New things

Elsie at Newman Lake, walking out into the waters.

The girls on the boat, they loved it!

Elsie wearing her lifejacket on the boat, loved her sweet smile.

My girls are doing so many new things and changing so much these days. I thought it was about time to post some of the things I have noticed on my blog....

Elsie is....

• saying all sorts of new words and phrases. She loves to say her name after you say it, today she started saying Ruby's name and it sounds like "Bybee", at night I started singing the days of the week song to her and noticed that she is saying "Tuesday" from that song (she looks up at me with a big grin as I sing to her and says Tuesday over and over), she says "There you go", "bye", and "Thank you" all the time. She also says "Yay!" and claps now when something exciting is going on.




• She loves to be dressed and to try on shoes. Ruby liked this too, but I can actually say that Elsie LOVES it. She will actually put her foot into the shoe for you and put her legs and arms through the holes of the clothing.




• She started riding the rocking horse we have and can climb about anything we have in sight, especially furniture. The good thing now is that she mostly know how to get down so it isn't as scary as before.




• She just recently became interested in buckling and unbuckling. She will watch with so much curiosity and try to help out. She climbs up to her little highchair and tries to practice with the belt.




• I started this "mmmmmm-ah" sound as we kiss eachother and now she does that all the time to say goodnight to us. She especially loves to kiss her sister at night, it is so sweet to see them both make the sound and get close to eachother to give kisses.




• She now has both her top teeth poking through, they are coming in so slowly that it is hard to keep track of the exact day that they popped through. She has two on the bottom and two on the top now. She loves biting into crunchy food now and does pretty good with so few teeth.




• She is loving utensils, especially forks that she can poke into food with. I can give her a bowl of food and a spoon and she will just eat away. Today she noticed that we were dipping our chips in salsa and I kept giving her pieces of chips to eat. She held it out and did a dipping motion with the chip toward the salsa. Mike and I were both worried that it was too hot for her so Mike took her hand and acted like he was dipping it for her. She didn't buy it one bit and kept putting the chip back out to get dipped, so smart!




• now officially had her first boat ride. Today we went out on our friends boat and she loved it and was waving at the person on the tube as we pulled them around.

Ruby is....

• saying the darndest things these days. Today we were headed to the lake and in the durango, she had her feet hanging out the window. I told her that she had to put them back in because we could get in trouble for her doing that, she told me that she was doing it because she wanted to "bask in the sun". She has been picking up on so many interesting phrases and Mike keep looking at eachother like where did she come up with that one.




• loving being outdoors. Mike thinks that I take them out too much and that is all she wants to do anymore...but really what kid doesn't want to be outdoors once they are exposed to it. So many more opportunities to explore than sitting inside all day.




• being more gentle with her sister and playing more with her as well. I am catching them in hugs and kissing and just plain playing together more these days. Before she would just get irritated with Elsie using her toys and now they will spend at least an hour engaging so sort of fun interaction.




• riding her bike so well right now. Mike and I stand at opposite ends of the street and have her ride back and forth between us. Ruby can peddle the whole way up the street and then turn the bike around and peddle back down. We are working on braking, she is getting better with it but has a hard time remembering and thinking ahead about when to use it. She was doing great with it the last time we were out though.




• enjoying having Daddy home more this summer. He is here every night to put her to bed and they have a whole routine going on. Recently she figured out that she could get out of bed and call out things to keep us coming back in and delay bedtime. She will do anything to get Daddy to come back in.




• not into lake water. When we were out in the water today, she would not even put her feet to the ground because she didn't like the way it felt on them and the plant floating on the water. Interesting!




• getting so good at drawing things...yesterday she drew a flag and I was amazed by how much it looked like the real thing. Everytime she sees a flag she says, "Look Mom! There's an American flag!"

Mike finished his last day of classes this summer for his master's program. So excited for our future. Hoping he can make it through the difficulty coming up next year as he manages his internship and teaches full-time.

I have been running at night when possible. I do it once the girls are down. I run around our neighborhood and I can run one and a quarter miles non-stop so far. Looking forward to building up this skill over time. I have also lost 10 pounds over the past few months, makes me feel so much better. I think it has to do with chasing Elsie around and eatting better meals with the CSA goodies we get each week.

We are planning a trip to Montana in September for our anniversary. So excited and it is only 200 miles away. Something to look forward to in the near future!

