A study in movement

The boys are really moving now! Both are actually crawling. Avery crawled first, but Noah is better at it, and does it more. He also pulls up on more things than Avery, but that is not to say that Avery doesn't get where he wants to go.
Noah's favorite place is what you see in this picture, on the outside of the intellitainer. He likes to cruise around it, pushing buttons, or crawl under it. Man, do they love "under". We are buying them an activity tunnel so they can be under whenever they want.

Here is Avery "under", with a little danger! Luckily Noah wasn't jumping much right then. They love the floor vent you see in the background. We have fenced off the upstairs living room, so it is now one big playpen.

You can see the fence here. Noah will pull up against it, and then give you all of the reasons you should set him free. His only offence is that he can crawl!

They are also SO helpful. Here, Noah helps dad change Avery's diaper. Look at how small he is next to Rich, and yet he thinks he is so big!

They aren't into everything yet, but give them time, they are trying. Noah had a day last week where he helped by showing me everything he could reach by himself, and then he would hand it to Avery. Sigh...but look how happy they are together. I love that they have each other, and every day they notice it more.

When a baby goes shopping...

a baby MUST be well dressed! We have so many cute clothes now, that any occasion is one for dressing up! Sweater vest! Cardigan!

Alaskan Sunrise in December

I took these about 2 weeks ago. The sun was coming up over the mountains (I think I was facing south, I'm never sure. And I know what you are thinking, the sun rises in the east, well let me tell you, not anywhere around the soltices it doesn't) This was between about 9:45 and 10:00 in the morning. Crack of dawn!

Finally, Tennessee!

We left my parents the day after Thanksgiving, visited with Chris and Melissa in Red Oak (near the AR border) until the boys bedtime, and then made the push for Tennessee. By 4am I was ready to start hallucinating! By 6am it was quite obvious we were not going to make it the next 1 1/2 hours from Chattanooga to his moms house, so she met us there, we dropped off the van, and she chauffeured!
Everyone was so excited to meet the boys, especially Nathan. He was ready to meet his "Matthew's". We can't convince him they are nephews.
Rich's brother Ryan and Ryan's wife Becky (here with Noah) were there with Ashley and Benjamin. I was so happy the cousins got to meet, if only for a little while. The whole family met up at the house that night for tons of good food, lots of laughing, and a photo session.

Noah snuggles with Benjamin and Becky

Here we have four generations in one photo. Ryan's family, Us with the boys, Grandma and Pops, Jerry and Curtis, and their kids, Jessica, Nathan, and Emily down front.

The kids were so great with the boys. They played on the floor, gave bottles, sang, rocked, and backed off when needed. I don't think you could convince the boys at this point that they were not one of the big kids. Here Jesse plays with Avery.

Here Emily gives Noah his bottle. They were so great about "sharing" the boys also. They would work out who fed who the previous day and trade babies. It was great.

They boys ate their dinner each day right as the girls got off the school bus, so I would have things ready, and they would take over when they walked in the door. Jess really had Noah smiling on this day, I will e-mail that pic out.

Noah doesn't care who gives him his bottle, just as long as he gets it!

Avery and Nathan were really clowning that night. Avery was still grinning every time he saw the red-eye sensor. Too funny, but when you play hard.....

You crash hard, right onto Grandpa's belly. Curtis's comfy belly, er, chair, was the perfect place for naps.

We made sure to bring the Tennessee pj's with us, so as to support the local team.

While Rich and Grandpa were out, Jerry and I put up the tree, and the girls decorated it. Of course it became a photo op!

But all good things do come to an end. Jerry drove us to the airport in Atlanta. Rich's back had been out all week (he even visited the chiropractor twice) so Jerry convinced the gate agents we needed help getting down the concourse (where did you think Rich got his silver tongue from, anyway?) We spread out our trusty red blanket and played for the hour until our plane arrived. Isn't this picture great? Pure joy from both of them.

A little snack from Grandma, some toys, life is good! The boys really were great travelers. They slept on the way down, slept mostly on the long car rides, and slept part of the way back, but they weren't unhappy when awake on the plane.

Noah talked from Houston to Seattle, and loved looking out the window, which he did for a couple of hours. We made it home, and then began the long (at least it felt that way) process of getting them back on schedule!

Oklahoma Part 3

This is Part 3, Make sure you scroll down and Read Part 1 and 2 first! Ahhh, more of Noah on his sleeping Tour of the south. I think that is his favorite way to sleep, on someone. He doesn't understand why he can't do it at home. So it looks like the tryptophan got him, doesn't it. We had a great Thanksgiving dinner with my parents, Gail and Ginny, and My best friend Michelle. They boys tried sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, and rolls. And that evening, the women went to Michaels while the men (big and little) stayed home.

Look at those happy little boys with Nanny and Papa. My they are super cheesy for the camera.

We bought these specifically for my dad (and Avery was already busting out of his, OY) Someday, he will build a train set for them, right Papa?

There is a picture of my dad at a few months old sitting in this chair like this, they took one of me, and now we have one of the boys. I would like to have them all framed together!

