1 Year Photos and Stats

Yesterday we had a little photo shoot at our house for the girls' one year pictures! Can you guess who's who? An answer key awaits you at the end!
1.
2.

3.
4. 5.

6.
7.

8. 9.

1. Anyone's guess?!?!

2. Grace

3. Grace

4. Annie

5. Grace

6. Annie

7. Annie

8. Annie

9. Grace

How did you do? More and more these days, we are thinking the girls are identical! In fact, I had to look pretty closely at some of the pictures myself to figure out who's who! Our plan is to have a DNA test taken to know for sure whether they are identical or fraternal, but we haven't quite gotten around to it yet! I can't imagine why!?! Tomorrow is their one year doctor appointment, and I'll update height and weight stats then!

Birthday Babes (and making up for lost time)!

For the record....10 Months (Annie)
Grace- 10 Months
Grace- 11 months
Annie (11 months, with an attempt at a bow in her hair. A Mama can dream, right?)
Our favorite pastime...wrestling with each other! It's all fun and games until someone starts crying!
Our happy girls!

Halloween 2009...our two sweet lambs!

My sister looks so funny in that costume! What? I'm wearing the same thing?!?!
Enjoying playtime in the backyard after school now that Daddy is done with football! Here's a shot of one of our walkers in action!
Bundled up for a fall outing to Stillwater.
Birthday Celebration: Saturday, November 14

Auntie Mary and Uncle Paul, with Baby Al, along with Uncle Nick, Auntie Amy

and Baby Charley, were all on hand to help us celebrate!

Annie was more interested in watching the crowd than eating her cake!

Grace wasted no time digging in! Boy was it delicious!

We're one!
Grampy keeps his eye on the crowd.
A tired Gracie with Grandpa and Grandma Spreigl!
Great Grandma Marcella with her namesake, Annie Marcella.
Grandma Ginny and the girls!
A special thanks to Granny Brenda who was taking all of the pictures...that's why we don't have any of her. Typical Mom, behind the scenes, making the show run smoothly as always!

It should be noted that after the afternoon's festivities, the parents (Manuel and I) hosted a "We Survived a Year With Twins" party at the Great Waters Brewing Company in St. Paul! We, along with Mary and Paul and about 20 of our friends enjoyed a night out to celebrate this milestone!! And Granny and Grampy Robertson babysat ALL 3 babes! A great time was had by all, although Annie and Grace didn't seem to care that their parents stayed out past MIDNIGHT, and they were rarin' to go at 6:00 a.m. this morning! And so year #2 begins....

One Trip Around the Sun!

November 13, 2008: We went from this....

to this: November 13, 2009!
...with a million joyful, challenging, exhausting, hilarious, chaotic, fun and wonderful moments in between! Happy Birthday sweet girls! We love you so very much! Love, Mama and Daddy

Twins Win!!!

Good thing we had Mauer and Morneau to help us get through tonight's nail biter!! Way to go boys!!!

Places to go, People to See

Annie and Grace don't have much time for sitting around lately....there's a lot to do and see around these parts, and if you sit still, your sister might get to something before you do! As a result, Mom and Dad also don't have much time for sitting around lately either. We spend much of our days following closely behind these two little backsides, just trying to keep up! Daycare update, 1o months old, first accident report....coming soon! In the meantime, aren't you tired just looking at them?!?!

Number 9

Month number 9 has been truly divine. Who knew time could go so fast?? Just like everyone told us it would, it really has.

Here are their 9 month stats:

Grace: 18 lbs, 11 oz.; 27 1/4" (50th percentile)

Annie: 18 lbs, 9 oz; 27 1/2" (50th percentile for weight; 70th percentile for height)

Our once tiny babes are catching up! Both girls are crawling furiously around the house, mostly trying to keep up with one another, and crawl AWAY from us. They've mastered the 'pulling up to a stand' move, and enjoy climbing all over their Daddy like he's a giant jungle gym! In recent weeks, they have taken great delight in one another and it is pretty amazing to watch. Both girls are constantly aware of where the other is, and they seem to 'communicate' with one another a lot. Mainly, they love to laugh at one another, although there is the occasional fight over a toy! Listening to the two of them babble and giggle with one another in their cribs in the morning is probably the best alarm clock in the world! The video below captures our happy girls perfectly, and it's a pretty accurate picture of how we spend most of our time these days!

