Christmas Eve

I thought that I did a pretty good job of restraining myself when purchasing holiday clothes for the girls.  Everything is so cute, it took a lot of will power to not buy every cute Christmas/winter-themed outfit that I saw.  Even with that massive display of restraint, I still ended up with five holiday outfits for the girls to wear over two days.  When you add in the Christmas pj's and Baby's First Christmas Onesies, they didn't end up wearing them all.  It's a good thing that we still have one more holiday party to attend next weekend:)

We traveled to my parents' on the Friday before Christmas.  We had a pretty quiet Christmas Eve playing with the girls and trying to get cute pictures of them in front of the Christmas tree.

Harper on the move

Tannah exploring

The girls with "Mr. Christmas"

Four generations on my mom's side of the family

We took the girls to Christmas Even mass, then we let them open a present, as is our tradition on Christmas Eve.  They weren't so sure about the presents, but they really enjoyed the bags and paper!



Christmas Trees

We put the Christmas tree up the day after Thanksgiving, although it took me at least another week to get it decorated.  And by decorated the tree, I mean that I decorated the top half of the tree because the girls were very interested in the tree.  Luckily, they were very gentle with it and often just sat and stared or gently touched the branches.  It meant that we had to keep a very close eye on them all the time, but it was very cute!

Tannah on left, Harper on right



Tannah was also very interested in the presents.  I had wrapped a few presents for our family photo shoot, and I left those under the tree.  Tannah loved trying to unwrap the presents.

Harper just enjoyed the lights.

I took a break on putting up most of my other decorations because we're still dealing with some serious sleep deprivation, and with two crawlers, I was afraid of getting a bunch of glitter on the floor.  

Merry Christmas

The past week has been very busy between baby colds and getting ready for Christmas so I've been a little behind on my blogging (as noted by Grandpa).  However, I'm on vacation for a week, and my parents are around to help take care of the girls, so I'm hoping to catch up some this week.  For now, I'm enjoying the best gifts I've ever received: these amazing little girls.

I'm feeling incredibly blessed this year, so Merry Christmas from our family to yours!  I hope your Christmas is as wonderful as mine.

Pictures courtesy of Kristal Sherman Photography.

Christmas Card Sneak Peak

We got family pictures taken by Kristal Sherman to use for our Christmas card this year.  The Christmas cards are finally in the mail (I'm fairly impressed with myself for this since I didn't manage to send any out last year).  We had lots of great pictures, so here are a few that aren't on the cards.

Play Time

The girls are interacting with each other more and more every day.  However, their version of "playing together" usually seems to involve climbing all over each other, pulling each other's hair, and sticking their hands in their sister's mouth.  They're very cute about it, but we're constantly telling them to "be gentle".

Eight Months!

My babies are eight months old already.  While I love seeing them grown and learn new things every day, sometimes I feel like times needs to slow down so I can fully appreciate each and every stage of the girls' lives.  I look back at pictures from just a few months ago and wonder what happened to my little babies.  The good news is that they are turning into such amazing little people.  They are happy and thriving and make me so happy every single day.

They are very interested in each other and everything that is going on around them.  Tannah started trying to pull her sticker off as soon as I put it on her.  Then it was in her mouth.  I tried to stick it to the chair behind them, and she turned around and started trying to lick it.  I just can't fool her anymore.

Tannah

Harper

• Both girls are very mobile these days.  Tannah can crawl (and she's pretty fast) and pull herself to standing.  Harper creeps, but gets up on all fours and rocks and pushes herself into a downward dog yoga position.   I have no doubt that she will be crawling everywhere very soon.
• The girls are both babbling away.  Their favorite sound is "da" (much to Wei-Yand's delight), but they also throw in some "ah", "ba", and "la's".  Still no "ma's" (not for lack of trying on my part, but they just laugh at me).
• Speaking of laughing, they love to laugh.  I say "boo", and they laugh.  Harper looks at Tannah, and Harper laughs.  Wei-Yand rubs his face against their bellies, and they laugh.  They are so much fun!
• They love toys that make noise, especially their piano and tea set.  Sophie the giraffe and Mortimer Moose are also big favorites.
• They are in size 9 month or 6-12 month clothes.
• They are in size 3 diapers.
• They sleep from around 7 pm to 6:30 am, but are still generally getting up at least once per night.
• Tannah has two teeth.
• They are both fully enjoying eating.  They are still doing mostly puree's but we've started some finger foods.  They really like puffs, yogurt melts, and bananas.

**Update - Tonight while I was preparing their dinner, I heard "ma ma" for the first time.  It was still just babble, but pretty amazing all the same!

Happy Birthday Grandma!

We hope you had a great day, and we can't wait to see you soon!

