Baby Heff?

I'm not one of those mom's who is comfortable taking naked pictures of my kid...although I can certainly understand why some moms would do it and can't blame them for it at all. I'll probably be sad one day that I don't have any pictures of my kids in the bath tub with strategically placed bubbles or wash clothes or rubber duckies. However, this is the closest that I'm willing to come. Brog had just finished his bath and we put him in his super cute new bath robe. It wouldn't stay folded shut, and I kept thinking that if his robe were crushed red or black velvet he could be a baby version of Hugh Heffner (who I don't support, admire or appreciate on any level). So, I post this with reluctance.....but he is just TOO darn cute.

A boy and his hat

I don't know....I just don't think it's possible to get any cuter then this. Brog found this hat in a drawer of hats while I was going through his dresser weeding out the clothes he has grown out of and transferring in new ones (yeah, we're going up a size!). He had a pretty exciting 10 minutes of play time with it. Put it on, take it off, pull it over the eyes, step on it, toss it across the room (and at one point into his crib, where he couldn't reach it and expressed his frustration by attempting to climb into his bed and getting stuck at the top...and then shouting "No" at the hat. I'm sure the hat was contrite.) This little man entertains me pretty much every minute of the day.

Ice Ice baby!!!!

On Saturday night, the girls went to see Disney on Ice: Mickey's Magical Journey.


Cass got to bring her best friend from school. (Cute little girl in pink sitting next to her.)


KK & Cass worked hard doing chores to earn money to buy something. Everything was grossly overpriced (of course). They wanted glowing wands, spinning lights, etc. But didn't have enough cash (they were $18 each!) so when they found these cute little snow cone mugs (a modest $10), they were thrilled. Granted, it was 6 degrees outside and we were watching ICE Capades...but they wanted snow cones. The mugs have since been reused for everything from hot chocolate, to smoothies, to breakfast. I don't believe we have done a load of dishes without the mugs in them. It isn't in the pictures, but Cassidy's is a Little Mermaid themed mug. KK got Minnie Mouse. Happy Happy Happy little girls.


And here is a shot of the Big ending. Peter Pan and Tinker Bell were flying around on harnesses, Mickey, Minnie, Daisy, Donald and Goofy were the tour guides (and KK's very favorite part). Ariel was a huge hit. Lilo and Stitch, Lion King, were also there. It was a very fun show. If we could have brought home stage props, we would have brought the Lost Boys hide-out and Captain Hooks very cool Pirate ship. I'm sure we will be talking about this night for months to come...at least until next year.

Kids Say (and do) the funniest things....

All babies at some point in time do something that makes their parents ponder the possibility that they are raising the NEXT "Doogie Howser" (for those of you too young to understand that reference, google it. You'll be surprised.) Brog is providing us with multiple moments of reflection. He is very fond of mirroring behavior and getting things done JUST RIGHT. If he sees us do it one way, he will insist on doing it himself and will become frustrated after several attempt should he not be successful in achieving it JUST SO. The other day we were building with blocks. I showed him how to stack them. Then I turned around to put some of his clothes away. When I turned back, he had stacked 8 blocks on top of each other to build a tower and was clapping for himself. SOOO cute!

Kayla showed up at my bedside in the middle of the night in a rather terrified state. She declared that she had a bad dream. When asked to explain the bad dream she informed me that is was about a gigantic Lady Bug that tried to "buzz" her. She said it followed her from the dinning hall all the way home and when it tried to follow her into her bedroom she says it shrunk down tiny small and sat on her bed. Only Kayla would have nightmares about lady bugs.

Cass has recently begun ordering her own breakfast. Today she walked up to the counter and asked, "I would like some pig please. You probably call it BACON." This was only made better by the smirk she gave me accompanied by a single "I know these things" type finger tap to her forehead.

Valentine Prep.

The girls LOVE holidays. Valentine's Day is no exception. Being locked inside the house (while it dumped over a foot of snow outside) gave us a perfect opportunity to decorate for the next BIG holiday. This is a cute little mug that we put tree branches in and then hung small gold and red hearts on. Around the bottom is a cute little red heart garland. They also made a pink heart wreath for the front door (Thanks, Miranda!), hung some window cling hearts, and also hung up some big heart cut outs. They are currently planning out their valentines for this year. With tomorrow being a "stay home day" perhaps we will start to tackle that fun project as well. I believe there is a request in to make heart shaped sugar cookies also, but....we'll just have to see what the day brings us. We may be doing some sledding and snow boarding also. I have a feeling that I'm going to be more tired then they are by the end of the day. Oh well....as long as they sleep soundly at night, I'm happy to entertain.

Sunday Service

This was the second Sunday in a row that church services have been cut short due to weather. The kids and I didn't even drive in. The girls were really sad about it today and so we decided to have our very own service at home. Cass said the opening prayer. Kayla chose the songs. Dad did announcements and family business. Cass gave a talk. Kayla shared a scripture thought. And then Kayla said the closing prayer. We even had Primary of sorts. The girls colored in their books. Brogan got in on that action too. I was very proud of them for wanting to do this. Going so far as to put on dresses and get ready for "home church". They were very excited and approached it with a rather serious nature. They still missed all their friends, but they enjoyed the novelty. Next week they are hoping to go and have "real church". Me too.

Friday Family Night

We celebrated Cassidy this Friday. She has been working so very hard in school. Her class has just started having spelling tests and working on sight word recognition. We practiced all week long with the promise of ice cream sundae's if she did particularly well. As it turns out, she has a pretty good knack for this stuff. As parents we have discovered that teaching a child to read and spell the English language is rather difficult. We don't have the answers to questions like: How can "read" and "read" be spelled the same but sound different? And, how can "read" and "red" sound the same but be spelled different? Why to "f" "ph" and "gh" make the same sound sometimes? How can "c" make an "SSSS" sound? How come "one" sounds like "won" but should sound like "own"? I can't answer her questions. I can only imagine her frustration as I am feeling frustrated as well. It doesn't make sense. Anyway, she was able to recognize all of her sight words (spelling test is next week). So, we celebrated with ice cream sundae's. Cassidy likes vanilla with topping and sprinkles. Kayla likes things "straight up" just the ice cream and sprinkles. Brog just had a bit of cream and his favorite "choco" (as he calls it). We are SO proud of you Cass!

Cassidy Snowboards!

Cassidy got a lil' kids version of a snowboard for Christmas this year; no bindings, just step-in loops for regular boots. She watched one "instructional video" by Warren Miller and then we took things outside to the front lawn. What can I say, the kid's a natural. She helped me put the movie together and, of course, the soundtrack was her choice.