Silly Girl

Aria will go and grab these silly bead necklaces and put them on herself.

She will also grab a sippy cup lid from out of the kids cabinet and walk around sucking on the top (no she doesn't drink out of them, she just likes the lids for toys)

And grabbing towels from the kitchen. We can't walk int the kitchen without finding the towels on the floor. She'll even just walk in, pull the towels down and walk away. It's like baby-towel-pulling-OCD.

Bags

Here is what our kitchen looks like on a daily basis:

The kids (especially Aria) love to dig out the grocery bags we save and play. I don't love big messes, but this is great while I'm cooking- they are close and I can watch them, but they are 'out of the way'
Plus you should see how happy Aria gets when she gets those bags out- I can't resist making her smile.

So there is a lot of set up to this story:

A few weeks ago Parker asked what was 'in' cheese. I told him that cheese and yogurt are made from milk.
Then a week or two later we pass a big truck on the freeway carrying a GIANT load of hay. I explained to Parker that farmer's grew the hay and that they were bringing it to be given to horses or cows, and then the cows can make milk.
Then another week later we're in the store and he helps me grab the last yogurt off the shelf and put it in our cart. He asked why there were no more. So I told him about how the store gets shipments and then they would restock the yogurt.

He stops and thinks for a minute and says "Yogurt comes from hay." I say "Oh, really?" and then he explains the whole process:
farmers plant hay
get the hay on a truck
bring it to the cows
cows eat it and make milk
make yogurt
put lots of yogurt on a big truck to bring to Walmart
put it on the shelves
put it in the cart
buy it, bring it home and put it in the fridge
eat the yogurt.

I was amazed! I couldn't believe he pieced together those separate conversations. This kid is too smart for his own good. And totally too smart for MY own good.

Grilling

What the kids look like when Jason is cooking on the grill outside

Squishy Cheeks

Aria's latest skill?

Grabbing the back of her neck and squishing her cheeks

Parker thinks it's a good idea

Baby Walk

I should have posted this before, but Aria can walk.

She started taking 4 or 5 steps at a time right around 10 months. Then she started really walking on July 5th (almost 11 months)

Walking at the cabin, 4th of July weekend:

A couple videos of her walking around and doing the cutest dancing EVER!

Baby Talk

Aria can talk.... a tiny little bit. It's SO good to have her communicating a little.
She says "mama" and "dada".
She has said "all done" and "duck" a few times, but not very regularly. She will also make a quacking sound for a duck sometimes.
But she is really beginning to learn her signs. She signs bath, milk, all done, duck, dog, and up. And she waves.
So you may have noticed, she says duck, quacks like a duck, and signs duck. She LOVES ducks. She knows all of our books that have ducks in them... she'll pull out those books and sit there signing duck with one hand flipping through the pages with the other hand looking for where the duck is. It's so stinking cute.

Milk

My kids love milk. If this is an inheritable trait then they got it from me. Mmmmm...milk

Anyway, Here are both of my munchkins drinking milk.

Parker likes to pretend to be a baby, and when it's reasonable I'm willing to indulge the imaginative play, so he drank out of a bottle a few times.

Back to the Sippy Cup:

I love to be with my babies!

While I'm on the subject... anyone have advice of how to switch from the bottle to a sippy cup? Parker made the switch perfectly. Aria... not so much- I'd love some tips for babies who don't want to switch.

Other Parks Pictures

So there are a lot of pictures I took in Parks... I shared a few the past few days and here are all of the others. I didn't really organize them, they are just in the order that they were taken.

Aria trying to wear some shades

Sassy Megan showing her how it's done

Kody and Jason playing horseshoes

Parker pulled out these stools, banged his hands on them and called them drums

My boys playing badminton

Peek-a-Boo

Megan, holding a caterpillar

Daddy swinging with his princess

Parker pushing them both

My three favorite people:

Parker watching Kyle play on the iPhone

Lately Aria loves to dig around and get into stuff. She'll climb into anything: buckets of toys, laundry baskets, suitcases, you name it. And she loves to toss things around.

Getting into our clothes and suitcase

We went and looked through an old barn, Parker liked this much more than I expected.

A time honored tradition... peeing by a tree

Aria riding on Daddy's shoulders...

and holding on tight

Kyle and Parker making a fire

So that was our trip to Parks. It was fun, but it's good to be home.

Go See Trains

While at the Cabin the kids loved having Grandpa take them to see trains go by.

On our way...

Waiting oh so patiently
Me waiting with my babies

When the kids were less than patient Gary would open his tool box and let them play in there while we waited for the trains.

Grandpa and the kids hoping to see a train

3/5 Tieman grand kids

Watching a train go by.

Parker would get a little shaky and nervous looking when the train would blow it's loud whistle, but despite his nervousness, he loved it.

Since we've been home, Parker had spent some time at his train table pretending to be sitting on the back of Grandpa's truck waiting for a train.

He has also changed his noise for a train. It used to be the standard choo-choo, but after repeated real life experiences with trains the simple choo-choo has turned into a more realistic CHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Eating at Parks

Like many people, the Tiemans like junk food (Twinkies and Zingers and Sunny D- Yuck!). So I'm proud to say that we managed to eat healthily all weekend, and that I even lost a pound!
Anyway- one morning I was feeding my kids breakfast and they were just so adorable that I couldn't resist taking pictures.

Eating toast

Must shove... banana... in mouth...

On the Road

Being in the car for an extended period of time with kids can be daunting. But with books, snacks and an iPod we made it through.

When Parker got restless at the end of the trip up north we gave him an iPod with head phones so he could listen to his Peter Pan song


Aria slept half of the time, and then spent the rest of the time doing this:

Parks

We went to the Tieman Cabin for 4th of July weekend. I took a lot of pictures, and I have decided not to put them all in one post. I guess I just don't feel like trying to arrange them all and stuff. So I'm going to write a little about it now, and then in the next few days I will post some pictures.

So we left Friday morning to go up to the cabin. The weekend was pretty standard, lots of food and family time.

I brought my stroller and went for a couple of walks/jogs. The weather in Parks was beautiful. Jason and I spent an evening outside just talking and looking at the stars, it was so pretty up there, and I forget how many stars we don't see here in the city.

On Sunday we went to church in Williams. Whenever we go to the Williams ward it is on Fast Sunday, and it is always entertaining; in a "Holy cow, these people are crazy" kind of way. Also: Sunday bonus... Our kids were nuts at church. I have some friends at church that complain that my kids are always so well behaved in sacrament and that it isn't fair.... well my kids made up for it when we went out of town. Sacrament was something like torture. But extra work probably equals extra blessings, so I won't complain too much.

The big deal the whole time was going to see the trains. Grandpa took the kids to the railroad tracks to watch for trains to come by. Parker and Kyle (especially Kyle) asked over and over to go back again and again. Parker loved it, Thanks Gary!

We stayed until Tuesday morning. On the way home Parker got motion sick and threw up. Multiple times, BIG TIME. So we got to pull over and try to calm him down, clean him, his clothes and his car seat all on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere with a pack of baby wipes in the heat. So far this is my least favorite experience of any trip ever. It even tops when my sisters and I got grounded from talking for 3 hours. Yes, Grounded--- from talking.

Anyway, other than sacrament meeting and the large amounts of vomit it was a good weekend. Pictures coming soon.