Tannah decided to show off her new skill for your birthday:)

Reason #876

why I love having twins.  Watching them interact with each other is AMAZING!  The video is pretty neat, but it was so much better in person.  Harper just thinks that Tannah is the funniest thing ever right now.  It's so adorable to watch her look at Tannah and giggle away. 



I had to take the video from a distance, because they become entranced as soon as they see an electronic device.

Trouble

It started a few weeks ago.  Tannah decided she wanted something that wasn't in reach, and she slowly army crawled across the living room to get it.  Of course, I was very excited and encouraged this.  Wei-Yand (who is infinitely more wise in these matters), said "why are you encouraging her?"  This is going to make our lives much more difficult.  And he (of course) was right.  It didn't take her very long until she was moving across the floor at a rapid speed.  In just a few weeks she started to crawl and pull herself to standing.

We can no longer leave Tannah on the floor if we need to take Harper into their room to change her diaper.  Who knows where Tannah will be when we get back if we try to do that.  She likes to go exploring.

Harper is right behind her.  She creeps her way across the floor and gets up on all fours and rocks back and forth.

A Good Night's Rest

The girls are going to be eight months old next week, and finally we had a night where they both slept all night long.  It was glorious.  They had been regressing a little bit and getting up multiple times to eat most nights, so we had to institute some tough love again, but we all seem to have survived.

I just love going into their room to get them in the morning.  If they wake up first, they let me know by either crying, or sometimes these days by babbling.  When I walk in the door, they are generally on their bellies looking at me.  Then they smile.  If I have to wake them up, they rub their sleepy little eyes, stretch their little bodies, and smile up at me.  I love my happy little morning babies!

Sleepy Tannah in the Morning

Harper woke up before I could get a picture of her sleeping

Happy Babies!

More Thanksgiving

I was very excited when my parents said that they would come visit us for Thanksgiving this year.  Wei-Yand and I had already decided that, since I went to Michigan for my sister's shower earlier this month and we're going there for Christmas, we would stay home to celebrate.  We had pretty much decided to skip the whole big dinner thing and do hot-pot (a delicious Chinese meal), when my parents decided to visit.  We switched back to a turkey dinner, but with the caveat that it would be very low-key.  The girls are keeping us very busy these days, so we didn't think we would have hours to spend in the kitchen.  We ended up with a very delicious, but not too terribly time consuming, meal.  I call it a success.

Luckily, Aunt Brynne ate at her future in-laws' house before coming so she was able to feed the girls.  They weren't too excited about sitting at the table with us, but not eating.

Thankful

I have so much to be thankful for this year, but reasons number one and two are right here.

They have brought so much joy to so many people's lives.  It's pretty much impossible not to fall in love with them.  Since we're starting with this picture, I'm also thankful that I've found a wonderful group of moms to go through this incredible journey with me.  I've met some in Milwaukee and some online, and they provide great support.  In fact, we received the outfits that the girls wore in the picture above as part of a gift exchange.  We also got some adorable Christmas onesies, so stay tuned for those.

I'm thankful for my husband, who is an amazing father and who keeps our household running.  Without him, the dishes would be piled up in the sink and no one would have clean clothes.  He stays up washing bottles after I've gone to bed at night.  I know, I have a keeper.

I'm thankful that I have a loving, supportive family who makes an effort to make our lives easier all the time.  They all came to spend Thanksgiving with us so we wouldn't have to travel.  And they let me sleep in this morning.

Four Generations

We were able to get a picture of me, the girls, my dad, and my grandma while we were in Michigan.  I love this picture.

Wedding Showers

The girls and I traveled to Michigan for my sister's wedding shower last weekend.  We left right from daycare on Thursday and met my sister and her fiance in Chicago.  We stopped to feed the girls and got them ready for bed, then we drove the rest of the way to Michigan.  The girls were little angels in the car.  They basically slept the entire way to Michigan.  They were also so well behaved at the shower.  Several guests commented that they wouldn't have even known that the girls were there because they were so well behaved.  Those of us who know the girls know that they were a little overwhelmed by all of the people, and they were quieter than normal because of that.  They were back to their happy selves after some of the guests left.

The girls got passed around from person to person without complaint all afternoon.

Things That Make Me Happy

Finding clothes that the girls wore when they were teeny in bigger sizes!  It's always a little sad for me when it's time to pack up clothes that are too small for the girls.  They are growing so quickly, and they will never fit into those clothes again.  I've cried while packing up clothes on more than one occasion. 

I've managed to find a few outfits that the girls wore as bitty babies in 9 and 12 month sizes.  It makes me very happy, but also serves as a good reminder to enjoy every day with them.  They grow so fast!

Baby Camo- Then

Baby Camo - Now

 

Ladybugs Then

Ladybugs Now

Monkeys Then

Monkeys Now*

*I really thought that this was the same outfit that we had in a newborn size, but apparently I was wrong.  Oh well, still cute!