We survived our first vacation on a plane! We got new shoes for the occasion so that we could run around a lot!  Here is a video of us wearing shoes for the first time.

We had lots of fun in Portland and Seattle.  Here is a picture of us being good at the airport.

This was before Avery’s minor meltdown.  Mommy and daddy had to pick him up, but he was having so much fun running around the airport.  Apparently he wanted to let all of Sky Harbor know that his parents ruined his life 😉 We did great on the plane.  Such good babies!  We stayed at a wonderful airb&b in Portland.  The people we stayed with also had babies, so we even got to play with some of their toys!

Mommy and daddy took us to a local farmer’s market down the street.  We bought some really great blueberries, raspberries, cherries, bread and goat cheese for dinner.

We went to see Multomah Falls, which was gorgeous.  We hiked all the way to the top!

Portland was full of great parks for us.  We visited them a lot and got to run around – our favorite thing now!  We even made some new friends!

Shots captured mid-fall.

Aurelia got a new hat!  She looks so much like her great grandma, Pauline!  A Callahan through and through!  Avery looks a lot like daddy, but with mommies eyes 🙂

We were very interested in our new little friend!

We went for a hike in Washington Park.  Beautiful!

Downtown Portland!

We enjoyed visiting the famous Powell’s Books!  We did not, however, wait in the 20 minute line to get a famous Voodoo Doughnut.

More park fun! (On the video you can hear Avery make his monkey noise…which apparently he is confusing for the same noise crows make).

Some shopping in our neighborhood.  It had some great restaurants- good sandwiches at Lardo’s, and great pizza!  We also passed out so mom and dad could eat their ice cream 🙂  We found a store that sells chocolate and salt- mom’s favorite!  We did come away with a PBJ chocolate bar..

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More park fun, and a video of Aurelia’s nemesis… the stick!

We headed up to Seattle to see Kye.  Washington is beautiful!  It was nice to see Kye, and we got to go to the zoo!  We pet some goats, too

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Aurelia is still very much a momma’s girl.  She even says Momma now all the time!  Which is the cutest! Avery just loves the ladies in general 😉  Of course they both love their daddy!

On our final day we went to the aquarium, and we loved looking at the fish.  We went to the famous Pike’s Market, and then played some more in the park by the zoo!

We were good on the trip home, too.  Luckily, the guy sitting next to mommy was very nice and patient and let both babies stick post-its and bandaids all over him 🙂 Our next adventures include San Diego, Disneyland, New York, and London, so stay tuned!

We are 13 months!  Here we are in our outfits all the way from Myanmar!  It’s good to have international friends before you’re even out of daipers 🙂

As you can see, it just gets more and more difficult to get good pictures of both of us.  We are wiggle worms!  And we are walking now!

Aurelia walked first, but Avery saw her and all the attention she was getting, and two days later he was practically running circles around everyone.  We love to practice walking!  It’s our new favorite thing!

In a few days we are going on our first plane ride.  Wish mommy and daddy luck!!!  We’ll be back soon to tell you all about our trip!

Here are the long-awaited pictures from our 1 year photo shoot!

Our handsome little guy.

And our sweet beautiful girl.

Pointing at the fan!

Let the fun begin!

These pictures pretty perfectly capture their personalities.  Aurelia is always going going going.  Avery is just happy to be sitting there eating his cake 🙂

Last man standing (well, sitting, in cake).

So far our second summer ever has been a blast!  First we got to celebrate a fun Father’s day with daddy and papa.  We went for a hike, and of course yogurt afterwards.  All the boys were very happy!

We have lots of fun at Omi and Papa’s house.  They spoil us lots and lots.  Every time we go over there we have a new toy- we love it so much!

Here we are having fun with auntie Denise and our cousins.  Aurelia is carrying around our packet of pickle juice, one of our favorite toys at auntie’s house (and the pocket has to be put to good use!)

Aurelia finally fell asleep after crying because mommy left… but then she got so comfy!

