A Special Girl

Rhya was on a roll of making me feel huge the other day as I was getting dressed:
"Wow, Mommy, I can see your tummy sticking out from underneath your shirt. Do you think it's a bit small? Here! I'll help you pull it down. Ooof. Ooops, now, look! It's too low on top. Look, you can see THIS. You think you should find a bigger shirt?"
"Your undies are HUGE! Is it cuz you're an adult?"
Why is your leg so wide right there? (points to my thigh)"

Rhya is also very good at making me feel loved. Multiple times a day she comes up to me and whispers in my ear:
"You're the only Mommy I ever like/want!!"
She usually follows up with a huge bear hug.

Today as we were driving she polished off her second dried pineapple ring. It had been pretty quiet in the van, as Brielle was napping and Rhya was gnawing away at her goodie. Pretty soon she piped up with a huge sigh, "WOW, Mommy! That pineapple ring sure made me chew a lot! Now my brain is all tired out!" Looong pause... "It's my brain, right?" I informed her that yes, her brain was in her head, but it was probably her jaw that was tired.

Before bed tonight she asked,
"But WHY can't we see God?" I said, "We can't see him, but we can feel him in our hearts. He helps make us happy". She said, "Oh! Is that what the pumping is then? Mine is pumping fast right now"

And She's TWO!!

Brielle's big day arrived on Monday, the very last day of March! We've been prepping her, telling her that it was almost her birthday, so she was tickled pink when she woke up on Monday and Mommy sang Happy Birthday.

We kicked off the day by attending our weekly ECFE class. It's always a highlight, so it was extra special when it landed on her birthday. We brought popsicles for snack (I apologized in advance to the teacher, ha!)

After getting home my little 2 year old helper offered her great assistance in the lasagna prep for her bday supper. She was very peticular on lining up the noodles.

The sun had come out after naptime, so we ventured to the field out back and enjoyed some water fun. The water was really gushing through.

The next exciting moment for our little peanut was when a couple of cars rolled in! First it was the daily excitement of Daddy getting home. Next up was Uncle Mike, Auntie Kristina, and cousins Grady and Rayna. The final car was Gpa, Nama, and Travis!! She bounced around with everyone and worked up her supper appetite.

She pounded down her smoothie with whipped cream, and then finished the rest of her supper. No such thing as saving the best for last.

Lately, whenever we ask Brielle what her favorite food is, she gets this sly little grin, and announces, "COOOKIIEEE!!!" Then she rolls with laughter. To her excitement, after her supper was completed, I told her to get down and look into the oven:

Brielle successfully snuffed out the candles with tiny little puffs:

It is SENSELESS to leave any drops of ice cream:

Haha, very funny, Gpa! Not sharing!

After supper we had a little living room present fun:

Family picture. Baby number 3 wanted to say, "Hi, see ya in 8 weeks!"

Fuzzy Outside

Most mornings Rhya wakes up long after sunrise. She usually goes to bed after 10 and gets up after 8.

She had a long nap yesterday and didn't fall asleep until after 11. She surprised me this morning and came stumbling out of bed at 7:15.

She came bounding out of the room, rubbing her eyes, and said, "I woke up, looked out the window, and thought, WOW! It's really fuzzy outside!!"

I informed her that the sun would be poking over the hill shortly and then it wouldn't be so 'fuzzy' out.

A Merry March

Lunch at Pipsqueaks with Grady, Erik, and Abby

Carla and I actually got to visit a bit in between keeping up with five busy kids in a fun indoor kid park.
Poor Kristina was under the weather, so we had our first solo 'away from home' outing with Grady.

These girls LOVE every cuddle opportunity that arises with baby Rayna. She's like a magnet!

The new carseat came in a super fun box! The girls and their dolls were hiding from the buffalo for a good half hour! I couldn't believe how LONG they were totally still in there. They kept having to 'shush' their babies. Too cute.

