Target, Dead Mouse, and Other Things

I've been deep-cleaning our house this week. It just felt right to be re-organizing and deep cleaning! Spring Fever? Maybe. I have been busy doing the girls room, our hallway, our storage closet and partially my bedroom but haven't made it downstairs to the kitchen/ family area. Because of all this re-organizing and deep cleaning, I've been sort of ignoring the kitchen area so there may or may not have been a few stacks of dishes that needed to be cleaned which I got to today. Go me! Except while in the kitchen, I noticed there was a gross smell. I thought surely the garbage needed to be taken out and it would be fine. Reed just came home from school and told me he had discovered the source. There was a dead mouse caught in one of our traps. EWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!  How long that thing had been down there, I don't like to think. Someone needs to invent the mousetrap that beeps when it's full. Seriously. 

POST EDIT: Make that 2 dead mice. EWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I went to Target today and checked out ALL the clearance! While checking out the clothes, I noticed a rack of 70% off coats that were plus-sized but I thought heck, if I found a cute enough one, maybe I could alter it somehow if the price was right. I found a REALLY cute leather coat sized 2XL and tried it on, expecting it to drown me. It didn't. It fit me perfectly. Umm, has Target changed their sizing or am I bigger than I think!?!? Maybe the coat was supposed to fit very snugly, not unlike those legging/jegging/skinny jeans? Sure hope so because I'm pretty sure I'm not that big.

I recently tried those new unjunked candy bars. (Maybe that's part of the problem why the 2XL coat fit me so well?)  Did you know they are made in Boston! Cool beans!! Of all the ones I tried, I liked the Snickers one the best. It tasted the most normal. Something tasted funny with the M&M knock-offs.

As of this week, Bronwyn is done being potty trained. That girl is TRAINED! She got herself on the toilet this morning by herself - no guidance whatsoever from me or Reed and went potty. I came downstairs once I figured out Reed was in the shower and I discovered all of this fabulousness, and even went and checked her pullup and it was dry! She is so good! She tells us all the time when she needs to use the "toilet". She's really good at holding it and seems to go and take care of it before she has an accident.  Now should you think this means she has no accidents, don't kid yourself. I've learned from potty training that it just means the child knows it's all supposed to happen on the toilet and accidents still happen. Bronwyn had one of those today too. Aftyn hasn't had an accident in 7 months, so I'm fully expecting it to take about a year and a half for accidents to completely stop with Bronwyn. Maybe sooner. She sure seems responsible for the most part about taking herself to the toilet.

Also, I went running today because it was 60 degrees this morning. My running could have something to do with my trip to Target. ;)

Endearing

Kids are so endearing. Here are a few examples of today's experiences.

Bronwyn got a wild hare today as I was sitting on the floor of her bedroom

sorting and putting clothes away into drawers.

She grabbed the neck of my shirt, pulled it out and looked down my shirt I guess to see

what it was that my shirt was covering.  And then started identifying things.

"Shirt."  "Backpack."  Backpack?  After thinking for a minute what the heck the backpack

could be, I realized she was talking about my bra. Ha! And starting laughing very hard,

when I was suddenly being squeezed with the sweetest hug by my smiling chubby cheeked

Bronwyn girly. She is such a playful and fun little girl. And man does she make us laugh.  :)

Aftyn at dinner tonight suddenly started chattering up a storm, telling me all about how when

we're 8 we get baptized.  Then she told me that we have to be baptized and then we get married.

With a very serious tone to her voice. When I pointed out to her very gently that 8 years old

was a little young to be married, she then told me "but when I am 8 then Daddy will baptize me."

She sure wants to grow up fast.

 Luckily, she's only 3 1/2 but I know the time will go by too quickly. She is such a

sweet and serious girl. Such a trusting little spirit and understanding and grasping

so many grown up concepts right now!

Yikes! It makes me realize how quickly kids really do grow up. :(

A Good Laugh

Sometimes this is what it feels like when I drive.   Anyone relate???  

Maybe not with all the food flying or the cup being flung at my head though.

USS Constitution

Yesterday I had a primary training meeting at our stake center which is only about 20 minutes outside of Boston and so, well, we HAD to take advantage of that fact and make a trip in to go and see a few new things!  Our plan was to go to Mike's Pastry of course for some cannoli's and then head on over to the USS Constitution since we hadn't been there yet. With the use of our handy dandy stroller, we quickly made our way over to Mike's and got all sugared up for the walk over the bridge to see "Old Ironsides".  M-m-mm. Yummy Cannoli's.  Here are some pictures of our day.