This is Avery’s favorite book. He asks for it over and over and over… so we have been reading a lot about Thumper this summer…

We are coloring now, too!  It’s lots of fun.  Aurelia does try to eat the crayons but other than that we get the idea.

We went to Jacob’s first birthday party!  It was monster-themed, so we dressed up as little Stitches 🙂  We had to stare at each other for awhile because each one of us thought the other one looked pretty darn funny!

Jacob’s mommy made all sorts of fun decorations!  We had lots of fun at the party.

We love Kelly!  Sometimes she is the only one we will go to at a party!

Having fun relaxing at home.

This year we got to have some fun for the 4th of July!  We went to the kiddie parade.  We somehow ended up walking in it with the Lutheran Church, but who cares?  It was fun and we got to see Papa handing out ice cream and we also saw our buddy Jacob!

Credits to Mary Ann for taking the picture, and to our friend Vincent in Germany for adding some flare.

We now like to play peek-a-boo.  All you have to do is say “Where’s Avery?” or “Where’s Aurelia?” and let the game begin 😉

We also had a nice visit from Heather, who came all the way from Oman!  Avery seems to have a bit of a crush!

Celebrating the 4th on Omi and Papa’s porch.

Then to a BBQ to visit our good buddy Nico!  Once again Avery was off having fun with Kelly.  Aurelia even let her hold her.  I think we are going to adopt her as another grandma 🙂

We have also started walking, but don’t have a lot of confidence yet, so we are tentative.  Mommy is okay with us taking our time and being careful.  Better than falling on our faces!  More pictures and videos of walking to come!

We have officially completed one entire year of life!  We are so much fun and we bring happiness wherever we go!

Here are some peeks and what we’ve been up to leading up to the big day!

We played in the park with Mommy, and listened to some men play the banjos (Aurelia was clapping for them.  I guess she likes banjo music).

Playing in our bedroom.  We like a change of scenery now and then.

This face is what greets Mommy when she comes in the door.  Precious.

Beautiful girl.  It’s rare to catch her napping.

If you are thinking about having kids, don’t even buy toys.  Seriously.  It’s a waste of money. They prefer trash, toilet paper, recycling, dishes, outlets, cords, your cell phone… anything that is not a toy.

Having fun at Omi and Papa’s!  We like to stare out the window at this creepy fake owl.

Sometimes you just play too hard…

First time eating frozen yogurt.  We love it!

Second time eating frozen yogurt- we love it even more!

We are the expert hikers now!

After hiking we refresh ourselves with our sippy cups.

Playing at home… and eating blackberries (the results are a bit disturbing…)

Opening our fun package from cousin Anna the night before our party!  Almost time to celebrate!

Lots of wonderful friends came to the party!  Ricardo came up early to meet us for the very first time!  (We love Ricardo).

Aurelia couldn’t stop staring at Ricardo.  And of course Avery is a ladies man 😉

Finally- party time!

Ready to party!

We love our new chairs!  Aurelia feels like a boss in hers!

She thought she might just take over Avery’s chair, too.

We got to play with our buddies- lots of cuteness going on here! Jacob even came in his bowtie!  Aurelia really wanted to play with Owen. Owen and his big sister Olivia are just too adorable!  And everyone played nicely 🙂

Guess which one of us passed out from all the fun?

Survived the first year- and everyone is alive!

Now for the cake!  We knew just what to do!

The next day we went to a photo shoot.  Here is a preview- more to come soon!

Here are some pictures from our actual birthday.  We got to spend the day with mom and dad.

We were a little cranky but we are allowed to be on our birthday!  (You see what happens when Avery takes something from Aurelia- haha!)

At the Wild Iris downtown.

We also went to the bookstore to pick out some new books. Aurelia picked out the book about kitties.  Avery got Good Dog Carl.  Then we went for a stroll in the mall.

Mom and dad took us to share some gelato.  You might not be able to tell her but we are making the sign for “more”.

And here are some pictures of us playing with our new toys!

