Friday, December 30, 2011

more PlayDoh stuff

Ava and Harper spent the night last night and Rielee brought over her old PlayDoh set for them, a huge one. We now have doubles of everything plus lots of other cool stuff. They sat and played and laughed for the longest time.Those are Harper and Ava's new Build-A-Bears sitting in the chair, they just got them Thursday.

They had PlayDoh session #2 this morning after their bath, Auna supervised them. The yellow tub on the floor is what Rielee brought over and Harper's bear seems to be napping under the table...



Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Surprise party

Charb (with help from Kelly's friends) had a surprise 4oth birthday party for Kelly tonight at Camas Meadows, and boy, she really was surprised! Harper, Rielee and Ava were trying to talk the little guy into sharing more of the cereal in his snack cup.
He finally got up and left shortly after this and came over to see the pictures I had taken, the girls followed him with their hands out so he took off, guarding his cup.

I was holding Ava when Kelly and Charb came in and she yelled "surprise!" just like I told her to.


When I took this picture, Ava was more fixated on the cupcakes that were on the table behind her and not at all interested in smiling for a picture with Mom. She had already sampled one of the cupcakes with Papa and knew how good they were!



Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Horton

Early morning games of Horton Hears A Who, Rielee won 2 games and I won one. She was so happy that Papa played along.

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Christmas late morning

We went to Camas to exchange gifts with Charb, Kelly, Lexi, Luke, Ava and Harper, arriving about 11:00 a.m., the kids had slept until 9 so they were just finishing up with breakfast. Having opened gifts early the twins were experienced but still excited to open more.


They had a problem, both had new babies but only 1 new bottle! Ava is wearing both her and Harper's new tutus over her p.j.'s.




Papa and Luke putting the handle on the little trampoline we got them, the girls at first thought it was a little platform and were sitting on it with their babies. It didn't take them long to get the hang of it:




















Christmas early morning

Gabe, Des, Macee, Parker and Rielee came over at 7:15 for breakfast. They were up early, actually Rielee tried getting up the first time at 3:00 a.m. She was overly anxious since she lost a tooth yesterday and was wondering if Santa and the tooth fairy might meet each other at her house.
We had our traditional biscuits and gravy and also french toast, fried potatoes and bacon. Rielee and Parker breezed through breakfast and had to wait for the rest of us before they could open their stockings. Once again, no big winners on the scratch off tickets in our stockings.

Rielee was very happy with her little jewelry armoire, she owns lots of jewelry and was anxious to get it home and fill it up.

Macee with a book on sports and Parker with his Legos. Macee curled up and fell asleep on the couch right after this.





Christmas Eve

Our family Christmas party was at Robin and Dan's this year. Santa stopped by and had lots of time to visit, he talked to Rielee for a long time and had Parker sit on his lap, then Macee reluctantly joined in for a picture.

Parker was surprised and excited when he opened a "Rambo" style knife from Luke. Apparently, his Dad told Uncle Charb that this was an appropriate gift for an 11 year old. When I questioned Gabe about it, he reminded me that he had one when he was Parker's age, a memory I've apparently blocked.







Thursday, December 22, 2011

Thursday

Ava and Harper came up yesterday afternoon to spend the night with us since Dad was getting his cast in the morning. They both slept great, which was good since Rielee called at 7:30, ready to come over and play with them. Rielee wore her matching dress so they could all look alike. Rielee later played dress-up with the girls, putting one of her old princess dresses on them, they loved that.
Thank goodness Auna came over to visit, she was a big help to me since Papa was out in the shop working. Our friend Taylor stopped by with presents for the kids. She got Rielee a cute dog purse, Parker a shirt and she made Ava and Harper both cute little aprons...
but they were more excited about the big candy canes that were in their bags. They just laughed and laughed when they saw them, and couldn't wait to get them open!
Harper later posed for me in her apron.
.
In the evening we watched the CR girls basketball team beat LaCenter, Macee had 21 pts.





Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Camas visit

I went to Camas today to visit with Charb and the twins while Kelly went shopping for a little while. It was fun watching the girls play with all their toys. They were very entertaining. They showed me how they play football with Dad on the Playstation.They got out their soccer balls and cones and showed me how they kick their balls into the cones and knock them over. Harper was in charge of setting up the cones.


Harper sat down in their little recliner so I went to pull out the footrest so she could recline but she quickly stopped me, saying "no, Ava do it!", and Ava did it, too. They also watched some Dora on TV, finally moving on from Caillou. Lexi and cousin Adrianna had Ava counting to 10 in Spanish, too.

