It's Christmas Eve, so I figured I'd write a quick update to wish you all a great Christmas and to post a few pictures before I flood you with pictures of the girls in Christmas dresses and other Christmas pictures.

The biggest news since the last update is that we got a whole week to ourselves in Antigua (Caribbean) without the girls! Byron’s parents watched the girls for the first weekend and then my mom kept the girls 24 hours a day all week…I can’t believe she didn’t go insane. We went down with our friends Justin and Lisa Grant to Sandals Antigua. I’ve become addicted to yearly Sandals vacations since our honeymoon to the Bahamas. I would like to continue the tradition of taking a vacation as a Christmas gift to each other every year (until the girls are a few years older then we can bring them too). Byron isn’t feeling the same way (due to cost, not lack of fun). Maybe I’ll win the lottery or something to keep feeding my addiction. Most of our week was spent diving, lounging by the pool or beach and eating but one day we did a tour of the island. This is at a place called shirley heights that has great views of Antigua.

From update 3

Though Abby has been standing and taking a couple steps for a while now, Emily decided that it was time to catch up while we were away to punish me for leaving J. The girls often have standing competitions. One will be standing and the other will come over and stand and start dancing or showing off in some way. It’s really funny.

On Saturday we cut the girls off from bottles cold turkey. The doctor said to do it by the time they were 14 months old, so we decided that Saturday was as good a day as any. They were very upset for the first two hours. Abby sat crying at the bottle cabinet crying and saying “baba baba”. Emily didn’t really seem to care. They went for a nap mid-morning and woke up quite happy with the sippy cups and haven’t really looked back since. It was a really good transition. I expected it be a multi-day fight, but I was very wrong.

At about the same time that we took away bottles, Abby seemed to mature a lot. She suddenly prefers to be very independent. She doesn’t really want all of our attention any more, rather she likes to play and do her own thing while checking to make sure we’re still around every so often. This development combined with the transition to sippy cups made me realize that I don’t have tiny babies anymore which made me a little sad, but excited to know that it won’t be long before we can do all kinds of fun things together.

We went to get Christmas pictures done, but they didn’t come out very good, so here’s what we went with instead:

From update 3

Last night the girls had a little dinner picnic on the floor with their booster seats. When they were done eating I let them out of their chairs and started to clean up. Unfortunately I forgot to pick up the bowl of green beans during my first trip and Emily found them. She dumped them over her head and Abby quickly made her way over. They had a great time picking them off of each other, eating and throwing them everywhere. When I saw what had happened I decided that the damage was already done so I might as well get a picture.

From update 3

From update 3

Then, then next night I was making dinner and turned around to find the girls playing in the lazy suzan like they usually do, but this time they emptied a box of cheerios.

From update 3

From update 3

The girls have been sick this week. Emily has been fairly lethargic when she isn't getting into trouble. She lounges on her couch just resting a lot.

From update 3

The girls love watching the washing machine run:

From update 3

Again, have a great Christmas! I'll update you all in a few days with pictures of the girls all dressed up.

The girls have been keeping us very busy lately. They are always on the go trying to find something fun (usually dangerous, messy or in some way mischievous) to do. Two of their favorite activities are climbing stairs if they find an open gate and getting into the bathroom if they find an open door. Sometimes things will get very quiet around the house and they we'll hear a sudden burst of giggling and squealing. That is almost always a bad sign. It usually means they're half way up the stairs or they're playing with the toilet.

They love to play in the clean laundry:

From update 3

This video is really old (probably 2 months old now), but it shows how they get into everything:



Even though they are a handful they are awfully cute and loving. Abby has come to love back rubs and scratching. She'll plant herself on her stomach at your feet expecting a back rub. She'll do it on the tile kitchen floor, wood floors, carpet...she doesn't care. She just loves having her back rubbed.

Emily loves to get hugs now. She is completely capable of standing on her own but she only wants to when she's going to get hugs and cheers for doing it. It's really funny.

The girls had a second birthday party with Taryn's family a few weeks ago. Here's Abby celebrating:

From update 3

From update 3

At the second birthday party they got some great gifts including a drum, xylophone and ball that they play with all the time. They also got a little princess couch. They love to sit on it, but sometimes one will claim it as her own (most often Emily) and will throw the other off and kick her as she crawls away. She'll then sprawl herself across it.

From update 3

Though they can be violent they also take care of each other. A few days ago Abby fell and was crying. Emily went over to her and startred rubbing her arm, head and back. It was SO cute.

One Saturday morning the girls were up early so they spent the morning with us in bed. They were very happy to snuggle:

From update 3

Abby being held up by her overalls:

From update 3

Emily dressed up as an 80's baby with a leotard, tights and leg warmers (she thought it was AWESOME):

From update 3

Abby loves to look at you through her legs:

From update 3

From update 3

The girls got new sneakers last week (Adidas Sambas which were the coolest sneakers when I was in 6th grade - they've made a comeback) and Emily loved them. Her first reaction was to hold them up in the air to celebrate and then she snuggled them for hours.

From update 3

People are often surprised when I tell them how silly Abby can be because in public she's very serious. Here's a quick video of her being silly with Byron:


Emily thinks it's funny to be pushed by the vacuum cleaner: