Not a whole lot is new with us, we are just living the good life :)
The girls are growing and getting smarter and prettier all the time.
Preschool is ending this coming week and I am sure Riley will be sad. She has LOVED going to preschool this year! And she has been thriving! She has started READING!! At 3 1/2 that's pretty impressive. Her teacher just raves and says she is way ahead of other kids her age. So that has been a proud parent event for us. She knows MOST letter sounds and the book series the teacher uses begins with the short a vowel sound for 6 books, then the short i vowel sound for six books, which Riley is about done with. But because she knows the other vowels, she can read a lot more words than what she has learned. At first it was hard to get her to blend the sounds together, but now she totally gets it. We have a wall hanging with hooks in our hall that says FAMILY. The other day I overheard her saying FFF-a-mm-i-ll-ya. Then she said, "that's not a word!" and I said, Riley, you almost had it. It says family, when you see an ly together it sounds like "lee". :) She wants to read more, but its hard for me to know how to explain things like "ch", "sh" and when there is an "e" at the end how the vowel in the word is really a long vowel sound. That's why I sent her to preschool in the first place!! I am so not smart enough to know how to explain things at her level! Also, someone asked her what her name was the other day and she said "Riley, R-I-L-E-Y" it came out so fast. I had never heard her just spit out those letters so fast! Adorable!
Luckily, even though preschool is over, for 4 weeks Miss Rebecca does a kindermusik camp in June. So I am sending Riley to that and Miss Rebecca says she will continue to send books home so she will keep reading! AND Isabelle is going to go to kindermusik with Riley to try out the preschool environment. I would love to send them both in the fall!!! I can ALMOST imagine the freedom 3 times a week!!! ALMOST. I hope it works out!!
Izzy is so smart, too. She talks way beyond her age level, for sure. The things she comes up with are impressive. At almost 2 1/2 I was starting to worry she would never want to potty train. Because Riley was about this time and any time I would try with Izzy I just got frustrated. Once in awhile she was into, but for the most part, it was a general lack of caring. But last week I decided I had had it. It wasn't Izzy's problem, it was more my issue. I would start gung-ho and then tire of the process quickly and give up. Well I decided Friday was the day. So we took off the diaper and put on big girl pants and she has done incredibly well. In once week, she has used the potty about 50 times. I know this because she has sticker charts and that's how many stickers she has earned, each time she has gone. Do you go toilet 50 times in one week?? Does that sound like a lot? And she has had several accidents and still wears and wets diapers at night. Little kids go a lot!!! But overall, she is doing so well. Friday was super successful, the weekend was incredibly rough...but I knew if I was consistent with stickers and treats and stayed patient it would pay off. She isn't fully potty trained, but she is so, so close. She wakes up every morning and goes straight for her potty! She hasn't peed in a pair of big girl underwear since for 3-4 days. So I am saying it's been a success!!
The girls are so different from one another I can't get over it. Most times they are great friends. Though there are plenty of times when they fight...which I know is normal. It's just they are two totally different spirits/personalities. Riley is super sensitive and bossy. Both girls can be quite argumentative. Riley is also very interested in learning, constantly and is pretty flighty at times. She has less common sense and more "book" smarts it seems.
Isabelle is spunky and has this love of life that I can't get enough of. She is cuddly and sweet. And while she likes learning too, she isn't as driven as Riley currently. Both girls love to be read to, to dance, to play outside, and keep me SO BUSY!!! The girls are usually pretty protective of one another which I love! It seems I butt heads with Riley more than Isabelle and I know its because we are just similar. We all are stubborn though in our own way!
Izzy is better with manners. But I really am working hard to teach them BOTH their P's and Q's!! Riley tends to be the whinier of the two, but Izzy definitely has her moments. I find this preschool age is super hard but so fun, too. I am such a baby person. If babies stayed babies longer, give me ten!! The problem with babies is they become toddlers and preschoolers...lol. I really love my girls so much. But they are trying to teach me patience!!! Apparently it really is hard to teach an old dog new tricks :) They keep me so busy I am EXHAUSTED!!
As far as me and Trav, we are both trying to make the most of our gym memberships and get in better shape!!! This summer we have trips planned to Coeur d'Alene for the 4th of July and the Anderson reunion in southern Idaho in August that happens every two years. Also, I am looking forward to the birth of Brad and Kim's baby in June (or any time now!). Yay for a new niece and cousin for the girls!
So I guess that's about it. Remember, these posts are more for me, for journaling purposes...but the pictures below, those are for the grandmas and grandpas, and aunts :)
Still finding it to be nearly impossible to get them to cooperate for pictures!!!
Izzy's first ever BRAIDED pigtails. Had never tried to braid them before now! At least I am good at capturing "firsts" for our kids, even if they are pretty lame! lol
The girls told is they were building tents....this is what we found!
We had never tried this but Trav's aunt had talked about putting her girls hair in "rags" and then it is all curly. So we decided to give it a whirl. I did Riley's....
...and Travis did Isabelle's. And he did a much better job than me. This was after bath time. Then you sleep with the rags in your hair and have curls the next day!!
Unfortunately I had somewhere to be early this particular morning and I had to pull the rags out before heading out...and because Riley has so much hair, it wasn't dry enough to hold the curls, they didn't stay in more than an hour :( 
Good morning, beautiful! Isn't she sweet?
Her hair seemed to hold the curl much better. For one, she has curls anyway and secondly, her hair was dry because its so much shorter!
Izzy love's Aunt A's poety book.
This is Riley, sleeping in the car with Sunglasses on. I thought it was cute
It's been so long I didn't post about Easter...which we spent down in Albuquerque, NM with my dad, his wife, my two younger sisters, and two younger step sisters. Here are the girls on Easter. Riley's hair is often in her face. Travis is ready to get it chopped off I think. He says she looks like an orphan or something. lol
Izzy is still trying to wake up. They had fun looking through their baskets!
