Happy Easter!

Because of the atonement and resurrection of Jesus Christ, our family can be together forever. 

I am inexpressibly grateful for my Savior, today and every day. 

Happy Easter!

I Have a Deee-a

"Hey, Pete, why don't you build one more tower and they we'll have a little nap."

(I suggested the nap a full hour earlier than normal due to the fact that he woke up with some major morning grumpies)

"NOOOOOOO!" 

Long pause, while I geared up for or twelfth battle of the morning, and then:

"Um, Mama. I have a deee-a. How bout I have a nap right now!"

"That's a great idea, Peter! Let's do it!"

"Okay. And when I wake up, we have eggs for dinner a-night?" 

"Sure."

"Oh! Tank you very much!"

We read a couple books, his head hit the pillow, and he was out five minutes later. 

T e n d e r  M e r c y

And it looks like I've got an easy dinner for tonight as well. Winner, winner; eggs for dinner. Thanks, Pete.

On Sleep

Okay, cute kids. Let's give it another go tomorrow, eh?

But in order for tomorrow to come, Peter, you need to fall asleep. Please fall asleep so your mama can.

Brooklyn, you are the champion of sleep. Always. Remind me of this when you're older and want something I won't give you. Remind me of how well you slept and napped as a babe and whatever you want-- it's yours.

Let's be honest. You could skip right past these words because they were simply necessitated by the cute pictures I wanted to post. 

I'm hoping that while I sleep and recharge, elves will come and clean my house.

Kinda Like Honey

Brooklyn smells like honey when she wakes up. Honey. No joke. I don't know how she does it, but a get a sweet whiff of honey each time I get the smiley babe from her bedroom. She's going on 15 hours of sleep, by the way. It's bizarre. I keep sneaking into her room to make sure she's breathing. Growth spurt?

Peter is really into the phrase, "kinda like." I gave him a muffin this morning and he said, "Mama, this is kinda like dewishes (delicious)!" Or, "Booky's hair is kinda like cute, Mama." Or, "That dog is kinda like nice." Lindsey the linguist is cringing a bit, but it's also kinda like adorable.

I found an Einstein's Bagel's yesterday. 20 minutes away, so we probably won't frequent. But just knowing it's there makes me happy.

The kids and I plan to be outside any time someone's not napping (with Brooke's sudden malleable sleeping habits, I think it's the perfect time to ease her into the same nap schedule as her brother... wouldn't that be amazing?). I'm really missing my yard right about now, but we're excited to explore Eden Prairie on a seventy-degree day. Bike ride, anyone?

Today was Tuesday.

Darling Brooke has been fighting a fever since Sunday. Her number one coping strategy is to sleep it off... and then sleep some more to be safe. She has slept fourteen hours straight the last two nights and slept the equivalent of 5 hours during the day with her naps. Today she napped from 10:30am to 3:00pm! Her fever is gone, but she's still resting and getting back to her usual self (which still includes some serious sleep. This girl loves her sleep). She has been such a sweetheart, even when under the weather.

I haven't minded the extra cuddles one bit, and I love having an excuse to keep Pete in his jammies most the day. Peter has been such a trooper. We've had the warmest weather yet since our move, and the sweet little guy is content to sit at his table on the balcony playing with his little plastic birdhouse and the dorky paper birds I made him. 

Brooklyn's fever was gone when we woke up this morning, so we were able to get out and make a couple stops this afternoon. Hearing Brooke and Peter giggle behind me in the car made my day. I love that they are such buddies. The kids and I had a little dinner date, and then made our way home. Early bedtimes for all! Tomorrow is filled with the promise of 70 degrees. 

60 Degree Conference Miracle

Friday brought us a foot of snow. By Sunday it was gone. Conference miracle!?

This was the best conference Scott and I have had in years. The later time, now that we're not in Utah, meant that naptime and conference coincided better, so we were able to watch parts of conference ACTUALLY SEATED with both kids asleep. It was just what I needed. I feel recharged, uplifted, reminded, and motivated. This new move and stage of life has brought a whole new brand of challenges for our family, and Conference was the respite in the middle of the chaos (not an exaggeration... Peter had a terrible allergic reaction before Conference, and Brooklyn had a fever and threw-up right after) that actually felt like a respite.  

The kids were both up during the mid-session break so we could all go out and explore our sixty degree day. It felt amazing to move in the slightly-breezed sunshine and explore the trails by our house. We are excited about the vantage point just up from our house, and I can see us spending a lot of time on this ridge trail that takes us down to the lake. It is beautiful. Scott and I both felt a little like we were walking around the rolling hills of Bodega Bay. It was the same weather and colors. I miss my mountains madly. I miss the yellow blossoms that are surely soon-blooming in our driveway. But I am excited to see a new kind of beautiful as the ice melts Eden Prairie.

Brooklyn fell asleep on my back, holding my finger with her sweet little hand. It made my day. I adore my baby girl. I can't believe she's ONE next month!

I am so grateful for this family of mine and the joy that comes from the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

We are blessed by our most loving God. Even through our challenges, we know it, and we feel it, every day. 

Joy

This girl is the embodiment of pure JOY. 

She is a bright spot in my life, and I am grateful for her every single day. 

Both of my kids are, in very unique and significant ways, reminders that we have experienced mountains of miracles... 

and that Heavenly Father knew what he was doing. 

