Oh my Alex

Yesterday (being one of the more difficult days of my parenting life) was full of hilarious comments by Alex. Unfortunately I was so frazzled most of the day I didn't write down 1/2 of the things she said and the ones I do remember aren't quite the same without her hilarious looks and intonation to accompany, but here are a few.

While in the bathtub with Heidi "my little pinky finger is hurt, so I need a cast" said while wrapping her arm up with a wet washcloth. When Archie had his cast She was very interested it and drove him nuts trying to play with it and explore it while attached to the poor boy.

While playing with her Nativity set she came and introduced me to a few of the people. The Angel had been demoted to Fairy Godmother, and one of the shepherds with his cape was now Prince Charming. I bet you can't guess what Alex's new favorite book/movie/barbie doll is.

For some reason Alex has started calling me neighbor. While I was working on the computer this afternoon she pranced right up, handed me a box of wipes and said "Here you go neighbor" in the most charming voice.

Christmas Card shoot

After months of trying, this is the best picture we've got.

Each time I try to get a good family picture I am more and more in awe of the families who always have an adorable up to date portrait on the wall with everyone smiling AND looking at the camera.

I chose this particular picture for our Christmas card, because it is the only one we have from the last 3 months where...

everyone is in the photo

everyone in the photo at least appears to be joyful

That's right, it's not holiday cheer in Alex's eyes but rather frustrated panic as she tries to escape my grip by sliding out of her coat. It was all I could do to keep her face from slipping out of sight.

These other photos might give a clue as to why family portraits have become such a struggle. I can only imagine what the pictures will look like once the children outnumber the parents arms.

You might notice the vice like grip I have on Alex's jacket through the next few pictures...

Ahhh, finally a calm picture.

While the pictures might not have been the greatest, we really had a wonderful time at Thanksgiving point where we took the pictures. For FHE on Monday the Brady family got together to go on a wagon ride to see the christmas lights for Family Home Evening!!! Alex LOVED it and it was fun hanging out with everyone in a different setting. If you have the chance, I'd highly recommend going. I'm pretty sure we are going to have to make it a family tradition as long as we are in Utah!

Heidi was a saint like always, perfectly content to look at the lights and be cuddled in a blanket.

Devin and Kara did most of the child holding and running after as usual, making the night that much more fun for Tyler and I.

We even almost got a good picture of Grandma, Grandpa and the grandkids.

America's most photogenic family even made a showing.

It was a wonderful way to spend a Monday night.

Peculiar Conversations

“There, I just learned how to spell waffles and vanilla,” Tyler said after writing them 4 times consecutively for a christmas gift. “I’ve never written those words before.”

“SERIOUSLY!?” I asked.

“Why would I have ever had to write them before,” he replied. “Have you ever written them?”

“Many, many times,” I responded.

“Have you ever written sustentaculum tali?” Tyler asked.

“Why would I have ever needed to write sustentaculum tali? Huh, I guess we do live completely different lives after all.”

..... As if it needed proving.

"I can't get the smell of Heidi's poop out of my nose," I told Tyler one evening as we sat together after a long day.

"I can't get the smell of cadaver out of mine," he replied.

Sigh, no use trying to one-up the guy who works in the anatomy lab.

Alex talking to her father about her hodge podge Nativity set she put together.....

"I'm going to put them in the barn so they can be SO SO happy about the presents they gave to the kitty cat."

The kitty cat may or may not have been a stand-in Jesus.

December December

A few days after the Blizzard of the century completely missed Provo, we finally got some snow to play in!

Alex and her baby doll loved it.

It was hard to pull her inside out of the cold because she was having SO much fun!

I hope for her sake we have many more snowy days to look forward to.

I got excited and set up the Christmas tree. We decided to use our fake one this year since we will be traveling to Montana mid-month!!!!! It was a good thing because Heidi has suddenly become very mobile, even if she can't yet crawl. She can roll all around, turn in circles and push herself backwards now.

This is her pirate face.

We were in the kitchen the other day and we came out to find Heidi missing!

She had backed herself under the tree. Alex thought this was HILARIOUS!

This week we also had our good friends the Hyers over to decorate gingerbread men. They brought their two foster kids as well as their own two kids and we had a blast!

The Hyer's two boys are both 3 months older than our two girls, so everyone had someone to play with their own age. It appears Heidi still has sibling trust issues.

