Ouch!

 The other night, Saturday, Brie had a little accident. From what I can tell she fell off of a chair, or fell into a chair. I'm not really sure to be honest. She cried for awhile but then went back to her normal self. She did request medicine though. It was so sweet the way she said, "Medicine, please, Mommy."

I know the lighting is bad, but I didn't want to disrupt the healing process by stretching her lip up more for a better shot. I'm amazed at how well she's doing. She is her normal self, eating normally and everything. (We showed the previous photo to a mouth specialist and he said that we COULD bring her in and they'd put her under and give her a stitch or two, but it would most likely sort itself out on its own. And it HAS!) The human body amazes me. Well any body I guess, not just humans. But anyway. What a trooper.

On a Roll

How cute is this? For about three days now Brie has been using the potty as long as I remind her. She's on a roll! Usually she goes in, does her business, and gets back to playing. But this time she sat here for a good 15-20 minutes coloring in her little journal-book, as she calls it.

Speaking of on a roll, look at me keeping up with the blog. Woot!

 Chelsea has decided to write a pirate book. This is her first page. You can't see it well on the screen (plus all that orange) but on the ship you can see the wheel and Captain Hook and Smee are both on the ship. In the water you can see the crocodile. I think my favorite part is the flag with the skull and crossbones. She'll point out loads more things than I just mentioned. I'm quite impressed.

 This is the beginning of the second page. Her pirate book is based on the characters from Jake and the Neverland Pirates on Disney. I forget the name of the boat, but it does have a name. The person drawn here is Izzy, I believe. Since I took this she has added more, but I'll wait till she's all done with the book to show the rest of her progress. 

Here is the lovely book that was published by The Minot Daily. The cover features Ramstad, my poor destroyed middle school.

 Here is a picture with someone some of you may  recognize. Can't see too well?...

...Here it is a little closer. I don't know who the lady in yellow is, so don't ask. But twenty points to the first person that can name the other three people!

And right at the end of the book in the advertisement pages is another set of familiar faces. We are all famous! Like I mentioned in a previous email, autographs available upon request. Nobody has requested any so far. The email must not have gone through or something..hmm...j/k!

You can see our house in a couple of pictures inside, and you can ALMOST see it in a couple others. The book is well worth it. It will stay right next to our personal flood journal/scrap book. (I WILL finish it eventually, like so many other projects I'm in the middle of.)

Cuteness

 This is what you get when you change a diaper on the floor, turn your head, and leave the powder within reach.

 Chelsea decided her favorite sport right now is basketball. No, this is not a picture of a basketball, as I originally thought. This is her basketball jersey so cleverly pinned to her undershirt with a hair clip. (She got her sleeve wet earlier and insisted that she take her shirt off because she HATES wearing wet clothes.)

 When I took that picture of Chelsea, Brie insisted I take a picture of her, too. This is what she was doing at the time. She waited ever so impatiently for Abby to vacate the high chair so SHE could sit in it and read her books. And yes, this is my second half-dressed child running around today. (She dripped a drop of milk on her pants during breakfast and insisted on taking them off. They haven't made it back onto her body yet. It's only 3:20 in the afternoon. But she has peed in the potty twice today! Woot woot!)

 I couldn't take a picture of both Chelsea and Brie without then taking one of Abby in her current state. She wasn't happy for long in the walker. Now she's sitting next to me squealing away at her toys. Cuteness.

Here is our family project from FHE yesterday. Chelsea has these Disney Princess books that tell a story and then they have related games/crafts/activities in the back of each book. This was one of the crafts in an Aurora story where Aurora was showing her appreciation for her then husband, Prince Philip, after he had done something nice for her. She wanted to gather bunches of flowers to decorate their dance hall and then dance the night away. It didn't work out exactly like that of course, but then again, it wouldn't be an interesting story if it did. Anywho, they showed us how to make tissue paper flowers at the end, and so, of course, we did. It was a big hit. I now have orders to buy some other colors of tissue paper to add to our pretty bouquet.

 *salute* Yes, Ma'am. They are quick, easy, and cheap. In other words, perfect!

You can also see part of our pretty new kitchen table and part of a chair in this shot. We are enjoying our new addition very much!

Easter Sunday Afternoon

 We were asked to bring a salad and a dessert to Grandma Heit's for Easter dinner. So I asked Chelsea what type of dessert we should make. She thought cookies shaped like bunnies sounded good. So we did.

 Really I was just the assistant to Chelsea. She did all the work herself. 

 Brie noticed that we were doing something interesting after awhile and didn't want to be left out. It did make things a little more complicated, but it was good.

 Chelsea even helped with the dishes while our dough was chilling in the fridge.

 Our best side?

 A view from above

 Pink icing to top it all off

Chelsea proudly showing off an example of each of the four shapes we made. (Thanks for letting us borrow your cookie cutters, Auntie Jennifer!) They turned out great, especially for a four-year-old!

