Brielle at Omas

Brielle LOVES being at Oma's house. She likes seeing Taz and playing with her toys and reading her books. She also really enjoys being outside and wandering. Here are just a few quick pictures of here playing at Oma's.

She is between the door and the screen door trying to hid from us

I had never really seen her do this before and it made me laugh.

Miles first hair cut

Today I took Miles in to get his hair cut... I guess it was more of a trim.

He was such a trooper!

So that really isn't how it happen. He fell asleep on the way there so we did most of his hair cut while he was snoozing in his carseat.

He slept all through Brielle's hair cut too. When he did wake up we finished up the back and cut off the 2+inch (hair from when he was born!) little strands that were in the back of his head.

He looks so grown up now!

Snow in Soda Springs

I think winter hit late but we have had record breaking snow up in the mountains. We just had back to back storms where some snow hit the valley floor but it really dumped in the mountains. My mom suggested we go for a little ride and check out all the snow in Soda Springs. I was excited because Matt was allowed the morning off so we all could go. We had to drive separate vehicles because my parents took Grandpa Hicks with them but we walked a little on our cell phones. It's not the same as being together in one car but I am still glad we were all able to go.

The drive up was beautiful. At one point the snow was plowed so high on the highway you couldn't even see beyond the snow wall. It was crazy. Pulling into Soda Springs the first thing you see is a gas station. I was amazed with the snow piled on the roof. Little did I know what was to come.

As we drove further into Soda Springs the road became narrower, pretty soon it was one in a half lanes. We pulled off to let some cars pass and I captured this spectacular picture. As we kept doing down the road there were several spots where you couldn't even see the cabins or you just see the door.

This is a big building that has a shopping center and postal place, but the only thing you can see is the door!

 We were going to keep going but they closed the road. We had to pull into this tiny area and turn around, but before doing so we jumped out and took a picture.

That is A LOT of snow.

Once we turned around, we stopped at a ski resort. Before I know it, my mom is running back up the road and disappeared. So I took Brielle and crossed the street to get another picture. There was a snow plow that Brielle thought was fun to watch but once I set her on the snow she FLIPPED out. She thought the snow plow was going to get her even though it was across the street and couple hundred yards away.

Her yelling "NO"

The snow was plowed so high it could barely get anymore above the snow wall.

When my mom walked back down she was talking about this cabin as they were driving by that was completely covered in snow and that's why they stopped. I wanted a picture so I walked back up the road to see what my mom was talking about.

Just enough room to get into the vehicle, a latter leading up to a tiny snow tunnel that leads them into their house.

I had seen a few cabins like that, so I was happy to get a picture to remember. 

We had so much fun looking at all this snow. It's mind boggling really.

Man what a cute family!

As we were driving out I noticed this SUV covered in snow....I don't think they are going anywhere for awhile.

We headed back toward Tahoe but took a quick detour to look at the Donner Party Monument. My mom was very interested to see what this snow pack was in comparison to what the Donner Party faced. We hiked over to get a closer look

They say the snow pack was as high as the base of the monument. Can you imagine?

My Dad stepped off the little snow trial and sunk down a little.

Miles was lovin the snow

Some of the snow came off and landed on his head, this caused Miles too look up and discovered he could touch the snow

On our way home we went through Kings Beach and down Mt. Rose. We stopped at the meadows to do a little sledding and my parents pulled out their snow shoes.

Once we were close enough to the snowman Brielle decapitated it.

Once we were done taking pictures I had a hard time getting back because I kept sinking.

I finally made it back to a compacted snow trail but my shoes were a little wet.

We were home by noon and the boys were able to get to work. I am so happy we decided to go. I loved seeing all that snow!

Swimming at alf

We have a public pool up by our house but it is SO cold and open swim is only in the evening. A friend of mine informed me that Alf Sorenson's toddler pool was really warm with better hours. Several moms from my ward planned on going Monday and I was excited to go as a family.

Matt put Miles into this swim outfit..it's a 0-3 month outfit and fits him! I would have never tried.

Open swim started at 11:30 and goes to 4:30. We arrived around 1:30ish just in time to catch some friends before they left. Brielle had the best of both worlds...friends and water. She thought it was pretty fun walking in the pool and playing with all her friends. I was glad Matt was there so he could play with Brielle while I had Miles.   

