No Share November :)

Yikes! I am REALLY behind again but I wanted to make sure to get a post in while it's still November. Hopefully I can remember most of what has been happening around here.
I titled this post "No Share November" not because I didn't have anything to share with you but because of how well the girls have been sharing lately. :) They are so funny right now. Their little personalities are really starting to come through. Amelia is very strong willed and can turn the tears on and off in a heartbeat. She quite possibly could be our drama queen. She is also very sweet, loves to cuddle-especially with her momma, and has the most adorable belly laugh. Quinn tries to be a little comedian and loves to tickle and say "tickaticka" while she does it. She loves to have her daddy chase her around the house and she loves to do puzzles. The girls have become very possessive. They usually want to play with something that the other one is currently playing with. They will hold things behind their backs to hide it from the other. They are also possessive of Kevin and me. If Quinn is sitting in my lap, Amelia will wedge her way in, but as soon as she does, Quinn is done. It's quite hilarious actually. A little disclaimer though, for as much as they are going through a no sharing phase, they do have the rare moments when you can tell them to "give something to your sister" and they do it so cutely. They even will sometimes do it on their own, which we absolutely LOVE to see.
They still love to read books, especially any book about animals. They love to point to the different animals when we ask them "where is the tiger" or make a fish face when we ask what a fish says.

Here are a couple pictures from the girls 15 month photo session.

Miss Amelia loves to pick up rocks...and then hide them in her hand :)

Q-bear loves to run around her in pink cowgirl boots.

Love this one!

Kisses for Sister!  XOXO

This is a little peek a boo at the food court in the mall:

 Out for a walk on a sunny (but still kinda chilly) day:

Quinn decided to color on her face rather than the paper...

The volleyball season is now over as of last week. Roosevelt got 2nd place at the state tournament. Of course Kevin would have loved to have gotten first but they have to remember that a lot of teams would have loved to even make the tournament and that 2nd place is not a bad place to be. I have to admit, I am pretty glad to have my husband back...and the girls sure did miss him while he was at state!

Cuddle time with Daddy!

This week we are enjoying celebrating Thanksgiving with our families. We have so much to be thankful for! From our beautiful daughters, to our parents, and our family and friends, we appreciate all you do!
Kevin's parents are here for their annual American Thanksgiving visit and it's so fun to see the girls interact with them. We are going to be heading to BC for Christmas so we will get to see them again in just a few short weeks--which is not something we can say very often. We are pretty excited about it!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone and we wish you a joyous holiday season ahead!

Psalm 95 O Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD; Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms. For the Lord is a great God. 

October - 15 Months

Yesterday the girls had their 15 month appointment so I thought I would share some stats. Both girls weigh exactly 22.4 pounds. I was a little bit surprised by this as they haven't gained too much since their 1 year appointment. This puts them in the 34 percentile. The doctor was happy with that though and I am assuming its because they are on the move non stop--especially since they are such good eaters. Supposedly Quinn is .75 inches taller than Amelia but I am not so sure. I am thinking they are pretty much the same height wise as well. Regardless, this puts Q in the 87th percentile and Miss A in the 73rd. The girls got their flu shot and a Hep A shot and we were on our way. They will go back again for an 18 month check (hopefully not before).

Our days have been flying by once again. Last week I was gone for work to New Orleans. It was great to get away and have a break from the normal routine. I sure did miss the girls (and Kevin) though! 

Kevin had to drop the girls off in the morning, which is definitely a change up for him because he loves to get to school as early as possible. I was able to borrow two car seats to put in my mom's car so she picked up the girls from Sharla's house, came home to feed them, and everything else until Kevin got home from volleyball. New Orleans was fun to see, but I don't think it would be my first choice to go back to. The architecture was beautiful, the food was amazing, the conference was good, but the city was dirty and just had an overall "sinful" feeling if that makes sense. Glad I can say I have been there though and the best part was that my friend and coworker Joni came too!

Coffee and Beignets at Cafe Du Monde

Happy Hour at Pat Obrien's

St Louis Cathedral...GORGEOUS

View from the 38th Floor

The girls continue to make us laugh constantly. They are answering our questions with yes or no by shaking their head one way or the other. Do you want to get out of the bath? No. Can I have your paci? No. Would you like a cracker? Yes.
They love to chase eachother or Kevin and me around the house and they just laugh the whole time. If Kevin is chasing them they will act scared and run to me. Then when he walks away they look at me with their hands up as if to say where did he go? They love to dance. If we have music on they will bop their head or move their body up and down. So cute! When we are in the car we listen to Veggie Tales or other kids songs and they love it. The favorite is "This Little Light of Mine". Both of them, but Quinn especially, will put her pointer finger out all day long. Its the first thing she does when she wakes up and the minute we get in the car. They also love it when we get to the verse "hide it under a bushel, No!" and try to copy me doing that.
Both girls, but Amelia especially, love to read books! They have their favorites and could read them over and over. We love to look for the puppies on the pages and say woof woof. If we ask where the puppy, baby, duck, etc., are on the pages, they can usually point to them. They have also recently learned to say what a tiger, elephant, and fish say. Its non stop entertainment. :)
My parents brought up my old kitchen set and all of the play food and the girls LOVE it. Amelia loves the cupcakes and hotdog bun while Quinn loves the jar of banana baby food.

