Welcome Spring!

It's finally spring and we are welcoming it with open arms over here! Bring on all the sunshine and outside. The past few weeks have been a big mix of rain and sun, and we are ready for the sun to stick around (though word on the weather channel is that we are in for more rain this week again). Here's a look back at the past few weeks.

Eric still had basketball until the 13th, so most of our nights and weekends until then consisted of jammie time and couch cuddles. 

We've discovered that Ashley loves Moana, especially when Moana saves the baby turtle at the beginning of the movie. She jams out pretty hard to that soundtrack. 

Brayden loves snack time, and my absolute favorite thing that he does is crawl around the house with his hand stuck in his snack container. If we have cheerios or goldfish for a snack, we end up with crumbs all over the place.

Neither baby is walking yet, but we are getting more and more daring on our transfers between two places, especially Brayden. We always thought Ashley would be the one to walk first because she has shown the most interest, but now we are wondering if it won't be Brayden. We've caught him a couple times standing up not holding on to anything (and when he realizes he is doing this he falls down to the ground). We've gotten both of them to take a few steps between us on their own, but nothing that I would call fully walking yet. I'm sure it won't be long!

We can both sign "all done" pretty well when we are done eating. And I swear Brady's first real word might be "up"- to get picked up to get on the couch ha! I haven't fully committed to that yet, but it's a high contender. We will see how he uses it in the next few weeks before I make it official. They are both using momma and dada so much, but they still use them interchangeably between the two of us at times, so I don't feel confident saying they have those words yet either. 

Madison's birthday was on the 8th, and she blessed us with some beautiful weather. Brayden and Ashley loved visiting her and Ian at the cemetery. 

This month we've started brushing our teeth, and Brady and Ashley both really love it. They usually let me get a good brush in on them before they want the toothbrush and do their own thing.

We've learned some new tricks, including crawling up on the coffee table. They are both pretty proud of being able to do this. They've only fallen off a few times, so I'd call that a success.

Ashley has also started climbing up the rock wall on her own. She can get to the first steps on her own, and with a little help, she can get up to the second row, and from there she climbed up to the third row on her own. We definitely have a climber on our hands!

Brady has also had some climbing fun lately. When it's bath time, I strip them down to their diapers and let them hang out in the bathroom as the tub fills with water. They like to grab their favorite toys and throw them in the bath. I walked around the corner to grab a towel and I hear a big thud. I rush back around the corner to find Brayden in the bathtub, diaper and all, just playing away. Dude couldn't wait two more minutes for me to get him in there ha!

Here's our two little leprechauns on St. Patrick's Day- Eric and I are truly the lucky ones to have them in our lives.

 

This weekend we've spent lots and lots of time outside. We enjoyed toys at friends' houses and baby ducks too! I'm ready for this warm weather to stick around and make some more memories with our little family. 

 

 

 

And in case you missed some slap happy giggles from Brayden and Ashley that I shared on Facebook earlier this month, I'll share it again here, because who doesn't need some baby giggles in their life!

Snow and Fun since turning One!

Well it's been a crazy whirlwind since Brayden and Ashley's first birthday, so I feel like I'm playing a bit of catch up. I haven't really decided how I'm going to do my blog posts anymore now that the twins are one. Will I do them once a week? Every other week? When I feel like it? (I'm going to guess that that last one is what it will end up being, but we shall see I suppose.)

What I do know is that we've had a few jam packed weeks of fun thanks to a weeks worth of snow days and now some gorgeous spring-like weather. 

Let's rewind a little bit back to just after their party. We headed back to Dan and Theresa's for lunch on Brady and Ashley's birthday and got in some more play time with our cousins.

I knew that I wasn't going to have school on Monday the 15th  due to President's day. What I didn't know is that I wouldn't have school (in-person at least) for the whole rest of the week due to some crazy snow! I will say that on my birthday my school decided to go to remote-learning, so I was seeing my students remotely (and Brady and Ashley were going to daycare) from Wednesday through Friday. I think they were ready to get back to see their friends as much as I was ready to get back to work. But we did have lots of fun together at home. 

I love this little collage. Playing peek-a-boo under the kitchen table is one of their new favorite games.  

Honestly, just being in the kitchen at all is a new favorite of theirs. We have really been enjoying our new kitchen helper, and the pots and pans cabinet is our favorite to get into. 

The 17th was my 31st birthday, which we celebrated by putting the kids to bed a little earlier and cooking up a yummy crab leg and shrimp scampi dinner. Eric does spoil me sometimes. I couldn't resist getting a picture with these two right before bedtime. It wasn't in the cute outfits I had wanted them to be wearing, but I'm trying to learn to go with the flow and am thankful I got a picture with them at all. 

That weekend it was finally warm enough to take Brayden and Ashley outside to play in the snow, and I took full advantage of it! First up was some snow fun at my parent's house with my dad. Ashley actually seemed like she was really enjoying herself out there. Brady seemed to enjoy being pulled on the sled. I'm curious what they will think if we get some snow again next year!

We also got some good ol' play time in with my mom and dad as well. 

When Eric got home from his basketball game that afternoon we went back outside one last time to get in a little snow fun with daddy too.

We had our one year checkups on the 23rd. Ashley weighed in at 21.8 pounds  and 29.75 inches long, and Brayden was 26.6 pounds and 30 inches long. There's no way that Brady is only a quarter of an inch taller than Ashley. I will say that neither baby was happy when getting weighed/measured- getting woken up an hour and a half early from their nap and then not getting their cup of milk was definitely our downfall there. Their next appointment won't be scheduled during nap time! Eric and I did remeasure both of them at home with a yardstick (instead of the sewing tape measure I had been using before- which I'm sure caused unreliable measurements since it couldn't be consistent the way I was measuring them for their first year), and Ashley still measured at 29.75 and Brady measured 30.5 inches, which I think it a little more accurate. 

Then this weekend the weather was GLORIOUS and I had to get outside with the babies and soak in the sunshine and warm. So what's a momma to do when her hubby has a basketball game? Call Aunt Yay-Yay of course! She helped me get the babies out to Sam Parr and we enjoyed some fabulous time in the sun. I miiiiiiight have under-estimated how long it would take to walk from the boat docks to the camper park and back, and Ashley was getting a teeny bit hangry. The snacks I brought just weren't doing it for her. Luckily Erin likes to run and volunteered to run back to the van and pick us up. (I think she was probably just tired of carrying Ashley so she wouldn't cry ha!)

I just love these next pictures. When we were walking Ashley reached out to grab Erin's hand. It was seriously the sweetest thing. She would let go, pull her hand back in the stroller, and then reach back out for Erin's hand again. Brayden even started doing it too. You can tell that they love their aunt!

Since then we've been living the good life at home. 

Snuggles on the couch.

Practicing our walking.

And our standing.

Cuddling.

Playing with all the toys. 

And Ashley taking off anything that doesn't belong on your head. Lately it's been Eric's stocking cap, but that can also include glasses or a headband.

These two sure keep us on our toes, and each week they get more and more fun!