Lovin the beach

So Monday night, as we were trying to finagle our way through the checkout lines at Costco, Grandma Smith called and invited us to go to the beach with them the next day. Wahoo! The girls LOVE the beach, and I LOVE going without driving and paying the gas money! And we all LOVE Grandma and Grandpa, so it was really just a win-win-win.The day started a little chilly, but it warmed up (the sun even came out and there was blue sky!), and I do believe we packed everything into the day that was physically/mentally/emotionally possible (Jell's "emotions" were a little bit all over the charts by the end of the day as was).
We went to Lincoln City and the girls LOVED searching for sea "aminals" on the rocks. Apparently we have entered the "I'm going to take every pretty (stinky) shell or rock home with me" stage, but as we don't have room for a beach at home, I dumped them all out. Shh. Here the girls are trying to figure out why they can't pull these shells off the rocks.


And, true to her nature, Meri went to town poking the little sea anemones. She just laughed and laughed as they squished and closed up. Hopefully they all recover. She hasn't quite grasped the meaning of the word "gentle." Jell, as expected, was quite a bit more difficult to convince, but she finally worked up the nerve after learning that Nemo lives in an anemone.
I love this picture! That's Grandpa, cousin Taylor and her friend in the distance. It looks to me like Meri's wistfully watching, wishing she knew how to say "hey come back. Wait for me - I'm a big kid too!"
After everybody had worked up an appetite, we headed to Mo's where the others enjoyed what they claim is the best clam chowder everywhere (YUCK!). And then we got a great surprise - Grandma and Grandpa brought us to the Newport Aquarium! We haven't been before, but have wanted to, so this was pretty exciting.

The world's largest crabs - Japanese spider crabs.







And Meri really needs to work on her "chomping" monster face.








It really was pretty cool to touch everything, and of course, to walk through the shark tunnel. Jell's favorite were the jellys. I, on the other hand, have to agree with the little Geico guy. Jellys are really weird. I mean, where even is their face?

And Meri's favorite was probably the sucker Grandma and Grandpa bought her. In this picture, she was pointing out to us that drool was dripping off her chin. Lovely.
Then we topped it off by going back to the beach to play some more. Meri kept diving/belly flopping onto the sand, digging her arms in, kicking her legs, and laughing her silly little head off. Jenelle thoroughly wore herself out chasing down frisbees. Which, by the way, when she throws them, about half the time they shoot out directly behind her, and your guess is as good as mine as to where the other half are going. She always says, "Oops! Sorry, that went the wrong way. You go get it!" So we owe a great BIG thank you to Grandma and Grandpa Smith! We love you!
On a different note, and actually ending on the same note as last time, any advice about what to do with a bath pooper? Jenelle and I are very upset. It just happened again.

New Old Pics

Isn't it fun to stumble upon old pictures? I was looking on my mother-in-law's computer last night, trying to find some pictures to paint from, and found all sorts of pics of our little family - most of which I'd never seen before. Anyway, thought I'd post them for fun.

Is there any doubt that she's having fun? Jenelle thinks this picture is hilarious. When I asked why, she just said, "because it's me laughing." I thought it might have been the fact that she had no hair but still looks like her.
If you can, take a look at that smirk on her face. She has always been crazy expressive. My mom used to complain that I never had nice, smiling pictures of my baby.
A great (and rare) cute picture of the girls together, getting along in tight quarters, at the gallery.
This was taken when Jenelle was 6 weeks old, when we were enjoying and suffering from new parents' syndrome.
And this is an awesome picture Chris took in Mexico of Meri and a cute little boy named Henry, who kept trying to sell us bracelets when he wasn't busy wooing Mers. They sat there together forever, just content. But I love how in this picture it's like they're wondering why they look so different from each other.
Now this is super cute because it was them chilling on a lazy Saturday morning. Might not be the best thing to be teaching the kiddies, but hey.

This may only be funny to me, but Jell put this little guy in time-out for slicing her finger. Of course, for him to do his little karate chop motion, Jenelle had to be pushing the lever. Poor little guy. That's what he gets for not being the girl toy we asked for in the Happy Meal.