Amelia is putting her dirty dishes in the sink.

Hi Quinn :)

Pretending to go to sleep.

At the pumpkin patch on a sunny day!

With our friend Maysa

The hay bale is too fun to look at the camera

Anyway, hope everyone is doing well. Have a great week!

Where did September Go?

Wow, I just realized I had no posts in September. I had documented in my last post what our days are like and none of that has changed. Our weekends in September were packed too, but at least they were packed with fun things. I am going to start with where I left off and hit the highlights. Labor Day weekend we hung out with some friends and walked the trails at a state park near Sioux Falls with my parents. Its so fun to see the girls interact with other kids!

Will, Clara, Amelia, Quinn. Yes she really does drool that much some days.

Come on sister, get up there!

Shawna and me with our girls. We have been friends since we were their age.

Blazing the path in their wagon

Can't believe they are both looking at the camera!

The first weekend in September my friend Kari got married. It was a beautiful wedding and so fun to hang out with my friends. Kevin had a volleyball tournament during the day but was able to join us at the reception. The girls spent the night at my parents so we were even able to sleep in for the first time in a long time.

On September 12 I joined a new decade and turned the big 3-0! Even though I had to work I had a great day! My coworkers (mainly Joni) had decorated my cube with all kinds of "30" things and balloons so I felt festive all day. I got flowers at work from Kevin in the morning, Joni took me out to lunch, I got my free birthday cupcake from "Oh my Cupcakes", had a surprise visit from Shawna in the afternoon, and then Joni and Danielle came over for the evening. Kevin had a volleyball game so that was the only bummer. Despite a few moments of little freak outs, I am doing well with being 30. I keep thinking that in the amount of time I have been alive, if I live that long again, I will be 60! Now 30 doesn't seem so bad! :)

On September 14 I went to a baby shower for my friend Lori and her new daughter and then the girls and I went shopping with my mom since Kevin was in Rapid City for volleyball. Then on the 21st a bunch of my girlfriends and I went shopping and out to eat to celebrate our friend Ann who is getting married on Oct 19. Kevin did not have volleyball that day so he got to spend the whole day with his best little girls.

Love to the Loves!

What a fun month of friends!
Last weekend Kevin had a volleyball tournament at my old high school, Western, so I obviously had to go. The girls and I picked up my parents in Rock Rapids on the way to Hull and we spent the day there. Kevin's team ended up losing to Western in the championship but they played so well. It was fun to watch them play schools that I grew up watching rather than the SF schools that we always see. The girls did well and were pretty tuckered out by the time we got home.

The girls have been so fun lately. They are hilarious and make us laugh constantly. I really feel like they are starting to comprehend more of what we are saying and are starting to play more with eachother rather than just along side of eachother. We can tell them things like "go get a book" and they will go to their basket of books and pick one out and bring it back to us. Or we can say "put on your hat" and they will go to the Tupperware cupboard and put a bowl on their head (haha)! At bed time tonight I told them it was time for bed and to get their babies (dolls). Quinn got up, went to the kitchen where her baby was, picked it up and walked down the hall to their room. When did this happen!!!! Kevin and I ask eachother all the time how this is possible. I swear they say things like"yeah", "hi dad" or "what's that?" Tonight we were playing in the basement and there was a little toad on our back patio. I pointed it out to the girls and then they were obsessed. They would play with something and then have to come back to the window to check it out. I ask them where the toad is and then they put their hands up like "I dont know?" When it was time to go upstairs, they had to wave goodbye to the toad the whole way.

Sweetie Amelia putting on her "hat". 

This goofball has fun all day long....she is a corker, character, and a cheeseball. 

They love to chase each other around the kitchen table or through the tunnel. They love to tease each other by "giving" the other one something and then quickly pulling it away so they cant actually have it. They laugh and smile all the time but they are also very stubborn and persistent. They know what they want (usually what the other one has) and know how to whine to try to get it. Luckily for Kevin and me we figured out the differences in their cries a long time ago :)

We are loving this stage and can't wait to see what these two are going to do next.

A Day in the Life of a Vanderwal

I wanted to take a post to document what our days have been like lately because frankly some days are absolute chaos. Don't get me wrong--I completely love it but they are busy. A typical day goes something like this. Alarm clock goes off at 4:41 am....for some reason Kevin has convinced me that you cannot set an alarm for an even number so that's why 4:41 not 4:40. Before I had the girls, Kevin and I were really good about going to the gym before work. Well since then we have canceled our gym membership and I have been slacking. So the last couple of weeks I have been trying to get back into working out. So four out of the five days this week I got up early and did a workout in the basement or went for a jog around the neighborhood. By 5:20 I am in the shower and by 6 am I should be eating breakfast and getting dressed. At 6:15 we wake up the girls, get them dressed and out the door by 6:30. At 6:45 I drop them off at Kristi's and at 7 I am at work and ready for a huge cup of coffee. I then work from 7-4 which includes a one hour lunch which usually involves some kind of errand or grocery shopping. By 4:20 I am back at Kristi's to pick up the girls and we are home by 4:45. The girls get a little snack while I start their supper which they eat about 5:30. After that we play in the basement or go for a walk in the wagon. All the while Kevin has been at school from 7-3:15 and then volleyball practice until 6. He usually gets home just in time to quick eat supper, play with the girls for half an hour, and then give them their bottle before bed around 7:30. Usually we then let out a bunch of big sighs while I clean up the food the girls have thrown on the floor and make sandwiches for the next day while Kevin plans volleyball practice for the next day. Add a little laundry to the list and then bedtime by 10.

