The Suhling Family

Halloween!!

2011-11-05T23:03:00.000-07:00

The girls were superheroes this year! I found a bat girl costume on craigslist for $5 and Ruby liked it so much, I decided to make Elsie supergirl to match. They loved wearing these outfits, and would zoom around the house it them like they could fly. Halloween was busy, we had to pick up Mike's deer meat and store it a friends because of our electrical issues. While there, they asked if they could take Ruby to a preschool Halloween party with their daughter. Elsie and I went home and then an hour later went to pick Ruby up. After she was back with us, we headed over to EWU to walk through their campus and go to the carnival. That is always fun! Mike then joined us at home, we walked next door and visited with our neighbors and headed to a church for their festivities. We ended the night in the Golden Hills neighborhood, which is always packed with kiddos and fun surprises as you walk door to door. The girls loved it, but we all were pooped at the end of the day! A great way to end a busy month, so thankful that November is here and much calmer!

Trip to Green Bluff with Grandma and Cousins

2011-10-20T16:50:00.000-07:00

Pony rides are always popular. Elsie loved riding with Kylar by her side.

Elsie with cousin Kylar waiting for our yummy meal.

Kylar enjoyed pushing the girls on the swings!

Time for lunch!

Going through the straw maze at Knapps Farm on Green Bluff.

Cute one of Gramma with Elsie, waiting for the pumpkin cannon to go off!

Love this one, wish Ciara would have joined in.

Neat wagon to sit in, the girls loved it!

Kylar helping Elsie pick the perfect pumpkin.

Ruby said she had found the perfect pumpkin for Elsie.

Gramma and all her grandkidlets. Love how this turned out!

Pushing our massive amount of pumpkins back to the car, the girls loved riding with the pumpkins.

Kylar taking Elsie down the big slide at another farm.

Elsie running through the fun straw maze, with Gramma close behind.

What a fun day!

Where does a baby come from?

2011-09-22T10:48:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, as we were travelling to go for a hike up at Mt. Spokane, Ruby was pondering in the back seat. She piped up and asked me, "Mom, does a baby just appear in your tummy?" I said, "No, a husband and wife have to make a baby!" She then said, "How?" I was a little stunned, but decided to tell her, "A mommy and daddy make a baby with love!" I was thinking she would keep asking more specific questions, but this answer seemed to satisify her curiosity. You could see the wheels spinning in her head, but she accepted it and moved on to other things. Whew.....she is so inquisitive, I am sure we will be discussing the birds and bees in no time!

Art and New Discoveries

2011-09-13T23:01:00.000-07:00

Elsie was looking out the window today and saw the Spokane Courthouse in the distance, she calls out "A castle!" I was so surprised, didn't even know that she had any idea what a castle was. Looking over at it, I could see why she thought it was a castle. Neat building, definitely has features like a castle!

I highly recommend Tinman Too in the Garland District for art classes...Ruby had a great time and she learned so much while there. I loved that it just wasn't creating art, but learning about a famous artist and their artistic style. Today it was surrealism, a very abstract form of art! Fun!

So proud of Ruby, found out today that she was the only winner in her age group of ages 4-7 years old in the coloring contest!

Veggies

2011-08-01T22:50:00.000-07:00

Elsie ate cucumber yesterday and today, and then ate lettuce tonight for dinner! I am so happy to see that she is finally openning up to veggies! She also ate quite a bit of corn on the cob about a week ago.

The wierdest thing too, we just bought a food processor so I could sneak veggies into meals and then this happens...go figure!

Pooped

2011-07-26T21:04:00.000-07:00

I took the girls out to Fish Lake today, and we met up with our good friends Tanya and Jacquelyn. Ruby and Jacquelyn rode their bikes in front of us as we walked. Mike threw a tiny bike for Elsie in the back of the Durango, so for the first half mile I pushed her along on it. She was able to pedal a bit on her own, so exciting! That proved to be pretty difficult though, so Tanya and I took turns carrying Elsie on our shoulders as we walked. It was beautiful out and I always love it there. We walked about 1.5 miles down the trail (stopping at one mile so the girls could throw rocks together). Ruby and Jacquelyn rode along and then out ride back to us, so I am guessing they actually rode their bikes closer to 4 miles total. Both girls have been going to bed late every night this summer, and I think it finally caught up to them. They were both very irritable here and there throughout the walk. After the walk, we went to the little play area nearby at Fish Lake. The kiddos played for a long time as Tanya and I chatted. The weather was perfect today.

We returned home around 4 pm, and played a few games with the girls before dinner. I quickly realized that we were going to have to get them down very early tonight because they were sooooo tired. About 30 minutes before we headed to brush teeth, Elsie calls out that she has to go to the bathroom and then heads there all by herself. When I get in there, she has climbed up on the big seat and is sitting there going all on her own. She then does the whole process by herself, gets off the toilet, stretches her foot up to the handle to push it down (she wants to do it like I do), and closes the toilet seat all by herself! So proud of her!

I have also notice in the past few days that Elsie's lower eye teeth has started pushing through the gums and that she may have a molar or two coming in.

They are out like a light right now, hope they sleep soundly so they can feel rested in the morning. I am thinking of bringing Ruby to Riverfront Park to use our day passes tomorrow, can't wait!

Fun happenings

2011-07-15T13:32:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Ruby was looking at a picture taken of her at Vacation Bible School this week. She tells Elsie, "That was me at 4!" Mike looks at her and says, "Yep you are definitely 4 since it was taken yesterday!" Silly girl.

Today, I am in the shower and Elsie comes running in holding her bum. She is standing by the toilet saying that she has to go potty. I try to tell her to put the kiddy lid down, but she hasn't done that yet (it usually is already down for her) and has to go really bad. She climbs up there all on her own and proceeds to go potty all by herself! She even held herself up, I was afraid she would fall in on the regular seat. So proud of her. She is getting closer and closer to being fully potty trained. This is the first time she has gone #2 in the big potty too, she did go in her little potty about a month ago but that is all. She goes pee pee at least once a day and sometimes will tell me she has to go. YAY!

Night routine

2011-07-11T23:34:00.001-07:00

Elsie loves to read, "The Wheels on the Bus" and "Row, Row, Row your goat" with me before she goes to bed. I have noticed that she loves to sing and anything that involves singing makes her happy. Even reading a book that is based on a song. Mike told me today that he thinks she is going to be the most musical of our two girls. When she sings, she understands pitches. She actually sings the song exactly like it sounds. So neat! Super sweet to listen to!

At night, she asks me to rock her now (since she isn't nursing anymore). She then will ask me to sing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". Once I start singing it, she happily joins in and we sing it together. She will sing all the songs with me. As you can guess, she has a hard time going to sleep with all the singing.

We start out rocking but I will move her over to her bed after a few minutes and lay next to her. She loves having her head rubbed. Now she will rub my head as she goes to sleep and sing songs to me. So funny!

Ruby started vacation bible school today and will continue through this week. She was hesitant to go this morning, but once she saw all of her friends she happily ran off with them and joined right in. She is excited to go tomorrow!

Silly Stuff

2011-07-03T15:56:00.000-07:00

Elsie noticed a baby at church today and told Mike, "That's a babe babe!" Mike said, "Yep! That's a babe babe" and then said "You're a babe babe too!" Elsie quickly replied, "No, I a big girl!"

I am so surprised by her comments lately and her understanding of the world around her! So much fun!

Potty Training

2011-07-02T02:27:00.001-07:00

Elsie came over to me and told me she had to go to the bathroom today and took me to the bathroom so she could use the big toilet. She was so proud of herself! I was proud that she recognized that she had to go, found me, and held it until we made it to the big potty. So excited for her!

New things...

2011-06-25T22:44:00.001-07:00

We had a branch fall off of our tree, and the girls took a small part of it and replanted it in our yard.

Today Ruby asked me, "Why do they have to wear white dresses?" I asked her what she meant, she kept repeating the same question. I decided to be more specific and ask, "Where?" She said to a concert. I told her that you can wear anything you want to a concert, and then she said, "Why do they have to wear white dresses to get married?" I was so surprised that she picked up on this detail, I have not discussed it with her before. I told her that this is just the way that most people do it, but you can actually wear any color you want. She told me that she was going to wear pink to get married in because she likes the color. Then she added some more detail and said she also wanted it to have stripes. That's my girl!

We drove in with Mike to Hoopfest earlier, Ruby started singing some Twisted Sister. One of her favorites. Elsie started piping up and singing right alongside Ruby. It was so cute to hear them singing at the top of their lungs together, "We're not gonna take it! No!!! We ain't gonna take it!"

Mike was singing "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and putting Ruby and Elsie's name in the song. We were both surprised to hear Elsie try it out with Mike's name. She did pretty good too and was proud of herself.

Elsie went potty on the big toilet twice today, she is so funny! The last time she read her book on the toilet, super cute! Proud of her, I think we are getting close to being potty trained, cross my fingers!

The last two nights, Elsie has been okay without me laying in bed beside her to go to sleep. She just asks me to sit in the rocking chair at the end of her bed and rub her hair until she falls asleep. She did ask to nurse tonight, but I told her she was such a big girl she didn't need to and she said she was a big girl and that was it. So proud!

2011-06-21T22:52:00.001-07:00

Elsie has been doing so good, the last two days she hasn't even asked to nurse. It is so wierd that she is actually weaned now.

We had their cousins over today, and they always have a blast with them. Kylar was surprised to hear Elsie say "I love you!" She loves to say it, and I noticed that she told Kylar, Daddy, and Ruby this today. I think this is the first time she has said it to anyone other than me.

I forgot to mention that Elsie has gone potty in our toilet three times now. Usually she will tell me she needs a diaper, and then I will ask her if she wants to try in the potty. Sometimes she just can't sit still long enough to go, but three times now she has actually gone. So proud of her! I will cheer her on and she will keep going and going and going. She loves the attention. She has had a few accidents without her diaper, and I always ask her "where should you have gone?" At first, she didn't know. But once I kept repeating it, she actually told me "in the toilet". She is on her way to being diaper free in no time.

Our Day

2011-06-18T23:16:00.000-07:00

I was asked to fill in for a friend at Bunko last night, so I decided to say yes. Mike got a movie to watch with the kiddos and was going to keep them up until 10 pm when I returned. When I got home, he had brushed both their teeth and they were already fast asleep in their beds. Amazing! This is the first night that Elsie has gone to bed without me. I was nervous, but it all turned out just fine. She did wake in the middle of the night and pushed a chair up to the front door and way yelling for me. She thought I was still gone. Poor girl. I am so proud of both the girls right now, they are growing up so fast and becoming so independent.

Tonight when I put Elsie down to bed, she only asked a few times to nurse and then did well settling in for the night. She wanted me to lay next to her and asked for a cup of water. Other than that, she did really well without nursing.

She has been so interested in reading books, she finds things she recognizes and points them out to us. Today she pointed to a book with bears in it, ficticious, and said "look mom, bear walking!" She loves to flip through any book, especially the ones that have more pages. Lately, my magazines have been her favorites. She sits for nearly an hour and just flips back and forth and looks at the pages. She is mainly quiet, but she did point of a cat one time in the magazine. At night we read together now, and she LOVES it.

Oh, we went to Cabella's today for Mike and it was so fun with the girls! They were really into all of the stuffed animals and displays, they loved crawling through the tents, and checking out all the toys. They are both at such a fun stage. We enjoyed their hot candied nuts together and then headed over to CDA to try out a new diner. So yummy...Jimmy's Down the Street. It was featured on Diners, Drive-throughs, and Dives a few months back. They make almost all of their food from scratch. I had heard about their chicken and dumplings...so I got it! Wonderful! Mike got their chicken fried steak and it was from scratch too, with biscuits and gravy (from scratch). Definitely will be going back there again!

Three days without nursing...

