Papa come back!

Our morning started out well, the girls all had a nice breakfast together, with lots of chocolate milk bubbles.

Harper happily showing off their "tent" to Auna (she's in the back) which is actually the Pack n' Play on it's side, an idea we got from Aunt Cathy.

Then, about 9 o'clock, Papa had to leave to go a dr. appt. and shopping, and that didn't sit well with the girls. Ava was very unhappy, crying at the back door for him to come back. She also didn't want to take a bath, and I decided that was fine with me. It made Harper happy to have some alone bath time with lots of room to "swim".

After bath time I put panties on them. By lunch they were out of both dry panties and pants to wear, but Harper did have some success the last time she went so she was feeling good about that. Baby steps...

Naptime without Papa was difficult for Harper, but she settled down pretty quickly. He got home just in time to get them to sleep.

Nap time gone awry

Some people might think nap time in Papa's world is getting a little out of hand. The girls have to hold so much

stuff, their blankets, stuffed animals, any babies they brought along for the day (2 each these days), and now they have added the balls...Ava asked for hers too, right after I took this picture. He just laughs, by the time they fall asleep, most of the stuff has been discarded onto the floor.

He has a lot of patience with these silly girls, of course, they have him wrapped around their little fingers,

and he usually more ready for a nap than they are.

Pretty nails

Harper and Ava with their pretty nails. Ava was making the oddest faces today, very overly exagerated, this was supposed to be a smile? They slept in until 8, had just finished breakfast when Rielee came over to play. They all took about an hour bath together, then entertained themselves with PlayDoh, playing kitchen, the computer and a few cartoons and dancing mixed in, too.

Rielee can paint her own nails now, but her polish had too strong an odor so she only did one hand and then had me remove it right away. Too smelly to do the other hand.

Papa took the girls back to their Grandma Barb at 2:30, in time to get back for the Rocket girls game at 3. They beat White Salmon, which makes them the Trico League Champions, they are the first Castle Rock girls team ever to win it. The boys team won also, and Will made 7- 3 point shots!

Stevenson

Went to Stevenson tonight and watched the Rocket girls beat Stevenson for their 16th win. Down 21-19 at half, they came back and made it 40-23 at the end of the 3rd quarter. We picked up Ava and Harper and brought them home with us. They had just taken a bath and were in their p.j.'s., ready to go.

Finally sharing those manners

Whenever Ava and Harper play and talk to each other, they are very polite, saying "please" and" thank you" all the time (unless they are fighting over something, of course). So we knew they had manners, but just not with us, we were constantly reminding them to say those "magic words". But today, all that finally changed! At breakfast and lunch, it was "Papa more milk please" and "thank you Papa".

And if you want to hear something cute, ask Ava to say "oh my goodness" which comes out "oh my noodness".

These pictures are from 2006-Auna, Rielee and Macee, and that's Parker under the sled.

Auna, Will, Emmy, Parker and Macee sledding, Laury watching.

Barbie time

Rielee had early release today. After a snack she wanted me to play Barbies with her since the twins were napping.We had just gotten everything out when they woke up. They were so happy to see her, the Barbies and the horses, they haven't played with them for awhile.

Legos

Ava and Harper really like the big Legos, making trains and playing with the cars and trucks. They have abandoned the Duplos except for dumping them out to use the wagon for rides. The girls spent the night with us and I took them to Will's game. Parker and Auna rode along with me to help me pack them in at the high school. They were really good, and cheered and yelled for Will in between snacking, coloring and with the Legos we brought with us.

The Rockets beat LaCenter in the last second of the game!

Drawing faces

Ava and Harper are really getting good at drawing faces. Ava drew this picture of her family this morning.

The girls haven't drank any milk since they quit the bottles, but lately Ava has been trying a little chocolate milk when Rielee was here for breakfast. This morning she drank a big glass full. And Harper, she hasn't even tried any milk of any kind, but today Papa showed her how to blow bubbles in the milk.

She thought that was the funniest thing ever, and then she actually sipped some of the milk and liked it, so that was great.

Will & Cale b'day

We celebrated Will and Cale's birthday today at the Dolan's (their real birthday was Friday). Laury them a cool Air Jordan cake.

Will is 18, Cale 17, Cale was looking pretty good after his concussion on Friday during the basketball game, Julie said his headaches and dizziness are gone.

Cousins of all ages waiting for cake.

Friday

Auna and Parker stopped by after school for a short visit and shared their BK treat with Ava, Harper and me.

