Wedding!

Idaho

It was so great to see all of Chris's family that lives in Idaho and an uncle that flew in from across country for the wedding! I got to dress up with my girls in new matching dresses for the wedding we got from my sister-in-laws business that I also helped model some more cloths for. Claire was excited to see the castle and the pretty princess that came out and at the reception she continued to call her new aunt a princess and loved sitting in her lap welcoming her to the family. I'm hoping she understood that she is a new aunt, but if not then she will catch on when she's always around to play with when we go visit. As we were driving and talking so much, we talked about how great it feels to get to see family for this break and help our family celebrate.

Claire

She loves the animals at grandpa and grandma's house and always asks to let the cat in so she can play with her, carry her around, and be obsessed with her. One day she was trying to nap so Chris got her to sleep in Claire's lap which she loved so much. Every time we left the house she would always ask if we were going to a party and then once we went to the reception which was at a barn, she started getting excited to go to the farmhouse. Even on the drive home she asked if we were going to the farmhouse, and she got really creative in how to play with the iPad when she wanted to draw but we want it to entertain them both. She is starting to ask for things very insistently and getting upset when we have to say no to her sternly, during the ride home it was an obsession with the beach. She asked about a million times and when we would say we are going home right now but we can make a trip soon she would be more insistent that she wants to go to the beach which would make us more insistently saying no. It was a vicious cycle or getting more and more insistent.

Shay

She is getting so big and is able to play with many more toys at grandpa and grandma's house, like the horse she can climb up on without any help now. There were so many toys and games that they didn't have to fight or argue over everything except when it was me trying to clean those things up. Now that this trip is over, we are planning big learning opportunities for Shay including seeing if she is ready for potty training and then once that is a go or a no go getting rid of those binkies! I am the one that dislikes them seeming to be dependent on their baby comfort items, and Chris still says don't worry about it because they shouldn't grow up too fast. It was nice that she got to have more freedom because I know she won't eat everything or fall down the stairs if I don't watch her every second. There was still one time she found some soap and thought it looked yummy but found out really fast that is wasn't food.

Traveling

 Claire

She has been excited for so long to go visit grandma and grandpas house with the big slide and remembers it really well. We got her excited and I was trying to explain what day we would be leaving to go and visit and teaching her the days of the week. The night before we left I told her that she had to sleep before we could go and she would pretend to go to sleep just so we could go. Earlier in the week we were able to find a new park when Chris was going to his last in school meeting. They enjoyed the newness and Claire learned how to do a new trick across the wobbly islands, she was so proud of herself for it too. There were lots of kids to play with and it was Claire's first time with no diaper while at a park and went potty in a public bathroom. 

Shay

As we dropped Chris off at school she was so upset that he left us, or I guess we left him, that she complained the entire way to the park. Once we got out of the car, she was fine and always wants me to come with her when she was going to see things. She looks at me and reaches her hand out as if to say come on and off we go until I'm just standing and she's ready to go again. During our park visit she was being goofy and combing the pet tiger we found there with a stick, climbing in a water table, and using all the toys. I caught her being really goofy and scooting around the floor on her butt when Chris was making her food and I had just come in from my workout. She is very particular when she goes to bed or organizes her toys that things have to be just right or she lets us know, especially when she loses a shoe.

Idaho

We drove all day on Thursday to make it to Blackfoot before bedtime and it is a really long drive! I'm glad it's only a day drive and we don't have to spend the night in a hotel though because getting to the destination after a long day is really satisfying. On Friday, Chris had errands during the day but then we went to Lava Hot Springs to  make up for when we didn't go during our anniversary. The girls already have had two play dates with their cousins who live here and they are so cute playing together! Claire is scaring the cat, Daisy, so much that she never wants to come inside anymore because Claire will pick her up and carry her everywhere. The backyard is a mine field of dog poop, but they have fun on the slides, trampoline, and swings. The girls helped me sweep the gym when we went to clean the church with grandma and grandpa, and when we were done we played walking on the lines.

Marching through this Month

 Claire

She is getting really good at telling me what she wants and expressing herself and I keep getting memories on Facebook of when she wasn't even a year old so I keep getting reminded of how much she has grown. Whenever I show her pictures of her when she was a baby she calls herself baby Shay just like all babies used to be baby Shay. I still find that she is very picky and doesn't like to try too many new things without being convinced or tricked, but it's nice that she likes enough variety that she gets a good diet. There has been bribery too because she loves chocolate and we get her to eat the rest of her green beans she will eat two for one chocolate chip. She was really excited to get pretty for church today and kept twirling around in her dress and showing daddy. Her new game is to stack the crayons in a tower on the fireplace boarder and she keeps asking for help because it is pretty hard to get it all the way up.

