Wednesday, October 2, 2013

The first year in Review

My babies are a year old!!! I cannot believe how fast time has flown by. It has been the most blessed, magical year of my LIFE! My sweet babies have me so spoiled. They sleep 12 hour nights, are so pleasant and sweet all the time. They let me fit in work outs, cleaning, showering, and maybe even naps during their nap times, etc. They love to play with their toys, love to steal toys from one another, love to read books with mom and dad, love to "talk" to one another, and laugh and imitate one another. They are each others best friends. I love that and I love them so, so much!

Here are my favorite pictures of our little miracles from the past year. 
10 minutes old. Our FIRST family photo. This was such a sweet experience. My c-section was awesome. I got to watch my little girls enter the world. It was so beautiful. I loved meeting them for the first time. I was in awe. Our Father in Heaven loves us so much to entrust us with his children! They were so healthy and so perfect. No NICU time and no complications. 
One day old. The girls LOVED being in the same basinette together. The nurses hated it because they couldn't tell who was who right off, but oh well. They've loved each other since the womb. 
One week old. I love this picture! It is so sweet and so perfect. It was a miracle they both had their eyes open. Looking back I can't believe how similar they look. Some pictures of the in the very beginning are hard for even me to tell them apart now. At the time it was a no brainer. I always hoped they would look alike even though they were fraternal twins. 
Two weeks old. My sister is amazing and came to visit us when the girls were two weeks old. They were supposed to be born when she was here but they came two weeks early due to my health. It was still perfect though. I love the fall colors and how sweet this picture turned out. 
Two weeks old. My sister warned me that when you take their diapers off sometimes newborns have accidents. We kept them warm with a heating pad under the blanket and kept the room really warm. We were adjusting the girls positions for the picture. When I picked Harmony up she peed all over me. Denisha (my sister) commented on how gross that was (she has three kids. It has to be bad if a mom of three thinks something is gross.) I said "I thought you said they often pee. She said "Just on the blanket. Not in someone's arms". Oh well. At least it wasn't poop. :)
Two weeks old. I love their frilly outfits and the SMILES!!!
  One month old and their first day at church. I bore my testimony at church that day. I remember holding a baby in my arm as I spoke my heart from the pulpit. So amazing. 
  Two months old and blessing day. Chuck is such a great dad and was able to bless both of our sweet girls. Our family and some friends came to support. They were so sweet and did so well during their blessings. 
  Three months old. So, co cute! I loved this age. They started smiling and interacting with us and each other  more.Tummy time was getting more fun. Look at their skinny legs! They started really rolling over and getting in each others faces. I had to put them in separate cribs. I was sad but they didn't even notice. 
 Four months old. At this age I could get them to laugh. That was so fun. They were still so little. At the end of their fourth month we had them try solid foods for the first time. Dr's suggestions. It was a joke but really funny. They were still so little! They started rolling over. 
 Five months. We started using cloth diapers and love them! They have saved us so much money and are so easy to use! We also started giving them very runny solid foods. I think it was too early but oh well. It made for some really cute/funny videos. This month we started putting them in exersaucers. They also started laughing with each other. That was awesome! They mastered rolling over. 
 Six months. Two little teeth appeared in each little mouth within a week or two of each other. Harmony started the inch worm (before crawling). I went back to choir and Chuck was on his own at church and Thursday nights. 
 Seven months. Harmony pushed herself up to seated and she mastered crawling. Charity began army crawling everywhere. They began exploring the house. When I left the room for a minute and came back I would always have to look for them. Charity is my little jumper. She would just sit and jump in their exersaucers so we got them each a jumper to hang in the doorway together. Harmony didn't really get jumping at first but Charity loved it. 
 Seven and a half months. LOVE the smiles
 Eight months. Charity would still stay where you sat her down. She was so nervous to move from that spot for fear of falling. It was nice to still have someone stay where you set them. I tried bending her legs to show her how to get out of seated but she wouldn't have it. She learned when she was ready. Harmony began pulling herself up onto things. Harmony started saying "momma". She said "dadda" shortly after. Charity started saying "momma" and "dadda" shortly after. 
 Nine months. Charity began pulling herself up onto things and getting in and out of the seated position. She became just as mobile as Harmony and started crawling normal with the army crawl. Harmony seemed to be a few weeks ahead of her physically which is okay. Harmony was a little early and Charity was right on time. The follow each other everywhere and just laugh doing it. I started weaning them in preparation for their first flight to visit family in KY. 
 Ten months. Charity got her four top teeth all at once. She also started normally crawling all the time. Harmony got three top teeth in random order. They loved meeting and playing with the rest of their cousins on my side of the family. Harmony finally started holding her own bottle. Yay! My sister, Denisha, took family photos for us again, bless her SOUL and captured some really CUTE shots. I love this one of Chairty cheesin'!

So sweet. 
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LOVE my girls!
 Eleven months. They are super mobile and super interactive. They are babbling more and more to me and each other. They've started imitating some sounds. 
One year old!!!

I LOVE these gorgeous little girls!!

Harmony has been picking up a little sign language. She can sign more and all done and claps. I'm still working on Charity but she'll catch on soon I'm sure. Every day they learn more and more. I can just see their little brains working. They have such cute little senses of humor as well. We get each other and it's so fun!
They are still crawling. I'm totally okay with that. They have each only stood free standing for maybe a second maybe once or twice. They are only taking two naps now. They slept four naps until 9 months old when they transitioned down to three naps. When they turned a year old they transitioned down to two naps. I love it though. I feel it gives me great freedom. We can run errands and have play dates longer than thirty minutes without disturbing nap time which I do not do. Naps are first and foremost. The girls are so sweet, so pleasant, so healthy and so good. They are such a joy. I am so glad I am able to stay home to raise them. We've made sacrifices but I wouldn't give it up for anything. I'm grateful for Chuck's willingness and ability to work and provide for our family as well. We are so blessed in every way and I am so, so grateful. The past four years of working in every way possible to get our little miracles here have returned 10 fold. Every single moment is a joy. I cannot express that enough. I thank my Heavenly Father daily for my little miracles.Chuck is such a great dad. He's so sweet with them and so capable. I love, LOVE my amazing, blessed little family!!!

2 comments:

  1. They are so beautiful Desiree! And YOU are so beautiful! I loved seeing your gorgeous face during conference. :) I'm so happy for your wonderful family and all the joy you have!

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  2. are you kidding me with the 10 month old family picture?? it is SO perfect!!! Everyone of you looks fab, I love the dress you are wearing:)

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