Decade Comes to A Close

It's amazing to think that this decade is almost over, especially the year 2009. Since I turned 20 in the year 2000, you could say that my entire adult life has been formed during this decade.

2000 - turned 20 leaving my teen years officially behind

2001 - turned 21, graduated from Harding University, moved to the Seattle area to start my first full time job as a computer programmer at ATS

2002 - began the first long-term romantic relationship of my life

2003 - married my best friend Barry Love, traveled to Hawaii twice

2004 - spent a summer traveling back and forth to San Diego to be with Barry; Barry finished his contract with the Navy in the fall

2005 - just working and traveling

2006 - moved to Hobbs, NM working from home; Barry started his new job at the Nuclear Enrichment Facility

2007 - quit my job as a computer programmer; we bought our first house; spent 2 months living in and traveling through Europe with Barry; got my first real pet, a dog named Henrey

2008 - gave birth to twins Ryan and Alyna

2009 has definitely been the defining year of my life so far. I love my new job as a stay at home mom even with all its stress and troubles. The joy my babies have brought into the house more than makes up for the sleepless nights and hair pulling days.

It's amazing to look back at how small they were at the beginning of the year. We seem to have hit all their major infant milestones in 2009, and it is such a blessing from God to watch them grow.




They learned to roll over at the beginning of the year. This led to much more interaction between them including wrestling.




They learned to sit up just shortly after their 6 month birthday. This is also at the time of their first road trip. We drove about 10 hours to Colorado to spend a week at Nana and Papa's house. At 8 months old they took their first bath in the big bath tub. Ryan was belly crawling and pulling up at 7 months old.


Alyna started crawling and pulling up at about 9 months old. Their interaction definitely changed when she could follow Ryan everywhere he went. We drove to Austin, TX in July to see Aunts and Uncles and play with cousins and new dogs. They love dogs.


They celebrated their first birthday in September, and their first Christmas where they were active participants. At 15 months old they are each other's best friends. They teach each other fun games and how to get into trouble.

God definitely blessed our family in 2009. I already know he has even more blessings in store for us in 2010, and look forward to all the changes it will bring.

May God comfort you as this year ends, and rain down blessings in your life during the next.

Christmas '09

Christmas with kids is a lot more fun...


Grandma and Grandpa Lee were visiting from Tennessee



Their stockings were filled with books, and plates/bowls/cups/utensils with pictures of cars and fairies.



They even helped unwrap the presents.



Cars with a race track ramp were sure to be a hit with Ryan.




Alyna loves her musical tea set.




Ryan had to help Daddy put the wagon together.




They loved cruising through the house in their new red wagon. Later they filled it with toys, and climbed in all over them.

Merry Christmas!

We are celebrating the special day a few days early this year because of Barry's work schedule. He took some time off at Thanksgiving, so he has to work his normal schedule next week which is the 23rd through the 26th. It turns out to work well for Grandpa and Grandma who are driving down from Tennessee to be with us for our Christmas, and can still make it over to Austin on Christmas day to celebrate with their other grandchildren.

I hope you've enjoyed my blog this year. As the kids grow there is so much we learn from them about love, life and laughter.

From our house to yours... have a very Merry Christmas!

Two front teeth...

The song "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth," is taking on a new meaning in our house this year.

Until before Thanksgiving both of our 14 month olds still only had their two bottom teeth. One of Ryan's top front teeth came in over Thanksgiving, and the other popped down last week. Both of Alyna's front top teeth started bulging last week, and one broke through the skin yesterday.

This has definitely been a sleepless month in our house. Every time Ryan gets a new tooth he develops a cold. I guess it's just too much for his body to fight against all at once. Since I don't get any sleep while he's teething and has a cold, I end up with the cold too.

On to other news...

Both kids are loving this Christmas thing. Mommy bought them new books, wrapped the pictures in the living room with fun paper, and put up this tree with neat lights and little balls all over it. We were thinking of putting the tree in the play pen, but we were at several houses lately where the kids left the trees alone except for a little touching. They have done well so far. The worst thing has been that Ryan has tried to shake it. All the ornaments are out of reach... and none are glass.

I bought a few books from the store with Santa, Rudolph, and the nativity story so they can learn about the holiday season. They love the Santa book the best because the last page makes the "Ho ho ho" sounds.

Alyna started to really organize things this week. She likes to put toys inside boxes, or up on the ottoman. I think it means it's time to start playing the "clean up" game. She also amazed us by kicking the soccer ball across the back yard a few days ago. She was dribbling the ball with each foot as she walked. This was definitely on purpose. After a few steps she'd kick it even farther ahead and go get it. We just watched and encouraged her to keep doing it.

you can tell...