2011-06-17T14:16:00.000-07:00

On June 15th, Elsie went to bed and didn't ask to nurse so I went with it. Of course, eventually she did ask but I kept telling her that she was a big girl now and didn't need to nurse. She finally fell asleep without any trouble. Also, she had missed her nursing at naptime too, so this was the first official day of no nursing. Yesterday, she missed her naptime nursing and I told her she was a big girl again at night. She kept say she wanted to nurse and was alittle sad, but finally fell asleep with my next to her. Today at naptime, she was so tired and crying. She kept asking to nurse, but I stuck by my decision to stop nursing. I held her in my arms and moved her back and forth while I sang, which calmed her down. Then I decided to lay her back in bed, and lay beside her. She was sad, but fell asleep pretty quickly.

It is time, but it makes me sad too. Elsie will probably be my last and nursing came so easily with her. She is such a soft and cuddly baby/toddler and settles so easily while nursing. I will just miss it all, but at the same time I am ready to move on into the next stage.

The girls are enjoying eachother so much right now, I am loving it! Ruby tries to take care of Elsie all day long now and looks forward to playing with her. Elsie used to get mad when Ruby would try to hold her hand or pick her up. Now she happily hangs on and enjoys the experience. Ruby even has tried to change Elsie's diaper, and she came pretty close to doing it correctly. So funny. They are just so sweet to watch and I am thankful everyday for the experiences I share with them.

Elsie is talking up a storm right now. Most people are shocked when they hear her. Her expressions and personality are so so cute. She always say, "Mom, I funny!" and she really is! They both are so much fun.

Elsie has both her upper eye teeth coming in now and they are taking awhile. The one on her left side basically has barely poked through the gums, and the one on her right side you can actually feel poking out a bit and even see it. She occasionally says, "Mom, my teeth!" when she feels them pushing. Can't wait to see how they look once they come in!

Rosalia Battle Days Parade

2011-06-05T15:43:00.000-07:00

This was our second year of attending the Rosalia Battle Day Parade, the girls have so much fun! Always something neat to see and lots of candy to pick up.

Elsie joined in on the fun of picking up candy. She got the hang of it really quick. She always wants to eat the candy the minute she gets ahold of it. I was surprised that she listened when I told her she needed to wait. Eventually I gave in and openned up a sucker for her.

Elsie and her sucker :) Love going back to Rosalia, my old stomping grounds from 4-6th grade, we even came back nearly every year throughout my high school/middle school years to visit our friends and neighbors in Malden.

After the parade had finished, we walked around to see all the activities going on. I even ran into an old friend. Fun. We then went to the little store there and bought a yummy salad and sandwich and headed to the little park. The girls were happy to go! We sat in the shade and ate, then went to the playground. We only stayed at the playground about 15 minutes because it was super hot and no shade. Still fun for the girls though.

Everytime I go back to Rosalia, I reminise about all the memories I have from that time frame in my life. Being at the store brought back all the memories of going there with my Dad to get their soda shop pops. Going to the park reminded me of all the memories I have of swimming the pool located there. We parked right next to the school, so that brought back tons of memories of all the times with friends. We drove around and up to another park that is at the top of the hill, it brought back memories of a rocket I made in class and set off there with classmates. We drove down a street up there and right past a good friends house that I stayed the night at all the time. As we reached the end of that street, Ruby was in heaven. Huge lilac bushes pushed their way into our windows of the Durango. I stopped and we both picked some, so fragrant! Love lilacs.

We drove down 195 to get to the parade, but drove back through Malden. This is where I lived, it is 6 miles out of Rosalia. I flashed back to the time when Katie and I were so bored in Malden and all we could do was think about how fun it would be in Rosalia with all of our friends. So....we decided to ride out bikes all the way into Rosalia. A long long trip in the beating sun, took us a long time but we made it. As I drove that far, it still seems pretty amazing that we were able to do it.

Once in Malden I drove around and told Ruby about all the places in the town. It is tiny, but I still had lots to show her and talk about. She loved hearing about it and looking around. We drove past our old house at the top of the huge hill, I told her about how I would ride my bike all the way down it. She was amazed. Then we drove on some back streets and down past the old caboose tavern and post office. By the way, our old house and the neighbor next to us are in such bad shape. It breaks my heart to see. My family did a lot of work on that house and it looked so neat, and our neighbors had the most beautiful house (they have passed away now) but now it is all overgrown and falling apart. I told Ruby about how my Grandpa Joe came to stay with us and walked Katie and I down to the Caboose Tavern. They used to open the window and sell things out of it. It was also still a tavern, but we stayed outside and my Grandpa bought us all UNO bars. Yummy! Our first time of having one, and a fun memory of my Grandpa. The Caboose is closed down now. The old post office reminded me of all the times I waited for letters to come my way from friends afar, it was always a surprise when one arrived. Loved that! We also drove past the old park that we used to play in, Ruby asked me if all the equipment was there when I used to live there. And.....basically it is all the same. We looked at the old church that Katie and I attended, there weren't any other kiddos so they decided to reopen the Sunday School because of us. Ah....memory lane! What a great experience and to be able to share it with my girls!

The following are pictures from our trip home through Malden:

The old Caboose Tavern

The post office

The church

The park

Trip to CDA

2011-05-30T21:56:00.000-07:00

We drove to CDA today so we could walk around the awesome park there! Love this neat play structure, the girls had a blast running around from one thing to another.

Love this pic of Mike and the girls!

Ruby and Elsie enjoyed playing the driver of this boat in the middle of the play structure. A boy asked if he could be a passenger and then the driver. The girls finally allowed him to take over, but once he asked Ruby to be a dolphin she was out of there.

Beautiful day!

Playing in the sand. Ruby decided to build a sand castle, with a little stick coming up from the top.

I was surprised by Elsie, she ran her toes through the sand and touched the water with both her toes and hands.

We also walked on the boardwalks out by the cruise boats. The girls enjoyed that too! They loved playing peek-a-boo in the park behind the trees. Elsie has picked up on the phrase "Boo Yah!" and jumps out at us while saying it. Ruby taught it to her. She laughs so hard when we act like we are scared. I never knew that Elsie loved Peek-a-boo so much.

We ate at Paul Bunyan's, just to see what it was like. It was cheap and okay. We brought it over to the park again and found a nice bench in the shade to eat. Once we were done, we headed over to Roger's Ice Cream and Burgers, yummy! The girls were freezing though, so we sat outside for a bit and then ate the rest in the car. Love that place, Mike and I have been there many times over the years.

Fun day!

Ruby and Rosie

2011-05-28T14:47:00.000-07:00

First time of getting a nice photo of our new kitty Rosie. She is very shy most of the time except when it comes to our dogs. She loves them and will jump right into their playtime.

Ruby put a bead necklace around her neck and she is fine with it. It was from one of their dolls. She is a tiny kitty.

Ruby's Last Day of Preschool

2011-05-28T13:38:00.001-07:00

Ruby's Preschool class walked to Centennial Park for their last day. Ruby was so excited for this day! I forgot to get her hat, so I decided to go home and pick it up and bring it to her. When we got there, we were able to stay and be a part of it all with Ruby. Elsie was thrilled!

Ruby sitting with Elsie and her classmates Macie and Sarah.

They had a bag race, Ruby was a trooper. She did this twice and had trouble getting to the line but had fun with it anyway.

Ruby loved the egg and spoon race, she wanted to do it again when it was all over.

Walking back to the classroom with her classmates.

One of Ruby's best buds, Ethan. Ruby loves playing with him. He is going to Kindergarten next year and she will miss him.

Giving Miss Rachel a hug goodbye. What a fun year, looking forward to next year!

Spokane's Childrens Theater: Snow White

2011-05-23T08:12:00.003-07:00

After church, it was off to see the Spokane Children's Theater production of Snow White! Ruby has cheetos on her face in this pic, this was at intermission when we were eatting a snack.

Mirror, mirror on the wall!

The seven dwarfs were really fun to watch and Snow White was cast perfectly.

Ruby picked a puzzle to take home, what a fun way to spend the afternoon.

Playing around our front yard tree, such a little ham!

Elsie told Ruby she found a ladybug, so Ruby came over to check it out!

Ruby asked me to show her how to draw a butterfly, so I drew it really simple and quick. She got right to work and this is what she came up with, I was really surprised by how neat it turned out!

Lilac Parade 2011

2011-05-21T23:47:00.000-07:00

> It is a tradition for Marsha to come along with us, the girls love her to pieces and they have so much fun with her!

Cold girls, Grandma warmed them up!

Ruby ran out to Mike and carried her the rest of the way, she was so excited!

Castle float, pretty!

I braved it and decided to do our yearly Lilac Parade outing. Ruby and I were both doing better, aside from my unending cough. We met up with my friend Marsha and headed to an area of the parade that Mike said was less crowded. Ruby really wanted him to notice her, so we tried it out. We sat at the very end as they turn the corner off of Riverside, turned out to be the perfect spot for us. We were able to see the floats and other vehicles closeby, and watch the bands come right beside us. Normally we would get lost in the crowd, this way we were right in the front. Sure enough, Ruby ran right up to Mike and he picked her up and carried her to the end of the parade. She was thrilled. The walk back was super easy and on streets that were pretty peaceful. Couldn't have asked for a better night. Fun!

Fun Comments

2011-05-20T22:41:00.000-07:00

I have been really sick for a whole week now, constant coughing everyday and night. It has slowed down, thank goodness. My body is sore all over and I am very tired, hoping it is gone by next week.

I was so tired of sitting in this house today, I decided to take the girls into Spokane and buy a new screen for our bedroom so we can have the fresh air coming in again. Mike broke it a few weeks back when we didn't have the key. First of all, we went to the USPS store though to get a few stamps. Ruby was so excited that I let her go in all by herself and pay for the stamps and then mail out the letters too. Such a big girl! She came out and said, "The lady called me a young lady!" Then we went to Lowe's and the girls were little angels. Everyone was making comments about them, they are surprising me these days. It used to be a nightmare to bring them out a few weeks back. After we picked up the parts for our new screen, I decided to try a restaurant coupon for lunch that I have picked up a few weeks back. As we were sitting at the window of the drive thru and I was turned to get the cash to pay, Elsie was laughing. Next thing I hear is Ruby say, "He is a handsome prince!" She thought the cashier was cute I guess, I think he was making them laugh too. Then she says, "I think he wants to marry me!" I thought it was so cute. Elsie just kept laughing and saying, "Mom, he made me laugh!" Of course the girls turned on the charm and another person who worked there asked if he could give them each a sucker and the girls were so happy of course. Cracks me up.

After we left there, we went to Audobon Park and sat down to eat the food we ordered. Ruby loved the chicken and rice, but Elsie was not a big fan at all. She did try a few things. Overall the food was not something I would go back for. They ate quickly and then ran through the park over to the all the toys. Love this park, it is so beautiful! They enjoyed just running around more than anything and finding pine needles and pine cones or "cone cones" according to Elsie. Ruby found a red piece of a flower and she was thrilled. She is quite the collector. By this time, I was so ready to get home, so we jumped in the car and headed back to Cheney.

Wetlands Walk at Fish Lake Trailhead

2011-05-15T08:34:00.000-07:00

Just beautiful the entire walk!

Halfway there!

Showing off our new shirts!

Yesterday we walked the first annual Wetlands Run/Walk at the Fish Lake Trailhead in Cheney! It was 4.25 miles long, fun! Thank you for walking it with me Mom! Beautiful area to walk through and pretty challenging because of the steep slopes and rugged terrain.

Spring is Here!!!

2011-05-13T19:17:00.000-07:00

We drove through Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge yesterday and I was so happy that we located these babies tagging along with their mommy and daddy! So sweet! We bought the pass, so we will be going out there all the time. Love the beauty out there! Today was beautiful too! Spring is wonderful, my favorite season!

