March Showers!?

Claire

She is getting really possessive of some things in the house and will hide herself in her room to keep them away from Shay. Luckily she knows how to share when we tell her to with food and some toys depending on what she is trying to do. She has learned some fun new words this week like asking why, and some more animals when we read the books and make animal sounds together. I am understanding her better but some words are still confusing and gibberish. We love getting to go outside...when it doesn't snow! Or rain like it did most the week :(

Shay

This girl is now walking everywhere! The only time she isn't on her feet toddling around she is sitting and playing with toys or eating. She can also go down a slide all on her own by backing herself off the edge and sliding backwards down to us. She loves the park even when it is so cold outside and I really can't wait for warmer weather! I wish we could go out in the morning and afternoon so they get more time in the beautiful sunshine...but it needs to be sunny first. Shay likes to ask for things and try to communicate but it takes a while to figure out what she is pointing at sometimes, I'm getting better.

Gym

Having social distancing is really hard on Chris and I specifically because the one place we usually left the house for was our gym. Not only did Claire and Shay get to play with new toys and be around other kids, we had a workout date everyday of the week! Since closing, we tried home workouts but it is hard to get into the same grove without weights so we borrowed a friends dumbbells and bench. Then we found an amazing deal on a set up from a work friend and grabbed the chance to start our home gym so even in California I can have a place to work out without breaking the bank. We figured in the long run it was a good investment.

Sunshine and Staying Home

Claire

Although we are not getting to the gym since it's closed, the weather has been nice and we've been able to go to the park almost every day. We don't get so stir crazy now that we go outside all the time, even if it was just in the back yard on the cold or wet days. We usually get pretty dirty in the back yard playing with dirt or mud, but we easily go into the bath afterwards. I still prefer the park because Claire has so much more to do running around with slides, swings, and dogs when they show up. She is still quite mean to her sister sometimes and tries to lock her in or out of their room and run away with toys. There are some times they are cute together though especially when I dress them up matching and can cuddle them.

Shay

She seems to love the outside just as much as Claire or more and constantly points to the door or plays with the window blinds. She is getting so good at walking and can keep her balance really well when she doesn't get too excited. She has walked from the living room, around the corner and far into the kitchen when she hears us preparing food. She always hears me playing with the wrappers of fruit snacks when we are on our way home from the park and turns around to stare at me until I give her some. Food is one of the many bribes to get them to come home with me after visiting the park...so I usually make sure to have a few of their favorites with us.

Chris

It's only been 4 days and Chris has already complained about not having the gym 20,000 times because his life is over when he isn't working out. Not that we haven't done some home workouts to replace what we usually do, it just isn't the same when we can't go very heavy. He does say that the hospital is a lot less busy when he works and he likes that people don't want to come bother him. He comes to the park with me and helps Claire learn how to climb up scary ladders and help shay slide down.

St. Patrick's Day

Didn't feel like much of a celebration since everything was shutting down and we didn't go anywhere except the park. Chris didn't remember it and didn't have green so I pinched him, but we didn't have any other ways to make it special for the girls. They barely notice the big holidays because we usually go to grandparents and have presents or candy, but these small ones aren't special yet. They will know Easter though since searching for eggs is going to be fun with Claire and Shay will hopefully have fun playing with them, too.

What a Week

Claire

She has been a wild child this week begging to go outside everyday after getting to go to the park early this week with a warm day. It has been pretty windy some days and we just play in the back yard with the horses and chalk, but the girls play outside together so well. She has had a hard time playing at the gym this week and letting us leave to go work out, and then has so much fun she doesn't like to leave. She is starting to put words together in half sentences when asking for things and coming up with funny games to play with us. She plays hide and seek even though she is terrible at hiding and thinks being found is funner than hiding but she likes searching for us too. She also can make such a mess when she is finding things to do inside like taking all the utensils out of the drawer or stealing and hiding things.

Shay

I would call her a walker because she is taking so many steps in a row and gets excited to walk around holding on to fingers, but she's not all on her own all the time yet. She thinks she is such a big kid and tries to eat whole carrots and apples, but I know she still only has 6 teeth. She follows her sister around everywhere and knows how to cry to tattle on her for taking things or pushing her over. Still taking two naps a day and loves the outside as much as Claire because she points to the door or plays with our blinds all the time. When we went to the park today, she crawled down the hill backwards because she couldn't get down normally.

Sisters

I have loved to see them play together and Shay is learning from Claire in so many ways. Shay now loves dogs because Claire will go chase after them when we see them at the park, and likes to play with the chalk on the back porch. She follows her lead when playing with anything and asks for food whenever Claire is eating. It is cute when they can play together like putting balls into a container or riding our rocking horse, Chocolate, in the morning. They don't always get along, but I have Claire give Shay kisses if she is mean or right before Shay is put to bed.

