Part of my Mother's Day gift

This past Mother's day was the best yet.  We had so much fun and I got some great gifts.  One of my favorites was these mason jar soap dispenser's Joel made me.  You can find tutorials for these all over the internet.  What he did was take mason jars (which we bought from Costco in the form of mandarin oranges.  It is a 4 pack for $4.69, can't beat that!) and cut a hole in the lid.  He then took a plastic foaming Dial soap dispenser top and caulked it into the hole.  After that was dry, he spray painted them to match our other finishes.  I love them and they are so much cuter than what we had!  I do need to take a picture of my favorite gift and get that up on the blog!

 

 

Here's my biggest cutie

 And a Lainie self-portrait!  We have about 6,000 of these on the ipad and each one cracks me up! This particular shot is her selfie after eating Blueberries.  Its also a pretty good shot of her perfect rosebud lips!

The good life

Sun, Surfing, Sand and our crew. Doesn't get much better than this!

This has been our summer and we're loving every second of it!

Long Time No Blog

I might be the slackest blogger ever.  There are lots of reasons to bore you with but to be honest I just haven't felt like it.  We've been having a lot of fun this summer with lots of things to blog about and I'm hoping to get back on the wagon so I don't forget these memories!  Here is a random update of life!

Joel built the girls a learning tower from the Ana White website and we're loving it. Lainie is a walking hazard, so having something that keeps her from falling off is awesome. They're both loving it and  its crazy to me that I now have two (soon to be three) kitchen helpers.

One of my favorite pictures of my favorite people reading in the hammock.

  More books in beautiful dresses.  Ruthie now refuses to wear anything but beautiful dresses, every single day.  I wish I had realized years ago how much easier dresses are (one piece of laundry) after they started walking, especially when its hot. Plus they look so cute.

 To celebrate my sisters college graduation (working full time, kids full time, school full time, running half marathons, etc....... my sister is pretty incredible), my Mom treated my sisters and I to an awesome night in a local hotel.  We shopped, ate and relaxed.  Its always one of my favorite times when its with my Mom and sisters. It was awesome and this is the only picture I took!!  Shame!

 

We've been going up to our local community center to let the girls play, especially on rainy days. Over the past few months I've realized the value of an open gym!  I think the girls wanted Joel to do this over and over and over.

 Joel and I got to go on a pre-baby date to see the Lumineers in concert. It was one of the best concerts we've been to, and it was such an awesome night.  Thanks to Papa and Gigi for watching the girls!

 Let me introduce you to Pete and Repeat (as my Grandma would call them). Lainie now does EVERYTHING Ruthie does, it is so cute.

 Hilarious.

Our playgroup held a little shower for baby Ellie, they called Pampers and Pedis.  We got pedicures and they each brought us pampers. It was awesome and I really recommend doing this for baby showers!  The pedicure was awesome, we had snacks and I think all we really need right now are pampers, so it was just perfect and relaxing.  There must be something in  the water here, of the 6 of us, 5 are either pregnant or just had baby's!  Its awesome.

 

Thanks for remembering us and I'm hoping to have more structured blogs regularly soon!  Countdown to Ellie....probably 4 weeks, due date 5 weeks out, I have my doubts she'll wait that long.....

Our Big Three Year Old

There really isn't a better word to describe Ruthie right now than sweet. Sweet. Sweet. Sweet.  She has been so incredibly sweet lately and I really almost can't stand it.  She has her moments of spice, but to her core, she is sweet.

I'm not sure if there has ever been a child that has loved their birthday more than Ruthie. She has been excited about it for months and it was amplified when she got a surprise early birthday party at Grandma's house in Washington.  I'm trying to get our trip up on the blog, so I'll put that birthday party in that section.  Safe to say, she loved the weeks celebrating her birthday!  We're three weeks out from her party and we still talk about it daily.  She is so much fun.

 We had (at Ruthie's request), a backyard birthday party. I think she thinks that's just how birthday parties are and that is good with us!  We had food, balloons, the little bouncy house and great people.

She was really, really excited about her kitty cat cupcakes (to match her shirt!).

 Lainie was not as thrilled about the birthday party.  This was the first day of the most miserable week of Lainie's life.  It was the start of her canines coming in and from this Saturday to the next, we were all miserable.  It didn't dampen the party at all, but wow, these teeth are tough for this girl.

 A huge highlight to the party, was the Rapunzel outfit, and wig she got from Gigi and Papa.

