Kitchen Olympics

This is what my kitchen floor looks like as I am trying to cook dinner, courtesy of Rachel.

Black Butte Ranch

We just spent a week at Black Butte Ranch in Sisters, Oregon.  We vacationed with my sister, Sarah and her family.  The cousins had a blast every day, they loved being together 24/7.  Now that we are home, I ask Luna what she wants to do and the response is either "go to Oregon" or "see Cooper."  One in the same in her mind.

The weather was nice enough that we were able to enjoy the outdoor pool.  We had the pool almost to ourselves and the kiddos enjoyed both the wading pool and the spray area.  Here are some photos of the fun.

This was also our first attempt at bike riding as a family.  For Father's Day a couple years ago, Brian was given a trailer that both girls can ride in and I borrowed my Mom's bike.  The kids had fun, going to different playgrounds and seeing the horses and cows.  Here are more photos.

We also celebrated Brian's 32nd Birthday.  The kiddos helped decorate the cake and we all enjoyed Brian's favorite dinner, pork ribs!  Happy Birthday Dadda!

Here are a few photos for the fish hatchery we visited.  The kids enjoyed feeding the fish, although the fish food was super smelly.

We all had a fun week.  We always have so much more fun when Daddy is with us all day.  For Luna, she would have been happy no matter where we were as long as Cooper was there :)  She loves him!  Some of my highlights were getting a date night with my hubby and playing 4 games of Settlers (although I won none)!  Brian's favorite was riding bikes each day with the family.    Thanks for a great week Scheirons!

Stair Sliding 101

As a parent, you often times spend time playing games and participating in activities that let's just say are not the most mentally stimulating or fun after the 10th time.  I can only pretend to go night night so many times in the course of an hour or read the same book over and over again.  But stair sliding I love!

I use to do this when I was a little girl with my sisters and cousins.  Whenever we went over to my Aunt's house it was on the list of activities because they had stairs.  Now that my girls are big enough I love to stair slide with them, the key is a smooth thick blanket.  With that, away you go.  I just wish I had a energy to do it over and over and over again :)

Rachel and her Blanket

Oh how I love this little girl! It is amazing to me how different the two girls are.  Rachel can be so serious, you can work and work for a smile but to no avail.  Other times she is just as smiley as can be.  She loves to play with balls, throwing, kicking and chasing after them.  She is our little cuddle bug and just enjoys sitting in our laps.  She is stringing more and more words together.  One of our favorite sayings is when she pats Maggie (dog) on the head and says, "Good Girl Mags."  Rachel is also very sensitive, when we set limits with her we have to watch our tone very carefully or else she just turns into a puddle of tears.  We almost have to sing "no" to her.

She loves her blanket, and it is never far away.  She cuddles with it, chews on it and rubs the edges with her fingers.  Until today I never realized how much she loved it.  We were out running errands and I was loading both girls into their car seats in the parking lot.   Rachel was already buckled in and while I was buckling Luna in, two bees flew into the van and were swarming around Luna's head.  I kept trying to get them out of the van but they were really drawn to her head.  Luna started to get upset so I got her out of the car and put her on the curb.  The bees then went over to Rachel and started to swarm her head, she too got upset.  So I got her out of her car seat and in the process she dropped her blanket.  Holding Rachel in one arm (I was afraid to put her down in the parking lot) I was trying shoot the bees out of the car with my other arm.  It was not working, so I picked up her blanket and swept the bees out with her blanket.  She FREAKED out, crying and saying over and over again "blankie, blankie."  Of course I was so caught up with the bees that I did not realize why she was crying until the bees were gone and I was trying to calm her down. Poor thing :(  In her world, her blankie almost died from the bees.