February and March 2021

Holy cow, I think I have a lot to write about this time! A couple months ago, Hattie started singing along when we would play ‘Let It Go’ from Frozen. Both Hattie and Tille have always sung along to this song, but this was a little different. Hattie was now singing and dancing to the entire song. She was acting out Elsa’s part exactly, at the exact time she does in the video. When Elsa throws off her glove, Hattie would throw off an imaginary glove; when Elsa throws off her cape, Hattie throws off her cape; when Elsa runs up the mountain, Hattie runs across the living room; Hattie stomps her foot at just the right moment to build her ice castle, etc. And she always makes sure to end the song by gazing out the living room window the way Elsa is gazing off her castle deck. She knows every word and move. It’s amazing. Tille will do it with her, but she’s a little shyer, which it kind of funny because usually Tille is the braver performer. This is the one song that Hattie will perform for people start to finish. Most mornings Hattie wakes up long before Tille is ready. But when Hattie’s feet hit the floor, we all wake up. Every now and then Tille manages to sleep in though. One such Sunday morning, Hattie had gotten up and was in the living room playing or reading, and Tille had slept in an extra hour or so. We needed to get her up and going so we could get ready for church, so I was just about to go wake her up. Right as I got to her door, she came out of her room and said, in a super excited voice but still rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, “It’s cereal time!” Haha! Girl knows what’s worth waking up for! Our nightly bedtime routine nowdays is after the bath we do lotion and pajamas and then each girl gets to pick one or two books depending on time, and then we go cuddle in their beds and read to them. After reading we cuddle until they fall asleep. One night after books I was cuddling with Hattie and Matt was cuddling with Tille and everybody was being very cute and sweet. Tille looked up into Matt’s face and said in her sweetest voice, “Dad, you have hair in your nose.” Oh, so touching! She had also asked me earlier in the day why my stomach was so fluffy. So yeah, we’re in that stage where our kids are really helping us with confidence. Monday-Wednesday the girls go to a babysitter down the street for a few hours. It’s a 20 something year old girl who lives with her parents and loves kids and kids love her and she does a great job. She also babysits another family who used to live in our ward but moved out last summer. Those kids are a 7 year old girl, 5 year old boy, and 2 year old boy. They aren’t always there, between school, preschool, and grandparents watching them, but they’re there a lot of the time with Hattie and Tille. Anyway, the girls LOVE going to the babysitter’s house. We bribe them with promises of going or not going. A couple months ago it became more than obvious that Hattie liked it for more than just the babysitter. The 5 year old boy is ppppretttty coooool. She can’t tell us enough about all the things he says and does. And then she started wearing a ring around the house (one she got from her Michigan cousins’ Frozen birthday party last year) and telling us her boyfriend gave it to her. I asked her what her boyfriend’s name is and she said in a shy voice, “I don’t know”, and after a little playing, I said, ‘Is it (5 year old boy)?” and she just buried her head in her shoulders and nodded. Since then she’s been a little more open. She tells me about how she wants to dance with him and how she’s going to marry him and the other day she picked a dandelion on our walk so she could give it to him the next day. On the one hand, I CAN’T BELIEVE SHE ALREADY HAS A CRUSH ON A BOY SHE’S ONLY 3 I’M NOT READY FOR THIS!!!!! But on the other hand, I remember having crushes on boys when I was three or four, so I’m trying to be respectful and not downplay her feelings. Tille meanwhile has a crush on Wilbur from the movie Meet the Robinsons. She thinks he’s really cool. She’s not wrong. He’s kind of the bad boy-good guy of the movie. Last weekend the girls and I were out for a walk. We had gone around a grassy park and up a big steep hill to a pretty busy street. As we came up, there were several people starting to park cars and line the street like they were waiting for a race to go by or something. I thought it was weird but didn’t think much of it. We crossed the street and I was going to keep going. But then I noticed it was mostly people with kids and wearing bunny ears. I decided to check the city facebook page. The Easter bunny was going to be driving by literally any minute. We crossed back over, and waited. I checked the map again. It was kind of a parade, with the Easter bunny and a bunch of police cars and fire engines, starting at 8am about ¼ mile away from where we were. We waited maybe 3 minutes, then heard the sirens start. They came by, threw lots of candy at us, the girls thought it was super cool, and we continued our walk. Talk about being in the right place at the right time! Best walk ever!! A few days ago, Hattie was playing in the living room and Matt and I were talking in the kitchen. I noticed that Tille was running in short bursts around the house, and after each burst she would stand flat against the wall like she was hiding, or hide under the table. I asked what she was doing, and she said, “I’m Ninja-ing!” I asked Matt and he said she does that every now and then. A few days ago we were all sitting around the table after work. Hattie was coloring or something, Tille was on my lap not paying attention (or so we thought) and Matt and I were talking. I made a comment about somebody being a fancy pants and Tille out of the blue stood up on my lap and sang long and loud, “Fancy pants” in her own tune, then sat down and kept on doing what she had been doing. Matt and I just laughed and laughed. The next day I was grocery shopping with the girls and everything I read off the list, Tille would sing it back to me at the top of her lungs. ‘Bananas!’ ‘Cereal!’ ‘Asparagus!’ And so on. That girl. She’s got spirit. And now descriptions of pictures: 1. One Saturday morning the girls did my hair with every bow and clip and headband they could find. 2. Look at this cutie going potty! 3. The girls got ninja vests and insect skirts and pom poms from their babysitters and were modeling them all for me. 4. For stake conference, we watched a live broadcast at home. The girls were really good at finding puzzles and games on their own and entertained themselves the whole time really quietly. It was great. 5. The ward Easter Egg hunt 6. Dying Easter Eggs for the first time ever. 7. South Ogden City Easter Egg parade. Look closely and you'll see the Easter bunny riding in the fire truck. 8. Matt's family's Easter Egg hunt 9. Matt's mom and all his siblings. I got several takes of this shot, and in all of them, everybody else moved a little bit or changed their facial expression, except Matt. He looked exactly the same in every picture. He's an oak. 10. The Easter Bunny brought some baskets this year! And if you look closely, you'll notice he brought some treats that Santa forgot to deliver. 11. I got the vacuum out after work yesterday and Hattie wanted to vacuum. She did a great job vacuuming the wood floors. Look closely. She's got two pairs of underpants on top of her pants. 12. One day I had a migraine before I left for work. When the girls got up after I had left, Matt told them I was sick, so they wanted to take a picture and and send it to me and have me feel better. It was really sweet. 13. These are the kids that get babysat with the girls. They had a big Easter party the last babysitting day before Easter. It was also their last day with that particular babysitter. She got a job at a regular daycare, so now her little sister is watching all the kids.

