The Weigh In

The girls had their 6-months doctor appointment this week. While the shots were not fun (nor was the day and one-half of fever that followed for Amanda), it was great to find out the girls' "stats." Here is the report.

Natalie weighs in at 15 lbs. 14 oz. and she is 27" tall. She is in the 35th percentile for weight and 80th percentile for height.

And Amanda is officially catching up to Natalie! She weighs in at 15 lbs. and is 26" tall. For weight, she is in in the 20th percentile and for height she is in the 45th percentile. Here she is "singing," which she does often.

What It Takes To Get A Photo

Capturing a great photo of BOTH girls at the same time is an incredibly difficult task! For every great picture there are about another 10-20 that I discard. I have NO IDEA how people survived before digital cameras!! Today's "photo shoot" really made me chuckle so I thought I would save the attempts and post just a few (trust me, there were MANY more photos that I'm not sharing with you).

The purpose of the photo shoot was to show the girls in their cute romper outfits that are embroidered with their names on them....a really wonderful gift from the Murphy family!!

Here was the first attempt. I ran to get the camera after I already put the girls on the couch. So by the time I got back to the couch, the girls had already tipped over. They looked so cute toppled on one another that I thought I would take a shot. But, as you can see from Take 1 below, our newest challenge in photo taking is that Amanda now recognizes the red eye light that precedes the flash on the camera so by the time the photo actually takes she is blinking or squinting. Fun, fun!






Here is my 2nd attempt.....now BOTH girls have their eyes closed!





And my 3rd attempt. Lovely photo of Amanda but Natalie looks not-s0-great as she is captured mid-blink.

Take 4 -- great photo of Natalie but Amanda is looking down.

Take 5....another Amanda blink. (There were about 20 of those shots.)

Finally, I just settle for this one. Not great of either of them but good enough! :)

Friends!

We had a wonderful Saturday night at casa Keyes this weekend. We had yummy food, great conversation, some fun game playing and we were lucky enough to have a great visit with the Boones. Moments of the evening were comical! Although we felt outnumbered by kids, we were actually one adult to one child......a true man-on-man defense! I admit that I was negligent in the photo taking until the girls were asleep (and the sleeping came in spurts!). So, I didn't capture everyone, but here are some highlights.

Throughout the evening, we were graced with the presence of the lovely Princess Alexandra.





And here is beautiful Dempsey with her daddy, Mordecai.






One of my favorite moments from the night was when I was trying to take a picture of Elijah and he was taking a picture of me at the same time on his own camera. I had to take about 20 shots before I could finally catch his smiling face behind that camera!





And here is Stephanie with Dempsey, followed by Steph, Mordy and Dempsey (Elijah was still very busy taking photos.....).

Thanks to Brian and Kristin for the hospitality! It was great to spend a Saturday evening with BOTH adults and children! :)

Curious Amanda

Both girls are very intrigued by our faces and they both LOVE playing with my hair. Amanda, though, is especially curious....she is constantly grabbing our eyes and noses, as evidenced below. She is posing for the camera while still grabbing daddy's eyes and nose!

Just Another Sunday

It was a nice day today; not too hot! So, we went for a walk in the afternoon. Here are the girls in their twin Bob. We love the Bob because it is very manuevable and has great shocks. The girls, on the other hand, have always been completely ambivalent during the walks. These are the looks we get from the girls the entire time we're walking.....



And below is a photo of the girls watching a Baby Einstein video. I really admire the people who decide their children won't watch any TV. At our house, around 4 p.m. or so the girls get a little cranky and sometimes the only thing that will calm them down is to pop in a DVD. They really like those darn videos and they sit in their bouncy chairs and rock themselves into a state of pure relaxation! Natalie's pose is proof!

Amanda Loves Daddy!

Both Natalie and Amanda light up whenever daddy is around, but Amanda has a special little twinkle in her eye for daddy! Here is proof that daddy being around makes Amanda happy!

Video!

