A few years ago we went to the ICE! Exhibit at The Gaylord Texan. At the time Sophia was still a baby in the sling all bundled up and I was 2 months pregnant with Phoebe. I must say this time around was more fun and delightful. No kids in slings or strollers and both girls were able to enjoy themselves very much. The theme for this year was “How The Grinch Stole Christmas”. The displays were amazing and the colored ice looked awesome.

Phoebe coming down the children’s ice slide.

On our way out there was a toy soldier on stilts. Sophia was very impressed and went up to meet him.

We did fudge and milk for Santa this year instead of cookies. Sophia was so excited about leaving them by the fireplace for him. Here she is carrying them over there for him. She was trying so hard to be careful and not spill the milk.

In fact, when Sophia came busting into our room the next morning she yelled “Come look! He ate his fudge and drank his milk! He ate his fudge and drank his milk! Come on! Get up! Come and see!” Sophia was too excited to wait so we had to get Phoebe up. Stockings were first and presents from Santa before we dove into the tree.

Pretty much all Sophia wanted was this mermaid Barbie with a pink tail that flaps that she saw in a catalog. Santa delivered and she was thrilled.

After our own family Christmas and breakfast we headed out to BJ’s parents house for more Christmas fun. Aunt Bekah and Uncle Jonathan were very wise in getting the girls cheerleading outfits. They LOVE them and immediately had to wear them.

And then came the ballerina outfits from Nana and then they were put on.

They received many wonderful, exciting new toys this year that they will enjoy for quite some time. This is them near the end of the day, clearly exhausted and wanting nothing but to chill out. I can’t blame them! It was an insanely busy day!

Categories: Heather, Phoebe, Sophia, Weekly Family Update
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We have done so much stuff over the last couple months. I have honestly forgotten about most of it, until I see a picture and remember “Yeah, we did that!” So I thought I would keep it simple and do a bunch of pictures of all the family fun we have been having!

My sweet friend, Rachel, from way back in the day when I was in nursing school got married!! I was so excited for her and BJ and I enjoyed a nice time to ourselves watching her get sealed in the Dallas Temple. She had a reception where dancing was ON! The girls, who enjoy dancing very much, were more than game to join in. I had such a blast dancing with them. It had been a long time since I have danced in public too!

They both ate tons of strawberries and punch. Could life get any better?!

We had Thanksgiving with BJ’s family at my house, but my sister Jennifer and family had come into town as well. Instead of doing the crazy thing of going shopping the day after Thanksgiving we went to the Dallas Arboretum and it was such a great choice!! The weather was gorgeous, it was not crowded at all, and they still had the pumpkin house up from Halloween. It was perfect, and the cousins enjoyed one another so very much.

Phoebe and I were balancing over a stream of water in that one. Phoebe has discovered the love of balancing on or over things.

Gee, Sophia is so ladylike…..

Sophia with her 2 best friends. She really loves them.

I just adore this sweet, gorgeous little girl!

We also went to an Airplane Museum near Dallas/Love Field Airport, but this is somehow the only picture I could find.

Then came Christmas! We went to the celebration in Frisco Square. They had a skydiving Santa and 2 elves. It was totally cool to see this, but unfortunately we got no pictures. We were also on the side where they landed and stood so the girls were as close to the action as possible. They also had a toy train display, hot air balloons all lit up, horse carriage rides, and more! It was cold but fun.

This is of us just before going to church the Sunday before Christmas. We went to Nana and Popi’s church and then enjoyed the rest of the day visiting and eating over at their house. Aunt Bekah and Uncle Jonathan were in town which made the visit that much more fun!

Sophia has been asking about and praying for snow. She got her wish on Christmas Eve of all days! It snowed for several hours and by that night we had a nice white coat over everything. The girls got to enjoy it before it got too thick (and late).

They came in soaking wet, cold, and muddy but ALL smiles! I still have Christmas and our trip to the Ice Show at the Gaylord Texan to cover so be on the lookout for another post soon!

