Photo Book 2012

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Enjoy a preview of the photobook we made for 2012.

Every Day is Thanksgiving in Our House

Many people reflect on the month of November with thankfulness because of the Thanksgiving holiday. I can honestly say that it is Thanksgiving every day in our house. Recently I read a very meaningful quote that really stuck with me—“What if you woke up today with only the things that you thanked God for yesterday?”

This year we enjoyed Thanksgiving with Aimee, Israel, and three other couples from my Aimee’s and Jay’s work places. It was an wonderful day full of good conversation, food, and laughter. Aubrey and Avery joined us for the meal (twice!) and enjoyed entertaining our guests with their noises and smiles.  

This past month, we enjoyed a long visit with Nana and Grandpa and the girls of course love the extra spoiling. Nana enjoyed proudly showing off the girls when we went out and about. The girls went to their first Christmas parade during their visit. They were easily entertained watching all that was going on in front of them.

For over 6 weeks, Avery has been taking 8-10 steps in a row which I called "toddling"--whatever it was, she was very proud of herself and would clap as she toddled!  Now I would say she is officially walking. Her favorite thing to do this month is jumping on the couch over and over and over again. It never ceases to amaze me that it never gets old! Avery continues to vocalize "momma, dadda, and babbaba." She now waves when we motion her to wave good bye. From time to time, she will do sign language for "please" with repetitive teaching (or bribing with Crispex cereal during playtime!). While Avery has picked up on shaking her head "no" about 2 months ago, she just learned how to shake her head "yes" (sigh of relief!). Avery now has two top teeth that have come through the gums (top right and adjacent tooth on the right) and has two more top teeth that are going to break through any day. She has almost caught up to her sister who has had 6 teeth for over 2 months! Avery's favorite food continues to be bread/butter, hotdogs, grilled cheese sandwhiches, cheese, and strawberries. Avery still enjoys a breakfast and night bottle but otherwise is drinking well from sippy cups.

While Aubrey is not toddling around yet, she sure gets around quickly by walking bethind a mobile toy (stroller or car), crawling, or cruising along furniture. She loves to join in her sister in climbing up the stairs and gets faster at it every week.  Aubrey says the same words as Avery ("momma, dadda, and babbaba") but certainly has her own language outside of these three words. Our sweet girl holds many conversations with traveling in the car, in the highchair, or just playing. I can listen to her sweet nothings all day long (and I'm sure one day I will be listening to a lot of conversation!). Aubrey has been very proud of herself recently because when you tell her to "stick out your tongue," she sticks it out, looks around with a partial smile until we celebrate, and then giggles under her breath, all a while sticking her tongue out. It is one of her proudest moments and we can't help ourselves thinking that it is so cute and funny. Aubrey really loves to play with balls, they seem to be her favorite toy. We are working on verbalizing "ball" and we get closer each week. Aubrey seems to be more attracted to Gnocchi and gets really excited when she gets close enough to petting her--I think she has my love for dogs. I wish I could say that Gnocchi shared the love! Both girls love playing outside and it is always nice to get a little fresh air, especially now while the weather is nice. While both girls are ticklish, Aubrey is more ticklish and has a guaranteed weak spot around her neck and on her thighs sending her into laughter. Aubrey is eating well and enjoys the same food as her sister which makes our life easier.  She too still enjoys a morning and night bottle but has transitioned well to a sippy cup for meals.

While October 14, 2011 is the girls bday, I will always remember December 9, 2011 because it was the girl's original due date. We waited for, dreamed for, hoped for, and prayed for our girls for many years. Whether is be October 14 or December 9 or any date before, in between, or after, we celebrate our miracles and thank God for his many blessings.

Enjoy some photos from every day activities and recent professional shots from this month.

Thanksgiving 2012

You call my name?

All smiles

That's MY daddy!

Momma with her girls on Thanksgiving.

Daddy with his girls on Thanksgiving.

Serious Aubrey....

Silly Aubrey

Clapping hands

Smoochie, smoochie

Pictures for the Month

 

Aubrey and I look very similar at this age.

 

 



Fun times with Nana and Grandpa

All smiles in our Disney World outfits from Nana and Grandpa

 



All fun and games until someone steals my cracker!!!

 

Nana holding Avery at the Christmas parade.

Daddy holding Aubrey at the Christmas parade.

I'm really hoping to take more photos with the girls because I want to capture the everyday moments.

Why do you always want to try to put hats or bows on our heads?! Avery's expression is priceless.

 

One Year Photos in Baby Dedication Dresses

 

Christmas Card Pictures 2012

 

 

Videos Playing Outside



Fall Fun!

