Turkey Day

This year we spent our Thanksgiving dinner with Joel's family. We were a little worried about taking Brynlee because she had a bad cold and didn't seem to feel well the night before. She felt fine in the morning so were glad we could go spend the holiday with our family. Both of our families had their meal at the same time so we decided to just spend the evening with my family and have pie and leftovers with them.

We had a nice meal with Joel's family. Brynlee had lots of fun playing with all of her cousins. After the meal Joel's dad decided to go out and slaughter one of his pigs. All of the grandkids wanted to watch so he figured it was a perfect time to do it. We didn't watch him kill the pig but he brought the pig on the back porch so everyone could watch him skin it. Brynlee didn't know what to think. Everyone else was watching so we watched it too for a little while. I think everyone was really intrigued until he cut out the guts and then grandpa lost most of his audience. Apparently that part was gross so I am glad we missed it. After all of that excitement we left for my grandma's house.

As soon as we got to grandma's house, Brynlee went outside to play with Brian and Heater. Annalyn got to meet my cousin Sheila and her family for the first time and she let Sheila hold her for a long time. I think it helped that Sheila gave her some pie. Joel and I did a puzzle, ate some pie and talked to the family. I decided to brave the crowds that night and I went with Brian and his wife to Walmart. Joel took the girls home and put them in bed. The store was really crowded that night but I got the main things that I really wanted. It was almost impossible to walk in that store it was so crowded. Joel and I also went and did a little bit of shopping the next day at Fred Meyer and at Lowes but we waited until the afternoon when the crowds were mostly gone.

Overall it was a great holiday. I am really glad we got to spend it with our family. We really have been super blessed to live so close to them. We have so many things to be grateful for. I have an amazing husband, a sweet healthy baby, and an active busy toddler that makes my life so much fun. I am blessed to be able to stay home with them during the day so that I don't miss watching them grow up. The Lord has been good to us. It has been a great year. Happy Thanksgiving!

Eight Months

Miss Annalyn is officially eight months old and on the move. She is crawling everywhere and she is getting pretty fast. She loves to follow me around the house. She has also pulled herself up to stand a few times; we had to move the crib down. She has been saying lots of new sounds. She even said "ma ma" once. Now I just need to teach her what it means.

Annalyn loves to eat whatever we are eating and she puts everything in her mouth. When we try to eat anything without her, she crawls right by us and begs for the food. She whines until she gets some. She also loves to drink out of my cup and she is good at it. If I drink anything she reaches out her hand for it and puts her mouth right on the edge of the cup. She is starting to figure out how to drink out of a sippy cup and how to hold her own bottle. She hasn't had a bottle very often.

Annalyn has also eaten several things she shouldn't. Brynlee is good at leaving things on the floor for her to pick up and eat. I have to vacuum under the table after every meal. Annalyn's favorite thing to put in her mouth seems to be paper. I have no idea how she finds it all the time but I am constantly pulling it out of her mouth. She also loves suckers and anything else sweet. I had to take away the rest of Brynlee's suckers because she would only eat half of them and then give the rest to Annalyn. We still give her her baby food but we also give her lots of mashed up fruits and veggies that she can pick up on her own. She likes that the best. She will even eat green beans if she can feed herself.

Annalyn finally started to sleep through the night again but then she got another bad cold and I was up with her even more than usual. Hopefully she will go back to her old schedule when this cold is gone.

Annalyn is super curious. She loves to look at things and inspect them very closely. She is normally pretty content to just sit on the ground and play with things. She has been playing with Brynlee a lot more these days. She loves to crawl over and take whatever Brynlee is playing with, which makes Brynlee really mad. She also loves to just watch Brynlee play.

Annalyn is seriously a mommy's girl. She is starting to go to other people much more easily but if I am around, she watches me the whole time and whines for me. She is a great cuddler. I love to just hold her in my arms. The only problem is that she loves to pinch. She has left several bruises on my arm from it. She starts out by softly rubbing my skin and then she grabs me really hard. Ouch! It hurts. I am really trying to break that habit. It is the worse when I am nursing her.

I love watching my baby grow and learn new things everyday. She is such a sweetheart. 

