We have had a great few days! We went to the Fernbank Museum of Natural History this past weekend. It was really a cool place! We could have stayed there for hours playing! There were tons of little exhibits that the girls loved and tons of play areas just for little kids. They will have a better time when they are walking so we will have to go back. Speaking of walking, Meredith took her first steps today! So they are both taking steps ... oh, toddlerhood, here we come!

Since they had such a hard time with the move, I started letting them take their little blankets all around the house with them ... and now they are total blankie junkies! They want them all the time ... here is Hannah with hers and Meredith with hers within reach, if needed!

Why, oh why, do I even kid myself and get a bowl? This is why I swiffer the kitchen at least once a day and cringe and think ... OK, TONIGHT is the night I get on my hands and knees and scrub the grout! Oh, the joys of renting an old house! Here they are all suited up in the swimmy diapers and water T's from Grammy Finley.
9 times out of 10, this is how I will find Hannah. She is such a Mommy's girl right now. Alan has gotten used to calling Meredith "his" baby b/c she always gets passed to Alan since she is a little less Mommy clingy! She has started to say Mama (Hannah has ... Meredith has been chatting us up for a while ... she now says Mama, Dada, bye-bye, duck, ball ... and various other sounds that sure mean something to her ... quite the talker, that one!) and so now reaches up and adds a pathetic sounding "Mmmmama" ... she also has started to cry Maaaaamaaaa, Maaaamaaaa when she is fussing b/c she doesn't want to nap! Oh, that girl, she already knows how to get me to do what she wants!
Meredith is a child after my own heart! She loves to be OUTSIDE! She will crawl to the door and CRY to go outside! Playing outside is one of the things that will be easier when they are walking for sure! Here she is pointing to her water table and pool ... "I see it Mommy ... I want to go out there!"
OK, NOW I am happy!

Stone Mountain Park

The girls' Aunt Sarah & Uncle Ryan bought them annual memberships to Stone Mountain for their birthdays (well, the memberships are for us and they come free ... but they don't need to know that =) so we all went this weekend! The girls were GREAT and they seemed to enjoy the sights! We plan to go back often! Next time we will ride the train around the park AND next time I will get a photo of the girls with Ry and Sarah! They WERE there, I promise!

At the top of Stone Mountain! Normally a tram ride to the top of anything would be so much fun for me ... but with my child in my arms ... I couldn't help but REALLY look at the cables and check out how sturdy they seemed! Obviously, we made it just fine!

Birthday cake #2! Aunt Sarah made a chocolate and banana cake for the girls! They are lucking out in the birthday cake dept! As a first time Mom, I learned that babies probably shouldn't have chocolate late in the evening ... it took them a while to fall asleep last night! Oops! Here's Meredith ...
and here is Hannah ... always making a funny face! She wanted to smear me with chocolate really badly!
Walking ... with a little assistance! Though Hannah DID take her first 3 unassisted steps today!
The girls really enjoyed watching the "bubble man" make REALLY big bubbles!
Here is Stone Mountain. See where the tram took us ... all the way to the top! It was a great view! A little "smoggy" to be able to see the city line but pretty nonetheless! The coolest perspective to think about the size of the carving was ... Sarah told me that to celebrate the finishing of the carving, they put a table set for 10 people on the shoulder of the guy in the middle (can't remember who that one is ... Andrew Jackson?) and they ate dinner there!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GIRLS!

A year has gone by! This time last year, I was in a hospital bed with almost everyone in my family having seen the girls except for me. All I had was their photos on the small screen of my camera that I would look and and sob because of ... let's face it, hormones ... but also because they were so small and attached to all of those wires and all I wanted to do was hold them! Fast forward one year and now all they want is for me to hold them! I have decided that all of the difficult developmental stages that babies go through must be God's way of helping us let go. If our lives had been nothing but one good day after the next, then I would mourn the passing of each year. Despite having to spend a half hour of their birthday at the Dekalb Cty Tax Office getting car tags, the girls had a lot of fun today! Alan was off work and we went to lunch then played, played, played! Oh, and even had some cake! It was very low key as we are having a family party for the girls in a month (I couldn't get my act together to have it in time for their actual birthday) but it was nice to celebrate with just the 4 of us!

... hmmmm ... wonder what this was the result of ... didn't I tell you that sticky goo made great hair gel! (Meredith)

Ah Ha! The culprit! Birthday cupcakes!
YAY ... happy birthday to me! (Hannah)
Now, what am I supposed to do with this? (Meredith)
Hannah is a sticky mess!
Meredith is a sticky mess! She DID eat some and finger paint with some!
Playing with one of our birthday gifts! Hannah in blue bathing suit and Meredith in pink.

Meredith LOVES to snuggle! If she is playing with anything soft she will lay her head on it and snuggle! She is snuggling with Mommy's teddy bear here.
Birthday gifts from Grammy & Granddaddy Finley ... Meredith does well with her chair! She has figured out how to not just tumble out of it!
Hannah is sharing her chair with Mommy's teddy bear!
Playing with our new play house! We love to ring the doorbell, turn the lights on and off, open and close the door, and fight over the "letters" that go in the mailbox! As the guy who works at Fisher Price Customer Service says (I had to call b/c I couldn't get the doorbell to work at first), "it is a really fun toy" ... I couldn't help picturing this guy in his 30's playing with the Laugh 'N Learn Play House when he gets off work. I do have to admit, it is pretty fun ;)

trip to the kid's museum ...

