my little dancer

My little Nanny has been wanting to take dance lessons for a long time and I just haven't felt well enough to do it. The other day one of the sisters in the ward called to tell me she wanted to watch my kids for me and she would pick them up after her four year old was done with tumbling. I hung up the phone and cried because I wanted my little girl to experience fun things like that too, so I got on the phone and started calling dance companies. I found one that let her in so late in the game and I was so excited. I was still nervous about how I was going to pull it off because I've only taken both of my girls out together without Kerry twice since July. I get so overwhelmed out in public and my girls get to be too much. I was really worried about Dant wanting to run out on the dance floor when the little girls were dancing and me wobbling out there to get her repeatedly. When we showed up for the first dance class, which is thursday nights, I was shocked and excited to see my next door neighbor with her little girl. It is so awesome because she is going to take the girls every week and I'm going to pick them up. This way I don't have to sit there for an hour with Dant in the tiny waiting room(they don't let you in the dance class anyway, because it's too distracting for the girls). So I'm not missing out on anything and I'm going to be able to pull this off for my little Nanny

one last smile

Well everyone knows by now that we have lost a member of our family. My heart is aching for the way Steve left this earth, but I am so happy that he is back home with his parents. I wanted to post the last picture I had of Steve. We took some family pictures on my mom's last Mother's day and I think it was one of the last times he was really happy. I believe his heart really broke when our mom died and he couldn't go on without her. This is the way I want to remember him, smiling and happy. I know that he is that way now too and I'm so very glad. For anyone who may not know what our plans are we are having a celebration lunch on January 28th at 1:00 p.m. at the Riverdale Stake center cultural hall. We are going to keep it casual and share memories of Steve, I think he would have wanted it that way. I think he would rather us keep it simple and avoid all the fanfare. If anyone has any questions they can call me at 627-2969 or e-mail me at nannysmom@netzero.net.

Dan'ts birthday week

Well, my baby is officially a toddler I guess. Unbelievable! Monday was her birthday and we celebrated by eating pizza and eating cake. Kerry and Nanny got up before me and baked a cake, I thought that was nice. It was up to me to think of something clever to do with this cake. I cut a big circle out of the middle and gave the circle ears and a snout. It kind of turned out looking like a care bear. Almost enough that she guessed what it was. We had grandpa come over and eat pizza and cake with us. We gave Dant a (you guessed it) another care bear. After all, who can have too many carebears? We'll have a family party for her where we will give her a gift that will actually be Dora themed! That will be a few weeks away because Kerry's brother is on a long cruise to the Hawaiian Islands, ugghh. I hold my breath when people go on cruises now. Not worth it! Anyway, Dant was pretty cute on her birthday, every time I told her "Happy Birthday" she said it right back to me. She is talking so much. It was kind of like she knew she was supposed to be terrible the day she turned two, she was kind of a little stinker. She even broke her favorite elmo bowl when she threw it on the floor in a fit of rage. I guess she'll learn eh?
The festivities continued on friday when my sweet cousin Amy offered her house for a little cousin party. She is aware of my changing states of wellness and thought it would be easier on me if I didn't have to host a party. You never know when I'm going to get over stimulated and have a panic attack, so at least if I got that way I wouldn't have to kick everyone out of my house. It was fun I brought a cake for Dant along with plastic bowls and utensils and we had a little party with Amy and girls, Sherri and kids, Lisa and kids, and Chris and kid! Instead of shaping the cake like a carebear this time I printed carebears off the internet and made little picks out of them and stuck them all over the cake. Dant was cute, she saw it and said "Happy cake". In case you didn't know, she calls care bears happys. Amy and Lisa both gave her carebear toys, Chris gave her a darling frog blanked and Sherri gave her a cute panda bear w/bubbles. It was really fun for Dant and Nanny to be with all their cousins. It's amazing how many little girls my cousins and I have made and there are two more on the way! What a blessing for all of our kids to have so many fun cousins their ages!

oh, what a storm!

Wow, we sure got a lot of snow this weekend! It is that really good kind full of water too. I decided to try and be a fun mom so I bundled the kids and myself up and we went out to build a snowman. Of coarse, that turned out to be me building a snowman and both of the girls whining. Dant couldn't walk in the snow because it was too tall and Nanny said it kept getting in her boots. It really was fun though. A couple of the neighbor girls ended up at our house to help with the snowman. Dant decided that it was more fun to color on the wet sidewalk with some sidewalk chalk than to build a snowman. That was a nice mess, sidewalk chalk smearing all over her little snowsuit. She loved eating the snow too. Nanny and her little friends had fun jumping in the big pile daddy had made when shoveling the snow from the driveway. I love our neighborhood, one of our neighbors came over after shoveling his own driveway and helped Kerry do ours. Then another neighbor came over with his fourwheeler w/plow and cleared out our approach for us. There's nothing like some good teamwork after a good storm! Today is Dan't birthday and grandpa is coming over tonight for pizza (one of the foods Dant will actually eat). I'll do a blog on this in a few days!