Ben added Cinderella to our playlist. I really like the song. It reminds me so much of Ben and our little girls. Brianna has always loved dancing with Ben and she is already two! To hear the song just scroll all the way down to the bottom and then double click on the title. Enjoy!!!

Thank you Babe! I love you the mostest!

Brianna

My baby girl Brianna is almost two years old! I've been updating baby books and looking at old pictures and saw these. Of course I think Brianna is adorable and could have posted all the pictures of her growing up, but that is just silly. So I settled for these. I sure love her! (yeah we know the date is really wrong on the first picture, Ben did it.)

Newborn to a few weeks old (yep, cousin Peter, he's almost two too! We're excited) ..........

...................................................9 months old and on her first birthday


I think July 4 last year and back in March (She has always loved fish. Maybe thats why she likes the little mermaid and spongebob so much.)

ha ha!

I was going to talk about the picture below, but I was called away to find that Brianna had dumped her bubbles onto the exersaucer, much to the tasting delight of Mikayla. Who also had created a blow out for me. And then I forgot about it. Oh well.

Miracles

Last week I was baking a lot of bread and was pretty distracted. I had a couple loaves already cooling on the table when Brianna climbed up and began licking the tops of them. Not wanting her to do that anymore, I served her some and off she went into the front room. Mikayla was in there, on her back, on the floor. A few minutes later Brianna came running in telling me, "baby hungry". I thought she was referring to her baby doll and that she needed to nurse her baby (very cute to see, except it's awkward in Walmart). I told her that she had better go feed her baby. A few minutes later I went to the front room to check on them. Mikayla was covered in crumbs. There were crumbs all over the area, including large, choking size pieces that had at one point been in her mouth. It is funny to think about now, but at the time I was extremely grateful for a loving Father in Heaven who saved my defenseless baby from a helpful toddler.


My toddler turns two in just one week! Well, the incident mentioned above got me thinking and reminiscing about Brianna's life and the miracles I've experienced with her. I like to think I'm a good mom, but obviously I've needed some divine intervention to be able to celebrate birthdays. The following is one huge miracle that I believe has allowed me to keep Brianna.

When I was pregnant with Brianna I had an over whelming feeling that I would experience a still birth. Then at 28 weeks I was told that she had dropped and was taught all the signs of a preterm labor. I was already stressed about the pregnancy and people talking to me didn't help. Oddly enough everyone at some point or another talked to me about miscarriages or still births. Even random strangers. I thought for sure the Lord was preparing me for something. Well in the end we all know what happened. I gave birth to a healthy baby. But that nagging feeling of impending loss didn't end. I than became stressed and worried about SIDS and SUDC (sudden unexplained death in early childhood. Thats right. It doesn't end at 12 months like most people think. It ends around age two). Looking back now I am extremely grateful for those feelings. On three separate occasions I was awoken during the night dead set on the fact that Brianna was not breathing. I don't know for sure if she was or was not breathing, but those three times it took vigorous shaking (not the violent kind that causes shaken baby) for a little while (it seemed like forever) to get her to inhale. I no longer stress or worry about Brianna's breathing stopping while she sleeps.

While pregnant with Mikayla I worried about having a natural childbirth and I would go back and forth. Some days I would think, "I can do it." Other days I would be adamant on having an epidural. Well, we all know how that turned out. It was a natural childbirth. Well, aside from the pitocin.

I am so excited to celebrate Brianna's birthday next week. I am extremely grateful to Heavenly Father for all of the miracles and feelings He has given me. Those feelings sure have helped out a lot. I have two beautiful girls because of Him.

Oh No, and so it begins...

This morning for breakfast Brianna decided that she wanted a plum. Well, being the little Miss Independent that she is, she climbed onto the table to get her own plum. I was sitting at the table and she was sitting on the table eating. She took a bite out of her mouth and offered it to me...

Brianna: Bite momma
me: No, you eat it.
Brianna: Momma mine (doesn't say the different mine, yours, ours. It's all mine)
me: No, you eat it.
Brianna: Why?
me: because its yours.
Brianna: Why?
me: because you wanted it.
Brianna: Why?
me: I don't know why you wanted it.

Those who have already experienced the 'why' stage can pretty much guess how the rest of the conversation went. Needless to say I ate the plum to end the endless whys. I can't believe she is already there at the 'why' stage. I thought most kids went through it at age three. What was I thinking.

Swimming

We went swimming today. They are so adorable. They had fun playing and splashing together. I love my girls! I just which their daddy could be around for more firsts and their growing up. I love him too!

