A man named "Hello" - and a few other laughs from the kids

On Saturday night, we tooke the kids and headed to Kings Island with our friend Trevor Casper, only arrive just before a thunderstorm, so we changed our plans and went out for Mexican. Our server was very friendly, and he decided to teach the kids to say Hi in Spanish. Jacob and Claire were both very good at saying "Hola," but Jacob was convinced that it was the server's name. He kept calling out "Hi Hola!" every time he saw our server.

On a related topic, it's going to be a while before we allow our kids to go to a restaurant without strapping them into a booster or a highchair - the restaurant only had 1 highchair, so neither child wanted to be in it. Instead, they ran around the booth like crazy! We won't make that mistake again.

I called home today and Jacob and Claire nearly beat Dani (who was upstairs getting beds ready for naps) to the phone. What a great surprise it was to get to talk to a very excited Jacob and Claire - I think I had to say hi to them once every 30 seconds!

A cute side of Claire comes out when Jacob throws a fit or when a baby is crying. She quickly finds a toy that she thinks will make them happy and puts it next to him. If that doesn't do the trick, she'll look for something better. This, unfortunately, does not apply when the cause of the fit is her taking something away from Jacob!

While I was at training, I got Jacob a little t-ball set and brought it home for him. He had a fever Friday, when I got home, but he was so excited to put the ball on the tee and hit it. It was really sad watching him feel so miserable but want to play outside with the tee ball set so bad!

I like to tell people that our kids don't do anything if they're not doing it big. They are over-the-top happy but can throw some big tantrums. I think that the fact that they get to do it together makes life twice as fun most of the time, but can often be twice as frustrating! That is probably the case for mom and dad, too!

A Day on the Lake (oh how I miss these days)

Saturday we went wakeboarding with some friends that we recently discovered have a boat!  I was so excited.  Truthfully, I am a waterskier, but I was so happy to have any time on a boat.  I big thanks to the Ellis family for sharing the fun with us and letting me drive your nice boat.  I really look forward to a day that Jared and I can have a boat to share with our family and friends since it is something that I grew up loving to do with my family.  I cannot wait for this summer to get to Wyoming to ski with the family (I LOVE WATERSKIING).  We also might have a chance to waterski with all of Jared's cousins in Idaho...can't wait.   Anyhow, this was the second time ever that I have tried wakeboarding, which at first seems a little boring once you learn to ski pretty well, but I will admit that the more I wakeboarded the more fun it seemed.  Turning is different and was taking some getting used to, but I was getting the hang of it, so I decided to make some fun and try to jump on the wake, I did get a pretty good hop and land, but promptly face planted.  Face planting on a wakeboard hurts way more than face planting on skis because your feet are just stuck in the board.  My neck is pretty sore still, but it was worth the fun.

Jared got to try wake surfing and was pretty good at it, he got right up and then got to play around on the wake for quite awhile.  
Claire was SO good, she loved just being on the boat, she also loved having a life jacket on.  She was so calm and just content to sit and ride along, you barely noticed she was there (except for her adorable little face).
Jacob didn't love the boat as much, he wanted to be held the whole time and was concerned if Jared or I were in the water or behind the boat.  He eventually fell asleep on my for a few minutes, but I think that this picture pretty much sums up his feelings about the experience (trying to block it out).
Kiddos rode on the the tube with Jared and actually really enjoyed it.  You would have never known by watching Jacob, he just buried his face and pulled his hat down over his eyes and held it there for the whole ride, but every time Jared asked if he wanted to be done he would say "no no."  Claire was propping herself up and taking in the whole experience!  I can't wait for the next time I get on a boat (hopefully there is a waterski involved).

Red River Gorge and Natural Bridges

Ok, I am FINALLY posting the pictures that I keep saying I will post, I kept putting it off because there are so many of them, but I finally decided to post a bunch and get them on so I might eventually catch up on my blogging.  We had so much fun on our trip with Matt and Camie's family and Rob and Holly's family and Jared's brothers who joined for a bit of the adventure.  The pictures are not in order, but I will just give you a quick tour of our trip.  

Our great cabin was lakeside and the lake was this nice little thing with clear water, canoes, and a paddle boat, we enjoyed all of them!

