Peas Please!

Andy's parents spent Friday night with us before heading back to DC. They had a nice few days in Aspen, but missed their precious grandchildren. We figured it would be easiest to just eat in, so we grilled out. Avery and Ryan tried peas for the first time on Friday night and both did great. We were very impressed. They also both took their first spin in the exersaucer. The Meyer's youngest daughter, GG, just turned 1. Since she has outgrown the exersaucer, they are letting us borrow it. How nice of them! It has a lot of bells and whistles and Avery and Ryan just love it and will be getting a lot of use out of it.

Saturday, we went to lunch with Barbara and Sandy and the babies, before they headed off to the airport. We had a great visit with them and will see them in Sept when we fly out to DC. What are we thinking?!? We had to miss GG's 1st birthday bash on Sat. morning, but will catch up with them next weekend at the zoo. Saturday night, we had invited our friends, the Rockwoods, over for dinner. Their youngest, Ashliegh, was sick so she stayed home with her dad and Kristen and Jordan (7) came over. Avery and Ryan got lots of attention and just love older kids, as does Raleigh.

Avery not so sure about the peas

Ryan helping Daddy feed him

Ryan checking out the exersaucer

Avery hanging out in the exersaucer

Sandy, Andy, Barbara, Avery, and Ryan on the porch

Jordan and Avery

Beaver Creek Vacation

We had our first family vacation earlier this week! We headed up to Beaver Creek on Saturday, which is about 15 minutes past Vail. Packing for all of us was quite the challenge, at least we were able to drive. Andy's parents met us up there and we stayed at the Hyatt Residences in the village for 3 nights. The first night we cooked in and went out later for some gelato. We were able to have them put in 2 cribs in our room and were amazed at how well they slept in a new location. Sunday, we went to Vail to walk around - they had a Farmer's Market and Art Show that day. Andy and I fed Avery and Ryan on a bench outside and after we finished feeding them, Avery had a blow out and there was poop everywhere. I had to strip her naked while Andy held her. It was quite the scene. We got her cleaned up and a fresh onsie on her and we were good to go. Sunday night, Barbara and Sandy watched the babies while we went on a date to Spago at the Ritz in Bachelor's Gulch. They had a great deal (for Spago) on a 5-course meal and it was delicious! We decided to splurge since we didn't know when our next date night would be and we had sitters for the evening. Monday morning, we had an early tee time as we needed to take advantage of the free "sitters" again and they got to spend quality time with their grandchildren. Andy and I weren't paired with anyone, which was a good thing as neither of us played well! The only good thing about the round was it was over in less than 4 hours! Monday night, we gave Barbara and Sandy the night off so they went out to dinner in Vail and we went out to dinner with Avery and Ryan in Beaver Creek. We took them to their first sushi restaurant. We had a great table outside that had 2 small benches and we each took a side and a car seat. The three tables around us commented on how well behaved they were. We figure we have to take advantage of it while we can! We had a great time in Beaver Creek, just wish we could have spent another day or two! Barbara and Sandy headed to Aspen for a few days and will come back on Friday to spend the night with us before heading back to DC.


Avery helping mommy pack





Ready to stroll around town

Grandma and Avery

Mommy & Ryan

Andy on the 18th tee at Eagle-Vail

Mommy, Daddy, and the twins having Sushi

5 months

Avery and Ryan turned 5 months today!! They are definitely growing and have started wearing some 3 to 6 month clothes. Ryan has done a great job of working his way through the various cereals, but Avery really hasn't shown any interest. We are thinking maybe Ryan will catch up to Avery in size, but we will see.

We had a quiet July 4th as it was a little rainy. We had some friends over on Friday for a bbq as we all had the day off. The weather was good and all the kids got to play in the backyard and Raleigh was surprisingly well behaved for her. Avery and Ryan did good with all the guests. Saturday morning, we went to the Cherry Creek Arts Festival and arrived first thing as they eat at 9:30am and the festival started at 10am. We grabbed a table outside at Starbucks so we could get some coffee and Avery and Ryan could have a bottle. Avery ended up spending the whole time in the stroller and Ryan got antsy after a bit and went in to the Baby Bjorn. He just loves looking all around. A couple people we passed thought we had triplets since we had the double stroller and Ryan in the Bjorn- nope, just twins! We ended up buying this year's Cherry Creek Art Festival poster and plan to get it framed and hung in the office.


Matt with the kids (Audrey, Luke, Paige, Jacob, and Clara)



Daddy and Ryan at the Cherry Creek Arts Festival

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