Merry Christmas

I love having little kids around for the Holidays. Brynlee and Annalyn were both so super excited to celebrate Christmas. They couldn't wait for Santa to come and their excitement was contagious. We started off the month of December with our Christmas tradition that we started last year. Each day we would read some scriptures about Jesus and we would do a Christmas activity. On the first day we put up our tree and decorated the house. We also watched Christmas movies, made and decorated Christmas cookies, went driving and looked at Christmas lights, made a gingerbread house with grandma and my family, we read Christmas books in a fort, made some Christmas ornaments for family, we went to Christmas in Melba (the girls both enjoyed petting a camel and sitting on Santa's lap), and we went to the ward party. We had a picnic one day around the Christmas tree and made paper snowflakes another day. It was lots of fun. We were going to go Christmas caroling on Christmas Eve with Joel's family but it was super wet and rainy. Right when we were wanting to go it started snowing and the snow came down quickly and the wind made it miserable outside. Brynlee was really disappointed that we didn't get to go. I am loving this tradition and so glad we got to do all these fun things with my family. I never did get a picture of my girls sitting on Santa's lap but they really loved it. Although Annalyn was disappointed that Santa didn't give her the present we asked for right away.

On Christmas day all of the kids actually slept in past 7 which really surprised me. Usually they wake up much earlier. We did keep them up later than usual the night before. It took us a while to get home from Joel's parent's house thanks to all of the snow. Annalyn woke up with Kyla around 7:15 and she was super excited to see what Santa left her. Santa gave her some of the Land Before Time movies, aka "the dinosaur moobie" which is what she really wanted so she was thrilled. She also got a ton of candy. I turned the movie on for her and she chowed down on candy while I fed Kyla and waited for Brynlee to wake up. Brynlee didn't wake up until almost 8 am. Annalyn ran and got Brynlee's "Snow Glow Elsa" doll that Santa brought her and Brynlee just stared at it and gasped. Brynlee literally jumped up and down with joy and she kept talking about the doll and all the things the "snow glow Elsa" doll could do. "Look mom I was right, she does sing. Oh wow, look at her beautiful shoes. (Gasp) look, the shoes come off." Joel and I are already getting tired of that song. There is no off button and she tried to sleep with the doll the first few nights so all through the night we kept hearing, "Let it Go," sung by Brynlee's doll.

Joel went a little bit crazy this year and bought lots of gifts. The kids got a baby doll, some dinosaur figurines, a can of Pringles, foam rockets, pom poms, several different games, some care bears, and a doll bed and doll baby carrier. I was lucky that someone from the ward was getting rid of several toys so she gave those to us. Kyla got some little duckies, some cereal puff (she really liked those), and two different baby dolls, plus a box of diapers. They got new Christmas dresses from my mom. Joel made me a custom picture frame that is huge and I really love it. He got some tools and some new work boots. I really wanted to get a new cell phone plan so we saved up and can hopefully get those after Christmas. We spent the rest of our Christmas day playing games at my parent's house, eating food, and visiting with Joel's family. We watched a movies about the Christmas story before we opened presents and I truly am grateful for the birth of the Savior. I loved spending this day with my family and seeing the joy and excitement of my girls.

Three Little Girls

It has been so fun for me to watch the bond between my three little girls. Brynlee and Annalyn have such a great relationship and I was a little bit worried about how things would change once Kyla was born. Annalyn just adores Brynlee and they usually play together really well.  If Annalyn wants to play with the toy that Brynlee wants then there are fights but usually Brynlee is good about sharing with Annalyn. Annalyn really is lucky to have a built in playmate all the time. Brynlee went to play at her friend's house the other day and Anna was so upset the whole time she was gone. She kept crying for Brynlee and telling me how she didn't want Brynlee to be gone. I tried playing with her but I am not near as fun as Brynlee. Luckily both of my girls seems to just think little Kyla is the greatest baby in the world. They love her immensely.

Kyla loves to watch her big sisters play and she seems to really want to play with them lately. She is just soaking it all it and I am sure she will be just as busy as they are soon. I am excited to see how their interactions really change when Kyla is old enough to join in on their adventures. The girls still love holding Kyla and they ask to hold her all the time. One day I left the baby on the floor to play while I cleared off the table and when I came in I found Annalyn putting stickers all over her. As soon as Annalyn saw me she started taking them off. Brynlee tries to change Kyla's diapers and "take care" of her all the time. Kyla is lucky to have two older sisters to play with but in the meantime she has to endure lots of hugs and smothering. Little Annalyn begs to hold Kyla all the time but sometimes she is not so soft with her. Her sisters also love to give her toys to play with but they are having a hard time understanding which toys are safe to give her so I have to supervise them. Annalyn calls her sister "Tyla Mae" and she likes to ask other people if they like her baby sister and then she tells them "I lub my baby tister." Kyla is actually pretty good at putting up with all of the attention from her big sisters. She tolerates them pretty well. Brynlee and Anna are the best at getting Kyla to laugh. Kyla cried so much during her newborn days but has been such a happy little baby lately. Anna still gets a little bit jealous of Kyla and she asks me to hold her all the time and to not hold Kyla but I know she love her baby sister a lot. I know I sure do love all three of my girls. Here are a few pictures to highlight their relationship from the last six, almost seven months.

