I am sitting here with a feverish baby who is shoving raisins and crackers in my mouth, not gently I might add.  I have been thinking a lot about the last 7 months with Britt gone working in Alaska and how grateful I am for the trails that come our way.  I would never in a million thoughts had imagined how our year was going to go last year.  We had a great paying job, pretty good insurance and were not preparing as we had been counseled for years.  I look back and think about how foolish we were and the Primary song has a renewed meaning.  I guess I always thought it didn't apply to me.  The Lord has ways to help us learn and grow and we needed it.  I can't say how things are going to go for the rest of this year.  We have chosen to put our family being together first and so Britt is coming home in a week unemployed again.  I am oddly not nearly as stressed or worried as I was in July 2011.  I think because we were so caught up in making the same amount of money that we couldn't see the reality of what life could be like.  Now we just want to be together.  We have had some very frustrating experiences and very tense moments when it felt like it was too hard to keep trying.  We have come so far in seeing how our marriage was lacking and our spirituality was less then bright.  I love my husband and am so anxious for him to come home that I wish he would just hop on the next plane and be here already.  I am ready to face our next chapter head on holding hands with my husband.  I have 2 great kids who fight and scream, laugh and cry, hug and kiss, and make me so happy and so frustrated that I want to laugh and cry(at the same time too).  Today Alexis whispered in Megan's ear and Megan whispered back.  It was so sweet and perfect.  Life is good, even if it is the golden platter we envision it to be.

Family Goal

Last night for FHE we had a lesson on how the disciples were blessed because they followed Jesus Christ.  At the end I asked Alexis if we could change one thing that we do that would bless us.  She replied that we could take a treat to everyone in our church(I clarified with her that she meant ward, because the whole church would be near impossible).  I thought about it and decided since the next day was Valentine's Day that it would be fun to take a treat to some people.  So we decided the families and this morning I baked a ton of mini cupcakes and brownies.  After School we loaded up in the car and started delivering them.  Alexis giggled after every delivery.  It was the sweetest thing to see my daughter give to others without once asking if she could have one or complaining how many more houses.  She was sad when I called it quits at 8pm.  So our goal for the year is to "Treat Our Whole Ward."  Did I mention our ward averages over 300 every week for sacrament.  We have the biggest ward I have ever been in.  It is going to be fun and a little nutty.  I am excited to make these memories with my girls and to make giving a part of who they are.   I already have some fun ideas such as for Easter we can "egg people" with candy filled eggs!  We may even ding dong ditch some people.  I did put a limit, we are not doing this everyday, HA that is what she wanted. 

Alexis is such a crack up, seriously the things she thinks up are awesome.  The other day we were making dinner and she decided it was time to talk about Uncle Jon cutting his hair(he had longer hair then I do).  See Aunt Stephanie had told us earlier that day he cut his hair and this must have been a big deal to Alexis.  She starts by telling me that he doesn't look like a girl anymore because he has short hair.  I agreed that long hair is usually on girls.  She then tells me that he looks handsomer.  Haha I love her little words.  I then tell her that daddy is the most handsome in the world.  She is quiet for a few minutes thinking and then says mom you will hurt peoples feelings if you say that.  I smile, you know that all knowing mom smile, and tell her that it won't because all those other people have some one telling them they are the most handsome in the world.  That satisfied her that everything is fair in the world.  

Today while doing her homework she is given 2 endings and then has to make words with them using certain other letters.  The endings were in and ig.  She is writting pin and for some reason she writes pis and then proceeds to sound out the word.  I am waiting for her to catch it before she says the whole word, but alas she doesn't and says it.  I silently laughed and she moved on without another thought and erases the s and writes then n.

She is a sleep walker big time.  The other night she came out walked around into the kitchen to the garbage can opened the lid and pulled her pants down.  She was so asleep that she didn't even notice my hysterical laughing while I helped her to the bathroom.