Categories: Heather, Phoebe, Sophia, Weekly Family Update
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Sophia has finally hit the age where everything is of great importance to her. Holidays have become huge events with weeks of anticipation beforehand. As of today, November 18th, she has Christmas fever and is greatly anticipating the arrival of Santa.

She did however have a great time for Halloween. I made sure to teach her how to be a polite little ladybug (Phoebe was a pirate and as such did not need to show the same level of decorum as a dainty ladybug). Here’s Phoebe perfecting her AAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!! replete with a clenched fist swinging in front of her chest to punctuate the exclamation.

In the run up to the actual day of Halloween we were able to participate in one of the most crowded events I’ve ever witnessed. The fire department of our nearby town has a complete miniature town where sponsors were able to erect Hobbit sized businesses so curious young citizens could practice obeying traffic laws in power wheels with an entire town sized to their own dimensions. This town is called safety town.

Safety town opens to the public to allow trick or treaters to trick or treat in safety… or at least in a crowded miasma of more corporate sponsored candy giving in the hopes that we might sign up for junk mail on a whim. I am not opposed to the practice as it was a pretty good time. The wait was about an hour but the fine gentlemen of our local police and fire departments were doing their organizations a fine service by chatting with the little ones and even letting them climb on the fire trucks and figure out how to ring the bells on the front bumpers of the fire trucks (Sophia figured out how to ring the bell and finally had to be asked to quit because it was too loud).

I have to report a devastating loss at safety town. I lost one of Phoebe’s blankets while we were there. If you were not aware each of my children has some attachment to a blanket. Sophia is not as attached as Phoebe is but even Sophia becomes concerned if her blanket is not with her at night. Phoebe however, is very very attached to the feel of her blankets.

She slowly finds a “corner” and holds it in one of her hands as she rests her thumb in her mouth and rubs either her cheek or her nose with the corner. While at safety town I had draped her blanket over my shoulder. In the commotion of taking 1 photograph (it was pretty dark by then so I only got 1) and shuffling our children around I dropped the blanket and didn’t realize I had dropped it for quite a while. Sadly her blanket was gone. It has been replaced by other blankets and happily Phoebe is able to swap them out… provided the blanket has a corner.

The following week Halloween actually arrived and we carved pumpkins. I then took the little ones out to go around the block and trick or treat. They did very well. They were polite (except for Phoebe who was able to announce the she was a PIRATE!! and yell AAAAAARRRRRRR after saying trick or treat at nearly every house. I believe this is actually polite for a pirate to announce themselves before shouting AAAARRRRRR). They got plenty of candy and they both discovered a love of Chocolate.

Tags: family,Halloween,pictures
Categories: BJ, Weekly Family Update
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This post has truly been a LONG time coming. We have done several fun activities over the last few months and I just have not gotten around to posting about any of it. Now I am getting so far behind I simply cannot wait any longer or it will be out of control! This will mostly be pictures….

We finally decided to go to the lake this year. You know, that lake that is only 5 minutes from our house but we have never put even a toe into to? We went for Labor Day knowing it would be the last big swimming hoo-rah before the weather would start to change too much on us. We had a BLAST! We met up with some other friends while we were there and they were kind enough to share their food and company with us. The girls thought it was the coolest thing ever being at the ‘beach’.

Flying kites, just Daddy and the girls. It was quite a windy day so the kites stayed up wonderfully.

We went to the State Fair this year! YAY! BJ and I went years ago in the first few years of marriage before kids. We felt it was definitely time to go back. Phoebe only went on 2 rides and Sophia got to do 5, which I am sure rocked her world. We ate fried cheesecake, sausage on stick, nachos, popcorn, and who knows what else! We went overboard!

This picture is of us after that boat ride and even though I am smiling I totally felt like puking and passing out. Sophia was ready for another ride.

