63 degree average

We discovered a new playground this week. They love it!

Whitney playing peek a boo at the new playground. She is also sporting a 24 month size shirt and 18 month pants. See, Grandma. I'm not lying. They really do fit in those size clothes. Crazy.
Tucker at the beach, hoping for yet another crab dinner. Thank HEAVENS this is Daddy's new recreational activity, crab diving.
Tucker intently watching a small bird
Mommy and Whitney went on a hike at 7:15 am. See participants below. The rest were in bed when we walked out the door. Tucker would normally be up, but he stayed up until midnight the night before.

Whitney playing in the sand at the beach waiting for the crab dinner. Note: tan marks in WA can occur on the face, hands and feet, but not really anywhere else. Check out her sandal tan. look close at her left foot.
I found these prints around our house. Can you guess who's is who? 1. Tucker monster or Whitney bear?
2. Tucky monster or Whitney bear?
3. Tucky monster or Whitney bear? See answers below.



I've decided to make everyone jealous, since I'm really jealous of all the sun you all are seeing. That way we can all be jealous together. I was paying our electricity bill for the past month of June/July. Yep. It's up a little because we have to turn the heat on in the night and early morning to get the chill out. On the bill it states the average daily temperature. 63 degrees. This lady at church made me a little sick with her stats. She said she heard on the radio (in seattle. Our house is always about 3 degrees cooler due to vegetation and being on the northeast side of a mountain. Our strawberry plants and lavender are just now blooming, to give you an idea of our microclimate) that a guy looked up how much summer Seattle has had this year. His definition of summer is 80 degree weather or higher. 78 minutes year-to-date. So my roommate and I went for a walk, and she reminded me that it is better to have the coolness than the blasting heat. At least no one is dying around here.

This week was a really good and really not as good week, all in one. We had two days of sun on Friday and Saturday, so we went to the beach to watch Daddy dive for crab, went blueberry picking and hiking. I was going to fit in kayaking, but looking at all the wakes from the boats on the lake from the overview hike we went on discouraged me.

Whitney loved blueberry picking. Tucker isn't really into it. At first, Jim picked a few berries for Whitney, then handed them to her, but once she saw that there were more from where those came from, she picked blueberries herself. She was pretty good about only picking ripe or semi ripe ones. No green ones went in her mouth, but a few reddish ones probably did. She tossed and turned all night, probably with a tummy ache. Too much good food. Yesterday she ate strawberries and bagels for breakfast, the regular for lunch and crab, sweet potato fries (home made), raspberries, and bread with honey. Jim is certain that we have the best fed babies in town. He has spoiled them. He was trying to crack his crab behind the papertowels, but as soon as they caught on with what he was eating, they wanted nothing else. Jim decided that the next kid gets no taste of crab until they can crack the shells themselves. I have to agree.

Tucker stayed in nursery the whole time last week. As a result, they both had really bad colds. I got it too a few days later, and found out that it started out with a really painful sore throat. I knew they were crying in pain Tuesday night, but couldn't figure out why. It was one of those really snotty colds, so while Whitney had to have her nose wiped every 10 minutes, Tucker did not. The usual for him, too. No runny nose for him. Nope. Snot is internalized always with him. This time it went in his lungs and gave us a scare as he really had a hard time breathing through the night. I knew he wasn't dying, but he was wheezing and working hard to keep breathing. I brought him in and he basically got asthma medicine to calm down the breathing stuff. All that sleep loss really threw off his schedule, so of course, the perfectly logical solution to that is to stay up until midnight to solve the problem. Grrrrrrr.......

Tuesday morning, before it all hit, we went to visit someone who happens to have a cat. Holy cow. I had no idea how much Whitney loves cats. Probably because she has to chase the cat, not beg it to leave her alone. After playing the cat, she watched Grandma's e-card over and over while I cut her fingernails, as it has a cat in it.

