Christmas Round One!

Today, we headed up to Gettysburg to our Aunt Anne and Uncle Dave's to celebrate Christmas with extended family.  We ate lots of food, hung out with family, and opened LOTS of presents!  As always, our children were spoiled with gifts and lots of attention.  Andrew thoroughly enjoyed himself...which is not surprising at all:)  Paige was a little overwhelmed but did enjoy her new toys and exploring more Christmas decorations.  She is OBSESSED with Christmas trees.  She finds them everywhere we go and stretches both hands in the air and says "Ree" when she spots one!  Here is a glimpse of our first round of Christmas...

Andrew LOVED his Santa hat!

Paige focused on opening her presents:)

There were so many presents they didn't know which way to turn!

Paige showed everyone just how big she was...

And Andrew went around searching for hats.

Paige found another tree.

And they both loved watching Daddy load the car.

Except Paige liked Andrew's window better - see her hand shoving his head:)

And we all squeezed in!

Christmas is truly more magical with our two most precious gifts of all:)

It's The Most Wonderful Time of Year!

Last Saturday morning we had our big visit with Santa:)  We left super early with the hope of avoiding crowds and getting there right before they opened.  Even with our excellent planning and early departure, we still waited over 45 minutes!  But the kids were great in line.  And we got our picture.


Attempt #1



Attempt #2

 There were no smiles.  But there were also no tears!  Overall, it was a success.  Even though we aren't super thrilled with the pictures, they sure did look cute in their outfits:) And they were super excited to be festive...



Paige showing off her dress at lunch after!



And Andrew thinking he is hot stuff in his vest:)

We are so looking forward to Christmas with our one year olds:)

Entering the Toddler Stage

Where did our babies go?!!? Our teeny, tiny preemies now look and act like toddlers! Their personalities are blossoming.  They are talking up a storm. And we are really getting sturdy on our feet!  Andrew is definitely walking...EVERYWHERE!  Paige is just starting to be brave enough to take a few steps.  As soon as she gets the hang of it, she will likely surpass her brother as she has more patience and therefore, better balance.  All Andrew wants to do is run!

Paige officially has three teeth on the top and five on the bottom!  She has completely transitioned to whole milk and is eating almost everything.  Andrew also requires teeth brushing, with four on the bottom and four on the top.  They are both babbling like crazy and really try to imitate specific sounds.  They both try very hard to say "dog" when they see Kodi and Paige walks around looking for her "dolly."  They are truly a delight:)

Andrew did have some difficulty with his transition to whole milk and we eventually aborted the process and are now starting over with soy milk.  It seems as though his reflux recurred with nighttime discomfort and more vomiting than we've seen in a long time.  This unfortunately also set us back in our overnight progress and we are now getting up several times a night again.... Paige is sleeping in the guest room again as we try to work with Andrew on staying in his bed all night.  We're all exhausted but its so hard to get mad at that cute little face...even at 3am:)

13 months!

SO big!

Sunday afternoon shopping:)

Paige's first steps to Nana...and Andrew cheering her on!

Big kid car seats!

The hat Andrew refused to remove:)

Check back soon. Our holiday fun has just begun...and we have Santa pics!

Thanksgiving at the Beach!

We celebrated Thanksgiving this year at Nana and Papa's house in North Carolina.  The weather was perfect and it was so nice to simply be away for a couple days with the kids.  They actually did pretty well in the car for the six hour trip.  We timed our traveling with their bedtime and went through the nighttime routine before getting in the car.  They slept great until we had to get gas... The way down was a little more rough, as there was pretty heavy traffic and we had to stop for gas with an hour and a half still left in the trip. The way home Saturday night was a breeze and we made it 20 minutes from home before we needed gas and we were all awake and ready to escape from our seats!

Thanksgiving day was spent with our family and our family friends that also live in Wilmington.  Andrew's Godfather, John, is part of that family and was in town with his wife, Molly, so it was great to get to see them, too.  We had perfect weather, fabulous food, and wonderful company.  Andrew thoroughly enjoyed his Thanksgiving feast.  Paige, on the other hand, was exhausted and done with the chaos and had no patience for trying new things. Maybe next year:)

Paige's and her turkey headband:)

Andrew learning how to fry a turkey with Daddy:)

Paige and Meghan were joined at the hip and are best friends:)

Andrew and his Godfather, John

We had lots of fun, including chicken fights!

We ate ice cream by the beach...

Had fun at the park...

And even climbed the trees:)

The weather was beautiful!

It was sad to come home and get back to reality....although I think the kids were happy to be back to "normal" and sleep in their own beds.  Only one month until Christmas...which we're so very excited about!

Saturday Fun

We had beautiful weather on Saturday and decided we needed to get the kids out of the house to enjoy the fresh air.  We went out to lunch....which is proving to be more and more difficult:)  And then headed to a Tot Lot in Old Town.  Not ideal, as it was in the city and small, but we've had a really hard time finding places with infant swings!  And believe it or not, this was their first park experience - I guess we're neglectful parents!

Loving the seesaw with Daddy!

And riding along with Mommy

Paige loved the slide!

But we HATED the swings...after all that effort to find them!

Banging on the slides was probably our favorite activity...

We explored in our backyard, too, and crawled up and down the hills.

Andrew even practiced taking some of his FIRST STEPS!

We carefully watched Kodi run all over and get in trouble:)

And loved all the leaves and fall weather!

Yes, you read it right.  Andrew is taking several steps at a time!  Jack accuses me of "false advertising" by saying that he's walking.  But he's testing his limits and walking small distances from object to object. We definitely have some work to do with our balance though:)  Paige is standing alone and just starting to understand the stepping forward concept, too.  It won't be long before we're ALL RUNNING!

One Year Pediatrician Visit

This past week, we saw our pediatrician for our one year check-up.  We haven't been there in several months (knock on wood that we continue to be infrequent visitors!) and they were all shocked to see how big they were and how much they are doing!  Andrew weighed in at 20 pounds, 11 ounces and was 29 inches tall.  Paige weighed 19 pounds, 9 ounces and was 29.5 inches tall.  For the first time, they plotted very easily on the 12 month chart!  They told us at the very beginning that we should be caught up by 18 months....this didn't seem possible for a while, but now it really does.  The next six months should be a lot of fun:)

The visit included four shots for each of them, which they were none too happy about.  Paige did fine with them but Andrew ran a fever the next day, slept a bunch, and was super cranky and wanted to be held all the time.  He was fine by the second day though.

They are both really starting to understand what we are telling them and are beginning to follow directions...if they feel like it:) They love to throw their hands in the air to tell you they are "SO big!" and they think giving high fives is hysterical!  We are really enjoying this age and are amazed at how each day they seem to do more and more.

Dancing to his favorite song - I Just Can't Wait to be King!

Drinking her "tea" and making silly faces:)

Trying on the hats we got for our birthday...

And promptly taking them off:)

Starting to find my balance and take some steps!

LOVING my baby dolls...

And giving them lots of "kisses!"  Poor baby doll looks like she's getting mouth-to-mouth:)

Working together to tear apart Nana's kitchen!

They sure are keeping us busy but they couldn't make our lives any better:)

First Birthday Celebration!

What a birthday these two had! The party was a complete success and we didn't have a single meltdown! Despite very minimal morning naps, they both were wonderful and I think the chaos and excitement kept them well entertained and happy:)

Our day started out with birthday breakfast.  Here we are in PJs and crowns!

The birthday boy!

And our birthday princess:)

The balloons were a bigger hit than breakfast...

We had a pumpkin themed party!

With fun decorations!

Yummy festive food!

And everything pumpkin!

Including the cake!

Here is Paige's birthday entire:)

Andrew had a similar shirt but was too interested in the beer bottle to show us...

While everyone was arriving, they found a present and decided to start opening on their own.

At first we weren't too sure about the cake.

But then decided to start digging in!

Especially Andrew!

He LOVED the cupcake!

And needed a bath before presents!

Paige was a bit neater as per usual:)

Wardrobe change and presents came next. Paige just wanted to eat all the wrapping paper!

And we finished up with pumpkin cookie favors!

They are two spoiled kids - this is about 1/3 of their loot!

They sure had an amazing day!

And watching them get so excited over presents was SO fun!

We are so fortunate to have had so much love and support over the past year.  Thank you for all the birthday calls, emails, cards and gifts.  We are overwhelmed by all those that thought of us on Saturday and couldn't have made it through the last year without all of you!

Happy birthday to our beautiful babies! We love you!