Summer's Slime Birthday!

Summer requested a slime birthday for her party this year. She watched someone on Youtube do a slime party and has wanted one ever since. This girl loves slime but she always ends up getting slime stuck in our carpet and all over her clothes. She likes to sneak it places and then leaves it. When she gets it on her clothes she tends to take her clothes off and hide them so I can't get it off right away. We have had slime all over beds, in hair, and several other places throughout our house. Because of this slime has been banned at our house. I know that Summer loves slime and since she wanted slime for her party so much I decided we could make an exception to the rule for one day and we planned a slime party for this girl. She was pretty excited about it and talked about it for weeks. We invited some of her cousins and she had all of her sisters there. 

Brynlee made and decorated Summer's cake all on her own this year and I think she did a pretty great job. She decorated it to look like it was covered in green slime. I took Summer with me to the dollar store the day before her birthday and she got to help pick out some glitter and things to decorate slime with. She had so much fun in that store. She also got to pick out one thing for sleeping in her bed all night several nights in a row and she took the decision very seriously. She picked out several different things, walked all over that store, and changed her mind half a dozen times before she decided to get that fancy little boat sand toy thing. She was pretty proud of that toy she picked out and super fun to shop with.  

Summer's birthday was on a Saturday so she woke up early and together we decorated the house. The girls got everything set up and ready for the party hours before the party was set to start. When everyone arrived the kids had a ton of fun making and playing with their slime. They all really got into this activity and made some fun different slimes. I love how they all turned out a little bit different. 

After we made slime we sang to Summer and had cake and ice cream. Then Summer opened up all of her presents. This girl opened up all of her presents as quickly as she possibly could and then would throw it down and grab the next one. She loved everything she got. Summer spent the rest of her birthday playing with her new toys and then she played outside with her cousins.     

We sure had fun celebrating this girl on her birthday this year. She did end up with slime all over several different outfits. The dress she wore that night was covered in slime by bedtime. She got it in her hair the next day so the slime didn't last super long in our house. I did discover that vinegar takes slime off with little ease. I just soaked Summer's dress and hair in vinegar and it came off super easily. The kids had a lot of fun with the slime while it lasted. Summer keeps telling us that she is going to have another slime birthday party next year so I am guessing that she loved it. (The picture below is of Summer with the cookie that she got from her nursery teachers. She was super stoked to get a cookie that she could eat all on her own and ate every last bite of it.)

Summer is Three!

Little Summer is now three years old. Here are a few fun facts about her. I asked her all of these questions and these were her responses. 

Favorite Color: Green
Favorite Food: Peas, Meat, and Mac and Cheese
Favorite Dessert: Ice Cream
Favorite Animal: Dinosaur
Favorite Movie: A Dinosaur movie
Favorite Shows: Llama Llama and Kate and Mim Mim
Best Friends: Elowyn and Bailey
Favorite Thing to do: Play
Favorite Toys: Baby dolls and balls
Favorite Song: Twinkle Star
Favorite Book: Llama Llama books
Favorite Game: Hippo Game (hungry hungry hippo)
Favorite Place to Go: The park
Favorite Holiday: Trick or Treating
Things she is good at: Exercising with mom
What she wants to be when she grows up: Big like Brynlee and Annalyn

Summer can be super sweet and helpful. She loves babies and is usually so good with kids that are littler than her. She can also be super mischievous and downright naughty. If a kid that she doesn't know tries to sit by her she might just growl at them and tell them to move. She likes to call people 'poopy heads' when she is mad at them and she has perfected the angry scowl when she is mad. I get that look from her a lot. 

Summer is super sneaky and is constantly getting into things she knows she should not be touching. She loves to steal Miriam's soother and hide it in her bed or in her closet. Lately she has taken to sneaking in Miriam's bed during her nap time to try and quietly steal Miriam's binky right out of her mouth. Then she sucks on it and hides it in her closet until she gets in trouble. She likes to play in the peanut butter and the nutella and has smeared it on several walls. She likes to grab spoons and eat big spoonfuls of that stuff as well. She will sneak in the pantry and get other things as well. She likes to play in the water and in her sister's make-up. She loves make up and fingernail polish. We cannot keep chapstick in this house because as soon as Summer knows where it is, she eats it. She likes to go in her sister's rooms and play with all of their stuff. I cannot buy Popsicle without her getting into them. I keep hiding them in new spots and Summer finds them. She keeps missing out on eating them with the family because she sneaks them when she isn't supposed to have them.  

