Officially one year old!

Their 1st birthday was yesterday! Can you believe it??? I wrote this on Facebook:

Happy Birthday to my two sweet angels. They have brought immeasurable joy to my life and now I can't imagine life without them. Sometimes I still can't believe that I was so blessed to get twin daughters. Is this really MY life?? :) I can't believe they've already been in my life a year! I'm taking them to get their 1-year-old portrait in a bit. I hope I get a good one!

As I mentioned on FB, I took the twins to get their 1-year-old portraits yesterday in the outfits I made for them. We had to wait over an hour (even though I got there a few minutes before my appointment), so it was right at their lunchtime when we started taking the pictures. Needless to say, I didn't get the perfect picture I wanted but there are two that I ordered--#1 (with the photographer cropped out) and #14.

Here is a link to the pictures we took:
1-year-old portraits

After eating and taking a nap, Kiki and her kids came over to visit for a bit. The girls had deconstructed turkey and cheese sandwiches for lunch:
And the rest of us each had a piece of the small cake that was left over from the party. Wyatt sure enjoyed his:
Today, the girls had their 1-year check-up. Here are their stats:
Avery=28" long (10-25%), 18 lbs. 12 oz. (10-25%)
Makenna=28", 20 lbs. 4 oz. (25-50%).
I don't know how accurate those weights are, though, because they had just drank 6-8 oz. of formula right before we left for the appt. and they had diapers on.

They each got four shots today! It was SO SAD!!! I actually teared up a bit. It is really heart-breaking for me when they get shots, since I have such a needle phobia. Makenna really cried this time--in the past, they never cried for more than a couple of minutes but she went on for quite a few minutes. She he was fine once we got going in the car but was MISERABLE the rest of the day after waking up from the nap they took when we got home. She had a slight fever and cried every time I moved her. I had to sit in the same exact position for almost two hours at one point. Poor thing. I REALLY hope she feels better tomorrow. Thankfully, Avery was happy as a clam and mainly played on her own all afternoon/evening. A small miracle.

Utah Tassins Christmas gift exchange

We had dinner at Kiki's Sunday night; she made Swedish meatballs, cheesy potatoes, and broccoli.

{Jared fed the girls bottles after we ate dinner}:

{Carma & Kiki}:

{Tim}:

{Avery took it upon herself to start opening one of Nikki's presents}:

{Carma couldn't wait to dig into the peanut butter bars I brought}:
{Jared helped Makenna open her gift from Kiki (a Baby Einstein Take Along Tunes)}:
{Carma opening the princess make-up kit we gave her}:
{Avery didn't need much help opening her gift from Kiki (Baby's First Blocks)}:
{She just wanted to play with the wrapping paper, though}:
{Wyatt loved the Spider Man figure we gave him--it shoots webs!}:
{A rare pic of Judson smiling--because we gave him money, ha ha!}:
{We also gave Nikki money}:
{Nonnie & Carma, who had already tried out her make-up kit}:

It was a fun night!

Full-size digital pics

I had a request for digital copies of the pictures from the sealing day, so I uploaded them to mediafire so the full-size copies could be downloaded. I also added pics from their portrait session and the Santa photo:
http://www.mediafire.com/?edvfle6tpbrcp

If you have any problems accessing the photos, please let me know.

The twins' 1st birthday party!!!

A Winter ONE-derland party
12/17/11 (although their birthday is 12/20)

I made all kinds of decorations (signs, pennants, tissue pom poms, picture snowflakes, paper trees, cupcake toppers, etc.) and food (cupcakes, almond snowball cookies, homemade cream of potato soup, peppermint punch, hot cocoa, popcorn) and special outfits for the twins (decorated onesies, tutus, birthday hats. After getting pics of the girls in their outfits, we all ate and hung out for a bit, then the twins opened presents, then they smashed their cakes (so fun!!!), after which they took a bath. The whole thing lasted just over two hours. Jared's mom and brother hung out afterward for a little bit and his dad came over later in the afternoon and visited for a while before we went to our ward Christmas party; there was a photo booth there and the pictures are supposed to be email to us, so I'll post those when I receive them. To see pictures from the birthday party, go to: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2942488686951.2152168.1403222334&type=1&l=5d188bd0c7 Please let me know if you have any problems viewing them. There are a lot of realy great pics! :)

{Hanging out after the party}:

{The twins with Grandpa & Daddy}:

Santa!!!

My sister, Nikki, came with me yesterday to take the girls to the mall and get a photo with Santa. Avery has been kind of clingy to me lately, especially when we are away from home, so I thought for sure she would freak out when we put her on Santa's lap. But they both just sat and stared at the guy TRYing to get them to smile. It wasn't the Santa photo of my dreams, with two smiling girls, but at least they're not crying (although those kinds of Santa photos are quite amusing).
I bought a CD with the picture on it so, if anyone wants a copy of it (digital or printed), just let me know. I'd be happy to print and mail a 4x6. Same goes for any of their blessing dress portraits or sealing photos. All ya have to do is ask! :)

Crittenden Christmas party

We really missed going to the big Crittenden Christmas parties the past few years, so it was so much fun to be able to attend it on Saturday (12/10). We had dinner and all the kids put on a live Nativity and sang a couple of Christmas hymns. The twins were sheep and were SO CUTE but Makenna wouldn't keep her sheep hat on for more than a second, and she even pulled Avery's off at one point. Here are some pics of the girls as sheep and the live Nativity:

{going for the hat}:

{pulling off the hat}:

{got it off!}:{Daddy put it back on, so she went for it again in the same second he walked away}:
{now going for Avery's hat}:
{the whole scene}:
{roaming sheep!}:

And other random pics:

{Makenna & Gracie}:

{Uncle Jason}:

{Mollie, Tyler & Avery}:{Aunt Cindy, Grandpa Ted & the twins}:

{Grandpa & Uncle Jason}:

{Tyson & Makenna}:

{Jared & the girls}:

{Makenna & Grandpa}:

It sure was fun to see everyone!

Nativity Display

We took the girls to a Nativity display at our stake center last night. The display was in the gym and the dividers were open to the chapel, where a video of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir was being playing on the big screen. The girls were more interested in that than the Nativities:
After we went around and looked at all the Nativities, we sat in the chapel and watched the choir sing for a few minutes, then we went and took pictures in the live Nativity set-up. Jared took "baby Jesus" out of the manger so the girls could see him:
It was just a quick little activity to get out of the house for a few minutes and remind ourselves of the true meaning of Christmas.

The twins' first Christmas tree!

We finally decorated the Christmas tree last night!

{Makenna wasn't sure what to think about the angel}:

{Cleo, our Candy Cane Princess, as it says on her shirt}:
{We had put Makenna in the walker while I took pictures of Avery and Jared and she pulled some tinsel off the coffee table}:
{She ended up dragging it all over the floor}:

{Jared gave the girls some candy cane}:

{Cleo didn't stay there very long, ha ha!}:
{Avery got a ride on the Praia reindog}:

Finally got to decorate the tree as a family like I've always dreamed! [Even if the girls couldn't really help yet.] :)

Merry Christmas, everyone! We love y'all!