There's one, where's the other?

It's been a while since I've done an update post on the gremlins and their progress.

Things have changed so much in just a months time.

At 13 months they weight about 23lbs each. Both are crawling and the statement, "you'll be chasing one while the other goes the opposite direction", has come to life.  I end up hearing one in the kitchen while the other one attempts to attack the entertainment center.  Luckily if mom says no they generally listen and move along.  Keeping them in one spot is nearly impossible unless there are snacks.

Both can pull themselves up to stand using furniture or other things around them.  Kenzington has once or twice walked a gap from one piece of furniture to the next but they generally stay attached to the furniture walking along it.  For now, anyway.  They love little animals and fluffy things.  Especially Oakley who likes to cuddle them.

Both talk and giggle all the time.  It was probably one of the most adorable things as a mum to watch Kenzington sit on her gammas lap with a magazine flipping through the pages and reading to her gamma.  Literally for 5 minutes just pointing at pictures and text, jabbing away.  

Yes, Doggy, Igty (kitty), hi, daddy, momma, are the choice of words so far but they are constantly trying to say new ones.  They can both sign milk, all done, and more.  Dancing to music and clapping is something they just love to  do daily.  

Just like their mom they love to swim and can't get enough of the water, they are even attempting to kick their legs to swim now.  We recently took them to Las Vegas for the 2nd time this last week and they do amazing in the car.  They talk and play, never fuss and sleep without a problem.  Going to see new things and new people is something they love to do as well.  They flirt and just smile shying away.  We thought while we were in Vegas visiting my brother that they would get scared like they sometimes do with guys they haven't met before and it had been a while since he'd seen them.  Surprisingly it was like they remembered him and just loved sitting on his lap and playing.  He's such a good uncle.  

We now realized we have to keep their pants on at night otherwise they take off their diapers, haha.  Luckily there wasn't an accident.  

Both have 8 teeth and counting, we are getting to the more painful sets and it's causing some discomfort. They are chasing the dogs more and more. I'm pretty sure the dogs never thought this day would come, as Auzzie sat without moving while K probed his eye with her finger...yeah we have to watch for that now.  

I cannot believe how fast they are moving along and how much we get to see for the first time daily.  I've said it before but it just amazes me and I love it!

We have been blessed with some amazing kids, family and great friends who are always there.  I seriously hope we can keep up with the craziness because I don't want to miss one minute of it! 

For the 4th we are off to spend time with family and friends in WA.  It's going to be so much fun and great to see everyone.  

Everyone have a safe and happy holiday weekend! ❤

Summer Adventures To the Zoo!

This summer started off pretty busy, as a lot of you can tell by my lack of posts!

I had this great idea that I'm going to post our summer adventures (So far we have 4 that I'm editing pictures for and so on)!  Great idea? Yes! I agree, hehe.

  We took the girls camping and it was probably something that I never thought would go as smoothly as it did.  Of course nap time was a bit of a hassle but other than that I think it went better than planned.  

Just before it got too hot out here we decided that since the girls were showing more and more interest in animals it would be perfect to take them to the local Zoo.  Neither of us had been in so long, the girls weren't the only ones excited about seeing animals.  

The entire time was just so much fun and the girls G-rents came along for the experience, which made it even better.  At first it took a while to get the girls to notice the animals.  They were mainly entertained with the simple fact that they were out of the house and seeing new people around them.  

We saw some kids on wooden horses and I insisted on putting the girls on them..I'm pretty sure we enjoyed it way more than they did, ha!  It was just too cute. :)

Our zoo has a Jurassic theme going on where scattered throughout the park there are animatronic dinosaurs.  It was cool at first, but to me it just got annoying only being able to hear fake dinosaur roars instead of the wildlife.  

The girls were afraid of the T-Rex because he would roar every so often and it was loud!  

But we still figured feeding him might make him happy ;)

After a bit they really started to notice the animals around them.  Kenzlee especially completely fell in love with them all and would squeal with glee despite the "please be quiet" signs.  Oakley on the other hand has a completely odd reaction to animals.  She does it at home as well with her pretend kitty and ducky.  She gets super excited but if they come too close or she feels like they are too close she gets very nervous and does this "I'm excited but I'm going to cry too", type of thing.

The male tiger was separated from the females and was just walking around his area growling!  It was sooo cool!  He would just get louder and louder and then he would jump around from his den to tree stumps.  I can say I completely loved seeing him almost as much as I loved seeing the Chimps and Monkeys.  

