The weather has cooled down a little bit the last couple of days and we have taken full advantage. 

I usually only drive to town once a week but we've already been three times and it's only Thursday morning! 

We were going to start potty training Kate on Monday. I had her show her doll how to run to the bathroom when she needed to go and had the doll sit on the toilet and go to the bathroom (a saringe with water hidden behind the doll). I made a big deal about the baby going potty, hooping and hollering, clapping. Kate was not impressed. She said "baby potty, baby potty. Crackers mommy? Crackers?" She ran out of the bathroom climbed on the kitchen counter and te crackers. I'll try again another day. 

But planning to potty train we ran out of diapers, a trip to town, hooray! We decide to go for a walk and play on the river walk path. The girls love exploring and playing outside, it was the perfect start to our day. Not to mention all of us took a 2 hour nap after that! 

That night we somehow convinced Cody to get ice cream at Dairy Queen when he got home at 8:30pm because te kids had taken late naps. I love that he is easily persuaded when ice cream is involved! 

Kate got her first haircut yesterday!! Both girls look a lot better with their hair tamed and trimmed. Ellie refuses to let me do anything to it and it was starting to look straggly. Ellie thought the hair dresser was te absolute best because she put purple glitter in her hair when she was done! 

Because they were so good we celebrated with a pancake breakfast from Denny's. These girls are getting so good at eating out that when I'm feeling brave we go out to eat at places besides fast food. Love having my kids to go do thing with. 

After breakfast was another promise of going to the park. 

Ellie kept shouting "I'm Peter Pan!" while on the swings. I asked her what her happy thoughts were about because you have to have them to make pixie dust work. "Puppies!!!" And? "More puppies!!!" 

Time for a random picture dump that I'll count as an update! 

Summer is flying by fast! This past week we celebrated two birthday's, Kate's 2nd and my 25th.

The entire day Ellie would randomly yell, "ITS YOUR BIRTHDAY KATE KATE!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!"

For my birthday we dropped off the girl's with Cody's brother and headed to Lagoon, it was a blast! "ITS SO FLUFFY!"

We spent the Fourth of July watching small town parades and fireworks! Nothing sweeter than a dad loving on his littlest girl!

We have crazy sleepers. I probably have at least 50 pictures of these girls sleeping because they are funny.

I ran another half marathon and got an amazing PR (personal record)!!! Four seconds shy of 1 hour 50 minutes, I beat my previous one by 8 minutes!!! Love having a sister who encourages me and does these crazy adventures with me. Crossing the finish line to Kneaders french toast and an amazing family is pretty great also!

We've done a couple fun things this summer. We took the girls to a movie, our first time taking Kate. They loved the popcorn but Ellie did not like that it was 9 pm and she was not at home. The last half hour of the movie she kept saying she was tired and kept asking to go home.

We spent quite a bit of time at the park, in our back yard kiddie pool, and at the library to keep us cool.

Ellie loves the library, can't you tell?! She also asks to go on a picnic three times a week and fishing and camping at least twice.

 

Our garden is amazing this year. Seriously amazing. 

If its too hot in our house (because who needs AC when its triple digits?!) we retreat to the basement and put together a lot of puzzles and play a lot of board games. There are currently six different puzzles scattered all around down there, half the fun is trying to find which puzzle the pieces go to!

These girls love to create mischief together, use their hands in any way, and fight with each other.

We like to randomly meet up with Cody for lunch in town. The girls were a little hyper yesterday but we had a blast!

Kate is a serious food thief. It doesn't matter if she has literally just finished her meal, she will come after yours.

I've been spending a lot of early mornings watching the sunrise and can say that I live in a truly beautiful place. At the beginning of June I did a local Duathlon (2 mile run, 12 mile bike, 2 mile) and learned that I like running a lot better than biking! I was dead during the middle!

An attempted fathers day picture. They would not smile and its hilarious!

Maybe the next update will only be in 2 months!

 

 

 

It feels like spring has sprung and we are loving it! Loving it so much that we've been to the park three times in the last week! 

Winter is hard for me, the after holiday blues are real, especially when Cody is gone just about every other week. I don't sleep too well when he's gone so I am pretty dang excited to have some real restful zZzZz's! He is currently driving home from the airport for what we know to be the last training for the spring! These girl's are crazy about their dad, I'm so glad for technology so that they can still see him while he is gone. 

 While he's been gone the past few months I have spent a lot of time keeping these girls busy and trying to stay busy myself. Between marathon training, binge watching netflix at night, & reading the Harry Potter series, I've been staying occupied.