Taylor and Andrew were (are) such great uncles, here is Taylor with Ellie and Clayton by the fire pit.
We enjoyed SOOO much good food.  Jared and I made some new dutch oven recipes that are for sure keepers.  Rob usually ate at the kiddie table since he is so small and all.  (This picture was taken Sunday after we attended the tiny branch in Beattyville).
We did some great hikes.  This one was a short walk to overlook Red River Gorge, it is beautiful (or should I say GORGEous).
The two men in my life!
This hike was to a big natural bridge, we are actually on top of it in this picture...next year I will not carry my kids anymore!  They were really great though and had a great time, Lydia was such a great little hiker.
We played in some water, the kids were throwing rocks and Claire discovered if she holds on real tight she can pick up several rocks to throw so she doesn't have to bend down so much.
Taylor and Andrew came down to climb and were nice enough to let Jared, Rob, and I join them for awhile.
I discovered that climbing barefoot on sandstone is nothing like climbing barefoot in the canyons in Utah.  I really have missed climbing.
This is the great place we rented...it was so perfect for our group.
Rob, Ellie, and Lydia by the fire.
Jacob and Clayton were great buddies (unless they were tired or hungry).
After all of the toddlers had a fun bath they all needed a drink and a book together.
This is on the hike to the natural bridge.
As is this!  (Jacob is reaching for his snack...he loves food).
It was a fantastic trip, we had perfect weather and so much fun.  We played a lot of games and enjoyed the outdoor activities around, I hope we get more chances for these trips!

Kentucky Charm

This is the beautiful framed picture that is hanging on the wall in a Pizza Hut in Kentucky (right next to the Can-tuky Diner with backwards letters and all).  We ate the buffet at this Pizza Hut on our way to our Red River Gorge/Natural Bridges cabin vacation!  (It was a great trip by the way and I really do promise to post pictures, there are just so many of them that it seems really daunting right now).  I hope you can click on it and blow it up to read the letters on the plaque... "Our Hometown".  I just really got a kick out of the whole thing, it is actually a pretty nice really big frame with matting, a little plaque, and actually hung on the wall, but the picture is...missing?  blank?   In the defense of this little pizza hut, it was a small town, not much going on, so maybe to them a blank space is as good as a picture of the hometown.

When Grandma and Grandpa Came

Ok, I am so far behind and I put about a million pictures on my computer today, so I apologize for the abundance of pictures, I actually left quite a few out!  Anyhow, my parents came to visit a couple of weeks ago for about 10 days and we had a great time.  We packed a bunch into the time they were here.
The day after they got here we left for Berlin, OH...Amish country.  I didn't actually take any pictures in Berlin, but I got a picture of the chocolate pretzel the Grandpa bought for Claire at the Outlet Mall on the way (by the way we got some great deals at the outlets).  In Amish country we ate and bought huge amounts of cheese, cream cheese, jerky, fudge, and baked goods. We also went to a bunch of the shops and ate dinner at a Swiss Chalet type restaurant.  It was Jared's birthday... wow I really am so far behind.
From Berlin we headed to Kirtland, OH so the parents could see some church history sights.  Jared and I tried to join them for the tour, but Jacob and Claire wanted nothing to do with it.  It was raining while we were there (Jacob had a little pants accident, so he is wearing pj pants).


We went to a Reds game on the Monday after our weekend trip (picture above) and the Reds actually pulled off a win, it was a good time!  We also took a trip to the zoo while they were here.  The peacock was so happy to see us!

Grandpa and Jacob, I am pretty sure they were looking at the baby rhino.

There are elephants in the background if you look real hard. It was a great day for the zoo with great weather and we saw tons of animals, Jacob and Claire really are loving the zoo now.
We also took a trip to the children's museum while they were here and we went out for dinner at a great place called 'Grand Finale'...awesome desserts.  We celebrated Mom's birthday and Jared's birthday while they were here.  My dad also finally got the chance to get the sundae he has been dreaming about since his first trip to Graeter's: a brownie, a scoop of chocolate chocolate chip ice cream and hot fudge...he says it is proof that there is no such thing as too much chocolate.
Jacob and Claire really had a great time playing with Grandma and Grandpa and looked for Grandpa every morning for a little while after they left.

