Not only do I love these pictures (these are my favorite ones from the beach as well, which unfortunately seems like ages ago now), but I LOVE THIS BLOG!! Thanks so much for all the time and effort that it has taken, particularly at 11:30 at night when all you want to do is finally relax after yet another exhausting day, but when you inevitably manage to muster up the energy to write a post before midnight, memorializing all those wonderful things the girls say and do, but which are typically too fleeting for us to remember more than a few moments. I love that every time you write this, you successfully “capture” another precious instant, making something inherently ephermal actually immortal, rescuing it from a void of lost memories. But as much as I and the others who love the girls love this blog, I know the ones who will truly treasure it are the girls themselves. Given how much they love to hear stories about and see pictures of them “when they were little” (because they’re so grown up now!), I am absolutely certain that they will consider the bound volume of their First Blog Year one of their greatest all-time gifts, the type of possession you carry out of a burning house (if you still have to worry about that sort of stuff in this new cyberworld!). So thank you from all of us, sweets — we love this and we love you!

Those pictures are sooo cute!!