pic.a.day {7.20 - 7.26}

Playing at the park - Lyla went down the slide 4 times by the time Alya went down twice. Just a little glimpse at their personalities. // Alya walking Mo home from the park.

This is what nap time looks like while we are camping. They sleep in a "toddler bed" setup, so they mostly run around the trailer and peek out the window for an hour before they fall asleep.

 If there is a wildflower to be found, Lyla will find it. She loves the little tiny flowers.

Alya would gather stones, then go perch herself on this rock to throw the stones in the water. She got pretty upset when anyone else tried to sit on her rock.

Alya's messy face. It looked like this basically all weekend. // Lyla concentrating on finding the best and biggest rocks to throw in the water.

 Lyla - a little fisher girl.

The only fish we caught. The girls literally hugged it. Weird little girls! :)

pic.a.day {7.13 - 7.19}

I bet you can't guess how this post is going to start.

I was not at all good about taking pictures this week. In fact, I only have one picture to post for this week. But it's a really cute picture.

Alya gets...for lack of a better word...obsessive...about certain things. She LOVES her pink boots. She has pulled all of the small butterfly beads out of our stash of beads and carries them around with her all the time. We even put them in a little Tupperware to make things easier for her.

They are getting really good at remembering what they were doing 20 minutes ago, or a day ago. Matthew was helping Lyla jump really high to get her downstairs to get her ready for bed. She loves it. He finally managed to distract her enough to get her to put her diaper and pajamas on. As soon as she was done getting ready for bed she wanted to jump again. One day, we were planning on going fishing with the girls after their nap. So we told the girls that when they woke up from their nap we would go. I assumed they would forget all about it while they were napping, but the first thing Lyla said to me when she woke up from her nap was "sishin?!" 

Here are the girls, being so darling...wearing their boots when it's 90 degrees outside. There was absolutely not convincing them to wear their sandals.

pic.a.day {7.6 - 7.12}

We are officially a binky free household!!!!!

Lyla and Alya have always been the biggest binky babies. They have always been awesome sleepers, unless they lost a binky. When the binky fell out of their mouths, it was tragic. For the longest time, pretty much the only reason we had to get up was to go find a binky for them. It even turned into them needing two and then three binkies in order to fall asleep. They needed one in their mouth and one in each hand. So a few weeks ago, I got impatient enough to cut the tip off one of each of their binkies. They were pretty mad. They kept telling me it was "boke." And every time I put them down for a nap or for bed, I had to let them (especially Lyla) know that, yes her binky was broken, but it was okay, because she was just going to hold it in her hand anyway. It definitely took some getting used to. When they were okay with one broken binky, we snipped the tip of their second binky. It was a much easier transition. So Monday morning we woke up and I asked the girls if they were ready to break their last binky. They both brought their binkies upstairs. They sat on the counter and happily watched me snip their last binkies. I made a big deal about the fact that ALL of their binkies were broken. I had kind of prepared myself for the worst, and it went WAY better than I had anticipated. So for nap time, and bedtime for about a week were...I wouldn't say rough...but the girls struggled a little. It still takes them quite a while to fall to sleep, but they don't cry anymore. They never asked for their binkies, and they don't even want to hold them when they lay down. Now they like to give out lots of hugs and kisses before they will let me leave the room. They like me to rock them while they help me sing "Rock-a-bye Baby" over and over again. I love it. Sometimes it's hard to get to the door and have Lyla ask to "hug you" for the fifth time, but I can't bring myself to just ignore her request. I hope she'll always want to hug me, but just in case, I'll take all the hugs I can get while I can.  

Mon: Popsicles for days.  

Tues: Painting and/or coloring for days.

Wed: They couldn't throw their poppers hard enough, so we taught them to stomp on them.

 Thurs: Sliding with D at the park by Tia's house.

Fri: Grandma let the girls pick some flowers from her yard.  

Sat: Ever since they got to ride on Dad's tractor, they ask about Dad every morning. They say "Dad, work, tractor, essen (orange)."  Lyla says "essen" for orange...Alya surprisingly almost says the word "orange" perfectly.

Sun: A flashback* ... fishing during our last camping trip.

*Most of these pictures were flashbacks...you know me...not really great about taking pictures lately.

pic.a.day {6.29 - 7.5}

Lately, I feel as though a lot of my posts start out with "I haven't been very good about taking pictures lately..." or something to that effect. So, you probably won't be surprised that that's how this one is going to start out! I'm finding that there are a lot of summertime activities that aren't really conducive to keeping my camera close by. When it was cold outside and we were in the house, I didn't have to worry about walking away from my camera, or getting my camera wet, etc. etc.

There have also been days where I have just wanted to enjoy the time that I am spending with my girls and not worry about documenting every minute of every day. (I know I am exaggerating... a little...)

As I have said in the past, though, none of us really cares if there is an actual picture from literally every day of the week, we just like looking at pictures of my crazy cute little girls. Who are honestly little girls. They really are no longer my babies. I used to refer to them as my babies, but I have noticed more and more that I refer to them as "my kids." They are KIDS!!! When did that happen!? They no longer need me to entertain them all the time. I find them engaged in parallel play more often than not - even though they usually HATE to share any amount of space together when they are playing. (Heaven forbid Lyla sit on the same side of the table as Alya.) They talk in sentences. They are cute little broken, mixed up sentences, but I almost always understand what they are trying to tell me. They have amazing memories, especially when it comes to songs. They are really good at filling in the blanks to songs that I didn't even think they'd ever heard. We have been playing "name that tune" lately with some of their favorite Disney movies. I swear, before I even finish singing the first word of a song they are shouting out the name of the movie. It amazes me. They are so funny! They are so creative. They LOVE to color. They LOVE to paint. They love to play with play-dough and beads. Alya has started collecting all the "baby flies" (tiny butterfly) beads, and if Lyla tries to get a hold of any of them, all hell breaks loose. She likes to sleep with them, she likes to have them in her hand or on the table (or sometimes on the floor next to her) while she eats. She has been very possessive of her things. It has really been hard for her to share, and she has been throwing some pretty amazing tantrums. Matthew is afraid she is just a brat by nature...I keep reminding him (and praying) that it's just the terrible twos. Because, ya know...they will be two in 2 months.

We spent the long 4th of July weekend with Matthew's family in Idaho. We had a lot of fun with them. We did fireworks and had a kind of picnic outside. Matthew and I took a little time to ourselves and went and saw the new Jurassic World movie. And since I was not very good about taking pictures this week, here is a weeks worth of pictures from one day! But they are really cute, so I hope you enjoy!

 Alya posing after a relaxing swim.

Lyla's favorite thing was throwing water on everyone. Both the girls would get a cup full of water and "sneak" as well as a tiny girls could sneak up to their target to throw water on them. Lyla usually threw it way too early, but it was pretty cute.

 Fireworks on July 4th. Happy Independence Day!

 Alya. I love her.

 A hot dog picnic.

pic.a.day {6.22 - 6.28}



Mon: This is how they wanted to dress today. Who am I to argue!? // Tues: Drinking the water from the rainbow at the splash pad - despite how many times I have told her not to.

Wed: A cell phone pic of these little hams. You can see Lyla's chipped tooth she gave herself when she fell in the shower. 

Thurs: Sleeping Lyla with her sleepy-time doll I made for the girls. // Fri: Throwing the berries she picked off the bush in our front yard.

Sat: Lyla colored on the wall, so I tried to have her pose next to it, but she wouldn't. This is the picture I ended up with, and I love it!

Sun: Alya giving Kitty-Kitty a bath.