Update

I am so behind. Darn! Life has become increasingly busy these last few months, and I'm not sure how. Either way, the girls are growing and changing more and more. I finally decided to visit this poor neglected blog and give some updates on what Avery and Harper have been up to.

14 Months

(11 months adjusted)

Avery

• This girl is so close to walking! She wants to sooo badly. The most she's taken is about 6 steps before she loses her balance. She's been cruising for a couple months now but hasn't had the courage to take steps on her own till the last few weeks or so. I'd say she'll be walking in about a month. 
• Still feisty as ever. She continually snatches toys, bows, whatever Harper has in her hands. But the second you say, "Avery!" in a stern voice, she'll look at you, smile, then try to hand you whatever she took from Harper. 
• She also knows remotes, phones, laptops, my glasses, etc are off limits, so if she gets caught with any of them in her hand, she'll hurry and try to give it to me. Like she's saying, "oh, I was just getting this for you. Here you go!". Little stinker.
• Constantly moving. She is into EVERYTHING. I used to like to let them roam around the house and explore, but now I have to close most of the doors because they've gotten into trouble. 
• Still loves binky's. She always has at least one in her hand or mouth. 
• Is super into throwing things. In her high chair she'll throw food on the ground and watch it fall. She throws things off the couch, out of her crib, etc, then she'll laugh.
• Loves being chased. She'll be sitting on the ground and Chad or I will say, "I'm gonna get you!" and she'll quickly dart away and crawl as fast as she can till we get her. It's absolutely adorable!
• Adores her grandpa Pearman! If he leaves the room, she'll follow him around and she'll cry if she cant find him. She lights up and gives her little wave when she sees him. It's so sweet. 
• Still only has two teeth. I'm nervous all her teeth are going to come in at the same time to catch up! 
• Such a happy girl! She can be kind of a brat, not going to lie, but she is constantly making us laugh with her clever antics! She is going to be trouble...
• Has no fear! I worry a little about her haha 
• Loves to jabber. Says mama and when we tell her to say "dada" and says "BABA!". Not quite, but we'll take it ;)
• Favorite foods include: grapes, avocados, bananas, oatmeal, greek yogurt, cooked carrots, chicken, cheerios, cheese and green beans
• Least favorite foods include: peas, turkey burgers and pasta

Harper

• I've said it once, I'll say it again. She is the sweetest little girl. Honestly, she is such a joy. She has her dad's mellow demeanor. 
• Definitely a mama's girl. And I love it! She follows me everywhere and always wants to be held. It can be tiresome, but I can't help but be flattered! 
• Loves books. Oh goodness, it's the sweetest. She'll sit in the corner with books all around her and jabber in her quiet little voice as she turns the pages. It melts my heart every time!
• Still my smarty pants. She'll get her bows and try to put them on her head. She'll try to brush her hair with her comb. She'll grab her shoes and try to put them on. She is constantly aware of what is going on and I can see the wheels turning in her head. 
• Has learned to fold her arms when we kneel to say family prayer. And she's so proud of herself! Still working on it with Avery...
• Still adores Avery. She's constantly laughing at her, following her around, sharing her toys with her, etc. It's a good thing she's so calm and patient with her sassy sister!
• Can walk SO fast if we hold her hands, but is a little nervous to try on her own. She'll take maybe 2 steps, then slowly lower herself to her bottom and crawl the rest of the way. We'll keep working on it!
• Loves measuring cups, bowls, spoons, tupperware, etc. 
• Is constantly pulling things out of drawers, boxes, wipes, whatever she can find. She doesn't look at them, just pulls them out and throws them. Her favorite is the dish towel drawer. She can pull those towels out so dang fast! Then when they're all out, she moves on. 
• Also a busy body! I'm surprised she's as chunky as she is! But we love it :)
• Kind of a scaredy cat. Doesn't like swings, being up on your shoulders, being thrown up in the air, slides, anything. I can't say I'm surprised, given her personality. 
• She carries around a burp cloth everywhere she goes. She also has to sleep with it. She likes the way it feels on her face. It's so cute seeing her love something so much!
• Also only has the two teeth. I think another one might be breaking through soon. She's been a little fussier than normal and isn't sleeping quite as well. Love that baby Tylenol!
• Favorite foods include: crackers, mandarin oranges, bananas, toast, chicken, turkey burgers, and pasta
• Least favorite foods include: avocado, grapes, carrots and peas, but she'll still eat them reluctantly ;)

