Happy Birthday Sally Rose!!!

On the 13th of this month (I know, I'm behind) Sally Rose turned three! She is such a vibrant and fun girl! Here are some pics of her special day, also, good info about her as of late.

Here is our sweetie "whistling". this started because of an Air song that, well, includes a lot of whistling. I think she really believes she is whistling, however she is making more of a hoo sound. It's very adorable and it happens often. She also likes to sing, when she's in the mood. Her pitch can be pretty good, and it always makes me smile.

Here she is opening a gift on the morning of her birthday with daddy. Sally and Bill have a special connection- it is so fun to see them interact. She brings out a side in him that is so sweet. They are always playing games. I get asked very often what daddy is doing or where he is throughout the day. "Is Daddy almost home?" She just can't wait! She adores him and gets very upset if a hug is missed

Here she is opening a trunk of princess dress up clothes the Utah grandparents sent. She is SO into princesses right now! It's amazing how girly she is. I don't consider myself super girly, and I haven't pushed princesses or pink or anything like that, but she is all about it. Princesses, mermaids and ballerinas make her life complete. Her favorite color is pink and she spins a lot when she gets excited. We read princess book after princess book and there are countless tales of a dancing mermaid princess named Sally. When I fix her hair, I need to ask which princess she'd like her hair to mimic. I like it when she says Bambi (who, in her head is DEFINITELY a girl). Sally is definitely all girl.

Sally has been looking forward to her third birthday since she turned two. We have lots of pretend birthday parties. A couple moths ago, we received a birthday catalog in the mail. Sally became obsessed with it and took it everywhere- including Walmart, where it got left on a shelf. She was incredibly distraught over the loss of her "birthday book" and mentions it EVERY time we go to Walmart. She is very glad that another kid "bought" it from the store and is currently enjoying it.

Here, Sally is so happy! Her emotions tend to run high, (I wonder where my little drama queen gets it from?) which makes it exciting to deal with her. She can get upset easily and sometimes shows some teenage-esque attitude, but also gets VERY excited and can be sweeter than cotton candy. When she's happy, she is very affectionate and loving. She's funny too!

Later that day, Daddy and Grammy took Sally to the park. (I had to go to Nashville) Now, I wasn't there to see first hand, but I've been to the park with he plenty of times to see how social she is at the park. The world is her friend. She'll ask anybody to play and expects that everybody will see her as the amazing girl that she is. I'm continually impressed by her confidence and willingness to meet new people. She is like that everywhere we go. She is taking a dance class (yes, it is the cutest thing ever) and LOVES it, yes for the dancing, but she loves the social interaction she gets. It is so fun to see her hatch into this social butterfly.

Yay for swinging! And can you see Alice here too? (Sally can almost pump, which is exciting!) I know in Alice's birthday post, I said a little bit about their relationship, which is fun, but I'd like to say a little more. She can be very thoughtful of her little sister, and often serves as her voice. If Alice is babbling away, Sally will do a high voice and "interpret." My favorite is when Alice "says" things like, "I think me and Sally need a cookie." More often is cute sayings like "I love dada!" Being a parent of two can be so rewarding and fun!

I LOVE this picture! It embraces the essence of Sally. She is such a smart fun loving girl. I love the things she says, like "You have a choice. You can have a time out, or read me this book". I love the way she cuddles. I love to watch her evolve and grow. I love to see her smile and laugh. I love to see her dance and sing. I love to see her imagine and explore. I love to hear her pray. I love everything that is Sally Rose. It's amazing to me that she is already three, and yet, it's hard for me to really remember life without her. Things were just...different. Things have so much more meaning now. Things are better because I have my little Sally Rosebud.

Happy Birthday Alice!!

Yesterday, or I suppose now 2 days ago, Alice celebrated her first birthday. My mind is having a hard time comprehending that my little baby has been here for a full year. It has gone by WAY too fast. The following are some pictures taken throughout the day, plus some fun Alice info.

You can see her cake caked little face, although pink frosting doesn't show up very well. Trust me, she was covered. Especially her bare belly. Alice has always been an excellent eater. Sometimes, she'll eat more than I do at a meal. She loves everything, (except goat cheese and capers...it will come) and lots of it. She'll let you know in no unsure terms when her tray is lacking. Often, you'll catch her putting food in her mouth with one hand, then the other, then the other, with barely a breath between. Food, it seems, is serious business to this little one.

