Rielee's last day of summer

Today was our last summer day with 4 grandkids around since Rielee starts school tomorrow. She spent last night with us and got to stay up late playing Barbies with Auna. She slept in though until 8:30 as did the twins. She was so cute last week, she told me that she was really excited to go to school and was sure that the kids in Toutle would probably want her autograph. She is very excited to make new friends. Ava and Harper were still a little fussy today with the same issues as yesterday. Parker and Auna were such great help to me this morning. At one point after breakfast when both babies were unhappy, they both jumped in and each grabbed one and settled them down, giving me a chance to clean up. Actually, thinking back this happened several times during the morning...

Colds and constipation

Parker and James took the girls for a walk and over to the swings
Ava and Harper woke up as soon as we got them home this morning, and they were kind of fussy. They still haven't gotten over their colds so we thought that might be the reason, besides just being tired. A little later in the day we realized they might be having tummy aches from constipation due to the change to whole milk.

This was their happiest moment of the day, when Papa and Rielee came home with ice cream cones.

Parker was very helpful all day.

Harper on the mend

Harper taking a few steps to Auna
Ava and Harper were sleeping in today, until Uncle David showed up. Not that he intentionally woke them up, oh no, he just managed to get Rielee all fired up by teasing her that she was going to be a Duck, a Toutle Lake Fighting Duck, and she had to do the secret duck call on the first day, oh, and David does a mean duck call himself. So with all that ruckous, it wasn't long before the twins were wide awake. Harper was feeling much better but Ava had the bad cough.

Out for an early morning walk

Another walk with a visit to cousin Will

We had just finished feeding Ava and Harper lunch until they were full and didn't want anymore, then Papa sat down on the floor to watch them play and eat a bowl of mac and cheese himself, all of a sudden they were crawling and climbing all over him like they were starving, trying to get bites. No nap today since we left to take them back about 1:00, we knew they would sleep on the way to see Mom at Union. When I was putting Harper in her carseat I told her we were going bye-bye to see Mom and she repeated bye-bye just perfectly.

Trying new food

We took the twins out to swing this morning and Alan showed up to visit. Harper went right to him and sat on his lap for a long time. She has a bad cold and a fever, so she was pretty serious all day. We spent a lot of time either on the floor playing with them, or putting them in the high chairs for snacks. We discovered that they love broccoli when I cooked Rielee some for lunch then gave them a taste and they gobbled it down. Papa also sliced up a cucumber out of the garden and they liked that, too. We also did a little walking practice today with Harper taking 5 steps, Ava didn't feel like walking much today and mostly would take maybe 3 steps and then dive.

Last hot August day

Rielee with bedhead making waffles for Papa

Who has the darkest hair?

Since it was most likely the last hot day for this summer, Parker turned on the pool heater and had the pool at 94 degrees, just like Kahneeta, he said. I took this picture to compare their hair color, which is pretty much the same, I think. We were all in the pool early.

Auna and Rielee doing a crazy jump

Cathy brought Jillian up to play, she wouldn't go in the water except to let Granny swing her legs in, and she did let Auna push her around on the air mattress. She played around the pool though, throwing in stuff for Auna and Rielee to retrieve.

After the pool time, Papa and Parker went to Vader on the scooter for lunch at the Little Crane Cafe. They love it there because everyone is so friendly, the food is good, and there are lots of old historical pictures on the walls.

Every morning Rielee and Auna are excited to pick out Ava and Harper's outfits. Today they found shoes in the diaper bag, but the twins didn't know what to think of them and quickly started trying to get them off.

Cute kids

The pool was pretty cold today, so the kids were happy to have the hot tub to warm up in. Actually I had to practically force them in the pool, but once they got in there they had some fun throwing each other in and doing crazy flips and seeing who could make the highest splash, usually James but Luke had one high one, too.

Not so cute...

After they got out of the pool, Alan took them on the 4-wheelers and motorcycle down to the creek. It was Luke's first time riding and he thought it was pretty cool.

Early start this morning

Papa surprised me this morning by running Ava's bath and getting her washed while I was dressing Harper after hers. He had not given a baby a bath since Jill was a baby, some 40 years ago. I'm still waiting for him to change a diaper...
The girls slept through the night. Ava woke up at 5, had a bottle and went back to sleep until Harper woke up at 6.

David won over Ava's affections this morning by reading to her, he won Harper over with food earlier.

