I know it has been WAY too long since this was updated, but in the spirit of the holidays and New Year resolutions here are some images to get things going again.  Happy Holidays and we will be working hard to keep more images coming your way.

Now on to the kids (which is what you want to see anyway   )!

Getting Ready!

Loving their socks – Chase decided they looked good on his hands like mittens!

Madeleine says the tea set is “just what I always wanted”

One happy boy with his garbage truck.

“new” horses from Grandma and Grandpa.

Madeleine after emptying her stocking.

Cute cards from Grandma.

I suppose it is appropriate that Chase and Madeleine were born under the sign Aquarius.  These kids love playing in water which is good since we now live in Portland.  After the beautiful weather we had the first week or so we were here, we have now had about 8 straight days of rain.  Some have rain all day and others it comes and goes.  On Tuesday it looked like it was going to clear for a bit in the afternoon so I took the kids to the zoo.  It is a good thing we took their new raincoats and boots since it never did stop raining.

Madeleine and Chase looking cute – you can even see the last remnants of the poison oak or whatever Chase got on his face.
 

Walking the stairs like big kids.

Chase posing by the goat.

Yesterday there was a break in the weather in the afternoon, so we headed to the park.  They had on their rain boots because it was wet, but we’re going to play on the swings and slides right?  Not quite……

It started innocently enough with touching the water and eventually walking in the water.

Which quickly evolved to jumping in the water.

By the time they were done we were pouring water out of their boots and stripping them down at the car.  They had the time of their lives and loved every second of it…. oh to be two again.

At the Children’s Museum they have an area where you can paint your face.  Needless to say Madeleine and Chase wanted to do their own painting so we ended up looking like……

They also love playing the drums at the zoo – although they are only (barely) tall enough for two of them.

The petting zoo was also a big hit.

So last week the kids found one of their sticker books as we were unpacking.  Before you knew it they had Mom completely covered!

Yesterday was beautiful and the kids had been begging to use the hose in the front yard.  Well one hose and two kids didn’t work out too well so I got out the hose in the backyard as well and they both had fun.  Dad even showed them how to drink from the hose…… and Madeleine figured out she could point the hose at herself and get soaked.

OK, so it has been a while since you have heard from us and trust me when I say it is for good reason.  For those that don’t know – we moved to Portland!  Yes it came together quickly and from late March when we started to consider it to moving the first week of May things were very busy for us.  The kids have adjusted better than can be asked of them and we are beginning to settle in.  We are just west of downtown Portland in the Rock Creek area and in a great neighborhood.  I’ll get some more images up but in the meantime here are a few to enjoy.

Usually when we do something for one of them we end up doing it for both.  In this case Chase demanded pig tails like his sister.

In getting ready to move we wanted to get rid of some things including this dog crate.  As soon as they saw it they climbed right in and shut the door.

And eventually made themselves at home.

See they don’t fight all of the time

They were actually angels for most of the packing.  One afternoon they literally hung out in the front doorway playing, talking and waving to cars while we got things ready for the move.

Yesterday we took a short trip to the coast and it is beautiful.  Sunset last night…

And the lighthouse on the head.

Today I dressed Maddy in overalls….. and as soon as Chase saw them he pretty much insisted on wearing a pair himself.  Since they were looking so cute we went out front to take a few pics before we headed to the museum.  Chase refused to call them overalls though and insisted it was a dress all day.

Feeling nervous I guess.

Starting to warm up

They took turns leaning toward the camera – SO cute.

Then we asked them to stand with their cheeks together.

Yup – still cute!

Then they grabbed some grass and …..

waved it in the air….

and at the camera….

until they started tickling each other

Last week we were in Vegas for a photo convention and we took the kids with us.  While it certainly wasn’t exciting for them as it wasn’t warm and needless to say Vegas isn’t exactly a great place for kids.  They did like the lion habitat at MGM and did great with the flights.  They even did great with our flight home when we had to get up at 5 am for our 7 am flight.

While we didn’t really get out (other than around the MGM) with the kids we did walk down to the Bellagio one night for the water show.

Mindy & Chase in front of Paris
 

And Madeleine & me

The water show from Bellagio.

Today was such a beautiful day we had to spend it outside.  The afternoon temps were probably close to 60, sunny and no wind – absolutely gorgeous and it is still February (for a few hours anyway). 

This morning we went to a local farm where we are now purchasing any meat we eat.  What we didn’t expect was to get a tour of the entire place so the kids got to see bison, yaks, Dall sheep, baby turkeys, chickens, ducks and I’m probably forgetting some others.  It was so nice to walk the property (with great views of Bachelor) and just the overall peacefulness was wonderful. 