Bridget/Macee's game

Cathy brought Bridget up to play with Ava and Harper this morning. First thing Harper did was grab her babies and guard them. They just weren't sure what to do with her but finally decided to just let her play along side of them. Bridget didn't care and even gave Harper a couple of hugs.

The Rocket girls beat Ridgefield at their house tonight. Charb, Kelly, Luke and Lexi met us there so we could all cheer on Macee and Tierney. Afterwards, Macee had a picture taken with the Ridgefield coach, Carl Click of KATU news, she's a big fan of his.

BIG snow

With the weather being questionable, Ava and Harper spent the night with us. When Harper got up this morning, she looked out the slider, threw her arms up in the air and yelled "BIG SNOW!" We got them outside as soon as we could since it was supposed to warm up and start raining. Harper wanted to walk herself, of course, and tried to take off right into the deep snow, tripped and ended up crawling because she couldn't get her footing, that was the end of her walking. We got about 11 inches of snow overnight, which made the sledding very difficult, too.

After going over the ruts in the driveway, both girls were unhappy and wanted out. I took them back to the porch and let them play there. We made a tiny snowman and they threw some snow around.

Ava was a happy girl then.

We spent the rest of the day inside. I made some sugar cookies and let them do the frosting.

Harper really liked the frosting.

Snow day

More snow so Toutle was out for the day and CR was had a late start. Auna came over early and we got the girls dressed and outside to play. They built a snowman with Auna and Rielee. We went out again later in the morning. Papa and Rielee got the sleds out and they sledded down the driveway. Ava and Harper really loved being pulled around on the sled by Papa, and then he and Rielee gave them pushes down the driveway.





Rielee and I came out again while the girls were napping. First we built a snowman, then Rielee wanted to build snowforts so we could have a snowball fight.

Snowy Monday

Parker rode down to the road to see if cars were still on the road since it had been snowing for a long time today. They were, so we went down to CR to get some donuts to take over to the Dolan's. They had invited me over to play Scrabble. Auna has started playing too, so she played with us and Parker watched, then he and Auna both played together in the second game. When we came home, he called and invited Auna over to play another game, and that was fun.

Gabe, Des, Rielee and Macee got home about 4:30. Big hugs between Parker and "Rooster" as he calls Rielee. "Roost" for short.

They have gotten quite close lately, and really missed each other. Rielee couldn't wait to get out and play in the snow since there wasn't any in Eugene.

Snow, V'ball & B'ball

Parker, Ethan, Ridge, Skylar, Owen and Austin

I took Parker to a basketball tournament in Toutle today, they played 4 games, didn't win, but two of the games they only lost by 2 points. Parker played well, but said his knees hurt after all the running, with only 1 extra player on the team.

Papa went to Mark Morris to watch Lexi play in a club volleyball tournament. After watching a couple matches, he brought Ava and Harper home. After a little play time and soup for lunch, they went down for a nap.

The girls were so excited to see the snow.

After naptime, we took them back to Kelly and watched the end of Lexi's last match. Parker was hungry so we stopped at Panda. On the way out to the car, he stuck his new aluma wallet under the back wheel of the car to see if really was "crush-proof"-sure enough, Papa backed right over it and it was fine.

The Icee nightmare

I took Parker and Auna to town and on the way home Parker started begging for an Icee, I told him "no" since I don't buy him pop but he continued to beg and in desperation started calling his family in Eugene to get permission. Finally he got the okay from his Dad and we head to the CR BK. On the way Auna tells me how they just have 2 sizes there, and the small and medium Icees are actually both 16 ounces, but when we got there Parker ordered a large and Auna a small, I didn't think anything of it since Auna said they are the same. So I about flipped when I got to the window and the guy hands me this gargantuan Icee...

turns out it was actually a 40 ounce Icee, by this time Auna is doubled up laughing, Parker is thrilled to death. Neither had ever seen such a large Icee. When we got home, I had to take a picture of it, of course, and then Parker sat it on the counter and I accidently shoved it off the counter and watched it splatter all over the floor. Parker started freaking out that most of his huge Icee is on the floor and tried to scoop it up with his hands, which just spread it around even more...Auna is once again, doubled up laughing.

So in the end, he got a 16 ounce, approximately, after all.

And I got a sticky floor, Parker pointed that out to me later.

Rielee

Rielee posed in her penguin hat and shirt before school this morning. She was disappointed that Ava and Harper weren't here ( they stayed with Barb and Mike) but she felt special when I told her we were happy because we had her all to ourselves. In the evening we went to watch the CR boys play Toledo. Will and Cale both played their hearts out, along with the rest of the team, it was a close game all the way, they were ahead several times and they almost won it! They were definitely winners to us!

