Julianne's 3rd Birthday!

Our sweet Julianne turned three a few weeks ago. She has been SO excited for her birthday since Brinley's back in March. Whenever we go to a store or any place with something she wants she always says "I can have that for my birthday Mom."

I decided to give her a little friend party. She was so cute about it and was so thrilled to have everyone come!

Right before her party!

Eating outside!

 More friends on the wall!

 Opening presents.

 After the party we went to a Mexican restaurant. When we got home, while we were getting jammies on, we heard some quacking outside. The girls looked out and saw two ducks in our front yard and had to go play with them!

 Then it was time for presents!

 She got a bunch of clothes, some movies, and this princess hair kit. She LOVES it!

 I get my hair done at least 5 times a day!

We are so in LOVE with this little sweetheart!

Some fun things that Julianne is doing right now.

She loves to play outside with her friends! Lucky for her there is always someone to play with.

She says the funniest things! Most of it doesn't make any sense at all! The other day she came up to me so seriously and said "Mom, when I was seven I was two." Okay....

One time she came up to me and gave me a great big hug for no reason at all and said "Thank you for all of your help." I have no idea where she comes up with this stuff. 

She LOVES to dance and play dress up! She is in a dress 90% of the day and wearing high heels. She loves pretending she is a princess and all the time comes up to me and says "Mom will you marry me" that means  "dance with me" to her. 

She is a good sister. If ever we have to discipline Brinley, (which is rare ;) ha ha,) she will get so mad at Greg and I and say "Don't be mean to my SISTER." or "Mom no she dosen't have to go to time out!!" It's pretty funny. 

On the way to my brothers house a few weeks ago, we showed the girls "Freaky Friday" the newer one. Well, it is now Julianne's favorite show and she wants to watch it 3 times a day! 

Last but not least, she really is the sweetest thing in the world! For the most part she is so easy going and I can take her ANYWHERE and not worry about her not obeying! She just is an angel and we LOVE having her in our home! Happy Birthday Julianne!

Nauvoo

We took a nice little weekend trip to the historical church sites of Nauvoo. It was a lot of fun and the girls liked it too. We did as many tours as could in the short time we were there. Here are some pictures of the highlights.

The girls and I with a rope that we made.

Taking a carriage ride in the woods.

 The girls and Greg petting the horses "Bill and Bob" after the ride

 Of  course the highlight of the trip for Brinley, and what she talks about the most, is this little bunny she found on the side of a trail. If you look really close you can see it the bush behind them.

 The beautiful temple

 Statue of Joseph Smith and Hyrum.

 We just had to get a picture of this Bull that Brinley saw.

 At the brickyard tour.

 Joseph Smith Mansion

 Carthage Jail

 I loved Nauvoo! I told Greg that when we're older I wouldn't mind serving a mission there. He was all for it until he found out that all the senior couples have to perform in a play that they put on for the visitors. I guess I still have some time to convince him that it wouldn't be so bad!

A Glorious Weekend!

Magical things can happen when grandparents come to visit.
When my parents came a few weeks ago I was awoken to the sound of a glass falling to our tile floor ( thankfully not breaking) one morning. I looked at the clock and it was unusually early for the kids to be awake. So Greg and I went downstairs, only to find that Brinley was up and dressed, trying to unload the dishwasher all by herself. When I asked her "what are you doing up so early?" she responded "I wanted to surprise you with all of my chores being done before you woke up." I went up stairs and sure enough her bed was made and the room was clean.
The next morning I woke up to Julianne crying and whining. When I went to check on her she was being dragged out of her bed still sound asleep towards the hall because Brinley wanted to make both her bed and Julianne's bed before any of us woke up. I guess Julianne still sleeping was cramping her plans.
What triggered this sudden burst of obedience? Grandma and Grandpa were downstairs and she wanted to impress them.

Last week Greg's parents came to town, again more magic!
I have been trying with all my heart to get Julianne interested in potty training. It's one of the major "to do's" on my list before the baby comes. Well, back in January I decided to give it a go cold turkey and took away all diapers and only had her wear big girls. I told myself I was just going to "see how it went" for three days. To make a long story short in the middle of the third day, after not ONE successful potty in the toilet, laundry piled high, and my carpet being covered in carpet cleaner. I brought back out the diapers, convinced Julianne  would be the first person ever, never to become potty trained. She just wanted NOTHING to do with it.

