Happy 31st B-day Brian!!

Unfortunately Brian had to work on his birthday, but we had a little family party that night. I made him a Tres Leches cake, and he opened a few gifts. So-- this is what a handsome, distinguished 31 looks like! We love you Brian!

Ana counts... 1,2,3,4,6

Ana turns two in 4 days on Wednesday the 28th. I thought I'd describe what she is having fun doing at this developmental stage. This may seem kinda' boring to some of you--but this is my first 2 year old so I love everything new she does daily! She is absolutely addicted to books. She will get out each book from her "book box" one at a time and put them in a huge pile on the couch. Then she will read each one of them, making a pile on the opposite side of her when finished, and then she puts each one of them away, one at a time back into her box. She loves Mommy to read them to her, but she will also stay busy for at least an hour reading to herself. She can focus and stay on task so extremely well right now.

She loves to repetitively watch a few fun kid's videos that we have. Her favorites include "Dance with theTeletubbies", "Blue's Treasure Hunt", and "Elmo's Pottytime". She has memorized the songs from each of these movies, and copies their dancing which is the cutest thing ever. I especially like to watch her do the "tap dance" from Teletubbies, and the muppets dances from Elmo's video. Since the muppets are like extreme bobble heads, it always looks like she is crazily headbanging as she copies them. It is hilarious.

She knows most of her colors except orange and brown--I attribute this to me not particularly liking orange, and having nothing orange around our home. I think I forget to talk about brown, because it's just not that exciting. She likes to name animals and the sounds they make. Her favorite is the sheep. Everytime she says "baaaaaaah.." she thinks it is the funniest thing.

She started potty training a little while ago. Still wearing diapers, but when she feels like it, she will happily sit on the potty because she likes to play with the toilet paper. She loves to sing. She knows (meaning she will sing the tune very recognizeably, and try her best at most of the words)over 20 kid's songs including primary songs, nursery songs, and christmas carols. She still listens to Josh Groban's Christmas CD at night (which has been a more than one year nightly tradition now--thank you Adro!) She likes to sing along to the "Little Drummer Boy" and I will try to record her doing that some night because she is really good about staying with the tune and doing the "rum, pa, pum, pum". I sometimes wonder how people like Mariah, or Whitney sang when they were one. Her voice is definitely better than mine already!

Ana is finally starting to grow--just a bit. She is in the 2nd percentile for her height, which means that even Adro's kids will most likely be taller than her. (Just messing with ya' A&C.) She has thinned out a lot, and she is still in the running for becoming Rapunzel at age 15. With those little round pebble teeth, and a grin that spans her whole face, she is definitely such a cutie!

She calls Mya, "Bah" which is NOT her best attempt to say the name Mya, because in prayers sometimes Ana will say something really close to "Mya". My favorite thing that she says right now is "I had bun." and "Daddy bunny! Daddy bunny!" when she is trying to say "fun" and "funny". I think it's really smart that she knows what these words mean, and that she regularly uses them correctly. She loves both the rain and snow, and loves to look up and have them fall on her face. She is never in a hurry to escape them, and then says, "I got all wet!" afterwards.

Okay, finally...she likes to count. She counts everything she sees from the birds on the parking lot, to the peas on her plate. No matter how many times we count to five, when she counts alone she still says 1,2,3,4,6. I was hoping to get to 10 by her b-day but that may be a long shot because right now she is only interested in repeating the same numbers. She will count "1,2,3,4,6,2,3,4,6,2,3,4,6...etc". Mya always smiles when she hears Ana counting because she thinks it's so neat. Mya is now counting to 20 (if she is in a good mood)--including eleventeen, twelveteen, and threeteen :). So--here is Ana counting and I will try to post more videos of the girls soon.

