A Look Back/19 Month Review

Look at how much things change in a year's time!

Berkley and Meredith January 2010


Berkley and Meredith December 2010


Pictures tell the difference far better than I can.

The twins turned 20 months old this past Tuesday. I have done a horrible job of keeping up with how they've grown this past month. I can say that Berkley now has around 16 teeth, he's got a mouth full! Meredith has finally gotten her 8th tooth this past week!!! Poor baby, she's behind on the teeth. Meredith has started flipping over all by herself, she can jump up with both feet off of the ground, and she can walk backwards. They are both communicating so well now and can tell me yes or no to questions when I ask. They are getting more and more imaginative in their playtime, which is so fun to watch; they love to cook food in their new kitchen and pretend to feed each other and anyone else who's around. Berkley likes to run around on the hard-wood floors on his tip-toes. They're getting pickier and pickier in their choices of foods, which makes it difficult ensuring they're getting a well-rounded diet. The only veggies Meredith will eat are olives and potatoes, but thankfully Berkley still loves his veggies. We've taken the trays off of the high chairs and pushed the twins up to the table, so mealtimes are more cohesive now. The twins have both learned to enjoy praying this past month. They fold their hands and say amen anytime you bring them to the table, now I just have to work on being sure that thankfulness is truly what's in their hearts and that it doesn't just become a mindless habit. That's all I can think of for now, but I'll update if I come up with more. Happy New Year to all of you! I look forward to keeping you up-to-date in 2011!

Christmas 2010 in Pictures

All of the official Christmas celebrations began for our family on December 24th, Christmas Eve, with my side of the family. We started our morning at Britthaven in Washington, visiting Nana. It was so difficult not having Nana home with us this year; there was definitely a void in the Griffin home. We tried to make our time with her at the nursing home very special. We dressed up the twins, brought Nana presents to open as well as letting her watch the twins open the gifts from her, but the best thing was just getting to spend some quality time with her. Meredith and Berkley just love their Nana and have missed her visits since she's been in the nursing home. After we left Britthaven, we headed to Farm Life to spend the rest day at Grandma and Granddaddy's house; Uncle "Jo-Jo" was there, which always makes time together fun! Of course we're always thankful for special time with Grandaddy and consider it a gift to still have him here with us.


Christmas Eve night we read the twins the story of Jesus' birth and tried to take some time to focus our little family on what Christmas is really all about. I realized what a struggle it is for me to bring the focus back to Christ as I was reading a friend's Christmas newsletter that stated, "This Christmas we are focusing on joy. Not a joy that comes from more gifts under the tree or even to be near family, but a joy that emanates from being accepted by God. Christmas is not about me or you or anything else that we often focus on. Christmas, like all of life, is about God." Wow, how true and yet how I struggle with that truth. It's my prayer that God would continue to work in my heart and the hearts of my family to make Christmas, and everyday, about God and not about ourselves. I look forward to implementing some different things next year to bring the focus to Christ throughout the season; things like doing an advent calendar and teaching the kids the birth story of Christ through using the Little People Nativity set that Mima and Papa gave us, but I know that ultimately it's going to take small lessons learned daily about the love of God to really get the lesson through to myself and to my children.

December 25th, Christmas morning! Meredith and Berkley are, of course, oblivious that anything was waiting for them downstairs, so it was such fun to watch them realize that something was different. Berkley ran right to the little kitchen that we bought the two of them and Meredith just stared at everything for awhile before diving in and playing. We had a yummy breakfast of cinnamon rolls and then got excited when Mima and Papa stopped by for a Christmas morning visit.



That afternoon we headed to Mima and Papa's house to celebrate Christmas with Steven's immediate family; his mom, dad, brother and his family. Mima and Papa gave Meredith and Berkley these adorable rocking chairs. For those of you who don't know, Berkley LOVES to rock-rock. He rocks in his high chair, on the couch, in his crib...pretty much anytime he's sitting down, so I know he, especially, is going to enjoy his rocking chair. I wish you all could've have seen Berkley's reaction when my nephew Hutch got his new bike for Christmas. Berkley wanted that bicycle SO BAD! He walked over to it and tried to climb on it and had this look of desperation on his face that he couldn't get on it. Thanks to Uncle Timmy, he was able to sit on it for a bit! I know what Berkley's getting for his birthday:)





Then after we celebrated at Steven's mom and dad's we headed over to Grandma Dot's "G-Dot's" to celebrate with Steven's dad's side of the family. It was a houseful to say the least, but the more the merrier is the old saying, right? The highlight of the evening for the twins was riding G-Dot's scooter with Papa.