It's Official

We booked the tickets last night and I am SOOOOO excited.  We are going to Cancun in September!  (Actually our hotel is in Playa Del Carmen, not Cancun). I have been to Canada once and other than that have not been outside of the country, I have my little passport just waiting for a stamp and now I will finally get one (even if it only is Mexico).  We were on the phone with our friends Jim and Mel last night for quite some time picking the best price/best vacation combo and we finally settled  on where we are going and we can't wait!  Jim and Mel live in Oregon and we haven't seen them in quite awhile so we are really excited to go on a vacation with them.  It will be short, but we decided we will pack as much as we can into our 5 day, 4 night stay, we even have the same flight into and out of Cancun so it works out perfectly.  Lets all just hope that there aren't any hurricanes in the area while we are there!!!!  I have also never stayed all-inclusive which I am really excited about.  Oh, and did I mention, we are going without our kids...I love it!

This weekend we have our trip to Red River Gorge with Matt and Camie, and Rob and Holly and all of our respective children, we are really excited and I promise I will actually post some pictures!

Now that our vacations are beginning I promise I will get out of my blogging stupor and I will post some of the things that I am so far behind on, maybe tomorrow I will get the pictures up from my parents' trip here.

Journaling

I am sooo behind on blogging because my parents came to visit for 10 days! We had a lot of fun and there are blogs to come on our activities while they were here, but until I put the pictures on the computer I need to journal a couple of little things about my kiddos. Jacob never ever ever never walks...he runs (or jumps), it is really like he is incapable of walking. He is also super affectionate and gives so many hugs and kisses, mostly unsolicited. Yesterday at the park he hugged some random mommy, it was hilarious and she just couldn't get over it. He is very high energy and very intense, lately I wake up to him screaming "NO!" at his sister from his crib every morning (and as is tradition she breaks down bawling after every "NO!"). He frequently is asking "HELP YOU" which is his way of asking for help. It is hilarious when he needs help because he starts calmly asking "help you" and it quickly gets more frantic "help you, Help you, Help You, HELP YOU", someday he will learn that it is "help me."

Claire is our little princess and she is quite sensitive to every grunt, scream, or holler made by her brother. She is sneaky too, she can provoke her brother pretty well but she always careful to look around to make sure she is clear before doing it, she also will sometimes break down crying when she thinks no one is paying attention because she can usually get Jacob into trouble. She loves to say "okay" when she knows you understand her, for example today she wanted me to "help you" (she learned it from her brother) with the "choo choo"and when I said "you want mama to help you with your choo choo?" she quickly went from frantic to a cheery "OKAY!" She also likes to say "Oh Boy" when she is excited; yesterday we went to playgroup at the park and as we were walking from the car to the playground she exclaimed "Slide, Oh Boy!"

Both of my kids scream "Fry!" (actually it is more like "fwy") every time we pass a building that resembles a fast food drive thru (I promise I don't really feed them fast food often). They love to point out every airplane they hear and they have to say "bye bye airplane" before they can move on with their day.

There are so many funny things that they are doing and so much they are discovering, they try to repeat everything and are starting to repeat us as we say family prayers. I will journal more as I think about their funny things

Close to Hooray #2

We almost had another hooray during bathtime. Claire told Dani she had to go #2 - but it 'fell' a few inches short and turned into an 'uh oh.'

We're coming to the realization that potty-training does not mean that we get to stop cleaning up messes. It just changes the form of cleanup!

Hooray and other random ramblings!

We will start with the Hooray!  Last night as always is tradition (I married into a big tradition family and my kids have already picked up on that), Claire sat on her little potty before getting in the tub.  This time she actually went peepee in the potty!  Hooray for Claire.  I am not really sure she is ready for all out potty training yet, but it was a great first victory and she was so proud of herself.

We went to an all  you can eat pizza place last week, our kids love pizza and they still eat free there.  While we were there we got the kids some balloon animals, they loved them.  Above you can see how intrigued Claire was with the balloon twisting.  Below you can see the results, a bear on a heart and a monkey on a tree.  About 30 seconds later Jacob drug his tree along the sidewalk and he suddenly only had a monkey.  On the way home Claire decided to be a pest and kept hitting Jacob with her big heart which he was really unhappy about and he couldn't really even fight back since he popped the biggest part of his balloon sculpture. (It was a little funny though because Claire was laughing really hard and Jacob was whining).
This is one of the things I did this weekend, it was for Jared's little brother's prom date, I didn't see it on her but I sure hope it ended up matching her grape colored dress and his gold tux.  
This is another thing I did this weekend.  Yep, I scraped the frosting off of almost an entire box (or package I guess) of Oreos, then I crushed the Oreos.  I only resorted to this after trips to 4 different grocery stores to find the boxed Oreo crumbs which apparently don't exist anymore since they have started making their pre-made crusts.  All of this was for that chocolate mousse cake, but despite all of the work (even outside of the crust) it was delicious and I am sure I will make it again someday.