Refinishing the dining table

When we lived in Hales Corners, Mom gave us her huge dining room table set which seats 6-10 people. It included 3 leafs, 8 chairs and lots of fabulous 70s style. We have absolutely loved it for years because we like to entertain, but we finally decided to go for a different look. Instead of investing a thousand dollars for a new set, we decided to refinish the really nice wood, be creative in what the new table "legs" would be, opt for the bar height, and add new parsons chairs. I think that it turned out excellent, since we really had no idea what it would really end up looking like. And Mom, sorry but there is no way we can give it back to you now. Too much sweat equity :)
Here is the BEFORE.......

And here is the AFTER......

Mya sings Portuguese

Brian sings this Portuguese kid's song to the girls when he puts them to bed. Mya learned it pretty quickly-- and here it is!

The Movie "Annie"

This is going to sound totally dorky, but I have decided that "Annie" has some of the best choreorgraphy that I have seen in a movie (or on tv) for a long time. I have been watching it regularly with the girls (I will try to video them dancing along because it is hilarious) and I really think they did an exceptional job. If anyone is looking to learn some excellent dance steps--just dig in the basement for the old VHS player and pop it in!

And by the way Mom...I did a little research about Ann Reinking (Grace Farrell) and she is known for dancing and partnering with Bob Fosse in some of his best. Apparently she is the main character in the 1970's "Chicago", and also in "All that Jazz" so I will have to check that out because I like her style a lot!

Reward Time!

The charts are finally full! Some of you know that Mya and Ana have been working on earning stickers to complete these charts for over 3 months now. I originally thought they would fill these much faster, since 5 stickers can be earned per day and there are only 75 boxes (that's less than 3 weeks!). Anyway, Ana completed hers a few days before Mya but I held out so they could get their reward on the same day. They now both have thier ears pierced! This is something that Mya has been wanting for a long time, but until the adoption was finalized it was not an option. I am proud of them for working so hard to earn this reward, and here is the mini version of what happened that day...

We dropped off Mya at school, and then I took Ana to the mall. I had to strategically devise the plan because Ana is much tougher than Mya, and I didn't want to go home with a singly pierced Mya. Here is Ana without earrings for the last time, not having a clue of what was about to happen to her.

The girl was really good about piercing the second ear very quickly after the first so Ana didn't have much time to react. Poor Ana didn't cry at all--she just looked at the girl like, "Why did you just do that????!!!" Then she looked at me with half a frown, pointed to her ear and said, "Ouchy Mommy." What a big girl! The suckers helped a little, but she was still trying to figure out what we had just done to her. I chose tiny sterling hearts for Ana Banana. They will have to stay in for 6 weeks.

I asked the girl if when I brough back Mya, they could pierce her ears at the same time. She said if I came back when the shifts switched, there would be 2 people to help. So-- we picked up Mya and wasted a little time playing together. Mya was so excited for Ana, and that her ears looked so pretty.

This photo makes me laugh :)

So now it was Mya's turn. Here is the last picture of Mya without earrings, and excited for her reward...

Both piercings done at once..

And then the cry, with a little shriek...

She was given a sucker too, and 2 minutes later once she looked in the mirror, she was happy again.

Mya helped choose little pink and gold stars and she is very ready to show them to EVERYONE!

Whew! Not sure what the next reward will be for completing the new chart--but Mya doesn't seem to care anymore since she got her earrings!

Play time

News Alert: Friday, January 9th was my last day of work, and I am now officially a stay at home mom! And so begins my latest career move, to hope that the greatest work I will ever do will be within the walls of my own home.

(Ana, Mya, Josh)

Thank you Adro and Clint!

Adrienne and Clint brought back Ana & Mya bonnets from Nauvoo, and mexican dresses from Mexico. Thank you for being so thoughtful. They are adorable!

Merry Christmas!

This is our public THANK YOU To all of those who contributed to our very merry Christmas!

Sledding

I never really thought I liked sledding, but I have decided that was because I was never warm enough to enjoy it. This year we all have warm snowsuits/skiwear, and it is a whole new mountain of fun! Of course the girls would stay out all night if we would let them.