a sister's love...

Trista amazes me with her patience and love for Trace. They do have their fights, but more often what I hear is Trista sharing, helping, and playing with her little brother:

Do you want sissy to help you?
I need to eat a Trace-man - as she chases him around the house.
Trace, come on!

Story #1: Last night, we were picking up toys and other things in the yard as a storm was approaching. Trace got a little worked up because it was thundering and I couldn't hold him and we were running in and out of the garage trying to beat the rain, so I set him inside the house and asked Trista to go take care of her brother. I heard her open the door and say, " It's ok, Trace, come with me." I finished up and when I walked into the house, this is what I found:

Story #2: The kids had swimming today and they both woke up from their short naps with crazy hair since it was damp when they laid down, so I decided to let them spray paint their hair for fun and play outside. Let's just say it was extremely bright color and I got a little nervous it wouldn't come out for school the next day. So I decided an early bath before Ryan saw what I let them do was in my best interest - it would at least fade a little I hoped. The kids wanted to take a bath in my big tub, so I let them play for 15 minutes or so. They had a great time and thankfully, the orange hair washed out pretty easily. At the end of bath time in my tub, I let them turn on the jets to make bubbles. We used a lot of shampoo on their orange hair, so the bubbles filled the tub quickly. I told Trista to turn off the jets and she tried but said they didn't work. I said to try again while I was drying Trace. She kept trying and finally I got up to turn them off.....only it didn't turn off. I tried and tried and the bubbles grew & grew. I started to panic. I had Trista jump out of the tub and told her to take Trace out of the bathroom far from the tub and ran to the garage to find the breaker. I ran back in and found my kiddos running into the kitchen full of suds and wet foot prints across the house. She did what I asked :) The breaker switches I picked turned off everything in the bathroom except the tub and now the bubbles were about 2 feet above the tub. I really started to panic - not so much about the bubbles overflowing, but I didn't want to blow the motor. I ran to Trista and told her to take her brother upstairs with her - get on pjs and put a diaper on her brother. She didn't ask any questions or argue. After about 5 minutes, I got the screen off to access under the tub and unplugged the motor -relieved, I went to check on the kids. I found them both in Trace's room - both in pjs, and Trace had a diaper on - and it actually was on right. I couldn't believe it - I was so proud of Trista - actually of both of them. Trace stuck his pointer finger in the air and said "Good Job" and all I could say was "Yes, you both did a great job!" What wonderful kids I have.

2 rainy days, no tv, a cardboard box = a messy house, a cool fort & 2 days of fun

We have a visitor....

We are so excited! We had a visitor arrive in the mail today - Flat Haley is here to stay for a week and enjoy time in Arkansas. She arrived with a letter from our niece Haley, who is in the third grade this year. Haley's class read a book titled Flat Stanley, and she made a flat version of herself so she could come for a visit.

Haley listed many activites she wanted her Flat Haley to do while here in Arkansas, so we will keep you posted over the next couple of weeks on all the excitement.

She joined us for dinner and though she didn't eat very much, she was the topic of our dinner discussions. Trace kept saying "Hi Haley" and Trista said, "I wish the real Haley was here instead!" - but she is excited to talk about all the places we need to take Flat Haley and have her picture taken.

Soccer has started

Trista had her first game tonight and we are so proud of her effort. She hustled on the field, listened to her coach, and smiled through the entire game. In the process she scored 3 goals! What a difference 6 months has made. Trista is excited to go to soccer and play on an all girls team and we are excited for her to learn about teamwork, respect, and hustle.

Trace also improved as a fan since last season - he was cheering "Go Green!" and "Good Job Sis" giving her a thumbs up sign with his pointer finger. We will still have to stock up on the fruit snacks to keep him busy because he can race onto the field in seconds with his on soccer ball trying to score a goal.

Dancing Queen

These socks were made for dancing! Thanks to Auntie Dena, Autumn, & Haley, Trista has some awesome dancing socks that made it easy to twirl, twirl, & twirl some more!

Trace got into the action - but he is practing karate moves :) Actually, his new thing is to make himself dizzy and run around the living room saying "wow....wow" until he falls down.

And by the way, you can see their legs were fine once they napped after the long hike in the morning :)

Hiking

We had a quiet Labor Day weekend, but enjoyed some quality time as a family. The one thing I wanted to do was to take the kids on their first hike. I figured Trace loves to climb everything, so he should be able to tackle an easy trail. We had a great time - once we got the kids into the hike pointing out the holes in the trees, and the "bear caves" in the rocks, they were hooked. They were shining the flashlight in every nook & cranny along the way and pointing out the skinny trees and the bent over trees. They even found some snail shells along the way. The hike was probably 15 minutes too long - by that time their legs were tired, they were sweaty, and they didn't want to go on another hike ever again!

so grown up

Too cute! I love Trista's hair cut - now she won't have to wear a pony tail every day and she can tuck it behind her ear so it stays out of her face! But it does make her look so grown up.....

Take me out to the Ballgame....

Our family had tickets to the Naturals ballgames again this summer and by the end of the season we had our routine down and were enjoying the games. Trace learned how to sit and watch at least 3-4 inning before needing to be on the go. Trista learned how to fly across the circle discs on the playground. Our game time routine consisted of watching a couple innings, eating hotdogs, visiting the playground, log rolling down the berm in centerfield, running back to our seats for the 7th inning stretch, and then watching the rest of the ball game. Trista's favorite night to go was Friday night because the Gentry zoo had animals there to pet and then fireworks followed the game. Trace liked to watch the fireworks and would clap when they were down, but during the show he held my hands tightly over his ears.

We went to the last game of the season with the Greth family and enjoyed a Sunday afternoon game and running the bases after the game. (Although Trace ran the bases earlier this summer, he didn't make it around this time - we think he was scared Strike the mascot was standing at home plate again).