We went with Nana, Papi, and Aunt Catey and they had had the wonderful idea of taking the Dart Rail there to avoid traffic and parking costs. It really was fun for all us even with as crowded as it got (tons of other people had the idea of taking it to the fair as well). You can see here Sophia threw up her hands as if she were on a ride. It was truly a fun and new experience for them. (BJ’s note: Sophia also threw up her hands as if she was no a ride when the DART train started moving. It was the most hilarious and cute thing. Half the car was looking at our little darling hamming it up with excitement).

BJ’s note: I’m posting this for Heather and will be adding some other posts.

Categories: Heather, Weekly Family Update
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I know, I know. I haven’t posted anything in awhile, and when I do they are few and far between. Life is just so darn busy! So I am finally committing myself to doing an update about each of the girls since so much has been going on.

Phoebe has bangs! I felt so bad for her looking through her hair all the time with her head tilted back, so I cut some bangs on that poor child. The instant I did it her face looked so different to me. It is amazing what a simple haircut can do. She looked more grown up to me. What is even more fun, is when I put her hair in pigtails she looks like Boo from Pixar’s movie Monsters, Inc. We get told that pretty much wherever we go. I am thankful I managed not to butcher her bangs like I did on Sophia that one time. Whew!

She is enjoying learning at the moment. She repeats all sorts of new words with almost perfect pronunciation the first time. She wants to count and will say “one, two, three” quite a bit, but usually before she is about to jump off something. She is learning some colors as well and LOVES to have books read to her. Her absolute favorite right now is “Alpha Oops”. I highly recommend this book! It is about the alphabet getting all jumbled up because Z was basically sick (*jealous*) of A always getting to go first. It has fun, bright pictures and a simple but fun story line. She is always bringing it to us and will do this multiple times a day. She will never get sick of this book it seems, but mama and daddy sure have. She pays attention enough to the stories that when she opens a familiar book she will repeat several words from that page.

She is my ‘picky eater’ and as I explained to my mother “This is no way to live!!” I cannot stand having a picky eater for a child. I am so spoiled with Sophia who will just about eat everything and anything. She is small for her age so I worry about her nutrition, but she is growing fine and isn’t starving to death. So I must be doing okay! She is in a phase right now where one or two bites of something she likes will do, then after that she spits it out or refuses it. Or even refuses it from the beginning! I am a bit frustrated with the waste of food around here and have pondered starting a company where I can gather up all the uneaten food and make compost out of it or something useful! Her appetite better expand or mama is gonna go nuts!

However, even with her ‘picky’ eating she does enjoy some interesting Japanese foods like dried seaweed, chili bits, and rice crackers wrapped in dry seaweed. Strange, right?! Plus, I think this child would survive off cheese if she could. I lose count on how many times a day she asks for cheese. I suppose it is a blessing she has showed no signs of being lactose intolerant yet.

While on the topic of food….when she eats something that is a treat or tasted really good like cookies or candy she will squeal and jig around a bit. Or she will go “mmmmm”. She clearly feels so good and happy eating that item she has to express it!

She enjoys brushing her teeth and gets excited if I even mention it. She will RUN to the bathroom squealing “Brush TEEEEETH!” I, of course, trying to make sure her teeth actually get clean, try and help or do it for her. No way! “I do it” she tells me and pulls her hand away. She can only get better from here. Plus, she is going to be my braces kid too I think. She is gap toothed and crooked already!

We have spent a lot of time at our community pool this year, oh happy day! The girls adore going to the pool. We went through a time with Phoebe trying to figure out what would work for her—a big round floaty seat? No. A bodysuit with the floaty attached? No. Nothing at all with mama watching her like a hawk? Um, no! So, one blessed day at the pool a woman let me borrow her arm floaties (from the dollar store!) and Phoebe loved them. They looked huge on her, but she was not uncomfortable and did so good in them! She swam off and did her own thing. She would only get nervous and start fussing if she felt she got too far from me. Otherwise it is little Miss Independent! Better still, the woman let me keep the floaties saving me a trip and a buck!

