Trip to the Dino Museum

To celebrate Brooklyn's Birthday with the Miller's we went to the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point. This is the first time that I have ever been to this dinosaur museum and I must admit I was pleasantly surprised. They really crammed a lot into what looked like a small space.

There was a lot of activities for the kids, which was awesome. Including a place where the kids can play in sand and water and make their own sand volcanoes.

There was also a place where the girlies could dig for dinosaur bones. We had a really good time and it was so nice to spend a day doing something other than princess's and barbies. Chris when you get home we are going to have to do a bunch of this kind of stuff to toughen them up again.

Happy Birthday Brooklyn!!!!

Happy Birthday Brooklyn!

This week Brookie celebrated her 3rd birthday! I am sad and happy, I am sad that she is growing up but happy that the terrible two's mat be ending soon! Brooklyn has Systemic Mastocytosis which is a rare autoimmune disease that really limits what she can eat. Without medicine she can only eat apples. But with medication she can eat the following:

Apples, Grapes, Pork, Vanilla, Chicken, Zuchinni, Black Beans, Milk, Cheddar Cheese, Butter, White Sugar, Blackberries, Broccoli, Strawberries, Blueberries, Oranges. It sounds like a lot, but she can only eat the foods on the list which means no seasonings, no variations, no grains, etc. She is always really sad that she can not eat what the rest of us are eating and so this year we decided to have a birthday dinner where everyone could only eat what Brooklyn could eat! She was SO EXCITED! It was adorable, she kept giggling and asking for more and more helpings, until her plate was heaping, and she ate a ton too. All in all I think that we were all surprised at how good the food actually was, but I would hate to have to eat it everyday.

We are always trying to figure out different ways to make her food. My sister Ali had the idea to stuff the chicken, it was yummy!

On the menu: Stuffed Chicken (stuffed with broccoli, cheese, and bacon), Fruit Skewers, Bacon, Fried Cheese (her favorite), Steamed Zuchinni, and Orange Juice

Then it was time to open presents. In an effort to keep Brooklyn out of the toilets (I put a lock on the actual toilet lid, but she has now figured out how to lift the lid off of the tank), and the water on the fridge, I purchased a water table! She was pretty excited, and I was excited that it would fit on the tile in the basement.

Daddy delivered by getting Brookie some roller skates, something that she has been wanting for quite some time. They are actually pretty awesome because the wheels lock and so she can "skate" by walking around the living room in them. Aunt Ali gave her some silky purple jammies, she was pretty excited about those as well.

Now it was time for cake, but since she can't have cake we have had to improvise over the years. We have come a long way! I give you the evolution of the Brooklyn Birthday Cake!

On Brooklyn's first birthday we weren't sure what it was that she had but we were told no grains and no dairy only fruits and veggies, and at the time she could have jello. But . . . she could not have regular Jello brand gelatin so I made my own with apple juice. Lets just say she licked it once and that was it, it was nasty!

Last year we figured out that she could have Breyer's vanilla ice cream, because it is just sugar milk, and vanilla. She was pretty excited!

This year we took it up a notch and figured out that we could take the ice cream and mold it into cake molds, then frost it with pink whip cream, and top it off with pink sugar! Success! She was so excited to finally be able to have her own cake! It was awesome, and tasted good enough that we all had some, which was a good thing because it took 1 1/2 gallons of ice cream to get it to look like a cake.

Baking With Aunt Ali

This week I have had a terrible migraine that will seriously NOT GO AWAY! We are on day 7 and counting. So . . .everyone has been wonderful at pitching in and entertaining my crazy kids! My wonderful sister Ali decided to bake cookies with Hallie from her princess cookbook. Hallie loved it and made sure that they looked exactly like the picture in her cookbook down to every last detail (sprinkles in place, and white ribbon) she is such a perfectionist. I have to laugh. We love you Hallie and Ali

Citizen of the Week

It was finally Hallie's turn to be citizen of the week. She was sooo excited! To kick off the festivities I got to make a poster all about Hallie and all of her favorite things! Then all throughout the week she got to help out around the class. Then on Friday I got to come to school and tell all about the poster I had made, and then read Hallie's favorite book, which was "My Little Sister Ate One Hare," (if you haven't read it you should it is hilarious). After that it was time for the Citizen of the week ceremony, she sat in front of the class, while her teacher presented her with a Gold Medal. Very Exciting Indeed! It was also dress up like your favorite nursery rhyme day and so she was really decked out in her citizen of the week hat, gold medal, and her cat and the fiddle ears.

One of the duties of the citizen of the week is to pick a friend and deliver the role to the office. A job they take very seriously. Hallie picked Brooklyn and she couldn't have been more excited.

Thanks Steffanie

I have the most amazing sister-in-laws in the world and this year my extremely talented

sister-in-law-Steffanie made the girls the most amazing quilts I have ever seen. Each quilt has a purse with their name embroidered on it, and a bunch of cute pictures on it. None of us had any idea that she was even making them. She "borrowed" my external hard drive, and was pretty sneaky about the whole thing. It really pays off to have a sewing teacher in the family. They are seriously adorable. We will keep them forever.

