In the month since I last posted we've been very busy with the girls. They are always on the go now, and are very funny to be around. Some of their new favorite activities include:
- reading
- building towers with blocks (Abby enjoys building, Emily enjoys destroying)
- singing and dancing
- pushing furniture around the house and rearranging the dining room
- playing hide and seek around corners
- climbing
- unloading and reloading things (baskets of laundry, toys, blocks, etc.)
- doing handstands and other gymnastics
- identifying body parts (they currently know head, hands, feet, legs, belly, eyes, ears, mouth, nose)
- making animal noises (they know cow = moo, dog = woof, lion = roar).

After Christmas the girls made a fort in the corner with a box. They enjoyed their hideout for days:

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The girls loved their first time playing in the snow:

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A new development in our house is that the girls do not like to know that I (Taryn) am home and not have me in sight. This is especially true for Emily. If I go upstairs and she doesn't, she camps at the gate, usually crying. It has gotten better over the past few days, but for a couple weeks it was nearly unbearable.

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The girls got a toy horse for Christmas that they love jumping on. When they are a little older we can connect it to the TV so they can play interactive games with it.

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Emily LOVES shoes, especially her snow boots.

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They also love to play in things. They have a large tupperware container that they love to sit in and drive around in. They think it's really fun to push each other around the house in it and make car noises.

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Wearing buckets and banging on each others' heads is another favorite activity

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That usually gets a little too violent after a few minutes, though:

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We recently went to Chuck E Cheese for dinner. The girls LOVED watching the show and going on the rides.

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But then Abby decided this ride was scary and she wanted to leave.

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A couple weeks ago the girls got a stomach virus that they shared with us. One morning Byron and I were too sick to prepare a real breakfast and we wanted to minimize the spreading of germs so we got Dunkin Donuts for the girls' breakfast. They had a muffin left over that I put in a bag on the table. We later fell asleep on the couches while the girls played. They discovered the bag on the table. They've realized that they can run chairs into the table from across the room to knock things down that they want. I woke up and thought it was too quiet in the house and found that they got the bag down they emptied it out and played with the muffin all over the floor.

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Though they get into lots of trouble, they are also very sweet. They love giving kisses and hugs. They are big snugglers and are happy to just sit in our laps and be with us. Even though I dislike cleaning their messes, I do have to admit that I enjoy taking pictures of all the things they get into. I will also enjoy sharing the pictures with their children someday and giving them ideas of how to torture Abby and Emily.

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.

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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:

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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.

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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.

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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.

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The girls love watching the washing machine run:

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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:

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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:

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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.

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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:

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Abby being held up by her overalls:

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

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Abby loves to look at you through her legs:

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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.

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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:

Happy 1st Birthday Abby and Emily!

The girls' first birthday has now come and gone. We had a great day celebrating our first year with Abby and Emily on Saturday. We had lots of friends and family come and help us celebrate and we still have more celebrating to do next weekend with some more of Taryn's family!

Emily the horse:

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Abby the chicken:

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Of course the party was a costume party since the girls were born on October 31 (Halloween)! We did a farm theme for the family - Byron was a farmer, Taryn was a pig, Emily was a horse and Abby was a chicken. The girls didn't seem too upset with their costumes and for the most part went about their business as usual, even with all the people around.

Family pictures:

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We started the party with lots of pizza and hanging out - the girls LOVE pizza! Then we sat the girls in their high chairs with their own cakes. Emily was not happy about the cake at all. We tried to put her hand in it but she wanted nothing to do with it. She cried and refused to eat any. We know she likes cake, but she just refused to get messy. Abby on the other hand was a little reluctant at first and then she went crazy. She seemed quite happy with the cake and dug right in, eating it up. She didn't even realize that we had taken Emily out of her chair. After a lot of playing Abby's eye got itchy so she tried to itch it and got frosting all over her eyes. That was the end of that. We cleaned her up and served cake to all our guests.

Farm cake:

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Abby testing the cake:

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Emily not enjoying the cake:

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Abby eating:

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Quite pleased with the cake:

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End of the fun:

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We then opened gifts. The girls got all kinds of great toys and clothes, but they weren't particularly interested in opening them. Abby was more interested in sitting and reading her bible on the floor while Emily was very excited to play with every new toy that was put in front of her. The girls have played for hours and hours with their new toys since the party. They have been having tons of fun playing with everything!

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Abby busy with her bible:

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Checking out a new toy:

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We made two walls of pictures of Abby and Emily from birth through 1 year. Here's the birth - 3 months wall:

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4-12 months:

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Decorations after the party:

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The girls have changed so much over the past few weeks. Their personalities are really starting to develop and they are so much more interactive. One of their favorite new activities is to be chased around the house. They love it when we get down on the floor and chase them and growl at them - they laugh hysterically. Sometimes they turn around and growl back and team up and charge at us!

They are getting good at repeating words. Their favorite words:

- kick
- stinky (their favorite, they usually say it "tinky")
- hi
- mama
- dada (Abby actually says Dad instead. She says it very clearly, it sounds so funny as she overemphasizes the D's)
- cheese (they sometimes say deese instead as they aren't very good at "ch" yet)
- this and that (usually dis and dat - they say these words when they are asking what something is: dis? dat? they like pointing to my rings and saying "dis?"
- Pats (Patriots - they say "dats")
- Hi

I love when they repeat words, but my favorite new trick is when you ask them how old they are they hold their index finger up (1). It's SO adorable!

Abby has taken a recent liking to walking behind their push toy (finally). Something must have clicked in her head because she went from sitting as soon as you put her behind it to running behind it over night. She thinks it's the greatest thing.

We want to thank everyone for coming out to celebrate the girls with us on Saturday. We appreciate all of you - even those who were unable to be with us this weekend - and are thankful that you have been part of the girls' first year! We're looking forward to what the next year has in store for us.

Pictures from the day (the collage is difficult to see on the blog, if you click on it you can see it better):

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