Twin moments:
*taken 10/3:
*taken 10/4:
Avocado video #2!!! They still don't like avocados! This video is over 5 min. long. If you don't want to watch the whole thing, I at least recommend the first 45 seconds, then from 3:00 to the end. :)
*taken 11/8:
Sleep habits:
We noticed 2-3 weeks ago that Avery started doing this thing when she's put down to sleep where she sticks her tongue partially out and "sucks" the crib sheet or her blanket--like little kittens do! It is SOOOOOOO FREAKING CUTE!!!!!
*taken 11/11:
Makenna has gone to sleep like this for probably 6 months or so--you put her "lovie" by her left cheek and she holds it there and rubs her cheek with it and sucks two fingers of her right hand. Also SOOOOOOO FREAKING CUTE!!!!! :)
*taken 11/11:
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Video Cuteness
Monday, October 31, 2011
The twins' first HALLOWEEN!!!
On Sat., 10/29, my sisters and niece came over and we went to our town Trick-or-Treat Village--local businesses set up booths in a local park and hand out candy to the kids. All of the booths are set up in a huge circle, so everyone just walks around the circle trick-or-treating. It's pretty cool. They had a pet costume contest, pie contest, scarecrow contest, Scales & Tails (showed reptiles and other "creepy" animals), and other stuff but we just did the T-or-T. We all dressed up and had fun trick-or-treating. Here are pics:
This is before we left the house--Super Hero Family! [Makenna as Wonder Woman, Avery as Super Girl, me as Bat Woman, and Jared as Superman]:
Carma as Rapunzel:
At the Village:
My sisters hung out at our house afterwards--Kiki and Carma went home to get ready for a party after a while and Nikki stayed 'til we left. That night, the girls and I (and Nikki) [Jared wasn't feeling well so he stayed home], went to a party at this mansion with Kiki and her family. The house belongs to Kiki's husand's aunt and uncle. The house was amazing and they had the coolest decorations! In the front of the house, there was a pirate cannon that "boomed" and scared people, some kind of scary dog that peeked out of the bushes and growled, a headless horseman statue, a huge pirate ship scene on a screen set up across the road and other stuff I'm forgetting. Inside, there was a skeleton playing the piano, a lit-up life-size talking mermaid on a balcony, and lots of other really cool decorations.
Jared didn't have to work today (the 31st). We just hung out most of the day and he had a dentist appt. in the afternoon. In the evening, we dressed the girls in their costumes and took pictures outside before it got dark, then they took a nap and missed all of the trick-or-treaters. Early on, my visiting teaching partner came with her kids and told me that the circle we live on typically gets ~1200 trick-or-treaters! I had no idea and only bought enough candy for 100 kids. Needless to say, we ran out really early and just turned off the lights and didn't answer the door if anyone knocked. Sad. :(
So here are some pictures of the girls in their costumes, which I made; I love the way they turned out and I think the girls looked SO FREAKING CUTE in them!:
I had so much fun dressing them up. I'm already looking forward to next year, when they will be able to actually trick-or-treat! :)
2nd 1/2 of Oct.
A couple of weeks ago, I started standing Avery up at the couch and their musical table. About a week or so ago, she started pulling herself up. Once she's up, though, she doesn't know how to get down so she stands there and cries. It's kind of funny. I did see her slowly almost do the splits to a sit to get from standing position today, though, ha ha! Here are the girls standing at their musical table on 10/12:
The girls got sick for the first time a couple of weeks ago. Jared had a bad cold that started around the 12th? A day later, Makenna was sick--coughing and chest congestion. She was sick for a few days, then seemed to be better so we went to a cousins' mission homecoming on the 16th. The next day, she and Avery both had the cough and chest congestion. Wednesday morning at 2am, I puked and my stomach felt gross the whole next day. The girls got over their cold but then Avery puked Friday night--poor thing was actually dry heaving. :( She seemed to be fine the next day though and they have been back to normal the past week.Jared's brother came and saw us on the 15th. A lot of you would be surprised to know that we got Chinese take-out for dinner and that I actually didn't hate the General Tso's chicken I had. I didn't love it and I would never choose Chinese over anything else but I ate it. :)
We had a really nice time hanging out with cousins, aunts, uncles, grandpa at the mission homecoming. And the drive through Provo Canyon was SPECTACULAR! I was really sad that I had forgotten to bring my camera that day (been happening a lot lately).
