And speaking of ...

While we are giving overdue thank yous ... Thank you so much Great Grandma and Grandpa Smith for all of your help and loving attention at church! And also, thanks a million for that fun-filled week with all the cousins! As stated in a previous post, we had such a blast at the zoo! Thank you for also taking us to the beach to go crabbing (while Jenelle firmly refused to touch the crabs cause they were probably "yucky," she loved examining them up close to see their eyes and mouth. And she loved us throwing them back into the water. And she loved us throwing bait at the seagulls - although that resulted in us being followed by a flock of about 100 "rats with wings")! My stinkin camera broke, or otherwise I would surely have more pictures of all that!

And then Omsi and the dinosaurs the next day on top of all that! What fun?! We don't know how we didn't totally wear you out! Thanks for all the memories and good times!

And here's to Donald Duck

Isn't this so cute? I've been promising this picture for weeks now, never seem capable of remembering to print it, so better yet, we give it to you over the blog!



Too bad the girls don't have any loving family members willing to dote on them! We wish we had one of Aunt Patti too so we could thank both Uncle Jim and Aunt Patti for helping out with our girls so much, especially while we teach Primary at church. And it's so fun how much the girls love you (by the way, whenever Jell sees Donald Duck or any duck for that matter, she says it's like Uncle Jim - because he talks like that to make her laugh). Love you!

A Hungry Hungry Hippos Education

What I learned yesterday while playing Jell's favorite game of Hungry Hungry Hippos:

1. Meredith cheats. (She gets frustrated with her hippo, gives up on the conventional way, and goes after the little balls with her pudgy little hands. She then even stores them all in her hippo's space. How did she figure that out?)
2. Jenelle doesn't handle cheating well.
3. Cheaters never prosper. Upon snagging all the balls, Meri then fell and cut her lip - it dripped blood and everything. Sad!
4. Knowing all the hippos' names (or being able to read them off the stickers) is VERY impressive to a 2 year-old.
5. Happy Hippo (the pink one) is Jenelle's "friend."
6. I do better when playing with my feet.
7. This is a very loud game.
8. And although lesson #3 is still true, cheating on behalf of Jenelle (tipping the board towards her hippo so she, or Happy, gets all the balls) is well worth the smile.

Sugar and Spice and everything nice

In case anybody wanted to know what it's like in a house full of females! You're the best dad ever - and you have so many years of this to come! Wahoo! All right, so I may have helped a little. Okay, I helped a lot. But Jell was totally delighted! She kept telling dad he was SOOO boo-i-ful! And basically it was what he got for being on the phone too long ignoring us. Tee hee. How is he ever going to get homework done around here?
Speaking of, I should probably quickly catch you up on what's going on around here. Today Cooper started his graduate program at Portland State University! He's going to get his Masters of Public Administration, going full time, and hopefully, there will be a perfect, wonderful, not-boring job on the other end just waiting for him (keep your fingers crossed for us, would you?)! If all goes as planned, it should only take about a year and a half (done in Dec 09). In the meantime, he's going to try and juggle also working part time at Wells Fargo (they provide full benefits for family even though he's only part time, and some tuition reimbursement! Yeah Wells Fargo!). I also hope to help us out by selling more paintings (more fingers crossed, unless of course you're running out of fingers, in which case, toes are fine too). And I've just started training as an SAT instructor for Powerscore. Granted I took the SAT a heck of a long time ago, and I have stupid mom brain most the time, but it's good pay, very part time and I really do like teaching, so hopefully it goes well too. First off, though, I'll have to learn how not to talk like a two-year old. Wish us luck!

Too much fun, too little nap!

This week some of my cousins came to town (from Salem, Utah, and New Mexico), with all their little ones in tow. I think I have finally got it straight - their kids are my first cousins once removed, and my girls' 2nd cousins. Not that it really matters. Jenelle calls them all friends - at least the ones she likes. :) She's not always too sure about boys. Anyway, we had a blast but talk about stimulation overload! Monday we went to the zoo (and dentist and eye doctor). Keep in mind there are 8 kids under the age of 6. I think there were as many adults but it sure didn't feel that way! We so felt outnumbered and there was constantly the question, "Where is ..." or "Does anybody see ..." Man, kids are quick! I loved that we entered the zoo and I heard each kid say "I want to see ______" with a different animal in the blank for each kid. Luckily, I think everybody left satisfied. The elephants even did tricks! The trainer was having them practice, so they waved legs, wagged tongues at us, and all sorts of silly stuff.


The girlies (there are boys too, three of them, but they don't apparently like to be in photos). Check out Meri's face up close - is she growling at the camera?













Grandma bought yummy elephant ears for everyone. YUM! Thanks Grandma!

This is how "hug your sister for a cute picture" worked out.
I'll add the rest later in part II.

Congratulations Hairy!

Way to go Uncle Adam - recent University of Oregon graduate. I'd make jokes about your hair and what you'll say when you look back at this pics in 20 years, but I think you've got that enough this week! We're proud of you (He even paid for all of it himself by working on fishing boats to Alaska)! And you know that Jenelle thinks you're about the coolest person in the universe. Meri will too. Good job!