Trip to Missoula, Montana!

2011-04-11T15:43:00.000-07:00

Our first stop was at Caras Park at the Carousel. Elsie would not ride the horses, but loved sitting in the chariot with me :)

Ruby and Daddy riding the horses on the carousel together!

Our bed and breakfast was right next to the hike to the M, so we walked over the Madison Street walking bridge and headed through the University of Montana campus. The hike was SO difficult for us with the kiddos, with 14 trails all uphill that switched back and forth. We almost quit several times, but decided to persist through it and made it! We were so proud of ourselves!

Elsie turns 2!!!

2011-04-04T00:23:00.000-07:00

Elsie had a great time going down the slides with Daddy!

We had Elsie's second birthday party today at Jump n Party in Spokane. So much fun! All the little ones lined up after their bounce time! Elsie actually blew out the candles and was totally excited to open her presents. So cute! What a special day!

I even tried out a new skill and made cupcakes and frosting from scratch, yummy!

Riding bikes...

2011-03-22T22:30:00.000-07:00

We went to the park today to visit with some friends. She told us that they were bringing the bike for her daughter who is 2 months younger than Ruby. I decided to do the same so they could ride together. What a great idea. Ruby got right on and didn't stop. They rode together for awhile, it was so nice to see. She is amazing. So much more confident all on her own. I had a scare at the park today. Elsie was climbing down some stairs that were pretty steep and lost her footing. She toppled down the stairs and hit her head. I was so scared and freaked out, but she cried and then told me she was okay. It only, miraculously, left a small bump on her scalp under her bangs. Thank goodness! Afterward, we packed up and headed down to Chaps to visit with the same group of friends. A nice visit with some awesome soup. Later in the day, the girls and I decided to go for a walk around the neighborhood. Ruby was dying to get on her bike and ride along side me. I decided to give it a try! She did wonderfully the whole time and had a great time. Elsie was content sitting in the wagon with me pulling her along. We got back just before it turned dark. So thankful the weather is getting better, sure made our day nice. Just remembered, Elsie has been singing and singing and singing some more. Some times I catch her singing all on her own, super cute. Now when I am singing, she will pipe up and sing with me. So fun!

More Older Photos...

2011-03-10T07:50:00.000-08:00

Searching through an old box, I came across these photos from my younger years. Always loved this one of Katie and I when we were in 10th and 11th grade!

Graduation photo, June 1995! Can't believe how long my hair was!

Later that night at the graduation party with Mike, only 7 months into our relationship at that point!

Wish my eyes were not closed a bit, but this one is one my mom had us take around the fall of 1995 when I came back for a visit from Moses Lake.

With my sister and her then time boyfriend Sam.

The three of us, looks like we were at the mall or something. Like this one, I think it was when I was a junior or senior.

Middle school at Tumwater, late 80s.

4th grade in Rosalia, Washington. I went to this school for 2.5 years.

This is in 6th grade with the same class in Rosalia, Washington.

Update

2011-03-10T07:35:00.000-08:00

Elsie loves the doggies, they are so much bigger than her but she is the boss for sure!

Last Friday, Jacquelyn and Ruby at the park holding hands at the top of the slide. They wanted to hold all the way down, but instead just touched and then went down because of the angle of the slides.

Ruby made this picture of Rosie our new kitty, I was so surprised by all the details. She doesn't usually spend much time on actual characteristics these days.

After the movie and lunch in the Garland District on Saturday, Mike was having a good time tilting Elsie around, she loved it!

Caught Ruby reading to Elsie, and they were totally into it. I could hear her reading and Elsie was so quiet. Love it!

New Kitty!!!

2011-02-27T08:41:00.000-08:00

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

2011-02-25T22:19:00.000-08:00

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

2011-02-21T08:00:00.000-08:00

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

2011-02-20T07:46:00.000-08:00

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

2011-02-19T22:28:00.000-08:00

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

2011-02-18T22:11:00.000-08:00

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!

2011-02-04T21:23:00.000-08:00

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!

Pictures with my sister from years ago...

2011-01-28T21:42:00.000-08:00

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!

2011-01-22T21:19:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-21T23:07:00.001-08:00

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

2011-01-20T23:14:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-19T22:34:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-18T23:54:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-16T23:03:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-15T21:48:00.001-08:00

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

2011-01-12T22:06:00.000-08:00

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!

2011-01-11T22:23:00.001-08:00

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

2011-01-09T22:32:00.000-08:00

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!

New words

2010-12-31T08:21:00.000-08:00

Elsie is loving the sounds and names of animals right now, especially a cat! She walks around the house saying, "Wee-ow! Wee-ow!" She also loves to say monkey and carry her little monkey around or find a picture of one in her board books. SO funny!

She is full of expressions and phrases right now, so hard to keep up with all of them! Most are fairly clear to understand. Her favorite statement is "I want Mom!" or "I want Dad!", mainly when one or the other of us is in the another room or not nearby. She loves to have all of us together, and gets sad when we are apart. It is so funny how she will be sitting with me and look over at Mike, and say "I want Daddy!" and head over to his lap. She will sit there for a few moments and snuggle with him and then look at him and say "I want Mommy!" and head over to my lap. She will go back and forth between us over and over.

She spends endless hours playing with Ruby now, it is so fun to see them becoming little friends with eachother. Yesterday, we went to the mall play area for a bit. Ruby was protective of Elsie the whole time and would take her down the slide and check in on her while they were playing. So neat to see!

Lately we have been spending lots of time with the dogs since they have to be indoors so much. Henry is super gentle with them and so relaxed now, since we adopted our Hank. He wears him out and I also think that Henry is in the stage of his life where he has calmed down. Both girls love to put the doggies to sleep, Hank is too much of a puppy to cooperate but Henry just settles right in and enjoys all the attention. They love to pet them gently and walk them on the leashes we have. Thankful to have our pets to keep us company and entertain the girls!

New tooth coming in...

2010-12-27T11:04:00.000-08:00

I noticed that Elsie has a new tooth coming in yesterday. It is the one to the right of her two middle teeth on the bottom! She still has one molar that it taking a long time to come in in the upper left part of her mouth!

New Bears Christmas!

2010-12-25T11:06:00.000-08:00

Great Grandma sent the girls new bears...they are super cute and soft! They love them! Thank you so much Grandma Hunt!

RIP Morris

2010-12-22T21:47:00.000-08:00

Our kitty of 8 years went to heaven today :( He has been sick for a long time and we decided to take him to the vet about a week ago to get checked out. The bloodtests came back normal, but the xrays showed that he had a disease in his lower intestines. He was really sick and had actually lost half a pound in one week. He was getting really skinny, he used to be super big. He was vomitting everyday and sometimes more than once a day in the end.

In 2002, he appeared at our doorstep in Vancouver, Washington. He would rub up against us and was so sweet, we couldn't understand how he could be a stray. Mike put a box with a blanket out for him to crawl into at night and he immediately took to it. He started sleeping there every night. Mike started putting food our for him to eat each day and we took him the vet and even named him. At the time, we thought he was a girl because he was so big and looked pregnant, we even gave him a girl name Sedora. We were shocked when the vet told us it was a boy, just a very big male cat. We then started taking him into our home. Sarah, our other kitty was super jealous. She had been our only cat for nearly 7 years already. We had to have them both declawed so they wouldn't hurt eachother. They eventually became the best of friends. Sarah and Morris were total opposites...she was grouchy and he was playful and sweet. He would get onto her back and hold her there for awhile, this was really the only thing that irritated her. She passed away last summer and we never found her. We had put them outside for a brief time frame, Morris started meowing at the door over and over because he was so upset that she was gone. She was doing the same thing as Morris before she passed. He loved being pet by my girls and by us. He would always snuggle with Elsie and Ruby everyday in one way or another. The first thing Elsie did every morning was wake up and go look for her "Mor Mor" and pet him. Ruby would do the same, but oftentimes she would actually lay beside him and put a blanket around the two of them. She would pet him and he would just love it.

Elsie doesn't realize he is gone, she is too young. Ruby was very upset today when we talked with her about it. She cried several times and said she would miss petting him. They both had been with him since they were born.

Mike came home with an angel kitty pin and we placed it on an ornament of a black kitty. Each year when we get the ornaments out, we will remember our loving kitty. We will miss you so much Morris, you were a huge part of our family. Hope you are playing with Sarah in heaven right now.

Lentil Soup and Dr Seuss

2010-12-20T21:54:00.000-08:00

OMG...Elsie is so into eatting with me right now. She always wants to move over to my lap and eat from my bowl or plate. Yesterday she ate nearly all of my stew and today she ate a ton of my ham and lentil soup. So excited that she is eatting more right now and willing to try the food I am eatting. She is usually so picky!

Ruby is totally into making signs right now...she makes them almost everyday. She also loves to act like she is Santa and pulling reindeer around the house. Silly girl.

Tonight Mike and Ruby were being silly...they took a foofy scarf and put each end on their heads. It looked like a creature off of Dr Seuss. So they put it on the same way when she was getting into bed and read a Dr. Seuss book together! It was really cute and she loved it!

Weekend with the In Laws

2010-12-19T23:37:00.000-08:00

We decided to invite Mike's brother and his family to spend time with us over the weekend as our holiday get together. It turned out to be a lot of fun.

The kiddos openned gifts from eachother. Ruby had a blast picking out her own gifts for each of her cousins and giving them the gifts. She loved the gift they brought for her and so did Elsie.

We decided to go down to Riverpark Square to ride a horse drawn carriage, ride the carousel, and then paint ornaments at Polka Dot Pottery. We waited a long time to go on the carriage ride, but it was a lot of fun once we all were able to get on. A chilly day as we waited. All the kiddos were wearing the hats their aunt made for them, all six of them. It was super cute to see them all together and enjoying their time. Ruby held hands with Makayla as they walked, Makayla held Elsie a bit, and Ruby played with her cousins Michael, Paxton, and Tyren. I really hope that they will be good friends as they grow up especially since they are all only one year apart from eachother.

As we went home, we decided to end the night at Gatto's Pizza. It was a great choice. The kiddos were able to burn off their energy and the food was inexpensive and filled out bellies. Mike and Steven spent most of the time playing the arcade games and winning stuffed animals and tickets for the kiddos. They all left with an animal and prize.

The next day, we decided to eat at the Milk Bottle in the Garland District. Love it there! It was a good time except at the end when we needed cash or check and we didn't have it. The guys went to go get the money and we waited patiently for them to return. The kids were good though and it all worked out. We were going to go across the street of cupcakes for Tyren's birthday, but Celebrations was all closed up :( So....we just headed toward Mt Spokane for our innertubing experience. It turned out to be the highlight of our time together, so much fun! All the kids loved it and we were all able to participate even Elsie and Paxton. After we went for about 1.5 hours, we decided to head in to get some hot chocolate and warm up. It was a cozy atmosphere and very relaxing. We said our goodbyes and headed home.

On the ride home, once we were in Cheney, we saw lights from the fire engines that were carrying Santa around town. Mike drove up beside them and Santa actually came up to our car and brought the girls a candy cane each. They loved it and he wished them merry Christmas. What a neat surprise.

At home, I made stew to eat. I was surprised when Elsie decided to eat tons of the meat and then moved to my lap and tried all the vegetables :) She continued to eat the veggies and almost finished off my entire bowl. She had a huge round belly when she finished,so funny! A major milestone for her, she is usually so picky with her food and will not even try veggies or anything but the meat I give her. Yay! Ruby ate all of hers too!

Elsie talking

2010-12-16T23:08:00.000-08:00

We went to lunch with Grandma today and Elsie was thrilled to share her new words with us all. She proudly exclaimed "Grampa" when my mom got into the car with us. So funny! As we spent more time together, she continued to say it to her. Definitely sounds like Grampa, so funny! We ate at an Indian restaurant today, so yummy! The girls loved the sweet treats at the end and the bread they gave us. Thank you for going with us Mom! Love you!

