Keeping a 2 year old busy

So I know that I have said before that I love age 2, and I do, but it is not without it's challenges! It is so much fun to be able to really communicate with this little person who is so curious about everything. And everyone talks about the "terrible twos" but with our experience at least, age 3 is much more difficult as the "sinner" side emerges more- defiant, self-willed, and the list goes on. But I must say, that Rylin is so busy! By this age, Kacia would sit and watch a cartoon, or even part of a movie, but Rylin does not stop, from the minute she wakes up "All done night night Mom!" repeat, repeat, repeat... until the moment she goes to bed. So with the weather rainy last week, here are a few things we did to "try" to keep her entertained! I got out a bowl of beans for her to play with (they are cleaner than rice), and we did alot of play dough. But you have to understand, that I never had Kacia mix the play dough colors, I don't really know why, but now my perfectionist of a 4 year old does not allow Rylin to mix either, so instead, I just have to get her out a new color every 90 seconds! "All done dis one! Diffent one please!" She is my shadow all day, insisting that she "see" whatever I am doing in the kitchen. If I don't put up on the counter, she goes and scoots her small Cinderella folding chair over to stand on. She has to push every button I use, whether it is on the microwave or DVD remote, or simply the handle to flush to the toilet. She is almost ready to start potty training, and asks, "potty chair" often, but we are going to wait for this one until we move into our more permenant house. I'm shooting for April. She asks "why" constantly, at which I just respond, "you say ok mommy." But yesterday, she said, "no okay, WHY!" very, very loudly, and will also ask, "why no why?" She also told me, very genuinely as she was holding her tummy, "I sick, baby in tummy." I think she is also convinced that she can see the baby if she peers deep enough into my belly button. See why I love age 2, they are so much fun, and she makes me laugh constantly as she tries to do everything that Kacia does, but at the same time, she wears me out!

Withdrawals

My name is Jenny. I am a coffeeholic. It has been 15 days since my last Starbucks (or any good, $4 coffee!).

So Kevin and I are trying something new. We are trying to live on a budget. This may be surprising but in our nearly 9 years of marriage, this is something we have never done, at least not successfully. But it is time. With Kevin being self employed, living on a typical budget, based on percentages and what not does not work for us. There is no predictable, dependable income, so this has been the excuse we have used. But we know that it is time we get smart, value money, and make wise choices with what God gives us. So, for now that means cutting out unnecessary purchases so we can determine how much money we need to spend each month vs. how much money we actually spend. So since I have both coffee and creamer in my house, getting myself a "treat" when I am out running around would fall into the unnecessary category. However, for those of you who do not live in Redding, you need to understand that in our "small" town there are atleast 7 Starbucks, 4 maybe 5 Dutch Bros., and numerous other coffee drive thrus that are constantly calling my name. So although my withdrawals are strong today, my desire to really glorify God in this aspect of our lives is even stronger. I am really excited to see how God is going to change us as we learn this new and difficult discipline. But have patience with me, and I am warning you that if you bring a white cup with a little green circle logo on it around me not to turn your back, because you may end up with an empty cup!

Baby Number 3

So with having 2 girls I get asked everywhere I go what I am having. When I reply that I don't know yet, everyone always says, "Are you hoping for a boy?" I politely reply that we would love to have a boy, but I have 2 very adorable girls, and so if I have a third girl, that will be just fine for us. It is amazing the pressure you can feel over something you have absolutely no control over! But perhaps the most difficult individual to deal with has been Kacia. She has been praying for well over a year for a baby brother. I have told her that God always hears our prayers, but sometimes He answers them differently than how we want. I told her that God can see more than we can, and always does what is best for our family. She will nod her head, and then say, "okay, but if this one is not a boy, you can just have another baby, right?!" So, yesterday we went to the dr., and after doing all the measuring, and looking around, finally she starts pointing at the screen, "So this is a leg, this is the bottom, and right there, that is a boy part!" Kevin and I were so excited! We are going to have a son!!! Kacia is absolutely thrilled, and had to add, "See mom, I was right and you were wrong, huh. Now we can have two sisters and two brothers!" To which Kevin and I both quickly added, no only one brother. And she says, "Well maybe after this baby, you can have just one more!" Nope! I told when she is the mom she can decide how many kids to have, but for Daddy and me, 3 is the perfect number. So we are all very excited and praise God that He does hear our prayers, and yes, He does always know what is best for our family (and fortunately this time that happened to be in agreement with what we wanted as well)!

Our Snow Vacation!

