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.

Billingsly Creek Day

We walked up and down Billingsly Creek the other day. It was very peaceful there. And we found these really cool bird eggs there. The stupid mother bird made her nest in the middle of the road!

Then we went to the National Fish Hatchery nearby...all the fish had been shipped out to sea. But we did get to see giant sturgeon.

Later that day we made a tire swing; Brad's idea with a few of my suggestions. It turned out awesome and the kids LOVE it.

A Few of My Favorite Things

Olivier Dunrea's children books about baby gosslings Gossie, Gertie, BooBoo and Ollie...SO CUTE. Not only are the stories cute but the artwork is beautiful and the little gosslings are adorable!

Will says "wow" about everything; he gives amazing hugs these days; and he's so skinny that he goes crawling out of his pants on a regular basis.

Cinnamon yogurt pretzels...if you live in Portland, SLC, or anywhere in Idaho you must go to WinCo and buy them. So delish.

Cervils; they're just awesome cats. Harpy Eagles=coolness.

Brad is so creative with ideas to do with the kids. I'm always amazed to see what they've been up to.

Ruth says "Mom" constantly. I love that she wants to tell me about everything. Even though Brad is clearly her favorite parent it just warms my heart that it's "Mom" this and "Mom" that.

Anniversary

So, as I type this we are missing the Oregon beach trip we were supposed to be on with my family. Big bummer. To make it up to Ruth (and us) we went to Boise on Friday for our 5th anniversary. (5 years is kinda mind blowing.) First we went to the zoo. I thought the cervils and monkeys were really cool and Ruth loved the penguins and riding the zebra on the carousel. Will rode around in the hiking backpack with Brad the whole time and was mildly interested in the animals. It was really nice just to be walking around outside with perfect weather!

Then we ate lunch at Donnie Mac's which is an oldie's inspired place that used to be a car garage. Cool atmosphere, stinky food. We made up for that by going to our favorite ice cream place that started in Orem, Utah - Sub Zero! Will was smart and napped through lunch and woke up in time for ice cream!

Then we went to the World Center for Birds of Prey. Really cool. We were the only people walking around which meant we felt like we could take as long as we wanted to stand and stare at the awesome birds they have. Unlike the zoo, Will loved this place. He was excited to see each new bird and was totally engaged. Our new favorite thing: the Harpy Eagle

We figured it was probably time to head home since we'd run out of activities. The kids were not very excited to be back in the car. Then we saw the sign leading us to the Bruneau Dunes, which is something else we wanted to do. And since it was only 4 o'clock we figured we'd head out there.

The kids weren't happy about this either. Ruth bawled the 20 miles out there, the entire time she and I sat at the bottom of the dune watching Brad (with Will in the backpack) hike the dune, and the 20 miles back to the interstate. Will basically cried that whole time too, plus another 30 minutes until he fell asleep. Then we had 10 minutes of quiet until Ruth told us she had to pee.

Brad turned around and just stuck one of Will's diapers on her (she still sleeps in a diaper so we figured this was a GREAT solution) and told her to do her thing. But then she threw a tizzy fit and bawled the last 45 minutes home. Amazingly, the diaper was completely dry when we got home despite the encouragement we kept giving her to relax and let it go. This girl has a bladder of steel!

And since there is a general lack of pictures with Will and Brad from this trip, here are pics of my guys from the previous week:

That's Why I'm Snotty

First I thought I had a cold. Then I thought it was allergies because all the trees are blooming. Then the horrible throbbing started. I couldn't sleep all Sunday night. Then Tuesday I went to the dentist. My wisdom teeth are coming in and causing horrible sinus congestion and pain. Ibuprofin has become my best friend. Even though I'm popping 4 pills every 4 hours I can still feel the throbbing in my mouth. I now have such sympathy for babies! The snot alone has been horrible, but the achey mouth sucks. I totally get why Will only wants to drink tons of milk and never wants to eat when he's teething. It's not all that bad, if it really were I'd get them ripped out, but it's nice to have money in the old savings account. Plus I have enough issues going to the normal dentist...the idea of oral surgery gives me the major hee-bee-jee-bee's!

Hey, it's okay!

It's okay that we're not gonna let Ruth get into the whole princess thing. Really, what is the moral of those stories? If you're beautiful then you'll get to live happily ever after (Cinderella). Kissing solves your problems (Sleeping Beauty). You can distract bad guys with your body (Jasmine from Aladdin). People will like you if you're beautiful (Little Mermaid). And overall immodesty is great! (Little Mermaid, Aladdin, etc.) These are definitely NOT the messages we want Ruth to pick up on. We'll stick with shows like Phineas and Ferb, Pingu and Totoro, which encourage exploration, creativity and being active.

It's okay that I think the pediatric dentists of this country are INSANE! Seriously, orajel is great and I'm not going to stop using it because of a very rare blood disorder that neither of my kids so far have...I know this because they both appreciate orajel and had no crazy side effects other than to stop screaming!

Baby Chicken

1 week old, he was SOOOO tiny!

3 weeks

1 month

2 months

3 months (finally getting chubby)

4 months

5 months

6 months

7 months

8 months

9 months

10 months

11 months

One year and lovin' his icing!

This is his cake; just frosting, black icing in a squeeze tube, sprinkles for the beak and a knife to make the fluff.

Happy Birthday big guy!

Adventuring

Today was the perfect summer day. We woke up early. Got doughnuts for breakfast. Went to see a waterfall, drove over a super bumpy road, hiked around some fields, ate popsicles, had a bratwurst BBQ with sparkling lemonade, and listened to a thunder storm!