Reunion Day 2 & 3

The second day of our reunion started out early for us. Annalyn woke up at 4:30 in the morning crying about wanting to go out and play. It was really light outside and the light was bright in her window. I guess everyone down at the camp woke up early too. Eventually Anna fell back asleep in our bed. Kyla woke up a few hours earlier and she was in our bed and then Brynlee had a bad dream and came into our bed when it was about 6:30. That is when I got up and Kyla woke up then too. We ate breakfast and Joel and I were in charge of a family devotional. Joel was really tired so he and Anna didn't wake up until breakfast was already over. We were going to play at the lake all day but it was a cold and windy day. It was really too cold to get in the water. We did play in the sand. The kids all played ball games and we sang songs and enjoyed playing with cousins. It was fun for me to just sit and talk to everyone.

After going swimming, everyone decided to go for a hike. My girls wanted to go but they were already telling me they were tired and asking to be carried so we opted to stay back and the girls tried to watch a movie with their cousins. In the end the power kept going out so they never did finish their movie but the girls seemed to find lots to do and played hard the whole time. After dinner we all put on the matching shirts Joy got us and posed for a family picture. It is amazing to me to see the legacy that Joel's parents are passing on. Their family started with just two people, they had eight kids, and now there are 31 grandkids with number 32 on the way. I am glad my kids get to be a part of that. There were two of Joel's cousins that came to the reunion with some of their kids but this is mostly just a picture of the girls with all of their cousins.

     We had wonderful food and even snacks during the whole reunion. Some of the kids ended up getting a rash from playing in the water and Kyla got it a little bit but it didn't seem to bother her. The kids stayed up late and watched another movie that night. Brynlee and Annalyn both ended up falling asleep on the floor once the movie was over which was fine since they wanted to have a sleepover with their cousins anyways. In the end Annalyn woke up and came in our bed and then Brynlee woke up in the middle of the night panicking. She crawled up right on top of her dad and showed him her teeth. "Look, she cried. Look, dad. I forgot to brush my teeth! Do you see any cavities?" she cried. Joel told her not to worry about it and then he ended up moving on the bottom of the bed so he could get some sleep. Leave it Brynlee to wake up in the middle of the night panicking because she forgot to brush her teeth. In the end I think Madison was the only one who stayed out in the living room for the sleepover.

     The next day was Saturday and it was a much nicer day. We ate and played some games in the morning and then after a simple lunch we all headed off to Canada. Annalyn fell asleep in the car on the way there. I got passport cards for me and the kids but we didn't even need them. Everyone else just got in with birth certificates. It was so neat to be in a different country but really it didn't feel that different. The speed limit signs were in km instead of mph and we saw a lot of Canadian flags instead of American flags but that was really the only difference. We drove way up in the mountains so see Joel's old house. It was such a pretty location. It was surrounded by trees and very secluded from the rest of the world. We couldn't get very close to the house because they had a gate to the house closed off but it was fun to see. We saw several cows roaming around on our way back to the city. Brynlee was really thirsty after that so we stopped at 7-eleven and got a slurpee. Then we went to the park by the high school Joel went to. His old high school burned down a few years ago but they rebuilt it. The girls had lots of fun at the park. Annalyn was awake by then but she missed the whole ride up the mountain. We were supposed to meet everyone else at the park but then never showed up so we headed to Joel's sister Jenny's in-laws house. They have a gorgeous house and their back yard is right on a lake.

