Snowy January

January was a cold and snowy month here in Boise. We were stuck inside most of the time.We did go to Pojos for my cousin Ryder's birthday party and Brynlee loved that. Especially the carousel ride. We have all had bad colds and a bad cough that we can't get over.  The kids and I all got pink eye this month and my car has been having problems, so for a few days we were really stuck inside. We did our best to keep entertained with lots of play doh, dress-up, hide and go seek, and games of duck-duck-goose. We took advantage of leaving the house whenever we could because the girls also made lots of messes and got into all kinds of things.

Joel worked outside a lot this month and froze. He also got to help my sister Heather remodel a room in their new house. They are going to make it into a home salon. They are almost done with that project. I got a new calling at church teaching the 4 year olds. I have Annalyn with me so there is one other lady that teaches with me. There are only 4 kids in the class so it seems kind of silly to have two teachers in there but oh well. Brynlee has been terribly jealous of the baby and whiney lately. She constantly wants to be held like a baby and she even started to talk like a baby. It is kind of driving us crazy but she is also just as funny and lovable as ever. I really do love the stage she is at, she is so fun. Annalyn is getting more and more brave about getting into things and trying to walk.

We got to take Brynlee on her first sledding trip and she loved it. I was actually surprised that she was so into it. She walked up the hill several times all by herself. At one point she lost her sled down the hill and then she went chasing after it. She walked all the way down the hill and then back up on her own. My whole family went so Brynlee got to go down with several different people. She only went down with me once. It was a lot of fun. I kept Annalyn bundled up and over by the heater so she would stay warm. She didn't get to go sledding. 

Annalyn's 10 Month Update

I just looked at the calendar the other day to see what date it was and I realized that my little baby is already ten months old. Wow, that went fast. Annalyn sure is turning into such a fun little baby. She crawls all over the place, pulls herself up to stand with ease and cruises along all the furniture. She has really good balance when she is standing and can stand unassisted for several seconds. She has a really great, infectious laugh and is usually happy and content. I sure got lucky with her.

Now that Annalyn is on the move she loves to dump things out and play with everything that I have cleaned up and put away. I can get out several toys for her to play with and she will crawl in the other room so she can pull all the books off the bookshelf, empty the laundry basket, or just dump out her bucket of toys. One of her favorite things to play with is her car seat. She climbs in it and rocks it really hard and then she throws herself over this side. It scares me when she does it but she just laughs with such pure abandon. She is going to be a climber.

She loves the little trampoline we have in our house and it makes me laugh every time she crawls up there to "jump" on it. My favorite thing is when Brynlee and Annalyn both get up there and just start laughing away. They are so funny together. Annalyn really does just adore her big sister and she wants to do everything Brynlee does. When I am holding Brynlee or reading a book to her, Annalyn will whine at my arm until I pick her up but she wont stay there for long. She throws herself over the chair which really scares me. Even though I hold onto her the whole time she is on my lap it is hard to catch her when she throws herself over my arms like that. Annalyn also likes to antagonize Brynlee by going into her room when she is trying to sleep and she unplugs Brynlee's night light. We have to barricade the door so she can't get in since Brynlee wont sleep with the door closed.

 Annalyn has two teeth on the bottom and she is growing more hair. Her bald spot is finally gone, although she still has a little birth mark back there where no hair will ever grow. Annalyn always amazes me at the things she can eat with those teeth. And boy does she like to eat. She is good at biting things and chewing stuff up so she can eat things I think she will choke on. I still cut her food up really small for her but she almost doesn't need me too. Annalyn is really good at finding food on the floor too. She stretches and reaches under cabinets and chairs to get the crumbs left there. I have to vacuum under the table right after we eat right or she will find and eat all of the food that fell on the floor. I really hate having carpet under her high chair because she is a messy eater. She likes to feed herself. She even thinks she should be the one holding the spoon.

Annalyn is finally on a better sleep schedule. Plus she falls asleep by herself in her crib. I miss rocking her to sleep and so does Joel but she sleeps much better this way. She takes an hour nap in the morning, one more longer one in the afternoon, and another short nap in the evening. I put her to bed between 8:30 and 9pm and she usually sleeps in until 5-6:30 in the morning. I am loving it. I don't like it when she doesn't go back to sleep after I feed her in the mornings but at least I am not waking up with her so many times during the night.

I sure do love this little girl. She has brought so much fun and happiness into our home. 

Cabin Fever

It has been really cold at our house lately. It snowed on Christmas day and we have had snow ever since. This isn't normal for Boise and I am not used to it being so cold. It has been below freezing most days the last few weeks and the wind is terrible. It is way too cold for me to take the baby outside. This has left me stuck inside way too much with a busy active 2 year old and a baby and we are all going crazy. Especially since Brynlee has completely stopped taking naps. I still miss that time to myself. I really hope no one comes over to my house because it is a disaster.

