Started Out Rocky....

So this morning I woke to Maddie making music with a pen and the glass on my nightstand. When I opened my eyes the first thing out of her mouth was, "Mommy, I peed on your carpet." This is so NOT my idea of starting off the morning on the right foot.(Or as the Swan Princess would say "This isn't my idea...of fun!) So I get up and see that she has peed right next to the bathroom. 3 more steps and she would 've been on the tile. 3 teeny tiny steps is all she needed. I swear I was having de ja vu, as this had happened at the beginning of the year when she was potty training. But now I'm just mad because she knows WAY better! So after I cleaned up the mess that started at the bathroom door and sloshed its way right up to my bed, I bathed her, dressed her (and informed her that her consequence was NO dresses today. For Maddie that is probably the worst punishment she could recieve!)
       So we sit down for breakfast and I asked her to say prayer, this is verbatim what she said( I kinda grabbed a pen and paper during the prayer because it was so cute and I knew there was no way I would remember it all. Shhh!) "Dear Heavenly Father....what else Mommy?"  Me: "What are you thankful for?"  Maddie: "Thank you for my you(she said this while pointing to me. Awww!), grandpa, my animals, my cereal, milk, window, other window, oven, fridge, microwave, doors, table, an adorable prayer, the elf with all the papers in it (he's our count down to Christmas elf) amen. Brooklyn,(this was said in a very motherly tone) can you say amen? Not yet? Ok when you are older!" I think my day just turned around!

The Swan Princess

Maddie and Brooklyn have been tag teaming me ALL day. Maddie has used her high pitched whiny voice WAY too much today for my liking and they have both wanted me to hold them ALL day. I am just glad with Christmas but a few weeks away, I'm so organized and have all of my Christmas shopping done, my house immaculate, and all the laundry folded and put away, so I hadn't a care in the world! Hahaha! (FYI everything I mentioned was no where near being done.)  Today Maddie would stand by Brooklyn's door and as soon as it was completely quiet she would yell or knock on the door and then walk away as soon as B started crying again. So needless to say I felt she deserved some time alone in her room to think about her behavior.

Recently we came across the movie The Swan Princess. Oh how we love this new movie about a Prince and Princess. (M is SO into Princess everything and has recently invented an imaginary prince of her very own. She also told me that we needed to find a prince for her Cinderella doll so she can get married.) The Swan Princess has been the movie M has requested to watch every day for the past week. So....today as she was spending time in her room, pondering on her unruly behavior, I hear her start singing one of the songs from the movie in somewhat of an angry voice, "This wasn't my idea, this isn't my idea, this wasn't my idea... of fun!" Ohmygosh...I think this was the hardest she has ever made me laugh! Tonight she continued her rolling streak of being a "little naughty" as I like to call her. She even refused to read scriptures out loud with us tonight. I'm quickly realizing the control that we as parents think  we have well...we don't. I think she's going to give us a run for our money and sanity when she's a teenager!!!!

Our Christmas Card!

So every year we get all of these adorable Christmas cards and I think...next year I am definitely doing doing a Christmas card, and I never do. Well last night we took pictures of the girls in their Christmas dresses, and all though I could not get a single shot of them both smiling and looking at the camera. I finally decided to make do with what we had. Now that B is on the move, it's near impossible to get her to  stay in one place for very long. But when I looked thru the pics I was pleasantly surprised that not every picture had them pulling a face in it! So I got on shutterfly and they had so many cute cards to choose from. So here is the one we chose.

Snowflake Band Black Christmas

Make a statement with Shutterfly Christmas photo cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

Ster thought we should just e-mail our Christmas cards this year. I thought that was amusing that he said that. Shutterfly  is doing an awesome promotion that if you post your picture on your blog you get a $25 gift certificate. Awesome!!

Let it Snow Let it Snow Let it Snow!