By the time we got out of the farm and back home is was past their nap time and needless to say nap didn’t happen today for only the second time in several months.  Since the kids weren’t going to nap we figured we couldn’t waste the day being indoors so we decided to take a hike up Pilot Butte.  The hike up went well except they wanted to continually get out of the packs we were carrying them in.  At top they had a snack (disclaimer – many images have children with food on their face), took a few pictures and headed back down.  The way down was a bit more challenging as they wanted to walk by themselves, which was fine as long as they were walking.  All told they probably made it 1/3 of the way themselves which is pretty impressive as tired as they were.  Our first issue on the way down was when they wanted to “clean” the road and stop to pick up every rock and stone and throw them over the little retaining wall.  Once we were able to move on from that exercise they decided crawling would be a good idea and Chase even started to sit on the pavement and scoot down on his butt.  At that point they went back in packs so we could at least try to make it down before sunset.

The kids at the top “reading” one of the interpretive signs and eating their snack.

Maddy hamming it up for the camera

Chase and mommy

Madeleine thinking it would be fun to jump off the wall

Ready for liftoff!

Chase walking down the wall after climbing up by himself

Another point of contention was who got to walk Lava

Madeleine deciding she is going to help

Which went fine until she got caught up in the leash.

Me with the kids, who weren’t to happy to pose at that moment.

So as you can see we haven’t gotten an update online in a while and there are a lot of missing photos in previous posts.  Long story short I have been hosting the images on one our web servers that was hacked and a bunch of malicious code propagated throughout.  That server is currently offline and while I have all of the images saved locally I need to figure out an easy way to go back and redo 2 years of posts to get everything back online.

Now on to happier things!  Chase and Madeleine continue to amaze us daily.  They are speaking so much more and Maddy is using complete sentences.  They can walk to the car, climb in the car and then up into their car seats.  They are working on their numbers and letters but Madeleine is definitely ahead of Chase.  She can count to 10 easily and at times can get most of the way through the alphabet.  They love books (need to get it on video) and we read to them everyday. 

But the best thing right now is how their relationship is growing.  While they have disagreements like any siblings they care about each other, help each other and really do love one another.  The other day we were walking at the park and Chase ran up behind Madeleine and said “hold hands” and they walked together holding hands.  Madeleine then looked at Chase and said “I love you Chase” and he responded with “I love you Ma ma”.  He can’t quite say Madeleine so it is ma ma for now.

Sometimes they will be playing and one will stand up with their arms spread wide and want to give the other a big hug.  Before bath time one day last week they were running around in the bedroom and Chase heard Madeleine fall down around the corner and said “oh no” ran over and gave her a hand to help her up.  They also think they can pick each other up to go on the counter etc. and that doesn’t always work out too well.

OK – on to the photos!

They love bubble baths and Chase has figured out how to give himself a beard.

Which naturally means Madeleine gets a beard as well.

Apparently she missed a spot.

And to think they can do this without a mirror.

Madeleine making sure Chase is extra clean.

And then being too cute

Another new favorite is making and eating popcorn.

Maddy showing off her new shoes

This is Madeleine’s “I’m telling you something very important” face.

OK, here is another short video of the kids.  This one really does not show their intelligence, but it is funny.

For every bump, owie, fall etc. these days we have to put ice on it.  Which isn’t that bad since we have a little children’s ice pack in the door of the freezer and if we open the door Chase and Madeleine will take it out and put it back themselves.  Where it gets funny is since these two are twins they have to do everything together, including getting their owies treated.  So if one falls the other miracuaously has an owie in the exact same spot and demands their fair share of ice time.  They even go so far as to fall back/down on their butts to fake getting hurt and then ask for the ice if the one with the real owie is taking too long.  Where they come up with this stuff (and they do more everyday) is amazing.

The other thing that amazes us every day is their vocabulary.  I took the kids to the museum here today and at one point Madeleine looks at me and says “hold my hand please” when she wanted to climb down a few steps.  It seems like only a couple of weeks ago they might have said “hand”.  Then when we were back at the house Mindy asked them what they did at the museum and they told her the big cats (bobcat and lynx) were sleeping and they saw turtles and eagles and other things.

I know things change fast and will continue to for a long time.  Things haven’t always been easy with twins, but they are SO much better these days and we are truly thankful for all of the time we get to spend with them.

Here is video – just like the last one click on the link (http://www.vimeo.com/8629005) if you would like to see a larger version – enjoy.

Chasing Dots from mikeconnell on Vimeo.