I have not posted a video in quite some time. Here are Natalie and Amanda thoroughly enjoying their ExerSaucers. I continue to be amazingly appreciative that this toy exists since it keeps the girls occupied for long periods of time.

Play Time!

There was a lot of play going on at our house today. Check it out!!

This Eating Stuff Is Exhausting!

Natalie and Amanda are turning into good little eaters. They will now open their mouths more often than not without us having to do a little song or dance to get them to smile and open. Needless to say, we are relieved since we are definitely not destined to be the next American Idols! ;) But, the eating thing proves to be exhausting some nights after a long day of fun and play. This is what I have come home to two nights this week. First, on Tuesday, this is how I found Amanda on my return home from work while Daddy was feeding Natalie:







And the very next night, it was Natalie in a stunningly similar pose while Amanda was eating her dinner!

A Nice Weekend

We had a wonderful 3-day weekend and we hope all of you did too. We actually made it of the house a few times this weekend as a family....something we have not done too much of lately. And, I think we can report that it was mostly a success. On Friday, we took a quick trip to the mall for a few things and the girls were quite the hit! On Saturday, we boldly decided to drive to Napa for a picnic and a stop at one winery. For the most part, it went well. We visited Sterling and the girls mostly well behaved. Here they are with me riding on the tram up to the winery (I have to include 2 photos since it's so hard to get both girls looking at the camera in one shot).





Today, we had some swimming time again. Although we have more pool toys this time, we still had a similar result. Amanda's not a fan of the pool, but Natalie seems to like it. I think Amanda prefers the temperature of bath water over the coolness of the pool....kinda like me! Natalie, on the other hand, sat in the little floatie for awhile. Here are both girls with daddy.





And, finally, here is Amanda "reading" a book next to Sable. Of course, Sable is so jet black it's really hard to see her in this picture but you can see her glowing eyes. Amanda LOVES Sable these days and is so excited to pet her and pull on her face and ears. And Sable is so good and patient -- she seems happy to have the attention!

Chow Time

We finally got around to putting the girls' high chairs together this weekend (well, okay, daddy put them together, but I helped....honest!) and what a difference it makes. This is a shot of Natalie eating prunes (yummy!) in her bouncy seat. As you can see, the food lands in a nice scatter pattern when the target is moving!




Here she is looking like a happy camper in her high chair! This was before eating, but I can assure you we had a much easier time getting the food to land in the correct place!




Natalie also loves the tiger that is attached to the high chair.

And Amanda is enamored with the toys on the tray....

So, the chairs get a thumbs up from both girls and from mommy and daddy! Thanks Grandma Zena for the high chairs -- they're awesome!

Good Times

Grandma and Grandpa just sent some photos from their recent visit with the girls. These are some of my favorites.

Grandma Jean reading to the girls:




Grandpa Bruce chilling with Natalie and Amanda (I LOVE this photo!!):

We went on a picnic while Grandma and Grandpa were here and the girls had a great time. They were very well behaved and even took naps under the shade of a tree. Natalie has started sleeping like this a lot these days, which just cracks me up! As Grandma said when she sent the photos, life does not get any better than this!!

Here is Amanda enjoying the same:

6 Months Old

I am just amazed at how quickly the last 6 months have flown by. Natalie and Amanda have gotten so big and have grown into such fun little people in that time. You can see from the recent photos that Amanda is gaining on Natalie when it comes to the weight differential. We'll have a doctor's appointment in a few weeks and will confirm then but we're pretty sure that there is no longer a 2 lb. differential. And we're pretty sure we know why: Amanda eats A LOT these days!! And Natalie actually scaled back on the food intake around the same time that Amanda stepped it up. It's hard to believe that those the now chubby-cheeked Amanda weighed only 4 lb. 11 oz. at birth!

Here are the girls looking pretty in their dresses:



And here they are wearing cute Harley Davidson pajamas they received from their special angel, Erin, and her family. Go Harley girls!!