Papa feeding them lunch today. They like grilled cheese sandwiches and chicken noodle soup. You have to be careful with Harper and only give her a piece or two of food at a time because when she's hungry she will pick up everything on her tray and try to shove it in her mouth.

Auna helping Ava play soccer, this is one game the both girls both really like, and giggle every time they get a good kick. It's very hard on our backs though.

*Yesterday Auna and James were contemplating what careers the twins would have when they grew up--they decided that Ava will be a pro basketball player, then retire early and have a second career in fashion design, Harper will be a veterinarian.

Twins overnight

Ava and Harper playing ball with James
The girls got here about 11:30 for their overnight stay. We played for awhile, fed them some lunch and then took off for a short shopping trip to Ross. Papa was pleasantly surprised at how well-behaved they were in the store. He said they are at a great age for shopping-they can't ask for anything yet.

Harper practicing

They got lots of walking practice in today, now they automatically turn around to head back the other way.

Ava's turn
Thankfully, James and Auna came over to help us entertain the girls. They really kept the girls busy and happy. Alan, Laury, David and Will stopped by to visit also.

And why am I holding the ball like this?

One of the strange ways in which Papa entertains them, by putting toys between their toes. Today I saw Harper trying to put a toy piece of pizza between hers. With a short afternoon nap, the girls were ready for bed at 8:00 p.m., even though their regular bedtime is 9:30. They went right to sleep when we laid them down--what a difference from naptime!

Squirrel traps and wagon rides

Papa has nicknamed Harper the "Pointer Sister" since she points at everything she wants and to where she wants to go.

After breakfast Rielee started telling me how she wanted to build a squirrel trap because she wanted to pet a squirrel and she had never seen one close up. I started to try to talk her out of it telling her that squirrels were wild animals and she wouldn't be able to pet one, etc., and then I look over at Papa and see a sheepish look on his face. He had told her a story yesterday of how he caught a squirrel when he was a little boy, so out they go to the shop to build a trap. No success yet. The girl is obsessed with wildlife. The other day at the pool I noticed that she was standing frozen in one spot, so I asked what she was doing. She said she was making friends with a fly, that he had landed on her arm and really liked her. She runs over and tries to pull me over with her, she says "stand really still, maybe he'll come back and you can see him." It was so cute I almost hated to tell her the truth about flies, but not for long.

Ava feeding Auna a Cheerio

We finally got smart today and borrowed Rielee's wagon to pull the Harper and Ava around.

Then Papa decided to hook them up to the lawnmower and take them for a ride. We have a similar picture of him pulling Emmy and Will in a very tiny Radio Flyer wagon when they were little.

Why is Papa dancing around in the yard?

Harper and Ava Papa was singing and dancing around behind me trying to coax a smile out of them, but Ava just kept frowning at him.

Harper trying a few steps. We had to back off some on the walking practice today, they were feeling too much pressure and protesting. They are now randomly trying to take steps though instead of always walking between us.

Today was a good day nap wise-2 hours! Cathy called this morning right when I was going to put them down, she wanted Rielee to come down and play with Jillian. Auna went along, too, so that we could keep the house quiet and get them to sleep.

Starting to walk

These were our much needed helpers with the twins today- Auna, her friend Hailey, and Parker. Ava and Harper were teething and kind of cranky, so we took them outside on several rides and they spent a lot of time swinging. They were totally happy outside, bring them inside and they got fussy right now. We decided this week that we were really going to work with the twins and see if we could get them to walk a little. Today we had some real success, with Harper taking 4 steps to Auna, and Ava taking 3, two different times!
Papa took Rielee to the dr. for an earache, he met Gabe there, the diagnosis was "swimmer's ear". Then after the dr. appt. he took her to Target to get a Hello Kitty thermos and backpack for school. On the way, as they were driving by Broadway school, she told Papa a secret about me, how I got a warning ticket for speeding there when I was taking Parker to the dr., over a year ago. I swore Parker to secrecy at the time because the ticket would have been $275 (school zone) and Papa always thinks I drive too fast. I think Parker told most everyone he knew and they all kept it secret until today. We got a good laugh out of it when they got home.

L & L-back to Japan

This is what we did this morning, play with the Barbies. This the "Prince" in front, who all the Barbies constantly fight over, he is one of only 3 boy dolls Rielee owns, and the only one with decent clothes. Rielee has quite an imagination, and there is always a lot of drama going on in the Barbie house, especially with only 3 boy dolls.