I just couldn't get over how similar the two babies are! Radley is 3 months older than Heidi, but they are almost exactly the same height and weight. He can almost walk and it was so crazy watching such a tiny guy get up and move around like he can, probably the cutest thing I've ever seen.

We have this joke with the Hyers that we do everything exactly 3 months after them. Get married, get pregnant, get pregnant again, get chicken coop and on and on. I swear we arn't copy cats. I'm not sure we are quite ready to follow their next leap though, seeing as they are growing baby number 3!!! I guess we still have 3 months to decide.

Happy Thanksgiving

Mom, I peed on your purse!

"Mom I peed on your purse."

Those are the words that officially ended round 2 of potty training.

As much as I hate to admit that we are still in the throws of the potty training death struggle, we are. But after a bit of sage advice and some rethinking of the topic, I decided it's not worth the stress.

Alex has demonstrated that not only can she engage adults in philosophical conversations, but also execute every task needed to use the toilet, minus actually using it for it's proper function. She's potty trained, just too stubborn to give me the satisfaction of thinking I've accomplished the dreaded task. She's just waiting for me to dump another $40 on diapers to inform me she is capable and willing.

My daughter is brilliant, but also diabolical.

That freaked me out guys

"That freaked me out guys!"

That's what Alex told us after watching our little dancing Santa Clause stuffed toy this morning. This was after Dad made pancakes for breakfast and she said "Slick move Dad."

About a month ago Alex wanted a toy car Archie had. She told him "If you give me that car, you can have a treat Archie. If you give that to me, you can have a treat." Archie promptly handed the car over and Alex said "THANKS ARCHIE! You get a treat now, go talk to Kristen."

2 weeks ago, we were trying to teach Alex to stay in bed at night by silently returning her each time she got out. She cried and tried to con her way out of bed by asking for books and then food, finally we heard her crying......

"I just want to read my scriptures, I just want to read the scriptures." When that didn't bring us running she changed tactics " I just want to say a prayer." That went on for a minute until it was "Daddy broke my heart, Daddy broke my heart!!!"

I think it was actually the other way around.

Today we set out a nativity set made of lego people. Alex loved it and was playing all morning. At one point I walked into the kitchen to see her sitting nicely at the table eating what looked like a graham cracker marshmallow sandwich. I asked "Alex, what's in between your crackers?" She smiled and lifted the top piece to show me, as she replied "Baby Jesus."

The big number 4

Us, 4 years ago, walking out of the Billings, Montana Temple. Can you believe someone let those 2 kids get married?!

This is the closest thing I've got to a family picture, besides us dressed up as Super Mario Brothers, in the last 2 months.

This past week Tyler and I celebrated our 4 year Anniversary! We decided instead of trying to do something big and expensive, we would stay close to home and do a bunch of simple things spread out over a few days. In the end that idea mixed with illness would end up costing about the same as if we had done something grand anyway.

Unfortunately I caught the dreaded sickness that everyone else had suffered through the week before, just about the minute we decided to start the festivities. Therefore our less grand plans were substituted with lots of laying in bed watching movies and eating junk. Nonetheless it was a lot of fun.

About 3 months ago when my cousin Mariah got Tyler addicted to Bananagrams I decided to make him his own for our Anniversary. It was actually pretty simple and ended up being completely free after I stole a zipper from an old skirt and the scrabble letters from our board game.

I just love the bag.

In return Tyler has been making me a growth chart to mount on the wall. I had really just wanted him to buy a board and use a permanent marker to write up the measurements, but he went way above and beyond and even got a wood burning kit (our new favorite toy) to finish it up!! I can't wait to post the pictures, it looks FANTASTIC!

My favorite Anniversary tradition is the mix CD we make each year. Every year we put together a CD of all the songs we enjoyed over the last year, plus a few new ones. I think this year's mix beat all the others out, and it was fun listening to all the old ones too. We also watch our Wedding slide show every anniversary, and this year Alex watched it with us and asked questions about EVERY picture. It was cute.

Best of all I think rather than just celebrate, this year we actually grew closer together over the few days that were our Anniversary. I'm so lucky to have such a wonderful Husband and awesome best friend. There isn't anyone else I would want to spend eternity with but him.

Felt food and other types of nutrition

This summer we grew some giant sunflowers. The only one that really grew was in Grandpa Brady's backyard. We finally brought the head full of seeds home to clean out and Alex had a blast! We cleaned out every single seed, one by one, and she loved every minute. It's these moments that are what I love about being a mom.

