New Kitty!!!

Our new kitty Rosie! She is 1.5 years old and very tiny! We searched for awhile, but this

little girl won our heart! She is still adjusting to our house, but definitely is getting better as the days go by. So excited she is a part of our family now!

Cut on the Eye

Elsie and Ruby were taking a bath earlier today, Elsie got out early. I put Ruby into a towel and sat Elsie back in the tub to rinse her off. Ruby wanted her towel a certain way, and I was trying to help her out. Elsie got up and slipped in the tub and it caused a cut above her right eye. It was bleeding pretty bad, I was really worried. Once I cleaned it off and was calmer, we headed in to urgent care. Elsie was singing and being silly most of the way into the doctor so I knew she was okay other than the cut. Once they looked at the cut, they told us it would be pretty much impossible to stitch or put glue on because of her age. The nurse decided to try to put suchers on it. Elsie was not happy at all with this, and fought the whole time. Once they were on, Elsie ripped them all off. The doctor and nurse both agreed that it would heal fast and be okay without the stitches since it wasn't too deep. Hope it doesn't make too big of a scar there, they said that it probably would be very light if anything. She did great the rest of the day, we even went out and played in the snow. She spent most of the day singing "Where is Elsie? Where is Elsie? Here I am! Here I am!" This is her favorite. I caught her singing it so many times today, makes me smile to watch her enjoy it so much. She also loves to sing the ABC song and I even caught her trying to sing Old McDonald at one point.

Poor Ruby, the weather has been so dry since it snowed! She is coughing really bad every night. Hope this goes away soon, so she can get a good nights sleep!

Day 4 of Seattle trip...heading home

Before we made the drive home, Mike decided he wanted to take the girls to Northwest Trek. I was really happy with the idea and it turned out to be a great day. When we got there, it was a free day for the girls. Yay! Ruby loved the idea of the map, she was excited to show us through the park.

We rode the tram to see all the animals, it was great. We saw tons of animals right up close. Pretty much everthing you could imagine. The girls did good too, the ride was only 30 minutes today which worked out well.

Some of the beauty we saw that day.

One of the 4 moose we ran across on our walk and tram tour.

On our way home, we stopped in Ellensburg to see my sister Katie. It was a great visit. The first time she was able to see Elsie, so that was really nice. The first thing she said was that both the girls looked just like me. We went to eat at Perkins and the food was actually really good. Afterwards, we went to Kiwanis Park, it was cold but the kids enjoyed climbing all over and swinging. We said our goodbyes really quickly and then headed home.

Day 3 of Seattle Trip

We spent this day down at Seattle Center with my cousin Rachel and her husband Jimmy. We at at Steamers in the food court and then headed down to the Seattle Children's Museum. Ruby and Elsie had a wonderful time here. It was so much bigger than our Children's Museum and had so much to do. It was hard to tear the kids away when we were ready to go. Another beautiful day as you can see in the above picture of the space needle.

The girls LOVED this part of the museum. They spent tons of time there. It was a little store where they could shop for imaginary items, and then bring them up and pay for them. They had miniature carts and so much of everything for the girls to feel like they were really shopping. So cool! Ruby and Elsie enjoyed it when they made it to the front and both were able to play together, Ruby as checker and Elsie as shopper. Daddy even spent some time in the deli area where the girls picked up items from him. Awesome, we will definitely do that again!

Once we were done here, we all got an orange julius and headed back to Rachel's house. I planned on spending more time with them, but we were all so exhausted. So we said our goodbyes and headed back to the hotel for some bath time and pizza.

At night time, things changed a bit. Ruby was starting to get homesick and kept waking up over and over and crying really loudly. Basically the entire night, until Mike thought of how we could put her in bed with us. We had all 4 of us in the same bed, quite the experience. I was getting sick, so my patience wasn't the best. Elsie slept through it all out of pure exhaustion. Ruby finally got a few hours of rest and Mike and I didn't sleep much because of the tight squeeze. We made it through, but by the next morning Mike wanted to head out as fast as we could. We were ready to make the trek home.