Bowling

In honor of my birthday, Joel took me out to dinner and we went on a family trip to the bowling alley. Brynlee has never been bowling before and we thought she would like it. Although, weren't really sure if she could do it. She actually bowled really well. It was waiting for her turn when we had problems. She kept trying to pick up everyones' ball and line them up. Plus she kept trying to stick her head in the place where to balls came up. I thought for sure she was going to get hit by one of the balls. Not to mention, she kept trying to run down the lane after the ball. It was fun to watch Brynlee bowl and she had fun, but next time we are leaving her at home. 

Brynlee's ball took a while to make it down the lane. Here is a short video of her bowling. 

The Boise Temple

The Temple in 2008

     Joel and I were married in the Boise Temple just four and a half years ago. They closed the Temple and did an extensive remodel on the building. It was closed for over a year. The temple had to be rededicated so they opened it up to the public to come view for a few weeks. What a great experience! The temple is very sacred building to me, my church, and our family. In this temple Joel and I started our family and we were sealed together for eternity. Now anyone who wanted to could walk into the temple and see what it is all about. Joel and I were really excited to take our kids into the building where we were married and let them see the temple.

Joel and me at the temple on our wedding day.  

     We went to view the Temple on a Thursday night. By the time we ate dinner and got over there, it was already dark and we got home way past Brynlee's 8pm bedtime. It was still way worth it. First we watched a short video about temples. Annalyn growled during the whole video and she was laughing and trying to get to the little girl sitting next to me. We had to wait a little while outside of the temple because it was pretty busy. It was also cold. They had us put on these nice little booties over our shoes so the carpet would stay nice. Brynlee didn't like those things at all. I set her down and she wouldn't even move her feet. She really wanted to take them off. Joel and I ended up carrying her the whole time. We traded between her and the baby. Despite that, Brynlee was really good. She was captivated with all of the pictures of Jesus. The best part was letting her look at the room where we were married. I know my girls probably won't remember it, but it will be so neat to tell them about this experience when they are older. Yesterday I went to the Temple rededication and I got to hear our Prophet speak. Joel was sick so I left the kids with him.  I love the temple and I feel so blessed that we have a temple close by us once again.

Goodbye Roosters

When we got our little chicken we had no idea if any of them were roosters or not. I suspected there was at least one. We have two big looking chicken with no feathers on their necks. They are called naked necked chickens. One of them was a lot bigger than the other so I figured he was a rooster. And then we started to hear crowing coming from our backyard. The crowing sounded really squeaky at first and there was crowing all the time. I figured it could any of three birds, but soon realized it was all three of them. And then two more of them started to look a lot like roosters. They didn't just crow in the morning either, they crowed all day, and all night. And they are really loud. Joel and I figured they were too loud, and there were too many to keep them all in the same pin. Plus we had two that were really big and aggressive that were pushing all of the hens around. So we decided to slaughter those rooster.

On a side note: The day before we planned to slaughter the chickens, we discovered that our chickens were in fact laying eggs. They were just laying them under the chicken coop instead of inside it. We found twelve the first day and we have found at least three or four every day since. Hooray! Now it actually seems worth it to feed the things. They have cost a lot more money than we have saved. We have one chicken that escapes every single day and sometimes four or five will be out of the chicken coop at once. Joel gave them run of our backyard, it is fenced in and we don't really use it. None of the chickens escaped for a few days but now the same two are out every single day. The dark red hen just runs right up to Brynlee and she grabs the chicken and throws it back in with the rest. Although, one day when we went out there that chicken bit Brynlee really hard on the hand and then chased her through the yard. Brynlee ran to me crying and she was afraid of that chicken for a few days. Now she is convinced it is nice again and she still catches it. At least she is a little bit more cautious.

Joel watched several YouTube videos on how to slaughter chickens and decided to go for it on Saturday. I had no intention of watching it and I didn't want Brynlee to watch either. We were going to take the before and after pictures instead. By the time we actually made it outside to say a final farewell to the roosters, Joel was ready to go. I tried to get Brynlee back in the house and Joel just went ahead and chopped the first rooster's head off. That poor chicken bounced all around and I was horrified that my two year old was watching her beloved pet get slaughtered. I was afraid she would be traumatized. Brynlee just laughed. She really is Joel's daughter. Afterwards she ran up to look at the head and she declared it "poopy." We watched Joel catch the next rooster and then Brynlee brought me a leaf and I picked it up only to have Brynlee tell me not to touch it because is was poopy. It had blood all over it and I got blood all over my hand. That is when I rushed the girls back in the house and I scrubbed my hand really well.