Well, I have been waiting to blog about our trip to Mt. Bachelor because Kevin has pictures of Kacia skiing on his laptop that I keep forgetting to put on my computer. But, since I had a few minutes, I decided I would post about the rest of our trip. We had a great time! The house was awesome, the weather was really good at the beginning. The day Kacia went skiing was perfect, which also meant great days for sledding as well. But by the last part of our trip it just snowed and snowed and snowed! I have included a picture of the outside of the house because I love the snow in the trees. We got a little bit of cabin fever the last two days since it was really snowing too hard to be outside, but it was so pretty to watch from the inside! It did make me think of how different life was before kids. On snowy days like that I would have cuddled up next to the fireplace with my book and cup of coffee, instead of cleaning play dough up off the ground, breaking up arguments, etc. But I also realized the trip would have been so different if it was just us adults. We wouldn't have bothered sledding or ice skating, and it is so much fun to watch your kids have so much fun! Rylin loved sledding! (Which was really the only activity she was old enough for.) She kept wanting to go "again" and "faster"! Kacia enjoyed it all! She is eager to go up skiing again, and I am so thrilled that my kids get to learn this sport as children rather than as an adult! I am sure that by the time baby number 3 masters the bunny slope I too might be ready to try some different runs. But I have already prepared myself for the fact that they will master this skill much faster than I have! All in all a great time for our family and a wonderful time with our best friends! (I will post Kacia on the slopes later!)

So We're Moving!

Most of you know that Kevin and I have been praying about a way to move closer into town. We would love to be close to his office and the school we want Kacia to start kindergarten in, plus just everything else. We have enjoyed our home, but the 20 minute drive to everything, and 30 min to church is getting old! So, after our house didn't sell in 5 months, we decided to pray about renting it out, and just finding something in the area we desire to be in to rent for now. Well, God answered our prayers! On Saturday, someone came to look at our home for someone who is moving here next week from out of state. So, now I am packing because we are moving this weekend!! Life is a little crazy right now, I don't know how many boxes I have packed today, but there are still many more to go! So, by Monday we will be out and cleaned, and on Tuesday we leave for our ski week in Bend Oregon! God's timing is unique, but we are just praising Him for answering our prayers, and for the much needed, but oddly timed vacation that we will greatly appreciate once we get there!

Christmas Recap

Well we had such a great Christmas this year! I think every year the girls get older, Christmas morning becomes so much more fun! On Christmas Eve, we went with Breanna's family to their church service, then continued with the Hetland family tradition by getting all dressed up and going out to dinner together. After that we headed over to their house, exchanged gifts, made hot chocolate and went out to walk around their neighborhood and look at their light displays. However, it was a little colder than typical, and after hitting one street, we headed back to the heated house! Christmas morning we opened up gifts and let the girls explore and play with all their new things before heading over to Grandma and Grandpa's. Most of Kevin's extended family had all traveled to Redding which was so great, so we spent the rest of our day there, enjoying each other, eating and cooking and eating some more, and of course, opening more gifts. Last year Kacia would open one and want to take it out of its package and play with it before moving on. This year, she could look under the tree and see how many more had her name, and couldn't wait to just keep opening! The girls were so much fun, and even though Kevin and I spoiled each other before we had kids, we have both decided that Christmas is so much more fun when we can watch our kids enjoy it all!

On Christmas day, Kaitlin and her fiance, Ian drove down in the snow from Washington to spend almost a week with us! We had a lot of fun together, didn't really do much, saw a movie, played in the snow (only the second time in my 8+ years in Redding that it snowed in my yard!), went wedding dress shopping, but mostly just hung out! Thanks to both of you for coming! We love you and had a great time being with you! (Obviously I can't post the pics of Kaitlin in the wedding dress, but she looked soooo beautiful!!)

Loving Christmas

So my girls and I are loving Christmas time! Kevin is not a scrooge or anything, but I kind of get a little too into the holiday, with only listening to Christmas music and watching all of the cheesy Christmas movies and all. And it seems that the girls have joined forces with me. They have learned numerous songs, love to go looking at Christmas lights, insist that the tree lights be on at all times, and they don't complain too much about all the baking, hot chocolate and candy canes either. I am pretty sure we have every Christmas themed movie/cartoon saved on DVR, and that is all the Kacia watches. The season is moving fast, but here a few photos of us enjoying our town's Christmas parade, Kacia's church Christmas concert and a cookie decorating playgroup we had. Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas, and enjoy it to the fullest!

My Baby Turned 2!

Well Rylin turned two on Thanksgiving this year. We had ice cream cake instead of pie that evening, and all of our family members called to wish her a Happy Birthday, but we decided to really celebrate it on Friday. Since so many family members were in town it made for a great party! Rylin had been talking for months about an Elmo party, so she got to wear her halloween costume twice! She was a lot of fun to watch and truly enjoyed her birthday!