Car seat shots. Gotta have them!

It was a breezy day and those cold winds blow right through you, so we dressed up nice and warm

The cool painted? drawn on? windows of Thomas Edison's Illuminating Company.
 My dad would really appreciate these windows in real life.

Thomas Edison Electric Illuminating Company 

On the ship. Aftyn learned how they actually make these floors watertight. It's not easy, ladies and gentlemen.

  So Reed stayed on the ship and took the 30 minute tour while the girls and I headed over to the museum. We were ready for warmth and some hands on fun and I figured Reed would enjoy it more and I would be happier if the girls were happy playing at the museum. Good compromise, eh?

                       Here's the ship from a ways off. You can see it from blocks away it's masts are so tall.

This poor stuffed animal "goat" is rigged up to these ropes as if it were being transported onboard a ship. It keeps "maa"-ing every 3 minutes or so and it always caught the girls attention. We went and pulled on the rigging to move it around a bit which was fun.

Aftyn wanted to dress up as a sailor. Here she is making a fist just like the sailor next to her! The shirt was made for a grown man and was like a nightgown on her. :D

 We had so much fun at the museum! I highly recommend it! It had so many fun hands on things for kids and was fun for adults too! They have a recommended fee, but it's more like a donation so you pay what you can. So we did.

We also enjoyed the visitors center there as well and we met a park ranger who goes to Boston in the winter to work and to Wyoming for the summer to work. What a difference you would find in those two places! Also, both the museum and the visitors center had bathrooms. Yay!

Boston skyline as we drove home

One Year Later . . . Wow.

If you want to re-read some honest first impressions of where we live, then you've got to read
this and this and this as well.

     After reading those first impressions of this city, I find the situation we live in so humorous. Why you might ask? Because those first impressions have become the reality we live in! Nothing has changed, we have just adapted! How too too funny.

People still drive badly and now we too drive badly. Drug dealers still hang out on our corner, but we kind of eye each other and just leave each other alone. I am still cautious when I take my kids outside, but I'm not as terrified that some random person is going to come up and hurt my kids or I.

  I have come to see so much good in the people around us in our neighborhood, even in strangers. I find people at least once a week who connect with my kids and I at the store, on the street, or in our building and who help my kids and I to be friendlier and kinder to those we pass on the "street" outside our building. It brightens my day to see a random person smiling and waving at little Bronwyn who always has a quick smile and friendly wave for any person who walks in our path. She has become a great example to me of how just reaching out and smiling can brighten another persons day.

It's amazing to me how much we have grown and learned in a year. It's amazing to look at Aftyn and Bronwyn and think of where they were a year ago. Bronwyn is saying so many things, and Aftyn is now in primary and starting to learn to read! We have all become accustomed to a totally new way of life. We have become accustomed to living in a tiny apartment with people from all walks of life living right down the hall. We have learned compassion, tolerance, patience, long-suffering and faith while living here.  I have become a better seamstress while living here. Aftyn got her first cavities while living here. We experienced our first Hurricane scare. The girls got to go to the beach for the first time while living here. We went to New York. We have had an amazing amazing past year and I wouldn't change a thing because although there have been many things we have experienced that weren't fun, in the long run we were taught or learned a valuable lesson and we can now use the knowledge that we gained. I really do see how Heavenly Father has shaped us and changed us over the past year and I truly am grateful for those changes in my life and in my family's life.

Here's to the next year!! :) Bring on the adventures!

This was taken about a year ago. Oh how I love these girls. 

This Christmas of  '12

Aftyn's First Day of Primary

Oh the many faces of Aftyn. We sure love this girl. She is such a little thinker. Very studious and serious and other times so silly.