Elsie and Ruby enjoying a popsicle with their cousin Kylar, Elsie was trying to buddy up to him to get another lick :)

Elsie hopped up on the chair with Ruby so she could join in with her playtime.

We walked Hank to the park and Ruby was thrilled, she asks to do this all the time. She did a great job walking him and he stayed with her nicely.

Elsie having fun at the park!

Playing with friends, Zoe and Henry in their yard during a get together.

The kiddos all decided to sit under the slide together, I was surprised that it all worked out without someone getting upset. They were all smiles the whole time, cute!

My favorite horse at the POW WOW in Post Falls yesterday.

Another favorite!

Beautiful colors as they danced!

It was a scorching day, both girls did well and enjoyed their free "dum-dum" afterwards.


Ruby rode her bike so well today, I was really proud of her.

Elsie has another tooth that popped through in the top, they are taking so long to come in.

Trip to Seattle

Mike snapped a shot of us together. The girls were not being very cooperative because they were so tired, so I got a few of them individually with her. We went the next day to visit my grandpa in the hospital. It was really nice to see him, and he is getting better thank goodness. I hope to see them again when he is well. Ruby held his hand for a long time and chatted with him. Wish we could have stayed longer, but the girls were getting restless and ready to sleep.

We went and visited my grandparents, but my Grandpa was in the hospital. We were able to visit with my Grandma which was wonderful, this was the first time that I have seen her in person except when I was really little and can't remember. We enjoyed our time there and it meant so much to me to have this experience. She took this picture of us at her house.

Ruby rode a pony, she has been wanting to do this for some time now. She loved it and pet the pony several times as they went in the circle.

We finally went to Emerald Downs, Mike bet on two horses and one of them won. Ruby was so excited because she picked this one out before it raced. We won $80 :)

At Rachel and Jimmy's house, Ruby was watching a movie and Elsie crawled up to watch it with her. So cute!

Jimmy helping Elsie down the slide.

On the slide at Saltwater State Park.

Rachel and Elsie walking at Saltwater State Park together.

Vacation is coming...

I am getting really excited, we are heading to Seattle on the 15th-18th to spend time with my cousin Rachel and her husband Jimmy and do some new things while we are there. We will also be visiting with my grandparents on my mom's side, it will be so nice to see them and for the girls to meet them.

I still have to get through three days of work on Tuesday-Thursday first, hoping it flies by :) I like it once I am there, but really hate being away from the girls and spending so much time with Mike. They are doing great though and enjoying every moment with Daddy.

I just got over a long cold...it lasted a whole week and I ended up with an ear infection on top of that. Thank goodness it is over, although I just recently started feeling like I have another ear infection, hoping it goes away.

I started running in our neighborhood two days ago and I love it! I am going to drive my path tomorrow and find out the distance I have been running. I have been dying to get out and get some activity going...I am feeling really motivated right now. Hoping to keep it up, I have been running after I put Elsie down for bed and the timing is perfect and it is absolutely perfect weather as well. Hoping to build up to longer distances, we will see!

Elsie is a little ham these days. She has two more teeth coming in on top and tons pushing. She is doing great on her new mattress, but still ends up in our bed about halfway through the night. I don't mind, just thankful to have a few hours where she is in her own space. The last two nights she has slept for a longer time frame without waking. Crossing my fingers that it will get easier as the months pass.

Tonight Elsie was walking around with a basket hanging on each arm, and Ruby said that she looked like Fancy Nancy, I thought that was so cute. She is just trying so hard to communicate with us regularly now. Today I noticed that she is not saying, "Uhhh" for up anymore, she is actually saying the whole word. She is also saying, "There you go" when giving us things.

Ruby is getting so tall and witty. She cracks me up all the time. She just loves her moments with sister, anytime Elsie wants to sit with her or play she takes full advantage of it.

New toys for the girls

Our new pool, hopefully we will get some warmer days to use it. The girls were thrilled to play around in it with Daddy.

Hank even jumped in and had a good time :)

Our new swingset, it was only $25. My mom found it for us, the girls love it! Ruby especially loves the teeter totter and can get pretty high on it.

Elsie playing with Hank, she loves to be in charge.

Ruby loved pushing Elsie in her baby swing, Elsie really liked it when Ruby was in front and she could see her.