Morning laugh!

We've been reading lots of potty training books to Will lately--I know he's not ready to actually do it, but he's really interested, so I'm capitalizing on it.  This morning, he came to me and said, "Mommy, take diaper off.  I go potty."  Hallelujah!  He might be getting something out of these books.  I knew he has been paying close attention to them when he told me, "Okay, all finished!  I proud of me!"  Although nothing did happen, that is exactly what the book says!  :)

First 4-year-old photos!

I'm this many!

The princess cake did not disappoint....

...and obviously did not lack for food coloring!

Kate wouldn't even have a cake at her 2nd birthday party because she hated chocolate....don't think that will be a problem for Will!

The "spinniest tutu ever"!

Will in his Thomas the Train boots, ready to work....mom, are you leaving that part of the yard dirt?  I think Will will be devasted once the brick goes in!!

Fun with the bubble machine!

Happy 4th Birthday, Kate!

Tomorrow my baby girl turns four!  My how time flies.  She got her present from us a little early (primarily because she already knew what she was getting and she wanted to make sure Grandpa Mac saw it last weekend), so she's been out riding her princess bike a lot lately.  I can't believe she's big enough to ride a real bike!  The Athletic Club in Sisters hosts a triathlon each year and, this year, they started a kids' race that even has a 4 and under category.  It was about the cutest thing ever and, after Kate got her bike, she told me, "Mommy, now we can both train for the triathlon!"  Is she our kid or what?  :)  To go along with her princess bike (you can't see it in the photo, but her bike is very, VERY princess-y), she ordered a princess cake.  Clearly, our local grocery store is used to the princess cake request because the first thing the cake making lady said to Kate after learning she was turning four was, "Do you like princesses because I can make a cake with four princesses on it!"  Kate was ecstatic and, when we picked it up today, I thought she might jump right out of her skin.  So, tomorrow, we will eat princess cake.  Will is just as excited as Kate and goes around saying, "I four.  I eat princess cake."  He also seems to get the concept because we told him he can pick a cake when he turns two and he said, "I want a Mater truck cake!"  So, come September, we shall eat truck cake.  I think we have a girl and a boy, eh?  We get to celebrate Kate's birthday tomorrow with Grandma Connie and Grandpa Mac, followed by a trip out to Paulina Lake to visit friends who are camping there.  They have a seven-year-old named Max and Kate has generously offered to bring him "extra princess cake." On Tuesday, we get to celebrate again because Kate's best friend in town also happens to share her birthday, and her grandparents are getting a bouncy house for them (and their little brothers) to romp around in for the afternoon.  Then we get celebrate again in Yreka when we go down for the fair.  So, Kate's fourth birthday will be well-celebrated!  This afternoon, she asked me, "Mommy, will I be four when I wake up tomorrow?"  I told her she would and she said, "Well, I'll probably be really different because I will have a bigger body and a bigger brain."  Since it's Kate, I wouldn't put it past her!  We love you, lady bug!!

I spy and spy and spy.....

Taking calls while wearing underwear on your head--just a normal day at our house!

Kate and Will have reached the age where they can play car (and, for them, frequently, stroller) games.  This is a blessing, as anyone with babies who scream in the car/toddlers who ask "are we almost there?" 15 minutes into 5 hours drives will know.  Their car games began with singing "Itsy Bisty Spider" and inserting something (ie banana/tree/mommy) where "water spout" should be and then laughing maniacally regardless.  (Lest you think they are creative enough to come up with this out of the blue, I must confess they learned it from Dora.  Like a lot of things, I must also confess...)  Kate, of course, came up with the idea and had it mastered but Will, surprisingly, hung in there pretty well.  His rendition goes something like, "The itsy -ider k-imbed up....mumbled word....{crazy laughter}. That game has gotten old, but they are obsessed, and I mean OBSESSED, with playing "I spy."  The only problem with this is that Central Oregon is a pretty boring place to play this game.  There are waaaaay too many earth tones to make it at all interesting.  So, I've heard "I spy something brown" too many times to even pretend that I don't know what it will be.  We've somewhat remedied our lack of color by spying things inside the car but even this is hard to keep up (for me, not for them).  Will got in on this game, too, and actually impressed us one day by saying "I spy sum-ting b-own."  He doesn't wait for us to guess, so he shouted, "Daddy's shirt!"  And, by golly, he was right.  I think we acted a little too impressed, though, because that is now the only thing he'll ever "spy," regardless of whether Ryan is wearing brown or even present at all.  I can't complain, though, because they do entertain themselves with this game, even after mommy bows out.  The sweetest "game" was played yesterday while they entertained themselves in the stroller while I ran.  Kate tried her damndest to teach Will the ABCs and he tried his hardest to keep up.  The entire time she sang it to him and then said, "Now, you try, Will."  His version sounds like "A, B, C, D, H, J, K, M, N, P, Q, T, Z."  Every time.  And, every time, Kate would very nicely say, "Oh, Will, you're getting so much better!"  It's moments like these, much more frequently lately, where they are playing/talking so nicely together without really knowing I'm there that make me proud SO proud of them and make my heart happy to know I have two kids who love each other.  Pretty lucky!