December 26th - after spending the night with Mima and Papa we woke up to find a beautiful blanket of powdery snow on the ground. This is Meredith and Berkley's first time playing in a substantial snowfall and they LOVED it! Meredith's favorite thing was to eat the snow; she kept scooping that little gloved hand into the snow to get a fresh taste of the white stuff. Berkley wasn't so crazy about the puffy coat and was totally helpless when he fell, and yet he kept the biggest grin on his face all day. The most memorable event from this Christmas definitely had to be the sleigh ride we took with Mima and Papa. Papa has two beautiful black Pertron horses named Andy and Helen that he harnessed to an authentic open sleigh, complete with bells. We bundled up Meredith and Berkley and went for a sleigh ride through the neighborhood. I can not express how amazing this was for me, I felt like I was in a magical Christmas scene. This was an event that I will look back on for years to come and be thankful to have experienced it. I know the twins will love seeing pictures and video of it in the future and see how special their Mima and Papa try to make every moment with them. Here are Meredith and Berkley all bundled up.


True Love between father and daughter - so glad that I captured this moment!

December 27th - we spent the next few days at Grandma and Grandaddy's house because Steven was on-call and I wasn't about to weather being snowed-in without help. What better place to be than with my parents and brother who are going to love on me and my children! We even bundled up the twins and played outside in the snow with Grandma! I tell you, I've never seen two happier people than my brother and my mom those few days that we stayed. I hope that my dad enjoyed it as well! One morning, Meredith and Berkley were so interested in my dad eating breakfast that they ended up sitting in his bed with him, just watching him eat. Here are a few sweet pictures from our days at Grandma's.


I know, I'm mean, I let my baby sit in the snow and cry, but even crying she's beautiful.

And the festivities aren't over yet. We're looking forward to a visit from some of my cousins this afternoon and then we'll have the Gurkin family Christmas on Sunday! Fun times ahead!

Christmas Photo Session 2010

A dear friend of ours who is a photography major at ECU greatly served us this Christmas by taking some great pictures of our little family. Here are some of the best ones that I wanted to share.

Dashing Through the Snow

"Dashing through the snow, in a one horse open sleigh, o'er the fields we go, laughing all the way," that's what I was singing this morning as Steven's dad hooked up his prize winning horses to his sleigh and we took the twins for a sleigh ride through the neighborhood. It was absolutely magical! The horses had sleigh bells and everything. The picture above was taken by a neighbor as we were driving by. We took tons of pictures, but I'm snowed in at my mom's house with no adapter to transfer the pics, so you'll all have to wait:) Just so you know, Meredith and Berkley absolutely LOVED the sleigh ride and were so precious!!!

Things I Love

Things will happen from day to day that make me stop and be thankful. Little things really, but they tend to catch me off guard and make me stop to think about how grateful I am. I think it's because I've been learning a lot lately about how much we have as Americans in comparison to the rest of the world - it's made me more reflective on what's really important. Here's a few things I've jotted down that I simply love and am grateful for:

1) I love how Meredith and Berkley inevitably end up in the same corner in the evenings just before bed, stacking blocks and speaking their little jibber jabber to one another.

2) I love how Meredith is a little quirky; she doesn't like specks of things... she freaks out about specks. For example, in our bathtub there is a tiny stain that's been there since we've been in this house. She's bathed in that tub so many times, but has just recently noticed this stain, a speck. Now she freaks out every time she's in tub, looking in dismay at this stain. I know, I shouldn't find humor in my child's misguided fear, but you should see how she looks at this speck in the water. She's a funny little thing and I love it! ( Just to reassure you, I don't laugh at her when she's in the tub, I comfort her and I'm working with her to understand that it won't hurt her).

3) I love washing machines and dryers.

4) I love Berkley's eyes when he says the word cookie:)

5) I love that Berkley loves to hear me genuinely laugh. His eyes light up when I'm laughing hard and he starts to laugh.

6) I love how Meredith will turn her head away and pretend she's not paying attention to me when she wants me to tickle or play a game with her - she plays coy.

7) I love how Meredith wants to be a big girl and hold onto the handrail, which is a tad too tall for her, while going up the stairs instead of crawling up them.

8) I love that I enjoy time with my parents and in-laws.

9) I love how when trying to find Meredith's bears to take upstairs with her at naptime, I found them sitting side by side in the "naughty spot," the corner where Meredith and Berkley have to sit for time outs. I guess they had been misbehaving.

10) I love that while I was fixing lunch today I could hear Meredith and Berkley laughing hysterically at each other. I didn't peep my head into the living room to see what they were laughing at because I knew it would spoil the moment, I just enjoyed hearing them have fun with each other.

11) I love that I can learn lessons about Christmas from a Charlie Brown Christmas tree.

