Happy Birthday Mommy!

Today is Mommy's Birthday! Last year on her birthday, Daddy took Mommy and us for a nice drive and we went to a French restuarant called Luc's. Here is a video of us last year in the morning on Mommy's Birthday:

Mommy is at work right now but we will surely celebrate her birthday tonight!

A 5+ minute video

Here is a recent video - also check out the November slide show in the right hand bar of the page! . Hope you enjoy!

Playtime at the Carrolls

Nos artistes heureux

Thank you to Sharon for these pictures :)

Happy Halloween!

Mommy Dressed up too!

Laughter!

An email note and picture from Grandma

Received this email and photo from Grandma:

I know this is such a "grandma thing", but while I was at your house today Luke puckered up his lips and Amanda gave him a kiss. It was so cute and the camera was there, so what could I do? This was totally out of the blue. They were both in the basket a few minutes later. It was definitely a fun basket day.

Closeups

Sharon, one of the kids' teachers at daycare, took these pictures - thank you Sharon!

Fun outside

Thanks again Sharon for these great pictures!

Family Vacation in Bozeman, MT

These pictures were taken during our hike at Palisades Falls in the Gallatin National Forest.

We spent a week with Julie, Craig, and Baby Carl at their house in the cowboy-chic city of Bozeman, MT. It was a first for many things including

- we met our beautiful new nephew Carl

- we saw the new Hergert home and its sweeping views - we stayed there the whole week and it was great
- first time we visited "the property"

- first time our kids took an airplane ride (actually, 6 airplanes) and they did great! It was even relaxing for Mike & I. Here are a few pictures from the week.

Here is Mike with the kids at the future site of Mom & Dad's summer home.

Below you'll find Luke sharing Cheerios with Henry:

And here we have Amanda investigating Carl!

Happy First Birthday!

The above may be my favorite picture of the batch. As you can see, Amands flipped over her cake to get to the plastic plate and Luke seems quite interested in what is inside the party hat!

Here they are right around the time we sang Happy Birthday. (You should be able to click all of these to enlarge. )

Amanda's First Recital!

We couldn't resist and opened Auntie Denise's birthday gift for the kids early! They both are having a lot of fun with it and mommy and daddy love it too!

Weekends away

Wow - last two weekends have been great! Despite my clogged eustachian tube and its related annoyances, I've been logging some miles in the MAV.

This past weekend, we visited Denise and the kids and we had a great time! Denise welcomed us to her pad by pouring a delicious rose from Les Baux de Provence and setting up a picnic blanket in the shade. We took a nice walk to Starbucks and had Thai takeout for dinner, although the kids stuck to choices from the Gerber/Similac menu. I think the highlights for the kids were 1)Denise 2)Mark 3)Charlene 4)Ash.

The wine rack was also a big hit. :)

The kids did great this weekend, even with their teeth coming in Amanda has one poking through on the top, and Luke has two coming up on the bottom. Mike went to a Mountain Bike Festival and got home before us. He did some things around the house including repair of the lamp which our little boy tore out of the nursery wall. Interestingly enough, the report card from daycare on Monday reported "Luke was very strong today and pulled the door off the fridge" Yes, he is a little boy! Amanda's report card from the same day said "Amanda helped Natalie (4 month old) play with the playmat." I thought that was very sweet! When I called mom to check in today, Amanda had been poking Luke's belly button!

Backtracking to the previous weekend. . .that was another great weekend. A road trip up north to see Ava and family. Grandma and I took the kids, and Daddy stayed at home. We stopped for lunch with my girlfriends about an hour into the drive, then continued on - feeding the kids at McDonalds along the way (again, Gerber & Similac!). We arrived on the later side, which meant it was a bit of an "off night" but great nonetheless. On Saturday Ava took us to the playground by the town hall because it has two baby swings. She is always thoughtful - and always so cute! Grammy Linda and Granpa Basil came for dinner and the kids enjoyed playing with sticky notes, Ava, and the dogs.

