Cabin Fever

 For weeks it seems like everyday is cloudy or rainy, so we had to get out and do something active.  I found a mall near us that has bouncy houses for kids, so we headed out.

Kadence liked a toddler area that had a slide she must have ridden 30 times.

Austin kept bopping around from bouncy house to bouncy house practicing his big jumps.

Then they had to ride the merry-go-round and play some games.

 

 

Kadence was a little nervous about going in the shark at first, but Austin loved it (that's him in the picture).

So nice to get out and get out of the rain.

Adventures in Potty Training

Sorry no pictures for this post.  It would make a great short film, though.

I know the babies just turned 2 and I have no illusions that they are going to be potty trained any time soon and to tell you the truth I want to put off the "I need to go to the bathroom" demands as long as I can.  But we still talk about using the potty and talk about when they are older they can use the potty. 

This morning Austin was up early so I grabbed him out of his room before he could wake Kadence.  I figured, he just woke up, I'll ask him if he wants to use the potty.  For the first time ever he said "ya".  Ok.  While he was sitting up on the toilet, I was surprised that he was tensing his stomach like he was really trying to go.  After a minute he got bored and was done.  I figured he could have just soaked his diaper and may not have anything left, so we were done and I went in search of a treat for him.  He followed me into my room and immediately began to pee on the floor.  He stopped pretty immediately so we were back onto the toilet to finish.  After a while with no progress, he was bored again, so I grabbed some paper towels and went to clean up the mess on my floor.  He followed me in and while watching me clean the floor, started peeing again on the floor two feet from me.  Back to the toilet, but nothing, so I figured he probably got it all out by now.  Then back to clean up mess two.  Can you believe he followed me in for a third time and peed on the floor again!  This time I had enough papertowels to clean up that mess, too, so I didn't have to come back a fourth time.  One more time on the potty and then immediately into a diaper.  What was I thinking not putting him in a diaper after the first potty attempt?  Mommy's the one who needs the training. 

Free Fallin'

 Remember when your mom asked you, "if (insert name of crazy friend here) jumped off a cliff, would you?"  Apparently Dorothy took that as a challenge.  Three weeks after her husband, John, went skydiving for the first time (and he won't normally even fly!) she just had to do it.  After attending Jump School when he was in the Army and taking numerous jumps himself, David wouldn't have missed it for the world.

Some clouds were rolling in and Dorothy got to fall through them.  How cool is that?  Her total fall took about 5 minutes, mostly with the chute open.

David is sitting in this picture video taping Dorothy on her landing approach.

It was a near perfect landing.

And she's down.  In one piece.  Phew!

Way to go Dorothy!  So proud of her for taking this big leap.

Happy Birthday McKay!

And did I mention, Happy Birthday McKay!

 

Annual Gibson Cookout

 Every year Alice (David's mom) has a cookout and invites 400 or so of the family's closest friends.  It's always guaranteed to have good food and lots of it.  The gardens around the stone walk way to the house are flourishing this year, so I had to take the opportunity to get some pictures.

Here is Hannah and Kadence.  So cute!

Soon after the party started we were hit with a torrential downpour.  It hit fast and hard and went on for quite a while, so festivities were moved inside.  Luckily Alice had planned for this and the food was already all inside.

Due to the terrible weather, the turnout was fairly small this year.  Many people who were planning to come just an hour before the party didn't want to venture out once the rain started so heavily.

 

Those of us that came had a great time.  Here is Kadence with her cousin, Emma, who made the tutu for Kadence.

And we got a beautiful rainbow after it all.
 

Our Diaper Duo is turning 2!

I'm not quite sure what happened to the last two years.  I suppose they are a blur of diapers, bottles, baby food, bibs, trips to Utah and other places, and lots of baby laundry.  Then you blink and their not babies anymore!

(Picture taken by Amy O'Neal)
And so we celebrate!  Saturday morning we had over some family and friends.

David's sister, Jenn and her family were in town for the Gibson Cookout (Alice's annual event) and brought with them one of David's other nieces.

Hannah (sitting below) came in from Boston for the events.  Alice came over even though I'm sure she had plenty to do to prepare for the cookout.  And, of course, Ben and his girl friend Emma came.

Two year olds are pretty easy to entertain.  We got out all our outside toys, duplos, and set up a ramp for zooming the cars down and all the kids had a great time.

Then it was time for cake!  This was my first experience with fondant and they turned out great!  Austin and Kadence really only liked the fondant.  The cake and frosting underneath they were less thrilled about.

Then it was time to open presents!

They got lots of books, a puzzle,

a tutu for her, a cape and mask for him,

and an Elmo!

It couldn't have been more perfect.  The post party activities included bubbles.
 

And then it was time for a nap.
Happy Birthday Austin!
Happy Birthday Kadence!

Weekend in Cincinnati

 Since Nathan and Rachel moved from Tempe, AZ to Cincinnati, OH a few months ago, we have wanted to go visit and see their new house.  The babies thought is was nice of Rachel to provide them with bunk beds for our visit.

On Saturday morning we checked out the market in downtown Cininnati.  Starting with a fantastic bakery.

Nathan has made friends with a vendor at the market that has a turn of the century (not the most recent one, the previous one) engraving machine which makes amazingly intricate designs.  He mainly uses the engravings for jewelry because the fine detail can really be appreciated in jewelry.  Of course we had to support the local artists...
The babies were pretty good at the market, so we gave them a treat and went to a park that over looked the Ohio River and Kentucky.  Austin and Kadence especially liked watching the boats on the river.

 

We went back to the house and put the babies down for a nap and I took a little nap myself.  When I went downstairs and found Rachel sitting on the couch I asked where the guys had gone.  Rachel said, "Sitting here talking led to climbing on the roof led to renting a chainsaw.  They'll be back in a little while."  I wish I could say that hardly ever happens around my house, but actually it does.  Apparently they cleaned out the gutters on the roof that needed to be done, then Nathan mentioned that there was a tree in the backyard that needed to be taken down.  David's response-let's do it now.

The babies tested out Nathan and Rachel's swing set while Dad and Nathan were cleaning up tree debris.

 

And they played with Finnegan.

 

Yep, that's Nathan with a chain saw.  Be afraid (actually Nathan's very safe - Dorothy with a chainsaw on the other hand - Yikes!).

On Sunday morning we went to another park that had a really fun splash park.

 

 

We went to church with Nathan and Rachel, then played with the dog while dinner was cooking.

Finn loves to play tug of war and with Kadence and Austin, he actually wins sometimes.

 

We flew out early Monday morning.

On our layover the babies had fun watching the planes take off.

And going for walks.  Kadence wanted to hold on to Austin's leash.

Looking forward to our next trip to Cincinnati.