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.

Ways to help Grammy

One of Allie's favorite things to say lately is, "is there anything I can do to help?"  I love it when she says it; I also cringe sometimes because having a "helper" is usually more work for mom-and it has proven to be more work for Grammy but she hasn't seemed to mind (though the fact that she needs a power nap everyday is proof).

The girls have helped make breakfast

 They have helped Grammy make some use out of all those old dance medals for mine and Steven's that she has been saving.  The girls have been earning these for trying new foods and taking medicine.

 We've helped Grammy go through all her records by throwing them down the stairs like Frisbees (breaking some in the process-meaning the pile will be made smaller because of this).

 We have successfully sorted out the small ones (that fly really great) and the large ones (that make a nice loud thunk when hitting the floor).

 Allie helped vacuum with Grammy's little vacuum that doesn't make too much noise which is perfect for Allie.

 And we have helped grammy get in touch with her childhood side by playing Barbies-which has also helped to lose a few small pieces thus making the clean up a bit more of a breeze.  

Some Real Snow

Now that we are in Canada the girls have got the chance to experience some real snow-including all the tons of gear one must put on to go out in the real snow.  What a pain.  Kudos to all the winter moms out there that do this regularly.  Kudos to my own mom for doing it with three and then lugging us all over the creation.  

 This big orange sled is actually a calf sled that my dad had from our cattle days.  It works perfectly though for pulling the kids around.

 The weird looking mittens are due to the fact that we don't own any good snow mittens and the stores are charging WAY too much money for a pair.  We just wear our little ones and a pair of Grammy's on top.

 Modeling the snow pants for our second outing in the snow.

 This hat was for the snowman we made.  Brai looks adorable in it.

 This way too.

 The girls and mom made a snowman and by "the girls" I mean they sat on the snow bank and barked orders and mom rolled all over the yard for their personal winter experience.  We call him the hunter snowman for daddy.

 Garden tools double nicely as snow tools in a pinch.

Canada

I wasn't planning on blogging while in Canada but the thought of catching up once home is also really overwhemling and my mom's computer is uploading pictures at a surprisingly decent speed so i thought I might as well.
My mom was visiting in Utah for a few weeks and we decided it would be a good opportunity for us to come to Canada with her on her way home so that I wouldn't have to drive by myself.  We all crammed into her little car and made it safely home earlier than scheduled because my dad was in the hospital.  He got shingles-a very severe case and had to be hospitalized for a week.  We are extremely lucky that Daniel had decided to come home and check on him a week prior and was able to take him to the hospital otherwise we might not even have him anymore.  So we are very grateful to him for that.  My dad's whole one side of his face was swollen and very scarred-including his eye.  We went to visit him in the hospital but the nurses wouldn't let the girls into his room so we watched from the door which was a sad experience because my dad looked like a frail and very old and sick man.  The girls weren't scared and actually have never been scared of him which is such a blessing.  They chatted and sang songs though he couldn't actually hear anything they said.  He finally got to come home after a week but really was no better-very weak, still scarred, still had a swollen eye.  He has basically slept every minute except to eat, shower twice and go to the doctor since we brought him home.  He sleeps in bed, the moves to the couch, then sleeps more then gets up to go to bed.  The girls pounce on any chance that he has his eyes open to pepper him with questions-especially Allie.  She has made it her business to help him know what day it is so he can write it in his book when he checks his blood and this is helpful since he does not know what day it is, or what is happening or what we have told him from one awake moment to the next.  I am glad he is home.  We took him to the cancer clinic for his appointment which was not really helpful but I guess kinda.  They said that the cancer seems to be doing really well.  The lesions on his legs are gone which they never expected to happen.  They said all the things he is experiencing right now are due to the shingles and not the cancer. They said that once he heals from those he should actually be feeling good but that won't be for a while yet.  His face is improving drastically since he is letting my mom give him his medicine and creams much more.  Now we have to worry about the shingles spreading to his eye which can happen even 4 weeks later.  So basically he can't be left alone but he isn't able to do anything either.
I came home with my girls at this time because I was wanting to have quality time with my dad before he got worse.  Now we have not had a quality minute with him yet and probably won't in our time here.  This whole thing is really a rollercoaster.  Coming to grips with the fact that he is dying and then finding out the cancer is actually doing well so does that mean the worry about him dying can be put on the back burner for now???? The hardest part for me is the fact that my dad is not sentimental at all.  He told my mom quite a while ago that if he knew he was dying he wouldn't do anything differently and I believe him.  I wish he would.  I wish he wanted to make each day more important and more special.  The other hard thing is being far away from home and my husband, not having very many people to talk too, and trying to be a single mom, while worrying about my sick dad, while trying to be helpful to my own mom.  Plus Canada is soooooo far away from home and the process of getting here makes me want to do it as infrequently as possible so what does that mean for the future.  AHHHH-it's crazy.  But we are here for now and I am trying to make as many fun memories for the girls and spend more time doing things with them since I don't have many other responsibilities.  That has been a blessing.

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.

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.