Brielly Pie

Well, she is still at it. The obsession of princesses and girliness and pink and fanciness and frilliness is still holding strong in one Brielle Buchanan. She actually just requested that "Gimme Gimme Gimme" by Abba be played while she does a dance of cleaning up her toys in panties and a tube top made out of a fairy skirt.

Brielle is definitely sure of who she is and what she likes and dislikes. She has always been very independent and confident. I like this most of the time, but this always means there is great discussion over what dress she will wear for the day and what accessories she can wear to go with it. Or if she will get the pink plate or cup with her meal. Or who is a princess and who is not. Etc., etc., etc. Brielle is in preschool and really liking it. She has just started to be interested in what she is learning there. She has mostly only talked about which of her friends was there, how funny Luke is, what Angelina was wearing, what toy the other Brielle brought and how special it was to her, and how Ellie was not sharing. It was all social. She still cares about what is going on with her friends and of course, what they were all wearing, but has started to be excited about learning letters and numbers too.She loves to go through sheets and sheets of computer paper "writing letters" to people or drawing pictures. Brielle can write her name now, all of the letters of the alphabet and the numbers. She also takes after her mother and "writes lists" of what we need at the grocery store or what she wants to do today. She also spends a lot of time "reading" books by herself or having me read her stories.Brielle is all over little Zachary. She hugs and kisses him until she is smothering him so much that she gets told to back away. Zachary laughs really hard at her though and really does like the smothering . . . for now. Sometimes Brielle and Ava play together so well. They have a great time running and screaming through the house or playing doggy. They are upstairs jumping on their beds right now. I guess I'll have to head up there soon. She always wants to dress Ava up, but Ava yells back at her saying, "No, Ava want to be a human!" There is A LOT of fighting too. I can always count on someone screaming and crying after "playing" together for awhile. She still dresses herself up all day, every day. Not so much in princess dress ups anymore, but just putting together random outfits and accessories. I get her ready in the morning, but there will be at least twenty outfit changes between then and bedtime. They are almost always very revealing and immodest because they usually involve something that is size 12 months. When a new outfit is revealed there is quite a fashion show and dance that goes along with it.Brielle has a lot of girls that she considers her best friends and is so excited when she gets to go play at their houses or they come here. Those counted as best friends include some 15 year old girls from church that she adores. The ranking of best friend status is completely dependent upon if the girl has dress ups at her house or not.

Gotta go. Brie is asking me to tie a cape (and only a cape) onto her for a "lovely gown". Crazy girl.

A Primary Idea

I did Sharing Time in Primary on Sunday. I thought I would share an idea I used to teach the Atonement just in case it might be helpful if you are teaching Primary also or need an idea for FHE. I thought this went really well.

I had them repeat the Third Article of Faith with me several times, taking away a line as we went so that they could learn it. Then I started asking questions about it - What is the Atonement of Christ? Who is Mankind? What are we saved from? etc.

So I taught them what the Atonement was by telling them the story of Christ praying in Gethsemane and being crucified. I used a basket of objects and each object that they pulled out had a scripture to read on it that told the story - 30 pieces of silver, soap, scarlet cloth, nails, rocks, linen cloth, picture of the tomb.

This is the fun idea - I wanted to show them what the atonement does for them. I handed each of them a hard boiled egg. I told the Junior primary that it was like a brand new born baby that was just born and was so white, clean and pure. I told the Senior Primary it was like when they had just been baptized and were still so white, clean and pure. Then I told them that although we would like to stay clean and pure, we all do things that are naughty. We all sin. I had them tell me what we do that is naughty - punch our brother, don't obey, lie, bite our mom (?), sneak candy (Brie), etc. With each one that was said they used crayons to color a mark of sin on the egg. Soon their eggs were all colored. I asked what we could do to become clean again. We repent. We peeled the eggs to show a clean, white, pure egg again. That is what the Atonement of Christ can do for us.

The room was stinky, but I think the message came through.

The Hair Cut

It all started with a home hair cut gone VERY wrong (not done by me). Scott and I went running to Laura to fix it and she taught me how to cut Scott's hair. Sooooooooo . . . for Christmas he got a hair cutting/clipper set and now I am his official hair cutter. I've only done it twice and both times have completely stressed me out. I am so nervous of shaving a huge bald spot on his head or something. I would NEVER live it down. So far, so good. It takes me an hour, but to those who know me that is no big surprise. I would have to say that this second hair cut looks pretty darn good. Still waiting for my big tip.In other Scott news, he started his first week of a new position at work that we are very excited about. He is now at the Gateway, comes home at 5pm and doing something we think he will really enjoy and be very good at. Scott is also training for another marathon. He hopes to run the Salt Lake marathon with his brother, Glenn, in April. Good luck! Love ya.

Laughs and Stats

We honestly can not get enough of this kid around here. He is changing so quickly. Zach is no longer a sleepy new baby but a rolling, laughing, squealing, kicking, squirming baby. The girls love his new laughs and squeals. They are always doing whatever (and I mean whatever) it takes to make him laugh and it is pretty easy to do.

Zachary just went to see Dr. Brian for his 4 month old visit. He is following the girls down, down, down the charts. At 2 months he was: 22.5 inches and 11.3 lbs. At 4 months he is: 24.5 inches and 12.7 lbs. That puts him in the 10th percentile for weight and about the 25th for height. We'll see.

Valentine's Day!