Miles fell asleep so I didn't swim

Look mom, I'm swimming

Brielle had a great time with her friends and Daddy



Miles finally woke up. I was excited to see how he likes swimming because he LOVES bath time. I think he liked it, but after awhile he was done.

He kept leaning back, I thought he was going to flip it over.

Matt washed Miles up but Brielle did want to get out yet. Once Matt came back she wanted to jump with him.

We keep trying to get her to "swim" but she really doesn't like it. Maybe if we do it more, she will become more familiar with the concept.

St Patricks Day

Having different festivities come up are so much fun to celebrate when you have a child that understands and gets excited. This year I decided I was going to have a green breakfast and we were going to try to capture the Leprechaun. My though was it was going to escaped and ran away, but on it's way out it drop a pot of gold. So the night before I was up late cooking breakfast, doing the foot prints and setting everything up so it was ready for the morning.

The yogurt box was the "trap"

The foot prints that left the evidence that our Leprechaun escaped.

I woke up to Matt saying, "WOW Brielle did the Leprechaun come?" I jumped out of bed and grabbed the camera, I didn't want to miss it.  We had her look in the trap to see if we caught a Leprechaun. She reached in and grabbed a note with a box of candy. Next to the trap was a picture of the Leprechaun leaning on a rainbow with a pot of gold. I told her that the Leprechaun escaped but left a picture for us (that way she knew what a Leprechaun was). We had her follow the footsteps to see if he was still in the house, and that's when she found the pot of gold. She was ecstatic and the best part was she didn't know the gold coins were candy.
I was taking pictures of Miles when I realized it was little too quite in the kitchen. I walked in to find Brielle eating her box of chocolates....you know, breakfast of champions.


Miles made sure he wore his green so he wouldn't get pinched

 

If you weren't wearing green but you ate something that was green, would that count? Miles didn't want to risk it so he wore green AND tried to eat the leprechaun's footprints. I guess he was trying to digest the luck of the Irish.

 Brielle was in a great mood was willing to sit and take a few pictures with Miles. I was super happy cause these moments don't come too often.

 I showed Miles the pot of gold; he was so excited he was moving his whole body...

 Then he discovered he could try to eat that too.

 So my green breakfast didn't go as planned. Brielle became very upset after we showed her the strawberry yogurt. Then she wouldn't touch any of the food. In fact she was afraid to eat anything after that and it took a lot of convincing to try to get her to eat anything. She did finally drink the green milk but that was it.

 We have this tradition now to eat corn beef and cabbage at a local restaurant called Bj's BBQ. They grill the corn beef and it is SSSSOOO yummy. Plus it means I don't have to have that awful smell in my house and still enjoy the meal. We try to be there close to opening so we don't have to wait or risk having them run out. We met my parents over there along with Grandpa Hicks. I was happy to dig in.

Brielle HAD to bring her baby, she asked me to put it in her jacket for her.

 The kids were AWESOME which in turn means I had an enjoyable meal. What a fun tradition.

 Papa walked in and played with the kids. Each kid wore his hat for a little bit.

 Afterwards I headed over to my parents house were we hung out for the afternoon. We played oustide and I picked up some sugar cookie stuff so we could make cookies.

Brielle has to walk on the brick wall every chance she can get.

I was going to edit this because it's overexposed but forgot. Oh well. I still like the expression on Miles and my Mom's face.

 So the sugar cookie idea was WAY more work than I anticipated. I thought it would be a similar experience like Valentines Day. Oh no. It took hours and both kids help at some point or another. I had tons of fun. Throughout the process my little miss Brielle turned into a terror and had to take a nap and then Miles woke up and wanted attention. As a result, my Mom ended up helping more than I planned.

 I spent all afternoon cooking my lucky charms, made a huge mess in the kitchen but the turned out yummy. However my first attempt with the frosting I think I put too much almond extract it and it was NASTY! The scent was so strong I thought it was something else and went looking around for what was causing that gross smell. It was my first time working with almond extract. I ended up putting in vanilla instead, and it turned out delicious.

 That night we had pizza at my parents with Perm, Erin and my Dad. It was such a fun day to play.