Well, the first morning Grandma Carole was here I was getting ready in the bathroom and Julianne came in with her diaper in hand, from the night before, and said "I'm NEVER wearing these again!!" and threw the diaper in the garbage. I thought oh yeah we will just see about that.
Grandma put big girl panties on her and she didn't have one accident the whole day!
(As far as an update goes, she's had a few accidents since then and we are still working on her going #2, but for the most part is still doing wonderful and waking up dry every morning!)

Brinley, for the past month, was asking to have her training wheels taken off her bike. Well, after only a day of Papa being her teacher, she was riding a two wheeler with ease! Now she rides her bike everywhere! She loves it and it was so fun to see her do it all by herself for the first time! I was amazed!

                                     

These crazy girls!

Our fun Louisiana Trip!

The last week of March Greg had his final "Spring Break" of his life. Being in school for so long has had its advantages and all the nice breaks over holidays are definitely at the top of the list and will be missed!

This year we decided to take a nice 9 hour drive to visit my brother and his family in their new place of Louisiana. We had so much fun! 

Two days before we left it snowed in St Louis about 8 inches, so I was more than thrilled to leave our snow behind and go down south where it was in the 70's. Greg and the girls did get to have one more fun day in the snow however.

The drive down went a ton better than I had expected. We left nice and early in the morning and pulled in around 4:30 that afternoon. The girls did great overall and kept themselves pretty entertained. As with everything the last hour is ALWAYS the longest but it was all worth it to see how happy Brinley and Julianne were to see their cousins!

We had so much fun at this park near their house. 

One day we drove into a city called Monroe. It's about 30 min away from Jared and Kristin's house. We went to this good restaurant called the "Pickle Barrel" and they gave you pickles to eat while you waited for your food. Brinley was all sorts of happy about that!

Then for all you "Duck Dynasty" watchers out there, we went to the warehouse where they film the show. I've never really seen the show before but I know it must be popular because their were a lot of people there that had traveled a long way just to see it! And believe me there was not much to see. Just a building.

 After visiting this place my brother showed Greg a few episodes and now Greg even loves it. (Too bad we don't have cable.) So I guess its worth the drive!

More fun at the park!

 The next day we went to another town about an hour away called Shreveport. We ate at this really good Mexican restaurant called something I can't remember right now. I'll fill it in later. But it was really good! Then we headed over to these outlet shops near the river. It was great!

 Brinley being Brinley

All of us on the Trolley.

Cute kids!

 Later that night we did an early Easter Egg hunt, since we weren't going to be there on real Easter. The kids loved it!

 Then for our final night we got to experience some authentic southern Craw fish! Julianne and I were not huge fans, Greg liked it, but Brinley LOVED it. She is our sea food lover! She talked about it for days afterwards.

Thanks Jared Krisitn Christain and baby Benson! We had the best time ever! We love you. 

Grandma Juile and Grandpa Frank come to visit

A few weeks ago my Mom and Dad came to visit! We had so much fun. As usual I only took like one picture on my camera while they were here because I always just rely on my Dad taking all the pictures. So, when I get the CD with his pictures I'll be able to post them.

Here we are at St Louis' famous BBQ place, Pappy's. It became one of my Dad's new favorites. We all enjoyed it so much!

This was just the beginning of our restaurants we went too. We tried this awesome new pizza place called, Dewey's, then Fitz', a Chinese place and of course another St Louis' icon Ted Drew's frozen custard. They were all wonderful!

About a month before my parents came I started making a "Dad to do list" of all the things we needed done around the house. My Dad is super handy and likes to keep busy, so it's the perfect combo. He changed the battery in our van and also the front breaks. He fixed a rocking chair that has been broken for nearly two years and fixed up both of the girls' bikes. It was awesome to cross all those things off my list! Thanks so much Dad!

The rest of the time they were here was just spent hanging out. The girls just love them to come visit and couldn't get enough. Brinley started getting sad on their second day here just thinking about them leaving three days later. Julianne kept coming up to me saying "I just love Grandpa and Grandma to come visit." We played outside in our yard and also at the park and just enjoyed being together! IT was so much fun! It's crazy to think that the next time I see them we will have a baby!