And here are the boys saying goodbye to Aunt Michelle, supplier of so many good clothes. We had a great time in Ok, but just like TX, there were so many people to see and not enough time! Hopefully, it will be slower in April when we come down for the wedding.

Oklahoma Part 2

So that was just Monday. The next day we took the boys to Penny's for their Christmas pics. They turned out really well, Avery cheesed for the photographer and Noah cheesed at the photographer. His tummy didn't feel well I guess, because right after his last pic, and the only one of him semi-smiling, he spit up all down his front. Poor guy. Rich and Daddy took them home while we waited to order pics.

That night we all gathered at Gary and Sally's for a pre-thanksgiving bash. What a ball. The boys flirted with anyone they could see. Here's Avery with Maxie, who is practicing for her own spring grandbaby!

They played with the cousins like big boys. Caleb and Annie reallly had a ball making them laugh. The boys were supporting the Pokes in the midst of all the enemy Sooners, I mean, the family.

We discovered that night that Avery will smile any time he sees the red eye reducer light on my camera. Each time that little orange light came on, a smile lit up his face. We tried many times. Gail and Ginny drove up from Houston and joined us there, as well as my mom's aunt and uncle, Rex and Mildred.

And here are my little Turkeys on Thanksgiving day. I feel it is my duty as a parent to adorn them with silly outfits as long as I can and get photographic proof, after all, some day they are going to try to fight me when I do this!

Oklahoma Part 1

We made it to Oklahoma around midnight on Sunday and Papa and Nanny met us on the front lawn. Excited to see Rich and I? Hardly, babys were taken faster than you could say "Go Pokes"
The boys finally go to meet Uncle Paul and future Aunt Kristen.

Noah found a comfy place to sleep. (actually, if you look through the pics from the trip, its a series of Noah sleeping on different relatives in various states. another blog, perhaps)

Not as many of Avery sleeping, but here he is crashed out on Daddy. Keep in mind, that super long baby is only 8 months old here, and wearing 18 month sleepers.

We went to my mom and dad's respective offices to show off babies, hit the mall for Joe's gear, saw Paul and Kristen's apartmen in Edmond and then went to a get together to meet her family.

Here is Noah pre-sleeping on Kristens mom! For those of you who don't know, Kristen is a twin, so her mom's got the experience :)

Our first week on vacation.

Ok, so it wasn't a full week, but let me tell you, it felt like it. We arrived at the Anchorage airport around Midnight, took off around 1:15. While the passengers boarded (let me tell you, preboard with small children is CRAP. Why even bother) Rich stood in the Galley with Noah. You could just see on his face that he KNEW we had been doing fun things after he went to bed at night! The flights went well, the boys slept most of the time, and ate breakfast sitting on the tray tables. Avery flirted with anyone who would look his way the last hour, and I managed to never change a diaper on the plane. That's what daddy gets for sitting on the aisle.

We stayed with Gail and Ginny the first night. As soon as we arrived a their house, we laid out a blanket and played! Noah displays his yoga skills, and doesn't it look like Avery is break dancing? The boys met their dogs Teddy and Maggie, and then were put in onsies, because it was hot (to these Alaska dwellers).

The next night put us at Eva and Sydney's, after a pit stop at Lee Elementary (where I learned of the demise of my guinea pig :( apparently no one wanted to distress me during my pregnancy, but she was with people who loved her)

The get together at Eva's was fabulous. It was a reunion of our first year team at Lee + Katie! We had a really good time and some good food.

The next morning we drove out to Katy and saw Colletto, Mikki (at Target, too funny) and Krystal and Louis. Krystal, at this point, was a week away from delivering, and looked like she felt it. We found out the day before Thanksgiving that she delivered Nathaniel Louis weighing 9lbs 1oz. I say oy!, but then remember I was carrying 3lbs more than that, but I got to split it into two trips.

You'd think I would be done, but wait, there's more. We hit Lake Conroe that night to stay at Larry and Ann's place at the lake. It felt way out there on dark scary roads, but the house was beautiful and the property was, too.

Sunday, we headed north to Dallas after breakfast. We did the four hour drive with only two stops, one for baby eaten', the other for baby snackin' (which was a good thing, because Avery had a blowout of EPIC proportions) We stayed at Nick and Katies (her parents actually) for the evening, ate Pizza, saw my friend Kara, and rolled around on the floor and played with the boys and little Nick. At bed time, we loaded up and drove on in to Oklahoma, where eager grandparents met us on the lawn at Midnight in pajamas! LOL

Home again

Whoo boy! We survived. Noah and Avery are now quite the little travelers. With our trusty blanket and bag of toys (and FOOD) in tow, we can take over anywhere! We did it in OKC, Tennessee, the Atlanta airport (below) the Houston airport. It feels like we spread that blanket out everywhere. Thanks to everyone who let us. The boys traveled very well for two 8 month olds. We really didn't have any incidents (except for the blowout by Avery between Houston and Dallas, but he is a baby) Noah found his voice on the trip and "talked" from Houston to Seattle, almost the entire 4 hours. I will go into more detail tommorrow. Man, we're glad to be home!