Tuesday, March 30, 2010

On the Go....

We went to a petting farm in Spokane today and Ruby was able to ride a horse named "Miky". It was a big, beautiful horse. She was in heaven, totally into horses right now.

She rode it around the entire pasture, not a single ounce of fear. So exciting!

This is a picture as she was getting back to the place she started. What a great way to spend our day. They had all sorts of animals. She enjoyed brushing the llama, feeding the goats, holding the baby ducks and chickens, and chasing a cat and pig. Mike came with us and he had a good time too. It was really windy and cold outside, it even hailed a bit while we were there.

These babies were so cute and absolutely beautiful. There was one that looked exactly like it's mommy, which was a different breed of chicken that has a big fluff ball on top of it's head. We were really surprised to see that the baby looked so much like it's mommy. Elsie even enjoyed petting and touching them.

Here is Ruby holding a baby ducky with Daddy. She loved it.

Later in the day, we went bowling with Grandma and the kiddos. Ruby was really excited. She made a picture for them and was anxious to share with with them. Mike scored the highest and I did horrible, but had a great time. My mom watched most of it and snuck some bowling when Ruby was in the bathroom. We ended the game with some yummy pizza at Rosa's. What a fun night, thanks for coming with us Mom!

Elsie is on the go....she has started running with her little push toy around the house and taking every opportunity to walk longer and longer distances without it. She still crawls some...but is walking more and more each day. She will grab your finger when she is walking and take you places, but if you try to go another way she will turn you around over and over until she can go the way she wants. She is very determined. She makes these high pitch noises all the time now and lets you know when she is not liking something or wants something. Her two bottom teeth are starting to push her gums and she is getting a bit more irritable because of it. I can see them there and feel them, but they still have broke through. No other teeth yet. She is also hugging us a lot lately, really cute, she is so small but will grab around your neck and squeeze. Also, she is getting a bit more lovey too and laying on our chests and snuggling.

Ruby has been doing so much by herself lately, especially dressing herself. The outfits she chooses can be pretty interesting, but I am loving her willingness and initiative. She just loves her sister to pieces too, plays with her all the time and I catch them doing more and more stuff together these days. This can be challenging too, because it can get a bit overbearing at points. Overall, they make a great pair and enjoy their time together though.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Elsie is Walking!!!!



Ruby has been so into taking pictures lately, she was really excited to take this picture of the three of us. I thought it was cute, because they were both wearing silly hats and just laughing with eachother.



Ruby and Elsie are playing so nicely with one another these days, sometimes I go to check on them and this is what I find...Ruby dressing Elsie all up and Elsie letting her. Elsie actually lifted her foot so Ruby could put the sock on her.



Neal, Janessa, and Samuel came to visit...we always have fun with them. We went to eat at the Milk Bottle in the Garland District with them and then to a nearby park. Ruby loved the little motorcycle toy, she sat there in the little side car until someone would sit in the motorcycle beside her. She didn't care who it was, just wanted a buddy to enjoy the ride with her. Sam decided to join her a few times, they had fun together on it.



Janessa and Neal spent much of the time with us, walking around with Elsie. That is her main goal right now, to stand up and walk around. They loved it though!



Elsie figured out how to get into this baby doll bassinet and kept going there over and over to get in. She just lounged there at points, and other times she threw all the toys in it to the ground. Ruby decided to join her, it was a tight squeeze though and Elsie only put up with it for so long.



Elsie in the bassinet all by her lonesome and having a ball :)



And last but not least....Elsie started walking today. She has been practicing like crazy the past few weeks and I knew it was only a matter of time. She started by just letting go of things, then walking a few steps from one object to another, then taking the chance and stepping out toward someone or something. She actually took at least 10 steps at one point, she is pretty stable and I think tomorrow she will be doing it all day and be a pro at it. It is fun to see her thinking about walking and letting go so much. She is so proud of it all!

We went to Mike's concert tonight at the college. We didn't stay long because it was already bedtime and it was soooo hard to keep Elsie in my lap, all she wanted to do was walk around. We stopped at Zips for a sandwich and then headed back home. I had to put Elsie down first. Ruby went to the bathroom and said "Thank you for taking me to the concert" and then headed to her bedroom. It was so quiet, so I went to check on her and she was laying between all her dolls sound asleep. I can't believe she put herself to bed, she is getting so independent lately. It amazes me. She is determined to do everything herself, like her seatbelt, dressing herself, buttoning/zipping her pants, opening doors on cars/buildings. Sometimes it is hard to be patient and let her take her time, but she is loving this new found freedom and I am trying to embrace it.