We were one of the first ones out in the water so Joel and the girls got to try out the paddle boat right away. They had a blast. Kyla loves the water too. Aunt Jenny and Janeen both took turns walking in the water with Kyla. The girls swam, played in the water, swung in the swings, played in the sand, went on a treasure hunt, and played some games and won some Canadian chocolate. After that we ate dinner and then Joel left to buy some Canadian chocolate and he got us some Canadian shirts. Joel's cousin Sam's little boy Ben had a birthday that day and since Brynlee's birthday was the next day we had some cake and sang to both of them. Mike got a cake too since he just graduated from high school. Brynlee was really excited about the cake but she acted kind of shy once everyone sang to her and she barely blew out her candles. She let Ben blow most of them out. There were root beer floats after the cake. Everyone sat around the fire and talked until it was late and time to go home. We had a blast that night. We stopped and got some donuts from Tim Hortons which is Joel's favorite donut place and then we headed home. Brynlee fell asleep in the car right away and Kyla and Anna were asleep by the time we got back to the campout. It was a fun day. I really enjoyed seeing the little town where Joel grew up. The girls have been begging to go back to Canada again.

Our last day of the reunion; Brynlee's birthday, coming up next. 

Roadtrips and Reunion Day 1

     We have been looking forward to the Hirtle family reunion for months now. We were going to spend three days and nights in Washington visiting with Joel's family and we even planned a day to visit Canada and the place where Joel grew up. Joel took an entire week off of work and spent three good days working on our house while I packed and got everything ready for our trip. Joel was up late Wednesday night fixing an oil leak in our van and he fixed the air conditioning so that it would work for our trip. (It already stopped working but at least it lasted the whole trip.) Then he came home and we loaded up our van so we could leave for Washington in the morning. It was about a 9-10 hour trip and we thought we would be smart and leave early in the morning so that our kids would sleep on the way.

     We made the kids go to the bathroom and left our house at 4:30 on Thursday morning. We got on the road and all three of our girls were wide awake. Brynlee and Anna were so excited. It took Annalyn almost an hour to go back to sleep but Kyla got some good sleep in. Brynlee never did go to sleep. She was awake the whole time. About two hours into the trip she starting asking us "Are we almost there yet? This is taking a really long time." We kept trying to tell her to go to sleep but she was too excited. We borrowed my mom's portable DVD player for the cars and the kids couldn't wait to watch a movie in the van. The really wanted to sit out in the van the day before we left to watch a movie.

     Annalyn and Kyla woke up around 7:30 in the morning so we stopped at a rest stop in Oregon where we got some gas, took the kids potty, and we bought a cinnamon roll for breakfast. While we were in getting our food, Brynlee told everyone she saw that we were going camping. Then we were on our way again and I let the kids watch a movie. I sure am glad we had that DVD player. Joel and I had a book on tape that we listened to on my ipad. We need to get some speakers for that thing but it worked pretty well. I had already read the book anyways so it wasn't a big deal that I couldn't hear it that well. Luckily Kyla is a great little traveler so it was a good trip. We had lots of snacks for Kyla to eat on the way and she took two naps on the way up there. We did have to make a bathroom stop at a rest stop in the middle of nowhere and they only had a porta potty. Annalyn has refused to use one of those in the past so I was a little worried because they were both really dancing and poor Brynlee was crying because she had to go so badly. It took us a long time to find a bathroom. Luckily the porta potty was pretty clean so Annalyn used that toilet, Kyla got to get out for a few minutes and I changed her clothes because she spilt water all over her outfit. Kyla was not at all happy to be put back her car seat but she took her second nap after a few minutes of being back in the van.

     We stopped somewhere in Washington at a Burger King for lunch and the kids got to play at the play place and stretch their legs for a bit. We stayed there for quite a bit and they were all happy to be out of the car. It only took us a little bit longer until we pulled into our campsite in Ooroville, Washington. By then it was 2:30 our time but only 1:30 Washington time. We forgot about the time change and check-in wasn't until 3 but luckily they let us check in early and we found Joel's sister Joy and got to help her finish setting things up. We got to stay in the big house up on the hill and it was really nice. It had a nice bathroom, a working kitchen, and a bedroom for us and our kids with another big room for Joel's brother Josh and his family to stay. They just had a new baby and since we have the next youngest kids, we got to stay in the house. Everyone else stayed out in tents. It didn't really feel like we were camping but it was nice.