Alice held onto this balloon through the whole cake eating process- there was no way she was letting go. Alice also has a hard time letting go of her "silky". My Grandma Barnes made these fantastic silky blankets for all the grand kids and great grand kids, Alice was lucky to get the last one she made, though my awesome mother has continued the tradition. Alice LOVES it! It soothes her swiftly and helps her sleep. She loves to play peek-a-boo with it and just feel it on her skin. I love it that she loves it.

This is perhaps my favorite picture of the day. She's so happy! Alice has always been a very easy baby. She has had very few inconsolable sessions. even as a newborn. She smiled early and has been a smiley baby ever since. She sleeps the night, and is dream to put down, (just make sure she has her blanky and her binky). She is pretty laid back, (except when eating) and is just such a complete delight.

This is her ghetto cake. I'm only showing it because of it's ghetto charm. One day she might care. Today is not that day. Sally, however, talked to her Grammie (who is here now- yay!!) about the cake's beauty.

Doesn't she look sweet? Alice is the epitome of sweetness. She loves to cuddle and give big open mouth kisses. She will crawl with excitement into open arms and has the softest angel skin. She gives the biggest Halloween treat bag a run for the money when it comes to sweetness.

Sally and Alice have an interesting relationship. They are both very interested in each other and usually very nice. Alice likes to follow Sally around sometimes and play all kinds of things with her. Sally likes to give all kinds of love to her baby sister and sometimes likes to help. Other times, she likes to slam doors in poor Alice's face or restrain her from pushing buttons or getting into things by laying on her. Alice is pretty much a champ through it all. She will whimper for a moment and then all is well for this little one. They really do love each other.

Okay, maybe this is my favorite. She is just so beautiful! Alice is starting to say some things. She can say mama, dada, muh (more), uh-oh (this is ADORABLE), bubble, do a fishy mouth and a lizard mouth. It is so fun to see her progress. She also babbles quite a bit and makes the cutest sounds. I even like one of her cries that almost sounds like a siren (if you are in my ward, you're well familiar with it) It's actually very cute.

Alice is getting to be such a big girl! She can cruise along most anything and LOVES to walk with things (thank you Grandma for the cool "walker"- she loves it!) she can stand for quite a long time and has stepped with her right foot a handful of times. Sometimes, even two steps (both with the right foot, making her rotate around) She'll be really walking soon. I'm pretty impressed by the way she rarely gets hurt. She seems so aware of herself and her surrounding- she hardly ever bonks her head on anything. Bill said it nicely here, "One facet about Alice to note is her remarkable caution - which takes patience, focus and awareness - all traits that she shows daily. She hardly ever gets into accidents. I'm really impressed at her ability to do things like learning how to walk, do crawling to sit-up transitions, climb the stairs and to explore safely."

We went to the indoor play area at the mall and Alice LOVED it. She is a good size for all of the fun "toys" they have. She had a blast going through all the tubes and standing up to everything and cruising. She also went down the little slide about 2548 times. Now, she seems to be a "safe" baby, but she still likes to explore. She loves seeing new things and seeing what could be inside everything. That is evidenced in some movie cupboards we have. She loves to see what's inside the cupboard, and then what's inside each case. I'm constantly picking them up. Same goes for CD shelves, kitchen cupboards and any drawer she can find.

Alice adds so much to my life. From her pensive expressions to her huge grins. From irresistible laughter to funny whimpers. She makes me feel so... warm. Like drinking steamed milk with a caramel shot, only so much more intense. She warms me even deeper than the marrow, to the place science has yet to discover. If only they could play with Alice for a little bit they would have no doubt there is so much more to us and to life. Her birthday is the day before mine and I am glad. I always know I have the greatest birthday present a person could have. A sweet, loving, happy, playful, adventurous, beautiful, fun, overall wonderful little Alice Marie.

It's Raining, It's Pouring

It's been raining in Georgia. A lot. This afternoon we had small rivers on either side of our house. Sally and I took the opportunity to go run and play. And get soaked.

She loved it!
I got out the umbrella to take pictures and we ended up dancing all around with it. Sally thought this was a grand idea.