After we dropped my mom back by the office she works at, I decided to stop at Goodwill with the girls. They LOVED it! They got so excited to see all the various toys and immediately started testing them all out. We also visited the book section, and I found so great books in almost new condition for next to nothing. I even found some books for Mike that he wanted for Christmas and a new book that I wanted to read. Yay! I let the girls choose two books each from their section and Ruby picked them all out for both of them. She is such a little bookworm. She picked good ones too. Elsie just enjoyed taking them all out and putting them back in. I found some good games and bought them each a toy too. Only spent $15 total for everything. As soon as we got home, Ruby decided she wanted to wrap Elsie's books and surprise her with them. She did a good job and immediately wanted Elsie to unwrap them both. Elsie did and Ruby helped her. Elsie was so excited to get the books and brought them up on my lap to take a look with me. So funny! They crack me up.

Elsie also started saying Ruby when they are playing or talking with eachother. The only thing is that is sounds more like "Booby" when she says it! She is getting soooo good at communicating now. Just a little ham and so full of personality these days. She loves to give kisses and hugs to me, especially when she trying to butter me up for something. She is so snuggly and soft...love that little girl!

Kylar's Birthday Bash

2010-12-15T23:35:00.000-08:00

Ciara played her saxophone for us while were there visiting, she is so proud and it is great to see her enjoying it!

Holding my mom's sweet puppy Snickers!

Snickers!

Ruby and my mom's other doggy JoJo!

Elsie petting Snickers! Such a tiny little puppy!

We took Kylar to get cupcakes at Celebrations, so good! He loved the ones he picked out!

We got 12 for$10, a great deal! So fun to pick out all different types to try!
Happy birthday Kylar!

A New Tooth

2010-12-14T20:27:00.000-08:00

I just noticed the fourth molar coming in, it is the one on the left top side of her mouth. It is barely poking through! She has two coming in right now, the one on the bottom left side of her mouth that is right beside her middle teeth has already poked through and out a ways. Now she just needs all the ones inbetween to come in!

Both girls are so hungry all the time now, especially Ruby! She could eat constantly if I let her. She asks me for snacks all day long and eats almost all of her food at each meal. She is growing like a weed too! Elsie is very picky, but wakes up ready to dive in to her cereal. I have slowed the nursing down to twice a day now and so she is wanting to eat more throughout the day.

We watch Despicable Me tonight, a fun movie! Ruby really liked it and Elsie sat through most of it without a sound. I was amazed that she could sit through it at her age. She wants to do everything her sister does, so in some ways it doesn't surprise me.

Family Sunday

2010-12-13T10:33:00.000-08:00

Waiting to visit Santa...Elsie is so happy and both girls are excited to be all dressed up! Ruby immediately gave Elsie hugs and kisses! So cute! They both twirled in their pretty dresses over and over!

Pretty girls! Ruby was so excited and gave me tons of big smiles! Ruby loved her visit with Santa and chatted his ear off! Elsie cried the whole time, bummer :(

After pictures with Santa, we headed over to the Davenport to make a gingerbread house! Daddy helped! So much fun!

Ruby was proud of her creation!

The end result, pretty cute!

New Tooth!

2010-12-09T21:48:00.000-08:00

I noticed that Elsie is getting a new tooth a few days ago...the left one right next to her middle bottom teeth. It just popped through today and I can actually see it!

Also, Elsie is actually letting me brush her teeth now, since yesterday! She always would get so upset, but now I tell her that we have to get it done before she can go "Nigh, Nigh" and she lets me brush. Yay!

I subbed a half day today, and when I went to my friend Tanya's house to pick up the girls they were doing great! I guess Elsie just fell right asleep and slept for 2 hours straight during her nap time. Ruby got along well with her daughter, what a great day! Also, the students I worked with were very nice and respectful the whole time! Some of the students were my old students at Reid, so neat!

Elsie is repeating so many new words right now, and has developed quite the little vocabulary. She is getting better at saying all the sounds of the word, but mainly gets the first part of it out. She is saying simple sentences like "I want open", "I want it", "I don't want to", to communicate what she is needing or wanting. I noticed her saying monkey today and she even tried to say her friends name Jacquelyn.

Ruby

2010-12-04T21:41:00.000-08:00

Ruby has entered the emergent reader phase. She notices letters on everything, especially when we are driving. She looks at all the signs and says, "Look, there is a U and an R!" She is thrilled to be noticing all these cool new features in our environment. As she reads books, she actually runs her finger along the letters and words as if she is reading them to me. She will notice letters and bring them to my attention. Mike has taught her to notice when she sees the word "the", she sometimes will recognize it in the text of the book she looking at.

Today we went to see Santa and some reindeer at Ritter's nursery up north. Before I even said for her to go visit him, I turned around and she was already on his lap. She was turned to look at him and chatting with him. It was super cute. I tried to get Elsie on his lap, but she cried right away! They both loved seeing real reindeer!

Today she wrote her name clear as day, and all the letters in the right order. It was really neat.

Mike and I went on our first date night through program at our church yesterday. The girls stay with other parents while we go out for a few hours. Mike said that it just wouldn't work, but I kept the faith that they would be fine. Ruby cried at first, but when we returned she had made a friend and was happily playing. Elsie was crying when we returned for about 10 minutes because she got scared when they started a movie and the lights went out. She did fine otherwise. So thankful!

Elsie has three of her back molars in now, they are so big. She is missing all the teeth inbetween. Wondering when the others will come? We'll see!

Ruby has been so excited about Christmas and has been reading all about Santa and his reindeer and then the first Christmas (the Christian version). Tomorrow we are going to see a live nativity scene which will be so cool since she has been reading about Jesus in Bethlehem. I can't wait!

Trip to Camden Ranch

2010-11-28T13:12:00.000-08:00

Going on our annual christmas tree hunt up at Camden Ranch in Elk, Washington! We take a hay ride up to the trees to pick out the perfect one!

Looking for our family tree!

It was gorgeous up there, all the trees were covered with lots of snow!

The girls next to our tree before Mike hacks it down.

Heading down the hill with our fresh cut tree, Ruby tried to help Daddy out!

We added our name to the Camden Family tree, I was amazed by how many other families had already been there before us this year!

Sick girl!

2010-11-18T20:27:00.000-08:00

Ruby went iceskating for the very first time today! She did awesome! I could not believe how brave she was during the whole experience. She started out by holding onto my friend Tanya and her daughter Jacquelyn, but as the time went on she was actually moving on her own. I tried to go out, but felt a bit uneasy about helping her along when I haven't skated since I was a little girl too. I held onto the wall for a bit and she held my hand, but I decided to let her spend most of the time with Tanya and Jacquelyn. I am hoping to take her again with Daddy during the break!

Once we were home, I noticed that she had low energy and really didn't want to eat all day. Mike checked her temperature and sure enough she was running a lowgrade fever. She fell right asleep on the couch and by 6 pm her temp was high enough she needed tylenol. She has been sleeping ever since, hope this goes away quickly! Poor girl, I hate it when my girls feel so bad.

Elsie noticed herself in the mirror today and pointed with a big smile and said, "Elsie!" Too cute!

Snuggly baby

2010-11-17T22:04:00.000-08:00

Elsie was so snuggly today with both Mike and I. After dinner, she kept switching back and forth between couches, she would sit a bit on me and then get down and go sit with Mike. Ruby started sitting on my lap too, she hasn't done that much lately. While she was on my lap, she noticed Elsie running around the furniture and actually running into the couch. She was laughing so hard and so Elsie kept doing it more and more to get more laughs from her. So funny!

When I was putting Elsie to bed, she started practicing her facial features again with me. It was so sweet. We both had our heads down on the bed, looking right at eachother. She actually started touching my eyes and saying eyes and then came the nose, mouth, ears, and hair. She will point at mine and then at hers and say it. We also added teeth today.

She has actually been letting me brush her teeth if I let her sit on the edge of the sink and dip her hands and toes under the running water. It was driving me crazy because she was not letting me brush at all, so stubborn.

She lets me sit beside her when putting her to sleep now instead of laying beside her. She will take her whole body and move it so that her head it laying in my lap and then she wants me to rub her hair softly until she falls asleep. So cute!

Forgot to mention....

2010-11-17T14:51:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, Ruby and I were quizing Elsie about her eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and hair. She can say and point out her eyes, nose, and hair so far. She still is a bit unsure about her ears and will open her mouth when you say mouth to her.

My Sweet Girls...

2010-11-16T22:28:00.000-08:00

Today I noticed Elsie rubbing Ruby's back several times while they were listening to a book being read during our learning playdate, it was so sweet and warmed my heart. I sure hope these girls grow up to be best friends!

Another new thing to report is that Elsie is getting more teeth in...she currently has 6 officially in and there are tons more popping through. I noticed a big molar in the back coming in on Sunday November 14th and when I looked in again I saw tons of white showing through on top and bottom. It even looks like she may have one coming in behind her front tooth, I am going to keep an eye on that one!

Elsie copies EVERYTHING Ruby does right now, it is hilarious to watch. Every movement, noise, action, you name it she is there following Ruby's lead to the tee.

She has become very possessive of her things and says, "Mine!" when she has something that she doesn't want to give up. When she is eatting at the table she I will say, "All Done!" and she will say, "No!" and pull it back in to eat more even if she is actually done.

She repeats everything you tell her, or tries to do it. So funny!

Ruby is loving school right now and is a shining star in her classroom. She always has a great time and loves her teacher so much. The teacher always says positive comments about her, so happy to see her thriving. She is getting to know her peers and making tons of friends. I was surprised to see my semi-shy girl be the leader in her class. I will be in her classroom volunteering tomorrow, so excited about that!

I started back to Sylvan today and actually loved it! I taught SAT Math Prep and it was enjoyable! So glad to like what I am doing to take my mind off of missing my girlies!

We joined a hiking group in the area and have gone on two family hikes. I can't get enough of the outdoors and am so excited to attend more with the girls and Mike and even some on my own.

I will be subbing too one day a week. The girls will be watched by a close friend while I am at work and then I will watch her daughter on Fridays while she subs. A great deal!

19 months old today!

2010-11-04T22:30:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went in to get Elsie's 18 month Dr appointment done. She was 23 pounds (29th percentile), 31 inches (22 percentile), and her head was in the 59th percentile. It was great to see Dr Seppa for a bit, Elsie was pretty stubborn with him as he examined her. She is such a little independent girl these days!

Elsie turned 19 months old today. We spent the beginning of the day doing a mystery shop at our favorite grocery store. Elsie did great, she is getting used to tagging along with mommy as she completes these. Ruby played at our friend's house while we were there, much easier for us all. On our way back to get her, I was saying different names of our friends and family and Elsie was trying to repeat everything I said. So funny! It was a really low-key day for us, we mainly stayed home most of it. Later in the day, I sat with the girls as they played with their toys together. Ruby has a little birthday set from Melissa Doug that she loves and was singing happy birthday to each of us. When we all stopped, Elsie decided that she would try singing it. It was too cute, she had the rhythm and even some of the words sounded the same.

She just wants to be exactly like her sister right now, most of the time you will find her standing beside Ruby going through the same motions or movements. It is hilarious to watch!

A whole month later...

2010-10-12T22:07:00.000-07:00

Wow! I have let so much time pass before blogging! It has been a busy month for sure. Mike is crazy busy with marching band and administrative stuff, so he isn't home very much right now. The girls are sure missing him like crazy. Elsie is mimicing everything right now, especially her sister. You will catch her following Ruby around the house doing exactly what her big sister is pretty much all day long. She has been walking on her tippy toes like crazy lately...just for fun! It is neat to watch. Ruby is loving preschool right now, and absolutely loves every moment there with her favorite teacher Miss Rachel. She is really stepping up to being a big sister and thinking twice about how her sister is watching everything she does. She loves playing with Elsie now, they have their own little communication system going and can get along quite well these days. They are just so precious and I thank God for them everyday, what a blessing!

