Hooray for high chairs

I have never appreciated high chairs like I do with the twins. They are invaluable, making it easy to keep them contained and content during those times when they are getting a little tired and cranky. Harper wanted to keep her baby with her today during their afternoon snack, and then I caught trying to "feed" her. The girls always want a bowl and a spoon when they eat now, although they seem to do more stirring than actual eating. Most of the food that gets to their mouths is by hand.

Parker and Rielee came over this evening during Macee's v'ball banquet. Parker is pretty darn proud of his long hair, it looks pretty cool when he keeps it styled.

Dancing girls

We were so happy to see the twins this morning after a 5 day break. Our lives seem pretty dull without them around to entertain us, even with all the other kids around, the twins are really getting to be little performers. They didn't disappoint us today either. They are interacting so much more now, playing and laughing at each other. Alan came over today while Papa was at the dentist, and we sat here laughing so hard while watching them play with their blocks, they were squealing and laughing at each other and being so antimated. What a couple of characters. And the saying "monkey see, monkey do" describes Ava and Harper's days together perfectly.


I recently watched a program on twins, and they were interviewing an elderly twin, asking her what her life as a twin had been like. She said "I have never known loneliness", a statement that touched my heart so, thinking of Ava and Harper and how lucky they are to have each other.


The girls are watching the Wiggles a little now, well, for a few seconds they will dance around if the music is just right. Harper's dancing is basically just standing there, waving her arms around (she must have her Dad's dancing ability) but Ava gets into it much more. I tried to get a video of them, but then Harper went to hide and Ava followed her.

James' coupons

James decided to redeem some of his birthday coupons yesterday. So, after getting up at 0:dark:30 to go Black Friday shopping, I got to take he and Parker back to the mall in the afternoon. Thankfully, they were speedy shoppers and we were out of there in about a half an hour. James decided to buy the "Monster" hat he is wearing in this picture as he slices into one of his loaves of cardamom bread (coupons also). He and Parker also bought some "Monster" stickers to put on their phones.

Rielee at the wreath-making tonight. She really got into the process, and was very particular about which boughs she picked out for her wreath. Robin, Ains and Tierney came up, and Laury, Emmy, and Auna, too.

Snow day #2-No school

Macee laughed when she was helping me get the twins ready to go outside, she found out how difficult in can be to dress two little girls that are screaming and wiggling in anticipation of GOING OUTSIDE! Especially with multiple layers...!

Harper was excited by Rielee's snowman, I guess because it was her size.

Parker pulled Harper around on his new sled and she loved it, she was upset when I made them stop and pose for a picture. The kids did lots of sledding today. Then when the twins (and Papa) took a nap, I took the older kids home for awhile so the house would be quiet. Parker read for awhile and then he and I played a couple of games of pool while Rielee made Auna play with Barbies, they also cleaned up Rielee's room, and played house volleyball.

Snow day

We took Harper and Ava out this morning to walk around a little. Papa tried pushing them in their cars, but had some snow plow-type action going on that made it a little difficult. We had to use socks as gloves since we didn't have any mittens for them. They loved it out there, of course, and Harper tried to eat the flakes as they came down.

The girls learned something new this weekend, Ring around the Rosie, it took a couple of attempts to get a video of them, the first try was a painful one for Ava:




Toutle had a 2:00 p.m. release due to the snow, and Rielee was ready to go out and make a snowman as soon as she got home. She ended up making 3.

Parker, phone owner

Parker and his phone, a reward for getting all A's (well, 1 point away with one B+). We are all so proud of him, and he is pretty proud of himself, too. I told him all last year that he could do it and he would say "Grandma, I can't, it's too hard!" He practiced his reading all summer and I think that really helped him.

We laughed today when I reminded him of the time when he was 3 or 4 and we were working on his letters, and he would tell me "Grandma, I can't make a "d", it's too hard!"

Friday

Harper was making a lot of noise when we were taking them home today so I turned around to see what the problem was, she had pulled the canopy of her carseat down and was kicking at it and had her foot stuck. We hate to see them grow out of these carseats because it means they will probably wake up in the morning when transferred from Charb's car to ours. As it is now when we get them here, we turn out all the lights and quietly bring them in the bedroom and just leave them in their carseats, sometimes they will sleep until 8 or so.
This is our daily routine these days with the girls:
5:00 a.m.-wake up, have coffee and read the paper
5:40-Papa leaves to meet Charb, I shower, clean house, start breakfast (10-grain pancakes or waffles or french toast w/scrambled eggs w/turkey bacon or turkey sausage)
6:40-Papa gets back with the girls
When they wake up, usually between 7:30-8, we have breakfast & bath time, then they play with blocks, balls, books, dolls, puzzles, hide n' seek, their purses, kitchen, or Starfall
11:00 or so-a snack & milk and a nap, depending on what time they woke up, after they nap, we have lunch and play, take them for a walk if it's nice out, then another snack & milk before they leave to go home.
Oh, and on Mondays, Rielee comes over for breakfast before I take her to school, and I pick her up, too. On Fridays, Papa is her driver. Whew! Busy days but so much fun, and keeping us young.