Soon enough, girl. Soon enough.

Just Keep Swimming....

Stealth baby at it again:

And that pretty much sums that up! Although I guess I should admit, that she was caught in this very act 4 times in one week - and thoroughly pleased with herself every time.

I take offense

So last Friday Cooper and I agreed to enter an on-line exercise competition (www.introPLAY.com) with some friends out of state. I'm really not sure why we agreed - we had no chance of winning, and I am rather unfond of losing. However, we hoped it would help get us more motivated to work out more regularly and all (which was our friends' purpose in starting it). It did quite the opposite. In fact, less than a week later, we quit. I had been going on walks and/or bike rides daily and was noticing that I am not a very serious worker-outer. And we were quite quickly falling behind. This was okay though, because I knew I had a soccer game on Tuesday that would earn us countless, much needed points. However, on Monday Cooper played an hour of basketball. This only earned him 8.0 points, compared to the 13.3 points you earn for an hour of vigorous walking. He was a little offended by what the dumb computer was suggesting about his work ethic on the basketball court. The next night I nearly died playing soccer. Okay, so I'm exaggerating a bit, but I did work my butt off (and as a bonus, we played great! By all reasonable accounts we won 3-1, although the official score might have been 2-2 - but that's a different story). Anyway, I got home totally exhausted and entered my workout. I spent the rest of the evening mumbling Spanish obscenities and shooting murderous looks at the computer. It gave me a whopping 6.8 points for my workout! It only gave me two options for categorizing it - casual or competitive, and when I chose competitive, it told me I had completed a "moderate" workout. I take offense. My 40 minutes of vigorous walking (I categorized it as vigorous because I was walking quite fast, pushing a stroller with two kids, snagging precious fallen cargo such as binkies or bobos, leaning over to hear jell over the traffic, singing songs and playing versions of "I spy" to keep everyone satisfied while trying to breathe) counted as 8.9 points. And I got to tell you, I felt the soccer workout a million times more. In fact, I actually felt it in my sore, tired muscles. So, I apologize to our friends but we quit. All the competition was doing for us was making Cooper want to cheat and making me want to throw the computer out the window - which wouldn't be a good idea since we just bought it last week. Apparently we don't need an computer competition to get us motivated. And until we find what we do need, we remain as sincerely unmotivated as ever.

A Fun-Filled Weekend All Around

Cooper wins the brave daddy award for the year. He decided to take BOTH girls with him on the Daddy-Daughter camp-out! I thought he might be a little crazy. Course he might have been trying to prove something - since I always tease him for ending his scout career basically in cub scouts and for never having gone camping as a kid (He got the Hawaii type vacations). Neither of us would have been disappointed in the effort though if he'd ended up coming home in the middle of the night - but he stuck it out! The girls apparently thought the tent was their personal playhouse:

He said that as he tried to get them to sleep (for hours), they would be almost there, then jump up and run around the tent laughing. Now that wouldn't get frustrating after awhile!

Yet here they look so peaceful, cooperative, and contained.

And cute too!

But they did come back early, because we then had to head out to Salishan for the artist's reception (open house) at the gallery. It was finally here! This is actually the first time I've seen my work up on the walls, so that was pretty neat - my name was even up on the wall for all to see. (Blast, I just deleted a photo - I hate it when that happens!!! Oh well, there's still more than anyone's probably interested in seeing anyway)

So when we first got there, I was just standing there looking - a bit overwhelmed to finally be there. It was just so cool! Kevin, one of the managers (I think?), came over and asked what I thought. I was like, "It's so fun to see it all up. I love it." He sat there smiling at me and asked what I thought again. A bit awkwardly I was all, "It's really exciting." Then he asked again and I had the uneasy feeling I was totally missing something. When I asked what he meant he said, "What do you think about the fact that three of them have already sold?" Ah! So apparently these red dots mean something:

He totally made fun of me, saying, "what artist doesn't know what a red dot means?" That would be me - first timer alert. My mother-in-law even knew. While there, a couple bought another one, bringing the red dot total to four. Turns out, I really like red dots.

So now, by selling four, we have probably broke even for the cost of framing them all! Now that makes it sound a little less exciting, but it was a really, really fun day. Just kinda crazy seeing it all up! Tons of my family kept wandering in and out of the gallery, and the girls were even pretty good (thanks to the toy shop around the corner).

Then after a few hours of playing at being a professional artist, we hit the beach! I know my dear friends in S. Cal will laugh at our big coats in June at the beach, but honestly, we couldn't have asked for a more perfect day. Look at that sky! It was gorgeous, and just right.

Meri wasn't too sure about the sand. Deja vu to Jenelle at that age. Why are my kids so weird? Mama, there's sand on me!

So I spent most of the time dusting her off. And we had to leave her socks on - she just couldn't handle the feeling between her toes. Seriously, weird kids.

But Jenelle, having grown out of her fear of sand, loved every minute!

What a great weekend! Thanks for all the support!

