the twinsies: 12 months old // ONE YEAR

MY BABIES ARE ONE YEARS OLD!

It was such a fantastic birthday week. My mom was in town. Quinn took his first steps. Bryson started balancing. They devoured their cake. It was all so great. I love love love these baby boys so much. They bring me so much joy. i love holding them both at the same time and squeezing them so hard! They are just the cutest little boys, I couldn't love them more.

But let's talk about anything new in the past month and where they are now at 12 months!

Both boys can go up and down the stairs completely by themselves, hallelujah. No more baby gates or worrying if a baby is falling down! Yahoo!

Both love to empty the wipes bag when they find it and eat any tissue they find, they usually stare at me when they're eating paper or tissues those cute little stinkers.

They're eating has calmed down a little, not constantly stuffing their faces, ha. They transitioned to whole milk about a week before their birthday because i was so sick of formula, I was just DONE, they didn't mind a bit other than it was just a teeny tiny too cold but the microwave worked fine. 

They both LOVE Max, love to follow him around, play with his toys, be tickled by him, Max is always making them laugh (and hurting them, let's be honest). 

Both boys LOVE clapping when you say yay! They're so enthusiastic about it.

They both sign all done and sometimes more and sometimes they wave hi/bye. We're working on please for now!

Quinn took his first step the day before his birthday to Casey! I saw him take his first step on his birthday, very appropriate celebration. He has the funniest little stink face where he pushes his lips out and scrunches his nose up, I love it so much. He got tubes in his ears last month.

Height: 31 in // 90%ile

Weight: 26 lb 5 oz // 95%ile

Head: 18 in // 75%ile

Bryson still yell-screams very loudly often. That boy is vocal. He can totally balance but refuses to most of the time, it's funny.  He's a little bit more cuddly of the two.

Height: 31 in // 97%ile

Weight: 26 lb 10 oz // 97%ile

Head: 18 in // 75%ile

Here's pictures! I'm learning how to use Lightroom, and my pictures are a little blurry when I exported them, sigh :(

 turning around more interested in Max having his fit in the background.

 Love this Quinny boy!

 Bryson!

Happy birthday my cute baby boys!

the twinsies: 11 months old

Babies babies babies!

Bryson:

Still my yeller. He'll just be sitting there yelling at you to get your attention. Too funny and way too loud at times

Bryson has caught on to the "all done" sign language hands and it's so cute! He waves those arms frantically and so happy to get OUT of his high chair. I think he and I BOTH love that he can communicate something he wants! It's so helpful!

He is the resident tissue eater, tissues out of the box puller, and wipes out of the bag puller. ALWAYS this kid. He gets such a big smile on his face when he realizes I've left the wipes open! He is also the one who tends to eat more mud

He's my back archer when it comes to getting in the stroller or carseat, e.v.e.r.y.t.i.m.e.

Has 2 bottom teeth and 2 top canines poking through!

His newest nickname is Bry Bry.

(there's more pictures of Bryson than Quinn because Quinn smile EASILY for pictures, Bryson not so much. So I focused on getting a REALLY good picture of Bry where you can see his freckle and dimple and happy smile AND in focus, I don't even think I got one of those, but I got other cute pictures of him that I don't want to get rid of!)

 clapping!

Quinn

So close to standing on his own! Once he realizes he balancing by himself for 1-2 seconds he either sits slowly down or fall forward towards me thinking it's such a fun game.

Quinn's excitement turns into abuse, as sad as that sounds. He flails his hands and it just hurts!

Has two bottom teeth and one canine on the left that's come through.

Quinn was just at the doctor this week for his ear infection and he's exactly 25 lbs!

Still love calling him Quinny and Quinn Quinn.

 scrumptious little lips!

BOTH

Crawling up a storm. Bear crawl pretty often when they're outside

They both LOVE to be outside. LOVE LOVE LOVE it. As soon as they hear the door open they race to come outside with us all.

Neither are superb at going down any type of steps yet, they've caught onto just a tiny bit of going sideways/backwards down the two little steps outside out house.