So it started snowing on Sat night and it just wouldn't stop. We decided to have some fun in it. We got the girls all bundled up. Seeing them in their snow suits reminded me of the Christmas Story movie.I kind of wanted to push them over just to see if they could get up! Just kidding!


I showed them the proper way to make a snow angel. And then Ster did too. Maddie started to try and make an angel, but quickly decided it would be more fun to swim in it. I loved watching her play and walk in it. It was up to her knees!



Then I busted out the sled. Last year Maddie would not go near the thing or even walk on the snow. She was scared to death of it. When she saw me get on the sled, she came running toward me and hopped right on.What a difference a year makes! The snow was so powdery we couldn't even make a snow man. I think we got at least 9 inches that day. When you live in a town as cold as we do, you've got to make the most of it.

Crawling Machine!

 My little immobile baby is no more. Sigh...I guess I'm really going to have to watch her now. Lol!

 How I love that goofy little grin. She has been trying to crawl for more than a month now, and she has finally mastered it. I have very mixed emotions about this. The first one I couldn't wait for her to crawl. But now I know that crawling leads to walking and walking leads to things like hiding under the clothes racks in stores, running away from mommy when we're in a hurry to leave, and just all around disobedient little children. Haha!

 This is Brooklyn's new thing. She knows what happens when I bust out the camera...it flashes and hurts her eyes so now this is what she does when I tell her to smile!

 On the move. Watch out!

I made it to Mommy!

October

Wow I have done 3 posts on one day. This is exhausting! So I should be good through the end of the year right? We went to Thanksgiving point some time last month. Maddie really enjoyed herself. She got to see some pigs that she has been wanting to see forever, feed some ducks, take a wagon ride, 2 pony rides(as this was her favorite), listen to a witch tell stories, decorate cookies, make goo, get her face painted...etc etc. I'm exhausted just repeating all the stuff we did in 3 hours! The girls were pretty exhausted to, which is why they slept the entire way home. Thank you Thanksgiving Point!


M got to wear her costume a lot this month. To pre school, to dance, trick-or-treating and multiple times thru out each day!


She also came up with some of her own costume designs: Halloween shirt, pretty pink dress, 2 diff pairs of knee high socks, and white sandals. WOW!!!


Here is Princess Snow White and Cinderella. I had to laugh when we were in the middle of trick or treating and all of the kids are running to get candy and Maddie and her cousin stop at this fancy dress store and stare up at this blue dress with such admiration...we had to pull them away from it. Is that normal for a 2 year to prefer to shop rather than get candy??? Haha! Then we stopped at our local grocery store and they had a little spook alley. The girls got a bit scared and I was lucky enough to capture a bit on camera.



Here is the poisonous apple. I stuffed her costume so full it was near impossible to carry our plump little apple. She was a pretty good sport about her costume most of the day. At one point we looked over at her in the stroller and she had fallen over. We just had to laugh! I have been taking a sewing class and this is one of the projects I was working on.

And here is the whole family. I was the witch, and Ster was, no, not Moses....he was Grumpy! There's a picture of a bunch of the neighborhood kids we had a little party with. It was so fun. I made some rolls, and up at the top is a pic of the yummy "Kitty Litter" dessert I made. For some reason people had a hard time eating it. I thought it was delish though!

Boo!

Here is another forgotten post I forgot to finish. So this is how we started out the month of October. My father in law came out to celebrate my nieces birthday and we went miniature golfing. We had so much fun. The course was all decorated for halloween. I told Mads to show me her scared face...I thought she did pretty good!


Maddie and Lauren LOVE to spend time together. I love this last picture of Ster and Brooklyn making the same "I'm bored!" face.

Eye Surgery

So I forgot to post this last month, but cute little Brooklyn had to have a little eye surgery last month. She has had a clogged tear duct in her left eye that was so bad that many times when she would wake up her eye would be all gouped shut. I was really nervous about her getting put under and having to fast, but I shouldn't have been, because true to  B's character she acted like nothing happened. These "strange" men came and took her away and she just kind of looked at them funny. When they brought her back to me, they all kept saying what a good baby she is. That even the most even-tempered babies tend to freak when coming out of the anesthesia. Not my B. The hospital get up she had to wear absolutely drowned her! I'm really glad they had her wear a hair net to keep all that hair out of the way!