Chris

I cook most the food in our house because I am a lot more picky than Chris, but he is has a few meals that I request. Now we have discovered a new delicious meal he cooks for us....Nachos! These are not your basic nachos though because he cooks ham with garlic and onion as a topping for the chips with cheese then adds tomatoes, cilantro, salsa, and our secret sauce. We founds this cilantro lime sauce at Costco because someone had extra and wanted to get rid of it one week and now we are obsessed. Other than making nachos two times this week already, we have continued our working out together through the craziness and keep talking about all that is going on with the Coronavirus. We haven't had to change much of anything but his work has him wearing masks around people who come in with symptoms.

Church

We met with my family over Skype as our church worship and talked about what we have been learning over the Com Follow Me program. It was nice to see all the family on one screen and had some music by my nieces since if everyone had sung it might have been crazy. I am truly grateful for our new home-centered church experience that was implemented by President Nelson. Knowing we shouldn't be meeting in big congregations and having the chance to use what we have at home is comforting for the future to me. Now we need enough of a food storage that seeing empty shelves at the grocery stores doesn't worry me...

Walking at Grandmas

Claire

She was excited to see grandparents this weekend and had fun playing with the toys there again and the time we spent with cousins. The most excited she gets is when she sees the cat and dogs and can get upset when she has to stop playing with them. She is good at following around the cat when we let her inside and not hurting her and the dogs are twice her size anyway. It just seems like she is getting more obsessed with dogs and will collect all things that look slightly like a dog from the toys like wolves, a polar bear, and a lion. She does know the difference between horses and dogs and collected those too this weekend.

Shay

It only took a week after turning 1 to start taking her own steps! We have been helping and encouraging her at home all week by holding her hands as she walks around but while we were visiting Blackfoot, she was brave enough to take her own steps. She is up to 4 steps all alone and can even stand up not touching anything and start walking now which is such fast progress. Hopefully she still progresses now that she is at home and is used to crawling to get around here, we will still show excitement and encourage her to learn walking.

Date to Lava

We have been wanting to go back to Lava Hot Springs for months now because Chris likes going when it is cold out so we can stay in the water longer. We finally made the plans this past weekend and had Grandma watch the girls Saturday night after Chris got off from drill. We went out to eat and spent a good 2 hours in the hot springs and enjoyed the slight rain and wind that was going on that night. We made it a night without phones since we would be around water anyway and focused on each other and the friend we invited. It was a great time.

Chris

This was the very last required drill for Chris since his contract ends in June and he isn't required to go to the annual training since we will be moving for school. It only really set in on Sunday that he doesn't have to go "play army" again as he puts it, they were all packing and preparing for their training and he had already turned in his gear. It is a bitter sweet ending for Chris and he appreciates what being in the military has done to help him go to school and better himself but he is glad to be moving forward. I'm very grateful for the ability we had to not be in debt for his schooling up until now too and the health insurance and friends he has from the military.

Shay is One Year Old!

Shay and Her Birthday

I know I've been counting down the days this last month thinking "where is the time going" thinking she is about to turn a year old and now it is here. Wow, so much has changed and she has grown so much! This weekend we went to Blackfoot to celebrate her cousin's baptism and joined in with a birthday for her since all the family was together already. I made cupcakes for her and we gave her some new pretty dresses, she also got toys and puzzles from other family. The toys are free game for Claire to play with since Shay uses all her toys but they both get time to play with it and move onto a new thing after a while.
Shay has officially taken her first step while not holding on to anything and likes playing step/fall towards you if you have her try to walk. She also now hates car rides and gets very bored over 3 hours so we have to find more entertaining things for her to do. This cutie loves to smile and giggle when she is tickled and likes to attack and climb all over us when we are in attacking range. When she isn't stopped by Claire, she likes to put her toys into boxes and containers then dumping them out and doing it all over again. She is now saying dada, mama, and her own form or more which sounds a lot like momo but I can tell she is wanting more because she usually has just seen Claire get a cup of milk.

Claire

This cutie was very excited to get to go to the park for the first time in a looooooong time since the weather was decent this past week. Of course it got really cold this weekend, but the park was fun for a day and we will get there again more and more in the next month. Claire loves when we go to the gym because of her friends there, and she gets to have time usually away from Shay. Apparently, when it isn't busy, Shay gets to come into the main room and Claire gets mad she is involved. Claire was helpful when opening the presents for Shay and enjoyed time with her cousins and all the toys she doesn't see very often at Grandma and Grandpa Bell's house. As much as she seems to be annoyed with Shay, I think she is learning to love her by giving her good night kisses every night, but it could be she's just happy she gets to stay up later.

Chris

As much of a pain driving is, it is nice to drive with Chris and get to talk about our plans and future especially right now when there is so much to plan! When we first got married it was talking about the future family and kids we will have and now we talk about the move to California, where we want to end up when school is over, and farther into the future. It is a great feeling getting those moments together and knowing we both want so much more life together. Our daily work out dates are even better because we see each others improve while encouraging and helping each other, it is the best thing to have support in our hobbies. I know he makes me a better person with his own determination to stay healthy.