Megan has only intensified her NO.  If she doesn't agree with me she says no and will hit something or someone.   I love this stage even if it means wrestling her to put a diaper on.   She doesn't waste words on gibbering.  When she speaks it has a purpose and I love it.  Megan is a people watcher and is super smart.  She understands most of what I ask and can do 2 and 3 step activities.  Such as the other day she wanted in Grandma's room, that is where the licorice is, so I told her to go and get grandma's hand and ask her to come get you licorice.  She ran her little feet to the other room and did it exactly.  Granted licorice is pretty awesome, but to not get distracted along the way and to remember to bring her to the bedroom is really good for a 19 month old. 

I love my job!

got the picture

Funny little onry girl.

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Perspective is an interesting thing.  6 months ago a job in Everett or Spokane was so far away.  Now I would give anything to have Britt working that close.  We have made a huge decision in the moving/job front.  We decided that being together is the absolute most important thing.  Alexis has started school, we can't sell our house without taking a loss, and Alaska isn't paying enough for us to fly and visit let alone making the move.  So trusting in the Lord Britt put his notice in and is coming home.  I am honestly not as scared as I was when this whole thing started.  I am at peace that we have come through some serious fires and are going to be stronger then ever.  I know there will be more fires and that the coals are still hotter then ever.  He currently doesn't have an offer for work, he will be able to collect unemployment still though.  We have started putting applications in and are praying that something good will come through soon!  I can't wait for the next few weeks to go bye and we can be reunited.   Perspective.

favorite word

I have a 19 month old.  Can anyone guess what word we hear the most?  Please, I love you, Thank you....no.  Really NO is all that cute little girl says.  Megan do you want___________?  NO and she purses her lips out and crinkles her nose.  She also makes that face to fake cry and when she is throwing a fit.  I haven't been able to get it on camera yet, but will try really hard tomorrow.  She is also really into throwing herself down if things are not going her way.  When it comes to dressing her she is slippery like a wiggly fish.  I may just let her run around naked for a week it is so exhausting to put clothes on her.  She is even fighting going into her car seat.  I try and gt her attention and ask her did you see that? or where is that?  or did you hear that?  It works 75% of the time.

Alexis delights me with her writing.  It is so fun seeing her sound words out and write them down.  She is coping a lot too, which I think it great because it gives her practice on writing her letters.  She is trying so hard to be a good example for Megan and I love seeing them play together.  I have been trying to make changes in my parenting and it is so wonderful to see how much it helps them play better together! 

Ice Storm

We have had the worst weather this week. It started with a little snow which had us all very excited. Then we got more snow and they canceled school Tuesday. Wednesday around 5am it started snowing and we got 8 inches within a few hours(this is a lot for us). By the evening these pictures showed what would prove to be the worst storm we have had ever. Freezing rain is very dangerous add to about 10 inches of snow and you have a recipe for disaster. We went to bed that night and woke up early to no power, low temps and branches cracking and falling. It was honestly scary. It sounded like a gun going off as tops of trees snapped, huge branches broke off and whole trees fell over. At one point a tree branch broke off and the whole tree leaned dangerously far right over the house and in line to fall on Alexis sitting at the table. The whole day was un-nerving. Power was still out, but we were warm at my parents house sleeping in the family room with the wood stove burning hot! The whole day was filled with ice falling dangerously from trees like torpedo's. Getting hit by them was painful and made leaving the house difficult. We went to our church building with the Fox family to cook a good dinner and let the kids play since the building had power. 8pm the church loses power. Still no power when we went to sleep. 1:46am the printer starts up and lights pop on. I jump off the cot and turn lights off and the printer. I fall back to sleep so happy that the power is on. 2 hours later I wake up to Kevin putting wood on the fire. I start to tell him he doesn't have to do that when I realize the power is out again. Then the winds started, 45 mph ones, which started huge ice chunks and more tree branches falling on the house. This made for a really bad nights sleep (2 nights in a row but who's counting). Saturday we went to the Ursenbach's home to shower and eat a hot breakfast, we spent most of the day there trying to feel normal. We went to dinner at Applebees for my brother's birthday and picked up a few things at the store. Jenn texted me telling me the power was on. I didn't dare believe her and every second it took to drive from Target to home. The moment our neighborhood was in view and we could see our street lights on we began to celebrate. Alexis was so excited to get to go home. We went back to my parents home and waited for our house to warm up because it was at 50 degrees. When we got home we got ready for bed and during prayer Megan began throwing up all over Alexis's bed. After getting the beds and her changed they went to bed. Megan threw up a short time later. While I was changing her she began throwing up again. It was so sad. Turns out my mom was sick also, she had given Megan some of her chicken. Food Poisoning. Poor thing just didn't feel good today but didn't throw up again. Thankfully she only had a small piece of chicken. Church was short today only Sacrament meeting, sadly a few people in our ward still don't have power and thousands around the area are out still also. This storm was made so much worse for me because Britt is gone. I wish I had taken more pictures, my mom did so I will get them from her. Hopefully we can move on with mild weather and get the area cleaned up and over being declared a State of Emergency. We would really like some spring hints coming our way.

