scary movie 7 and others

It always freaks me out to watch them in their climbing skills.  They have yet to fall from this and Whitney even did it in a dress.  I couldn't film that one calmly, but here is Tucker.

The next one is a day at the beach, including Tucker doggie.

the last one is of them in the pool singing Row, row, row your boat, but I only caught the fight scene instead of the song.  It's really hard to get video of them singing.

back from a long blog vaca before the next blog vaca starts

The other day a deer came down into our driveway area.  He happened to come while Jim was playing with the kids in the play room.  We were all admiring the deer until it started eating the strawberry plants, so I rushed to the door and let Sammy chase him off.  Jim was sad.  Whitney said "no, no, deer.  no eating the strawberries"  Yeah.  No, no, deer.

We've been generally having a good time in this sun.  I'm absolutely whooped, but that's ok.  I have 10 months of winter to rest up again.

Jim decided the kids "need" trikes.  So trikes we have.  We have a rojo one for Tucker and a pink one for Whitney.  Hers has a very important feature of a hiding place to stash her collection.  We decided to try one particular style first, to see if it would take.  Tucker didn't let Whitney touch it at all for 5 days.  Until Whitney got hers 5 days later.  Now it's a regular fight.  Whitney's is better because you can push it without having the skill of pedaling.  I have no fear, though.  Tucker's will become popular at a later age when they figure out to use it like a scooter.  He has a big wheel.

Another skill they've learned is blowing bubbles.  Tucker has more patience, and thus, more skill and ability in this department.  Every time he gets a string of bubbles, he proclaims "Tucker did it" and smiles.  Whitney can do it too, but she's not as persistant at getting bubbles out.  She also is happy to draw bubbles on her legs or cement, pop the bubbles on the wand before they are even 3-D, etc.

They've also learned the I-pad.  I let Daddy be in charge a few nights these past few weeks.  Yesterday I realized just how much practice they've gotten.  Tucker more than Whitney of course.   He is bigger and thus beats her up or pulls her hair if she gets too close to his toys/i-pad.  What happened yesterday took me by surprise, though.  He got the i-pad off of Jim's desk, walked into the playroom and proceeded to turn it on and push all the buttons in the right sequence to get to his favorite games, "drums" and "piano".  It's that kids phone app thing where you can play instruments. He's got it down pat how to get to that thing.

Hey, Auntie Jill.  They have figured out how to make those bears sing and they love them!  New favorite toy now that they get them.

Grandma Ieva visited again with more toys.  We got a basketball hoop and golf clubs.  Whitney loved the golf clubs because they are just like Daddy's.  I had to quickly confiscate them, though.  Perfect driving irons for hitting.  I'm sure all you parents saw that coming as soon as Grandma Ieva brought them over.  But the basketball hoop is a hit and Mommy is very excited about that one.  I have been making my arms a hoop for a couple of weeks now because Tucker likes basketball so much.

Whitney really likes mimic play at the moment. She does all sorts of things "just like Mommy" or "just like Daddy".  Very humbling at times.
They are both learning tons of songs, but Whitney knows words better.  Girl skills, of course.  The one that I didn't realize, though, is that she can quickly memorize books and put the idea into her normal life.  Or maybe the other way around.  I read somewhere once that kids can't really tell the difference completely between reality and fiction until they are 8.  So maybe she thinks those books really happen.  We've been reading If You Give A Mouse a Cookie.  On Monday Whitney took the broom from me and proceeded to "sweep every room in the house" with the broom as well as repeat the phrase over and over.  By that time we'd only had the book a couple of nights.

In the past 3 weeks we've only had a few cold rainy, days.  I know the rest of you are totally jealous, but I have to laugh.  None of us really are fans of those days.  One of the rainy days, I pulled up the blackout shade in the morning and Whitney said "It's raining again.  The apples are all wet."  I had to laugh at her voice influction of "again".  It made me laugh.  Now she uses that word a bunch for repetitive activities throughout the day.  And I'm surprised she notices that she has an apple tree out her window.  This is the first time in two years it's even had apples.

