Out in the cold.

It snowed.  In Canada it would be a shame to even call what we had "snow" but for us it was a "big storm."  The girls were excited to play in it.  I was sure it would all be gone by the time it was noon so I decided to bundle them up and take them out in the morning before breakfast.  We don't even have good winter weather clothes so I am glad there wasn't a bunch of snow-the girls would have been so cold.

They even got a sled ride.

Allie was knocking ice off this fence and Brailie was checking it out too and we almost had a tongue on metal incident with Brailie but I screamed and she topped thank heavens.

She means business

This little girl and her looks.

When we came in they both stood in front of the fire and pulled their panties down to warm up their bums.

A Piano Duet

This is Allie's "favorite" song I taught her how to play it with me on the piano.  Sometimes she plays her part on her little piano she got for Christmas too.

Yea Matching!!!

I made the girls skirts the other day and wanted to have them wear them to church.  When I went to their closets to get them I discovered that they both had polo shirts and brown shoes too so they could really be matching.  They were super excited about it and looked so cute together and the best part is that there was not a drop of fussing in the putting on of any of these clothes.  Hallelujah.

Brailie

I have been meaning to write this experience for a while now but have just been busy and keep forgetting.  I wanted to record Brailie's last well child visit experience.  It happened right before Christmas.  I took her in for her 2 year check up ( a few months late but who's keeping track right?).  We were sitting in the chairs in the room and Allie was playing with a toy that made sounds and Brailie had done all her preliminary tests (weight, height, heartbeat and measurements).  She was standing by Allie looking at the toy and the Dr. came in.  He has a list of all these questions he is supposed to ask (though I never get asked them at a different doctors).  Brailie is saying to Allie, "let me see, I want to see.  Where is the cow Allie?  Where is the sheep Allie." etc etc (just jabbering away) and the Dr. asks, "so is she talking yet?"  I thought to myself, "are you unable to hear?" but answered "yes, actually she never stops talking." (try going anywhere in the car with her-it is exhausting all the questions she asks.)  Then he says, "can she say at least 20 words?"  (While she is talking away to Allie about this toy) and I respond, "oh, she can probably say at least 200 words or more," thinking (are you even aware that she is in the room?)  Dr: "Can she put words together to make a sentence?"  At this point I was getting frustrated.  "This is such a waste of my time," I was thinking.  She is in the room, talking like crazy.  I just told you she never stops talking and now he is asking if she can make a sentence.  Sorry but that is insulting as far as I am concerned.  I know he needs to ask the questions but if the answer is obvious, lets be smart and say, "I know I can just skip that question."  He proceeds to ask if she knows her name, her sex and her age.  I responded, "yes to all of those and she can spell her name, tell you her address and her phone number."  No acknowledgement from Dr.   Dr: "Can she says words like cold, hungry and tired."  I answer with a plain yes.  Obviously at this point he is not going to get it, the dumb questions will continue regardless of what I answer.  I answer the rest of his needless questions and wait to leave.  Lastly he asks if she has any diaper rash.  I told him she has been potty trained for almost 6 months.  I get a dumbfounded look and he moves on.  You know it is not like us moms are going around looking for people to pat us on the back.  Most of what we do goes unnoticed but it would be nice to have someone pay a little attention and say, "wow, that is great" or, "wow I am impressed" or, "well I guess I can just check off a bunch of these questions because I can see for myself that this is one smart little girl." 

The Golden Ratio

I think I am probably the last family in town to go and visit this statue that we have called the Golden Ratio (I think that is what it is called).  I am not sure the point of it but it is cool to go and see and fun to climb on (except in blustry, cold winter wind like we did).  The girls had a good time despite how cold it was. 

 Here Greg told Allie to jump down to him.  She is so brave.  I would never have done that as a kid.  She just leaped right off to him. 

Grammy, the girls said when you come to visit they want you to come there with us, just so you know.

