Mini Vacation

Yesterday, we kidnapped Johnny away from his job (he worked 70 hours last week, he deserved it!) and went up the hill a little bit to Heritage Square.  It was a break from the constant question on if he has to go in or not and from the projects yet to get done around here.  And truth be told, it was a lot of fun.

Myla got to ride a few rides that she was barely tall enough for and a few others with her man of the hour.  She thought that it was all just for her.  Kinsley didn’t get to ride on as many things, but she had a lot of fun watching Myla and the other kids run around.  She did get to spend some time with her big sister in the jumpy castle, which, can I just say, was just about the cutest thing.

We spent some time before coming home eating ice cream and deciding what was the best part about the day.  Was it the rides?  The train?  The ice cream?  Johnny and I think it was just being together and happy, but Myla thought it was the swings. 

Both of the girls fell asleep on the way home and so we knew that there was no way they were going to bed at the “normal” bed time.  Instead, they wrapped up the day running in circles with their daddy’s shirts on their heads, laughing.  And right then, I changed my mind as to the best part of the day.

Kinsley, Meet Chair

Today, Kinsley tried to climb up a high stool at my parents house and it, in turn, decided to fall on her.  I know you can’t see it really well in this picture, but she has a nice goose egg right in the middle of her little forehead and a bruise on her nose.  She didn’t let it bother her though, she seems to not even notice, except when you want to wash her face, or take of her shirt.  Really though, she’s pretty happy.  (Reminds me of the time when Myla ran into a swing and got a shiner.)  Kinsley seems to be growing each day she wakes up and has finally gotten the fourth tooth in the front bottom to poke through.  She has gotten them in such a strange order, but still eats like its going out of style.  Teeth, schmeeth.  She is learning so much every day and is a very good mommy to her babies.  If you ask her where they are, she’ll go and find one and hug it or hold it.  Its very sweet.

Last week, the girls and I went on a tour of Hammonds Candy Factory here in Denver.  The wait to get in for a tour was long, the tour itself was short, but the candy!  Myla would have had one of everything if she could.  We finally settled on a pretty big cherry sucker that she’s still working on.  Then they gave us a “sample” on the way out – a full size wintergreen candy cane that she was so excited to give to her daddy.  Myla’s been doing a ballet class that she is really enjoying and this week is going to another mini-school learning about things under the sea.  I love to hear her imagination going – lately its about “somebody is in trouble” and she has to go save her.  Its kind of cute to see her in her princess crown and flying off to save someone.  Who says that princesses can’t be superheros?

Last week, we got a visit from some cousins that had Myla so excited she couldn’t stand it.  Kinsley held her own while they were playing, but Myla got to have a sleepover in the basement with them and thought that was pretty cool.  She was bummed when they had to leave, and she still asks when she can sleep with her cousins again.  I think she loves them…

Our Miss Independences

Happy Fourth of July!  Here we are, smack dab in the middle of summer and haven’t melted yet, even though we’ve been through some really hot days.  Johnny has been trying to get the swamp cooler going for the upstairs bedrooms mostly but to no avail.  I suppose since we’re already half way there, we’ll just keep truckin’ along without it!  We’ve been busy enough that even though it makes it hard for the girls to fall asleep, once they do, they fall hard.

Myla has been busy riding her bike with my dad and swimming as much as she can convince us to.  Today, she decorated her bike for the parade before a day at the pool.  She also spent a week at a little day camp learning about fairy tale magic.  In the mean time, she’s been practicing writing her letters – especially her name, its everywhere! – and her cutting skills.  She tells us every night that she wants to do something exciting, although we aren’t sure what she thinks is exciting.  I’m pretty safe with guessing concerts in the park, or the pool, but after that I’m stuck.  Next week she starts a little dance camp that I hope she will like.  She seems to be getting taller too, but when I measured her last night, she came up to the mark made in May.  Maybe I’m just going crazy.