   I was privileged to get to see what singing time and sharing time were like for her on her first Sunday in primary and boy were they interesting! :)  She volunteered answers to every question and wanted to participate in any activity that our primary president needed help with. :) She even wanted to help the person saying the prayer and to help lead the music. (It probably helped that I was conducting primary at that point and so she thought she should come and stand by me. We'll just keep working on it and she'll understand that her place is to sit with her class.) The primary pianist said to me in the middle of the meeting "Boy, Aftyn is sure excited to be here today!".  :)  I think that about sums up her day. On the other hand, in the morning before church I was talking to her about what her day in primary would look like and I noticed as I was almost done her little eyes were filling up with tears. I asked her what was wrong and she said "Mommy, are you going to be there too?".  It made me happy to be able to tell her I would be there. During junior primary, she did occasionally try and catch my eye and I would smile a big smile at her or wink at her and she would smile. She really enjoyed being a big girl going to primary.
      The best part for me came after church when Reed and Bronwyn were napping and Aftyn quietly played with her toys for about 2 hours by herself. That's unheard of at my house! I think it's because she missed that play time that she normally gets in nursery and I don't mind that at all.

Aftyn is such a great helper and also great at helping me feel better. She is really great at doing any tasks I ask her to do and really wants to help take on some of those big 'mommy' jobs. Her favorite thing to do right now is play mommy to her dolly or pretend to be a puppy or a kitty. Whenever she senses that I'm feeling upset or stressed, she tells me "you're the best, mommy" or once even she rubbed my back which surprisingly did make me feel better. She is very sensitive to me and I greatly appreciate that about her.
   She is also a great helper to Bronwyn. She likes to get Bronwyn out of her room after naps and likes to help cheer for Bronwyn after she uses her toilet. Bronwyn loves to watch Aftyn and Aftyn really tries to help Bronwyn, especially when she's asked to. Aftyn is our little coat cleaner upper and it also great at organizing our shoes in our shoe holder.
    She still holds so still for me to do her hair with hardly any complaints and because of her great example, Bronwyn does too! :) Both girls love bows in their hair and will ask for them. Aftyn loves all the snow we have now and just wants to tramp through it all no matter what kind of shoes she has on. I don't blame her. I think every kid is that way.
      She still misses all our family and friends back in Idaho but has started forgetting people. It's a good thing we have blogs and pictures here at our house to remember people by. Today for the first time, she said she liked living in Massachusetts. :)  Usually she says "I don't want to live here forever!" which is something she has heard me say.
 Okay, that's it for now. Be on the lookout for a video in the next few days!

A Night at Home With My Bronwynnie

This kid cracks us up. She has an obsession with coloring. She wants to color everything, at any time, with any person, under any circumstances. I love how she entertains herself. Tonight it was she and I as Reed took Aftyn to go with him to the auto parts store to pick up stuff for an oil change on our car. She is quick to clean any messes around our house with a towel. Many times that's how I knew she had had a potty accident because I would come downstairs and find her on the floor with the towel from our stove in her hand and she was mopping up her potty with it. And not because she thought she would get in trouble, oh no, it was because there was a mess and she likes to clean them up. LOL.  Her personality is a hoot!

Here she is tonight having just dripped water from her cup down her leg. She just took care of the problem herself, hopped off her toilet, grabbed the towel, sat back down on her toilet, wiped her leg off and then tried to return the towel to the stove which I would believe in miracles if any 19 month old could actually manage to hang a towel back over that narrow bar.

  How's potty training going, you may ask?  Yesterday marked our 9th week in and I'm just going to describe for you my day today.

The girls and I woke up, went downstairs, Bronwyn went potty and then I poured them some cereal and they ate. Bronwyn probably went potty a few more times before we went to IHOP for lunch thanks to my inlaws who gave us a gift card for Christmas. Bronwyn went potty before we left, went potty once we got to IHOP, went potty before we left, went potty 20 minutes later at Target, went potty again after we shopped, and managed to make it home nice and dry! And she was wearing panties the whole time and has been for about 3 weeks whenever  I take her out of the house with me.
 Just so you know, at this point, this was an exceptional day with no accidents. Just yesterday, we had accidents. I would say on the whole, we have accidents about every week, generally, which seems pretty normal for Bronwyn. She still feels so proud of herself when she goes to the bathroom in the toilet. We still celebrate every time, but are past the point of treats every time.

 I would say on the whole I am so glad I am potty training her. It seems to give her a new sense of independence and "big"ness and I can see progress in so many areas of her life. She is playing differently, she is constantly trying out new and bigger and harder words. I have no idea if it's how she would be without potty training but I'd like to think it is probably helping her feel more responsible for herself.

Bronwyn on the toilet  :)  I knew you'd want to see.  Ha ha!

Playing playing playing! Aftyn never drove cars around like Bronwyn likes to.

I just love how Bronwyn gets down on her tummy to play on the floor sometimes. It's exceptionally cute when she gets on her tummy and plays and crosses her little legs behind her. She still is a pretty 'little' little girl.