So, since they really seem to be understanding more and more, I decided more and more chores are in order to go with it. They aren't balking..... yet. Before, clean up meant I pretty much cleaned everything up, sorted it and put it all in the play room from its scattered location throughout the house. Now, they can somewhat sort on their own. It takes forever, but now I have them pick up all the scattered toys and ask them where it goes. Tucker is surprisingly good at this. They both are, but I guess it surprises me more that Tucker stays on track with clean up more often than Whitney. They also started helping with dishes. Tucker is really good at rinsing. Whitney practices "bub-bles" a bunch.

All in all we are glad to be healthy again, glad to see the sun without roasting and looking forward to another week of work for Jim.

Answers 1. Whitney bear. 2. Tucky monster. 3. Left is Tucky monster and right is Whitney bear

Below are videos for grandparent eyes only. They are videos of them playing at the park and the beach.

times with Daddy

Tucker at the beach, waiting for a Dungeness crab meal
Tucker wasn't really into the cold, rainy beach trip, so Whitney took charge collecting, you guessed it, rocks.
I'm big! Whitney next to her highest stack yet in her 24 month sized clothes.
Wishing YOU could be here!
Whitney balancing next to some pink petunias
more balancing act

How do I work this thing?


Well, nursery went as predicted. Tucker loved it as long as Mommy or Daddy were present. Whitney loved the new toys and kids. Whatever. I guess we are up for another cry session for as long as the nursery leaders can stand it.

Tucker is working on very important skills. Whitney is going to be the brains of the operations and he'll be the muscle. He can unscrew lotion caps with 100% accuracy, open the dishwasher, muscle himself up the chain ladder at the playground and in the rocker at home, close doors from the outside (much to Rocky's dismay) using the handle. Tucker is also, as Jim calls him, a baby moth. One of his other chores is to take the nightlight out of the plug. He can do this safely now and can't stand to leave their room for the morning unless that is done. Oh yeah. Tucker is also pretty good at staying in time out for a minute. He seems to know he has to stay there until I say he can get out. He has more practice than Whitney for taking toys, hitting and bouncing on the screen door on purpose.

Whitney has worked on getting the bag for the toy cars and putting them in the bag on her own with only the prompt of the clean up song, getting and putting away her step stool from the bathroom to empty out the top rack of the dishwasher, brushing bark chips off of Tucker's shirt at the park (after he threw them in the air) and washing Tucker's hair. Watching her wash Tucker's hair was cute. Tucker was intent on snapping the shampoo bottle cap open and shut multiple times while Whitney scooped up bubbles, slapped them in Tucker's hair and said BUB-bles over and over. Tucker was pretty cute comforting Whitney this week. He is giving her hugs and patted her on the back at dinner when she got in trouble.


Below is a video of our family home evening activity. Tucker wanted nothing to do with having a ride in the wheelbarrow, but had a great time watching Whitney

18 months

Tucker on the balance beam. Hey Sue, recognize the outfit?

Yet another advantage of being a twin. Go faster, Tucker!

"Oh I see. Your collection" I think of this line from Little Mermaid as I watch Whitney collect rocks. It's her favorite thing to do. This is what she did on the beach all day Friday, too.
They think it is so funny when I roll up my pant legs. It's usually cold, but the sun peaked out a bit. They copied me, then got some Vit D with me, too.
Babies helping Daddy
Whitney making sure the drill is in top functioning order

Tucker wondering why we're building the fence, when he knows it's not tall enough to keep him in.



It must be summer. Jim is wanting to build, which is fine by me. This year's project is a tad smaller than last year's shed. It's a fence to keep the poop in our yard. Apparently the dogs think the grass is greener on the other side, but the neighbors are not amused with the saying. It won't keep the babies, in though. Tucker already figured out how to undo the latch. Sigh.

On Tuesday the babies turned 18 months, something all LDS parents look forward to. Now they are old enough for nursery today. We'll see how it goes. I'm not worried about Whitney liking it (they have fruit snacks there), but who knows about Tucker. It will probably depend on his mood. They went to the doctor on Wednesday. That was an adventure.

