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.

Wadoo! Wadoo!

Well, our house has been pretty dull since St. Patrick's Day. Chloe still talks about the leprechan and his footprints every day. And every night she prays for the Easter bunny to come. I had hoped that telling her about his upcoming visit would distract her from the leprechan, but I'm not sure the result is any better.

We have been playing outside a lot in our mostly beautiful weather. The other day we actually broke out the swimsuits and sprinkler. I love those little bodies.
Addie, who loves water and gets excited by any representation of it, wasn't too impressed with the sprinkler.

Chloe, however, had a blast.

She is my little dancer. She even looks graceful when she sleeps. However, don't tell her she's cute or even beautiful. As she constantly corrects me, "Mom, I'm not cute. I'm crazy."

The other morning, Addie woke up and didn't want to be picked up until I had put every bow on her dresser in her hair. I think she will be my girly girl. She loves to get dressed and put on accessories, whereas Chloe would stay in her pj's all day.

This last weekend we spent a little more time with the water. And boy was I kicking myself. Some friends invited us out to Folsom Lake with them for a picnic. In all the time we've lived here, I've never been out to the lake. It took us less than 15 minutes to get there and was so beautiful. We went to the Beal's Point recreation area, and though I could cite the $7 entrance fee as a reason not to go, the truth is, we should have been spending a lot more time out there.

Here's Bracken with his girls, and some one else's random child. Addie is just dying to leap into the fresh melted water.

Doesn't the water just look magical?

Addie just loved it, especially with a stick in hand.

Autumn, Isaac and Chloe.

Fat head momma keeping Addie out of the water.

After we got home that day, while Addie was napping, Chloe watched Ghostbusters with us. She kept turning to me and saying, "Mom, it's about a ghost named Buster. Where is Buster?" I couldn't explain it to her satisfaction.

Happy St. Patrick's Day 2009!

Last night for Family Home Evening, we decided to make a leprechan trap. The girls painted their own version of a rainbow.Then we hid a cage in "clouds" and filled a cup with Lucky Charms to lure a leprechan. Okay, so they were Marshmallow Mateys, but we're okay with a generic leprechan coming to our house.

We explained to the girls that leprechans are little, red-haired, and love to cause mischief. They like to make messes, hide your things, and eat Lucky Charms.

And then I thought, wait, do I really need to trap another one?

This morning, Chloe woke up shouting, "There are octagon footprints in my room!" She followed them down the hall.

Addie helped, too.

In order to properly investigate the trap, they needed to have appropriate leprechan hunting gear on.

I didn't have another shamrock headband, so Addie settled for a ribbon around her head. Don't worry, she liked it fine.

They were so excited to see their trap worked. The leprechan got away, but he did leave his treasure behind.

And in completely unrelated randomness, look what I found in my hanging geraniums yesterday. Our little mourning dove has two eggs in there now. On the one hand, I think it's really cool. On the other, I hope I'm not running to the animal rescue in a couple of weeks. Every year different birds build their nests on our back porch, and every year, the parents get scared off after the babies hatch. And now I have the added dilemma of watering or not watering the flowers. Note to self, next time I try to take a picture of her, turn off the flash.

And for other recent crafts at our house, we made bird feeders. Don't worry, they really did think it was fun. I grew some bird feeder gourds last year and we finally got around to making them into feeders. If you've never grown these before, I highly suggest it. They have large, velvety soft leaves and pretty white flowers, and the gourds are bright green while they're growing. Then you let them dry, cut a hole and shake out the guts. We decorated them, then glued a stick in for a perch. Very simple.

Addie thought the paint was delicious.

So did the squirrels. I meant to take a picture of the finished product and just didn't get around to it until after a squirrel spent all morning enlarging the holes we had cut in the gourds. I can't say I'm surprised. They completely destroyed our feeder last year. Ah, nature.

What a Month

It has been quite a month for our little family. It's amazing how quickly things can change in no time at all.

The evening of my last real post (haunted perfume doesn't count), Bracken came home from work carrying his plant. With absolutely no notice at all, the last news we'd heard about his company being that things looked good for this year, Bracken was laid off. I can't even begin to describe how betrayed I feel. I wrote a very honest, very angry post a couple weeks ago that will probably never be published. Even now, I can't really think too much about it. Besides the injustice of Bracken losing his job while I'm pregnant, the fact is, I'm pregnant and not exactly emotionally stable.

So I fell apart, and Bracken hunted like mad for a job, and thankfully, had a new job less than 2 weeks after being laid off. Pretty amazing. We feel really blessed, but it's still not easy. We still have a lot to figure out, especially medical insurance, etc. And I don't know that I will ever feel truly secure in Bracken's job again. And now that he's the low man on the totem pole in this economy, despite the fact that he's going to work everyday, I live in fear of bad news.

And it doesn't help that this is my grumpy pregnancy. The first one was the first one, and the whole thing was an adventure because of that. The second one was my energetic one--we bought a house, did a lot of work on it, moved, took some trips, stayed really busy. I've decided this one is just my grumpy one. I've been trying not to give in, but I'm losing the battle, so I'm giving up. I am just grumpy and tired this time. Lots of perfectly pleasant people (not that I'm ever one of them) turn into grouchy messes when they're pregnant, so why can't I?

But it's not all bad news. We had our ultrasound a couple weeks ago and everything looks good. The baby's healthy and developing normally, and for the first time, I do not have a fetus who's head is big for her body. And that's right, it's another girl! Bracken's mom thinks the reason we're having another girl is because I have so many good skills to teach girls. I'll just need to find someone else to teach them quilting and scrapbooking. I have to say, I am surprised. I really thought this one was going to be our little boy.

Addie remains a perpetual motion machine. I bungee corded the chairs to the table last week to cut down on what she could reach, but it hasn't really slowed her down. I'm constantly amazed at the trouble she can get in to. Her vocabulary is increasing constantly, my favorite additions being please (pee) and food (foodah). She's even gone in the potty a couple of times, though we are no where near potty training with her.

I've realized that with Chloe, I have a child who instead of saying "um" when she can't think of something to say, says, "I love you." She really is very sweet. And affectionate. I'm still working on teaching her appropriate boundaries with her sister. You'd think that Addie's tears would clue her in that Addie is not having fun anymore, but no. I'm understanding more and more why my dad's only wish for every holiday was "A Day Without Fighting." And again, to all my younger siblings, I am so sorry.

The other big news in our house is that I was released this Sunday from the Young Women's presidency. It's amazing how mixed I can feel about a release that I've been looking forward to. I do love the YW, and I will miss being with the girls, but I've really been feeling like I'm not in a position to give them what they need right now. For example, my due date is the last day of girls camp, there is a handcart trek in June that I just don't think I should go on, and all the big activities preceeding it will involve hiking and endurance preparation. Plus, as I've mentioned before, I'm just grumpy.