Accomplishments

This past month has been an incredibly busy one. We have all accomplished so much. Our baby girl Mikayla started playing with toys a week or so ago! Her favorites are the butterfly and the face side of the sun (the other side has a mirror). She loves playing with them and is now starting to entertain herself. Which is very nice for me. And she has started rolling from her back to her stomach, but she only does it when she is hungry and I'm laying next to her. Its like she is trying to get me. She is so much fun to have around.

About two to three weeks ago Brianna started speaking in sentences. Very rarely do we hear the adorable toddler gibberish. Some of her first sentences are: No momma I do it momma, Momma let go momma (its not looking to good for me), I did it mermaid shoe on. That would refer to her other accomplishment. She now puts her own shoes on, everytime. Her red phone is like her cell phone and goes everywhere with her. Her phone calls go like this: *beep* hello Chase yeah Chase *beep*. She is so smart and surprises us everyday with what she knows.

Benjamin has had three closings in real estate in the past month. Well, we didn't get paid for one, but that's nothing new to us. I'm so proud of him. He has worked so hard to get these closings. I love him and all that he does for our family. He has also started working on losing weight. He has lost about five pounds since he got started. We got Wii Fit to help him lose weight. It's funny to watch him do it sometimes. I'm so glad I married him. He is the best part of my life. He also repaired all the popped balls! My hero!

About a month ago I decided I wanted to sew my own dress. I don't know what I was thinking. I've never done anything like this before. My previous projects were just mending holes. It took me forever. It isn't the greatest looking dress, but Ben says it looks nice and oddly enough I'm proud of it. I'm nursing and to accomodate that I put an invisible zipper in below the chest. I thought it was a fabulous idea and it works very well. Ben also likes the zipper there. I'm not sure why. My other achievement is that my hair has fallen out like it did after Brianna. Well, that isn't an accomplishment, but I only cried twice and that is impressive to me.

LAGOON

Yesterday we went to Lagoon with Tamis parents and Brother. It was so fun! I was so excited to check out the new rides as it has been 7 years since Ive been. Dont get me wrong, they were fun and all but the funest parts for me was waiting in line with Brianna for her 2 fav rides, the boats that goes in a circle and the car on a track. While we waited for the car she would say "car, come" and motion for it. then shed stoop under the entrance turnstyle and get behind the wheel. When the ride was over shed say "woo hoo!" with her fist in the air and then say "moore, car (or boat)". And one time on the boat she was looking for us with a non impressed look on her face, then when she spotted us she lit up! it was adorable!!! I made a huge mistake on her first ride, I sent her on one that I thought went in a circle, well it also went up and tilted slightly. She was terrified, when that ride was over and I asked if she had fun she said "no, done". The other hilight of our trip was taking Tami on the only ride we went on together , the Bat. The bat is a tame rollercoaster. What made it fun was Tamis reaction. Shes cute too! She was terrified. I love my family. It was so much fun.

Brianna drove the cars countless times!

No Survivors!

Brianna, Connor, and Gordon
had tons of fun in the backyard at the expense of all our balls. The yellow ball I purchased while still in college. Years of entertainment and joy came from it. The pink ball my super fantastic hubby heroically did what it took to get it off the top of a shelf (you could barely see the top of it). Brianna was so excited when he got it down. It became her favorite instantly, probably because it was pink and she is all girl. The blue ball was just a ball, but we still played with it. Now sadly we have no FUN balls this size any more (playing with flat ones just isn't the same) and who knows when we will be able to replace them. I was very sad to find them all this way.

The Church is the same everywhere!

My youngest brother Steven is serving an LDS mission in Manchester, England right now. He emails every wednesday and today he sent this... (probably shouldn't laugh, but it is funny)

i realized a very important thing since i've been here in england...no matter where you go the church is the same...no one does home or visiting teaching (which is one of the most important things we could do), and in fast and testimony meeting on the first sunday of the month most members in most places don't know what a testimony is...they give a story or a travel log...but what they really should be doing is stating a simple and brief statement of what they know and if it's right how they know it. we had some pretty bad testimonies last sunday...but it's ok it just proves that they aren't doing the small and simple things they should be doing like reading the Book of Mormon and praying.

I am so grateful for all the missionaries (Home/Visiting Teachers) that have and are serving the Lord. There is no greater joy then sharing the gospel and in knowing our Father in Heaven loves us and feeling his guiding hands in our lives knowing we're safe because He won't harm us. This message I will share while visiting teaching this month and every month.