12) I love singing Christmas carols to my children.

13) I love how God answers prayers.

James 1:17
"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows."

14) I love that God doesn't change, even when the world can seem chaotic and you question whether or not things are good. He is steady and unshifting, even when I and the rest of the world are not.

Cute Pics From the Day

Is it just me or are these two cute?

18 Month Review

No more babies in the Manning home, now it's a little girl and a little boy. The biggest changes during their 18th month was that Meredith and Berkley started eating with spoons and forks and they won't let me carry them up and down the stairs. Since they can now go up the stairs on their own I decided it was time I gave them their first tub bath by myself. Before if Steven wasn't here to help me, I would just do it in the sink downstairs, but now we have fun in the tub even when daddy is at work. Other fun things this past month; Berkley noticed the moon and called it a ball, I told him it was the moon and now he always looks up into the night sky pointing and saying "moo, moo." Meredith started calling Berkley by name, she calls him "Ber." Berkley finally started saying Larry, but he says "ya ya," which is what Meredith called Larry at first as well. I've noticed that Meredith says, "alright" and "okay" a lot, I think she got that from me because whenever I tell her something I'll end by saying, "okay." They have both started saying milk and cheese. We started time outs with the twins this month and it's been really effective. I was starting to feel out of control as a parent and like nothing I was trying was working in the discipline category. I got some advice from another parent and gave time outs a try. I was amazed at how well the kids responded to it and thankful to feel more confident in how to respond when they misbehave. Meredith and Berkley have learned to spin around in circles and Berkley especially loves it when he loses his balance. Berkley is so observant of everything around him and especially loves to see how things work. Berkley loves being outside and when I put him in his carseat he likes to sit with the van door open watching the pine trees blow in the wind. Meredith loves her big brother and likes to copy whatever he does. Meredith said her first small sentence this past month, it was "YahYow owsi," which translates, Larry outside! They both got three new teeth each, bringing Meredith's total up to 7 and Berkley's, 11 teeth. As you see from the picture above, Meredith has started biting her fingernails. I was surprised that this habit would start so early, but I guess if she's to teeth, she's going to use them. Berkley has started this absolutely precious thing that I don't want to forget; when I read them "Goodnight Moon" before bed Berkley will put his finger up to his mouth and so "shh" when I get to the part when it says "the old lady whispering hush." It's so cute the way he holds that little finger over his lips and he always knows when it's coming, before I even get to the picture. And a final thing they're both doing now is helping me clean-up, yay! Meredith likes to help clean-up more than Berkley, but he still helps some.

It has amazes me how much they have grown this last month! Their vocabulary is growing daily and they've become so independent. I continue to be thankful that I can be home with them to watch them grow and reach new milestones everyday!

Milestones and Family Changes

I have been ignoring the developmental milestone of introducing the twins to eating with a spoon. It was very selfish of me I know, but I think I envisioned it being way too messy and out of control with two...and I was right. I finally gave in this weekend, selfishly, because Steven was home to manage one while I managed the other one. They both did so much better than I imagined they would do. Berkley holds his spoon right handed and is grips it in his fist. Meredith holds her spoon left handed and likes to hold it by the end. It's definitely a skill we're going to have to continually work on, but I'm pleased by how quickly they're picking it up!


We've had a busy week in the Manning household. Many of you have heard me often speak of my Nana, my mother's mom, who has come to visit the twins with my mom nearly daily since they were born. Well, Nana has had a horrible 2-3 weeks. Two weeks ago she suffered from a couple of falls, which is unfortunately typical in someone who is 89 years old, and by the end of the week she could hardly walk. She was hospitalized and found to have a couple of different infections and put on IV antibiotics. Nana was hospitalized for a week and has now been admitted to a nursing home in Washington. It's been a terribly crazy week as my mom has been juggling caring for my Nana at the hospital and my brother and I have managed caring for my dad. I tell you, I have so much more respect for my mom now that I had to manage my dad for nearly a week. It takes an entire hour to feed him, which doesn't count food prep and clean-up and don't get me started on all the pushing and pulling it takes to change his diapers. I'm so thankful for all the aides who come in to serve my dad and I couldn't have made it through the last week without my in-laws, who so graciously kept Meredith and Berkley anytime I asked...which was often.

I have to be honest, I didn't think my Nana was going to pull through this. It was such a shock for me to have had her at my home playing with the twins one week and the following week, being deathly ill. Thankfully, today Nana has shown quite the turn-around. I don't feel like she's completely the "old Nana," but she's getting closer than I thought she was ever going to after the week she suffered. She definitely needs physical therapy for awhile to regain her strength and hopefully with some visits from Meredith and Berkley to motivate her, she'll be back to her old self before long. Keep our whole family in your prayers as we transition to this new phase of care for my Nana.
Here's a recent picture of Nana with Berkley, boy do they love their Nana!

