The Bear Progression

1 month

2 months

3 months

4 months 

5 months

6 months

7 months

8 months

9 months

10 months

11 months

12 months

Babies' First Birthday!

Well, we kept 2 kids alive for a year!!!
We celebrated their birthday on Saturday
at my parents'  house and it was a blast!

Jim made sure that I made them each their
own cake (not a cupcake) and for the sake
of a good mess, it had to be chocolate on chocolate!

Tissue paper flowers that I made for the party!

As usual, we had a big group assembled!
We'll use any excuse to BBQ and hang out!

Annabelle stared at hers for a minute
before she realized what to do with it:)

Evelyn had nearly fallen asleep right before this
and it was all she could do to pick up her cake
and eat!

It was worth staying awake for a few
extra minutes!

Cutest birthday girls ever!

Jim decorated their cakes! He did a
pretty good job!

It was like a giant popsicle for Onnie!

Such entertainment!

More baby adventures!

We recently decided that we live in one of

the most beautiful places, and rarely take

advantage of it, so we're going to start

hiking around Central Oregon and checking

off our adventures!

Hiking Club-Week 1: Smith Rock!

It wore miss Annabelle out!

Having these packs makes it nice with babies,
and they love being carried like this!

This is a normal occurrence now.....finding my
kids exploring places they probably shouldn't!

A couple pics from Easter.
We had a great time at my parents
The girls entertained us all!

Evie playing us all a lovely Easter song!

Annabelle is such a joyful little lady

And we all know this one is too:)
Look at her new chompers!

11 months!

As you can imagine, taking these pictures
is getting increasingly harder! The girls
won't sit still for 2 seconds anymore and
they get mad when I try to make them!

Little miss Annabelle is a joyful little lady!
Always in a good mood, unless she has the flu,
which she got twice in a month, poor little thing!
She just got her first tooth!
She is crawling everywhere and pulling herself up
and walking along furniture.  She loves playing
peekaboo, and gets genuinely excited when
she sees her sissy each morning!

Evelyn is into EVERYTHING!
She is constantly moving, and is usually the twin
that discovers the new thing, and then Annabelle comes
over to check it out too! She loves to talk.  She says "Hi"
all the time.  She looks at you with this cute little face and
says "Hi"  Hi dada, hi sissy, hi kitty and we're working on
Hi mama, of course:) She only says my name if she's sad.
She has 2 teeth and is such a delight!

There's that cute little face I told you about!

And her joyful demeanor!

Some little hair things I made.
Had to capture it before she ripped it out:)

Let's face it, babies don't tend to leave
things on their heads, but I still waste my
time making them!

Beach Trip

The girls are 11 months old! Will post
official pictures soon.
Here they are, playing a duet
Both girls LOVE music!

Here are a few pictures from last weekend.
We took a trip to the coast for my dad's
birthday and had the best view from our window!

We broke out the tupperware for the
girls to play with.  Who needs toys?

The gang. Can you tell by my hair how windy it was?

The joy of twins!

Most of my posts are updates on the girls, but I realized

that I rarely share what it's like to have twins! The past 10

months have been the most amazing adventure that I have

ever embarked on, but I forget sometimes that having

2 kids at the same time isn't normal! People always say

"Double Trouble," and while there are hard moments,

I don't view it that way.  Here are a few reasons why

having 2 at a time is actually pretty nice!

People have a hard time remembering when their kids

first crawled or walked or got teeth, but I have a constant

comparison right in front of me.  They often do things 

around the same time.  I also think that when they see

each other getting into things that they aren't able to,

they figure out how to stand up real quick to catch 

up with their sister!

The tricky things are the things you would expect,

like getting 2 kids to sleep through the night.  We're

still working on that.  Evelyn sleeps 12 hours and

Annabelle sleeps 4 or 5 hour stretches. 

Oh, and there's double the diaper-changes, double

the feedings, double the sicknesses (they always share these)

but the bottom line is......it is truly DOUBLE THE JOY!

Jim and I absolutely love having twins! These girls have

changed our lives for the better and we'd never go back!

Here is Annabelle's awesome stepping abilities.

She really goes  for it!! Both girls are crawling 

and standing themselves up on furniture.

Jim has joked for months about Evelyn being our 

softball player and Annabelle playing classical music

or something.  Looks like Evie wants to impress Dad!

Here's another beautiful thing about twins! Your 

kid has a constant companion! When I just want to

relax with a glass of wine on the couch, I can, because

the girls love to play together!  They are just getting 

out of the smacking each other in the head stage

so it's relatively safe now!

So this is where the "Double Trouble" thing
comes from.  As I'm posting this, the girls
decide to open my everything drawer and
go nuts! I have learned that when all is quiet,
all is not well!

They're best friends! How cool is it that
they get to go through all the same stages
in life together??

10 months!!

Our beautiful ladies are 10 months old!!

They have changed so much over the

past month....so much personality

coming out!  They are such an incredible

blessing. Every day is better than the last.

Annabelle crawls everywhere,
but not traditional crawling.....more like
army crawling

Annabelle has also become quite possibly

the happiest girl ever.  She squeals with

delight over nearly everything, and kicks 

her arms and her legs with excitement!

Getting them both to sit still without
hitting each other or crawling away
was pretty tricky!

Evelyn has had a busy month.
She claps, says hi and Mama, crawls,
and is now pulling herself up into standing position

See......I'm a big girl!

Both girls were very excited to get Kiki
and Poppy back from Australia.  2 weeks
was way too long!