Obsessions: Danica

Danica's new obsession, & I mean that in every sense of the word, is books.  She absolutely loves books.

Guaranteed, if an adult is sitting down she will bring you a book & say "Do, do!", which in Danicanese is "book".

 And she will keep saying it & putting the book in your lap until you relent & read to her.

 I'm telling you the girl is obsessed with books.

She studies the pages & listens to every word.

She's very engaged when you read to her, so it is rewarding as the reader.  There aren't too many one year olds that actually pay attention to books.

She even has favorite pages.  These meerkats always get a smooch.

And after a couple of books you set her down & say "all done".

And then two seconds later she throwing a book in your lap & saying "Do, do!" in a very demanding voice.  I'm telling you, she's OBSESSED.  And it's really hard not to feed her obsession, just look at that face.

Meant for the MET

Here is a small sample of Gracie's current artwork.  She is presently into drawing animals.  Here's a tiger.

I love her coconut trees, so cute.  And notice the letter at the top to symbolize each animal- this one is an elephant.

And here is a rhinoceros.  What a great developmental stage for drawings.  But I will miss the stage where she drew peoples' arms & legs coming out of their heads... I like that phase a lot too.

Sledding Day

This weekend we had our good friends the Squires come out for a fun day of sledding & eating.  It was fun to get to hang with them.  It's also fun because they have twin girls that are Danica's age.  Watching them wrangle their little teamed up twins (twins really do work in pairs to get into trouble) was funny & brought back memories.  Man, I'm glad I'm done with that twin toddler stage- phew!

Anyway, this is how we sled around these parts.  We use a big hay sled & put blankets in the bottom.  Sometimes by pulling it behind the horse.

Sometimes we go down the hill

Whatever way it's always fun & there are lots of screams.  Especially when the dads are in charge.

Of course the dads get into the action as well.  I love this sequence, they thought they were going to hit a tree so they bailed.  Hehe :)

This is the youngest Squires boy Isaiah.  He has informed his Mom on more than one occasion that he plans on marrying both of the twins.  When told he was only allowed one wife he responded "I have two hands.  Gracie will hold this one (holds up his right hand) and Maddie will hold this one (hold up his left hand)."  So cute!  These three are great friends & play very well together.

I think Josh had more fun pulling the sled than the kids did riding the sled.  He grinned like this the whole time.

Rosy cheeks & big smiles.

I saved the best for last- Dad crashes.  You really can never get enough of these :)

Twin Instinct

One really cool thing about twins is this...

They always cuddle.

No matter their age.  (They're watching TV here.)

I knew these twin boys that were sixteen & in the prime of acting cool & being independent.  But they still continually had their arms around each other, or a hand on the shoulder.  They pretty much had to be touching each other at all times if they were in the same room.

Here they were just talking to each other, but they still had to be touching.

They show public displays of affection & don't seem to care who is around or watching.  Someday I know they will be embarrassed when I hug them in front of people, but I don't thing they'll ever be embarrassed to hug each other.

Twins have such a strong unique bond that so few people in the world get to experience.

They are born with their best friend, what an amazing blessing!

It's so precious to watch these two grow in their relationship.  But sometimes it backfires on me- like bed time when they talk late into the night.  You'd think they hadn't seen each other in years!

I can just see the girls doing this when they're in college.  (But I can't imagine past that because that would involve me being a grandma & my mind just isn't capable of going there yet.)

I feel blessed to get to experience this special twin bond first hand.

Parachuting

The other day my little nephew Hunter spent the night with us.  The next day all the kids had so much fun playing. 

Sometime late in the afternoon the three older kids grabbed plastic grocery bags & decided to go "parachuting". 

They started by parachuting off the couch.  But soon that was not risky enough.  So they decided to be more adventurous and moved outside to jump off a snow bank.  

And they're off.

Ahhh... parachuting.

An Evening with Monte

Last night Monte came to our church's AWANA service.  AWANA is a children's program that teaches kiddos about the Bible, Jesus, & teamwork.

Last night was Griz night & we had special guest Monte, or beloved Montana Grizzly's mascot.  As soon as Joshie saw him he yelled "Monte" & ran & gave him a big hug.  Monte happened to be standing in the middle of the older kids team competition at the time.  But that didn't stop JoJo, he just ran through the middle of it.

It was pretty surprising that he even liked Monte.  I think he was the only one under the age of 4 that would even go near the big ol' bear.  As you can see Danica was less than thrilled (this was the "good" picture).

We didn't get individuals of the twins with Monte, but instead two separate group shots where you can see one of them in each.  See here you can see Maddie but not Gracie.

And here Gracie but not Maddie.  I wasn't in charge of the camera at this point so I will accept no blame for not getting one good shot of the twins.  But a really great shot of that boy in the front, whoever he is :)

Overall it was a ton of fun for all the kids in AWANA, & the adults too.  Monte even gave me a kiss on each cheek, unfortunately that did not get photographed.  But by far I would say JoJo had the best time.

Klingon

This is our sweet baby girl, Danica.  She is pretty mellow unless there is something she wants/needs, then she flips a switch & lets you know she's there.  Since she was just a few months old she has had a good sense of humor & a fun personality.

 

That's why she lets her Dad do this to her.  We call it her Klingon face (remember those things from Star Treck?).  Most babies would scream or try to pull their heads away.  But Danica just sits there & smiles- which makes the face all that more funny.  I told Josh he needs to stop doing this or she will have horrible expression lines when she's older (or a saggy forehead, gross)!  But it is pretty dang funny :)