August Pics

Will's Quilt:

Ruth's Quilt:

I'm really proud, especially of Ruth's. They were both my own design.

Canoe-e-oo-ing

Ruth was SO excited to be this close to the waterfalls.

Brad was mountain-goating it like always!

Will was so enamored by the falls that he didn't even realize we were surrounded by tons of rocks he could be throwing!

Then we rented a canoe and paddled upstream on the Snake River. Will screamed the whole time and the last 10 minutes of rowing was super hard due to a really strong current...but we made it.

We pulled the boat up on some huge rocks in the middle of the river to eat our lunch.

We were eating lunch on the Pillar Falls. "Pillar" because of the rock formations:

The Falls:

Sun Valley Ice show

Yesterday I received free tickets to attend an ice show in Sun Valley. So, Katie and I packed up the kids and the bikes and went to have some fun!

Along the bike trail

We went to a nice restaurant where we received both praise and criticism for how our children behaved. Then we got some ice cream and wandered around the river.

When we got to the ice show Ruth stopped a blond fellow and said "HI". He seemed real impressed and said "hello" enthusiastically. As it turned out, it was this guy:

Josef Sabovcik, Olympic bronze medalist, European champion and one of the nights performers. Ruth now has a friend in the business.

We also saw Sasha Cohen, Scott Hamilton, Kim Navarro & Brent Bommentre, Dan Hollander, Craig Heath, and Elena Leonova and Andrei Khvalko.

It was great fun and the kids loved it.

Dear ...

Dear Rain/Mother Nature,

Why is that you decide to visit Twin Falls every time we (finally) decide to water our lawn. It would be really great if you'd let us know you were coming ahead of time.

Sincerely, Sick of Paying to Water Our Lawn

Dear People Who Stay At the Days Inn Jerome,

Please stop using the hand towels as toilet paper. I don't know what kind of mother you had, but I'm pretty sure you don't do this at home...don't do it at the hotel either. It's just disgusting and the laundry person does not appreciate washing up after you. If you don't have toilet paper in your room please call the front desk.

Sincerely, Totally Grossed Out

Dear Will,

I wish your last tooth would come through. I don't like it when you're teething.

Sincerely, Sad for my Sad Baby

Dear Raleigh Bicycle,

Thank you for coming home with me. You complete me.

Sincerely, In Love

Transportation

I am overjoyed to finally be a bike owner. We splurged and got really nice bikes and a trailer. The kids enjoy it, although at first Will hated his helmet (which was baffling since it is a Spiderman helmet!). Ruth on the other hand could wear her helmet all day...it's pink with stars. We can't wait to take our bikes everywhere with us! And now I finally have a way to get around town that doesn't require walking. Granted I won't be able to go grocery shopping without the car...but at least we can go walk around Target if we need to get out of the house...until it snows that is! Oh, and of course I get great exercise that I actually enjoy.

In other news: the kids are still cute, I joined Facebook after years of avoiding it, I'm almost done with a quilt for Will (pictures when I'm actually done) and I am somewhat successfully growing zucchini in a pot...fingers crossed on that one.

What's Wrong with my Kids?

I got a new...and my first...smartphone. It's a Droid Incredible, and in the first 17 hours of ownership I have slept and played with it for 10 hours...so I suppose that's why my kids are screaming and bouncing off the walls!

The only disappointment so far is that there isn't an app for laundry or other chores.

Brooklyn Babe

The last week or so Ruth has started talking in a Brooklyn accent. (When I was 2 I had a southern drawl...but that made sense since we lived in TEXAS!)

For instance, "Mawm, I got mah shoes awn. I wahna go to da paahk." Translation, "Mom, I put my shoes on. I want to go to the park." It's pretty funny, but sometimes I can't figure out what she's trying to say. Like today she was trying to tell me she was "alright," but in her pronunciation there was no l, r or t and a whole lot of "aw" and "ee." Good thing she's cute.

Today

Today Ruth was astonished when she learned that food goes into your belly. At first she was incredulous and thought I was pulling her leg! Now she is constantly asking what goes into her belly, i.e. "Does water go in my belly? Does juice go in my belly? Does the fridge go in my belly?"

Today Will started making animal sounds. He knows that cows "moo" and cats "meow" and it's adorable to listen to him. He also adores sign language and now knows the sign for "food."

Today, while Brad was at work, we walked to the grocery store and discovered a love for Lara Bars. Tomorrow I'm buying dried dates so I can attempt to make them at home. Yum!

Independence Day and such

We were given all of these! It was fun to make them all explode. Unfortunately Will got too cranky around 8:30 so he missed out on all the fun. It took 2 days to get Ruth back on a normal schedule, but she LOVED it. Her favorite part was climbing up our tree and onto the roof so she and dad could watch the big city fireworks.

