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I hate giving away the surprise of my Christmas cards, but I'm a sucker for $10!  What can I say!

Warning!!!! Not For Weak Stomachs....

Today I was patting myself on the back. I was getting so much done: the house was spic and span, I had gone thru and packed up all the clothes Brooklyn grew out of, I had exercised even(this rarely happens these days!), I even found time to do some crafting....as if that wasn't good enough, I did this with 2 little girls who had decided that they did not need to nap today. I was staying positive about the no napping, because now I could put them to bed an hour and a half earlier and finish my craft projects that I have been trying to get done this whole week. Woo hoo! Well......

Apparently B had another plan for me! I went thru her whole bed time routine with even some extra long snuggle time. And when I walked out, she stood up and started crying, I knew she was sooo tired so I left and thought for sure she would be out within minutes. Not so! when I went back in a while later to see what the deal was.....holy-smell-of-puke!

I take her out of her crib and she pukes ALL OVER ME!!!! ok I'm trying to stay calm, I take her by the bath and thank heavens I did because I never knew so much vomit could come out of such a little thing!!!! Wow! I started dry heaving, and Maddie said, "Oh no mommy not you too!" That made me laugh a little.   She also told me, "Mommy we are not having anymore babies huh!" And, "Maybe Brooklyn needs a BETTER mommy!"  Earlier today Maddie also asked me if we could "just put Brooklyn away!" I was amused by all of her comments, but maybe a little offended by the "better mommy" one. But after talking with my mom...we think she is maybe trying to get rid of Brooklyn, so she can have me back to herself! I'm going to go with that so I feel better. Ha!

So after bathing B, cleaning the carpet, washing ALL the stuff that was in the path of destruction, I;m sitting here with my sweet snuggly baby watching Yo Gabba Gabba. It's 10 now. An hour and a half past her normal bedtime, and 3 hours past the time of my dreams of putting them to bed.  Now this wouldn't be thatt bad ifffff... I hadn't been cleaning up Maddie's puke earlier... but that's another story! Now you are probably wondering if we have some kind of flu bug? Nope!!!! Both girls have the strongest gag reflex and if they get worked up too much... they puke. What the heck?? Does anyone elses children do that? Or are my kids the most dramatic kids you've ever heard of???? Well hope your day was a little less smelly than mine!

We Have an Announcement....

That's right...we do! And it is pretty big!!!! This past week we welcomed a new addition into our family. Here she is!



This is our new "baby" and we couldn't be more excited! ;)  This is actually the camper Ster had when he was a kid, and we just bought it from his aunt and uncle. So this weekend we took it out for a spin, and had a blast!



The girls actually really liked riding in the motor home. Our drive was a bit on the bumpy side and at one point Maddie said, "Whoa Daddy! Slow it down sister!" So funny!



I can't believe how lucky we are to live 5 minutes from this beautiful canyon. Well, with the camper it took us a bit longer...



Who knew that the funnest part for the girls would've been when I put them in the play pen! They had a blast in there together!



And I just had to throw these pics in. It was WAY past Maddie's bed time, but she was being so dang cute that I had to run and grab the camera instead of put her to bed!

In Tha Muthahood

This gave me a good laugh. Hope it does the same for you! My favorite line is about the "apple bottom jeans..."

One Lucky Motha'!

I had an awesome Mothers Day (minus the 3 hours of church where I tried to get my little monkeys to hold still, be quiet, quit hiking my skirt to my mid thighs and quit pulling my shirt down--Brooklyn is still not happy about the whole not nursing thing...) But other than that...My Mothers Day started Saturday when my awesome Hubby cleaned the whole house top to bottom (which as I look around now I am wondering what in the world happened in the last 2 days?) Then Sunday morning I awoke to the smell of bacon. Mmm! Maddie came in with a bowl of strawberries for me and said, "Happy Mothers Day Mommy! We made you breakfast!" It sure started my day on the right foot! That evening I was told to go hide in my room while they made me a surprise...cake (Maddie is still working on keeping secrets.) I came out a bit early and Maddie informed me they were getting ready to write on my surprise cake. (She was in the drawer picking out her pen of choice. Ster had to inform her they were going to do this in frosting not pen! So cute!)