                           I can't imagine life without this sweetheart. She is so cute and funny, and yet so sweet and loving. If she hurts you and you tell her, she immediately tells you "sorry" and hugs you. She is a sucker for kissy lips and can't generally pass up kissing you if she likes you and you are making them at her. :) She finds friends wherever we go and waves at everyone at the store. And I do mean everyone. She is so sweet and little that almost all the kids at church come up and pick her up, but she doesn't really like it. She doesn't like to be manhandled but most of the kids can't help themselves. She is slowly learning to accept that she has to go to nursery and I've been told by the leaders in there that she just entertains them while she's there. She is very independent and will even lift her own nursery chair off the tall stack should she need one. :) She loves the kid slide in the nursery and I think spends a good deal of time going down that over and over.

She still loves her binky but is very accepting of us telling her "binkies are for bedtime!".  After potty training, the binky is the next big thing for us but I'm going to wait a while for that and make sure she's ready before I take it away. She doesn't worry me by sucking on her fingers the way Aftyn used to occasionally so I'm not as worried about her possibly switching to thumb sucking but I'd still like to stay far away from that being a possibility.
      She is proving to be a more adventurous eater than Aftyn when she's hungry. She will pick up and try anything and it can be pretty amusing to see her initial reaction to some foods. She loves turkey and chicken if it's cooked well and has good flavor. She likes meat and cheese sandwiches. She loves chocolate and can even say it. She can sign 'more' and 'eat' and 'please' and 'thank you'. One of her funny little things right now is when she says 'please'. I'll have to get it on  video because I cannot describe just how cute it is as she tries to say please in a 'pretty pretty please' kind of way. It makes me laugh.
                  All in all, our little girl has grown up so much over the past year. Can you believe a year ago she looked like this:

It's amazing how much our kids can grow in the first few years of life. 

We can't imagine life without her.

We've got a lot of snow

And what do you do when you have a lot of snow?

Of course you go and play in it!

 That's just what Reed and our girls did this last Saturday.

You can tell by their faces how much fun they had.

The reason they look so wet was because it was snowing while they were out there. They were gone maybe 10-15 minutes, but that was all the wetness and cold the girls could handle. Their little cheeks were flushed and their hands, in spite of them wearing mittens even,were icy cold. They had so much fun, even in a parking lot, playing in the snow with their Daddy.

And it has persisted in being cold ever since and all the snow we had then is still on the ground! This is the most snow we've had that has lasted since we moved here. Reed's thrilled we're finally experiencing New England snow. :) Truly.

Random Pictures of Our Christmas

Yes, Bronwyn IS crying. She's a little emotional in the morning generally because she's hungry. And if her morning routine is abnormal.

See! She's happy now because she has candy in one hand and a backpack on her back that's just like Aftyn's.

Thanks Kamber for this unknown gift you gave when you gave us matching sheets for the girls. The sheets came in these nifty little drawstring bags, and well, I added some straps and their initial in fabric and wa-la! Backpacks! Just like Daddy's!! :)

It snowed lightly Christmas morning. And then promptly melted by afternoon.

We had to forego opening presents until we got some food in those little bellies. There was much crankiness by the child in the middle who is now beaming at the camera. Reed was very obliging and whipped up a hearty breakfast of pancakes and eggs and turkey bacon!

Their big gifts, the shopping cart and the activity chair. Both given to us! :) The kids don't care that they've been previously loved, they love them just the same.

Daddy had to show the girls how to properly fly their airplane with sounds. :)

Thanks Uncle Kevin and Aunt Kim! Aftyn LOVES her dress ups! Bronwyn really likes the crown and scepter. Mommy really likes the trunk to keep it all in. :)

So EXCITED!

The first thing she wanted to do was curtsy. This girl loves to curtsy. :)

These pictures do not properly represent all the amazing gifts we were given this year. We felt so spoiled and loved this year and are grateful for all who helped us to feel that way.

My favorite part of our Christmas morning was when we took our break for breakfast, we watched the Christmas story that is put out by the LDS church. Aftyn has been watching it incessantly for weeks now and loved watching it that morning as well. I love how seriously she takes the story of Jesus into her heart. She loves to re-enact the stable with Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus over and over and over every day lately. She wraps her baby in "swaddling clothes" and puts him/her in "the manger". What a sweetheart.