Ladies Weekend (Weekend with Mori ha ha!!!)

In the cookies of life, sisters are the chocolate chips. ~Author Unknown
That is just how I feel about my sisters and sisters-in-law! With the support of some wonderful husbands and kids, we able to spend the weekend together in a condo in the canyon above Ogden, Utah eating, talking, eating, laughing, eating, shopping, eating, reading, eating, playing games... you know, all the things you do on a girls weekend! We even saw a community theater production of My Fair Lady and re-named my mom (Ann) Mori.
Mom (Mori), Vera, Brenda, Matti, Melissa and Jeanette, thanks for an awesome weekend!

Violinist

One of the things that I enjoy and admire most about Veronica is her excitement for life. She gets so much enjoyment out of trying new things and working until she masters it. A few examples:
When she was in Kindergarten, all the girls were doing monkey bars and she couldn't do it. She worked tirelessly, she would come home from school with blisters on her hands and then we would go to the park and she would practice some more, day after day until she was a pro at it.
She got a pogo stick for Christmas. On Christmas morning, she could only do two jumps at a time so we made her a deal that when she got to 300 consecutive jumps she could have a special outing with mom or dad, her choice, thinking that it would occupy her for a while. The next day, after hours of practice, she had passed up 300 jumps.
Getting a new book for her is the best thing in the world. She gets so wrapped up in it that for a punishment if she just won't do what she is supposed to sometimes I will have to take a book away from her for a few hours. (Bad mom, I know!)
When she was almost eight, her Great-Grandpa Smith gave her a violin. Through weekly lessons and diligent practicing she is becoming a great musician. She loves getting new music and learning new songs. She was excited that since she was now in fifth grade she was able to take orchestra. In January, her orchestra teacher implemented "orkarate", with a level of different colored belts for each skill that you mastered. She was so excited about the program and by her orchestra concern last night was one of a handful of students who had reached the black belt (the highest belt)!
She looked so beautiful up on the stage performing with all of the excitement and zest that she shows with each new thing that she experiences. She truly loves life and finds joy in all the little things that she does each day.

Veronica with her Great-Grandpa Smith after her concert.

I love modern technology! Braelynn had tubes put in her ears today. This isn't a new thing for us. Tyler and Samantha had it done when they were babies and Brenna had tubes done in December and we thought that would be all because at the time Braelynn had only had a few ear infections. In January, however, Braelyn suffered a ruptured eardrum and since then has had numerous ear infections, and in the last month almost constant ear pain due to a lot of fluid buildup in her ears.
The procedure is simple and fast. When Tyler and Sam had theirs done we had to go to the hospital as an outpatient but now with Brenna and Braelynn we were able to just go to the surgical center, they put her to sleep, insert the tubes, wake her up, and we were back home in an hour.
I am so grateful to have this done. She has had so many antibiotics recently, and though she takes them really well (she just tells me that is yucky about three times each dose!) it will be nice to have her off of them and now maybe we can stop making so many trips to the doctors office!

If only I had my camera with me...

Something that Joe and I try to do is make sure that each of our kids get to spend time with either of us one-on-one. It doesn't happen as much as we would like, and it is usually only to do errands or whatever but we do try.
With Brenna and Braelynn, though, we haven't done that yet. They love to go places so either we all go or I take them myself so that Joe can have some quiet, uninterrupted homework time, or one will stay home with both of them. Yesterday, though, Braelynn had a doctor appointment (another ear infection...ugh!) and Brenna was still asleep so I just took Braelynn with me and left Brenna home with Joe.
Throughout the time that we were gone, we had fun together but Braelynn didn't really know what to do with herself. She wasn't much interested in the toys or books or anything.
When we finally got home, Joe and Brenna met us at the door. I got Braelynn out of the car and before I finished gathering up our stuff she had ran up to Brenna and gave her a kiss and a very long hug. when she let go, Brenna wrapped her arms around Braelynn and returned the hug.
It was the sweetest thing to see how much they missed each other.

I just wanted to post some of the pictures that Dave and Jennifer (Inspirational Photography) took of our family.

I think this is the first picture that Joe and I have had taken by ourselves since our wedding.

The cutest kids around!



Brenna being grumpy because she couldn't play on the playground.


Brenna still being grumpy...

Tagged

Brenda (or Kegan) tagged Brenna and Braelynn. On this one I am supposed to list eight things about my child and then tag another child. Even though they do a lot of things the same I will separate them because, after all, they are--well, separate.

