Lots and lots of pictures of the girls because my media card reader is working again

Aftyn, looking very much like Inigo Montoya. You kill my father. Prepare to die. :)

It was cold one day. So I bundled the girls up

and let them watch a movie together.

Cute close-ups

Bubble bath!

Going to go out and play in what Nemo left us!

We decided to have a special toast to Bronwyn's potty training graduation one Sunday.

I was impressed with how well Aftyn and Bronwyn drank out of these (plastic) champagne glasses.

They loved the sparkling white grape juice and the fun little celebration.

Cheese!

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!