Story Time

Today Gracie and Bailey attended their very first library story time. We joined a group called Forsyth Mommies and met up with the group at the library. Our friends Zach and Katie also joined us. I was nervous about how the twins would do but they did great. The story time was very interactive and they loved singing the songs and doing hand motions after each story. We will definitely be adding the story times to our list of outings! Have I mentioned that I LOVE staying home with Gracie and Bailey. I am enjoying introducing them to their "firsts" and we are having so much fun!

18 months

Gracie and Bailey turned 18 months old on 2/02/11. I had a very hard time believing that my babies were a year and a half old! Where did all the time go and more importantly where did my little babies go? So we are big kids now and we are loving being more independent and doing big kid things. We are learning how to eat with a spoon and a fork. I usually put the food on the spoon and they are pretty good at getting it to their mouth. Gracie and Bailey take one nap a day from 1-3 and I love my "mommy time" during those hours. We have become very active in our twins group and other play groups and we usually have about 3 outings with friends a week. Gracie and Bailey continue to sleep in the same bedroom and they are pretty much sleeping around 11-12 hours. Gracie sometimes will wake up and cry a little bit but her brother sleeps straight through it. Mommy and Daddy no longer come upstairs during the night and thus Gracie and Bailey and learned that crying doesn't get a reaction during the nighttime. We love doing new things like coloring. The first couple of times they did try to eat the crayons but now they do art each day for about 10 minutes and will say "art please" while pointing to their crayons. Both Gracie and Bailey can say a couple 2-3 connected words like "more milk please" or "go out Dixie." I was so excited that the twins did not have to get any shots at their 18 month apt.
Gracie weighed 20.6 pds and is in the 5%. She is 31 1/4 inches and is in the 40% for height. She loves pretending like she is a mommy and I have actually caught myself reminding her a couple of times that I am Bailey's mommy and that she is his sister. She is a big help around the house as she loves to help with chores. She hands me all the dishes out of the dishwasher and loves to wipe the front of the kitchen cabinets. She puts the diapers in the diaper genie and follows me with the dust pan while I sweep. She loves to take care of her brother and will bring him his paci, blankie or his favorite books. Gracie has recently has had a "light bulb" moment with puzzles and she loves to all five of her puzzles every day over and over again!
Bailey weighed 24.2 pds and was in the 30% for weight. He is 32 3/4 inches and in the 60% for height. He continues to eat all of his food and whatever Gracie does not eat on her plate. He is obsessed with blueberries and he loves any type of fruit. Bailey always seems to be giggling or laughing at something. His biggest interest now is trains and he begs for me to set up his Thomas the Train track. He likes to carry Thomas around the house with him. Bailey also enjoys music and he likes to play his electric piano and guitar. He will make a drum out of just about anything in the house. Bailey and I have a special "dance time" each day where I turn on his favorite cd and we dance around the house.

One of the things that I love the most about this age is that Gracie and Bailey are really starting to care for one another. They pay attention when they other is sad or happy and they will try to help each other out. They are playing well together at most times but we still have to work on sharing at times. My favorite thing is to watch them hold hands while walking as it is the sweetest thing ever.

Holding hands walking while walking into the playroom

Bailey playing the drums with his cousins

Gracie loves to go down "big girl" slides

Bailey loves to play in the sand

Gracie is mommy's little helper

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Daddy turned the big 30 today! We were very excited to celebrate with him at Grammy and Daddy Bob's for a special Birthday dinner. Preston is the best Daddy ever and he shows Gracie and Bailey that he loves them each and every day. I love when he walks through the door and Gracie and Bailey both go running to him. He is so sweet to always have a special playtime with them while I am cleaning up dishes from dinner. I love the way that he always makes Gracie and Bailey feel like they are on top of the world or at least "on top of his shoulders for now!"

Snow Days

On Sunday night it snowed here in GA and we accumulated around 6 inches. We were so excited to show Gracie and Bailey the snow. As soon as they awoke we took them to the window and Gracie was able to say the cutest little word "snow" you have ever heard. Around 10am we took them out the play and their little legs could barely step out of the snow. We used tupperware bins as make shift sleds since I didn't take my mom's advice "yes mom you were right" to purchase sleds for Christmas. Gracie loved every second of it and through the biggest fit when it was time to come inside for lunch. Bailey quickly discovered that he was not as found of the fluffy white stuff and so I let him hang out and eat fruit snacks in the back of the tailgate while he watched his sister sled down the driveway. Today was day two in the snow and when Gracie awoke she literally went to the front door trying to turn the knob yelling "snow, snow, out, out!" I thought about the day ahead of time because I wanted Bailey to have fun too and so we were prepared with Bailey's snow mobile which seemed to help. Gracie still stayed out longer playing with her Daddy. They went down the slide in the snow, made snow angels, played snow fetch with Dixie and even kicked the soccer ball in the snow. We have loved having Preston home with us these past two days to play in the snow in between his working from home!