Summer really does have a mind of her own. She likes to make lots of messes and then deny that she was involved. She likes to run in the rain and when she hears the sprinkles on in the front yard, I can guarantee that she is going to run to her room and change into her swim suit. So far it has not mattered how hot it is outside. She tried to run out there totally naked a few times but we didn't let her get away with that. Summer loves to ride on her little tricycle and is super fast on that thing. She rides it all over our little culdasac over and over again. Summer still takes her shoes off as soon as she can. She loves bubbles and she loves to eat candy and has a deep love for gum. She still doesn't love animals and only likes to be pushed high on the swing occasionally. Usually she just request little pushes. She isn't afraid to climb high and even climbed up the crazy ladder thing that the have at the community park and acted like it was no big deal. 

Summer is really good at throwing temper tantrums. I have had to leave the store and the library several times with Summer kicking and screaming. She usually has to be taken out of sacrament meeting at church at least once on Sundays and there have been several days when she spends almost the entire meeting out in the hall. She loves nursery and is always happy to go to her class. Most of her tantrums involve candy or a toy that she wants. When she gets really mad there is no reasoning with her.

Summer's hair has been really slow to come in but we can finally do little ponytails in it and make it cute. She likes to have her hair fixed. She also likes to wear dresses and tends to change outfits several times a day. Her favorite dress is her candy cane dress, she wears it all the time. I tried to move it out of her closet after Christmas and she was heartbroken so I left it in there and she wears it every time it is clean. Summer is also super independent. I found her washing her hands like that at grandma Verna's house one day. I offered to help but she told me she didn't need my help. Summer still has a super special spot for grandma Verna and she loves her cousin Elowyn. She begs to play with Elowyn and talks about her all the time. Those two girls play together really well most of the time but also fight a lot. Summer loves her sisters and likes to play with them and go where they go. She hates to be left out of something and a big tantrum is sure to follow anytime she gets left behind. 

Summer still wakes up almost every night and sneaks into bed with mom and dad. It was a struggle just to get her to fall asleep in her own bed with Kyla in there so for now we are just celebrating our success. We will work on the staying in her bed all night soon. She gave up naps long ago but will sometimes get tired and just climb in bed and fall asleep. She is usually grouchy when she wakes up from a nap and then she tends to stay up super late so we do not encourage her to take naps at our house. 

Summer is lots of fun. We love her joy and excitement for life. She is such a cute little ball of laughter and sunshine and we are grateful that she is a part of our family. We love you Summer girl. Happy Birthday!

Easter 2019

We had a fun filled magical Easter this year and we really enjoyed celebrating the resurrection of our Savior together as a family. We took the time to read a little bit about the Holy week every night the week before Easter and learned a lot.

 The girls were all pretty excited about  the community Easter egg hunt this year and could not wait to participate. Brynlee and Annalyn kept talking about the giant bunny Brynlee won a few years ago and they could not wait to win some great prizes. I tried to prepare the kids that they might not win anything but in the end they all won several prizes and Brynlee won the grand prize of a brand new bike.

To start off the hunt I went with Summer and walked with her while she picked up some egg. She got a huge basket full of suckers because she was sure to pick up a lot of those as well. Then we watched Kyla and her friend Eden run off to go and get some eggs. They both got a big basket full of eggs. I am glad we found a friend there for Kyla to go with. (I accidentally put one of Summer's dresses on Kyla's side of the closet and she insisted on wearing it since it was on her side.) Joel went with the older girls. Summer was so excited to open up her eggs and find candy this year. It was fun to get to see her excitement. The bike Brynlee won was a smaller bike with training wheels so she was pretty excited to be the first place winner but not super thrilled with her prize. The bike ended up coming with a gift receipt so we were able to return it for a bigger bike a few weeks later and Brynlee was super excited. This was the first time she has ever had a brand new nice bike.