Ster has no shame! He wanted to match the girls in their aprons...If I wasn't married to the man, I'd kinda wonder? Just kidding! It was so cute and Maddie loved every minute of it!

Maddie presented me with the cake. Then when Ster was dishing us up, Maddie insisted that I got the piece of cake with the heart on it. And she wanted the piece with the M for Maddie!

Can you tell how big this piece is? It took up an entire salad plate. I should've ate only half, but I went for it and finished the whole thing! It was Mothers Day right?

I am such a lucky Mom! I love my 2 sweet, funny, wild, high maintenance girls more than I ever knew was possible!

The Calfornia Sun!

A few weeks ago the girls and I drove down to my parents to hang out and enjoy the warmth, and celebrate my Dad's birthday. The weather was awesome almost the whole time so we spent every second possible outside! The bottom row of my pics is my fave. I love the picture of Brooklyn as she falling. (Before you think I am a bad parent let me tell you why)There is a little step right there and B loved to play on that step. She would purposely run off the step and she would fall flat on her face and just start laughing, and then go and do it again!



My mom bought the girls this awesome bubble set. It required a lot of ingredients from the store to make the perfect bubbles, but it was so cool! We made the biggest bubbles ever! Brooklyn just sat there and would dip her stick in over and over. I think the adults might've had as much fun as the kids!


Ster met up with us the last weekend we were there and we hung out at the beach. B did not like having sand between her toes, but she LOVED the birds and had me chasing them up and down the shoreline.

The girls got soo much attention from Grandma and Grandpa and they loved every second of it. One of the last nights we were there, we all ended up in Maddie's room while she put on a show for us. She was singing and dancing and telling stories that had us all rolling on the ground! Good times!

Girls Photo Shoot

 We took the girls to get their pictures taken. Wow it is a lot of work to get good pictures with a 3 year old and a one year old! I was breaking a sweat by the time we were through!

Brooklyn has got to be the pickiest eater ever. So I was interested to see how the cake eating would go. She loved "painting" with it, and the only reason some got on her mouth was because she liked the way it felt on her lips. She was so serious through the whole cake eating process, we could barely get her to look up.

This last picture is my favorite! We finally had gotten her attention for a brief second and the photographer snapped the picture! I think this pic captures my sweet Brooklyn perfectly!

One Lucky Mommy!

I can't believe how blessed I am to be able to stay at home with these 2 adorable girls! I am so grateful to my awesome husband who works so hard for our family to make this possible. I am a lucky lady! Today was so beautiful and warm (K it was 35, but the sun was shining and after the single digits it felt pretty warm) that M and I just HAD to play in the snow. We built our first snow man and went sledding down the snow covered sidewalk on the side of our house. When we were coming back inside, M said, "Mommy what a great day!" I agree! A great day!

Birthday Bash Extravaganzas!

I know what you are going to say after reading this post. "Man, Kristin really needs to take more pictures!" I may take a tad too many. Ster told me that in about 3 months time I had taken almost 3000 pictures!!! I still think he was mistaken, but in my defense, just in case he's right, it was over Christmas, which was B's first and the first one that Maddie REALLY knew what was going on...AND, it was combined with my mom's pics and my father-in-laws. So there! Now onto our wild weekend:

So poor Brooklyn had been sick all week while my parents were here. She was so fussy, which is way out of character for her. I kept thinking it was because she was getting 4 new teeth all at once, but friday before her party she seemed to be getting worse. So I took her in and found out she had an ear infection. Poor baby. So I loaded her up on antibiotics and tylenol and decided, "The show must go on!" We had people that had traveled far and wide to come to this. Thanks Mom, Dad, and Fil! She surprised us all with her realtively happy demeanor most of the night! 



We got her a wagon which she wanted to hang out in most of the night, and every day since. I love the picture of her making out with the ceramic piggy bank!