Both girls are currently wearing 12 month clothes, and size 4 diapers. But only because I ran out of size 3 and had size 4 on hand. They're a bit big, but meh. They are down to one nap a day (darn) which they take around 10:30 or 11:00 and sleep for about 2 hours. They are usually in bed by 7:15pm and sleep till 7:00am. They get up, drink some milk, then go back to bed till around 8:00 or 8:30am which is lovely :)

They love to play together and cause all kinds of trouble! They love going on walks, which we do almost everyday. They truly are so much stinkin' fun, I can't even handle it. Honestly, they are my best buddies and I love that I have the privilege of being able to hang out with them everyday! 

One Year Pictures!

I know most of you follow me on Facebook, so you've already seen these. But here they are anyway!

Cuties.

Christmas 2013

We celebrated Christmas with Chad's family a few days before we went to Utah, and unfortunately I didn't take any pictures. BUT, we got some awesome stuff! Including a new SA-WEET Nikon camera! I love it. It has so many awesome features including two sick lenses, the capability to create a hot spot so I can upload pictures no matter where I am, which blows my mind, and more awesome things, I just need to research more about it. It's incredibly nice and I feel a little overwhelmed, but I'm so excited to use it! 

We had such a fun time in Utah for Christmas! Chad started a new job (yay!) on the 16th, so we felt bad asking for a bunch of time off the week after he started, but they were super cool with him taking off early on Christmas Eve (most people did, obviously) so we headed down to Utah around noon and Chad stayed till Sunday. He then hitched a ride with a co-worker and I stayed longer to be there for my nephew, Gunner's, baptism and to see baby Cambrie be born! It was such a fun trip. The girls thoroughly enjoyed having older cousins to play with. And the feeling seemed to be reciprocated! Everyone loved playing with the girls which was sooo nice because it gave me a nice little break ;)

On Christmas Eve, my dad read the story of Christ's birth and the grand kids acted it out. It was so cute to see them all dressed up! We then did our yearly tradition of opening up one present: pajamas! Then we took some pictures by the tree and called it a night. I love my cute family. 

Harper loved every. single. second of Christmas day. I don't know if it was all the commotion, the paper everywhere, or just the general feel of happiness in the house, but she was full of pure joy all day. Avery gets a little anxious with a lot of people around, so she wasn't as enthusiastic as Harper, but she did enjoy her new toys :) 

As you can tell, it was a pretty awesome Christmas for everyone! 

One Year!

So much has happened in the last month, I don't even know where to start! I'll try to do a separate post for Christmas and their birthday. 

The girls are THRIVING. They are little sponges and really seem to be enjoying this stage of life. They are so much fun! I know I say that a lot, but what can I say? They're pretty awesome.

Also, I know these posts aren't that exciting for anyone, I'm just doing them for myself. To remember their little quirks and milestones reached.  

One Year

(9 months adjusted)

