8.29.10 ~ 14 months

We've had a busy month. Some highlights were my brother's wedding and our sea kayaking/camping trip to Saddlebag Island (without the girls!). The warmer weather at the beginning of the month was been nice. The girls liked splashing in the pool and playing in the little sprinkler. Oh, and in our free time we started a business... more on that later.

Some milestones:

communication: I have counted about 27 words and signs that the girls can say. Brelynn says all of them, and Avery and Camille are only missing about 5 each. The girls are little sponges now and seem to learn something new everyday. They are all able to follow simple one step directions (sit down, get the ball) and will sometimes follow a two step command (get the doggy and give it a kiss).

motor skills: Avery started walking on 8/19 and Camille is occasionally running now. Brelynn doesn't scoot anymore, she crawls really fast to try to keep up with her sisters. All the girls love to crawl up the stairs at bedtime and naptimes. Brelynn learned how to pull to a stand on 8/15 and I often find her standing in her crib. She is hesitantly cruising on furniture, but only when mom or dad are really close by.

teething: Avery has 4 top teeth and just cut her third bottom one. Brelynn has 2 top and 2 bottom. Camille has 2 bottom.

sleeping: the girls are still sleeping about 13 hours at night and taking two naps a day. The morning nap is usually 2 hours and the afternoon is usually 1 1/2 hours. I'm such a lucky mommy!

We went for a walk and slightly tresspassed to get into this cool field with the giant hay bales. The girls did well and sat eating animal crackers, but I thought for sure they would fall off these bales and hurt themselves. You gotta do what you gotta do to get the photo, right?

8.22.10 ~ Kayaking

We left the girls overnight for the first time last weekend and headed off for an adventure. The girls were safe and sound with Grandma Kim and Auntie Chelsea and by all reports they were on their best behavior. Great Aunt Kris and cousin Tori came for a visit, they went for a walk, had ice cream (or maybe that was just Grandma and Auntie?), and played at the park.

Dan and I took off with our friends Ryan and Kim on a sea kayaking adventure to Saddlebag Island. We drove to Anacortes, took a very small ferry to Guemes Island, and then kayaked to Saddlebag Island where we camped overnight. We saw a few starfish and caught 3 yummy crab. Luckily Kim doesn't eat crab so we each got one :) We saw seals and seal pups and lots of heron. On the way back we had a bit of a head wind making the water a bit choppy and paddling harder than on the way in, but all in all we had a wonderful time.

This was the moonlight!

8.7.10 ~ Dale & Jenn's Wedding

Dale and Jenn's wedding was Saturday and it was beautiful despite a little rain. Dan had a real challenge trying to keep the girls happy and clean before the wedding and during pictures while I was doing other bridesmaid tasks. They walked in the rain and looked at ducks and ate a lot of snacks. The girls were getting pretty crabby as the wedding approached, but when it was time to walk down the aisle they did wonderfully (with a few animal crackers to keep them happy). They didn't like to keep their hair bows in and that became a game during pictures, but we didn't fight it after that.

Playing on the dance floor in their dresses prior to the wedding.

Avery posing for the camera

Brelynn...I don't want a bow in my hair!

Camille posing in the rain. Such a cutie.

Hey, look...we can pull these flowers off :)

The girls just before the wedding...Brelynn found her bow...again! Isn't the wagon cute?

After the wedding...

...and in their comfy clothes finally.

The beautiful bride and handsome groom. Congratulations, Dale and Jenn! We love you! Thanks for letting us be a part of such a special day.

7.29.10 ~ 13 months

Many more milestones and updates this month. The girls are showing us more and more of their personalities...fun at times and not so fun at times :)

Communication: language skills are exploding and this speech pathologist couldn't be prouder of her girls. They are picking up a new animal sound, sign, or word almost daily now. Avery and Brelynn are a bit more verbal and Camille is a bit quicker to pick up the signs, but they're all doing extremely well. One or more will sign: eat, milk, water, more, all done, bye bye, sleep, and bird. They will say: bye bye, done, up, mama, dada, grandma, more, night night, num num, dog, and banana. They will make monkey sounds, dog panting sounds, cow sounds, and horse sounds. I'm sure there's more but I can't think of them now. Even more impressive than their communication is their comprehension. It amazes me the things they understand (and sometimes the things they'll do on command). To recap first words for prosperity's sake...Brelynn's was 'ball', Avery's was 'banana', and Camille's was 'dogdog'.

Teeth: Camille has her bottom two teeth, Brelynn has her bottom two and the top two are just through the gums, Avery has her bottom two and she has three top ones through the gums now. They are getting toothy little smiles :)

Motor: Camille has taken up to 6 steps independently and will frequently take 3-4 steps now before diving out in a superman style dive.  Avery is cruising on furniture and is starting to stand up in the middle of the room on her own. Brelynn is mostly scooting on her bottom and is surprisingly mobile this way. She's starting to crawl a little bit here and there in the last few weeks. She will often roll over now and is able to get herself into a sitting position (on Father's Day for the first time).

Feeding: still going strong on the eating front. They drink 2 bottles (morning and night) and eat 3 meals and a snack or two during the day. Watermelon and avocados are favorites right now. They can all now drink from a sippy cup and a straw independently.

Sleeping: With all the fun of vacation, the girls started going to bed earlier, about 6:30 now. They are sleeping all night and getting up between 6 and 7 usually, but we do get the occasional 7:30 wake up which is heavenly. They are down to only 2 naps now during the day. It's a great schedule.

The big excitement is that my brother is getting married on Saturday, August 7th and the girls are flower girls. We're going to pull them down the aisle in a wagon. It may be the cutest thing in the whole world. Or it could go horribly wrong and still be cute. Either way, more to come on that...

Finally, we tried to get pictures of the whole family yesterday, but didn't get many in focus. Here's the best one we got. I don't know why I'm being such a dork...just imagine my eyes are open and I'm looking at the camera instead of off in la-la land :)

7.26.10 ~ We have a walker!

Camille has been close to walking for weeks now, but she finally took her first steps today! We were playing with our friend, Ben, when she took 4-5 steps several times in a row. The trick...holding on to green onions (maybe she felt like she was still holding on to us? Who knows.) Now we'll have to wait to see how long it takes her to realize it's much faster, and easier on the knees, to walk instead of crawling!  Way to go, Super Cam!

More Sunriver

the girls got to watch the annual baseball game from the sidelines this year. They all liked to hold the frisbee, but then it turned into the dinner plate and we ate lunch :) Yum!

July 10-17 ~ Sunriver 2010

We had a great time at Sunriver again this year. The girls really did well on the 10 1/2 hour drive and we made sure to stop every few hours to let them play. They ate well and slept well, putting themselves to bed at 6:30 each night (and I'm happy to say the earlier bedtime continued once we got home).

We went on walks, played in the house, floated in the hot tub (cooled off of course!), ate yummy food, and enjoyed time with amazing people. One of the girls' favorite things was the swimming pool at Mavrick's and we went most afternoons to wear them out :)