Rielee is a 1st grader

Rielee stopped by this morning to show us how she looked on her first day of school. The twins were really impressed with her kitten and puppy themed backpack and lunchbox. Ava (who had just stripped off her sleeper to check out a sore toe) gave the kitten picture a big kiss.

This is how they entertained themselves after they ate or spilled all their snacks on the way home today.

Rielee's haircut

Today was Rielee's last day of summer vacation. She let me to curl her hair since she was getting it cut in the afternoon. She has never wanted me to touch her hair, she always wanted to do it herself, that is until she went down to Aunt Cathy's and got some good do's from her. So yesterday when I asked if she wanted me to fix her hair, she said "no, I want Aunt Cathy to do it, she's an expert!" I guess today she felt sorry for me and finally let me curl it, that and the fact that I told her we would take before and after pix.Rielee's hair before A happy bunch of girls, today we went out and ran some races. Ava and Harper love to run. Ava always cracks us up with her little "chicken wing" left arm a-flying. She will probably really speed up once she starts using both arms...

Ava spotted some pumpkins in the garden.

Rielee's hair after

Sweet sisters

I didn't have one decent picture on my camera today, but opened my e-mail and Charb had sent me this cute one of Harper and Lexi all cuddled up on the couch. The darned potty seat caused lots of problems for Ava and Harper today, we have to get another potty CHAIR. Whoever doesn't get to use the potty seat is very unhappy! I don't like the potty seat anyway because they have to climb up on the stool and then turn around and sit down and I worry they are going to fall and hit their head on the bathtub.

Precious moments

Papa and I were laughing this morning about how we are constantly picking up the house and how it still seems to be just a mess of toys scattered everywhere. We always agree that we don't care what the house looks like, that we love every minute of time we get to spend with Ava and Harper. They are growing up so fast, changing every day. This morning we got to see another precious exchange between them-Ava had tripped and hurt her toe, she was sitting on the floor crying and Harper immediately stopped what she was doing, ran to Ava, squatted down in front of her and said "Awa, hurt?" Ava answered "Yeah, toe!" Harper said "Kiss it?" and Ava picked up her foot and Harper kissed it for her...Papa and I were about in tears watching them, the bond that they have is so amazing. They spent the night with us last night and when they got up and saw each other, their little faces lit up and they grinned, said "hi" and waved a tiny wave to each other. Papa got them all settled this morning with their rockers and blankets to watch "Caillou" while we fixed breakfast. (They had already done the Hokey Pokey with Elmo.) They slept in their clothes since they only had sleepers with them and our house was too warm for those.

Rielee got to go down to Cathy's and play with Jillian this morning, then Jillian came up to play with her. They had a great time teeter-tottering and swinging. It was cute, Grandpa Dan stopped by and offered gum to all the girls. Jillian didn't know what to do with it since she has never had gum, so she was just licking it.

"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take but by the moments that take our breath away"-Anonymous

Adventurous Ava

Ava was trying new things today. In the tub this morning, after Harper got out, Ava laid back and put her head in the water, "like Rie-Rie" she said. She was very proud of herself, and so relaxed, there's lots more room when you have the tub to yourself. Then later in the day, we took them over to the big pool to swim. I went in the water with them (Papa said the water was too cold and sat on the side) and Ava immediately wanted to ride the Shark, and again, she was so proud of herself. And when she was swinging today on the big girl swing, she leaned back (again like Rielee does) kind of like she was going to pump, doesn't sound like much but for her it was exciting! We were outside a lot today. Rielee entertained the girls while they were swinging, being silly and pretending they were kicking her down. They laughed so much and laughed just as hard when I showed them the video on the computer.
Rielee and Harper-happy little cousins!

Potty practice

It was hot out this morning so we filled their pool, put on their swim diapers, swimsuits and sandals and head outside. They play around in the water a little and then head to the teeter-totter. Then I smell a messy diaper, I ask "who's poopy?"
Ava says "I pooped!"
Harper says "No, I pooped!" back and forth, louder and louder this conversation goes on. Finally after checking Ava's diaper we go back in the house, I change Ava and put her suit and sandals back on. Then Harper goes in the bathroom, gets the potty seat out and puts it on the toilet, gets the stool and says she needs to go. So I strip her down and she climbs up, sits down, oops, forgot books, gets down for books, then Ava says she needs to go again, so I strip her down and she sits down, then gets back up for books, too. They sit there for awhile, getting up periodically to see if anything has appeared, but nothing happens, so I dress them once more and we go back outside.
They are so enthusiastic about this process, hopefully soon it is all going to click for them and they will breeze right through potty training!