As a mom, I spend a lot of time vacuuming, doing laundry, dishes, and cleaning up my house. And yet it is hardly ever clean. Brynlee loves packing things into the living room and lining them up. Plus she likes to changes her clothes several times a day. She makes so many messes it is ridiculous. My goal for the new year is to get most of her toys and all the stuff I don't want her playing with organized and up out of her reach. Joel is working on some shelves with locks so we will have places to put things. But in the meantime, Bynlee has access to lots of things and she takes full advantage of it. I tried to incorporated a schedule with Brynlee with a cute little sticker chart so she would be motivated to help out and get dressed without such a struggle in the morning. It worked great the first day but after that it didn't work at all. She is such a strong willed and opinionated little girl.

One day Brynlee was happily playing with her barbies and she was being really good. But then the last time I went to check on her I found that she had a pair of scissors and she was giving all of her barbies a haircut. At least it wasn't her hair and none of them got drastic haircuts since I caught her pretty fast.

 Another day I was in the kitchen cooking and Brynlee was being my helper. We were making a pie crust. Annalyn woke up from her nap and I went to go get her. I told Brynlee to leave everything alone. When I came back I found she had rolled up the dough like a ball and she was playing with it like it was play doh. She also dropped it on the ground a few times. Pie dough is not something that turns out very well if it is played with too much so I decided I had better start over. I salvaged some of what Brynlee had and then gave her some to play with. Whenever I try to make dinner, Annalyn wants to be held. If I don't hold her she just whines, cries, and pulls herself up on my legs. I have tried several different things to distract her but she just want to be in my arms to she can see what I am doing. I am getting pretty good at cooking with one hand but it is not easy. I was trying to cook and hold the baby and keep Brynlee out of things. Brynlee grabbed all of the clean cookie sheet I had and covered them with flour, ate a whole bunch of the cheese I grated and then she peed all over my kitchen floor. That is when I kicked her out of the kitchen and made her go to the bathroom and change. I had to barricade that baby out of the kitchen so I could clean the floor. Then I went to check on Brynlee and I found her sitting on the toilet, completely naked, eating a stick of butter. She loves butter. 

Just the other day I noticed that Annalyn's eyes had a lot of discharge in them and they were really red and puffy. She had a really bad cold so I thought it was caused from that. And then when I woke up the next morning my right eye was really red and it had a lot of discharge. My brother used to get pink eye all the time and I never got it from him but I was really afraid that we had pink eye. I went ahead and set up an appointment to take Annalyn to the doctor. 

We didn't have a lot of time to get ready before we had to leave for the appointment. I had the kids ready and then I hurried to get dressed. When I was ready I walked into the kitchen and found Brynlee surrounded by all of my measuring cups and big serving spoons and she was spraying Lysol spray into them. I guess I didn't put it away after I cleaned up the pee on the floor. I should know better by now. The whole kitchen smelled like Lysol and Annalyn was playing in a puddle of it on the floor. I don't think she tried to eat it but she had is all over her hands and her shirt. I had to give both kids a bath and change their clothes. I quickly cleaned up the kitchen and hid the Lysol and then we left for the doctor's office.

They were busy that day at the doctor's office so it took awhile to see the doctor. Both kids were well behaved. As soon as the baby's doctor walked into the door and looked at me she said "you have pink eye." "Well great, " I said. "Then that is probably what the baby has too." The doctor looked at her and said "yup." The doctor wrote a prescription for the baby but she couldn't write me one. I ended up just going downstairs to quick care so I could get some medicine for my eyes too. Then we went to Walgreen's so we could get the medicine. At this point it was lunchtime and Brynlee was about done. We had already waited at the doctor's office for almost two hours. The pharmacist said it would just be a minute and so we patiently waited for 20 minutes. After that point, Brynlee was not going to sit still any longer. I pulled out everything I could think of. I even told her of my plan to take her to McDonald's for lunch but she was all over the place. She kept laying on the floor, crawling all over things, and playing with the medicine. A few times she grabbed something off of the shelf and ran with it through the store. I was so ready to leave. She opened up some lotion and she tried to rip open a box of something. She made friends with a lady in there and talked to her for a while. It took them 45 minutes to get our medicine and by then I was ready to just leave and go home. Luckily my doctor said I could use the same medicine for Brynlee because she got pink eye the next day.

My kids really have been busy. I hope it warms up a little more so we can play outside again. I feel bad for Joel because he has to work outside and he is freezing. We did brave the snow for a little bit so we could go sledding. All I know is, there is never a dull moment around here at our house. Good thing I love my girls a lot because they have been big troublemakers lately. 

Brynlee is 2 and 1/2

I thought I already posted this but somehow it never not posted. Brynlee turned two and a half on December 14th.  My sweet little Brynlee has grown so much in the last few months. It is so fun to watch. She loves to play in the dirt and catch our chickens but she also loves dress up, mom's make-up, and playing with dolls. She loves playing with Annalyn these days and is usually such a good big sister. She loves to give Anna food and give her hugs and kisses. She also loves to kiss anyone who is nice to her. She loves to play with her dolls, barbies, little people, kitchen stuff, and blocks. She also loves to empty out her toy box and sit in it. She loves pouring things from one container to another. She is officially potty trained and doesn't like any help in the bathroom. Although she still has an occasional accident. She has been a real trouble maker lately and cannot be left unsupervised for very long. She is lots of fun and I am so glad I get to be her mom. Here are a few more fun facts and quotes about this fun little girl that I am so glad to call my daughter. 