In the evening, we went to the boys basketball game vs. Ridgefield. They lost but Will had a great game with 39 points!





Saturday, December 17, 2011

Saturday

Every morning after their bath, I bundle each of them up in their towel, hold and talk to them like they are babies again, then I plop them on the couch-they get such a kick out of it. You know it is going to be a good day when you see smiles like these.


We met Kelly and Lexi at Luke's basketball game. Luke played a great game, scoring 10 points. I think Harper is probably making this face because she just passed gas...she was a very odoriferous girl the whole time we were there!


They were in a dancing mood this morning when they heard "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer":









Friday night

We picked up Rielee from school this afternoon so she could stay with us while Mom and Dad went to Macee's game in White Salmon (both boys and girls teams won). The twins are staying overnight again since their Dad had achilles surgery today, and they were happy to have Rielee to play with. The watched the Chipmunk movie and Rielee made lots of big snowflakes out of tissue paper to put up on the windows. She is hoping for a white Christmas. Rielee joined in on the "Head shoulders knees and toes" song with the girls.
I picked up Parker from a friend's house at 8. He spent the evening loading and setting up his Sims game on my laptop.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

A busy day

We did lots of stuff today and had lots of visitors. Emmy and Alan came by in the morning. Auna and Laury stopped by in the afternoon, then came back later with David. Des and Rielee came over in the evening and Rielee played with the girls, she had them cracking up with her antics-which mostly consisted of pretending to fall down, and she also pushed them fast on their little ride-ons. The girls spent time coloring, playing with PlayDoh, and frosting sugar cookies. We took a break and went over to visit Emmy and they played with Sam and Charlie.

They really wanted to watch me cook dinner so I put a couple of chairs up to the counter and let them "stir-stir-stir" as Ava always says (everything in threes) the muffin batter. Harper had other plans though, and just started filling the cups on her own.

It was a day of "owees" which started when Ava hurt her knee somehow in the morning, she said she tripped on her little chair, it didn't start hurting her until bathtime, after which she couldn't walk, and we heard "no walk" for the rest of the morning (I think she was just super tired). By afternoon and after their nap, she was better but she continued to need bandaids for this and that and by the end of the day I had 5 on my leg for one little scrape. Then she showed up with this one on her forehead, which made us laugh! I think bandaids are really just like stickers to them.

Harper's baby, all tucked in for bed. When the girls nap, Harper tucks in baby on the floor near them, along with some snacks. Tonight she put baby right by the pack n' play where she sleeps. She is quite the little Mommy.







Scissors and Rielee's concert

The girls practiced using scissors today during PlayDoh time. The both did a good job.


Ava had made a bunch of PlayDoh "wormies" that they cut up into little pieces.

Rielee had her Christmas concert tonight, she is front row center in the red skirt.











During the 2nd/3rd grade performance, it was sad when a little girl in the front row got sick and projectile vomited, she was quickly taken aside and the show went on to the dismay of several little boys that were standing next to her and surrounded by the mess. They bravely plugged their noses and kept on singing but looked so miserable!

Monday, December 12, 2011

Emmy's home for Christmas

Emmy came over to visit this morning. The girls remembered her but were a little quiet, it will take a couple of days for them to get to know her again. They both had tummy aches this morning so they stayed in their p.j.'s a little later than usual. Emmy helped Harper peel stickers to decorate their foam tree, it was the perfect craft for them since they love stickers.

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Decorating the tree

We finally brought the tree in the house today. Rielee and Parker spent the day with us so Rielee helped me decorate it, even though she didn't feel that well (we've all had a touch of whatever Ava and Harper had). After we got the tree done, we ran into town to the Dollar Store to buy some toys to send to Maggie (her old dog) for Christmas, she also bought Christmas cards for Maggie and her dog- brother Chip. When we got home we wrapped presents so the tree would have something underneath it and wrapped the gifts for the dogs and got that package ready to send tomorrow.