These girls are getting to be so big. I don't feel right calling Kate my baby anymore, she is a full fledged toddler now! She thinks she is so funny and loves being wild and running around. A few days ago I decided to take a bath after a long run. I put Kate in her new to her toddler bed, turned a show on for Ellie's quiet time, & hopped in. Not even a few minutes later Ellie comes in to use the bathroom and decided to stay, insisting on holding my hand. Kate escaped her bedroom and we could hear her running up and down the hall laughing hysterically.

Last weekend I ran a local 10K race and won. Its not really that exciting when there are only five women but I was still really exciting to be able to say I won first place. Not to mention winning a pair of socks and a couple gift cards. 

The next couple months will be busy and great and we are so excited!

According to my phone this is what I do: make treats and eat the whole batch with little help from the kids, I run and take sweaty selfies to have proof that I did it, we eat a lot of food, and my kids are crazy and hilarious at the same time. Want to take a look?


First lets talk about Ellenor. Our crazy puppy loving Ellenor. She literally acts like a dog for more than 50% of the day. Yesterday she was driving me crazy because she had to go to the bathroom but said that her paws couldn't pull her pants down. Most of the time its cute... until we go out in public and she pretends to eat like a dog! 

I made the mistake of telling her that she could go to school when she learned all of her letters and numbers. We started the other day working with the letter A and after every little thing she would ask if she could go to school now. I finally told her when she is four then she can go to school. Now she just asks about ten times a day if she is four so she can go to school. And ride on a yellow airplane with her dad.

Both girls are obsessed with peanut butter... Obsessed!

Ellie loves to dress herself and pick out her outfits. For some reason that means socks on her hands... or her paws. 

She loves to build train tracks and will spend a long time driving them around in circles.

If there is a dog, she will find it!

She is a daddy's girl. If he is home, she is right beside him.

I introduced Ellie to the world of Harry Potter the other day while making waffles for lunch (her request of course (the waffles, not Harry Potter). We watched the first few minutes together before anything scary happened and she loved all the animals, the owls were her favorite. I didn't even get to show her the broom part but she already knows what to do. She's got magic in her blood!

 I still can't believe Ellie is old enough to be in primary! She is interesting though... The second week I went to pick her up and she way laying face down on the floor not participating at all. The next week a friend told me that whenever they would sing a song she would cover her ears and howl like a dog. 

 

 She can be such a sweetheart and has a soft spot for her grandparents and great grandparents. Yesterday she stopped playing and informed me that she missed her great grandma and grandpa and that we needed to go visit them.

Every Wednesday the  girls go to Cody's mom's house while I go to mutual and Cody is at scouts. This morning after breakfast Ellie ran to get dressed and came back telling me she was ready to go to grandmas house. She was a little upset when she found out she had to wait until tonight. 

But she is definitely a little girl. She screams a lot and thinks its fun when Kate copies her. She throws the biggest tantrums and fits, we already butt heads and its tough sometimes. Ok, a lot of the time. But then she does the sweetest things and loves on her sister and makes up for all the grief.

Kate is my little side kick. She has to know where mom is at all times. Lately while I make dinner she can be found lying on the floor next to me if shes not screaming and tugging on my pants. 

Kate is starting to talk a lot more and its been fun. Except for her little "no" which is still too cute coming from her.

She is pretty fearless and climbs on the table, a lot! 

She is our good little eater. Ellie would rather eat cheetos and fruit snacks and while Kate does like those things to she also loves healthy foods like apples, oranges, and bananas. She even LOVES green beans! Score!

She is constantly on the move. But she also likes to snuggle and I love that! 

She'd be naked all the time if I let her. Thank heavens she hasn't figured out how to unzip her pj's or take off her diaper! 

 She is a little trouble maker and likes to get into things. Like markers and my make up when I'm not looking.

 She already knows how to push her sisters buttons and teases her. Worst of all she pulls her hair! AHH! 

 

She LOVES to read. She will pull all the books off the shelf and sit on top of them and just read and look at books. Last night she didn't sleep, she just laid on my bed and read books while I tried to sleep. And then stuck her toes in my arm pit, wiggled them, and said "tickle tickle!"

 

 These girls definitely get into mischief together and egg each other on but they sure do love each other and have fun.

There is a lot of things not pictured and a lot of those things are the time with Cody. Not pictured are the screams when they see his truck and the biggest hugs they can possibly give. The tears in the middle of the night and Ellie saying that she just wants to snuggle with her dad. The fingers under the door and the knocks on the bathroom because they can't wait another minute to play with him. Also not pictured: the countless texts a day asking how I am doing and wishing me the best in dealing with our two kiddos. The help in the kitchen when I haven't even thought about dinner at 6 pm. 

There's a lot that you can't capture with the click of a button, things that happen in the home that are too sacred to be able to describe in words. This is what life is about. This is why life is worth it at the end of the day, to see a happy family and know that our home is one filled with love.