Random Catch up on Pictures

I know, I have been horrible about blogging lately-but the truth is I am not feeling like doing much of anything lately. I am so super tired and nauseous all of the time and I really don't want to do a thing right now.  It is completely unlike me in every way.  I try and keep the girls happy, and take them for walks and make sure they are fed and my hubby is too and that is about all I can manage in a day.  I haven't even made a craft in 2 weeks-SHOCKING I know.  So here is a little catch up on pictures:

Here is Brailie doing her "works" at the computer.

Here are the girls with these crazy lip whistles I bought them for Valentines day.

Here is the one and only picture I took at state basketball this year-the girls swimming with dad.  They loved it.  State basketball was filled with adventures: Allie learned to not be scared to ride in the elevator, and both girls got braver in the water swimming.  The girls played so well during the games and their favorite part was being able to get a pretzel. 

My mom is here right now and she is heaven sent.  The girls adore her and she is so kind and interested in them.  She listens long past when I have tuned out.  She keeps them entertained so I can get a couple of things done.  It is wonderful to have Grammy with us.  Plus she does the dishes.  I told her not to all the time cause Greg might forget how.

Yep, that's right...we are having another baby.  It may be a surprise to some.  After having Brailie there were to things that were definites for me, as far as having any more children were concerned.
#1: if there was to be another baby born into this family it would only be with an epidural this time.  I had both of the girls naturally and will NEVER do it again.  I can say, "been there, done that" but I don't want to do it again.  Allie was hard and Brailie was even harder and it broke me down in a way that took months for me to recover from.  Bring on the drugs this time people; I am not superwoman and don't ever want to be.
#2. If I was to have another baby it would not be until Brailie was 3, potty trained and able to put on her own shoes.  The girls are 19 months apart and tackling all the big stuff with Allie after having Brailie was a hard job for me (no binkie, potty training etc).  I decided that I wanted to wait until things felt a little more smooth before adding another baby to the mix (ya right as if that is ever possible).  Well miss Brailie potty trained herself 6 months ago and is proficient at putting on her shoes by herself now.  During the Oct 2011 General Conference there was a talk given about having children.  I had been thinking about the idea a bit before that but that talk solidified in my mind that it was time for us to have another child.  As I prayed about it and thought about it I realized that all my reasons for not wanting to have another baby yet were selfish (how would I have any time to myself with 3 kids to juggle and schedule).  As we decided that we were ready for another baby we got so excited.  All these other ladies are having babies here in town and I have found myself so super hungry for another baby.  It took us much longer to get pregnant than we planned but we are so grateful that we now are and even though the baby is due pretty much on Melon Days (the busiest time of the year in Green River) we are just happy that we will be the ones adding another child to our family.  And not to mention the fact that the girls are so super excited.  They have been talking about babies for a while and now they are so excited to both get to be big sisters.

What do you do in a skiff of snow?

When my girls see snow they are extatic.  The process of dressing them in all the snow gear to go out and play in barely an 1/8 of an inch of snow is exhausting and does not seem worth it at all but they love it and are so excited that I do it everytime.  For this "snow storm" I decided to make some colored water for the girls to spray on the snow since there wasn't much more we could do in it.  I think they enjoyed the activity.  Brailie managed to spray the entire first bottle of colored water on her coat and boots and almost entirely missed the ground.  The spray bottles were a bit more successful.

 We decided that since there wasn't enough snow for mom to pull them around on the sled (we tried and it didn't go so well) that they would each take a turn pulling the balls.  After that the mitts were soaked and we went in.  Start to finish 20 minutes (including the 10 minutes of dressing first). 

Going to practice and "I tried something new club"

Here is Brailie ready to go to basketball practice with Daddy.  I think she looks so super cute with a backpack on and she loves how it makes her look like a "big girl"

I wanted to do something that would help encourage the girls to get brave and try new things.  Seems like as they have gotten older and had more of a voice they have gotten less and less willing to do things that mom and dad want.  A few months ago I made up some "tried something new" badges and a chart and everything.  It did not go over well because the badges were laminated and had pokey edges and the girls did not want to have anything to do with them and so it lasted for only one day.  I still liked the idea and so a few weeks ago I made some soft badges out of felt and ribbon and printed a little circle for the middle that says, "I tried something new."  The girls have loved it this time around and have been really good at trying a bite of something new and in some cases eating a bunch of the new thing.  The idea is if they try a bite they get a badge.  Sometimes they even ask what there is new to try so they can have a badge.  Sometimes they don't want to try and I don't force but other times I just say "take one little bite and that is all you have to do" and it works.  In fact we got Allie to eat a green bean which she hasn't wanted to do for over a year.  I have 4 badges made some they usually get two.  It is a bit tough because Allie will try something and earn a badge and Brailie will try the same thing (which she usually eats anyway) and want and badge and rather than have a melt down I just let her.  Overall it is working really well and on top of that we praise the heck out of their willingness to be so "big" and do "big girl things" that it is rubbing off in other areas too.

WARNING: badge wearing may lead to spontaneous dance moves.