I thought going to the doctor when they were babies was hard. Hah! And I think I have a lot more than this to look forward to, once they figure out this is where they get their shots. Tucker weighs 26 pounds and Whitney weighs 21 pounds. Much better than the 31 pounds the scale at home tells us. Which is also good for me, because now I can subtract 5 pounds off of the weight it tells me for me, too! Tucker is 33.5 inches tall and Whitney is 32.5 inches tall. That wasn't so bad, but as soon as that doctor started poking and proding Tucker, it was a screaming, kicking, fighting fest. The doctor has no idea how Tucker's ears are doing because Tucker would have none of that. It got worse and worse, until finally, it was over and he could jump off the table and hug Mommy. It was obviously very relaxing to hug Mommy, the only problem is that he was diaperless at this point of the exam and Mommy got peed on. My mom always told me about how embarrassed she was that I peed on the doctor when I first went, but I don't know. I think the doctor can take one for the team. It wasn't that fun to smell stinky and be all sticky wet until I got home. That Tucker! Whitney had no problem. In fact, she seemed to like the one on one attention from two adults. They were both really good about getting shots, though. And that is one I hate, too.

This post might be a Tucker being gross this week. See above story. Plus, he tried licking water out of the puddle, just like Sammy, as well as eat grass, on his hands and knees, just like the dogs. Whose training who?

Friday was our favorite day this whole week. It wasn't raining and the sun peeked out a bit. This of course made Jim want to go catch those elusive crab that he tried catching the past two Fridays. This Friday he won while we played on the beach. It was great. We were there about 2 hours, the amount of time the sun was out. The babies splashed in the stream while Daddy flopped about in freezing water to catch 5 Dungeness crab. Waaaayy better than fast food. Way better than crawfish, Scott. We shared with Mina and it brought back memories for her of catching lobster in Mexico.

I really wanted to get a video of Whitney's new skills. She is really impressed with her stacking ability. She can make a tower of hot chocolate and crystal light tins as high as she is. She also has started putting things away by putting them on the counter. I couldn't find her shoes one day because I was looking on the ground.

One video is of Tucker talking. He talks like this all day long. I love it. It is so happy. It's the first thing I hear every morning (over Rocky snoring, that is). The other video is them on the bridge. It makes me nervous to have them cross the bridge, but they love it.

Another fun week. Wish you were here!

very boring blog

Well, you know how you might have said that I'm a busy mom? Well, I've felt that way some days, but now I know I have much left in store for me. I didn't take any pics or videos this week, mostly because my hands were full. So the pics above are from a couple of months ago when we first took them to the beach to go clamming. This blog is mostly reading and you'll have to fill in the blanks with your imagination.

I've decided this week to tell you the cute things they have been doing each day. Monday, the fourth, we went to a neighborhood picnic where they re-enacted a civil war battle. There were teenagers shooting water guns at each other while the crowd threw down poppers. And the teenagers had hanging name badges for their characters while they read a script. We went to the park later and Tucker was quite the daredevil. He climbed to the top of the highest slide ( about 3 feet above my head) and slid down it. Twice. What was really funny was his look of terror as he went down each time. I decided it was too stressful for me, so I didn't let him go down again. Whitney, in the mean time, went over to one of the dads sitting and watching his kid, to make friends so she could look at his watch. We also went for a walk late at night (before they woke up scared from the fireworks that started going off around 11 pm)

Tuesday we went to the pet store to get dog food. We looked at the turtles, kittens, fish, birds, and last of all the mice. There were two mice on a wheel at the same time, running. One mouse went a little faster than the other at times, so the slower mouse would trip up the faster one and he would sort of stumble outside the wheel a bit. The babies laughed hysterically at these running mice for a good 15 minutes. I wish I had a video for that, but you're going to have to use your imagination.

Wednesday I fed them cheerios in a bowl with milk for the first time. Holy cow. Cheerios in milk, we all agree, taste much better than dry, and they agree with us whole-heartedly. That was some serious, very focused eating. But, Cheerios is not the breakfast of champions. They got hungry again at 9 am instead of 11. Back to oatmeal or whole wheat pancakes. Wednesday we also got invited to one of those private lake beach parks. Boy was that fun. Lots of filling of buckets with sand with the shovel. And Whitney LOVES deep water. We were there for about 2 hours, and lucky for me Whitney didn't figure out that she likes deep water until the last 15 minutes. She preferred to have her feet buried in the sand for most of it. But then the older kids started getting deeper, so she started following them. She had quite the look of glee on her face. I think the life jacket investment will ease the stress of days at the lake.