Allie

Just a few thoughts about Allie.  I have noticed that this little girl loves to play.  She is always wanting someone to play with her.  Thank heavens she has Brailie but even then she is often asking for a friend.  I feel bad because I am not a good friend maker and so it is hard for me to put myself out there and find friends for her.  I have been surprised at how willing she is to make friends.  Like when we are a ball games and stuff she is looking to see if there is another little kid to be friends with.  The other night in Price she saw a couple of little girls sitting by us and she wanted to be friends so she took her Dora book over there and laid on the floor right by them and just started chatting.  They eventually started chatting back.  I was so proud of her.  She did not get that ability from me.  When we go to the park and there are friends there she is so happy and asks if they can come over for lunch and to play and for supper and the next day and the next.  I wish I was a bit more brave so I could find her some more friends.  I am so grateful for friendliness being a part of her personality and I want to foster it as much as I can.  She is so much happier too when she has had something fun to do with someone else.  I wish my friends that have kids that I am so completely comfortable around lived closer so that it was just an automatic thing to have my children have friends too.  I know that they could just come over or we could go to their house and I would be 100% comfortable sitting and visiting while our kids just played.  For now I am so grateful for Brailie being a good playmate and for the times we bump into other kids at the park because it is the best part of Allies day for sure.

A few more curls

 Allie loved her curly hair the first day I did it so we tried again the next day.  Brailie decided she wanted curls too.  I put teeny tiny little twists in her hair and it did curl but it also stuck out all over the place (wait-when does it not stick out?).

 Here is the tiny bit of evidence that there was a bit of curl in her hair.  Can you see it?  Ya, I thought probably not.

 I asked the girls to give me funny faces.

What crazy girls I have.

"We're Just Playing"

These days are wonderful because I hear the words, "we're just playing" a lot from Allie and Brailie and I find them a lot doing things like:

 They are playing naps right here. 

I find them in Allie's room with the door closed a lot.  It usually involves a mess-I think it is worth it (most of the time).  They are getting to be so good at playing with eachother.  Allie is always wondering when Brailie is going to wake up so they can play.  I love it.

Cutie Curls

We have been busy but I haven't been taking pictures.  I curled Allies hair (did it in little twists all day) and we took it out tonight and it looked so adorable.  Makes her look like a totally different girl.

 And here is Brai, even if I try and do her hair she pulls it out at nap time.  She might look like a scraggle muffin until college.

Dress Ups and Make Up Day

I decided to do a dress ups/makeup day with the girls.  They chose these dress up outfits (our TV serves as a mirror-if we ever get rid of it I think Allie may revolt).  Brailie loves these high heels I bought her for Christmas but walking her walk in them is so funny-she has the hardest time but insists on wearing them.

 Here is Allie doing her makeup.  Grammy bought makeup sets for each girl.  They were pretty excited.

 "Can you see it?"

 Brailie loved the makeup too-she pretty much will do anything that big sister does.

Christmas Part 2

Christmas morning started early at Grandma and Grandpa's.  We wanted to have everything done before it was time to go to church.  Allie got a piano from Santa which continues to be a big hit and Brailie got a camera (though she still says she wants a dora whenever the name of Santa is mentioned).  I only took a few of our gifts to Monroe for a few reasons: they were too big, I didn't want parts broken and lost and I wanted to enjoy watching my kids open the things we bought them in a calm and quiet setting where they weren't distracted.  I was counting on Grandma to go over board as she usually does and have a handful of gifts for the girls to open besides our few but she didn't (which was fine) but then the girls ended up opening I think 5 things each which is what I was afraid would happen.  I was worried with everyone being together that there would be a huge difference in the present piles and there was.  Allie loved the concept of tearing off the paper and kept asking "can I just open one more."  I went to the tree hoping to find something else but there was not.  Luckily she was okay with that answer. 

