Final trip to Londontown

We were in London this weekend for our final visit before heading home. We've had such fun times in London over the past year, thanks in large part to Griff and Julie's hospitality and lovely home. We had a great time with Griff at their house while Julie was, sadly, away in the States. On Thursday Erik and I visited the House of Lords, courtesy of Baroness Caroline Cox who Erik met a few months ago and is a friend of Bishop Ben Kwashi (who is a friend of Christ Church SA). It was a really cool experience to go into Westminster, see the amazing interior architecture (lots of gold, high ceilings, paintings and statues everywhere), sit in the lobby of the House of Lords while different Lords and bishops walked by, and to sit on the floor of the House of Lords for a bit while they discussed and debated.

We were also in town for Rod Green's ordination (Erik and Jan went to the ceremony at St. Paul's Cathedral). Erik said it was a great, and long, ceremony and we went to celebrate with them at their house in East London that evening.

Saturday we went to the Science Museum. It was great. Carter was so excited to run around and see rockets and astronauts and cars hanging on the wall and from the ceiling. The highlight was the Bob the Builder live action show. It was both a performance and an interactive show. We were split into four groups and each group had a job to do to help Bob and Wendy fix something. He LOVED it.

Erik and Carter working and Carter in front of Scoop.

Precious Mason

Picture-taking and Strawberry Picking

A few weeks ago we did our best to take a nice family photo to send to Christ Church in San Antonio to be included in the upcoming photo directory. Pat and Kendra were graciously patient and took multiple shots in and outside of church for us. Carter wasn't exactly cooperative. This was the best we could get out of him. :)

After church, naps and lunch we went with Kendra and Adam to pick strawberries near Port Meadow. It was lots of fun. Carter did a great job of picking and not eating too many. Mason crawled in the straw and ate a few...

Mason -- caught red-handed. :)

For Jess...

The boys in Erik's study room. Carter loves his Mason. Notice Carter's mohawk? We have more pictures; I'll add them later. :)

More pictures

Here are links to other photo albums I've posted on Facebook:

Snakes 'n' Ladders

Spring Fun

Erik's Exams

Spring Fun

OxfordFamilyFun

At long last, some pictures!

I'm embarassed to have neglected the blog for a few months. Here's a link to some pictures I posted on Facebook today. I PROMISE more frequent posts in the future...

Click Here

March Madness

Spring is upon the Twist household, and Oxford! We've had a wonderful month. The bulbs are blooming in University Parks, we've actually had some sunshine and Carter and I took off our jackets at the playground today while we kicked the soccer ball around. Here's a rundown on our month so far. :)

March 1: AUNT JESS GOT ENGAGED! Wedding in Austin, on September 28. Welcome to the family, Uncle Doug! I can't wait to see our boys dressed like little men for the ceremony!

March 2: Mason took his first bonafide crawl/scoot! Some friends were over and the two babies, Mason and Sienna, were entranced with their older brothers, Carter and Harry. Mason was so enthralled that he did all he could to get in on the action and started to propel himself towards the boys.

March 8: Carter turned 3!!!!!! It was such a fun day. We took our family along with Stacy, Luke and Caleb Barnett and our neighbor Lucy and her two sons, Misha and Vanya, to an indoor playing area called Snakes and Ladders. The boys as well as parents climbed all over, played in the ball pits and flew down a huge slide. The boys also got to drive little battery operated motorcycles which was a dream come true for them! It was SO fun! Check out Erik's blog for a short video of the slide ride. Sadly, our computer seems to have swallowed all of the photos and videos from the day. Grrr.

March 11: We took the boys to the Ferry Sports Complex indoor pool and both loved it. Mason is so content to sit with me on the steps and watch as well as be in the middle of the kids' pool among the splashing. Carter put floaties on for the first time and loved jumping to us, splashing and he became increasingly confident in his ability to float on his own (with floaties). Great fun!

March 14: Great news! We heard from the Bp. of South Carolina that we can stay at Jan's house in Massachusetts next year for Erik to complete his Oxford degree work. We are so excited about spending a year in Chatham, near the ocean, near Boston, near lobsters (for Erik!) We will also be able to spend extended Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays with our families. But we know it's going to be cooooold there during the winter!

March 18: Erik, Pat, Kendra and I went to town to see "Luminix," a pyrotechnic installation in honor of Oxford's 1000th (that's right, one thousandth) birthday. It was pretty cool, with different stations of fire on Broad Street and some ethereal music being performed.

March 17-21: Mason has really gotten good at crawling! It's exciting and a lot more work! For a few days we wouldn't really keep an eye on him and he'd just appear about five feet from where he started, without any real crawling technique. Now he can truly crawl and is so curious. He is very interested in the desk area, with the trash can and cords underneath. Carter loves to crawl with him and they like to hang out underneath the kitchen table. Sometimes Mason emerges with a crumb or two... my little puppy. :)

March 20-25: Our dear friend Dave Nichol and his lovely new bride, Sarena, came for a visit! We shared meals at home, went for tea at the Old Parsonage and traipsed around Oxford for a cool and windy afternoon. It was SUCH fun.

