1.5

Well my little lady, you are 18 months old! And what a joy you are! You are the apple of our eyes, I can't imagine life with out my sweet Audrey.

What can I say about Audrey, it is amazing how "kid-ish" she is. She has an amazing vocabulary, I think its that second child thing. Her favorite words include: Cheese (the girl LOVES cheese), Shoes (she LOVES shoes and will pick up your shoes and bring them to you and try to put them on your feet), No (typical toddler), Up, Nose (I know, kind of odd, also her favorite body part), and All done!



She is an EXCELLENT sleeper! (YIPEE) I cannot tell you how happy it makes me that i have TWO kids that both sleep through the night and my sleepless nights are behind me. Of course we have a rough night now and then, but I am loving being done with that stage!

We recently stopped nursing, something I thought audrey would have a hard time with, but really, it was all me. All it took was not offering the nini and instead reading goodnight moon and it was as if she forgot it even existed! So my nursing days are officially behind me, something that is a bit bitter sweet for me. I have been nursing for over 3 years now(with about a 4 month pregnancy break), so to be done is a little weird. But I am proud of all that I accomplished with nursing my babies and providing them with the best nutrients I could offer! I know that not all women have an easy time at nursing as I did, so in that way I feel really fortunate.

Audrey loves to read. She loves books and she will just sit in her little chair and "read" her books. Its really cute.

She loves her big sister and wants to do whatever Brynn does. She so looks up to her. Unfortunatly, she doesn't understand her boundaries yet, so if Brynn is doing a puzzle, Audrey wants to do one to, as in Brynns puzzle, not a different puzzle, not sharing the puzzle, but Brynns puzzle, right now.

She is a Scorpio. Which means she has got a temper on her (or so, thats her baby sitters explanation for Audreys temper). When she decides she wants something or doesnt want something, she sets her mind to it and wont let anyone tell her otherwise, and if you try to, you better watch your back! We had some "violence" issues about a month ago, she would hit anyone and everyone that got in her way. But I am proud to say we nipped that in the butt immediatly with a strict Time-Out policy.

But all in all, she is a sweet girl who loves her family, and loves life. Every morning she greets everyone with a smile. Life couldn't get better than that!

ROOTS!!! (warning really really long)

I am blogging okay Aimee? Happy Now? *wink*

Ok, first, many appoligies for my hiatus. Life has just gotten away with me. My Husband will blame it on my Kindle. I beg to differ. I blame it on just plain life. I always think "Oooh! I need to blog about this" and then by the time I get time to do it, its is lost to me...

But I have a new project, which I think will bring me back to blogging. Although you may be uterly bored with it.

I have recently been researching my families ancestry. Most people think I started because of that new TV show "who do you think you are" however, really I got into it back during this opening ceremonies of the winter games. This might sound weird so brace yourself:

As I was watching the different countries come in, each with their own "look" to them. I know we are a melting pot society, but I can definately see similar "looks" within the different countries of athletes coming in. 

Anywho, I was watching them come in, and as we saw different countries, Chad and I were pointing out the "people" of friends of ours, for example, a good friend of Chad has ancestry that originates in Lithuania so we said "Oh there is *Z's* people" or Chad's family originates from Whales, so when UK came in we said "There's Chads people"

As I was watching, a thought slowly crept in the back of my mind: I don't really know who "My People" are...

I don't know anything about my heritage. When did we get here, what did we do when we got here, what is the story of the many many souls and lives that came before me and the path that ultimately led to myself entering the world (and subsequently, my daughters).

I called my Nana during the Olympics and she told me I was Irish and Polish, and that my Nana's grandpa came through Ellis Island when he was 5. That satisfied my hunger for the time being, I wouldn't have even known where to begin to research it to get more info than that.

Fast forward to a couple weeks ago, I saw my DVR'd Oprah episode where she was promoting that new show on NBC and the light bulb went off in my head. I signed up for ancestry.com and started researching.

I have been blown away with the information I have learned about my family. I went from someone who literally had no idea about anything about where she came from, or who she came from to someone who has built an extensive family tree on all sides of her family. Its amazing.