Avery

• Two words: Sassy. Pants. She definitely likes attention, and she definitely knows what to do to get it. If anyone, even a total stranger, is paying more attention to Harper, Avery will yell out to get their attention as if she's saying, "umm I'm here too, you know?!". Then she'll smile real big so they can't turn away. It's adorable, but I'm a little worried for the future ;)
• Loves to clap! If you clap or yell "yay!" or "patty cake!" she'll start clapping 
• Still sleeping well, as usual, but the last few nights, she's woken up a few times. She's learned how to pull down her bumper pads and throw her binky out on the ground. Then she'll yell till we look in the monitor and realize she doesn't have her binky so we have to go in there. She really knows how to get what she wants...
• Genuinely happy - she is always smiling and laughing this huge, belly laugh. She also laughs when we laugh at her. If we think something she's doing is funny, she'll laugh really loud and then continue to do what ever she's doing so we'll keep laughing
• As I'm writing these things, it's pretty clear that she has her mama's personality...
• Drama queen. She knows how to bring on the water works and it's TOTALLY fake. She knows to look to me if Harper is doing something she doesn't like. Although Harper rarely gets in trouble. Avery needs to get a taste of her own medicine!
• Loves bath time! She's always making a mess by splashing and falls over continually by trying to reach toys. She's never once freaked out by falling face-first into the water, surprisingly. She'll kind of cough and then keep laughing and playing. I think she's fine to bathe by herself now. KIDDING!
• We've been introducing more and more "adult" foods to them, and she loves it! Her favorites are cheese, mandarin oranges, toast, greek yogurt and bananas. She also loves whole milk and, as always, cold water
• Is learning she loves to stand. She'll pull herself up on me and the furniture. She hasn't tried to take any steps yet, thankfully! I'm not ready for that...
• Gets jealous when I hold Harper. She'll have nothing to do with me, but the second she sees me holding Harper, she'll crawl to me and whine for me to pick her up. It's becoming quite the challenge
• Loves all toys - especially toys that make music
• Finally got a tooth! Woohoo!
• As of a couple weeks ago, she weighs 18 lb 2 oz (25%) and is 28" long (15%)

Harper

• Has become quite the mama's girl. She wants me to hold her all the time. I'll be on the ground playing with them, and she'll crawl up onto my lap and whine till I pick her up. Like I said with Avery, it's difficult to decide who to hold, when to give in, etc. I don't want them to be spoiled, but I want them to totally love me at the same time haha! I'm trying to find a nice balance
• Follows me around the whole house. It's so cute to see her slowly getting to where she wants to go. I'll hear her crawling toward whatever room I might be in, and she'll push the door open and poke her head around to find me
• Super laid back. She is her fathers daughter! I think Avery tries to bug her, but she really doesn't seem to mind. Avery will roll around on top of her and she just keeps doing what she's doing. It's pretty funny to watch
• Loves books! She really likes me to make funny gestures and use different voices. She gets so excited when I break out the books
• Still loves food. Although, she's been a little more picky with grown up food than I thought she'd be. LOVES toast, green beans, bananas, eggs, and greek yogurt (but only if it doesn't have full sized berries in it. Just like me! I think the texture grosses her out, which I totally get. Yuck.) Won't eat grapes or deli meat. She doesn't love whole milk either. We're definitely working on that! 
• Cutest sleeper ever. She loves to snuggle blankets and especially loves burp cloths. I'll hand it to her in her crib, and she'll grab it and put it by her face. She'll curl up in a ball on her side and always has her burp cloth in her hand. She's sleeping wonderfully
• Also loves to stand. She likes to have me hold my hand on her back to keep her steady as she bangs on toys and anything on her level
• Also loves music. I hope my girls continue through life with a love for music! 
• I find her eating paper all day long. I don't know where she finds all of it! I'm constantly pulling out soggy paper from her mouth
• Loves bath time! Just like her sister, she'll splash and get so excited. She loves to play with her sister in the tub
• Her favorite thing is to be upside down. She will laugh and laugh! She loves to play with Avery while she's upside down. She thinks it's hilarious
• SO ticklish! Tickling her is one of my favorite things to do with her - her laugh is so funny
• Mimick's everything. If I throw my hands in the air, she will too. Same with clapping, turning my head from side to side, etc
• Weighs 20 lb 4 oz (53%) and is 28.5" long (26%)

As I said before, we've been introducing more adult foods lately, and it's been awesome to see how well they do. They love finger foods and actually do pretty well feeding themselves. I'll just cut up a bunch of different foods, put it on their trays and let them go crazy. They're still drinking some formula, but that's mostly because I love feeding them their bottles...I've grown quite an attachment to that one-on-one snuggle time as they eat. Seeing them drink from a sippy cup on their own makes me so sad they're growing up! But here pretty soon, we'll transition out of bottles all together. 

When we went to the pediatrician for their one year check up, she said to me, "You know, you no longer have babies. You have toddlers now!", I was so sad! It broke my heart to hear that my sweet little babies technically aren't babies anymore. It's true what everyone says, kids grow up too fast. I'm so grateful for my children's progress and the milestones they continue to reach. They truly are amazing little girls!