Note the glow-in-the-dark bracelet she's sporting.

Earlier this week we went to the ice caves. We all had this idea in our heads about what it would be like based on a picture from the turn of the 20th century. The following picture demonstrates the best part of the ice caves:

Running through the sprinklers

I'm finally keeping flowers alive! We're all happy about that.

What Do Ya Do?

Brad works Friday nights so I try to come up with fun stuff for the kids and I to do. Tonight we made fishy sopapillas! Ruth has become a great helper in the kitchen. She loves to help me dump ingredients into the bowl when we're making dough or batter and she's great at putting the toppings on our pizzas...although she usually eats more pepperoni than she puts onto the pizza. Tonight she helped with ingredient dumping and using the fishy cookie cutter (which she calls the "cut a cookie").

I'm so happy that I've learned to be comfortable in the baking/pastry world. I NEVER would have even tried to make sopapillas 4 years ago. But compared to pizza dough, (especially getting it baked properly) this was a cinch. Not that they turned out perfectly, but next time they'll be better.

Will loves to play with balls. It's so cute to watch him pick one up and walk around the living room with it. I thought this was a great action shot of him thoroughly enjoying himself.

And while I like to pretend that the activities were for the kids, I think they were really for me. I needed some structured activity time otherwise the non-stop begging for attention from the two toddlers was going to drive me nuts. Ha ha! It's frustrating how fun and horrible being a mom can be. Half the time you want to rip your hair out and the other half of the time nothing could be better than slobbery kisses and your kids making each other laugh. I really need to learn to be more patient and understanding during those difficult times.

Oh and this is just a funny picture of Will stealing Ruth's spotlight. These two have gotten really good at picking on each other. *sigh.

Summer Time

My super boy! (moving at super speed these days)

I made this cape from an old shirt, so easy.

My super tan girly-girl.

What We're Doin'

Yesterday we went to the circus! It was tons of fun aside from being 95 blazin' degrees outside which caused grumpy kids. Luckily they started with tigers and that helped distract the kids from the heat. Ruth especially loved the flying trapeze guys. Will loved the magic act, which was really just this girl that changed her dress 10 times and it only took her 2 seconds to change each time. It was cool. (today Ruth was wanting to re-enact the "changing dress girl" routine.) And we all loved the motorcycles in the ball act.

This is them in their cool new chairs eating gingersnaps (homemade) and milk. Today Ruth got her bunny, that she calls "Mother," and was putting her in the chairs.

(Last week we had rain and cold weather, thus the long sleeves and sweats.)

We've also been eating lunch at the park almost every day along with swinging and digging in the sand. I'm also happy to report that I have successfully planted flowers and kept them alive for more than a month. They continue to bloom and look great!

Today we learned that Ruth likes salmon. She also loves to push Will on the tire swing. Will loves to do pretty much everything Ruth does. He gets very jealous if she is given something and he doesn't get one too.

And in final news, Ruth is now completely diaper free (no more night time diapers) and binky free!!!! That one took some convincing, especially since brother still gets a night time binky, but we finally won!

Ruth and Will's Favorites

Today Ruth told me that she wanted the mail man to bring her a fish for her birthday! Her favorite toy recently have been the wood blocks, she builds elaborate towers and then tells Will to knock them over. She still loves reading and has several of her books memorized and looks forward to our weekly trips to the library. Most recently she has taken an interest in the time; she'll often ask what time it is or tell me that we'll do something at a certain time. She is also cultivating an "interesting" fashion sense, this is mild compared to past outfits.

Will can now say mom, dad, cat, dog and WOW. And he understands those words plus sister, nose, truck, bird, and book...and I'm sure there are others I'm unaware of. He's becoming such a boy! He is fascinated by big trucks, loves playing with toy cars, and spends lots of time in the sand box everyday. He is also so over being fed. He loves to eat but wants to do it all himself. His new favorite is bacon, so manly of him!

We went to the Western Days parade on Saturday and he LOVED all the fire trucks, horses, classic cars and music. Ruth could have cared less about the parade until this year. But this year she enjoyed the horses, cheerleaders and music.

This Week We . . .

Picnic in the park...I mean our backyard! We have LOVED our backyard this year. Mostly thanks to Brad who has been constructing the coolest toys for us!

We watched Shirlaine's kids while they painted their house. We all had a great time.

This last weekend Uncle Matt (my brother) stopped by on his way back to Utah. Ruth LOVED her Uncle Matt and wanted to spend every waking second playing with him.

The dog is not Matt's. This dog just walked into our house on Saturday. No collar. Then Monday she took off again.