Going to Alan's

Harper and Ava delivering cinnamon rolls to Alan's house, crunching the leaves as they go. Even though it is just across the way, to them it is a big adventure.

Potty watches

What a cute idea, these potty watches, I was curious to see how the girls would do with them, but we couldn't figure out how to set them. Fortunately the instructions were easy to find on-line. Ava was happy to wear hers but Harper didn't want to, so we just kept it near her so she could hear it. We set the "watches" to go off-they play a little tune, every hour. They were happy every time their watches played music and ran to go potty, no luck while there, but at least they are happy to try.

This was so funny, after their nap and potty attempt I put a diaper on Harper and put her pants back on and pulled them up, I got up and went in the kitchen and heard her say "whoa!" and heard her giggle. Here she comes, trying to balance, I had put both legs in one pant leg, she's waddling along, with the other pant leg dragging behind her. She was enjoying the attention and waddled all over the house, since we just kept laughing at her.

Cupcakes

I bought the girls a little Mickey Mouse cupcake baking set and this afternoon was the perfect time to try it out. The girls were spending the night and we needed a distraction since Charb and Kelly were at the hospital. After checking out his leg, the doctor thought Charb might have a blood clot (he did-and is on medication and will be fine). They love to bake and just can't get enough of the stirring, tasting, frosting,
and of course, the sprinkles are always the best part. It was messy but fun and the cupcakes were pretty tasty, too.

Harmonica players

Geez, some days Ava and Harper are so entertaining. Today was one of those days. They had several funny conversations on their telephones, and then got in a couple of knock-down drag-out fights over who had which phone, even though the phones are identical...had to put the phones away twice. Then they started playing the harmonicas, a first for Harper, she had never tried it before. Ava decided to try playing and twirling around at the same time and almost bit it, but caught herself and dove for the chair, it was too funny.

Baby Gourde

Ava brought her bear and a baby today, Harper just brought her new baby. They were playing with their babies this afternoon and I asked Ava what her baby's name was, usually they just say "Baby" but today she said "Baby Gourde" which actually sounds like "Dourde". Reading was popular today, they brought lots of books for Papa to read to them. Jewelry was big, too, they like to rummage through my old stuff.

We got them outside for a little while before it was time to leave. They took turns on the big swing and had a great time, as these "bum"-filled smiles show, then we walked over and said "hi" briefly to Rielee, Parker and Des before we loaded them up.

New phones

Everybody went back to school today except Rielee, and she got here before the twins did this morning. The three of them had a big breakfast together, a long bath, PlayDoh, stickers, and played on the computer before Alan showed up with belated Christmas presents for the twins.
He had ordered them a little set of phones that work kind of like walkie-talkies except you don't have to hold down a button to talk.
It took them a little while to learn how to use them but once they did, it was so funny. Rielee was helpful in showing them how. Their conversations almost always consisted of "Hello, doing?, I don't know...okay, bye!" Plus they would be standing right next to each other talking, too. Ava had Auna cracking up after school, Ava was in the playroom with her phone and Auna would call her and start to ask her a question and Ava would just go "Hello, I don't know, okay, bye!" and hang up on her!
Ava and Harper were spending the night, and both Rocket boys and girls had games at home vs. Stevenson, so we had decided we would just take them to the girls game and one of us would stay home from the boys game, the only problem was that we both wanted to go to watch the boys, so we decided to leave late and get there for the 2nd qtr., except that the game started late and we actually got there for the start of it. No matter, the girls were really good, they played with toys for the first qtr., then Auna got some popcorn and they ate that for the 2nd qtr., during the 2nd half and OT they were also really good. We took them out in the forum between games and they played on the mats and wrestled. They were also good for the entire girls game. It helps to have a lot of extended family there to help play with, distract and keep an eye on them.
No issues until it was time to go and Harper took a stand against wearing her boots, and when we got to the car, they both insisted that I should drive home, not Papa, where that came from, I'm not sure, maybe they just wanted to get home faster.

Macee club v'ball & Basketball flashback

Macee played in her first club volleyball tournament yesterday as a libero. She is too short to be a hitter now at the 18's level so she is delegated to the back row. She played a lot though and didn't seem to mind. Macee is in the black #4, Tierney is #12 at the net and Maddie is #7

Here is a picture of them, Maddie, Macee, Tierney, being silly after a basketball tournament in 2006.