Trick-or-Treating at MK

Today Riley and Ryan came to my office to trick or treat. There were so many cute costumes and, as you see, a great time was had by all. Riley and Ryan loved seeing the other kids and playing with Avery. We had a nice time playing with all of my friends in the office. As we were leaving Riley and Ryan both were blowing kisses at all of them. That's a first! They wanted to make sure to impress everyone with their talents! I also snapped a few photos of them before school this morning in their new winter hats. They weren't so sure about them, but they sure did look cute! Yesterday, we got a call that Ryan had a fall at school and bit his tongue. He was bleeding pretty badly, but he was fine. I washed out my first blood stains from his shirt last night. I hope that's the last time, but I'm betting not. I guess that's not so bad...almost 13 months in before the first bloodshed. :)

Web Albums added:
http://picasaweb.google.com/hutchinson.heidi/20081023SickDay#
http://picasaweb.google.com/hutchinson.heidi/20081028TrickOrTreatingAtMorganKeegan#

1 Year Photos

We had their 1 year photos taken about 2 weeks ago. We weren't sure how they were going to turn out because the kids were SO TIRED (it was the day after their birthday party). Riley cried a lot, so I figured there would only be a few good shots, but once again our friend Jen came through for us with some great shots!

http://www.jenwunderlichphotography.com/

Go to the “Slideshows”
Click on “The Hutchinson Family”
Password is: R&R

Enjoy! Make sure the volume is up – there’s a great song to go with them.

12 Month Stats / Pasta Dinner

Riley and Ryan had their official 12 month appointment this week and I wanted to share their stats (or have a record of them - somewhere). It seems that both of them are going to be taller than their mommy! They are in the 75th and 90th percentile in height, so hopefully some of those "Hutchinson Height" genes have come truly through!

Riley
Weight 20lbs (25th%)
Height 29.75" (75th%)
Head 18"

Ryan
Weight 26.2lbs (90th%)
Height 31.25" (90th%)
Head 19.75" (93rd%)

Also, tonight they had a pasta dinner and LOVED it (from head to toe)! They've had pasta before, but tonight I decided to add a little sauce. The covered themselves, but ate every bite. I think they've had it at school before, but this was their first time at home. We will definitely have to go straight to bath time every time they eat pasta with sauce!

Web Album Added:
http://picasaweb.google.com/hutchinson.heidi/20081022PastaDinner#

Sneak Peek

You are getting a sneak peek at the crazy monkies!!! They are going to be monkies for Halloween and they had their first chance to wear the costumes this weekend at the Multiples Club Fall Festival. Luckily they LOVED the costumes and even laughed out loud at one another once we put them on. I guess that is one of those good things about having twins. They didn't care that we had put this funny costume on them because they were too busy laughing at one another. It was a nice cool morning, so the thick fuzzy costumes were just right to keep them warm. We're hoping for a cool Halloween night as well.

Last night we hosted a baby shower for our neighbors that are having twins (yay!!!), so Ms. Shuronda came over to babysit. They were so excited when they saw her walk in. They loved playing with her - fun night for all!

Today we woke up this morning and all of us were so tired, so we all 4 went back to sleep. Riley slept for about 2 hours and Ryan almost 3 1/2! I guess we all needed the extra rest. They spent the afternoon with Gramma so we could attend a toddler seminar. It was a great afternoon for all of us. They got to play lots with Gramma and we got to learn lots on how to discipline and influence these wonderful young people into becoming wonderful children and adults! Let the fun begin...

Riley and Ryan both now have 2 more teeth on top for a total of 6 teeth each! Wow! We go for their 1 year check up tomorrow, so we are looking forward to a healthy report!

Web Album Added:
http://picasaweb.google.com/hutchinson.heidi/20081018MultiplesClubFallFestival#

The Party is Over

We have partied for days and we are tired! We celebrated Riley & Ryan's birthday with a fun-filled party yesterday. We had lots of friends over to play, celebrate and eat cake! They both put on a great show by basically diving into their cakes and devouring them. They were covered in icing and cake from head to toe, but they loved every minute of it. Riley flung cake all over the place - including Gramma's face and clothes. Luckily all of the icing washed out just fine. They went to bed an hour early last night and slept for 13 hours straight! After church, they came home and slept for 3 hours! I think they were pooped...and we are too! It was a great way to end their first year and begin their second. We look so forward to watching them grow up during this next year!


Video of Happy Birthday:
http://picasaweb.google.com/sidthedom/BigParty#5256367187880230274

Video Devouring Cake:
http://picasaweb.google.com/sidthedom/BigParty#5256383147771891938

Web Album Added:
http://picasaweb.google.com/hutchinson.heidi/200810111stBirthdayParty#

No Longer a "Snaggle-Tooth"

For several weeks now we have all been eagerly awaiting Riley's second top tooth to break through the skin and it finally made it's debut a few days ago! This means no more fussiness, right? We'll see... :) Ryan is about to get 2 more teeth on the top bringing his total to 6!