Kyla - Six Months

     My little baby is already six months old. We all love her so much and she sure is getting big. She weighs 17.69 lb. (77%) and she is 26.88 in. (85%) with a head circumference of 17.25 in. (89%). Brynlee and Annalyn have really started to play with Kyla all the time now and Kyla just soaks it all in. She can sit really well all on her own, although she will fall over after a while so I still put a pillow behind her and she loves to sit up and watch her big sisters. If she has a toy to play with, she will be content for a long time just sitting up and playing. She is still not super crazy about being on her tummy but she tolerates it more when she has a toy to play with. I sure do love this sweet happy little baby.

     Kyla has said lots of new sounds and her favorite is "dada," much to Joel's delight. I don't think she knows what it means yet but we still counted it as her first word. She says it all the time. She also says nee and she makes lots of other fun sounds. I have been working on mama but she hasn't said it yet. Annalyn is trying to get her to say "Annalyn" so we will see if she picks up on that one next. Kyla got the hang of how to jump in her little jumperroo toy and she loves to jump in that thing. She loves playing with all of the baby toys around her. She reaches for and grabs anything in her reach and tries to put it in her mouth. She can play with her socks for a long time. I love that she is playing more.

      Kyla still sucks on her thumb all the time. It is alway her left thumb too and she sucks on it whenever she gets hungry or when she is tired. She doesn't usually sleep with her thumb in her mouth though. Kyla is still not a huge fan of rice cereal but she seemed to like the squash we gave her. She got to see snow for the first time this month but I didn't let her get to close to it. She also had her first bottle and first taste of formula. I don't think she was impressed. My mom watched her for the first time one day this month while Joel and I went to the movies. We saw the new Hunger Games movie. We took her on a dinner date with us but I didn't trust Kyla to be quiet for the movie. Kyla likes to hear herself and she can be pretty loud. Luckily she slept for my mom. I don't think she would have taken the bottle I left so it is a good thing she waited to wake up until I got back. One day this month Kyla got a little scratch on her forehead so Brynlee doctored it up with a band-aid when I wasn't looking. Kyla is one seriously cute baby and she has been such a great little addition to our family. We all love her so much. 

November 2014

The month of November started out with beautiful weather. Then in the middle of the month it got really cold and started snowing. We got a lot of snow. There was even enough that school here in Kuna was canceled. That almost never happens. Brynlee was convinced it was Christmas. We had fun playing in the snow while we could. We went to a little hill to go sledding but the hill wasn't as big as Joel thought it was. The girls still seemed to have fun. They really had the most fun just having their dad pull them around in the grass on their sleds. A few days later all the snow had melted and the weather was nice again. Brynlee was devastated because she thought she had missed Christmas. 

We had fun celebrating Thanksgiving with my family this year. We celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving with Joel's family back in October. Their Thanksgiving is on the second Monday in October but since everyone here had to work on Monday we celebrated it right after church on Sunday. Unfortunately Joel had a meeting right after church so by the time we got there everyone was already done eating. Luckily they saved us some food and we got to play games. 

I helped my grandma cook the two days before Thanksgiving so we had time to play a game before we ate. We had a good discussion about everything we are thankful for and a little family game time after the food. Then we ate pie and played more games. There were crafts and a Thanksgiving movie for the kids and a good time was had by all. 

Joel and I didn't plan on doing any shopping for black Friday until Brynlee found this present that she really wanted. She has been talking about it for weeks. I was going to just order it online but they were out of stock. I tried to send Joel to get it at the store on Wednesday but they were out at Target and they were not selling them that day at Walmart so we decided we had better go to the store right away. My dad watched the older girls and I put the baby in the moby wrap and we headed to Walmart. This was Joel's first time going to the store right when they first open. We got the main thing we wanted and Joel picked up several other things as well. It wasn't all that crazy in there so we made it out in one piece and we even managed to make it to Toys R Us. We got all of the Christmas presents we need for the girls. I have so much to be thankful for this year. Especially for my wonderful husband and my three beautiful girl. I love my little family so much.