Another connection she made was last week.  I might have misunderstood her, but it sounded like she said "mom, I'm older".  It was used in the right context, but she hasn't repeated it since.

With the good weather we've been going to the beach or playing in the water almost every day.  I love how Tucker says swimsuit.  He leaves the first s off.  Whitney's skill for make believe transfers over to her use of sand.  She made me a pillow of sand for me to use right next to my towel.  She has also made me cupcakes with her shovel and likes to draw in the sand in addition to her mounds.  The beach has been good but an adjustment for me.  Up to this point, amazingly, my kids stick really close by to me in new situations.  This makes for my ability to go in public on a regular basis.  Except last week.  Whitney gets too cold in the water too fast, so she prefers to create things in the sand instead.  Tucker gets too hot playing in the sand too fast, so he wants to be in the ring in the water, for like, and hour at a time.  So Whitney plays on the shore while I'm arm's distance to Tucker in the water.  Stresses me out to have them be in opposite directions.  I've never had this really until now and I'm started to feel a little bit what it's like to have two kids.  Can't imagine more.  How do you possibily have more than two?  I feel like my head is on a constant swivel when they are like this.  And they aren't wild in the water or the sand and follow the rules.  Although Tucker does like to see how deep he can go before I pull him back.

 Dad, this is sooooo good!

 Dad in charge of bathtime

 I love it when Dad is in charge of bathtime!

 Camping with Rocky under Dad's desk

 Licking the bowl and the spoon.  mom's idea

Yep.  These brownies are going to be good!

All this fun, fun, fun is starting to get a little tiring, though.  Since it's been light out and they switched out of cribs, they haven't been going to bed until between 9 and 10 pm.  It makes for a really long day without naps.  I'm feeling whooped, yet I sleep through the night.  One of the nights I let Daddy be in charge, he picked to watch a movie.   It was kind of cute that Whitney has a routine for movies.  She got everyone situated.  She made sure both her and Tucker had their chairs, a bag of fish crackers (we keep pepperidge farm in business) and blankets for everyone, including mommy and daddy.  Daddy had also gotten a helium balloon for each of them and she made sure hers was by her chair while the other was with Tucker to watch a movie.  She is very good at taking care of us.  She also is very intent on whatever a nurse is doing when we go to the doctor......  We'll see where that takes her.

Even with the constant care of, sometimes cranky, 2 year olds, I've had some fun myself as well as Jim.  A friend treated me to my first pedicure.  never had one, but I'd go back for the foot and leg massage bit.  Lovely!  What cracks me up, though, is that Tucker and Whitney love my pedicure.  Every morning for thepast week, they comment on it.  Look!  Mom's toes!  Pink!  Look, mommy has a flower on her toe!, etc.  I've also been kayaking a few times and made raspberry jam for the first time.  This is the first time making jam with berries can be economical.  I got the raspberries for free!  A friend has a garden bursting with them.  Jim played in a golf tournament for work and is back to SCUBA diving for crab every week.  This year he has a buddy, which makes me a lot happier in that department.

Tomorrow we're going blueberry picking and Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt B and Ryan are coming.  I'm very excited for the visit.

summer is here!!!!!

They put themselves to sleep in this position.  Just lik in the hospital!!

Tucker is in the closet, asleep like this.  I don't get it either.

At the playground.  Happy 4th!

Another 4th playground shot

Tucker chillin' it with his leg crossed with Jinglebells

Happy together with the hose

Whitney talking to Grandma.  She talked to grandma for about 3 minutes!

the new "bunks"  I moved the changing table into the closet to store it and to use it to store stuff, but this is it's really purpose.  Jingle bells is in the middle.

last cold day of summer.  Whitney can push Tucker a bit in the bucket, but doesn't like it when Tucker pushes her.

If it's going to be cold, at least it should snow.

Pulling the sleds on the snowy landscape.

More purple shirts, please grandma!!

Eating watermelon on the 4th.

One of Whitney's favorite playground toys

Adding "gas" to the car

Spinny spinny!

Up close of Whitney in the bunk

Tucker biting a ball.  Better than other things and people!