October…what a month to remember! It has been my favorite month so far-so many fun memories. We kicked off the month with planning and celebrating the girls ONE year birthday party with family and friends. I loved every minute of creating one special day for two very special girls. On October 21, 2012, many more special memories were created as we dedicated our girls to the Lord at church. We made a vow to God that we will raise our girls with Christ at the center of everything. We rounded out the month with celebrating fall and Halloween. We had so much fun creating memories and capturing some of these special moments on camera for everyone to enjoy.

 

We just love seeing our girls develop their funny personalities, full of so much fervor, love, and giggles. Their joy simply overflows from their hearts and smiles to mine…nothing better than that! Aubrey continues to make strides in motor development and has just recently started being more feisty and stealing toys from Avery now…it is quite entertaining! Although, I can assure you that Avery is not very keen about Aubrey taking over "her" world. Avery continues to amaze us with her physical development as well. I have no doubt that we have a climber on our hands. Her new favorite thing is climbing and jumping on the couches, but most especially loves when we play peek-a-boo popping up behind the couch. Her laughs are priceless. The girls gab quite a bit now and when it is nap time, they communicate for almost an hour sometimes just having a blast gabbing back and forth in their cribs. I love watching them on the video baby monitor seeing and hearing them have the best of times together.

 

Both girls enjoy breakfast, lunch, and dinner—preferably foods that they can feed themselves…and of course, they want to feed themselves the bottle too. We are just starting to transition to sippy cups for meal time to hopefully eliminate bottles sometime in the near future. I’m not sure I will know what to do with not having a zillion bottles out and about (maybe it will be replaced with a zillion sippy cups!). The girls favorite foods are cheese, cheerios, hot dogs (don’t ask how I know that!) and strawberries. The girls continue on breast milk only and most likely will until 18 months or so.

The girls have some favorite times of the day. Early in the morning, they love waking up to see a smiling face on mom or dad.  After breakfast, or any time of the day really, they absolutely love being outside. Their new favorite thing is cruising in  their new Radio Flyer Wagon from Gramma and Poppy. Late in the day, they just love playing in the bathtub . They love to get wet, splash around, steal each other’s wash cloths, and get squirted with bath toys. To wrap up the evening they love the play time after dinner with us a family of four. They have a blast usually jumping on mommy or daddy, furniture, or squealing as they go from toy to toy. Nana and Grandpa sure have spoiled them with lots of toys to choose from! The girls simply find joy in just about anythingJ



Best TWO picture of the month:

 

 

 

(It seems to be a constant struggle to keep anything on Avery's head--can you tell from these pictures?!)

 Look how much we have done this month:

Catch us if you can...we love climbing stairs!

Thanks Nana for keeping us warm on the day we had a cold front...our hooded sweaters are beautiful. Aubrey is making farting noises in this picture.

Grandpa calls us the "Pink Jedi"



Rocking on my guitar.

Thanks Diane for our cute fall outfits...We like to help momma with the chores.

One year pedi checkup.

All smiles...until they saw the sethoscope!

Thank you Rose Family for this wonderful picnic basket...we love playing with it outside.

Gramma--these outfits are so cute!





 

Baby Dedication: October 21, 2012

 Aubrey is grinning from ear to ear int this picture!

One proud mom and dad, dedicating their children to the Lord.

 

LOVE!

 

Fall and Halloween 2012

LOVE that my sister (and her wonderful boyfriend) now live in Houston so we can enjoy them both and they can be part of the girl's lives. Aimee and I enjoying the fall Halloween festival in the neighborhood.

Momma and her baby pup!

Aunt Aimee with sweet lil Avery.

Momma with her two cuddly pups...asking for three to look at the camera at one time is a long shot!

Bounce house time!

Israel with his two favorite pups. Israel gets an award for climbing in with me amongst boisterous children cranked up on sugar.

Hold on...we might get bounced on out of this contraption!

Momma and her sweet big Avery.

Aubrey's first cotton candy.

Avery's first cotton candy.

WEEEE...or so it was supposed to go!

Eating scooby snacks while mom and dad wait in line for funnel cakes and corn dogs at a community Halloween event.

 

 

 

Mom...you get 5 shots...count them 5...and then we are done!

Aubrey wants the big pumpkin!

More fall photos...as if we didn't have enough already! Love these smocks from one of Jay's coworkers-Janeatte.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pumpkin Pictures: 

The girls are looking a little hungry!

Watch this...

Avery is very unsuspecting while Aubrey starts to grab onto Avery's pumpkin...

A little push here and a little push there....

This can only go one direction from here....

Timber!!!

Daddy--come save me...I've fallen and can't get up!

More to come next month!!