The Model

Tryn has become a total ham in front of the camera lately! Anytime we get the camera out she says, "Me! Me!" and wants us to take pictures of whatever she is doing. And then she will tell me that I should put it on my blog. Sometimes I do.

She is also into posing and making funny faces for the camera. The other day she found her old sunglasses and put them on and wanted a picture. And since I sort of have this disease where it's hard to say no if someone asks me to take pictures of them, and because I thought she looked especially cute and colorful, I obliged. I asked her to pose for me and this is what happened:







I love her so much.

The other day I cleaned out the diaper bag in the bathroom (so I could shake it out over the tub and get rid of the multitude of crumbs that kept getting under my fingernails every time I reached in the bag). I threw a handful of things into the bathroom trash can, including some crumb covered raisins that I am sure have been in the diaper bag for months. Apparently one didn't make it into the garbage and Tryn found it on the floor of the bathroom tonight and ate it.

I love her so much. :)

A Vegetable!!

On Wednesday, my first night this week as a single parent, I was trying to make a healthy but quick dinner. I made myself a salad and pulled out some fresh veggies. One of my favorite things is to eat raw bell peppers, just cut them in half and eat them like an apple. Red, orange, or yellow, not really green so much. I laid half of the pepper I was going to eat on the counter and turned to the stove to work on the rest of dinner. When I turned around I found Berlin like this:

Tryn gave her the pepper for some reason and so she decided to eat it, like an apple. I convinced her to let me removed the seeds and the sticker, and the she proceeded to eat the entire thing!




I couldn't believe it. I have handed the girls slices of bell pepper before, Tryn will eat one thin slice at the most. Berlin will eat a couple slices, sometimes. And, yes, I realize the pictures are slightly blurry, but I felt like if I asked Berlin to move to better lighting I would jinx the whole thing and she would stop eating the vegetable, so I just left her alone.

She ate a vegetable! The end.

The Easter Dresses

Every year for Easter I have gotten the girls a new dress. Partly because I remember getting new dresses for Easter when I was little, partly because I just like to buy them clothes, partly because they love dresses, and partly because it takes up a LOT of room in an Easter basket and therefore I don't have to give them as much candy.

This year, however, we went to church in the evening on Easter and so they didn't put their dresses on early in the morning. In fact, they both took a nap that afternoon and I had to wake them both up so that we wouldn't be late for church. Unfortunately, getting woken up combined with the fact that they had to eat their dinner in the car, Berlin especially was not super keen on the idea of getting her picture take once we got to church. Berlin was downright PO'ed.

Berlin wouldn't even look at me. See?

I tried adding more color to see if it would make her seem happier. It didn't.

Bored. Mad. Dumb Easter dresses.

I got several pictures of each of the girls backs, basically because they didn't want to look at me. Only I think this one is kind of pretty.

I did get them to smell some dead flowers (Haha! Suckers!).


But hugs? Absolutely not. No way. Don't touch me.

Of course, after church when it was too dark to take pictures Berlin was in a perfectly wonderful mood. She would have let me take 100 pictures of her...only I couldn't. These are the only two slightly redeemable, although slightly blurry, after church pictures.


Oh well. Maybe next year.

Happy Easter

Here are both of the girls standing around saying, "I don't see any eggs!" Do you see an egg in this picture? I do :)

But they soon got the hang of it.

Well, Berlin maybe not quite so fast as Tryn. Here she is, still saying, "I don't seen any eggs, Momma, no eggs!"

Little girls getting help from their Daddy makes my heart a little melty.

Berlin found her fair share of eggs. That's a great thing about our girls, sometimes, especially if they are both excited, they are really good at sharing and encouraging each other. Tryn was walking around helping Berlin find eggs and telling her, "Good job Berlin! You found one!" It was so cute.

Tryn was obviously floored that there was so much candy in her basket :)

I hate Easter grass. I didn't like it much when I was little and have never bought it before. However, this year I thought, "Well, this is the stuff that you are supposed to buy at Easter. Right?" And it's only like .99 cents, so I figured why not. I know why not. Berlin proceeded to rip it out of her basket like it was wrapping paper and I have been picking it up off my floor ever since. I will never buy it again.

P.S. Aren't these braids just about the cutest thing you have ever seen?

P.P.S. We celebrated Easter as a family yesterday since Steve had to work all today. So stay tuned to see pictures of the Easter dresses!

A Walk in North

Tryn, Berlin and I went on a little walk this afternoon. After we walked to the park and played for awhile we took a little stroll around the neighborhood. This is something that, for me, takes a little courage to do the first time each spring, mainly because I have had all winter to re-grow my anxiety about living in North - really because I am not an outdoorsy winter type person. Here are some things that happened:

* On the way to the park Tryn noticed, "Mom! The floor is so sparkly!!" This was mainly because of shattered glass littering the sidewalk.