You can just tell when your toddlers aren't feeling well because they don't go play when they see their toys.

Ryan felt feverish all night, and kept waking up at least every 2 hours. Yes, he is teething. His other top front tooth is coming in just in time for Christmas. This morning his temperature was 99.7, and all he wanted to do was cuddle on the couch. I put "Mary Poppins" on after breakfast, and he just laid on my chest watching it while Alyna ran around playing and reading books. This picture is from when I had to get up to change Alyna's diaper. He fussed at first, but then he just sat there looking pitiful.



At this moment, he's taking a morning nap, and I had to put the baby gate up in the hallway so Alyna won't go wake him up. They don't know what to do without each other.

developing minds

I posted a couple different sets of pictures the last week, so if you haven't seen them be sure to scroll down and take a look...

The twins are constantly learning these days, and I thought I should share some of their new toddler tricks.

Ryan:
Ryan now practices walking backwards just like Alyna has been doing for a month now. And I credit watching Imagination Movers for his ability to turn in circles. I don't think many 14 month olds can do that. It's really funny when he gets dizzy and doesn't know why he's walking sideways.

The other day when I brought groceries home from WalMart, he helped out by taking things out of the bags and handing them to us. It was great. We just had to make sure all the bags of canned goods and jars were out of reach so he wouldn't drop them on his toes.

Ryan, the adventurer, also went down the slide on the playset by himself yesterday... feet down on his tummy.

Oh, and he loves the movie Cars... he sat on the couch and watched the second half today while Alyna ran around playing. Now he's off saying VRoom while playing with balls on a ramp.

Alyna:
Alyna has learned to shake her head no. It's really cute cause her shoulders move too.

She is following in her Mommy's footsteps by turning into a little fish. The one time we swam in a big pool this summer she loved laying on her back with us kicking her feet. It became how we rinsed her hair out in the bath tub. We lean her back and say "Kick, kick," and splash water on her head. Last week, she started to lay back in the water by herself. She even arches her back so all of her hair floats around her. When she's done, she'll roll to the side making sure to lift her face high enough not to be in the water... most of the time. Then she promptly lays back again. Ryan always wants to try it, but then becomes nervous when you start to lay him down.

She has also learned how to throw away trash. This morning I heard her trying to open the cabinet under the sink where the trash can is. Of course, it is childproofed so she couldn't get it to open. I saw that she had a small piece of paper in her hands that she was trying to throw away. So I opened the cabinet for her, let her put it in the trash can, and then told her to shut the door. She loves to open and shut doors. About ten minutes later she brought me a dryer sheet she found so we went to throw it away too. Ryan joined in by bringing something he found on the floor as well. What a lovely new game this is.

Alyna is perfecting the art of manipulation. When Ryan has a toy she wants she will bring him another one. He'll sometimes take that one and she can have what she wants and walk away before he notices. She did this yesterday outside. Ryan was on the red riding toy, and she wanted to get on. He wouldn't get off, and I told her it was his turn because he was on it. She walked away and got the ball, brought it to Ryan and then threw it on the ground. It bounced a couple feet away, and Ryan got off to pursue it. Alyna happily mounted the riding toy with a big grin on her face. When Ryan came back and was upset I told him, "you got off so it's Alyna's turn now." It was only fair because he was the one who got off to go get the ball. It's payback for all the times he just comes up and uses his superior strength to wrestle a toy away from her.

I've had two "slightly older" women friends tell me that she knows how to do that because she's a girl, and that it will get worse over the years. Something to look forward to...

Santa And Snow

On Friday night the twins met Santa Claus for the first time at Barry's company's Christmas party. They weren't even upset, though they were a little anxious just to get down and run around. They were wearing outfits from Grandma Lee. Thanks Grandma, they were very cute.

 

 

On Saturday morning we played outside in the snow that had fallen on Thursday and Friday.

 

 

Fall Crunches

I meant to post some pictures of crunching the fall leaves a few weeks ago... so here they are now.

Pictures say it all

Our dog Henrey thought we would feed him sooner if he performed some tricks.


Ryan's newest climbing spot. We had to remove the old computer from the desk because they just wouldn't leave the cords alone. Ryan re-purposed the cabinet quickly.


I brought out their old activity center from when they were 3-6 months old... it occupied them for at least 1/2 an hour.



These are some of the rejects from our Christmas card photo shoot this morning. We ended up with some great ones that I'll post later, but in a way these are more dear to my heart.




(In this last one, Ryan was bored with his book, so I had traded them... apparently Alyna wasn't done reading the blue one.)