Speaking of stairs, they LOVE the stairs. IF they see that the baby gate is down they b-line it of the stairs racing up. No huge falls on the stairs yet, that'll probably change in the next few months but it's part of life.

Sleeping rockstars. They never wake up in the night, it's an absolute dream. Naps are pretty good. Depending on the day it's 2-3 naps some long some short. They are great at sleeping through each other's crying.

If ever one see the other on the ground getting a diaper change they crawl over so fast and start pretty much hitting each other's heads, clawing eyes out, ripping lips off. It's pretty sad. The one getting their diaper changed is SO sad while the one on top is so happy. I don't get it.

They give the best kisses! These huge long open-mouthed kisses, they are so proud and happy when they do. When they give it to each other it's just the cutest.

They've both definitely switched between who's clingier, mostly just depends on who's more severely sick. One thing that's hard with twins is that you can't just sit and hold and cuddle a sick baby. There's another baby crying at your legs for your attention. Cuddling two babies isn't the same, one is usually all wiggly and disrupts the other and wants to play while the other just wants to lay on your chest. It makes me sad I can't just sit and love on the sick baby.

I stopped nursing them at about 10 1/2 months. We just slowly stopped and suddenly one day I realized I didn't nurse them that morning and did the same thing the next morning and that was that. It was a good run but I'm ok being done.

Their favorite toys are the stacking blocks- that is making them fall, not stacking them themselves- and this one pop up toy where they push the 5 doors back down.

They LOVE terrorizing Maxson and getting into whatever he's playing with. But really they just love Max, I'm amazed at how rough he is with them it seems but they're actually just laughing and giggling away. A boy thing maybe? Who knows, they all love each other, I'm certain of it, they can all just be little mean with each other at times too.

We still pretty much always dress Bryson in blue and Quinn in another color (or Q in dark blue and B in light blue if they're both in blue!). It's so much easier to quickly know who's who from far way, behind, across the room. I just like knowing EXACTLY who's who every single time without having to correct myself, though I of course can tell apart their faces :)

Oh man I can't believe my babies will be ONE next month!

Each have their own little BYU animal to cuddle, Bryson a bear and Quinn a dog.

 Most of my shots were like these following two, they are so wiggly!

 BQ

 BQ

 If momma's on the ground you can bet your bottom dollar they will be climbing on me right away, I am absolutely their jungle gym.

the twinsies: 10 months old!

These boys just get better and better. Their playfulness with others has increased 10 fold in the last month. They laugh at each other while playing, they laugh at Max, they laugh when we do silly things to them. They purposely take toys from each other and the other boy SQUEAL-YELLS in determined frustration that he will not lose this battle again.

QB

They're crawling like hawks everywhere, climbing up on everything and everyone. Stairs are their bff, except the going down part, we haven't worked on that yet.

By far their favorite toys are the blocks. They sit their with huge smiles on their faces giddy to destroy the next tower that is built sometimes it only takes 2 blocks  until they can't stand it anymore or 8. They LOVE the blocks. Last night our friend Katie began balancing them on their heads and they thought that was the funnest thing ever, Bryson especially was giggly so much.

Still eating like monsters! Oh how they love it, there's no food they are unwilling to eat (hello extreme opposite of Maxson's current eating situation!). I still nurse them but I see us phasing out. I don't really have much milk at all during the daytime it seems even though I still nurse them. The morning times there's plenty and they're happy but it's slowly phasing out. Honestly, I am amazed I'm still nursing these babies at 10 months with how little my milk supply was/is. But hey, if it's working! Miracles exist, ha!

They each have 2 little teeth! They came in around 9 1/2 months. Each got their 2 teeth in the same week we were in California and were pretty grumpy babies, it was pretty sad. Bryson got his tooth first, the Quinn got 2, and then Bryson got one more! Fun that it happened the same week!

We've combatted some bad diaper rashes in the past month and learned how to handles them ourselves finally to keep them under control when they start.