July already

This Picture was taken in the back yard on June 15

Wow - it's July! The twins will be ONE this month - in fact their Bday happens to be Julie's DUE DATE! This year has whizzed on by. Denise is on her way out to spend some vaca with Julie now, and it sounds like Julie is amazingly still in party mode!

Mom took her first business trip in June, away for two nights and almost three days. The excitement they showed me when I walked in the door after being away was amazing. I didn't expect such jubilation and it was an amazing feeling. The kids are both crawling very fast and are good with their balance, although we still have the occasional topple. They've been eating bkfst, lunch, & dinner (baby food) and just like we adults their appetites are not the same every day. Among other amusements, Amanda has taken a liking to books and Luke likes to play ball! Amanda also points at things and says "da" when she's interested in something, and Luke is set on getting to certain things in the house; lamps, power cords, and blind pulls to name a few. They were at grandma and grandpas on Sunday and Amanda was apparently talking up a storm and Luke was pushing the dollhouse around the room (yes, on his feet!)

What a great weekend

What a great weekend! We took the kids to a really cool playground a few miles form us where they went on the swings, mini-carrousel, and the see-saw. I think Mike and I would agree that the swings were the favorite! Amanda started clapping yesterday late afternoon. She woke up at 2:20 AM last night and bounded into a sitting up position and clapped! It was very cute. Luke has started to point which Amanda has been doing for a couple of weeks now, It's almost as if Amanda's waving turned into pointing into things she wants to see/touch or places she wants to go.

Saturday we had dinner with Grandma and Grandpa Kmetzo after they babysat for a few hours. We gave the kids "puffs" for the first time. Luke took them fairly seriously and seemed to stockpile them in his fists. Neither of them ate them, but they did a great job with their "pincer grasp".

Sleepy babies

Thought Ava would like this one

a favorite video

Memorial Day

This was taken at the Memorial Day Parade on May 30 (thanks Grandma Jo!). Kids are with Papa G and Grandma. (Mike's parents). Grandma Jo and I had lots of fun picking out these outfits, and several others :), during our shopping trip the Friday before.

A rainy Saturday

Click on images to see enlarged pics

Amanda has been practicing her crawling over the past few days. Slow and steady. She goes a little bit then backs off. Luke, on the other hand, dove right into crawling once he started on May 30. Before he started crawling, he started pulling himself up and standing. Again, he really "goes for it' while Amanda is more cautious. Luke has had a few bumps and bruises to show for his standing/crawling acrobatics! Now we've noticed he's gotten the hang of balancing and how to catch himself a little better. Hopefully this means we'll have less boo-boos!

Some of their favorite things:
Luke - lloves doggie! He naps and sleeps with doggie. They are pals and doggie is probably Luke's first "favorite toy" He also loves playing the "Ahhhhh" game. He mimcs us going "Ahhhhhhh" and gets a kick out of that. Did we mention his first crush? At about 6 months old, when he started daycare, he and Miss Danyelle REALLY hit it off. It just so happens that Miss Danyelle has a baby girl about 1 month younger than Luke & Amanda. Her name is Jada them getting married has already crossed our minds! :)
Amanda - loves to wave! She has been waving now for a couple of months. It's even been referred to as the "Queen Mum" wave. It is a very cute wave. She likes to wave at people and also uses a lighter wave in the direction of things she's interested in or wants to get closer to. At about 7 or 8 months I'd say we came up with a couple of her first favorite games. BIg grins and chuckles when Mommy carried her and Daddy followed her around. We do it to a beat "ba bum ba bum ba bum. . .". When Daddy holds her she likes Mommy to play Peek A Boo!

Despite the title of this post, these pics are from Friday afternoon, June 8 (where they are standing) and Thursday morning, June 7 (both dressed in red).

June 2 at the condo

The kids enjoyed some outdoor time at the condo last Saturday. The big box was a fun new toy. Here is an "interesting" picture of what happens when the men are left to tend to the kids. Click on image to enlarge and see what's really going on! Photo courtesy of Jo Kmetzo :)

Our new blog!

A new spot for sharing Luke & Amanda stories and pictures is here! Here they are on Mothers Day, over 9 months old!