Murder! Oh My!

It is July, 1940. The German troops are about to enter Paris. The roads south are a hopeless snarl; the trains are full and one cannot find space aboard them. Yet to remain in the city and see her brutalized by the Nazis will not be a pleasant thing. An anonymous letter arrives, offering you passage aboard a government train heading for the relative safety of Southern France. During the trip, murder is discovered and the passengers must decide who amongst them has committed the crime.


Here are the suspects:
Mary K. Trairie (the American reporter) and Malcolm R. Conntint 'Mal' (the gangster) (and their little girl, even though their characters are not connected). Mal also took on the nickname of K-Fed for the night.
Barbara Z. Enhussie(daughter of the French Perfume King) and RAF Group Captain Weyland W. Awfcorce 'Wey' (The Pilot)
Princess Idelle Chattre (Princess) and Khover T. Ageante (Secret Agent)
Duke Swazhe B. U. Klare (Duke) and Belinda Screete (American dress maker)
We are so glad that we have friends that are not opposed to getting all dressed up and pretending to be someone else for a night. (For any friends who didn't get in on this one, but would love to be someone else for a night, I am already searching for the next mystery, we may have to try a double cast party next time.) I have to point out that my amazing dress actually once belonged to Jared's Granny, it was perfect! We had quite the time trying to unravel the mystery while eating our French menu of crab quiche, french bread, salad (not so french), and chocolate mousse cake (worth all of the work). It was fun to learn the dirty secrets we all had and eventually uncover the murderer. So whodunit? ...I will have to keep that secret in case you ever have the opportunity to solve the mystery yourself, but you tell me, who do you think dunit?

Climbers

We took these videos of our kiddos climbing on their birthday at the park by the bike trail.  They  did a pretty good job and Claire's "WHOA" makes me laugh every time.  Jacob always jumps when he is excited about something.  We thought uncle T would be so proud of his climbing niece and nephew.

Holy Cow! Happy Birthday!

Ok, So I tried to post on their actual birthday but blogger was not cooperating, so we are a few days late, but here it goes!  I can't believe that this picture was 2 whole years ago, when I woke up Friday I told Jared "at this time 2 years ago I was going 'owie owie owie owie'".  

I also cannot believe that Jacob was ever this tiny, two years ago he also had the tiniest little voice (anyone who knows him now would never believe it).
Claire was tiny too, but she always had big cheeks!  
We celebrated all day on Friday; it was birthday number 2 for 2!  We started with the special breakfast sent from Aunt Peepee (my sister Kaci).  I thought it was so funny that she spent this much on shipping to send them powdered Hostess donuts for breakfast.

She insisted that we give them to Jacob and Claire for breakfast since they have NEVER had donuts, she thinks I deprive them, but they are just as happy with plain old oatmeal.
They got Go-gurts and powdered donuts for their birthday breakfast and they were all smiles because they knew it was their birthday!  These pictures are for you Kaci!
We spent the morning with Sesame Street while mom decorated cakes and Dad helped our neighbor fix our back door (that the kids broke, another story for another day), yes Dad took the day off.   We spent the late morning and early afternoon on the bike trail, so much fun and we even stopped at a park along the trail to play for awhile.
We had Nana and Papa and our friends the Browns over for the birthday party and Jacob and Claire really cleaned up (there are a lot of presents when there are 2 kids turning 2).  This wagon from Nana and Papa was a popular gift, their little friend Abigail really liked it too!
This is my birthday cake attempt and I am actually quite happy with it since I think that the characters are somewhat recognizable.  For those of you who don't recognize them, this is Bob and Larry, the tomato and cucumber from Veggie Tales.  Jacob and Claire really love Veggie Tales.
They both blew out their own candles.  Happy Birthday to are two little two year olds, we can't believe that 2 years have passed (and at the same time we really do believe it).
And today in church it was obvious that they are 2, it was like someone flipped the 2 switch (not that they were calm in church before) but they really could not sit still and were very bossy!  We sure do love them though and we have really enjoyed watching them play together and their big personalities in their little bodies.