On 10/26, I bought a used high chair from someone on ksl.com. We already had one high chair that someone had given me and I put Makenna in it that day and Avery was able to use the "new" one on the 27th. Here are the girls sitting in the high chairs together for the first time the morning of the 27th (eating banana pancakes):
Here are some pics of the girls eating baby food lasagna with meatsauce on 10/28--Avery rubbed it ALL OVER her face!:
Makenna only got slightly messy (compared to Avery!):
Some fun tidbits:
- The girls often wake up from naps and stand in their cribs facing each other and just "talk" and laugh at each other. Sometimes they really crack each other up!
- When they're playing on the floor, they like to crawl over each other a lot and, whoever's on the bottom, really gets ticked off! Especially Makenna. Avery will crawl over to Makenna if she's sitting and pull on her clothes 'til she makes her lie down, then will "body slam" her--she actually kind of bounces up and down on her! Makenna gets SO MAD, ha ha! I usually have to move Avery to the other side of the room because she will keep trying to so the same thing.
- I ordered the blessing/sealing dresses and received them last week. They fit perfectly! The sealing is this Sat. and the blessing is Sun. I can't wait!!
Monday, October 10, 2011
Check-up & Finger foods
The twins had their 9 month check-up on 10/4. Their 9 mo. stats are:
Avery: 27 3/4 in (almost int he 50th percentile), 17 lbs. 5 oz. (almost 25%)
Makenna: 27 3/4 in. (almost 50%), 18 lbs. 8 oz. (almost 50%!).
They are climbing up the charts so fast! :)
I've started giving them more and more finger foods (besides the grain puffs I've been giving them for a while). I started with chopped bananas last week, then shredded cheese, then canned fruit cocktail (cut up into smaller pieces). It's pretty funny watching them try to pick up all the small, slimy pieces. Here they are eating cheese on 10/5:
And here they are chowing down on banana on 10/10--messy faces, slimy hands, total cuteness:
I started putting these bibs on them, that Aunt Michelle and Uncle Jared gave them, and they really help with clean up after they've fed themselves. The girls just love feeding themselves. This is such a fun age and it is such a joy to see them experience and learn so many things. They are the greatest joys in my life.
2 busy months!!! (cont.)
While we were still at Kiki's, both girls started having problems sleeping all of the sudden--they slept perfectly fine the first week or more. On 8/30, I found out why--Makenna cut one of her top front teeth and it looked like Avery was working on one, too. Makenna's second top tooth came in just a few days later. Makenna also started doing this "plank" thing, which was so funny:
On 9/2, I signed the lease on a new house and the girls and I stayed there over the weekend. That first night in the house, the girls both SCREAMED for an hour straight before finally going to sleep. I was so tired, it was late and I hadn't eaten in 8-9 hours, and it was the first time I was overwhelmed to tears with the girls. Thankfully, they slept the rest of the night once they finally went to sleep.
Jared packed up the house in AZ and headed here Sat., 9/3, with his aunt and got here Sunday evening. We moved everything into the house on Monday, with the help of 2 brothers, 2 BILs, and 2 cousins--and Jared's aunt and cousin helped with the girls so I could do some "directing" of furniture. The next two weeks were spent unpacking and getting settled in. Thankfully, Jared had paid time off those two weeks. However, they asked him to go back to AZ to help and he was gone from 9/18 'til 10/6. So we've only had him home for a few days now and he started back at work last night.
The weather was so awesome when we got here, we enjoyed feeding the girls and playing with them in the front yard a couple of times, here on 9/10:
Here, you can see Makenna's top two teeth:
Makenna does this thing sometimes where she looks like she's doing a photo pose--so funny!
On 9/18, I discovered that Avery had 4 top teeth coming in at the same time! Poor thing. They are still coming in, some faster than others. She seems to be doing really well with it, though. Little sweetie pie. Here's a pic of her on 9/18--I found her in this position during one of their naps--her forehead was pressed up against the crib slat!:
Makenna learned how to clap on 9/23 and she does it all the time now. Avery started clapping about a week later but she doesn't do it quite as much as Makenna.
The twins turned 9 months on 9/20! Can you believe it? Time has flown and they are growing so fast!