Thursday, December 8, 2011

Our Christmas tree fiasco

I wanted to get a tree from the Eagle's lot, I thought that would be a good idea for this year, but Papa thought it would be fun to take Ava and Harper to the tree farm. So off we go, the girls and I in the car and Papa in the truck. We get out of the car and Ava is afraid of the owner's black Lab so she wants to be carried, so Harper wants Papa to carry her, too. Then we can't find the skinny tree our house requires, and we keep walking and searching until we are at the far end of the property, and Harper finally did get down and walked a little. Finally we find the perfect tree, I put Ava down and she tries to run over to watch Papa cut it down--and trips on a blackberry vine and does a face plant right under the tree. She is very unhappy and crying. Just then a kid that works there stops to see if we need help, but Papa says "oh no, we're fine". But then it is time to pack out the tree and neither Ava or Harper will walk, they stand there and cry to be picked up, they are nervous. So I pack them both as far as I can while Papa carries the tree. I holler for the kid, but he is no where to be found now. So I put the girls down and rest a second while they cry some more...do this a couple more times before I make it back to the house. Oh my gosh, I am thinking, who's idea was this again?


Oh, but then the lady had candy canes and we had happy girls, getting a tree is suddenly a good thing! On the way home I asked them if they had a good time getting the tree, "YEAH!" they said.


I think to myself, why didn't I carry the tree?


My back hurts.


We watched the Rocket boys and girls play Hoquiam in the evening. The girls won but the boys lost by 2 in the last seconds.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Playroom tree

First thing every morning Harper puts the babies she brings with her to bed in the playroom and turns off the light, this morning she and Ava were so excited to see their little Christmas tree all lit up in the dark. They put a few ornaments on it and then proceeded to rearrange them throughout the day.

Rielee got her hair cut yesterday, she was feeling pretty special with her new bob.

A new napping arrangement today. For the longest time, I've been rocking Ava to sleep and then putting her on the bed, Papa rocked Harper and then we put her on the bed with Ava. Then it changed to me rocking both of them. Today they both bailed on me and went to rock with Papa, except they all slept for 3 hours in the chair. I had to wake them up so we had enough time to feed them before they went home.
The Rocket girls played a great game vs. Mark Morris tonight and won 52-45.




Owies

Harper fell and scraped her shin today and needed a bandaid, so of course Ava needed one, too. They insist on putting the bandaids on themselves, Harper missed the actual scrape by a couple of inches but it didn't seem to matter to her.
No potty training progress today.Papa took them back a little early today. Papa Mike was meeting him to get the girls and I guess there was a whole lot of happy squealing going on when the girls saw him.

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Bazaar/garage sale

Another successful Country Cousins Bazaar/garage sale! The kids were very hard workers.

We sold nearly all the bazaar things and a ton of garage sale items, raising over $600.

Rielee took a break to play with Jillian and drove the Jeep down and right into the shop, circled the table and then went down Robin and Dan's driveway, with Jillian chasing behind her. Then all of a sudden, Jillian came running back, yelling that Rielee had some problem and was crying. It turned out that her scarf got tangled in the wheel and was choking her a little before she figured out to stop the Jeep. She was pretty shook up by the ordeal.

Tierney was doing the Walk n' Knock in the morning and Macee was taking the S.A.T., but they showed up to work afterwards. Auna was a trooper and worked the entire day.


Rielee and Jillian with Sophie, dressed in a sweater.

In the evening, we watched the Rocket boys basketball team win their first game against Oakville. It was fun watching Will, Cale and Ty all playing together. We have a lot of good basketball players in this family.









Friday, December 2, 2011

Snake pictures

Didn't take a picture today either, this one is from early in the week but represents what Harper has been doing all week, drawing "snake" pictures. She made one this morning while Laury and David were here visiting and gave it to David to take home. Ava has made a few also.


Harper had a good day in the potty department, with 3 successful trips, Ava was not interested in going herself, but was supportive of her sister, bringing her books and high-fiving her when she did well.

Went to watch the Rocket girls play Montesano in the evening. Good game but nerve-wracking with both Macee and Tierney in foul trouble but they won.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Busy day

Today flew by so fast I didn't even take one picture of anything. The girls slept in until 8:00. We had breakfast and bathtime, then I took the girls to town while Papa went to the high school to put up the basketball player's pictures. We were back by 10, worked on the potty training some- it sometimes takes some conjoling to get them interested in the process. I got Ava on the potty chair but Harper wasn't interested until I pretended to call Papa Mike and told him how good Ava was doing, then Harper pretended to call him and told him "I go potty, too" and she climbed up on her potty seat. Spent a lot of time in the bathroom, but they are learning.
Note: they won't wear blue undies...
When they were leaving to go home today, once again Harper's little brown doggie was missing and she was frantic. We searched the house and couldn't find it, gave up and told her that Papa would look for it tonight. She found it herself in the laundry room as we were going out the door and she was just about hysterical in her happiness, half crying and laughing!