James basketball

We went to watch James play basketball this afternoon. His team was playing Monticello, it was an easy win for them, and a lot of fun to watch. James made several baskets and I actually got a couple of them on video, James is in white #20:

After James' game, we saw more basketball in CR, where the Rocket girls lost to LaCenter.

Shoes and school

Rielee got out early today and she wanted to play school. She was the teacher, Papa was "Steve the student in detention", I was "the student with 2 little kids, Ava and Harper". She closed the blinds and said she was going to show us all a movie, but that scared the twins since they thought it might be nap time, so she lectured Papa about not getting anymore "yellow or red cards" and read us a story instead.
Harper and Ava like to pretend play, too. Today, Harper put on my shoes, and Ava was unhappy, so to solve the problem, I suggested to Ava that she wear the "new" shoes we had bought them (but we only found one pair on the clearance rack at Target). That didn't solve anything...then they both wanted the new shoes, this isn't a great picture of Ava,but this is what it came to. Each with one new shoe and one old shoe (and a purse) and everybody was happy!

Curly heads

The girls were in chasing mode this morning after their baths. Papa was gone taking Rielee to school so I was trying to dress them by myself. They thought it was funny to run from me. I love how curly their hair is when it is just towel-dried. We had a good day, got them outside for a couple of walks and some stump-jumping. Ava discovered a little path through a flower bed and she thought it was really fun to navigate through it, Harper followed and they went back and forth, over and over. They went over to Uncle Alan's and saw him up fixing the roof, they were really blown away at the sight of him on the roof, Harper threw her hands up and yelled and ran towards him, then stopped and did it again, she was so excited she was shaking.

Here they are sitting in the recliner, looking at books and supposedly winding down before naptime. Not that they are ever wound down enough to go down willingly for a nap...

Harper coloring on the program, her favorite part of a basketball game. We took them to the girls game tonight. Papa stayed for the boys game but I decided to bring them home, even though they were being good, one game was enough.

Dino Pet

This is Rielee's picture that is in the hallway outside of her room. She was disappointed in her drawing, saying it was pretty hard to draw a dinosaur.

Ava wearing Auna's fashion glasses.

The girls were fighting over an old house phone tonight, so I got an old cell phone out of the diaper bag and gave it to them, then they both wanted that one, so I quickly had to find another old cell phone. They were disappointed that there weren't any pictures or anything on the phones and kept trying to hand them to me to make them do something, but after awhile they decided to play with them anyway.

Rielee visiting Maggie

I took Rielee to visit with Maggie yesterday. When they gave Maggie to Nola (Doni's sister), one of the conditions was that Rielee could visit her once in awhile. Nola was at Doni's house visiting so we went over there. First we stopped at the Dollar store and bought some puppy treats and toys to give Maggie and Nola's other chihuahua Chip. Maggie definitely remembered Rielee and they played and played. Rielee was so sweet and asked Nola if she could be Chip's Mom, too, and maybe take care of both dogs when Nola takes a vacation. I was kind of nervous that Rielee might be upset when it was time to go, but she was fine. She is going shopping today for a hamster.
We went to Kelso this morning to watch Macee 's club volleyball but there wasn't much competetion so we came home so Papa could watch a little football. We will go back for their last match of the day against the 18's black, that should be a good one.

Friday

We started using a regular carseat with one of the girls this week, since Heather returned to work and they needed their carseat base back (which we totally forgot borrowing!!). This transition has proven somewhat trying, since the twin in the new carseat must be unbuckled and transferred to our car, then packed into our house. We didn't have any luck keeping them both asleep after this, so they were up and running at 6:30 a.m., which requires an earlier nap, a much earlier nap. The first day we stayed on our usual nap schedule and they were overly tired. Today we put them down earlier and that worked much better.
I took a video of Harper yesterday on the way back home, she was "reading" a book, she has been jabbering a lot lately. Papa's job this weekend is to study the carseat manual so he can correctly install it facing backwards.