Brenna:
1. Brenna was born on Mothers day, May 14, 2006 along with her twin sister, Braelynn. Although they were four weeks early she was just as healthy as can be. They are the best of friends and take good care of each other, patting each other on the back when they are sick or hurt and kissing and hugging each other on a regular basis.
2. Brenna is a climber. She recently got taken out of her crib and put into a big bed because she was climbing out of her crib onto the dresser, then standing on top of the dresser! Luckily her brother caught her first thing, I don't want to know what she would have done next on top of the dresser.
3. She thinks the worlds problems can be solved with the word "please", said really sweetly. If there is something that she wants and asking for it is not working she will start to get upset then very nicely say Pweas, pweeeeas. Let me tell you, it is very hard to say no when she does that.
4. Brenna definatly has a stubborn streak that when she chooses to let it come out cannot be stopped.

Braelynn:
1. Braelynn was born on Mothers day, May 14, 2006 one minute after her twin sister, Brenna. She was the second one out and breach so she had a few minor breathing difficulties but recovered later that day. They play very well together, better than I had expected and with fewer arguments than I had expected there to be. They like to hold onto each other and play train, walking around saying "choo choo".
2. Braelynn has a shoe fettish. If her and Brenna have different shoes, she will stake claim to a certain pair and Brenna somehow knows that that pair is her sisters and won't wear them. Except for one time Brenna wore one of Braelynn's pair of shoes, Braelynn threw such a fit that she never did it again.
3. Her favorite thing to do at the park is slide. She will slide down, climb back up, slide down again, over and over for the majoity of the time that we are there.
4. Braelynn has the cutest little "cheese" grin ever. It is full of cheeks and teeth and just makes you smile.


Both:
5. They LOVE Cinderella. Everywhere we go I hear, in unison, Cinderella, Cinderella until I acknowledge whatever it was that they saw that had Cinderella on it.
6. They are at the stage that sometimes they want to pick out what they wear and then attempt to get dressed by themselves. I had usually dressed them the same or matching because: One, it was just so cute, especially when they were little. Two, when I buy clothes it has to be a good deal but nice so it is just easier when I find that deal to buy two instead of trying to find another outfit at a good price. Three, I knew that the time that I could dress them was short until they developed their opinions and wanted to dress differently and that will be fine when that time comes. But most of the time when they do decide to dress themselves they really do decide on outfits that match each other!
7. They absolutly love their three older siblings, especially Tyler. They love to crawl into the bed of whoever isn't awake when it is time to get up for school and wake them up. They rub their head and peel off the covers then giggle when that person wakes up and gives them a hug. It is the best part of their morning (besides breakfast, of course!).
8. Brenna and Braelynn love to read. Their favorite right now is Hop on Pop, the part that says "No, Pat, not, don't sit on that" when he is sitting on a cactus. They also ask for It's Mine and Be Nice right now. They love the library and story hour. They get so excited when I pull into the parking lot of the library.

I had to include this video because it shows Braelynn's cute smile and Brennas's stubborn streak. Although she is uaually a happy child, she was grumpy because we had gone to the park to have Joe's brother, Dave, take her pictures. She wanted to stay and play at the park but it was very cold and we had to get back home. Uncle Dave had taught her head banging, thats what she was doing.


Well, now I get to tag someone...Matti, let us know about Bella!

No more cribs

We are at the stage of raising our family that when we are done with something, we are done. No more bottles, pacifiers, baby stuff, etc. so we have given it all away. Well, we were able to give away two cribs along with all of the bedding and everything that comes with it yesterday.

Because our family is big and our house is small, there was no possible way, no matter how hard I tried, that I would be able to fit a set of beds in our house. Two cribs were able to fit because they are narrower that twin beds. The solution that I had come up with a while ago was to get a set of bunk beds that was a full on the bottom, twin on top so that Brenna and Braelynn could share the bottom and Tyler could sleep on the top.

Brenna discovered Sunday night that if she used the dresser that was sandwiched in between their cribs and Tyler's bed as leverage she could get on top of the dresser and get into his leftover Easter candy. After that, there was no stopping her and the race is off to get a new bed. We found a full/full bunk bed set so we decided to purchase that. So now Brenna and Braelynn have their big bed to share and Tyler is lucky enough to have a full-sized bed to himself-for now. When we get a bigger house the plan is to use that as a spare/guest bed. I guess that is the consolation prize for sharing a room with his little sisters


I know the pink bedding doesn't go with the whole outdoorsy theme, but now they are old enough to know that they like pink better, so oh well, right?!

Third in state!

One more wrestling post...and I promise no more. I just wanted to let everyone know that Tyler took third place in his grade and weight class in State today!
Thanks to my parents for volunteering to spend their Saturday with us. They got up very early to make the drive over so my dad and I could drive to Nephi (about 2 hours away) to see Tyler wrestle and my mom spent the day with the girls, painting fingernails, shopping and just having some girl time together.
Tyler fought hard his first match, but lost by two or three points, then pinned the other kids in his next two matches, then won by points on his last match.
I am so grateful I was able to make it to support him and be there with him. Thanks mom and dad!