that's my girl!

And just so you don't think Emma is the only one making us laugh lately...

I went to walmart this morning with Emma, Bree and my niece Eden. I'm in the produce section and Emma keeps saying "Mom. mom. mom." I keep saying what and she just keeps saying my name and I'm getting aggravated that she won't tell me what she wants. So I'm spending all this time paying attention to her and Eden and getting my stuff that I don't even notice the 2 women cracking up. One of them lets me know that my other child is going from vegetable to vegetable, licking each one.

Nice.

Raised from the dead

Emma just ran in the house. She got a cup and filled it with water because she found a dried up worm outside and was going to pour water on it to bring it back to life. I don't think I've ever talked to her about reconstituting dried food...

Dinosaur teeth!

I had to take Bree to the dr. today and when we walked into the room I sat her on the exam table. She was being all fussy and whiny b/c her knee hurt. So in an effort to cheer her up I pretended to be angry and try not to smile, then I started laughing. Her eyes got all huge and she exclaimed, "Mommy, you have dinosaur teeth!!" (lisp included) and started examining my mouth and "pointy" dinosaur teeth, which she would NOT touch b/c she thought they would cut her.

Emma's thought process...

"Mom, what are the magic words I can say to make me grow wings so I can fly and have a pink unicorn and a dog that doesn't grow big?"

Our latest happenings

I know I'm a blog slacker. Don't be a hater.

One highlight of January was that Matt & Kyla came to visit us!!! And we're lame. The only picture we took of the whole weekend was one I took of them in front of their old apartment in Wymount. It's hard to take pictures when you're LAUGHING THE WHOLE TIME! They came in on a Thursday evening and we made sure to get them to Tucanos quickly :) Friday we went to BYU campus to see the old stomping grounds, then we headed up to SLC to meet up with Paul and Anna for a date. The three musketeers together again!! There's something magical that happens when we're all together. We've hung out with P & A a couple times since we've moved back and I feel like I'm cheating on Kyla or that I'm betraying her or something :) Do you feel like that Anna? We went to Macaroni Grill and there were moments that I thought I might pee my pants we were laughing so hard. Guys-I can't wait for our "cruise" (wink wink). Then on Saturday Dave & Matt went skiing and Paul was nice enough to watch the kids while the girls went to the outlets! Then we all met back up at the Jackson family condo in Midway. Of course, it was the weekend of the blizzard! So we were surrounded by a TON of snow! It was so gorgeous. The condo was a great place for the kids to play (aka, not sleep) and we stayed up sooooo late. M & K had to leave early the next morning-boo. Thanks for coming you two! These 2 couples are lifelong friends and I just love them so much.

We also had a great valentine's day, complete with awesome cookies I made. I found a great glaze recipe. Now if only I can remember where I found it. And I made some more clothes for the girls and a shower curtain which I LOVE. We've gotten together with a lot of friends and family and I've even gone to a few girls nights (and totally looking forward to a girls trip!!). We're finally getting into the swing of things here. I'm serving in the Young Womens at church and it is so much fun and I love the girls and women I work with!

Bree started preschool and gymnastics-she's a big girl...and I have a couple hours on tuesdays and thursdays ALL TO MYSELF! I cleaned today. yay. But I'm so happy that she's doing this-she needed some sort of stimulation. She is so funny. We have a walmart down the street, which I frequent quite often. It's a quiet, unbusy walmart. The second we walk in she starts performing. People just start laughing when she walks by...or I should say "prances" by. She does shoulder shimmies and struts and does twirls all down the aisles. All while singing made up songs at the top of her lungs. I love this girl.

And Emma came home from school with a new story. I didn't know about it until we were doing something in the kitchen and she randomly asks me if I knew that we all have invisible buckets. She goes on to explain that some people are bucket fillers and bucket dippers. When you do nice things and are kind and respectful you are being a bucket filler. When you are mean and rude then you are a bucket dipper. She is quick to point out when we are being bucket fillers or bucket dippers. It's become her new way of scolding Bree. Bree "aggravates" Emma quite often, and Emma has now resorted to scolding Bree with, "BREE!! You are being a bucket DIPPER!!!" She is growing up so fast. She's already started learning about doing the splits (remember those days on the playground??) and she's constantly talking about wiggly teeth and learning to tie her shoes. I don't think I'm quite ready for this yet...

Can you tell...

