the last three weeks

I'm a big girl now!

I ONLY like big boy swings.  No baby swings

Happy in my house

I'm ready to go out on open water now

These are the coolest chairs ever!

It's stuck!  The tongue depressor is stuck in my front teeth!  Help!

Finally.  Back home in my own turf.  Why are we watering again??!!  It's been beautiful and sunny the whole time??!!

I've got to take good care of these strawberries, Mom.

Dad SAID to wash off!

Tucker serious pose

Tucker smily pose.  (Note the measuring cup in hand)

Another serious pose

Crab apples are no good for eating

Mostly what we saw driving around Mt. St. Helen's

A five second clearing of the clouds

Some destruction.....

The real destruction.  Still looks like an erie war zone 31 years later.

Not time for church!  Time for climbing!

Maybe I should explain why I didn't blog for three weeks.  I was in Utah for two of those weeks and then Jim was gone for the next week.  He had re-configured his computer while I was gone.  Bored, I guess.  But then I couldn't do anything on it because everything was all hidden and worked weird and I just didn't have the patience to figure it all out.  So here I am.

We loved the sun and the heat.  Well, I did more than the babies.  There were many times in the afternoons where I wanted to be outside and Tucker just sat really still in the shade with his water bottle(s) in hand.  Jim drove us out there and back and flew back and forth so he could be here to work.  Crazy, huh.  He decided night driving was better than entertaining them for 14 hours all day.  It's a toss up.  Whitney hates being in her carseat in the day and Tucker hates being in it at night and didn't sleep for more than 30-60 minutes at a time.  

We stayed in Willard (Kristy, I know you're jealous!  Wishing you were there, too!) for a good portion of it with some amazing friends that put up with us and fed us for two weeks.  Then we went to St. George for Labor Day weekend.  One of my old roommates drove us down there and back so all of us adults in the house could hang out with Sue and her boot.  We had a blast!  One of the videos we watched on You Tube had something of the effect of Talking Twins in the title.  I think if you search it in You Tube it will be the first to pop up.  It is two boy twins that look like they are a little over a year old, talking to each other.  It was just great to be together.

Some other trip highlights was getting invited to go swim in a pool, going to the play place in the mall (with AC, much to Tucker's delight.  It was the most he played the whole time we were there), playing with all the other kids toys and playsets, and for me, going to lunch and dessert with some friends at different times during the trip.  I had this great idea to can peaches while I was there, but the canning peaches weren't ripe until the day before I left.  The nerve.  I brought them home and canned them here just fine, though.

Some of the favorite things that Jim has enjoyed since they've been home is their word vocabulary.  He loves to hear them talk.  Whitney is pretty good at imitating now, so she can copy a bunch of stuff.  You can hear her say "stuck" pretty clearly in the video.  

They reacted quite different to Jim coming to pick us up after not seeing them for two weeks.  He stood outside the room they were playing in when he got there.  Tucker noticed right away.  He walked over to an arm distance away from Jim, stopped short, pointed at him like "I've seen this guy somewhere before", then slowly edged his way toward me, always with his face toward Jim and had me pick him up until he was ready for a hug.  Then after that he remembered and didn't let Jim put him down.  He still is having a hard time when Daddy leaves.

Whitney was really involved in a toy while all of this was going on.  She finally looked up and saw Jim, then immediately threw her toy down and ran into her Daddy's arms with a look of "where've you been all this time!  I've missed you so!"  She hugged and snuggled him until Tucker started demanding his attention.

While we were gone, we had 9-12 church both weeks.  Tucker did amazing during nursery both times, so I thought he'd be good this time, too.  Hah!  I was in there the whole time.  And Tucker finally fell asleep in my arms the last five minutes.  It was really interesting to see how Whitney is in nursery.  At home, Tucker is somewhat of a top dog.  He hits and takes things and she just screams about it.  But in nursery, she is the first to volunteer, loves the attention of the other adults, takes all the toys she wants and loves the singing.  Tucker likes snack.

As the video demo's, Whitney is really liking this climbing skill.  She definitely has some guarding angel at her constant attendance because I have NO IDEA how she has been able to walk away from things like she does.  She fell off the playground when she slipped once, fell down our wooden stairs and fell onto cement while playing.  Each time she is really scared, but then soon stops crying and can move all her extremities as well as have pupils that appropriately dilate.  I have no idea, like I say, but I'm glad she is happy and healthy.

Well,it's good to be back.