January 2021

I think this will be short post. Not too much has happened around here lately. I mentioned in the last post that the girls like to call each other sweetie heart. Now they also call each other honey. It's super cute. As of February 9th, Hattie is officially out of pull-ups. Both girls have been in underpants during the day for months, but they've been wearing pull-ups at night still. Hattie was waking up most mornings dry, and we knew she was probably ready. On February 9th, we were getting the girls ready for bed and when Hattie put on her pull-up she was complaining that it was itchy. I asked if she'd rather wear underpants to bed and she said yes, and that was that. Tille was kind of sad that she still had to wear pull-ups, but she wakes up with a wet pull-up almost every morning, so we explained that if she wears underpants she'd have pee all over her bed and she udnerstood. One of these days we'll be done, but at the rate we're going, it will be a little while still. Sleep has still been an issue around here. Two or three nights a week Hattie will come out of her room after we put her in bed and say "Mommy and Daddy, I'm saaaad". We put her back in bed, then a few minutes later she comes back needing a book, then a toy, then a drink, then she needs to go potty, etc etc. All the while, Tille is trying to sleep. Or, Hattie might go to bed ok but then she wakes up anywhere between midnight and 5 and that's the end of the night for Matt or me. It's not great. This week we resorted to bribery. Each girl got to decorate her own calendar, and each morning they get to put a sticker on the day if they stayed in bed all night. In two weeks, they get to go to the store and buy a toy if they have a sticker for every day. So far we're going strong. The first couple of nights we had to remind them to stay in bed if they wanted stickers, but they've both gotten stickers every day. They both really want kid computers. I think it's a tablet (or Kindle or something that their babysitter has; I'll have to find out). If they don't wake us up at all for 2 months, they get their own computers. Kind of big, but worth the sleep. When we had babies, I knew I wouldn't be sleeping for a few months; I had no idea it'd be years. Ok, now I'll try to say what the pictures are. I wish blogger made it easier to caption, but it doesn't. A few weeks ago we met up with some cousins at a trampoline park. Tille got right into it and was running around having a blast. Hattie was a little more wary. For the first half hour or so she would only get on the trampolines if I was holding her hands, and then we couldn't jump; we could only walk gently. But eventually she warmed up to it and was running around and jumping and loving it. Here's Hattie reading the Friend. Jenny and McClaine gave the girls their collection of Chevron cars. The girls' favorite game to play with them is called 'Car Marry'. They put all the cars together and get them married. Just how it sounds. I was trying to fold laundry and the girls picked out some of my clothes (sports bra and exercise pants) to try on. We finally got to take the girls sledding for the first time ever! We went to Mt. Ogden Golf Course. Turns out, Matt went there as a kid, just like I did! We found the really long perfect hill, and went about half way up. The snow was kind of slushy, but it was still pretty fun. We got several good runs. On Wednesdays the girls' babysitter lets them choose a toy out of a box to take home. Last week they each picked cool sunglasses. For Valentines Day we got together with some of the cousins on Matt's side for a little party. We played some games, decorated cupcakes, and tried to make a craft. Mostly, the kids played upstairs while the grownups cleaned up messes. It was pretty fun.