Neighborhood Lost and Found

Today we walked to my parents' house, while it threatened to start pouring down rain any second. Instead, we just got covered in a nice little drizzle. But as I pushed them along in the stroller, Jenelle announces, "Look Mama! There's my Bobo!" Must have heard wrong. But I looked up, and this is what I saw:
There was Bobo. Bobo had been missing for awhile, I wasn't really sure how long. I figured it was at my parents' house, Coop figured it was somewhere in our house. Surprisingly, this hadn't upset Jell too much. I guess we should have been more worried though - this is after all the BOBO. The one my sister and dad bought little unborn baby Jenelle in the hospital and gave to her moments after her birth. Kinda important as far as these things go. But Bobo, apparently, got lost last Friday (a full week ago!) when we walked to my dad's office. Some kind, neighborly person had propped him up in the tree (my dad tried to convince Jell that Bobo learned how to climb trees but she insisted that "some lady put him up in the tree"), and left him there for a full week. Poor Bobo has probably had enough excitement for a little bear, and we probably better keep a closer eye on him - I don't know how many lives little stuffed bears get. But thank you to that wonderfully thoughtful unknown person!

And He lived happily ever after

Cooper is a very happy man (like in the little boy, giddy, Christmas morning type of cuteness):

Really it's like all of his dreams have come true. Sadly, my lack of confidence that I would even be able to open the internet on the newbie has left me using the old computer to post this. Here's hoping I can learn some new technology!
That is really where I should end this, but for laughs I think I'll include one of, if not my most embarrassing moment which shows what a computer guru I really am. In the awkward eighth grade, I happened to be with my class in the computer lab. My computer froze. Not being the exact type we had at home, I really had no idea what to do. I looked around for a button to turn it off and on again. Found one, pushed it, and thus turned off half the computers in the room. Let me tell you, you don't really make friends pulling a stunt like that. Could have died. I suffered from a deep fear of computer labs until well into my college career. I was always anxious and on edge whenever I entered. Ha, what a nerd. Anyway, goodbye comfortable, anciently-old, wearing-down Dell, and hello to our whole new, exciting, and yes, intimidating Mac.

Rainy Rose Festival Fun

Back to how I get excited to do fun things with the kids - we went down to Waterfront Village today for the Rose Festival! Thank you to Jen for telling me that the rides were cheap on Mondays, and thank you to the website for letting me know that admission is free before 4 - and sometimes even at 4:02 if you're really lucky! No thank you to parking in the wrong parking garage before 5 but that's a whole different, bitter, and not as fun story.
Anyway, what fun! I'm kinda sad Cooper missed out on the Daddy of all Dance-Off competition, but that's okay, the world might not be ready for that. His girlies still love it when he dances and I've always been a big fan of Bill Cosby so I like it too. Love you hun. But despite the fact that it starting raining on us, we had a blast. We ended up being there for 3 1/2 hours - which apparently flies by when you're trying to use up your tickets by finding rides that allow really really short customers.
So here we are in the featured dino exhibit:
This did not go well the first time. Despite numerous attempts to convince Jell that they were fake, every little muscle in her body was tense and she quickly announced she'd had enough. On our way out though, she wanted more. In the second picture, she was also supposed to be making a scary dino face. Instead, she looks cute and I look like a weirdo.
Then they got to go dig for dino fossils, which for them is just a good excuse to play in the sand. However, Meri was kind of confused as to why her shovel (brush) was so lame.
Later, we found a large group of hula hoops on the ground. Not sure why they were there, but nobody charged us any money so we played with them. Meri tried:
And I figured out how to hula hoop again after like 20 years of not remembering how - thank you to my husband for the very helpful type. I know, I'm a loser - who can't hula hoop except me?

Daddy showed off his skills, of which Jell was most impressed (the second picture is of her watching him - so cute!)












Gotta say though, the petting zoo ... kind of a let down this year. I mean, Jell laughed her head off every time a goat stuck its head through the bars at her, but last year we happened to witness a rabbit giving birth. Gotta tell you, brand new baby bunnies are not at all cute. Nasty really. But the girls were crazy excited that they could pet the bunnies while we were holding them. And when the bunnies had enough and started scratching our hands off, the girls rolled with laughter.











On to the rides! Jell totally surprised us (what's new?) and loved the rides! She was so brave, and it was so fun to see her full of such joy!
Sadly, Meri was only tall enough for the merry-go-round, but at least she loved it! Both times. The rest of the time, she watched sadly through the bars as Jenelle went on all the other rides. Sad!






























And as a treat, we bought them cotton candy. I was all excited for them to try it for the first time. Meri refused. She kept shoving it away and sticking out her tongue, which is Meri for "yuck." The child will eat paper - did she really think this would be worse? Jell had one bite and told us she didn't want anymore. Total disappointment. What's worse is that we found out we agree. I totally remember it being delicious as a kid. Go figure.
But all in all, a great Portland afternoon. However, according to the website, the WaMu Waterfront Village received the Gold Pinnacle Award in 2007 for having the best children's entertainment in the world. Now that sounds a little nuts. We had a good time and all, but either we missed out on a whole lot or uh, Disneyland isn't all I remembered it being.