We finally won the mice war. Lil stinkers. I was reaching for the corn chips when packing for a lunch and THERE IT WAS, stuck on the trap. HIP HIP HORRAY! A couple of days later, at 3:30 am, Nate says, "I think we caught another mouse." We could hear it scuffling around in the pantry. Sure enough, the poor thing was on the sticky trap and not happy about it. We had husband/wife 'middle of the night bonding time' and put him to his end. Now, let there be NO MORE MICE. 

Little Miss girlie of few words has a NEW word that she LOVES to use:

"Why?" I explain, and she follows up with, "Why?" I explain further and she follows up with, "Why?"

and on and on and on. She thinks she's pretty clever!

Rhya informed me that she was going to 'cobention' (convention)

Sure enough, practically the whole house was packed into her shopping cart! She didn't leave much out. Nate wondered where his bible went later on the night and Rhya could assist! Where'd my toothpaste go? Oh yeah-check the cart. Kitchen baggies? Yep- cart. Kleenex? Cart's got it! Can't forget the beloved heart jammies either. :-) 

The snow finally melted a bit and got hard enough to walk on TOP of the crust. Oh what FUN we had on the hills!

Sakari is always happy to join in the fun!

Finishing touches on the kitchen. 

Fact of the day: We recently weighed the girls.

Rhya, age almost 4: 33 lbs

Brielle, age almost 2: 25 lbs

Enjoying the crusty snow

Always Something to Smile About

Our happy yard pal, Miss Snow-woman, is always smiling. She doesn't care if the north wind blows her straw hair off or her carrot nose starts drooping or she gets buried in 10 inches of snow. She's just glad to be where she is!!

Here are a few simple life pleasures that make life worth smiling about:

Brielle's first pigtails:

She walked around the house continually touching both sprouts and saying, "Two! Two!"

Spending creative time with Rhya:

She LOVES it when I sit down and focus with her. I feel guilty about not doing it more, because when we let everything else slide and have a little one on one, it makes her GLOW.

Boots ALWAYS on the wrong feet.

Brielle and only Brielle puts her boots on and everyone can tell. HA. Why can't they at least be on the correct feet half of the time? 

Sisterhood

It's so heartwarming to watch their relationship grow, change, and connect. Brielle is starting to be more opinionated in their activities which means added spats, but they enjoy each other's company tremendously. It's so fun to eavesdrop on how Rhya explains things and how Brielle responds. They can get SO hyper together, but yet so serious and engaged in their imaginative play at other times.

New Nephew:

We certainly enjoyed our time with our mini far away nephews. It was so special to meet Gideon and to log play time with Gabriel. Now we are crossing our fingers that Gideon will overcome his latest oxygen hump and that their family can start enjoying carefree time together. Until then, sending strength your way, Terry, Sarah and boys! 

Sugaring up Valentines Day with cookies homemade by little hands: 

Little Gabriel's eyes to drown in:

Gideon had quite the support team the day after his first homecoming:

Bad phone picture but I love it anyway:

***Be the Reason Someone Smiles Today***

Nice to Meet You, Kitchen

Most of what you see on this picture was done by my dear parents. Dad built the cabinets and Mom put the finish on them. She also took pity on my pregnant self and painted the walls for us!

Nate has had to listen to my displeasure over the border ever since moving in. I tried to remove it with gobs of wallpaper remover and a scraper. I maybe got about 1 foot off per hour. Nate got bit by the 'border challenge' and removed the whole thing in a couple of hours. I am humbled and relieved, especially since Nate said he didn't even mind the the border (let's just say he's not too picky) and gave himself a sore thumb over the deal.

My father in law is still on speaking terms with us! Ha. Nate invited him over for a fun day of 'wiring the basement', which turned into 'ripping our the kitchen soffits'. The poor man didn't know what he was getting into, but dug into with all his might! After hours of ripping out brittle plaster, stubborn wire, determined nails, they got the job completed. There was only a slight amount of blood and a couple 'near falls'.

The tiny, 'back to the 70's 'kitchen was one of our biggest turnoffs when we looked at the house (remember scrubbing the gross, sticky cabinets, Gma Mo?), and now it's quite possibly my favorite room!