Our Affectionate Girls

John and I are starting to wonder if we'll ever get another undisturbed night's sleep. At least once a night, one of the girls wakes up. Last night, Esther woke up around 3 AM. I went in to see what the matter was and she insisted on speaking to Daddy. I'm not much for trying to reason with Esther in the wee hours of the morning so I shook John awake. He went in there and Esther said to him, "Daddy, I had Mommy get you because I wanted to tell you that I love you." John almost lost it but what can you do when your little girl wants to express her sweet feelings in the middle of the night. At least he got to go right back to bed. Lucy woke up an hour later crying. I went in and gave her a drink and a little rock and put her back down. Ten minutes later she was up again crying so I stomped into her room again and she told me she wanted a kiss. My heart melted ever so briefly and I gave her a kiss and told her to go to sleep. What's with the middle-of-the-night affection??? Lucy ended up getting up a couple more times and finally I gave in and put her in our bed (completely against our rules). Fatigue often gets the better of us. I guess it's better to have our girls waking up for love then for fear.

Lucy Fears

Now that Lucy has finally stopped coughing at night she's decided she has some fears in the middle of the night. There are three options: One, she is afraid when her door is shut--easy fix, we just open the door a crack. Two, she' is afraid of "fwies" in her room, sometimes an easy fix if we can convince her there are no flies or that we got the flies and she's now okay. Three, she is afraid of a "booster" coming, or monster coming. I'm not sure she even knows what a monster is... we don't watch scary monster movies and I think her only association with the word is from hearing it out of Esther's mouth during some imaginative play. So, this one is not an easy fix because it often just means that Lucy is awake and is trying to come up with an excuse to avoid going to sleep and to have Mommy rock her. I think maybe we need to have the girls start sleeping in the room together so they can cope with their fears together... maybe that will help!

President Obama

John and I decided it would be a good idea for Esther to watch some of the inaugeration of our new president. We watched him take the oath and Esther had a hundred questions about every aspect of it. One of her final questions to me was the best: "So is he the new prophet?" We were rushing out the door to an appointment so I did not get to a full lecture on separation of church and state and the difference between the leader of our church and the leader of the country. I just think it's so cute how her little mind works.

Well

Last Friday were Lucy and Esther's well-child appointments. What a morning of fun! Actually, I do enjoy seeing how my kids are growing and whether they are still in the 90th percentile or not. Of course, they are. Esther has always been over the 90th percentile for height and weight which is not big suprise. Lucy has never been in the 90th percentile until last Friday. She finally joined the ranks of her sister in tallness. Alas, her weight is still in the 50th percentile, probably due to the many missed dinners (her choice of course). I'm glad to report both my girls are well. I feel really lucky to have two healthy beautiful girls. They were both happy at the end of it too because there was no shots this time and they get suckers and stickers. What a great Friday!

Almost a Lucy Flip Book

Esther's 4th Birthday

I'm sure most moms always think, "Wow," every time their oldest child turns another year old. I definitely can't believe I have a four year-old. Esther has been asking about her birthday for weeks so I felt a bit of relief when it finally arrived. We actually celebrated it on Sunday night so for family convenience although it caused some confusion on Monday when Esther kept asking who was coming for her birthday (answer--no one). We still made if fun by doing an outing--to the carousel at the mall. It was a huge hit for both girls. Lucy was squealing before we even made it in the doors.

Back to Esther--she is still my sweet cautious girl. She hates to be alone and still requests some one (usually Lucy gets selected or persuaded) to be with her if she has to go upstairs or downstairs by herself. She loves anything pink, sparkly, princess, or girly. Esther loves to dance around the house in her ballet outfit. One of Esther's favorite things to play is house--she always tells me to be the "mommy" and I always say, "I'm already the mommy!" She still loves her white and brown doggies best of all her toys, although the princess ballerina doll and pink doggies are not far behind. She is a great big sister and always watches out for Lucy. Today she even told me that I needed to say sorry to Lucy (although it was the other way around--Lucy owed me the apology). Esther loves to have "tickle parties" and "dance parties" so there's never a dull moment at our house. It's been four amazing years having her in our home.

This is Esther in her new pink dress with her new pink basketball--she can't wait to go to basketball with Daddy on Saturday!

Here's the new princess leotard. She's worn it ten times already. She loves her new ballet shoes too--thank you Grandma and Papa Hess!

Check out another fancy cake from the Thompson Bakery. We should go pro. This was exactly the cake Esther wanted--a pink cake with a big 4 on it. She wanted pink sprinkles too but I couldn't find them at the last minute. I love her sly smile!