I had a friend ask me today how the weather was.  I said it was miracuously not rainy.  She asked if that meant not raining clouds or actual sun and I'm pleased to say it was sun and blue skies.  Absolutely beautiful 10 days an counting.  I haven't been very good at blogging on time because the last thing I want to do is be inside.  It's finally dark out.

We were invited to someone's house that has a pool.  Why they have it is beyond me, but they do and this is the day to have the pool.  Tucker loved swimming.  Whitney really liked floating on her back and using the mini squirt gun.  Swimming means holding on to mommy with a death grip while both babies use life jackets. When I got out of the pool, I was dripping wet of course.  Whitney took note and said "Mommy is peeing!  Gross!!"  I had to explain it was the water running off of me, not anything else, but it cracked me up she said exactly that sentence and made the connection.

This morning I faced reality and stayed indoors long enough to do some bare minimum cleaning and cooking.  While changing the laundry, I pulled out the superman pjs.  Tucker was holding Piglet while watching me pull out the clean laundry.  I pointed out to Tucker that superman was clean and dry again.  Tucker moved Piglet up and down like Piglet was talking and said " I want Superman".  That's the first time I've seen him pretend make something talk.  It made me laugh pretty good.

I don't really have any new photos from this week, so I'll just fill you in why I haven't read emails or called anyone back.  The babies go to sleep around 8:30, but don't really fall asleep until 10, but I wake them up at 7:30 anyway, hoping that they will get tired sooner.  And there is a lot of monitoring to make sure they stay in their room until they fall asleep. A new world for me that apparently ends when they move out.   I've been doing lots of stuff during the day to wear them out.  Not to mention I still can't believe it is still sunny this many days in a row and refuse to miss any of the rays.

This week we have gone to the pool twice at the friend's house, gone to the beach twice, gone to the playgrounds at the beach, played in the yard when not gone, had a back yard fire with s'mores with some friends (girls night) and then the usual and constant feeding of the mouths.  Most of these activities have needed both my hands, so I haven't been able to take pics.

Tucker loves the water.  He loves to jump, splash, kick, crawl up Mommy's legs (not an option, but he likes to try) and go in up to his neck.  But not get anything wet above the neck.  If someone splashes him, or a squirtgun mist hits his face or neck, time to freak out.  He smiles the entire time he's in the water unless there is water on his face or hair, of course.  Tucker had a blast throwing a sieve in the water, because it squirts water up through the holes when it lands.

Whitney loves the water also.  She doesn't like it as long and prefers the sand once she is so cold she is shivering and has blue sand.  She really likes smashing the sand castles she builds.  She enjoys the water from the comfort of her floatie, where she can kick toward or away from Tucker and Mommy at will.  I had bought them life jackets to use at the pool, beach and on a boat, thinking a one time purchase for three purposes, but not so.  They don't play on their own in a life jacket.  It's a bit like a snowsuit for the water.  They can't quite bend to get to the sand.  So the floatie with legs for one kid and holding the other works the best.

Whitney has started saying Tucker instead of Tucky.  It's pretty dang cute.  She is usually taking care of him.  Today when he was in the floatie, not really liking it, she gave him a ride around in the water while he floated, kind of like how she gives him a ride in his mop bucket.  But then later today she threw a heavy toy at his head, so who knows.

When I was preparing the deck for the ladies' night, they had a blast throwing the outdoor pillows around and down the stairs.  It was apparently hysterical.  Why, I don't know, but it was.

Whitney likes to paint everything with pink chalk.  I've only had to tell her to stick to her toys a couple of times.  Once she tried coloring my car with it.  She does it so much that Tucker has started asking her to do another coat when the pink rubs off the toy.  He asked for Ruff Ruff to be pink again.

Tucker really likes basketball and basketball hoops.  He looks in the church gym every time we go to church to see if "basketball down", if the hoop is down.  He also really likes playing with any type of hoop he can invent.  Mommy won't let him play with the one in the street.

Anyway, I will blog in maybe another 10 days from now.  Rumor on the street is that next week will also be straight sun.  I'll believe it when I see it, but I've been loving this!!

