Brailie

She is getting bigger and smarter.  I realized that when Allie was this exact same age I took her with me to New York City to see Steven.  Brailie seems much younger than Allie did at the same age.  And yet everyday I realize how smart she is getting.  She is a follower right now but soon she is going to stand up to her older sister and tell her just who is going to be boss (and I can't wait).  She loves to give hugs and kisses and can do those upon request.  She loves Grandpa and can say grandpa and as we are turning into the driveway at Greg's parents she will scream, "ganpa, ganpa."  She says "choo choo" everytime (and I mean everytime) she hears the train and if you don't acknowledge that she is saying it, she won't stop until you do.  She can climb on everything.  She now sits in this booster seat at the table instead of in her high chair.  She loves to eat with a fork and off of a plate and does good on somedays and not good on others.  Dessert-well it is just easier to eat with her hands.  She loves food.  Her favorites are: cheese, crackers, chips (which she calls pips), pickles, apples, pineapple and cantaloupe, beans, hot dogs and bread.  She can finish the phrases in a few of her favorite books.  If I am reading to her and grab the wrong book she will push it away, shake her head and say, "noooooooo."  She is too long to fit on the change table any more.  She likes to spin in circles (I wonder who taught her that) and dance with me.  She loves Sarah and Carlie Swalberg.  She loves to be outside and can walk down the stairs while holding my hand.  She loves to see puppy dogs and notices all kinds of things.  She can point out cows, dogs and horses.  She can tell you what a chicken, duck and cow all say.  Some of her other words are: cracker, cheese, shoes, toes, teeth (to brush her teethe which she likes), bubbles, please (when she wants something and you aren't going to give it to her she will hold out her hands and say, "pease, pease, pease."), juice, gankie (blanket) and ginkie (binkie), and sis.  She can pretty much tell us most of the time what it is she is wanting through pointing, walking us to the thing or her words. 
When someone asks me how old she is I say, "I don't know" as in I don't know how many months she is.  Time is just flying by and she is just catching on so quickly who has time to keep track of how many months she is.  I know she will be 18 months at the end of April so I guess that means she is almost 17 months now.  She is beautiful and sweet and loving and patient (most of the time) with her older sister.  She is such a blessing-one that I realize more and more each day.

Dads and Doughnuts

On Friday March 18 Greg's school had dads and doughnuts and camo day.  Dads and doughnuts is where the dads can come to school with their kids, eat doughnuts and then read them stories for a few minutes.  The truth is it is more like the dads come, eat the doughnuts, b.s. with eachother for a while and read with their kids for about 5 minutes, but it is a good idea.  I was at a shower the Saturday before when a girl sitting beside me said she didn't have any camo for her kids to wear.  It dawned on me that neither did I.  So I asked Greg if he had an old camo shirt (which he has about 30 of) and he donated one to the cause and I whipped up some skirts for the girls.

This was dads and doughnuts a year ago.  We look extremely tired and look at how small Brai is.

Now they are getting bigger and cuter in their camo.

 

 Here's dad reading the story.

 The girls checking out dad's desk before we had to come home.

 The skirts turned out perfect for dancing

 and for resting.

Jakob and Andrew

I have the cutest little nephews Jakob and Andrew.  We rarely get to see them but it so happened that my brother Daniel and his wife Jenny were in Utah very briefly to visit her family.  I decided since I only get to see my nephews once a year that I would take the girls and meet them.  Allie was very excited as we were going but pretty much turned into a cling machine when we got there.  Brailie really wanted nothing to do with anyone but warmed up a bit after lunch.  We played at a park, then went and ate (I paid way too much for the girls meal) and then played a bit at a mall.  Those little guys are so sweet.  I am sure that my brother and sister in law hate it when I ask who is who, but since I see them once a year and not many pictures in between I have no chance to get to know them and discover their individual traits so the honest truth is I don't know one from the other except on this day Andrew was wearing cookie monster shoes and Jakob was wearing Oscar shoes.

 The boys favorite part was the slide.  Jenny said it was their first time.  Andrew also figured out that it was really fun to slide down this bridge on his tummy.

 Here are the boys on the slide.  Andrew goes first followed by Jakob.  I love their sweet smiles and how they entertain each other.

This was at the mall.  

And here are a few more of my favorites.  I don't know who this is (can't see his shoes) but it looks like he is telling me a secret.