Our Big Decision

Many of you may have heard that Steven and I have been contemplating for some time whether or not to move home to Williamston to establish Steven's medical practice and to ultimately settle there. Honestly, I was totally caught off guard when Steven came to me with the proposal of moving home, as I'd thought for years that we were going to be settled in Greenville permanently, especially since ECU has just finished building a gorgeous new Family Medicine Center. This has had to be the most major decision we've ever made in our married life, next to going through genetic testing for Huntington's and having children. It has been a bittersweet decision, as I'm sure you can all imagine, especially considering how we dearly love our church family in Greenville and have such well established friendships here. We've prayed a lot, talked a lot, and sought counsel and have ultimately decided that we will be moving to Williamston in July 2011. I know that Steven's heart is to serve a small community where he can know his patients well and where we can all be active members of the community, as well as the local church body, not to mention how wonderful it will be to be so near to both of our families. Our folks are just a little bit THRILLED! I've told my dad and I think he understands, his eyes always seem to shift when I talk to him about it. I know he would be so proud of Steven's hard work and that he wants to give back to the community where he was raised. I also know he would be delighted that we eventually want to settle in Farm Life; 4 generations on the Griffin land, too bad we don't farm. We know that this is not going to be all peaches and cream; it will be a transition leaving our friends, church, and the amenities of Greenville, yet we have peace that God is going to grow our marriage, family and our relationship with Him through this process.

Details: For those of you in Williamston, Steven will be employed through Martin General Hospital and will have his own clinic located where Dr. Skahill's office used to be, near the hospital off of McCaskey Rd. It will be newly renovated. Steven will begin working August 1, 2011 and will be accepting obstetrical, pediatric, and adult patients - he says from the womb to the tomb:) We're planning on living in Jamesville for at least the first couple of years, in my Nana's home, which will make 4 generations who've lived there.

We do desire to have you pray for us as we endeavor to impact our new community and church family for Christ, that we would continue to be purposeful in our present relationships and community and not just "check-out" because we know we're moving soon, and for the emotional transition of leaving everything we've known for 10 years. Thank you all for your support and encouragement!

Halloween 2010

We attended a "Light the Night for Jesus" event at Reddicks Grove Baptist Church tonight. It was a fun festival event with all kinds of games, a hay ride, cakewalk, crafts, and food for kids of all ages. The twins had a great time...and so did I, especially when I won a homemade cake! It was great to catch up with a lot of folks from Steven's home church and see the twins so happy with their Mima and Papa.


Meredith and Berkley loved this kiddie rollercoaster, which you can see by the giant smiles on their faces:)

More fun on a hayride with Mima and Papa!

Berkley playing a fishing game. I love how Meredith is so patiently waiting behind him, trying to figure out what is going on.


I wanted you all to see Steven's dad's horses and cart. These horses just won 4 blue ribbons at the state fair! They're just beautiful and Steven's dad has done an amazing job training and caring for them. I also couldn't resist sharing this precious video of Berkley's glee while riding on the kiddie roller coaster.

Fall 2010 Festivities

Today has been a fun-filled day of Halloween/Fall activities. This morning I was blessed with the opportunity to join some fellow stay-at-home moms in delivering trick-or-treat goodies to some elderly folks at a local assisted living facility. It was a reverse trick-or-treating of sorts; our kids were dressed up but they did the treating. It was great seeing the older kids joyfully knocking on the doors of these people they didn't even know, giving them hugs, attention, and yummy treats. I've been challenged a lot recently in considering how am I doing at loving people, not just those I know and those who are easy to love, but people who I've never met that may take more effort to love; ultimately this love should come as a result of the love Christ has shown me. This morning was a great opportunity to learn to love others more and I hope that it was a great beginning for Meredith and Berkley to learn to love as well.
Here's half of our kids with their moms. What a fun group!
I couldn't have done it today without the help of Grandma!

Then after the twins woke up from their nap, which by the way was 3 HOURS today (huge deal considering they typically haven't slept for more than 1.5 hours since we switched to 1 nap), Steven and I took them to Briley's farm. We went on a hayride, picked out two little pumpkins and got to feed the farm animals. Meredith and Berkley's favorites were the hayride, the giant sand pile and just having the freedom to run around in the open space. Here are some fun pictures from our farm adventure.

Meredith and Berkley with their little pumpkins.



I love this one, Berkley is handing Meredith a piece of straw. Wish they'd share like this all of the time:)