And wahoo! An extremely rare picture of all four of us! This was during the ward's 4th of July kids' "parade" in the church parking lot. The rode around in circles for forever, led by the Webbs (former bishop, empty nester couple) riding a tandom bike with matching polka dot helmets.

Okay, I was going to do more but the girls just went nuts. Plus I need to still clean some feces off the bath toys. I really thought we were out of that stage, but right when you take your guard down ...

I suppose I have to vote for one of them eventually....

This about sums up my feelings on the election.

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Good find, Che!

Living on the Edge

When we moved in, we were thrilled that the girls had their own rooms, and would therefore, hopefully not disturb each others' sleep. Now I'm not saying that every night has been as we would have hoped - they are kids afterall, meaning they are totally unpredictable in every way - but things have been good and comfortable. Time to switch things up a bit! Why? Well, for one, a couple of nights of Cooper staying up until 2 typing papers on the computer, which happens to be in our bedroom. Very near the bed. Where I was "sleeping." That and, we'd always planned on putting the girls together eventually. Someday. Probably when they were both in big girl beds. But let's face it, my art supplies (along with all the sewing and craft stuff that my parents have cleared out of their house and left in our garage) are taking over the house and really need a home, a room to call their own. And as a bonus, now I don't have to feel bad that Jenelle had such a cute, matching, fun room, while Meri's seemed to collect all the mismatched furniture, and be our storage unit to boot. Now they have a fun, mismatched room to share!
I think we now have every color of wood in one room! And stuffed animals filling up every empty space, and the dress-ups taking up the entire space under the crib.
Although in real life, the walls are blue, not aqua. Weird camera. We also took out all the toys and replaced them with books - in the hopes that if Jenelle can't sleep she'll just read silently to herself. Ha, do you love how naive we are sometimes? Gotta try though, right?
So in an effort to make the transition as smooth as possible, we tired them out on a bike ride, and then tried to wind down with calm, story reading time. So far, pretty good. After we put them to bed, they laughed their heads off for nearly an hour. We finally went in there and, as expected, they were both in the crib. What I hadn't expected was Jenelle to have brought her bed, basically only minus the mattress, into the crib with them. They were even both lying down. Cute! Jenelle had just got tired of their game of Meri stealing her binky. I'm wondering though, did Jell really think she was going to sleep in there? Is that what she thought we meant when we kept talking about how they were going to sleep together in the same room now? Anyway, it's been a few hours and they are actually sleeping. So we'll keep our fingers crossed. I actually never shared a room growing up, and I can't imagine Cooper did, but I've always thought it was probably fun. It's probably a grass is always greener thing. Regardless, if you have any advice about how to make this work best, please share!

Do you understand your kids?

I know I've said it a million times but kids crack me up. Meri does really funny things in her own non-verbal way, which is really hard to write about, but Jenelle - man oh man! She gives me endless comic material with which to work. I really don't do it justice. And I find more and more, that there is really no understanding kids.
Anyway, today in a moment of deep reflection, I was smiling about the fact that to Jenelle blocks are for building tall towers (which to Meri, are for knocking over). But Legos are for making cameras. Yes, cameras. Once made, I am then required to smile for her. She pushes a button, says "chick," and hands me a copy of my picture. Never having seen a Polaroid, I'm not sure where she gets this. I am, by Jelly law, required to take said picture. Ignoring her, continuing what I might have been doing, or running away from her is simply not tolerated. I must take it. It doesn't matter really what I do with it (I can drop it immediately, throw it over my shoulder, or place it nicely on the couch for later viewing), with one definite exception. I am NOT allowed to eat it. Now I'm not really sure why I tried to do so in the first place - maybe Meri is wearing off on me, who knows. But holy cow! I sure learned my lesson. I shall never pretend to take a bite of my pretend picture again.
And actually, this really reminds me of this clip that we saw the other night on Letterman:
(starts at about 1:50, but really gets to the most related part at about 3:20)


Which then makes me think of this clip, because I have mom-brain:
(the right part starts at about 1:20)


Which then makes me realize that I am hungry.

Would you call us middle-aged?