Here are some highlights from the past month in pics:

Playing at Fish Lake, they love to poke their faces through!

Love the fall for pictures

Ruby was invited to a firefighter birthday, she loved spraying the hose but would not get into the truck

Later that day at the marching band competition in Pasco

Another pic from the party, Elsie with Nai'a

The girls love bouncing on Daddy, Elsie is always right along side Ruby

Elsie has been crazy about the toilet, she backs up to the big and little one and says "Pee pee", she likes to act like she is wiping too with some toilet paper

This is the way to share with eachother, getting creative with the trike at a practice

climbing, climbing, climbing

Elsie peed in the toilet all by herself, she was pretty proud

Learning Playdate at Tanyas

Ruby loves to swing, this was at a great park called Polly Judd

...and she loves doggies

The whole group, Ruby and Elsie's learning playdate buddies

Playing in our front yard in a pile of leaves

On the toilet again
Little rakes for everyone at Robins house for a playdate

Sisters

Sleeping baby

2010-09-16T22:22:00.000-07:00

Normally I rock and nurse Elsie until she falls asleep and then lay her in the bed asleep. Today she nursed and stayed awake, so I decided to put her in the bed all on her own. She didn't get upset at all, just lay there touching the wall and her blanket. She was really quiet. Mike went in and said lay down to to sleep and she did. I went in for a few minutes and sat beside her, but she was so relaxed I decided to leave. Five minutes later Mike checked in and she was asleep, I cannot believe it! She is still asleep right now. I hope she continues this pattern longer than one night :) SO proud of her.

She has been pointing at everthing these days too...and really trying to get us to look at what she is interested in. She doesn't have the words to go with it yet...so she keeps pointing and makes noises like she trying to get us to understand. Too cute! This all started last week when we went to Seattle for a brief trip and we were at the Point Defiance Zoo. We were in the goat section and she kept pointing at everything.

Ruby is loving preschool...she didn't even worry at all when we left on Wednesday. She just said goodbye to us and we were on our way. She is always in good spirits when we get there to pick her up too. I hardly know what to do with myself while she is gone, but I know it is good for both of us.

I have been trying to relax a bit with Ruby these days...she has lost her listening skills it seems. Very frustrating. I took a few steps back after a hard day and today was so much better. I am trying to not get caught up in it all and stay light hearted. Very challenging when everything takes so long and when she is being defiant.

We had a great day today and went to Mike's marching band rehearsal to visit her friend Jacquelyn. We all walked to the park together and they all three held hands the whole way back. They were really good with Elsie too, she loved being included. We stayed through the whole rehearsal, the girls loved. Ruby played with the flags with Jacquelyn, so did Elsie. Elsie mainly enjoyed having some freedom run around and I enjoyed not having to worry as she ventured away. Ruby and her friend rolled around together in the grass and just had a great time together.

We picked up the CSA today and there were all sorts of yummies in it. Since Mike was with me, I decided to go to the fruit stands and found some organic pears, apples, and melons. The girls were in heaven as they ate some tonight. Elsie's first whole apple and she felt like such a big girl.

2010-09-03T12:29:00.000-07:00

Ruby loves to color pictures and make things for her friends and family, I told her she needed to do a nice neat job on this and she could bring it to our neighbor. It turned out pretty cool...rainbow horse!

Elsie loves to color right along side sister!

We have been driving to Medical lake to look at all the deer there the past few weeks...all the does have a fawn following along with them! They are everywhere and not scared of people, fun to see!

Elsie loves to feed herself, she is such a goof ball. All I have to do is snap some consecutive shots of her and look at all the expressions that she makes!

Being silly!

Out in the sun

2010-08-28T22:56:00.000-07:00

We went to the Red Gate Farm today out on Lance Road, the girls enjoyed running around on the beautiful property. I saw these flowers, just thought they were so gorgeous I had to get a shot!

Ruby sat in these red chairs next to a lady she didn't know, just chatting it up with her. They both enjoyed playing around on them.

The chickens were the highlight of the day there, Elsie was fascinated by them and they both loved pulling weeds and feeding them. I especially loved the black and white speckled ones, so unique.

Beautiful sunflowers out on their property.

Later in the day, we went to see Mike's band perform for the parents and family their marching show. Really awesome this year, fun to chat with my friend Tanya and for Ruby and Elsie to play with her daughter Jaqueline.

Elsie playing peek a boo behind a tree, so cute!

Ruby and Jaqueline chatting away as we ate at the Marching Band BBQ.

After it was all over, Tanya and Jaqueline came over to visit for a bit. Tanya and I chatted over coffee as the girls ran around and played with all the toys. Elsie was so funny, she saw sister wearing some bunny ears and went in and put them on herself. She came running out with them on and we all had a good laugh. She was all smiles and excited that she got a reaction from us. She kept taking them on and off and even did some dancing for us. So cute! We love our friends!

Cousins

2010-08-27T21:30:00.000-07:00

Ruby had fun at the park picking flowers with Ciara :)

Kylar being silly with Elsie!

Kylar and Elsie sit and watch Ciara and Ruby pick flowers together in a nearby field.

We picked up Kylar and Ciara today and spent the day with them. The girls always have a blast when they are around!

Threat of Fire

2010-08-26T21:40:00.000-07:00

Well, there was a wildfire that started just over the hill from our house today. I was feeling okay about it until I saw my neighbors loading stuff into their van from the house and also the other neighbors doing the same thing. Smoke started to get heavier and so we had to close the windows. At this point, I decided that I would pack up all the pictures since that is really the only thing that I would want. I had about five boxes loaded in case we had to evacuate the area. As we ate dinner, it started to look more promising. The sky started to clear up and we were able to let the fresh air flow through the house again. Thank goodness for all the firefighters and their hard work, pretty scary. It was quite a bit of work to get all the pictures put away. Ruby had her little squirt bottle ready with water in case the fire came our direction, so funny!

On a more positive note, we picked up the CSA goodies today and there were all sorts of yummy vegetables and some fresh strawberries! The girls were in heaven, they gobbled them up. Elsie is quite the little berry lover. So excited to dig into all the great stuff they supplied us with this week, we even have some new types of squash to try and a few tomatoes. Loving it!

Hot Day...

2010-08-25T23:57:00.000-07:00

I forgot my bag at a friend's house who lives on the opposite extremes of Cheney during a trip yesterday to see her new house. This morning I decided we would make the trek to their place again to get it. As we were leaving, I saw the signs to Green Bluff and decided "What the heck, we'll go!" I wanted to get the girls out berry picking and there is an organic farm up there that has just that. We headed there and they had blackberries for us to pick. Ruby got right to work picking as Elsie ran up and down each row. Once she noticed we were picking, she stopped a few times to grab at some berries. Ruby did a good job, she actually picked some that weren't fully ripe, but once I explained and showed her what to look for she did great. It was so hot, but we were able to pick about a pound of berries together. They were really yummy. Ruby's were smashed a bit from all the jumbling around, but it was really about the experience of it all and they loved it. Ruby wasn't too into eatting the berries, but Elsie gobbled them up and had juice stains all over her face from them. We brought them home and I mashed them up and cooked them into sauce to pour over vanilla icecream, everyone loved it!

Wow...it has been a long time since I posted!

2010-08-24T22:05:00.001-07:00

First time in their bike trailer!

Kids Day at Riverfront Park with cousin Kylar.

Chugga-chugga-choo-choo with pals Macy and Uta!

Elsie going down on her own.

Crossing this rope for the first time on her own.

Saying Cheese to the camera at Music in Park at Sutton Park, love these summer events.

Jumping off the diving board on her own!

So proud with her certificate of completion!

Riding a horse at Gatto's with best bud Jaqueline!

Pictures with Kensie, Ruby was such a fishy!

Ruby loved her instructor!

This month is just flying by! The past two weeks have been all about swim lessons for Ruby! She loved them and looked forward to going everyday. Her swim instructor has known Ruby since she was Elsie's age, such a sweet girl and Ruby enjoyed every moment with her. Ruby brought her gifts many of the days, little crafts she put together and a rose from our yard on one day. On the last day of swim lessons, Kensie was gone and Ruby was a little bummed. She still went off the diving board all by herself twice! She was really proud and so was I! All the kiddos get a cute certificate for completing each level, Ruby was so excited to get hers. The instructor actually wrote a long note to her on the back which was really neat for her to hear. She was super excited for the candy that was attached to the certificate as well. It was great and I look forward to moving her on to the next level. We also visited Ruby's new preschool, I was surprised when she actually loved it and we stayed there for a whole hour. Ruby worked her way around the room to all the activities. So did Elsie! She was hesitant about the idea of it all, but once we went she was excited to be a part of it all. Most of her friends go to the same preschool which is really neat and makes her more comfortable.

I have spent the past two weeks riding my bike with the trailer attached, love it! The girls are a bit tight together, but they do great once you get going. We actually took off at 5 pm a few days ago for Fish Lake Trail and ended up going a total of 13 miles round trip. Both girls fell asleep on the ride there, so I took advantage of it and kept going all the way to the lake and to the playground. They got out and played for a bit, then we headed back and made it home by 7:30 pm. It was so neat to see the difference in the trail since February and March when we last walked there. So much more vegetation and way less water in the streams. Absolutely beautiful as always. Loved that bike ride and plan on going again tomorrow. Mike finally joined us on Sunday, we did a family bike ride to the bowling alley, played a game, and then took another path back home through EWU campus. So much fun, glad we could make it happen on his day off.

I have been busy planning a trip to Missoula and having a blast doing it! So many neat things to do there and I can't wait to go! We are going on the Hiawatha Trail which is really unique, about a 15 mile ride, to the 50000 silver dollar bar, staying at the KOA Kabins in Missoula, visiting Caras Park, hiking to the big M, going to Current's waterpark, visiting a ghost town called Garnet, going to the rivers there so I can see where my favorite movie "A River Runs Through It" was filmed, and just eatting at some fabulous places along the way. Yay! We really need this break, and it will be the first time we have gone anywhere for our anniversary weekend. Only 200 miles away, you can't beat that!

Elsie is keeping me hopping these days. So full of energy, climbing everything. She went for a few weeks where she wasn't eating much and it was driving me crazy. Now she is back to eatting, thank goodness! She spends most of her time following Ruby around and trying to do the things that she does. It is so neat to see them actually play together these days. Elsie will notice when something makes us laugh, start laughing herself and then keep doing it to get a reaction. So cute! She always is grabbing my finger and pulling me or someone else around to whatever she wants to do. She will bring you to the kitchen when she wants something to eat, bring you to a toy she wants to play with and so on. She also makes a certain noise when she wants more of something, very distinct. She now is saying "Ball". When we went to get the bike trailer, we also bought them both a ball. She held it the whole way home and said ball right away. Repeated it the whole way home and has said it ever since. She is totally fascinated by her belly button right now too, and will lift up her shirt to show you hers and touch it and then do the same to you. She is trying to say it too. She always tries to tickle Ruby and does the "Tickle, tickle, tickle" thing with her finger and says it too. We all get a kick out of it! She is also getting two more teeth in, she has four already and two more coming. Her front ones are pretty big, so cute and sure changes her look a lot. She also is saying "Cheese" when she sees a camera, I think she learned it from a play phone Ruby has that says that. She loves to share anything with Ruby, if Ruby has it she wants to try it. Also, she loves feeding herself with utensils. She is getting really good at chewing and eatting in general. She can now go down a slide all on her own, it is so funny to see. She used to grab our finger before she would go down. Now that she has it figured out, she will climb again and again and go down over and over. She even figured out how to climb up Ruby's swingset slide and go down all on her own. Looks funny with her little legs. She loves to be chased too, or think someone is chasing after her. She gets so excited. Oh my gosh...there is so much more. I just can't believe how much is going on with both girls right now! So neat to watch!