After we took them home, we went to watch the Rocket boys basketball team beat Ridgefield, one of the most exciting games we've seen in a long time!

Harper helping Ava wash her hair, one of the benefits of having a twin sister.

Ava put Big Dog in the highchair this afternoon and then worked and worked to try to buckle him in. When Harper didn't want to have a snack, Ava had one with Big Dog.

We had heard about the girls spontaneously showing affection for each other at home, but today we saw it for ourselves. Oh, they will always kiss and hug each other for us when we prompt them, but today, Ava was working on buckling her little dog in the high chair and Harper came over, put her arm around her and just started giving her kisses. Ava turned around and kissed her back and by the time I got my camera she was back to buckling. It was the sweetest thing to see.

Cathy brought Jillian up to play with the girls for a little while today. They didn't remember her and just kind of followed her around at first. They were starting to warm up to her when Cathy got a call from Bob that Bridget was awake and crying, time to get home.

We met Charb at the girl's basketball game in Ridgefield (they won), but he only stayed until the end of the 1st quarter, both girls were very tired and getting fussy.

Parker wrestling

Say "smile Ava" and this is the look you get:She was brave today and climbed up on the stump and jumped off several times.
We took the girls out for a walk this morning even though it was raining. They first asked about their boots and going outside while Papa was in town, so I told them they had to wait until he got back-a concept I didn't think they were comprehending for all the fussing they were doing. But as soon as he walked in, Harper ran to the boots with Ava right behind her, so we took them out for a little bit. They ran around and finally both fell down a couple of times so we had to wash their pants when we came back inside.

Parker had his first wrestling match tonight, he was pinned but scored some points and looked much better than when he wrestled before. CR has a huge youth wrestling team, probably more than twice the size of Woodland's. After the match, we went to watch the boy's b'ball team play Toledo, it was a close game but they lost.

More "restaurant"

Rielee spent Sunday night with us since Gabe had to work today and Des was still in Eugene with Macee. All she wanted to do was play "restaurant" and she even convinced Papa to play along. She was "Samantha Johnson" who had worked in the restaurant for 10 years and had a little baby named Michael who stayed in the back with the cook and was a "very quiet" baby. Papa and I played several roles, but mostly were a high school cheerleader (Papa) and a basketball player (me)?? Oh my gosh, it was pretty funny...she has such an imagination, except that first thing this morning she was ready to play again. Auna came over and was a good sport, helping Rielee in the restaurant play. Rielee, I mean Samantha, did get preturbed with her, though, thinking she over-charged us ($243.12) for our meal when she filled out the ticket for her, fortunately we were able to just sign for it!
After that, the girls decided to do some drawing and coloring and made some cards to keep busy. Rielee also dusted and washed windows for me.

Rielee's dinos

Rielee came to stay with me this morning instead of going to her basketball camp since she had a little cough. She wanted to do a craft so we headed to Michaels for supplies. On the way she talked me into going to Ross first to look for some dinosaurs (she is studying dinos in school). We found one small set and another package of 4 to paint. At Michaels she decided to get cards and stickers to make Valentines, particularly for Kyle (it is funny that she still thinks about Kyle, even though he has been away at college for so long). I had to talk her out of several gifts she wanted to buy for him, then she started finding things she wanted to buy for her Mom (missing Mom since she will be gone till Monday). Then she wanted to stop at Joann's to look at more crafts supplies. Most everything she wanted there was too expensive though, so we just bought a few more stickers for the cards. She and I had not been shopping for a long time so it was fun seeing what she liked, oh, and she really wants a new blanket, she showed me at least a dozen different fabrics that she "loved". After the card-making, she wanted to play with the marbles so we had a play session of "restaurant" and she played the role of the owner of the "Coffee Place", I was the customer.