It was shocking to drive around on Thursday and see the damage, the power lines we covered in ice with at least an inch on the top and icicles hanging down 2 and 3 inches. Not just some but all lines were like that the entire length. This storm was the most damaging I have seen. Even more then our crazy winds we get. Although we have been without power for longer due to wind storms, but I had Britt who held everything together and did all the survival things. Him being gone has forced me to do things he is awesome at. He is way better at this stuff then I am...I cried a few times and a tree leaning over Alexis sent me into a ridiculous panic that caused her to be traumatized. I can't wait to have him back.

Alexis asked me if she was changing and I said yes you are very helpful.  She said yes I am an adult.  She is cracking me up lately.  she also just talked to my tummy and pretended there is a baby.  there most surely is NOT a baby on the way.  Megan has spent most of the day crying it is super fun snow day here not.   Alexis wanted to go out and play and I asked her to stay inside and snuggle me.  So she turned to Megan and asked her if she would snuggle me so that she could go out to play.  It was funny.

Alexis wants to be a teacher when she is big instead of a cop.  Because Cops have to drive cars and that will make her tired.

Zoo

It was sunny and chilly so we decided to go to the zoo. By the time we got there ate our lunch and saw the elephants and tigers and the lower aquarium it was sprinkling. So we went into the upper aquarium. I was pouring when we came out. So we ran to the sharks and spent a long time in there hoping for the rain to stop. It had stopped raining so we went to the kids zone! Ended up being a really fun Zoo trip.

Pictures from Alexis's camera. I finally downloaded them after a year. She had over 650. These are from Christmas 2011.

Abraham Lincoln

Alexis on Christmas

Megan on Christmas

A Great Surprise

Britt gave us all the best Christmas present EVER.  We couldn't fly him home for Christmas and it was going to be very sad and depressing.  My parents decided to help us out and use air miles to fly him home.  They all kept it a huge secret and went to pick him up in the middle of the night.  He showed up to the house at 7:15 after my mom called and asked if she could hide a gift here.  I opened the door to my awesome husband.  I had a hunch that something was going down though.  The night before Britt had called my dad and he left the room.  I was hopeful but reserved just in case it wasn't to be.  So we have been in Heaven having him home for Christmas.  Today is Christmas Eve and time for our Annual Bergman Party.  It was great, the kids playing, football on, lots of food, an announcement that we will have a nephew due in May and Alexis all of the sudden not playing.  She was whiny and laying across me.  She had a fever of 102.2.  All the Aunts jumped into action with medicine, cool packs, and water.  We chose to take her home and leave the party early.  Very sad but we made the right choice.  It was really nice to be home before 5 on Christmas Eve.  Normally the kids fall asleep in the car on the way home at 9pm.  The presents are wrapped, stockings full, cookies and milk eaten and Santa has come and gone.  Buddy or Elf went with Santa back to work on Christmas for next year.  Merry Christmas.

Thanksgiving crafts

Grandma came over and made turkey and pilgrim treats with the girls. Alexis loved making them, Megan ate them!




She climbed up here and just put her head down and went to sleep. Sweet girl. She alomst slept through Turkey dinner.

We have no clue how she got in there it must not have been easy!

Minnie Mouse

Mermaids!

I like the bandaid on the forehead!

Eating Suckers with Friends.


Waiting for the ferris wheel