Grandpa Hunt

2010-08-03T13:57:00.000-07:00

I really want to write down my memory of the visit we made to Grandpa Hunt in July, he just passed away yesterday and I am thankful I was able to spend some time with him.

We took the elevators up to his room at the hospital. When we got closer to his room, he had the curtain drawn and a nurse was speaking with him about a medication he would need to take. He was very sweet with her and talked about liking to have a glass of red wine occasionally and whether that would be okay. It was really neat to just stand there and listen to his voice.

When the nurse came around the corner, she told him that he had a visitor and that I was his niece. I corrected her and told her that I was his granddaughter. He said, "Well for goodness sakes, Eve is that you? I haven't seen you since you were a tiny baby like Elsie's size". We walked over to see him, he was in his bed and happy to see us.

Elsie was attached to me and Mike had Ruby at the bathroom, but they were soon to follow. The nurse went and got chairs for us to sit in, but I wanted to be up next to him to talk and hold his hand. Ruby decided to sit in the chairs. We held hands for quite awhile. He looked exactly like all the pictures I had seen. I think he was surprised that we made the trip up to see him in the hospital. He told us how he wasn't feeling well and I asked what was wrong or going on to make him feel bad. He told me that he was having trouble breathing and that it stemmed back to when he was a child, he had pneumonia or something like that which took a toll on his lungs. That he has had trouble with this off and on throughout his life.

It is hard to remember the exact details, but these are the parts that I remember the most. He told us that he had heard that we stopped in to see Grandma and that it was a nice visit. He also mentioned that Mike kept busy with Elsie at the house. He told Mike that he was proud of him as a father and a person. He talked with him about his job as a band director and mentioned another band director that he knew who was really good too. He told Mike that the ring that they had given him, that he heard that it didn't fit and not to be afraid to wear it on his other fingers. I let Elsie down and and she immediately started running around, Mike took her to look at the fish in the waiting room. Ruby was sitting in the chairs, he talked to her. He told her how pretty she was and said that if he made it out of the hospital and got better that he would keep the boys away with his walking stick. Ruby went up to talk with him and held his hand, they talked about our trip to Seattle and what we had done. She told him that we were staying with Rachel and Jimmy and that we had gone to the horse races. He asked if it was Emerald Downs. He was excited to hear that. We talked about how she rode a pony, and he told us that he watched that on the TV and saw the kiddos on the ponies. He told us a story about how we had a relative that was part of racing horses and was proud to share it with us. Ruby told him that our horse won. She listened and nodded as he told us stuff. She held his hand for a long time. She told him that she loved him and he told her the same before she went with Mike to the waiting room to look at the fish. Elsie stayed with me and I held her up close to him. She did not really want to hold hands, so he just touched her legs and talked to her as she leaned her head in toward me.

I remember moving over to the other side of him and holding his hand. I was able to give him a kiss, he told me that he wasn't able to shave and that his face was all stubbly because of it. I remember talking about his eyes and how they were blue just like the girls, he said something about how they weren't as brilliant blue as they used to be. He told me that he always wanted to see me and we both teared up, I couldn't help it. I think he wanted me to know that he cared about me even though we didn't see eachother over all these years. I told him it was okay, I understood.

I was only able to stay for about 45 minutes because the room was so small and the girls were restless and needed a nap. I really wanted to stay longer and visit some more as well as see my Grandma and Uncle who were on there way there. Wish it would have been possible. We both told eachother that we loved one another. I told him that I hoped he got better and headed out the door. I really wanted some pictures of us together, but didn't feel like it was appropriate to ask when he was feeling so bad. He will forever be in my memory though, it was a nice visit and I was glad to share my family with him. God is amazing, something told me that I needed to get over there to see them. I am so thankful for those moments we had together, they meant the world to me.

I was really upset the ride home, regretting all the years we missed together. Also, wishing that I could have spent more time with him than the time I did and that I could have seen him well. Mike talked through it with me and I tried to look at it in a different way. Valueing the time we had together rather than regretting all the time we missed.

My Grandma sent me an email telling me that he mentioned that Ruby held his hand and was so glad to see us. My mom also told me that she said that he told her that we were all beautiful. When he was passing, he had pictures of the whole family up close to him so he could see us all.

Rest in peace Grandpa Hunt, I love you.

New things

2010-07-29T22:12:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-07-25T23:14:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-21T14:31:00.000-07:00

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...

2010-07-11T23:20:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-03T08:53:00.000-07:00

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.

Climbing, climbing, climbing....

2010-06-30T22:08:00.000-07:00

Elsie has been getting better and better at climbing...today I walked into the dining room and found her standing up on a chair and dancing with a big grin. I took her down and readjusted the chair under the table and then left. I heard her making some noises a few minutes later and went in to check to find her doing the exact same thing. She is such a ball of energy and curiosity right now. Ruby is just loving every moment of it too...all of a sudden she has come to appreciate her little sister instead of get irritated by her. Elsie will actually come up to Ruby and sit in her lap and also give her a big hug or embrace. Ruby just eats it up. She will also hold Ruby's hand as they walk from place to place, as long as Elsie doesn't get tired of it. They are too cute but keeping me on my toes. I have been sooooo sick for 5 days now, and it is still holding on and making my days really hard right now. I have went from a sore throat to major congestion and conjunctivitis and now coughing, can't wait until this all subsides. Hoping and praying!

I also heard her say "There you go!" to Ruby today. About a week ago on Father's Day, she said "No Mike!" So funny. She is trying to say Doggy and it sounds more like "Da Da".

Summer fun!

2010-06-27T17:22:00.000-07:00

Ruby was in heaven when she could hold hands with Maya and Elsie and walk them to the car after our playdate at Centennial Park on Friday. So cute!

Friday night we went into town to play at Riverfront Park. The girls were nearly the only ones playing in the water because of all the Hoopfest activities. Elsie took some time to warm up to the idea, but had fun and didn't want to leave in the end. She spent most of the time dragging Mike around by the finger to go where she wanted.

Elsie has been sitting in her sister's lap all on her own these days. So cute! I will catch them in a long hug or sitting together. Ruby loves it, but usually doesn't want to let go when Elsie is ready to get up.

Mike snapped this shot of Elsie feeding Hank, she thought she was pretty cool holding his bowl as he ate!

Grandma loves!

Ruby with Grandma and Ciara planting the garden at her house today, she had a great time and got really dirty!

Kylar and Elsie walking along together at Grandma's house, Elsie loves to wander around her acreage. We spent a bit of time picking strawberries and eatting them, yum!

2010-06-24T22:41:00.000-07:00

Mike and Ruby walking the dogs together, Ruby loves this so much!

Ruby has been waiting a long time to walk her own doggy, she is so proud to be Hank's owner.

Ruby loves to hold Elsie's hand and walk with her lately...and Elsie likes to do it too (mostly). It is so funny to see them do this, love it. They are doing so much better playing together lately. Elsie is communicating so much more too which makes it easier. This is in Grandpa Rick's back yard the other day.

At the consignment shop, Elsie was truly worn out and let me lay her down in the cart (this never happens). She slept the whole time I shopped :)

New Doggy #2

2010-06-21T21:11:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of our newest pet Hank, a miniature australian sheperd who was rescued from a puppy mill back in April. He is so neat and super smart. Henry already loves him and plays with him all day long. Ruby loves to take him for walks on his leash, the perfect size for her. He will only get to about 20-25 pounds.

Elsie has been doing so many things lately, really interacting with all of us like crazy. This is a picture of Elsie helping her Daddy pull weeds in the backyard.

Using utensils has been the latest thing for Elsie. She absolutely loves using a fork to pick it up and putting the food into her mouth with it. So cute!

Hank and Henry playing with a rope, they love to tug back and forth. So funny to see two totally different sized dogs doing this....Henry enjoys it so much and doesn't overdo it with Hank.

Elsie loves to try on our shoes and actually walk around it them, I can't believe that she can get them to move since they are soooooo big on her.

2010-06-07T08:38:00.000-07:00

The girls sitting patiently as the Battle Days parade passed by in Rosalia, Washington, about 25 miles from Cheney.

An old classmate Bonnie introduces her daughter Kailee to Elsie, what a cutie.

On Saturday, I decided to go to Rosalia for their Battle Days Parade. We used to live in Malden, a closeby town as children. I went to school in Rosalia. The girls had a blast watching the parade, Elsie just sat their in her new special chair and Ruby enjoyed seeing the horses and catching candy. People around us were commenting on how they couldn't believe that Elsie was staying so calmly in her little chair. I think she was just so amazed by the event and excited to use her own little chair. It was pretty cute. At the end of the parade, a friend of mine from 4th -6th grade came up to us to chat. It was so neat to see her after so many years. We then picked our stuff up and walked down the street just to see the rest of the festivities. When we got a few blocks down, I heard someone calling my name on the other side of the street. It was my good friend Bambi's sister Bejay. I was so excited to see her and to learn that Bambi was there as well. I have wanted to reconnect with her for a long time. We emailed back and forth for awhile, but never got together in person. So good to see her after 20 years. She was my best friend at the time and we spent so much time together. Hoping we can make a trip over to see her in Hayden one of these days in the near future.

On Sunday, a moose walked right down our street. I saw it out of the corner of my eye when I was sitting on the couch. It walked right by a vehicle across the street and into our neighbors yard, then out into the field at the end of our cul-de-sac. So cool to see!

Some new milestones!

2010-06-04T22:15:00.000-07:00

Ruby wrote her name, the letters are mixed up, but can you see it? They are in the order of "B YRU". So exciting!

I was in the bathroom with Ruby and came back into the room to put her to bed and found Elsie smiling up on the bed. At first I thought I had put her there and forgot, but then realized that she had climbed up herself. She was pretty proud of herself!

Climbing....

I'm up....

Look at me, so excited!

And of course a tackle from sister :)

We finally got Elsie's twin bed put together and it is currently sitting on the floor so she can get out without falling. Tonight she is sleeping in it for the first time, yay! I hope it is an easy transition!

2010-06-02T23:11:00.000-07:00

The girls are both going through another phase, and it is very challenging at points. Hard to believe they both hit a new phase at the exact same time. Ruby is pushing the limits as much as possible with both of us and spends most of her time ignoring our comments or questions. Elsie will grab ahold of your legs and cry until you pick her up, she will hold them both in such a way that you can't even walk. She doesn't want to be put down. They are so darn cute though.

Elsie is dancing around like crazy...she has the darndest moves these days. She loves her voice and will say "dadel, dadel, dadel" really fast over and over. She loves how it sounds and gets even more into it when you say it back to her. She is also playing games with us a lot right now. She will walk up to you and get just close enough for you to grab her and then turn around and walk away and then come right back again and do the same thing. She loves this and will do it over and over! She has been doing this cute little shy girl look with her head lately too...she will move her head down to her shoulder and look down and hold it that way for a long time (when someone is looking at her). She still only has two teeth, I am thinking this is why we are going through the hold me stage. I can't imagine it feels good to have all that happening in her mouth right now. She is saying "Mom", "Dada", "Kitty", "Hi", "Bye", "Ya", "No", and "uh" for up. She weighs a good 19 pounds now and we have moved her up to her big girl carseat, which she loves. Oh, she also says "Emmmmmm, ma" when she wants to kiss you. She will get closer as she makes the noise. I love seeing Ruby and Elsie give eachother smooches and make this noise. They are playing together quite a lot these days, still learning to share though.