THANK YOU AUNT STEFFANIE!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!

This year we celebrated Christmas without Chris. I must say that this has been harder that I thought it would be to celebrate Christmas without you Chris. And to complicate things they decided to change things around over in Iraq and we weren't able to skype, email, or even talk to Chris the week prior and the week after Christmas, except for an unexpected 15 minute phone call Christmas Day. We Miss YOU Terribly! Aside from all of the drama, we were able to have a nice Christmas with family in UT.

I have a sister who is 16 who morphs into a 5 year old every Christmas Eve. She is always the one who wakes everyone up at 5 am ready to open presents. This year I agreed to let her sleep in my room as long as she promised to let us all sleep in until 7:30 am. But like any 5 year old she couldn't wait any longer and woke us all up at 7am. So we woke up the girls and headed upstairs. We love you Ali!

Brooklyn did not want to budge Christmas morning. She unlike her sister does not like to wake up in the morning, but after letting her wake up naturally for a few minutes she was awake and anxious to see the goods.

The girls were excited to see the Christmas presents, as was my sister Ali, all wrapped up in her zebra snuggie

Chris sent the girls these awesome tea sets from Iraq. They were the hit toy this year. The girls have not stopped playing tea party since.

Brooklyn opening her baby cradle for her "baby white". She has now slept with this cradle next to her bed, her baby all tucked every night since.

Hallie opening her Polly Pocket Rollercoaster

Hallie was pretty excited to see her snow tube from Grandma Reece. If you have to live in the snow you may as well enjoy it.

Santa was able to track down a Zhu Zhu Pet last minute, Hallie kept shouting "How did Santa Know, How did he know?" It was cute, she was pretty excited. I am not sure why these little electronic hamsters were so popular this year, but she was happy.

Brookie was happy to finally get a barbie of her own, and I was relieved that in the excitement of Christmas morning she forgot all about the roller skates, and ice skates she had asked for.

Brooklyn opening her cinderella dress. She has been in this costume ever since.

Hallie about to open her Barbie teacher

What a mess, but we sure had making it.

After putting so much work into getting Christmas together I really hate that it only lasts a few minutes, so to prolong the excitement Chris and I decided to let them open their presents from us, and their stockings after Christmas breakfast.

The girls getting ready to open their stockings.

I knew that to get through the holidays without Chris this year I would need a lot of projects so this year I made the following:

A doorway Puppet Theater

Felt Food

Chalk Mat (almost finished)

Felt Mat/Felt Stories

And A Magnet Table

I didn't get a chance to glue the ribbon around the edges to protect the table (hence the white table cloth) but I was able to make table top, and convert 3 sticker books into magnet play scenes.

All in all we had a wonderful Christmas, and we are so lucky to have the support of such amazing friends and family. WE LOVE YOU ALL!!

Christmas Eve

Every Christmas Eve we have a family party and seafood dinner. This year we were missing quite a few members of our family Chris, my brother Sam (who is on a mission), My brother Cam and sister-in-law Steff, and My Grandpa Hintze (who passed away last month). It just wasn't the same without them, but my parents did a good job of making the most anticipated dinner of the year extra special this year. This year we had : Lobster Tails, Crab Legs, Shrimp, Steak, Scalloped Potatoes, Ribbon Jello, Sour dough Bread, Strawberry Spinach Salad, and Italian Sodas. Brooklyns Dinner Menu was: Blackberries, Strawberries, Bacon, and Chicken Wings. It took a lot of work for my parents to put it together, but we will always remember our wonderful Christmas Eve Dinners.

Right before dinner the girls got dressed up in their party clothes and posed for me while I took their pic.'s

Another tradition is to have a family talent show after dinner, it only took one year of this to realize that our family is the most untalented family on earth, but we still have fun watching our ridiculously horrible displays of talent. The girls definitely took the talent up a notch this year with their song and dance, choreographed by the talented Aunt Ali. It was hilarious to watch them dance together while singing Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer.

Hallie and Brooklyn doing the can-can in their stellar performance

After that we opened a few presents. Ali gave Hallie what is certain to be her favorite gift of the year, it was another princess cookbook. Ali gave her one of these cookbooks last year and Hallie has slept with it every single night this year while dreaming up, and planning little tea parties.

We all got the traditional Christmas jammies. It was major drama picking out pajamas for the girls this year, we tried EVERYTHiNG to find some cute silky pajamas like the ones that Ryan Haws mother so graciously made for my girls, the are the only pj's that Brooklyn will sleep in which means that I usually wash them daily. But apparently they are harder to come by than we thought so we settled for these fleece nightgowns and luckily they were a hit. May I also mention that I am extremely brave for allowing a picture of myself in my pj.'s to grace this blog. It was the only picture we got of the girls in their PJ's for some reason, and so I am only doing this for you Chris.