December 2020

I feel like it's been forever since I've written, but I also feel like very little has happened since my last post. Sooo.... I started my job about a month ago. So far it's been good. I work 9 hour days and get every other Friday off, which is awesome. I've always worked 9 hour days anyway, so it's nice to be recognized for it now. Everybody just works straight through lunch and leaves 9 hours after they get in. It's kind of nice because we don't lose any momentum from shutting down at lunch time, and then have to figure out what we were doing and find our place or whatever. It's tiring, but the day goes faster. I spend most of my days on the phone in virtual meetings all day long. When I get in, I'll check my calendar and maybe I'll have 3 hours of meetings or so, but by the time the day is over, I'll have spent 6-7 hours on the phone going through spreadsheets, getting trained, being pulled into last minute meetings, whatever. One kind of funny thing is that the day I got laid off from my last job, there were 3 other office people who got laid off. Two of the others now work at Northrop Grumman too. So it worked out well for 3 out of 4 of us. Tille and Hattie have started calling each other 'Sweetie Heart.'We don't know where they came up with this. I call them Sweetie Pie or other things, but they came up with Sweetie Heart on their own and they use it all the time and only for each other. It's so cute. A month or so ago I told the girls that little girls are made of sugar and spice and everything nice. Tille said, 'No, we're made of bones!' haha, very true! This year was the first year that the girls really understood Christmas. It was fun to get excited with them for all the Christmas things. They learned a few Christmas carols (Away in a Manger, Hark the Herald Angels Sing) and they'd get excited and sing along in church when those hymns came up. We went through the nativity story with them and they acted it out with their Fisher Price nativity people; on Sundays they watch Jesus movies (ldskids on youtube- so great) while I make dinner and their favorite one lately has been Samuel the Lamanite prophesying about Baby Jesus. And every time we drive to the grocery store for the past few months we drive past where the city has been setting up Christmas Village and they were so excited to get to go see it. We finally went to see it a week before Christmas. It was great. It was during the only big snow storm we've had, which made it more Christmasy (and less crowded). It was a lot of fun. Christmas morning when the girls came out of their room, they were so excited that Santa had eaten the cookies and milk they left out, and to see all the presents he'd left. It was so much fun to see Christmas with them! Blogger has changed something so that it's much harder to caption pictures. So I'm just going to tell you what they all are here: 1. The girls love helping us rake leaves. 2. Tille was posing for the camera one day while I was helping them get dressed. There was a whole series of poses ranging from grumpy to smiley, all within seconds. I went with the 'thoughtful' one. 3. This is Tille giving thumbs up. And wearing her Wizard of Oz dress. She loves this dress. We finally found the movie on tv last week and the girls loved it. 4-5. Treehouse Museum fun! We've been able to go to the Treehouse a couple times since it repopened this fall, and it's been great. Now that they have to limit how many people can go at a given time, we don't have to wait our turn at exhibits and we don't have to fight crowds of kids. It's been pretty good. 6. Tille got her first black eye. Both girls were running around like they always do and bonked their heads like they always do, but they must have hit just wrong because Tille had a shiner that lasted about a week. She was really sad, but I told her she's a real kid now. All real kids get black eyes. 7. One of the more common moods at our house. Here's Hattie taking it for a spin one morning. 8. We were playing hide and seek. I was 'it' and was counting. Hattie ran and hid in her room. Tille ran and hid behind a pillow right next to me on the couch. 9. Christmas village! 10. Hattie sometimes has a hard time falling asleep at night. One morning after both girls had woken up, Hattie needed more sleep so she passed out on the couch. Tille practiced her photography skills on the sleeping Hattie to pass the time. 11. Tille took a picture of Matt and me. I think she's pretty good. 12. Tille posing by the tree in her Christmas pjs. 13. This is the standard position at dinner time. This was even a night that I had made Tille's favorite dinner. Usually before I can even get to the table after dishing up the plates, I hear groans and moans and the girls have assumed the position. Dinner time is always a pleasure at our house. 14. On Christmas Eve Hattie wanted to dress up in her Christmas dress and have fancy 'Elsa hair' and take a picture by the tree. 15. This was after Hattie's cute photo shoot. Both girls were looking pretty cute. 16. Christmas Eve party with Matt's family. Tille got a play makeup and purse set that she was pretty happy with. 17. Christmas morning. Hattie was excited to get pictures taken. Tille wasn't. 18. Hattie got a scooter at Matt's family party. She looks like such a big kid riding it around. Even with her fuzzy unicorn slippers. 19. The girls love playing with their Frozen Lego sets. 20. Both girls got nail polish sets. We had a nail party where Hattie and Matt took turns painting each others' nails and Tille and I took turns painting each others' nails. 21. I hope this video works. We've read The Night Before Christmas to the girls just a few times for their bedtime story, and one night they started reading along with it. I was surprised how much of it they knew!