Ruby is loving being outdoors, I will send her outside to play and 30 minutes later she will come back in with dirt from head to toe. She has had a lot of baths lately. She loves our new dog Shelby and enjoys feeding her all sorts of funny things from the yard. Shelby is great with her and ignores the objects she forces into her face. I have been letting her choose her outfits lately...she comes up with the most unique combinations. Still hates having her hair brushed, so independent these days. She is making the most amazing comments these days and repeating lots of Daddy comments too. Mike called Henry a moron because he is so obnoxious sometimes, and Ruby loves to tell our guests that "Henry is a moron" when they are here. Lots of explaining to do for sure.

We did our first learning playdate here the other day and I will be teaching one here regularly from this point forward. It was a lot of fun to do and to plan.

Oh wow...two weeks later!

2010-05-27T21:31:00.000-07:00

Ruby LOVES to pick dandelions...what a great flower to pick. It is very plentiful in our yard!

We went to Finch Arboretum to get the girls' pictures taken. Mike and Ruby found this awesome tree and he snapped a shot of her. She was not in a good mood, but you wouldn't be able to tell by this picture. Very tired from the night before at the Lilac Parade.

I snapped this picture of Elsie at the Lilac Parade, she just had her face there so still. I was surprised by how clear it turned out, love it when that happens.

Both Ruby and Elsie loved this water table at our friend's house Diana. They were so content filling containers and dumping them in. It was so fun to see the kiddos playing without any words. They were so into what they were doing, I would catch a glimpse of them silently cooperating with another kiddo beside them. They seemed to understand what the other one was thinking...so funny.

Later that day, we headed to Rocky Ridge Ranch to buy into a share of their CSA program. We spent two hours touring the ranch, it was so exciting to see how passionate this farmer is about providing organic food to others. Elsie would not stay in our arms, she loved it there.

Mike and the girls just as we are about to head out into the pastures with the cows. They were so amazing. Totally fine with us walking in there and observing them. A great experience for all of us...next week is our first week of produce and meat...we are so excited!

New Doggy

2010-05-13T21:27:00.000-07:00

Mike surprised me with a new dog today, he went up to the shelter and brought her home right before I headed off to work. Her name is Ruby and she is 8 years old. She came from a neglectful situation, she has a severe skin problem that the past owners let get way out of control. The shelter spent the last two months giving her medication and treating her. She is also underweight. We are going to have to change her name since it is the same as Ruby's, I think we have decided on Shelby. Ruby really likes to call her "bea", so we are going to let her call her that. She is very possessive of her food around Henry, we think the past owners had more than one dog and they gave them very little to eat so she fights for her food. Mike has them separated by a fence right now, so they can gradually get used to one another. We are hoping that she will make a nice, calm, sweet tempered dog for us and a great companion for Henry. She already has fur growing back on her in the spots that are bald, but is still underweight. We hope that with time she will get healthier and happier with us as her family :)

It's been a long time....

2010-05-11T21:37:00.000-07:00

My girls have been doing so many new things lately, it is hard to keep up with them.

At church on Sunday, I was getting Elsie some little animal crackers from a plastic container up on a shelf. When Elsie ran out of the crackers, she would go to the shelf and point up at them and reach out to ask for more. She did this over and over. She is all about pointing right now too, especially at pictures on the wall and such.

Her second tooth is on it's way in, I have definitely noticed a change in her lately and I think it is because of the discomfort. She is just way more clingy and whiny. Poor little thing.

She is LOVING playing with her sister, they laugh so much together and are really communicating every chance they get. In the car today, Ruby was handing her goldfish crackers and she was reaching out and grabbing them, then putting them in her mouth to eat. She would then start laughing and Ruby would laugh back. Once they were gone, she would get all fussy and Ruby would hand her another one to calm her down, then more laughing together.

I know I have mentioned this before, but she loves to dance!!! At her Dad's Jazz Desert Dance she was up there by the band spinning around over and over and moving her body like a little hula dancer. She was so tiny next to her sister and their friend Jacquelyn, loved watching them having so much fun together on the dance floor.

She understands how to hug and kiss you, I love this so much. If you say hug, she will grab around your neck and squeeze tighter. If you say kiss, she leans in and puts her lips up to yours or opens her mouth. Such a little lovey girl and such a sweet baby!

If Ruby notices that Elsie is laughing about something she is doing, she will do it over and over to get her to laugh more and more. So cute.

I have really noticed Ruby's communication going to another level lately. She asks higher level questions and comes up with the most amazing comments.

She has been getting scared at night lately, always asking about monsters. I keep reassuring her they are not there and that Daddy and Henry will protect her.

Ruby is so cute at her playdates lately, they do this little song at the start that has all sorts of dancing moves. She loves it and has every part of it down, she loves to swing her hips the most, so funny.

I could go on and on....I am so blessed by these two!

I started at Sylvan Learning Center on Saturday and Thursday I will go through training. I will be working three days during the summer, hoping it works well with Mike's schedule, we could really use the income right now.

The girls are getting their one year and three and a half year photos done by a friend in my mom group on Sunday, so excited to try something different. Hoping they turn out nicely. Glad to be at the point where I only get professional ones done every 6 months or so!

Bloomsday!!!

2010-05-02T20:43:00.000-07:00

Here we are before we started, so full of energy and excitement for what the day would bring us. Lots of funny costumes around us to keep us entertained.

Kylar and Ciara trucking it up Doomsday Hill, they pushed through and did a great job.

So many fun activities and people along the way, the kiddos wanted to get their picture taken with these people in costume.

Ciara and the lady with the horns and purple face, so silly.

We made it to the finish line, the kids were so excited and surprised all at the same time. We had to walk another half mile beyond the finish line to pick up our shirts and get a ride home. Somehow we missed my mom who was waiting to meet us at the finish line. I had a blast and so did they, looking forward to next year and hopefully bringing Ruby, Elsie, and maybe Mike :)

Wearing our lime green shirts after we finished the walk--7.5 miles!!!

Today...

2010-05-01T21:05:00.000-07:00

Elsie added a "Wheeee!" to her dance moves :)

I woke up this morning ready to work on Elsie's room. I moved out a bunch of stuff and rearranged too. I brought out Elsie's diaper changing table to the garage and brought in the pieces to her bedframe. Mike put it together and went and got some boards to lay across under the mattresses. Yay! Now all we need is the mattresses and bedding and we are on a roll...

Went to the SCRAPS animal shelter today...we found the most loving and sweet kitty, I want her but am afraid of how much work it would be and how we would do with another animal. She is beautiful, loving, and totally tolerant of the girls. We'll see...

Went to get my Bloomsday registration done today, check-in. SO excited to walk it with my niece and nephew, hope they love it too. We will be walking 7.5 miles together!

Ruby loved our trip to Huckleberries today, she always gets to push around a tiny cart for me and gets a yummy cookie. Love that place too.

Ended the day at Salnave Park, we put the girls in their little wagon and walked to it. They both went down the slides and were able to swing. I saw an old student who said that "Ruby was beautiful" and reminded her of when she came in to visit the students in my library.

A nice day!

New Bed and Riding

2010-04-30T21:17:00.000-07:00

Elsie was able to ride her little car today, first forward and backward. She was pretty proud of herself :)

Mike went way up north to pick up the new bed I bought Elsie, it is handmade by the person we bought it from. Very pretty and I can't wait to take a picture of it so everyone can see. Simple but pretty. Excited to set up Elsie's new room.

Ruby was super helpful today, she swept the floor, put dishes away, helped Dad with the garbage. A nice day for her. We also went to Costco which is a favorite, so she was loving that too. While Elsie napped, I was able to do a puzzle with her and play Candyland. She won and did great at it, I think she has finally hit the age where it will be enjoyable to play it with her.

Elsie's other tooth on the right side is coming in now too, Mike noticed at dinner today. It still has to push through, but you can definitely see it.

Elsie is so funny...when she doesn't like or want something she will just throw it down to the ground. She's been doing this for sometime now. She even does this with food. She will put it in her mouth, move it around a bit and then spit it back out. Eventually she will then throw it to the ground. She also does this with milk, she will drink it until she doesn't want anymore and then get some in her mouth and let it dribble out onto her chest and shirt over and over again. Silly little thing.

Thankful

2010-04-29T08:47:00.000-07:00

Lots to be thankful for right now:

Elsie's first tooth has been pushing through and finally is visible and you can feel it, yay! It is the left bottom one. These teeth are sure taking their time to come in!

My Dad called out of the blue and said he was thinking of me, so good to chat with him. We were on the phone for almost an hour together.

Mike's paycheck is here finally, what a long month.

Our learning playdates are so much fun and we are thankful to be a part of them. Ruby made a hula dress and necklace today, so cute. She did a little dance with her friends after they were all finished. We were studying Hawaii and the letter "H".

Sunday is the Bloomsday walk with my niece and nephew, looking forward to walking 7.5 miles with them.

So many wonderful friends and opportunities here in the Spokane area, it has been the best time of my life and I have made some really awesome lasting friendships!

Alittle about Elsie:

Elsie has been saying "Bye! Bye! Dad!" nearly everytime she sees him close a door, leave a room, or go to work. It is so cute, she will look at me like, "Shouldn't you be joining in. She has been saying this and practicing it since the Sunday before last and is getting pretty good at it.

She is definitely a girly girl. She loves to walk around the house with something around her neck, anything she can get her hands on. Sometimes clothes, plastic necklaces, string, ribbon. She also loves, loves, loves shoes and having them put on her.

She loves texture books and being read to. Mike was reading to her yesterday and it was totally cute, she was all propped up and engaged in the reading with a sweet smile on her face.

She has been getting onto toy riding objects like cars and horses. She is pretty good about getting off as well.

Elsie is a dancing queen...she LOVES to dance and swings her hips with the music. The past few days she has even started twirling around as part of the dance, she will do it over and over.

She also will mimic anything you do.

Alittle about Ruby:

Ruby loves to read to us after she knows the words of a book. She will hold it out like a librarian so everyone can see it.

She is also trying to predict what we are saying, it is pretty funny. I will say something and she will move her mouth at the same time moving her mouth as to what she thinks I am going to say. She does this with all of us and at her learning playdate. BTW...she loves going to her learning playdates and has made friends with all her classmates.

She has been trying harder to be more patient with Elsie and doesn't pull things away from her as much. We have been right on top of her with this.

We have been talking about what she is thankful for each night. She always says God first, then she usually says her cousins names or Elsie or Daddy. So sweet! We have been giving different types of kisses too and she loves this. We do a butterfly kiss, cow kiss, horse kiss, and fish kiss. She keeps adding different types every night, last night it was a ladybug kiss.

Counting my blessings everyday!

Blue Lake Trip

2010-04-26T15:03:00.000-07:00

Daddy and Elsie relaxing before our long drive.

Ruby pulled her chair right up beside her Daddy to help him with fishing.

Elsie and her Grandma Dee playing around in the boat.

Elsie with Grandpa Mike walking her back from the boat.

Elsie and Grandma sitting and relaxing, she loved sitting in sister's chair and looking out across the water.

Ruby had a blast in the boat, she was able to pretend like she was driving and honk the horn at everyone.

Here they all are headed out to do some fishing with Grandpa, Ruby's first time in a boat.

Coming back, Ruby stood at the front of the boat and everyone else stood up too.

Mike and Ruby with their catch, in one hour they caught their limit. This is Mike, his brother and Dad's all together.

Elsie was exhausted by the end of her time at the lake, she had a blast running around and just plain wore herself out.

Trip to Eburg

2010-04-23T22:19:00.000-07:00

We just got back from a quick overnight trip to Ellensburg. The girls did well overall. Ruby had a bit of a meltdown as we were leaving a friends and getting ready to head home, only because she was sooooo tired.