Here the girls are on the carousel with John for Esther's birthday activity (we had to make up for the fact that no one was coming). The girls happily rode it one time and then we went home for a little more birthday cake and pink ice cream. We love our pink-lovin' girl.

Lucy's Birthday

Poor Lucy has her birthday two days after Christmas. Fortunately, she's still too young to realize the tragedy of a December 27th birthday so here she is all smiles. You can see we don't even try to make it too different as the wrapping paper is still the same kind from Christmas.
Lucy had a great time with eating pizza, opening presents and devouring yummy cake.

Check out that professional cake!! My talents are limitless! Ha ha ha!!

I think I have two of the silliest girls on the planet. They are always making me laugh.
Here are some things I love about Lucy:

Her constant chatter--she is a talker! She even has big words like "actuwy," (translation: actually).
She is very smart too--Lucy has a stuffed leopard and for the longest time she was calling it a tiger--I corrected her for a while and today when I called it a tiger she said, "No, it's a weapard (leopard).
How she says her name: "Wucy".
Her blond ringlets.
How she adores her big sister.
How she asks every day about Daddy and his whereabouts.
Her love for babies--she squeals for them!
How she always tells me her stuffed kangaroo is sad and crying.
How she teases--in Utah her favorite game was calling her uncles purposely by the wrong name.
She also loves to tease Esther and I will always have the image in my mind of Esther sitting, holding a basketball, and crying as her head is getting smashed into the ball because Lucy is sprawled out laying on her, smiling. She knows how to push Esther's buttons.
Lucy adds a lot of spunk and happiness to our family!

The Gingerbread Contest

Every year my family does gingerbread houses and usually it turns into a competition because that makes it more fun. Our houses are generally not the pretty or even the edible type (we use hot glue to get our graham foundations to stick). This year the theme was "movies"--in honor of Sam who we always miss at Christmas time. So here are the three entrees:

1. The Grinch cave from the Grinch. By Esther and Dad. Really, my dad just likes to keep it short and simple and get it done.

2. The Plaza Hotel in New York from Home Alone 2--an old family Christmas favorite. This was masterfully created by Julia and me. Notice the intricate candy work and the finishing touch of the micromachines going through valet parking.

3. Helms Deep from Lord of the Rings. Created by Elijah and Dan. I have to give it too them--it's a pretty good re-creation. And the little figures were a nice touch.

I think we are still not in aggreement who won the competition. There were a various judges with various opinions and they all came up with a different winner. Next year we'll have to find less partial judges.

Christmas Vacation

I'm just a little behind here but these are some Christmas vacation highlights:

There was LOTS of snow. I haven't seen that much snow in a long time and it made me happy to be a current resident of California. We took the girls sledding one day. It lasted about fifteen minutes as they only made it down the hill three times before they were too nervous to go again (must note that it was a small beginner hill). Lucy might have gone more but since she likes to copy whatever Esther is doing she decided she was too scared too. This picture was completely posed--Esther only got back on the sled after we PROMISED she would not have to go down the hill again. The girls enjoyed other snow activities--shoveling, snowballs, and two or three snowmen with Grandma.

John will probably not appreciate this picture since he has some "morning" hair but having the boys do some of the cooking was fabulous. Dan took a cooking class last semester so now he's Chef Dan with his own stack of recipes (it's really cute!). This is the boys making Christmas Eve cake with Esther.

Here's Grandma with the girls in their Christmas Eve pajamas. They loved every second they spent with all the family's attention!

This is my sister and I playing the duet Sleigh Ride (a Christmas Eve tradition) and Dan joining in on his saxophone. I don't think I've laughed that hard in a LONG time. I don't think Dan has played his saxophone since last Christmas so it was pretty much horrible-sounding, but hilarious. There were tears.

Of course, watching the girls open their presents was one of the best highlights. The little looks of pure joy on their faces was priceless.

It was really fun to spend Christmas with the Hess Fam in Utah. My girls also enjoyed seeing lots of Great Grandpa, Auntie Mary, and Bryce(Ju's boyfriend--I think the girls had a crush on him too). The only low point was the fact that Lucy had a cough pretty much the whole time we were there. Maybe she's not used to the cold Utah air--who knows. I just know I spent way too many hours in the middle of the night on the couch with Lucy. We did watch a few good Christmas movies.

It was also so great to see old friends and catch up!

Thanks Mom and Dad for the great holidays with you!