A couple of pictures of Brailie just because she is cute

Brailie rides a bike

Brailie has been attempting to ride this bike for a while now.  We actually have a Dora bike that we bought her at the thrift store that she really wants to ride but I told her she can't have it until she learns to pedal this one.  Well little miss cool is well on her way to learning.   She just started pedaling good at the end of May.  What a cutie I might add.  Dora bike here she comes.

Brai the cowgirl

Allie had got a cowgirl hat for her birthday and we don't do well at our house with only one of anything so when Greg and I were gone for our anniversary I found this cowgirl hat at DI and bought it for Brailie.  She isn't that much into wearing it but since she had to rescue this stick horse from my yardsale pile and we were playing "She'll Be Comin Round the Mountain" on the kids songs CD I was able to convince her to put the hat on and ride the horse and I ended up with some adorable pictures.  I think she makes a cute cowgirl.  My mom and I had bought her the cutest pair of cowgirl boots in Montana while we were there because we could totally see her in them with every outfit but they didn't fit.  They would have been the perfect accessory for this day.

I don't think there is a cowboy alive that doesn't pick their nose. 

What a sweet little lady don't  you think?

Brai has discovered her hips

I have been slacking on posts lately.  My camera needs to be downloaded to my computer, my life needs to have a minute or two to do so, my children need to nap longer or nap period, I need to get up at 5:30 to do this plus weed the garden, put away laundry, mop my floor, make some sense of my craft room, and dejunk all the junk baskets I have around my house.  You know just the normal excuses.  Plus when I look at blogger and it tells me that 2 people on average view this blog it doesn't give me much motivation to actually post something-except that I know my mom loves it.  I have had this video to share for a while.  Brailie is becoming quite the dancer.  She always is doing some crazy move and her little hip shake is priceless.  She gets it from me-I had a mean hip hip shake back in my day. 

Untitled from Heather Parsons on Vimeo.

Sunday morning pictures (the uneditted version)

I got a new dress for Allie from the thrift store when Allisha and I went on a little shopping getaway.  She was thrilled and insisted on wearing it to church.  Auntie Mandy had done her hair the day before (complete with braid and curls from the curling iron...WHAT-she never lets me do that) and she insisted on keeping those in too.  She also asked to have her picture taken with Brailie.  When I had them go outside to get some "good" shots this is what happened:

And that is pretty much when I decided that we had had enough of a photo shoot for one Sunday morning.

Proof that I can sometimes dress my daughter to look stylish

Most of the time she couldn't be bothered with looks (which I am super grateful for) and hairdo's and cute outfits.  Sometimes though she likes to have on something stylish and go to dad's school at lunch to show him her outfit.  I thought this one was really cute and she is letting me put her hair in ponytails now which is nice.

 Brailie wanted her picture taken too in her dress.

 And she thought everyone needed to see the back of her hair too (yep-typical messy mullet-someday she will have a different hairstyle).

 Brailie's favorite thing right now are her rain boots.  She wears them pretty much everywhere.

 Trying on hats.

 She makes a cute cowgirl. 

Allie turns 4

On Sunday April 15th Allie turned 4.  She is such a sweet girl.  We are so grateful she is part of our family.  Some stats about Allie at 4:

She weighs 40 pounds

She has blueish green eyes

Her favorite food is tacos and beans.  She also loves macaroni and cheese, hamburgers, cucumbers, tomatoes, pickles, orange yogurt, fruit snacks, muffins, pumpkin bread...well the list goes on.  She is a really good eater

She loves playing with Brailie, swinging in the back yard, playing in water, digging in dirt, singing and dancing and playing dolls and dollhouse

She loves having a bath and usually doesn't want to get out

She still likes me to help her get dressed though she can do it herself

She loves nightgowns and princesses and strawberry shortcake

She loves to play with friends.  If I could have one wish for her it would be for her to have more friends.  I wish we could have a family move in with a girl just her age who would be in her class at school and church.

She knows how to spell and write her first name and spell her last name

She knows her address, phone number and the country she lives in as well as the pledge of allegiance

She is learning to sound out and read words like cat, hat, pot, dot, sit

She is really good at counting, cutting and gluing.  She knows all her colors and shapes 

She does not like to color

She loves to have stories read to her and to go to the library

She knows lots of primary songs and really loves Nephi's courage and The Armies of Heleman

She is a good helper when she wants to be and is excited to have a new baby at her house



We wanted to get a few pictures before church and the girls were willing so we snapped away.  100 pics later we had to weed down our favorites.  Here are mine:

Even though she isn't looking at the camera I like that this picture shows her calm quite side-which we see occasionally.