The wagon was not only a hit with Baby B, but Maddie and cousin loved it too!



When it came time for the cake, I really wondered what she would do. She is the most picky eater and with her being sick on top of it...not one single bite, lick, taste. Nothing! I even put some frosting on her lips and she would not even lick her lips. Then she sneezed on the cake, and with her being sick, we all passed on eating any of it! Lol!



Maddie had an awesome birthday packed with fun! Daddy cooked everyone a yummy breakfast! Then in the afternoon, we all went ice skating. They have these awesome walkers for kids learning to skate.



The best part of the ice skating was that they let you bring the strollers on the ice. How cool is that! There were 2 other people with strollers on the ice too. (Only in UT right!) B loved it. She was kicking her feet like crazy! Maddie chose to wear her princess tutu from Glamma!



Let the "Fancy Nancy" party begin. I made a bunch of tissue paper pom pom balls that hung from the light. I wanted to make more, but ran out of time...I guess that was good, because Ster thought I had gone a bit overboard already. Maddie asked me to make her a crown cake. So I did that and added some of the bling rings from the party to it! Then we set out little bowls with earrings, bracelets, and rings for everyone to put on. Maddie also picked out boas for all the girls to wear.



Here's some pics of us all dressed up. We even got B to wear the earrings for a bit. I am so mad though....I looked and looked and could not find a pic of my mom all decked out at the party! Just know that she was!



Maddie loved ALL of her gifts! She was so excited to open each and every one! Maddie's cousin picked out this purple pillow pet(the first pic) and Maddie LOVES it. She has slept with it every night since! We got her a kitchen set which has been a total hit with both of the girls. Now when I am making dinner, M goes to "her house" to make her own dinner. So cute! I am so grateful to have such an awesome family! My parents came for a week to hang out and be here for the girls' birthdays , my father-in-law was able to take time out of his crazy busy schedule to be here, and my B.I.L. and S.I.L. let us monopolize their weekend to be here for both parties. What an awesome family I have! I love you guys! We missed every one that couldn't make it and still love you guys too. Wink!!

Happy Birthday Maddie

Maddie just turned 3 today. How in the world have 3 years flown by??? I used to always hear my parents talk about how we grew up too quick...and now it's happening to me! Maddie is definitely the entertainment in our family. She keeps us laughing all the time! I love this little girl to pieces!!! And doesn't she look so studious in her new glasses?  We found out she is extremely farsighted. More so in her right eye than her left. Whenever she would watch tv or read a book she would rub her eyes and say they were hurting. I am so glad I took her in because they said she could end up cross eyed in the rt eye if we didn't correct this! Anyway after 2 birthday parties in 2 days I'm exhausted and will have to put up pics later. It's been a wild weekend!!! Happy B-day Mads!

Happy Birthday Brooklyn!

 

I can not believe my baby is 1 today. Wow this year has just flown right by. Look how little she was!

Now our little Bam Bam is starting to walk.

B already had 4 teeth, and today on her birthday 2 more decided to pop on thru. She was a bit miserable today poor thing.

Here are some of the words she says: Mama, Dada, Maa(for Maddie), No, pretty, brr, one, bye-bye, and wow!

Brooklyn can sign milk, all done, and more. Just recently she has started to shake her head no. It's so stinkin cute. She likes to tease us with her toys. We will say,"Can I have that?" She will start to give it to us and then quickly yank it away and giggle. She blows kisses and can pant like a dog. I know you all are very jealous of my 1 year olds many talents! It's taken a lot of hard work and dedication to teach her these tricks. Lol!

For being such a wonderful baby, she sure is a picky eater! I've yet to find something she will consistently eat. She won't even drink milk consistently,(unless it's from me) which is making it really hard to wean her....any suggestions?

 When I get her out of her crib in the morning or when she has really missed me, she will lay her head on my shoulder and pat my back and say, "Mmmm!" Melts my heart! Most nights she loves going to bed and will lay right down grab her blanket and smile at me before I leave. I love this little baby more than words can say and I can not believe what a huge blessing she has been to our family this past year.