Ocean + sand = very happy & very dirty kids!

We're back from a very successful first beach trip! The weather was typical Oregon coast (ie terrible) but we did have one day of sunshine and, really, the kids couldn't care less about the weather.  They were completely bowled over by their first view of the huge expanse of sand and water.  Will was a little afraid of the waves at first ("what's so noisy?")  but Kate actually went right to dip her toes in the beyond freezing water.  The morning after we arrived, we woke up to sun and the tide was out so we went down to the beach and ran, ran and ran somemore in all the little pools of water left behind.  Kate just kept yelling, "I love this!  I LOVE this!" so I'm guessing she had an okay time.  I think they were outside for about 5 hours straight that first day, which made for some great nights of sleep.  The next couple days were cloudy and pretty chilly, but the kids still dug, climbed and ran themselves (of Grandma Connie and me) ragged.  The inside time made for some pretty mean games of Candyland and hide 'n seek.  All around a great time--thanks, Grandma!  But, I must say, I was glad to get back to the warm summer weather in Sisters (after all, our summer is so short that it's hard to miss even a day of it!)  The minute we got home, we filled up the pool and all jumped in.  The kids and I are were very happy to see Ryan, who probably missed us and enjoyed the quiet after work in equal measure (can't blame him here!)  On Sunday, I got to run the McKenzie River trail with some girls from town.  It's 25 miles of amazing gorgeousness and I'm feeling pretty darn lucky to have made friends that do this sort of thing for fun.  I'm hoping Ryan and I can go back soon.  In all, we're having a great summer so far!  This weekend, Kate and I are off for a girl's trip to Grandpa Mac's while Ryan and Will stay home to "do some boy stuff."  We've never done that before, but I'm thinking they'll both enjoy being only kids for a few days!

Caution: Entering the land of TATTLE TALE

Oh boy, we are SO in the tattling phase with Kate.  All day long, it is constantly, "MOOOOMMMMYYYY, Will did......."  The best was the other day, though, when the kids were watching Dora.  I was in the kitchen and could hear everything.  One of the Dora characters needed to be really strong to do something and he asked the audience if they were strong so they could help.  Both kids answered, "YES!" (they love to talk back, which I find quite funny).  Then he asked, "Are you really, really, super strong?" And Will automatically called back, "YES!"  Kate then proceeded to say, "Mommy, Will said he is really, really, super strong and he is only just strong.  Daddy's much, much stronger than Will so Will lied."  Refining what is a tattle-able offense could take some time.

Our last few weeks in photos--yes, PHOTOS!

Yes, we actually got all our millions of photos loaded onto our new computer (although we couldn't get the videos and it took about an eon to do so, hopefully, this won't be my last photo post.  Another project for another time...)  Anyway, below are an assorted mix of images from our lives the past few weeks.  The kids and I leave for the beach tomorrow, so I just might come back with a few more.  I can't wait to see the kids' reactions to the beach as it's their first time there.  My predictions?  Will will say "oh my goodness" and end up burying himself in sand that we will not get off him until he's about twelve.  And Kate will hop up and down in excitement and then precede to describe each and everything in continuous and vivid detail while not stopping for a breath.  I'm just hoping she's not too disappointed as she is convinced that she "will swim in the warm, warm water"--on the Oregon coast?  Probably not unless we bring her a wetsuit!!

Free face painting at the Smith Rock Half Marathon!  Ryan ran a fantastic race in under 1:30, Kate came out painted like a princess and Will found a lizard (which he called a "big, big frog!").  A successful morning, for sure

Will's latest haircut--he looks so much older!

Could it be that summer has finally arrived on the high desert?!  Love swimming/ ice cream play dates with Kate's friends!

Olympic Trials--athletes on their way to London (the fastest way, obviously!)

Women's 1500--these ladies were F.A.S.T.  We also got to see the men's 1500, men's 200 (LOVED the swagger of the sprinters!!), both 400m hurdles, the long jump and javelin.  SO worth the trip!  We feel like we know the athletes now as we sat in the front row and got to high five them all on their victory lap!

Painting with sissy

"Driving" a jeep at the zoo that looked like it went straight into the leopard enclosure

Visiting with the lions with Grandpa Mac

Will got hold of the camera and this is the picture he took!

Kate's lego obsession has resurfaced and she builds quite the creations all by herself.  An architect, maybe?

Mommy and Will with the elephants!