Sittin' Pretty (or Handsome... sorry Will)

I would say that as of today the babies are now officially sitting up on their own. Elle has been sitting for a couple weeks now but now Will also has the hang of it. It is so fun to set them face to face and watch them steal toys from one another, grab each other's faces, and laugh at each other. It is exciting to watch these two as they perfect each milestone.

Hannah's first day of Kindergarten

This picture is from the 3rd day. She just looked so cute that I couldn't resist.

Hannah's first day of school.

Hannah and Mrs. Hillner
Grammy and Hannah
Here is Ava so sad that Hannah got to go to school and she didn't.
It is nice that we can just walk or ride bikes to school.

Tuesday August 26th was Hannah's first day of Kindergarten! I never knew how hard it would be to get her to talk about what she did during the day, but it is like pulling teeth!! Yesterday, her second day of school, I asked her what she did and her response was... "we did not do any school work because it took us too long to do other things". Fast forward to a couple minutes later... so what did you learn about today... "Mom, I already told you". So I was given great advice from my mother-in-law, she said to tell Hannah that she has to come home and tell us at least 3 things that she did at school. I have set the plan into action and will let you know how it works.

Teeth, Teeth and more Teeth.

Our lives over the last couple weeks have revolved around sticking our fingers in our children's mouths. I know that it sounds pretty repulsive but we are at such an interesting stage in our lives, we have one child losing teeth and two children getting teeth. Funny that you typically lose your two bottom middle teeth first and they are also the first to appear when you are a baby. Well last Friday (the 24th of August) Elle got her second tooth, on Sunday the 26th Hannah lost her second tooth, and currently Will has two bulging bumps on the bottom gum that look ready to give way to two little white nubbins we like to call teeth any day.

Hannah really wanted to extracting her tooth with the method of tying a string around her tooth and the door knob and shutting the door... YIKES. We tried this a couple weeks ago with the same tooth and to both mine and Aaron's relief the string slipped off the tooth before the door shut all the way. WHEW! Luckily a couple weeks later the tooth was literally hanging on by a thread and string stayed in place around the tooth resulting in a successful tooth extraction using the door slam method. It was quite exciting and surprisingly Hannah did not flinch at all, she just stood their until she heard the tooth hit the ground and then started laughing.

Now about that tooth fairy... Hannah's first tooth was MIA before she could get it under her pillow for the tooth fairy so we decided to go against the grain and try a different method of getting the tooth to the tooth fairy. Luckily Hannah's Grammy had tried the method when she was little and assured Hannah that the tooth fairy would still come. We put a glass cup in the window sill above the kitchen sink and dropped the tooth into the water. This way when the tooth fairy flew by she would be able to clearly see the tooth in the glass that was placed in the kitchen window and surely she would retrieve the tooth and leave $. Well I am happy to say that this worked. The tooth fairy was able to find the tooth and left Hannah 4 quarters. (I think the tooth fairy started a bit high, with 4 kids she is going to be broke!)

Rafting the Payette

A few of us girls cooling off.
Here are the Wilkey's riding the bull! I wonder if they knew that I was their guide??? They should have been afraid! But we got through without injuries.

Stephanie Wilkey, Heather Pruett, Jill Simmons, Me, Kara McBride, Angela Giles, Monica Knight, Erica Wheeler. Notice there are no pictures of the boys all together... I guess someone had to do the hard work ;)
Here are some of the guys getting the rafts ready to go. Kevin McBride, Aaron, Trent Wheeler, and Vaughn Pruett.
Here we are in our boat. We rode with the Wilkey's, the Pruett's and the McBrides. We had the Cool Boat!!
Here are our competitors... The Wheeler's, Simmons, Knights, and Giles.
Heather and I enjoying the water after our boat was attacked and we were thrown overboard.

On Saturday the 25th of August we were able to head up to Cascade and float the Payette River to Smith's Ferry (the Cobarton Run for those of you familiar with this area). We went with 7 other couples in 2 different rafts and had a GREAT time!! We were on the river for 3 hours and the water fights began as soon as we got into the boats (we hadn't even pushed off yet... thanks Mike). It's a good thing we left all the kids at home because we pretty much acted like children the whole day, I think we all need to be able to be the kid from time to time. The weather was beautiful, the water was relatively warm, and the company was perfect. I was able to find a very capable babysitter to watch all 4 kids for 9 hours (thanks Amy). I have been so nervous to leave the twins with anyone other than family. I am used to having two babies at once, but I know how overwhelming it can be from time to time. The great thing is that Amy did a fantastic job and said it went great. I guess God heard my prayers.

9 YEARS!!

I can't believe that I forgot to write a post about our 9th anniversary that we celebrated on August 14!!

It is amazing to think it has been 9 years. It has gone So fast but it is amazing to think back at how much we have accomplished in 9 years.

We thought it was funny that when we went out to dinner to celebrate our anniversary we did not talk about the kids at all. We were thinking back to when we had just Hannah and Ava and it seemed like they were always the topic of conversation between the two of us but it is nice that now when we get away from the kids for a while we are truly ready to GET AWAY!! We had a nice dinner and then went and bowled 3 games. We had a great evening and were thankful to Aaron's mom and dad for watching the kids so we could enjoy our time out together.

Ice blocking on Simplot Hill

All the mom's are ready to race!!
Now this is an ice blocking hill!!

Go Ava
Daddy and Ava with Ben Tolman hot on their tails!
Go Hannah

On Monday night we got together with 4 other families for a fun night of ice blocking on Simplot Hill. We had a GREAT time. Ice blocking is a fun activity for all ages. The kids all the way up to adults loved it. Despite it being 102 degrees outside everyone still joined in the fun. I realized the other day that many people have never been, or don't even know what Ice Blocking is... Well I looked up a definition online for all of you out there who are in the dark. I recommend giving it a try, it is a great family activity!! Amber- Thank you so much for the pictures!!


ice blocking definition:

The sport of using large blocks of ice to reach relatively high speeds down a grassy hill. The only required materials are Blocks of Ice, Towels, and a Grassy Hill. Simply sit on the block of ice (with a towel over it) and slide down the hill allowing minimal friction by using smooth ice and short grass. Let Gravity do its thing. Often times it is called "Reverse Sledding" because of its popularity in areas that do not receive snow. Ice Blocking can be used as a great first date, or hours of endless fun with friends.

Roaring Springs.

Elle's first time on the waterslide
Elle lounging in her tube. I forgot her sun hat so I made do with a little towel.
Will before he started screaming.
Two lounging babies

The girls with their good friends Lizzy and Parker. They will be moving in a couple months so we are trying to cram as much fun in as possible before they go.

Well all summer we have been going to the waterpark on average 1-2 times per week. The babies have been troupers, they usually stay in their car seats the whole time. We park in the shade and I put wet towels in with them to keep them cool and typically they fall asleep. On Monday this week (the 18 of August) I decided to take them both in the water for the first time! It was about 100 degrees and I knew they could not stay in their car seats the whole time so I took a couple float tubes that a friend just gave me, dressed them in their swim diapers and suits and we were off. They were not overly impressed with the cold water but they tolerated it for a while. We also ventured over to the lazy river which they really did not like!! They cried the whole time and we went around twice... I held Will and stacked a second tube under Elle to keep her out of the water. Luckily I had lots of friends helping me keep and eye on the girls and grab a baby or two when we were done. I even took Elle down the waterslide for the first time. We had a great time, but it was exhausting!