Happy New Year!
I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! We had a great first Christmas with the girls at home.
Two weeks before Christmas Alex got the stomach flu, which quickly passed on to me and the girls, then Chris, then my parents, and eventually my sister and her family and Chris' sister and her husband. The girls really took it hard and it took over a week for them to fully recover, but they were well at Christmas.
Here are some pics from Christmas with my parents (my sister and her family did not come as they were trying to avoid the sickness... although they did eventually get it anyway.)




























Alex got a wii, which was his big gift this year. He actually wasn't really that excited as he thought he wanted toys. But he really doesn't play with toys anymore, and we knew he would like it. And he does now!!! He wants to play all the time (and so do we).














The girls didn't last too long... Anna and Elisabeth fell asleep while opening gifts.


















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Chris' family came out for Christmas and that was a lot of fun. It is always nice, of course, to have more helping hands around the house...














Here are some pics from Christmas morning












































































































and we also got to go hiking, play tennis, see a movie, visit the great-grandparents, and just enjoy being together.

























































Uncle Jeremy with the kids














Aunt Laura and Uncle David with the crew














Anna and Mamaw



















Chris' brother Jeremy does photography on the side and he took some pics of the kids playing etc... I thought they turned out great. Here are some of my favorites!



















































































































































































I know you probably want to know which baby is whom (and I have figured it out, Jeremy), but I don't have time right now to label them so I will try to later. They sure are cute, though, aren't they???!!!!

Hope everyone had a blessed holiday. Chris' parents were in town so we had a great time with them. They babysat for us so we could go on a long awaited date night, as well as a hike the next day. Chris' dad also cooked dinner for us every night and it was wonderful! We can't wait for them to come back at Christmas!














Chris' dad made us some clams one night. Alex was very excited about them and took his clam shell to school the next day to show it off.














We also made trips to Atlanta and Summerville to see the great- grandparents. The girls did really well on their trip to Atlanta (we drove during their normal nap times).
Here is visiting Mamaw in Summerville














Natalie and Nana














Elisabeth and Papaw














Gaga














Alex helping me out while I ran to get something!














Thanksgiving dinner with my family














Elisabeth and Grampka














Anna and Grammy














Chris watched the girls while us grown up girls planned our Black Friday shopping














Elisabeth is checking out the Kohl's ad for Black Friday














Here are two really cute videos (at least I think so)
One is Anna blowing rasberries while visiting Mamaw
The other is Alex making Elisabeth laugh

We finally decided to take the girls on one of our family's favorite things to do... hike!
That is the great thing about the stroller- it is able to go off-road really well, too. It basically has bicycle tires.














It is not too easy to push up hills, though! I definitely get a work out pushing it around the block.














Anna is now able sit up fairly well for a little while at a time.














Anna has also discovered her feet and finds them pretty tasty.














Natalie sitting pretty














We are feeding them daily rice cereal and then also have tried bananas and sweet potatoes so far. So far they all enjoy eating. Anna gets really messy because she always wants to hold the spoon, too and that doesn't work too well. Elisabeth is by far the cleanest and does the best at eating. Natalie after every bite needs to suck her fingers or bib, so that ends up being a huge mess as well.
As excited as I was to introduce the girls to solids- I'm realizing this is also a lot more work- feeding them the food, cleaning everyone and everything, plus still having to do their bottles!














Natalie














Anna














Elisabeth