Little Monkeys

Our little monkeys are doing great. Below is a picture of them in their monkey jammies and on their monkey blankets - both from the Carlsons. I think they like monkeys as much as we do! We had Jennifer, Keith, Jack (almost 2), and Ben (6 months) over for dinner and had a great time hanging out on the deck. Raleigh and Jack had fun running around the backyard and Avery and Ryan enjoyed checking out everything from their bumbos.

Avery & Ryan


Ryan & Avery in their bumbos

Earlier in the day, Avery and Ryan got to attend their first birthday party as Annabelle Meyer turned 2. Of course, we forgot our camera, but Kelly captured a picture of me and Avery. Andy and I both made use of the Baby Bjorns, which they seem to like.

Father's Day

We have been having a nice Father's Day weekend. We had hoped to go up to the mountains yesterday for a BBQ festival, but the weather was not good feastival weather. So, we decided to stay close to home and get organized around the house. We all went out for dinner and Avery and Ryan were well behaved. I let Andy sleep in this morning and got the kids dressed up in I love Daddy onsies, which was a nice surprise for him. He received some framed pictures for his office and a camcorder. After breakfast, we had a nice stroll around the neighborhood. We did web calls with both sides of the family. We surprised my parents with an early anniversary present of a picture of the 7 of us from when Greg, Shyloe, and Taiten were out here. Our friend Keith did the photo shoot at the clubhouse behind us and he got some great shots. Here is the one of all of us.



Shyloe also was able to capture a great pic of our family.



I combined all the pictures from the photo session day in a photo book to give to my parents and it is out on Shutterfly towards the bottom of our site.

4 month appointment

Avery and Ryan turned 4 months today. We were able to get a Sat. morning appointment with our pediatrician, which works well for us. Avery weighed in over 12 pounds and Ryan was over 11 pounds. There is over a pound difference between the two, which wasn't that surprising since you can really feel it when you pick them up and dress them. Avery is our good eater and loves to take lots of naps. Ryan is our fussier eater and is more active, smiley, and alert during the day. Avery is in the 25th percentile and Ryan is below the 5th percentile in weight. Hopefully, he catches up soon. The Dr. is happy with their development and thought they were right on track with everything, if not ahead in a few categories. She even gave us the go ahead to start trying solid foods, beginning with rice cereal. I don't think we were prepared to start so soon! After the appointment, we stopped by the bank to get there saving accounts set up so we could check that off the list. And, we picked up some cereal. Later that day, we decided to see what the kids thought of the cereal. We started with Avery and she wasn't in the best mood after the shots and only had a couple of spoonfuls. Ryan on the other hand really seemed to be into real food and ate the rest of the bowl.


Milestones during month 3:
-Able to grasp burp clothes, rattles, my hair, shirt, pacifier on occasion


-Ryan is definitely attached to his little bear and Avery likes her little bunny


-Sitting in the bumbo


-Batting at the things hanging over them in the bouncer


-Sleeping through the night


-Continue to give lots of smiles and cooing

-Rolling from tummy to back

-Putting their hands in their mouths. Avery even started sucking her thumb. We are going to work on breaking that habit now versus later!



Avery before




Avery after





Ryan before



Ryan after

More Visitors

Greg (my brother) , Shyloe, and Taiten came out from Charlotte for a long weekend to meet the twins and hang out. Taiten just turned 1 in April and we hadn't seen them since September. He is now walking everywhere and is cute as could be. Raleigh was so excited to meet Taiten and learn that he eats real food and a lot of it lands on the floor. In some cases Taiten just handed food right over to Raleigh. She loved it! I asked Greg before the trip what toys Taiten was into since we would need them soon anyhow. I picked up a few things and we were able to keep Taiten entertained for the most part. Shyloe was smart and brought outlet covers since we haven't done any babyproofing yet. Taiten was a big help in pointing out what we will soon need to babyproof! We did some grilling out, take out, and made it to a few restaurants. We also made a trip up to Boulder. Shyloe and I did some shopping so the kids could have matching/coordinating outfits since they don't see each other much. A few pictures are below, but the rest are on our Shutterfly site. It was definitely a full house with 3 under 14 months, but we had a good time. We will see them in less than 6 months at Kiawah Island for Thanksgiving. It will be crazy how much all 3 of them will change between now and then!




Taiten, Avery, and Ryan in the middle row of the Suburban







Shyloe, Taiten, and Greg in Boulder








Avery, Taiten, and Ryan in coordinating outfits