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