Photo Shoot

I'll post another blog later about Thanksgiving and our trip but I wanted to post some pictures from our Fall Photo Shoot.  We went to the Serenity Garden in Waynesboro on a chilly afternoon.  The girls did great!  Thank you Erika Lassen!  We love the photos!

A little of this, a little of that

Happy November (14 days late)!  The past 2 weeks have been filled with new milestones for each of the girls.  I feel incredibly blessed and lucky that I'm able to be home and see the changes each day.  Rachel is now puling up on everything.  She'll even walk along the couch.  Jenna has started pulling up but often looks for someone to stand her up.  Jenna was late crawling but now really moves.  She is able to get to sitting from her belly.  Finally, a milestone she got to before Rachel! Ha!  

Rachel's my little climber.

Smiles from the kitchen

They are both understanding more words too and I love seeing their eyes light up when they hear something they understand.  Jenna has started to say "ki-ki" when we saying "kitty, kitty".  She is also using the sign for "more" when she's eating.  Sometimes it sounds like Rachel is saying "dis" when I say, "what's this?"  We like to say to her, "What's a snake say, sssss," and she says "Sssss."  They definitely have favorite books but especially like the books that have pictures of cats.  
The girls LOVE bath time.  They love splashing the water and banging the toys against the tub.  It's so much easier to give them a bath together instead of using the baby bathtub and bathing one at a time.  They seem to have fun splashing each other too!

 When Aunt Sandra and Uncle Steve came to visit, they brought these outfits for Jenna and Rachel.  I think they look so cute! 

Jenna's waving to Aunt Sandra!

A little "wrinkly-nosed" smile!

Last week, we installed new car seats so it was time to put away the infant seats.  Before we put them away, I took a picture of the girls sitting in them to compare to the first time they sat in the seats.  Wow!  This really shows how much they've changed and have grown!

Rachel on the left, Jenna on the right

Happy Halloween!

I didn't buy costumes for the girls this year.  We weren't planning on going trick-or-treating so I didn't think it was necessary.  Maybe next year! My friend got cute Halloween shirts for the girls so they wore them today.  

I can't get them to look at me and smile at the same time!

Jenna

Rachel

 Yesterday, Rachel started pulling herself to standing.  Jenna loves to stand against the couch but can't pull herself up yet.  




They were playing here and Rachel kept leaning over to give Jenna a kiss (or bite her?).  It was sweet.

Sister love

What's New?

As I was taking Jenna and Rachel's 10 month pictures yesterday, I was thinking about how they are not really babies anymore. They are growing and changing, soon to be toddlers! It's getting to get a picture of them smiling at the camera at the same time.  They were so interested in the bears and ready to climb right off the couch any second.  I was able to get a couple good shots.

Jenna: 10 months old

Jenna's New Milestones:

• Has 2 teeth
• Sits and play with toys 
• Can get out of sitting and army crawls across the floor
• Has started waving "Hi" and "Bye Bye"
• Babbles and repeats what I say, mostly "ba ba ba"
• Squeals with excitement
• Lifts her arms to be picked up
• Sometimes says "Mama" (when she's upset!)
• Has started pulling up to kneeling
• Loves to take books off the shelf and read them

Rachel: 10 months old

Rachel's New Milestones:

• Has 3 teeth
• Sits and play with toys. She has started putting toys back into the box and then gets them out again.
• Can get out of sitting and army crawls quickly across the floor.  She chases the cat.
• Waves back when we wave to her
• Babbles and repeats what I say, mostly "ba ba ba" She and Jenna babble to each other in their cribs
• Has started pulling up to kneeling and can climb onto cushions on the floor
• Can stand supported for short amounts of time.
• Giggles all the time

Here's some other recent pictures I wanted to add. 

We were lucky to get some clothes from the girls' cousin.  These dresses were so cute!  

We visited a friend last week and the weather was absolutely gorgeous.  She took some photos of me and the girls.  I realized that I don't have very many pictures of me.  I'm always the one taking the pictures.

Fun Weekend!

My sister, Sandra, and her husband, Steve, came to visit last weekend.  They got here Thursday and left on Monday morning.  It was second time for Sandra to see the girls but Steve was meeting them for the first time.  We did something fun everyday.  The girls did great during our outings, even if we messed with their nap schedule! Jenna and Rachel loved having their Aunt Sandra and Uncle Steve her visiting with them.

Sandra and Steve loved feeding Jenna and Rachel.  They thought it was cute when the girls got messy.

Jenna loves reading.  She pulls all the books off the shelf and then chooses one to look at.

 Sandra and I loved playing piano with the girls.  I think we're singing in this picture.

 My mom sent some clothes that were mine and Sandra's when we were little.  Sandra and I dressed the girls in these sweaters. Cute!

 Gypsy Hill Park in Staunton has a little train to ride.  We didn't get a smiling picture of the babies, but they loved it!

Ha!  At least I'm smiling! 

 The park also has a pond where you can feed the ducks and swans (and the humongous fish)!

Rachel was dancing with her Uncle Steve!

Babies in Overalls

Just some pictures from today:

Pickin' Pumpkins

The weather forecast for the weekend was gorgeous so I knew we had to do something outdoors.  A friend of mine mentioned that there was a Fall Day at a local country store with a hay ride and a pumpkin patch.  This sounded like something fun to do with the girls so off we went.  While I was hoping for a great picture of two smiling babies, the sun was bright and the girls didn't want to cooperate (even with me singing "Itsy, Bitsy, Spider).  But, we found 2 cute pumpkins and I did get some good pictures. 

Jenna's inpecting her pumpkin