Twins are so entertaining

We get such a kick out of just watching the girls play. The way they interact with each other seems to change daily, although this week Harper seems to be the more aggressive of the two. She took a toy away from Ava yesterday and then ran and turned around and when Ava tried to take it back, she actually growled at her several times. Ava walked away frustrated. Sometimes though, when they are in the middle of a toy conflict, if we tell them to "share with your sister" they will just hand over the toy.

They still play with the puzzles first thing every day. Papa bought them a new one which was the source of a little battle this morning. When I went to see what all the screaming was about, the old puzzle was upside down on the floor, Harper had the new one and Ava was trying to grab it.

Alan and Harper discussing how parts of the pellet stove are hot, she said "hot" and held her hand near it.

This afternoon we decided to go for a walk and took them over to see Uncle Alan. His shop is a source of wonderment for them, with all the airplanes everywhere and stuff they would just love to get into. When it was time to go home, Ava didn't want to leave because Alan had been pushing her around on his roll-around chair.

Busy days

It's a busy time when Rielee is here, she wants to do as many activities as she can. Today she had to get out the make-up kit, plus she had to finish her leaf pictures, and of course play with Ava and Harper at the same time. That made for a little chaos! The twins were both very interested in the make-up and wanting in on the action, and were disappointed when they couldn't join in.

Ava settled in on Alan's lap instead and looked at pictures with him.

No matter how tired or fussy they might be, when Auna walks in after school, the girls are thrilled and ready to play with her. In this picture she is playing "ride a horsey" with Ava, while Harper waits for her turn.

book lovers

These girls love to "read" their books, and this poor old dog-eared Elmo book is one of their favorites. This morning the first thing they did was to go and get books to look at. A highlight of their day was when Uncle Alan brought over an old EasyShare picture viewer (I think that's what it was anyway) and gave it to them to look at, Harper was so thrilled with it she wouldn't let anyone else even close to it, and she of course liked pushing the buttons on it.

Fall leaves

After being away from us for 4 days, Ava and Harper were a little needy today, missing Mom and Dad, I think. They took an early nap, then after Rielee got home (early release this week for Toutle) we all went for a walk to look for pretty leaves. Rielee collected a bag full to dry and make a picture with. Ava and Harper liked looking at the leaves, and when we got back in the house, Harper tried eating hers.

Rielee wanted a salad and a rootbeer float for her snack. We decided to give the twins a little ice cream and their spoons so they could practice feeding themselves. They did pretty well and Harper didn't want to give up her spoon when it was time to get down.

4th in State

The Rockets beat Connell in 3 sets and then LaSalle in 3 sets to take 4th in State!

Macee, Tierney, Maddie, and Kenzie-the sophomore players on the team and also best of friends.

It was a happy ride home for everyone!

Friday State

Emmy showed up to cheer for the girls and saw them beat Bellevue Christian in 3 sets. Then later they played Lynden Christian and lost 3-1 but it was a very tight match. Macee played her heart out in that match and had 17 kills, more than she ever has gotten, and was really disappointed when they lost.

Thursday Off to State

Go Rockets! Family and fans met at the Park n' Ride to give the team a send-off on their way out of town.

An inside day

Papa is 68, Rielee told him "gee Papa, I thought you were like 27 a little while ago" Papa said, "yes, in the '70's".

Ava was looking at Harper like "hey, sis, it's my turn now, calm down, you're kind of ruining for me"...it was another meltdown with the wagon ride this morning, it didn't help that Harper was kind of tired and cranky about then. Later in the day, she had the wagon all to herself, Ava was playing with the Duplos, so she climbed in and out and got lots of rides. It was such a dark and rainy day that we didn't take them outside.

Duplos

It's more fun by myself
I made a mistake today by emptying out the Duplo wagon so I could give Harper a ride in it. Taking turns isn't a concept the twins can understand yet, so there was a lot of screaming going on while Ava got a ride, then they tried going together but that wasn't comfortable for the one of the bottom so that was the end of that. Bad idea Grandma...They played with the Duplos for a long time today and Ava was very vocal when she was successful at putting them together or taking them apart-very proud of herself, she was just jabbering away the whole time.

A group hug when all the kids were together after school.

Helicopter

Harper and Ava were happy to see Uncle Alan come out of his shop this morning when we were out walking and they were very fascinated by his helicopter.
Our day started out wildly when Ava had a blow-out diaper after breakfast that required an immediate bath (and some clean-up in various spots on the floor as all she had on was a diaper so it travelled down her legs and, well, yuck), and the bath had to be a double bath with a rinse cycle first...