Kinsley has been practicing her stair climbing and is very interested in what’s cooking for dinner.  She loves to be up and watching us stir or cook, even though it makes us really nervous for her to be up there.  We don’t bother much with putting the ottomans in front of the stairs anymore except to slow her down from climbing over them.  She also loves to play hide-and-seek with Myla and will bend down to look under tables or couches and will even do a version of counting with her hands over her eyes while she’s walking.  She’s a real good eater and has developed a liking for blueberries – something she got from her dad.

Johnny has almost got the sprinkler system in and in a short while, we should have some grass in our dirt backyard.  It will be nice as we transition into the late days of summer to be back on the deck while the girls run crazy on the grass.  Its fun to see them play and the backyard is slowly transitioning into a good place for it.

Telling Stories

I promise a more in depth post about what we've been up to soon, but until then, here's Kinsley to give you a recap of our summer so far...

Summer has arrived!

The warm days are here and Myla has been waiting to go play in the water – any water really, but especially swimming.  So while we wait for the swimming pool, we went over and played at my parents house in the water spraying octopus.  When we first turned it on and his arms went flying, Kinsley was having none of it.  She grabbed on to me so tight and her legs were kicking like she was running away as fast as she could.  After Myla went in thought and we sprayed her toes a little bit she thought it might be okay and not long after was pretty wet.

Myla jumped right in the middle and somehow never got very wet.  She’s a silly girl about that.  She had lots of fun making waterfalls and “making it rain” and spraying her sister though.  She had been looking forward to playing in the water so much that she watered all my mom’s flowers and my dad’s grass and even sprayed the fence.  She stayed in her suit the rest of the night too.

Other things around the house … Johnny has put in a new valve system for the sprinkler system and hopefully will have it dug out this weekend.  He also got promoted at work – he’s now a sergeant and oversees three locations.  He’s working days (mostly) and during the week, so we get some family time on the weekends.  Its been a really nice change.  We’ve been very lucky.

Sick days

A few days ago, Kinsley had a little fever and started being fussy.  We thought it was a side-effect of the vaccinations on Monday.  But then she got sick, and her diapers got yucky and before you knew it, she’s taking three hour naps and not really eating.  This morning, Myla was fine when she crawled into bed at 5:45 to snuggle, but by 7:00 also had a temperature.  These girls are usually everywhere at once, and now they are both napping, so you know they aren’t feeling good.  Breaks my heart because I want to help them, but I guess the best way to do that is to not wake them up!

Yesterday, Myla and I went to help one of the properties that I work for lay a path for their new garden and then Uncle Jeff and Andrea came over and helped Johnny move a lot of big rocks for us so we can start getting more than weeds and dirt in our back yard.  Its amazing just how different that makes it look.  Next up, a pallet garden and sprinkler system and then grass!  Man, I hope that takes the first time with our 80 pounds of squirrel chasing fury running around back there!

Rainy days

Saturday was a rainy day and even though it put a damper on our landscaping plans, the girls had the best day hanging out in their jammies and just running around having fun.  Kinsley wouldn’t nap (par for the course) even though I thought it would have been a great day for a nap.  So instead, we played in the ball pit, made cookies and bread, tried on different hats and hair, snacked and even made time to clean.  I was surprised that Myla didn’t want to go out with her umbrella to play in the rain, but she was perfectly content inside.  We read a lot of books, and it would have been funny to look in at us with Johnny reading a book to one and me reading to the other.  We usually switched at some point, sometimes in the middle of a book.

Kinsley had a check-in with the doctor today and spent most of it walking around the exam room and talking.  At one point, the doctor said “I can see she’s a quiet one…”  He thought she was doing really good and progressing right on schedule.  Her measurements for this time – 24 pounds 15 ounces and 30 3/4 inches tall.  (We measured Myla on Saturday and she’s 37 inches tall…)  He thought she looked good and had no worries about her at all.  We don’t either, but its always nice to hear the doc say it.