Not in Character

The day started out so promising as I took Maddie to pre school in her Halloween costume.

All of the princesses oohed and aahed at my little frog.

And then disaster struck! The girls had to go to the dr and get their flu shots. Is it mean of me to bring my camera just so I could get a "shot" of this?

So Brooklyn quit crying seconds after I took this picture. While Madison, on the other hand, threw about 50 tantrums from the time we left the doc's office, proceeded to the hospital cafeteria to get a special treat, had to leave because she wouldn't quit screaming and everyone was looking at me with pity and annoyance as I'm carrying Brooklyn and our lunch, pushing the stoller, and covering Madison's mouth as she screams at the top of her lungs at 2 sweet older ladies who were trying to compliment her on her Snow White outfit. I'm not sure whose face was more red, mine from embarassment, or Mad's from the ear piercing scream. Is it really possible to have more than 2 chiildren? I don't want you to think my life is always this exciting, I just like to share the, uh... highlights with you.

So This Is Why People Go Crazy!

It's almost 11:30.... PM, mind you, and the 2 and a half year old terror, AKA Madison is still screaming and crying and knocking on her door, and currently yelling, "I'm all done sleeping." Really? Because she hasn't slept yet and she's been in there since 9. Her first attempt to get out was, "I have a really bad cough guys. I need some Tylenol." Then after she had woke up B for the second time, I tried to tell her a story to calm her down, but once the story was over, she got all worked up again. We warned her to be quiet or we were going to shut her door (which she absolutely hates.) But the stubborn little thing that she is.... she wouldn't stop. So we shut her door, and then she started yelling, "Please be nice to me, please!"  I felt bad for about half a second, and then when the yelling continued I got over it real quick!
      This afternoon after awaking from her nap it took her 30 minutes to finally give in and pull down her own panties to go potty. Yes I think we are experiencing a bit of a power struggle here...and it's so hard not to just give in sometimes. I mean it would've taken 30 seconds if I would've helped her, but she is so capable of doing all this on her own. She does multiple "costume" changes all on her own thru out the day!

      And to top it off Brooklyn has also been going thru a bit of a difficult phase. She is still such a sweetheart, but just a sweetheart who has decided she doesn't need sleep and wants to nurse 2 to 3 times a night. Now, she is teething, but between the 2 of them I'm a walking zombie! Last night after going from M's room to B's room 1/2 a dozen times, I thought, "What's the point?" I told Ster that as soon as I'm done nursing Brooklyn, I am going to a hotel and I am going to sleep until I naturally wake up. The last time I did that was well before I had Maddie! So if I can just hold being completely sleep deprived for 4 more months....

 But in the mean time- Anyone have any advice on what to do with the Terror now? Or does anyone want to take her til she's thru whatever this is she's going through? She is really cute and funny. See...

 

Who's Your Daddy?

So I carry them for 9 very LONG months and they come out spitting image of their daddy. Whatever! It's a good thing their daddy's cute!!!

Drowning Our Sorrows

My Mom just left after her 2 week visit that went by too fast. We just dropped her off at the shuttle to take her to the airport. Maddie cried the whole way home and kept saying, "Grandma! I want Grandma!!!" It was so sad. So we came back home and drowned our sorrows with a tall glass of milk with a shot of chocolate syrup....and her brand new Fancy Nancy book. It seemed to do the trick and cheer her up a bit!

This was her trying to show her sad face!

This little cutie is getting big WAY TOO FAST!!! She just cut her lower right bottom tooth yesterday.

How Does Your Garden Grow....

This Zucchini came out of my garden. I think it should win a prize. Look how HUGE it is! My father in law could not believe this actually came out of my garden. It is a pretty pathetic garden, and I had never done one before, and our soil is rock hard, but the results aren't too shabby eh?