Hmmmm.... Where to start? I am wondering, though, how much longer it will be so entertaining to pull all the clothes off the hangers and stay up until 9:30 or later every night.

They still love copying Oliver's bad behavior and playing doggy that jumps up on everything. He even did it going back to the chapel after a potty break duruing sacrament meeting. He jumped up on the door to get in.

Eating.  This is great!

Whitney eating chips and keeping and eye on the duck

my beach babe

Whitney burying my foot in sand.  If it looks like I'm half asleep, I wish.  The shutter just got stuck open

Tucker smashing his castle

my other beach babe

Tucker snuggling on his towel for warmth and Whitney smashing another castle.

Whitney wanted to walk back to the car with her towel on.  She put it on herself and kept it up high enough to make it there walking the whole way.

Snuggling with woof woof and tortuga

Whitney did actually push Tucker in this pretty well.

 We had a lot of fun the day and a half of sun we had this week. We went to the beach. I guess the whole duck thing the last time we went the park really scared them.  Every time there was a duck on the beach, they freaked out, so I had to be on duck duty at this park too, even though these ducks weren't aggressive.  Whitney discovered sand as a medium for her art projects and spent lots of time making sand castles and smashing them.  Tucker just smashed them.  But then Tucker had a blast in the water for a long time.  Long enough for even him to get cold and he snuggled on the towel from being cold just like my siblings used to.  We went home when Tucker Doggy couldn't stop flinging sand behind him on other people while digging.

Monday they were most excellently behaved babies.  I made a ton of food for my upcoming week.  I made salsa, bread, chili rellenos, spanish rice and cookies in one day.  Whitney helped me a ton, which freed up the toys for Tucker so there was minimal fighting.  Jim came home from work that day hobbling after playing soccer at work.  His mechanism of injury is perfect for an ACL tear or major meniscus issue, but he hasn't gone to the doctor yet.  Hmmmmmmm...... I really hope I'm wrong in this instance.

Tuesday and Wednesday was Activity Day camp in the afternoons, so the babies were off to some friends.  Man.  Those babies lucked out.  My friend's project for the time they were there was to clean out the toy closet.  Her youngest is five.  They scored.  This is how she determined what she wanted to send home with them.  The amount of fighting and time spent with the toys.  She said she went to go help her son.  When she came back upstairs, she said she heard some "scuffling" in the toy closet.  They were fighting to get out a foam chair they could see (just like the one's at Sue's house!).  Apparently there were two and they hauled them around the house all day.  So those came home with me.  Score!

The other thing was a huge my little pony collection.  Apparently Whitney spent some serious quality time with those things with purple and pink hair.  They all look the same to me, but today Whitney was a little upset.  She dumped out the entire collection looking for the "pink Whitney pony".  There are smaller and bigger ones and she wanted this smaller one that has all pink hair and all pink body.  Different from the small pink pony with purple and pink hair. Pony, by the way, is pronounced, mony.

Friday was a catch up day, but we did have "jinglebells" over, which made all of our days.  Us parents played games while the kids played on their own.  It is AWESOME!  Jinglebells plays with Tucker and Whitney and their baby do their own thing.  It's great!

Saturday we tried raspberry picking.  We didn't get a ton of raspberries, but that's in between a lot of stuff.  Tucker and Whitney each had to go potty 3 times in 2 hours.  They also ate berries as fast as we could pick them.  It was a challenge to go fast enough.  The berries  just started ripening, so there weren't a lot in one location, but the best ones were actually at Tucker and Whitney's height.

Yesterday some friends and their twins came over, which was a great break, too.  Those kids play fairly well together and the dads made them race and traced their "dead" bodies with chalk on the driveway.  Whitney loved the racing and Tucker liked being traced.  There were three of him and one of the rest of the kids.  Lots of overlapping.

The best part of this week is that, with all that midnight practicing of putting clothes on and off, they can pull their pants on and off fairly well, so they are starting to go the bathroom on their own without telling me AND not having accidents.  I'm really liking this bit.

strawberries

All the friends playing nicely on the piano.

I see this scene A LOT.  He is lining up his cars to play "big bump, bump" like the speedbumps in the parking lot.  Now he is lining up multiple cars instead of one.

