It's Been a Big Week

This has been a big week for us! Yesterday we accepted an offer on our Louisville house, which freed us up to sign a contract on our new house here in Memphis. The girls started pulling up this week, and today they're 10 months old (10-month post to come soon - haven't been able to take pictures of them today, and now they're both napping!)! Also, Chris's family was in town this weekend - the first time all four siblings have been reunited since we were in the hospital and the twins were in the NICU! It has just been nonstop excitement around here, so I'm gonna get straight to the pictures today....

A Pamper's box = the girls' new favorite toy

This thing provides hours - HOURS - of entertainment!

Tamsie pulled up to her knees early this week and kept doing so for a few days, while Evie showed no interest in pulling up whatsoever. Then, out of the clear blue, Evie started pulling all the way up and standing! This, as you may recall, is pretty typical of how the two of them reach milestones. Here, she's the one standing, and Tamsie is on her knees.

The box has given them a good place to practice their crazy new pulling-up skillz.

It's also given them new ways to annoy each other.

But in general, they have LOTS of fun with the box! They've even been known to smile at the babies on the box and pat their faces!

It even comes with built-in doors to swing open. The possibilities are endless, y'all. Endless.

By the way, E is in yellow and T is in green.

It's their lemon-and-lime look.

It's always duck season around here, at least as far as Wubbanubs are concerned. And what is a Shelbified blog post without a few randomly wonkified sideways pics? 

Tamsie particularly enjoys pulling up on her gate (which is apparently pretty tasty, as demonstrated here), but when she gets to this position, she kind of freaks out because she doesn't know how to get down from here by herself. She does this at night, too, when we put her in her crib, until she finally wears herself out - which fortunately never takes too long. 

Who says girls can't wrestle?

Evie has had enough!

YaYa and Tamsie

More fun with the box, this time with their Daddy too

Evie's on the left, and Tamsie's on the right, probably beating on the box with her hand. They love beating on everything they can beat on these days.

And E's up!

Look out, world!

E climbs on top of the box...

She stands up with a little help from her dad... sounds suspiciously like a Beatles song...

Evie models a face of pride, accomplishment, exhaustion and silliness upon grabbing onto her gate!

Tamsie is now queen of the play yard...

... and Evie isn't happy about it!

"What now?"

We could only stay in the corporate apartment for two months, and now our time is up - so we're back at my parents' house until we can close on our new house! My parents have set up a room for the girls, which has turned into their makeshift nursery for now, featuring quilts from my college era, plus original artwork by yours truly. Teddy, who was my very favorite toy when I was little, lives on this bed. Evie has taken a special liking to old Teddy.

My parents bought this rocking chair to rock me in back in my baby days. That's an old picture of me on the wall, and that little ballerina doll was my sweet Grandma's back when she was little. The lovely Babies 'R' Us bag is one of the many we're living out of until we can finally bring this nomadic era of ours to a close.

Here's the other bed and a bear named Curly that Chris gave me back in our dating days. I love this room, because everything in it is meaningful. The beds are antiques from Gigi's family. My grandma painted the picture above the headboard a long time ago, and I drew that hand picture using my grandma's hand as a model back in college (I think it was in college anyway!). The crib is here until it can be moved into our new house. We have an extra baby mattress on this bed, because it is serving as our temporary changing table... that's why there's so much baby paraphernalia all over the place.

Pack 'n' play with a paci inside for Miss Evie to sleep in until her crib arrives from Louisville... this is what our life looks like right now!

Here's the picture my grandma painted while she was waiting on my mom to be born. It was in my mom's room when she was growing up.

And here is the hands picture I did that my Grandma modeled for.
("Have you ever done any hand modeling?" 10 points if you can name that TV show!)

Unclefest 2012 with the girls and Uncles Noah and Alex

These uncles are determined to spoil these girls rotten! 

Of course the girls are also crazy about their uncles!

Tamsie is potentially following in her grandpa's footsteps in the recording studio...

... but she's keeping her options open. She's also interested in playing piano like her mama!

It's a sibling spectacular: three bros and two sisses!

After a fun night with Carissa, Roy and Cliff, Evie made herself maximally comfy in her car seat for the ride home!

It's been a good week all around for us, and we are so happy to know that the girls will be able to celebrate their birthday in their new home!