We also found some big dinosaurs at Michaels and a dinosaur playmat. We started painting a couple of dinos but will have to finish them another time since she had to go home before we could finish.

Harper's kisses

Harper is an affectionate little girl, and really likes to gives kisses. She has perfected her little smooch and kisses every animal she sees, whether it is a toy, in a book, on the computer monitor, or the TV. She gives her sister lots of kisses, too. Her first kiss this morning went to "Big Dog", she and Ava's favorite stuffed animal.

Trying out their boots

We walked the girls down to the stream today to try out their rubber boots. They thought it was great fun to stomp and splash in the water. They are getting much better at walking on uneven ground and both just hiked right up the hill when it was time to go back to the house.

Coloring

Harper poses for pictures now!
Coloring has become one of the twins favorite activities these days. So we will add it to the list of things that make them scream with delight while they are here, which include:
going outside
the computer
bath time
brushing their teeth
cookies
seeing Max the dog

Things that make them unhappy:
diaper changes (although Ava has recently started to ask for her dirty diapers changed)
nap time (even spelling it upsets them)
Oh, and when they wake up, they want to stay with whoever picks them up, if I pick up Ava, she won't go to Papa, Harper is the same way, there is no swapping kids, ever.
But mostly, they are very happy girls, playing more together and "talking" or jabbering to each other all the time. If one of them is doing something in the other room, she will yell something to her sister, not anything we can understand, and the other will run in there to see what is going on. It is so funny and fascinating to watch.

Out for a walk

Boy, when Papa mentioned going outside today, there was a bunch of whooping and hollering going on. First we went over to see Uncle Alan, but Harper wasn't very interested in being inside for long so it was a short visit.

Then we went over to check out the stump and Ava was afraid to get up on it without help. Now it seems very high to her, I guess, even though it is probably only 3 inches high on the one side. Harper wanted to get on the swings, but they were all wet so we steered them towards the trails instead. They just love to run and toddle along, and they can get way ahead of us fast

and they didn't look too happy when we told them to come back the other way.

Papa picked up Auna and Parker today at the ice cream shop and bought them a smoothie and a milkshake for their "Big Papa" treat. I picked up Rielee and she wanted a "Big Grandma" treat (that really doesn't sound right to me, Big Grandma) so I bought her a Kid's meal since she was hungry and wanted a toy, too, but of course she got one she didn't want...Parker and Auna were peeved that she got a meal so I had to remind them of the times the 3 of us went to Panda Ex. in the past and Rielee didn't get to go along.

Tonight we'll watch the Rocket girls play at home against Kalama.

B'ball at Stevenson

The Barbies and Rielee watching the Pony parade
Rielee spent the night and she was up early this morning to get in some quality Barbie-playing time before she had to go home.

Harper and Ava didn't really watch any of the game, oh except Ava did watch the cheerleaders once.

The boys and girls basketball teams played at Stevenson tonight and both won, yes! We always have lots of family there, but tonight we had a really big bunch, I counted 25 family members watching the 4 cousins play, plus Kevin coaching the boys team.

Luke was pointing out the funny face Harper was making!

The twins were really pretty good at the games, except when Ava slipped off the bleacher and hit her chin on the backrest in front of her. That was my fault for letting her sit by Papa who looked away to watch a foul shot and forgot he had Ava beside him. Papa gets way too wrapped up in the games to keep his eyes on a toddler!

Friday

Ava trying on my shoes.
Geez, so much for the new sippy cups, tossed aside like all the rest, these little darlings are sort of stubborn. Papa summoned it up this way "you can lead a Gourde to a sippy cup but you can't make them drink!"
I caved and gave them a bottle before their naps...

