Abigail's New Best Friend

Abigail is playing with "her new best friend" Hailey. Hailey is the granddaughter of our neighbor across the street. She has been visiting for a couple of weeks and they have become quite good friends. Their personalities are alot alike. I think they are kindred spirits. Too bad she has to go back to Texas in a few days.

Another One of Abigail's Crazy Outfits

May 24th was mine and Darin's 5 year anniversary. I can't believe it has been 5 years already! Time goes by so quickly when you are having fun. We were going to go on a date, so about 3 hours before we had to leave I started getting the kids and myself ready; it was Saturday, so I had to give them all baths before our date so we would be ready for church on Sunday. I got Abigail dressed, but she had to add a few of her personal touches of course, this is what she looked like when I dropped her off at the babysitter's house - you can't see, but she has brown tennis shoes with pink socks too. We had a great time on our date. We got our picture taken and went to a Mongolian restaurant. The girls did great with the babysitter, or so she tells me.

The Girls 4-Month Check-Up

Just Because I Like To Compare

Abigail's Stats (at 4 months old)

Height: 25 1/4 inches - 75th percentile

Weight: 14 lbs 4 oz - 50th percentile

Head Circumfrence: 16 3/4 inches - 90th percentile

Elizabeth laying her head ontop of Emily

Elizabeth's Stats
Height: 24 1/2 inches - 50th percentile
Weight: 14 lbs 2 oz - 50th percentile
Head Circumfrence: 17 inches - 90th percentile

Emily's Stats
Height: 24 inches - 50th percentile
Weight: 16 lbs 8 oz - 95th percentile
Head Circumfrence: 16 3/4 inches - 90th percentile

What a Storm!

A couple of nights ago we had a huge wind storm. I kept thinking it was going to start downpouring, but no luck. For those of you that don't know, I love Texas storms, especially the thunder and lightning (as long as I am safe indoors and not teaching swimming lessons). I did however hear my first burst of thunder since I have been in Idaho, just one burst, but it made me excited. Well, anyway, my sister Heather was over and she heard a huge crash and she said, "What was that?" we looked outside and didn't see anything, but it was really dark, so we couldn't really see anything anyway. A few minutes later we got a phone call from the neighbors across the street. Our 90 foot Poplar tree had fallen across the road and was blocking the street and in the neighbor's yard. Someone came out with a backhoe and pushed it out of the street and into our yard so people could get by. This is what it looked like.

Torticollis = Turtle Neck

Here is my story. I woke up on Saturday morning at about 3:30 a.m. to feed the twins on my living room couch. The next thing I knew it was 7:00 a.m. and my neck was frozen in one position. At first I thought that I just had a crick in my neck and that it could be worked out, but after a few hours of a heating pad and some Motrin, it was only getting worse. I was in pretty extreme pain and I was getting tired and frustrated because I could only hold my neck in one crooked position. We decided that I probably needed to go to the ER and the doctors told me that I had Torticollis which translates to Turtle Neck, basically I pinched a nerve in my neck. I don't really care what it is called, it hurts! I am now on some pretty strong pain killers, a muscle relaxer, and look like I have been in a car accident. Who knew a person could injure themselves in their sleep? I feel a little better today, but definitely not great and I can't lift anything that weighs more than 5 lbs. Lesson to be learned: don't sleep on the couch.

Abigail's Spring Recital

Abigail has her Spring Recital for dance tonight. These are pictures back stage for the dress rehearsal that we had yesterday because we aren't allowed to take pictures at the actual recital. She is doing four dances - ballet, tap, jazz, and the group finale. She has loved dance this year. I think we will take a break from dance for the summer and start back up in the fall.

Abigail's Circus Clown - Jazz Costume

Abigail's Swiss Miss - Ballet Costume (I'm not sure what position that is)
Abigail's Mexican Hat Dance - Tap Costume (She is missing the hat) and if you were wondering, I never pose Abigail for pictures, she just does her own thing and poses herself.

Old Yella is Back

Darin decided that he needed a farm truck to drive around the farm. I agreed because he was driving our Excursion on the ranch and he would bring it home really dirty. He found this old 1969 yellow Chevrolet C10 truck, which used to belong to his grandpa and somehow got it to run. If you want more details you would have to ask Darin because I have no idea how he got it to run. I know he had to put in a new battery, new spark plugs, new tires, and do something with the ignition, but beyond that I'm not sure. It is great that he is so handy.

Happy Mother's Day!

My gourmet Mother's Day lunch. Leftovers: Enchilada Casserole, Stir Fry, & Mashed Potatoes. Served on a Elementary school lunch tray. Very Creative - I must say.
My Mother's day gifts - my wonderful husband & three girls. Abigail gave me a Tulip, a silk flower, pipe cleaner bracelets, a picture, and a poem.

"Little Prints"
I'm, sorry, each and every day, on walls and doors through hours of play;
Round every corner you will find, little prints I've left behind.
But quickly changing, as time will, My little prints get bigger still.
And then, will surely come the day, when I am grown and moved away.
But here for you is living proof; in just my size, and of my youth.
Little prints I've left behind; but this time I don't think you'll mind!
Happy Mother's Day!