By the end of August I was able to get her to jump from the steps or the edge of the pool to me. She will go underwater from it and everything but is okay with it and doesn’t cry. I am so proud of her progress and bravery!

Dancing, dancing. She loves to dance. We have fun blasting the stereo and rockin’ out to some tunes. All 3 of us get into it and I die laughing watching all the moves the girls come up with. So far the favorites are MGMT, Gnarls Barkley, and Jamiroquai.

She adores (and dislikes) her big sister so much. Sophia is very much into imaginative play right now and Phoebe gets in on it whenever she can. They enjoy chasing each other around the house, screaming and squealing as they do it, or tickling one another. They really can have *rare* moments of being so sweet and play nicely. However, amidst all this is fighting, hitting, biting, yelling, and bossing around. Yes, even bossing around on Phoebe’s part. She has way more sass and attitude than Sophia did, and a temper too. What is that saying about what goes around comes around….? Karma….? (Jenn, I know you are smiling right now. You too mom!)

Categories: Phoebe, Weekly Family Update
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I heard that when a child turns 3 years old that is when the “why” stage begins. I have to admit I hate it when a child, who doesn’t really even understand “why” anyway, asks me that. It is like a broken record of “why” after any statement you make to them…..you are just going to get it over and over again! “Why” is too general and could lead to all sorts of replies, rather than a direct question. So far, and hopefully this will not change, Sophia has not been a “why?” child. She has asked me very direct, simple questions about things in life. They are very random, but her curiosity is clearly growing. Here is a sample of what this child has been thinking about lately:

“Did a tractor build my house?”

“Do I have a brain?” After much discussion with her on people and brains and what they do for us….”Do cats have brains?” and so on and so on about several other animals. So then we had a discussion about animals and their brains.

“Are we people?” and “Are we humans?”

“When I grow big am I gonna be a mommy?”

“Are we on earth?” Which led to more questions like “Is our house on earth?” “Are we driving on earth?” We had a lengthy discussion about Earth too….

I can’t wait to see what more questions she has in store for me, as long as it isn’t “why”!

Categories: Heather, Sophia, Weekly Family Update
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Phoebe has discovered the power of pants and shorts with pockets. She enjoys walking around with her hands in her pockets, looking very cute as she is doing it, or stuffing what she can into them. Phoebe will tend to get confused if she is in pajama pants or other bottoms that have no pockets. She circles herself and pats her legs looking for them saying “pocket?! pockets?!” Just yesterday she was walking around in only a diaper. She took some little magnet animals she had and stuffed them down the front of her diaper. She proudly looks up at her daddy with her big gap toothed grin and says “POCKET!”

At least she didn’t have a poopy diaper at the time.

Tags: pockets
Categories: Phoebe, Weekly Family Update
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It should come as no surprise, with my family, that I am making a post labeled ‘Drama Queen’. This time it is about Phoebe. She had her 2 year well check earlier this week and received 2 shots, one in each leg. I am honest and up front with my children about shots, so when she was about to get it I told her it was going to be “a pinch that would hurt, and then be an owie”. She only cried for less than a minute and was fine after that–what a trooper! However, the rest of the week has been another story. Her legs still ache, one more so than the other, and so she has reason to complain. She will wake up from a nap with a twisted, sad face saying “owie, owie”. I found her squatting on the floor the other day, grabbing her legs rocking back and forth, mumbling in a whiny voice “owiw, owie, owie” over and over again. And then she jumps up all happy and runs off to play! She continues to bring it up at random times in a day and will pat her leg, say “owie” and be done with it.

She does this with regards to other things as well–keeping them fresh in her mind and bringing it up or repeating it over and over throughout the week or month. Whatever she chooses it to be at the time! This doesn’t sound like a future stereotypical woman does it?

Tags: check up,owie,shots
Categories: Phoebe, Weekly Family Update
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