We arrived at our hotel around 4 pm yesterday, dropped some items off and then headed out to look at some the Kittitas Valley spring beauty. We drove all the way out by where I used to live as a child...Hungry Junction area. I wanted to let Ruby get out and pick some flowers. It was so windy, but I was determined to make it happen. Ruby loves to pick flowers right now, so I thought it would be a lot of fun for her. We ended up getting out briefly and she scouted one out, checked for bugs, picked it, and then it was back in the car because of the wind. My favorite memories of Ellensburg are from our ranch that was nearby and the smell of all the spring flowers that popped up. Ruby did like it too, wish that wind would have died down a bit.

Next, we went up by Mt Stuart Elementary, where I went through 3rd grade. There used to be the Winegars farm right next door with cows grazing in the pasture. I was surprised to see they had sold off the land next to the school and it was full of new houses :( They still own a small portion though where they make all their icecream and goodies. I went to another store in town with Ruby and we each had a scoop of icecream. Ruby chose the bubblegum and loved it. She was thrilled of course to be eatting icecream.

After our little treat, we headed to Kiwanis Park, another childhood memory. There is a stream there that you can find crawdads in. It was really chilly and windy, but we still got out and they both went on the swings and then we walked along the water. There was a new playset across the field, so we tried that out too and they both went down the slides. The water in the stream was going really fast and pretty deep, but I was surprised to see some daredevil kiddos walking through it, despite all the conditions around them. Ruby wanted to pick a dandilion and then we headed back to the car.

We then drove toward my friend Justine's house, we were meeting them for dinner. Ruby walked with her up to the house and chatted with her, introduced herself as Ruby Rose. She is definitely getting more social these days. I quickly got Elsie out and headed in, Elsie hates the wind in her face so we had to be quick about it all. I was able to look at Justine's scrapbooks, she is amazing at it and it gave me some ideas for mine. We all sat down and had spagetti, yum! My girls love spagetti. Ruby ate all the sauce and was pretty distracted so she didn't finish it all, Elsie was on my lap slurping the noodles that I gave her one by one. We chatted some more and then headed back to the hotel to meet Daddy. He arrived about an hour after us and got Ruby ready for bed. Once all the lights and tv were off, they both fell fast asleep and so did I. We were exhausted.

In the morning...we woke up and Mike took Ruby out to wake up students. Ruby got scared by the first student but still stood by Daddy as he woke the rest. We then said goodbye and headed over to Evie's house. When we got there, we all were standing outside the gate waiting for her to open it or notice us...we were really early. Ruby tried to go to the other gate, but when she noticed where I was she came back.

We went inside and Evie had baked scones for everyone, so yummy. Ruby ate two, she loved them. As I chit chatted with Evie and another friend Trista, the girls played so well together. I was amazed. At one point they were holding hands with eachother. They didn't really have any major squables. They are only 5 months apart and pretty much exactly the same size. They spent part of the time pushing Elsie around in a plastic bin. She seemed to be fine with it. Elsie has been into putting things around her neck and over her head lately, she had me nursing cover completely over her head and walking around, she thought she was pretty funny. It was fun to see them enjoying their time so much. I always have a blast there and get tons of laughing in too. So good to see my longtime friends Trista and Evie. Love you guys! We headed home and made it back at 3 pm, perfect trip back, my babies are such good travellers these days.

Tonight when I asked Ruby what she was thankful for, she said God and then Franka (Evie's daughter). They just had a great time, so good to see.

Elsie has been dancing up a storm these days, she does this little swivel with her hips, so cute. She also is trying to fit into all sorts of baskets and drawers, the smaller the better. I have been enjoying reading touch and feel books with her and Ruby together. Elsie loves to reach out and touch.

We've been walking with the wagon a lot lately, the weather has been so beautiful and Elsie and Ruby can ride together in it now. So much fun for us all, we love to look at the beautiful colors of the sky, trees, and flowers and ride around our cute little neighborhood.

2010-04-20T08:49:00.000-07:00

Elsie is walking like crazy now, she can even get up without holding onto anything. She is on the go. This was taken at Whispering Pines Park in Eagle Ridge in their tennis courts. They both love to run around in that area.

Ruby took Elsie down the slide a couple times too, she loves any opportunity to hold her sister.

We have been hitting the parks lately, with this wonderful weather. Mike went with us to Salnave Park and the girls loved having him there with us.

Couldn't resist this picture of all the pink blossoms on a tree in the yard of a house we pass by on our way home from the park. Ruby and Elsie both loved touching the fresh blossoms on all the trees we passed by, so thankful that spring is here!

Elsie just loves to follow her sister around in our little cul-de-sac, such an exciting new adventure for her.

We went to the Valley Mall Drop and Play on Saturday for a friend's birthday party. Ruby went up in the tunnels they had, this was her first time of actually going up and crawling all around, usually she gets scared and comes down. She had her favorite friend Jacqueline with her though...so that made a world of difference.

Daddy took Ruby to see "How to Train a Dragon" in 3D on Sunday, so Elsie and I had some time to just hang with eachother. She is just so much fun and we had a nice relaxed time together.

She thought she was pretty awesome carrying around my camera bag.

More grins as she rushed around the couch.

All night as I prepared dinner, Elsie kept squeezing into different drawers. I happened to look down and see that she has squeezed into this tiny drawer that holds oven mits, so funny. I don't know how she did it, amazing.

Ruby is really into dressing her lamby right now, she will take Elsie's clothes and dress him all up. For church on Sunday she dressed him in a fancy dress with a bead necklace that matched hers. Yesterday she dressed him in this, the exact same colors and similar outfit to what she was wearing. She also had him in Elsie's little shoes and some underwear too, she is getting really good at dressing him and herself these days.

The Weekend

2010-04-11T22:10:00.000-07:00

The buttercups were gorgeous on our Fish Lake walk yesterday, I had to get a good pic of them to post here. Ruby and her cousins had a great time picking them together.

Quick shot of the girls at the end of our walk together. Love getting together every week, we usually walk between 2-3 miles.

Here we are before the "Walking with Dinosaurs" event today, Ruby and I went together and Mike stayed with Elsie. We had a great time, just the two of us.

Loved this part where the two dinosaurs ran their necks together in a loving way. We had tickets for seats in the first row, so we were able to see everything so closely. It was absolutely amazing.

Ruby wanted one of these masks so bad, she was so excited to put it on. Nearly every kiddo there was wearing one. Ruby roared at her Dad when she saw him. Pretty cute! What a great day!

Mike took Elsie to look at doggies at the different shelters while we were there, they had a lot of fun.

Elsie has been putting things into other things all the time now. Yesterday I caught her putting crayons and pencils into an old glass spice container, so amazing how she can get it perfectly lined up and into the container. She also started reaching down to pick something up and then standing back up instead of falling down to the ground. She did it several times while we were playing with Ruby's elephant game together.

Another funny thing...I give Elsie cheerios for a snack and she will take one between her little fingers and put it in her mouth. She also LOVES to eat things off the ground (EW..I know). So she noticed that one fell to the ground and I picked it up, so she would take one and drop it to the ground, bend down and pick it up to eat it. She was doing it on purpose so she could eat it off the ground. Very interesting!

She also is getting quite stubborn and will let you know when she doesn't want to do something or when something is bothering her. Her reaction is so immediate and quick...it amazes me.

Elsie's Birthday with My Dad

2010-04-08T07:33:00.000-07:00

We did a small birthday with my Dad and his wife Sandi on this day. The girls loved having them over. Ruby immediately chatted my Dad's ear off and tried to play with Sandi like crazy. She was so funny, she used to be so shy around them and now has no trouble at all. In fact, she laughed and talked nearly the entire time they were here :)

I decided to make some yummy chicken wings, asparagus, and potatoes for an early dinner. They loved them and we ate every last morsel. We then ended the meal with some strawberry shortcake, everyone liked that too. The meal was a success. Ruby wanted to sit by Grandma Sandi, so my Dad sat by me and Ruby sat next to her. She loved it!

They brought Elsie some presents and one for Ruby too. There were three really neat books for Elsie and they even wrote a short inscription on them, love that, so much more personal. Ruby liked her ballerina activity book too.

It was a really great visit, wish they came more often to see the girls and chat with us. Hopefully in the future!

Shoes!

2010-04-07T12:57:00.000-07:00

Elsie is so funny! She goes into the playroom everyday now and grabs her shoes out from under the changing table to bring to me. She will carry them together and bring them right to me, it cracks me up. She actually has to get into a basket to find them. She just loves them. She will hand them to me and then sit down and lifter her foot up to put into the shoe. Once it is on, she will lift her other foot up too. After they are all snug on her feet, she will get up and walk around in them, all over the house. Usually she doesn't even have anything on other than a diaper. Too cute!

She spent most of yesterday practicing walking around the house, especially changing direction and turning corners. She is getting to be quite the pro at it all.

Still NO teeth, I am amazed :)

Elsie was asleep today while we went to the park. We packed a lunch and loaded in the stroller and headed over to Salnave. Ruby loved the extra attention she was getting, since Elsie was asleep the whole time. We ran around together, sat on swings together, and ate together. A bit chilly, but still nice to be outside. I used the extra eggs we dyed for egg salad sandwiches, one of Ruby's favorites. Lots of fun, can't wait to get out more these days.

I am trying to slow down a bit, I had made too many commitments and we were running all over the place in the past few months. It actually feels good to be home again and get into a routine a bit. The girls are enjoying it too.

I am applying at a SL Start, a company I used to work for that cares for individuals with disabilities. Hoping to work nights now that Elsie is a year old and can handle being home without nursing constantly and Daddy feels more comfortable too.

We also paid for a membership to Eastern's Rec Center and Mike and I are going to be switching off at night to go work out there. I am excited about it for sure. He has already started and I am just trying to get better (alittle sick right now) and then I will be going too. Mike has also started running at night. We both want to get back in shape, for me it is mainly just that I want to feel healthier again.

2010-04-06T08:18:00.000-07:00

Just a fun picture of us yesterday, I was surprised it turned out so good. Ruby loves to push the button, so we were playing around with the self timer. Lovin' my girls!

Elsie started grabbing her shoes out of the basket in the playroom recently. My mom noticed it first. She will bring them to us and put her feet out to get you to put them on her, so funny and cute. She continues to do it everyday since then. By the way, we are loving having a playroom for the girls, our living room is so uncluttered now. We really need a twin bed or bunkbeds though for the girls, hoping to find some this week so we can get their rooms together.

First Birthday and Easter

2010-04-05T13:00:00.000-07:00

After our Mommy and Me Easter egg hunt, Ruby just loves holding Elsie. Love the bunny ears this year!

Love this picture too, wish that Elsie would have been more smily, but still cute!

This is the cake we bought for Elsie's birthday party on Saturday. I think it turned out really cute, we always love their creations. We go to the Happy Cake Company for all the birthdays. I couldn't resist this theme, I saw when I was picking out Ruby's birthday cake in October and knew that it was the one I wanted. So yummy too!

Elsie had a great time digging into her little ladybug birthday cake. She was a bit skeptical at first, but enjoyed it once she got some tastes in.

Digging into the cake!

More digging, so much fun for her!

Here she is all smily and laughy, she was the life of the party after she had a little sugar in her!

Cake, cake everywhere!

The next morning, on Easter, Mike woke up early and hid the eggs for Ruby to find. Her first hunt at home and she loved it. She thought it was so fun and so did Daddy!

Elsie at an Easter egg hunt in Four Lakes, it was really fun! There were tons and tons of eggs because there were so few kiddos in Ruby and Elsie's age frame. Ruby had to unload into another bag and continue on with finding them because there were just so many. Mike had fun following her around and helping her find them.

Elsie was content just sitting there looking at a few eggs while sister worked her way around the field.

I wanted a pic of all the cousins together. Too bad Elsie was looking away, but still pretty cute! They all hunted eggs in different sections, but we still had a good time together.