Ironic

Isn't it ironic that on the same day Nick's sister tells me the white gold on her wedding ring is coming off and Emma's preschool teacher tells me that she accidentally sent her wedding ring to the DI that I lose my wedding ring? I took it off and placed it in my pocket while wiping down the counter after dinner. Then, I cleaned up some toys, put Brielle down for bed, read Emma a book, and started to get ready for bed. I pulled everything out of my pocket and couldn't find my ring! It's 9:00pm by now so I can't go tearing through the house looking for it. So, I go to bed hoping that it will turn up in Emma's bed. I dream about it all night!! When I get up, I rip apart Emma's bed, I scour Brielle's floor, I stick my hand down the disposal, and dig through our entire kitchen garbage piece by piece.......nothing. I am sad for the sentimental reasons, but I am also mad that I lost something so expensive! (The girls tell me to just go by another one!!) So, I check my dresser one more time before I pick through the garbage again and THERE IT IS! Hooked around the stick of a sucker that I found cleaning up the house. I had emptied my pockets and set them down together when it must have gotten covered by other papers as I rearranged things on my dresser looking for my ring. Isn't it ironic?!!

A New Goal

I think I am normally a stress-eater. When I am stressed I get the munchies. It keeps my hands and mouth busy when I have so much going on that I don't know where to begin. (This explains why I am not super skinny). This month has been more stressful than normal, but I am competing in a contest to lose the most body fat percentage, so I have tried not to snack as much. (I have lost a few pounds which is great since I haven't really been exercising....exercising would probably help with stress.....but I also need some sleep!). The stress is still there, so I have set a new goal for myself. Instead of a stress-eater I will become a stress-cleaner. There are so many projects to be done around our house, that I could get my energy out by cleaning instead of eating (and maybe burn a few calories in the process)! So this is my new goal. I don't know what to hope for more....more stress= a cleaner house vs. less stress= the same ol' house!

Our Heavyweight

Brielle has officially reached a milestone! 21.6 LBS!! (Technically, she is probably a little less than that because she was fully dressed with shoes on, but we will take it!) I stopped worrying about her weight months ago when I realized that although she ate a lot of food, she just wasn't gaining a lot of weight. I stopped comparing her to other kids and recognized that in other ways (like verbally) she was excelling. We love her little body and her big personality!

Brielle's Birthday 2009

She's TWO!She looks so grown up!!

with her new purse!

blowing her party horn

staring at her new dollhouse

A new baby!

playing with her baby & bathtub

another baby!

unwrapping presents

waiting patiently for her guests to arrive

Tinkerbell! The only cake she wanted!

blowing out the candles

our family

enjoying her cake

Brielle....my beautiful second child who has brought me so much joy and laughter, but also a lot of worry. For instance:

a heart murmur (while I was pregnant)

a Coombs positive test (which meant our blood was incompatible when she was born, she became jaundiced, lived in a "suitcase" for the first 5 days, and had multiple blood tests)

her weight (we are hoping she has reached 20 lbs!)

a possible broken elbow (from falling out of her booster seat)

croup

multiple bumps on her head......just to name a few!!

But she is also the cutest talker. The other day I asked her if she was done with dinner and she replied "Yes, I am finished with dinner, Mom." Oh! finished! pardon me! She loves babies, purses, Polly Pockets, dresses, and shoes. She is a total girl! She still cuddles with me at night which melts my heart. She occasionally tells me she loves me without me saying it first. She can sing any song that Emma sings. She plays/fights well with her sister. I am so glad she is a girl! I love having two girls together! I also love this age. Between 18 months and two years they learn to do so much! But they grow up so fast. I am a little nervous to see what the "two's" will bring, but we have done it once before.....

Rock Stars

Santa brought Emma a Barbie guitar this year! It sings "Girls Just Want to Have Fun!" which totally takes me back to the 80's! (I have also learned what a whammy bar is!) Emma performs at the top of our stairs and every time she starts jamming, Brielle comes and tells me that Emma is a Rock Star! It is too funny! Luckily, Emma shares the stage with Brielle so she can be a Rock Star, too!

My New Class

I know it is the new year and time to make some resolutions. I have some floating around in my mind and combined they would sound like this: Try to be better in everything. But since that is a goal that is a little hard to measure I guess I will have to be a more specific. I think last year on my 2008 "To Do List" was "Write New Years' Resolutions"! HA! I don't think I ever did that. But I still have my "30 List" which is pretty specific and actually written down. So, I am going to refer to that for now. And tonight I am going to my first adult religion class! It is actually being taught by one of my awesome high school seminary teachers! I love to learn, but don't love writing papers, taking tests, etc, so I thought an institute class would be perfect. But, institute classes are mainly for 18-30 single adults, so I found out that some stakes offer adult religion classes at night. So, once a week until the end of March I will be attending a Docterine & Covenants class in Syracuse! I am so excited because it will give me chance to learn what they are teaching in Sunday School this year! I am also excited that one of my good friends could take it with me! We should have a lot of fun! One more thing to check off the list! Yeah!

New Years Eve 08

the trapped two-yr-olds

Wii bowling

As per my "30 List" I had to stay up this year until 12:00am which can be really hard to do when you have a husband that never makes it past 10:30. So we invited Nick's sisters and their families over for a party. We had a TV set up in Brielle's room to show movies, we played The Office DVD game, had treats, and we borrowed my brother's Wii to do a little bowling. It was a lot of fun! The party ended around 10:30 when Nick and his two sisters couldn't keep their eyes open any longer! (I think the rest of us would have been fine!) By the time we shut our house down and got the kids in bed it was about 11:30, so we got ready for bed, celebrated the New Year with a quick kiss, and shut the lights out! What big partiers we are!!! But one more thing to take off my list!

Christmas 2008

Christmas this year was wonderful and busy. We are so lucky to have our family nearby so that we could visit each side on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. The girls woke up around 7:45am on Christmas morning (thanks to being up late the night before)! I love their excitement!! We have been teaching the girls that Christmas is the the celebration of Jesus Christ's birth, and reminding them that it is better to give presents than receive. However, I still believe that Santa is fun part of Christmas. I love the statue of Santa kneeling in front of Baby Jesus. It captures the main Christmas figures as well as showing how Santa (and all of us) should honor our Savior! Santa is a childhood image that only lasts for a few years and he can still remind us about giving to others. So, on Christmas morning, the girls could not wait to check out what Santa had brought them. After opening presents at our house, we went to my Mom's house to open presents and talk to my missionary brother. From there we went to Nick's parents house to open more presents. Our family gets so spoiled by our parents! It was a great day! Here are the favorites!

Dressed up for church

The excitement begins!

Emma's favorite present--stuffed dog (so soft)

Brielle's favorite present--a baby doll

Santa's present for them to share--Princess Barbie's

Exchanging stockings: Our new family tradition. Since Nick and I did not grow up getting stockings, I have never done them. This year Emma asked if we were going to get stockings. So, Nick and I split up and each took one of them shopping at the dollar store for some gifts to put in the other one's stocking. I thought this would be better because they could choose several small gifts (instead of another expensive toy) and they would learn to shop for other people. They loved it! They picked out some really cute things for each other. I think we will do stockings this way every year.

Emma's favorite from Grandma Judy: an art box with her very own paper!! (You have to understand what a paper Nazi I am!)

Brielle's favorite from Grandma Judy: a princess castle

Emma's favorite from Grandma Becky: a stuffed bear

Brielle's favorite from Grandma Becky--a new church dress!