The fact that it has been 6 months since our last update should give you an idea of how crazy and how busy our household is these days. Julie just had a bunch of wonderful pictures made of the children and I can’t wait until she gets them on the blog. But, before she does that, I need to get our family update posted!
Let’s go back in time, shall we?
December
Our last family update featured all things fall and rolled right up to our Christmas decorations. Our actual Christmas celebrations were spread over a few weekends and a few locations.
Before Christmas, we visited Auburn to spend time with Julie’s family. The twins got to play with Cousin William, who is 3-months younger but is much bigger! With everyone all together and looking spiffy in their matching PJs, it was the perfect opportunity for fun photos!
We celebrated Christmas Day at home in Birmingham. Santa thought everyone was mighty good in 2016. We opened a few presents, went to church and then finished opening our gifts.
I had a few days off after Christmas so we went down to Camden to celebrate with my family and our Wilder cousins. It’s crazy to see how big these kids are getting but they had a great time playing together!
January
Graham has a December birthday and, until the twins were born in June, it was easy to celebrate his half birthday without getting lost in all the Christmas parties and family events. This time around, Graham followed up his Christmas excitement by opening presents on his actually birthday. And it was a big one – birthday #5!
Here he is opening some gifts from my sister and parents.
But the birthday fun was not over! He had a birthday party at Urban Air, a local indoor trampoline park. Grandma Jane came over from Auburn and was a huge help with all of the festivities! Graham and his friends had a blast!
Later in January, we experienced our first true cold snap of the winter. There were talks of an ice storm in our area but it never really materialized, thank goodness. We did get a small amount of ice though and Graham was very disappointed in his inability to make ice angels.
Let the record show that Harris began getting up on all fours in January and Ellen was definitely growing.
February
Thinking another cold snap might come, Graham and I bought a truckload of firewood from one of those guys you see on the side of the highway here in Birmingham. Apparently, the purchase jinxed us…we still have the majority of this wood!
Ellen caught up with Harris and began crawling for herself in February.
The babies were baptized on February 12th along with 7 other babies!
There was lots of love on Valentine’s Day!
March
BATTER UP! Graham started his first season of T-Ball! Julie and I really didn’t know what to expect because Graham’s interest wavered on and off as we approached the season. But he stuck with it and he had a great time playing for the Pirates!
The first game was not his best performance but that was mainly due to nerves and this being his first time playing T-Ball. Graham got much better throughout the season thanks to his awesome coaches. There are still some areas to improve but I am really glad he wanted to play. He did really well at the plate and in the field!
Later in the month, we all traveled down to Camden for a visit. Julie, my sister and I took advantage of some help with the babies and checked out some of the stops on the Wilcox County Tour of Homes. It was great seeing so many friends and familiar faces and having an opportunity to learn more about these historic homes was also very special.
The warmer weather allowed the babies (and Graham) a chance to be outside in the afternoons. Harris and Ellen really like their swings!
April
We don’t have near the amount of videos or photos of the twins as we do for Graham during his first year. The main reason is because we have our hands full. The babies obviously need lots of care and it’s not like we can forget about Graham. Julie and I have also realized that we’re not making much time for each other, either. That was the basis of Julie’s idea to have a date night once a month.. We started this in April in conjunction with our anniversary and I’m glad we did! These dates with Julie have been a big help!
We were so excited to be out of the house that we got the valet to take our picture!
Easter landed in April this year and look at my daughter in her bunny ears!! She’s so cute!
We had our friends (the Branches) over for lunch after church and they took some great photos for us. We hid approximately 2,000 eggs for Graham and Brooks and they managed to find them all in under a minute!
Graham’s comedic side was on display.
Sometimes, I don’t think Julie realizes how fortunate she is to live with such humorous people.
May
The school year came to a close for Graham. Even when we were taking a tour of the building he’ll be in next year, it’s hard to believe that he’ll be in kindergarten. But with that, summer has kicked off and everyone loves being in the pool!
Thanks for your patience – we’ll try to do better with the family updates. Don’t forget about the precious pictures of the children that Julie will be posting soon (maybe?) and we’ll have lots more pics from our fun summer plans!!
