The Next Big Thing...

I'm not much for posting ultrasound pictures of baby's genitals, but we can all rest assured that little Woolsey #3 is a girl or, as my ultrasound tech with Lauren told us, "a very unhappy boy." We are all very excited, and it is oh so handy because we already have everything we need :)  Lauren looks forward to taking care of her and playing with her and told me the other day that she could even hear her kicking.  Looks like we've got another noisy one.  Rachel has no idea what is going on but I'm sure she'll enjoy pointing out all the baby's body parts and poking her eyes out.

Wedding Weekend

We went to see Ryan's brother get married last weekend. It was a super quick trip one day driving, next day wedding and reception, next day driving.  But it was beautiful and fun and great to see everybody.  I didn't really get any good pictures of Bryce and Caitlin, which is too bad because they are a really cute couple, but they had a real photographer. However, I did get cute ones of the girls :)

Rachel is mad in all the pictures because we took her away
from playing in the water fountain

Aside from Caitlin's "princess dress and crown"  this water
fountain was the main attraction for the girls

Took a while for me to realize that as Rachel was doing this
the water was dripping all down her arm and dress.  She was totally
soaked and I ended up just basically wringing her dress out, I guess
it kept her nice and cool for the rest of the night though.

Tried to get both girls to give Ryan a kiss but Rachel wouldn't have it.

Practicing swinging her legs

They have food here ?!?

"The iphone 4S is way better Dad"

Ryan and his Mom

An attempt at a picture of Bryce and Caitlin, I was clear across
the room and had to zoom in really far

The whole Woolsey family (with cardboard Michael)

S'mores : chocolate dipped marshmallows rolled in graham cracker
crumbs, very clever

Dress Preview

Ryan's brother is getting married this weekend and I've been working on dresses for the girls for the occasion.  This is only my second sewing project, but with a lot of help from a friend and some online tutorials I'm really excited with how they turned out.  Here's the preview:

They turned out kind of wide for the girls so
I made the ribbon into a tie in the back

Side note: no one asked me to make these for the wedding,
I just wanted to learn how to sew and thought this might be fun.

Close up of the flower, I'm really proud of these :)
I found the tutorial here:   http://www.make-it-do.com/make-it/peony-clips/ 

Plus... tada! Added bonus, my first attempt at flowers/bows
for the girls' hair using extra material and ribbon from the dresses.
I think I'm going to put them on head bands.

The girls trying them on for me

 I've discovered that sewing is kind of addicting, especially on little things like cute dresses.  I'm sure this will lead to more sewing projects, too bad I don't have a budget for that... yet :)

Happy Campers

She looks upset but really her mouth was just full
of food, she was really quite happy.

We took the girls camping over the weekend, this was our second attempt camping with both of them and it went considerably  better than the first.  So much better in fact that I think it is one of my favorite things that we have ever done with the girls, which is good because Ryan and I really enjoy camping and would love to do it often.  We decided to do just a one nighter since we weren't sure what would happen. They were in heaven most of the time.  I say most because while we were eating dinner right after we got there the flies were swarming Lauren and she was freaking out.  I thought we were in for a very long weekend if this kid couldn't handle a few flies, welcome to life in the great outdoors Lauren.  But luckily after the initial upset they didn't seem to bother her too much.  Rachel loved every minute. Within 30 minutes Rachel was covered in dirt and was very pleased about it.  The girls loved being able to go exploring through the "dark forest" which was really just a small cluster of trees and bushes by our camp site and not actually dark at all.  A good deal of the time was spent throwing rocks into the reservoir.  Ryan even made a record and got a rock to skip 5 times, I was super impressed. One of the best things, maybe THE best thing, about the trip it was to have no distractions, just family time in the great outdoors.  While we were sitting around the fire that night toasting our s'mores, Lauren turns to me with her chocolate covered face and said, "I love camping!" And really what kid wouldn't say that after getting dirty, having her parents undivided attention, staying up late, and eating two s'mores? Yay for a successful weekend! One more cool thing about this trip: I found both the girls kid-sized sleeping bags at a thrift store and another little camping chair (thought it might be a good idea to have two since we have two little kids) all for $7. Awesome.