Let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of god, and for his arm to be revealed.

D&C 123:17

(Thanks to a friend for this inspiration a few days ago)

Snippets

Lately Peter has started calling Brooklyn "Little Guy," and will encourage her to follow him around the house on all fours saying (in a high-pitched, sweet little voice), "Come here, Little Guy. I'm here, Little Guy. Come on, Little Guy!"

Brooklyn woke up one day and decided she was going to start pulling up on everything around her. Zero interest the day before, and then all of a sudden she's up. Her favorite things to scale are her brother's bed and her mom... especially when I'm a moving target. I have to be careful because she will follow me around the house and try to climb me whether I'm stationary or not (hair is often used as a stability object if I'm on the floor. Ouch).

Peter said "Yikes!" this morning when his train track broke. Who says, "Yikes?!"

Peter wrestled Brooke a little too hard, so I told him for the trillionth time that he is Brooklyn's big brother, and that she is very little (truth: she is only six inches shorter and 8 pounds lighter that Peter). "You need to take care of her," I said. It clicked for about a minute. "I want to hold her!" he said. So I put Brooklyn on his lap, he wrapped his arms around her and said, "I hold you, Bookie. I'm here. Let's watch a show together." It was adorable. 

Brooklyn dances. Yes. Dances. When she presses a button on her little play zoo that starts thirty seconds of music, she rocks back and forth on her knees like she's dancing! It's my favorite rare bird. I've never been able to catch it on camera before she stops. With a brother like Peter, there's no secret as to where she got her dance moves.

I was putting Peter down the other night, and I laid on his bed with him to sing him some songs. He's in a little toddler bed, so I don't like to lay on it (possible breakage AND I feel like giant Alice when she's in the house with tiny furniture). But he did the cutest things. He wrapped his skinny arms all the way around my neck and started patting my back with one of them the way I do sometimes when he's sad or has an ouchie. So I hugged him back and started patting his back at the same time. We both burst into laughter as we patted each other's back and had a good, long hug. Now we do it every night. It's the perfect end to the day. That boy could not get any sweeter.

Brooklyn is the happiest, most social little butterfly. She lifts my heart faster than anything can with her wide-mouthed, whole-face smile. She loves to FaceTime with her cousin Emmy and play patty-cake, she yells "Papa! Papa!" whenever she hears my dad's voice on the phone or ipad, and she is obsessed with her "Da da." Obsessed. She absolutely adores her Dad. 

I do too, for the record.  

Peter is very interested lately in similarities and differences. He is always patting Brooklyn's hair and saying, 'Mama, Bookie's hair is cou-wee (curly). My hair is straight." He likes to point out that Brooklyn and Mama both have brown hair, while he and his daddy both have blonde hair. I appreciate having little chats with him about how we are all different from each other in lots of ways, but that we are also the same in lots of ways and that we are a family who loves each other. 

Brooklyn sleeps 13 hours at night. And naps twice in the day. And eats everything I feed her. And is perfect. Meal time is actually quite the challenge with Brooky. She wants whatever we're eating and yells, "Na na na na na na (her word for food)" until we dish her plate. She sees food and decides she's s t a r v i n g. Then she opens her mouth willingly, waitingly. The spoon comes toward her mouth and then WHAP! The bear paw of her left arm comes swatting the spoon across the kitchen. She doesn't even mean to do it. So we usually end up feeding her while holding the left arm down. It's tough to do when Peter wants to sit on your lap during meal time (every time). He says, "I need you, Mama. I have you?" Um. Yes.

Peter is (deep breath) potty-trained (GIANT question mark?). 

By that, I mean that we're not going back to diapers. There's no turning back. He knows they are for babies and that he is a big boy. He still calls it "homeboy." I love it. He'll go in the potty willingly, but usually when I remind him. We are working on him going on his own, but we have been accident free a number of days over the last week and a half when we started. He actually has done SO much better than I thought he'd do. We've had a handful of accidents, but he's seriously been so great.

Brooklyn hates shopping. Of any kind (I'm secretly proud).

40's Alright for Biking

When you see this, don't you naturally assume, "Hey, that looks like prime biking weather."

That's a frozen lake, people. 

We had a 40 degree Saturday, and for us that felt like spring. Good enough for a bike ride. So we bundled up and explored the trails around Staring Lake, just two minutes from our house. And, even though the cross-country ski trails are still open, we had a lot of fun on our bikes. Peter LOVES to bike beyond anything else on this earth (skiing is probably a close second), and he was so happy when we asked if he wanted to go biking. He could have probably done the whole trail by himself, but halfway around the lake we convinced him to ride in the trailer with his sister so we could pick up the speed a bit. Scott and I had a blast riding around the lake together, and I can't wait to do it again. I feel like it has been so long since I really got my body moving. This wasn't a big, steep, or fast ride... but it was something more than packing boxes, unpacking boxes, hibernating, and playing trains (the major activities of our last few months). Brooklyn was a champ, as always, smiling and and enjoying the fresh air... buried in a fleece suit, a down coat, and a couple blankets in the trailer. She was snug as a bug in a rug, and rode contently the entire time. 

We live in the state of 100,000 lakes, according to the license plates. 

So... check 1 off the list. 99,999 to go!