Thogh it was bigger than she is.

We played a game where we would send a flip flop of mine down the "river". The other would have to catch it, because the current picked up in the gutter. Luckily, I still have two shoes.

It was really moving.

You can see some of the speed here against her feet. She started with boots but opted for bare feet when she saw me without footwear- mine kept coming off with every step.

Sally's skirt was so wet and weighted down it was falling off her little bum. We had so much fun, and were out there for quite a while. It was great to play like this with my special big girl.

Bombarded by Pictures

I haven't been awesome about keeping up. Much has happened- a trip SLC, and a trip to Florida- those posts will come. This, however, is all about the everyday greatness that has been the last month or so. Be prepared for the bombardment.

I think she looks pretty here- she's about to scale the mountain

She's climbing it- can you believe the altitude of that mountain? Laundry can get crazy.

Alice is pulling up to everything and cruising when highly motivated. She can stand by herself for 15 seconds or so- I think those first steps are coming very soon.

Sally can be SO happy sometimes!

We tried to go to a water park and this is what we got.

These are our friends JK and Naybi. We'll have to try again.

This is what Sally wore to her first dance class- she LOVES it! We now have more proper attire, but are back to finding a class. They are all SO expensive and have crazy hidden fees. She absolutely adores going, though.

She loves playing with my wallet. I love looking at her eyes.

Sometimes I wonder if Alice's hair will curl. You can see the little curl ups by her ears here.

Such sweet sisters.

I love these girls SO much!

Cute little Alice was so pleased to play with Sally's new rain boots.

She's on her way down from a jump off the pig.

Sally and Naybi- I think they are being butterflies.

I LOVE this picture- she is so beautiful.

Sadly, this is the most action all these cute undies get. She runs away and screams if I ask her about the potty. It will come.

Alice found a cozy spot.

She is so cute I can hardly stand it! I love that her tongue is twisted here- very true to life. She has enjoyed playing with her tongue from day one. If you ask her what a lizard says, she'll dart it out quickly. She'll also do a fish mouth.

I love this little retro top Alice is wearing. I need to find some good thrift stores around here.

They both think Daddy is a playground. He is so great with them.

Here's Sally in her full Ballet gear- I lOVE it!

She is always doing "princess twirls" and tippy toes. She is such a girly girl. I am not what I would consider terribly girly, but it is fun to indulge that side of myself with her. It's all about the pink and princesses and ballerinas with her.

There are two videos back to back. The first is Sally singing one of two Alice Marie songs that are sung A LOT in our house. The second, is Alice dancing adorably.

Well, I'll bet if you made it this far, you are Nicolich girled out. I'm not, though. i can't wait to play with them in the morning. I love being a mom to these amazing children.

A Trip to the High Museum in Atlanta

The Monet water lillies exhibit was showing at the High Museum in Atlanta, so we made a visit.
















































Occasionally, when one dabbles in art and literature, these might converge unexpectedly - producing a psychic pause in the space time continuum. This happened to me with the painting shown above entitled Moonlit Market, 1874 by the American painter Johann Mengels Culverhouse.

I've been reading the short stories of Anton Chekov. In the midst of this collection is the story entitled Easter Eve where the narrator exclaims "'What a restless night!' I thought. 'How nice!'" This was precisely the identical reaction I had to the painting. There's something about the painting that appeals to me perfectly.

In addition to that coincidence, the Chekov story unfolds a very similar scene which takes place at midnight in a Russian village to that which is depicted in the painting. I'll quote here and allow you to judge.

I took a few steps through mud, but a little farther walked on a soft freshly trodden path. This path led to the dark monastery gates, that looked like a cavern through a cloud of smoke, through a disorderly crowd of people, unharnessed horses, carts and chaises. All this crowd was rattling, snorting, laughing, and the crimson light and wavering shadows from the smoke flickered all over it.... A perfect chaos! And in this subbub the people yet found room to load a little cannon and to sell cakes. There was no less commotion on the other side of the wall in the monastery precincts, but there was more regard for decorum and order. Here there was a smell of juniper and incense.

Also note that above, I've photographed a painting of a cave island in the sea. This is entitled Fingal's Cave, Island of Staffa, Scottland by American painter Thomas Moran. Notice the similarity of this painting to the description above of "looked like a cavern through a cloud of smoke."