Rachel's hands about 15 minutes after we got there

My favorite part of this picture is the dirt hand print on her face

Happy Camper

Cool bushes all over the place

The reservoir 

Trying to keep the girls from jumping in

Snuggling by the fire

Throwing rocks

You can't really hear what is going on in this because of the wind, but Rachel 

is telling us that she is washing herself.  She thinks every body of water is a bath.

                            This is mostly to show how black Rachel's pants were the second day.
                           Barely been up an hour and her back side is completely black.

Silly Girls

Here are a few updates in the world of Lauren and Rachel:

The girls having a tea party

Lauren driving her "car"

Lauren is adjusting to our new home and has enjoyed finding a few friends her age. Her best friends are of course Piggy and Rachel.  She is a great big sister and is mostly good at including Rachel in whatever she is playing. Lauren also loves to choose Rachel's clothes out everyday. But she is starting to learn the difficult life lesson that little siblings do not always do what you want them to do.
   From the mouth of Lauren:

    On Sunday Lauren slipped on my church shoes and said "Look Mommy, I disguised myself to look just    like you!"  It was a very clever and convincing disguise, especially when she added my sweater.

   The other day we were playing with blocks and Lauren was sitting in the big box and saying it was her car.  Then she said that she couldn't find her GPS.  So I made her a little square out of blocks and told her it was her GPS.  She was not impressed because a) she couldn't see a picture of her driving and b) she couldn't make it stick to her car.  Good grief.

Rachel is getting more silly and mischievousness all the time.  Often when she and Lauren are doing something they shouldn't be Rachel was the instigator and Lauren just provided the height and encouraging laughter. Rachel also loves to follow Lauren around and enjoys pushing her buttons from time to time.

George going "potty"

Rachel's Throne

Rachel thinks that she wants to be potty trained, but I'm still not convinced that she knows what "going potty" means.  All the same though she likes to sit on the potty chair all the time, and tear off pieces of toilet paper and throw them in.  She is also working on potty training her little friends.

 From the mouth of Rachel:

This is who greeted me in
the bathroom.

  This is literally news from Rachel's mouth: two days after turning 18 months she decided to pop out her first two teeth.  Yay Rachel! It's about time! Chomp, chomp
    Rachel really enjoys singing and being sung to. It is one of those things that is almost (nothing is ever certain and things can change at any moment) guaranteed to calm her down.  Her favorite song to sing is Twinkle Little Star.  I love the way she sings it: "Tinkle, tinkle how I wa wa...."  and that's all she knows.  She calls all stars that she sees "tinkle."

  Rachel is quite the chatter.  She's at the age where she repeats whatever she hears.  Her favorite phrases much to my dismay are "No Way!"  and "Stop It!"  Which she likes to shout at Lauren at the most opportune times, like church.  And Lauren's response is either to shout back at her or burst into tears.

Both girls love to watch Daddy play Zelda. Lauren constantly asks questions about what he is doing and has learned many new words, like Deku scrub (I'm not sure what that is but Ryan knows). She also taught Rachel to say Epona. Almost every morning they play "magical swords" (which I think is a mix of Zelda and Sleeping Beauty because they are usually fighting dragons) and often their "magical swords" change into a flute and they play a little song.

Both girls are also very excited for their new sibling to come in February. :)

New Blog: Thoughts for Food

On the side bar is a link for a new blog that I started called: Thoughts for Food.  We are trying to eat healthier and also trying to get a certain toddler of ours to eat period.  I started it so I would have a place to post/exchange ideas, recipes, successes, failures, etc.  I would love comments and suggestions!

Gold Rush and Chalk It Up

Over Labor Day weekend there were some cool things going on downtown, so instead of going for a day drive we stayed in town.
  On Saturday we went to Gold Rush Days in Old Sacramento.  It was pretty cool.  They cover the streets with dirt and try to recreate life in the 1800s.  There were a lot of people dressed in costume and the were wagon rides and an old horse drawn fire truck and lots of reenactments of show downs, burning of the brothel, parades.  Except for the shooting, the girls really enjoyed it.  I think they could have sat on the side walk and watched horses all day.

The Calvary

On Monday we went to a festival called Chalk It Up.  All around a park the had local artists do sidewalk chalk art.  Ryan and I thought it was pretty cool, the girls preferred the playground and fountain.