I love age 2! Yes, along with it come the occasional fits and what not, but she is so much fun! She is talking up a storm, has quite the sense of humor, and really enjoys life! There is so much to be learned from a 2 year old! She loves to follow Kacia around, and constantly narrarates life for us. If Kacia coughs, she says, "mom, Kacia agh, agh" (cough noise). If Kevin blows his nose, "mom, Daddy _____ " (I don't know how to even attempt writing that sound). Kacia is very into spelling out everything right now, so we sound out words together, and Rylin is somewhat picking up on that. She just thinks everything starts with the letter B. She will say, "mom, b-b-b-b-car! b-b-b-house! b-b-b-b-grandma!" And the more I laugh, the more "words" she comes up. She also enjoys playing baby dolls, "watching" Baby Einstein, playing dress up, singing, books and just being silly! She thinks that she is quite independent. She insists on putting on her own pants (today they are backwards!), she wants to buckle everything (car seat, grocery carts, etc) by her self. One of her favorite words right now, aside from Hungry! is Self! She constantly yells "Self! Self" when she wants to open up the yogurt or string cheese, or zip up her jacket, etc. Many of these she can't really do by herself yet, so then the occassional "Help!" comes out, but I say hey, if she wants to learn to do these things by herself it is only going to make my life easier in the long run!

I can't believe my baby is 2, I guess it's good she won't be "the baby" for much longer, she is quite excited about the new baby coming in June!

Fall Festival

I have been a lazy blogger lately, but I wanted to pass on some of our recent pics. We had a great time at our church's fall festival. I failed to get any good pictures, but Kacia was princess Jasmine and Rylin was, of course, Elmo. The girls had a lot of fun, and so did we!

Just the 2 of Us

About 2 weeks ago, Kevin surprised me by planning a 2 night getaway to Yosemite. We had a great time, beautiful weather and fall colors, surrounded by our Awesome Creator's Breathtaking Handiwork! I had never been to the park and had somewhat complained a few times that this was one part of California I still had not seen after living here for 10 years. We stayed at a really cute hotel that had a ton of really adorable cabins. I felt like we were at family camp! It amazed me how busy it was there, so many different languages, I felt like we were at Disneyland, just the difference was it didn't feel crowded because there is so much space! Thanks for planning it Kev and a big thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for holding down the fort!!

Scoopin' Goop!

A few weekends ago, I took my girls and Breanna's kids for an afternoon. We went to the pumpkin patch and then later decided to try to roast seeds. Kacia hadn't scooped out pumpkin seeds before because she always picks the tiny little pumpkins she can hold, which- what's the point of cutting those open? So we all put on some of Kev's old t-shirts, put Rylin down for a nap and got a little messy!

Family Vacation

At the end of September we went on a much needed family vacation! We drove over to the coast and stayed in Brookings Oregon for a few days. We had awesome weather and played at the beach. Then we drove to Lincoln City, were we were meeting up with Kevin's parents and sister and family to celebrate Debby's birthday. (Unfortunately I don't have pictures on my camera of the cousins playing, but we all had a great time.) We spent a lot of time in the car, so we stopped and went through the Redwood Forest and a zoo that allowed you to pet some of the baby animals. We got to play with a baby tiger, pet a bear cub, and hold various little animals. It was great fun, and a good way to break up all the driving. Our girls are finally at an age where vacationing was more fun then work! And they slept great, which is always a gamble!

Kacia's 4th Birthday!

For those of you who remember, Kacia had a Cinderella party last year. And this year, she wanted a Jasmine party. So we had a family party on her birthday with a "Jasmine Cake", and then a Luau Party at the pool we go to that weekend with all her friends and their families (our friends & family!). They were such fun days! She really enjoyed her birthday to the fullest! And as a parent, it is so great to watch your child be so happy. Her big present was her bike, which she rides almost everyday.

Our Summer!

Our summer can be summed up in one word...pool! Kevin had to work alot this summer, which was good, but also meant for some very long days! So what did we do, we lived in the water! Not only was it a great way to break up our day, but also a good way for us to see Kevin. We would meet him in town for a picnic dinner poolside, he would swim with the girls and then go back to the office for more appointments. Kacia became quite the little fish, brave, fearless and determined fish! Rylin and her skinny self would get cold quite easily. How do you get cold when it is 100+ outside, not sure, but it is possible to be covered in tiny, little, goosebumps. Oh, the sacrifices of a second child!

It's About Time!

So here are some very past due pictures. These are my girls doing what they do best, being silly! They love to play dress up, which often includes not just "dress up" clothes, but also creating their own outfits from their regular wardrobes.