Home for the 4th

 Claire

Being back at home has been fun for her and she is remembering the names of her dogs that she names after the dogs in the show Bluey that we watch all the time. There isn't a person that she doesn't get excited to see when we go to the park or have them come over for dinner because she calls everyone her friend. Then today at church was her first time in primary which I had to get her excited over by saying she gets to have a lesson and teacher instead of playing with toys. We have been practicing quiet time all week by spending 30-45 minutes getting the books out and reading on the couch and only whispering when we talk. I was hoping it would help at church and Claire is able to understand very well now that when it is over she can now yell instead of whisper. The timer is on her iPad and she gets to watch a show when quiet time is over so she goes and checks the clock every once in a while between books. She is also learning what a pinky promise is thanks to Chris and has made several this week about eating eggs or fries, and not sucking on her fingers anymore so she can have pretty nails.

Shay

I think she is learning to be super friendly because she loves saying hi to people even if we are just walking by and they are across the street. As long as mommy and daddy are not the ones leaving she also has a great attitude about saying goodbye to people too and will repeat it over and over until those people actually leave. She seems to be really good at sharing with anyone except Claire and loves showing off that she can pull water into our water guns and spray them out all by herself. I wish I could say she was still Baby Shay, like Claire calls her, but she is starting to communicate so well and is going to the bathroom in the potty like a big girl! The first two days went poorly and she peed through 5 or 6 panties but once I got her to pee in the potty and we showed her how great it is (bribery with peanut M&Ms) she has been really good at telling us. She even got out of nursery where she was wearing a diaper to have me take her to the potty and ended up poopooing for the first time! There was one day this week that she didn't have a nap! Most of the other days she falls asleep on the couch still through.

Parties

We had the two sets of missionaries in our ward over to eat dinner with us on Wednesday night, and they shared a great message about keeping Christ close to our hearts and encouraged us to reread the prophet's talk from this last conference. Our ward hosted a beautiful flag raising ceremony followed by a delicious pancake breakfast Saturday morning that we all had so much fun attending and meeting people. An older couple introduced themselves to us and said they had picked up some toys that wouldn't end up working for their grandson because they were too pink and gave them to Claire and Shay! After spending so much time with family over the weeks before this one I was missing the group dinner parties so I invited friends for last night to have some burgers and hotdogs. We played a fun new game I recently got and had a great night despite not setting off any fireworks because we have young kids. The girls loved showing their friend the toys they have around.