When Joel was done slaughtering the chickens, we went outside to watch him finish up. Brynlee collected the eggs and we fed all of the chickens. Brynlee also found one of the chicken legs and brought it to show me. I gasped and told her to put it down. Joel thought it was funny and told me to hurry and take a picture. He was really proud of her. 

Election and Birthday

This year I celebrated my birthday the day after the election. On election day I had such high hopes for our country. I watched all of the debates this year and I took both of the kids with me and we voted early that morning. Joel was really wishing he could vote in this election. I was sorely disappointed with the results, to say the least. Don't people pay attention to what is going on with our country? I was mostly sad that so many people could vote for someone like Obama. Our society seems to only care about free handouts. What happened to helping out our fellow man and working together to help each other out? Sorry for the rant but I am still kind of shocked.

After watching the elections the only thing I wanted to do was go to bed. Joel ran out to get my present from the car and discovered a huge fire burning back behind our house. There was a big pile of tires and some old junk that was burning. Our landlord was burning weeds earlier that day and didn't make sure the fire was out all the way. I thought Joel should call the fire department but he called our landlord and then spent the next hour or so helping him and his grandson put out the fire. I was just grateful Joel found the fire and they put it out before there was some real damage. It could have been a lot worse.

This kind of put things into perspective for me but when I woke up the morning of my birthday I was still really upset and fearful about the next four years. And yet, life goes on. It doesn't do any good to dwell on it. In the end I am glad to know that ultimately it is in the Lord's control. The only thing we can go is to live the best we can and pray that things will turn out all right.

As soon as I woke up, Brynlee brought me my presents to open. She has been singing happy birthday to me for days and bringing me things wrapped up in blankets to unwrap all the time. She was super excited for the real thing. She helped me open all of them. Joel got me several nice things so I was grateful for all that he got for me. He got a new comforter for our bed, some picture frames, and a really nice vacuum cleaner. Oddly enough, I think I was most excited about the vacuum. Now that Annalyn is crawling she puts everything in her mouth. And she find all kinds of things on our carpet. Our old vacuum was terrible at picking things up and it was super loud. Annalyn screamed whenever I tried to vacuum and she woke up if I turned it on when she was sleeping. This new vacuum is lighter, quieter, and so much easier to use. Plus it picks up things so much better. I never thought I would be the kind of mom who got excited over a new vacuum but I guess I am.

After a nice breakfast made by Joel, I went to Zumba and then headed over to my grandma's house. My sister Heather and my dad went out to lunch with me and then I took the kids home for a nap. My family came over for cake and ice cream that night. Joel decorated another great cake, with some help from Brynlee. I think Brynlee blew out most of the candles too, she was so excited. Over all it was a great day. I wish the election went differently but I still managed to enjoy myself and have a good birthday. I am just grateful I have a great family. Together we can get through anything.

Playing in the Leaves

Whenever Joel pictures our future house it always has lots of huge trees in the front yard. In the house where we are living right now there are several big trees and I have to say that I love them too. They provided shade during the summer, and they are a great place to hang our tire swing.  Now that it is fall I am loving all of the leaves. They are so much fun to play in. I can't remember the last time I played outside in the leaves but we have done it several times this year. 

There were several times when we had some friends over to play in the leaves with us. Brynlee's cousin Jakobee and his cousin came over one day. Brynlee and Jakobee loved to just lay in the leaves while Annalyn kept trying to eat them. She found one of Brynlee's Halloween suckers and I could not get it away from her so I let her have it. I figured it was better than letting her eat leaves. They also had fun playing on the tire swing and looking at the chickens. Brynlee caught a chicken for the boys but they didn't want to hold it.

Later that week we had my cousin Ryder come over and play in the leaves with Brynlee. Ryder could have played in those leaves for hours. They had so much fun. 