Awhile back I decided to make some felt food for Alex and Archie. I finished up but never posted the pictures. It was a fun activity, very addicting.

The banana that you can peel and remove.

Looks better in real life.

broccoli at an attempt to try and subliminally convince Alex that it is delicious.

Strawberries that get put into mouths far too often and are about to be confiscated.

Pasta noodles that are very rarely found as a group.

Lemons which are adorable, yet pretty useless when you think about it.

my favorite, the doughnuts!!!

Bacon which I can't find the eggs for (they were my second favorite item), pancakes, butter and syrup.

Then the glorious sandwich!

Awhile ago I decided to make a little clutch to take on dates. As soon as I was finished, Alex claimed it for her own and every time I tried to sneak it back, she would find it. That clutch had been missing for about a month until I found it in some completely random spot the other day. This is what was inside.

Alex was overjoyed. She reclaimed the purse and sat down on the floor to finish her hidden prize.

Sick Days

I've decided my year is just about perfect.

You see it starts with the simple pleasures of summer, playing outdoors, gardens, flowers and sun.

Then fall comes just about when I get sick of the heat. As soon as October hits there are the decorations and candy and costumes to prepare, soon come the Halloween festivals.

Then just a bit of a break in November until fabulous anniversary week, followed directly by Thanksgiving.

After Thanksgiving you can put the tree up and start listening to Christmas music. Then there are all the December parties and giving and snow.

January is all about hot chocolate, sledding and snowmen. February is the start of Birthday season, followed by Valentines Day.

A few weeks later we start the fabulous month of March in which I think just about everyone wonderful was born. We personally celebrate for Danielle, then Alex, then me, then Tyler. Not to mention grandparents and friends special days. April is the beginning of warmer weather, then Heidi's birthday in May. Then spring is in full swing and soon summer starts.

I love that there is always something to celebrate!

So pretty much life has been great lately,

although with the beginning of Fall there is always a bit of sickness.

Which means lots of laying around in bed...

And plenty of sillyness.

We just started getting 3 eggs a day! Which would still be fabulous even if they didn't make a pretty rainbow of shades.

It's getting chilly here. We've weatherized the windows to try and trap in a bit of heat. Alex asked me to take her picture after wrapping herself up in the extra plastic.

We got to play in the leaves a few times.

It was sad to see them go, but our yard looks FANTASTIC now thanks to a lot of hard work put in by the neighbor/landlord.

Oh, and there was this. So sad. Cousins were fighting over a blanket (I have a sneaking suspicion Alex was trying to take the blanket away from him), someone let go, two kids went two different directions, and bam, broken wrist.

Aside from that, Alex has had plenty of adorable moments.

Everyday she reads just about every book in the house. And of course leaves them all on the floor.

Heidi has started solids. And loves it.

I'm remembering that there are worse things than newborn spit-up all over your clothes, as everyday I somehow magically get whatever solid she ate, all over my shirt.

Almost forgot

While looking through my pictures for a decent and somewhat up to date Christmas card photo, I ran across some pict's I had intended to post awhile ago.

This year Tyler and I finally decided we had better hone our 'child friendly jack'o'lantern face' skills. Left is Tyler, right is mine.

I didn't get a picture of Kara's, which is a crying shame because it was so awesome. I still think Devin won the contest by doing the skunk. Isn't it amazing?!

Our play group had a halloween party. I think Alex was the only kid who refused to wear her costume and instead wore her snowsuit the entire time. You can see her eyes peeking out over the shoulder of the pretty pink princess.

Tyler's Grandma has been teaching me how to make porcelain dolls, from scratch. It's been a lot of fun, but taking forever because I can't seem to find a minute away from Alex and Heidi's porcelain breaking hands. So we have been spending a lot of time at Grandma Jake's picking apples, playing outside, digging potatoes, and making dolls.

It's a beautiful place. With the most amazing view in the valley.

Everyone loves it there.

Sometimes I wish there was a more 'child friendly' swing.

But then I get pictures like this. And I'm glad there isn't.

As for the Christmas card, Tyler decided to buzz his head because he hates having long hair. I love his long hair. There was an accident and it ended up being a little shorter than planned.

It was actually pretty funny. I'm sure his hair will be getting long enough about the time he lets me convince him to pose with the rest of us for a new family picture anyway.