     As soon as we got everything unloaded the girls put on their swimming suits and we went to check out the water right away. It was a gorgeous day. The water was beautiful, the lake was shallow, and the girls had a blast. Joel and I took turns staying on the shore with the girls and holding Kyla's hand because she wanted to be right in the water.

     Once everyone else arrived we helped them to set up their tents and we talked and enjoyed being with family. We had lasagna for dinner that night and then we went back to the campgrounds where Joy had all kinds of water games, balloons, and games for the kids to play. They had a blast playing with all of their cousins. At one point Brynlee decided she wanted to go up to see her cousins that were at the house but I told her to wait. She ended up walking a long way up there all by herself. It scared me that I couldn't find her but I think it scared her too because as soon as she saw me again she grabbed me and started crying. She asked my permission and waited for an adult to go with her the rest of the weekend. We finished the night with some smores wrapped up in an ice cream cone and a devotional around the campfire. Annalyn was so tired that she fell asleep in her dad's arms and Kyla fell asleep in mine. Brynlee went strong all night but it didn't take her long to fall asleep once she was in bed. It was a long fun day for all of us.

Day 2 of the reunion coming up next...

Brynlee is Five

     On Sunday little Miss Brynlee turned five. She is such a sweet and fun loving girl. She is always up for an adventure and ready to go somewhere. She loves to play with other kids and she is constantly making us laugh. She is so helpful and imaginative. She loves playing with her toys and with her little sisters. She likes to be in charge and tell people what to do; even her parents. She can't wait to start kindergarten and she woke up the day she turned five asking if she would get to go to kindergarten tomorrow. She sure has grown up to be such a pretty young lady and we love her so much.

BRYNLEE FACTS 

Age: 5
Weight: 44 lbs. (72%)
Height: 44.5 in. (80%)

Favorite Color: Orange

Favorite Movie: Jasmine (Aladdin), Tinkerbell

Favorite Show: Doc Mcstuffins

Best Friends: Anavette, Josie, Lachlan, Brayden, Annalyn, Athena, Kyla, and Jesus because he takes care of us when it is nighttime 

Favorite thing to do: Play with mom and dad

Favorite thing to do outside: Play on the swing

Favorite Food: Hot Dogs and egg sandwiches

Favorite Dessert: Root Beer Floats

Favorite Song: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Favorite game: Candy Land

Favorite animal: Giraffes 

Favorite book: Junie B. Jones

Favorite Toy: Littlest Petshops

Favorite thing to do with family: Play games and play Hide and Seek

When you grow up what do you want to be: A ballerina

What was the funnest thing you did while you were four: Play with mom and dad

What will you do when you are five: Play with mom and Anna

     Brynlee loves popsicles and she loves those orange dream bars and the fudgsicles. She calls them "shovesicles." She says "Kaprise" for surprise and she still struggles with the sp sound. Other than that she talks really well and she talks all the time. She is good at talking my ear off and she has no problem talking to random people that she meets. She likes to talk to other adults that are near us at the grocery store or at church or the library. 

     Brynlee is still super dramatic about when she gets hurt or about not getting her way. She screams, cries, and real tears come down. She also gets mad easily. She loves to watch television and will sometimes tell me she is sick and ask to have a movie day. She also loves it when I read her books and she can listen to books for hours.

      Brynlee loves to hold Kyla, carry her around the house, and to play with her. She likes having Kyla sleep in her room most of the time. She doesn't like it when Kyla is napping in there and she can't go in the room. Brynlee usually sleeps right through Kyla's crying. Although the other night Brynlee brought Kyla into my room in the middle of the night and told me that she was crying. Brynlee plays really well with Annalyn. I love their conversations when they play. They both tell each other what to say and they get along really well although we have had several fights lately. 

     Brynlee has always been good at doing things all on her own. She is getting good at making her own bed, keeping her room clean, putting her plates in the sink, and helping to clean the bathroom. She likes fixing her own hair and washing her own hair in the bathtub. She fixes lots of her own snacks all on her own. 