Darin got me some photo books. I have decided to do photo books instead of scrapbooking. To look at the the 2007 Photo Book click here MyBookShelf & for the 2006 Photo Book click here MyBookShelf .

The Zoo Crew is taking Great Strides for Cystic Fibrosis

Each year our family walks to raise money for Cystic Fibrosis in the Dallas Great Strides 5K walk. Great Strides is the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation's largest, most successful, and most important national fund-raising event. This is important to us because we have family members that are affected by this debilitating desease. This year we are not able to attend the walk because we live in Idaho now, but we still feel that raising money is important to help with medical advances for Cystic Fibrosis. If you can, we would really appreciate a donation. Any amount would help. Making a donation is easy and secure. Just click on the link http://www.cff.org/Great_Strides/SheralynMitchell to make a donation.

Our team - the Zoo Crew at the finish line in the Great Strides walk 2007.

We will miss walking this year. We will be thinking of the family.

Our First Taste of Cereal

Elizabeth - "What is this stuff?"

Emily - "Hmmm, Not too Shabby."

Baby Boop

Emily posed for this picture and it reminded me of a cross between an innocent version of Marilyn Monroe & Betty Boop. She has the Betty Boop lips and the coy cute look in Marilyn Monroe's picture.

The Twins Are Four Months Old

The twins turned four months old on the 9th. They are growing and changing so quickly. They both are wearing size 6 months clothes now, but Elizabeth can still fit into 3-6 months. They smile & laugh and just recently started reaching for things. I think they are too young to get teeth, but they sure do drool alot. I will have weight & length stats when we see the doctor at the end of this month.

Emily Celia - Happy Girl

Elizabeth Claire - Little Sweetheart

Darin and his twins. He is really embracing farm life at it's fullest - if you couldn't tell.

Best Friends

The twins are so cute sometimes. You can't tell by the picture, but Emily was quite distressed and kept wimpering and Elizabeth is holding her arm and giving it hugs, almost as if she is trying to comfort Emily.

Albert Is A New Man!

Albert got a haircut yesterday, his long shaggy hair was really dirty and he kept getting stuff caught in it, so we decided to give him a summer hair-do. He doesn't even look like the same dog. Talk about Extreme Makeover.

After his hair-cut. The only way I could get him to be still for his picture, was to throw out a stale piece of pizza for him. I guess he knows he is Darin's dog.

Not Again!

I am a couple of days late on this, but on May 1st (May Day) it snowed. May Day is supposed to mark the end of an uncomfortable winter, but it snowed several inches - I'm not sure what that means, but I didn't like it one bit. I thought the snow was over with. Hopefully, that was the last of snow for a while.

"I'm ready to go Mom!"

Heather was going to babysit Abigail and the twins for a couple of hours so that I could go shopping. I was getting the twins ready and asked Abigail to go get dressed. In this picture she said, "I'm ready to go mom!" I have decided to start making a journal of all of the crazy outfits that Abigail comes up with, I think it will be fun for her to look back on when she gets older.

Strawberry Jam

About a week ago Fred Meyer had Strawberries on sale for $1.22 lb, a really good price I thought. I bought 8 lbs of strawberries and they were perfect; not a single bad strawberry in the whole bunch. I made jam for the first time in my whole life and it is soooooo good! My relief society president and Darin's Aunt Fay helped me. We made about 18 jars - which only covered about 4 lbs of the strawberries. We ate about 1lb of strawberries in the process and I froze the other 3 lbs. Yum! Yum!

Typical

This is a typical day in the Ralphs house. Elizabeth - wide awake & Emily - in deep sleep. Emily sleeps much more than Elizabeth during the day, but they both sleep the same amount of time at night, which is getting much better by the way. They go to sleep at about 10:00, I go to sleep at about midnight, they wake up at about 3:30 or 4:00 and then again at 7:00 or 7:30 (a schedule I can deal with). Sometimes, I wish that Elizabeth slept a little more during the day, because she is the baby that wants to be held alot. She is pretty happy today though (knock on wood). It amazes me how different the twins personalities are already.

Little Thumb Scuker

Emily has always sucked on her hands since birth, but a few days ago she found her thumb. Now, I will give her a pacifier and she will take it out and stick her thumb in her mouth. I know everyone has different opinions on thumb sucking, but if it isn't dangerous and it makes her happy, I will just have to deal with trying to get her to stop sucking her thumb later in life. The nice thing about it is that she can get it for herself, if Elizabeth's pacifier falls out of her mouth, she will cry unitl I put it back in. I may regret this later, but it works for now. Talk to me later when she is about eight and still sucking her thumb and see if I regret letting her suck her thumb. I don't know, I sucked my thumb and turned out okay, at least I think I did.

Life is Great!

Abigail's New Swing Set

We have been promising to get Abigail a swing set for some time now. Our swing set in Texas snapped in half during Tornado season last year. We bought it about two weeks ago, but it has been too cold to play on. Yesterday, it was 70 degrees and Abigail had a blast!

What A Performer!

Abigail had her second dance competition and I just had to take pictures of her back-stage getting ready. This was a huge competition in Logan, I'm not really sure how they did. I'm sure if they had done really well, I would have found out by now, but I don't care; I just want her to have fun dancing. I thought these pictures were really funny; she just kept striking different poses.