They had the baby elephant out that day and o.m.g. so cute!  Everyone was just in aw at how adorable the mother and it were!

Something I have to say while we were leaving we saw protesters outside the zoo, stating that the elephants were suffering within the zoo- while they stood in the 90 degree weather with no shade holding a child that looked to be 6 months non the less.  Anyway, I couldn't help but just shake my head at the fact that these people seem to not understand the options these animals have.  I will admit, maybe I fully don't either.  What I do know is this:

I've been to Africa, I've spoken to the people, villagers, and park rangers about the elephants.  Even if the elephants are placed in a "protected" thousand acre reserve out in Africa, poachers still sneak in at night and kill them.  It's something that is so completely hard to stop that it's causing lots of government issues among other things.  Heck, while we were there we saw poachers jumping the fence and running as we were leaving the park late at night.  From what I've seen and heard, how is it worse to live in a zoo were you are fulling taken care of, live a full life, compared to the chance of being killed while your young is left to die to the elements?  Isn't that suffering as well?

Sorry, it's my "people don't make sense to me" speech...but moving on!

Going back to the monkeys this little guy and his buddy just made me laugh and giggle.  He just sat quietly on his branch holding his lovey!  Another tiny monkey.  He would just pet it and look at it.  

The girls really seemed to like this guy, he was walking back and forth in front of the window waiting for his trainer.  The girls would just giggle and watch saying "igty igty"...loved it.

Surprisingly we finished in a couple hours, it resulted in a great experience and a good chance to get out of the house.  We cannot wait till they are more aware of what the animals are and can take them again.

What summer adventures are you experiencing?  

Happy Tuesday! ❤

Inspiration Tuesday

"I am the best version of me. A true original. A one of a kind."

I've noticed for me that it's been hard to not relate the twins to one another.  If ones doing one thing I always question why the other isn't yet.  We tend to relate ourselves to others or even others to ourselves and forget that they are one of a kind and will do the things they do and be different in many great ways.  

It's not hard to forget that being your own person is the best way to be!  

Just have fun and roll with the punches! :)

{Happy Tuesday!}

Flipper!

OK, maybe not "flipper" himself..but you know..cousins ;)

So, I have yet to post about one of the adventures we had on our trip to Mexico a couple months back.  First something you may have never known about me is, I have always had a desire to be a marine biologist.  Specifically working with whales and dolphins, you know all the good stuff.  Even ask my parents, when I was as young as 6 or 7 years old if you asked me what I wanted to do I would have said Marine Biologist.  I choose not to take that route though, crazy, but I didn't.  

Anyway, it's been my dream to swim with dolphins.  I've already gotten the chance to be in a boat along side them in the wild and even swim 50 yards away from them in the wild.  But to be actually in the water interacting has just been at the top of my bucket list.

We go to Hawaii usually every year or so and on the big island they do have a dolphin experience, but it usually costs a car payment and you have to be on the list for up to 5 months.  So when we heard that not that far from where we were we could go and swim with them any day we liked, for 1/4 of what we would pay in Hawaii.

I will just say it was probably one of the most touching experiences of my life, not only to connect with such a large and super intelligent animal but to know that this was one of the facilities that was actually helping the animals and not taking them from the wild.  (If you have seen The Cove, you know what I'm talking about)

(Yes, I know odd that I'm wearing hat and sun glasses..but don't worry I wasn't the only one and they said it was OK. ;) )

I'll be honest.  When I first got in I was a little nervous!  These girls were huge and you just never know what to really expect, ya know?  Not to mention when they signaled for the two girls to swim around us so we could get to know them and pet them, the smallest of the two swam quickly towards me and kind of smacked her nose really hard into my shoulder...not by accident, I mean really how could it have been..and then swam in front of me and on to someone else.  It made me nervous cause it was hard, and hurt a little.  Needless to say I think it was a term of endearment because she seemed to like me as she would generally come back around to me and sit there nuzzled into longer than the others.  

(She was the biggest of the two, about 15 feet I think?)

We ended up getting to have about 5 minutes of one on one time with them.  Getting to dance with them, hug, them and even get wet salty kisses from them.

For about an hour they talked to us about how they train them, keep them occupied, random facts about the animals and so on.

When it was getting time for everyone to be over we all got the chance to ride them 2 different ways!  All I can say it was sooo exciting.  To just feel the strength and grace of how they moved so swiftly through the water and would carry us with ease.  Just amazing, really!  When it was just you and the two  of them you could catch them every so often turning their heads to look back at you, as if to make sure you're doing alright.  