I talked to my Grandma Hunt today...it was really nice to chat with her for a longer period of time. I hope to visit her soon, we have missed out on many, many years. Thanks for reading my blog and all the sweet comments about the girls Grandma!

Lastly, Happy birthday Mom! Hope you really liked the necklace I got for you, it stood out to me and seemed like the perfect gift for you. Wish we could have visited with you today, but we are very glad that you are feeling better :) Love and hugs!



Thursday, March 18, 2010

This week...









Well, starting on Sunday we met up with my mom, Kylar, and Ciara after church for our regular walk at Fish Lake. They came a bit late so we started ahead of them. We walked 1 mile and then stopped for a bit, Elsie was awake by this time and wanted to get out and explore with Ruby. She kept picking up rocks and she put them in her mouth, such a sneaky little thing. Can't look away for one moment. Good thing I was on top of it and promptly pulled them away. Ruby threw some rocks and watched a few trains pass by and played on the sign. We then started heading back and saw my mom and the kiddos heading our way. They were at the half mile marker, so we walked back to the 1 mile marker again, making our grand total 3 miles for the day. Ruby was so excited to walk their little dog Jo Jo, she couldn't handle it. She did not want to give him up. She also tried taking pictures of us all, she obviously gets this from me. She kept saying "Say Cheese!" over and over. When we got back to the trailhead, my mom had made some yummy egg salad sandwiches and we all ate them up. She brought bubbles for Ruby and the kids and they enjoyed blowing them together. So much fun.



Monday morning came quickly, and I went to my workout group just to find out that no one was there. So...we went to our friend Angie's house and asked if they wanted to walk with us. We walked around the 1 mile loop in the opposite direction and then went to McDonald's with them. This is the first time we have been to McDonald's since forever, way before Ruby was born. Ruby and I had a parfait, it was pretty good. Later that night, I took the girls to Tanya's to attempt to get some more scrapbooking done. That was such a challenge. Ruby was great and so was Elsie, just really hard because Elsie is so on the go and I had to block everything and spent most of my time chasing her around. I had to take all of Tanya's chair to block their beautiful stairs. What an ordeal. I did manage to finish one layout, totally exhausting. Not sure if I will be able to do that again for a while. I have finished quite a bit of scrapbooking though and I fixed my printer so I am going through photos for each month and picking the best ones. It is nice to be doing this after all this time, so many photos to get going on.








Tuesday was a preschool/learning PD at Tanya's. Ruby had a great time with her friends Kai and Jacquelyn. We worked on the letter D and the number 2. I made lunch for everyone and they all seemed to like it. Elsie had fun with her friend Nai'a, who is a few months older. It was cute to see them interacting. We went home and Amy, Kai and Nai'a's mom called, she wanted us to meet up with them at the Medical Lake Park. I can't turn down any park time, so we headed over and played awhile. Ruby kicked the ball back and forth with Kai, both girls sat in the swings, and they all ran around the play equipment together. It was a nice way to end the day. I also watched "Mama Mia!" with Ruby before the park time, such a fun movie. Later that day, I decided to make Spagetti or "Pasketti" according to Ruby. The girls got SO messy, they love it so much. Elsie actually grabs fistfuls and shoves them in her mouth as fast as she can, quite scary to Mike and I. She slurps the noodle up and then grabs for more. So worried she will choke, but she manages to do well. I took them directly from the table to the bath and put them together this time. They had a blast together, I put something under Elsie so she wouldn't slip. Too cute!




On St. Patty's Day, we met for lunch with some of my friends and their kiddos at Chaps. Yummy! The kids played with the antique kitchen together. Ruby ate some of the quesadilla I ordered and we split a wonderful carrot cake muffin. After we finished, we all went up to a neat park at Eagle Ridge. Such a unique park and fun to be there with our friends. Elsie LOVES to swing, she is all smiles everytime I put her on it, so cute. Ruby is getting so independent too and enjoys swinging. I forgot, Tanya and I swapped kids on the ride up to the park and they both did fabulous and enjoyed riding with us, it was good for Ruby since she usually gets upset when I am away from her at all.