I moved the desk into the basement. It's helping with my internet addiction, I think. I haven't been on the computer in so long! I check my email about once a day instead of 50 times. And the house might be just a titch cleaner. And without seeing all the fabric that I can buy online, my bank account is a bit healthier too. We'll see how long this lasts :)

I also haven't been taking any pictures. So here's one I took a couple months ago. No, it's not some random picture of towels making a mess on the ground. That's an Emma lump and a Bree lump. This is what they do when they get out of the tub. They curl up in a ball on the ground so they can stay warm. It's actually kinda cute when I'm not in a hurry.

Happy Anniversary to us!

It's been nine LOOOONG years. Just kidding. They've flown by. Last week was our anniversary and not only did we get to go out that night BY OURSELVES, we were also treated the next night to a Jazz game. Two nights in a row with a baby-sitter (my sweet sister Kimmy). We were in heaven.

And Dave came home with flowers and this card. Why yes, I DO laugh every day of my life.

We've been busy...

*Warning-lots of words and pictures :)

One of my new year's resolutions should be staying up to date with the blog. If I did posts in little spurts then it wouldn't seem so overwhelming to put everything on. But I'm a slacker. Why make a resolution when you know you're going to fail? That's just stupidity. But I'll do my best to stay more up to date.

November and December were so full of family things and getting ready for Christmas. We moved here and I wanted to get together with old friends, but the holidays slammed us hard :) So, to our "old friends"-we WILL be calling to hang out...just give us time to detox from the holidays.

I hope everything we did helped create memories. We hosted Thanksgiving at our house...the day BEFORE our new couch arrived. I was so stressed about not having enough space for people to sit and veg out after eating, but it all worked out in the end. I tried a new turkey recipe, cornbread stuffing recipe, and mashed potato recipe. Turkey and potatoes were a hit, stuffing was gross. Poor Dave, he loves stuffing and this was such a disappointment. I might have to do a "make-up" Thanksgiving dinner for him...sometime in February.

December started off with the girls being sick-we missed our ward's Christmas Night in Bethlehem party, which I heard was the best party they ever had, that it really helped everyone feel the spirit of Christmas. But at least we made it to Dave's office party-ugly sweater and all! They do a variety show of sorts and it's mandatory for the doctors to participate. So a couple weeks before we all got together to plan their skit. It was a spoof on Black Friday shopping and to see Dave and Dr. Nate dressed in women's clothing made it completely worth it. I really hope someone out there has pictures, b/c I was involved and couldn't take any. The office is so huge and there are so many employees-I'm still trying to remember who is who! But it was a really fun party and we're so glad he works there!

I made an advent calendar and in each box was a scripture and fun activity. One of those activities was painting everyone's toenails, and Dave joined in the fun. He admitted that painted toenails DO make your feet look prettier :) But when I bought some jeans for him to try on he was having a hard time commiting to any pair b/c he kept seeing his painted toenails with them. And one month later and the polish is still on. That's right ladies, a real man doesn't care. The girls also made ornaments and cards for grandparents, had breakfast for dinner, painted a wooden snowman, made sugar cookie houses (MUCH easier and less messy than a gingerbread house!), and a few other activities. But lesson learned-next year's advent calendar will not have an activity for each day. There were so many that we couldn't find time for them all.

Emma's dance class had a small classtime recital. It was a dance that lasted maybe a minute, but it was cute. I'm looking forward to their huge production in June-even the little ones are in awesome costumes and participate. And I think in March I'll be enrolling her in Irish dancing-that's always been my dream for her. Yes, I live vicariously through my girls. But that's a story for another day.

Once family came into town we were BUSY. We saw the Chipmunk movie, went to BYU for bowling, sang in Adrienne's ward, ate a lot of food, went sledding, went on a DATE (woohoo!), and rang in the New Year at our house. We had so much fun being together. My sister took all my parent's old VHS tapes and Hi-8's and had them all transferred to DVD. So we spent some time watching old family videos. Dave hated it and I got offended. He said he can't even stand watching his own family videos. So I'm over it. I think I mostly wanted him just to see me in my skinny days :) Although I hadn't yet done the plucking eyebrow thing back then, so that might have been a turn-off anyway.

Siblings minus Kimmy, who had the nerve to go on a cruise. No, I'm not jealous AT ALL.Emma and Bree both got to be "angels"-with star wands and all!

Can't go to Kayte's house without playing make-up and getting nails painted! That lipstick was still on her mouth Christmas morning!

Sledding on New Year's Eve. This girl was eating snow almost the entire time!

Emma, Bree and Noah

Bree going off the jump!