March 24: Carter got a much-needed haircut!

March 25: Carter and Daddy made COOOOKIES! (Cue Cookie Monster singing "C is for Cookie" and imagine Carter devouring a cookie like Cookie Monster). :) Carter shaped one himself...

Please visit our family website for more pics!

McDonald's

We indulged today for lunch. Carter had McNuggets, Mason a rice cake and they both had a snooze after. Here are some pics:

He's the Boss

Two nights ago Erik and Carter were playing soccer in the house. Before they could play, Carter insisted that Erik take his hands out of his pockets, take off his glasses, put his shoes on, wear his sweater, stand in the right place and not kick the ball; only Carter could kick (!?). It took about three minutes for him to convey the importance of each of these tasks, for Erik to understand the command and finally follow through. By the time Erik was all situated, Carter had lost interest... go figure. :)

At Six Months

At Five Months

Life and laughing

Carter is hilarious. Really, he is. He understands how to make people laugh and does his best to entertain us. All the time. He LOVES to make Mason laugh. He knows how to tickle him, talk to him ("A-Boooooo!") to get a laugh, he understands that Mason is little and sensitive so he knows to be gentle with him and not get too loud. He was getting great laughs out of Mason the other day just by playing peek-a-boo. Then he said, "Here, Mason, give me five!"

One of his new funny things is to jump on the bed and shout "Coke! Coke! Coke!" Last night he was jumping on the bed singing/yelling a song. It goes like this:

Yeah, yeah, yeah
Mommy is Allison
Daddy, Daddy, Daddy
Me-mace, Mason, Mason
Da-da-da
Yeah, yeah
Gee-Gee, Aunt Jess
PARTY!
Carter on the bed
Mason in his jumpy seat
Yeah, yeah, yeah

We were laughing so hard because while he was doing this Mason was on the floor playing with Carter's trains and Erik was calling him Mason-zilla as he destroyed the train, train track, animals, etc. Everything went in his mouth. Here's how it went:

Carter in the background singing/yelling.
Mason gurgling and eating wooden train stuff.
Erik giving play-by-play "Now I'm going to eat your head. A-ha-ha-ha!" in a sinister Asian accent.
Carter yelling, "Look at me! Look at me!"
Me laughing so hard my voice got raspy and throat got dry.

I love being a mom.

Long-time-no-blog

I'm tired. Life is normal. Two babies. Busy husband. Cold weather. Mason awake two-plus times at night. Carter has a cold. Dirty dishes. Laundry piled up. My allergies are annoying. What does next year look like? Will my floor or bath tub ever really be clean? Can I just wear my pjs all day? Will someone come to cook tonight?

And to think, we can't wait to have more kids!

Woe is me. :)

New Background

For some reason that last template was preventing text from appearing, so I've switched the background. Hope this works better. :)

From Thanksgiving to Christmas

Yesterday was the big (90+ people!) Thanksgiving meal we organized and hosted at Wycliffe. It was GREAT. Somewhere we have a photo of Erik and the other guys carving one of the three 30 pound (!) turkeys we had. The kitchen staff at Wycliffe cooked the birds for us which was so helpful, because one of them alone was about the size of our fridge and in no way would have fit in our oven. The rest of the meal was potluck and we had an amazing spread with all of the traditional trimmings, including stuffing, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie. ALL of the food was eaten, save for part of one turkey that we delivered to a homeless shelter in town. Once I sift through our pictures I'll post some.

While all of the boys in my house are asleep I've just put the lights on our precious little Christmas tree. It smells AWESOME, even though Erik says he can't smell it. Here's the thing about our Christmas tree lights, which I'd forgotten since putting them on last year: in the States, the lights on a string have a plug on one end that goes into the outlet and the other has an inverted plug for, well, you know what I'm saying. Our lights here have a plug on one end and the string of lights is like a loop. The string begins and ends with the plug and there's no inverted plug to connect another string to, so you have to separate the loop and wrap it around the tree. Huge pain in the neck, especially since I didn't distribute the lights properly and had to unwrap and start over. Things are definitely easier in the States.

I hear Mason awake from his nap; both the boys have chest colds and have been under the weather the past few days. Poor little boys were so good yesterday for the whole time at the party despite not feeling well at all. Pray for them to resume their heathy and happy selves.

A Baby Comparison

In the following five posts are side by side (or on top of) photos of Carter and Mason in consecutive months so we can all see how similar -- and different -- they look during each month. In each post Carter's pictures will appear first. On the "three month" post there are two of each, two of Carter followed by two of Mason. Tell me what you think, how they look similar and different and who, if anyone, they look like. I'll try to continue this each month...

At the hospital

Both with their tongues sticking out!

At one month

Look at that mohawk!

At two months

At three months

Two of both because they look so yummy