Three, almost four...

I am having a blast with my girls these days. They are hilarious, and smart and creative. It's been fun to watch them play together. And incredibly irritating when they fight.

They've been sick the past two weeks. Today, after a long day of whining (combined with lack of sleep), I was just "done" and sat down on the floor and started to cry. Livvy came up to me and began to console me. First, a hug. Then she traced my face with her finger. Then, she grabbed a bottle of water because I might need a drink. After that, oddly enough, she told me I needed to put hand sanitizer on my hands.

Her last resort was to look at me, put her hands on her hips and say, " Mom, get off your butt."

It's always fascinating to hear your voice being channeled by your kid. Ha ha. Drinks of water, hugs, hand sanitizer, then the command to get up and deal with life.

Too funny.

Also today, Annika said one of her first true sentences. We were at a store. She was thirsty. One of the clerks went to get us water. I told her that "uncle" was getting the water. She said: "Uncle, Annie, a ba ba!" Translated: "Uncle, get me water."

Funny the difference between her first sentence and Olivia's. Olivia said, "pretty bird in the tree."

Love my ladies.

Here are a few other noteworthy phrases from our girls, mostly Livvy:

"I wish I were a mermaid with a tail and those boob things (aka, a seashell bra)."

"Ok Anni, I'm not frovoking (provoking) you. On my birthday we will go trick or treating. Anni, you are the best." (We've been telling her lately not to provoke her sister, which inevitably ends up in Annika biting Livvy.)

"I love you Anni. I draw a picture and we will be holding hands."

The other day, I found Olivia squeezing juice from an orange I had peeled into a cup. She wanted to put it in a bag and send it to Utah to her friend, Maryanne.

From anni:

At bedtime, she gets a sippy water and then I'll pat her bum so soothe her to sleep. Now, she gets in the crib and says: "ba ba, bum."

We survived!!!

Troy comes home in four hours. Yippee! It's been a great week, but man, I have a whole new respect for single moms. I never want to become one. I don't have Troy a lot, but it's amazing the difference it makes to have him around for the whole bedtime routine and cleanup.

My girls are sweet hearts. We sure had fun. I love their little personalities. Livvy is feisty and spunky, but after she calms down, she sure is sweet and will tell me sorry and "I love you." Annika is more mellow, but has the same spunk. She's pretty easy-going and loves to follow sister.

Here's a few shots from this week. The first are my "selfies." For YW this week, we went to Sephora and got makeovers with the girls. I was sporting some pretty nice purple eye shadow. Not my color.

My two ladies love to hold hands and play on our little playground. Livs is such a good helper and so sweet to her little sister. She loves to act like a little mama herself.

 This is our dinner portrait for Troy. Note the half-crazed look in my eyes and the pink hairbow from Anni's torn out hairstyle. She's eating split pea soup. I cooked twice this week. The rest of the time, we ate out of a can. Notice the peas that Anni kept spitting out?

From this morning. These girls have dueling strollers. Thanks, Naomi, for giving us the second. I think there would have been carnage if we didn't have two.

Malacca

We took a road trip for our anniversary to Malacca, which is about 4 hours by car from Singapore, in Malaysia. Was a great trip!

Oh, Thailand!

 We love Thailand. It's a short 1-2 hour flight from Singapore. Good food. Nice people. Great beaches. We spent the weekend after our anniversary in Khao Lak. Troy and I don't consider ourselves "resort" people, but we stayed the entire time at our hotel. It was fantastic and SO relaxing! We have adopted the resort lifestyle as our own.

Lest you think we are spoiled, which we are, let me just state that traveling in SE Asia is relatively inexpensive. Our flight cost about the same as gas from Salt Lake City to Vegas. Maybe a little more, but you get the picture.

We loved playing on the beach. Livvy is pretty good at catching hermit crabs. Better than Daddy, I would say! We swam in the pool and enjoyed the great mocktails and food. Also saw an elephant. FUN, FUN, FUN! Daddy and our friend Fabio got a massage together. That's another story for another post. Niki and Katie got one together, but somehow it's not as funny as two large men (Fabio is over 6 foot - five) being rubbed by tiny Thai women.

Enough said. Enjoy the pics. They say a lot more than what I can write. Oh yeah. Annika injested a lot of sand. Sweet baby girl.

Daddy, come home!

These pics are in honor of Daddy, who's home in "Ootah." That's how Livvy says Utah. Four more days till he gets back. We sure miss him. Mommy should be sleeping right now, but I have insomnia. xx

Daily Happenings...

Here's our life in pictures lately. Livvy is a little chef. She loves to cook. Here we are making muffins. She's snitching a lot of the dough. Of course. :)

 Playing in the crib with all their babies. Love my two babes. 

Swimming! In full safety attire. 

 Touching the dessert. Livvy is sure a candy girl. She loves to ask me: "Mom, I've been good. Can I have a treat?" She doesn't like to share with sister, though. Despite that, she and Annika have been playing pretty well together, lately. Their newest game is "pet." Basically, Annika is Olivia's pet. Livvy will bring her water in tupperware and Anni will lean down and drink it. Livvy also asks for bread for her pet. 

Annika loves to chase Livvy all over the house. She gets perplexed when Livvy is having a meltdown moment and will walk up and kiss her sister. These two girls love to hug. They're awfully cute with each other, but man, they can also fight and get frustrated with each other. 

Durian...oh Durian

It's been 18 months since we moved here and I finally got to try Durian! Not quite sure what I thought of it. Not horrible, but not good. But I could see how it can grow on you until you like it. Maybe...

The fruit is super-stinky. Sharon and Andrew, who brought it over, said our house would stink two days. I'm sure belching it up right now. Taste-wise, it was sweet. And bitter. And gooey..in a creamy sort of way. And kind of burned as it went down. But not in a bad way. It really does "warm" your body like people say.

Sharon taught me that if you fill the hull of the Durian with water and wash your hands, the stink will get off your fingers.

Enjoy the pics. If you want some good descriptions of Durian, go to Wikipedia. xxx

This fruit is seriously spiky. Hurts to hold it-type of spikes. 

Cracking it open.

Hey bro!

Why did I allow my wife to make me try this a second time?