     Brynlee likes swinging on the swing, jumping on the trampoline, playing games, and playing with her sisters and her friends. She loves going places and visiting her grandparents. She talks a lot, asks endless questions, and is usually positive and kind. She doesn't like it when Kyla messes up her toys, when Anna takes the toy she wants, and when we stay home all day. I sure am glad I get to be this little girl's mom. I love watching her grow up and I can't wait to see what all she will accomplish in her life. I think she is off to a great start. Happy Birthday Miss Brynlee.

Kyla's Birthday

     To celebrate Kyla turning one the girls and I made a little birthday cake. They helped me decorate it so it had lots of sprinkles and pink frosting. After dinner we ate the cake and ice cream. My parents and grandma came as well as Heather and her family. Before the party started Kyla practiced blowing and Kyla blew several times but she didn't even try to blow out her candles. We sang to her and then she just stared at the candle and the fire until someone else blew it out for her.

     Kyla ate her entire piece of cake and all of her ice cream. She even picked up her plate and tried to lick it off. This girl likes cake and ice cream.

     After the cake we had Kyla open her presents. She figured out how to open them pretty well but she is a slow opener so she got a little help. Aunt Lora got her a cute little electronic bear toy and my mom got her some bath toys and a dress. My sister and grandma also got her some cute outfits. We got her a "kitty surprise" toy. I took the girls with me to pick out her present and I told them that I had one of those when I was a little girl and they fell in love with it and both insisted on getting it for Kyla. It is a pink cat that has kittens inside of her. The surprise is finding out how many kittens you will get. (There were three.) The girls couldn't wait to open that thing. I had to wrap it right away because Annalyn almost had that thing opened as soon as we brought it home. She promised to act surprised when Kyla opened it. Those girls took off with that gift as soon as it was opened, Kyla did get to hold it for a few seconds. Jakobee and Remi kept fighting over the bear toy and Remi kept taking it away from Kyla. When Kyla tried to play with her bath toys everyone tried to play with them too. She didn't seem to mind too much and when she got to play with them later she had lots of fun. Brynlee loves that cat and she even slept with it for a few nights but she knows it is Kyla's and she keep giving it to her to play with.

We sure do love our Kyla girl and we had so much fun celebrating her first birthday with her.

Kyla is One

     I am still having a hard time believing that my sweet little baby is already a year old. I still want her to be my little baby. She sure is starting to act like a toddler though. She has even started to throw mini temper tantrums by laying herself down and crying when she is mad. She has grown so much these last few month. She weighs 20.4 lbs. (59.7%) and she is 29.9 in. (75.6%) long with a head circumference of 17.9 in. (65.7%). I think she has less hair now than when she was born. I am not sure how that happened. She has four teeth and she is looking big. She did not want her picture taken this month so I had a hard time getting her to stay still long enough for my picture. Here is a look at her through the months.

     As soon as Kyla overcame her colic from her newborn days, she has been my easiest and most easy going baby. She is mostly content to just let me hold her or to sit back and watch things. She will get really mad and start to cry, and then she just sticks her thumb in her mouth and is magically happy again. She is usually pretty happy and doesn't get upset too easily. If she does get upset it doesn't last for very long.

     Kyla is super observant and very smart. I think she likes to just watch what others are doing and she soaks it all in and tries to figure things out. Then when I put her down she wastes no time about doing things. She is a climber and she has been getting into all kinds of things lately. Her two favorite places are the bathroom and the kitchen. She loves to empty the drawers in the kitchen and then climb in them. She figured out how to open all the drawers; those baby latches we bought don't work at all. She also figured out how to pull out the bottom drawer in our kitchen and she will stand on it to reach the top drawer. In the bathroom she loves the toilet brush, the toilet paper, and the water in the toilet. If the girls leave the bathroom door open I can guarantee that Kyla is headed for that room and if the toilet lid is open she will be playing in the water. Yuck. She even used her toothbrush to play in the water one day so I had to throw her toothbrush away. That girl loves to brush her teeth so I was sad about having to do that. She learned how to flush the toilet the other day so if I hear the toilet flush over and over again, I know Kyla is in the bathroom. Annalyn is good at helping Kyla play in the bathroom too because Anna likes to play in the water in there. One day I found Anna in the bathroom covering Kyla with lipstick.

