Cousins!

My mom watches my sister's kids on Fridays in the summer. She had called us to see if we wanted to go and meet her at a park. I told her I wasn't really up for chasing them around the park in the heat but that she was welcome to bring Will and Soph over here. So she did! I always enjoy watching them play together. They are very close since they go to the same sitter and they play really well together. They jumped on the trampoline, took turns wrapping each other up in a blanket and calling them "baby Sophie", "baby Mya" and "baby Tella", doing puzzles, playing with toys and then eating yogurt and running around in our backyard.

We attempted to take an updated version of a picture we took of the 3 girls when they were little laying on their backs but it didn't work out as planned. LOL

However I did finally get a really good picture of all 4 of them together. I am so excited. I have only been trying for over 2 years! I'm including the whole photo shoot because they are so cute and funny. They all look so sweet and sunkissed! Have I mentioned that I love the summer????

ANNNNNND here's my favorite!

Their Cups Runneth Over

Today I took the girls out to the front porch to have their first attempt at drinking out of a real cup. I just gave them water because I knew this would be a little messy. They were so excited to try and did okay. Mya was a little better at it than Stella. She always understood how to drink out of a water bottle better, as well so I thought she might get the hang of this easier. Stella's dress was pretty much soaked and neither of them really understood that they couldn't just lean over and they had to pay attention to their cup or it sloshed all over the place. It was cute and I now know that they need a lot more practice! :)

A Colorful Bath

The girls had a special treat in the bathtub last night. I found these bath dropz at Walmart and they were pretty cheap. I thought they would love it and so I picked them up. There is red, yellow and blue and then you can mix the different tabs to make the secondary colors. I put a red and blue tablet in and we had an awesome purple bath! It doesn't stain and it was so much fun! Can't wait to try all of the different colors!

Dirty Jobs

Wesley had a pretty nasty job ahead of him so he suited up....

We had some water in our crawl space and also a lot of walls shifting so we decided we were going to do something about our problem. We are going to have our crawl encapsulated which basically seals the vents and wraps the whole space in something like a pool liner. It should help with energy costs, keep water out and keep a constant temperature down there. This should minimize the shifting in the walls which has caused cracks. Overall, it's something that was necessary. Before the encapsulation happens we were told that we should go down in the crawl and scrub the walls with bleach to remediate the mold. Wes bought a coverall suit, gloves, goggles, and respirator masks to keep himself safe from the mold and bleach. When he was all suited up he joked that felt like he was protecting himself from the HIV virus. We couldn't stop laughing while he was preparing to head down. It was like 85 degrees outside and he was dripping with sweat. I felt so bad for him because I'm sure it sucked! It is only 3 feet high in the crawl so he had to spend the whole time on his knees. He took several breaks because of the strong bleach smell but it took several hours! I'm glad that's done and now we wait for the encapsulation tomorrow! Thanks for doing that job, Babe, because there was no way I would have done it!

Our 5th Anniversary!

July 1st Wesley and I celebrated 5 wonderful years of marriage! Marrying him was the best decision I ever made and I am reminded daily of happy I am that he is my husband. We have definitely been through a lot in our 5 years already and we have come out on top. We are very much in love and I think we compliment each other perfectly.

In the years past we haven't really done much of anything to celebrate so we decided that this year we would go away for the weekend. His dad has season tickets for the Reds and wouldn't be able to use the one's on the day of anniversary. Watching them play is pretty much Wes' favorite thing to do any day of the week so we gladly accepted his offer of tickets and made a weekend out of it. Some of our friends, Chris and Melissa, live in Cincinnati and so we invited them to join us for dinner and the game. We don't really know much of anything about the city so it was very nice to have tour guides to give us ideas of what to do while we were there. They suggested the Montgomery Inn for dinner before the game, because they have world famous ribs. Chris told us that they would probably be the best thing we ever ate and they were having a special all-you-can-eat ribs for the regular price of one order. All four of us ordered the special and they were oh-my-goodness delicious! Wes and Chris had second helpings and I polished off every last one of my first order! YUMMMMMMY!

After dinner we headed to a bar called The Holy Grail which is right across the street from the stadium. We had one drink and then headed to Great American Ballpark to watch the Reds take on the Cleveland Indians. My father-in-law's seats are AMAZING! They are the first row on the first baseline. I felt like I was part of the team! :) Sadly, the Reds lost but my boy, Brandon Phillips, did hit 2 home runs!!! There is always fireworks on Fridays but this Friday they had special extended fireworks just for our anniversary......or maybe for the 4th of July, but I like to think it was just for us! The fireworks were like 45 minutes and they were awesome!

