Big bucket for a little guy!

Chloe suckered Royce into buying the big barrel-o-cheeseballs at the store a couple of months ago. It did take several months to finish off but Isaac got the last of the cheeseballs out...with the help of Daddy.

A few pictures of the GIRLS!

Yes, I said girls! The shock of twins has worn off now and Royce & I are ready to share that the twins are identical girls. We've had two great sonograms with the twins weighing as identical as can be expected at this stage. Last time Baby A weighed 1 lb 6 oz and Baby B weighed 1 lb 7oz. They were both slightly above 50th percentile which is as good as we can ask for. Here are some pictures of the second sonogram.

Baby A's profile

Baby B's profile

Baby A waving & showing she can hit her sister (shown on left)


Baby B's arm, elbow at Baby A's head.

And now a Chloe funny to finish off the post. Last night she stayed in WaKeeney with Gram & Papa because cousin Carlee was in town with Papa. The Biggest Loser was on TV and Chloe was watching it with mom. Mom said that Chloe was watching in amazement and then said in complete seriousness, "Someday my mom is going to be on that show." Mom just listened and then said, "Oh she is? Why?" Chloe pushed down her blanket and lifted up her shirt and said, "Because momma has a really big belly now so she'll be on that show to make it go away."

Another brief note: While I was changing clothes the other day Chloe informed me that my underwear look like they're getting too small. For the record, I don't wear skimpy underwear so that didn't really make me feel very good. The things kids say!

Certificate for Chloe!!!!

Take a guess at what Miss Chloe got a certificate for at school today.....any guesses??!!??

Tying shoes!

I got a call from a very excited Chloe from her school today saying she earned her shoe tying certificate. She was so happy and proud of herself--as are Royce and I! What a big girl!

Therefore, she has been busy tying shoes all evening :) This is how I found her earlier.

Keep it up, Chloe!

Next are pictures from the start of digging the well for our egress window. My dad and Royce dug on Saturday and Royce finished it up Sunday. It is now about 70" deep so a LOT of progress was made since I took these pictures.

Isaac helped so much using his shovel & wheelbarrow. He loved working with the big boys.

Great work, guys! Can't wait to see the window this coming weekend.

V is for Vegetable!

Chloe's class is working on the letter V this week so for show-and-tell tomorrow they were asked to make a vegetable friend. We went to the produce department yesterday and she picked out a cucumber body, wanting carrots for arms & legs, and lettuce for hair & skirt. Then from the salad bar she selected a carrot shred for mouth and olives & peas for eyes & nose. I think we did pretty good putting her little friend together!

Per Chloe, her name is Tinker. She is getting married in 5 days. She is going to live in a princess castle (the top lettuce on her hair is supposed to be a tiara). She is 13.

This is a colorful creation that Chloe drew at school this week. It was funny because she told Royce & I that the red lines on the bottom were a beard and the purple claw-thingy was a shaver! She giggled so much when she said it! Too funny.

Isaac got to go to the Home Depot workshop this last weekend with his friend Jacob. He had so much fun and used a "knock knock" to hammer in the wheels. He wore his workshop gear all weekend while we did some renovating in the basement. Quite the little handy man!

Reversed Roles

Chloe has been quite the little mommy lately. Most days she is very sweet, sincere, and caring. Other days her attitude screams "I'm in charge!" and she is very out of character. We have experienced both lately and she amazes me in each role she plays. Many of the struggles and arguments Royce and I have had with her lately involve getting dressed in the mornings and into PJ's in the evenings. "I need help", "I can't do it", "I'm too tired", "I'M NEVER GONNA GET DRESSED!" are phrases we hear quite regularly from her during these encounters. Royce and I tell her that she's a big girl and we know she can do it. That we care about her and all we ask is that she tries her best. So a lot of the terminology Royce & I use towards her we are now hearing back from her in other situations.



