Chloe's first dance class

After talking about it forever, I finally enrolled Chloe in a dance class. It's a ballet/tap class and her friend Gabi is in the class with her. I just couldn't stop grinning as I watched her. She was just so cute. She's the one on the end on the right.

This was just a trial class, but since she enjoyed it so much, I signed her up for more. The next pictures should feature her in a cute little leotard, too.

I just can't believe how big my little girl is getting. The next day, she immediately requested that we go back to dance class. I think she's really going to have fun.

Addie was very jealous of the whole thing. Every time the door opened, she'd attempt to wiggle her way in. The teacher was very sweet and gave her some stamps and a coloring sheet at the end, too.

Happy Easter

Initially when Chloe woke up, she thought the Easter Bunny hadn't come because she didn't see footprints in her room. Easter mommy was way too tired to take care of that detail. But then she found where he had hidden her basket, and was so excited.
Addie, my sticky fingered little girl, who can't keep out of anything, couldn't be convinced that it was okay to approach her loot. "For me?" she seems to say.

Eventually, she did go for it, though.

She did amazing things to her chocolate bunny. She managed to melt one eye right off with her hot little fingers.

Chloe made sure to get every last speck of chocolatey goodness.

Only Chloe and I made it to church that day. Addie had a runny nose, and Bracken wasn't feeling great either, so they stayed home. Chloe was so good and reverent without her sister to distract her. I really enjoyed being able to pay attention to the meeting. After church, Chloe's Primary teacher and pulled me aside to let me know that Chloe had invited her, and all the class, over to share her Easter candy because she was worried that they hadn't gotten any. Very sweet.

That afternoon, we had all of Bracken's family, as well as our friends, the Morris', over for Easter dinner and an egg hunt. The kids played a round of duck duck goose to warm up.

Syrus chose to play some tennis.

Eden, Jose and baby Gillian waiting for the games to start.

The girls also dived right into the sand in their pretty dresses. Thank goodness for washing machines.

The hunters emerge from the house.

Addie got right into it.

This is the one picture of me the whole day. I have a pregnant picture in this dress on 3 Easters now, though you can't exactly see my belly here.

Chloe was on a mission.

Addie soon got distracted by the eggs that had opened, and just started scooping candy out of the grass. There's some sort of lesson about immediate gratification vs. lasting rewards here. She ended up with very few eggs as a result. Which is fine with me since she doesn't really need the candy, and tends to spit out the half chewed ones she doesn't like.

Action Chloe.

Assorted hunters.

Chloe and Autumn hunting in my improved garden area. I had so many projects in the works in the weeks before Easter, and it was so fun the day before to see everything come together. I still need to fill my new boxes with dirt, but I'm happy with where things are at.

Addie decided she needed some water to go with all the sweets. Notice my new Kangaroo Paw plant. The Easter bunny wisely knew that I would prefer a new plant to roses.

Exploring the haul. It was a really fun day. We love being able to spend the holidays with people we care about.

Easter Eggs

I know they're kind of hard to see, but this is our mama bird and her two almost fully fledged babies the day before Easter. They tried to leave the nest during our Easter party, and were gone the next morning. In the two days since, two pairs of doves and a finch have been contemplating the hanging baskets. It looks like my poor geraniums are going to be a little parched all summer.

After a long day of yard work, we sat down to dye Easter eggs on Saturday night. Bracken attempted to keep Addie's fingers out of the dye.

He quickly gave up and passed her over to me.

Chloe was so excited.

Chloe tried to help Addie out.

Addie kept transferring one egg between the orange and purple dye. It turned a lovely shade of brown.

She also started slurping the blue dye. It looked like hypothermia was setting in by the time we were done. But we had fun.

Sisters

Until I uploaded this last batch of pictures, I didn't realize how many shots I had of the girls playing together. It seriously warms my heart.

This is them coloring together during General Conference a couple weeks ago. Addie was the only one of us who actually got dressed that day, and she had to be changed in the middle. Actually, the reason we didn't get dressed was kind of her fault. Between sessions, she fell off the ladder of the bunk bed and gave herself a majorly bloody fat lip, so we got kind of busy taking care of that. Bracken and I got into bed that night realizing that no one had gotten dressed or brushed their teeth, or performed any kind of personal hygiene that day. It did make getting ready for bed easier.

Drawing on the chalkboard together. Yesterday Addie decided that it was not a large enough canvas for her creations, and moved onto the wall. And today, she went right back to the same section of the wall for more. Stinker. At least it's chalk. And her timeouts are kind of funny right now, since she keeps attempting to leave the corner, but will return right to it as soon as you tell her to, with some fake tears.

Playing the piano together, while really looking like they can read the music.

Apparently Addie's unsure her performance is ready for an audience.

These next two pictures may not fall into the sister category, but they needed a home somewhere. We went to dinner as a family and Chloe conked out in the car. She slept through the transfer into the stroller, a quick trip to the mall, another transfer to the bench of the booth we were in, and only awoke under duress. No way that would ever happen with Addie.

She thoroughly enjoyed our dinner out.

She seemed intent on reading the menu herself, and I just thought she was so cute.

Down at the Farm

We're often very sad that we miss out on getting to play at my sister Sarah's house in Utah. She's been rapidly restocking the family petting zoo. However, Bracken's cousin in Elk Grove invited us over to see her animals, so we got to have a little taste of farm life, too.