Dave and I at least got in ONE run :)

Getting ready to do the poppers!

I still don't know what her problem was...

The grandkids and the hats they made. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Bree Turns Three!

"Sharing" her make-up with Uncle Vance

and Daddy

Hugs to Grandma Latham!

Listening to Daddy's head :) She understood the shot part of the dr. kit, but apparently not this part.

So many presents!

The birthday girl

Blowing out the candles! (and yes, she picked out the Christmas tree cake-no balloons for this girl!)

I LOVE MAKE-UP!

The glee on her face after coming down the hill

Heading to the TOP of the hill with Daddy

Our little "Bee" turned three a week before Christmas. It's funny, her name is Breanna, we call her Bree and now we've shortened it to Bee. Don't know why we bother giving them names. She's Bee and Emma is Goose.

Anyway, Bree kills us, in more ways than one. I LOVE LOVE LOVE to listen to her talk. She has a lisp, makes a "w" sound for her "L", and mixes words all around. "Think" is "fink", and she says "I fink" a LOT. I know she'll eventually grow out of it, so I'm enjoying it for now. She will perform I Love to See the Temple, I am Like a Star, and I am a Child of God on command. She and Emma love to play pretend Dad, Mom, kid, baby, dog and cat. And Bree will sit in her carseat and make her hands "talk" to each other. It's hilarious to hear her do a "daddy" voice.

I feel bad that I don't spend as much "teaching" time with her like I did with Emma, but in spite of that, she surprises me with her knowledge of shapes, numbers, sounds and colors! We have a Dora video in the car that she pretty much has memorized. She wears headphones when watching it and I love listening to her say it word for word, especially with her lisp :)

She is definitely our adventurer. She was the one going to the very top of the sledding hill and going down full blast. She'll jump into any pool (one thing I DON'T love) b/c she thinks she can swim. She wants to be thrown up into the air and jump through any snow pile, crunchy pile of leaves, or rain puddle. She is willing to try any and everything. She has no fear at all. Dave thought that this would mean that she wouldn't be as girly, but NO. This little one LOVES make-up, dress-ups, and dancing around to music. She does some hilarious dance moves. And she is just a funny girl-she has a sense of humor and loves joking around. A few weeks ago we had a family dinner at Aunt Julianne's and she was performing. She was making up loud songs about anything within her view-picture frames, couches, toys, socks, etc. Dave asked her to do a somersault, which she had no idea what he was talking about, so he told her to roll on her head, after which she proceeded to put her hand in a fist and "roll" her fist on top of her head. SO FUNNY. She was looking at him like he had lost his mind, but she'll satisfy him and roll on her head. So he asked her to stand on her head and she looked at him funny and patted the top of her head. The literal translations were cracking us up. And at the end...she takes a bow.

There are times when I lose my mind with her, but things have gotten a little easier as her vocabulary has increased. No matter what happens during the day, I am always able to laugh about it at night.

What has been so funny is watching our old home videos of Julianne and Kimmy and seeing my Emma and Bree-SPITTING IMAGES. Julianne and Emma were both pretty little things, cute bob haircuts-seriously-Julianne was one of the prettiest little girls I've ever known, and so is Emma. And they are both the ones that worked so hard at making sure everyone was telling the truth and being obedient, or that things were being done correctly, that everyone was being responsible, or that there was justice and fairness in everything. Then there's Kimmy and Bree-the scrawny little ragamuffins with curly, unmanageable hair. They test the limits and make us laugh while doing it. There was a video of Juju and Kimmy in the tub. Juju was telling Kimmy that she needed to wash her feet, and Kimmy says that the water takes care of it and that she doesn't really need to b/c she didn't walk outside that day. But of course, Juju calls her on it and says that she DID walk outside and that water does not clean your feet by itself. I can't tell you how many bathtime conversations I've heard between my 2 girls that sounds almost exactly alike. Sigh...it makes me smile. Even though my girls fight, I cherish the moments that they are giggling together and having fun, which has been more often lately now that Bree is able to use more words and has a tiny (TINY) bit more control of her temper :)

So, to my little Bee: I love you so much and Happy Birthday! You bring so much laughter and spazziness to our house and I wouldn't have it any other way!

On the agenda for today...

BYU game, of course. And the girls are feeling the cougar spirit. Mind you, this is all on their own-no encouragement from us. This is what I found them doing after they were dressed and ready for the day. And yes, it ends in tears, as all videos of children do eventually, right??