Not very formal stories, but here are some examples:



** Last week she was arguing about getting dressed. She was dragging her feet and stalling in every way, shape, and form she could think of. I was acting like Isaac and I were going to leave without her and although she wasn't buying into it, she was very irritated with my actions. *I'm not going to dress the kid when she's acting like this. She knows that if she tries on her own and then needs help with snaps, buttons, sleeves, etc. then she can ask but she knows she must try on her own first. I refuse to chase her down and clothe her.* So as Isaac and I were yelling, "bye Chloe, see you later!" she screamed at the top of her lungs back to me, "Why do so much people care about me???!!!!! SOO much people care for me ALLLL the time!" Oh, she was angry! Yes, Chloe, it's really tough when everyone cares so much about you.



* This morning it was actually Isaac who was throwing a tantrum and not putting socks & shoes on. Isaac is not exempt from this rule of trying on his own, me not chasing him down to get him dressed, either. I had lowered myself to his level and said that I would help him but he had to sit up. He wouldn't have anything to do with it. Chloe came into the room and calmly said, "Isaac, we're going to leave without you. If you don't get your shoes on then we are going to leave." Then she turned to me and said, "Mom, just ignore him. Let's go. Just ignore him if he's not going to listen."



Who was playing the parent role here?!?



I must say with all of these arguments aside, Royce & I have fantastic kids. They have such big hearts and have really had great behavior lately. Our getting dressed battles will fade and something else will arise, but we have had some great weeks lately and couldn't be more thankful for how wonderful they are. The love they show for each other is just heart-warming.



**Last night they were watching an old cartoon (really old Scooby Doo or something like that) on TV in the basement. I wasn't down there when they started watching it but when I went down to check on them they were lying on the love seat side-by-side. I didn't say anything to them, just watched. There were 'scary' parts on it and Isaac would cover his mouth and gasp. Chloe would calmly tell him, "It's okay, don't be scared." and would keep watching. I smiled and looked at her and she said, "Isaac was scared so I let him lay by me so I could protect him". I told her how nice that was of her and that I was proud of her. Later Royce went down to get them for baths and Chloe had covered both of them up with a blanket. Too sweet.



**And the proudest moments of our week have been them showing their big hearts. While Royce was working in KC for two weeks a few weeks ago, he told them (and they even pinky-swore) that if they were good while he was gone then he would take them individually out for supper for being so good. The kids were fantastic while he was gone and they very much deserved a Daddy-Date. Tuesday night was Isaac's turn and he of course wanted to go to McDonald's. Chloe's turn was Wednesday and she wanted pizza. But the best part--is that both kids invited the whole family to go along on what was supposed to be their Daddy-Date. So all four of us ate out two nights in a row (which is absolutely unheard of for us) and we had two fantastic nights with our kids. We told them how proud we were that they wanted the whole family to go on each of their special nights with Daddy. They didn't even think twice, it was just how they wanted it to be. We still greatly praised each child on their respective nights for being so good while Royce was gone and they got their attention on their night. But we couldn't have been prouder of their big hearts.

Happy Birthday to Dr. Seuss!

In honor of Dr. Seuss' birthday Chloe got to wear the silliest outfit she could come up with to school today. She wore her 'tap dancing' hat, super hero cape, leggings on her arms, fun skirt, and striped leggings with her 'tap dancing' shoes.
This picture of Isaac is actually from last weekend...but he wears his new cowboy boots from Granddad a lot! I thought it was fitting to post with Chloe's silly outfit.

Boo!

Chloe with some of her friends at school! Have fun, silly girls!

More February events

The Hays Public Library hosted a birthday party for Clifford the Big Red Dog! We met up with Julie & Jacob (daycare) and had a great time playing games and drinking red punch. Chloe and Jacob got Clifford's paw-prints painted on their hands!

Also in February was our dental check-ups. Chloe and I had the appointments but I took Isaac along to see if he would cooperate. He did! I ended up having a different hygenist that was in a different room but when Chloe was done her hygenist had time for Isaac. So I missed the whole thing! Chloe acted as his little mommy and sat by him and he did EVERYTHING he was supposed to! I sent my hygenist into his room to take some pictures so I wouldn't interrupt the good thing that was going on. What great kids I have! With great teeth I might add.