Here's Chloe feeding the ducks.
Jacob, Syrus and Chloe

Jacob giving the handicap scooter tour of the yard, with Addie on his heels. This kid can even steer with his feet!

Chloe took a turn behind the wheel, too. Thankfully she didn't try to steer with her feet since she obviously can't even keep her eyes on the road.

Addie chasing chickens and turkeys.

A big fat pig. Chloe was disappointed that the pigs weren't pink.

Chloe and Addie with the heifer.

I know we've got the space for animals at our house, but though I contemplate chickens, or a fainting goat, or a dog, deep down, I know I just don't have the energy or motivation to keep up with it right now. For the time being, we'll just stick with our 3 fish, uncomfortably amorous sea monkeys, and rotation of nesting doves on the porch.

Say what?

Chloe has decided this week that she is no longer crazy, and is now "cute." Same applies to Addie, and Chloe corrects me if I comment to the contrary. As she was getting dressed this morning, and dancing around the room al fresco, I asked, "Chloe, do you have a cute bum?"

"No mom. My bum is not cute. It's crazy. I have a crazy bum and a cute face!"

She's also been really obsessed with the fairy godmother being responsible for any items that disappear in the house. For instance this morning we had this conversation, "Mom, I can't find my toy."

"Well, what do you think happened to it?"

"My fairy godmother took it. She's a secret spy at night. And the sandman climbed up my ladder to my top bed and put sand in my eyes."

I guess they work together?

Chloe is also very into being watched right now. "Mom, you watch me get dressed?" "Mom, you watch me play my game?" "Mom, you watch me watch my woovie (movie)?" And my personal favorite, "Mom, you watch me go potty?" No thank you. Addie provides me with plenty of entertainment on that front. Last night, though, Chloe was getting ready for bed, and I was messing around, pretending to sneak looks at her. She stopped me and said, "Mom, you just look at me. I like to be looked at." Really.

Addie also has a lot to say. I finally figured out that "Neenah" means "need" which explains a lot of why I hear "Neenah, neenah!" repeatedly throughout the day. She's even combined it to say "Neenah foodah! Neenah FOODAH!" Which she repeats, loudly and excitedly. Pretty much any word she uses gets repeated multiple times. Such as:

Mine, Mine!

Wadoo, wadoo! (Any time she sees water in real life, in a book, on TV, anywhere.)

Read, read! (Which sounds a lot like Slimey on Sesame Street begging for another book from Oscar.)

Bubble, bubble!

Tee, tee! (When we ask her if she wants to brush her teeth, she runs for the bathroom, raring to suck the toothpaste right off the brush without touching her teeth at all.)

And I still haven't figured out "UhmaUhmaUhmaUhma" but it usually implies she wants something, and she's unhappy with me about it.

My personal favorite, though, is when you show her a picture of a horse. "Ride, ride!" She just scowls at you if you insist that it is a horse. She also loves rides in the car, and on anything else.

This morning as I was trying to work on the computer, she climbed on my lap facing me, grinning with snot running down her lip, insisting, "Hold, Hold." I enjoyed holding her for a moment, but she didn't stay for long. There was too much else to do.

Addie hasn't been feeling very well, and after hours of screaming, at about midnight the other night, I started "The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh" DVD for her. It used to work wonders on my little brother Ben when he was sick. It calmed her down pretty well until the part where Pooh is stuck in Rabbit's hole and everyone is attempting to pull him out. When the gopher grabbed Eeyore's tail and started pulling, she started screaming. Needless to say, the moment when the tail actually came off was devastating. The next day, she still wasn't feeling well, so we watched it again. Same reaction. So of course, when Bracken came home from work, I had to show it to him. Her reaction that time was a little more subdued, but she was still distressed. I know I'm cruel, but it was hilarious.

Heathens

The other morning we were attempting to read the scriptures as a family before Bracken went to work and he read this from the Book of Mormon.

Mosiah 4:14 And ye will not suffer your children that they go hungry, or naked; neither will ye suffer that they transgress the laws of God, and fight and quarrel one with another . . .

And I thought, 'But they tell me they're hungry all the time, even after they've thrown away their half eaten food, having told me seconds before that they're full. And they really like to be naked. And if I didn't let them fight and quarrel with each other, what would they do all day?' Probably fight more with me.

And as far as transgressings the laws of God goes, we went to the mall yesterday with our friends Ashley and Joshie and Parker to play on the indoor playground. The kids all just tend to run wild in there, and Addie escaped to the other end of the playground. I looked over to find her into some woman's stuff. When I got closer, I found that she had taken a big slurp of the lady's chai latte, then dumped it all over herself. So, 19 months old and she's broken the Word of Wisdom. Great. I do feel badly that she ruined the rest of the woman's drink, though I have to say, why was this woman leaving her drink unattended in a small play area which is overflowing with children and has no tables?

And lets talk about Easter. We had a special Family Home Evening lesson on Monday, which focused on the last week of Christ's life. We used pictures from the Gospel Art Kit and really tried to emphasize the key role of the Savior's resurrection and atonement. And yet every night, Chloe prays for the Easter bunny to come and bring her eggs and a chocolate bunny, and roses for me. The part about the roses for me is very sweet. What's not so sweet is that after I've finished our family prayer, and asked for help keeping the real meaning of Easter in our home, she reprimands me for not praying for the Easter bunny.

I'm starting to think that the horrible carpal tunnel pains that shoot through my left arm at night this pregnancy are just to give me a taste of the burning pains of hell I will be feeling when I face judgement for these little heathens I'm raising.