Oh, the stress...

Well, it's official. We are completely out of our house in Waterloo; we close on it at 4:30 this afternoon. I usually don't get attached to things very easily, but I must say I've been a bit sad since we left the house the other day. It probably has something to do with the facts that it was the home we brought Grady and Ella home to, and we haven't found a new house yet! We are still ready to move on, though.

Things have been a little crazy to say the least. Since we haven't found a house yet, we are moving in with some friends in Manchester. Stephen's been in the process of finishing their basement for them the past few months, so we'll have a space downstairs complete with a kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, and a big living room. There's also a big walk in closet that might turn into the twins' "room" :) Grady, Ella, and I have had lots of long nights with dad leaving straight from work to work on the basement! It is finally ready for us to move in this weekend which works out perfectly. It has a few finishing touches that need to be done, but those can be taken care of while we live there. We are definitely ready to be settled in one place for a while! We have been doing so much driving back and forth which needless to say, is very difficult to do with 2 one-year-olds! Now, we're just praying for a good house to come on the market sometime soon! We feel so blessed to have such a great place to stay while we look for a house.

The twins just had their one-year pictures taken a few weeks ago and they turned out great! Be

looking for a post of some of those pics soon :)

Bye, bye little story book house :)

Fun Weekend

This weekend we had a get-together with some of Stephen's family in Williamsburg for a late "Christmas". We stayed at a hotel, hung out, and did some shopping at the outlet mall on Saturday and Sunday. Thanks to some good deals we got the kids stocked up on clothes to get them through the rest of winter. They're sure growing out of current clothes like crazy! Of course, the hit of the weekend for Grady and Ella was the POOL! It had been a while since they'd gotten a chance to get in the water, but they quickly remembered how much they love to swim and kick around in their floaties!

Alright, so Ella wasn't so fired up about this picture!

Now I'm happy :)

Hi, mom!

They liked to play bumper boats. Ella was making a "vroom vroom" noise like she does with her riding toys at home - she's a funny one!

Swimming with dad

We're ONE!

Grady and Ella had their FIRST birthday yesterday -so hard to believe they're a year old! We have two crazy, active, goofy, loving, learning more every day babies on our hands. They had a fun birthday party last night graciously hosted at the Each's while we're currently in our packing and transition state at home. There were seven other kids besides Grady and Ella, so needless to say it was a little chaotic. They all had a good time, though. Enjoy some of the party pics :)

Birthday girl

Yay for new tricycles! Feet don't quite touch the pedals...but we'll have fun this summer!

Birthday boy!

Enjoying everyone singing to them :)

Yay, let me at that thing!

Hmmm....

Give me some more of that!

Gazing at the candle....I think I want that!

Not so sure....

We had to put him in the tub afterwards!

Cousins Halle and Jayden

More cousins...William, Maddie, and Lili

First and Last

For Christmas, Grady and Ella finally got some new car seats as they were getting way too big for the infant ones. So here's a look at the very first time they got in their car seats leaving the hospital, and the very last time. It makes me teary-eyed looking at the first picture! Ohh how long ago that seems...


Leaving the hospital

Home from their last ride. (I should have put them in the same order!)

Merry Christmas from Grady & Ella

A Christmas Party

Last Sunday we went to the InVision (Stephen's company) kid's Christmas party. Grady and
Ella had a lot of fun! They got to watch a marionette show, eat milk and cookies (oh wait, mom and dad didn't let us participate in that part!) and even got presents from Santa! As you can see, Ella was not happy about sitting with the big jolly man!

The party was at the Waterloo Center for the Arts. So after all of that fun, all the kids went over to the Youth Pavilion to play. It's sort of like a science station place. There was a little area with mats and a big mirror for crawling infants. Grady and Ella LOVED playing there. They would have been content there all day if we let them! What a fun time!

Our first Tree!

Last weekend we took the twins to get their first Christmas tree! Stephen and I have gone to the same tree farm every year since we got married to get our tree, so it was fun to bring Grady and Ella along this time. (Ok, actually we picked out the tree, then got them out of the car to take a quick picture!)




Let me at that tree! We usually have barricades up but they still find a way to get at the ornaments.




Silly boy! They both stand up on everything these days, and do really well walking behind their walker toy!


I just took this picture this morning when I noticed they both fell asleep in their high chairs for their morning nap. Must have been tuckered out!

Ella got a black eye this weekend taking a nose dive into the table from dad's lap :( It's getting better.

Had to leave you with a better picture from a couple days prior to the accident! Doesn't she look like such a big girl?