After the game we went to Fountain Square hoping to get some ice cream but they were closed so we went back to our hotel for a bit. They are so much fun and we definitely want to get together again soon. Wes and Chris were roommates for 2 years of college and they get along so well. It was nice to be able to spend some time with them.

Chris and Melissa gave us a bunch of ideas for Saturday. First we headed to the Cincinnati Museum Center/Union Station. It is the old train station that is now many different museums and an iMax theater. We went to an iMax movie called Tornado Alley. I have never been in a theater like that and it was definitely interesting. The movie wasn't exactly what we thought but we enjoyed the experience.

Following the movie we went to the outlet mall. Since having the girls my shopping has totally changed. I didn't even look for myself, but found some super cute things for the girls. I like to shop for the next year when I get good deals so everything I bought was 3T. We ate dinner at the Rock Bottom Brewery in Fountain Square and finally got to have some of the famous Graeter's ice cream! We went back to the hotel room early because we were tired and just relaxed watching Love and Other Drugs. It was an interesting movie. We really enjoyed ourselves but were happy to get back to our girls on Sunday.

Rethman Family Pool Party

June 25th Aunt Kathy and Uncle Mark had a pool party at their house to celebrate Father's Day. It was a little belated because we were waiting for all family members to be home. It was so nice to spend the afternoon with our family and Mark and Kathy have a gorgeous place to relax and catch up. The girls absolutely love swimming and they spent at least 2 straight hours in the pool. Thankfully, their aunts and Daddy were willing to swim with them so I didn't even have to get in the pool. It was a great time and the girls slept really good that night because they were totally wiped out!

Twin Talk Vol. 6

Here we go again....

1. Since putting the girls in their toddler beds nap time has been quite a chore. They talk and get out of the beds continually. One day I went in to lay them down and give them "the look". I try not to talk to them when I go in. Stella was already sleeping and when I laid Mya down she says to me "Mommy, the B says buh." (from their Letter Factory DVD) I smiled at her and she says "I love you so much, Mommy!" How could I not respond to her so I gave her a big kiss and told her I loved her so much too!

2. The girls were eating breakfast in their high chairs and I was sitting at our little pub table in the kitchen. Wes came up behind me and gave me a hug. Stella screams "Wes!!!!! Get off of her!!!!!" Mya told her "Tella, Daddy loves her!"

3. The girls versions of absolutely not:

Mya ~ "appa lucy not"

Stella ~ "apple lucy not"

They say it often and it is hilarious!

4. Every morning when they wake up Stella asks me if we are going to the "monkey zoo". If I say no she asks "Oh, maybe laler we go to the monkey zoo?"

5. I have a mole in the middle of my chin that I hate and have had forever. I don't really notice it anymore since it's just part of my face. I was holding Mya and she was perplexed and started to touch it. She smiled and told me "Mommy, I playing with the boobie on you chinny-chin-chin!"

6. We let the girls play with our old cell phones so they don't touch our real ones. Stella follows me around with it and says "Say cheese for Tella!" Can you tell that I'm always taking their pictures?

7. Potty training is in full force at our house. If the girls pee on the potty they get to put a Dora sticker on their charts. One afternoon Stella was making her decision as to which sticker she wanted. She had a sheet that was almost used up and all of the Doras were taken, leaving only the other characters. She kept asking me "There's no more Doras, Mommy?" I told her no and that she needs to make a decision. After about 10 minutes I said "okay, Sissy you have to make a decision now or I'm putting the stickers away and you won't get one". She puts her hand up and tells me "Belax, Mommy! Don't shout! I will pick a dicker!"

8. To celebrate our 5th anniversary Wes and I went to Cincinnati for the weekend. We took the girls to his mom's house while we were gone. When we dropped them off Stella was totally fine. I said good bye to her and she says "See ya, Mommy!" and ran away. Mya was clinging to my neck and told me "No, Mommy you can't leave! You stay at YaYa's! I love you, I love you, I love you! I love you forever!" Talk about making it tough for me to go! She is just like me though. When I was little I was a complete wreck when my mom would go out of town. Luckily, she recovered quickly and had a great time!

9. We watched the fire works at Grandpa's house this year. The girls have never seen them before so I was trying to explain what they were and get them excited. They asked for days if "we going to see the firetrucks today?". When the day finally came we found out that they weren't until 10:30 at night. They hardly napped that day but I was determined to keep them up to see them. Mya loved them and kept asking if the next one would be purple. After a few minutes Stella told me "I no wanna watch the booms. I just want to sleep." I took her inside and she was asleep in seconds!

10. We were out to eat and Mya dropped some food on the ground. Stella leans over the table to inspect the mess and states "Gosh darnit, Mya! You dropped you crackers on the ground!" Yikes! I better watch my mouth but I guess it could have been a lot worse!

11. Anytime they want something and we say no they tell us "I not very happy with you!"