 Allie didn't want anything to do with these little rides at the mall.  I thought if I wedged (and I do mean wedged) myself in one it might help but she had a meltdown. 

 So Andrew came with me and Brai.

 Aren't they so cute. 

 Nothing is more attractive than a guy sucking on a binkie driving a convertible.

A little visit from Nicholas

First I wanted to include this picture of Brailie with her fine white hair and her little turkey tail.

 We have a little neighbor boy Nicholas-he is about as hyper as one can get at the age of 3.  Allie sees him across the street often and says hi or something.  Sometimes she says something like, "Nicholas-you aren't wearing any pants."  Everyone calls him Nick or Nicky but she always calls him Nicholas.  So on this day we were outside and the girls were playing on the dirt and he just wandered on over.  I must admit at first I was really nervous-he was known for knocking kids flat in nursery, but he just wanted to check things out.  First it was the dirt, then it was the swings, the sandbox and the ball pit.  He went through everything we have in about 2 minutes.  Allie was getting frustrated because she wanted him to actually play with her but he was busy being a boy and exploring. 

I am always happy for Allie to have someone to play with.  She needs more socializing in her life.  I just hope he never teaches her any bad words or anything.

Greg's Birthday

Sorry I am way behind on my posts because I have been trying to keep from being behind on my Small Fry blog.  So now this week I can play catch up starting with Greg's Birthday.

Greg's birthday was on March 9th.  We had a full day of celebrations.  In the morning I woke up and made him Biscuits and Gravy for breakfast.  After he left for school I made cupcakes and homemade mini pizzas to take to him for lunch.  Here are the girls eating their lunch with daddy.

Isn't he handsome!!!!

 Then when Greg got home we opened presents.  The girls got him a new hoe and shop light.  I got him a mini shopvac to use around the wood burning stove.

 Then I made a couple dozen of these:

 SPUDNUTS!!!

 After that I roasted a turkey that I had brined over night (p.s. this is the way I am doing every turkey from now on-HEAVENLY) as well as mashed potatoes, dressing and green beans.  Pretty much the minute we got done eating some friends came over to share dessert with the birthday boy. 

This was Greg's cake (it has a #1 candle on it because that is the only candle we own)

 And here he is in his 39 years of glory.  We love you honey.  What a great dad and husband you are.

Allie had the chance on March 6th to go out to Hatt's to gather pheasant eggs.  Megan is one of Greg's basketball players and her dad owns a pheasant ranch and has hundreds of birds (if not thousands).  We saw them before when we went to a party at Megan's house and Allie was so excited about the pheasants (which was a little shocking to me).  Royd told her she could come and help gather pheasant eggs if she would like and boy was she ever excited.  I thought for sure that she would freak out and not want to do it as soon as we got there.  I said to Greg, "She will either love this or have a life long fear of birds afterwards."  But she jsut went with Megan and helped gather 60 eggs.  She loved it.  I personally was having horrid flashbacks to my own egg gathering days, fearing that a chicken was going to land on my head and peck me to death.  Here is Allie in all her glory.

Digging in the dirt.

On Sat March 5th, the weather was perfect to play outside.  We went for a family bike ride and when we got home the girls sat down in this dirt mound in our backyard and just played and played.  I love it when that happens.  I am so glad neither of them minds getting dirty.

Then they played with this wagon-play is code for "Allie takes it away from Brailie everytime she is perfectly content pushing it on her own."  Brailie is so patient with her older sister.

Just had to add this picture on it's own because I ADORE it. 

The girls at the park Day 2

The lighting was just right to try and capture a few photos of the girls shadows.  I love how they turned out.

Happy Birthday Dear Daddy

The girls at the park part 1

Just going to admit right now I can't take enough pictures of my girls-especially when they are playing carefree at the park and the day is GORGEOUS!! Enjoy.

Gorgeous eyes.

Perfectly Allie-wrinkled nose and a cheesy smile

Looks like she is learning to walk for the first time but I think she is actually trying to get away from Allie.

Running (in her clicky heals church shoes I might add)

She is a climber-up on everything. 

This is blurry but one of my favorites.

In a tree.  A perfect place for a monkey don't you think?

They are getting so good at playing together and love to make each other laugh.

Sometimes she can just look totally angelic.

By the big watermelon that she always asks if she can have a bite of.

Brai bringing up the rear.  Soon she will be in front.

Home after a long time playing, socks off and relaxing.