18 months

Afton and Lilly are 18 months old!!!!!! That has gone by way too fast! I absolutely love this age!!! Two 18 month olds is a lot of work but I love how they learn something new everday and are so cute!!!
They are now ready to officially be in nursery in church. They went in last week for a trial run and did amazing!!!! They have their 18 month dr. appt. on Monday. Lilly is STILL NOT walking and I am thinking our pediatirician will probably say she needs to see a physical therapist :)

Anyways, when each of our kids turn 18 months old we take some special pictures to celebrate them being in nursery and primary. Enjoy!!!

Afton




Lilly


Just to go down memory lane- here are Ethan and Lizzie's 18 month photos....
Our scanner is broken so I had to take pictures of a picture (pre-digital photo days!)

Ethan


Lizzie

Grey's River

Here are some pictures of our trip to Star Valley/ Grey's River. Jim came home about a week ago and said let's go next weekend for a long weekend..... so we went. We took way too many pictures but here are a few highlights


A familiar site if you grew up in Jim's family



Lizzie enjoying the river



I still can't believe I have these three beautiful girls.



I like to call this one - THE APPRENCTICE


The Fisherman





Ethan with his first fish he caught all by himself! I would like to add that he caught two right in a row!





Afton Wyoming meeting Afton Harrison



Yes, we did see this bear about 20 to 30 feet away from us. We were glad we were on the other side of the river.

2 down 2 to go

As of today I now have two kids in school!!!! The night before they each started school we had a BACK TO SCHOOL FEAST for dinner. I think they liked it.

Ethan is gone every day from 8:15 to 2:55 as he learns the ropes of 2nd grade. He started a week ago. Oh, how I miss that boy. He loves math but does not like to work on his handwriting.




Lizzie just started kindergarten today and will go from 12:15 to 2:55. She is excited to do art in a new place and has been practicing wearing her backpack. Although she tests my patience every day I know I am gong to miss that cute girl so much and her quirky answers and sayings for everything.





This is how school shopping for shoes went with Ethan and Liz.

Mom- "Ethan do you like these?"
Ethan- "Yeah, sure."

This is how it went for everything. I could have shown him shiny purple shoes and he probably would have said sure.

Now for Lizzie,

Mom- "Lizzie do you like these shoes?"
Lizzie- "No"
Mom- "What about these?" repeated about six times with six different options.
Lizzie- "No" repeated about six times.
Mom- starting to lose patience "Why don't you just show me which ones you like?"
Lizzie- of course finds something for more money than what mom has been showing her.
Mom- "Fine, let's just get them and go."

What a smart girl I have.... :)


This is what will be waiting for them when they get home from school today. I rarely make chocolate chip cookies (Jim does this) so it really is a treat!

My Peanut Butter and Jelly

I have two very different babies who seem to go together well thus the PB&J analogy :)


I thought while I am thinking about it I will put a little post about Afton and Lilly. These two babies (or I mean girls since they really are not babies anymore) are so different that most of the time I really don't feel like I have twins just two babies (girls) really close in age... like 3 minutes. From the day they were born I thought they looked and acted so different. Only when I go out in public with them am I quickly reminded I HAVE TWINS because of all the comments I get and the stares I can feel. You know that feeling when you know someone is staring at you....

Just to go off on a tangent for a minute I ALWAYS get "God Bless You" and "Boy you sure do have your hands full." or "You sure must be busy." I mostly get that one when I take all four somewhere.

Afton:
She is my climber, curious little girl. She has not said one word yet but has managed to climb onto almost everything in my house. Her latest feat is she will get to the top of my couch and then roll down to the cushions. She just thinks that is hilarious. She is always bringing me treasures throughout the house and if anyone leaves a shoe laying around she will bring it to its rightful owner. Afton enjoys things but I think I have only heard her laugh really hard about 3 or 4 times. It is amazing to watch her explore her world. Plus I absolutely adore here smile. She has 8 front teeth and 4 molars already in.