Scott, Paty, Liann and Lindsey stopped by tonight on their way back home-notice Lindsey has a death-grip on the Prince and her favorite Barbies. She and Rielee kept fighting over the "white boy" as they were calling him, I'm hope that referred to his coat...

Luke came to visit

Luke came up today with his baby sisters, and spent some quality time playing with Parker, Auna and Rielee. They played video games in the morning, and then once the sun was out, headed for the pool. They had to take Luke on the daily ice cream cone run before he went home. Papa had some marionberry ice cream left when he got home and shared it with the twins and Ava just went crazy for it, screaming loudly every time he tried to stop giving her licks of it.

Harper wouldn't have anything to do with the pool again today...

Newsflash: Ava got a couple of teeth over the weekend.

Please get in the pool with us!

Rielee on the way to the pool with "Bear" who is wearing Ava's old suit.

I was already planning on getting in the pool when they asked, it was so hot today. Parker and Rielee spent the night with us since their folks were in Las Vegas. Incredibly, they slept in until 9. Papa and I went over and cleaned out the pool, and he turned on the heater so we could comfortably get in there and enjoy ourselves. It heated up really quickly and we turned the heater off when it got to 86 degrees. We tried playing some pool volleyball but gave up after repeated disputes over the score.

We settled for general floating around and watching Rielee swim, jump in over and over, ride her shark, etc. It was a great way to spend the day. After our daily trip for ice cream cones, Papa and Parker went to the motorcycle races, and Rielee decided she was "so hot, Grandma, I'm so hot" and begged to get back in the pool. So I took the cover off on one end and she was happy and played for another half hour. Then it was back to our house for a bath and some quality TV-ICarly, a bowl of lasagne and more ice cream in the form of a Ginger (Ale) Float before Mom and Dad came home.

Hot day=pool time

Liann and Lindsey got to play in the pool for a couple of hours before they left today.

Rielee doing the "flush the toilet" trick with Liann.

Ava and Harper played outside today, too. Ava wanted to go in the pool, but Harper was happy to sit out. All she wanted was to ride in the little car.

James' special cannon-ball attack, it was bugging him that Macee's hair was still dry.

Scott and family left about 2 and will be back next week. James came up today to spend some time with Parker. I had to take Parker to the dr. for his sports physical, so James, Parker and I took Ava with us while Papa and Rielee watched Harper. Since she was asleep, I had James and Parker help me carry Ava in her carseat into the dr.'s office, they could not believe how heavy she is in that thing. James sat with her in the waiting room while I went in with Parker, I kept checking on them since the appt. took awhile, James was looking increasingly nervous because Ava kept stirring and he was afraid she would wake up screaming-so I finally took her in the exam room. She didn't wake up though until we got home. It was a very busy day, and I missed having Auna's help, and I know the twins missed her, too. Our day was so discombobulated that Ava ended up taking a 2 hour nap, and Harper was awake all day. After Papa took them home, I took the kids back over to swim and Macee came out and joined us. When Papa got back he took us all to get ice cream cones.

Thursday

They wanted me to take a picture of them to use as a Facebook profile picture...the twins weren't really interested in posing.
Thursday Scott and family went visiting at Linda and Ben's, so we hung out at home with the twins, Rielee and Parker. Parker had a guitar lesson, so Papa took him in while I put the twins down for a nap. In the evening after dinner, I took Liann and Lindsey over to the pool to swim with Rielee. Even though it was late and the water was chilly, they still had a ball going back and forth from the hot tub to the pool. Later, Joanna, Allison and Janelle came up to visit, too.

Wednesday- Liann and Lindsey

We were happy to have Scott, Paty, Liann and Lindsey come to visit. Liann and Lindsey are now 9 and 4 and live with their Mom in Japan. They are staying with Dad and Paty in San Diego for 6 weeks, and are on a road trip visiting their extended family in the NW. The girls were very happy when they saw our playroom, and then got busy playing "restaurant" with the kitchen toys. Rielee came over and walked right in, introduced herself, got out her make-up kit and they bonded by doing make-overs.

Lindsey loved the big swing, having no fear at all of swing high, and trying to kick her sister.

Liann played on Auna's scooter, riding back and forth to Rielee's house.

Paty pushing Lindsey on the hammock.

Papa teeter-tottering with Lindsey (he had sore thighs when he was done). The girls were thrilled with all the open yard to play in.