Both twinsies had ear infections in the past 2-3 weeks, poor Bryson showed SERIOUS painful symptoms for days, it was so sad, it seemed like the tylenol wasn't doing a thing. WIth all the ear infections our family has been through, this one on Bryson was the first to show extreme pain. So so so sad.

They're clapping all the time and it's so cute. Usually if you say an excited "yay!" They'll start happily clapping. Once I verbally tell them good job for clapping Max starts clapping and says "Max clap too!" Ha, oh that cute kid, and then I praise him for clapping as well.

They say "mama" all the time in a crying mode when they are un happy, they like say "dada" for fun in the car over and over, and I started hearing and audible "bah bah" today when I brought them their bottles!

We switched them to new carseats this week, can't wait to turn them forward facing once they are 1!

Quinn
I'd say he's my overall more outgoing baby. Very easy to smile and laugh and explore and go etc. He's bare crawling down hills these days and can't wait to see what's new

Bryson
Bryson is a little bit more cuddly. A little bit more content with snuggling with you or even a stranger. He's been a bit more emotional and favoring me lately with his teeth and ear infections.

They're both still like these massive 25 lb babies, it's crazy

They're in size 4 diapers during the day and 5 at night

Size 12-24 month clothing.

(I'm writing this on Sept 1st right now and realizing NEXT MONTH they are going to be one years old! How in the world!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!)

the twinsies: 9 months old

People are probably so annoyed when they're around me and my babies because I say about 15 times in a 10 minute period "I just want to eat you, you're so cute!" while I bite on my lips and refrain from literally wanting to eat them. Gosh darn I really do love love love this baby stage. They're a little mobile and figuring out how to move and they laugh and giggle sooooooooooo much and are squishy and adorable and have figured out the whole sleeping thing, I just love them so much I want to squeeze them and eat them, ugh.

Quinny is my mover. He's got the crawling on hands and knees thing down. He's climbing up on objects to a standing position and walking along them. Just last night he figured out how to sit down after standing along something without falling to get down, his smile was so big when he realized he could do it over and over. He's not patient when it comes to being in the car for long periods of time. Thus far, he's showing us all that he's a lefty! There's no left handed people in either of our families so we've worried with one another if we should force him to eat with his right hand (you can eye roll now all you left handed people). He's my yeller when they're eating and having to heaven forbid WAIT for more food, he's more vocal of the two when impatient.

Bryson has got the fast army crawl down pat. It's adorable to watch him try is hardest to keep up with Quinny. He usually ends up whining quite a bit when he's far behind Quinn and can't reach me as fast but he makes a great effort. He is my clean(er) eater of the two; I'd say he's better at actually getting the food in his mouth and not dropping it in his bib or the floor. He's begun mimicking the head shake of no this week and it's sooooo funny. He has a little smirk on his face like he knows this is funny for mom. I would say he's my slapstick humor kind of guy and is the easier one to make giggle these days, don't confuse that with smiling. Quinn is the more social easy to smile guy but Bryson will laugh and laugh over the littlest things. Bryson also loves mimicking, he does a head shake no back and forth with you as well as the motor boat blubbering noise back and forth with you, it's adorable.

Both boys blubber "mamamamama" when they're desperate and sad and it make my heart sing.

Both boys take 3 naps a day still ranging from 45 min-2 hours though the past week they've gone back and forth between 2 and 3 naps, so I think they're transitioning to 2 naps a day now, YAY! They're doing SO well sleeping totally through the night now that they are out of our room while we stay in Wyoming! Most the time they still wake up between 6 & 7 depending what time we put them down for bed, usually that being between 7-8 while we're here visiting family, they sleep something like 11-12 hours a night.

Both boys eat an insane amount of food. Seriously 4 meals a day of a lot of food, definitely WAY more than Max eats during the day. It's tiring, and they always feed themselves, but it's tiring coming up with a variety of food everyday that's easy for them to eat that isn't insanely repetitive. They eat all normal food without any teeth. I spend so much time in the kitchen making food, feeding people food, and then cleaning up the food.