Lilly:
Anyone who has been around Lilly knows she has the funniest, cutest face expressions. She also REALLY likes to scream, hit and throw things. I am trying to figure out what to do about that. She sits or crawls and babbles all day long and really acts like she is saying full sentences. I can only understand when she says mama, dada, Hi dad, lizzie, grandpa, aloha, baby and I think that is all. She is a chatter girl. We can get Lilly to belly laugh so easily and it is the cutest thing. Lilly has 6 teeth total. I have also found out she does not like fruit snacks!!! What kind of kid does not like fruit snacks! :)

Lately they have started to interact with each other. In fact right now I can hear them laughing with each other from their cribs when they are supoosed to be taking a nap. They follow each other to the latest adventure. They will also share food and give each other toys. They also want whatever toy the other one has. I think Christmas gifts will have to consist of two of everything this year.

Here are some pictures from Lagoon to show their different personalities.

Lilly was mesmerized with the merry-go round




Afton on the other hand was pretty calm about everything but so curious about her animal :)










Also here we are just leaving Lagoon.....











..... And not more than 10 minutes later.












I will do a highlight on Ethan and Lizzie when they start school. :)

Winding Down

Summer is starting to come to an end.... Here are some highlights of our summer.



Being introduced to a slip and slide.













Learning to ride bikes.




Planting a garden


Going to Island Park/ Yellowstone



Cherry Hills

- Frequent campfires and Smores around our fire pit in the backyard.
- Afton also learned to walk.
- I have been trying to get the babies interested in Sesame Street this summer. They really don't seem to care for the TV and would rather explore (aka -destroy) my house.

Here are my three favorite quotes from the summer-
"I wish Heavenly Father made me be a dog so I wouldn't be afraid of myself." Lizzie age 5

In a day of sibling arguments Lizzie said, "Ethan, I'm going to ask Santa to bring me a nicer brother." Ethan's classic response- "Lizzie I'm the best present you ever got!!!

And finally- a kid at the skate park was trying to tell Ethan how to go down a hill and that it was easy. Ethan said "It's not easy if your scared!"

Classic I tell you!!!

We have one more big summer event on Wed. when we will go to Lagoon.

Ethan starts 2nd grade on August 26th, Lizzie starts kindergarten on Sept 3rd and my little babies will go into Nursery at church on Sept. 27th. Wow! I am hoping Lilly will hurry things up with her walking otherwise I might have a baby crawling into nursery. :)

10 years from now....

I promise I will post some pictures of our trip... Later.

While hanging out with the family on vacation the question was asked - 10 years from now, where do you want to be?

I had a hard time with that question and when I started answering bawled like a baby (sorry everyone :). I had a hard time because I am so happy with my life right now that in ten years...... can it really get better than this? So I have been thinking about that question a lot lately (long car rides can do that). In ten years I wil be GULP.... 42!!!!


I will have this boy


driving!!!!!

and Lizzie as a teenager (Help!).



>My little babies will not be babies anymore.
In fact they will almost be old enough for Young Women's. Can I just stop time?

I know I have put this in a post before but right now I have never been so tired, ovewhelmed, happy and at peace as I am right now. I know this is a time of my life that I will look back on fondly and cherish. I still get frusterated (too many times) and struggle with things but a couple things in the past little while have made me have a different outlook.

- One of our friends died in April. There is not A DAY that goes by that I dont' think of his family and my dear friend Michelle. I talk to her and see her often and am reminded of how much you have to treasure every moment and embrace life.

- When you are 99% (always leave room for error:) sure you are done having kids you realize that these moments are fleeting. I won't get another chance to have a baby small enough to lay on my chest and just relax. I won't get to see another one of my kids try to walk, learn to talk and experience so many new things EVERY DAY!!!

But Alas, I was finally able to think of a few goals-
1- Run at least 2 marathons
2- Visit New York City and New Zealand
3- Have ALL of Jim's student loans and our kids medical bills paid off!!! The extra money we would have......

So there we go. I feel better getting that out :) and will start thinking about other stuff ........like unpacking.

July 18th

A very brief glimpse of the past 11 years.....