* After we left the park we took a walk down a street where we had never walked before. There were three men sitting outside one house, one of them asked me where I lived. I did not feel inclined to tell him. I just said, "Oh, a few blocks that way," pointing in the opposite direction.

* There was a dog twice the size of Berlin sitting behind a fence, she wanted to, "Pet the cute puppy!" I had to tell her no, that puppy didn't want to be touched. She wanted to know why. "Just because," I told her.

* There was a bright blue tarp running along the fence of someone's back yard and we couldn't see what was on the other side. Tryn said, "That looks like fun! We should go in there!" I told her no, we should probably not ever go in there.

* When we got back to our intersection the same two men who had been sitting at the park where now standing across the street, right where we needed to walk, just standing there. We decided to extend our walk an extra two blocks and go a different route.

* Just before we got home Tryn and Berlin found the first dandelions of the year. Tryn was super excited when she saw a group of kids playing a house away from ours, she wanted to give one of them her dandelion. They were all boys bigger than her. She gave one of the boys the dandelion anyway and he all he said was, "Thank you!" Whew, thank goodness.

Updates:

* Pink Mank has indeed ripped apart now. The final separation occurred yesterday morning while I was getting the girls dressed. Tryn looked at me with horror in her eyes and then burst into tears. She was so sad. Daddy assured her that it could be fixed; I wonder if he is planning on doing that?

* Berlin did climb out of her crib finally. A few days ago, literally as I was walking into their room, she had her feet up on the edge of the crib. Instead of overacting, freaking her out, and making her fall I tried to act nonchalant in hopes that she would change her mind as she saw me enter the room. She didn’t. She swung herself over the edge and turned around. Unfortunately, she missed catching her feet on the mattress and fell down. She didn’t get hurt, just scared herself to pieces. I think she got scared enough that she won’t be trying that again anytime soon. I hope.

* Saturday morning Berlin decided that she wanted to start wearing underwear. This is how Berlin does many things around our house. She decided she wanted to use a big chair like everyone else, so she doesn’t use her highchair anymore. She decided she wanted to get dressed herself like everyone else, so she does. She realized that everyone else talks in full sentences, so her sentence structures amaze me for a newly turned two year old. She also realized that nobody else in our house wears diapers, so she wants to wear underwear. On Sunday morning we went on an excursion to Target to buy new underwear. We came away with Princess Tiana/Princess and the Frog underwear, Tinkerbell underwear, and Fancy Nancy underwear. Unfortunately, Berlin is not a 24 hour potty trainer like her older sister. So we have been cleaning up lots of accidents. Shoot.

Cinnamon Rolls

This post is for Cait - and anyone else who loves really yummy breakfast food.

I have this easy recipe for fantastic cinnamon rolls that I am going to share with you, because I am so great like that. I made them last night and while I was making them I realized the smell reminded me of Christmas. I don't make these only at Christmas, but I have made them every Christmas morning for the past few years. And Thanksgiving morning. And most of the times when Rollie and Cait would spend the night because we all stayed up so late.

Since you have to make these the night before you want to eat them, they are perfect to make when you are up late at night. Playing Catan. And having a grand 'ole time. Or if you don't stay up late, you can just make them before your regular bedtime. Whichever you prefer.

Cinnamon Rolls

* Slightly thaw 2 loaves of frozen bread dough, like Rhodes (often I forget about this part and only remember to take them out when I am usually already wishing I was in bed. Then it's great to have a big strong man, like Steve, that you live with to cut them for you. Only he cut his finger last night doing it and so he might not do it for me next time).

* Cut into pieces and put into a 9x13 pan (or bigger, the bread rises!) Make sure to grease the pan!!!

* Melt 2 1/2 sticks of butter (yay, butter!!)

* Add 1 large and 1 small package of vanilla (or butterscotch) COOK & SERVE pudding. (Do not, I repeat, do not use the instant kind. It will not work. Not that I'VE ever done that...just sayin'. Again, also great to have a nice strong man, like Steve, who will be willing to run to the grocery store at 10pm so that you can save breakfast and Christmas won't be a total failure.)

* 2 tbsp of milk

* 1 cup packed brown sugar

* 1 heaping tsp of cinnamon, almost 2

* Pour mixture over bread. Cover with plastic and let it set overnight. (Make sure the plastic is tight, the bread will rise a lot and if the plastic is not tight it will overflow. I promise. Not that I've ever done that either. Ahem. It might overflow a little anyway, even with the plastic tight, but it will be a lot less messy.)

* In the morning, bake at 350 for 20 minutes or 325 for 25 minutes. (I do 325 for 25 minutes, otherwise it will sometimes be a little raw in the middle, but that's because my oven is dumb.)

I took a lovely picture of this delightful food for you this morning, but when I tried downloading it to my computer there were serious issues. Like too many other pictures on the camera and not enough space because of too many other pictures on my computer. Apparently I take way too many pictures.

Love you, Cait! And everyone else who likes yummy breakfast food.