The Homebodies

A little bit of the girls not in school:

Emily is big. She has broken the mold as far as our children go. She has two teeth (which is big for us, L was 12 months and R was 18 months before getting any teeth)  She was the first one not born on the Tuesday after and Monday holiday.  Her hair is still brownish. She has a decent amount of hair. She has been our best eater (nursing wise) and sleeper...and loudest and most high pitched screamer.  But just like the other girls she is delightful and super silly. She adores her big sisters. She loves socks, but never on her feet, just to chew on or wave around in triumph. In other news she has recently started "scootching" and is getting quite fast now and can find me no matter where I am.

Lounging 

Her signature move.  Every kid has had something silly
that just they do.  Emily cocks her head to one side when
she is interested  in something or just to be silly.

Rachel:  On Lauren's first day of school we came home from dropping her off, put Emily down for a nap and I said " Rachel it's just you and me, what do you want to do?"   She shouts "EAT!!"  And so we did.
       
With Lauren being gone at preschool all morning and Emily taking a nap, Rachel and I get some quality one on one time every morning.  This has been really great.  We were going through a pretty rough time behavior wise with her. Lots of tantrums and crying and screaming (not just on her part) All. Day. Long.  Once preschool started and she was getting some serious individual attention everyday her behavior totally changed for the better.  My behavior toward her has changed too as I am better learning to understand her personality and her needs, and that is good. I love my Rachel.

This happened twice in two weeks.
I buy pears, put them in a bowl on the counter,
come back later and every pear has been nibbled
all the way around.
Nice.

The Culprit
"I was hungry!"

T is for Tigers, Tricks, and Tattletales

First Day of School

Lauren started real preschool in September.  I had a lot of mixed feelings about preschool before hand.  After much debating over several different programs we finally chose one. It is five days a week for three hours a day, which I feel like is a bit overkill for a preschool, but it has actually been really good. It has been a really different transition for everyone but still good. It is an excellent program and Lauren is thriving.  It does totally drain her though and she comes home and collapses somewhere until she is ready to be around people again. By that point she has forgotten everything they did, or so she says. But at random times she will fill us in on the little gems that she learns at preschool.  Some things good, some not so good, and some interesting:

 "On Saturday my teacher says she is going to stay home and drink coffee."

 "What is a booty?"
   I ask "Like Pirate's Booty?" (a snack they have at church sometimes)
  "No at preschool they said to sit on your booty."

  I ask Lauren what she does at preschool, "Mommy you should just come and stay with me while I'm at      preschool and then you would know what we do." Touche.

She has also been trying out new words that she hears, which is amusing:

She ran into the kitchen table: "This table is so pokey, it's ridiculous!"

A little song she sang while lining up crayons on the floor: (To the tune of The Farmer in the Dell)

"The crayons were in despair. The crayons were in despair. 

They were using themselves as a sidewalk"

Dressed up for Story Book Day aka Halloween

Lauren and her favorite friend from school

Preschool field trip to the pumpkin patch:

Searching for the perfect pumpkin

Some days we want to scream, some days we do scream, and some days...

...are just great. Or even a combination of the three. Since I haven't posted since July here is our life in lots of pictures... and some words.

Our tomatoes did awesome

We did lots of canning

Homemade fairy wings.  In case you are too cheap to buy them
you can make them with hangers and nylons...and of course
duct tape. Then in the event that your little fairies complain
about ugly brown wings you can paint them with super
watered down acrylic paint.  Just FYI

 

 

She likes to suck on her toes... or sometimes
just the big one.

 

This is how it really is every day...  (plus or minus wet spots on the floor)

Happy day to you!

On the road again...

I'm an impulsive person. I decided last Tuesday after about a week of 100+ degree temperatures that I really wanted to get out of town and go camping. Since it was fourth of July weekend there were, of course, basically no spots opened. I was pretty bummed but couldn't get the idea out of my head and so I decided to check one more time Wednesday morning before giving up.  I found one spot for one night in Van Damme State Park, which is about 4 hours north west of us on the coast, kind of far to go for just one night but we decided to go for it anyway. The 4th here was 110 degrees and so it was so nice to head up north to the coast where it was only 65.  It was beautiful and the girls had a blast. Ryan is so great to go along with my crazy ideas :)   Next time we'll definitely go for longer, and make a reservation earlier than two days before.

Helping dad set up the tent

Super awesome mom forgot to bring L. and R.'s jackets, (easy to do
when it is 110 degrees). Luckily the closest town had a thrift store
and I was able to get them sweatshirts for $1 a piece. Yay

Climbing trees

Exploring in the forest

Point Cabrillo Lighthouse

One of the girls' favorite things.  The caretaker
told us some fun stories and Lauren and Rachel
having been calling themselves "sea girls" all day.

Our Happy Campers:

Sleepy girls
(except Emily, you'll notice her in the back wide awake and smiling her head off.
 She was just happy she got to sleep in the same bed as her favorite milk machine.)

All in all this pricey little trip of impulsiveness was a success, just ask the girls.