Rielee overnight

Rielee spent the night with us so when the twins got here we sent them in to wake her up but they couldn't do it. Rielee needed to sleep a little longer. The girls were in a much better humor today and were happy and ready to play right away. Lately they have been playing with the Fisher Price dollhouse people, they especially like putting everyone to bed.

Rielee loves to cut flowers for her Mom, she cut one of these daisies to put in Ava's hair, but when she went to try to put it in, she noticed it had little bugs in it and the flower went flying. James and Alan came over to visit this morning and Harper really put on a show for them, dancing around and falling down, it was quite entertaining in a manic sort of way. Ava was nervous and didn't want to look at James until he offered her some "bum".
Alan later took the kids to the creek. Auna got to drive Alan's 4-wheeler down there while James rode in the wagon and Parker rode his.

Must have Play-Doh!

Ava came to Papa and showed him a container of Play-Doh this morning, he asked her how she got it and she went to the cabinet and showed him...so much for child-proofing...she's been paying attention! The girls were extra crabby this morning, not happy about having to get up so early on Monday, I guess. We were counting the hours until naptime, thinking they were really tired and then they only slept for an hour! They were much happier though, and Auna and Rielee were here to play with them so the afternoon was lots better.

They love games

Our breakfast plans went awry this morning. We had planned on having a simple breakfast of cereal, oatmeal, toast or muffins and fruit. But when Grandpa asked Lindsey if she liked oatmeal she said it looked like puke...okay, so then I showed her the cereal we had and she didn't like either one of those. So we scrapped that menu for pancakes and sausage. Lindsey, Grandpa and Liann
They are busy girls and love to play games. Our morning entertainment was 13 games on Candy Land, 8 of which Liann won, Lindsey won 4, I won the last one. Then it was on to 3 games of Tumbling Monkeys before it was time for them to get ready to go. They left about noon driving back to San Diego, and will fly home to Japan next week. We miss them already.

Liann is 6

Saturday was a busy day. Grandpa took Liann, Lindsey, Paty and Scott to see Mt. St. Helens. They stopped at the Forest Learning Center first and the girls really enjoyed the exhibits there. Grandpa thought it was hilarious because everywhere they went, Lindsey would pose and say "take a picture of the birthday girl"! After driving to Johnson Ridge, they stopped at 19 Mile House for lunch on the way back. When they got home, they went over to the pool to swim with Rielee and Parker. Liann swam right up to Gabe, who she probably didn't remember from last year, and yelled "it's my birthday today"!

While the girls were gone to the mountain, Parker and I filled up 50 water balloons to play with for Lindsey's party. They had alot of fun tossing them up in the air with the towels.

Then it was time for cake, ice cream and presents, first for Lindsey, and then Scott, who's birthday is tomorrow. I baked a cake for him and the girl's decorated it. After that, the girls played with Barbies and Parker headed home. After the Barbies, they played "L&L Restaurant" until bedtime, Liann wrote out a complete menu of every play food item in the kitchen, they would take our orders, serve us, and then we would pay with real money out of Lindsey's little wallet.

Liann & Lindsey

We went to the big pool in the morning and Harper wanted to ride on the Shark like Rielee, but then she backed out. When we went back after naptime, Papa got in the pool with the kids and then Harper was brave enough to do it. In the afternoon, Scott, Paty, Liann and Lindsey came to visit. The girls were excited to see Rielee, as she was them, and they all went swimming together.

Rielee came back to play after dinner and they started a game of Sorry, but got bored with it, switched to Tumbling Monkeys and then went outside to play.

What is a "chichen"?