We went to the kid's museum today. It is called Imagine It. Despite taking a wrong turn and not being able to get back to where we were so that we knew how to get where we were going (welcome to ATL, right?!) we made it there in one piece. Thank God for GPS.

Future concert pianist?

Crawling around on the water bed was super fun!
Having fun playing a duet!
What are these things on my feet? The girls' first time out in real shoes!
Meredith in her shoes ...

2008 D.A. (ie during atlanta)

OK, here we go ... making up for lost time! Lots of pictures!

Go Meredith Go!

Go Hannah Go! I got a push toy about a week ago and we sometimes have little scuffles over it, so I bought another one yesterday. I got a different one with the thought that they would enjoy two different ones to play with ... well, guess what ... yep ... now they fight over the newer one!
I mean I wasn't singing or anything? She just likes this new pose I guess ...
Testing the boundaries ... I don't know how many times I say ... "no ____, we don't play with cords" ... they now look at me to make sure I am looking as they go to play with the cord ... ah, toddlerhood, here we come!
Meredith likes to pat Hannah on the head ... at least here there was no hair pulling involved ... I am trying to teach them to be gentle ... really, for Cooper's sake!
Hannah's grin ...
Mmmm ... doesn't that spit-laden goldfish just look so appetizing? They are always trying to feed me their half-chewed food.
In the wagon they got for Christmas! The picture is weird, it makes them look like ghosts but I promise they do actually exist ... just a little over-exposed here!
Hannah loves to play with her ears ...
Here is Meredith striking her pose again! It is even better when she has some kind of sticky goo all over her hands! Sticky goo makes a good hair gel!

2008 B.A. (ie before atlanta)

I found my camera! YAY! Here are some photos taken moving week ...

Hannah fell fast asleep on the way to pick up the moving truck ...

... as did her sister ... my neighbor was outside and came over to see them and he said ... "now THAT is a set of identical twins!" ... they had their heads lolled in the same direction and the same lip pooch ... the matching PJs contributed, too, I'm sure!
I told Hannah that dirt did not taste good, but she had to see for herself!
With Grandmama & Granddaddy Wright at their cousin Brayden's birthday party ...
Three babies in a row ... at the Whitaker's house ... one of our stops along the way to Atlanta!

what? no pictures?

I still can't find my camera! I think this is the longest my girls have ever gone without their photo taken! Just wanted to post to update you on how we are doing! Hannah has been really struggling since we got here. Really, since we left NC. She cannot stand to have me out of her sight for even a moment. I usually just carry her around wherever I go. Then, two days ago, I noticed that her 4th tooth has popped through. Maybe in a few days the teething pain will wear off and she will be more accustomed to her new home and we can all breathe a little easier! She has been walking a little with the push toy though it scared her at first because it goes so fast. She is the world's most giving person (as far as feeding her snack to the dog and constantly trying to put her binky in my mouth, or Meredith's mouth) and I have decided that she may just be my quiet one. She doesn't talk much but can get her point across when it is really important to her (like MOMMY,PICK ME UP!) Meredith's playful personality is really coming out. She has all kinds of neat tricks! She chit chats all day long. She can wave hi and bye-bye. She can ALMOST blow a kiss. She can point at the light or doggie when you ask her where they are. I created a monster by letting her turn the light off one day ... and yep, now all day she wants to turn the light on and off. She is constantly pointing at things and asking "dat?" She loves anything soft and will lay down on a blanket on the floor and roll around on it. She crawled all the way up the stairs today (with Alan right behind her, of course). She has a push toy and walks marathons with that thing ... and anything else she can get to slide across the floor ... a box of diapers, the toy bin ... Meredith and Hannah have started to play more together, too. They have a tunnel and they think it is hilarious to hide in there and then peek out at each other. It is the cutest thing I have seen yet about having twins. One will get in the tunnel and slowly peek out at the other and then they both literally fall over in a fit of giggles! The giggly girls are worth the fussy ones any day! I will either find my camera or borrow one soon and especially by their birthday. I can't believe they are almost a year old! So stay tuned for photos!

hello from Atlanta!

As you can imagine, I have a bazillion things I could be doing, but thought I would take a moment and update the blog! My wonderful Mom came to help us get settled and luckily brought her camera because I have not taken one photo since we have been here! Very unlike me! The truth is, I have no clue where my camera is =) The house is big, which is nice. However, it was also a complete mess when we got here and I am still trying to clean all the floors and bathrooms. Trying to scrub while also the normal moving in stuff doesn't allow much time for anything else, however we have been to the Dekalb Farmer's Market (which I was told, by my brother who has been very helpful, that it is pronounced De-CAB), the Lenox Square Mall (which thank goodness isn't as close as the mall was in NC because Alan would have to moonlight all the time to support my shopping if it was =), the Avondale Estates Lake (which is only a short walk from the house), and various other places around town. Here are a few photos ... I will take more as we get settled and all unpacked. It is really a cool old house! We have a nice koi pond in the back which is very relaxing to watch after a long day of dealing with fussy girls (they don't seem to handle change any better than their Mommy does)!

The girls' room

Whew, we were all exhausted, as you can see ...
After a thorough scrubbing ... the tub, that is!
There is a finished basement which we have made into a playroom. The girls seem to love that there is a room just for them! Yes, that is me, that looks like a carcass on the floor?! Who knows what I was doing ...