Elena's post

We try to get roughly an even number of pictures of each girl up on the website for you all, but we've noticed we had a few less of Elena lately, so we're doing an Elena-only (mostly picture) post.

Here's our sweetie sitting up like a big girl, playing with her frog:


A close-up of the hand-eating that goes on all the time around here. Doesn't she have a lovely 3/4 profile?
Since her earliest days, Elena has perfected this sort of sideways coy look. Here she shows it off again, while playing with her raspberry teether.

Blue eyed girl - such a joy.

And finally, two more where Elena was playing with the blocks Christina made for Christmas. She and Clara each got a set (slightly different from each other) and they were so fun to make for them. So far, there is a lot of eating and squeezing and throwing them, but no stacking or building. Guess we'll let her dexterity catch up with her.

That's our little Lainey!

Dad and One Daughter

Today, Steve and Clara had some special one-on-one time while Elena was taking a nap. Christina was there to capture some of the action with her new camera - she's not a pro at it yet, but is having fun learning to use an SLR camera where she has a little more control over the pictures.

Growing Girls

It's been a while since we've posted - since the holidays, Christina has been back teaching for an intensive three-week session, Steve has been working from home/caring for the girls, and the girls themselves have been busy learning lots of new things.

Their progress is stunning to us as first time parents, although it's probably normal to most of you. Both girls now grasp objects they want, manipulate them, get them to their mouths, and throw them away. Both roll side to side regularly, swinging their legs around, and each has once or twice rolled from back to front and front to back. Luckily, neither is doing it consistently yet so we haven't lost either of them under the couch or swing yet.

They are getting SO BIG. Elena is 14 pounds, and Clara is 13. They are about 23 inches long now, and are really exercising their muscles. They both (but especially Elena) have super-strong leg muscles, and would stand all day if we balanced them that long. They are also working on sitting. Both can do it if you support them a little bit, and Elena can do it sitting in the Boppy, which is really minimal support.

Enough words- here are pictures! Some girls working on holding their heads up for longer periods:
And Elena doing her Boppy-sit:

All that sitting really tires her out! Elena looks like she could pass out here:

Sitting on the couch is another favorite activity, now that they don't sway side to side as much as they used to. Here they are (Clara left, Elena right) in outfits their Grandpa and Grandma Mary sent for Christmas:

We've had some warm-ish days lately, and we've taken advantage of them to take some snow walks together:

One walk yielded our so-far favorite picture of Elena! Here's our little snow bear:
Not to be outdone in cuteness, here is Clara during our pre-bath playtime at night. The girls both love a scarf that Nana Rose got Christina for Christmas, and we usually wave it around and over them. Here is Clara trying out her babushka look:

And one more, right out of the bath. Is this a startled princess or what? Clara is not really ready for the paparazzi here, but she looked so cute in this bath towel from her birth mom and Gabe:

Holiday Photo Edition

For the girls' first Christmas, we were lucky enough to travel south to see Steve's family for Christmas, and Christina's mom and sister Cyndie traveled from the east to be with us. It was a wonderful celebration filled with so much love, and we all cherished our time together and our first time with these amazing girls among us.

We try to put only a reasonable number of photos up, but after 10 days of Christmas celebration, we could only narrow it down so much. So, here are photos documenting Elena and Clara on their very first Christmas.


We didn't take the girls to see Santa (we'll save that for next year) but look who did get to meet Santa on her own terms - an increasingly strong little Elena.



On Christmas Eve we let the girls play under the tree...

But by the time they had woken up from their nap, look what had happened!



It was just too much for the girls to stay up on Christmas Eve to open gifts, so we did theirs on Christmas morning. Everyone was so generous and thoughtful, and the girls received so many lovely presents.



However, opening all of those presents made them pretty tired. Finally, poor Elena just fell asleep right on Nana Rose's lap!



But she rallied later in the day, and after a nap got right back into the holiday spirit.



We were so lucky to be with so many family members - we took a group shot to capture the moment together...


But of course we have so many pictures of special moments with all of the relatives getting to share their love with the girls:


The grandmas with the girls (Steve's mom, Christina's mom, and Granny Ellen, Steve's very dear aunt)


Grandma and Elena


Nana Rose and Elena (enjoying the sun outside)


Granny Ellen and Clara


Scott and Elena



Cyndie with her plaid twin Clara


Nanny (Steve's grandmother) and Clara


GDaddy with Clara - the girls just loved his smile!


