What a difference a year makes

Taylor - March 2005

Taylor - March 2006

Taylor - March 2007

Rilee - March 2006

Rilee - March 2007

While I was putting the other posts together, I started comparing pics. AMAZING!

St. Patty's Day

Look it's Jason...finally a picture

Happy St. Patty's day...a week or so late.



We decided to spend Saturday exploring the Vista House and some of the smaller Falls on the way to the big daddy...Multnomah Falls. It was a great day. The girls loved being outside hiking around. Jason and I had a fun time reliving the good ole days...our first date was a hike...followed a couple years later by the same hike and a ring :) Hard to believe it was almost 5 years ago.



Anyways, enjoy the pics and visit when you can. We live an amazing state!

Beautiful Day in Portland

Rilee Really likes Aidan
Rilee dancing!
Taylor on the Max
The girls and I
Taylor found the duck

Today was amazing the sun was out and we were ready to play. What better way to enjoy the Oregon weather and the Portland people than to spend the afternoon at the waterfront. We rode the max downtown so we didn't have to pay for parking. The max is always a highlight for the girls. They love to stand up and hold on to the rails...they are such big girls! After reaching the waterfront we (David, Chrystal, Aidan and Xander Johnston came with us) let the kids go wherever and just followed behind. What a refreshing day. I'm ready for Spring for sure!!!

P.S. Jason was there with us...just behind the camara the whole day :)

Pees are coming Mom!

That's right...Taylor is officially potty trained. We've been in the process of potty training her for a long time. She would do fine when she was at home, but when we would go out, she would almost for sure have an accident. So to avoid peeing all over Portland we decided to put her in pull-ups when we were out. Doing this seemed to just encourage her to pee her pants as she felt "protected" I guess. So I bit the bullet and started putting her in panties no matter what and just carried extra clothes everywhere. WELL...IT PAID OFF!!! She is soooooo good at going potty no matter where she is. I'm so proud of her.

To celebrate this huge event, we had a Potty Party for her at Coldstone. She loved it. Her choice of a treat...the green ice cream (mint) mixed with sprinkles (of course). Anyways, here are some pics of the momentous occasion.

GOOD JOB TAYLOR!!!

I LOVE MY GIRLS

So last time I posted I kinda whined about the girls being sick. I forgot to mention what an amazing opportunity this gave me to get to know my second child. Rilee recovered from the sickness much quicker than Taylor. So we had a couple days together to play just her and I, one on one while Taylor was napping. I discovered so many wonderful things about her. She is TOTALLY HILARIOUS! She cracks me up. Her personality is one that she is fairly quite, but given the chance and a few tickles, she completely lets loose.

I never realized that since she was born, I've just kinda been "managing" the girls. Being sure they are fed, changed, clean and rested. Trying to get through the day with a semi clean house and some what of my brain left. But this week off left me with nothing to do but focus on getting Taylor better and discovering Rilee.

I love my girls so much. They both have the strongest personalities of any kids their age that I know. They have attitudes that don't quit. When they go head to head, it's kinda funny as they just both yell and scream over the other. But they love each other just as much. Taylor is always calling Rilee "Sweetheart or Honey" and Rilee is constantly following her big sister around. Neither one will eat very good without the other. They have to both be at the table, eating the same thing at the same time. They hate to ride in the car without each other. Baths must happen at the same time or the other gets board. Taylor loves to put her play makeup on Rilee and Rilee loves for Taylor to do it.

These girls are going to be handfuls and fight like crazy, but when all is said and done I really think they are going to grow into beautiful people who have great respect for each other.

I just love my girls!

I'm so glad last week is OVER!

Well it's been a while since I've posted. You can find the reason in the pictures above. Taylor and Rilee both came down with some nasty sickness. It started Saturday night with Rilee puking, closely followed by Taylor on Sunday night. We started monday with both of them having temps at about 103.8. Rilee seemed to recover after a couple days, but Taylor's lasted until just a couple days ago. I'm not sure what it was, but the Dr. said that they had been seeing alot of this sort of thing so we just had to wait it out. So needless to say, I was about to pull my hair out with two sick kids, but we all survived.

As you can see in my slide show, Rilee is totally in love with the phone. She loves to pretend that she's talking to PAPA! The expressions on her face when she talks totally crack me up. As for the red scrape on her nose...she decided to take a bite out of the parking lot on our way out of the gym. She missed the step down and went face first. She's recovering nicely and quickly, which we are all thankful for!

So anyways, we have just been busy keeping the kids happy and healthy!

Oh and we had Jason's pinning ceremony last Tuesday. I will post pictures of that as soon as I get them!

Snow Day!!!