12 Months/1 Year Milestones

Wednesday was the twins official first birthday!  It is hard to believe that one year ago we met these two little people for the first time.  Neither Ben or I can imagine our lives without them.  We can hardly remember what life was like before we had kids.  And we wouldn't trade it for anything!

Here are some of the highlights from the past month:

We finally made the sippy cup transition!  We are off bottles completely and couldn't be happier.  We wisely used the time that daddy was home over Christmas break to dump the bottles completely.  This was an easy transition for Savannah, but took several days for Joshua.  Our next goal is to get them to hold the cup themselves (we know this is long past due, but they still have a hard time holding the cup up to drink out of it).

They are now eating solid food for three meals a day and are starting to make the transition to whole milk.  I am still struggling to find healthy finger foods to feed them now that they want to feed themselves rather then being fed.  We get lots of fruit and veggies every day, and they continue to like EVERYTHING that they are given!  Now that they are feeding themselves, they are getting quite messy three times a day instead of just once... which means bathtime is becoming a regular occurrence.  We have transitioned them out of the baby tub and they LOVE having the space to play while we are washing them.  They are also quite skilled at turning the tub off and on, and they love standing up to turn the knobs for us (keeps us on our toes!).

Savannah continues to take steps between objects (or people) but is not doing a lot of walking in between.  She also loves being on her feet and is constantly pushing the furniture around.  In her mind everything is a push toy, and she gets very frustrated if I push something against the wall and make her work harder to pull it out! She loves to hold my hand when I am walking around or carrying Josh and gets so excited when I let her hold my finger to walk around the whole house!

Joshua spends much of the day standing now and will walk behind objects and when holding our hands.  He has started crawling with his feet flat on the floor and only a slight bend in his knees.  Since he likes to carry toys around, he has his bottom in the air and one hand helping him walk along the floor while he drags whatever he is playing with him.  It is definitely amusing to watch!
One of his favorite toys is his guitar and he is getting really good at standing and playing with it in his arms. 

We had our 1 year appointment (and a shot, boo!) this morning and here are our measurements:
Joshua: Weight- 18lbs 8 oz; which is 4%
     Height- 30 inches; which is 14% (It was very hard for them to measure both babies this time since they wouldn't stay still!)
     Head Circumference- 54% (they measured three times and it measured smaller than his last appt... so we will continue to monitor and make sure it is growing appropriately)

Savannah: Weight- 19lbs; which is 21%
     Height- 29 1/2 inches; which is 59%
     Head Circumference- 62%

Josh & Savannah's First Birthday Party!

On Saturday we celebrated the twins first birthday!  We were lucky enough to have both Ben and my families visit to share in their special day.  We did the party the weekend before Aunt Beka and cousins Tyler and Kristen went back to school so that everyone would be able to come.  My parents and Teresa's family came in the Wednesday before to spend some time with us during their Christmas vacation. We had a great time showing everyone our new house and the twins (after the initial shock of "new" people) enjoyed having lots of different people to play with.

Ben's parents and sisters arrived on Friday, and we surprised him with a small birthday celebration of his own since he will be having a birthday the day after the twins! 

We decided to have a small family party this year for a multitude of reasons... the twins don't know any different (: , daddy was going to be on the road a little while, and we don't know a ton of people in Tennessee yet!  Daddy chose a Mickey/Minnie theme for the kids party and it turns out that HIS second birthday party was a mickey party as well :-)  Here are a few pictures of the twins special day!

I made the twins outfits for the day :-) I was please with how they turned out!

My mom with my little dancer!

Ben's mom with Joshua

All four of the aunts :-)

Our amazing babysitter came to the party as well!

My parents and the twins!

Ben's parents with the twins!

Our family of four!

The house was definitely quiet after everyone left on Sunday, and Josh and Savannah had a very clingy day... but we are happily back to normal and missing all our family and friends who were here to spend last week with us!

Happy New Year!!!