Now that we are one, we are doing some new things.  We like to point at things and make sounds like “da” or “dum” (maybe “that!”because mommy and daddy always say “what’s that?”) and Aurelia clicks her tongue.  Avery is very good at stacking things and he can take a block down from a tower very delicately.  Aurelia will throw anything in her path out of her way.

We each have eight teeth!  Our favorite foods are fruits.  We don’t like veggies too much but we do like green beans. Bananas and raspberry and kiwi are some of our favorites.  And we love watermelon!  Sweet potato fries are another hit. Aurelia really likes peanut butter.  If you give her a waffle with peanut butter she will suck off the peanut butter.  When we don’t like a particular food we will let you know by promptly throwing it on the floor.  But then sometimes we will eat it off of the floor when you put us down, so you never can tell.

We are almost walking.  We have taken a few cautious steps and are getting more confident.  Aurelia now likes to get on her hands and knees and look around with her head upside down.

We hate it when you change our diapers.  Even if they really, really need to be changed.  Mom and dad don’t understand why, even though we scream very loudly to try and express our disapproval.

We also fight with each other, even though we love each other.  Sometimes we bite. Or hit.  But we must love each other very much because we cannot stay away from one another!  Where one goes, the other goes!

We love the bunnies.  We hang out at their cage occasionally.  And miraculously the bunnies are not bothered by us at all.  They even let us reach our little hands in the cage and touch them.  But they run from daddy, who gives them hay and water…

We can both sign for “more” and “all done”.  Aurelia says “nana” for banana and made the sign for more while saying “nana”, so it’s pretty clear what she wants!  Avery will clap if you say “good job”.  We both know the words “light” “kitty” “banana” “cookie” “mama” “daddy” “duck” and “fan”.  We both love to turn light switches off and on, especially Avery.  We give high fives. We think it is hilarious to breath really fast in and out of our nose.  We think it is funny if you do it too.  We like to imitate you.  Mommy raises her arms and drops them and sighs, and we like to do it with her.

We love doing laundry.  When daddy puts it in a pile on the floor to fold, we dive in and out and crawl all around. We recently started chasing balls and toys around, like a kind of baby soccer.

We also like the game “I’m gonna get you!” We laugh before you even touch us.

We love the bath tub.  Avery likes to go back and forth and back and forth from one end of the tub to the other.

In a nutshell, we just keep getting better and better.  We make life so much fun for mommy and daddy!  It is never a dull moment with us, but mom and dad wouldn’t have it any other way 😉  We know they love us SO MUCH!!!

One month away from our first birthday! It’s a nearly impossible task to get two 11-month-olds to sit still, which makes our photo shoots hilarious 🙂

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We are loving our books more and more.  We are also getting into everything!  We know exactly which cupboard holds our food!

We are cutting even more teeth, and starting to understand a lot more words (like fan, kitty, Luna, light, mommy, daddy, sister, brother, cookie…)

For Mother’s Day we made Omi a card.  It was our first time painting!  It was homemade paint so it was edible, which is good, because you can see what happens when you tell Aurelia “Not in your mouth”.

Avery really got into it, and he seemed to know it wasn’t for eating, but was for the paper.

The finished products.  Avery’s is on the left, Aurelia’s on the right.  Any takers on interpretations, from a Modern Art perspective?

Look who is standing all by herself!  She loves to practice standing up!

It’s rare when we pass out on a bed in the middle of the day, so mommy always makes sure to take a picture to remember that it did actually happen.

We had a great mother’s day!  We spoiled mommy with a dustbuster 😉

And then a potluck/campfire with family at the lake.  Aurelia made fast friends with Brook.

The weather is getting nice and so is our backyard!  Mom and dad have been working hard on pulling weeds and planting flowers, and they even gave us a fun swing!

We had so much fun meeting cousin Shannon and Brook!  We had dinner with them, and Aurelia even held her own spoon!

One more month to go until we have made our first trip around the sun!