Thursday

I was making a casserole for dinner this morning and Harper wanted to be held to see what I was doing. She started pointing at the casserole where I just a placed a bunch of steamed broccoli but had not stirred it into the pasta. I thought she probably wanted a bite of pasta, but she wanted the broccoli. We put them in the highchairs and they ate so much of it that I had to steam more for the casserole. I knew they liked broccoli but never thought of it as a morning snack!
Harper is still refusing to drink milk out of a sippee cup, even the sippee cups that Kelly gave me that they use at home! I bought two different styles of cups to try with her tomorrow, one with a straw, hoping that will do the trick.

Stinky feet

This video is from last Saturday night when the twins stayed over. Papa had been playing with them for awhile and they were sitting in his chair, getting pretty worn out when he started smelling their feet...

Barbie house

I set up the Barbie house for the girls in the living room today since the playroom is still out of commission. It is just the right height for them to stand and play at, and although they don't play with the Barbies much, they do play with all the other assorted dolls and animals, covering them up in the bed and putting them in the bathroom. I showed them how to sit a couple Barbies on the toy couch but then Harper tried to sit on it with them.

Ava playing peek-a-boo behind the house. They also thought it was funny that they could put things through the windows.

The girls really got into clean-up mode today. They had bowls and kitchen utensils scattered all over and I said it time to clean-up and they went in and put everything away! Papa had given Ava a magazine to look at, when she was done with one page and crumpled it all up, she walked in and put it in the trash, on her own, without being asked or anyone even mentioning it, we were pretty amazed at that!

Tuesday

Rielee wanted me to take a picture of her last night at the b'ball game in White Salmon, wearing the Justin Bieber shirt she got for Christmas. She really likes JB and she told me her friends at school were chasing her around so they could kiss her shirt.
Boys lost, girls won.

A frosty walk

I love these beautiful sunny days, because even though it's cold out, I can take the girls out for a short walk. I gave them a choice today, did they want a ride in their cars or to go for a walk and they took off so fast, in opposite directions! With a little corraling, they happily headed over to Uncle Alan's, but he and Aunt Vera were in town. I let them wander and run around for a little while, they really liked walking through the crunchy frozen grass. Harper cried when it was time to go inside. Today was their first day without bottles and they did really well, there was only one time before their nap when Harper went to the refrigerator and let me know she was thinking about one. We read a book instead, and she was fine. Kelly said they would still have their night bottles though for awhile, of course. I know it was time for them to give up the bottles, but it still made me sad to put them away, they are growing up so fast!

Back to school today for the other kids, Parker said it was horrible, Auna said it was boring, Rielee wished for half-days. Papa let Rielee have a "Big Papa" prize and took her for a BK milkshake after school. In her classroom they earn points and the high scorer every week gets to pick a prize from the "Big Mama"-a large treasure chest. Rielee has earned this several times so Papa decided it was time to reward her with his prize. Parker and Auna let him know that they wanted in on this deal, too, next time he picks them up from school.

End of Christmas break

Parker was happy to see Auna when he got back from Sun River, he even admitted that he missed her. They came over with Rielee to see Ava and Harper, who were spending the night while their parents went to see "True Grit" (good movie, they said).

When the twins got out some pots and bowls to play with, Rielee was right there there helping them. The Dolans came over for awhile to visit, too. They brought a Pictionary card game with them, so we played a couple of games until Ava and Harper decided they wanted to play with the cards. It is a fun game, much easier to play than the drawing Pictionary.

The girls slept so well last night, Ava woke up once, and Harper slept 11 hours straight, yeah! They were really hungry for breakfast, but once again, wanted more off Papa's plate when he sat down to eat. This is getting to be a running joke with us because when they eat in the high chairs, after awhile they start acting like they are full and don't want any more, and the food will start getting dropped on the floor and rubbed in their hair if I don't let them out of their highchairs quickly enough. Then 5 minutes later they are begging for food from Papa like they are starving...and it is the very same food they just refused from me!

Auna and I took them out for a ride in their cars this morning, then we let them run around a little, except they kept running away from us. I think Auna was surprised at how quickly they can move. We met Charb at Target at 1:00, then went to watch Macee play some club v'ball.