Thursday was the daily stuff. Their chores now include emptying the dishwasher and buckling the top buckle of their car seat. I wish I could get a video of them emptying the dishwasher. Tucker empties it at top speed, very intent on getting them all out. Whitney figured out that she needs the step stools to get the dishes out in the top rack, so she asks for the step stools. In grunts, of course.

Friday we went to the beach again. Last Friday Jim paddled out and dropped crab pots off the kayaks, caught a bunch of rock crab and then accidentally killed them on the way home. He got ice for the bottom of the ice chest for them to make the ride home more comfortable and unplugged the stopper. However, the stopper became stopped up again with all the bouncing on the way home and the ice chest filled up with non oxygenated fresh water that killed them. It was really sad for all parties involved. So he still wanted crab. This time, though, he decided to dive for them to get Dungeness crab instead. No such luck. But while he was out swimming in freezing, murky water, we were on the beach throwing rocks, filling the bucket with sand, eating dinner with lots of screaming involved. And Whitney pointing to different dogs arriving and saying "daw" each time they arrived. She also says "raw" for rock every time I threw one for her or she gave me one.

Saturday they did something cute, but I don't remember what. Probably charmed the neighbors. We had a neighborhood BBQ at our house and one of the neighbor's brought over some new sand toys.

Sunday was awesome because they were so cute sleeping. I can't believe it. Tucker had a melt down around 6:30 pm, so I bathed him and threw him in bed by 7 pm. He slept until 7 am today. Crazy. And then, Whitney pulled a record of sleeping from 8 pm to 9 am this morning.

Next week: nursery!!!!

So, on a more philosophical note, I'm reading a very interesting book. Well, one I like. I've always been fascinated by survival stories, so I've read books like Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, Deep Survival, another one about a lady that made it alive in China in the 1960's, The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom and now The Long Walk by Slavomir Rawicz. I love the suspense if they make it or not. It makes me realize that my life as a stay at home mom is really paradise

"Why is it so stinkin' cold here!!!"
Just enjoying the sun
"Ready to go in the spa, Uncle Scotti. This puddle isn't cutting it for me any more"
We were the last car in the line on the ferry. We ran up and down this a bunch. It was a gorgeous sunset (that I didn't remember to get a picture of until we had to load in the car to drive off)
Ouch! I don't like stepping on rocks
Rocky and Whitney on the way to the groomers. They both looked so sad about the whole thing
I left the room to go get the camera, and this is what I found. Oh yeah. They know how to climb now. It's over. No more peace and quiet
I thought I had captured all the adorable sleeping baby pics, but this one melted my heart


The babies/kidlets have learned lots and lots this week. They learned how to go up the stairs and down the slide by themselves at the park. Whitney learned to put her hands in her pockets (see above pic), to get my shoes on their feet, to really climb up on chairs (and thus tables), unload the dishwasher using the step stool to reach the top rack and they seem to suddenly understand a lot of what I'm saying. I will just say it's time to eat or time to read books or to pray and they will go to where they need to be and get ready for the activity.

The sun was out on Friday, so, since Jim had work off, we(he) went clamming. Which is fine, because the babies love clam chowder. He decided to catch Dungeness crab, but they didn't want to be caught, so he caught rock crab instead. Tucker was really good at digging with Daddy with his shovel. Tucker also spent a bunch of time "bouldering" on the rocks to get down to the beach and walking in the water to throw rocks into the water. Whitney liked burying her feet in the sand with her shovel. She spent a lot of time in my arms, though, as we learned later she was getting sick.

This week, even though it was cold a lot of the time (see outfits) it was also sunny part of the day every day, so we went to the park a bunch. That is probably why they learned to master the stairs and slide at the playground. In fact, we went to the park in celebration of my mom's 52nd birthday:)

Anyway, it's been fun watching the kidlets grow and learn this week.