 She got a microphone from grandma that you can plug your ipod into and it plays the music and then she can sing along.  She was so happy with that and did a number of performances before it was broken.  Hopefully Grandma can get a replacement because she really loved it. 

Here are the girls right after church. 

Later in the evening Grandma wanted to get a picture of all the cousins in Santa hats.  Mayhem as usual.  I love seeing the chaos in picture form.

 Before we had left for Grandma's Greg and I worked out a strategic plan in which he got the girls out of the house and I set up all of the gifts we had left behind so that when we all got home they would walk in a find all kinds of surprises.  This is what they walked in to find:

 We got Allie a doll house, Grammy got her a art easel, Brailie got a wheelies car ramp, a rice digging box, and the girls got a basketball hoop and art boxes.  Uncle Steve sent them the most fantastic dress up box too.

Here they are modeling some of the dress ups.

The days following Christmas were filled with lots of playing with new toys.  The dollhouse was a huge hit for 2 days and since then hasn't been quiet as popular but I love playing with it so I ask the girls to play with me once a day at least and that works.  The zoomer cars are a big hit, the rice box is a big hit but is currently confiscated due to a little game of "lets see how far we can throw the rice."  On New Years eve Uncle Daniel, Auntie Jenny and the boys (Jakob and Andrew) came to visit.  They spent the night even.  We had a ton of fun with them.  They are the cutest boys.  I wish they would sit still long enough for me to just hold and get to know.  They loved all the new toys and with very little time the kids had the place in shambles.  After baths we played ring around the rosies, and the kids rode on Daddy/Uncle Greg.  The boys are so cute when they do something they like the both say, "yay" in unison and clap their hands.  SOOOOO CUTE.

We did it, we made it through the holidays and into the new year.

Christmas in Review Part 1

 I have been putting off writing this post about Christmas for multiple reasons.  #1 is that it takes forever to load all the photos.  #2 It takes forever to write about all the photos and #3 I just wasn't in the Christmas spirit at all this year so I have actually just been glad it was all over and haven't been in the mood to write about it.  But I know my mom and a few other relatives and friends would enjoy seeing these pictures so I am here to post. 
I am going to just let the pictures do most of the talking.

This is Allie playing in the snow at Grandmas in Monroe.  She was so excited to get to do this.  She had been talking about it for weeks prior.  No other parents would let their kids come outside so we went by ourselves and she had fun but would have had more fun if we had snow pants that fit.  She also wanted to make a snowman and it was the wrong kind of snow but oh well.

On Christmas eve all the cousins decorated a sugar cookie that Auntie Carries brought.  Notice who has the most sprinkles?

I love making collages like this because we always think it is a great idea to try and get a cousins shot and they are always hillarious and never perfect.  I love looking at each one and seeing what each kid is doing each time we tryed to take the picture.

I thought this picture was perfect.  Allie loves her cousins.  I wish they were closer and could be better friends.

Brailie showing off her Dora Christmas jammies.

Christmas jammies

Santa came to Grandma's house on Christmas eve.  Allie was excited to see him but did not want to go near him.  Then after seeing the cousins do it she got brave and took Brailie with her.  She just jumped on his knee and started talking.  This was a MAJOR breakthrough.  After she came running to me and asked to go outside to see the reindeer.  Luckily I told her Santa had them at home resting before the big night.

The one thing that did make my holiday was this man.  We had an ugly sweater party amongst the adults. Teri didn't understand that it was ugly Christmas sweaters and just wore a plain ugly one and Ryan chickened out and just wore a t-shirt.  Kalen was wearing a plaid maternity turtleneck and I think everyone thought he was going to take the cake until Greg came upstairs in this.

Everyone was in tears laughing including me.  He later added a shirt underneath.  Guess he didn't want his brothers to be jealous or anything.

And this lovely picture that my husband so carefully took of me is to show off my ugly Christmas sweater get up.  The picture does not do it justice.  Wait-only burning would do it justice.

More to come later.