Cutest snow twins ever!

Our make shift sleds

Gracie and Bailey's snow castle

Bailey in his snowmobile

Sweet Gracie

Laughing at Daddy being silly in the snow

Our snow puppy Dixie

Imaginations at Play

I found "Imaginations at Play" in Buford on the Internet and I had been wanting to try it out with Gracie and Bailey as it looked so much fun. We were so excited to have Grammy come with us to play. I packed a lunch and we were off. It was great that the center was so close to home and it was fabulous for keeping up with twins as it was completely child proofed which is a big plus. The center had different stations including a "grocery store, art center, backyard patio, music tree, toddler land, vet office, bubble tub, train table, beach and dress up stage." The twins had a blast running from station to station and discovering new things. I think their favorites were the grocery store where they were able to fill up cute little buggy's and the music tree where they played on various instruments. We made Grammy a little nervous when it was time to produce our first painting but luckily all the paint stayed off of our clothing! I am very blessed to have a mother in law who dives right into the fun with her grand babies. If you have little a one then check out the fun at http://www.imaginationsatplay.com

Gracie and Bailey in the music tree

Cooking up some burgers at the backyard grill

Bailey is on a mission with his grocery cart

Grammy and the twins making some art masterpieces

Bailey loving the dumping trucks in the beach sand table

Big Kid Changes

Last night I decided to change Gracie and Bailey's high chairs into "big kid booster seats." I have loved their Fisher Price space saver highchairs and I am so glad that they transform into booster seats. This morning when Gracie and Bailey woke up I showed them their big kid chairs and made a huge to do which included cheering and clapping. They couldn't climb into their chairs fast enough and Bailey started clapping. I recently have been debating about what to do with their room as they have always shared a nursery. I am starting to think about their big kid beds and I am having a very hard time deciding if I want to continue to keep them in their same room or if they need to have separate big kid rooms. It is hard to think about my babies being separated and so hard to think about saying goodbye to their nursery which I love so much. Please pray for our family as we continue with making our "big kid decisions!"

Celebrating our new big kid chairs at breakfast

Celebrating the New Year

This New Years Eve we had Preston's brother, Parker and his wife Nicole over to celebrate and eat dinner. We rushed back from Macon just the day before and I was so overwhelmed with unpacking from about two weeks and trying to figure out how to organize all the new toys/gifts. Somehow we got everything done and we had a fabulous time just hanging out with family. The Dawgs played and although the game wasn't very interesting we still had fun watching Gracie and Bailey cheer on the Dawgs. After dinner the boys played cornhole outside and Nicole and I stayed inside just having girl talk mostly about preparing for Mary Elizabeth's arrival. I love watching Preston and Parker when they get together because it is like they act as if they are literally 10 yrs old again. I think they stayed outside playing until about 2 in the morning! Throughout the night Gracie would point to Aunt Nicole's belly and say "baby" it was the cutest thing ever. She got a little mixed up and started pointing to my belly and saying "baby" and I definitely cleared that one up. It is funny as the new year approaches it seems that Gracie isn't the only one who is questioning us about a baby in my belly. I have alot of friends who had babies around the same time as I had the twins and they all are announcing that they are pregnant again. Just to clear the record...Preston and I are very content with our family of four at this point in time. When I told Preston about people questioning us who are announcing he said "honey they had one, we had two...ask them to ask you when they are announcing their third!" Point well said. At one time I did honestly think we would be expecting by this point in time but I am head over heels in love with having fun with my Gracie and Bailey and want to bask in this fun time for just a little longer. Last year was a blessed but hard, really hard year and Preston and I are enjoying every minute of our time together and being able to do so much more with Gracie and Bailey. With that said...Iam for certain that 2011 will be such a fun year for our family and I can't wait to see what the year entails for my precious family.

The boys "Parker, Bailey and Preston" celebrating a touchdown

Cutest lil Dawg fan ever!

There is a baby, "Mary Elizabeth" in THIS belly!