Mom, those are Roses

So my brother Kyle is getting married to a very pretty girl next week. Christy will be joining our crazy family. We are all very excited that he found such a great woman to be by his side.

Well a few days ago I was working on the wedding flowers and Princess E surprised me by knowing what each of the flowers were called. She came up to me and said, "those sure are pretty roses mom. Christy is going to smell them, and they smell good." "Oh and those are daisy's like Oswalds sister." I had to clarify who Oswald was, but sure enough there is a talking daisy on his show. Thanks to noggin, my dear child knows some flowers. I asked her if mom likes flowers. She said "you sure do mom, you LOVE flowers." I have trained her well.

Anyway here are a few pictures of the bouquet. I love the models in the picture. I thought they highlighted the flowers well.

Neonatal Follow up Clinic

So every 6 months to a year we have had to take Princess E to Salt lake for the neonatal follow up clinic. This is a 3-5 hour Dr visit where we see all of the various specialists to evaluate her progress since she was in the NICU. It is not the funnest appointment, especially the first one when no one told us how long the appointment would be. Anyway we have been really proud of her progress over the years.

Well yesterday we had one of these follow ups. I am so proud of our little girl. They decided that they were probably going to graduate her from the program a year early because the is doing so well. One of the Dr's exact words were, "We are wasting your time and gas money by having you come up here each year and telling you that you have an amazing daughter who is doing superb."

I was so proud when the speech therapist told me, after she had done the speech testing, that she was testing out at above a 4 year old level. They still use her adjusted age in the tests so yesterday she was about 3 1/2. It was so fun watching her blow them away.

So here are a few pictures of her and Princess M in the waiting/toy room, getting her ears tested, and getting her blood pressure tested.

I have a firm testimony of the priesthood, priesthood blessings, fasting and prayer. I know that she would not be the little girl she is today with out them.

CAKE!!

So Princess E begged and begged me to make a cake on Monday. So finally I gave in around 4 o'clock and we made a chocolate cake. The girls love to be in the kitchen and 'helping'. Princess E helped put the water in and Princess M helped with the oil. They love to watch the mixer go around and around. Sometimes they get a little scared when it is loud, but they love to watch. But their favorite part is licking the beaters and spatula. I think that is the the ulterior motive, to lick it clean. Anyway, these are before and after shots.

Princess M

I am amazed at how fast little ones grow up. As I was just looking at these pictures and choosing which ones to put on here I am amazed at how much Princess M has grown in just the past year. She has grown upward and has really thinned out. She is turning into quite the little lady. She is pretty mischievous though. She loves to antagonize her big sis, but at the same time she idolizes her. She is very much a morning person and once she gets up the first thing she does is go in Princess E's room and gets into bed with her. Smiling and giggling. Princess E does not appreciate it much and starts screaming for us to get her out of there. All the while Princess M just says "Hi Meeyee" over and over again.

She is following in her big sisters footsteps and takes good care of her "beebee" too. And she always has to have a "banket" and bottle of "moke" to go along with it. Along with her babies, Princess M LOVES Curious George. We have a little plastic toy George that she has to sleep with every night. He even has to have "bankey" (similar to a "banket":). Thank goodness for Tivo so we can always have a few episodes on hand.

Her favorite foods include "kackers", "gock gogs" and the staple of her diet is her "meeulk". It is a very common occurrence for her to wake up in the middle of the night, when you go in there she is standing and says "mo meeulk peese". Then once you give it to her she says "dank you, ni night". Then she lays right back down and goes to sleep.

So here are some of my favorite pictures of her from the last 2 years. In no particular order.

Princess E

Here are some of my favorite pictures taken the last few years. They are in no particular order.

Princess E is the favorite big girl around here. I have a hard time realizing that she is growing up. She is so dang smart and funny. She is such a great little mom to her numerous "babies". You will never see her with out a baby under her arm. She is quite the socialite too. Each day the minute she gets out of bed she asks, "where are we going today mom?" King J has begun telling her to dream of her friends to help her get to sleep. The thought of playing with them in her sleep always puts a smile on her face and helps her to go to sleep fast. Everyone wants to be her friend and depending on who she is with that day, they get to be the best friend. I have been lucky enough to be her best friend now and again.

She has finally decided that it is OK to eat. That it really won't hurt if she fills up her tummy. Her very favorite dinner is Tortellini or "cheese samwuch cut up and in a bag." She loves oranges for snack time, and "porage (oatmeal) like Uncle Jake and Modowa (Madara)"

She is such a good big sister to Princess M too. They really are fun to watch play together. She also LOVES to help mom with any task that I have for her to do. Her daily jobs are setting the table, putting the silverware away, making her bed and picking up her room, and getting dressed. One of her new favorite helps is to bring food up from the storage room. Mom loves that she likes to do that too.

It sometimes is hard for me to believe that she had such a rough start. She really has come a long way. We love you Mills!!

BOOKS, BOOKS, BOOKS

I have started trying to be a better mom and read more with the girls. We love going to story time each week and choosing out new books for the week. It makes for some real good bonding time too. This weeks favorites have included Curious George goes to the Chocolate Factory and DW looses her Blankie. I think we have read both titles every day when I ask them to pick out a story to read.

I was looking back at the pictures that I have on the computer and found quite a few over the last few years of the girls reading. Here are just a few of my favorites.

'My boyfriends back and your gonna be in trouble'

So we have some good friends who have kids just about the same ages as ours. Before princess M and Ivan were born, the dads would joke with each other about how the kids were going to grow up and get married. Well the kids both came and have become fast friends. We get a good chuckle because sometimes it seems like Ivan understands the marriage has already been arranged and he is starting early. Like the time she was screaming and we came into the room with Ivan sitting on her trying to take her shirt off. Or the time when she was trying to crawl away and he was trying to climb on top of her. They both sit and just laugh at each other and it is so cute. Well they were over the other day and Princess M was having fun just laying on the floor. Ivan decided it would be fun to just lay on top of her. We would take him off, and he would just go right back to laying on her. She was screaming, but there was this look on her face like,' get him off of me, but I really like the attention he is giving me.' I think all girls know what look I am talking about. It is just cute when you can see their little personalities at such a young age.

'When we are helping we are happy'

When ever we go to the library, Princess E brings here backpack to bring her books and movies home in. Princess M decided yesterday that she wanted a backpack too. Princess E, as I have said before, has become quite the little mother to her little sis. It was so cute watching them get ready to go and using "team work".

I even managed to snap one of Princess E being a little bossy. She was yelling at Princess M and telling her to "get back over here right now!" I guess the apple doesn't fall very far from the tree.

'Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam'

This is our cute little Sunbeam before church on Sunday. She was so excited to go in with the big kids. She was the only girl with 4 boys. And one would think that a little girl would be shy in a situation like that. Oh no, she was the one getting them all riled up. No shyness there at all. She loves taking her little scriptures with her whenever she goes to church. Except I think she thinks they are a hymnal other than for scripture reading. I guess we need to get her her own little song book.

And lets not forget our other little cutie. She is so cute when it is picture time. She says 'sheese' and gives a big grin.

These to really do love each other and are really becoming best friends.