Pre Easter Festivities

 The other day it seemed too quiet for my own good. I was suspecting sleeping children, which is great except when it gets to bedtime. If they've had naps (with the exception of Abby, of course) of any length during the day then getting them to go to sleep at bedtime is a nightmare. I was pleasantly surprised to find them sitting nicely together watching a Pony video on the iPad. I couldn't resist taking a picture. Brie is waving to me but with her eyes glued to the screen. (No worries about screen time-they actually don't use the iPad so much any more.)

 If you turn your head sideways you will get a glimpse of not only Abby's first tooth, but her second tooth as well. There is just the absolute tiniest bit of white next to her first tooth indicating her second tooth. You can see it more clearly in a different shot, but Abby is crying in that one. I didn't want to look like I torture my children to take their picture...only I do...sometimes... ;)

 Last night we decided would be a good night to dye eggs. Who wants to wait all the way until Easter? Chelsea was smiling and gave a little wave to me, but her eyes stayed forward.

 Brie was a little haphazzard, but that was to be expected. She got a few bright pink drops on her nice white shirt and the tutu she was wearing, but other than that, no real harm. I have a feeling that shirt is now an undershirt, though. Our orange dye met the spread of newspapers pretty early on, but there was enough to work with, hehe.

 Chelsea thought it was pretty cool looking at the insides of the boiled egg that broke in half while cooking, but would not eat but the tiniest bite of the whites before declaring she didn't like it. Brie then declared she didn't like it either, while holding out her hand for more. She kept saying she didn't like it, but finished off the rest of the egg whites with no problem. Little Monkey.

 The Hello Kitty egg dye came with a couple masks for the eggs. can you spot our Hello Kitty egg? It's tough. It's wearing a MASK after all.

 I thought our glass cups were pretty all stacked up. They rinsed out nicely.

 Here is how our "special" Easter egg hunt went afterward. Daddy put little glow sticks in the eggs and hid them in the dark! It was pretty cool. Chelsea LOVED it. Brie didn't really understand what was going on. She kept asking for the light to be turned on. But she had a good time still.

 Here we have a soccer egg, a football egg, and two plain eggs. And a stray glow stick that looks like it's flying because Chelsea was shaking her bucket while I'm trying to take the picture. The lighter colored plain eggs worked the best.

 On Thursday we (Grandma, Auntie, and I) took the girls out to the mall for new shoes. They each got three new pairs. (Bye bye $100) Auntie got some nail polish also, and the girls got mini mani pedis. This is Brie's foot featuring the purple color they each have on their toes.

 Here is Chelsea's hands featuring the bright pink color each chose for their fingers. I was tempted to paint Abby's toenails, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. Someday we'll all get matching nails, I'm sure. :)

 Abby napped through the egg dyeing and played with other eggs during the egg hunt. But isn't she cute in the bunny ears?

She's discovered her feet and always tries to pull them up. She really likes to try to eat her feet during meal times, the most convenient time of all. 

Happy Easter weekend, everyone!

March!

Abby is finally getting her first tooth about mid march. Is it sad that I really didn't take any pictures until mid March? I think so. Being the mom again is busy business! (But wonderful busy business!)

Brie was home sick from church this day. (She insisted on getting dressed up anyway, my little girly girl.) I noticed it had gotten awfully quiet. I found the poor sweetie like this outside C and A's bedroom door. Naps are generally not allowed any more, but this is an exception. :(

The remainder of the pics on this post are from Daddy's new camera. It's pretty spiffy. He was playing with the settings and experimenting with its capabilities. Here's a great motion shot of Chelsea. I think her face is so cute here! The pink pajama pants on the floor are mine. They will be featured in a later photo.

Yes, Brie is almost naked. I think we were in the midst of getting dressed on a lazy Saturday midday or something. I don't remember exactly. Brie has such perfect, cute little teeth. I hope they stay that way. Chelsea's are going crooked now. :S As of today, Abby has two teeth coming in. Chels likes to inspect them regularly by pulling Abby's bottom lip down. Goofy kid.

Brie loves to hide and then peek out, can you tell?

Ta da! The pajama pants. Can you tell what they are? I'll give you a hint. Tangled is playing on the TV behind her.

I was flipping through photos deciding which to put on the blog and Brie happened to look up as this one was on my screen. "It's Brie!.....It's a BIG Brie!" Her face WAS taking up most of my screen after all. It was pretty funny. 

Chelsea had her final dance performance of the season.

She always ends up in the back row during performances. There are only two rows, so it's really not so bad, but still.

The whole family was able to come including all the Kellys and Heits. Hi, Abby! She was very well behaved during the entire performance. Tired, but interested.

Who doesn't love a smiling baby face? SO CUTE!!! I hate to admit it, but her hair is getting lighter and lighter. I may end up with three blondies after all. Though Chelsea's hair is getting a little darker now. We'll see what the summer sun does to it. Abby's hair is still curly when wet, but straight when dry. I'm interested to see how it turns out as well.

Chels loved watching all the dance groups do their thing. This was the group immediately following her performance. She wasn't laying on the floor the whole time, hehe. Dance will continue for the summer. I'm debating on the fall session, or maybe switching to ballet since she's expressed some interest in that. We'll see. For now, she's having a blast!