Riley and Ryan spent last night with Gramma and Grandaddy since their school is closed today. They should have a super day together. We can't wait to hear all of the tales...stay tuned!

1 is fun...right?

Today is Riley and Ryan's big first birthday! They woke up to mommy and daddy singing them Happy Birthday and then melting down. We started our day just as any other, but for some reason they both had melt downs before they left the house - for no apparent reason, of course. And since it was their birthday we caught it all on tape! I figured why not capture the moment as it really happened! Luckily it was all uphill from there. Kevin and I met them at school just in time for snack and they shared cupcakes with everyone in their class. Riley loved it from the moment she started and Ryan took a little while to warm up to it but eventually loved it too! Surprised? Absolutely not. It happened just as I would have predicted. Suits their personalities perfectly!

After getting home early from school and a little play time, Gramma and Grandaddy came over...with gifts! They brought each of them their own remote controls since they LOVE to play with the real thing. These were a huge hit. They also gave them a brand new fabulous wagon, which they also love, but the big hit was the empty boxes, pears picked from the tree in Washington and the mini pumpkins. Surprised? Absolutely not! Isn't that what 1 year olds do? They like the simple things! They also opened a few gifts from us, Joy & John and some awesome clothes from Aunt Heather and Uncle Brad. They are truly blessed!

Off to dinner after presents and I swear the sugar rush had a delayed reaction for Riley. I don't think she was still for one moment the entire meal. She wasn't bad, just very very active. She was either "dancing", clapping, bouncing, or moving in some fashion at all times. Ryan was active as well, but didn't hold a candle to Riley. Needless to say - Riley was sitting next to Kevin and he never touched his chicken. He mainly ate pieces of their chicken fingers and fries and has a nice take out meal for lunch tomorrow!

When we got home, the Fenzls came over for a quick cupcake and gifts. They played for a while, headed to bath time and hit the hay about 45 minutes later than usual. It was a good day. My babies are 1. I guess they are now my "children"...no more babies in this house. Oh did I mention that their teacher told me yesterday that they were "playing" us? Yes - our babies, um, children are already "playing" us. They have been giving us a hard time about taking their sippy cups making me think they didn't know what to do with them or that it's been traumatic to them to no longer have bottles, but their teacher said they guzzle their milk...from their sippy cups. So - last night mommy decided to completely remove any and all bottles from our kitchen. Yep - I packed them up and took them to the basement - for good! It felt good, but was also strange to look in the cabinet where 30+ bottles have resided for the last year and it be filled with only sippy cups. No more formula, no more rice cereal...only sippy cups. My babies are growing up. I like this new chapter and will embrace it like I have all of the others. Being 1 is definitely fun and we look forward to starting year #2!

Today Riley weighed 20.5 pounds and Ryan weighed 26 pounds!

We Albums Added:
http://picasaweb.google.com/hutchinson.heidi/20081007FirstBirthday

From Summer to Fall

After the long day in the car driving back yesterday, we got up this morning and headed to north Georgia to visit Burt's Pumpkin Patch. It was a cool crisp morning and made me really ready for Fall. Riley and Ryan loved playing around with all of the huge pumpkins and we chose a pumpkim for each of us. We went on a hay ride and Ryan immediatly popped up and hung on to the side of the cart and loved the wind blowing his hair and watching everything as we rode along. Our little scaredy-cat is becoming quite the dare devil! He has really come out of his shell over the last week. He was crawling all over the beach and up embankments and straight toward the water with absolutely no fear! I thought I was only going to have one wild one, but he might have been holding out on us. After we got home Riley and Ryan were playing in their playroom and twice when I checked on them Riley had climbed on top of something. She had opened the "oven" in their large play kitchen and used the door as a "stool" to get to the sink. Then when I went back she was at the other end of the room. She had turned the small kitchen completely over and was standing on top bracing herself with the wall. When I went in there she was just smiling from ear to ear like she had conquered the world. She is very persistent! I know someone else that has that persistence, so I can appreciate her accomplishments! It's hard to believe their birthday is less than 48 hours away...my babies are growing up right before my eyes, but I am so very proud of who they are already and what they can do! I look forward to all of the new accomplishments in their 2nd year.

I had to snap a few photos tonight during bath time - they were so excited to be in their own bath tub with all of their toys!