B's 6 Month Photo Shoot.

At the beginning of this month we had Brooklyn's 6 month pictures taken. I wanted to kind of copy the ones I had taken of maddie at this age, So JC Penney told me I could bring in my own props, and that I did. They were probably a little shocked when they saw me coming with my hat boxes, necklaces, bows and plexi glass. They said no one had ever done this before? Weird huh?? He he! I was soo happy with all the pictures that I just couldn't choose. So, we bought the c.d. with them all!


Brooklyn is the best baby in the whole world! She would sit wherever I put her and just play. We would make funny noises and she would look right at us and smile. The photographer was shocked at how good she was!


Gotta love that cute little tushy and all those rolls. She is actually wearing a bracelet, but her wrist roll is almost covering it completely! She's giving us a few cheesy grins, but I love em!


She loved seeing her reflection in the glass. And she kept looking over at her Daddy and Maddie.


This is probably my favorite picture. I just LOVE those dimples, and those chubby cheeks. I look at these pictures and I just can't believe how lucky I am to have this sweet little angel in my life! She truly is as sweet as she looks. We have been spoiled with the best baby on the planet!

Bryce Canyon--Get Ready For Picture Overload!!!

A couple weekends ago we went to Bryce Canyon with Ster's Mom's side of the family. We had so much fun!!! It was Maddie's third camping trip and Brooklyn's first. I went out and bought us a 10 man tent. That's right a 10 man tent. It was awesome. We fit our queen air mattress, playpen, sleeping bag for Maddie and the rest of our loot in there. It was awesome! These first pics are of us setting up the tent. Maddie was helping Daddy and got tired out in between, so she had to take 5 in her princess chair!



Our first day was a long one. We left at 5 am, and Maddie was so excited about going camping, that she could not go back to sleep. so after setting up the camp, meeting her cousins, and going swimming she zonked out, in her towel and nothing more. I've never seen her so tired! Unfortunately putting the girls down at bedtime did not go so well. We started at about 10:30 and did not get them asleep until almost midnight. I think next time we'll have to find a sound proof tent. They were both taking turns screaming their guts out. It was not pretty let me tell you. After the initial getting them to sleep though, they slept great....It wasn't until Maddie woke up in the morning that we realized she had peed in her brand new sleeping bag. Oh joy!


The girls loved being out and hiking around! Maddie was so excited to have her Grandpa "Stee-ele" there.



Of all the things we did and saw, Maddie's favorite thing was....the dirt. She is not my daughter. Wink! At one point while Maddie was covering herself in dirt somebody asked her what she was doing. She replied matter-of-factly, "I'm washing my hands in the dirt." Of course!

Maddie loved playing with her cousins, especially 4 year old Maddie.(What a great name!) We took the girls on a walk and Maddie tried to strike up conversation with her. She said,"So my daddy has a green moped. I like to ride on it with him sometimes!" I think she was trying to score "cool" points with her older cousin. Has anyone seen Ster's moped???? Hehe! Then a few minutes later she said, "So...where's your mommy?" Older Maddie, "In her tent." Our Maddie, "Oh cool." It was so cute to hear their llttle conversation!


We kept this little monkey on a leash at all times while hiking, if you know Maddie, you know why!!!

These are my fave pics. I love the one of M holding B. She looks so grown up. That picture of Maddie with her "Nose on the car" cracks me up. She was being naughty so that was her time out. And the picture of Brooklyn just describes her to a T. She is always happy and always smiling.

Wild Tutu Party!

So Monday Maddie asked me to do her hair "all wild" and then she wanted us to play dress up. She made sure Brooklyn got in on our wild party!


 And believe it or not M picked out her own outfit and accessories! I think it truly reflects her wild personality!
 I actually thought the pictures turned out kinda cute.


Oh how I  love my girly girls! I get to play "dress up" with them every day! What a lucky mommy!