Day 2 of Seattle Trip

We started the day by taking a long walk to get groceries for our hotel room, by the time we got back Elsie was sound asleep in her stroller. Poor girl was so tired! I let her sleep for awhile more and then we ate a bit before heading out for our next adventure.

This trip was set aside for visiting all the neat parks in Seattle (well some of them). I have a list that I want to visit and I thought this trip was the perfect one to get out there and do it. We had to see Gasworks Park, so unique. It was very windy, but we still braved it. Lots of kites flying, on kite hill. It had a path that twisted up the hill and very neat old structures to look at. People were climbing all over the covered structures, so Ruby and Elsie joined in. We had fun running around and exploring all of the neat things. I was surprised by how much of Seattle you could see. Over the water, you could see all the key features like the space needle. So fun!

After having a lunch at the park and exploring, we headed back to our hotel room. Mike was there and Elsie decided to kick back and relax on his lap for a bit. Super cute.

Later, we ate dinner with Mike and then brought the kiddos to this awesome play structure that was across the skywalks in Bellevue Square. I loved that everything was so close to us that we could walk or drive easily to it. The girls had a blast at this play area. When we were done, there was a neat cupcake boutique across from it where we they each picked out a cupcake to eat back at our hotel room. Elsie would not let Ruby hold the cupcakes or let them out of her sight at all, it was hard carrying her and the cupcakes the whole way back. They loved the cupcakes so much and ate them all up right before they conked out for bedtime. A nice day!

First Day of Seattle Trip

We had a neat room at the Regency Hyatt in Bellevue, it had big windows and a living room separate from the bedroom! Elsie and Ruby loved running around under the curtains while we were in the room. Very comfortable!

The girls didn't get much sleep the first night, only about 8 hours as compared to 12 hours. Despite this, we headed over to visit my Grandma Hunt. We had a good visit, the girls were quite energetic, but we all enjoyed visiting. They loved her doggy Daphne and she made us a nice lunch to share, yum! About halfway through the visit, the girls found a cool game with lots of granite balls that you moved around the board. They spent a long time putting the pieces in and out of bags and a tray. Kept them entertained for quite some time. So glad we were able to see her!

After we left Grandma's, I decided we would go to Green Lake and walk around it. I have wanted to do this for some time. The girls did well, Elsie sat in her stroller and Ruby ran and walked most of it. It was absolutely beautiful, no rain and the sun was out. We saw tons of dogs walking with their owners, every type you can imagine. It was quite the popular spot. After we made it around the lake, the girls and I went over to the playground and they had a good time exploring all the neat equipment. So unique toys, like a sand digging contraption the girls both liked.

I loaded the girls up and we headed back to the hotel room. Mike then came over, and soon after his student teacher and his wife. We all walked over to the Cheese Cake Factory to eat. Yummy! The girls had been going non stop all day though and were so challenging, so I almost took my meal back to the room. Elsie finally settled down a bit and so did Ruby, so I quickly ate and headed back to the room.

It was a nice day, glad I only planned a few things each day, seemed to make it more managable when I was all by myself with the girls.

Surprises!

Ruby actually asked me to brush her hair for her today, and sat nicely as I brushed it all the way through. This never happens, she always wants to do it herself. She sat on my lap and didn't say a word. Amazing. She has been such a sweetie lately, loving this stage she is going through. So much gentler and caring toward her sister and others around her. She is so good at bedtime too, she basically goes right to sleep and sleeps through the whole night peacefully. The only thing that is hard right now, is that she doesn't listen sometimes or respond when you ask her something. We had her friend over today and they did great together, they want to be around eachother 24 hours a day right now. So neat! Also, we weighed her before she went to bed and she is 46 pounds! Such a big girl, wearing size 6 clothes!

Elsie has been trying things that I am eatting these days, especially veggies. She wouldn't eat any veggies at all, but the other day she tried a mushroom from my salad and ate the entire thing without spitting it back out. Today, I made another salad and she ate a piece of spinach and about 5 or 6 peas. I am thrilled to see her trying new things!