Tucker in the berry field

No sippy cup!

The after effects

Whitney helping Mommy sort rocks

Whitney at the berry field

Pausing to watch fish with their own shopping carts

Tucker with his

Pushing her own shopping cart

Relaxing and eating snack together.

Eating snack outside.  Whitney made herself a snack tray with a plant liner that held her cracker bag and sippy cup

Whitney in a very cute moment, minutes before "THE DUCK"

Tucker had fun pulling these guys up and down the driveway.  I think he was having fun with the skill of pulling two at once.

We found this one of the first nights after getting a big bed.  I think he was looking for the crib effect.

Whitney made her "bed" on the floor and was pretty proud of it.  She did end up falling asleep in it.

We found this, amongst the tornado that hit the room.  more on this later.

Whitney taking a nap.  Big mistake as it pushes bedtime to 10 pm but sure made for a very pleasant Sunday afternoon

Tucker ran to the window to watch "annabells" drive away.  His first attempt of saying his new friend's name was "Jinglebells Whitney" (all little girls are called Whitneys instead of girls)

Playing in their tunnels with the couch pillows.  I was taking a shower and they were playing with Daddy during the time.  I came out and found this picture of cuteness.  They were both very content and singing.

This week was a pretty happy week compared to the last couple of weeks.  We had intermittant sunshine, including one full day of bright blue skies.

On the sunny day we went to  an awesome beach park a friend recommended.  It has bathrooms, including a rinse off sand shower and a changing bench, a huge playground, a dock, shallow water that gradually gets deep for several feet off the shore and a stream that feeds into it, not to mention the usual trees and view of the mountains.  I love this park!  We stayed a very long time that day and it was so lovely.

The next park was a bit more of a memorable park.  It also has bathrooms nearby with a changing bench and has some sand.  There is a playground on the beach itself, which is pretty cool.  We met up with some friends there and started eating lunch.  The day wasn't as warm, but we pretended it was anyway.  The picture of Whitney holding her bread sitting crosslegged on the towel is that beach.  That picture of Whitney was snapped right before THE DUCK came over.  There was this really aggressive mother duck there.  I've decided she must have been pregnant or something.  She came waddling up really close to us and I thought for sure it would vear away since we are bigger.   Nope.  That duck saw that bread in Whitney's hand and went for it, and Whitney held on to it really tight.  The duck ended up jumping on Whitney's legs and over Whitney, continually biting at the bread (and Whitney's fingers and arm) until I chased it off.  It took a lot of work to chase that duck off into the water.  It didn't want to give up.  Poor Whitney was bawling her head off on her towel, scared to death.  I don't blame her.  I was scared that duck wasn't going to go away.  All the families on the beach starting eating lunch like us in the next 1/2 hour and so all the moms were on duck duty, chasing that duck repeatedly into the water.  All the other kids were scared of the duck as soon as it came over to their picnic area.  What an adventurous lunch time.  I was really wishing Hoppy and the dogs were there that day.  That duck would have been dinner.

Then, after lunch, one of the kids that was with us started screaming while she was playing in the sand.  She had stepped into a puddle of water that they had made and there was a pokey fish skeleton in it that stuck into her foot pretty good.  That made Whitney afraid of all the plants floating in the water.  She thought her friend had stepped on a plant that was pokey.  This beach has a retaining wall where the water starts so that as soon as you get into the water it is 2.5 feet deep.  The kids reach over the wall with their buckets and scoop out the water onto the sandy area on the other side of the wall.  The only problem with that is the way the bay, wall and dock area is set up, is also a perfect set up to collect all the nasty bits from the lake.  There were tons of plants, pollen, dead fish, sticks, floating bits of bark, etc collecting against that wall.  The fish probably got there because a kid had previously scooped up a dead fish in the water and dumped it into the sand.  Really, really gross.

Tucker and Whitney wanted to get into the water, but with the depth, that meant I had to get in, too.  I put their life jackets on and cleared out a spot in the water so I could see my feet.  When we got in, Tucker had so much fun jumping up and down, running in the water and splashing.  He could have done that all day.  Whitney and I, however, were swishing dead plants, fish and pollen out of our little circle area of clean water the whole time.  She got cold and I got grossed out, so we got out, much to Tucker's dismay.  I probably won't go back to that park again.  It's for the birds/ducks.