We had to include Brailie

Cute little sweet girl

Doing a crazy picture

This one looks like she is leading the music.  She is really cute when she does that in FHE

Giving daddy a kiss

The blue eyed girls

Giving mom a kiss

Proud dad with his sweeties.

One smart cookie Brailie

This is a video of Brailie saying her name, her address, her phone number, what country she lives in and then the Pledge of Allegiance (which she kinda gotta tired of speaking in the mic by the end).  At the end she said, "go army" which is what all the basketball girls do at the end of the pledge since the former assistant coach has gone to war and he always used to say that too.

Brailie's New Do

Well this is the usual hairstyle for Brailie: Free and a big huge mess.  I was letting her hair grow in hopes that it would get long enough some day for me to style but I have waited nearly 2 and a half years and have made now progress so this morning I asked if I could cut her bangs and she agreed and now we have:

 This and I think it has changed her entire face and makes her look much more like a little girl-well a little big girl

I think she has a future in Oreo cookie commercials

Hopefully with a really good hair stylist because clearly I am not making anything magical happen with her hair.

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." 

Kitchen Help

Everytime I am in the kitchen trying to do anything at the counter Brailie comes and says, "I help you mama" and pushes up a chair.  It is wonderful and difficult at the same time but I usually don't mind.  The problem with my miss Brailie is she is super smart and inquisitive and therefore is into everything.  If something is within her reach that must mean she has to have it.

This is Allie playing with some noodles in a pot.  That was a major hit.

No news is good news

And that is pretty much what I have-no news.  I uploaded all my pictures from my camera and guess what I only had about 7 of the girls.  We have been doing stuff but I guess just ordinary-not picture worthy stuff.  We have hit the park 3 or 4 times this week-I think 3 actually, we went to the library, we checked out the Thrift Store and we have played inside and outside and that is about it.  We went to a BYU women's basketball game with Greg's team on Friday and my girls have been chanting "Go Cougars" ever since.  I am one proud mom.  Thus begins the plugs for BYU as their number one university choice for the next 16-18 years.  I just wanted to include these pictures for Uncle Steven.  He bought this cute green coat for Allie 2 Christmas's ago and she wore it but wasn't overjoyed with it but Miss Brailie is in love with it.  She is so proud of it and always asks to wear it even when it is warm.  What a cutie. 

Oh and I guess I do have other news-Brailie is now an official big girl bed sleeper.  She has been doing that all week.  I usually sit by her for two lullaby songs and then either sneak out of tell her I am going.  She has stayed in her bed every night and during naps too.  I had to let her keep her binkie to make the whole thing work but she has that only for sleeping so I don't consider it a big deal. 

Also miss Allie is adding one new item a week to her Santa wish list.  It is really cute.  I know she will be thrilled with whatever she gets but it is cute to have her want certain things.  I know someday it won't be cute any more. 

And lastly I am including a scan of Allie's name writing book from this week in our preschool. She is so smart and can write her name.   

Brailie Turns Two

Sorry to be so behind on blog posts but my mom and dad have been here and so I have had many other important things to do.  Now I am catching up starting with Brailie's "Hoo's Two" birthday party.

The cake

Take home prizes for kids and adults

Owl masks for the little kids

Candy bars for the kids

Cupcakes

Graham crackers (note-don't make the night before-oops)

The birthday girl

We love Dora-so thank you Aunties that bought this.

Plate and cup set from Auntie Cathy-she loves the cup especially and is so cute when she uses it.



Princesses from Grandma and Grandpa-she loves those (as does Allie)



She loves her new baby doll (I finally got it right and bought the right gift that has been played with more than 5 minutes)

Baby accessories from Uncle Steven-so much fun for the girls.



Loaded up with all her gifts



This picture was taken on Halloween-her actual birthday. 



Things we love about Brailie:
-She has such personality-she keeps us laughing and snickering in moments when we should be serious like saying prayers, family home evening and during time outs.
-She loves her sister
-She has beautiful, sparkly eyes
-She loves to sing songs and currently loves ABC song, Three Little Witches, I am a Child of God, and Scripture Power
-She loves food and is so independent in eating
-Her adorable little gallop
-How she loves to be tickled and laughs
-She loves to give slobbery kisses and big hugs
-Her facial expressions are the best
We are so grateful to have Brailie in our home and as part of our family.