Today, we went to another learning playdate at Amy's, Ruby enjoys this so much and it is so good for us. She had fun making dinosaur tracks in the playdoe with plastic dinosaurs and they read "Puff the Magic Dragon" which we read all the time so she was excited to sing along. They made the most awesome salad with apples, cheese, cherry tomatoes and balsamic vinegrette. Ruby tried one of everything in it. They also made homemade mac and cheese. Elsie loved it all, Ruby didn't like the salad too much but at least tried it. Later, we said goodbye to Daddy who was leaving to judge in Yakima. We watched Robots for a bit and then headed out to Airway Heights to the park. I made a picnic, but it was way too cold and the people at the park were really sketchy. Ruby went down the slide a few times and then we headed over to Walmart. We looked for Elsie's birthday supplies and Easter stuff for baskets. It was really fun, this is a first time of making one for Ruby. So exciting!

Sunday, March 14, 2010

St Patty's Day Parade











We went downtown yesterday to see the St Patty's Day Parade. We watched about 45 minutes of it, Ruby sat on Daddy's shoulders for most of it. She clapped and waved and I saw quite a few smiles. She really liked the people dressed like animals. She went out once to get candy, loved getting it but didn't want to do it again. Very interesting. Good thing for me though, less candy and sugar on her teeth. I'm always a fan of that. Elsie woke up about halfway through and just watched as the parade passed by. She seemed somewhat confused, poor girl, always wakes up at random events these days. She did clap a bit. Once there was a lull in the parade, we skipped over to the carousel. I love this now, especially since I can get on it with Elsie. Elsie really enjoys the ride now too. So much fun. Mike rode next to Ruby and we could see them since they were a few rows in front of us. Ruby kept turning around and waving at us. I snapped a few shots of Elsie on the ride, so cute. Hard to get her still because she was turning around so much to look at the other kiddos on the horses.

After this we went to eat at Wingers, I had an entertainment coupon for it. It wasn't the most thrilling place to eat and the food wasn't very good in my opinion. Oh well, still fun to get out and try something new. We then headed to find the SCRAPS animal shelter in the valley, that was hard to find because I couldn't remember where it was located. We stopped at Subway and asked an employee and they handed me a phonebook. We headed toward Flora St and didn't know that it didnt' cross the river, so we had to backtrack and finally made it just in time to see their doggies and kitties. There was one dog that we really liked, but she isn't available for two weeks.

We have also bee driving around looking at property in the area, man is it gorgeous and not as expensive as I thought. I would love to own about 20 acres...we'll see if that happens or not. We are so ready to leave on tiny house behind and move on. There is also another house in town that is great, hoping to look at it just to see if it has all the features that will work for us and just to get a feel of it. It is a hard decision since we have negative equity in our house now and are unsure of our future plans with Mike's job.

Mike took Ruby to get her hair cut, it turned out cute. She looks so cute with her bangs cut shorter and a little trim on the back. It was neat to see him take her too. We then went back and I got a cut too, thankful that is done. So happy Elsie's hair is so short still, no haircuts needed for her, it is going to be craziness once we all need haircuts.








Ruby started her learning playdate/preschool class at a friends this week, she had a good time and we look forward to it next week too. Hopefully this will get her used to the routine since preschool starts for her in the fall. Elsie spent the whole time pushing around a push toy, back and forth across her house. She had tons of room, it was funny to see her so focused. Exhausting I'm sure...those little legs didn't take a break for a whole hour.




Wednesday, March 10, 2010

PEACH Farm
























































I am going to try and be on here more often. The weather has been gorgeous and I have been exhausted at night, but that is no excuse to neglect my blog.












Last Friday, we went to Angie's house to go for a walk around their loop in Four Lakes. I put Elsie on the front of me and the others walked the whole mile. Ruby enjoyed holding hands with Tony and collecting rocks with him. We always have fun with them and get a good workout at the same time. When we got home, both girls were completely exhausted and I even carried Ruby into the couch and she continued to sleep for hours. We have been so busy lately with tons of exciting events, I think it finally caught up to her.












Saturday was a fun day, Mike was at a pep game all day and we went up to their cousin Paxton's 1st birthday in Ephrata. It was a great time and they enjoyed playing with their cousins and the kiddos that were there. We also saw Mike's parents which was really nice too. Paxton liked the present we chose for him too. We stayed for about 4 hours and made it home by 7 pm.












On Sunday, it was another great sermon at church, I am really liking it there. Afterwards, we went to look at animals at the shelters, and found two really neat dogs but they had to be adopted together and we can't handle having them both, bummer. It was fun to look though. On our way home we went by a field and saw some deer, so Mike got out with Ruby and showed them to her. Love this area for that, we are surrounded by wildlife.







