Making Grandma Day Cards

We decided to be brave and try our hand at painting for our Grandma's. We were very proud of our end product!

I'll do it myself

Olivia got tired of waiting for Mom and Dad to do things for her, so she's decided she'll just do it herself. Here she is clipping her own toe nails.

Hiking

Last week we went on a small hiking excursion. Dave stated that the path would be an easy incline which I was grateful for since I have not exercised in approximately two years. The trail ended up being a 5% grade, which is not that bad but with 50 lbs. on your back we were feeling it! I have now decided that a regular exercise regiment is in order. We had a great time and the kiddos enjoyed the great outdoors with Lake Coeur de Alene as the back drop.

First Trip To Seattle

We had a fantastic time in Seattle visiting the public market by the pier, going to the Aquarium and of course visiting friends; Jesse, Rob, Jason, Molly and Mindy! Thank you Jesse and Rob for your hospitality!
Andrew's favorite part at the Aquarium was seeing the Octupus while Olivia's was being an Octopus!

1 Year Checkup

Andrew and Olivia had their one year check up this week. Yes, they survived their first year and, even more miraculously, so did mom and dad. They've come a long way from where they started. A year ago, they were still having difficulty eating on their own. Now they are crawling all over the place, standing, walking (holding on to mom or dad's fingers), climbing stairs, babbling (no real words yet, at least not that Tara and I can understand), feeding themselves (mostly with their fingers, but they're starting to get the hang of the spoon), and generally keeping us on our toes.

And now for the part you've all been waiting for stats:

Weight

• Olivia weighs 20 lbs, 11 oz, which puts her in the 47th percentile for weight.
• Andrew weighs 23 lbs, 4 oz, which puts him in the 58th percentile for weight.

Not too shabby considering they weren't even on the chart to begin with. They started at 5 lbs, 1 oz, and 5 lbs, 11 oz, respectively.

Height

• Olivia is 31" tall, which puts her in the 96th percentile for height!
• Andrew is 32 1/4" tall which puts him in the 98th percentile for height!

We're not really sure where they get their height.

Sanity Check

This is what happens to a mother who has not been able to leave the house with her kids in two weeks due to the weather.....

at least Andrew found some humor in it :)

We Are 1!

Happy Birthday Kiddos! Andrew went right for the cupcake with a huge bite and Oliva felt like it was too sticky :) Very entertaining to see their polar opposite reactions!

Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas! Andrew and Olivia particularly enjoyed the tissue paper and ribbon.

Trick or Treat?

Andrew went as the king of the jungle and Olivia went as ... well, lunch.

We had fun visiting friends and showing off the kids. They were good sports for a while, but as the night wore on, their patience started to wear thin.

So Tara and I decided to try a new tactic. Trick or treat? Give us something good to eat ...
or we'll leave two cranky 10 month olds with you for the evening.

You'd be amazed how much candy we got after we started using that line.

And after a hard evening of trick or treating, some of us were all tuckered out.

Harvest Time

Here is a picture from our trip to Greenbluff at harvest time. M0m had been out there once before during the week and was excited to bring the kids and Dad to get some pumpkins and apple dumplings. Little did we know that Greenbluff on the weekend during harvest is THE place to be. Half of Spokane converged on Greenbluff that weekend. Good pumpkins were scarce by the time we arrived and the real travesty was that the apple dumplings were sold out!

Anyway, we were still able to spend a beautiful afternoon together and get this nice picture in the pumpkin patch.