I am out the door before they wake up, but a few days a week I stick around to watch them wake up. It really is amazing watching their little faces light up when they realize it is time to get up and play! Jennifer has them on an amazing schedule. Depending upon their mood, they will stay up about an hour and then it back down for a nap around 8. That schedule is pretty consistent for most of the day. My favorite part of their day is picture time. Each of you should be aware of the number of pictures we take because I email them out about every two weeks. If you are not getting them, just leave your email address in the comments section and I will add you to the list. Like I said picture time is my favorite because I get pictures like this one and no matter how bad the day has been, my eyes just light up.

Jennifer really is amazing. Take today for example. I get home from work about 6:30 and she is sitting at the kitchen table addressing our Christmas Cards! After taking a quick look around the house, I realized that the kitchen was clean, the living room was picked up and our bed was made. Keep in mind that she did all of this in between caring for two infants!

Well, that is really all I have for right now. Keep checking the blog to keep up with the our adventures.