September 2011

Spent a cool September weekend fly fishing and mountain biking around Frog Lake Butte near Mount Hood.

Braeden fly fishing

 Kaia with Mt. Hood in background

Kristen's sister visited this month and they took a drive to Champoeg State Park. It was very hot, so on the way back, they had the windows rolled down. All of a sudden, Missy says "Ouch, ouch! Roll it down!" Braeden had rolled the window up while her hand was hanging out. We all had a good laugh!

The twins took an overnight backpacking trip to Indian Heaven Wilderness, near Mt Adams, over Labor Day weekend. While we picked wild huckleberries in the forest, Braeden asked me what bears ate. I replied, "what do you think they eat?" He said, "huckleberries." Before I could reply, Kaia yelled from the other side of the berry bush, "No, they eat kids!"

slippery slide

Kristen has discovered that when Mommy breaks a family rule, toddlers may respond in several ways. Braeden points out the broken rule with a "No eating in the living room!".  Kaia explains how the rule should be followed with a "You eat that in the kitchen." And so she sits, guilty on the chair in the kitchen eating potato salad with the twins supervising. Funny how the tables turn!  Here is video of the twin's slippery slide one hot August afternoon.

August 2011

The twins are attempting to nap in between the Blue Angels jets buzzing our neighborhood while the Hillsboro Air Show is going on today. We found a two-inch snail this morning carrying it's beautiful shell. The twins loved watching it crawl around a leaf before we finally let it go under the kiwi tree. Cool!

June 2011

In that state of half-exhaustion and half-elation from spending a day at the coast with my family. Two three year-olds are so much fun. Braeden tried to pull a purple starfish off it's rock (not happening) and Kaia found pink and turquoise anemones in the tide pools.

Potty training twins requires some extra incentives in the Martin household. Like baseball-sized balls with glitter inside and little disco lights that go off when it is bounced. I know, I know. Excessive and gaudy! But it worked until Mo decided he liked the lights, too, and gulped up Kaia's ball. He's probably out in his doghouse right now having his own dance show!

Kaia had her first haircut! At three years old, she finally needed this inch-long sliver of hair cut from her forehead and now she actually has bangs!

Wish we had this on film...Story about Braeden's first bike wipeout...  Brad took the twins through a local park on a bike ride yesterday. Both twins flew down a hill very fast. Too fast. Kaia was able to stop herself but instead of putting his feet down, Brae put them up in the air. To Bradley's horror, all he heard after Braeden flew off the trail into the trees was the sound of breaking branches and then a splash. Luckily, an unhurt and very soaked little boy was helped out of the creek and all is well. For extra points, it should be noted that he went off a two foot bank before he hit the creek. Now that his parents have recovered from the scare, we figure this will be a great story to tell when he is sixteen...

3 years old today

The twins are 3 years old today.  Dada finished building their twin clubhouse last night at 1:30am in the dark and rain.  It took two days, longer than expected.  But, he designed the cedar shake shingle roof, which took a lot of time and did not come with originally.  So far, the twins seem to like it.  3/4" gravel was put into the sandbox for dump-truck fun.  A slide & climbing wall will be added later on...

32 months old and Christmas video

News flash from the Martin household: The twins had TWO, not one, I repeat, TWO synchronized and successful tandem pee-pees in the potty this month! Gummie Bear reward treats all around!

Picked out a nice six foot scotch pine and set up our Christmas tree with the twins! Ornaments on the tree...off the tree. On the tree...off the tree. Kaia collects them like jewels and Braeden tosses them across the living room to watch Kaia gasp. Later, Braeden was witnessed swinging the Christmas lights over his head like a cowboy with a lasso.

The twins took a visit to Toys-R-Us to just get a feel for what kinds of toys they are into now. Braeden high-fived the Rent-A-Santa as we passed through the store. Braeden still favors trucks and tractors. Kaia still favors balls and train sets.

So on Christmas Eve, Braeden unwrapped the first present which was a green john deere tractor (even bigger than his old one). When offered his second present to open, he said "No thanks. I'm good". Kaia opened the rest of his presents for him!

Halloween 2010 and bike video

"The Force will be with you, always..."

Princess Leia didn't have a light saber, but whatever.