Duck Duck Goose at our House

Duck, Duck, Goose!!! A simple game, right? At our house with a 2 year old and a 1 year old this game is fun and has a few changes. Here are a few of the things that the girls have done to make this game special at our house.

First, the funnest part is chasing around the circle. Therefore, there should be more of it. That means multiple laps around the circle. You don't stop running around the circle until mom or dad remind you that you are supposed to sit.

Second, The emphasis on running also means that regardless of whether you were it or tagged you can also stand up and join the frenzied chase. The more the merrier.

Third, you can show off your ability to learn new words. Elise learned to say Duck and Goose in order to play this game. She was so proud of herself learning the new words that she would stand behind a single person and continuously pat their heads saying Duck. This would go on until mom and dad reminded her to walk around the circle touching other peoples heads and reminding her that she can say Goose too.

Tea Parties and More

Ever since Anna got invited to a cousin’s house for her first tea party she has been asking to have another one. So I promised her if she would learn to do poo poos in the toilet, 3 times, we would have one. She did it, and we bought a tea set and had a party. Note: a table cloth under the party area is a must with a 1 yr old.

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The girls also love love love to have popcorn parties which we do here and there, especially on stormy days.

I will often find the girls playing with random things in the closet like this,

or Anna squeezing Elise to death like this, or this.

Elise has been spending hours lately trying to figure out how to put on her sandals by herself. They usually end up like this and then she will go walking around the house with them flopping around her ankles.

Every time auntie Shay Shay calls Anna will sit and talk to her for awhile. She thinks she is so grown up talking on a phone.

And of course when things are going smoothly, sickness strikes. This past week Anna came down with roseola and let me tell you it has been a hard week of no sleep, fevers, and crankiness. Oh dear, let this be over and let Elise not get it too.

Songs By Anna

Anna is our little Bird. She loves to sing and to be sung to. She knows lots of songs too and is always walking around the house singing. Here is a few for you...

Ward Campout -2012

We couldn’t wait for our two day ward campout, to get out of the heat, and especially to let the girl run around and experience the outdoors. We prepped Anna by telling her how we were going to the mountains and we would sleep in a tent by lots of trees. She was pretty excited. We bought a new family tent since our old one was just too small for all 4 of us. This new tent is awesome and huge, an 8 man tent. The funny thing about tents is a "4 man tent" is really a 2 man tent.
When we first got there all the girls wanted to do is play in the car. We used the back of the car as our table. Kent was awesome and planned all the meals, shopped for the food, and cooked all the meals. Pretty sweet!

Kent made some scrumptious chicken dumplings for the Dutch oven potluck.

Elise, oh dear, had so much fun but she came home looking like a homeless person. She had scrapes and bruises all over her arms and legs, a cut lip and covered in dirt. Silly girl would not stop putting rocks, sticks, and dirt in her mouth. Anna was so excited about finding worms, caterpillars, bugs, neat leaves and rocks.

I took the girls on several bear hunts and they both loved it. Elise kept thinking she saw a bear and would point and say, “grrrr.”  Anna loved going through the long wavy grass, “swishy swashy swishy swashy, and through the thick ozzy mud, “squelch squerch squelch squerch” etc. At the end of the hunt we did run into a big bear in the trees which got us pretty scared, though if you looked close it might resemble a black cow, and the grrrs did sound an awfully lot like mooos, but only if you listened carefully.

We hiked in to see the Tonto Natural bridge which was pretty neat. We carried the girls in the carriers and hiked about a mile in, across boulders and over streams. There were several swimming holes and the girls loved it.

We stopped at a swimming hole and let the girls swim. They loved it.


My favorite part was hanging out with the ward members at the campfire in the evening. Such a fun ward. One night while we were all by the fire a little gnat flew in my ear, like way down in my ear and I couldn’t get it out, and nobody could see it, but I kept hearing buzzing at my ear drum; I was going crazy. The Ironic thing was when I was packing my first aid kit the one thing I took out was my otoscope thinking “why would I ever need this camping.”

We ended the campout with a nice Anna sized hike out to the Mogollon Rim.

And I think we broke our curse this campout; we left 5 minutes before it started raining.

Oh Cute Trouble

The thing about toddlers is they are trouble, trouble, trouble. They get into the powdered Gatorade and turn everything in your kitchen blue, at lunch they wipe peanut butter and jelly all over their clean hair and clothes, run from you when you are trying to get them into their car seat, color all over their faces and hands, eat chalk, sand, and soap but not their dinner, they unfold the folded clothes and put them on their heads, they push all the buttons on computers and TV’s and somehow can reprogram them too, they run, wiggle and scream during church, they wake you up in your sleep, they wipe their snotty nose on your shirt. It might seem hard to imagine how anyone would want one of these creatures called a toddler….

but somehow, and I don’t know how, I sure want mine. And I told her she can’t grow up any more.

I also forgot to mention that toddlers give the best hugs, sincerest kisses, are so loving, innocent, pure and sweet, they are so fun, and are just so dang cute. Love them!!

And let me tell you, it sure is a good thing they are so cute or else they would be in lots of trouble!

The Bunny Rabbit and Baby Tiger: Entering the world of pretend play

Anna and the Pretend Bunny Rabbit

Anna often asks me to tell her stories in while we are driving in the car. So while driving to Nana’s house she asked for a story.  I always just make them up on the spot and they are usually about a small animal or something the girls can understand or relate to. Anyway, I proceeded to tell the girls a story about a bunny rabbit that would jump, jump, jump around and then sneak up and jump on my head and scare me. I was able to make the bunny with the two fingers of my one hand and act out the story, while driving. The girls were laughing in the back every time that silly bunny rabbit jumped on my head and scared me. Well, I wanted to end the story and I came up what I thought would be a great end. I snatched the pretend bunny rabbit up after he jumped on my head, rolled down the car window and threw him out of the car. There was a moment of silence and then I heard from the back of the car a two year old sobbing; crying for a pretend bunny rabbit that was thrown out the window. I knew what I had to do. I rolled that car window back down fumbled my hand around in the blowing air until I was able to find the bunny rabbit and scoop him back up into the safety of the car, pat his little pretend head and reassure a two year old that he was happy and safe.

Anna’s Pretend Baby Tiger

Anna was playing with her pretend baby tiger when we told her we were going to the store. After I got her ready and we were about to head out the door she started screaming and crying. I had to say, as I often have to, “Anna I do not know what you want when you cry you need to use your words and tell me what you want, I do not understand cry or whine.” She tearfully said, “baby tiger” as she pointed to the ground where she had been playing before I helped her get her sandals on. I didn’t get it at first and then I realized what she wanted. “OK, Anna” I said, “You can bring your baby tiger to the store with us.” She ran happily over and scooped her pretend baby tiger right up. She held her hands lovingly in a cupped position all the way to the store as she sat in her car seat, and through the store showing it different things.  So funny.

Hair Stroking Girl

Since Elise was little little she has always wanted to stoke our hair as she drinks her bottle to fall asleep. It is her little thing. It is cute to see my mom and Kent tilting their heads down so she can reach their hair.