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.