Long overdue...

I know its been a long time since I've updated how the boys (and us) are doing. I will try to not leave out too many details, but try to condense somewhat the last two months.

The holidays were a whirlwind. For several days, we enjoyed the company (and craziness) of 11 people in the house. I think we will appreciate the new house that much more. My parents flew in Christmas Eve. We spent Christmas Day with Jeff's family, in Greenville. Then, just before New Years' Day, Liz, Brett & Noah joined us in Anderson. We celebrated our own Christmas that week. We also celebrated the boys' first birthday that weekend. Poor Nathan inexplicably decided he wasn't too interested in his smash cake! That's highly unlike Nathan, and we soon determined that he started some kind of fever virus, at his birthday party, of all places. Sunday (despite Nathan's illness) we were able to have a baby dedication at church for the boys, while all the family was in town. As a little outing, earlier in the week, we went over to the mall and introduced the boys to the meaning of "ice cream cone". Noah and Mary were old pros of course, and showed the boys how to do it. Nathan wasn't too sure about the idea at first, but from the pictures you will be able to see that he came around fairly well. Chris and Daniel never did decide they really wanted something quite so cold...even if it was fairly sweet and creamy.

The boys are continuing to grow, though more slowly. They are all 20 lb and some ounces, and about 27 1/2 inches each, approximately. This leaves them in the 20th percentile for weight, and 0th for height! Yep, 99% of children their age are taller than them! :) The babbling is increasing. We hear ma-ma, kuh-kuh, ga-ga, and buh-buh with regularity. And all three are cruising these days, and just since around the beginning of February, Chris will stand for about 3-4 seconds at a time (sometimes).

Even up until mid December, we relied fairly heavily on formula for the boys' diet. Especially when Noah visited, we continually experimented more and more with table food. By early January the purees were gone, and the next transition was from bottles to sippies. I delayed that until late January. One weekend I decided that was it. Chris and Daniel didn't seem to care too much how they got their formula. Nathan however had other ideas. With the backing of medical advice, Nathan held out and had no milk to drink for over 2 days, until his hunger (and we) won out, and Nathan surprisingly has no problems taking a sippy cup now. The switch from formula to milk went much more smoothly. These days at the grocery store, I pick up 6-7 gallons of milk per week!

Our new home is in the process of being framed up at this point. We've probably lost 3-4 weeks due to weather (either freezing temps or rain). The first floor is about framed up. We hope to be moving in some time this summer (July-August?) We're looking forward to the expanded space.

We've finally posted all the pictures from December and January.