Date Night

Here's a picture of what I see every morning. I see a darling wife and two cute little girls who usually make their way to the big bed.

Now on to the story. Recently, we went on a Date night. Emily had a great idea. We went laser-tagging. Mostly the patrons were young teenagers. Then there was us - yay! The establishment smelled like a roller-skating rink - a mixture of popcorn, processed snacks, sweat, video game exhaust, rainbows and unicorn droppings.

Emily scored better than I did on both rounds. Later she revealed that one of her chief tactics was to exploit the weakest opponents the whole time - you know - shoot the "noob" over and over again. Why does this vest keep lighting up like that? Huh.

I wished I could have set my own name - but apparently the laser tag software isn't that sophisticated. I would have been "The Bad Home Teacher."


We ate at my favorite restaurant: Yo Yo Ma. They've got three restaurants in one building - Chinese, Thai and Japanese. I had Coconut Soup from the Thai menu, shared sushi with Emily, and had mongolian beef for the entree. Delicious!



Emily seemed to have fun too. I submit the following photgraph as proof.

Trapped in the Bathroom

I'm behind. Catching up seems daunting, but I'm starting the process. It's not that there are tons of people out there chomping at the bit to see what I have to say, but this is my journal. Really, I need to find a way to store this stuff because I'm fully counting it as my personal history. Much has happened, but I'll start with this amusing little story.

A little while ago, I was in the bathroom. (you can tell it will be good, right?) Sally decided to come in with me, and Alice was crawling around just outside the room. The picture is what the set up of our bathroom is. The door on the right goes to the hall, the camera is in is the sink part of the bathroom, and the door on the left is the toilet and bathtub portion.

So anyway, Sally and i are in the potty portion when along comes Alice. She pushed the hall door all the way open, which created this situation.

This picture was taken from the bathtub part of the room. Both doors here are fully open, and you can see the hall door is blocking the doorway out of the toilet chamber. This is no big deal, because Alice can't keep us in, right? There's no way a nine month old could trap her mom and sister. Except for this.

This is taken from the doorway of the potty part of our loo. See those menacing drawers? Usually, they are not so menacing, but our sweet little Alice pulled the bottom drawer open; all the way open. This made it impossible for me to get out. So, I was stuck in the bathroom with this darling,

While this sweetie had the entire upstairs to roam. By herself.

Luckily, she pretty much stayed by the door the entire time.

My first thought was to try to coax Alice into closing the drawer. Being nine months old, she didn't oblige. I then tried- many, many times- to reach my fingers through the crack and help the drawer closed. This never worked. I could get my hand painfully through, but it created more pressure on the drawer, and it wouldn't budge. I tried to get Sally and her smaller hands to help, but that wasn't working either. I tried using the handle of a toilet brush. I took down the shower curtain rod and tried to go over the top of the door. I tried folding a magazine and going under the door. I tried to comfort myself thinking perhaps Bill would be coming home for lunch. In about 3 hours. None of this worked.

Meanwhile, Sally is saying things like, "Oh no. This is so crazy!" and "We're never going to get out." Alice is crawling around, and mostly being pleasant, but starts to get weary of only seeing my fingertips after about fifteen minutes. After being in there for 25 minutes (and deciding to always take a cell phone to the potty), I decide we need help. Sally and I knelt down in the small space and we said a prayer.

About one minute later, two things happened. Alice pushed a thin cardboard tube (the kind that goes on a wire hanger) an inch or so under the door. She also bumped the drawer so that it closed a little bit. With the drawer in a bit and the with my new "tool", I was able to jimmy the drawer shut and open the door to our freedom. We were reunited at last!

Little Sally was relieved to be out,

And Alice was happy to be held and fed.

They were happy to be together again.

I was the most relieved, I'm sure. It was good to be out, but even better to be reminded of the power of prayer. This was the kind of experience that kids have, and maybe it was for Sally's benefit, but I was completely floored. The answer to our prayer came swift and sure. I think Heavenly Father heard my plea, and decided I needed some help. I am very grateful for that help, and for the opportunity we have to communicate with our maker at any time.

PS These pictures were from a little tea party we had. I dressed up too. We had special petit fours and pink milk for tea- delightful little lunch.