Call me weird or silly, but to feel like you connected with a creature like that in some small way just to meet for a day was just something we'll never forget.  An opportunity that I really do hope to go back one day and experience again. 

Wordless Wednesday

Inspiration Tuesday

"Thinkers think and doers do. But until the thinkers do and the doers think, progress will be just another word in the already overburdened vocabulary of the talkers who talk."

I completely agree, not just with other people, but for myself.  I need to stop thinking about it and do it not to mention stop talking about it and really think then do it...confusing..kind of!

{Happy Tuesday Everyone!}

Thursday Thoughts

• I have a lot of house work to do and no motivation to do it.
• I also have lots of post ideas and things to catch up on, again, no motivation.
• It's summer time and beautiful outside which means I should have LOTS of motivation!
• Thinking that maybe the allergies are what getting me into the unmotivated mood.
• Watched Kenzlee crawl for the first time the other day (i'll post a vid hopefully soon) and it made me realize they are growing up to fast.  
• Excited that we are busy this summer but for some reason not really feeling relaxed.  
• There are very few pictures of me and the girls together.  Someday soon we need to do family portraits.
• I want to go swimming..now.
• Seeing the stars while camping the other weekend really made my month.
• Hoping to get finish up some projects I started before school was out.
• really in need of a good trim and things, my poor hair.
• I miss rugby.
• I miss my motorcycle which is almost ready to ride.
• Need to get a new battery for my road bike.
• Really should just go through my blogroll and read all my lovely blogs I follow, since it's been a while!
• thinking this list could go on..
• My mind is full!

Filled up

Well we made it back from the first camp out of the season and first camp out for the twins, alive.  It was  a fun time and spent with good friends.  The girls seemed to enjoy it despite not being able to nap very well because of the heat.  I felt a little stressed and unprepared but I think next time around it will be a little different. :)  They also seem very happy to be home because they have slept and napped so amazing since we got back, it's been beautiful to say the least!  I'll have to post up some pictures here in the next couple days.  

I want to thank everyone for all the food/meal advice for the twins!  It really has helped a lot and I think we have them on a good routine and have figured out some healthy stuff they seem to really enjoy!  So, yes, again thank you it really made things a lot easier around here, hehe.  

They are both so close to crawling everywhere rather than rolling and scooting.  Kenzington we think may walk first, she is walking along furniture more than she attempts to crawl.  Boy, am I frightened but so excited for when all that starts happening!  It's going to be a rush of craziness on so many levels, from baby proofing to just being simply proud that they are doing these amazing things and we get to watch.

Oh the joys of being a parent!  We were just talking last night about how excited we are when they reach the age that we can teach them to ride dirt bikes and snowboard and all that good stuff.  They already ride around on their little dinosaur and fairie-mobile, totally loving it!  

Hopefully everyone had a fantastic weekend!  It was super hot here, which was a nice change from all the cold stormy weather.  

This week we are heading in to get Oakley's leg X-rayed to make sure the bone is healing correctly and then they also both will get their shots.  :)  Fun week!  

Cannot wait for the weekend but totally loving the days in-between!  

Oh Hai!

I know I haven't been updating as per usual.  I think I've come to be a bit lazy in these growing summer days.  We are all doing awesome.  The gremlins were both weighed and measured recently

Oakley 22.9lbs  27in

Kenzington 22.5   27in

via

we have had a lot going on through the weekends but then our weekdays are pretty much boring! That's not really a bad thing in the summer right?

I do have a question for all you moms or people who just know! 

The twins have recently stopped wanting bottles and are really just wanting solid foods regularly which is great, it's about time for them.  The thing is, even after some faithful google searching,  I just can't seem to think of good meal plans for them.  You know what to feed them for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks.  Oakley seems to be super picky and if we are persistent she'll eat what we give her but usually she would prefer to settle for bread and oatmeal.  

They aren't allergic to anything so far, we've tried peanut butter and eggs so on.

So my question is, when your kids started to eat solids regularly what did you feed them for meals?  Easier things are obviously more appealing to me but semi more in depth is great too! 

Any help would just be great cause I seriously have a brain block with this. 

We are taking the girls on their first camping trip this weekend and I'm super excited but super worried too.  Mostly worried that I'll forget something they'll need, or they wont sleep well.  Any tips there, also welcome! I'll be sure to take lots of pictures of their dirtyness and first time in the wild, right were they belong, hehe.  

I hope everyone has a great weekend and I'll be sure to keep on top of updates and posts here on out!

{Happy Friday!}