On another note, LSU is still undefeated and is #1. It has been fun to watch most of the games with my brother, Tim, and/or sister, Nikki. Kiki and her fam came over for one of the games but Kiki doesn't get into it like we do--she basically just made the food for us and hung out. :) Pics from that night, 9/24:
I had to lower the crib mattresses last week (thanks to Jared's cousin, Valerie, & her husband for coming to help me while Jared was still out of town!). The reason I had to lower them was this (taken 10/1):
She was only kneeling then but it was only a couple of days later that she was pulling herself to standing in the crib and at the couch (10/3):
And Avery started kneeling up in the crib on 10/3, too (she still can't get up to standing all on her own just yet--close, though):
On 10/2, I had a great day with all of my siblings. 4 of us live here in UT and my brother, Ben, who lives in Louisiana was in town and we all got together to watch conference, eat TONS of great food, play games, and tell stories. We made sure we got a sibling picture:
Ben met the girls for the first time on 9/29:
This is what happens when Uncle Ben feeds you:
More pics from our get-together on 10/2:
The girls love watching and playing with Kiki's new kitten; we just have to be careful because Sugarfoot is so young, she doesn't know not to scratch yet:
Makenna & Carma:
Another really long post and I'm still not totally caught up (even after leaving some stuff out)! I will catch up on this past week tomorrow. :)
2 busy months!!!
Wow, has it really been 2 months since I posted?! Yikes! I kept meaning to update once we got into our house and finally got the internet but I was so far behind that I felt overwhelmed with it and kept putting it off. So I'm gonna make myself get it done to day (even if it takes up all of the twins' naptimes) so I can start posting more regularly again.
In the last post, I mentioned that my MIL was flying to AZ and driving up to UT with me. My SIL picked her up from the airport and brought her family to our house for a quick visit.We left Sat. morning (8/13) and drove to Page, AZ and stayed the night in a hotel there. The girls were so happy to be next to each other and play with each other, instead of being in their car seats on opposite sides of the car:
They did so well in the hotel. We were only allowed to have one crib, so Avery slept in it and Makenna slept on the bed with me. Avery went right to sleep and it took Makenna about 30 min. to fall asleep and they didn't make a peep for over 10 hours! Little angels.
We stopped in Kanab, UT for one of the girls' feedings on Sunday and they got to experience grass for the first time (since there was none where we lived in AZ!):
We got to Kiki's house and fed the girls right away--they were apparently starving right to death! My SIL, Laura, brought her daughter over and we all had a nice visit. The girls were enthralled with their cousins. On Monday, the girls even got to take a bath with their cousin, Carma, and they had so much fun:
I was so happy to be able to go to my nephew's (Judson) birthday party on Friday, 8/19. I can't believe he's already 11!!!! The girls had fun being with everyone but they were quite tired by the end of the party. They took some pics with Uncle Timmy and Aunt Nikki:
And had fun swinging on the hammock:
On Sunday (8/21), the girls and I went to church with Kiki's family. Carma looked beautiful in her Sunday dress:
Jared had left the day before to drive from AZ, where he had to stay and work. He was waiting for us at Kiki's when we got home from church. The next morning, we went to Logan and finalized the adoption. It was so special! We were able to take some pictures in the courthouse and outside afterward:
After the finalization, we had a nice visit with the birthmom and her mom and sister. We took her and her mom out to lunch. It was a very special day. Jared left the next morning to go back to AZ and finish his job there for another two weeks. I stayed at Kiki's and continued looking for a house to move into. A funny thing happened at Kiki's--I went to get the girls from a nap and Avery had taken her diaper off and was chewing on it! Eeeew! At least it was just the outside part! I got to go to one of Judson's soccer games and we had lots of fun playing with Kiki's kids. Carma was a great cousin and helped with the girls by entertaining them when they were fussy. Wyatt loves them and was always hugging them--although he does like to tell them "no" and keep certain toys away from them. I think it's a pecking order thing--finally someone he can boss around, ha ha!
I took the girls to Nikki's to watch the first LSU game of the season on 9/3--we stomped Oregon! :) We were laughing at Avery crawling over Makenna:
They do that to each other all the time now. The one on bottom usually bawls. I had left them downstairs in their "cage" one day, with the video monitor set up, and tried to do some unpacking. I was only upstairs for 5 min. when Avery started screaming. I looked at the monitor and saw Makenna on top of her, Avery was on her back. I went downstairs and took Makenna off of her and saw that there was also a hard toy under Avery's back. Poor thing!
Well, this is quite the long post already, so I think I'll end it here and post the rest of it tomorrow...
