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

Three day weekend!

The last two weeks have flown by. We are all adjusting well to me being back at work and getting into our routine. The hardest part has been Andy's work hours as he is working on a project and hasn't been able to get home until 8:30 or so most nights and having to go in to the office on the weekends as well.

Avery and Ryan are doing great in their nursery. After a few nights of them waking up no where close to where we put them down, we decided to separate them and put them in their own cribs. That seems to be working out better. They are doing well and just full of smiles and they love chattering. Here are a few of our favorite recent pictures.

Tummy Time


Ryan posing for the camera



Ready for summer


It was nice to have the long weekend. We went up north to Broomfield for a delicious brunch at the Meyer's house. They have two girls that are 13 months apart and are lots of fun. Annabelle will be 2 at the end of June and Gwyneth will be 1 at the end of July. We got a picture of Avery next to Gwyneth, but didn't capture any of Annabelle as she was always on the go.

Avery (3 1/2 months) and Gwyneth (almost 10 months)



We also got out that night to a friend's for a bbq and to watch the Nuggets game. We didn't have the best of weather Sunday and today so got a lot done around the house. The Nuggets are playing the Lakers in the Western Conference game and we got tickets for Game 4 tonight. Andy and I were able to get out for a date night and the Nuggets won. It was pouring ran when we left so we were drenched by the time we made it to the car! My brother and his family get here on Thursday, so we are looking forward to their visit!

Big Move

Avery and Ryan turned three months old this past week and have been pretty good night sleepers. We decided to go ahead and move them up to the the nursery. The first night went great - we put them down at 11:30pm and they woke up at 5:30am. The last two nights, Ryan has woken up around 4:30. We will see how tonight goes. We have a video monitor that can pan between cribs and zoom in as well, which is helpful to see what they are up to. Right now, we still have them in the same crib.
This was my last week of maternity leave and started weaning about two weeks ago as my pump was due back this weekend and decided it was going to be just too much to keep up once I was back to work. I'm pleased I was able to pump for 3 months and they are now doing fine on the formula as that is what they originally began on. I actually went in on Tuesday since all the HR leaders at work from around the globe were getting together, which doesn't happen often. Andy was able to stay home with the twins, which worked out well. We did make a trip downtown to his office on Friday so that his colleagues could meet Avery and Ryan. They both did well for most of the visit, but then Ryan got fussy and was not happy at all. We were in the lobby and the echo was quite loud. We finally got him to calm down and all was well.
I had a nice first Mother's Day. Andy did the early morning feed and I was able to sleep in. We made it out for breakfast, which was nice and the babies slept the whole time. We also did web calls with my family and Andy's parents. We then spent a lot of the day just getting organized for the nanny to start tomorrow. It will be tough to be away from Avery and Ryan during the day, but they will be in good hands!


Ryan & Avery at 3 months

Twelve Weeks!

Avery and Ryan are twelve weeks today and doing great. We have had fun the last two weeks. We made a visit to my office and everyone enjoyed meeting them. Avery slept through most of the visit while Ryan was very alert and smiley. He definitely doesn't want to miss out on anything. We have made it out for strolls around the neighborhood with Raleigh when it isn't snowing or raining. They both love their car seats whether they are in the car or the stroller.

Andy and I ventured to the mall last Saturday to do some shopping for us and the babies. It went well. We did one feed there and also were able to eat at a restaurant. I definitely notice we get a lot of attention between the comments, pointing, etc. Most people keep their distance but some do approach us and ask questions.

This week, I met a colleague and her newborn for lunch. Our babies were due around the same time, mine just arrived much earlier. So, there were two adults and 3 car seats. It was good to catch up and meet each other's babies. I also meet my boss from StorageTek for lunch with the babies. And, I hosted book club on Tuesday night. It was fun to drink some wine and have girl talk while Andy did a great job hanging out with the babies.

Avery and Ryan have always been good sleepers at night in between their feeds. The past few weeks, they have both been waking around 4am after the 11am feed. This morning, they didn't wake until after 5am! Hopefully, this trend continues since I go back to work in a week! One thing that cracks us up is that they do a lot of jabbering, as if they are having a conversation, after this feed and eventually fall back to sleep.

I think they are now ready to move into their 0 to 3 months clothing. Here are some pictures of them in new outfits in the bigger size and some tummy time pics! Ryan likes to roll over one way and Avery has only done it once or twice.