Ready or not, school starts on Monday, and so does daycare. This new transition is going to be tougher on me than on them, I'm sure. We feel so thankful for the amount of time that both Manuel and I have gotten to spend with the girls this summer and we are more appreciative of our jobs now than we ever have been before. However, going back to work this time around seems tougher than it did in the spring. The girls seem to be changing on a daily basis, and they are much more aware of strangers and their parents. They've had a lot of time with both Mama and Daddy these last 12 weeks, and are pretty attached. We are praying for a smooth transition for them (and us) on Monday!

Teach Your Children Well

Grace says: "Summer mornings are the best! We hang out in our jammies and Mama lets me play with my favorite toys... my socks and the remote! I don't know why she bothers spending money on 'real' baby toys, they don't interest me in the least!"

Annie says: "I prefer to cuddle with Mama and let Grace cause all the trouble."

Who loves family traditions?? We do! We of the Robertson and Krueger households happen to think we have the best family tradition of all time. Over the course of many friendly arguments about which musicians or groups are the 'best of all time', and idea sprang to life: a family CD compiling each of our all-time favorite songs. (Credit must be give to Ben here for coming up with the final plan). Each family member was to contribute 2 songs to the mix, and we would listen to it at Christmas Eve dinner down in Tucson. No one got to sneak a peak at the 'play list' ahead of time, and during the meal, we had to try to guess each person's song. My job has always been to select the album's theme and design the cover, befitting the year. As our families have grown over the years, so have the CDs. All of the 'kids' are now married, so we're up to 24 songs, and 2 disk set!! No ruling has been made yet on how old the new babies have to be before they are allowed to contribute to the album, although much discussion and some debate has ensued on the topic.

Not surprisingly, Christmas this year was a little different for all of us: Annie and Grace were just a month old, Alistair and Charley (Nick's son) were on the way, and Ben and Caitlin were in Korea, so NONE of the 4 kids (or spouses and babies) were able to be in Tucson for Christmas. Therefore it was decided that during Ben and Caitlin's visit home this summer, Volume 5 of the CD would be produced and released during a family gathering at the Robertson home. We weren't quite sure how much 'listening' of the songs would actually happen considering the fact that we have now added two 8 month olds, a 2 month old, and a 6 week old to our mix. All things considered, it went pretty well! Plus, the babies were thrilled to finally all meet one another, and the cousins were thrilled to see Ben and Caitlin. As for all 4 grandparents, well, you can only imagine.....

Here it is: Volume 5 of our 'Greatest Hits', aptly titled, "Teach Your Children Well". Not knowing the theme of the album, Uncle Dick even selected that song as one of his picks, so we have to include it as an 'extra' song! Of course, it was our opening track on the album.
Here are the girls meeting Caitlin, Ben's fiancee, and her Mom, Pat. As you can see, they are quite cozy!
And meeting 'Uncle' Ben, one of their Mama's favorite people! They were quite taken with his beard!

Many of my favorite childhood (and adulthood) memories include my sister and Nick and Ben, so I am so excited for Annie and Grace to have 'boy' cousins like I did. I'll try not to think about the payback we all may have coming for our mischievous behaviors of the past!

All 4 of the 'kids' with their spouses and babies...what a crew!

L to R: Manuel, Annie, Grace, Becca, Amy, Nick, Charley, Mary, Paul, Alistair, Ben and Caitlin.

The Krueger Fam
The Robertson Fam

Poor Annie was so tuckered out after all the excitement that she crashed on the couch!

And just look at this proud fellow who finally got her to sleep!