Goings on

Here is what is new with us:

Elsie is "cruising," walking holding onto the couch or ottoman.  She is getting better at climbing into little chairs and getting herself down.  She can get down from standing now, which is great.  Her naps are all kinds of messed up and she is waking up too early.  It's really a pain because she wakes up the other girls, but we will not let her get up until a reasonable hour. 

Katya is SUPER excited to start kindergarten.  I am so glad, I know the novelty will wear off after a while, but it is so nice that she is looking forward to starting.  We got 3 free, used uniforms from school and she got to meet her teacher and see the classroom.  That was pretty great because it was just us there so she was able to meet her teacher without a bunch of other people around to intimidate her.  Tomorrow we will go to drop off school supplies and meet some of the other kids.  There are only 8 kids in her class so far.  She starts next Tuesday and will be getting out at 12noon for the first 2 weeks. 

Katya has her first loose tooth!  The dentist discovered it today at her check up, it was the highlight of the trip.  She was pretty terrible (screaming crying and running into the hall) for the visit and would not let them polish her teeth.  Reagan, on the other hand, did great!   

Reagan is cute and silly as ever.  She is going to miss her sister this year but should enjoy lots of quality mommy time. 

We are thinking and praying lots for my sister Candace and her family, as Scott gets ready to deploy for another 8 month cruise.  What?  You are probably thinking, didn't he just get home a few months ago?  Yes, he did.  I can't imagine how hard this is on the sailors and their families.  The boat pulled out of Bremmerton yesterday, I believe.  There were quite a few really negative comments  from family members on the Stennis's FB page about how soon they are leaving again.   

Doug is retiring from Puget Sound Energy!  Friday is his last day.  They sold their house in Duvall(not sure if it has closed yet) and are pretty settled in their Vancouver house.  It is so cool having them just a 30min drive away.  A few weekends ago I dropped the kids off for the day (while Craig was in CO) and got some kid free time.  It was awesome. 

That's about it!  Love, Brenda

So much to blog, so little time

I have a bunch of blogs in my head...Katya's birthday party, birthday shoot, random summer pictures, back to school stuff...but really, who has the time?! Tomorrow the littles and I are heading up to Olympia and I am quite excited to see my big girl. I miss her so! Here she is at the Vancouver train station, getting ready to leave with Grandma Bev.

Trip to Olympia

This is such a cute picture of Charlie and Grandma! I love it.

Katya is VERY excited for her special trip to Olympia next week. Grandma is coming down on the train Tuesday morning to pick her up and they will ride back up together. Katya is spending two nights and then the other girls and I will drive up on Thursday. We will spend one night and come home on Friday. Katya already packed (and quite well I must say) for her trip:-) What a great way to finish the summer!

Legos!

Craig got out some of his old Lego's and set them up with Katya one night. She had so much fun playing with the pirate island! It stayed out on the table for several days, until I got tired of finding the tiny pieces on the floor. They also set up a castle, a pirate ship and an airport. Katya kept calling the runway a "runroad," silly girl.  It was pretty awesome and comical listening to my girls play with the pirate themes.  They got it to the spirit somewhat with other figurines (mostly the Disney princess's) being captured and put in the dungeon, but then I would hear one girl say, "let's pretend they (the pirates) are nice."  They are definitely little girly girls though I love seeing them have a blast with the "boy" themed toys. 

Elsie's first birthday cake.

I got some cute shots of Miss E digging into her first birthday cake! The key to my success was the handsome guy holding the light reflector.  The lighting in the first frame is really bad, but I could not resist including it because of the number one candle on the cake:-). The pictures improve greatly after that with Craig rocking the reflector, thanks baby!

Well child checks

Katya is about 42 lbs, and 42.5 inches, 70th percentile for weight and 50th for height.  Elsie is 21 lbs 12 oz, and 32 inches long.  She is in the 60th percentile for weight and 99th for height.  Katya passed her eye exam and small motor skills.  She was unable to hear the really low tones on the hearing exam and they want to re-check her in a few months.  Not sure what this will mean.  Elsie checked out fine and got a few shots.  Katya got her last (I think) DtaP and it was rough.  I had to drag her out of the cubby under the exam table where she was screaming crying, all while Elsie was crying from her shots.  Katya was very upset after the shot but was able to take deep breaths and calm herself down to pick a prize and stickers.  I let the big girls eat Fun Dips on the drive home that we got at a birthday party the day before.  One of my favorite all time candy's as a kid, I am pretty sure it blew their minds.  This morning Katya is running a mild fever and her arm is pretty sore.  She slept for almost 13hr last night.

Miss Elsie is starting to get herself down from standing, but mostly she just stands up and cries for help.  She is crawling up the stairs as of a few days ago which means the baby gate is in full use now.  I am just getting use to having to put it at the bottom of the stairs (I have been using it at the top for a while) and today I spaced it, and raced over to find Elsie on the second to the top step.  Yickes!  I am pretty sure that happened twice with Reagan before I got it through my head.  Elsie is saying "Mama" more and "Hi."  She LOVES dogs and "howls" when she see or hears one.  She has signed "milk," "more," "all done," and even "change diaper" (neither Katay or Reagan ever did that one) but has been inconsistent.

Still Creek Camping

We camped at Still creek last weekend, just outside of Government Camp.  It is a really nice, quiet campground with great sites spaced far apart.  Very different than Ft Steven's!  Three neighboring campsites were filled with our friends: Suzanne & Nate, Hannah and Alex; Melanie, Rich, & Cindy, Tommy and his daughter Amelia (a new friend to the group, Tommy is Portland PD, works with Cindy and knows Ralph.  He is pretty awesome); The Godfrey crew, Angie, Moira, Patrick and for the first night Patti came up, the second night Ralph.  We had so much fun camping with this gang!

  Watch out!

Saturday morning was COLD and our little was pretty unhappy for a while until we warmed her up.  Elsie slept great though, and stayed cozy in the van.  Craig bought an adapter that let us plug in the baby monitor but even then, I worried about her and I slept pretty bad.  She had a lot of fun crawling around in the dirt. 

More pictures to come, blogspot isn't letting me load any more right now.