 Hilarious!

 My sweet, three year old!

 Of course, my super helper Gigi.  I don't know what I would've done without Gigi (as usual).

 She was happy about the cupcakes!  This is her, I dare you...try and touch it, face.  Trust me, none of us would get near that cupcake.

 She's so big!

 All of her cousins were able to come to her party which made Ruthie's day.  She loves her cousins so, so much and it is so much fun when they're around.

 

We had a great day celebrating our big three year old with family and friends. It was a perfect day and Ruthie loved every second of it!

How is it possible!

Happy Birthday to our big Three year old!

My Little Lainie-18 Months

How on Earth Lainie is already 18 months old I just can't get my head around. I feel like she is still our itty, bitty baby, but here she is a full blown toddler who we are crazy about.  Its also crazy to me that at this time in Ruthie's life, Lainie was already born.

Size:

I think she's right at 25 pounds and will go back to the doctor in a few weeks for an accurate measurement.

She's tall also :-), hows that for accurate.

She's in a size 5 diaper, and size 2T clothes.  She can wear some 3T clothes, which I think will make her wardrobe interchangeable with her sister's this summer.

 

 

Nighttime Sleep:



 She's so good.  She goes down right at 7pm and wakes up around 7am.  She takes about 2 seconds to put down.  We got her a dream lite and she absolutely loves it.  Its really cute.

Daytime Sleep:
If we're home she'll take a morning and afternoon nap.  If we're out in the morning, I try and be home by about 12:30, and she'll nap from about 12:30-3pm.  The picture below is a serious rare occurrence for both Lainie and Ruthie. They were wiped and I hardly ever sleep in the car, so we had to get a picture!

We haven't moved her into Ruthie's room yet, that's happening later this month.  I'm still dreading it.

Eating:
Lainie is still into sweets and meats.  She has started to pick up a few vegetables and spit them out, but its progress.  She is one that probably needs to be completely cut off from anything sweet.  She can't have just one and usually gets in trouble from throwing a fit when she doesn't get her way.  Shes a feisty one when it comes to what she wants! 

Right now her absolute favorites are clementines, peanut butter pretzels, beef, and cheese.

She's becoming a pro at using a fork and a spoon and really only wants to use the adult size ones now. Somehow almost every meal, I end up with a kid size spoon/fork and she has mine. 

Mobility:
She's fast and falls a lot less now!  We're really working on her going up and down the stairs by herself.  She's gotten much better but about 50% of the time just steps without looking.  It is one of my priorities that we feel confident she can go up and down the stairs when the new baby arrives.

She likes to push Ruthie around in the baby stroller, its pretty funny!

Nickname:
NayNay for life.

Words:
She has really gone crazy with words over the past month.  She says MihMow (mickey mouse), meow (obsessed with Kitty's), elmo, daaahee (daddy), mama (or more often, No Mama), ChloChlo, hot dog (from mickey), she can almost sing all the hello song from storytime, ruff ruff, tweet, birdie, nose, eyes, mow (mouth), ahpeas (please), No, yes, oh no, and more I can't think of right now! She can pretty much get her point across now, and we're really impressed!

Teeth:
Currently she has 4 top, 4 bottom, 4 molars and 2 (almost 4) canines.  The canines haven't given her as many problems as the molars have, but she's had a few days of feeling yucky.

 Loves:
Music. She is a total dancing queen.  One of my favorite things ever.
Any song that uses hand motions, patty cake, everybody clap, and ring around the rosey, to name a few.

 

 Coloring, crafts, much more than her sister ever has.  She'll only keep at it for a few minutes but she does really enjoy it.

 Books.
Swinging,
Dressing up,

Chloe, everyone loves ChloChlo 

 Going to places.  She loves to go get her shoes and bring them to me.  She likes storytime,

 the park

 the arboretum

 and lots of other things.

 Lainie has definitely been my girl the past few months and this is pretty much how we are most of the time.  I know it won't last, her sister has changed to Daddy's girl, so I'm soaking it up.

Other:
Lainie is a sweet, easy girl.  She can definitely throw a fit, particularly if it involves taking the ipad away. 
She is still a genius who has taught us quite a bit about our electronics, and anything with a button!
She is happy almost all of the time and is so funny and so much fun.  She has a spark and a spunk to her that we love.  I can't believe she is already a year and a half.  What a gift we have been given!