9 months 1 year

 Playing togeather

 Brielle telling us she is 1

 books with daddy

 Brille LOVES the cell phone and this is her pretending she is talking on the phone

 One of her favorite new things is feeding herself

 singing while reading a book and pointing at the pictures

Keiton is starting to really like books for more then a place to pound his hand against. He is turning the pages.

9 months 

*Keiton is getting the hang of his pincher grasp and is successfully putting Cheerios in his own mouth.

*He is getting pretty fast at his army crawl and has really begun exploring and following Brielle around.

* He is crazy about the tub and love to splash and swim around on his tummy and play with the drain.
   He also really likes the heat vents and can often be found my one pounding his toy against it.

* He doesn't have any teeth yet but he is doing really well eating all kinds of solids. I havn't really found anything he doesn't like.

* He is starting to get the concept of a sippy cup and is getting water out of it more regularly.

* Keiton is very wiggly and defiantly knows what he wants and is becoming quite vocal about getting it.

Birthday Party

Party with the extended family.

 I had to make her a special Valentines birthday outfit.

 We loved having all the Winder girls to help with the festivities. Thank you all so much for your help and for coming all the way up to share this special event with us. You made it more fun.

 Checking out her block cake (three cakes high)

 You cant see very well this says Brielle.

 Thanks Winder girls for making and decorating the cupcakes

 We had Pizza, fruit and salad and it all was a big hit.

 Brielle is VERY into utensils lately and was happy to eat her birthday cake with one

 Keiton enjoying the party and sitting in the BIG highchair for the first time.

 The Winders gave the best gifts of the day and Brielle and Keiton and all the other kids played with the play food and eating ware the rest of the night.

 Tawni wasn't able to make it to the party so she came the next day and we had a nice visit.

1st Birthday

Actual Birthday

 Mommy and Daddy's valentines date and Brielle's family birthday celebration. They even came with drums and sang a birthday song to her. She was just eating up the environment and new experience.

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First word

Brielle says Hi!

You can get her on the phone and she will say Hi to you and most mornings or after a nap when we go it to get Keiton she says hi to him. She knows its a greeting and uses it as such. I also think she is starting to sign please. I will update next week to let you know if that's what she really meant or not.

She went her first 24 hours with out mommy and it sounds like she did find but I really missed her. She went to Daddy and Grandma and Grandpa Karlsven to go visit her aunt Becky and cousin Jackson. She also had a great time coloring at the restaurant when then went out to eat. She totally gets it.

Keiton is starting to understand turning the pages of books and multiple times this week he has been playing in his room and army crawl out of his room and down the hall to find me.

He LOVEs to stand right now and all he wants to do with me is hold on to my fingers and stand and walk down the hallway to the mirror. He thinks he is so big and I think He really wants to be like Brielle.

I have started a photography club and went to my first photography class. It wasn't very technical mainly just ideas on how to deal with parents and kids when your doing a photo shoot but not as much on actually getting a great shot. I did learn a few thinks that should be helpful. Anyway hopefully over the course of this next year my photographs will improve.

walking and crawling

Brielle is now are little walker. She walks whenever possible with some crawling in between when she want to get some where fast or she slips on our slick floor with her soaks on. Over the past month she has been talking lots of two steps here and three steps there. About a couple of weeks ago she would do an occasional 6-9 steps but just yesterday she started consistently going everywhere walking.She also stand to her feet really well without any hands. Some how she just pops right up.

She also discovered a doodle board at the winders and gingerly figured out which end was needed to produce a drawing on the board and colored away. Rhyse wasn't sure she wanted to share her toy with Brielle who adored it. She may be getting one for her birthday.

Brielle also loved Ryse's stuffed animals and gives LOTS of loves to every stuffed animal she can find. she even bounces and rocks them.

She often grabs my hand or finger to accomplish some task she wants done, like a button pressed.

Her favorite new sound is YEE Ha. and she likes to make clicking sounds with her toungh. 

I watched her the other day find a paper towel on the ground. She picked it up cleaned the floor with it and then went over the the garbage can (that is taller then she is) lift up the lid and stuff the paper towel into the garbage and then go along her way.

She is our smart very observant little girl.

 Swimming in tub with Winder girls. She loves all of the Winder girls so much and just laughs and laughs as the run and jump around here.

Keiton

Keiton is now our speed crawlin man. it little body moves really fast but he doesn't get very far. He is however officially moving forward. He is also getting up on his hands and knees and rocking so maybe he will go from this forward slither to and official crawl quickly. Who knows!

He is becoming quite the squigglier and can be hard to hold when he wants down or to look in a different direction. He knows what he wants and it learning how to get it.

He continues to give us lots of worried looks but not nearly as often. Here are a few of his latest.