Yearly Archives: 2009

Independence Day

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In Great Britain, it’s called “Boxing Day,” in Germany it’s the “Second Christmas Holiday,” but this year at the Vance house December 26th was “Independence Day.”  Yesterday marked the completion of Jenelle’s most ambitious project of 2009 (well, next to having twins): cleaning and organizing the entire house.  Jenelle calls it “The Purge.” 

Being an accountant, Jenelle determined a monetary storage cost for each item that she scrutinized.  If the storage cost exceeded the item’s value (cost_storage > value_item, for those of you who think like that), it was off to the garbage bin, recycle bin, or the Goodwill.  Let’s say that Jenelle kept those three destinations very busy.

After many weeks of work, the result: the house looks like it’s been expanded (or robbed).

Christmas Around the Clock

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Building on a long tradition, everyone in the Vance family receives a new Christmas ornament each year.  Here’s a picture of Jenelle’s new ornament.

Ornament

As the mother of three kids under three, Jenelle thinks it’s the perfect ornament for her life right now.  To better understand why, we should explain that the ornament winds up.  Below is a video of it in action.

Smoothly Roughing It

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Jenelle and Jonathan, reluctant to let their three-kids-under-three status keep them from enjoying the Great Outdoors, decided to take their family camping.  Since this would be the first camping trip with newborn twins, they were reluctant to go certain places.  For example, they were reluctant to go anywhere that would require spending the night in a tent.

Fortunately, in Oregon there are many ways to go camping without a tent and without sleeping under the stars.  (Some purists will assert that this is merely “camping” and not camping, but one should note that most of those purists do not have a young gaggle of girls to travel with.)  So, the Vance family made a September reservation for a cabin at Stewart State Park, which is only a 35-minute drive from their house.

The cabin had a lovely view of the coast mountains.  It also had some simple furniture, electricity and heat.  It proved to be about the right level of camping for the Vance family right now.

Cabin

Although Annika was already an experience camper, she enjoyed new experiences like roasting marshmallows and helping Daddy with breakfast.  She thought her sleeping bag was pretty exciting, too, since it was Mommy’s and it was pink.

Happy Camper

After managing to get some sleep during the night, everyone went for a nice stroller-friendly walk on a trail in the park.

More pictures are here.

They Were Good Little Monkeys, and Always Very Curious

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In November 2008, Jenelle found two infant monkey costumes on clearance at Target.  By this time, she and Jonathan knew that they were expecting twins, and they hatched their costume plans for 2009: the little girls would all be monkeys (i.e., Curious Georgias), Jonathan would be the man in the yellow hat, and Jenelle would be the Woman in the Yellow Hat.  (Literary purists will point out that there is no “Woman in the Yellow Hat” — but don’t you think that the Man gets a little lonely with just a monkey for company?)

So, Jenelle pulled out her sewing skills and made costumes for Annika, Jonathan and herself.

Halloween 2009

Annika’s costume was Jenelle’s crowning achievement this year.  Fortunately, she eventually agreed to put it on.

Annika's Costume

After a photo session, the family set off for a ’round-the-cul-de-sac trick-or-treat walk.  Annika declined to say “trick-or-treat” at any house, but maybe she can do that next year.

After returning home, Annika sat down on the living room floor to sample each piece of her modest-sized loot.  They next morning, she asked her parents where her “snacks” were — but by that time, they had mysteriously disappeared.

Jenelle’s sewing projects were particularly impressive this year due to repeated problems with her Swedish sewing machine, which she inherited from her grandmother (the machine, not the problems).  (The machine’s name is unprintable here because it contains too many consecutive consonants.)  After repeated trips to the repair shop failed to remedy the problems, Jenelle bought a pdf of the machine’s manual on eBay and then fixed the machine herself.  Since then, MIT has offered to confer an honorary doctorate on her, but Jenelle is too tired and too busy to bother with such fluff.

More Halloween pictures are here.

Hail to the Chief

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Sometimes people ask how Annika is handling her new role as Munchkin-in-Chief.  The answer is, she has slowly become more comfortable.  A few days after the babies came home from the hospital, this conversation occurred:

Jenelle: Annika, do you like the babies?

Annika: No.  All done.  Babies go home.

Since then, things have improved dramatically.  Now, Annika gives the babies hugs and kisses, stands an inch from their faces and says hello, and is always eager to help.  Sometimes her help is even helpful.

Annika Holding Her Sister

Hopefully, they can maintain this relationship for at least the next 17 years or so.

Synchronized Sleeping

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This is not a posed photo.  We don’t know how two non-speaking infants can coordinate like this, but they repeatedly do.  Now if they would just coordinate their feeding times.

Synchronized Sleeping

The twins are now just over one month old.  If Jenelle and Jonathan can survive the next 17 years, 11 months, everything should be fine.

The New Arrivals

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This week the Vance family welcomed into the world Clara (formerly known as “Baby A”) and Nicolyn (formerly known as “Baby B”).  The labor was easier than expected, and the babies are larger than expected (both over seven pounds).

The New Babies

Everyone is healthy (but we should note that “healthy” is different from “well rested”).