GDaddy and Nana Rose outside, enjoying the desert landscape with the babies


Steve sharing a fun moment with Clara on the swing



Clara and Elena solo, taking a little advantage of the supply of vitamin D from all that sunshine, relaxing on a hammock.



And, because Clara didn't show up in quite as many of the pictures in this post as Elena, here's a bonus shot of her in the sunshine - although she isn't smiling, we love this photo of her. She's looking so grown up!




And yes, Christina really was there. She's too often the one behind the camera, so she didn't have many pictures alone with the girls, but she had as wonderful a time with these babies as anyone else did. We are just so lucky - thanks to everyone who made our first family Christmas such a wonderful time.

Christmas Surprise

What a wonderful Christmas present- a huge package in the mail from birthmom and family! Ashley and Gabe sent gorgeous princess bath towels that we needed, adorable clothes, rattles, and UM pacifiers! Aunt Jeannie, Michael, Anna, and Emma gave the girls beautiful Old Navy sweatshirts, and Grandma Leann sent monogrammed bunnies, and some fancy new clothes. Most exciting to Christina, Grandma Leann also sent bells with the girls' names on them and the date - Christina's favorite ornament from childhood is her silver ornament with her name and birth year etched on it - how wonderful that the girls now have their very own!

These girls are just so beloved and so cherished - we are thrilled to be a part of this loving circle, and are so happy for everyone who is sharing in this first Christmas for us as a new family.

Little Elves

Don't these two look just like little elves? These are outfits Christina bought back in September at a mothers of multiples garage sale (we don't usually have them matchy-matchy, but these little candy-cane looking numbers were so cute!). We thought they'd never really fit into them, but at a few dollars each we couldn't pass them up. It's funny how we couldn't conceive of them ever getting any bigger than they were - they are so big now in our eyes! Elena is 12 pounds and Clara is 11 - quite a difference from the 4 lb-ish low they both had for weight in that first week.



And, as requested by Aunt Melissa, here is a picture of the girls' first Christmas tree, up and decorated:




Finally, it turns out that Elena really doesn't want to be photographed in a box, but this is the best shot we could get of her, and I post it here so in later years she doesn't feel left out that we embarrassed Clara on the Internet but not her:

It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas

Even though the girls won't remember this first Christmas, we're having such a fun time being able to enjoy the season as our new foursome, and we're continuing many traditions that Christina and Steve have started on their own or carried over from their families. We love that when the girls look back at pictures, they'll know that they were a part of the fun right from the start.

One tradition we love is that our neighborhood has a block party where we get together and caravan about an hour away to get our trees in the national forest. We stop at a great diner called Trixi's (named after a fantastic Montana legend of a woman truly before her time) and we all order burgers and fries. Then, we suit up (babies get snowsuits put on while laying on the pool table!) and head out to the forest for our tree search. Once they are cut down and tied to the cars, we tailgate with cookies and cocoa. It was pretty cold, so Christina and the girls waited in the car while Steve searched out the perfect tree, but we all got out together for the tailgating. The girls did great, and boy were they bundled up!

Elena, partially suited up to get going to find the Christmas tree.


Steve and Clara at Trixi's, doing the traditional "on with the snowsuit."

Christina with Clara at Trixi's, showing off some of the decor (Elena really did come with us, she was just sleeping).


Family of four, out in the mountains of Montana after having found the perfect tree.
We still just can't believe we're all together! What a happy holiday season.
Clara hangs out with Steve, after he returns from his hike to get us our tree.

Once we got the tree home, the girls were mesmerized by the lights. Clara particularly can stare at the lights for ages.

Clara through the tree - a poor showing of how intently she loves to look in at the lights.


We've been trying to get some good holiday pictures for the girls, hoping they could go in a card. We're not getting very far on the card front, since we can't get the picture we're hoping for (so don't think we don't love you - I don't think anyone will get a card from us this year!) but here are two outtakes - one of two girls sweetly sitting together (except that Elena is vacant and has some spit-up!) and another of Clara being one of the two best gifts we've ever received (other best gift, Elena, doesn't love the box quite so much!).

First outtake at a holiday card:
Second outtake at a holiday card:


Finally, Christina has been initiating the girls into the traditional cookie-baking that her family always undertakes. For the last week or so, we've been cooking together every day. The girls lie happily cooing as Christina narrates the process of making different Christmas treats. Here's a short video showing how this part of the day usually goes: