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:)