Speaking of food, if they are extremely enjoying their food for some reason (probably if they're starved or it's legitimately yummy) they are SO loud when eating. Smacking those lips, moaning, and just tons of other sounds, it's so cute.

They seem to be not super interested in their bottles anymore, not totally sure why. It's almost like we have to force them to drink their bottles, it's weird. When it comes to nursing I'd say Bryson likes nursing more and Quinn just wants to get done really fast and keep going. When Bryson is done nursing he'll often lay back and just blow a bunch of air out of his barely opened lips while he smiles, so cute.

They are constantly climbing all over one another, really cute. And both of them are ALWAYS crawling/climbing/crying to me. It's exhausting to be the favorite one at times.

We've had some MAJOR diaper rash battles the past month I'd say. After 2 1/2 weeks their really bad rash went away after a few different methods. After the rashes went away I asked on Facebook for some advice and WOW, the outpouring of advice was so beyond awesome. Mommas know that diaper rashes are no joke and can be frustrating to deal with and sad too looking at their red little tushies. I was so grateful for everyone's advice!!!!!!! We've now kept it at bay for a good 2 weeks from some of the advice given.

Most the pictures we took of them together were like this and blurry and wiggling to get on their tummy and crawl away/off the couch. Ooy, wiggly babies!!!!

{Stats- taken when 8 months and 1 week essentially}

Bryson
29 inches - 84%ile
21# 2 oz - 87%ile
18 in head - 75%ile

Quinn
29 inches- 84%ile
20 # 13 oz - 76%ile
17 5/8 in head - 50%ile

the twinsies: 8 months

And another big milestone, they have officially doubled their gestational life span!

The babies are at this really awesome stage where you just so badly want to eat them because they are so cute. So smiley, so reactive of people and things around them, I'm loving it.

-Quinn has got the army crawl down pat. Sometimes plays around on his hands and knees but prefers to crawl across the room on his tummy. He's pretty quick and can get anywhere he wants to almost immediately.

-Bryson finally began hid forward movement a couple days after he turned 8 months! We had big celebrations for him and were so happy! He somehow just scoots forward using tons of different methods, pretty funny. Now, at a week later he's just as fast of an army crawler as Quinn.

-THEY EAT SO MUCH FOOD. Seriously, they don't stop and just eat more and more and more. They are nearly fully onto table food and baby purees are long gone. It's messier but a lot easier for me to just throw stuff on their plates and let them go to town. They definitely get the most cranky and cry the most when you don't give them food fast enough. Oink.

-Awesome sleepers. Sleep 7 pm-6 am. Sometimes one or both wake between 3 am-5 am to eat but not always. I'm not ready to force them cutting out that last "middle of the night" feeding because the past 8 months they've been really great at slowly transitioning out of things so I'm cool with it. Take 2-3 naps a day (mostly 3 still). Naps range from 45 min-1 1/2 or 2 sometimes. They are so great at just putting themselves to sleep in their own bed, it's the best thing ever.

-They smile in an instant, it's the best. Max has begun making efforts to get them to smile which has been fun to see too, he's overall really really good with the babies and their relationship is cute.

-Quinn has the funniest yell when he's bored/mad/trying to get your attention. Once you react to him mid yell he gets a huge silly smile on his face and his eyebrows raise all high like he's happily surprised.

-They are just the sweetest boys! So happy and wonderful. I'm starting to get more to the point that twins are fun and not just a ton of work, ha. Love these little boy!

Bryson (you guys, I love the little dot by his eye oh so much. It's the best feature Heavenly Father blessed him with so we can tell them apart! Perfect spot!)

 B

 Love his resting pouty face

 their 8 months pictures on the chair are getting harder! They move so much!

 Quinn

 Q

 Q

 Q

 Q

 The face on the right was the funniest

 twin love

 Their adorable 4th of July outfits from Jim and and Jan screamed take more pictures of us

 B

 Sometimes crying is apart of our lives. 

 Q

 B

 "If I'm going down, you're gong down with me."