To give Parker and Auna something to do today I gave them some old paint and asked them to paint the pigeon wagon. I checked on them once and they were doing a good job. But then I looked out the window and they had painted the tires, too. Auna said it was Parker's idea, he thought it looked "cool". Oh well, the poor wagon is so old. Papa bought it years ago from a guy that used to haul his homing pigeons in it, we have put many miles on it hauling brush and firewood, and kids. Harper had us stumped this morning. Something happened to her foot while she was in the tub, one minute she was fine and then she started to cry and say "chichen" and point to it, we could not figure out what she was saying. She kept saying it, over and over and limping around on her heel. This went on for about an hour, we couldn't see anything on her foot, she wouldn't let us put a bandaid on it either, so finally Papa gave her the bandaid and she packed it around then ended up putting it on her ankle. Eventually, the "chichen" pain went away and she was bearing weight on her foot just fine.

Fun in the pool

Today was a perfect summer day, a little cool in the morning but it was warm enough to be outside by 10:30. Ava and Harper quickly managed to get their clothes soaked splashing around in and around their pool, so before long we put their swimsuits on and headed over to the big pool. Auna and Rielee were busy doing somersaults and handstands underwater and came up with these lovely pool hairdos!

Macee asked if I would take her picture with Ava, she had been holding her so she could kick her feet in the water. Macee said she loves Harper and Ava's pretty curly hair.

Harper was the first one in the water, wanting on the air mattress first and then she went in the little boat.

Ava wouldn't sit on the air mattress, she wanted to sit on the tubes and hang onto the handles.

I think they would stay in the pool all day, but by noon they were looking a little worn out and getting fussy from hunger so we headed inside for lunch and a nap.

Luke came up with his little sisters today. Parker was at a friend's house until 11, but Auna was here so he hung around with her and Rielee, plus he brought up his skateboard so he spent some time riding it. Once it warmed up, they all went swimming and after Parker got done with his hunter safety homework, they all hung out inside for awhile and then they hit the pool again. We took Ava and Harper over and they floated around on the air mattresses with Auna and Luke, but weren't real happy since the sun was in Harper's eyes and bothering her, and Ava thought the water was cold (which it was since we had to add some this morning). So they didn't stay in for very long, and went happily back to their pool.Someone had the bright idea today to set the girls' slide beside their pool so they could slide right in the water. They had a good time with that.

Parker is signalling "42" which looks like "24" since they had been playing football earlier and that was one of the plays, I guess...being silly.

Pretty dresses

Kelly sent up the dresses that Rielee gave the twins for their birthday so they could wear them once with her, since she has a matching one. The girl's dresses are a little big on them but they didn't care and you could tell they felt special with them on since they were twirling and dancing all over the place. Fresh out of their bath, they posed a picture.

When Rielee came over, the posing got a little crazy and this was the best picture I could get, every other one was blurry since they couldn't keep still.

We actually got some peas and carrots out of the garden today, at first Ava and Harper didn't like them, but they quickly changed their minds and ate lots of peas and a carrot, too.

After naptime it was pretty warm out so we took them out to play. Rielee and Auna were outside, too. Auna got the hose and started spraying it up in the air so it would come down on the girls, they got soaked and thought it was great fun!

Liann and Lindsey

We were so proud of Liann and Lindsey today. They both got up and spoke at their Grandma's memorial service. It was so touching and sweet to hear how much they loved her and will miss her. We took some silly pictures afterwards to lighten the mood, and of course it worked, at least for a little while.

Such sweeties

We get such a kick out of watching Ava and Harper play. Today Ava climbed up in the recliner and patted her lap for Harper to come and sit so she could hold her. When Harper sat down, Ava said "back" so Harper would lean back and their heads would touch. Priceless. Then it was Harper's turn to do the holding...

They slept in a little this morning, getting up about 7:30. It was too chilly to play outside so we entertained them in the house. Auna, Laury, David and Alan came over to visit. Laury brought them some fresh blueberries but neither one liked them. After lunch, they took a long nap and then the sun was out so they were able to play outside the rest of the time. They were upset that the pool was gone and they didn't have any water to play in, so Papa got the hose and filled up their watering cans so they could water the flowers. Instead, the chose to put rocks on the deck and rinse them off.

