Ice Blocks.

It had been raining for weeks and weeks and the kids were getting bored. I finally got a list together of things we could do together to combat the boredom and we ended up doing like 4 or 5 things a day for almost a week. FINALLY the sun came out and we were able to do more fun things.

Owen's posed smiles crack me up.

Frozen ice blocks.

Of course, like everything else she can grab, June just tried to eat it. 

Soon after, they got in the tub and I took pictures of their tiny, wet, baby footprints leading to the tub.

Can they please just stay this small forever?

In no particular order....

June loves this bush. She plays in it all the time and wraps the leaves around her. One of my favorite pictures of her was when she was in this bush. Unfortunately, it was just an ipod photo and not great quality.

The kids love to snuggle and I absolutely love it. They also love our ipods and I'm not too thrilled about that part.

June in a toddler bed! This is just one of the 3 ways we tried to put her bed so she would sleep in it. She hated the transition and would fall asleep on the hard tile floor next to the door, wake up in the middle of the night crying and we'd have to fully wake her just to get into the door. Needless to say, none of us slept very well those few weeks. 

Playing in the rain. It's rainy season here and for about 2 or 3 weeks straight it rained. The kids don't mind because they absolutely love it. Tim and I have sorely missed the beach. Rain water just doesn't do it for us.

Baby steps to the bath tub.

Did I mention it was rainy season?

Helping Dad make tortillas.

Playing with the hose.

Owen and the quarter he earned for the gumball machine.

They seriously can't stay out of the rain. They love it so much!

Love when they play nice.

It's about the cutest thing in the world when Owen poses and says, "Cheese!"

Both our kids have a special quilt and stuffed animal. Whenever they are having a hard day they carry one or both around the house. We were sick of being in the house this day so we chased each other around the house, blankets, animals and all.

This is our Christmas tree that is miraculously still alive. We moved it outside to see if it would get any bigger and the kids love to water it.

June loves apples but she chews them and spits it out. One day I taught her to put all her rejections in a pile of the table. I looked up to see this. Gross! At least I'm not finding trails of apple all around the house followed by a million ants.

Tantrums. We can't leave anything out on the dressers or cabinets in June's room or she will throw them or tear them when she's throwing a tantrum. Most days it takes her about 15 minutes to come out of her room after a nap and when she gets mad she'll run to her room, throw herself onto her bed and cry. Just like all the princesses do in Disney movies. Ha, ha!

Child labor. Kidding! They love to help me clean and I think it's adorable.

Knowing they were going to be taken to bed soon they both climbed into ours and pulled their best, "But we're being so cute!" faces and smiles. It totally worked. Mom and Dad are both suckers.

Playing with umbrellas. He's actually really good at the mechanics and can open and close one by himself. He takes it pretty seriously most of the time and tries to keep June from running out from under it.

Phew! And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what we've been up to.

The Boy.

Owen is so curious about "big kid" stuff these days. He always wants to help and actually does a pretty good job most of the time. He loves when I get the pasta press out and I couldn't help but snap a few photos of him helping me. I love watching him get flour in his hair, on his chin and sift his little hands through the flour. Those hands are the only thing left that show any signs of "baby." He surely is growing and it makes me both happy and sad. He starts preschool tomorrow and I'm still pretty up and down about it.

Here's what Owen has been up to lately:

-Singing. This boy loves to sing. And he's getting really good. He still doesn't talk really well yet but you can almost always tell what he's trying to sing because his pitch is dead on. Some of his favorite songs as of late are: "We Are Young"-Fun, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, The Wheels on the Bus, Speckled Frogs, Daddy's Homecoming and 10 Little Owens. (A counting song Tim's Dad used to do with Tim that now he does with Owen.)

-Karate/Guns/Fighting. This boy is all about combat. His favorite game is to chase each other around with guns and take turns being "hit" and coming back to life.

-Water. He still LOVES water. I let him play with the hose sometimes and he takes it so seriously. He and June loves their baths as well and always answer with an adamant, "NOOO!" when asked if they are ready to come out.

-Praying. He's been learning to pray the past few months and he's getting really good. It's pretty adorable.

-Saying sentences! We met with a speech therapist who specializes in young toddlers and she taught us some really helpful ways to encourage him to communicate more. They worked like a charm and he now says several sentences like: I want milk (or whatever else he wants), Where are you? (a game we play), Let's go!,  and a few others. He also learned a lot of new words and signs that have been really exciting for us. My favorite is when he says, "Story?" He loves reading stories at night and acting out stories as well.

-Loves fruit snacks, milk, juice and gumballs from the 25 cent machine. (he gets a quarter as a treat if he is good and it's SO FUN to watch him and June run and squeal as they watch their gumball fall through to the bottom)

 We love this boy like crazy.

The Rest of July in a Nutshell.

Tim and I started the 30 day ab challenge at the very end of the month. Owen apparently started it with us. He is actually pretty committed. He once woke me up at 5:30am and put in the dvd and was mad at me for not doing it with him.

Owen voluntarily sang his first karaoke song at a party that month. He is part Filipino FOR SURE.

Helping with the laundry. He LOVES to do this and I love his help. 

June still refuses to use silverware. She can, but won't.

Love lazy Sundays.

Tim had to work a lot after Palau and Owen sure missed him. He hated the days I woke up with him instead of Tim and whenever Tim tried to take a nap Owen would jump in bed and impatiently wake for him to wake up.

Scuba certifications.

We had some girls stay overnight for a Youth activity so we took the bed from June's room and made a monster bed. The kids enjoyed it for weeks before I finally put it back.

Rawr!

Still bite kissing.

The last mangoes of the season.

Tim finally allowed me to have June's bangs cut. 

One of June's last times in her pack'n'play. She's in a toddler bed now next to a regular bed. Baby steps.

Finally bought a fresh fish and grilled it with some friends. It was delicious.

Lots of chocolate pudding.

This silly girl will make a mess out of anything. We gave the kids fruit snacks as a treat for being good and June decided to squish them all over her fingers and legs and face instead of eating them. 

Palau: Waterfall, Lighthouse, Monoliths

There were all kinds of expensive tours to different waterfalls and we found out that the best one was only ten minutes away from where we were staying. We had to pay a fee to hike to it but it was well worth it (and a lot cheaper than going with a group)

Owen wussed out pretty early on.

The love tree. Two trees starting growing together and now they think it brings lovers good luck.

At the middle of the hike you can see the top of the falls. So pretty with the green surrounding it.

It was beyond beautiful. 

We took a trolley on the way back. It was just as slow as hiking but the hike back up is reallllly steep and carrying all the extra weight of the kids it seemed a lot nicer.

Carnivorous plants.

The old Japanese Lighthouse was recommended to us but we were a little bummed that it is mostly just a lookout. It was still pretty fun and the kids loved looking through to the islands.

We went to see the ancient monoliths and by then the kids were bored of our sight seeing. They mostly played in puddles through it but had a blast getting soaked.

Faces in the monoliths.

This Palauan lady was super nice and told me the Palauan version of the story of the monoliths and how they got there. I thought her money necklace was really cool too.