They have been using their little ride-ons more now and scooting, mostly backwards, but they like it best when Auna holds their feet up and pulls them around.

Charb picked them up about noon today and as soon as they left, both Papa and I headed for our chairs to recuperate for a bit!

V'ball District Champs

Macee and the twins after the Rockets won the District Championship this afternoon.

The back of their shirts, they were really good at the match, but we were glad they won the match in 3 sets, because they are busy girls!

They slept good last night, both woke up around 4, had a little milk and then slept until 8:30. They took a little nap before the match, too, so they were in good moods.

We had lots of company in the evening, Uncle Alan came over to visit, then Doni brought up her 2 yr. old Grandniece Emily to play, and Auna and Rielee were also here. We got out the Duplos and Ava figured out how to build with them. The twins went to bed at 9:00 and conked right out.

Charb sent me this neat picture of Luke at the BSU-Hawaii game.

A puzzling day

We bought the girls a puzzle and did we ever get our money's worth of entertainment out of it-they played with it off and on all day. Harper packed around the horse and never would put it back in the puzzle, I finally had to hide it from her since she chewed the nose off of it. They didn't really want to put the pieces in the puzzle and when we did, it would be a contest to see who could grab the most pieces and then throw them on the ground.

We decided to walk over to Uncle Alan's shop and see if he was there. Ava is making her "where is he?" sign. I think Harper is checking out her boots.

Wildlife sighting-A SLUG, wow, and once again, Harper wanted to touch it.

We made a trip to Winco in the afternoon that went surprisingly well. The girls were good, there weren't too many weird people there, and we didn't have to wait in line. Auna and David, who was off work, came over to visit. Then later they stopped by again with Laury after she got off work. David was entertaining the twins by blowing bubbles with his gum, they found it so fascinating that they cried when he left!

We have the girls until Sunday since Charb and Luke went to a Boise State game, with Kelly and Lexi riding going along for the ride (and fun stuff like shopping and swimming).

Cow sighting

Parker, Papa and I took the girls out for a ride this afternoon and this time it was Ava who spotted the cows as we were going down the driveway. Pretty soon both of them were pointing and mooing so we headed across the field to get them a closer look. They got so excited riding across the field, waving their arms and mooing and squealing in anticipation. When we get close, they sit there and stare at the cows, moo a little, sort of overwhelmed, I think. When we left I told them to tell the cows good-bye and they both waved bye-bye at them.

Soccer and v'ball

Another beautiful November day and Harper was begging to go outside first thing in the morning. It was comical watching them walk around with their boots on since they kept looking down at them and would start to lose their balance.

Rielee had her soccer banquet at Papa Pete's tonight so I offered to take her so Gabe and Des could stay at v'ball since the Rockets were playing at District at the same time. Since she wasn't having pizza we only stayed long enough for her to get her trophy, balloon and a cupcake. She wanted to play one game and chose the $2 "Play till you win" grapple or grabbing machine...she tried over and over and over, I tried and her friend tried and she still had not grabbed one when I noticed a guy with a big bag of stuffed animals standing by us waiting to refill the machine. Rielee offered to stop for a minute to let him get in it and he told her she could just take whichever animal she wanted. Yes! She chose the red dophin and we were out of there and back to v'ball! The Rockets beat Rochester and Kalama, both in 3 and they play for the District Championship on Sat. On to State!

Nice November day

A beautiful day and the twins were thrilled to get outside and go for a ride. In the background of this picture is the recently finished Gourde football field, complete with regulation size goal posts and lights for night practice or games and a net to stop the balls when Parker kicks, so they don't have to hunt for the footballs in the woods. (Parker has promised me that if he ever is a pro kicker he will build me a new house!) It is his "field of dreams"...
After we went back inside, Papa went out to mow and when he was mowing the front yard, Harper could hear him, so Auna and I put her and Ava on the couch so they could watch him mow. Harper got so excited that we had to take them out so they could go for a little ride with him. We had to forcefully pull her off his lap when it was time to go back inside--she really loves that mower riding!

Halloween

Getting ready for Halloween, the girls tried on Luke and cousin Dale's clown wigs.

Scary clowns and cute girl cousins all ready to go out.

Minnie Mouse Rielee, Parker as Jason, and Auna the Cowgirl...3 of our 5 trick or treaters. We also had Princess Jillian and the renter's brought their little baby girl Huntress, too, she was a puppy, I think.

Ava and Harper were tired little girls this morning, Halloween really wore them out. They woke up at 7:30 when Rielee came over, and were ready for naps by 9:30.

Early release again this week, so Parker and Auna were here to help in the afternoon. Auna had an accident getting out of the car, though, when Will dropped them off and had a scraped heel. Ava was very sympathetic to her, and was very upset until Auna was feeling better.