Pictures with my sister from years ago...

I was at my mom' s house tonight just hanging out with Kylar and Ciara, when Ciara just casually takes out two pictures of my sister Katie and I when we were little. I have been wanting some pictures of the two of us lately during those years, so I snagged them from her. I used my camera to take a picture of them and this was the result...

Katie and I at the Lighthouse Motel in Ellensburg, WA in 1984-7 and 5 years old

Katie and I in 1980, 3 and 1 year old

Later, we went for a walk in the dark to get my mom's mail, about 1/2 mile total...very refreshing and the girls loved it!

Ruby and I took some pictures of us together during Elsie's nap today and this was the best one:

Hit the Trail!

Mike was gone all day and I called my mom to see if she wanted to get together. The girls were thrilled with the idea. Anytime they get a chance to hang out with Grandma is good for them! They also love their cousins too.

When they arrived, we decided to have lunch before heading out. I made egg salad and tuna and my Mom brought lunch meat and bread. It was a nice lunch and everyone enjoyed it.

Once we were all full, we got bundled up to go for a walk at Fish Lake Trail a few miles away. Once I went outside, I realized that is was actually much warmer than I thought. The trail was awesome, mostly clear of ice and water. It is always beautiful out there. Ruby walked with Kylar and chatted. Ciara, my Mom and I walked along with Elsie in the stroller. We walked about 2.5 miles total. My Mom brought her tiny doggy Snickers, she had never been on a walk before. She walked right into the water along the edges of the trail, Ciara grabbed her up and kept her little shivering body warm under her coat.

We noticed lots of birds nests and some trees that had fallen. The water was pretty deep on the sides of the trail. Most of the waterfalls were frozen, but a few still spurted water. Everytime I go there it is a different season and I love to see the changes, every season is beautiful in it's own way.

New Haircut for Elsie

This picture is for Great Grandma Hunt, Elsie was taking care of her bear the other day. She was putting him under the covers with her and cuddling with him. So much fun to watch :)

I cut about a half inch off of Elsie's bangs, they were driving me crazy! Now I can see her beautiful eyes! Super cute!

Heaven

As we were driving to a friend's house yesterday, Ruby was looking out the window at the horses in the pasture. She asked if farmers went to heaven and then how God could get horses up to heaven when they are so big. I told her that our spirit only goes up to heaven and not our body, that our body is what holds our spirit or who we are. That our spirit is inside of us. Our body stays here on earth, but our spirit lives on in heaven. She thought about it for a bit and then said, "So our spirit is inside our heart?" I told her that, yes, that is exactly where it is. Love the way she thinks about things and questions so much right now.

She has been thinking a lot about heaven, espcially since we lost our kitty Morris a month ago. She occasionally will start getting a sad look and try to hold back the tears and then let it all out. It happens mostly when we are in the car it seems. She gets sad when she remembers petting Morris and the moments she snuggled with him. It is hard for her to understand how he could be as happy in heaven without her. Such a sweetie!

New words

I heard Elsie say so many new things today. She is quite the communicator these days.

• She said, "Excuse me!" to Ruby as she was riding her little toy around the dining room.
• She is so ticklish, and I love to tickle her! I noticed her say, "Stop it" in a silly way while I tickled her today.
• I gave Elsie some snacks to take to Ruby. She was thrilled and headed toward her bedroom, but didn't see Ruby anywhere. She turned back toward me and said, "Where's Ruby?" in a puzzled tone. So funny.
• I heard her say, "Where are ya!" to Ruby several times as they were looking for eachother. She has heard this while playing hide and seek.

Busy Day

We do learning playdates every Tuesday and Thursday, and today it was going to be at our house. I planned for it to be a library theme, with all sorts of books that center around the library. I decided to ask the other moms if they wanted to meet up at the library and we could hold it there. They said yes. It turned out to be a lot of fun!

After the learning playdate, we drove up to a closeby park to have lunch and play. It was really chilly, but no snow yet. The kiddos enjoyed their lunch of peanut butter and honey sandwiches and then ran around with eachother for a long time. It was so good to get out and enjoy the fresh air.

Elsie wouldn't eat peanut butter sandwiches until yesterday. When she woke from her nap she tried mine and kept going because she loved it so much. At our picnic today, she picked hers up and almost the entire half sandwich. Yay!

Tanya asked if she could take the girls right after this, she was already watching them for me later and it would be easier for her to take them home. So we switched carseats and off the girls went with Tanya and Jacquelyn. This is the first time Elsie has ever been away from me that long. They stayed with Tanya from 1:30 to 7:30 pm. Elsie was sad half of the time and Tanya said her little bottom lip would quiver every so often. She would point of the window and say "Mommy out!" I had to go to work at Sylvan for my last session of SAT, so thankful she watched them. Also, she wouldn't eat for Tanya so she asked Ruby to try to feed her. Elsie ate it right up and continued to eat. So neat. Ruby was pretty proud of herself.

Elsie was hungry when we got home and said, "I want gurt!" She calls yogurt this now. That girl is a bottomless pit right alongside her big sister. They both amaze me.

Singing

In the car today, Mike turned up a song that he said Ruby loved. She sings it with her own twist. So funny! The song goes like this "I hope it gives you HELL!" and she says "I hope it gets you WELL!" Love how sweet and innocent their little minds are at this age.

