Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everyone! We are still in Georgia today and leaving early tomorrow morning to drive back to VA with the girls and the boys (dog boys, that is). Hopefully we will fit everything back in our rented minivan. We have all been having a great time this week. The girls have enjoyed being the center of attention. Especially Sophie. There's something about family gatherings that brings out the best in her.

We arrived Saturday afternoon and went out to dinner with my parents to my favorite restaurant in Forsyth - El Tejado. It took the girls a while to get settled in that night, and we did a little more traveling on Sunday, but I think after that they were right at home. Sunday we went to see Grandma Ilona in Atlanta. She's in Hungary right now with her mother - left on Monday. Peter's grandmother is not doing so well and is stubborn about doctors. We hope that his mom can get something resolved before she comes back home.

Monday night we went to Mema and Papa's house for dinner. Mema made enough to feed an army as usual and it was all delicious (also as usual). Mary ate until she couldn't hold herself up anymore. Tuesday we met Aunt Janis and our cousin Gini for lunch in Macon. That's my mom's side of the family - they had a get together on Sunday but we weren't able to make it down. Then, last night we had family over for Christmas Eve dinner, my dad's sister Tricia and her family, Russ and Mandy, Mema and Papa. I finally got the camera out and tried to take a few pictures. I've posted the only ones that came out decent. Not because of the subjects - but I took a few before I realized there was something on the camera lens. And also I'm probably the world's worst photographer, so I have a lot of blurry stuff.

Mary and Mom

Mandy and Russ

Sophie and Kadie

Sophie and her teddy bear - she was up way past bedtime!

Christmas Card Outtakes 2008

It's been a while since the last post. We have been busy. Especially Sophie and Mary. They are walking, well sometimes running (Sophie). Mary is not walking quite as much as Sophie but she gets where she's going pretty fast, whatever the mode. We're all having fun.

About the pictures: We had a Christmas picture made yesterday of our family with the girls wearing these fancy dresses given to them by Grandma Ilona. It won't be ready until the 18th though, so I went ahead and took some pictures of the girls at home that afternoon while they still had their dresses on.

I don't think we have a winner for the Christmas card. I'll try again later. There's still 16 days to get around to it, right? Sophie was ready to ham it up, but Mary (probably still a bit groggy from nap time) was very focused on the camera. And this ultimately resulted in a very upset Mary when she could not have the camera. It's just too bad she's so cute when she's angry. Don't worry, she's fine.

Something is about to happen.

Mary goes for the camera/Sophie still being cute

Hey, that's a cool camera, Mom - what's up with Mary?

End of session.

We've grown a lot this year!

Our 2007 Christmas card picture!

Greenfield Farm

We had a fun visit today to Greenfield Farm in Ruckersville (about 20 miles from C'ville). There were lots of pumpkins, hay, farm animals and beautiful views. Mary and Sophie got to see some turkeys, sheep, pigs, chickens and goats for the first time today. Sophie was very excited about seeing all the animals. Then we all went on a hay ride. We all had a great time and enjoyed the beautiful day. (It's sunny and in the low 70's today in C'ville.)

Mom, Sophie, Mary and Dad at the entrance of the farm

Dad and Mary with the goats

Mom and Sophie with the goats

Little Pumpkins

Happy Halloween!

The girls had their first Halloween dressing up - as twin monsters. As is tradition for kids in Charlottesville, we went down to Jefferson's Academical Village AKA UVA lawn for trick-or-treating. The girls also had their first bus ride. It was a fun filled afternoon. We met a lot of people along the way, both familiar faces and new.

Mom with Mary Monster and Sophie Monster




Dad with the monsters (we were waiting for the bus in these pictures)

We ran into Elana (AKA Dorothy)! The girls are still warming up to the crowd.

Mary and Sophie with twin UVA students!

More baby twins! 10 month olds - bat and skunk.

Twins and Twins

Simon was a little disappointed that he dressed up but got no candy.
Bailey's still a little too skittish for Halloween.

Mary and Sophie's first portraits

The girls had their pictures made at a portrait studio for the first time on Tuesday. At first they were confused, thinking, "Who is this man, why does he want me to sit on this stool?" But after he started making them laugh and flashing the camera they started to act like professionals.

Here are some of our favorite poses:

Birthday Party at The Little Gym

Let's get ready to party!


Elana and the girls on the parachute

Sophie playing ball

Mary playing ball


Austin and Sophie


Blowing Bubbles


Our first birthday cakes!

Mary

Sophie and her big piece of cake!

Mary and Sophie's 1st Birthday - More to Come

Our Family - Dad with Sophie and Mom with Mary

Well, we've made it through the first year! The girls turned a year old on Tuesday, October 7th. They actually had their birthday party on Saturday at the Little Gym. It was a blast and we got lots of great pictures. Unfortunately I don't have time to post them right now. All the grandparents came up to C'ville for the party. My dad even made it after having back surgery last month. The trip was probably harder on him than he'd admit, but I think the girls were very therapeutic for him. They have that effect on people, especially their Papa.

My parents stayed in town and drove back home on the girls' birthday. Yesterday I left town for a transportation conference in Luray, VA (where I am typing this now during our break between meeting and dinner). More to come when I get back to C'ville!

Baby Fight!

Sophie being attacked by Mary Monster!

Mary is a little rambunctious. We try to keep her under control before it gets too out of hand. Sophie takes it in stride. She did get upset the other day when Mary started a fight in Kroger. Just a little tug on the ear, no harm done. We try not to attract too much attention when shopping (with limited results) but I had to laugh - they're so cute when they get upset.