 My favorite day spent playing in the leaves was just with our family. Joel is great at playing with Brynlee. He ran at those leaves, jumped, and then did a little flip. He even built a little tunnel for Brynlee to crawl through. 

Somehow Joel managed to crawl through the tunnel and he convinced me that it wasn't that bad. It was really a tight squeeze but we both made it through there, with a little help from Brynlee. 

I love my family and I love spending time with them. 

October

October started out with Joel still working a lot. Harvest was in full swing so we hardly saw him. Harvest ended the day before Joel's birthday. He turned 27 this year. Brynlee helped me pick out and wrap up his presents. She also helped me to make and decorate the cake. She made a huge mess doing it but she was sure proud of herself. Since harvest was over Joel got to sleep in on his birthday and I made him breakfast. What did Joel want for breakfast? Cake and ice cream of course. With some scrambled eggs and toast on the side. We sang to Joel first thing that morning. Brynlee couldn't wait to give him his presents so we had his party before he left for work that morning. That night we went and watched Brynlee go swimming and celebrated Joel's and his niece Tara's birthdays. I think he had a fun day. Just being done with harvest was a great present.

Since Joel was done with harvest he took two weeks off of work and spent the whole time working on grandma's shed. They are almost done with it. The hours were much better but it still felt like he was working. Lots of other things happened this month but if I try to write about everything I will never get this post done.

Happy Halloween!

This year was such a fun Halloween. Brynlee has been running around the house saying "trick or treat" for weeks. She would even practice trick or treating by sharing her potty candy. We would get some when we said trick or treat. She would even say it before eating each piece of candy. Needless to say, she was pretty excited about the whole trick or treat business.

To start off the Halloween celebrations, we carved some pumpkins that came from grandma Hirtle's garden. Brynlee's favorite part was writing on it with markers. I let her paint one later that week and she really liked that. She didn't mind sticking her hand in the pumpkin but she preferred to use a spoon. Annalyn really liked to play in the pumpkin gunk I just had to be really carful so she didn't try to eat it.

I never did get a picture of what the pumpkins looked like after we were done until days later. We had a ward Halloween party at our church the Saturday before Halloween. Brynlee dressed up as Cinderella and the baby was a little witch. Brynlee loves Cinderella so it worked out perfect that we had a cinderella dress. Several people called Brynlee a princess and she didn't like that. "I am not a princess, I am Cinderlla," she would tell them. We were in charge of decorating a room and handing out candy, which was fun. Joel volunteered to hand out the candy so I took Brynlee around to get candy and played several games with her. It was lots of fun. She was afraid of a few rooms and wouldn't go in, until she saw the candy. Most of the people in the rooms let Brynlee pick out her favorite candy and she picked a sucker every time. I tried to get her to get the chocolate but she wasn't interested. She came home with a whole bag full of candy. Her favorite activity was the maze that was made out of cardboard boxes along the stage. At the end, you got to slide down the stairs.

On Halloween night I dressed the kids in some nice warn costumes but it turned out to be a beautiful night. Brynlee was a butterfly and Annalyn was a little ladybug. We went trick or treating in my parent's subdivision. Joel's phone died at work though so he had no idea what time it was and I didn't know where he was at. He worked way longer than he planned so we didn't get to start getting candy as early as we wanted. Joel also got a terrible migrane that night so He opted to stay and help my dad hand out candy while I took Brynlee out. My sister Heather and all of her family came, along with my cousins, my mom, and my grandma. It was fun to go with them. I left Annalyn with Joel.

Brynlee got lots of candy that night and she had lots of fun. Although, a lot of the things scared her. Here is one of the things Brynlee said to me that night. There was a guy walking around dressed like a gingerbread man and Brynlee was really scared of him. "That's scary, that's so scary mom,"she told me.
"No," I told her "that's not scary. That's just a gingerbread man, He's nice"
"Oh is that happy?"
"Yeah, that's happy," I told her.
Brynlee then stood there and waved at him. "Hi bad guy, hi bad guy" she called out.
I sure do love my girls and I am so glad we could experience this fun time with her. Brynlee got lots of candy, but it didn't last long. Then only thing that is left is some suckers.