Overnight

Twins are fun, except when they are both upset and throwing a fit, then they are deafening! This morning as we were unloading them from the car, Harper noticed the pool and wanted to go and play in it. I took her over to it, thinking she would change her mind once she felt how cold the water was. Wrong, she was so mad that she had to go inside that she lost it, and Ava was mad because she didn't get to go to the pool at all. After a couple of minutes of crying, they were up and playing like nothing was wrong. But what a loud and long couple of minutes! Jillian and Bridget came up to play today. Ava and Harper were already splashing around in the pool, we only had one swimsuit in their bag so Auna went over and found a couple of Rielee's old suits and Jillian and Harper wore those.

They had lots of fun on the hammock with Auna, in the playfort and on the slide, teeter-totter, and swinging. They ate lunch outside, too.

They all got along so well, Ava and Harper followed Jillian everywhere she went, trying very hard to climb up the ladder to the playfort like Jillian did but fortunately with the bottom step off they just can't do it.

Little Bridget isn't little anymore and is walking really well, what a cutie.

Jillian was swimming and splashing and having so much fun in the pool that Harper jumped right in to join her!
After Bridget and Jillian left, the girls took a long nap then they went back outside to play again. Auna blew bubbles with them and they dipped water out of the pool to pour on the driveway, that is still big entertainment for them.

Our entertainment for the night was watching the girls as they watched Wipeout with Papa. Every time someone would fall into the water, they would reinact it, making faces and throwing themselves on the floor!

Wednesday

Emmy stopped to say good-bye on her way back to Ellensburg this morning. She had to pose with the girls in their highchairs since they wouldn't sit with her for a picture. We gave them suckers thinking that would keep them happy there for a second, but they wanted english muffins instead. They did both say her name, in unison, which made her happy-she said it was her "going away" gift from them. The girls got to play outside for quite awhile today. They like to play on the

hammock now and can climb up into it by themselves if someone holds onto it.

They were rolling around in it and tickling each other.

Auna the helper

Auna spent most of the day with us and was a big help with the twins. She played cards with them, asking them what the different pictures were on the alphabet cards, then correcting their pronunciation if needed. A couple of months ago we put the puzzles away since they were bored with plus fighting over them. Now they are getting really good at putting them together, and Harper will say "turn it, turn it" when she can't get a piece in, just like Papa told her.
Oh, and we managed to put Ava's hair in a ponytail today.

"Bum"

Ava loves gum. She asks for it earlier every day, this morning it was right after breakfast. She goes to Papa and says sweetly, with her head slightly cocked to the side "bum, Papa, bum?" and then shakes her head up and down. He cannot refuse her and gives them both half a piece, telling them "now chew it, don't swallow it". Yeah, right, like any little kid does that. Last Friday she asked while they were in the tub and he gave it to them! There is no pretending anymore, not that ever was, that these two don't have him wrapped tightly around their little fingers...
Harper especially has taken to Papa, I can't do anything for her anymore, he has to change her diapers, dress her, put her in and out of the tub, in and out of the highchair, in and out of her carseat, etc. Everything. (He would feel really special except he knows that she does the same thing with her Papa Mike.) Fortunately Ava doesn't care as much and I can do some things for her! It must be a twin thing.

Ava, so happy she got gum!

Having a little snack outside


We went for a walk to see if Auna and Emmy were home but they weren't, we found their little trike over in their yard so they took turns pushing each other on the way back to our house.
Ava got the first turn.

Saturday night

We were having a quiet Saturday evening until Rielee and Parker came over while their parents went out for a couple of hours. Then Rielee instantly put us all in "craft" mode, making coffee filter butterflies, Parker and Papa made their own, and Rielee and I made one for everyone else in the neighborhood, 16 in all. It was quite a production. Auna and Emmy stopped by for a little visit, and they posed for a picture, Rielee in her own special way.

This cracked us all up, the tattoo Parker got at the JH Kelly family picnic, oh my gosh, really? So wholesome.

Potty party

It looked like a book club meeting in the bathroom this morning. Harper had mistaken gas for the real thing when she asked for a diaper change, so I had her sit on the potty to see if something more would happen. Rielee and Ava came along for support, nothing came of Harper's effort but at least she tried. Ava tried, too, several times she sat down for a second then got up and looked to see if there was anything there. It was pretty comical. They went in to the doctor for their 2 year check-up yesterday. Kelly said that Ava weighed 27 lbs., Harper 25 lbs., they are in the 35-50 percentile for weight. 15th percentile for height, and their head sizes are normal.