We are going on 11 months old and this month has been so full of new things.  We are getting bigger personalities, for sure!  Avery can be very sweet and cuddly, and Aurelia is always on the go- she’s also a tough girl!  She falls and gets right back up again- no crying!

Mommy lets us do sensory play days.  The examples here are tupperware with oatmeal, and plastic balls in a pool.  The oatmeal was concerning to Aurelia at first, but then she started having fun with it.

We are interacting a lot with each other.  Most of the time we love each other, and it is sooo cute when we hold hands and smile at each other!  Sometimes, though, we annoy one another.  Especially when Avery climbs over Aurelia… or pinches her ear… or tries to stick his finger in her eyes… or takes her toy… or touches her.  But really, we LOVE to play together!

Mom is having a lot of fun getting creative with our food.  We are experimenting with new things, and we want to eat a wide variety of foods and flavors so that we are open-minded eaters!  Some menu examples are tofu, eggs, raspberries and pears.  We liked them all (we love fruit). We also ate quinoa and avocado, which we also loved.

We really like the homemade sweet potato fries!  The rice is more fun to play with than eat- it’s a little hard to grab those tiny grains!

We adored our baked beans!  Avery is a good eater.  Aurelia likes sweets like her mom.  She throws the veggies on the floor

Aurelia did like the cubed butternut squash.

Here we are eating tzatziki with spoons like big kids!

Here are some pictures of the cuteness that occurs when we fall asleep in the car 🙂

We are such happy babies! (You can detect Avery’s ongoing obsession with the bunnies…)

Aurelia is such a nut- she loves to hold things in her mouth like a wild animal.  Sweet, savage baby.

Avery is such a handsome man.  He is so easy-going with his sister.  He is so good at figuring out his stacking toys and his blocks.

Aurelia is so smart and so pretty – she knows what she wants and is good at figuring things out.  She’s a mommy’s girl right now.

Aurelia likes to touch the bunnies on the wall.  Of course they both love bunnies!

We absolutely love to read!  We love looking at books and listening to stories. Mom and Dad took us to the bookstore to read, and bought us a book about a kitty.

In one of our favorite books, “Brown Bear, Brown Bear”, there is a page full of animals at the back.  If you ask us “Where’s the kitty?” we will point right to it!  We are genius babies.

We can also share our food now- we love sharing!

We are very lucky to be so loved and spoiled by auntie Denise and cousins Morgan and Mackenzie!

We met Denise and Brent downtown for the big bike race!  We loved watching the pros ride soooo fast down those hills!  It was chilly out but we had lots of fun!

We have also started brushing our teeth every day.  We really like our toothbrushes.  A lot.

Shopping with mom and dad is so fun!

Can you believe we’ll be 11 months old next week?

We are already getting prepared for our 1st birthday party!!!  Invitations have been sent, party decorations ordered, and we can’t wait to celebrate!

Another month has gone by and now we are celebrating our 10th month birthday! (We were a little bit cranky for our photo shoot.  Avery really wanted a banana, so said banana is included in the pictures in order to prevent tears).

We’ve made a lot of progress in the last month.  We can now clap, wave, and point!  Aurelia loves to point.  The order is a bit backwards- you first say “What’s that?”. She will then point her finger randomly.  Finally she will find something to actually point TO.

Here is a picture of us clapping!

We had our very first Easter and our first time swimming in a pool. We loved to splash!

We spent a lot of time with family, and got to meet some family for the first time.

We loved spending time with Kimmy and Billy.  They have twin grandbabies, so they know what’s what!  They made us these cool stools with our names on them- we love standing up and banging our hands on them.  We like banging things together now, in general.

Cousins!  Aurelia is very attached to mommy, so she wasn’t quite sure about all the company.

Avery the cuddle bug.  He likes the ladies 😉

Everyone went to the park to play with us, including Woody the dog!

And we took naps on Omi and Papa.

We love reading.  Aurelia especially loves books!  Their favorite books now are Peek-a Who? and Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?  They occasionally raid mommy and daddy’s bookcase.  They always pull out the guide to Ulysses.  It must be their Irish roots!

