The Vanderwal's: December 2012

Its hard to believe the year 2013 is just around the corner. Its crazy to think another year went by and so much happened.

Right now we are coming up on 6 months with the girls and we are in awe of what happens each day. Below you will see some pictures and videos but the girls continue to blow us away. Quinn who we thought was our content girl is now all over the place. She is not able to crawl but she has mastered the army crawl and gets everything in sight. She is also getting more vocal and at times has us laughing. Amelia who we thought was going to be our fussy girl is actually pretty content when she is well rested and well feed, if you can keep up with those two things she is happy as ever.

Another aspect with turning 6 months is their 6 month appointment which we are not looking forward to because last time we went in for shots both girls got sick and it went down hill from there for a week or so. One aspect I am looking forward to is finding out how tall and how much the girls weigh. Each time we go in its exciting to see what percentile the girls are in. Now being competitive, the coach in me starts to come out when the Dr. starts saying where the girls are at. I start to think of what sport they will play and what position they will play in that sport. I've already had several talks with them about what sports they won't play so we will see what happens. I've also had numerous talks with them about college majors to avoid as well as the male gender and how horrible they are and most importantly how a one piece is so much better then a two piece bathing suit. Time will tell if my wisdom will set in.

Anyways, we were able to head to Rock Rapids for Christmas. We left on Christmas Eve and spent the night and then hung out with Amber's family all Christmas day. It was good time and we were able to catch up with family we had not seen in a while. At the same time we have been able to Skype with my family back in B.C. and that was fun to see nieces and nephews that we continue to watch grow from a distance. All in all we feel blessed during the Christmas season with everyone healthy and happy.

Here are some pictures of the girls:

Amelia just waking up

Quinn and her big smile!

Quinn could not help but to touch every present at Christmas so we added a bow for her!!

The day was filled with too much excitement because Amelia had to take a nap while opening gifts.
See if you can find her in the picture.

Family picture after church

Playing together!

Picture time in their Christmas sweaters.

I think for the past two weeks or so I have said "tonight I am going to update the blog." Well tonight I think I actually have a chance. The girls had a big day, had a big last bottle, and are already sleeping. Yay! A lot has happened since my last post so I will try to remember most of the details.

We had a great Thanksgiving holiday and a great visit with Kevin's family. It was a full house but definately great to see everyone. We got to meet our niece Sydney for the first time and we were thankful for that as well. And before you get the wrong idea....No, I did not cook Thanksgiving dinner for everyone. Thanks to my mom for having us all over! And I was pretty spoiled in that everyone helped out on meals here too so I got to enjoy my vacation from work as well. Definately a lot to be thankful for!

The Sunday after Thanksgiving was the girls Baptism Day. Everything went pretty well and we had a nice service and lunch afterwards. Thank you to everyone who came and helped us celebrate and welcome the girls into the covenant of God's grace.

Since that time there hasn't been anything too major going on--which I find really nice. We have enjoyed a lot more family time now that volleyball is finished and are feeling like our evenings are a little longer. Not that we arent busy and living without chaotic moments as we definately are. We try to just remind ourselves to take everything for what it is and just enjoy it.

This weekend we were able to finish our Christmas shopping so now I just have some wrapping to do. I was just saying to Kevin that I love having the tree on in the house. It feels so cozy and relaxing....or maybe I am just thinking that since the girls are sleeping since I wouldnt consider most days around here to be relaxing ;)

Other than that, the girls are getting so big and learning lots of new things. They roll and roll and roll all over the place. Quinn is really good at getting up on all fours and rocking back and forth and is great at getting where she wants to go. Amelia will get on all fours and do kind of a plank but doesnt move around quite as much as Quinn as far as crawling goes. Both girls love to sit in the jumperoo and can really get that thing moving. They like to sit in their Bumbos but are now thinking its pretty fun to try to turn in them, which doesnt work very well. We are trying to have them eat one solid food a day in the evenings. We do oatmeal or squash and will be adding mroe veggies as the month goes on. Sometimes they do really well eating and sometimes I think more ends up on their bibs than in their mouths.
Did I already tell you that they are sleeping in seperate cribs now? We just started that a couple weeks ago and so far that is going well. I think they missed eachother the first couple nights but after that they realized they had the whole thing to themselves. Because of that and the fact that they can roll, we have started to unswaddle them. We leave their arms out but keep the rest of their bodies in their SwaddleMe sacks.They start out on their backs but within not too long they have turned over onto their tummies--and they sleep so hard this way. Amelia especially loves it and will sleep with her butt in the air. Quinn will stay on her back longer and put her arms way above her head. Its pretty cute.
They are both also still really smiley and are getting giggley--which I love to hear. They also are starting to realize they like to look at eachother. They will smile and touch eachothers heads and hands. Sometimes Quinn pulls Amelia's hair and then Amelia screams. Sometimes Amelia kicks Quinn in the stomach and then Quinn screams. Pretty funny.

I am sure what most of you are wanting to see are the pictures so here ya go. Check out these bright eyes.