We had a fun Valentine's Day. It was, of course, celebrated all week long because we have kids. Brielle got to take Valentines that she made herself to her preschool to give to friends. This was the first time we have done this and I had no idea that everyone (except us) included candy with their valentine card. It was like Halloween hit all over again. Tons of candy. We also had a Valentine playgroup. The girls got to play with their friends, eat more candy, make hearts and then heart attack the Bishop's door.
Scott and I went out Friday night for Valentine's day. The young women in our ward are raising money to go do service in Africa so they were babysitting at the church. Perfect. The girls got to paint, color, play games, sing songs, get animal balloons and again eat a lot of candy. Scott and I went to dinner (steak tacos, mmmm.) and then to a stake date night fireside and then home to put everyone to bed.

Sunday we woke up to treats on the table for Valentine's day and Scott made heart shaped waffles for breakfast. I ate the chocolate dipped strawberries he gave me as I gazed at the beautiful roses he had brought home. What a breakfast. Delicious. It was a short, but sweet celebration as I had to be out the door to ward council at 9am and then Scott had a meeting as soon as I got home. Valentine's day got really romantic when we were struggling with our 4 month old and 2 year old at church that goes 1pm - 4pm. Right during nap time. Awful!!! I got to give the Primary kids treats though and tell them how much I love them. Poor Scott was stuck in the nursery with the two tired, crying kids. At home we had a salmon dinner (because it is known around here as "pink fish") and then finally got the kids in bed. Wa hoo!

All in all it was a nice Valentine's day, hope yours was too.

WAVA

Ava is big time entertainment for us right now. She is seriously cracking us up. She is so cute and it is hilarious to hear her talk. We're loving little Wava!

* So, Brielle is totally obsessed with all things princess, fancy, girly, frilly, pink, etc. and Ava has decided to go the other way. She loves cars, trains, the color blue, balls, etc. The only thing Ava asked for at Christmas was a choo choo train. My mom got her Thomas the train and it has been her absolute favorite toy. She completely feels like it is hers and only hers. It is something she does separate from Brielle and she loves it. She sets up her track and then cheers Thomas and James on as they go around. * When we are going to church each of the girls gets to bring their own little bag of toys to play with. Brielle always brings a bag of princesses and polly pockets. Ava's bag always has the little chunky cars we gave to Zach for Christmas.

*Ava is talking like crazy and it so funny to hear what she has to say. She is correcting herself on how she used to say things and now saying them correctly. She used to say "dida" for Chupa, now it's "chupa". She always referred to herself as "Wava". Now when she says it she tries to say it right. She still calls Brielle "Di Di".

* She has learned all of her colors and how to count to 12. She is very excited to match colors together and say "Cheers!"

* Ava always refers to herself in the third person. "Wava want a treat." "Wava do it!" "Silly Wava." "Wava go big poop in the big toilet all by herself!"

* She is officially, totally and completely potty trained! Yea! It has been about two weeks now that she wears panties all the time, even when we leave the house. Those first trips out in public are always terrifying, but we have had no problems. She was actually very easy to potty train. When we went to choose her new "big girl panties", she chose Thomas the Train.
We started with a potty seat here, in the entry way. It was fast and easy for her to get to.
Then we moved her here. Ta da! Potty trained.
* Although Ava likes trains, cars and other "boy" stuff, she still really loves taking care of her babies the best. Right now she is next to me diapering a baby, feeding it a bottle, putting on it's pajamas and now it's on a pillow with a blanket over it going "night, night".* Ava's favorite hour of every week is Kindermusik. We go to a little music class every Thursday morning where Ava gets to sing, play instruments, dance and play. She absolutely LOVES, LOVES, LOVES it. She loves that she gets to go to a class just like Brie goes to her class. It makes her feel important too. She loves her teacher. And what I am happiest about is that Ava is happy and comfortable there. She is usually a nervous girl. She is nervous with new people and new places. At Kindermusic she comes out of her shell and has a ball. Here she is off to her class!
* Ava does not care at all about dressing up like Brielle does. She yells, "Wava not want be a princess!" when Brie tries to make her one. Sometimes though, Ava will consent and let Brie choose something for her to dress up in. Nothing makes Brie happier. * People always comment on Ava's long eye lashes. She really does have gorgeous dark brown eyes. They are made even more pretty by those long lashes.* Ava begs to have one on one attention and be cuddled. Lucky for her, she still takes a nap which means she gets to stay up later than Zach and Brie at night. She wants to cuddle on my lap or just follow Scott around wherever he goes. We all like this time when Ava is so cute and charming and she likes being all by herself with us. And then miraculously enough when she is tired at nap time or bed time she says, "Mommy, Wava ready for bed."

* Ava also gets herself into trouble quite often. She has colored on walls and made a lot of messes. She almost always gets a chance to clean those up herself first and actually is happy about doing it.Cleaning up where she wrote on the wall.Love you Ava!

Popcorn Snowmen

The snow has melted around here (temporarily) and I don't love playing in the snow so much anyway . . . so we made snowmen inside the other day. We popped popcorn, mixed it with melted marshmallows and had "snow" to make snowballs. They we added whatever we could from the cupboard to make eyes, nose, arms, etc. The girls liked making snowmen, but loved that I left the rest of the popcorn for them to eat as much as they wanted. Delicious snowmen.This is how Ava walks to the bathroom to wash her hands when they are dirty. Not touching ANYTHING!
This is what Zachary was doing while we built snowmen.

Monday, Monday!

On Mondays we stay home, clean the house and do the laundry. When I vacuum I move the coffee table and we usually turn the music up. It always turns into a "dance off" with the girls. They dance all over the table the entire time I am vacuuming the downstairs. Here they are shakin it today.

(P.S. They also get to choose their own outfits and not do hair on Mondays.)