Shay

Shay was copying Claire like she does with almost everything and twirling around while I was getting everything together for church. It is so entertaining to see the monkey see monkey do happen in real time when Claire does something and Shay immediately start right after or even the other way around. They like to play together more and more these days and will entertain each other in the backyard for so long while I'm watching out the windows and cooking. At the park, Claire will say "come on Shay" all the time to go down the slide, or over to the other side with the seesaw, or to the benches. If there are other kids there to play with Shay has a habit of going off and playing on her own while Claire makes new best friends with whomever is closest at the moment. She had this funny moment of cuddling with a huge teddy bear on the couch that made me laugh out loud at her being so goofy. She is also set of taking her cloths off whenever she can and we can only keep them on her if it is a dress, it's too tight, or they zip up. 

Chris

Classes are officially over for this quarter and now there are two finals to take and we will be able to leave for Idaho and a wedding! It will be great to have a break and get to see family again so soon and we are hoping for even better weather since spring is spreading through the rest of the country. We've had really great weather and I've enjoyed an elongated spring since it is my favorite season. We even planted a packet of flowers and try to remember to water them so Claire and Shay can watch them grow, unfortunately they now think they can play in the dirt...We are putting the planter that Chris made for me to good use with our green onions and have to figure out what else we are going to plant in the middle.

Craft

We have done flashcard alphabet learning and found they like putting the letters on the rug that Shay got for her birthday, but they were ruining the paper letters and numbers. Chris suggested I make some letters out of fabric (which I have been seeing on Pintrest and wanting to do) so I traced, cut, pinned, and sewed them all this week. I put some quilt fabric between two cotton pieces, sewed the initial traced letter then stitched around the boarder to make sure it doesn't fray. When Shay plays with her alphabet letters she likes to ask 'where did it go' but shortens it to "go?" with a worried questioning look on her face then will look and get excited when she sees it. Most of them she already knows where they go from memory but there are a few she still searches. Now we can test the girls on what letters they know and Shay only has a problem with finding the number 5. We can even teach them how to spell and hopefully start sounding out words when they start reading.

Shay is Two!

 Shay

That's right! We have a little stinker officially entering her terrible twos but doing it terrifically, she's already really good at the tantrums and getting over them in less than a minute. There were presents that trickled in over the last week that she was able to open and now Claire thinks any time the doorbell rings it means there is a present. She really loves her bubble lawn mower and new (actually from Christmas but we didn't need more at the time) chalk with bright colors for time we play in the back yard. Technically the sunglasses are Shay's but I knew Claire would feel so left out without a pair that she got one of the 3 pairs and there is one hidden away for when they inevitably break their current ones. Shay got two new shoes as well which was REALLY needed since her other ones were getting small and really worn out. An exciting gift was a rug with the alphabet, animals, numbers, veggies, shapes, and colors on it and we use another gift microphone to have her jump on the letters and make the sound. 

Birthday

Even though we weren't able to be near family, we felt loved by the gifts they sent and the messages from everyone. It is lucky that Shay is young enough not to feel left out when we don't have a party or do anything special since we are so far away from family and hardly know anyone her age here. My birthday tradition for my children so far has to make cupcakes and shape them in a number for how old they are, but that will only last until they are old enough to care about special birthday cakes. Maybe I'll have my talented sisters-in-law make cakes then, or get pictures to put on the cupcakes...it's all about making things easier. I made her some cupcakes that she didn't seem to like all that much and only licked the frosting off of mostly, but Claire was excited for them and willingly finished it for her sister. The gifts that I did have before hand were wrapped and Shay was able to open them.

Claire

Claire is just as excited about most of the gifts because they share everything and get to use them together, and I have to remind her that she has to wait until Shay is done. A lot of the time she will try to get Shay interested in a different toy so she can play with what Shay has and it is frustrating for everyone when it doesn't work. As I was clearing out a shelf in my room, Claire found these toy holders to use as superhero belts and started acting like Catboy from PJ masks. Shay followed along and they had matching balloons as their weapons and ran around and jumped of the couch throwing their balloons around. It was a fun game and after Shay went to her nap Claire continued to be obsessed with these 'belts' and called them jump ropes too.