This week Miss Amelia got 4 teeth!!! We figured once they started coming in they would come in bunches. She now has two on the bottom and two back molars on top. I felt the top front teeth and they do not seem to be close to coming in.
The girls have been cracking us up so much lately. Tonight I gave the girls a "toddler muffin." They are very healthy muffins made from all kinds of vegetables that my mom made for them. Well the girls LOVE them and after Quinn's was gone, she went up to the fridge door and started knocking on it and doing the sign for please. How can you not give the girl another muffin after that. So funny!
Both girls have been very chatty the last couple weeks as well. Some frequent words are: ma-ma, da-da, uh oh, all done, Amen (they are very good at their prayers ;) ) and hot. I even had Amelia trying to copy words like grandpa, grandma, Amelia, and puppy. Quinn was also trying to say Ho ho ho, he he he, and ha ha ha....we listen to kids praise songs on the way to daycare and their favorite is "Ho-ho-ho-Hosanna". The girls have also gotten so much better about going to Kristi's. The first week was a little rough with major meltdowns when they got dropped off. But since then they willingly go to her when we arrive and there have been very few tears. They are always ready to have me pick them up though! Kinda crazy but next week will be their last week at Kristi's and then they will go back to Sharla's. I know Kristi and her daughters are going to miss them but we have already discussed how she can be our backup so that will be nice to have a familiar face in place for the girls if we need it.

Anyway, we are looking forward to a relaxing and long holiday weekend. We hope to hang out with some friends and family and relax. Hope everyone has a great weekend too!

Here are some pictures from the girls One Year Photo Shoot:

Summer

Yikes! I am falling behind again. I guess we have been a little busy since the beginning of July when the girls turned one so I will try to remember everything that has happened. We went on a weekend camping trip with my parents, had a surprise 30th birthday party for Kevin, and went on an international trip....to Canada! Not to mention lots and lots of walks, wagon rides, and park visits.

Our trip went really well. The girls traveled well and minus a few small meltdowns we arrived in one piece. It was so nice to see Kevin's parents, our siblings, and nieces and nephews....and the 13 bears were an added bonus. :) After just a couple of days the girls adjusted and started napping and sleeping through the night like they do at home. We had lots of relaxing time which included many floats down the river (just us, not the girls), got to see Grandpa and Grandma Vanderwal and some aunts and uncles, ate lots of good food, and a good time was had by all.

The first week back after vacation is always hard, but I feel like this week was a doozy. The girls and I both were a bit under the weather when we returned and I ended up having to miss work on Monday, something I would have preferred not to do coming off of vacation. I'm not sure if I wrote about this before but the girls also had to start a new daycare on Monday. Our regular provider, Sharla, had a baby on July 7 (the girls birthday - how cool is that!) so she is out for several weeks. We needed to find someone that was willing to watch the girls for about a month. Kevin and I have determined that searching for daycare is one of our least favorite activities. We found a very nice woman...the only problem is that she lives way on the eastside of town...we work on the west side. Just means lots of extra time on the road. The girls have done well there, once we leave that is. However, for the first five minutes or so they SCREAM. By the time evening rolls around, they have been pretty tired and feisty. Anyway, we are ready for Sharla to come back and get into our normal routine. School and volleyball start Monday so here we go!

Other than that the girls have been well. Quinn is getting two more teeth--some molars for a total of 8. Amelia is still toothless. Both girls love to play in our basement, watch their daddy to anything, and eat Cheerios and watermelon. Here are some of the latest pictures.

Amelia sitting with Grandpa while camping

Grandpa and Quinn having their morning Cheerios

When I asked the girls where their belly buttons were, Amelia showed me where Quinn's is. 

On our way to the airport...4:30 am.

Hanging out in the Calgary Airport

Taking a bath in Bep's sink.

The girls sleeping arrangements in our trailer. They loved it!

Swinging!

Quinn going for a bike ride with dad.

Amelia's turn for a bike ride.

Brother Bear

Amelia checking out the cows with Auntie Kristen

Beach time...Quinn was not a fan.

Amelia liked the water once she got used to it. 

Our view for 10 days...and from the river during our floats.

Amelia snuggling with Bep

Quinn and Amelia having some Cheerios with their cousin Sydney.

Quinn got into our lazy Susan and pulled out the spaghetti box. 

Hard to tell who this is from the back eh? Its Quinn. Her new thing is to carry around my lunch bag like a purse wherever she goes. 

Have a good weekend everyone!