We also had fun decorating eggs together as a family. I love seeing the different ways each kids goes about decorating eggs. Summer was super fast and most of her eggs were green. She kept trying to take more eggs and tried to put the same egg in several different colors because she did not want to be done. Brynlee took the time to write on several of her eggs and she had a good variety of colors. Kyla's egg were almost all pink with a few purple ones in there. Annalyn also had a good variety of colors this year. They all loved this activity and have asked to do it again.

 On Easter Sunday the girls had a little egg hunt upstairs and got a few more Easter goodies and then we went to church. Annalyn gave a fantastic talk about Easter in Primary. I found some pictures to show while she read her talk but she read it so super fast that there was no time to show the pictures.

After Church we went and enjoyed visiting with family and ate a great dinner at grandma Verna's house. Then the kids had another egg hunt and got even more prizes and some of the kids even got money.

I really am so grateful for my Savior and his sacrifices for me and I am super grateful for my family and the chance to make these happy memories with them.

March 2019

I waited so long to write this post that I almost have no idea what happened back in March. I am going to do my best to remember what transpired during the month of March. I already wrote about Annalyn's birthday and about Spring break. The month started out with Kyla visiting the ENT doctor where it was decided that we needed to get Kyla's tonsils and adenoids out and that we would possibly need to put tubes in her ears as well. Before that appointment we all went to the girls school and ate a donut with them in their super crowded cafeteria.

On Sunday we went to a special meeting right after church where they rearranged most of the wards in our stake and gave us all a new ward name. We were in the Kuna 6th ward, now it is the Avalon ward. They also made a new ward and took half of our members and put them in a new ward and then added a few new people to our ward. It was a lot of changes. We all lost several friends and now have much smaller classes. We are still adjusting to everything but it has been a hard transition. 

We went to my nephew Jakobee's eighth birthday and we went to another party for a friend from church this month. We had a terrible time adjusting to the changes of daylight's savings time. We all wish they would change that practice here in this house. We also had stake conference. Since the YM president got moved into the new ward; Joel got released from his calling as the YM second counselor. He got to serve in that position until they called a new presidency so he still got to go on the camp out that they had planned with the boys and it sounds like they had a super fun time. He later got called to be the Sunday school second counselor which should take a lot less time. I was really excited about the change and the kids are excited that Joel doesn't have to go to mutual anymore. He had that calling for a good three years. 

My brother Brian's dog had puppies and we had fun getting to snuggle with new tiny little dogs. Kyla didn't want to hold one but Summer was brave and seemed to enjoy holding the dog when it was so little. 

Kyla was super excited about getting to go to speech for a thumb sucking evaluation. We got a referral from the ENT doctor to help with the way her mouth is developing by stopping the thumb sucking. Kyla has always wanted to go to speech and she was pretty excited about it until she learned that she couldn't suck her thumb anymore. When we got home she sat it my lap and cried because, "I really wanted to go to speech but I don't want to stop sucking my thumb. This was a really hard choice." The program she did required her to wear a thumb guard, make a phone call to her teacher, listen to a tape to fall asleep, and keep a giant sticker chart for 30 days. Honestly I am super impressed with how well she did. She didn't suck on her thumb at all. She was a little bit self conscious about the thumb guard at first but for the most part she wore it without complaining and did great. 

St. Patrick's Day landed on a Sunday this year and it was the same day we had Stake Conference. We all pulled out our green Sunday clothes and then went to conference. After that we went to visit Jake and his family and went on a little walk around celebration park with him and his kids. It was fun to get out with our family to enjoy the nice weather. We had a good time. 

Brynlee decided she wanted short hair again so she got it cut short. She also had two cavities that she had to get filled. Brynlee was also the only kid that got to sing a solo in the third and fourth grade music program for her school. She got up and sang in front of all of those kids and grown ups and she rocked it! I was pretty proud of her. All of the third graders did a wax museum and Brynlee got to dress up like Elizabeth Blackwell (the first women in the US to become a graduate from medical school and become a doctor.) and she told a little bit of information about her. She did a great job at that and it was fun to get to see her in her class at school.  

In other news, Joel spent a lot of time helping my parents get their new preschool room ready. The weather started to get nice so I rearranged everyone's closets with all of the short sleeve stuff. That is a job! Miriam got her shots and I signed Brynlee and Annalyn up for soccer. The kids played outside as much as possible and we enjoyed spending time with our family.