We still go to play at aunt Denise’s a lot- we love her soooo much!  And this time Anna came to visit us again too!

We are being more adventurous with food.  As you can tell from the pictures above, bananas are our favorite, along with raspberries.  We also like cookies.

Noooo, I didn’t eat any cookies mom, I swear!

One of our favorite toys is this Aveeno diaper cream tube. Avery also really, really wants to get into the bunny cage and play with the hay and the rabbit poop.  We also love ceiling fans.  A lot. Ask us “Where’s the fan?” and we will look up and smile and point, enraptured.

We are also quite the hams when we want to be!

Cute pictures of us sleeping… mostly Avery sleeping, since Aurelia is always afraid she might miss something!

We are such good, beautiful babies!

We are 9 months old and both of us are crawling all over the place!  Aurelia is 14 lbs, Avery is 16.5.  Aurelia has her two bottom teeth and is cutting all 4 top teeth at once!  Avery has his two bottom and two top, and is getting a third top tooth!

Avery crawled forward first, with Aurelia just about a week behind him.  This makes life lots more fun for us, and more stressful for mom and dad- everything is a hazard now!

New baby-proofed living room (i.e., add a rug and take out a lot of furniture).

Now that we are crawling, don’t leave bananas within our reach.  We will bite through the skin and start sucking out the banana (we love bananas!).

Here are some of our shenanigans from the past month.

We celebrated our first Valentine’s Day!  The day was so nice out and we got to go for a hike with mommy and daddy.

Now that we can move, we can make fun messes, and we can play with each other better.  Sometimes we also take each other’s toys and make each other cry.

We tried mommy’s special baby pancakes, and we loved them.

We were really, really obsessed with the grass!  We crawled all over!  This was in Phoenix with mom while we waited for daddy to finish up with an appointment.

Aurelia was so excited about her teething biscuit.

oooohhhhh…. grass!

Daddy, I’m trying to kick the habit…

Avery plays hard and sometimes just can’t wait for nap time.

Aurelia also plays hard but never sleeps- she just goes and goes and goes!

We love bath time!

More pictures of us doing baby things… eating, playing, smiling, being super cute.

We are even starting to pull ourselves up on things, and we are practicing using our sippy cups!

It’s the other way, brother.

Double trouble!

We are 8 months now and doing all sorts of new things!  First of all, as usual, we are even cuter than last month!  The proof is in the pictures- and check out those teeth!  Avery now has two top and two bottom teeth, and Aurelia as her bottom two and seems to be working on the top now.

We are becoming adventurous eaters and are having lots of fun trying new things, and even learning to feed ourselves.  Aurelia has a lot of dexterity- she picks up food with her thumb and forefinger so daintily.  Avery handles food in a more manly way- he just grabs with his fist, shoves his whole fist in his mouth, and instead of letting go of the food he just sucks it out through his fist!  Also, mommy lets us play with our food 🙂

We usually get a smoothie in the morning- usually a sort of strawberry/banana/avocado/raspberry/blueberry/mango combo.

Rice is great to play with because we can’t choke on it!  We’ve also been practicing using a sippy cup.

And now we know that Aurelia can take the top off the can of puffs!  No more giving it to her in the car!

We’ve been having fun with family too!

And Auntie Denise taught Avery how to play the drums…

We love the bunnies!  Pitu made fast friends with Avery, who apparently agreed to break her out of jail.

Avery is crawling all over… but only backwards!  He doesn’t let that stop him though!

We got our moccasins and we love them- they are so cute and will be great for us now that we are getting more mobile.

We also went to the park since it’s been so nice out… like summer!  Who knew leaves were so fascinating.

More big news- Aurelia is sleeping so well in her crib!  No pictures of this because mommy is too afraid of waking her up!

Here are some highlights of our busy days playing and hanging out with mommy and daddy.

Such sweet faces!

Aurelia is like a little gymnast in her chair now.  And here is her signature model pose 🙂