We've survived 18 months!

Olivia & Violet had 18-month pictures taken on Saturday, June 6. It was quite a hoot. The pictures were taken by a photographer that is very laid back. He said he doesn’t force kids to take “posed” pictures; he lets them act as their usual selves and tries to capture pictures of them in their normal element. Well, he spent most of our photo session chuckling at our girls. Violet was pretty cooperative right away, but it took Olivia a little bit to warm up. Once they became comfortable, they were wrestling with each other and running around diving into his backdrop. At one point, they almost ripped the backdrop off its hanging clips. Their pigtails became wild and dismantled; toward the end of the session, Olivia’s hair bow was hanging limply by a single strand of hair because it was practically ripped out. But we ended up with some pictures that are totally them! As the photographer said, I would rather have pictures of them with wild hair and smiles than with perfect hair and crabby faces. The only bummer was that the weather was rainy, so we weren't able to take many pictures outside.

Some of my favorite pictures are below. All pictures from the session can be viewed at www.kalinkauppila.com/suchytwins, but I'll warn you that there are a lot!

Olivia & Violet:

Olivia showing her "I don't know" shrug: Violet: Olivia hugging Violet: Olivia & Violet being wild:
Olivia:

Violet:

Family Picture:

Violet trying to sit on (and bite) Olivia:

Olivia & Violet:
Olivia:

Violet:

Olivia trying to steal Violet's teddy bear:
Swapping teddies:

Now we're happy:

Family Times

We had a fun, family-filled weekend. We drove up to my parents’ farm on Friday night after work. The girls had fun playing with their cousin Emma who referred to them as "the pink one" and "the purple one" according to the color of pajamas they were wearing. They didn’t get to bed until after 10:00 (way past their normal bedtime). On Saturday, we spent most of the morning outside on the farm. The girls saw baby kittens and cows, and even took a tractor ride. The noise of the tractor scared them at first, but once we got moving they liked it. In the afternoon, we went to a birthday party for three of my sister Nikki’s kids; the girls had a blast playing outside with all of the kids that were there. We also got to meet our newest baby nephew Owen, Nikki’s fourth child, who was born on June 5. He is quite a cutie and hardly uttered a peep the whole time we were there. After the party, we went to the Suchy farm. The girls were so wound up on a sugar high when we got there, thanks to Grandpa Thronson who fed them cupcakes at the birthday party, that they didn’t go to bed until almost 10:00 again.

This morning we had our niece Claire’s baptism. The service was very nice and the reception afterward at Janell & Luke’s house was fun. Great food and great family time! We were pretty proud of the girls who behaved very well all weekend even though they were completely off their usual schedule. Jamie & I left Janell & Luke’s house at 4:00 and didn’t arrive back home until about 6:30. The biggest change for us was that we left the girls behind. They are staying at their Auntie Jill’s house for the week, so all week we are child-free! The girls are going to daycare by Garfield during the day; Jill will be dropping them off before work and picking them up after work and keeping them at her house overnight. We definitely miss them already, but we are hoping we can get some things done this week and enjoy some relaxation time.

Here are some pictures from the weekend.

Violet ("the purple one"), Emma & Olivia ("the pink one") playing in Grandma Thronson's toys:

Olivia & Violet playing in the sandbox:
Daddy & Olivia feeding the cows on the Thronson farm:

Violet:

Olivia:
Our baby nephew Owen:

The Suchy family, together for Claire's baptism:

Moo Baa La La La

The girls have a new favorite book, "Moo Baa La La La" by Sandra Boynton. Below is a video showing how they help us read this book. I'll warn you that we've been working on potty training, so they don't have any pants on in the video. :)

Here are the words in case you want to follow along:
A cow says moo
A sheep says baa
Three singing pigs say la la la
No no, you say, that's not right
A pig says oink all day and night
Rhinoceroses snort and snuff
And little dogs go ruff ruff ruff
Some other dogs go bow wow wow
Cats and kittens say meow
Quack says the duck
The horse goes neigh
It's all quiet now
What do you say?