Yesterday we went to PEACH community farm right out here near Cheney. It is a small farm that is getting started where they grow organic veggies, raise goats and chickens, and train people how to do it in an earth friendly way. Totally up my alley. We had a blast with our moms group there. We sat at a fire on bales of hay, played games and sang, did a tour of the farm, played with their baby goats, planted a seed to take home, and ended with a picnic by the fire. My favorite part was sitting by the fire, Mike and I have not been camping in years now and it reminded me of that. We all left smelling like the smoke, loved it! Ruby just spent some of the time running around the property enjoying the country feel with her friends. She loved playing with the goats, they even let her pick them up. So funny! I let Elsie run her fingers through their fur and they nibbled at her fingers. She loved it until they nibbled a bit too hard, got a little upset but not for long. They were SO cute!












Elsie has been maneuvering her little push toy around the house like a pro for about a week. She is totally in control of where it goes and get about anywhere, and even turn around to get out of corners or tight spots. It reminds me of driving a car and parallel parking. She cracks me up. She spends most of her time at home working on getting around with it. She used to get stuck on everything it seemed and would give up, now she just keeps going and going and going. It is almost like she is picking it up and carrying it with her at points, because she really doesn't need it for support but thinks she does. Also, she is eatting everything right now and STILL no teeth. Last night I made split pea soup from scratch with ham, she gobbled it all up. It just amazes me that she can eat so much without her teeth, but she is managing just fine. Also she is pointing up a storm now, has been for a few weeks. She loves to wave at everyone and say "Bye!" and "Hi!", it is pretty cute to watch.
































Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Busy Week










































































































It has been so busy this week, so many fun things to do!




























Already we have been to Upper Manito Park and walked around the entire park on Monday. The girls LOVED going on the swings there, all smiles the whole time. They especially loved being right next to each other so they could laugh together as I pushed them. We also went to the consignment shop up on South Hill and Joann Fabrics right next door. That was quite the experience I have to say. Both girls were so tired and were total wiggle worms, so I had to make my trip there short. I did find some fun things for scrapbooking, which I enjoyed with some friends later that night. I actually finished my first full page, so proud of myself! Oh, I decided to go back to working out with a group of my mom friends, and it was really nice. I did that in the morning, I was pooped by the end of this day!




























On Tuesday, we went to town to meet up with my Sister in Law Lynn and her boys. We had an excellent time together downtown. We started at Mobius, ate lunch at PF Changs, and then went to the park to explore. It was their first time down at the park, and we all had a blast together. We went on the carousel, all of us. Elsie even liked it! Then we walked over to the Goat that eats Garbage, the kids had a blast feeding the him all sorts of stuff. Next we went over to the Radio Flyer slide and the kiddos went down it over and over. Ruby was shy at first, but once she finally went down the slide she loved it! Then we walked some more and ended up at the little playground there, the kids burned off some more energy before we started back to the mall area. We were SO thirsty, so we went to the Ben and Jerry's place and got some yummy smoothies for all of us. What a great way to end the whole experience. I am so thankful to have Lynn as a sister in law, can't wait for them to come again. After all this was over, I brought Elsie to get her 10 month pictures. I used the same butterfly wings I used for Ruby's 10 month pictures, and so many turned out cute. Can't wait to share them with everyone.




























Today, we went to work out with the mom group again. Elsie was loving the little slide they had and tried to climb up and go down on her own. I helped her, made me a bit nervous. They both did great overall. I am so sore though, but that is a good thing. I filled out the paperwork for Ruby to start preschool in the Fall, so excited for her to do this. We visited with our friend Monica a bit and then headed home.




























Elsie spent most the time at home today climbing up on the little rocker and sitting/standing in it, then getting herself down. I thought it was so neat that she was able to carefully get out of it without help. She has been saying "Ya! Ya!" in a whisper voice these days and waving like crazy at everyone. She will wave with both hands to get you to pick her up. The wave is really cute too, done in a limp way. Funny. She is able to walk beside you with only holding one finger, I think she is close to walking. Those teeth are still not in, and she is 11 months tomorrow. She is teething like crazy though with all sorts of bumps in her mouth.




























Ruby is trying to do everything by herself these days. For the past week, she has insisted on putting her seatbelt on herself, buttoning and zipping her pants, etc... Basically anything that I usually do for her, she will try to do it herself first and keep trying. She fit herself into a 12 month pair of pants and shirt today, I couldn't believe it. Such a goof ball. I have noticed her cleaning up more around the house lately too. She is just getting so good at conversation too, she comes up with some pretty interesting things these days. Love watching her grow!