Weight - 31 lb.
Height - 3ft  
Shoe Size - 8 
Clothes size - Mostly 3T but some 4T shirts and pajamas.
Favorite Color - Purple
Favorite Foods - She can now open the fridge with ease and help herself to whatever she wants. Her most common snacks are Tortillas (she calls them tacos), and cheese. She can eat slice after slice of that american fake cheese if I don't intervene.  
Favorite Movies - Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty
Favorite Shape - Diamonds and circles
Funny Things She Says: WARNING: She talks about poop a lot. Anything gross is poopy in her mind.

This is a recent conversation we had in the car the other day.
Me: Do you smell that Brynlee?
B: Ewww, that's poopy
Me:That's a skunk
B:Yeah, that's a poopy skunk.

Lately Brynlee talks a lot about boys and girls. She likes to list off who is a girl and who is a boy. The other day I was telling Brynlee that she didn't need a pacifier because she was a big girl. She told me she wasn't a girl, she was a boy. She likes to be silly like that. Here is another conversation I had with her. 
B: This is gonna be so fun. 
Me: I know. Are you so excited?
B: No, I not excited mom, I a girl!
She also had the same conversation with my cousin Ryder when he told her to be tuff. She said she couldn't because she was a girl. 

When I was first potty training Brynlee I was helping her in the bathroom. This is our conversation.
B: I'm poopin mom. I going poop.
Me: Good job Brynlee
B: Don't touch it mom. Don't touch it. It will be gross. 

Brynlee can open all of the doors in the house. I was going to the bathroom the other day and she opened the door and told me she needed to watch. I told her I needed privacy and to go away. She just sat herself right down and told me she was going to watch. Another time I was in the shower. Joel was supposed to be watching the kids. Brynlee walked in completely naked and climbed in telling me she needed to take a shower too. The life of a mom is a life without privacy. I have since learned to lock the doors when I want to keep her out. 

Brynlee and I were playing with her fake kitchen stuff when she brought me a fake onion and told me to eat it. I told her people don't usually eat a whole onion by itself.
B: Eat it mom. It's good. You will like it. 
Me: All right, I will eat some. 
(I pretended to eat some and then I handed it to Brynlee for her to eat.) 
B: No mom. I don't like it. 
Me: Well if I just ate it, you should have to eat some too. 
(Brynlee pretended to take a huge bite and then she started spitting and sputtering.)
B: Ewwww, it's gross. I don't like it. 

Brynlee loves to line things up and organize them. She also loves to play with all of the bars of soap at grandma's house. The other day she was playing with them for a long time. I checked on her several times and the last time I found her covered in toothpaste. She decided to paint all of the bars of soap with toothpaste by using a q-tip. There was a huge mess in that bathroom and it took a long time to clean it up.  

I had a Christmas present under the tree for Brynlee's cousin, Jakobee. I told her she couldn't open it. When she tried to rip it open I told her she had better not rip that wrapping paper. The next thing I know she had some scissors and she was cutting the paper so she could see what was inside. I told her to stop and she exclaimed that she wasn't ripping it; she was only cutting it. 

Brynlee has a really active imagination. We celebrate someone's birthday around here on a daily basis. Brynlee makes the (pretend) cake and wraps all the presents. Then she cuts the cake up and gives everyone a slice. I am sure all her bunnies and babies appreciate it. We also have lots of lions, hippos, and cows that somehow keep getting into our house. If we hide from them long enough they eventually go away. There have also been several monsters in Brynlee's room during the day. Luckily they don't scare her very much. In fact, yesterday she told me she ate one of the monsters and it was in her belly! I love playing with her.

Brynlee is busy, fun, whiney, smart, and super sweet and affectionate. I love her little personality and I love being her mom. 

December Fun

We had a lot of fun at our house this month. 

We got lots of snow right after Christmas and Brynlee and Joel had lots of fun playing in it. They played on the four wheeler and they even made a now horse. Annalyn and I watched them from the window where we could stay warm. 

We had lot of fun playing with our Christmas presents. The girls really loved playing with all of the boxes. 

Joel's sister Joy and her family came down from Washington right after Christmas and we had fun playing with them. We spent one day swimming with Joel's family. It was Annalyn's first time in the pool and she loved it. Both of the girls were in heaven, they had so much fun. 

It was a fun month. My kids caused lots of messes and trouble but I sure do love them. Brynlee has been obsessed with cleaning the toilet with the toilet brush lately. I was talking to Joel on the phone one day when Brynlee had to use the bathroom. The next thing I knew she had ran to the other bathroom and grabbed the toilet brush and started to clean her toilet. The problem is that she splashes the water everywhere. I tried to grab the brush from her and she started to swing it at me and she knocked my phone right out of my hand and it landed in the toilet. I put my phone it some rice and it worked for a while but now it is having some serious issues. I guess it is time for a new phone. It was a great month. I love my little family.