It's been a while since the last post. We've since had a great trip to Georgia for a conference and to visit family. I went to a transportation conference in Atlanta and the girls stayed with Grandma and Papa. We stayed a few days after the conference and visited family. We all had a great time, but I think Mary and Sophie had the most fun.

Sophie, Palmer and Mary

Mary and Sophie got to meet their new cousin Palmer during our visit. Unfortunately, this was while Peter and I were in Atlanta so we did not get to meet him. What a cute fella! Palmer has a blog too - palmeredge.blogspot.com. His parents are my cousin Jeffrey and his wife Susan. I can see some similarities between him and Mary - they both favor the Edge side of the family.

I also think that Mary favors my Aunt Tricia (my dad's sister) in the next picture. People say she looks like me but I don't know. She definitely favors me more than Sophie does. Sophie's Peter's baby. But she loves her Mama. :) That's Aunt Tricia's granddaughter Kadie in the right corner. We did get to see her when she came to play with the babies. She saw Mary and Sophie during our last visit, but they were bigger and able to play a lot more this time.

Sophie, Mary, Great Aunt Tricia and Kadie

Sophie favors Peter's side as you can see in the picture of her with his mom! The girls visited her in Atlanta, then she and Peter went to visit them at my parents' house in Forsyth while I was at the conference.

Sophie and Grandma Ilona

Unfortunately, we missed another baby - Lydia came to play twice while Peter and I were in Atlanta. And no one took pictures! Oh well, there's always next time. She came to visit with Mema and Papa (my adopted grandparents) and her grandma, Gayle.

Peter and I had fun getting some time to ourselves in Atlanta and spent some time in Athens visiting our friends Bret and Alli and their daughter Gray and our friend James Griffith. Peter also stocked up on Georgia shirts while we were there. The girls got some Bulldog gear too! Some outfits from Grandma and some pink Georgia Bulldog shoes from Great Aunt Janis and Great Aunt Marilyn. (Thanks especially to Aunt Marilyn, that gift was hard for her being a GT mom.)

Our last day the girls and I went out to lunch with Grandma and stopped by to visit Great Aunt Dorothy and Uncle Cecil. It just happened to be that my cousin David and his family - wife Michelle and daughter Mackenzie - were visiting, and he also was going to a conference in ATL. That was an unexpected treat since I have not seen Mackenzie since she was a little baby.

I think Peter was ready to get back home and back to work, but I did not want to leave. It was nice to be back home again and around family and friends. Not to mention I did not have to wash dishes all week. But it was good to get back. The girls were excited to be back in their own room again. And the dogs were happy to be able to lay around inside all day.

There's no place like home!

Playtime with Mary and Sophie

We are all doing well, looking forward to a trip down to GA next weekend. Just thought I'd share this video of the girls playing yesterday afternoon. If you can't tell who is who, Mary is the one going for the camera.

Lazy Sunday

Sophie and Mary on Sunday afternoon

Yesterday was a fun, lazy Sunday. We went to church and then to our favorite restaurant for lunch, then the girls, dogs and I had a nice nap (Dad went to work). Mary and Sophie were wearing some new white dresses that their Nagyi sent them (Peter's mom) so I got some pictures outside.

Sophie sampling the "greens"

Mary admiring her landscaping skills

"Mary, you're not going to eat that, are you?"

Just posting this one to show Sophie's new talent of pulling up and standing! We saw her do this for the first time Friday night.

I could not give this post the title Lazy Sunday without thinking about the SNL clip of the same name. Unfortunately due to some copyright blah blah blah you can't find this on YouTube right now. So these guys made their own, and it is just like the original only different guys. I was a little disappointed when I could not find the original, and you can tell these guys are lip syncing, but the scenes are identical! Wow.

Roomba vs. Twins

Hmm... this one is a close second!

Catching Up with Mary and Sophie

It’s been a while since the last post and we’ve been pretty busy, so here’s to catch up on things, and like my filing system I’ll go most recent first. (Sorry I got a new computer installed at work today and have been a little obsessed about file transfer… anyway, onto the girls!)

Sophie and Mary had their first full day at their new babysitter’s house on Tuesday. Erika has a 2 year old daughter, Elana, and she loves to play with our girls. The girls are just staying there on Tuesdays when I work, so Peter can get in an extra day of work during the week. They may stay with her at other times here or there. But I’m hoping this is the start of a wonderful relationship.

Sophie, Elana and Mary

Sophie demonstrating her table manners

The girls were 9 months old on Monday, July 7^th. We spent the 4^th of July weekend at home rained in but had a fun time playing inside. The girls were dressed in some cute red, white and blue outfits, so I took some pictures of them sitting on the changing table – watching the rain out of their bedroom window.

Mary and Sophie

The girls are eating more solids now and a little more variety. Sophie has really improved with the eating – she voluntarily opens her mouth now when I used to have to trick her. This picture was taken last month. At that time, I was feeding them both, but Sophie had her own spoon to feed herself. She wasn’t that capable, but she would keep putting the spoon in her mouth, and I could shove in food whenever there was an opening.

We took a vacation the first week in June – kind of – Peter went to the ACA meeting in Knoxville and we also got a place in Gatlinburg where I stayed with the girls and Grandma and Grandpa came to visit. I also got the chance to take a break and spend a couple of nights with Peter at the Hilton in Knoxville and go out with some friends I had not seen in a couple of years. The girls had a great time too – they went to the pool for the first time! We just went to the baby pool, but since then we’ve gotten some floats so they can be in the big pool with Mom and Dad. (We did that a couple weekends ago but no pictures.)

Mary and Sophie on the way to the pool

Testing the waters with Mom and Grandma

Mary likes to kick and splash!

Well, that gets us back up to date, I think. It’s about time for the girls to get up from their nap and I hear someone singing a baby song. Thanks for visiting!