Happy Valentines Day!

Fourteen months old!

Every time we reach another month, it's hard to believe how old the girls have gotten! They are doing new things every day. They are both getting really good at manipulating all their toys. They like to take things in & out - like dump out the blocks, then put them back in their container. This seems like a first step in learning to clean up after themselves. I am very excited about this!

Avery finally started crawling on her knees a little bit a couple weeks ago but still prefers army crawling if she has to reach something. But in the last week she's decided she'd prefer to walk everywhere. I think she's going to skip crawling altogether. She's pretty good at it as long as she can hang on to someone's hand. Soon she'll be walking all by herself!

Kara really isn't interested in walking. I guess it's because she's so fast at crawling, she doesn't see the point. She's reached all the milestones before Avery, so it'd be funny if Avery walked first. Kara loves being chased & tickled. She's so speedy, it's hard to catch her sometimes. Her new favorite word is book & she goes around all day pointing at books saying "book, book, book." She also speaks long sentences of total gibberish which is so cute.

Here's some random pics I've taken. It's become almost impossible to get a shot of both of them sitting together!

Look what a big girl I am!

We love trying to grab the camera away from Mama

Kara is almost two inches taller than Avery. I guess Kara got Dada's tall genes.

Finally deciding to crawl a bit

Playing the in & out game

Now they're both at it. They've started to play together more often.

Watch out, Kara's got a bat!

Tasty elephant

Can you say drool???

Captives of the living room

Maybe I can eat my way through...

Mama's interrupting playtime again with that stupid camera

Kara loves bathtime. When she hears me turn on the tub,
she comes flying into the bathroom jabbering all excited.

We like to peer over the house at each other & laugh

Christmas pics

We had a wonderful Christmas and the girls got way too many presents from everyone! They are so spoiled. :) Here are some Christmas Eve pics.

Avery's drowning in wrapping paper! This is my very favorite Christmas pic. So funny!

Getting untangled

More presents please!

Playing with Dada

Of all Kara's presents, she preferred this box top the best

Avery's checking to see if the ribbon's edible

Very cool toy - each block plays a musical phrase using different
instruments depending on which side of the block you choose

Unwrapping presents with Mama

Getting up close & personal with the Curious George jack in the box

First baby doll

Now Kara's tasting the ribbon for edibility. Is that a word? Spellcheck says so

Oh my gosh, are there more presents?

What a mess Uncle Ben made!

The girls both got a baby doll from Gigi & Grandad. They each came
with a miniature bottle. The girls couldn't care less about the dolls,
but they LOVED the bottles. They kept sucking on them all night.

Wow I got a lot of presents!

Checking out our presents from Santa on Christmas morning

The world's most annoying car toy unwittingly purchased by me

Our Christmas stockings

Checking out what's in our stockings

You are a genius

Christmas pics coming soon...

In the meantime, I was reading a friend's blog yesterday and discovered a website that rates a blog's readability. It scans the blog and tells the education level a reader needs to understand it. According to the site, my blog rates at the GENIUS level...

So...congratulations everyone. If you are reading this blog, you are officially a genius! ;)

The obligatory Santa shot

As you can see below, the girls thoroughly enjoyed their visit with Santa. The screaming started as soon as we handed them over. Good times!

Professional One Year/Christmas pictures

The nice thing about having their birthday close to Christmas is rolling two photo sessions into one! The photographer was very talented...he actually got them to smile for him. That's a first!

Our Christmas card pic

Close up of the above picture

A picture of Avery doing her signature "pterodactyl shriek"


Looks like a little angel doesn't she...
but we know better!

Avery decided she wasn't going to pose for a picture
like this, but Kara's turned out really cute!

My little pianists

We have two blossoming composers in our house...they seem particularly influenced by the atonal style of Schoenberg...