While on a date the other day, we ran into the Jeffries, a great young family in our ward. (And might I first say, it has been too long since we got babysitting and actually went out?!) But anyway, Cooper mentioned it was my birthday, which got us talking. She was trying to guess my age, knowing that she had been my YW leader when her oldest daughter (who just turned 10) was born. And he was Coop's YM leader when he was our age exactly. Funny thing is that we are basically at the stage of life they were at then. But the joke's on us because at that time, Cooper and friends, called him "middle-aged," and didn't want him on their team for some athletic event like canoeing because they "wanted somebody young." Aah! The fact that they remember this means he went home and was like, "really? Are we middle-aged already? You've got to be kidding! I thought we were still young and cool?" Or at least, that is what I would say before laughing/crying/pinching myself/ranting and raving/reminiscing over old scrapbooks/wondering what the heck happened. So, although I know that none of you will likely ever read this, I am sorry to any and all of our leaders whom we called old before their time!

This Product Not Available in Stores!

Cooper has magically put together this adorable instructional video (meaning somebody is figuring out how to use this computer) titled, "How to Play Tee-ball." I think it's worth a good $14.95, but only if you call in the next 10 minutes, of course. Here is a delightful little preview of what's in store when you call now:



I love it. Not that I'm at all biased, but they are both adorable. I love all their little looks and smiles. Oh, and hopefully you can read all the type - it's much bigger on our screen, and there are some things that even Cooper hasn't yet figured out how to fix.
Also, since recording this groundbreaking video, we've taught Jenelle to run the bases. Which basically means, she hits the ball and then begins running randomly around the yard, shouting, "Run home! Run home!" It's totally worth seeing in person.
And in case you have any ideas, Jenelle is currently accepting suggestions for her next "How to ..." video, with Meri, as always, as sidekick.

Gotta enjoy the sun!

So Jenelle wanted to play with play dough, and it looked way too gorgeous to stay inside, so I thought PERFECT! We'll play with the messy stuff outside and I'll have basically no clean-up! No crawling under the kitchen table to chase down small balls so they don't get stuck to the bottom of shoes and tracked all over the house's carpet. Yes! So we set up the umbrella, the outdoor kiddie table and chairs and they went to town. I very quickly realized that somehow, Meri's education has been most seriously neglected. She had never played with play dough before in her entire life! Shocking really. Turns out we haven't play doughed recently, and when we did I saved it for Ms. Everything-Goes-Straight-In-The-Mouth's naptimes. Go figure. Anyway, she sat there eyeing it for the longest time. She watched Jenelle go about her business, eyed it some more, and then very timidly touched it. She looked up to me and I could almost hear her shy little curiousity asking what this strange looking stuff was for (But as Jenelle informs any stranger that asks Meri a question, and even occasionally reminds me, "she don't talk good yet. She don't say any W-ooooooORDS."). Anyway, I showed her how she could poke it and leave a finger mark, and tried to make it all sound very exciting in a high-pitched voice. She did it once or twice then looked at me to say, "really, is that it?" Hard crowd. So I rolled it out and cut out a shape for her. Again, just more blank staring. This all from the fearless child at the playground. I picked up the shape, handed it to her. She looked at it, looked at me, and without taking her eyes off of me brought it slowly to her mouth. "No, no Meri, not to eat!" She put it back down and looked at with a bit of a furrowed brow, as if to say, "then what in heaven's name is it good for?" I apologize for the play-by-play, but really, the whole situation was so funny to me. It's like she was waiting for it to jump up and sing and dance for her. Maybe this is what comes from all those interactive toys that light up, spin, giggle, vibrate, sing, and do who knows what else. Anyway, she's a funny girl. She did end up playing with it, but got bored and ended up wandering around the yard searching for ripe strawberries to eat, or flowers to pick. Jenelle did make her some "noodles and worms," and I don't think we should call them noodles anymore. That gives the impression of being edible. The only thing she really got into was pulling a big ball of play dough into small pieces and dropping them all unceremoniously onto the grass. No problem, right? Lesson learned: It is actually more work to clean play dough up off the grass, as it gets all matted-in and one spends all one's time pulling play dough out of grass, and grass out of play dough.

On another, unrelated note - our camera is broken. Sad. So, if I don't post as much, it will be because I don't have any cute pictures of the girlies - which is really the purpose of this blog in the first place. Here's hoping it's fixed soon and that it turns out to still be on warranty!

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.