Kyla climbs on all kinds of things. She loves to climb on Brynlee's bed and then stand on the edge of the bed so she can look out the window. She keeps trying to stand on the top of the couch to look out the window as well. She keeps trying to climb on the trampoline and I have caught her on top of my kitchen table a few times. She can climb into boxes but she sometimes has a hard time getting out. If I hear her whining for me I will often find her stuck up high somewhere trying to get down, or else she is stuck in some kind of container.

     Kyla has a deep love for her daddy. As soon as she sees him she flaps her little arms and starts smiling and reaching for her dad. He loves to hold her for a few minutes and she usually puts her head right on his shoulder and starts to suck her thumb. She also loves her sisters and her mom. A few times she has cried for other people but she seems to warm up to them after a while. She is still scared of my parent's dog Gunnar but she isn't scared of my brother Josh anymore.

     Kyla loves to eat and has discovered sweets and loves them. She is definitely related to us. Haha. Most of the time I let her feed herself and she is good at that. She attempts to use her spoons when she starts eating but she usually abandons them after a while. If we are in a hurry and I don't want her to get messy, she has no problem letting me feed her. The high chair we have has these holes on the edges and Kyla likes to stick all of her leftover food in those holes. I can't figure out what they are for but I need a way to cover them up. As much as Kyla likes to eat and she loves sweet, she gets the most excited about cups and getting drinks. She loves water and juice  (although she hasn't had much juice). She can drink out of a big person cup all on her own, although she likes to stick her hand in your cup and if you have ice she will take it; but her favorite is cups with straws. She has been drinking out of a straw for months now and she is good at it.

     Kyla is such an expressive baby. She "talks" babbles and responds to me every time I talk to her. She babbles a lot and I love it. She can say dada, mama, what, and when she pets something soft she says Ahhhh. I have been trying to teach her sign language but usually when I try to get her to do them, she just babbles at me and tries to say the word. She did sign "more" once. I looked at her while she was eating and asked her if she was all done or if she wanted more and she immediately signed more and ate all the food I gave her. She has also signed "please" and "all done" a few times. I taught her how to blow and she got pretty good at it. I asked her if she could blow the other day and she did it before I even showed her what I meant. She is starting to understand what we are saying to her.

     Kyla is slowly starting to walk. She can stand up without holding onto anything and she is getting braver and taking more and more steps. On the day she turned one she stood up and took at least 8 good steps to me. She starts out really slow when she starts walking but then goes really quickly at the end until she dives into my arms. She is now trying to walk all the time and she is really good when something is close by. If she falls, she is most likely to crawl the rest of the way to her destination. She keeps trying to walk with stuff in her hands and she will often have some kind of toy hanging out of her mouth. She likes to use her mouth to carry things but that makes me nervous and it throws off her balance so I wish she wouldn't do that.

     Kyla loves playing outside, playing with other kids, and playing in the water. She loves exploring and eating strawberries at grandma's house. She hates it when I put her down when she is tired and she hates getting her nails cut and will not let me cut them. I have been cutting them while she sleeps but lately she seems to know when I am trying to cut them and she wakes up and cries. She doesn't like getting her face wiped off or her diaper changed but she puts up with it pretty well. She hated shoes for a while but now that she knows she gets to go outside after I put on her shoes she seems to like them. I think she is starting to get used to them.

     This baby girl sure is a joy to have around. It sure is amazing how fast babies grow and how much they learn in their first year and I feel so blessed to have been able to witness and be a part of all of Kyla's accomplishments. It has been a huge blessing to be her mom. Happy Birthday little Kyla. I sure am glad you were born into our family.