This whole week was another week of adventure because of big beds.  They haven't gone to bed before 9:30 this week because of all the excitement and there have been nights until 10 or 10:30.  Really annoying.  They started pulling stuff out of the closet because I confiscated toys and books in bed. Tucker was throwing them either at Whitney or the window.  We also had to put batteries in the radio and get a flashlight lantern thing as a night light because he pulled the radio off the dresser, pulled out the cord and started hitting Whitney with the cord.  He was throwing the nightlights after unplugging them at the window.  This kid is a terror.  Once I took all that away, Tucker's favorite thing to do is pull out this purple dress of Whitney's and put it on.  I'm not sure why.  I think it is purely because he can reach the dress and it can be put on independently.  We have found him asleep with it on several times.  They really like not sleeping on their beds, but on the floor. Whitney makes a nest on the floor that she likes to sleep on.  Sunday they fell asleep eating lunch, so, knowing they weren't going to bed before 10 regardless of a nap or not, I let them sleep an hour.  It was so nice!

We had some people over that brought Annabelle, their 3 1/2 year old.  That turned out to be a great success.  Tucker and her play so well together.  She is older and taller than him and doesn't mind the tackle hugs she gets, unlike Whitney.  She thought all of Tucker's games were great and hysterical.  It was so nice to have Tucker play with someone else and not have to break up fights with him biting whitney all night.  Whitney liked it, too.  When they left, Tucker ran to the window to watch them go away.  He called her Jinglebells Whitney at the first attempt at her name, but now has it down to Annabelles.  In case you are wondering, all little girls are called Whitney and all little boys are called Tucker.

We got some shopping in during the raining days.  The mini shopping carts at petco were awesome.  The babies were really good at following me.  They felt so big.  Whitney was really getting the hang of it as she saw a really cute calender and wanted to "put it in" the cart.  Tucker was having too much fun looking at stuff and driving it that he couldn't always steer it away from the shelves.  There is a long pole and a flag on top of the pole so a parent can look over the shelves and see where the cart is.  He kept getting the pole stuck on overhanging displays.  It looked a bit like those rat mazes where you can't see the rat, just the pole and the flag sticking up.  Made me laugh.

We went strawberry picking as our family activity on Saturday.  The weather was iffy, but, it wasn't raining yet, so we went anyway.  Tucker and Whitney were both really good at picking strawberries this year.  They knew only to pick the rojo ones.  Some of them were over ripe and moldy, so I showed that to Whtiney.  She got really good at saying, Mom, it's moldy! if I didn't see it on the other side.  We didn't stay too long because all of a sudden a thunderstorm blew in.  I mean, all of a sudden.  When it started raining, we started walking back to the car and got completely soaked through our jeans and underwear.  Tucker hated walking in the rain because it kind of hurt with the big drops and all.  It made for slower going.  Whitney figured out how to use my body as a shelter for her face and didn't whine at all.  When we finally got back to the car, my sweatshirt was dripping off on to them, getting them more wet. I couldn't believe how wet we got in such a short amount of time.

Tucker and Whitney are getting really good at singing.  They have started singing to music on the radio or on the computer.  They sing to each other at night and sometimes sing together.  Whitney tries to sing with Daddy when he sings, but sometimes gets thrown off if he sings the words or notes different than what she originally learned.  They are catching on.

Whitney is my little helping bear.  I'm trying to move a bunch of rocks around in the yard, and Whitney helps me fill my bucket with the appropriated sized rocks in my bucket and smaller ones in her bucket.  She also occasionally helps me weed.

When we had friends over this weekend, we tried playing games that had little tiles.  That got a bit frustrating as the babies wanted to play, too.  Then we gave them some to play with and they went off and cooked them in their kitchen.  Much better.  Jim got a great idea to get a 1000 piece puzzle out for them to cook with.  It did work as far as distracting them, but that also included 1000 pick up.