Web Albums Added:
http://picasaweb.google.com/hutchinson.heidi/20081005BurtSPumpkinPatch#
http://picasaweb.google.com/hutchinson.heidi/20081005BathNight#

Family Vacation is Over

Family vacation is over and I am tired! We had the most fabulous week, but as the saying goes, "I need a vacation to recover from my vacation"! I was amazed at how quickly the week flew by for us. I was expecting it to be a long week - especially with 4 children ranging in age from 7 months to 2 yrs old, but it was a very nice week. We used to travel with Joy and John a lot when we were all dating and first married, but haven't been on many trips together lately, so it was very nice to catch up with them this week.

Candler came down with a fever late in the week, so the last few days were challenging for them trying to figure out what he needed...and he was very needy. Poor little guy... We had a rough morning on Saturday when we were packing up to leave. Packing to me is always stressful, but with 2 children with fever (Palmer woke up with a fever also on Saturday), 2 Hutchinson children screaming for no apparent reason and 4 stressed adults trying to clean up and get everything packed, it was a rough morning for all of us. Kevin and I had a huge blow up which just added to the stress level. At one point Joy and I just looked at each other and said we could cry...and I did! :) It was not a happy ending to a beautiful week, but we got over it once we got on the road. No family vacation is truly a real trip without some sort of blow up, right? It turns out that Candler and Palmer have hand, foot and mouth disease, so Riley and Ryan were exposed to it. It is contagious, but they have shown no symptons whatsoever at this point. We'll keep our fingers crossed that is doesn't hit our crew.

On the way home we drove through Tallahassee and visited with my college roommate, Andra Kay, and her family (Brian, Fuller, Mary Carlton & Mac). We had never met her 3rd son, Mac, and had never been to her house, so we took the opportunity to stop by and eat lunch with them. I was very sad when we left and it made me wish we lived closer to one another. Her 2 oldest are 7 and 8 years old. I so wish we could watch our children grow up together. I realized why we loved living together and, as usual, we picked up right where we left off! Around dinner time, we were near Cordele, so we stopped any my Aunt Tricia met us for dinner at Wendy's. Uncle Carl was working, so we were only able to have a quick visit with her, but it was nice to catch up.

Since we had such a tough start on the way home we let the babies (I can still say that a little longer, right?) have their milk in the bottles. I'm hoping to get them totally transitioned in the next week. They are not happy about no more bottles. I've decided they like anything you put in their bottle. Ryan even chugged some cold water from a bottle this week. I guess that is their norm, so I don't blame them, but change is good...they are growing up!

Riley and Ryan did great on the trip home. They loved watching the DVD's and cheered loudly when we put on Classical Baby that Aunt Heather and Uncle Brad sent them. They clearly communicated to us that those are their favorites! Vacation is over and back to reality tomorrow. Did I mention that I need a vacation? :)

Web Albums Added:
http://picasaweb.google.com/hutchinson.heidi/20081002DestinDay5#
http://picasaweb.google.com/hutchinson.heidi/20081003DestinDay6#
http://picasaweb.google.com/hutchinson.heidi/20081004DestinDay7OnTheWayHome#

No More Formula!!!

We have officially transitioned from formula to milk! Yes - that's right - no more mixing of formula!!!! We had hoped to be done with formula and bottles at the same time, but they still aren't so sure about the sippy cups. We tried giving them their "bottles" yesterday in sippy cups, but they were not participating. I guess one thing at a time. We hope to have the bottles transitioned out in the near future.

We are having a blast at the beach! I still can't believe how much they love the sand and ocean. They only went in the edge of the water, but they kept crawling towards the waves as they were coming in yesterday. One even rolled over Ryan fairly fast and he didn't get upset. Riley was quite fussy yesterday (when we weren't at the beach) and so far today. We are all hoping her second top tooth comes in soon. I think that is what is causing this fussing. You can see the edges of the tooth so any day now it should be in (we've been saying that for a few weeks now). Yesterday morning they just "had to get out", so we headed over to the Baytown area and went to breakfast. We then walked all around the shopping area and went out on the pier and saw some very large yachts. It was just what the needed. They loved being outdoors and seeing all the new sights. When we got back we headed to the beach where they played hard. They won't wear their hats, so we are being extra careful about the sun on their heads. Otherwise they would have stayed out for many more hours. They took an almost 3 hour nap yesterday afternoon after all the fun. Joy and I were able to get out to the outlets for some shopping during nap time. We found some good deals, but the best part is that we weren't rushed. I didn't realize what a treat that is! Even when I have time, I'm rushed because I'm usually trying to cram in a bunch of errands into a limited amount of time. This morning they ate scrambled eggs for the first time and LOVED them! They goobled them down! I scrambled 2 eggs for them to share and I think Ryan would have easily eaten both of them. We convinced him that Riley needed to at least try them. We're off to the beach again soon, so logging off for now.

Web Albums Added:
http://picasaweb.google.com/hutchinson.heidi/20080930DestinDay3#
http://picasaweb.google.com/hutchinson.heidi/20081001DestinDay4#