We went to see Megamind today at the Garland, the girls both did wonderfully and had no problem sitting calmly during the whole movie. Elsie just kicked back and put her feet up on the seat in front of us and ate her popcorn. She loves movies. At one point she called out "What happened?" clear as day, she gets so enthralled in the whole story line.

We also met up with Mike's parents for a very late Christmas get together. We ate at a buffet and then the girls openned presents in the back of the Durango. They loved the nice gifts, Ruby got a Zhu Zhu pet and Elsie got a Dora bike. When we got home, Mike was so frustrated because Elsie wouldn't stay off of it while he put it together for her. The same thing with Ruby. They were trying to ride it around before there were even wheels on it. Silly girls!

Sweetie

Elsie gives me the sweetest hugs around my neck these days (when I am holding her in my arms), she softly pats my head and leans into me, gives me kisses too. Melts my heart, she is such a soft and sweet little girl. Love her.

We went to shopping at Huckleberries today, while Ruby went to Mike's pep game. I bought some dried mango and blueberries. Elsie has always loved blueberries, but not mango. She gobbled it down tonight. She asked for more mango when she finished, and actually said mango clear as can be.

When we were waiting at the window for Mike to come home, she said, "Where is Daddy?", and then, "I want Dad!". I would tell her that he is out in his car and on his way home from school. She would then ask the same questions all over again. She is becoming quite the Daddy's girl these days, she loves to sit in his lap and just be with him anytime he is home.

I am surprised by her interest in movies and tv, Ruby never really got into it much. Elsie loves to watch movies and comment on them all the way through. I think she see Ruby's excitement with it all and catches on to it. She LOVES Max and Ruby and will run to the couch to sit next to Ruby whenever it is on.

The girls are playing together all the time now and most of the time they get along and enjoy eachothers company. It is really cute to watch.

Ruby is really into her appearance right now. She has been changing outfits constantly and actually wants to wear dresses and tights right now. Tonight as we were driving home, she said, "No one saw my beautiful dress and hairclip". So funny!

Snowman and sledding during Elsie's nap

I sent Ruby out to the backyard to make a snowman and play in the new fallen snow today. She made a tiny snowman, but the dogs kept eatting the eyes and carrot nose. She was so frustrated. I decided I would go out to the front yard and build one with her, she loved it. We had a great time together. After the snowman was complete, we took the sleds over to the end of our cul-de-sac to sled down the tiny mound of snow from the snow plow. She loved it! I sent her down about 4 times and then went down once with her. Hope to get out a bit more tomorrow if there is any new snow to play in.

We also had fun putting together a gift bag for Ruby's friend Jacquelyn, her 4th birthday is tomorrow! Ruby said she was so excited to see her open it, right before she fell asleep tonight.

Bathtime fun!

During bath today, the girls had a great time together! It was too cute, so I decided to take some pictures.

The girls are so much fun right now...they spend tons of time playing together and trying to communicate with eachother. Mike had the girls at work with him for pep band tonight while I worked. I had to pick them up late. Mike almost always puts Ruby down to bed and I put Elsie down, but when he is working late I put them both down. It used to be a challenge, but lately Ruby has been so wonderful. Tonight she said, "Mom, I want to put myself down to bed", I was so excited to hear this. I told her she could, but she qualified it by saying that she was going to watch a movie first and then go to bed. It was already so late...so I gave her a bag of books from the library and told her to go read them on her bed. She was so excited and went straight there and started pulling them out. I saw that she had made a mess of her bookshelf, so I told her she had to put all the books back on the shelf and then she could read. While I was putting Elsie to bed in the next room, I could hear her busily putting them away and telling herself the stories. It is so fun to listen to her read to herself. When Elsie was asleep, I went into her room to find it all nice and tidy, as she sat on the bed reading. So wonderful!

Silly Elsie

Elsie has been doing the silliest things lately...I just have to get them on here!

Today I caught her trying to feed her new teddy bear water, she was putting the bear's face into the water and saying, "Eat! Eat!" Later this evening, she was dragging a toy caterpillar around and did the same thing. She put the face near the water and said the same thing.

She has also been climbing up on the cupboards below the bathroom sink and grabbing the knobs with her toes. She turns the faucet on and puts her hands under the water and says, "Hands!" Anytime we leave the door open, I always go back in and find her in the same position on the sink. Little stinker!

I found her inside the play kitchen sink area, with the sink removed and her head out the other day. Mike has found her in the same place several times lately as well.

I noticed today that Elsie loves to put things together or inside something and then take them apart over and over. During church I distracted her with some stacking o's and some cubes that she could take a apart and put together. Later in the day, Ruby was using color wonder markers and they were in a plastic baggy. She sat there for a long time taking them out and putting them back in again.

Ruby has been such a sweetie lately. She has been looking out for her little sister and just doing so well with obeying us and getting along with her peers. We went to couples night out at church on Friday, when we returned she said that she watched out for Elsie and when she cried she would go out and make sure everything was okay. They both did great, by the way, the whole time we were gone. Elsie got a bit sad at the end right before we picked her up, otherwise they had fun. We had them both go into the smaller kiddos room and they both had a good time together. Ruby asked if they could always been in that room while we are away. So glad it worked out so well.

We ate at Waddell's Pub up on South Hill today, so yummy! The girls even enjoyed it! They had a hummus platter that was so good and the girls always love hummus for dipping! They both are little eatters right now, I can hardly keep up with the amount of food they want to eat. It amazes me!