Fun in the Snow! & Happy Birthday to our Buddy!

As of yesterday we had no snow left on our lawn. In fact Sean even got Brooklyn's "Princess car" out this week and she was able to drive it. (scroll down past these photos)

This is how our day was today. Complete with over 2 feet of snow. Just when we thought Spring was almost here. We dressed the girls up in their snow gear and played outside. Brooklyn always loves it outside. Gracie wasn't sure. She was loving it until she fell and did a complete face plant in the snow. I took her in the house and got her warmed up and changed her hat and went back outside. I had the great idea that it would be fun for Sean to pull the gals in the sleigh. However the snow was too deep- add our dog Sandy into the mix and that equals Sandy pushing Brooklyn (who was holding Gracie) and Gracie going face first into the snow. Sean went running to her and her face was ALL white. She was not happy about it at all. Sad to say I didn't get a picture of that. And that ended our day of fun in the snow.

Today is also my nephew Garrett's birthday. Last year on the 9th- was a Sunday. We were blessing Gracie that day. My sister called me at about 6:45 in the morning and told me that her water had broke and that my mom was taking her to the hospital. Her husband was VERY sick with the influenza and couldn't get out of bed. So we blessed Grace- my mom came to the blessing then went back to the hospital and after the dinner was over- I headed to over to be with my sister. Greg's parents brought him over when it was gettting closer and poor Derk laid on the couch in the delivery room and I had the privledge to be Nat's coach. To make a long story short she pushed for a good 2 hours and I remember when she was almost there she looked at me with the most agonizing look on her face. I looked back at her with tears in my eyes and said, "You can do this Nat!" And then out little buddy was born soon after. It was really neat to be on that side of the Labor and Delivery process. We love our little Gare Bear. He thinks that everything Brooklyn does is HILARIOUS!! We will be trying all but standing on our heads to make him laugh and Brooklyn will walk in and he will burst out laughing. He loves her and she loves him. And little Gracie ADORES her buddy. She has been sick this week and at times when I couldn't console her I would get out my cell phone and show her a picture of Garrett and she would perk right up. They are so funny to watch together. Happy Birthday Buddy- we love you!

Blog-to-book

So like many of you, I am using my blog as my family journal. In the past couple of weeks I have been researching different programs that can print out myblog. I have come across 3 that I have played with (spent many hours with- actually)

blog2print.com
blurb.com
scrapbookblogger.com

On all 3 of them you enter in your blog url and it is uploaded. So Scrapbookblogger is the most user friendly- mine ended up being 68 pages and $38.00. Blog2print includes all the comments that were left so mine was 125 pages with comments and $62 for a hard cover $52 for soft. I decided if I used this program I wouldn't print the comments so deleting them took it down to 70 pages making it $42.45. You can also print an electronic ebook for $3. My favorite program and the one that I think I am going to use it Blurb. I am still playing with it and don't know the page # or cost. (None of these programs include the pictures from slide shows or SmileBoxes which kinda stinks.)

I hope this helps anyone that has been thinking about doing this. If anyone knows of any other program they have used will you please let me know. Doing this is very time consuming- but I think definately worth it.

I love my girls!

Poor Gracie had a rough day on Friday. We recently started getting the Rosehill Dairy milk (they deliver it to your house), Friday it came and Brooklyn was so excited to get it and went running into the kitchen to put it in the fridge. Of course Gracie went running right behind her and somehow managed to trip and smack the corner of our lamp/magazine rack. It made the loudest sound and I knew she was going to be bad. Sure enough when I got to her there was blood coming out of her top lip and there was the gash just below her bottom lip. Needless-to-say I have never heard her cry as hard as she did. But after about 5 minutes she was back to herself. Than a couple hours later I was doing Brooklyn's hair and she was sitting on a stool and Gracie tripped and hit her head on it. Poor thing! Then to top it off- I had to get gas and got a carwash because our car was disgustingly dirty and the carwash totally traumatized her. She screamed through the whole thing. I am curious if it will scare her everytime or if everything just added up and she had had it. (As a side note- aren't babies so cute in their jammies? I love it!)

Still smiling- I might add that this smile melts my heart!

Brooklyn is OBSESSED with gum. She is crazy. Sean had some in his pocket and she walked by him and then came back and smelled his pocket and said. "I smell gum!" We looked at each other like what the heck. So along with chewing it she is quite proud of herself when she blows a bubble!

(At one point of this day she did have a shirt on under this shirt- but of course she had to take it off.)

I love this picture with her looking cross-eyed at the bubble

Happy (late) Birthday Mom!

Yesterday was my mom's birthday and we had a great day! We had a delicious birthday lunch at my aunt's courtesy of my sister. Thanks Nat! And then we had a scrumptious birthday dinner at one of our families favorite places- Fredrico's. While at Freddy's we learned that my sister-in-law Chelsea got accepted into the Marriage and Family Therapy Program at USU. We are so happy for her and ourselves that her and Brett will be around for at least 2 more years!

The birthday girl

My cute mom and me wore the same sweater

Getting ready to blow out the candles

Not to get all sappy- but I really love my mom!! I don't know how I got so blessed to have her as my mom. She is such a great example to all of us. She is a very hard worker and has been her whole life. My sister mentioned on her blog about what a big sacrifice my mom has made for us. And she really has. She is such a hard worker that she is the teacher of the year at Wellsville Elementary. (She loves that we keep bringing this up :)) She is such a great grandma to my kids. Gracie just adores her and would rather have her over me. Brooklyn loves her too and loves spending time with her. Happy Late Birthday Mom! We love you so much and appreciate all you do for us!

My first quilt

About 5 years ago when I graduated from college my parents gave me a sewing machine- which has been sitting in the box this whole time until last week. My sister has been doing quite a bit a sewing and making some way cute stuff so I decided it was time I put my machine to use. My friend is having a baby and so I decided that instead of buying an outfit I would make her a rag quilt. Nat helped me learn how to use my sewing machine, cut the squares, layout the design, and sew some of the x's. I have got to say I became hooked. I did this whole thing- my first project in 1 day. The cutting took some more time and I washed it last night and it looks great. I am excited to give this to her. I am excited to have a new hobby!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Fun Times and Random Pictures

For every holiday there is that one special treat that you look forward to. For me at Valentine's I LOVE JuJu hearts. (The red chewy ones that aren't hot) A couple years ago they started making them covered in chocolate! To die for! I had bought some this week and Brooklyn, Sean, and I had been enjoying them. Apparently, Gracie wanted in on the action. I was at the table blogging and Sean and Brooklyn were playing Rock Band and Sean yells out, "Um, Em come here." So I come running in and here Gracie going, "YUMMM YUMMM!" Her mouth was full I think she had 2 in each hand and you can see the chocolate dripping down her face. She was pretty ticked when we took them away from her and cleaned her up. (On the second picture down you will notice on Gracie birdie finger the burn she got when she touched my curling iron. The tough girl didn't even bawl. And yes I felt like such a great mom!)

The other night Brooklyn found a bunch of hats and put them all on and wanted her picture taken with them on. Silly girl!

Today Brooklyn wanted to go outsie with Sean and let Sandy (our dog) out and play in the snow. The past couple of years Sean has tied the sled to Sandy and had him pull Brooklyn. She wanted to try it again today. (Pay attention to Sean's laugh in the background)

*disclaimer- Brooklyn was not injured in these fall- she got up laughing

I just love my sweet family- I am sure glad I have them to keep me entertained!