I look at my family tree and am just overwhelmed with the many names and "branches" on my tree. Each Name a life many that have come and gone. Each life, a unique story with memories and untold history. Unfortunatly memories and stories long gone but for the information provided in official documents. But each name in my roots I feel a connection to. And I feel like its my duty to make sure that our history doesn't get lost. That someday when my girls care (most likely when they have children of their own) they will have a resource to go and see who their "people" are.

So, I have debated on how I want to document our family tree. I dont think its significant enough to just show a picture of the tree a bunch of names and birth/death dates. That doesn't do it justice. So I am going to attempt to tell the story of some of my family member's with the information I have. And I am going to put it here in this blog as a holding place for my blurb book, also so that I can share with the rest of my family as I learn.

I think I need to make this blog private though. Seems like all the cool kids are doing it (*cough* Aimee and Lindsay *cough*) and since I will be listing family names, places, etc. I think its time I go private.

Few! that is a mouthful! More to come!

Three!

Another year has come and gone! Today we celebrate Brynns third birthday!!!



This was prob one of the funnest birthdays thus far, because she 'got it' this year. She knew it was coming, she counted down the days. Since about September she has been telling us "My Birthdays in March"

Since about 2 weeks ago she has been saying "My Birthday is coming! My Birthday is in March 1st."

and finally her birthday was today and she says "I am three! I have three fingers!!!"


What can I say about Brynn....

~She has never met a stranger~

It doesn't matter where we are or what we are doing, Brynn will talk to whoever will give her eye contact, and even those who don't. We were at Old Navy a couple weekends ago, and Brynn was saying "Hi, I am Brynn" to everyone we passed. Then there was this one kinda scary looking gangster guy (sorry, I dont know how else to explain him!) and Brynn was like "Hi! I am Brynn, whats your name?"

He smiled and told her and she said "I am shopping with my mommy, we are trying on pants"

Another time we went out for Dinner and Brynn totally entertained our waitress

"Hi I am Brynn, thats my sister audrey and my mommy kristin, and my daddy"

and when the waiter said "What can I get for you" Brynn said:

"Can I have some food please?"

you get the point, definatly not shy at this phase in her life.

~She prefers to cruise in her Birthday Suite~

This is no exaduration, if there is no requirement for shirt shoes or clothes, she is naked.
Naked as the day she popped out of my whoohaa.

She sleeps naked, eats naked, plays naked. Even when its cold enough for layers, she will just hang out naked. If you try to fight her to get clothes on, it only makes it worse! Sheesh!

On a couple of occasions we have been at a party, and you know how it goes, the parents are in one room, the kids are all off together in a seperate room playing, and Brynn all of a sudden will walk in the room totally naked, or she will be in the process of undressing!

Oy, I am going to have my hands full with this girl!

~Great Sister~

Brynn has really made it easy on my with the sibling thing. For the most part, Brynn understands that she is the older sister and sometimes Audrey doesn't know any better when it comes to sharing, or fighting, or other things. She is a great helper with Audrey, and also a great friend, encouraging audrey and loving her.

~the good and the bad and the ugly~

I just wouldnt be being honest if I didnt share the down side of Ms. Brynn....

We tease that she is "Three Teen" because: Girl has got attitude sometimes. Some of the things that she can yell at you, I havent heard since I was 15!

One good example is when I had to take a toy away when Brynn and Audrey was fighting over it, when I came back from putting the toy in the garage, Brynn stood there, looked at me and said "AKKKK!!! YOU.ARE.A.BAD.PERSON!!! AKKKK!!"

Then she stomped off to her room and slammed, yes slammed the door....Audrey and I looked at each like "oooookay"

She ain't nothin but a gold digger...

My little Audrey seems to have alot in common with her Mommy!

Audrey's latest obsession is all things money. Counting money, sorting money, putting money in her Girrafe Bank, moving money from one container to another container, stressing out about how to pay her property tax  --oh no wait, thats JUST for mommy! (*wink*wink*)...this kid is coin crazy!!!

It all started with this:

Audrey very quickly learned how to put money in it and it became her favorite past time. So much so that there would be no coins left free in the house so Chad and I had to start cheating and *whisper* taking coins out of the bank so Audrey has more money to put in (shhh, dont tell the kids)

From there, she branched off into sorting coins into different piles, hen transfering coins, one by one from one container to another, and lets not forget mommys favorite: dumping all coins on the floor and then suddenly losing interest and walking away!

:-)